Wild Hearts | Bladed Wagasa Weapon Guide: Parrying, Combos, Tips and Tricks

The Bladed Wasaga is one of the most unique weapons in Wild Hearts thanks to its parry mechanic, and in this guide, you'll learn everything you need to master it. This includes knowing all of the weapon's basic and advanced combos, what kind of skills you want to run with it, an in-depth look at parrying and some general tips and tricks for using the Wagasa.

Wild Hearts | Bladed Wagasa Weapon Guide: Parrying, Combos, Tips and Tricks

Wild Hearts has a lot of weapons that make it stand out compared to others in the monster-hunter genre. Whether it be the rustic-yet-advanced Hand Cannon or the complex yet awesome Karakuri Staff, there are plenty of cool weapons to sink your teeth into. And none showcase the difference between Wild Hearts and its competitors more so than the Bladed Wagasa.

The Bladed Wagasa is one of the most interesting weapons in the game with a fast, aggressive playstyle complemented by a very unique special skill: the ability to parry. The learning curve for the Wagasa is very steep as, despite not having a ton of combos, it has a high barrier for entry thanks to the reliance on the parry. It is a tricky weapon to figure out, which only makes it that much more satisfying when you finally do. And we’re here to help with that process.

Here is an in-depth guide on the Bladed Wagasa weapon in Wild Hearts. This includes learning about all of the Wagasa’s combos and moves, which ones are the best and most useful, how the parry and spindance gauge mechanics works as the best skills to use on the weapon and some general tips and tricks.

Want more Wild Hearts content and guides? You can find more here on KeenGamer:

  1. Wild Hearts | Human-Path and Kemono-Path Affinity Explained
  2. Wild Hearts | How to Craft the Best Weapons (Weapon Upgrade Guide)
  3. Wild Hearts | Amaterasu Monster Guide
  4. Wild Hearts | Sapscourge Monster Guide
  5. Wild Hearts | 7 Useful Tips and Tricks All Players Should Know

Bladed Wagasa General Information

The Bladed Wagasa is one of the five starting weapons in Wild Hearts. It is a close-range melee weapon with a unique focus on parrying attacks. 

Interestingly, the Wagasa is one of only two lunging weapons in the game, with the other being the Bow. The physical characteristics of a lunging weapon are a bit harder to nail down than a slashing or pummelling weapon: slashing weapons excel in cutting off tails and other parts of a Kemono’s body, whereas pummel weapons are best at breaking parts like horns. Lunge weapons, on the other hand, seem better at breaking open weak points for Hunter’s Arm, which is fitting given how much these weapons rely on Karakuri.

A lightweight, close-range weapon that’s extremely good at deflecting kemono attacks from the fore. It offers very fast, virtually unassailable [light] attacks, high penetration [heavy] attacks that chain into airborne moves, and [special attack] “parry” moves that consume stamina to fend off all manner of attacks.

Wild Hearts, Bladed Wagasa Tutorial

The Bladed Wagasa

The Bladed Wagasa

Moves and Combos

Compared to some of the other weapons in Wild Hearts, the list of attacks and combos on the Wagasa are relatively low. Even factoring in the spindance gauge and the parry (both of which will be explained in a moment) the weapon is rather low maintenance in terms of what you have to learn. This is likely because the Bladed Wagasa has one of the highest skill ceilings in the game, with your learning coming from mastering parry timing more than anything else.

Just for simplicity, we’ll be using the abbreviations L. Attack (Light Attack), H. Attack (Heavy Attack) and Sp. Attack (Special Attack).

Basic Combos:

  • Spindance Combo: L. Attack > L. Attack > L. Attack > L. Attack > L. Attack.
  • Reverse Lunge Combo: H. Attack > H. Attack
  • Concealed Slash: Dodge > L. Attack
  • Return Lunge: Dodge > H. Attack
  • Parry: Sp. Attack
Ground Slash

Ground Slash

Airborne Combos:

  • Aerial Spindance Combo: (While in the air) L. Attack > L. Attack > L. Attack > L. Attack > L. Attack
  • Plunging Comet: (While in the air) H. Attack

There are also a series of special attacks that are executed when attacking after pressing the parry button:

  • Trey Star Combo: Sp. Attack > L. Attack > L. Attack > L. Attack
  • Void Shift Combo: Sp. Attack > H. Attack > H. Attack
Airborne Attacks

Airborne Attacks

Most Important Combos

The combos for the Bladed Wagasa that you’ll find yourself relying on often will be the:

  • Spindance Combo
  • Aerial Spindance Combo
  • Concealed Slash
  • Trey Star Combo

The Spindance and Aerial Spindance combos are what you are going to be using most often. They quickly build up the spindance gauge while dealing decent damage. Additionally, each of the attacks, either on the ground or the air, deals multiple instances of damage at high speeds making them good sources of crit or ailments. You can cancel out at any time by dodging or parrying, which is excellent for fighting at close range with aggressive Kemono.

