Charge Blade Techniques and Formulas

Contents

SAED shortcuts

Guard FAQ

Guard Points

Offensive Guard FAQ

Motion Values

Phial Damage Calculation

You better not be pressing O/B/RMB 3 times in Axe mode to use SAED.. here are all the ways to perform Amped Elemental Discharge (AED), or Super Amped Elemental Discharge (SAED) when your shield is charged.

# Sword Mode: Shield Thrust

PS4: (Sword mode) Any attack > △ + O > △ + OXbox: (Sword mode) Any attack > Y + B > Y + BPC: (Sword mode) Any attack > LMB + RMB > LMB + RMB

# Sword Mode: Block Reaction

PS4: (Sword mode) Block an attack* > △ + OXbox: (Sword mode) Block an attack* > Y + BPC: (Sword mode) Block an attack* > LMB + RMB

*If the attack was too powerful, your character will slide a long distance and you will be unable to SAED. Block knockback can be decreased by charging your shield, blocking with Guard Points instead of R2/RT/Ctrl, and getting the Guard skill (all three effects stacking).

# Axe Mode: Jumping (Morph) Slash

PS4: (Sword mode) Airborne > R2 > △ + O / (Axe mode) Airborne > △ > △ + OXbox: (Sword mode) Airborne > RT > Y + B / (Axe mode) Airborne > Y > Y + BPC: (Sword mode) Airborne > Ctrl > LMB + RMB / (Axe mode) Airborne > LMB > LMB + RMB

# Axe Mode: from Idle

PS4: (Axe mode) △ + OXbox: (Axe mode) Y + BPC: (Axe mode) LMB + RMB

# Axe Mode: Overhead Slash

PS4: (Sword mode) R2 + △ > △ + O / (Sheathed) R2 > △ + O / (Axe mode) ↑ + △ > △ + OXbox: (Sword mode) RT + Y > Y + B / (Sheathed) RT > Y + B / (Axe mode) ↑ + Y > Y + BPC: (Sword mode) Ctrl + LMB > LMB + RMB / (Sheathed) Ctrl > LMB + RMB / (Axe mode) ↑ + LMB > LMB + RMB

# Axe Mode: Elemental Discharge II

PS4: (Sword mode) R2 + △ > O > O / (Sheathed) R2 > O > O / (Axe mode) O > O > OXbox: (Sword mode) RT + Y > B > B / (Sheathed) RT > B > B / (Axe mode) B > B > BPC: (Sword mode) Ctrl + LMB > RMB > RMB / (Sheathed) Ctrl > RMB > RMB / (Axe mode) RMB > RMB > RMB

# Guard FAQ

TL;DR

– You need some Guard to be able to GP AED/SAED all attacks

– Guard stacks with red shield and guard points

– Red shield and guard points are each equivalent to 2 points of Guard

– Guard skill caps at 5 but you DO still benefit from red shield and GP at Guard 5

– (you can be at “Total Guard 9” with Guard 5, red shield, GP)

– Total Guard 2, 4, 6, and 8 are the same as 1, 3, 5, 7 (Guard has breakpoints at odd numbers)

– Guard 1 is enough for about 4/5 of monsters

– Guard 3 is enough for basically every monster except Rajang

– Guard 5 is comfy as you can be equal to Guard 3 without using guard points

Q: Why use Guard on CB?

In sword mode, Charge Blade can counter with (S)AED after blocking an attack. Depending on the strength of the attack, when blocking your character will go into one of three recoil animations: small, medium, or large knockback. If you receive large knockback, you CANNOT counter and additionally you lose a large chunk of sharpness.

There are three ways to reduce block recoil received by monster attacks and thus make it easier to counter attacks: increasing Guard skill, charging your shield, and blocking using guard points instead of holding the block button. As it turns out, even if you always use guard points and keep your shield charged there are many attacks that still deal large knockback, so in practice at least 1 Guard skill is recommended for general purpose builds.

Q: How does Guard skill stack with charged shield and guard points?

An easy way to explain this is that charged shield and guard points are each equal to 2 points of Guard. However, adding these to your Guard skill your “total Guard” CAN exceed the max skill level of Guard which is 5. Contrary to what anyone may say you DO still benefit from charged shield and guard points when at Guard 5.

Another important thing is that only odd numbers (and zero) matter when considering Guard. Having Guard 2 means you will receive the same knockback from all attacks as Guard 1. Here are some examples:

Guard 0 = Guard 0

Guard 1 = Guard 1

Guard 1 + charged shield = Guard 3

Guard 0 + charged shield + GP = Guard 4 = Guard 3

Guard 1 + charged shield + GP = Guard 5

Guard 5 + charged shield + GP = Guard 9

It’s important to note here that for example, if you receive medium knockback with Guard 1, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will receive small knockback with Guard 3. Behind the scenes every monster attack has a “knockback power” (some number from 0 to 100) and your recoil received is a function of that number and your total guard power. So for example (using made up numbers) if you have total guard 5, monster attacks with knockback between 40 and 70 are medium knockback. If you have total guard 7, monster attacks with knockback between 60 and 90 are medium. You can see that an attack of 50 would be medium with guard 5 and small with guard 7, but an attack of 65 would be medium for both.

