SnS on Blos. Unless you're with a group, just don't.

You'll get smacked around WAY to much.

I beat a blos by myself with a ice sns in 8 minutes offline with a icicle spike+. I am not saying it is the easiest thing to do, but hey, not all weapons are going to be effective on all monsters.

Its 5:30 pm here, I did this for 3 hours. Sorry it is so long guys, truly I am. I am shocked it is this long, just when I get to typing or talking about something, I can go on for a long time. This is over 4000 words long and is my first guide, so don't be too harsh XD (I am not saying you can be harsh, but... eh screw if it is harsh I deserve it.)

Oh, sorry I just started today lol. Well still, I could of cut down on the size greatly, its just I felt the new sns players should atleast get a guide within a guide on how to fight the monsters on how I have done it. I mean, i'm no the best, but so far I haven't had anyone complain to me about being a noob except for once my entire time online.

If you want to reduce space just put the different parts in seperate spoilers and use the spoilers as the table of contents.


Example: (I'll use your guide as its right there.)

KenKurobasa wrote:

SNS Guide by Ken Kurobasa Table of contents 1. Introduction:   Hello, I am Ken Kurobasa, your guide for the weapon known as sword and shield. I decided to make this guide because I am a avid sns user and wanted to really lay down the details to this weapon. So I hope with your dedication to read this and my hopes it is well informative, we might just get you fighting like Final Fantasy V’s Spell Knights! Also, I will not be listing the controls for the sns for this isn’t designed for those who just popped the disk in, I expect you to be at least fighting your first Great Jaggi. 2. About the SNS:   The sns is quick, low damage dealing in terms of pure raw power when compared to other weapons. While yes it is easy to use and can be viewed horrible by those who thirst for pure power can look at other weapons. The sns is designed not for power, but, for hitting them where it hurts: elements! The sns is designed specifically with this in mind, and, also status type elements for when you want to get more devious than blood thirsty on your enemy monster. Sns was truly designed to be the melee variant of the bowgun, and why you ask? Well it is simple, it is a weapon designed to apply element and status with high speed slashes that can combo well and still keep the mobility of most other weapon classes in movement speed while still provided the rare ability to block. Now then, onto the next section of this guide, very important section of this guide… the rules! 3. My 3 golden rules on sns:   These are the rules I live by when I sns, and I have to say, they have served me pretty well, I hope they will serve you well also my padawans. Rule 1. Never be greedy even if it seems tempting. Greed will get you killed more than a lack of defense because you leave yourself open more. You are speedy and agile, use that to your advantage. Channel your inner Barioth and float! Rule 2. If you cannot dodge the attack with the roll, block if blockable. You are not called a Sword, you called a Sword and Shield! That shield might not be as good as a lance’s, but, in the long run it will save your life more times than a roll if you get caught in a sticky situration. Just remember, the shield is as quick as its owner, if you are slow the shield will be slow and not respond fast enough to block the attack. It isn’t meant to block all attacks and you suffer nothing for it, if you get multiple times while using it, as soon as you can bail out of the cornered area you were in and recover that stamina. Rule 3. Don’t use status elements solo unless you are truly prepped to do so. Sns are a very powerful support weapon and as such, support weapons are not best used alone, especially status types as unlike the element variants, they aren’t doing the same amount of damage. Remember, status sns can make a big difference in a team more so than by yourself. Remember, you are the wizards of elements and statuses when it comes to a blade, don’t forget that! 4. Pro’s and Con’s:   The pros to your little dagger and tin lid: +Fast and agile +Combo friendly +One of the most effective element and status melee weapons +Easy to make and use +Able to match up any monster with the right weapon +Able to block +Can use items with your shield out +You can channel the spirit of Link and fight left handed! -Low damage output -Runs through sharpness faster than most weapons -Not a good tail cutter and subpar tripper -Need multiple sns to handle the right hunts because of element properties -Is super pathetic with