Monster Hunter Wilds Charge Blade Guide: Builds & Combos

These Charge Blade builds get the most out of both Axe and Sword Mode in Monster Hunter Wilds!

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UPDATE: We have added suggestions for a post-game Charge Blade build to this guide.

In Monster Hunter Wilds , the Charge Blade is a fantastic, flexible weapon with enough power, mobility and elemental clout to handle almost any situation.

However, especially for new players, it’s a relatively complex weapon in a game full of complicated combat mechanics. But once you’ve broken it down to its basic concepts - most of which aren’t explained very fully in-game - the Charge Blade has a simple flow that’s fast, fun and devastatingly effective.

To help you make the most out of one of the strongest weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds and get to grips with its moveset and mechanics, here’s a breakdown of our best-loved strategies, builds and combos to get you through the early and mid-game and prepare you for the post-game.

Monster Hunter Wilds Charge Blade guide

Charge Blade Combos

The Charge Blade alternates between building up elemental energy in its Sword and Shield form, before releasing that energy as powerful Axe attacks.

First, you need to perform smaller-scale combos with the Sword by pressing Triangle and Circle at the same time, before following up with normal Triangle attacks. You can also hold Circle for a quick flurry of blows.

However, when you start to see the Sword glow, you need to Charge (R2 + Circle) to store the built up energy, otherwise your attacks will start to bounce off the monster.

You can then morph into using a wide range of huge Axe attacks, mostly by pressing Circle and Triangle and Circle together.

Also, the Charge Blade also massively benefits from breaking monster wounds, which buffs the weapon with additional rotating chainsaw blade damage. Look for a wound whenever you can by holding L2, then press R1 to break it.

The basic flow of battle goes something like this:

• Perform “Basic Sword Combo” by pressing Triangle and Circle together, then Triangle twice, then Triangle and Circle together again
• Press Triangle and Circle again at the end of the Sword combo to do a strong Axe attack, then press R2 to switch back to the Sword
• When your sword starts to glow, perform a Charge (R2 + Circle in Sword mode) to bank the elemental energy you’ve built up
• After the Charge, press Circle to immediately morph in the axe
• Depending on a monster’s position, use Triangle attacks to swing the Axe vertically (and hit their tail) or Circle attacks to swing horizontally (and hit their body)
• Press Circle three times to perform a Circle combo, press Triangle and Circle together to perform an overhead slam called the Amped Element Discharge , then press Circle again for a follow-up attack
• Once you’re out of elemental energy, return to the Sword form to charge up again
• Check regularly for wounds by holding L2 and pressing R1 to break them

Monster Hunter Wilds Charge Blade builds

Before you roll the credits in Monster Hunter Wilds, you don’t need to focus too much on perfecting your build. As long as you don’t have a massive weakness to the element of the monster you’re fighting, you’re probably going to be okay.

However, it’s never too early to start thinking about how your equipment Skills interact with each other, because it’s a fiddly system to get to grips with. These early and mid-game Charge Blade builds will help you to get the most out of your weapon, while also starting to think about stacking powerful Skills together.

Early Game

In the early game, especially if you’re new to the series or the Charge Blade as a weapon, the most difficult aspect to get the hang of is your movement speed in axe form.

If you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time and get sent flying by a monster, then you’re in an extremely vulnerable position when you get back to your feet, sluggishly stow your weapon on your back and raise your healing potion to your lips with all the urgency of a Sunday morning sip of coffee.

To combat this, the best early-game build to focus on with the Charge Blade prioritizes the Quick Sheathe Skill. This Skill makes a huge difference in a pinch when you need to quickly put away your weapon to heal, which - even though the start of Monster Hunter Wilds isn’t quite as demanding as previous entries in the series - makes the learning Charge Blade’s learning curve feel a lot smoother, since you’re not punished as harshly for mistakes.

I recommend starting with the Quematrice set to fill out the rest of your gear, but definitely switch to the Balahara before the Uth Duna or the minus Water resistance will make that fight very hard.

• Weapon : Lala Barina Bouclier
• Helm : Alloy
• Cuirass : Quematrice/Balahara
• Gauntlets : Quematrice/Balahara
• Waist : Quematrice/Balahara
• Greaves : Alloy
• Talisman : Defence Charm

Mid-game

In the mid-game of Monster Hunter Wilds, you can keep your Quick Sheathe intact if you like, but this is where you can start to play with attack and Affinity-boosting buffs which make a bigger, more tangible difference to how you play.

This build involves farming a few Rey Dau pieces to craft 4 parts of that set and stacking the Latent Power Skill. After you’ve taken damage during a fight, Latent Power will activate, increasing your Affinity (critical hit damage) and powering up your dodge for a period of time. By wearing 4 pieces of the Rey Dau set you extend the time that Latent Power is active, giving you a big boost for a long time in a fight.

Alternatively, the Charge Blade is incredibly good at leveraging the 4-piece Arkveld set boost. This heals your character by a huge amount every time you break a monster wound, allowing you to be aggressive, conserve resources and make the most out of the Charge Blade’s strong wound creation ability.

With this build, I like to throw in the Guardian Rathalos legs for the Weakness Exploit ability, since it further boosts your damage to wounded areas on a monster while you’ve already buffed your ability to cause them.

