Edit as of 12/20/2022: For those playing Sunbreak: If are watching this video after June 30, 2022, keep in mind that was a guide for base Rise. There are many changes to the sword & shield in Sunbreak that makes this guide almost irrelevant. For those playing the base game only: My plans for more base game content ruclips.net/video/dPvRf4JUaF4/видео.html
I've been an SnS main for years and I've been dying for a guide like this(I always like learning new techniques and having the meta knowledge in my back pocket to inform decisions), THANK YOU
Yes! Preach the way of the backstep! Also, fun fact: the backstep s have "built in evade window 5", meaning two things: they last the full 20 frames (1/3 second) and window skills don't extend that time. And I know you said that the combo chart is not for optimized speedrun strats, but elem/status swords like to spam the "lateral+vertical slash -> roundslash" infinite loop during long dps windows purely due to no downtime from reaper/roll endlag and more sword hits per second. All in all, a super satisfying vid to watch. Happy hunting!
Re: Windmill, you didn't consider a few points. First is Silkbind Boost which can raise it's damage by 10%. The second is, you can animation cancel Spinning Ripper with Windmill. This makes Windmill pretty good for ending combos on downed enemies since it's 50~ iFrames will sometimes avoid a waking monster's attack or roar. Since Windmill has a faster cooldown than Shoryugeki, it's also a good way to cancel your combo when you see you're about to get hit and give yourself a ton of iFrames. Shoryugeki bomber is most likely better, but not very comfy to play.
If Windmill didn’t cost so much sharpness, then I could see it compete more with metsu shoryugeki. But as of right now, metsu shoryugeki is just better overall.
I finally found a really good SnS guide that actually went into detail with the subtle yet important things. Speedruns only taught me so much and most youtubers don't give a shit about any weapon whenever they made a guide for it, other than their mains.
Excellent video! I played Lance pretty much for all of World, but always had an interest in playing S&S (I love anything with shields if you can't tell tell), and so when Rise came out on PC I switched to S&S. I'm still in the early stages but I've really been loving my time with S&S so far! I want to really dive deep and master this weapon and learn every little nuance about it and this video did just that! I had the basics down but I wanted to learn more to take my S&S gameplay to the next level. This was a super informative video, very helpful, and exactly what I was looking for! This deserves more views. I hope you keep posting S&S content as I'm always looking for content creators who cover this badass weapon. Cheers!
This guide really made me love SnS, thank you so much man I rewatch it to remember the other methods of unsheath and better back stepping Hell I can back step the Valstrax 3 hit combo
I’m from the future I have 1000+ uses of SnS through MHGU and MHR, thank you for helping me discover my best weapon man, I am forever indebted to you king
What a good video. Now that I know this, I have no more excuses for doing bad because of using my garbage combos that I'm still gonna use most likely! :D
If I wouldn't have used the weapon for hundrets of hours already, this guide would make me anxious when it comes to losing sharpness. "You can do this move, but be aware that it costs one extra point of sharpness." >It's like sacrificing a child with each swing.
I'm a S&S user for quite a while and whetfish and whetfish+ are the best tool to use to counter sharpness issues. One tap max sharpness is overpowered with the whirlwind wire bug move. Fishing is significantly easier now and fun imo
Wonderful guide! I think the only tech that I can think of that wasn't mentioned (or perhaps it was and I somehow glossed over it), is the delay of spinning reaper. After spinning rising slash or hard bash, you can delay SR by roughly half a second to a full one. SRS feels more of a generous delay than HB and I believe this tech is useful when a monster's head is moving when downed or micromanaging.
Great video! I'm a long time Longsword player and I decided to try my hand at (an possibly speedrun with) SnS this time around in Rise. The video was incredibly informative and really helped get down the basics of the weapon and better understand it's flow. Only question that remains for me right now is; how often should you backstep instead of dodge roll an attack? Should you aim to backstep nearly every attack, or is it for more specific attacks that are harder to position out of harm's way?
