Wild Hearts Nodachi guide: Best weapon combos, builds, and more

Wild Hearts offers a host of weapons, from the massive but slow Greatswords (called the Nodachi) to the fast but less damaging twin blades, i.e., the Claw Blades.

Much like Capcom's Monster Hunter titles, which is a massive inspiration for Wild Hearts, the game allows you to craft new and more powerful weapons from various categories as they progress through the main story and slay bigger and more ferocious monsters (Kemono).

Like the Monster Hunter games, every weapon type in Wild Hearts is unique, offering skills and abilities that you can use to gain an advantage against the Kemono. While every weapon type in the game is equally viable as others, no other weapon type comes close to the sheer damaging potential of the Nodachi.

Much like the Greatsword weapon type in Monster Hunter, the Nodachi is a massive blade that, although very slow, can deal massive amounts of damage with a single hit. The Nodachi is the best weapon for hunters who want to focus solely on raw DPS and strength. Like any other weapon type in Wild Hearts, the Nodachi has various damage-amplifying skills and abilities.

---

All Nodachi weapon combos and abilities in Wild Hearts

Nodachi is a massive, single-edged sword that excels at dealing large amounts of damage with few hits, i.e., it has very high DPS. Nodachi is Wild Hearts' version of the Greatsword weapon type from Monster Hunter games and other action role-playing titles.

Being a huge, double-handed weapon, the Nodachi is relatively slow compared to other weapon types in the game; however, it makes up for its lack of agility and high damage-dealing potential.

The Nodachi's signature moveset is "Bisection," a heavy horizontal slash with massive damage to monsters. However, the move requires you to build up the weapon's power gauge by charging it. The weapon's playstyle is much more focused on maximizing the efficiency of the gauge while avoiding attacks from the Kemono.

The Nodachi offers a fairly extensive moveset, which includes the weapon's basic combos and combos that can be performed using the Karakuri system (basic Karakuri allowing for aerial attacks). Here are all the weapon combos for the Nodachi:

• Downward Slash: Basic vertical slash attack performed by pressing "Square."
• Roll/Receding Slash: Horizontal slash attack performed by tapping "Triangle."
• Iai Slash: Basic attack performed by entering the "Iai Stance" by holding "R2". Allows you to charge your weapon for a short attack buff, which deals significantly more damage than the standard slash attack.
• Iai Bisection Shockwave: Allows you to chain your Iai Slash attacks to end with an aftershock that deals area-of-effect (AOE) damage.
• Iai Planted Stance: Allows you to charge the Nodachi by standing still.
• Iai Full Moon Stance: Dodging or moving during the Planted Stance will make you enter the Full Moon Stance, where the Nodachi charges slowly but allows you to recover stamina and reposition yourself on the battlefield.

While it can be fairly cumbersome to wait for the weapon gauge to build up, it pays off well, with a single hit to the weak spot able to topple and stun the Kemono. The Nodachi is a fairly straightforward weapon to use and is perfect for newcomers who want to focus on damage output over any other weapon attribute. Following are all the Nodachi weapons that you can craft in Wild Hearts:

• Aromatic Plum Nodachi (AP 150)
• Creeping Vine Nodachi (AP 165)
• Creeping Vine Nodachi 2 (AP 230)
• Edgestone Nodachi (AP 136)
• Edgestone Nodachi 2 (AP 136)
• First Bloom Nodachi (AP 145)
• Freshet Nodachi (AP 140)
• Intoxicating Birch Nodachi (AP 167)
• Intoxicating Birch Nodachi 2 (AP 165)
• Intoxicating Birch Nodachi 3 (AP 255)
• Nodachi (AP 85)
• Red Plum Nodachi 2 (AP 162)

For the best build to be used with the Nodachi, you should choose armor that boosts your survivability. Due to the slow wind-up of the Nodachi, you will be trading blows with the Kemono; choosing an armor set that reduces not only stamina cost but also has high defense can massively help you stay on the battlefield for longer without having to retreat and heal.

The best early-game armor choices for the Nodachi are as follows:

• Fresh Fern Set
• Young Samurai Set
• Roaming Bard Set

These armor sets are a massive upgrade from your starter armor, boosting your overall defense and allowing you to survive longer on the battlefield. Crafting the armor sets is fairly straightforward. It requires materials you can easily farm and collect while exploring the land of Azuma, either during the main story missions or optional questlines.

---

Wild Hearts is now available on current-generation consoles, i.e., PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, with a free trial available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers on console and PC.