Great Sword

Weapon Overview

The Great Sword (大剣 Daiken), a classic weapon first introduced in Monster Hunter, is a weapon capable of dealing massive damage. Its way of use has changed since Monster Hunter 2, when it was given a charged attack. The weapon tree for the Great Sword is divided between 2 main branches: the Buster Sword branch and Bone Blade branch. The Buster Sword branch has slightly less overall sharpness than the Bone Blade in exchange for a wider amount of elemental damage up its sleeve, but both sides have generally lower sharpness bars than other weapons, so it's wise to have sharpening tools around.

As a weapon which has its own depth of usage and requires a certain amount of training to be able to master and fully use, the Great Sword is not just any big pointy stick. It can also block with the R button, serving as a shield with slightly better protection than the Sword and Shield, as well as a fast-draw shielding ability activated by holding down the R button and then pressing triangle and circle. This shielding ability comes with a downfall, however, as each time you shield an attack the sword will lose sharpness.

Weapon Traits

Great Swords require a certain amount of experience to wield properly and master. To a novice, they may seem very slow and unwieldy. However, in the hands of an experienced hunter, they can prove very useful with a very nice damage output. See the Videos section ahead, as there are tutorials on becoming a Great Sword master.

• Great Swords provide hunters with shielding capabilities by pressing the 'R' button. The downside of this involves losing sharpness with each shielded attack; the amount of sharpness lost is thought to be the equivalent of a bounced attack. Carrying extra Whetstones is strongly advised.
• The Vertical Slash can be 'quickdrawn'. This means that if you are walking or running and press Triangle, you will quickly attack with the vertical slash. This is the Great Sword's fastest attack.

• The Vertical Slash can also be charged. Pressing and holding Triangle will begin this charge, which takes approximately 3-4 seconds to reach full power. The charge has three levels of increasing power, with the third having a high damage output capable of knocking down a monster in flight.

• Due to the breadth of the Great Sword, its horizontal slash is useful for clearing small monsters. This can, however, be a hindrance in multiplayer quests as it can very easily hit fellow hunters.

• The Upward Slash can literally send fellow hunters flying. Used properly, this can save a teammate from monsters' attacks. (They will not receive damage from this, and they will be invulnerable while in flight.)

• The Great Sword has its own damage system based on the part of the blade that makes contact. The bottom and tip of the blade are weakest, while the center has the highest damage output.

• All three slashing attacks can be chained together, but no two same slashes consecutively. For example, after slashing vertically (Triangle), either the horizontal (Circle) or the upward slash (Triangle+Circle) can be performed, but not the vertical slash. However, chaining an upward slash and a vertical slash causes a lengthy delay between each attack.

• Hunters can roll forward or to the side after each attack, offering the option for hit and run tactics. This can be done to avoid the delays following each attack.

• As with many other weapon types, watching the Great Sword's attacks will indicate a monster's weak points. If the slash flows cleanly through a monster, it is not a weak point. Conversely, if the slash seems to lag briefly upon contact, the point is weak.
• With the Great Sword unsheathed, pressing SELECT will perform a quick frontal kick. This kick is much faster than its sheathed counterpart and is particularly useful for keeping pesky mobs at bay, such as the ‘Preys’.

• In MH3, the Great Sword gained a new attack where in the hunter slaps the monster with the side of the blade, causing impact damage.
• In MH4 the Great Sword gained a new attack where after a curved level 3 Slash or a ledge attack the hunter will do a powerful horizontal attack. The drawback, however, is that when the hunter does this move, you can NOT roll out of it.
• The Great Sword also gained the ability to go from a side swipe to a curved level 3 slash.

Advantages

• Extremely powerful; It can easily destroy monster parts or cause flinch, stagger, or knock down due to a focusing, high-damage single strike.
• Can guard against attacks, which can be drawn instantly to block monsters' attacks similar to other shield-bearing weapons.
• Can perform charged attacks.
• Long reach.
• Sharpness is lost very slowly due to very low attack counts for each attack.
• Natural Mind's Eye is gained on a level 3 charge, however, this is no longer true later in the series.
• While it features very poor handling speed when unsheathed, more experienced users will find it very devastating against monsters like the Tigrex and Rajang, despite the fact that these foes possess terrifying agility. It's best to use a high raw damage GS with skills like Art of Unsheathing and Focus against these monsters.
• In first generation games, this weapon is able to somewhat counter a wyvern's wind pressure if the player can continuously perform combo attacks.

Limitations

• With an extremely slow movement, users are recommended to sheath the weapon to chase after a faraway monster due to terrible movement speed when unsheathed.
• Later in the series, although stunning monsters becomes possible, it is unconventional to focus on such action.
• Requires tremendous skill and practice to use and master its striking ranges and unleashing the most powerful attacks.
• Blocking reduces not only stamina but also sharpness - roughly equivalent to the deflected attack.
• Complimenting Armor Skills such as Focus are generally more abundant on a high level armor or through slotting in decorations.

Videos

The Monster Hunter Wikia does not take credit for these videos.

Video
Title	MHP3rd GS Movements Controls by MHP3rdFrance

Video
Title	GS Charge Guide - Tigrex ティグレクス by naijiao

Video
Title	Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - Great Sword Tutorial by billybobjho

Video
Title	MH4G/MH4U Great Sword Tutorial by gaijin hunter

Video
Title	MH4U Great Sword Tutorial by Arekkz Gaming

PSP Controls

Sheathed

(While stationary)  = Unsheathe

(While moving)  =  Unsheathing Downward Slash.

(Hold)  = Charged Unsheathing Downward Slash
Note: It has four charge levels: Uncharged, Level 1 Charge (Yellow flash), 
Level 2 Charge (flashes red) and Level 3 Charge(flashes red brightly and
larger)

(While holding down R)  +  = Instant Guard (Hunter unsheathes the Great
Sword and prepares it to guard instantaneously) Players can exit guarding mode
just by releasing the R button.

Unsheathed

 =  Downward Slash

(Hold)  = Charged Downward Slash - Same as the one above, just 
this one is performed from the unsheathed state.

 = Horizontal Slash

( + ) = Backward Slash

 = Roll

Select = Kick

R  = Guard

Combo

Horizontal Slash + Backward Slash

 + ( + )

(, ( + ), , ... )

MHP3 New Combos

Downward Slash + Horizontal Tab

 +  or  (Hold)  + 
( , , , ... )

Downward Slash + Horizontal Tab + Crouching Heavy Smash

 +  +  (Up)Pad or
(Hold)  +  + (Up)Pad (Hold)  
Note: Like Downward Slash, Crouching Heavy Smash has four charge levels as
stated above.