If this is your first foray into the monster hunting genre, you may find yourself stumbling over the best Wild Hearts weapons for beginners once you unlock access to the forge. There are five starting options to play with, but some are friendlier to newcomers than others. Below, we’ve broken down the best beginner weapons in Wild Hearts and offered some advice on how to hone your skills with each!
Best beginner weapons in Wild Hearts
© Omega Force
We’ve picked the three best beginner weapons in Wild Hearts from the starting selection below. We’d also highly recommend studying these Wild Hearts beginners tips and tricks if you want to speed your way to becoming a skilled hunter.
Karakuri Katana
Use if you like:
- Speed
- Dodging
- Constant damage
- Easy and forgiving combos
The Katana is the first weapon you’ll use in Wild Hearts, and fittingly one of the easiest to learn. Its basic attacks come out fairly quickly and easily combo into one another. That means you’ll have plenty of time to get in hits before dodging any strikes that a Kemono throws your way. Its main gimmick is also simple to understand. Deal damage and you’ll fill up a meter. When full, you can “unleash” the weapon (Left Trigger + Attack) to increase its damage while the meter empties again.
How to improve: The katana’s main damage dealers are its stamina-consuming special attacks (R2/RT/F). You can combo into them directly from basic attacks, and doing so from a secondary attack will cause you to lunge forward. Practice using this to avoid kemono’s moves while still dealing damage. The Katana also has a special diving attack performed after jumping off a stack of three karakuri boxes. Use it often.
Maul
Use if you like:
- Hitting hard
- Timing attacks
- Swinging an obscenely large block about
The Maul is one of Wild Hearts’ two opening heavy weapons. Like bonking things on the head with an oversized hammer? This is the tool for you. The Maul is very slow, but straightforward. That said, its core system requires you to have a good sense of timing. Avoid this is if you’re the kind of player who mashes the attack button rapidly during fights. Check out the Nodachi below if you’re not confident with those timed presses.
How to improve: Tapping the special attack button (R2/RT/F) in time with the weapon’s flashes after each hit will power up your combos and let you unleash longer sequences of strikes. Be aware that hitting an enemy will slow your swing fractionally, delaying the flash. You’ll rarely get time to unleash a full combo, so focus on using your secondary, more mobile attacks to close in on the enemy. Unleash your heavy-damage primary attacks when you know the kemono has a big opening.
Nodachi
Use if you like:
- Hitting even harder
- Charge attacks
- Positioning carefully
It might be slow and heavy but if you can master the Nodachi’s charge attack mechanic you’ll be dealing the single largest hits in the game. There aren’t many flashy combos, but with a sword this big you’ll easily break parts and bully kemono as long as you don’t get greedy. Activating its special stance and knowing when you have an opening is key to Nodachi mastery, and only the longest window between attacks will let you get in your full combo.
Each hit while holding the special attack input increases your bar (three hits until full in standard, four or more for the quick movement stance) but your stamina constantly drains throughout the charge. Let go of the special attack button to unleash a massively powerful hit. Crits can do more than 10x your standard hit damage so it’s worth working them into your play.
How to improve: Working out when you can get in and land all your hits is the name of the Nodachi-wielder’s game. Start charging your special stance (hold R2/RT/F) and use springs to help you close the distance to your prey once they’ve just finished an attack. Mid-air, hit the attack button to begin a rolling two-hit attack which puts you at 70% charge already, land one more hit and then let go of special attack to let it rip.
You can also animation cancel by switching between rolling iai strikes (direction + Triangle/Y/ Middle Mouse) and your standard attacks to more quickly build meter. Remember to let go of special attack if you see damage coming your way or your stamina gets too low. It’s better to unleash half a charged attack than get sent flying and lose your entire bar, so says Confucius.
Weapons to avoid early
Bow: Wild Hearts’ starting ranged weapon is an odd beast. It requires you to swap between two forms, building up hits with one before detonating with the other. Unless you’re playing primarily in multiplayer, making use of it early will see you constantly running away while trying to find the time for each shot. Give this a try on some weaker kemono once you’ve bested them a few times already.
Bladed Wagasa: The combat umbrella is an unusual and extremely flashy weapon, but not one suitable for beginners. While very mobile, its unique damage system demands you hit tight parry timings to deflect Kemono attacks. Save this choice for when you’re more comfortable predicting the moves of your foes or you’ll deal pitiful damage.
Those are our picks for the best beginner weapons in Wild Hearts, but we have plenty more advice for the game available on our hub page.