just raw damage -Is useless against anything that resist the current element you are using making you a liability -Cannot do drop stab of Link’s (as cool as that would be) 5. Do’s and Don’ts:   Do’s: Hit and run Hit the weak points Be courteous to other hunters by not attacking the target areas they should be attacking with their weapon class If you cannot hit weak point easily, aim for legs to trip, while it isn’t great, it can do the job Help weaken the tail when you can, you are not suppose to be the tail cutter but chip in Bring traps, flash bombs, sonic bombs, or anything that can make the monster in the quest easier to kill WHETSTONES!!! Don’ts Greedy Use your shield often Trip other teammates with spin slashes, shield bashes Attack the head while there is a hammer user Try to be a hero, you will fail at it Blocking everything 6. Weapon Comparisons:   Time to give my opinion about how the SNS is stacked up to the other weapon classes, do note, when I mention the bowgun I am listing them as a whole for simplification reasoning. Great Sword: While the sns will always out speed a great sword, it cannot out power one. While a sword and shield is better at blocking and mobility, it just can’t unleash the pure raw damage that a gs can in a single swipe! Sns are superior when it comes to elements and status because of the speed, but, great swords are excellent tail cutters and monster killers. Lance: The eternal rival of the sns in my opinion. Handles elements and status just as well and can out damage it badly, has a better shield and can counter, but, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try a Sns, for you got two advantages over them: 1, you can use items with your weapon out and 2, you have the fastest draw and sheath animations around! Just remember though, don’t hate lances, befriend them and have them help you kill things quick and simple. Bowgun: Similar to the lance but better ranged. The sns’s other rival, it can lay on status and element better than you but, it does have one problem that you won’t suffer if you are smart about it, you don’t have to reload or combine to restock your ammo. Plus, you have better defense than a gunner. Switch Axe: Hard one to say for the switch axe is a weapon that can do two things but, in the end while it has it’s pluses, it isn’t going to be as mobile as a sns has to be, plus, it has more tripping moves to watch out for than a sns does. Overall though, this is one of those where I say it is a tie because, they both have their clear cut strengths and weaknesses and can perform better in other areas than the other weapon. Hammer: Hammers can’t cut, but, they can ko monsters far better and easier than a sns can. Sns are better at the element and status game though, but, really these are two weapons that were made to be partners in crime! Long Sword: Might have a higher damage per second than any other weapon, but, it suffers from two weaknesses that the sns doesn’t. 1, attracts noobs (not newbs, I’ll explain at the end of the guide why I say this) and 2, is not party friendly because of the overly spammed spirit combo that slashes in wide arcs that will 9 out of 10 times hit your teammates tripping them up. Sword and shield: Redundant but, it has to be done. Why? Simple, sns can be used in so many different ways to fit a unique play style. Some love statuses, some love elements, some like both. Just remember, if you see someone or are caught using a sns with no element and no awaken to counteract your use of a sns with no element, get yourself killed by jaggis till you learned what you did wrong… and I mean it, Ala is watching you in the final urgent! 7. Boss Guide:   Great Jaggi: When you first fight him, you have no element, so the best you can do is make the best sns you can at this point. I don’t know what to suggest but, upgrade your hunter’s knife twice, for you will have to wait till you can go to the flooded forest to make the assassin’s dagger which has green sharpness. With the sns, you want to do quick swipes to the head (his weak point) to break his frill and stun him. Dodge the bites and wait for openings for attacks when he does his tail whips. Avoid with a passion his hip check for that will destroy you when you first start out. Just pay attention to his moves, attack when he is open, and at the end of it all, you should be carving up a Great Jaggi! Later on, a fire sns of any kind will just destroy them. Never use dragon on them, they actually resist dragon. Quropeco: By now, you should have the assassin’s dagger. Attack the legs and chest! Don’t bother with the flints or beak, not with your current weapon. Attacks of his include the following, mucus spit