Best Long Sword Tutorial | MHRise | Long Sword Guide 

"...i use helm breaker exclusively, and I suspect other players watching this video aspire to do so as well." You're goddam right.

It’s so cool that Sam Harris plays monster hunter

you named one of your palamutes LQ-84i never seen a more cultured man in my life

This is my first Monster hunter game. I saw the video and then saw your subscribers number; was expecting a number more than 400k! Video was perfect man, every single second! Thank you!

This was hands down the best guide out there for LS. I've been trying to get into the LS for some time. I specifically wanted to learn about the IA counters and you did an splendid job in showing that and every counter in a clear, simple and noob friendly way. Thanks for the effort!

This is literaly the best guide i've seen in all my years of MH

im here because i wanted to be alienated some more

Your channel is single-handedly upping my LS game by a lot! Thank you for making this guide and your frequent videos, I really appreciate it!

I think you've actually covered everything about the weapon lol. I was trying so hard to find something you forgot to mention but I couldn't. This is literally a "complete" guide, good fucking job man. A couple notes I have for future weapon guides video if you're going to make more: I think this guide would be really hard to follow if you haven't played LS before. The order you mention the moves can be confusing, I honestly don't know how you can improve this but if someone never played LS before I would tell them to start with X+X+X+X until they have full bar then ZR+ZR+ZR+ZR, then I would add on that. Another thing would be to add things on the screen to convey information. Like when you put the split screen comparison between 1lvl focus and no focus, you could show that with large text on each side. Anyways amazing video and keep it up.

I've been maining Long Sword since MHFU and I must say. Your guide is really great and honestly, you did a very good job covering it.

I haven't even watched this video video yet and I already know its gonna be great. Your videos are always so comprehensive and informative. I'm honestly so happy you made this too because I really would like to get good with the longsword and I've been struggling lol.

This is the be all end all of Longsword guides, nothing out there tops this. Great content!

Definitely the best guide I've found so far on this weapon. Covers even tiny details and combos that no one really mentions.

For a moment, I thought this guide would just say 'Use a different weapon, please"

Amazing quality I am so glad I found your initial version of this guide during the demo, otherwise I may have missed out on finding one of my favorite channels on RU-vid Thank you for the excellent content!

Best LS guide. Better than others clickbait guide videos, which clearly can tell they don't know how to use the weapon by watching it.

