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As you first delve into the action-filled world ofWild Hearts, there are five weapons for you to forge and master as you go out and explore the world. However, once you reach chapter 2 the game kicks everything up a notch, giving you access to three new weapons, including the Claw Blade.
Related:Wild Hearts: Complete Bladed Wagasa Weapon Guide
The Claw Blade is a light, up-close weapon made for combat in the air by building up a gauge that leads to rapid flurries on Kemono. You have a lot of agility in combat and maneuverability to evade attacks coming your way, with the added bonus of being able to pull off some flashy attacks for extra style points.
The Claw Blade
TheClaw Bladeis a more challenging weapon to master for combat when compared to some of the basic ones, like theNodachi.You have a lot of movement abilities, but getting hit by a Kemono can be devastating to your combos and flow, especially if you are hit when tethered to the Kemono, as you will have to break the connection to be able to heal.
How To Unlock
Once you complete the siege mission where you hunt the Earthbreaker, you will move on to chapter 2, which willgive you access to forge the three new weapons, including the Claw Blade. This happens around 4-5 hours into the game by progressing through the main story,so you will have to manage with the basic weapons first.
Basic Moves
Unlike most other weapons in Wild Hearts, the Claw Blade technically hasfour basic abilitiesinstead of three. There is your normallight attack(Square/X), theheavy attack(Triangle/Y), theClaw Plunge(R2/RT), and you canjump(X/A) whilst attacking to perform anevasive leap.
Your basic light attack will be afast eight-hit Slash Streak.
You have two variants of your heavy attack. If you are standing still, you will perform aJump Slash, and if you input a direction, you will do aDive Slash.Both of these attacks can be used to reposition when in the middle of a combo.
you may also jump and do asix-hit light attack combo, and aForward Roll Jump Slashby doing a heavy attack after jumping.
Claw Plunge
As you are attacking, you will build up yourClaw Gauge, and then, at any point, you are able to do aClaw Plunge,which will embed your claw into the Kemono.This makes the camera focus on where you have the connection and allows for a whole new set of attacks.As you have a tether to the Kemono,a circular bar will deplete depending on how much Claw Gauge you had when using Claw Plunge and the tether will break when the bar fully depletes.
Jumping attacks are more effective for building up your Claw Gauge than attacks on the ground.
Once your claw is attached to the kemono,you will have a new set of moves.Instead of doing a normalEvade(Circle/B) you will now performWingblade Orbit, which isa powerful mid-air dash that keeps your momentum in the sky and can be used to dodge around the attacks of the Kemono you have anchored your tether to.
If you do your special move again (R2/RT), you will now perform aWingblade Power Lunge, which gets you in the air and flings you toward the Kemono. As you are lunging towards the Kemono, you can do a new heavy attack,Wingblade Crescent Slash, a powerful slash that hits several times.
There aretwo types of light attacksyou can do while you are lunging toward a Kemono. If you input ahorizontal direction(Left/Right), as you do the light attack, you will perform aWingblade Spin Slash, which has you spinning around the Kemono doing constant damage, and if you input avertical direction(Up/Down), you will do the same thing but change the axis that you spin on. Doing these attacks will work towards building a new charge thatwill cause your character to glow orange and then red, dealing more damage and making the moves last longer.
Once you have fully charged this new buildup, when you go in for another heavy attack with your lunge,you will now perform a Forward Roll Drop Slash, your most powerful attack. This is the attackyou should always build towards when fighting and can be especially effective at breaking pieces of a Kemono.The tether will then be broken and you will have to start building up the Claw Gauge again.
Your goal when tethered to a Kemono is tostay airborne as much as possibleso that you can continue to build your charge, leading to your most powerful attack.
Remember that getting hit while tethered will cause the gauge to deplete faster and will put you in a situation where you may need to break the connection entirely so that you can heal yourself.
Claw Blade Combat & Tips
Always Mix It Up With Karakuri
There is a lot that you are able to do with the Claw Bladewhen you add different Karakuri to your combat.
Jumping off of aKarakuri Wallwill perform a plunging attack calledClaw Earth Plunge,which will immediately tether your claw to the point that you hit. Each crate height will grantone-quarterof the gauge, so athree-crate high wallwill be enough to charge your Claw Guagethree-quartersof the way from just a single attack.
You can use theKarakuri Torchto set your weapon ablaze as usual, butyou are also able to stack the torches and jump off of them to do a flaming jump attack on a Kemono.This will give you a lot less charge than using crates, but it can come in handy when the Kemono you are hunting is weak to fire.
Jumping off of aSpring Karakuriand inputting any attack will performVortex Slash,which is a good way to close the gap and can be effective at building up some of your Claw Gauge as you enter a fight.
If you do an attack from the air using aKarakuri Glider, you will perform theClaw Flying Plunge. This will make you slowly fall back to the ground as you spin your claw around, giving you the opportunity tothrow it at the Kemono. This isvery effective for targeting specific areasof a Kemono and will aid you when needing specific parts to be broken.
Remain Airborne As Much As Possible
When fighting, your go-to combo to get your Claw Gauge up should be tojump in the air, perform afour-hit light attackcombo, and then finish it off with aheavy attackwhich will hit several times, and thenjump again and repeat. This method will have your gauge filled incredibly quickly and allows for a lot of opportunity to dodge and weave away using your jump to evade.
Mind Your Tether
When you are tethered to a Kemono,your most effective attack will be the horizontal variant of the light attackas it has the best opportunity to connect with most of the hits in the attack.
When in the air,try to keep to the side of a Kemono.This will make it harder for them to charge you and hit you with any of their attacks. However,ensure that you wait for the opportune moment to dash in whilst tethered, so that you don’t move straight into an attack.
