Monster Hunter Now: Top Great Sword Build for Max Damage

In the world of Monster Hunter Now, the Great Sword stands out as a formidable weapon, capable of delivering massive damage with each swing. However, its size can make it challenging to wield effectively. To create a top-tier Monster Hunter Now Great Sword build, you'll need to slow down your foes, and recent updates have introduced sleep-based weapons that can help you achieve this. To maximize the effectiveness of sleep, you'll need the right skills and gear, which we'll detail below.

Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build

While the Long Sword build in Monster Hunter Now focuses on poison, the Great Sword excels with sleep. Crafting this build requires materials from a rare monster, but you can gather most of the equipment from more common ones.

Full Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build

Weapon

The Frilled Blade is your go-to sleep-based Great Sword in Monster Hunter Now. It comes equipped with the Evade Extender skill, which helps you gain distance after dodging, making defensive play smoother. To craft this weapon, you'll need to hunt Somnacanth for the necessary materials.

Helmet & Greaves

The core of this build comes from the Nightshade Paolumu, introduced in the first paid event. This monster provides crucial parts and skills, including all three levels of Rude Awakener, which boosts your damage by 100% on the first hit to a sleeping monster. Nightshade Paolumu may be more common now, but they still require patience to encounter, either through events or as rare spawns post-main story.

Mail, Gauntlets, & Coil

The rest of the build focuses on maximizing the Status Sneak Attack skill, ensuring sleep buildup when attacking from behind. You'll also gain points in Evade Extender and Artful Dodger to enhance your evasion capabilities. Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, a more common monster thanks to the paintball tracker, is your target for these parts.

Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Driftstone Slots

This build benefits from a relatively low requirement to unlock all its Driftstone slots. Ideally, you should aim for five slots in Sleep Attack to maximize sleep buildup. Alternatively, you can enhance your dodging with Artful Dodger and Evade Extender or boost your damage with Sneak Attack when attacking from behind.

• Sleep Attack - Increases the weapon's sleep buildup value. 50 at rank 1 and 150 at rank 5. (Azure only)
• Sneak Attack - Increases the damage dealt to a monster when attacked from behind. 10% at rank 1 and 30% at rank 5. (Pale only)
• Artful Dodger - Makes evading easier to perform. Slightly easier at rank 1 and significantly so at rank 5. (Azure only)
• Evade Extender - Extends evasion distance. Very slightly at rank 1 and massively at rank 5. (Pale only)