Thanks! I'm glad that this video was helpful! In Rise, it is typically better to out-space attacks rather than backstepping through them. That is because the follow up attacks after backstep aren't that good. In situations where positioning out of harms way may be impossible though, you should try to backstep instead. For example, in 6:13, I was caught off guard and I didn't think I had enough time to roll away from the tail slam. Hence, that's why I chose to backstep. You can also backstep through certain attacks just for style points. Try to backstep through Valstrax's divebomb. :)
I think Sliding Slash is the better option because you get a small about of aerial damage which could add up to a mount. If you want to advance without the jump attack then you can simply roll towards the monster to strike.
Excellent guide. The video really highlights how rise has additions that harm the core gameplay of the weapon. Hard basher and spiral slash both invalidate the use of the majority of the weapon's moveset. I really hope they don't give us another version of SnS with contradictory design in the next game
I saw a video saying that windmill got buffed since base rise and no longer takes as much sharpness like it use to. I was something like 6 points of sharpness down to just 2.
Great guide….The sliding slash is a good move. It pops you in the air to do a shield bash. It is situation, but it a good move if you got the spacing. Plus it prevents you from getting hit by a long sword in multiplayer…I like your back step tech. I will definitely use that more. Especially the back step off a roll.
I'm here thanks to Game Pass adding MHR and this guide was very helpful! I'm curious to what armor is shown when attacking the Apex Arzuros around 13:00 in the video.
I was pretty much going to throw out the slide slash switch skill before i found out about the s, a lot of rising attacks like dual blades aerial switch skill seem to have it, and for me, style points beat damage haha. The Bomb into shoryugeki tech is really cool though, i never thought about that!! And i didnt realize backstep had THAT many s, is it affected by evade window as well? Overall, very good guide, and I hope more people see all the cool nuances to all the weps like this video showed off with SnS
Thank you! As far as I know, the backstep's s are not affected by evade window, but I don't think it matters anyways because it's already has a lot of s.
If this is what you’re looking for give dauntless a shot! It’s p fun and it’s a nice change of pace from MH while being sort of the same thing. All the weapons in that game have something for everyone
Great guide ! A few weeks ago, that would have saved me hours of analizing SnS speedruns to understand the optimal play style^^. And you confirmed my feelings about switch skills. By the way, which raw SnS do you consider best ? Atm im running rathian’s but i’m wondering about rampage SnS.
Thanks! The two best sword & shields are Rathian and Tigrex. Rampage isn’t too far behind though. You can check out my guide on the Rampage SnS for more details.
7:30 wow just tested and the directional input for backstep after rolling is REVERSED from the normal backstep... so if you want to backstep left you have to input right... How the fck are you supposed to use that??? Same skill but half the time you have to reverse the directional input?
Omg i hate perfect rush and backstab moves, its too hard for me,is it possible to use sword and shield without those moves? And also without shield? Tell me its possible please, i just want to be fancy, i hate this small shield
You’re too obsessed with preserving sharpness. You do realise that dropping a sharpness level isn’t that bad, right? You lose some damage, but so what? You can literally dip out of the fight to sharpen the weapon again, and the SnS is the most mobile weapon in the game so this is no issue. Just Falling Shadow away and use the whetstone, and the monster likely can’t do shit, especially if you have a Grinder deco.
The damage increase from green sharpness to blue sharpness is about 14%. From blue to white is about 10%. Dropping a sharpness level means you now do significantly less damage. Sure, you can run away to resharpen and the monster likely can't hurt you, but you aren't hurting the monster either. So sharpening during a fight is dps loss. Why not try to preserve as much sharpness as you can and avoid sharpening altogether?
@@SKY85sr loss of DPS is no issue, as the result is always the same; monster’s gonna die regardless because SnS is so versatile and mobile that you are never at risk of carting if you play with at least a little skill and preparation. Besides, those percentages may look impressive on paper, but SnS deals very little damage per-hit barring select few special cases as to be inconsequential. Your efforts would be put to better use in investing for more utility or more specialised sets... Like, for example, Elemental damage. Raw is simple and effective, but Elemental damage can be more potent at times... Especially since sharpness has little effect on Elemental damage. Spec into Critical Element and you’d be surprised how much damage you can deal with just green sharpness with a weapon like Daora’s SnS. Shit hits very hard.
