In Wild Hearts, the Claw Blade is an interesting weapon that can seem pretty daunting to use at first. Since its attack style heavily revolves around aerial prowess and agility, it can become disorientating to use.
The basic mechanic behind the Claw Blades is to stick a tether to a Kemono and then deliver rapid aerial combo attacks using it as a support.
The Claw Blade is basically tough to use initially but with the right amount of practice, you can become a pro at it. The raw damage output of this weapon is more than any of the other starting weapons, making this one of the best weapons in Wild Hearts.
Full control over the Claw Blades requires some getting used to, for which understanding a few basic mechanics of the weapon is key. And if you aren’t the melee type and like to do damage from range, Bows and Cannon Weapons should be something you should look into,
How to use the Claw Blades in Wild Hearts
After wielding the Claw Blades, you may notice that you have two gauges that you must keep a track of.
If you look to the bottom left of your screen, right above your health bar, you will see a light blue gauge. This bar serves as the Weapon Gauge and filling it is the first requirement for using your Claw Plunge.
The Claw Plunge is the Claw Blade’s signature move that allows you to fire a tether at an enemy in Wild Hearts. Filling the Weapon Guage is pretty straightforward, stack up your combo attacks in quick succession until the bar is filled.
Now with a full Weapon Gauge press RT or R2 to fire your Claw Plunge to see your Weapon Gauge empty and be replaced with a new circular one.
This circular gauge is your Claw Gauge which you will see right at the spot where you tethered the Kemono. It will indicate the duration the tether lasts and you can use this time to use a variety of new combo opportunities available to you.
The damage output for each attack whilst the Claw Gauge is active, increases. This also allows you to use more advanced combos using the additional mobility acquired.
Note that moving and attacking whilst you are tethered is going to quickly deplete your Claw Gauge rather than standing.
You can also fire off your Claw Plunge without a completely full Weapon Gauge. However, your Claw Gauge will be significantly smaller, allowing you only a limited number of attacks and movement options.
Therefore, we suggest that you try to fill up your Weapon Gauge completely before using this attack.
Best Claw Blade combos
The basic Claw Blades combos are divided into light and heavy attacks. You can land quick eight-hit slash using the light attacks, while the heavy one allows you to perform Jump Slash and Dive Slash.
These combos are not that powerful, but they are still great when building up the much-needed claw gauge.
| Basic Combos | Inputs |
|---|---|
| Slash Streak | Light attack |
| Jump Slash | Heavy Attack |
| Dive Slash | Heavy Attack > direction input |
| Forward Roll Jump Slash | Jump > Heavy Attack |
To build up your Weapon Gauge, use the following combo option, as it will fill it and tether you toward the kemono. This will also allow you to dodge the monster’s attack in midair and continue the onslaught.
These attacks are crucial as they help you fill the Claw gauge, making the Claw Plunge accessible. You can put your claw into the enemies, unlocking new combos with the Claw Blades in Wild Hearts.
| Advanced Combos | Inputs |
|---|---|
| Advance Aerial attack | Jump > 6x Light Attack > Heavy Attack > Claw Plunge |
| Wingblade Spin Slash | R2 >Light Attack while holding the L-Thumbstick to the left or right |
| Wingbalde Crescent Slash | R2> Heavy Attack while moving toward the Kemono |
| Forward Roll Drop Slash | R2 >Light Attack while holding the L-Thumbstick to the left or right > Heavy Attack |
The best Claw Blades combos allow you to land maximum damage to every kind of Kemonos in Wild Hearts. You have to use the advance form attacks to end the Wild Heart Bosses as they strengthen with the game’s progression. However, the Karakuris provide you with an opportunity to boost your attacks.
You can mix your basic combos with advanced ones to remove the maximum damage. The Wingblade Crescent Slash and Wingblade Spin Slash provide significant damage-dealing abilities. Due to this combo, you can unleash stronger attacks in the air for an extended period.
This combo further improves your mobility allowing you to perform your attacks in a quick fashion and get to a safer distance. Forward Roll Drop Slash is the most devastating and best combo to use with Claw Blades.
This combo allows you to deal maximum damage and break down the body parts of the enemies with ease. You should always end your attacking combos by performing this move. This power attack ends with your tether being broken, and you have to start from the basic combos again.