Mid-game Attack Build

• Weapon : Guardian Rathalos Albirath Blade
• Helm : Rey Dau
• Cuirass : Rey Dau
• Gauntlets : Rey Dau
• Waist : Hirabami
• Greaves : Rey Dau
• Talisman : Defence/element of monster being hunted

Mid-game Wound Build

• Weapon : Guardian Rathalos Albirath Blade
• Helm : Arkveld
• Cuirass : Arkveld
• Gauntlets : Arkveld
• Waist : Arkveld
• Greaves : Guardian Rathalos
• Talisman : Defence/element of monster being hunted

Post-game

When it comes to a Charge Blade post-game build in Monster Hunter Wilds, you’ve two options; a straight-forward build that focuses on raw attack power, or a build that focuses on the elemental capabilities of the Charge Blade.

Both of the below post-game builds have been put together with ideas from YouTubers, FightinCowboy and RageGamingVideos , as well as our own playtime.

Raw Attack Power

First things first, we’re opting for Artian Weapon – Chrono Gear – in this particular build, forged with items that imbue it with the Blast element, providing it with an Impact Phial. This allows us to attack aggressively by adding stun and exhaust to our attacks, compared to the alternative – the Element Phial – which instead buffs the elemental attack of your weapon upon consumption.

For our helm, we are opting for the Guardian Fulgur Helm B which provides the Agitator Level 2 Skill. Pair this with the Challenger Charm II to reach Agitator Level 4, greatly boosting your attack power and affinity when fighting Large Monsters.

We’re then equipping two Arkvulcan B pieces – the Mail and Coil – which, when combined, provide us with Weakness Exploit Level 3 (increases affinity of attacks to monster wounds and weak points) and Recovery Speed Level 1. On that note, anything that boosts our attack or affinity is useful to this build, so bear that in mind when equipping Decorations.

The Arkvulcan gear will also provide us with Level 1 of the Arkveld’s Hunger Bonus Skill: Hasten Recovery I, which pairs nicely with the Recovery Speed Skill, given that both can help our Hunter regain HP in a pinch.

Next up, we’re also equipping two pieces of the Guardian Arkveld B set – the Greaves and Vambraces – as these allow us to bump up our overall Weakness Exploit Skill to Level 5, while also providing us with Elemental Absorption Level 1 (temporarily grants elemental effects after taking elemental damage). These two pieces of gear then also provide us with Level 1 of the Guardian Arkveld’s Vitality Bonus Skill: Decimator I, which restores our health when destroying monster wounds.

This pairs nicely with our other HP-restoring skills, but most importantly, compliments our Weakness Exploiter Skill, ultimately allowing us to boost our attack, affinity, and regain HP when targeting wounds.

• Weapon: Chrono Gear
• Helm: Guardian Fulgur Helm B
• Chest: Arkvulcan Mail B
• Gauntlets: Guardian Arkveld Vambraces B
• Waist: Arkvulcan Coil B
• Greaves: Guardian Arkveld Greaves B
• Talisman: Challenger Charm II

Elemental Damage

For a Charge Blade build that uses an Artian Weapon but focuses on elemental damage over raw attack power, we’re using the Chrono Gear imbued with the Dragon element. This provides the weapon with an Element Phial that boosts our elemental damage upon use.

This particular build doesn’t differ too wildly from the above, but it does use some pieces of gear to ensure that it is doing the most elemental damage possible rather than raw attack or affinity damage, as well as using the Burst Skill to increase our elemental attack.

Like the prior build, we’re going to equip two pieces of the Guardian Arkveld B set – the Vambraces and Greaves – again. These collectively provide Weakness Exploit Level 3, Elemental Absorption Level 1, and Level 1 of the Guardian Arkveld’s Vitality Set Bonus Skill: Decimator. This allows us to regain some HP when destroying a monster wound.

On top of that, we’re equipping the Arkvulcan Mail B, which – on its own – won’t provide any Bonus Skills, but it does give us one additional level of Weakness Exploit, allowing us to raise our attack and affinity further when attacking the wounds or weak points of foes. This, of course, compliments the Decimator Skill of the Guardian Arkveld set nicely.

Last, but not least, here’s what’s different about this build, aside from the element of our Chrono Gear weapon: we’re going to wear two pieces of the Gore B set, rather than another Arkvulcan piece. The Gore Helm B and Coil A will provide us with Constitution Level 2 (less stamina is depleted after a successful evasion or block), Evade Window Level 1 (extends invulnerability window upon evading), Coalescence Level 1 (temporarily increases elemental attack power and status effects after recovering from abnormal status effects), and Antivirus Level 1 (cleanses Frenzy quicker and provides extra affinity once cured).

The Coalesence Skill and Antivirus Skill are both particularly interesting when you take into consideration the Gore Magala’s Tyranny Bonus Set Skill that the Gore gear provides, which is Black Eclipse I. This infects you with Frenzy upon fighting a large monster, which doesn’t seem all that great, right? Well, if you cleanse yourself of this, Coalescence comes into play, increasing our elemental attack power. Antivirus also allows Frenzy to be cleansed much faster, and improves our affinity once cured!

As a result, it’s worth equipping Decorations that can help Coalescence and Antivirus reach Level 2 or 3, and any decorations that further increase the Weakness Exploit and Burst Skills (such as the Chain Charm II mentioned below, which provides Burst Level 2) so you can continue to make the most of your elemental attacks. The rest is up to you!

• Weapon: Chrono Gear
• Helm: Gore Helm B
• Chest: Arkvulcan Mail B
• Gauntlets: Guardian Arkveld Vambraces B
• Waist: Gore Coil A
• Greaves: Guardian Arkveld Greaves B
• Talisman: Chain Charm II

For more on Monster Hunter Wilds, take a look at our Bow build guide , our Dual Blades build guide , and our Hammer build guide .

Monster Hunter Wilds

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