@@SKY85sr I consistently hit about 100 damage per swing when I exploit weaknesses with SnS, about 250 with Spinning Reaper, I think I’m doing pretty well with my Crit Element sets. I don’t need to rely on sharpness for damage either, as the damage bonus sharpness provides to elemental damage is so minuscule I can ignore it for the most part (green sharpness gets the job done mostly, of course bouncing becomes an issue, where shield bashing comes in handy for when I can’t reach a soft target in time). Raw is simple and effective, but Elemental damage can break open opportunities where Raw can’t compete. One of the best weapons I find is the Daora SnS, the damage on that thing is deceptively potent if you build it right.
@@SKY85sr Also, with precedent, SnS tends to shit damage when exploiting elemental weaknesses, so I have no idea why you’d find it so laughable. Like, it’s the second fastest weapon type in the game, you can absolutely shred monsters with gaping elemental weaknesses if you prepare correctly, same with Dual Blades. Hell, if you’re feeling spicy you can just roll up with some Blast element, ditch crits altogether and stack Blast Up decos for shits and giggles, and you’d still obliterate monsters in record time.
No one is obligated to play exactly how I suggest in this guide. However, I firmly believe that what I say is at least very close to how to play SnS optimally. Sure, you can be successful with whatever, but if you want an easier time with hunts or faster clear times, then I at least try some of things I say. If not, then I couldn't care less.
I guess how we define what is "advanced" is completely different. A "beginner" tutorial to me would be one that simply goes over what the sword and shield can do, whereas my video discusses more on specific aspects of the weapon, how some moves can be utilized, and why you should or should not do certain attacks. I'm not sure what an advanced tutorial would look like in your perspective. If you can make one yourself, then I would definitely watch!
Edit as of 12/20/2022:
For those playing Sunbreak: If are watching this video after June 30, 2022, keep in mind that was a guide for base Rise. There are many changes to the sword & shield in Sunbreak that makes this guide almost irrelevant.
For those playing the base game only: My plans for more base game content ruclips.net/video/dPvRf4JUaF4/видео.html
do you have the new guide please ?
I've been an SnS main for years and I've been dying for a guide like this(I always like learning new techniques and having the meta knowledge in my back pocket to inform decisions), THANK YOU
OH MY GOD THE 4U MUSIC GOT ME. I HEAR THE LITTLE CHAT BUBBLE BING. MY HEART .
That was a solid guide! Personally would say this is the best SnS guide posted.
Big agree, this guide was simple and really easy to understand. Made me hype to make more SnS builds XD
6:45 jesus I didn't know you could backstep from before an attack. My DPS is gonna go up by so much now. Thank you for your guide!
Yes! Preach the way of the backstep! Also, fun fact: the backstep s have "built in evade window 5", meaning two things: they last the full 20 frames (1/3 second) and window skills don't extend that time. And I know you said that the combo chart is not for optimized speedrun strats, but elem/status swords like to spam the "lateral+vertical slash -> roundslash" infinite loop during long dps windows purely due to no downtime from reaper/roll endlag and more sword hits per second. All in all, a super satisfying vid to watch. Happy hunting!
Re: Windmill, you didn't consider a few points. First is Silkbind Boost which can raise it's damage by 10%. The second is, you can animation cancel Spinning Ripper with Windmill. This makes Windmill pretty good for ending combos on downed enemies since it's 50~ iFrames will sometimes avoid a waking monster's attack or roar. Since Windmill has a faster cooldown than Shoryugeki, it's also a good way to cancel your combo when you see you're about to get hit and give yourself a ton of iFrames. Shoryugeki bomber is most likely better, but not very comfy to play.
If Windmill didn’t cost so much sharpness, then I could see it compete more with metsu shoryugeki. But as of right now, metsu shoryugeki is just better overall.
Perfect polish and windmill sounds like a worthwhile combo for a weapon that hits so frequently - and using shield hits mitigates sharpness usage
I finally found a really good SnS guide that actually went into detail with the subtle yet important things. Speedruns only taught me so much and most youtubers don't give a shit about any weapon whenever they made a guide for it, other than their mains.
Excellent video! I played Lance pretty much for all of World, but always had an interest in playing S&S (I love anything with shields if you can't tell tell), and so when Rise came out on PC I switched to S&S. I'm still in the early stages but I've really been loving my time with S&S so far! I want to really dive deep and master this weapon and learn every little nuance about it and this video did just that! I had the basics down but I wanted to learn more to take my S&S gameplay to the next level. This was a super informative video, very helpful, and exactly what I was looking for! This deserves more views. I hope you keep posting S&S content as I'm always looking for content creators who cover this badass weapon. Cheers!
