The Long Sword in Monster Hunter Generations lets you live out your fantasies of using a long katana. It has large swings and can even increase its sharpness with the spirit gauge. These large swings can also trip up your teammates so you have to be careful.
The Long Sword is very strong and has a combo play style that you’ll want to use to do well with it. The hunter styles and arts really bring out the best in this weapon and it is great for solo play. I’m going to go over the basics and give some tips at getting better with the Long Sword.
Check out my Monster Hunter Generations Beginner Tips and Tricks for general help with the game.
This guide will go over using the Long Sword in Monster Hunter Generations including:
- Basic Controls – The different things you can do with the Long Sword.
- Spirit Gauge and Spirit Blade – How it works and why it is important.
- Hunter Styles and Arts – The different styles and arts and which I use.
- Extra Tips – Tips to help you get better at using the Long Sword.
Basic Controls
- X performs a Step Slash
- A Performs a Thrust
- X+A at the same time performs a Fade Slash
- This slashes in front of you and makes your character jump back.
- You can also move in a direction while doing it to swing to the side instead of straight back.
- R performs Spirit Blade, more on this in the section below
- R+X+A at the same time performs a Special Draw
- This will make you draw your weapon into a special X+A attack instead of just drawing it.
Spirit Gauge and Spirit Blade
As you hit enemies with your attacks, you start to fill up the Spirit Gauge. This is used to perform powerful Spirit Blade attacks by pressing R. There are 4 attacks in a full spirit blade combo, and each attack depletes some of the Spirit Gauge.
When the bar is full, connect a full spirit blade combo to increase the gauge to the next level. You will know it is over because you will end in a huge swing that automatically sheathes the weapon.
There are 4 levels of Spirit Gauge, normal, white, yellow, and red. Each level increases your attack, and red increases it by a lot. It also makes your attacks less likely to bounce off the monster.
Hunter Styles and Arts
I won’t go over the general info on the 4 Styles — if you want you can check out my Beginner Tips and Tricks for more details — but I will let you know how they affect the Long Sword.
Guild is the default and great for learning the weapon. It also lets you use 2 hunter arts while keeping access to all attacks.
Striker is a simplified style, but doesn’t take away much like most weapons. The only thing you can do is doe a sidestep slash, all fade slashes will push you back.
Aerial is good for mounting a monster anywhere, or if you’re solo and need to mount it more easily.
Adept works well with the nature of this weapon and the hunter arts and is the one I usually pick.
During Adept, if you dodge at the last minute, your character will do a little spin where you can immediately follow up with an X attack. If you time it right and do spirit blade after.
- If you fill up the Spirit Gauge slightly before using the counter attack, you can go to the next spirit gauge level with the B+X+R combo after doing a last minute dodge.
This is great for quickly getting your Spirit Gauge maxed, but it takes some practice to get the timing right.
Arts
There are 3 specific Long Sword Arts:
- Sakura Slash – Jump backwards to 2 sweeping slashes. If the attack hits, it opens a wound for blood to come out and raises your Spirit Gauge 1 level.
- This is one I usually do, especially if I can only pick 1, because it gives you another way to instantly raise Spirit Gauge.
- Unhinged Spirit – Temporarily maxes Spirit Gauge and allows you to use Spirit Blade without depleting the gauge.
- Critical Juncture – Parries a monster attack and unleashes a deadly counter attack.
Extra Tips
- Be careful using Spirit Blade and wide slashes online
- These attacks will make your allies trip and make them not want to group with you anymore.
- Try to get Spirit Gauge maxed quickly
- A lot of your damage comes from this gauge and your attacks will not bounce off as often.
- When using Adept, it is best to use a couple of attacks at a time
- Your goal in this style is to watch the enemy and get ready to dodge for counter attacks, so don’t try to do too many attacks at once.
That’s it for my Monster Hunter Generations Long Sword guide. Let me know if you have any questions or tips of your own!
