The long sword is a fan-favorite weapon in Monster Hunter Wilds, widely celebrated for its fluidity, speed, and counterplay mechanics. It offers a unique blend of offensive and defensive capabilities, which makes it a versatile choice for both new and experienced players.
Monster Hunter Wilds – Long Sword Spirit Gauge
At the heart of the long sword’s combat style is the spirit gauge, which significantly enhances your attack power and unlocks stronger moves for you as it levels up from white to red. The spirit gauge consists of two parts: the spirit meter (inner bar) and the spirit gauge (outer icon).
Monster Hunter Wilds – Long Sword Attacks
Maintaining this gauge provides attack buffs and unlocks powerful moves like the spirit release slash and crimson moves (stronger versions of regular attacks) when it reaches the red zone (the highest zone), so keeping the gauge on maximizes your damage potential. It’s important to note that the red gauge drains over time rather than through attacks, so players should prioritize using crimson moves before depleting their spirit gauge with the Spirit Helm Break attack.
Basically, you should use basic attacks to recharge your Spirit gauge, then use a combo of Spirit Blade attacks, or press and hold R2/RT to perform Spirit Charge, which transitions directly into Spirit Roundslash and instantly charges your Spirit gauge quickly and efficiently by one level. It’s important that the Roundslash lands a hit so the gauge would level up, but not the other combo attacks, so focus on just delivering the Roundslash.
Once the gauge is red, you can use attacks such as Spirit Thrust, Spirit Helm Breaker, followed by Spirit Release Slash for maximum damage (but you will lose the charged gauge after using Helm Breaker). However, you can cancel the Helm Breaker attack by sheathing your weapon in mid-air to prevent wasted gauge levels if the situation is not appropriate.
Counters are another powerful way to charge up your Spirit Gauge, with moves like Foresight Slash Counter and Iai Spirit Slash. After successfully landing a Foresight counter, you can immediately follow up with a Spirit Roundslash for a quick gauge boost. There’s also Iai Spirit Slash which instantly increases your Spirit Gauge by one level if you time the guard point correctly and counter an attack. This is what makes the longsword so versatile—it rewards both aggressive fighters and those who favor a more measured approach.
And let’s not forget about mixsets. There are plenty of armor sets and weapons to choose from in Monster Hunter Wilds, and opinions vary on the best for the current monster fight. However, most players—including me—agree that Rathalos armor pieces and weapons are excellent for high-level long sword mixsets.
Monster Hunter Wilds – Best Long Sword Skills
The Rathalos Alpha set will have skills like Adrenaline Rush (Attack increases after successful evasion) and Evade Window (invulnerability period after evasion) and Constitution (reduces fixed Stamina depletion), all three of which are suitable for a close-combat focused weapon like the long sword. As for the more advanced Rathalos Beta set, you will have Weakness Exploit Level 4 which is self explanatory, but you will also have nine slots for decorations, which is a lot!
For the weapon decorations, you can simply choose an elemental jewel that’s effective against the monster you are fighting like the water-esque Stream Jewel or the blazing Blaze Jewel, or you can opt for the Critical Jewel decoration with its Critical boost ability. As for the armor decorations, it’s up to you to prioritize attack boosting jewels like Challenger Jewel, or defense boosting jewel like the Protection Jewel with its Divine Blessing skill, but for the long sword specifically we recommend Sheath Jewel as its speeds weapon sheathing which is beneficial if you want to sheath and cancel Helm Breaker faster.
With these skills and tips, you will be the overlord of critical hits against any monster you meet in the wilds (pun intended). Be sure to check out our review on Monster Hunter Wilds, best settings to change, as well as our beginner introduction.