that can cause defense to drop, can be done on the ground or in the air. Chicken charge followed by several pecks, flint attack where he charges up then he does 2 to 3 flint attacks, beware, his most powerful move besides his call. Can do a reverse flint smack to catch you off guard, can fly low off the ground where he can spit or dive at you. Can do two tail whips, and finally, can do calls and dances to summon or buff himself and surrounding monsters around him. Later on in the game when you fight him, use ice sns or water to inflict the best possible damages to him. Royal Ludroth: He can be your bane if you are greedy. Beware his rolls, he gives you a tell by lifting slightly up and tilting his head in a direction. The mane is the weak point and you should see that easily. He can shoot out 1 to 3 water orbs that can cause waterblight which increases stamina depletion. Drunk Charge where he charges madly while shooting water orbs repeatly, a body slam to release water from his spongy mane. Side to side tail whips, claw smack, double bite, and finally, combo rolls where if in enraged most commonly, will roll you then repeat the move several more times. This can kill you quick if you let it. When he is tired or is moving, he will head to water to regain stamina. His move set actually shrinks but, because sns are some of the worst weapons underwater, the fight is harder than it should be. He can spit out a single water orb under water, still has his claw smack, and can now do dashes in the water from 1 to 2 times. He occasionally bites. Once you have a fire sns, he is simple enough. Barroth: He will give anyone trouble but, unlike the others where I tell you what move he has and such, I am going to say, he may seem hard but I’ll tell you a neat little secret you might not know. He has a charge attack which gets faster or slower depending if he is raged or fatigued. It should be noted that his tail does a swipe to the right which will trip you. He will occasionally do tail spins and charge at you at a short burst and slam his head into the ground. He will also shake mud off his body, avoid this or get the muddy status and waterblight as soon as it leaves. He will occasionally roll in the mud in area 3 (where he starts in always) to recover mud on his body. He is raged very easily (characteristic associated with brute wyverns I’ve found). When he is covered in mud, he is super weak to water type attacks but, strong against fire, vice versa if he has no mud! So what does this mean my little padawans? Simple, be aggressive but use your head too. Don’t bother with his tail, focus on the legs and his forearms, the arms are his weakpoints! Gobul: Fish him out of area 4 of the flooded forest with frogs, keep him on land as much as possible. Face and belly are the weak points and use fire! You won’t have thunder till later to really hurt him. His attacks on land and in water are practically the same: He will do an awkward charge on land that once he stops gives free hits. Will do tail swipe that can paralyze you. Will sometimes use a flash bomb-like attack from his lantern, you can’t reach it well so forget it. He will sometimes go underground and camo up his body then will try to ambush you with ether a lunging bite or when in the water, sometimes a vacuum attack or cannon ball. He will also extend his spikes and roll on you. When enraged, his spikes will shoot out increasing his defense. Remember, his tail can be cut off and I suggest it for the sole fact it will make attacking him when he is on land easier for you in the long run. He sleeps in area 8 when near dead. Great Baggi: Just picture a blue, Elvis-like head crest, Great Jaggi that is stronger and takes longer to kill and lives in the tundra. Oh, and can put you to sleep by a special spit. In all seriousness, just treat it like great jaggi but, be more careful. Great Baggi is a little bit smarter than Great Jaggi and can organize the baggis better than their counterparts can. Really, just fire to the head and it should be easy enough. Rathian: This is a real wyvern of the land padawans. She will charge you, bite you, poison you, trap you, tail whip you, dive at you, blow you to pieces with 3 different fireball attacks and still poison you without a tail. I have just listed to you basically all her moves, why? Simple, you have seen these move before (for the most part) and should be able to dodge them, heck, you most likely encountered her back when you were having trouble with pecos! The true moves to watch out for is when she backs up to do a flip where it can poison you (will do it more than once if raged) and her explosion attack which while short ranged, is super