Great Sword
Low Rank

Great Sword’s don’t benefit much from elemental damage, and instead favor massive raw damage. The progression path is pretty clean.

The short answer for this guide is: Make the Jagras GS, swap to Barroth, and then swap back to Jagras high rank, with a few optional side-upgrades in between, and with it’s insane raw damage, you’ll crush most of the game.

Now for the long answer:

The Buster Sword 1 you start with is good for the first missions. You should mine to get the two iron ore required to upgrade it from a Buster Sword 1, into a Buster Sword 2 as soon as possible.

You will use this for the Great Jagras.

After beating Great Jagras, upgrade your Buster Sword 2, into a Jagras Blde 1 using 1 Great Jagras Claw, 1 Great Jagras Hide, 3 Great Jagras Scales, and 1 Sharp claw. The sharp claws are available as carves from regular jagras. This will bridge us to the Barroth path, but we will also come back to it later, once we hit high rank, so don’t shy away from getting more Great Jagras materials if you ever see a chance, but you can always come back later on.

From here, progress through the main story hunting a Kulu Ya-Ku, and a Pukei-Pukei.

Now the Pukei-Pukei has an extremely optional upgrade here: Make another Buster Sword 1, and Upgrade it to a  Buster Sword 2 by using 3 iron ore. Then upgrade it to a Blooming Blade 1 by using 2 Pukei pukei Quills, 3 Pukei Pukei Scales, and 1 Poison Sac. This weapon is strictly better than the Jagras blade, but it’s so minor of an upgrade that it’s barely worth noting. If you get the materials, go ahead and make it, because the Pukei-Pukei gear is pretty lame.

After the Pukei-Pukei, you’ll want to complete your mandatory assignments of hunting a Barroth in Wild Spire Wastes. Barroth, and most brute wyverns are actually very weak to poison, so using the Blooming Blade 1 will be beneficial here, otherwise the Jagras blade is fine.

After beating Barroth, you’ll want to make a Bone Blade 1, and upgrade it to Bone Blade 2 by using 3 monster bone S. From there upgrade it to a Carapace Buster 1 by using 1 barroth claw, 3 barroth shells, and 2 barroth ridges.  This will be our go to weapon path for Low Rank.

Progress through the story, hunting Jyuratodus and then a Tobi-Kadachi.

Our next hunt is Anjanath. There is another optional upgrade here, but it is a dead end path and your Carapace Buster 1 will be adequate. If you want, make another Bone Blade 1, upgrade it to a Bone Blade 2, and then to a Bone Blade 3 by using 3 Monster BOne S, 2 Monster Bone M, and 1 Ancient Bone. From there, upgrade it to an Flammenzahn. This will outperform the Barroth Path for the immediate future, but doesn’t go anywhere. From my experience you won’t get the fangs required from a single hunt, so just stick with the Carapace Buster 1, as we’re on the cusp of an upgrade anyways. Then you’ll have a story fight vs. Zorah Magdoros.

After defeating Zorah Magdoros, don’t worry, it’s a setpeice, and you can’t really lose, you’ll gain access to the Coral Highlands.

In the Coral Highlands, you’re forced into an expedition to explore. Here you can mine to get Dragonite Ore. Mine 3 as soon as possible. Then you should upgrade your Carapace Buster 1, into a Carapace Buster 2 by using 3 Dragonite Ore, 2 Barroth Claw, 1 Barroth Tail, and 3 Kestodon Shells. PIcking up as many coral bones as possible while you’re here will also be beneficial, we’ll need them later.

Also, hunting  a Tzitzi Ya Ku and getting 3 claws will save some trouble later on.

Continue progressing through the main story, Take out Paolumu, then you’ll descend into the Rotten Vale, and take out Radobaan.

Then you’ll have to take on Legania.

Hopefully you’ll get 3 Monster Bone+ from the hunt.

Now we’re going to take our Jagras Blade 1, all the way to a Jagras Blade 3. Upgrade the Jagras Blade 1, to a Jagras BLade 2 using 2 Great Jagras Claw, 2 Great Jagras Mane, 2 Coral Bone, and 3 Tzitzi Ya Ku Claws.

Now immediately upgrade it to a Jagras Blade 3 by using 3 Monster Bone+, 5 Great Jagras Scale, 3 Great Jagras Claw, and 3 Great Jagras Mane.

The Jagras Blade 3 actually has identical raw damage to the Carapace Buster 2, but has neutral affinity vs. the Carapace Buster 2’s -20%. This will provide a large net damage increase, and we’ll be using the Jagras Blade more throughout high rank. Take on the final monsters in Low rank, Diablos and Rathalos.

