How To Use A Sword And Shield In Monster Hunter Wilds

Monster Hunter Wilds: Complete Sword And Shield Weapon Guide The Sword and Shield make for a basic weapon set that is easy to learn and very rewarding to master in Monster Hunter Wilds. Updated Nov 12, 2026, 12:00 PM EST Ryan Thompson-Bamsey has been an Editor at TheGamer since 2021. He has specialized in RPGs, grand strategy games, and visual novels, reviewing major releases in franchises from Square Enix, Larian Studios, and Paradox Interactive. Ryan has served multiple times on the jury for the Indie Cup awards, and has mentored many emerging writers in the games industry. He has covered some of the biggest releases of recent years, including leading the site's coverage of Baldur's Gate 3, Dragon's Dogma 2, and plenty of other massive RPGs. With 14 different weapons to try, all of which are complex and viable, Monster Hunter Wilds offers a huge variety of gameplay styles to experience. You might be drawn to a ranged option to help keep your distance from the beasties, or maybe something complex and impressive-looking, like the Switch Axe. If you're here, though, you might see the appeal of the humble Sword and Shield, which is an effective, user-friendly, monster-unfriendly weapon that is perfect for beginners but isn't as one-note as you might initially think. There's a lot more to this weapon than you might initially think. Versatility is the watchword when it comes to the Sword and Shield. A skilled user of this weapon set will be able to dart around monsters easily, know when they don't need to dart around them, and deliver flurries of attacks with nimble grace. You can see the specific Sword and Shield controls for your platform by going into Settings > Info > Play Guide > Weapon Controls > Sword and Shield. The basic attacks of this weapon are speedy, if rather short-range. The attacks come out very quickly and are also very reactive to any movement inputs — you will be very mobile while attacking, and can even attack against some monster attacks if your timing is keen. While this is a massive boon, it's also important to be aware of your movement inputs during a combo, as it's very easy to accidentally end up out of range thanks to some hesitancy or subconsciously moving your hunter away from the big dangerous monster in front of you. Blunt Attacks A key aspect of the Sword and Shield is its ability to inflict both severing and blunt damage. Attacking using the Circle/B button while moving will have your hunter swinging with their shield, rather than their sword. These shield smacks deliver blunt damage that, if they hit the enemy monster's head enough, will eventually cause a knockdown. Learning to weave shield bashes into your combos whenever you have access (and the safety!) to reach your foe's head is a great way to improve your monster hunting efficiency. Using Items With A Sword And Shield Weapon The second big selling point for this weapon is the fact that you don't have to sheath your weapon to use items, such as Potions or Antidotes. Even your Whetstone can be used with the weapon drawn. To do this, you'll first need to hold R2/RT to raise your shield, and then press the item-use button. Using the item-use button in any other situation will just lead to you sheathing your weapon like normal. How To Defend With A Shield Holding down R2/RT while using this weapon will have your hunter raise their shield in a defensive position. You can attack from this position with some low mobility but safer positions, but the main use of this technique is to reduce the damage from an incoming attack. It's important to note that the shield this weapon provides is not the big hefty shield that other weapons might have — don't expect this shield to be able to defend against a monster's strongest attacks. Use it when you're up against light attacks, such as a Rompopolo's light jabs. Sword And Shield Combos And Tips While simple and easy to learn, there are some great ways to really level up your Sword and Shield gameplay, beyond just using the best Sword and Shield weapons in the game. This weapon is capable of some neat tricks. Sword And Shield Charged Attacks The Sword and Shield has access to two attacks that require some charging to be used to their fullest efficacy. Charged Chop: This can be used by holding down Triangle/Y and Circle/B at the same time, but only as a follow-up attack (in other words, you cannot begin a combo with this move). Your hunter will crouch and charge a short time before performing a leaping attack forwards. The Charged Chop is a really great way to deal a ton of damage to a focused area, which is great for inflicting wounds or cutting tails. It's quite quick for a charged attack, too, so you don't necessarily need a huge opening in a monster's attack patterns to execute it. Charged Slash: Follows a Backstep. To execute this, you'll need to perform a shield bash while locked on to an enemy and holding the directional button backwards, away from the monster. Keep the shield bash button (Circle/B) held, and you'll charge for a while before performing a leaping attack. If the leaping attack actually hits an enemy, you'll launch off of it into the air. This allows you to follow up with one of two aerial moves — one slashing with the sword, one blunt with the shield. Charged Slash takes a bit more spacing and timing to pull off perfectly, but it's a fantastic move for damaging a knocked-over monster or even attempting a mount. Sliding Swipe (which is performed by hitting Triangle/Y while blocking and pressing the directional button) can also have the hunter launched into the air if they slide into a wall or ledge. Use this to your advantage with positioning and getting some aerial attacks into a fight! But also be wary of this aspect of the ability, as getting launched into the air when you're not expecting it can be disorienting. We recommend practicing this move in the Training Camp before taking it out for a real hunt. Sword And Shield Elements And Status Effects Not all weapons are suited to elemental affinities or status ailments, but the Sword and Shield is particularly great. This is due to the weapon being very good at delivering a very high number of attacks in a short period of time. This is especially true for status ailments. If you're a dedicated Sword and Shield user, to the neglect of any other weapon types, a good strategy is to have two different Sword and Shields as your primary and secondary weapons. You could either stock two elements, two status ailments, or either a status or element and a strong non-elemental option. You'll have really great flexibility with this without having to sustain your skills in more than one weapon type! Focus Strike This weapon's Focus Strike (which is used to destroy monster wounds and deal a lot of damage) is, shockingly enough, flexible. The initial strike into a wound (performed by aiming with L2/LT and then pressing R1/RB) will anchor your hunter onto the monster. You can then follow the Focus Strike with either a slashing attack with Triangle/Y that deals tons of damage, or a blunt attack with Circle/B that also launches the hunter into the air and allows for a follow-up attack. Learning when to use each variation of these attacks is a good way to really level up your gameplay with this weapon, but we've found that there's often no downside to sticking with the slashing attack variants.