Sakura Slash is indeed primarily for people who struggle to get up to red spirit gauge, but I think almost everyone is failing to put something together: Sakura Slash and Serene Pose. When you have Sakura Slash equipped, Serene Pose is not just an "oh shit" button - without Helm Breaker it becomes one of your best DPS options. It costs two wirebugs, but they come back very fast (compared to the excruciatingly slow recharge from Sakura Slash), the attack itself comes out fast, it doesn't sheathe you, it's safe, it negates an enemy attack, and it also allows you to immediately go into Spirit Blade 3 for extra damage and so you usually get your gauge right back to red. Grabbing a basic elemental weapon with 0 affinity, my yellow/red Sakura Slash, assuming you get both hits, does 164 damage for about 35 seconds of wirebug recharge. So for two wirebugs, that's about 328 damage with a 35 second cooldown since the cooldowns can be ticking at the same time. So about 9.37 DPS of cooldown. Sakura Slash is also a pretty long duration attack, it moves you (which could be good or bad), and it sheathes you - and if you're spamming it you're getting all of these downsides twice per 35 seconds. With the same weapon, sharpness, and hitzone, a red Serene Pose was 183 damage in one hit with only a 20 second cooldown (and the first wirebug ready in 10 seconds). That's 9.15 DPS of cooldown - already very close to the same cooldown DPS, with a much faster attack, negating a monster's attack, without sheathing you. And a Serene Pose with the Spirit Slash 3 and Spirit Roundslash is 303 damage! If you're getting the follow-ups, it's a significant DPS increase over spamming Sakura Slash! I think a lot of people have missed this since Serene Pose feels kind of pointless given the other two counters on long sword, and experienced players (the kind making guides) don't think about it much. I've even seen a bunch of guides commenting on how strange Sakura Slash is because it gives you a gauge level, but removes your gauge spender. But it doesn't! Serene Pose is your gauge spender! The playstyle is to use Sakura Slash to get easy gauge levels and spend them with Serene Pose. You get to red gauge, then you use Serene Pose, and then you try to get back to red gauge as it recharges. Once the first wirebug is recharged, after 10 seconds, if you're not at red gauge you make a decision: do you think you can get to red gauge soon, or do you use Sakura Slash? If you use Sakura Slash, it'll be an extra 25 seconds before you can Serene Pose again (35 minus the 10 left for the other wirebug from your Serene Pose), and another 10 seconds until you have a bug back for wirefall, but you'll get an easy red gauge, Sakura Slash's damage, and you'll have red damage for that next 35 seconds. Either way, once you're at red with 2 wirebugs again, you Serene Pose again. This starts to make even more sense when you consider that Sakura Slash doesn't even do any more damage at red spirit gauge! You use it at yellow gauge, giving it full damage and also getting you to red, then you use Serene Pose, which drops you back to yellow - where Sakura Slash, again, still does full damage if you need it to get back up to red. A little more in-depth: you use Sakura Slash whenever you want to push for a status faster, when you can't finish your spirit combo after Serene Pose to get your red gauge back and you're struggling to land another spirit combo or counter before your wirebugs are ready for another Serene Pose, or when you're afraid to spare a wirebug for even 10 seconds against a monster with a dangerous combo attack so you can wirefall out in case you get hit. Otherwise, you spend it on Serene Pose. When you pick Sakura Slash, Serene Pose isn't your failsafe anymore - Sakura Slash is. Instead of having a failsafe to protect you from getting hit, you have a failsafe for when you're having trouble getting a counter or finishing a spirit combo - Sakura Slash will give you that red gauge. And then, whether you got the gauge a normal way or via Sakura Slash, you spend it on Serene Pose, which is a much easier counter to use than Foresight Slash or Iai Spirit Slash. It's good for new players or against new monsters because it's a much more forgiving playstyle, and it's a nice introduction to countering using a counter that has a much larger window than the others and doesn't need to follow an attack or a special sheathe (and that counter is also on a timer, which can push new players to try to use it about every 20 seconds, but to do damage in-between instead of spending a frustrating half an hour in a hunt just trying to unsuccessfully counter over and over and doing no damage). It's also fantastic in multiplayer. It can be much harder to land a normal counter or spirit combo in multiplayer, with the monster changing its attention. Sakura Slash is a great way to get spirit gauge levels if you keep getting unlucky with the monster's attention. Likewise, Helm Breaker can be much more unreliable in multiplayer. Serene Pose, however, is much easier to use than the other counters in multiplayer since you can wait until you actually know the attack is coming at you to use it. I have yet to see absolutely anyone on youtube make a video about this playstyle. Everyone just keeps saying "I dunno, I guess Sakura Slash is for sitting in red gauge and spamming?".

I’ve been playing long sword for a while and was pretty happy with where I was at, but this showed me so many tricks I’ve never seen before, truly quite helpful to everyone

The delivery on “plus, it looks sick as shit”. Gold.

That is the best guide on LS ive seen . Cover's a lot and is very informativ with out been to long . + Has village relaxing theme so its the best . I hope you could do the same for other weapon . Great guide and thank you !

Damn, this is a good long sword guide. I really appreciate the effort you took to make this brother.

This guide is just what i needed to start learning long sword for mhr pc. It's really thorough and well put together, good job dude!👍

Great guide. I think this is the most clarification I've seen in a guide on things like the use cases for the different counters and different switch skills. In particular for a MH noob like me, thinking of the iai counter as predictive and foresight as reactive (at least as a general rule) is really useful to have laid out in addition to the usual explanation of how the counters interact with spirit gauge/spirit level. And most guides just say "use these switch skills because they're better" which is kinda valid with LS's huge difference in dmg between the skills, but the ease of use tradeoff and how to improve/work around positioning requirements isn't usually covered in as much depth as you did.

