History of Monster Hunter | The Sword & Shield 

What weapon do you want covered next? let me know in the comments!

"I thought this weapon was trash" Classic LS mains smh

ah ic, so using items unsheathe was a gen2 ability. didn't knew that.

History of Medium Bowgun for make a great topic for April 1st

Local sns nerd, here with some more info, the infinite is still in rise the redirection was just moved to the round slash as a reset point instead and can now be directed, and with falling shadow you can also cancel into helm breaker mid air without connecting for a very accurate gap closer that also builds mount gauge!

I ve been morally defeated , i see no gunlance video in the horizon and thus i ve fallen deep into the cannon of depression . I ll be fired out with a wyverns fire only by the creation of the forbidden scroll analyzing the history of thy might gunlance through the games, or just the SuperRad video on gunlance , any would do really. Till then i shall slumber in pain and sadness awaiting thy faitfull day , as it seems my cries and pleas fall on deaf ears ....

I remember how I always underestimated sword and shield when I was younger, I got stuck on the barroth fight in monster hunter tri back when I was 12 or so, I was stuck on it for a week and a half but I gave sword an shield a try and beat it without fainting. Then I went back to using hammer literally immediately after that quest

"Introducing the brand new move in the arsenal: BACKSTEP" Only in Monster Hunter.

you didn't expect to have such an audience ? Your audio is crisp, your editing is on point and the information is great the quality of this content is near peak and you deserve the viewership

"The one weapon that I thought was utter trash in pretty much the majority of games in the Monster Hunter series seems to actually be pretty cool" Yeah, SnS has a history of being underestimated.

SnS in GU was so much fun to use. Chaos oil was an absolutely insane weapon art

I was hoping for a section like the Grongigas but for the Deathprize. Cuz once you go Deathprize, you never go back.

JoCat approves this video

I actually didnt know how OP SnS was. I fully understand your final point on it lacking the respect because holy shit that thing is broken

Actually, the Sword and Shield straight up had a negative sharpness modifier in terms of hitzones in MH1-- so green sharpness would only be as effective as yellow, yellow orange, and orange red. Freedom undid that while also buffing MVs across the board by 50%

Bruv falling shadow is: - Gap closer/ spacing maneuver - let's you jump over laser beam attacks - also let's you go into the helm breaker from World Also you forgot the parry in Rise though I guess that's understandable since it left such a weak impression in the demo due to no guard skills.

Link: Jah, juh, HYAH!!! (I find this announcement intriguing...)

the chad sns

yeah boi, the SnS. The weapon that got me into Monster Hunter. The weapon I learned the basics of Monster Hunter with. Even after branching out and using and maining multiple weapons throughout the games, I still often see myself coming back to the SnS. I'm hyped to start my Rise playthrough with the SnS, its new moveset is so fricking awesome!

Actually, the SnS still has access to infinite combos if using the roundhouse slash mid combo, which also now turns your direction like the turn slash in world. If used at the end of a combo though it becomes a spinning reaper combo finisher that does pretty insane damage. Overall was really glad to see my main covered this early in the series.

Let the WRIGGLER GOD BLESS THIS VIDEO

A few things on the that you may have missed: MH4U: You can do the jumping slash up a ledge by performing an advancing slash into it. Rise: You can still do the infinite in rise! If you do regular roundslash in a different direction you can combo into standard triple slash or lateral slashes. Rise: The wirebug attack "falling shadow" is used as an aggressive approach option that makes it so close distance without sheathing as it acts very similarly to a regular wirebug sling.

Wooo best weapon and my first ever main in tri. Came for the simplicity, stayed for the complexity.