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed the video!
This guide really made me love SnS, thank you so much man
I rewatch it to remember the other methods of unsheath and better back stepping
Hell I can back step the Valstrax 3 hit combo
I’m from the future I have 1000+ uses of SnS through MHGU and MHR, thank you for helping me discover my best weapon man, I am forever indebted to you king
Very good video, thank you for the tips, specially for pressing Circle before inputting backwards on controller
Thank you so much dude! Your guidelines really helps alot for 10-20hrs SnS player in base rise! Thanks !
What a good video. Now that I know this, I have no more excuses for doing bad because of using my garbage combos that I'm still gonna use most likely! :D
New to MH and your videos have been so helpful. Thank you so much.
If I wouldn't have used the weapon for hundrets of hours already, this guide would make me anxious when it comes to losing sharpness.
"You can do this move, but be aware that it costs one extra point of sharpness."
>It's like sacrificing a child with each swing.
This Guide is awesome, especially the last combo tip is crazy, i never knew it. Thanks :D
I'm a S&S user for quite a while and whetfish and whetfish+ are the best tool to use to counter sharpness issues. One tap max sharpness is overpowered with the whirlwind wire bug move. Fishing is significantly easier now and fun imo
Wonderful guide! I think the only tech that I can think of that wasn't mentioned (or perhaps it was and I somehow glossed over it), is the delay of spinning reaper.
After spinning rising slash or hard bash, you can delay SR by roughly half a second to a full one. SRS feels more of a generous delay than HB and I believe this tech is useful when a monster's head is moving when downed or micromanaging.
Thank you! And yeah I didn’t talk about spinning reaper that much. That is an excellent tip!
the best sns guide out there hands down
Great video! I'm a long time Longsword player and I decided to try my hand at (an possibly speedrun with) SnS this time around in Rise. The video was incredibly informative and really helped get down the basics of the weapon and better understand it's flow. Only question that remains for me right now is; how often should you backstep instead of dodge roll an attack? Should you aim to backstep nearly every attack, or is it for more specific attacks that are harder to position out of harm's way?
Thanks! I'm glad that this video was helpful! In Rise, it is typically better to out-space attacks rather than backstepping through them. That is because the follow up attacks after backstep aren't that good. In situations where positioning out of harms way may be impossible though, you should try to backstep instead.
For example, in 6:13, I was caught off guard and I didn't think I had enough time to roll away from the tail slam. Hence, that's why I chose to backstep.
You can also backstep through certain attacks just for style points. Try to backstep through Valstrax's divebomb. :)
@@SKY85sr Thanks for the input! I'll keep that in mind!
What a king 👑 great vid
Thank you!
Great video and explanations overall. Great work dude
I think Sliding Slash is the better option because you get a small about of aerial damage which could add up to a mount. If you want to advance without the jump attack then you can simply roll towards the monster to strike.
This guide is incredible, you deserve way more subs.
Thank you for this tutorial !
Seems like the return of 4u Stylish Bombing! Nice
Dude how are you not famous yet? This is a great guide, thank you!!
I’m glad you found this guide helpful!
You made me want to play sns again, i loved the weapon back in XX, but i dropped it in world.
Excellent guide.
The video really highlights how rise has additions that harm the core gameplay of the weapon. Hard basher and spiral slash both invalidate the use of the majority of the weapon's moveset. I really hope they don't give us another version of SnS with contradictory design in the next game
well in iceborne it was just perfect rush everytime and in world it was back step falling bash spamming
@@kultissim I know :(
I saw a video saying that windmill got buffed since base rise and no longer takes as much sharpness like it use to. I was something like 6 points of sharpness down to just 2.
ah my b just saw this was before sunbreak lmao
Great guide….The sliding slash is a good move. It pops you in the air to do a shield bash. It is situation, but it a good move if you got the spacing. Plus it prevents you from getting hit by a long sword in multiplayer…I like your back step tech. I will definitely use that more. Especially the back step off a roll.
I'm unable to unsheath with guard, any ideas why?
