The Great Sword in Monster Hunter Now is a formidable weapon known for its massive damage potential, albeit challenging to wield due to its size. To craft a top-tier Great Sword build, slowing down the enemy with sleep effects is crucial. Recent updates have introduced materials that allow you to create sleep-based weapons, and with the right skills, you can effectively put monsters to sleep and deal devastating blows.

Best Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build

While the Long Sword build in Monster Hunter Now leverages poison, the Great Sword thrives with sleep effects. To fully assemble this build, you'll need to hunt a rare monster, but the majority of the gear can be obtained from more common foes.

Full Monster Hunter Now Great Sword Build

Weapon

For a sleep-based Great Sword build, the Frilled Blade is your best bet. It comes with the Evade Extender skill, enhancing your defensive capabilities by allowing you to gain distance after dodging. While not essential, this skill greatly aids in managing the Great Sword's unwieldy nature. To craft this weapon, you'll need to hunt the Somnacanth for its materials.

Helmet & Greaves

The core of this build is sourced from the Nightmare 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 attack to a sleeping monster. Although Nightmare Paolumu are more common now, they might require some patience to encounter during 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. Additionally, you'll gain points in Evade Extender and Artful Dodger to enhance your evasion. The Tzitzi-Ya-Ku, a more common monster thanks to the paintball tracker, is your go-to 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 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)