The True Charged Slash hits for 218 Motion Value — roughly 2.5 times the damage of a Level 1 release [2]. Every Monster Hunter Wilds player knows it’s powerful. The problem isn’t executing TCS; it’s knowing where to stand before you commit to the 2-second charge window.
This guide covers three things no standard GS guide does: a per-monster positioning table with exact approach angles and opening windows, a tackle vs evasion decision matrix with concrete criteria for each scenario, and a charge-commit decision tree so you abort before it’s too late rather than eating a kill blow mid-animation. It’s part of our broader Monster Hunter Wilds beginner’s guide.
Verified on Version 1.021 (August 2025). This update buffed TCS raw damage and element scaling, and made the Strong Wide Slash to TCS chain transition faster [3]. Numbers below reflect post-patch values.
Quick Start: 5 Pre-Hunt TCS Habits
- Approach the flank, not the front. Most lateral monster attacks telegraph for 1.5–2 seconds — enough time to reach TCS. Forward bites trigger in under 0.5 seconds.
- Start charging during roars. A roar animation is a free charge window. Tackle through the knockback and your charge level is preserved [1].
- Watch for the blue flash, not the button hold. TCS activates at the third charge pulse — a visible blue energy glow. Holding past it auto-releases at Level 2 MV. Release at the flash.
- Use Focus Mode for micro-corrections. In the 0.5 seconds before release you can redirect up to 180°. If you need more than that, abort with tackle and reposition [5].
- Never settle for Level 1. If the monster moves before you hit TCS level, tackle-cancel and restart rather than releasing a low-value hit.
The TCS Charge Pyramid: Motion Values and the Overcharge Trap
The Great Sword’s three charge levels are not equal, and the gap between TCS and everything else is what makes the weapon worth the positioning investment [2]:
| Charge Level | Motion Value | Visual Cue | Release Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 (Charged Slash) | ~50 MV* | Brief yellow glow, first pulse | Abort — tackle-cancel and reposition |
| Level 2 (Strong Charged Slash) | ~90 MV* | Sustained yellow glow, second pulse | Acceptable if the window is closing hard |
| Level 3 (True Charged Slash) | 218 MV | Blue energy flash, third pulse | Always the target — release here |
| Overcharge (forced auto-swing) | ~90 MV | Missed blue flash, animation locks | Failure state — equivalent to L2 |
*L1 and L2 values are community estimates from Training Area damage testing; TCS at 218 MV is confirmed per Game8’s motion value research [2].
The overcharge trap catches new GS players more than any other mistake. You hold the button waiting for the perfect angle, the blue flash appears and disappears, and the game forces an auto-release at Level 2. The correct response when you recognize you’re late: tackle immediately after the blue flash to cancel the animation, sheathe, reposition, and start the charge cycle fresh.
The 2-tackle skip combo removes the L1 and L2 animation steps entirely: Draw attack → Tackle immediately → Tackle again → charge begins directly at Strong Charged Slash level, reaching TCS in under 8 seconds [4]. This is the combo intermediate players should learn before anything else.
Tackle vs Evasion: The Decision Matrix
Tackle provides superarmor throughout the animation — monster attacks physically pass through you without knockback, but you still take HP damage. Evasion’s invulnerability frames (i-frames) make you completely untouchable during the dodge window, but you lose your charge level entirely [1]. These are not interchangeable tools.
| Scenario | Use Tackle | Use Evasion |
|---|---|---|
| Charge level | L2 or L3 in progress — preserve it | L0–L1 — nothing worth saving |
| Monster attack type | Single-hit melee, projectile, standard roar | Multi-hit chain, AoE explosion, full enrage burst |
| Repositioning needed | 45–90° angle correction | 90–180°+ full reposition or distance escape |
| Monster state | Stagger or trip recovery — chase the window | Enraged with erratic movement patterns |
| Party context (multiplayer) | Other hunters covering stagger — commit | Solo tanking aggro — survive first |
Enhanced Tackle, introduced in Monster Hunter Wilds, tightens this further: if an incoming attack connects during the tackle animation, your charge level is retained and you can immediately chain into TCS [4]. This makes tackle the default interrupt for single-hit attacks at L2+ — you eat the chip damage in exchange for landing a 218 MV follow-up.
The exception is high-chip AoE attacks. Gore Magala’s Frenzy Nova, Arkveld’s Void Burst, and any full enrage explosion deal enough damage per hit that absorbing them mid-charge will kill you before TCS connects. Against those specific attacks, roll regardless of charge level — a dead hunter deals zero DPS.
One skill note: Evade Extender actively hurts GS play — the extended roll distance moves you farther from the monster than needed, adding repositioning steps before your next charge. Weakness Exploit, by contrast, rewards the tackle-into-TCS loop directly by boosting damage on wounded weak points.
