The Greatsword is one of the weapon types added to V Rising through the early access Gloomrot update. The weapon type is unlocked around the mid-game, after defeating Tristan the Vampire Hunter. Using the weapon offers some long-range weapon swingings to cleave through baddies, along with other uses. With the addition of the version 1.0 full launch of V Rising, you can now get legendary items too, making it all the more interesting if you’re interested in the build and playstyles. The following is a page all about Greatswords, featuring how to get them, various recipes, our recommended build, and more.

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Here’s everything you need to know about getting Greatswords in V Rising, getting the legendary, builds and more. Image via Stunlock Studios.

Unlocking Greatswords¶

To unlock Greatswords in V Rising, you need to defeat Tristan the Vampire Hunter. Tristan is a boss that wanders around the northern edges of Farbane Woods. There’s no dedicated spot as they he tends to wander around, so feel free to track the boss under the V Blood creature list. Note that you need to be item level 40 to start tracking the bosses in that bracket range.

Once you have found Tristan, prepare for a fight. Dodge the spin attacks, and be prepared to use shields and counter attacks as Tristan is overpowered, especially for those on Brutal difficulty. When you’re able to defeat the creature, make sure to drink his blood, and you’ll unlock a lot of new recipes, one of which is the Greatsword, which enables you to build the Iron Greatsword. You’ll need 16 Iron Bars and 12 planks to make the weapon. From then on, you can get more recipes for Greatswords, such as the following:

• Merciless Iron Greatsword Recipe: Rural Book Merchant for 64 Silver Coins
• Sanguine Greatsword Recipe: Blueprint sold at the City Book Vendor for 24 Goldsun Coins.
• Apocalypse (Legendary): Random drops through a vendor pull or via Rift events in the end game.

Greatsword Skills¶

The Greatsword has the following skills attached to them:

• Primary attack - Perform a combo of melee attack swings over two seconds, dealing physical damage with each attack.
• Great Cleaver - Charge forward and swing your greatsword upward, dealing damage in an area and launching enemies into the air for 0.75 seconds.
• Death From Above - Leap into the air and descend upon your enemy, dealing physical damage in an area and becoming immaterial during the leap to prevent effects from hitting you.

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The Apocalypse greatsword shows off its skills, modifiers, and is a key part of any end game greatsword build.

Greatsword Builds¶

There have been a few builds knocking around for the greatsword over the last year. We like the berserker playstyle, which uses the following spells.

Icon	Spell	Type	Description	Earned Via
	Blood Rage	Blood	Shield self and nearby allies for 110% of your spell power and increase attack speed by 25% for 4.5s	Defeat Rufus the Foreman (20)
	Power Surge	Chaos	Remove all negative effects and apply a shield on a target ally or self that shields the target for 125% of your spell power. Increase movement speed by 25% and attack speed by 25% while the shield lasts	Defeat Azariel the Sunbringer (68)
	Veil of Storm (movement)	Shock	Dash towards the inputted direction and elude nearby enemies for 2.2 seconds. Gain 20% increased attack speed for 4 seconds. Your next primary attack deals 25% bonus damage and inflicts Static. Dashing through an enemy also inflicts static.	Requires a Level 2 Shock Spell Point to unlock.

The idea behind the build is to use spells that grant shielding and attack speed buffs to ramp the amount of damage you can do with your primary cleave. Blood Rage shields you for 110% spell power and increases attack speed by 25% for 4.25 seconds. Furthermore, Powersurge grants a 125% spell power shield, grants 25% bonus movement speed, and 25% attack speed. This gives you lots of innate defensiveness, as well as around 8 seconds of increased attack speed.

The Shock movement skill is also handy for the build. You get more attack speed, alongside applying shock to enemies. Shock allows you to proc bonus magical damage with your physical attacks. Meaning that dashing through enemies and comboing them enable some added damage to your attack speed burst combo windows.

Read More: All Spells in V Rising.

Given that your primary attack combo takes around 2 seconds, you can get a total of two extra attack swings by using both of these spells. It’s a 25% damage buff presuming you can safely swing at enemies for the full attack speed buff duration. The other way to look at it is by seeing it as an even quicker way of bursting your enemies down if they have lower HP pools as you can nuke them down much quicker than normal.

The other benefit is you’re getting two big shields too. This makes it easier to engage fights and not have to worry about taking excess damage. Alternatively, you can use those shields for fighting big bad bosses and mitigating damage from boss mechanics.

The best is you can use Blood Rage early on, with the second spell coming later. Till then you can use other spells to fill the gap that offer you a more melee-friendly playstyle.