I don't know if this comment will be seen but I have a lot of info about the SnS from Gen 1-2 to help flesh out the history, not just of moveset but to contextualize *how* the weapon functioned at high levels of play! Back in Monster Hunter/MHF, the SnS for some reason or another wouldn't bounce off of almost any monster in the entire game while at green sharpness. The Fatalis being the exception. This means that timing and positioning of hit zones was less important, and let you play with a much more aggressive playstyle. This aggression is actually something incredibly understated on the SnS. Here is why. In the earlier MH games, targeting specific hit-zones could produce certain effects. Speaking for the SnS, that hit-zone was usually the legs. Hitting the legs repeatedly could cause the monster to fall over. Where the hammer on the team could focus the face, and the great sword at the tail, the sword and shield EXCELLED at the legs. For many weapons, the legs were a very dangerous place. Huge hitboxes, instantaneous charges, wind pressure, and many other things put other weapons in extreme danger at the legs. Of the other 3 blademaster weapons, the SnS/DS tree are the weapons with the least commitment. What I mean by that is while a lance is thrusting or a greatsword is swinging, they are entirely committed to that animation. Positioning is incredibly important thing in old MH. Most of the weapons were very slow, and the monsters very fast. One would think that positioning was more important on these commitment heavy weapons. It was actually arguably even *more* important on the SnS. Positioning on the SnS made it one of the highest skill-cap weapons. The other weapon's attacks super armor through small knockbacks, such as vespoid stings and steps from the monster. The SnS, however, does not armor through small things. This is not a bane of the SnS, but its boon. Mastery of the SnS was not in its survivability, not in the traditional sense, but in its ability to choose which hits to take. When the rathalos enters rage and roars, he steps forward with his left foot. An intermediate player would see this and roll away to cancel the last move and block to avoid the roar. This would keep you safe where as other weapons would be committed and still flinched from the sound. But an expert player actually rolls INTO the foot. Rolling into the step with an SnS would cause your hunter to be knocked down. During this animation, you have a brief window of invisibility standing up, and the animation is much shorter than recovering from a roar. To paint the perfect flow of an SnS, you stick to the right leg of a rathalos, slashing it repeatedly without worrying of bouncing off anywhere as long as you have green. You are constantly building trip damage to the legs, and making the most of his absurd elemental weakness to dragon. This frees up your fellow hunters to take on the face and the tail without getting in their way. Upon the rathalos entering rage, you roll towards the left leg, (which is almost always a perfect evade distance from the right) causing a trip that legs you immediately stand up and gauge the monster's next move. If he does anything besides an instant charge, you're almost guaranteed a knockdown from the legs, all without moving position or giving up any offense. Playing SnS was all about choosing the hits you want to take, from avoiding plesioth hip-thrusts to a charge-stop from a rathian. On a short note, wind used to be a MUCH bigger deal in the old games. Any landing monster with wings would cause a wind-box. The SnS was phenomenal for not needing to drop offense by simply blocking the wind knockback or being able to avoid it at a distance and jumping slash your way back into the fight. TL;DR: The SnS was more than a jack-of-all-trades. It was a weapon with an incredibly high skill-ceiling, maybe even the highest for the first two gens. It had a role and a playstyle that nothing else could match, and glued together a group when in a guild quest. The positioning and elemental versatility was so unique to the weapon, and as cool as it is in the new games, those things will be missed. Good luck out there, hunters.

Hey, I just wanted to just say I happened to search for "history of switch axe" shortly before you posted it, and I was disappointed not to find a series like this at the time. Didn't expect you to come out of nowhere in my recommendations just a few days later with exactly the content I was looking for! I'm a fifth fleet hunter and I main switch axe, my hype for Rise has consumed me and you're helping me get there. Have a lovely day. :)

im convinced mr rad is sneaking blue yian kut kus into the videos on purpose now

I love the oil mechanic in Generations, but I understand why they might not want to bring it back considering SnS doesn't really need anymore buffs. While I didn't use the weapon in World, I've put in a decent amount of time into the Rise demo to get better at the combos and landing the Perfect Rush. Also, I find Falling Shadow a solid Silkbind move. While not flashy, being able to close the distance with the monster without having to sheathe your weapon is nice. While in the air for Falling Shadow, you can choose to do the Helm Splitter or the shield bash, which I like. That's just my takeaway from the move. Overall, another great video man!

They didn’t entirely get rid of the infinite, they just changed it to a new combo called reaper slash I think

I have been loving this series. Keep up the good content.

