What you need to know
- Capcom’s upcoming next-gen entry in the Monster Hunter series, Monster Hunter Wilds, has received its seventh weapon overview trailer.
- The trailer provides a look at the Charge Blade, a weapon that can shift back and forth from being a sword & shield to a gigantic battle axe that doubles as a buzz-saw.
- Monster Hunter Wilds is scheduled to launch on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam later next year in 2025.
Over the past week, Capcom has been releasing Monster Hunter Wilds trailers every day showcasing the changes and new moves for the game’s fourteen weapon types. We’ve now reached the halfway point in the weapon overview trailer series and the latest one uploaded today gives players a glimpse at arguably, one of the most difficult and complex weapon types to master, the Charge Blade.
The Charge Blade is a special weapon type because it’s essentially two weapons in one, and has the power to switch back and forth between them. The first form is its Sword & Shield mode, which lets the player defend against attacks with a gigantic shield and perform quick slash attacks with the sword.
You can also perform heavy charge attacks with the sword and when you do, it will build energy for the Charge Blade’s unique resource mechanic called Phials. Once you have all Phials built up in your sword, you can transfer the energy into the shield to boost its guarding capabilities temporarily so it can withstand harder-hitting attacks from enemies. You can also power up your sword while the shield is boosted by Phials so it can deal additional elemental damage or raw damage depending on the weapon’s built-in element.
But that’s not all the tricks Phials are capable of. Once you have stored up enough Phials, it’s time to transform the Charge Blade into its second form, the Axe mode. In Axe mode, the Charge Blade combines the sword and shield to form a massive battle axe that doubles as a buzz-saw to tear monsters apart, sacrificing its defensive traits for an extremely high attack boost.
The Phials you accumulate in the Sword & Shield mode can be used to augment the power of Axe Mode, allowing the weapon to discharge mini-explosions every time it hits a monster. Additionally, you can use the Phials to activate the axe’s buzz-saw attacks to cut deep into a monster’s hide.
When the shield is powered up by Phials, you can perform the Charge Blade’s ultimate attack called the Ultra Elemental Discharge, which can only be done while in Axe mode. This super move has you perform a wide swing with the Charge Blade and then bring it down on a monster’s head while firing off all your Phials simultaneously, unleashing a gigantic explosion that will deal massive damage.
However, once you pull the Ultra Elemental Discharge, all your stored Phials will be spent and the weapon will transform back into Sword & Shield mode. So the general gameplay of Charge Blade is to build up Phials in Sword & Shield mode, then switch to Axe Mode to unleash Phial explosion attacks, and the Ultra Elemental Discharge at the right moment to obliterate your enemies.
In Monster Hunter Wilds’ trailer for the Charge Blade, it doesn’t look like there will be any drastic changes to the weapon type as it seems to play mostly the same as it did in Monster Hunter World. The only noticeable changes that we can spot in the trailer are:
- A new follow-up attack that can be used after the Super-Amped Elemental Discharge attack.
- A reworked version of the axe mode’s running charge attack where instead of performing an overhead swing on the monster’s head, you run and perform a right-diagonal swing on them.
- A reworked user interface that more clearly shows which parts of the Charge Blade have been powered up by Phials.
- A Focus Strike where you quickly swipe at a monster’s weak spot or wounds, then transform into Axe Mode to shred them with a deadly buzz-saw attack.
- A new fast-wide attack that can transition into the Ultra Elemental Discharge attack.
- The speed at which you perform the Ultra Elemental Discharge attack has increased exponentially compared to previous games.
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Once you master the Charge Blade, you will become an unstoppable hunter
The Charge Blade was the very first weapon I ever used in Monster Hunter when I began my hunting career in Monster Hunter World and it is one of my favorite weapon types to use. Its concept is insanely creative, the damage output is ridiculously high, it has a good mixture of defensive and offensive tools, and it has some of the most awesome, visually-jaw-dropping attacks in any Monster Hunter game.
Learning how to use the Charge Blade can be extremely tough at first since it has two modes with their own complex sets of techniques and mechanics to keep track of. However, I can assure you that the satisfying reward you get for mastering it will be well worth the effort.
Once you get to grips with the Charge Blade, you will feel like an indestructible juggernaut capable of blocking the deadliest attacks and hitting back twice as hard with Ultra Elemental Discharge explosions so grandiose and over-the-top, they could give the Gunlance‘s shelling explosions a run for their money.
I can’t wait to see what new changes Monster Hunter Wilds has in for the weapon types, including the Charge Blade’s bestial counterpart, the Switch Axe, as we get closer to Monster Hunter Wilds’ next big cinematic trailer that will be unveiled at Gamescom 2024.
Monster Hunter Wilds, the next-gen successor to one of Capcom’s best Xbox games and best PC games, Monster Hunter World, is scheduled to launch in 2025 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam.