Alright you got a new sub, this is an amazing guide for Longsword Really well organized I love the breakdown of the switch skills into philosophies Honestly this kinda of MonHun guide/analysis is what ive been looking for

This is the best "Detailed" and "Specific" tutorial i am looking for! Very excited for your content in Sunbreak! Already looking forward to it 💯

This video is amazing. I'm new MH player and with your guides I learnt a lot. Thx man

I’m sharing this in monster hunter gathering hall discord

As a brand new to the franchise PC player this video is everything I wanted and more. I’ve been doing my counters incorrectly this whole time and I can’t wait to get out there and practice now that I know what to do.

I have been glued to Switch Axe throughout the entirety of World and Rise and haven't touched any other weapon. I'm excited to pick up something new! Thank you for the great guide!

As a long sword main,this video was a great refresher and even showed me things I’ve never seen

This really is THE best longsword guide...thank you.

As someone who barely knows how to play LS this guide is really useful. Concise and to the point. I think covering the switch skills in a separate section is a great idea. Made it much easier to follow the basic tutorial - which is good because I did not even know some of the things existed. I always get confused with all the options from special sheathe lol

This is the kind of content that will get you to 10k, 100k and even 1000k subscribers! You focus on what you know best and the result is absolutely one of a kind, top tier content. This guide is perfect, like a Kubrick film in its tight execution. This video gives you instant legendary status in the MH community in my opinion. Thanks for your work on this and all you do @Ratatoskr

Started following you for the demo. I went from a complete noob with LS to someone that could speedrun monsters. Everything flows so well and any counters I do just feels so satisfying. I used to be a GS main in world, so I was used to running around and being patient with my combos. This time anytime I get hit during a combo I blame myself for not being prepared to use a foresight slash lol

Thanks for the detailed guide, this helps me alot

Hey! Thanks for making this! I have somewhere north of 1k hours in MHR as a LS main on switch but now that it’s on the other consoles I am helping teach some new to MH players to use LS. This video is perfect and once I feel like they have a basic understanding of things I’m going to forward them this video as a resource to go over in case they forget anything I told them. Great guide!!

This guide is absolutely amazing! Even if you are advanced longsword user, you can learn so many things with this guide. Perfect job man! Can't wait to see more guides for other weapons :)

This video is great and seems to cover everything. Hopefully the great and powerful algorithm deems it fit for sharing.

The best monhun weapon guide free, really great job!

Hi. I’m learning to master the long sword and your guide is awesome!

Really wasn’t expecting to learn anything new here. But I did! A couple things,, actually. Would love to see guides on other weapons! Specifically charge blade for me. Thanks for the great information, Rata.

Thank you for your helpful guide. As a MH newcomer I've learnt about different shortcuts through spirit combo and it improved my hunts a lot. Now I'm thinking on ways to get focus1 without sacrificing too many other useful skills.

yup this is exactly what i needed the title is true. best guide on the internet. others cant even compare

this is a very good insight thank you for the video.

Really great video. Thanks dude

I learned so much from this video, nice guide!

After this amazing guide filled with great advice, I will proceed to fail my timings on all of my counters as I attempt to look half as cool.

Thanks this actually helped me a lot. I never could quite get fade and foresight slash down in mhw.

Great video as always.

I was looking forward to this, absolutely amazing work!

what a great guide. thanks for your hard work.

On the topic of sakura slash and element: Helmsplitter has a near 0 elemental MV, sakura slash has a tolerable elemental MV. It's not enough to make elemental LS good under normal circumstances, and will never outdamage helmbreaker, until we get chameleos. Chameleos has atrocious raw HZVs, and some of the best elemental HZVs in the series. It's a niche for sure, a niche that isn't even here yet, but i think it's worth noting. Rathalos LS with sakura slash will probably be the go to for chammy.

great guide, keep up the good work

This is the best explainer for mh ever.