However, the best combos are the ones given below, and you should use them in a sequence to land the maximum possible damage to the Kemonos.
- Wingblade Crescent Slash
- Wingblade Spin Slash
- Forward Roll Drop Slash
How the Claw Gauge and Claw Plunge work
If you look to the bottom left of your screen, right above your health bar, you will see a light blue gauge. This bar serves as the Weapon Gauge and filling it is the first requirement for using your Claw Plunge.
Now with a full Weapon Gauge press RT or R2 to fire your Claw Plunge to see your Weapon Gauge empty and be replaced with a new circular one.
This circular gauge is your Claw Gauge which you will see right at the spot where you tethered the Kemono. It will indicate the duration the tether lasts and you can use this time to use a variety of new combo opportunities available to you.
The damage output for each attack whilst the Claw Gauge is active, increases. This also allows you to use more advanced combos using the additional mobility acquired.
Note that moving and attacking whilst you are tethered is going to quickly deplete your Claw Gauge rather than standing.
You can charge your Claw Gauge by performing a basic set of moves and landing basic high-damaging hits using different skills. This gauge opens so much potential for you, so try to charge it as soon as possible after entering combat with the Beasts in Wild Hearts.
Best Claw Blade skills
You need to get the best skills to improve the efficiency and damage of the Claw Blade against the Kemonos. The battles become more intense as you progress in Wild Hearts, so you must ensure you are using the best possible skills on your weapons.
Using different skills will allow you to perform more efficient and powerful attacks by improving your damage output and increasing your mobility.
The combination of these skills makes the soft spots of the enemies more accessible, and your few hits there can prove to be fatal for the monsters. Some of the best Claw Blades skills are given below:
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Claw Master | This skill allows you to latch your claw on your enemies while running low on the weapon gauge |
| Hawk Eye | This skill is best as it increases your damage output for weak spot attacks. This makes your aerial attacks one of the strongest in the game |
| Destruction Art | You also want to break down your enemy parts using the target-locked attacks of Claw Blade. This skill boosts the process and breaks different body parts of enemies with much more efficiency. |
| Savage skill | It allows you to deal substantial damage and is perfect for any Claw Blade builds. Increasing your raw damage output of Claw Blade is also crucial as the Kemonos become strong with the progression of Wild Hearts |
Best Claw Blade build in Wild Hearts
The Claw Blade is one of the most fun weapons in Wild Hearts, allowing you to fly around the battlefield and engage the Kemonos using Airborne Fury.
The weapon does not need a massive stamina pool or rely heavily on the Karakuris structures. So this build will include armor, a weapon, and a talisman that provides an increase in airborne mobility and boosts the raw damage of Claw Blade in Wild Hearts.
To make the best Claw Blades build, select the Minakatatomi as your weapon and equip it with the following skills for maximum damage output.
- Turbulence: Fury
- Claw Master
- Savage
- Health Boost
- Fatigue Recovery
You can equip different Talismans depending on your style of play. In this build, our primary focus was increasing the raw damage of Claw Blades and allowing you greater mobility in aerial attacks. So the best Talisman will be the one boosting your skills.
The armor gives us Deaf Ears, making us immune to the Roars of Kemonos, and provides us with Fatigue Recovery and Solar Protection. These abilities are advantageous as you get a 5 percent damage boost for your Claw Blades in Wild Hearts.
Additionally, the Desperation skills provided by the armor set allow you to deal increased damage, tipping the battle in your favor.
You can protect yourself mid-air as your dodge ability is much more when equipped with Claw Blades. So using resources that allow your damage to increase makes the most sense. Below we have given the best armor for Claw Blades in Wild Heart.
- Garuda Hat (Kemono-Path)
- Garuda Uwagi (Kemono-Path)
- Garuda Gauntlets
- Final Boss
- Wayward Brigand Boots (Kemono-Path)
For the Karakuris, you can use the Karakuri Torch to inflict severe ablaze damage to the monsters showing weakness against the fire element. The other Karakuris, such as Wall and Glider, also allow you to perform new attacks, inflicting severe damage.
The Spring Karakuri allows you to combine your aerial attacks and lets to perform Vortex Slash. All these combinations of attacks and items ensure you deal the required amount of damage and target the weak spots of Kemonos.
