Best Great Sword Build for High Damage in Monster Hunter Now

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, mastering this giant blade requires strategic planning, especially when it comes to slowing down your targets. Thanks to recent updates, you can now craft sleep-based weapons, which are crucial for an effective Great Sword build. To maximize the potential of this weapon, you'll need to combine the right gear with the appropriate skills to frequently induce sleep in monsters. Here's a detailed guide to help you create the ultimate Monster Hunter Now Great Sword build.

Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build

While the best build for the Long Sword in *Monster Hunter Now* leverages poison attacks, the Great Sword thrives with sleep-based strategies. To fully realize this build, you'll need to hunt a relatively rare monster, but you can gather most of the required equipment from more common foes.

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 maneuvers smoother. To craft this weapon, you'll need to hunt the Somnacanth for the necessary materials.

Helmet & Greaves

The core of this build is sourced from the Nightmare Paolumu, introduced during the first paid event. This monster provides essential parts and skills, including all three levels of Rude Awakener, which boosts your damage by 100% for the first hit on a sleeping monster. Although Nightmare Paolumu are more common now, they might still require some patience to encounter, especially during events or as rare spawns post-story completion.

Mail, Gauntlets, & Coil

The remainder of your build should focus on maximizing the Status Sneak Attack skill to ensure sleep buildup when attacking from behind. You'll also gain points in Evade Extender and Artful Dodger, enhancing your evasion capabilities. Tzitzi-Ya-Ku is your primary target for these parts, and with the paintball tracker, this monster is much easier to find.

Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Driftsmelt Slots

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