"Monster Hunter Now: Top Great Sword Build for Max Damage"

In the thrilling world of Monster Hunter Now, the Great Sword stands out as a formidable weapon, capable of delivering massive damage to monsters with each swing. However, mastering this large and somewhat cumbersome weapon requires strategic planning, especially when aiming for a sleep-based build. With recent updates, crafting sleep-inducing weapons has become possible, but to effectively put monsters to sleep, you'll need the right combination of gear and skills.

Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build

While the Long Sword thrives on poison, the Great Sword excels with sleep-based attacks. To fully assemble this build, you'll need to hunt a rare monster, but most of your gear can be obtained 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. This weapon comes with the Evade Extender skill, which helps you create distance after dodging, making defensive maneuvers smoother with the Great Sword. 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 like Rude Awakener, which boosts your damage by 100% for the first attack on a sleeping monster. While Nightshade Paolumu are more common now, they may still require patience to encounter, especially in seasonal events or as rare spawns.

Mail, Gauntlets, & Coil

The remaining gear focuses on maximizing the Status Sneak Attack skill, ensuring sleep buildup with attacks from behind. Additionally, you'll gain points in Evade Extender and Artful Dodger to enhance your evasion capabilities. The Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, which is easier to track with the paintball, provides most of these parts.

Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Driftstone Slots

This build benefits from requiring fewer Driftstone slots to reach its full potential. Ideally, you should aim for five slots in Sleep Attack to maximize sleep buildup. However, you can also use these slots to boost your dodging skills with Artful Dodger and Evade Extender or enhance the damage from behind with Sneak Attack.

• 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)