TCS Positioning Maps: Where to Stand on Every Major Monster
The principle behind all positioning: stand where the monster’s active attack hitboxes can’t reach you during a 2-second charge window, while still being within striking distance of a high-cut-value body part. The table below synthesizes cut-damage weak points with observed attack-pattern timing for the game’s most commonly hunted monsters. Verified on Version 1.021; individual behavior can vary in Enraged state.
For full monster weakness data including elemental breakdowns, see our dedicated weakness guide.
| Monster | Best Cut Target | TCS Approach Angle | Reliable Opening Window | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arkveld | Head (Dragon HZV = 0 on chainblade wings — ignore them entirely) | 90° flank of the head | After 3-hit wing-slam combo — 2s pause before next sequence | Directly in front during Void energy charge-up |
| Gore Magala | Head or Antenna — both 4-star cut [6] | Frontal, targeting the antenna base | After Frenzy Projectile burst completes; after Ring of Frenzy tail sweep | Underneath during wing spread — gets clipped by ground hitbox |
| Doshaguma | Head (highest cut priority) | Front-flank during rearing animation | Pack charge misses — 2.5s stumble recovery exposes the head | Flanking during pack frenzy — other Doshaguma will hit you mid-charge |
| Rey Dau | Head (Ice HZV advantage confirmed on head [2]) | Lateral flank — 90° to the body | After 3–4 shot lightning volley finishes — consistent 2s recovery | Directly in front during lightning beam charge-up |
| Xu Wu | Head, then belly | Front or slight flank | Landing animation after silk-bind attack — 1.5s exposure window | Behind during tail spin sequence |
| Mizutsune | Head, then tail (for tail severing) | Frontal head approach | After backflip kick — head exposed forward for ~2s | Directly behind during tail slam; in bubble clouds mid-charge |
| Rathalos | Head and wings — ground phase only | Flank on ground; do not commit in air | After fire breath sequence (3 bursts) — brief ground-pause recovery | Aerial phase entirely — wait for forced landing |
| Jin Dahaad | Head (fire spit recovery is the main window) | Flank approach during spit | After underground burst sequence — surfaces briefly in recovery animation | Directly in front during rock projectile volley |
Two patterns repeat across almost every monster and are worth training as default read-states: the post-projectile recovery window (2–3 seconds after any ranged attack sequence) and the missed-charge stumble (1.5–2.5 seconds after a monster charges and misses its target). Both are consistent TCS windows regardless of monster type. Once you recognize these two animations on sight, you’ll always have a charge opportunity even on monsters not in this table.
The wound system also determines how much your positioning angle matters: landing TCS on a wounded head vs the body can be a 30–50% damage difference at high Weakness Exploit stacks. Opening wounds with Focus Mode attacks before your TCS loop is worth the extra time investment on most endgame monsters.
High-Value Setups: Sleep, Topple, and Wake-Up Windows
The highest achievable single-hit TCS damage comes from the sleep wake-up setup. A sleeping monster takes 2× damage from the first hit that wakes it [7]. Combined with TCS’s 218 MV, an active head wound, and Weakness Exploit active, this is where Great Sword delivers the largest single-hit numbers in the game.
The execution mistake most players make is using bombs first:
- Wrong order: Monster sleeps → place Large Barrel Bombs → detonate bombs → bombs wake the monster at 2× → your TCS arrives after wake-up and gets normal multiplier. You gave the 2× to the bombs.
- Correct solo order: Monster sleeps → position at head → begin charging to TCS → release TCS as the first hit → TCS IS the wake-up hit and receives the 2× multiplier. Bombs can follow afterward for additional damage.
- Correct multiplayer order: Communicate before detonating anything. GS player finishes charging → everyone holds → GS player releases TCS as sole first hit → 2× applies to the 218 MV swing → subsequent hits (including bombs) land at normal damage [7].
Topple windows work on the same logic without the 2× bonus: the monster is locked in a recovery animation for 3–6 seconds and cannot retaliate. This is the cleanest TCS window in the game because there is no timing pressure — you simply charge while the monster is on the ground and release before it recovers.
For sleep-based farming specifically, see our status effects guide for which monsters have the lowest sleep resistance thresholds. Those are your best burst targets for this setup.
Commit vs Abort: The TCS Decision Tree
The most common cause of avoidable GS deaths is committing to TCS when the situation has changed since the charge started. This decision tree runs in under one second of real-time judgment:
- Is the monster doing a multi-hit AoE or full enrage burst? → Roll immediately, abort the charge regardless of level.
- Am I at L2 or TCS level?