Forward Thrust

Forward Thrust

Next is the Concealed Slash. You should only really use this once your spindance gauge has reached at least yellow as it will alter the attack. Instead of a simple forward slash, you will dodge into a strong uppercut that deals a lot of damage. This will be your main way of dealing damage once you reach the highest stage of the spindance gauge.

Finally, the Trey Star Combo is triggered by using your Light Attack after a Parry. Like the Concealed Slash, this will also change depending on your spindance gauge, with it beginning as a simple series of forward sweeps with your Wagasa and evolving into you throwing out the Wagasa like a boomerang into the monster. This will be another great source of damage and a good way of keeping up the gauge.

Aside from these, do not neglect the basic Reverse Lunge Combo. This is the quickest way to get you airborne without needing to stop attacking. You can also use it and the Void Shift Combo to avoid certain attacks by Kemono, so keep that in mind when messing around with the Wagasa.

Very Flashy

Very Flashy

The Spindance Gauge

The most important part of the Wagasa (outside of the parry) is the spindance gauge. As you attack or as you achieve successful parries, your spindance gauge (which can be found above your health) will increase. The bar is split into three sections, going from blue to yellow to orange at its peak. An easy way to tell which stage of the gauge you’re at is to look at your Wagasa during attacks and parries: if it is glowing yellow or orange, you will be at that point in the spindance gauge.

Depending on how much of the spindance gauge is filled, your combos and attacks will change. As a general rule of thumb, most attacks become longer with higher base damage when the gauge is filled, but some attacks are greatly enhanced. 

Spindance Gauge

Spindance Gauge

For example, upon filling the spindance gauge, your Dodge > Light Attack combo changes from a single slash to a powerful uppercut, one of the Wagasa’s strongest attacks. Similarly, the Dodge > Heavy Attack becomes a jumping-forward thrust that deals multiple instances of damage. 

If you go a few seconds without attacking or parrying, the spindance gauge will begin to rapidly decline until it runs out. To avoid this, make sure you keep in the fight for as long as possible, as even just hitting the target once will halt the gauge from falling even further. 

Big Damage Boost

Big Damage Boost

Parrying

The signature feature of the Bladed Wagasa in Wild Hearts is its parry mechanic. If you press the parry button just before being hit by a Kemono attack, you will parry it instead. This will negate all damage dealt by the attack and fill the spindance gauge a significant amount (when compared to attacking normally) for about 1/3rd of your stamina. You’ll be able to parry any attack in the game except for grab attacks, like those seen on Amaterasu, Sapscourge or Fumebeak. Anything else – whether it’s projectiles, close-range hits, charge attacks, or AoE attacks – is fair game. 

Another thing is that, after parrying an attack, your next Wagasa attack will deal bonus damage. This is a massive increase to the weapon’s usually low damage output, with it dealing over 10x the damage directly after parrying. This, alongside the damage reduction and allowing you to stay in the fray for longer periods, allows the Wagasa to be a frontline fighting weapon. Like other games with a parry system, learning monster attacks and timings will be the largest source of improvement when using the Wagasa.

Successful Parry

Successful Parry

An important thing to know when learning the parry timing is that the animation is only used as a punishment. When you trigger a parry, you will enter a locked animation for about 2 seconds that cannot be negated by anything other than an attack from a Kemono: you cannot dodge, combo into another attack or even enter another parry. You are stuck in that state until the animation ends. This is important because it serves as your punishment if you cannot execute a successful parry. 

The parry on the Wagasa is instant. As soon as you press the button, you’ll see a flash of light for a brief moment that indicates the parry window. If the attack hasn’t been parried and you watch out the rest of the animation, you will have missed your opportunity. Nothing else matters – not your position to the enemy, not which direction you’re in – other than parrying during that flash. This is why it is important to understand that the animation is there to punish you for spamming the parry. When learning the Wagasa, try to ignore the animation of the parry and instead rely on feeling out just when you’re about to be hit – so long as that blue light is there when the attack connects, you’ll be good as gold.

Flashing Parry

Flashing Parry

Best Bladed Wagasa Skills

The Bladed Wagasa has a ton of useful skills that it can utilise in Wild Hearts. Some of these are unique to the Wagasa weapon class, but others are more general recommendations that can be found in other places.

To begin, let’s discuss some the Wagasa’s exclusive skills. These can all be found on various Bladed Wagasa weapons and will directly aid you in dodging, parrying or increasing output when using specific combos. You can combine certain skills using the inheritance feature of the weapon tree, too. The skills in question are:

  • Dodge Master: Lengthens the window of time for a successful parry.
  • Sublime Dance: Lengthens the amount of time before the spindance gauge begins to fall.
  • Parasol Dance: Fury: Boosts attack for a while when the spindance level increases.
  • Parry Perfection: Continually fills the spindance gauge for a while on a successful parry.
  • Instinct Parry: Occasionally triggers a parry move automatically.