FINALLY! The best weapon there is, there was and there ever will be. S+ tier stands for Sword + Shield after all lol Jokes aside, been loving these videos. A lil criticism tho, maybe lessen length the silence transition by half when going to the next games, been kinda jarring to listen to audio-wise from how long it is. Cant wait for Lance next ^_^

Watching this again as you just hit 40K is a mood. Big ups, my man Rooting for you

This series is bopping! Keep it up bruv! ❤️

I'm from the future and I'm here to tell you that the SnS is now the only weapon class in the series to have a weapon with _100%_ affinity. It's bonkers.

Falling Shadow Gives ya (I-Frames on contact with the monster not during travel time) and closes distance while unsheathed, its a great move, thanks for another banger of a video.

It's gonna be interesting seeing the weapon go from element based to raw focus. Looking forward to it!

Great video and thank you for taking a look at my favorite number one weapon main.

Ngl, you're a pretty RAD dude and love that you make in depth MH content

Jack of all trades, master of EVERYTHING

I think you're getting better with each video, man. these are fucking awesome!

Get rid of the shield, grab another sword, NOW we're talking.

In MH 1, starting with Sword and Shield is like starting with a Toothpick and Napkin someone expected you to reuse a ton. At base 1st gen before upgrades, it is a fitting weapon for the starting game chores and not much else. With that said... I wanna see someone do a MH 1 Hunter's Knife-only run. Glad it got improved so much over the years. The Corona's actually my choice weapon against Kirin in World due to its fire damage and evasion speed.

SnS can do everything it wants, except hit the monster's weak spots if they are particularly tall. Also: 18:50 there is still an infinite but it uses the Round Slash, followed by a Chop, which both move the character forward.

Dude I love your videos. I watched your Longhorn monster hunter history video 3 times over!

I love the SnS but to be a bit off-topic, loving them K240's fam! Keep up the good work!

One very small but neat thing to note, the clutch claw uppercut in Icebore has built in superarmor- one can't be interrupted by anything while performing it, just like with the Greatsword tackle!

The Horizontal Slash combo in Gen 3 was the best. That cancel combo was how you broke parts with the SnS. *chef kiss* When Gen 4 gave us the backstep it all came together.

Bowguns, or light bowgun if you plan to do heavy and light separately.

Why did I discover this channel only now??? Loving your contents, hunter!!!!

Awesome video! Two quick things! 1. Infinite is still in Rise. Pressing X+A and a direction in the middle of any combo allows you to do a reaper slash that then lets you start your combo over. You can rinse and repeat this as many times as you would like. If the reaper slash is done at the end of a combo it will not allow you to do the infinite, however if you do this the reaper / will do an incredibly higher amount of damage. 2. Falling Shadow is super useful as a gap closer, an opener, and a combo finisher. Once you do your basic combo and finish with a reaper slash you normally have a crap ton of lag. You can cancel that lag by using falling shadow and get your finisher out of it. Also, if you do the falling bash out of a back step it only has one hit, well if you do it out of following shadow or the perfect Rush combo it has two hits. Just some extra stuff to think about. Your videos are awesome and you do so much for the community. We all appreciate it!

Let’s goooooo! I’m heavily thinking of maining sns through the story of rise... not sure yet but definitely leaning in it. Also congrats on the 10k!!!! May your channel continue to see growth!

Don’t know if anyone answered this but here goes: Falling Shadow does give you a Scaling Slash, but the follow-ups are all increased in power. The Falling Bash has more damage and an extra hit and you get access to a special Plunging Thrust that does multiple hits. The normal Scaling Slash doesn’t give you access to those. You do get the same follow-ups after a Perfect Rush but the Falling Shadow gets you faster access.

Regarding falling shadow, it’s a great way to quickly close distance when needed or continue combos. An interesting aspect of it is that while in the air, you can press X+A to use the helm breaker move anytime even without falling shadow connecting, so it’s a good way to quickly close distance and land exactly where you want to.

