The katana is the first weapon you get to wield in Wild Hearts, and under its simple moveset lies room for skill expression. Though you won’t have trouble getting the hang of its combos at first, you’ll find that it rewards proper use of the right attacks to fully make use of this versatile and stylish weapon. This Wild Hearts katana weapon guide will go over all of its basic moves as well as some combos you may want to try out.

Do note that as with every weapon, you unlock more moves as you progress through the story. As this can be a bit of a spoiler to some, we’ll only cover the karakuri moves that you can pull off via the crate and the spring, which you gain access to fairly early on in the game.

Wild Hearts Katana Weapon Guide

Overview

The katana is a mid-range melee weapon that offers a little bit of everything. You have decent mobility with both quick attacks and movement-heavy attacks that let you reposition mid-fight. Your playstyle with the katana revolves around landing attacks to slowly increase your weapon gauge. Upon fully filling this gauge completely, you can release your katana into its Unbound state, causing it to deal significantly more damage with increased range. 

Square Attacks  – Regular Slashes

Pressing the Square button will unleash a regular slash. You can chain up to five of these slashes at a time, with the fifth and final slash dealing the most damage. The animation for these slashes is pretty quick, and you can roll out of the streak after a slash when you need to dodge a kemono attack. Do note that this resets the combo, however. 

Triangle Button – Iai Slashes

Pressing the Triangle button will unleash an iai slash combo, which can be pressed up to three or more times. Pressing Triangle once will cause your character to sheathe the weapon, then slash. A second press will lead into a vertical slash, and a third will sheathe your katana once again before slashing twice. The last two slashes deal considerable damage. It’s worth noting that the Triangle combo does more damage than the Square combo, but you will be animation locked for a longer duration due to your sheathing/drawing.

It is also possible to extend the iai combo even further. After pressing Triangle for a third time and sheathing your katana, you can repeatedly mash Triangle to unleash a flurry of quick strikes. You can extend this chain of slashes for a few seconds before finishing the combo with a single, heavy-hitting horizontal slash. During this combo, your character will remain stationary. The range of this flurry is fairly short, so be sure you’re right on top of the kemono if you want the slashes to land.

Because the Iai combo starts after sheathing your weapon, you can lead into the first slash much quicker if your katana is sheathed when you press Triangle. As such, make it a habit of sheathing your katana when you’re moving around and not hitting the kemono.

R2 – Special Attacks

The katana also has a few special attacks that you can execute using R2. R2 attacks use up stamina, so while they offer the most damage out of all three attack buttons, you can’t spam them indefinitely. Pressing R2 will cause your character to wind up momentarily before executing a single-handed lunge. The second R2 attack executes “Twin Blade Slash Storm,” a quick flurry of attacks that use both your katana and scabbard. The third and final R2 attack, called “Iai Sunder Slash,” makes your character slash twice in a wide arc while dashing forward. 

All three special attacks have their own uses. The lunge from the first R2 attack covers a bit of distance, so you can use it to get close to the kemono while dealing damage. The second R2 attack deals great damage, and the third one is great for repositioning during a fight while dealing damage. The wide slashes from your third R2 attack are especially helpful when dealing with larger kemono, as you’re more likely to land the attacks.

Finally, you can use R2 during your Triangle or Square combos at any point to execute a particular special attack. Using R2 during your Square combo executes Twin Slash Blade Storm:

Whereas R2 during your Triangle combo executes Iai Sunder Slash:

It’s always good to remember when to use the R2 moves mid-combo. If you’re chipping the kemono with Square attacks and it goes prone or you notice that it’s still recovering, pressing R2 will give you more damage output right away. When you’re doing your iai combo and the kemono gets up earlier than expected, you can end it with an R2 to reposition away.

Karakuri Moves

There are a few extra moves that you can pull off with the karakuri, but we’ll just go over the two that you unlock at the beginning of the game. You have the crate-based attack when jumping off crates and the spring-based attack when leaping from a spring.

The crate-based attack causes your character to jump high and slam the katana down, causing a minor shockwave upon impact. This does a lot of damage, so it’s a great way to engage on a kemono from above.

The spring-based attack is more of a lunge and causes you to land two quick slashes after traveling a certain distance. This does decent damage and is great for leaping back into a fight right after disengaging from the kemono.

While you won’t be using karakuri moves all the time, the spring and crate attacks are great for closing the gap between you and the kemono should the opportunity present itself.

Unbound Form 

Landing katana attacks slowly fills up your weapon gauge. When this gauge fills up completely, you gain access to the weapon’s Unbound form, which causes the weapon to gain range and damage. While in Unbound form, the gauge will slowly deplete until it’s empty or you exit the Unbound state manually, which then stops the gauge from depleting and returns your katana to its normal state. 

To enter the katana’s Unbound form, you must unleash it with R2 + Square or R2 + Triangle. Pressing R2 + Circle cancels this state early, which is useful if you don’t want to waste the gauge after the kemono leaves the area or is out of range. For the most part, your attacks don’t change while in Unbound form, other than the fact that you do more damage and gain a little range. It is worth noting that right after entering Unbound form, you can lead right into the iai attack flurry combo, which is perfect for unloading tons of damage.

You can also enter Unbound form when jumping from a crate or leaping from a spring by pressing R2 + Square or Triangle. Here’s what the crate attack looks like when entering Unbound:

And the spring attack variant:

This executes an empowered attack that also activates your Unbound form, making it a pretty efficient way to enter the state.

In Action

When hunting kemono, you generally want to wait for openings before you unload your attacks on them. As a majority of your damage comes from your Unbound state, you can rely on the weaker Square attacks to get quick hits in and build your gauge. When the kemono is staggered or isn’t moving after recovering from one of its attacks, you can use the iai attacks to deal more damage. Remember to use R2 to execute the Iai Sunder Slash and reposition in case the kemono tries to attack as soon as it recovers.

When the kemono falls prone, that’s you’re chance to unload. Activate your Unbound state and use the extended iai combo to dish out tons of damage while they’re getting back up. If you’re a distance away from them, use the spring or leap onto them to enter Unbound while attacking.

The katana is the iconic Japanese sword, and Wild Hearts has given it justice with its fluid and fun gameplay. It’s easy to get into and even more fun to master, making it the perfect weapon for both beginners and veterans of monster-hunting games. 

If you want to check out more Wild Hearts content or guides like this, head on over to our Wild Hearts game hub.