Q: How much Guard do I need?

I don’t have a comprehensive list of monsters and how much Guard you need to be able to GP all of their attacks with medium knockback. What I can say is 1 is enough for ~80% of monsters and 3 is enough for ~95% of monsters, IF you are GPing every attack (in vanilla world Guard 1 was enough for 99% of monsters). 5 is only required for a very small number of monsters (such as Rajang) but it is nice to have because Guard 5 regular block is equivalent to Guard 3 GP, so you can play a bit comfier and activate Offensive Guard with less effort. Guard 5 also can be attained with a single charm (Ironside Charm V).

# Guard Points # What is a Guard Point?

At certain points during some attacks, your character will have their shield facing forward in front of them. These points in the attack animation are called Guard Points and your character is considering to be blocking during them. For a full list of attacks with Guard Points and their timing, keep scrolling down.

# Why should I use Guard Points?

Blocking using Guard Points instead of regular blocking using R2/RT/Ctrl has several benefits.

Reduced knockback when blocking (similar effect to Guard skill) If your shield is charged, blocking with a Guard Point creates a small explosion that deals a small amount of damage and some stun damage Guard Points can allow you to block earlier than pressing R2/RT/Ctrl to block (see below video)

# Sword: Morph Slash

PS4: (Sword mode) R2 + △Xbox: (Sword mode) RT + YPC: (Sword mode) Ctrl + LMB

Timing:

As soon as the attack begins, lasting for about 0.5 seconds.

Notes:

By far the most commonly used Guard Point. Can be linked to from any Sword mode attack and even from blocking, but not from Charge Phials. If linked to from Condensed Elemental Slash (Sword Charge), the Guard Point window is delayed.

# Sword: Spinning Slash

PS4: (Sword mode) Action* > △Xbox: (Sword mode) Action* > YPC: (Sword mode) Action* > LMB

*Actions that link into Spinning Slash:

– Rising Slash

– Charged Double Slash

– Condensed Elemental Slash

– Jumping Slash

– Sidestep (attack + left/right evade)

Timing:

After the character finishes turning, lasting for about 1 second.

# Sword: Sliding Slash

PS4: (Sword mode) Any attack > Direction + OXbox: (Sword mode) Any attack > Direction + BPC: (Sword mode) Any attack > Direction + RMB

Timing:

After the character finishes the spinning slash, lasting for about 1 second.

# Axe: Morph Slash

PS4: (Axe mode) R2Xbox: (Axe mode) RTPC: (Axe mode) Ctrl

Timing:

After the character finishes turning, lasting for about 1 second.

# Axe: Draw Attack

PS4: (Sheathed) R2Xbox: (Sheathed) RTPC: (Sheathed) Ctrl

Timing:

As soon as the attack begins, lasting for about 0.25 seconds.

# Axe: Savage Axe Slash

Video TBA

PS4: SAED > L2

Xbox: SAED > LT

PC: ?

Timing:

As soon as the attack begins, lasting for about 0.25 seconds.

Keep in mind you can only use the attack after the startup of SAED which is about 1 second.

# Offensive Guard FAQ

Why use Offensive Guard on Charge Blade?

As a block and counter-based weapon, Offensive Guard is a strong option for Charge Blade once you have all your other core skills, giving 15% bonus attack at max level for a short time (~10 seconds). With Guard Points, Charge Blade has an easy way to access blocking by canceling out of ending lag of other attacks (something that Lance can also do but Gunlance cannot do). The bonus attack from Offensive Guard also increases your damage with Impact Phials by a substantial amount.

How do you activate Offensive Guard?

You must block a monster’s attack (other players and barrel bombs cannot trigger it), and the attack must be blocked within about 0.5 seconds of entering blocking state. This means that if you start holding block (or enter a guard point) and you are hit within 0.5 seconds it will trigger, and if you are hit after 0.5 seconds it will not trigger. There is another peculiarity with these rules which will be covered below.

Sometimes I block within 0.5 seconds and Offensive Guard does not trigger

You may notice this happens when you are standing (not attacking) waiting for a monster to hit you, then you input BLOCK followed by ATTACK with the goal of doing an Axe morph guard point, then mysteriously OG does not trigger. The issue with this is that Offensive Guard window ends when you enter a new blocking state. If you held BLOCK for a brief moment before pressing ATTACK to perform the morph, your player will have transitioned from idle to regular block (when you pressed BLOCK), then regular block to guard point (when you pressed ATTACK). Because there were two blocking states, Offensive Guard was only eligible to be triggered during the first blocking state (when BLOCK was held down before pressing ATTACK).