Here to follow up on my comments during the premiere. You can use helmbreaker out of falling shadow, you don't even need to have falling shadow connect, basically canceling it into helmbreaker when you feel it's about to miss. it's also great as a gap closer and you can even use it as a backup evasive tool. Windmill is cool but falling shadow really makes you feel like spiderman.

Great vid as always, man. Dual Blades would be my pick for your next weapon

Those videos are super cool because i actually learn things that i've never heard of I hope the next video is about the light bowgun !

19:40 it is an option that is great to use monster flying monster openers, as it shoots you up at the prefect height to hit something like rathian after a tail flip plus it can be used to close distances like dodging away from a monster to heal and using the attack to get back into the fight with your strongest attack, and do to the low cool down and only costing one wire bug it is quite spamable, meaning there isn't much cost in using it so there is very little reason to not use it when the opportunity comes up, and I do love how it doesn't replace the strong attacks like what happened to long sword so theres always more options on how you want to get your damage

nice vid, grats on 10k btw!

The weapon that probably wouldve been my main if it wasnt for my brother who needed help in finish an online quest and was using the hammer and well there was no coming back. I did touch it briefly in mh4u and really has stayed quite good ever since, Im glad

Really awesome to see this weapon's progression! I started dabbling with SnS just before Iceborne's release on PC, and I fell in love with it ever since. A couple things that I'd like to mention about the Rise section, cuz I scanned some comments for a small moment and didn't see anyone mention it. The infinite isn't totally gone in the Rise demo. If you press X+A and push your stick in a direction mid-combo, you do the spinning slash in the direction you pushed, and can move on with your combos from there. It was simply made less button mashy, and more deliberate to pull off. Also, if you use that X+A move at the end of the A button combo (i.e. After doing the spinning slash from mashing A) you'll do the spinning slash again, but it has a raw damage boost, and you can still change the direction. I'm not sure if changing the direction affects the damage though. Either way, awesome stuff! Thanks for doing all of these mh history videos, they are super interesting and fuel my obsession with this series to a new level.

Great vid as always. I'm really looking forward to a Charge Blade / Gunlance vid

Little known fact about First Gen SnS, they did some weird stuff with the coding in Monster Hunter Portable/Freedom and SnS ended up having a 1.5x raw damage modifier making it kind of busted.

It is weird, i though the sword and shield was left handed to accomodate for the item use while unsheated, but it was left handed on the first game so…

a video that can hopefully show to other player that the SnS is on par with other weapon and should be respected the same way! as an SnS Main, I really like this video! Good Job!

Unrelated but I can respect the effort it takes to keep your lenses that clean.

My favorite monster hunter moment was soloing Ukanlos in MH4U with SnS to get into G-Rank. I was on my last cart and running out of time but I pulled it off became my main weapon ever since.

I'm a longsword main but I do use the sword and shield occasionally and that first silk bind move is a great fast way to get to the monsters head and shield bash on the way down for k.o. Damage

Some things I want to point out as a SnS main in GU: - Using Minds Eye oil while Chaos Oil is active will insta sharpen the weapon to the max! - Alchemy style is also really good since 3 arts, all are SP, and SnS has the easiest access to the Alchemy Barrel, and can easily use all its produced itens. - Oils are gone since World! : C Great video! : D

Good to see sns getting more love. Quick thing though there actually is still an infinite in rise, but it's a bit harder to do since instead of mashing x you'll have to start it with the x+a spinning slash

