The Boost Bracer is the headline combat addition in Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, and Capcom has started showing exactly what it does one weapon at a time. The Great Sword got the first detailed treatment, and it is the clearest look yet at how the device turns the game’s slowest weapon into something that can move while it swings.
Quick answer: You fill Boost Bracer energy by attacking aggressively, then spend it with a Boost Driver attack (or a weapon-specific action) to enter the Boost state, which unlocks new combos and enhanced attacks for a limited time.
How the Boost Bracer works
The Boost Bracer is a piece of hunting equipment worn on the arm, and it applies to all 14 weapon types rather than a select few. It is not a passive damage buff. It runs on a resource you build up during a hunt, and staying on the offensive is how you build it.
Once you have energy banked, you spend it to enter Boost. The main way in is a Boost Driver, a powerful attack that both deals damage and flips you into the Boost state. Some weapons have their own unique entry actions instead. While Boost is active, your weapon gains extra combos, enhanced versions of existing attacks, and in several cases propulsion-assisted movement that carries you forward mid-swing.
Capcom’s framing for the system is short and specific: build energy by staying aggressive, activate Boost with a Boost Driver attack or a weapon’s unique action, then use the new combos and enhanced attacks to keep control of the fight. Master Rank monsters are the reason it exists — the expansion is adding tougher encounters, and every weapon is getting a new set of options to meet them.
Note: not every new move in Ascendance is tied to the bracer. There are also new attacks and combos that exist outside the Boost system entirely, so weapon movesets are expanding in two directions at once.
Great Sword Boosted Actions
Three Boosted Actions are confirmed for the Great Sword, and they all push in the same direction — keeping the weapon’s huge damage while cutting down the time you spend rooted in place.
| Boosted Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Boost Driver | Flings the hunter forward, closing distance as part of the attack itself |
| Explosive charged slashes | Charged attacks gain an added explosive hit on connection |
| Offset attack chains | Offset attacks can be linked together instead of used as one-off answers |
The footage bears this out. A hunter revs the arm device, throws out an offset slash, drops into a crouching charged attack, and finishes with a fiery True Charge Slash that plants into the ground. Elsewhere the bracer is used to slide into a swing rather than walk into position first. That is the real change here — Great Sword attacks that normally commit you to a spot now come with movement baked in, so repositioning happens during the offense instead of between it.
What other weapons do with Boost
The overview footage makes it clear the bracer is not one universal effect bolted onto 14 weapons. Each one uses the propulsion differently.
| Weapon | Shown in Boost footage |
|---|---|
| Gunlance | Rocket-assisted movement feeding into explosive attacks |
| Bowgun | Heavier boosted shots with noticeably stronger recoil |
| Long Sword | A propelled counter-attack and a much faster draw |
| Hammer | A spin-down slam performed while in the Boost state |
| Bow, Dual Blades, Charge Blade | Boosted actions shown in the overview trailer |
The Bowgun’s boosted shots are the clearest example of weight being added rather than speed. The recoil animation is heavier, and the shots land with more force behind them.
The Long Sword goes the other way, using the bracer for a rocket-driven counter and a draw that comes out far quicker than the standard version.
Breakdown trailers for the remaining 13 weapons are being released daily, so each weapon’s specific action list is being filled in one by one.
What you need before you can use it
The Boost Bracer ships with Ascendance, which means it is gated behind both the expansion and a specific point in the base game’s story.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Base game | You must own Monster Hunter Wilds |
| Story progress | Complete the 7-star assignment “Awaking From a Dream” |
| Platforms | PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S |
| Release window | 2027; no specific date has been announced |
A Switch 2 version of Monster Hunter Wilds is also in development. Ascendance itself takes hunters to the Skybound Eyrie, a region of sky islands and floating ruins above the Forbidden Lands, alongside Master Rank quests and returning monsters including Kushala Daora.
Where you can play it first
The first public playable build of Ascendance is set for Tokyo Game Show 2026, with several quests built around showing off the Boost Bracer. Capcom is also holding a 40-minute Tokyo Game Show Spotlight on September 16 with Ascendance among the games featured.
How much the Boost Bracer ends up mattering to optimal play is still an open question. The system’s weight will come down to per-weapon tuning — how quickly energy builds, how long Boost lasts, and whether the enhanced combos are worth chasing over a weapon’s standard damage loop. For the Great Sword at least, the trade being offered is legible: keep the huge charged hits, but stop paying for them with your positioning.
