Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflections has six different weapons for you to master in a battle, and each of them offer unique gameplay style.
Just like the mainline series, every weapon in Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflections has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. Let’s look at how the weapons work and what you can expect from them.
Table of contents
How do all weapons work in Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflections
Weapons in Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflections are broadly of three types.
- Slashing
- Blunt
- Hunting
Slashing Weapons
Under Slashing, you get two choices in the form of the Great Sword and the Long Sword. The Great Sword uses its Charge Gauge for most of its attacks. The higher the Charge Gauge, the better it gets. You can fill the gauge with certain skills and winning head-to-head encounters.
The Long Sword, on the other hand, uses a Spirit Gauge. Once at least one segment of the Spirit Gauge has been filled, you can land Stance Attacks (similar to skills, but they have unique reaction effects). All Stance Attacks finish in a Special Sheathe, which raises the damage of your regular attacks.
Between the two, I love the Great Sword more since you can be extremely direct with your attacks.
Blunt Weapons
The Hunting Horn is a skill-based weapon that activates Melody effects. To do so, you have to place the correct notes on the Melody bar. Each note has a corresponding Attack Type, and they’re of three types: Red, Green, and Blue. The Hunting Horn is great for providing different buffs in addition to dealing damage.
The Hammer does incredible damage, and this is the best option for breaking enemy parts. However, it’s an extremely linear option since you’ll be restricted to a few gameplay styles. While I love the Hammer, the same can’t be said about the Hunting Horn. The latter is extremely complex and requires you to have a sound understanding of in-game mechanics.
Piercing Weapons
Finally, we come down to the Bow and the Gunlance. The Bow is perfect if you want to apply status effects to enemy monsters. It also has a Charge Gauge that allows you to use different skills. The Coatings you apply with your attacks will directly depend on the Charge Gauge and how much it has been filled.
The Gunlance is a great defensive choice since it will guard you against certain attacks and reduce incoming damage. It can use Protective Skills to draw aggro from your enemies, and Shells that are used to perform additional skills. Shells are essentially the bullets that will reload through Head-to-Head and specific skills.
Once again, the Bow is a great choice if you want to use something simpler. The Gunlance is a lot more complex to master, as you’ll need to use the Head-to-Head attacks efficiently to reload the Shells.
