Theorizing on the Weapon Swap Mechanic (Part 2)
Monster Hunter Wilds is introducing a new mechanic to the series allowing the hunters to carry two weapons and switch between them. While the details of this are not yet known, there is a ton of potential to impact some major aspects of the game, such as elemental damage or sharpness. There is a lot to explore, so this article is split into two parts with part 1 focusing on more common applications and part 2 highlighting more niche uses. For a link to part one, click here.
Punishing Topples and Stuns
As a Bow main, this option stands out to me. In the past, the bow has been a weapon with a very consistent damage output. While this is great for most of the fight, bows can feel very underwhelming during topples. The only real benefit is that it is easier to hit weak points, and while you can fire off a dragon piercer, it is very rarely actually better damage to do so than to continue your basic combo. As such, the idea of being able to swap, for example, to a greatsword and get off a free true charged slash during topples is very intriguing.
Inflicting Status Effects
Status builds have conventionally had the problem that the threshold to inflict that status increases every time the status is applied to the monster. Every time you, for example, paralyze a monster, it becomes harder to paralyze again. By swapping weapons, that weakness can be mitigated by bringing a damage focused weapon along with the status inflicting weapon, and swapping to the damage weapon once you have inflicted the status a couple of times. Additionally, this could allow players to carefully time their status procs. You can start to build the status at the start of the hunt, then swap to the damage weapon, saving the activation of that status for a more opportune moment, like an enrage phase or a phase with increased hit zone values such as Dodogamma having its mouth full or Bazelgeuse having its scales red hot.
Bows can also benefit similarly. Allowing a hunter to use a wider variety of coating types creates more damage openings through sleep and paralysis procs that might not have been available before, and increased access to poison coatings can add damage benefits. While these options are not very useful to experienced bow users, who often DPS focus with power and then close range coatings, it can add some safety and time to breathe for one of the squishier weapons in the game.
Bringing a Shield or Mobility
Sometimes, hunts don’t go smoothly. An enrage phase can catch you off guard, or certain combos may be causing more trouble than usual. In a case like this, it could be beneficial to use your second weapon slot to bring something with a shield to increase your tanking ability rather than having to rely on dodges. This also allows a little bit more breathing room when learning a monster's combos, as even with few guard skills, taking a hit with a shield is less punishing than taking one head on. By the same token, someone whose main weapon has a shield may want to bring a more mobile weapon, such as Dual Blades, against monsters who are particularly mobile. This is more relevant for weapons like the Lance, which generally moves a bit more slowly than it is for a weapon like Sword and Shield.
Shot type and Ammo Variety
On Bowgun, bringing a second of the same weapon type expands the number of ammo types the hunter can utilize. While there is still an overall best ammo type to shoot depending on your build, increasing the variety of ammunition your build can use can add a lot of utility to the hunt. Increased status application ability or access to multiple types of elemental ammo, including being able to use both regular and piercing elemental ammunition could increase damage potential or how smoothly a hunt goes. While your ammo capacity itself is not doubled since you are limited by maximum inventory quantities, expanding your available ammo types could have a significant benefit, especially in the early game where the hunter may not yet have a Bowgun that does everything they want.
The Limiting Factor
The asterisk on all of this is how skills work within the weapon swap system. If there is no ability to change skills on swap outside of the decorations that are on the weapon, there are several swap options that are not feasible. For example, the topple punishing with a true charged slash is likely not feasible for elemental focused weapons and Bowguns, as you may lack the necessary skills such as attack boost to make proper use of the weapon. Similarly, given how Bowgun builds are usually set up very differently from standard melee sets, it may not be efficient to blend a Bowgun with a melee weapon. After all, what use does a Hammer have for increased reload speed or ammo reduction?
Outro
Overall, there is a lot of potential to be explored with this new mechanic. Until we have a clearer idea of how skills and weapon mechanics work in Wilds it is hard to get too specific, but even with the limited knowledge we have, there is already a ton of visible potential to change up the formula for hunts.
Written by: Brogangh
Reviewed by: Tenkiei
