What you need to know
- The 11th weapon overview trailer for Monster Hunter Wilds, the next upcoming entry in Capcom’s Monster Hunter franchise, has gone live.
- This trailer provides a preview of the Switch Axe, a weapon that has the unique ability to transform from a long-reaching axe to a great sword that causes explosions every time it hits enemies.
- Monster Hunter Wilds will be released on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam, and it currently has a tentative release date of 2025.
Over the past week and a half, Capcom has been daily releasing trailers showcasing all the cool weapons players will wield in the highly anticipated action-hunting
game, Monster Hunter Wilds. We’ve now reached the eleventh episode of Monster Hunter Wilds’ weapon overview trailer series, and this one gives players a sneak peek at one of Monster Hunter’s more crazy weapon types, the Switch Axe.
The Switch Axe is a complex weapon capable of change between two modes, each with its unique move-sets and mechanics to master and unleash upon monsters. Unlike the Charge Blade which offers an assortment of offensive and defensive techniques, the Switch Axe is all about pure offense and a couple of evasive maneuvers.
The first mode of Switch Mode is Axe Mode, which lets you attack enemies with a gigantic battle axe with a reach so long it can even hit flying monsters. The Axe Mode’s attacks consist of wildly swinging the weapon around like a maniac and performing special dodge moves, which lets you jump out of the way of incoming attacks while in the middle of combos.
What’s more, is that every time you hit an enemy in Axe Mode, the weapon builds energy for a special gauge meter called a Phial. Once the Phial gets filled enough, you can transform the weapon into its most deadly form, Sword Mode.
Sword Mode transforms the Switch Axe into a blade the size of a Great Sword and trades away all mobility of Axe Mode so you can spend Phial energy to perform fast and high-damaging melee combos. In addition, you can perform the Switch Axe’s ultimate attack called ‘Elemental Discharge’, which has you fire off a massive explosion of energy that can severely damage any monster caught in the blast.
Attacking while in Sword Mode will also build another meter within the Phial meter, separate from the energy used to perform Sword Mode attacks. Once this Sword Mode-only meter gets filled, it will activate the Switch Axe’s ‘Amped State’.
Amped State is when the Switch Mode’s Sword Mode becomes flooded with so much energy that it causes miniature Elemental Discharge explosions to occur every time you hit an enemy. In addition, the Amped State will cause the Sword Mode’s attacks to become even more powerful and change the Elemental Discharge attack into a new attack called the Zero Sum Discharge.
Instead of standing still to fire a blast like a regular Elemental Discharge, the Zero Sum Discharge has you plunge the Switch Axe deep inside a monster’s body and unleash the attack within them to destroy their innards completely with non-stop explosions. However, performing this attack will spend all of the Phial’s energy and cause the weapon to return to Axe Mode.
So the general game plan is to build up Phial energy in Axe Mode, then switch to Sword Mode to activate the Amped State and rip and tear enemies apart with Elemental Discharges. You can also quickly switch back and forth between Axe and Sword mode during combos to conserve Phial energy or if you’re hunting monsters that one mode will have more trouble dealing damage to than the other, hence why the weapon type is called Switch Axe.
In Monster Hunter Wilds, the Switch Axe will be getting some new attacks and bring back a useful trick it learned in Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak. All the new moves and gameplay changes that have been confirmed so far from the trailer are:
- A new combo finisher in Axe Mode attack where you swing the weapon upwards to targets high up.
- A new Focus Strike where you swing the weapon in Axe Mode to brutally eviscerate a monster’s weak spot or wound, and then transform into Sword Mode to finish them off a quick Elemental Discharge.
- The counter technique from Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak where you go into a stance in Sword Mode which, if performed at the right time, will parry a monster’s attack and let you counter-attack with a swift melee combo.
- A charge attack where you run to a monster and perform a double wide-swing attack in Axe Mode.
- The explosions you unleash while Sword Mode’s in Amped State have been powered up so that they’re bigger and deal more impact damage to a monster.
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Switch up your hunting techniques with the Switch Axe
The Switch Axe is another one of my favorite weapons in Monster Hunter alongside Charge Blade and Gunlance because of how absolutely insane the concept is. It’s essentially an oversized Swiss Army that causes explosions when it hits something. How awesome is that?
While learning how to use the Switch Axe’s multi-faceted mechanics and move-sets can be difficult at first, it can be extremely fun to play with once you get over the steep learning curve. The Switch Axe’s attacks are flashy and satisfying to pull off, it’s got useful evasion tools to help you dodge attacks while keeping up the pressure on enemies, and it features some of the coolest weapon designs out in the entire franchise.
I can’t wait to see what other new moves the Switch Axe and the rest of Monster Hunter Wilds’ fourteen weapon types have gained when this upcoming Xbox title/upcoming PC title releases in 2025.
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.