Take out Diablos first, and upgrade your Carapace Buster 2, to a Carapace Buster 3 by using 3 Diablos Shell, 4 Barroth Claw, 2 Barroth Scalp, and 3 Monster Bone+. Equip the Carapace Buster 3, and use it to take down Rathalos, before taking on Zorah Magdaros.

After beating the Zora Magara setpeice, and killing a deceptively strong Pukei-Pukei, you’ll gain access to High Rank quests. Congratulations, the baby gloves are coming off.

High Rank

Our immediate goal in High Rank is a weapon upgrade to compensate for the increased health of monsters, with a long term goal of bringing our sharpness to the next level.  You’ll have some options here. The Great Jagras path is over all better, but they’re different.

You can immediately go hunt a barroth if you want to hit immediate Blue Sharpness. But in High Rank the Great Jagras and Barroth paths have equalized damage wise. Barroth has more blue sharpness, but -20% affinity, which makes the Great Jagras path more appealing.

Use the Carapace Buster 3 for the last time to hunt a Great Jagras. Upgrade your Jagras Blade 3, into a Jagras Hacker 1 by using 6 Great Jagras Scale+, 4 Great Jagras Claw+, 6 Great Jagras Mane, and 5 Piercing Claws. The Piercing Claws can be carved from the small Jagras that will harass you while taking out Great Jagras.

Now, use the Jagras Hacker 1 to progress through the main story until you take out Pink Rathian. Hopefully you’ll get the 4 Monster Hard Bones required to upgrade, if not, suffer through another hunt. Also, go hunt a Tzitzi Ya Ku or two to get 5 Claw+.

Upgrade your Jagras Hacker 1, into a Jagras Hacker 2 by using 4 Monster Hard Bones, 6 Great Jagras Claw+, 6 Jagras Hide+, from standard jagras, and 5 Tzitzi Ya Ku Claw+.

Now this should be enough to carry you to Nergigante. If you can’t put up with the pitiful blue sharpness, you can build the Barroth Great Sword, but it does have -20% affinity, and requires High Rank Diablos Materials to upgrade for the same damage oputput. I would say it’s not worth the time, since we’re going to be getting an upgrade soon anyways, but if you want it here it is:

Upgrade your Carapace Buster 3 into a Barroth Shredder 1 by using 2 Barroth Claw+, 3 Barroth Carapace, 2 Barroth Ridge+, and 5 Kestodon Carapace.

 Then upgrade to a Barroth Shredder 2 by using 3 Diablos Carapace, 4 Barroth Claw+, 3 Barrtoh Carapace, and 5 Gastodon Carapace. Gastodon Carapace are found on Gastodons, which are herbivores in the Elder’s Recess.

Make your choice, and you’ll have to take on Nergigante.

Nergigante’s Great Sword Path is arguably the best in the game.  It’s recommended to farm Nergigante until you can build the Nergal Judicator, as it’s just miles ahead of either of the great sword options.

If you’re using the Barroth Path, and got a Horn+ from Nergigante, you can upgrade your Barroth Shredder 2, to a Barroth Shredder 3 by using 1 Nergigante Horn+, 5 Barroth Claw+, 5 Barroth Ridge+, and 1 Wyvern Gem. You can get the wyvern gem from large monsters like Barroth, Jyuratodus, Radobaan, etc. But honestly, you’re better off saving that Horn+ for the final tier of Nergigante’s path.

Go through the Ore Tree, by going through Buster Sword 1, to Buster Sword 2, to Buster Sword 3, to Buster Blade 1, to Buster Blade 2, to Buster Blade 3, to Chrome Razor 1. This path only requires ore, and monster bones which you should have in excess if you’ve been diligent in hitting every mining node and bone pile you’ve come across.

Once you’re at a Chrome Razor 1, upgrade into a Nergal Judicator by using 3 Nergigante Talons, 4 Nergigante Regrowth Plates, 2 Nergigante Tails, and 2 Nergigante Carapaces.

Congratulations, you now have a weapon that’s completely capable of getting you through the rest of the game, and arguably the best greatsword path. Proceed through with hunting the remaining elder dragons.

After taking out Xeno’jiva, you can upgrade the Nergal Judicator one more time into Purgation’s Atrocity by using 2 Xeno’Jiva horns, 5 Nergigante Horn+, 5 Nergigante Talons, and 1 Nergigante Gem. The gem will take a lot of time, unless you’re lucky, but will be well worth the investment.

Another comparable end game weapon is the Great Wyvern Jawblade, which requires arena coins, and a very specific gear and decoration setup, including Non-Elemental Boost to exceed the Purgation’s Atrocity.