What this means is if you want to trigger Offensive Guard from an Axe Morph from idle, you must perform a perfect input and not hold BLOCK briefly before the morph. If you have time, you can do a weak slash chained into Axe Morph, which works because even if you hold BLOCK before pressing ATTACK, you won’t do a regular block as long as you input ATTACK before the ending lag of weak slash is over.

# Motion Values

Sword: Weak Slash – 12

Sword: Rising Slash – 15

Sword: Roundslash – 30

Sword: Advancing Slash – 20

Sword: Double Slash – 27 + 18

Sword: Double Slash (Hold too long) – 13

Sword: Shield Thrust – 12 + 8

Sword: Sliding Slash – 30

Axe: Morph to Sword (Roundslash) – 30

Axe: Elemental Roundslash – 30

Sword: Condensed Element Slash – 60

Sword: Morph to Axe – 50

Axe: Draw Attack – 50

Axe: Rising Slash – 38

Axe: Overhead – 48

Axe: Dash Slam – 52

Axe: Element Discharge 1 – 25

Axe: Element Discharge 2 – 20 + 66

Axe: Amped Element Discharge – 82

Axe: Amped Element Discharge (Impact, with Savage Axe buff) – 92

Axe: Amped Element Discharge (Power Element, with Savage Axe buff) – 82 with 1.4x elemental modifier

Axe: Super Amped Element Discharge – 15 + 82 + 66

Axe: Super Amped Element Discharge (Impact, with Savage Axe buff) – 25 + 102 + 76

Axe: Super Amped Element Discharge (Power Element, with Savage Axe buff) – 15 + 82 + 66 with 1.2x, 1.35x, 1.2x elemental modifier

Axe: Savage Axe Slash – 30

Axe: Jumping Attack – 55

Clutch Claw Attack – 10 + 10 + 48 + 6 * X

(unsure which hits count as Axe mode)

Savage Axe additional hit (Impact, AED & SAED) – 11 with 0.2x elemental modifier

Savage Axe additional hit (Impact, all other axe moves) – 9 with 0.2x elemental modifier

Savage Axe additional hit (Power Element, AED & SAED) – 5 with 1.2x elemental modifier

Savage Axe additional hit (Power Element, all other axe moves) – 5 with 0.8x elemental modifier

*All Axe mode attacks have 10% higher motion value with charged shield. NOT phial explosions, see next section.

*All Axe mode attacks (with the exceptions of SAED 3rd hit and possibly Dash Slam) deal 3% extra damage on a clean hit, i.e with the head of the axe.

# Phial Damage Calculation

Impact Phial Motion Values (Uncharged Shield)

Attack Phial Motion Value Explosions Phials spent Element Discharge 1 4 1 1 Element Discharge 2 4 2 1 Amped Element Discharge 9 3 1 Charged Sword Mini Explosion 2 1 0

Impact Phial Motion Values (Charged Shield)

Attack Phial Motion Value Explosions Phials spent Element Discharge 1 4.8 1 1 Element Discharge 2 4.8 2 1 Amped Element Discharge 10.8 3 1 Super Amped Element Discharge 25 X X Charged Sword Mini Explosion 2 1 0 Guard Point Mini Explosion 4.8 1 0

Power Element Phial Motion Values (Uncharged Shield)

Patch 10.11

Attack Phial Motion Value Explosions Phials spent Element Discharge 1 20 1 1 Element Discharge 2 20 2 1 Amped Element Discharge 50 3 1 Charged Sword Mini Explosion 15 1 0

Power Element Phial Motion Values (Charged Shield)

Attack Phial Motion Value Explosions Phials spent Element Discharge 1 26 1 1 Element Discharge 2 26 2 1 Amped Element Discharge 65 3 1 Super Amped Element Discharge 90 X X Charged Sword Mini Explosion 15 1 0 Guard Point Mini Explosion 26 1 0

Impact Phial Damage Calculation

MV / 100 * (A * C * F + B * 0.5) * D * E * G

MV: Motion value of phial attack

A: True raw attack from weapon only, including augments, excluding decorations on weapon

B: True raw attack from all other sources (power talon, food, attack boost skill, elementless, etc)

C: Artillery modifier, 1.3 for level 3 Artillery

D: HR modifier, ? for MR, 1.2 for HR or 1.0 for LR

E: Enrage modifier. 1.0 if the monster is not enraged, higher/lower if the monster is enraged (varies by monster).

F: Felyne Bombardier, 1.15 if present

G: Quest defense modifier

Power Element Phial Damage Calculation

MV / 100 * HZ * ELE * D * E * G

MV: Motion value of phial attack

HZ: Elemental hitzone of the part you’re hitting

ELE: Elemental attack as displayed in stat screen

D: HR modifier, ? for MR, 1.2 for HR or 1.0 for LR

E: Enrage modifier. 1.0 if the monster is not enraged, higher/lower if the monster is enraged (varies by monster).

G: Quest defense modifier, usually 1.0 but can be higher for investigations