Like any good action RPG, Monster Hunter Rise is a game designed with endless playstyles and customizations in mind. Whether one is keener on flashy melee strikes, or prefers a more calculated and tactical approach, this game has something for everyone, which might be the most important thing to remember with Monster Hunter Rise. There is no wrong way to play the game, only ways to play that best suit certain situations. The same applies to weapons: there is no wrong way to build one, nor a wrong weapon to use, just optimal and sub-optimal choices.
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It is important to understand a weapon's fundamental playstyle to determine its best build. Some weapons are designed to appeal to the anime fan in all of us, and in this game's case, it's the Long Sword. This weapon is an absolute all-arounder, capable of delivering quick attacks and deadly combos for excellent damage and ease of use. With the right base weapon, armor, and switch skills equipped it's easy to see why so many hunters reach for this weapon above several others.
The Long Sword is great for players who are new to the series, as its playstyle and overall flow might feel familiar to other hack-and-slash games of the past. The best Long Sword to see players through the early part of the game would be the Iron Katana line--easily upgradeable with well-rounded utility. It's a very efficient weapon because of its cost to damage ratio.
Players who are more familiar with the game might opt for swords that grant an elemental advantage over certain monsters, but the Iron Katana is a convenient one-size-fits-all weapon that allows a lot of customization with different armor sets and playstyles. Other strong options include the Wind Thief Scimitar and Drowning Shaft, the latter coming in handy against Magnamalo who is vulnerable to water.
In the higher ranks, it's tempting to branch out and experiment with new Long Swords forged from the hard-earned materials of big enemies. It might be boring advice, but it's best to stick to the ore tree of swords and continue upgrading all the way to the Julienne Blade. The trade-off here is a beeline to mid-late game stats for less time farming monster materials. The main components are still ores!
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At the core of its gameplay, the Long Sword is a triple threat weapon, providing strong attack, strong defense, and excellent attack range. The highest upgrades in the ore line of swords accentuate these qualities with solid raw damage stats and excellent sharpness. In the end, the Long Sword is really just a conduit for the skill combinations built by armor sets. These will really dictate how the Long Sword shines.
- Izuchi Helm - Critical Eye
- Izuchi Mail - Critical Eye + Recover Speed
- Alloy Vambraces - Critical Eye
- Alloy Coil - Critical Eye + Water Attack
- Ingot Greaves - Attack Boost + Critical Eye
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One of the reasons Long Swords are so beginner-friendly is because they are conducive to the button-mashing playstyle. When hunters are more comfortable with this approach, it's best to choose armor that maximizes those chained combos for pure damage. These passive bonuses to damage let players chunk monsters down faster, progress through the game faster, and get to the mid-end game grind where the real fun of the game begins. The pieces of this build are relatively easy to come by and even give a slight bump in Recovery Speed and Attack Boost for quicker and harder bursts.
- Barioth Helm - Critical Draw
- Goss Harag Mail - Critical Draw
- Goss Harag Braces - Critical Draw + Punishing Draw
- Barioth Coil - Critical Eye x2
- Aelucanth Crura - Critical Eye x2
There's a lot to love about a maxed-out Affinity build like the previous one, but sometimes it's fun to vary it up a little. By the later stages of the game, players should be comfortable implementing special sheathe attacks into their Long Sword arsenal to keep the Spirit Gauge full. With that battle sense, comes more opportunity to utilize the weapon's inherent synergies, namely the Long Sword's ability to crit often, and the ability to turn full Spirit Meters into devastating Helm Breakers. By sacrificing Critical Eye slots, Critical Draw gets added into the mix, which can proc passive buffs to affinity when special sheathe attacks are landed. This incentivizes their use, allowing players to build meters quicker and unleash more massive combos.
- Regular Attack 1: Drawn Double Slash - Comes with momentary invulnerability
- Regular Attack 2: Spirit Reckoning Combo - Flexible mobility
- Silkbind: Soaring Kick - Leads to Helm Breaker
When mastered, players can take advantage of the useful exploits present in Drawn Double Slash and Spirit Reckoning Combo to squeeze even more utility out of seemingly damage-focused attacks. Drawn Double Slash, when timed correctly, allows the user to absorb a blow in the middle of its attack animation with its iframes. Spirit Reckoning's main purpose is to build up the Spirit Gauge, but if the last strike doesn't hit it can leave the hunter in a bad spot. Luckily, there's a way to shift the character's movement forward to reach the monster on the final hits of the combo and close the gap to land the blows. This, once again, showcases the triple threat ability of the weapon and how its range makes it a tier above the rest.