Great video!

It's so extensive Thanks for this.

As somebody who came back to LS after maining SA since MH3U, I found Sakura Slash to be a wonderful learning tool (or, if you wanted to put it negatively, a "crutch") before I got confident enough with the flow of battles and the timings for the monster attacks to pull of counters consistently. I've now got about 20 hours in MHR and finally switched back to Soaring Kick, and I would absolutely recommend Sakura Slash for newer players before they ram their heads into the wall that is counter timing or the "is this stagger enough time to pull off the entire Divine Slash combo?" gambit just to keep their level at red. Thank you so much for the video, such a wonderfully in-depth explanation. If I had any friends, I'd definitely recommend it to any wanting to try out new weapons... T_T

This vid is gonna be a banger

Watching tutorials now so I know what I’m getting into next Friday so excited been playing iceborne since it came out don’t have a switch or pc can’t wait to play on ps5 now I have an ideas how ls work in rise thanks buddy nice video

oh my god, foreside slash doesnt have s without meter. I remember seeing that but it is always good to be reminded of it. Best LS tutorial! Love the usage on the double wire bugs counter!

Great guide! I would definitely watch other weapon guides if you posted them.

amazing video!!

This is a good guide! Also sidenote, for reckoning, another downsight is its weird sluggish transitioning from a successful foresight slash to spirit reckoning. And you’ll probably get hit more often during this so use foresight at your discretion when going with spirit reckoning switch skill!

super neat, thanks

Ironic that the weapon with the best wake-up attack is used by the same players who never let the monster sleep lol

I am new to MH, and it is really a very good guide

I had seen many of your videos. But never subscribe. This is the video that made me. Thank You for breaking the norm of 8 - 10 minutes and going all in. I know it must have been tiresome. But I am extremely grateful for your time. I started Monster Hunting with World and haven't really tested other weapons all I do is Long Sword and learned sooo much. With Rise I want to experiment new weapons hopefully you find the motivation to make the other 13 guides. I will be expecting them. Notification 🔔 On as well.

Love the videos!. Would you have a video that shows some gear sets?

Very exhaustive and in-depth guide, thank you a lot! On a side note, I really wished that after the Spirit Reckoning you would've got the option to do a foresight slash to make up for the lenghty final animation (since this move doesn't sheath your weapon and, thx to quick sheath 3, ISS is becoming the better option in most cases...) Also, just a tip/constructive criticism : I see that you've included how Focus lv1 is really nice to have, but I think mentioning how good is quick sheath lv3 in this video would have been much appreciated as well, given its importance with Special Sheathe and the Roundslash's final sheathing animation ^_^

glad its coming to xbox nvr used longsword figure this the best setting to try it

Best LS guide!

Damn bro you’re gaining subs so fast! You were at 4K last time I checked, Also We need a LS build video

Thank you

This video truly taught me just how bad I am at Longsword and I actually learned quite a bit. I have no idea why It never dawned on me to weave in attacks between SB combos. I also found out that I've literally never used forsight slash in the 100+ hours I've been playing rise.....oops. Sincerely thanks for this guide, it's helped my LS gameplay immensely.

thank you

Amazing job... this must have taken a long time to make. Got nothing to add.

Great guide! (Albeit a little bit hard to follow sometimes despite the use of contextual actions. Maybe it could have benefited from being slightly slowed down and featuring more on-screen instructions.) Anyway, definitely deserves more views!

omg that Serine pose wake up tech! WTF why havent i heard about this??(well maybe because i have been playing MHrise and not watching any videos on it so far) thats actually insane, i'm bringing small bombs with me on hunts for now on

This serene pose strat to wake up the monster is 400 IQ. And as a greatsword lover, this makes me happy.

5:27 is very nice to know

Great guide just wondering if you had any tips on camera placement cause it seems that's my biggest problem in the game. Focus target camera seems to be always off for me because its always to close to the monster. but when i do the other camera I always seem to lose the monsters when I need it to most.