Shoryugeki has so much ko potential. op as hell
I'm here thanks to Game Pass adding MHR and this guide was very helpful! I'm curious to what armor is shown when attacking the Apex Arzuros around 13:00 in the video.
Thank you! That is the Swallow layered armor set, and it is paid DLC. Although I don't think it's available for Xbox/Playstation/Windows yet.
@@SKY85sr might have to get it on Switch as well then. Thanks for the answer!
amazing guide. thanks dude
I was pretty much going to throw out the slide slash switch skill before i found out about the s, a lot of rising attacks like dual blades aerial switch skill seem to have it, and for me, style points beat damage haha. The Bomb into shoryugeki tech is really cool though, i never thought about that!! And i didnt realize backstep had THAT many s, is it affected by evade window as well?
Overall, very good guide, and I hope more people see all the cool nuances to all the weps like this video showed off with SnS
Thank you! As far as I know, the backstep's s are not affected by evade window, but I don't think it matters anyways because it's already has a lot of s.
loved that you used mh4u music
Very nice guide. This will help alot.
A very solid guide.
Great guide man!
This is gold
Nice! Now I’ll spam hard basher more xD thanks for the tips
Capcom really need to just add Duel Shield as a class (aka Gauntlets)
If this is what you’re looking for give dauntless a shot! It’s p fun and it’s a nice change of pace from MH while being sort of the same thing. All the weapons in that game have something for everyone
You didn't once mention the perfect rush or w.e its called combo?
Yo how do you turn off the damage numbers for other online? I couldn’t find it anywhere
Which sns are you using in the video? I love that single sword look
well...only sword look
Great guide !
A few weeks ago, that would have saved me hours of analizing SnS speedruns to understand the optimal play style^^. And you confirmed my feelings about switch skills.
By the way, which raw SnS do you consider best ? Atm im running rathian’s but i’m wondering about rampage SnS.
Thanks! The two best sword & shields are Rathian and Tigrex. Rampage isn’t too far behind though. You can check out my guide on the Rampage SnS for more details.
Great Guide!! What’s you’re opinion on divorce? I’m dying to know
I don’d kno
Sns freaking scks, I tryied it but the range of Sns is pretty low, i think i will keep playing with SA,GS or LS
Hey could anyone tell me how sns performs compared to world?
Great guide, but even greater are the names for your palamutes
7:30 wow just tested and the directional input for backstep after rolling is REVERSED from the normal backstep... so if you want to backstep left you have to input right...
How the fck are you supposed to use that??? Same skill but half the time you have to reverse the directional input?
Anyone can tell me how to do the uppercut slash after a backhop? Im trying to master the backhop as the s are insane.
Keep holding back on the left stick
@@SKY85sr Thank you. I'll try it out.
Omg i hate perfect rush and backstab moves, its too hard for me,is it possible to use sword and shield without those moves? And also without shield? Tell me its possible please, i just want to be fancy, i hate this small shield
Sounds like you should give elemental sword and shield a try
What armor are you wearing in this video?
I need more practice..only wep I play and I feel like a noob now🤔😛..AMAZING GIUDE BT THE WAY🙌🏼👍🏽👍🏽
Backstep the anime
Poggers! What is your opinion on divorce?
That is something i would be interested in hearing as well
I don't know. I need to play the video game It Takes Two to figure out.
@@SKY85sr fraud! You have played the video game It Takes Two, and I am a witness! Stop fencing sitting and pick a side!
Can I use this guide on MONSTER HUNTER RISE PC?
Of course you can. You'll just have to convert Switch button controls to Xbox/PS/M&K button controls accordingly.
What Camara setting do you use
Which camera setting are you talking about? There are a lot of them.
@@SKY85sr the target Camara
Number of Sns for silk skill is 8 I believe
Hey man! Do you have any suggested sets for progressing through high rank with the SnS? I'm about to get there
Not really unfortunately. Just pick whatever you feel like is the strongest and keep adjusting until you get to end game.
You’re too obsessed with preserving sharpness.
You do realise that dropping a sharpness level isn’t that bad, right? You lose some damage, but so what? You can literally dip out of the fight to sharpen the weapon again, and the SnS is the most mobile weapon in the game so this is no issue.