Lmao SupaerRad is gonna blow up soon, very nice content , a great quality video

SnS main here. Falling Shadow is a really great wiremove. It has an incredibly quick recharge on top of only costing one bug to use, so even without a third wirebug/Wirebug Whisperer, it can be spammed incessantly. Because of its low oppurtunity cost, you can use it to evade monster attacks and reposition without feeling like youre wasting it. offensively, Falling Shadow is really important as well, as it opens up into your two biggest damaging moves, empowers them, and allows you to place them with precision. The first move is the plunging shield attack. After using Scaling Slash, you can press Heavy Attack to use your shield, doing two incredibly high damage strikes that deal Blunt damage and don' t decrease your sharpness. along with the Shield Bash combo, the SnS is very viable for dealing KO's, and Falling Shadow allows you to hit monster heads in places where you normally couldn't reach. The combo is fast, can be placed with precision, and deals high damage. second move is the plunging strike. Use Falling Shadow, land the Scaling Strike, and press Heavy and Light attack at the same time. This move hits multiple times for high severing damage, dealing lots of elemental/status damage and is great to use when trying to cut off tails/break skin on monsters that move quickly and give very short openings. In general, Falling Shadow's importance can't be understated. It gives the SnS user the opportunity to hit places on a monster it normally couldn't due to the weapons short reach and the lack of reliable, high dps combos that can hit things over your head. with Falling Shadow you can hit monster heads/wings/tails with high burst damage, your choice of slashing or blunt, and make use of relatively small openings to deal high damage. Unlike in previous iterations, I feel like I have a lot more control over my aerial game, as in Monster Hunter 4 I felt at the mercy of having a knee-high ledge around to abuse, or waiting for monsters to lower their heads/tails in World. in Rise, the SnS has lost some power in their general combos (i miss the turning slash a lot) but their level of agency overall has jumped forward considerably. its not perfect however, as missing the attack can send you flying into a disadvantageous position. using it recklessly can get you in a lot of trouble too, as you can't pull up your shield as quickly as you might like after hitting the ground, and monster hitboxes in this game have generous vertical angles that can be downright confusing at times, so you need to know your prey. all in all though i use Falling Shadow a lot and i'm a massive fan of where SnS is right now. i'm 60 hours in and have yet to use another weapon, as i've felt no need to in terms of utility or fun factor.

What a coincidence that I recently start a new file in MHGU where I try to mainly use sword and shield and then this gem of a video drops.

You can also now do the downwards thrust by pressing x+a after the charge slash.

I'm looking forward to when you cover the Gunlance. There was two moves that it had in Gen 4 (which a lot of people didn't know about) that got removed in World, one was where you could do an advancing thrust after firing a shell into the air (X+A>A>forward+X), and the other was being able to run forward into an advancing shell from a guard (R+forward+A)

Cool guy, and nice videos. Worth a sub!

These videos are cool to me, someone who started in World. I cannot wait for the lance and cooler lance videos.

Falling shadow is a nice quick advancing attack that I use for rathian when she’s in flight and a quick way into the helmbreaker or the falling bash, I mostly use it for that or close distance when I’m far away from Mizu

Just as I was wondering if you had uploaded an other one. Btw, I dont know where you got the idea for this series but I remember asking in the mh subreddit if anyone knew about a video where I could check Hunting Horn changes trhow the series. Keep it up :P

Falling Shadow is really good for closing distance, also you get i frames during the scaling slash, and you get your 2 hits falling bash (the backstep gives you a one hit FB) The infinite is still there but you have to input X+A after a move that's not spinnign reaper, and you don't even need to input a direction anymore

Yo, SnS main here! Dabbled in it a lot in World and eventually returned to it in Rise *specifically* because of Falling Shadow. My main struggle in Rise was just keeping up with the monster, and once I arrive, to even be able to reach it. Most of the time, I'd just be swinging through air even standing right under it. Not only does Falling Shadow act as an insanely fast cooldown gap closer, but it can be chained into 3 different attack *or*, if you notice that the monster is rearing up something else, Falling Shadow can even be used in mid-air. It doesn't have i-frames, though, so it won't save you from everything.

