Sunbreak Demo: Courage Hammer vs Astalos

Courage hammer is a lot more fun now and can definitely compete with strength. Hammer in Sunbreak is looking a lot more fun than it was in base Rise, it doesn’t have to be an impact crater machine anymore it seems.

[@buttersidedown5905]

The level 2 charge speed was increased as well. Assuming the demo setup has focus 3 it’s about twice as fast as it is in the base game with focus 3. I went back to compare after my first sit down with the demo and the difference is shocking. Also the golf swing change applies to the entire golf swing combo. So (switch controls) X>ZR will put in you charge 1, X>X>ZR will put you in charge 2(uppercut) and finishing with a golf swing/ landing waterstrike will allow you to go straight into charge 3 like you mentioned

[@caolanberg3837]

That’s sick! Thanks for doing all that testing, I haven’t played Rise in forever so wasn’t sure but the lvl 2 did feel really fast. I really hope optimal hammer play won’t be impact crater spam this time around

[@balmain2496]

The man, the myth, the legend Caolan Berg

[@caolanberg3837]

Hah I’m no legend! But thanks bro lol

[@bkTM69]

awesome video, commentary is so underrated and is hella helpful when relearning weapons

[@caolanberg3837]

Thanks, glad I could help. They made quite a few change to hammer, courage especially.

[@Suneiku]

Glad to see some Hammer gameplay on the demo, thank you! If it's automatically level 3 on the 3rd charge I'd probably run it without focus in the full release unless M rank armor has the slots for it

[@caolanberg3837]

Also I’ve heard the level 2 charge is faster now as well, yea we have focus in the demo but it’ll still be pretty fast without it. Focus doesn’t look necessary at all anymore

[@KingRoturix]

Yes, I really do hope the buff for courage stays in the final game.

[@caolanberg3837]

It’s gotta stay! They wouldn’t do hammer dirty like that, we’re not Gunlance 😛

[@KingRoturix]

Damn! Gunlance always getting the short end of the stick

[@FGCtrash]

@@KingRoturix Tell that to lance lmao

[@mauriarrieta1251]

Hammer feels soooo good in the demo

[@caolanberg3837]

It really does. RIP strength for me I think, they really gave courage some love!

[@mauriarrieta1251]

@@caolanberg3837 same! being able to hammer strike > golfswing > (courage) charge lvl 3 is so satisfying

[@rustgore2297]

Great video keep up the good work!!

[@caolanberg3837]

Thanks! Waiting for the full game for the real tryharding 😈

[@CJones-iz3hd]

Was playing Sunbreak with some friends last night and really enjoy the new Hammer Courage buff. Before, I didn't really pay it's existence any mind, but now it's my go to. I also like how the hammer feels more "bonkier" too.

[@caolanberg3837]

It’s definitely on par with strength now, and more fun imo. Keeping sway silkbind is nice too, really helps to stay ahead of the speedier monsters

[@TheOnlyDeSale]

I hope for rise they buff Big Bang, so we can spam impact crater a little less. Idk Big Bang combo was just my fav looking move

[@caolanberg3837]

I loved using that in World/Iceborne. It felt so strong! Sadly I think we still have to spam crater a lot when the monster is down. I don’t see Big Bang getting used at all really 😢

[@jamestdfm]

I hope they change some mvs, a nice fix would be to make impact crater have a much bigger cooldown, make it stronger too, but at least with a bigger cooldown we would do impact crater into big bang on KOs instead of impact crater into impact crater, I even do impact crater on neutral since it's pretty much the best hammer move

[@caolanberg3837]

@@jamestdfm yeah most people agree it just needs a bigger cooldown. Courage is really fun to play now, would be a shame for all the buffs to get overshadowed by crater spam still. Even if it’s meta, I’ll still try to do runs where I don’t use the move too much

[@joantamarit2439]

Very entertaining to watch, the new moves chain perfectly into one another, can’t wait to see what you will do with the full game!

[@caolanberg3837]

Still can’t believe they actually made buffs to courage, I quit strength style lol. It’s really fun 😀

[@connorverra8857]

Hell yeah

[@caolanberg3837]

Courage is really fun now, thanks for the heads up ☺️. Gonna save the real tryharding for the actual game lol

[@Jaycan]

Good run I'm glad they showed love to courage. I didn't realize golf swing goes straight into lvl 3charge. thats a BIG change. I was looking for water strike to grant you lvl 3 charge straight out of it, but if it works after the golfswing then mayyyybe I might go courage instead of strength.

[@caolanberg3837]

Courage is more fun trust me! Especially if you liked valor in GU. Golfswing into lvl 3 charge is such a sick change especially on roars. I’m here trying to waterstrike everything lol

[@Jaycan]

@@caolanberg3837 yea! Honestly if you’re not good at Water Striking I’m not even sure Master Rank will be that fun. I see a lot of big AOE attacks on the Monster Hunter official Twitter I just imagine water striking all of it after having the timing down!

[@caolanberg3837]

That’s awesome. With all the skills we have now as hunters, monster NEED to have stuff like that or it’s too easy and no fun. I haven’t played Rise in months sadly but really wanna get into Sunbreak!

[@sherb6471]

Is water strike used in any other scenario aside from when the monster is using a long wind up attack? I'm always either rolling or building charge so it's been difficult for me to the weave the attack into regular play.