- No (L1) → Tackle-cancel, reposition, restart the cycle.
- Yes → Continue to next check.
- Will TCS connect to the target weak point?
- Yes, with Focus Mode correction within 90° → Release TCS.
- Yes, already on target → Release TCS.
- No (monster moved more than 180°) → Tackle-cancel, sheathe, reposition, redraw.
The key decision is the L2 check. Once you’re at Strong Charged Slash level, even a suboptimal TCS landing on a secondary hit zone is more DPS-efficient than aborting and restarting the full cycle from zero. The only true abort condition at L2+ is a multi-hit AoE where Enhanced Tackle’s superarmor would absorb enough chip to kill you [4].
Focus Mode is your abort tool in the final moment. If you reach the release point and realize the angle is wrong, activate Focus Mode and redirect up to 90° before releasing. If the monster is outside that correction range, you’ve already lost the window — the tackle-cancel-and-reposition sequence is faster than a whiff and recovery animation.
Player-Type Guide: Where to Start
TCS mastery looks different depending on your current skill level with Great Sword. The niche playbook rule applies here: the same advice given to every player type is not actually advice.
| Player Type | Priority Focus | Skip for Now | First Skill Upgrade |
|---|---|---|---|
| New to Great Sword | Full combo route (Overhead Slash → CS → Wide → TCS) with Focus Mode redirection on every release. Roll for defense until TCS positioning is automatic. | Tackle timing — incorrect tackle attempts cost you more than a clean roll | Critical Draw Lv1 (draw attack buffs) |
| Casual player | Learn the 2-tackle skip combo for faster TCS cycles. Memorize 2–3 reliable opening windows per monster you run frequently. | Perfect Guard — high execution requirement, low marginal gain until TCS is consistent | Weakness Exploit Lv3 (weak point bonus) |
| Hardcore / optimizer | Enhanced Tackle timing (absorb incoming hits at the correct frame to retain charge level), per-monster weak point targeting, sleep setup execution, wound-before-TCS loop. | Nothing — all mechanics become relevant at this level | Critical Boost Lv3 + Agitator Lv5 (enrage damage) |
The full draw-attack loop (Sheathe → Draw charge → TCS → Tackle → Sheathe → repeat) with skill-level interactions is detailed in our Great Sword build guide. The element vs raw debate — when a fire TCS against Gore Magala outperforms a raw-optimized build — is covered in our elemental damage guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does TCS still outperform the Strong Wide Slash combo for overall DPS?
Against mobile monsters, yes — TCS cycles win. The SWS combo reaches 547 MV over ~10 seconds [5], but spreads across multiple hits with smaller individual values and requires the monster to hold still through the full sequence. The fast TCS combo (349 MV under 8 seconds) consistently outperforms SWS because you can abort mid-cycle if the monster moves. Against a trapped, toppled, or sleeping monster with a long static window, SWS can edge ahead on paper — but those windows are shorter than the combo requires more often than not [4].
What happens if I tackle and the monster’s attack has already started?
Superarmor activates from the first frame of the tackle animation [1]. If you input tackle before the attack’s hitbox reaches you, you walk through it. If you input it after the hitbox has already connected, you take the hit without any armor — it resolves as a normal hit. The tackle is not a parry; it requires proactive input during the wind-up of the monster’s attack, not as a reaction to the hit itself.
Can I use Focus Mode to redirect more than 90° mid-TCS?
Technically yes — up to 180° is possible [5]. In practice, redirections past 90° cost enough time that the monster window you were targeting usually closes before TCS connects. If you need a 90°+ correction, the tackle-cancel-and-reposition sequence is faster. Use Focus Mode for fine-tuning angles within the 45–90° range; use the tackle for everything beyond that.
Why does my TCS sometimes deal less damage even on the head?
Two most common causes: sharpness decay dropping below the White threshold (each tier below White reduces damage by a multiplicative factor), and hitting an unwounded weak point without Weakness Exploit active. The 218 MV baseline is only the first multiplier — sharpness modifier, hitzone value, and skill bonuses stack on top. Landing TCS on a wounded head with White sharpness and Weakness Exploit Lv3 active can deal 3–4× the damage of the same move on an unwounded body part with Yellow sharpness [2].
Sources
- Great Sword Weapon Guide and Best Combos — Game8
- What are Motion Values? — Game8
- Monster Hunter Wilds Update 1.021.00 Patch Notes — PlayStation Universe
- Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword Guide: All Moves and Best Combos — SkyCoach
- Monster Hunter Wilds Great Sword Guide — Overgear
- Gore Magala — Monster Hunter Wilds Wiki (Fextralife)
- Monster Hunter Wilds: Sleep Status Explained — Game8
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.