powerful! Attack her legs and her tail, you can cut it this time, it isn’t that bad, hard to hit but, worth it. Her head and neck are the real weak points but it is easier to attack her legs first to trip her up. She will eat some plant eating dinosaurs (lets face it, it doesn’t deserve to be called by name if it truly can’t even kill you when it tries) to regain stamina, her male counterpart, Rathalos does the same… he on the other hand is a completely different story. Gigginox: Shoots poison blobs, can do a normal or poison belly flop. Can create a poison bomb or giggi egg, can climb the walls and ceiling, try to eat you, pounce you, and charge you and most disturbing of all, stretch it’s head at you! Now you might of seen it when you fought Great Baggi, well, saddle up that fire sns again, you will be needing it. Aim for the head and the body for the most damage, ignore the tail. Destroy the giggi eggs after you combo’d Nox while she is laying them (it takes longer than the bombs to lay) and keep your head on your shoulders. She isn’t hard, but, Nox can hurt you bad if you become careless and forget antidotes. Remember this: block the roar for a easier time. Barioth: Fire sns, luck of the gods, and predict his moves. It is the best I can say, why? He is fast. No, scratch that, he is the fastest you will find in tri. I cannot tell you what moves to look out for because he is that fast, it won’t matter. Keep up the mobility or bite it because he will be on you faster than a cripple kid surrounded by a pack of starving cannibals! Break the wings first then his face, believe me helps a lot. You can try the tail if you wish, takes a lot of hits though. If you want to do this the cheap way, trap him over and over! He isn’t the hardest you will face in the game, but, he will defiantly knock you down your high horse faster than any of the others. Rathalos: Picture Ian’s moveset but with more flying fire balls in the sky. Really there isn’t much of a difference in their moves besides Los likes to be in the air more than she does. Basically, keep a eye on him and do a lot of lunging slashes at his feet and tail because he is most likely in the air. He isn’t easy I’ll say that, but, he isn’t the hardest ether, that one is coming up next. The moves you should watch out for is his poison claw attack where he flies into the sky then dives at you with his claws open to poison you and when he rages, he will scream then shoot a fireball. Basically keep your eyes on him and move around, at the end you will win. Diablos: Ice, ice, ice! Diablos falls fast to ice sns and bring sonic bombs. She charges often, does one to two swipes with her head, will swipe with her tail, hip check, dig (use sonic bombs when she isn’t enraged) and will sometimes let out a scream that is so horrible, earplugs can’t block it! Yes, she is hard, but, she is doable. When she is in rage mode you will know, she becomes super fast and hits hard. Block often, attack the legs and stomach often, pray to whoever you pray to. Once you learn her moves, she shouldn’t be too tough. The true hardest part is keeping her still, so use traps and flash bombs too to help rack up hits. I suggest Large barrel bomb+ if she is trapped to break a horn, another dose of that should break the other, besides, you should know how to combine items and skills granted by the food… right? Uragaan: Big, slow, hurts like a mac truck! Sounds like a relative of yours doesn’t it? Uragaan doesn’t have many moves, but, they all hurt no matter what. He will do repeated chin pounds, a tail swipe that will shoot out explosive rocks that it can detonate by ether walking into them (he gets hurt by them) or by using a super chin pound that will cause tremor effects if it doesn’t hit you with the large hitbox it has if you are still close to it. He will also sometimes do a simple rush and will even roll into a ball which is really dangerous in area 6 for he circles the entire map a couple of times. Always watch him and attack his belly, he is soft there. Don’t worry about his massive chin or tail, no point. He sleeps in area 6 of the volcano and eats rock in area 4. Another note is while he is weak to water and dragon, he is also weak to poison. I would suggest poison when you first fight him for two reasons. 