Having any of these skills in your repertoire is an incredible boon to your Wagasa gameplay. I would recommend seeking out Dodge MasterParasol Dance: Fury and Parry Perfection most of all. Dodge Master lessens the harsh requirement for parrying (subsequently making Instinct Parry less important) where as Fury and Perfection work perfectly together to constantly keep both your spindance gauge and attack increased. 

Best Wagasa Skills

Best Wagasa Skills

Aside from those, some of the skills to consider are the Karakuri Coordination skills. The Karakuri pair excellently with Wagasa for both utility and viability. Having a set of skills to either give you health (Coordination: Remedy) or boost your damage (Coordination: Fury) for just using Karakuri is a really good bonus. The Dawn Guard Gauntlets and Haidate have both of these skills so consider using them. Celestial Breath is another incredible skill but it is only accessible to those on the Pure-Human Path. 

For more general recommendations, Health Boost and Fatigue Recovery are great. While your aim will be to parry every attack, you most certainly will not. You will take a lot of damage when learning attacks or going up against aggressive Kemono. As such, having bonus health baked into your build is never going to be a bad thing. Similarly, parrying takes a surprising amount of stamina and you may find yourself in hot water should you not remember to let it fill back up. Fatigue Recovery is here to give you a bit of leniency in that regard.

Lastly, one of the most interesting things about the Wagasa is that it falls into the defacto role of tanking weapon. Other weapon types cannot defend themselves against attacks aside from dodging. Meanwhile, you can take them head-on because you negate all damage with a successful parry (which also contributes to you dealing higher damage). As such, picking the skill Provocation is an excellent pick if you plan on playing co-op as Kemono will be far more likely to target you over your squishy friends.

The Most Stylish Weapon

The Most Stylish Weapon

Tips and Tricks

Karakuri Pairings

The Karakuri are a large part of any build in Wild Hearts, but especially with the Wagasa. The way that this weapon interacts with various Karakuri drastically increases its performance, utility and viability in a vast amount of hunts. 

The Spring Karakuri is going to be your bread and butter. With a low activation cost, you can spawn a ton of springs all over the map. These will help you get out of attacks quickly as well as get back into the fight. When launching off a Spring Karakuri, both your Light and Heavy attacks become a potent forward thrust, dealing a hefty amount of damage in multiple instances. This is a great way of applying status or ailments, but also just for breaking parts and opening wounds for Hunter’s Arm.

Glider Karakuri Fall

Glider Karakuri Fall

Another staple of the Wagasa-Karakuri dynasty is the Glider. When you trigger an attack while gliding, you will go into a downward drop before bouncing back up into the air. This is great for several reasons. The main reason is that it is free damage that sets you back into the airborne state after use, allowing you to go any aerial combo. The other good thing about this is that, if you time your attack for the taller part of the Kemono you’re attacking, you will deal considerably more damage as you pass through its body. 

Some good Fusion Karakuri to pair includes the Spring Trap and the Shield Wall. The former will lock down Kemono for easy damage from attacks like the Trey Star Combo. Then, for the latter, you will likely be close enough to quickly close in on any Kemono who hits the wall. The Karakuri are a massive benefit to the Bladed Wagas, so learn to rely on them while playing this weapon. 

Karakuri Pairings

Karakuri Pairings

Don’t Neglect Dodging

To finish, let’s discuss something that spells ruin for many wannabe Bladed Wagasa players in Wild Hearts. Just because you can parry everything does not mean you should parry everything. As we previously discussed, grabs cannot be parried and you will need to dodge them to avoid damage. Even then, there are plenty of other attacks that are far easier to dodge than parry. 

The power fantasy of the Wagasa can cause some Hunters to tunnel vision. You run the risk of focusing purely on parrying and forgetting to do anything else. Forgetting to dodge certain attacks can make you play recklessly and place you in unnecessary danger, which can lead to some carts that really shouldn’t have happened. 

On the flip side, being too afraid to commit to parrying can result in the Wagasa feeling weak. Parrying is the best way of building up the spindance gauge and, without it at full charge, the Wagasa feels very weak compared to other weapons. You need to get in and be aggressive if you want this weapon to shine. Another thing to consider is that parrying and dodging both take stamina to fulfil, which may lead to some awkward situations if you’re not aware.

Overall, the Bladed Wagasa is a weapon of balance. You’ll learn more as you play but you need to feel out what attacks are worth parrying. A good example is the Lavaback: I technically could parry the delayed explosion it leaves behind, to great success even. But I could just as easily get out, prepare a Spring Karakuri and dash in to deal heavy damage without risking my neck. Each player will determine what they are better or worse at parrying, but just do not forget that dodging is a good (sometimes preferable) option.

Strike a Pose

Strike a Pose

And that was everything you needed to know about the Bladed Wagasa in Wild Hearts. If you want to see guides on any of the other weapons, leave them in the comments below.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

×