The best Wild Hearts weapons are the main monster-slaying tools that a Kemono hunter feels the most comfortable with. They come in all shapes and sizes, from the traditional katana and bows to more obscure contraptions such as the Blade Wagasa or the Karakuri Staff. Weapons in this Monster Hunter-like game have their own quirks that make them unlike anything we’ve seen before, such as swords that get alternative forms or umbrellas that get a huge bonus to damage if you parry enemy attacks.
Unlike other games like Monster Hunter, you don’t get access to all Wild Hearts weapons immediately. You start with the katana for your first hunt and only gain access to a selection of the rest of the weapons when the blacksmith recovers from her injuries. Even then, you don’t get access to all of them in the RPG game until a little later after that. Once you unlock a weapon, you can use monster parts or items found throughout the world to upgrade them and give you new skills. We’ll go over all of the best Wild Hearts weapons you can use to slay the Wild Hearts monsters, as well as when you can unlock new weapon types.
Best Wild Hearts weapon types
These are the best Wild Hearts weapons:
- Katana (speed)
- Nodachi (damage)
- Bow (range)
- Blade Wagasa (parry)
Early on, you only have a few weapons to choose from, each of which requires a certain amount of familiarity. Luckily, next to the first camp in the game, you can use the training dummy to learn and practice combos. The Katana is one of the faster weapons in the game, and while each hit is relatively weak, they do add up. It’s also the easiest weapon to learn as it doesn’t require precise timing. It can reach an unbound state if the bar above the health bar reaches the maximum threshold, extending the length of your blade and giving you multi-hit attacks.
The most damaging weapons from the limited set available are the Nodachi and the Maul. The Nodachi is by far the slowest of the weapons and frequently needs to charge up to do its damage, but when the base version can get up to 600 points of damage off a full charge, that’s worth considering. You’ll need to keep a close eye on your stamina, though, as charging uses up stamina.
The Maul, on the other hand, does require that you press the right trigger on a controller or the X key on your keyboard to extend the hammer’s reach after every hit, as indicated by a glow on the hammer. The timing is very precise, but even if you mess it up, the weapon will still do decent damage.
If you’re hoping to keep out of harm’s way, the bow is a great choice. It takes a while to set up all of the damage, as you need to fire off quicker arrows to create targets, but with multiple different charge shots available and even some powerful techniques that pair well with evasive Karakuri, it’s a fantastic way of racking up damage. You may not get as much loot from monsters for breaking their parts, but for sheer damage, the bow’s pretty up there.
As for the Blade Wagasa, its potential is astronomical for causing major damage, but you need to get really good at parrying attacks. If you’re able to do so, then this is the weapon for you, as each hit when the bar at the bottom of the screen reaches the maximum threshold will deal a huge amount of damage. However, leave an opponent alone or get hit, and that bar will go down.
Wild Hearts weapon type unlocks
Here is when you can unlock all of the Wild Hearts weapons:
- Karakuri Katana – unlocked by default.
- Nodachi – unlocked after hunting Ragetail.
- Bow – unlocked after hunting Ragetail.
- Maul – unlocked after hunting Ragetail.
- Bladed Wagasa – unlocked after hunting Ragetail.
- Claw Blade – unlocked after reaching Chapter 2.
- Cannon – unlocked after reaching Chapter 2.
- Karakuri Staff – unlocked after reaching Chapter 2.
Those are the things that everyone needs to know about Wild Hearts weapons. Get a feel for them by practising on the training dummy, and when you’re ready, you can bring along a friend via Wild Hearts crossplay. Finally, we recommend that you check out the Wild Hearts system requirements guide to see if you can run the game properly, or if your computer is a bit underpowered, our list of the best PC games out there that might run on your rig.