Just Falling Shadow away and use the whetstone, and the monster likely can’t do shit, especially if you have a Grinder deco.
The damage increase from green sharpness to blue sharpness is about 14%. From blue to white is about 10%. Dropping a sharpness level means you now do significantly less damage. Sure, you can run away to resharpen and the monster likely can't hurt you, but you aren't hurting the monster either. So sharpening during a fight is dps loss. Why not try to preserve as much sharpness as you can and avoid sharpening altogether?
@@SKY85sr loss of DPS is no issue, as the result is always the same; monster’s gonna die regardless because SnS is so versatile and mobile that you are never at risk of carting if you play with at least a little skill and preparation.
Besides, those percentages may look impressive on paper, but SnS deals very little damage per-hit barring select few special cases as to be inconsequential.
Your efforts would be put to better use in investing for more utility or more specialised sets... Like, for example, Elemental damage.
Raw is simple and effective, but Elemental damage can be more potent at times... Especially since sharpness has little effect on Elemental damage.
Spec into Critical Element and you’d be surprised how much damage you can deal with just green sharpness with a weapon like Daora’s SnS. Shit hits very hard.
LOL Critical Element!? Do whatever you want I guess.
@@SKY85sr I consistently hit about 100 damage per swing when I exploit weaknesses with SnS, about 250 with Spinning Reaper, I think I’m doing pretty well with my Crit Element sets.
I don’t need to rely on sharpness for damage either, as the damage bonus sharpness provides to elemental damage is so minuscule I can ignore it for the most part (green sharpness gets the job done mostly, of course bouncing becomes an issue, where shield bashing comes in handy for when I can’t reach a soft target in time).
Raw is simple and effective, but Elemental damage can break open opportunities where Raw can’t compete.
One of the best weapons I find is the Daora SnS, the damage on that thing is deceptively potent if you build it right.
@@SKY85sr Also, with precedent, SnS tends to shit damage when exploiting elemental weaknesses, so I have no idea why you’d find it so laughable.
Like, it’s the second fastest weapon type in the game, you can absolutely shred monsters with gaping elemental weaknesses if you prepare correctly, same with Dual Blades.
Hell, if you’re feeling spicy you can just roll up with some Blast element, ditch crits altogether and stack Blast Up decos for shits and giggles, and you’d still obliterate monsters in record time.
Unga bunga
not a fan of flash in the night?
Flash in the night is really only good for dragonheart builds. Other than that, it’s just okay.
This vid popped off tbh ngl
I’m popping off tbh ngl
@@SKY85sr thoughts on divorce tho?
Divorce? More like dievorce!
@@SKY85sr thanks for taking a stand
How did you get your HP so high?
I’m using the Absolute Petalace
Please please PLEASE make a video like this for hammer no one explain this stuff as clearly as you
Thanks. I don't really play hammer often though, so I don't think I make a video like this one.
@@SKY85sr im thankfull for the sword and shield tips too c:. But if you can refer me towards a similiary made guide for hammer it would be nice.
@@SKY85sr seriously i never knew you could backhop from a roll thats revolutionary!
Having fun in Monster Hunter is illegal.
Kakkoii
Thanks!
im not gona lie but the m&k settings for this game is making not want to play this game even tough i have like 2k hours on mhw
all i can say about this guy is: nah.
No new vid? You fell off. L + ratio.
Just kidding. I watch this vid at least once a day. It gives me hope in this otherwise dark world.
I do everything this video says you shouldn't do. Don't let anyone tell you how to play, because EVERY play-style is effective in monster hunter.
No one is obligated to play exactly how I suggest in this guide. However, I firmly believe that what I say is at least very close to how to play SnS optimally. Sure, you can be successful with whatever, but if you want an easier time with hunts or faster clear times, then I at least try some of things I say. If not, then I couldn't care less.
This is more of a beginner tutorial imo. Calling it advanced is misleading
I guess how we define what is "advanced" is completely different. A "beginner" tutorial to me would be one that simply goes over what the sword and shield can do, whereas my video discusses more on specific aspects of the weapon, how some moves can be utilized, and why you should or should not do certain attacks.
I'm not sure what an advanced tutorial would look like in your perspective. If you can make one yourself, then I would definitely watch!