1, you don’t have a good dragon or water sns at this point yet and 2, its fun. Lagiacrus: I forgot about earlier, sorry. You will fight him ether before Los so listen up. Try your best to get him on land, for he is basically a bigger, stronger royal ludroth with some new attacks. He is thunder element and one of the most dangerous bosses in the water in this game! That fact coupled with sns suck in water isn’t good. He is weak to fire and his chest is the weak point. His most notable moves are his Thunder domes, which he charges up first before using. He has two versions, a short close burst, and then a longer, futher burst that lasts for several seconds. The second burst is his most powerful attack along with his double thunder hipcheck. He can also spew one to two thunder orbs from his mouth and has a habit of charging often. Once he is tired he will head to land which is when his tail, legs, chest, and even his head are all fair pickings. He is super easy on land, infact, he is probably the easiest of the leviathan bosses on land. He is big and slow on land so he is a easy target, hop to his sides and you can even trip him! Overall, he can still be painful on land, but, it is like making a hard boss and then going on to the easy mode. I suggest you get his armor if you want a pretty damn good armor. It has element attack up which makes your elemental attacks stronger! Don’t use with status though, it weakens those. Agnaktor: Picture Lagiacrus, but swimming through lava and has a few new moves too. His most notable moves is the fact he digs through lava, so sonic bombs are a must, though same rule applies with him as it did with Diablos. He has a heat beam which he can ether use while on the ground (which he just shoots it straight down, you got time to move because he makes a crackle noise) and where he is partially revealed and will shoot it down a path then spin it around. He will swim through the lava sometimes and then do spinning lunges out of it several times; hard to dodge but, the worse of all is when he burrows into the ceiling in area 7 and then pop out of nowhere! He is extremely weak to water and ice and possesses multiple breakable parts! He is a tough fight but, once you get use to it, he isn’t as bad as you will think… not till you get to online and high rank and such. His armor, while generally leaned to lances, can actually be used by sns too because of the shield, but I don’t recommend it. Ceadeus, Jhen Mohan, Alateron: These 3 are all elder dragons and all shouldn’t be sns, why? Simple take too long, Ceadeus has a lot of life and can take several tries with a sns, even if it is his weakness of thunder or dragon. It is better if you use something like the lance or hammer or even the long sword because of their ability cause more damage. I believe it is just one of those fights where the sns shouldn’t be used, examples also following Jhen and Ala. Jhen should be, if you are sword and shielding, should stick to the cannons and ballistas on the ship! You will inflict better damage that way even if you had a ice or dragon weapon. Ala is consistently on the move and you need to be able to block, counter, and reach him easy while he is in the sky. Truly, for these 3, avoid them with a sns, use something else for your own sake. Deviljho: While I haven’t sns’d him yet, I don’t doubt it isn’t impossible. He is weak to thunder and dragon on his belly and will do multiple bites, one bite, mega stomp, tail whips, boulder tosses, and several other moves including the dangerous rage move of his, Dragon breath! Truly Deviljho should be something you avoid for a long time till you are hunter rank 51 online. Sorry this is the best I can do, once I get more info in this subject, I shall update. 8. Ending Comments:   Well my final comments about all of this? I enjoyed it. Gave me a good chance to write my first guide and to share what I know to others. It isn’t the best sns guide but, I feel it does provide info that those who wish to use the sword and shield can benefit from. A true sns user uses their speed and agility to learn the monster’s moves and learn the openings for short and long combos. I hope the boss guide was well enough for your liking because, no matter what I say, it won’t be the same as you doing it yourself. So with one last good bye, I hope this helps you all and I plan to update it once I get better at them myself so I can better teach you all. TTFN: ta ta for now. Ken Kurobasa

There now its nice and small and easy to navigate.

Good point. Gonna do that, and make reference to the noobs that Kanade reminded me I mentioned in the guide.

I liked your guide. SnS still seems unappreciated to me. Glad to know someones willing to give SnS the credit it deserves

Thank you. I've only played freedom 1 and tri, but when it came to a weapon I know I could trust to get me far, it was the sns.

Nice(specially the link/zelda connections).

Thank you, i'm a zelda fan so it helps to use a weapon similar too it. Still, sns would rock more with Link's signature kill move from twilight princess.

Moved to guide section.