Don't know what's up with youtube lately but I haven't been able to watch livestream archives without them getting stuck and looping back to the same point. Guess this video is similar since it premiered live. I'll just watch it some other time when youtube isn't being dumb

nice video man, excited to see your mh3 ultimate stream today

While playing the demo I noticed falling shadow actually gives you a better downward finisher that feels closer to the one in world. On top of that the normal downward finisher in rise feels like it was significantly nerfed. Not into oblivion but enough to be very noticable. Also.... Falling shadow just FEELS good

I don’t know if anyone told you this, but as a self-proclaimed expert on SnS, Falling Shadow is the BEST silkbind attack it has. It can; 1. Chase down a monster faster than if you sheathed and ran for it 2. Get out of the way of an attack quickly 3. Become temporarily invincible with Scaling Slash, because it has I-frames now 4. Reposition quickly around a monster’s body to get to those juicy squishy bits. Also, tails 5. You can cancel out of it mid-air with a plunging thrust 6. You can do another one if you land a Scaling Slash, essentially you become Insect Glaive 7. Wirebug cool-down is very fast, you have no excuse to not spam the ever-loving shit out of it. You can still Metsu Shoryugeki on demand, basically 8. Lets you style all over the monster, making the other weapons jealous and the Insect Glaive shocked that you too can fly

Nice Video! Would love a Dual Blades video next!

Random SnS geek here. To answer the question (and maybe add a bit more details) on core features of Rise SnS, in case it might be helpful: - Falling Shadow is a gap closer, i-frame counter (the scaling part has i-frame, even on the regular one), air mobility (you can do Falling Shadow mid-air after scaling slash) in one package. Also, the Falling Bash from Shadow is also more powerful (2 hits) than the "normal" one from backstep or sliding slash. - The Roundslash now has two "levels" so to speak. Doing it after a 3-hit combo would make it become Spinning Reaper, which has higher animation commitment and MV. This, added with the removal of Spiral Slash infinite combo (the Roundslash-as-starter is far less effective than the Worldborne infinite, effectively a nerf), made the combo path mainly about "how to reach Reaper" as soon as possible. - Perfect Rush was also significantly nerfed in terms of values and utility. Can't change direction mid-rush, a lot harder to roll out to cancel it mid-way, and the final stab's hitbox is so small whiffing it is quite common. PR definitely deserved nerfing (the post-patch PR was just...stupid), but it got it HARD. - The guard slash is useless as a counter/parry, but it is very effective as an "emergency block" since it can cancel other animations. A case of wrong marketing, I would say. Shoryugeki/Windmill are the counters, not this one. These are probably the major changes from Worldborne, I think. Personally, the Rise SnS feels closer to pre-World SnS in terms of timing and pacing of combat flow. Yes, I love this weapon too damn much. hahaha

15:26 "Chaos Oil 3 locked behind G Rank Hyper Rare Los" Me equipped with Adept Kirin SnS and Zinogre armor: Shut up and take my zenny! Also me in Bomber Prowler in subsequent hunts: Shut up and take my Vouchers!

Portable 3rd made me love the sword and sheild, and is one of my two mains in the game

The infinite combo is still in Rise but it was changed into the round slash. Inputting the a and x button and choosing the direction with left stick, you will face toward said direction with the round slash

No lance or Gunlance videos this entire time. Shall we be abandoned again to be relegated to the dark corners of the MH youtube space?

im gonna throw in a vote for dual blades or bow next ⚔️🏹

YOOOO, finally! It was about time! Nice

You can still do the infinite in rise with the triangle + circle with a directional input different from your attack to reset your combo. It’s not as swift as iceborne but it is there.

Dont forget Mind's Eye Oil sharpens your weapon while Chaos Oil is in effect. I think it still removes any other oil effects that might be active, but that's a non issue since you can just reapply another oil

Falling shadow is actually really good since it’s the fastest way to get to the overhead slam and does really good damage as a quick punish

you forgot you can change the direction of spinning slash in rise basically replacing spiral slash from world.

Didnt wanna talk about the Rise sns counter mechanic? Its not great so far to me but it's still there. Probably better with ironwall or guard up skill tho

Started with SnS in Rise and loved it. After 200 hunts my gf asked if I am even able to play other weapons. I am learning Hammer, lance and longsword now😂

Yeah boiiiii I'm loving this series

A Crap Guide to Monster History Do insect glaive next. World sold me with it's pole-dancing in the sky video from the tutorial box. It's unreal how clean the gameplay is when you're in the zone ;0;

the delivery aye, patience is a virtue