[@caolanberg3837]

I’m like that too. When you fight a monster a lot of times eventually you notice patterns and can predict some of their attacks before they happen. But usually when I fight a monster for the first few times I’ll just use waterstrike on the really telegraphed attacks/roars

[@Gore-okami]

ok i got this.. but.. why are you recording your play with a toster instead of record on device you play on?

[@caolanberg3837]

I play on Switch and it can only record 30 seconds. I used to record with capture card and upload to pc but my pc stopped working a while ago. I’ll get a new pc soon hopefully

[@Y4manata]

finally! less crater spam is so much more fun!

[@caolanberg3837]

Definitely! I hate that move lol. Courage got buffed a lot and feels really good to play now. Hoping the switch skills that weren’t in the demo will be useful too

[@ibs_haver]

Tbh I don't think dash breaker is very good. It seems difficult to hit accurately, doesn't do that much damage, and really, the midair spinning move is way better as a gap closer, AND it can hit elevated body parts like wings or the back. Also hammer is so mobile anyways that it doesn't really *need* a dedicated gap closing move that badly for most fights

[@caolanberg3837]

You’re very right. And if you need a counter, waterstrike has no wirebug cost. Doesn’t seem worth it at all. The spinning attack can do really good damage now too with impact burst up, and if you can land the follow up golfswing you’ll have lvl 3 charge again. Courage hammer feels really good in Sunbreak

[@caolanberg3837]

@maxlvlcharge I just hope impact crater spam still isn’t the way to go in Sunbreak. I get that it’s the strongest move and it’ll get used a lot but I hope there’s a reason to use other attacks too. Rise hammer got boring for me pretty quick

[@Sunflowa]

How much better do you think sunbreak hammer will be than base rise? Started out as a hammer main, but moved onto SnS for more consistent dps. Thinking about going back to hammer tho

[@caolanberg3837]

Courage style is a lot better than it was before. Got buffed and can do good damage without relying on impact crater all the time. I dunno if much has changed with strength though but courage is looking pretty good. I don’t think it can compete with the best melee weapons (LS,SA,GS), but it seems decently strong and more fun to play

[@GSS1Sirius]

I haven't fought Mal either. I know I can't beat him in just 15 mins for one, but without evade extender, I'm just a shell of a hunter. It's the one skill I must have to hunt well.

[@caolanberg3837]

Ah man, sucks they didn’t have your skill but at least the game will be out soon! I just didn’t wanna be burnt out before the game came out and might be cool to experience the fight for the first time in the actual game

[@novastar96]

Hey! Just curious, have you tried the keeping sway switch skill?

[@caolanberg3837]

I love it actually. It’s really useful for sticking to the monster or dodging attacks when you realized you messed up your positioning. I’ve been using it more than the spinning bludgeon silkbind. Works well with both courage and strength

[@novastar96]

@@caolanberg3837 how about any wire wirebug management skills, palicos, decos? I've been tearing through wirebugs pretty quick with this on the table.

[@caolanberg3837]

@@novastar96 Just been using level 3 wirebug skill. It seems alright, but when that 3rd wirebug goes away it’s painful. Haven’t messed around with stuff yet, maybe the redirection skill is good, I dunno

[@novastar96]

@@caolanberg3837 yeah I've been feeling the same, I was thinking about having a palico with summon endemic life but that'd have to replace power drum. Thanks for answering my questions I'll be looking forward to any sunbreak vids you release.

[@caolanberg3837]

@@novastar96 to be honest I don’t hunt with pets much so I kinda have no clue what skills are good for them or if there’s new skills for them in Sunbreak lol. Hammer honestly feels pretty strong now though, can still do good damage without feeling forced to use all your wirebugs for impact crater. Definitely gonna make some vids eventually, still grinding for gear. Final boss armor is really cool and I’m really liking the bloodlust skill. Lots of cool new skills, gonna be fun testing stuff out

[@Abyssal86]

In Courage RZ, X, RZ, RZ In base Rise it woupd interrupt your charging.

[@caolanberg3837]

Oh interesting! Not sure if I even tried that combo. It’s so nice to see courage getting so many nice changes ☺️

[@ehko9989]

I was extremely disappointed in Rise Hammer because of impact crater spam, which is imo the worst designed silkbind in the base game despite its effectiveness, and because courage was just wasting a switch skill slot. With the demo, I was really impressed by the changes to the charges in courage, making it into something actually worth looking into. You now have a lot of combo routes you can take to take advantage of stuns and flinches and that's great. (even though all these combo routes want to get you to impact crater, which I really don't like) Big bang combo is sadly still extremely underwhelming because it competes directly with impact crater. About my thoughts on why impact crater is the worst designed silkbind in Rise : if spirit helmbreaker for LS was still part of the core moveset but there was a new silkbind capable of dealing more damage that had to take advantage of the same kind of openings, what would you think. Impact crater is the only silkbind in Rise (I think but feel free to correct me on that one) that interacts negatively with the core moveset of the weapon in that it makes completely irrelevant a part of that core moveset.

[@caolanberg3837]

Honestly if Impact Crater spam is still meta in Sunbreak, I may put alot of effort into getting a leaderboard going that doesn’t use it at all. Rise hammer is actually really fun, but spamming one move all the time isn’t fun at all