You can also backwards foresight slash a monster’s roar then helmbreaker just to close some distance and do helmbreaker if you’re sort of far away from the monster

this video turned me into an alien

would have loved a final section where you showed/talk how to put all the stuff to practice in a hunt och "best practice" just to get started.

Well lucky me, my copy just arrived today.

really amazing guide and honestly your content is my fav rn on mh even though i dont touch LS, its just that interesting, but I have noticed you talk with a bit of an air of superiority, mostly on the vid about balance in a co op game. recently and especially in the capture vid youve been chill, but theres something in the phrasing of you talking about people you disagree with being wrong that kinda puts me off. maybe its slight dismissiveness or something. its barely there and maybe im just too sensitive but i thought i should let you know. anyway great vids i hope you're doing well

i think its the other way around with foresight and iai spirit slash, foresight is the predictive counter because u can only do it before monster attack (u get staggered after being hit so u cant pull it off by then), iai is reactive cause u can only do the counter succesfully during the monster attack

Gordan Ramsey: Mmm, bloody delicious. Finally some good fucking *Long Sword Guide*.

the spirit combo after iai slash is actually so useful you can go from white to red in no time

"It's an oh shit button" Lmao. BEST GUIDE 👌

I’ve also noticed a slight nerf to the fade slash, after doing an iai slash you cannot immediately do a fade slash, instead your hunter will be stuck frozen for a second or so before you can do a fade slash. This is mitigated by the fact that iai slash now replaces spirit blade 1, so as long as you have some gauge or mix in a rising slash into your spirit blade combo you can still get to the roundslash or reckoning quickly after an iai slash

Before anyone gets any ideas, LS isn't the go to wakeup weapon now. The counter has a MV of 200, TCS is 264, so if there's a GS user in the quest, you should still let them land the wakeup. However, this does outclass HBG and hammers wakeup hits. Maybe not CB, i dunno how the phial damage is right now

One small, extremely weird detail that you don't mention, that I discovered today: Serene Pose does more damage if the monster is to your left. When you do Serene Pose or Helm Breaker, it starts the attack, then removes your bar level. For Hel Breaker, that means you get the yellow damage multiplier on the damage. But for Serene Pose, it depends on whether you hit in the very first frame, before the bar level goes away. If the monster is on your left, so you hit them in the very first frame of the attack, you'll get the red gauge multiplier instead, which is 10% higher. Probably not worth doing most of the time, but definitely something to do when you're using the bomb wakeup technique.

Nice video i learned one thing but i forgot what it was. Unrelated i feel like forsight is the only downside to using reconing. Sicne its much slower and often you dont have time to use it and rais gauge after a forsight. But its not too big a deal since you can just speacial sheath instead. I been a long sword main since freedom unite. Kinda crazy to think the most powerful move you used to have was spirt 3 and now its the most dangerous and useless move in the kit. Because in case no one know prior to tri there was no round slash and no levels only filling the spirt gage gave a small attack buff and stoped it from decreasing for a while.

You forgot to mention the 2 ways you can do a spirit helm breaker. You can do Zl + X -> Zr or Zl + X-> Zr -> X while in air. They are different. First is for knocked down enemies second is for standing monsters.

Oh hey look I finally found a guide that doesn’t feel like it needs to spoil 90% of the monsters in the game for me.

Imo, sakura slash is a different playstyle. If there are less opportunities for getting a spirit level through counters, it is a better choice. The damage output is released by using Serene Pose. This style isnt commonly used but it is still useful in niche use cases. I dont consider it inferior but instead, different

Amazing guide brother. Drop you a like and sub!

I can already see the new switch skill swap from sub break being broken Use Sakura slash to get to red swap to helm breaker to use that red bar Then swap back to Sakura slash to get back to red

They've really just improved upon Iceborne's moveset. Idk about giving Iai Spirit Slash a more generous counter but hey that just makes our job easier. They went with the buffing over nerfing philosophy.