Among the five weapons available to the player at the start of Wild Hearts, the maul is arguably the most difficult to wield. It’s a slow melee weapon that makes use of an extendable helve that increases both range and damage. Not only are mauls more immobile than other weapons, but they also require precise timing to properly use. Once mastered, however, the maul can become a deadly weapon that can take down kemono with ease. In our Wild Hearts maul weapon guide, we will attempt to break down this mechanically demanding, monster-slaying hammer.

• Related Reading: Wild Hearts – Katana Weapon Guide

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 Maul Weapon Guide

Overview

The maul is a melee weapon that gains damage and range with the help of an extendable helve. It relies on precise timings to extend the helve, leading to heavy-hitting attacks and repeatable combos. It’s also a somewhat immobile weapon with long animation times, which can be punishing if you’re too aggressive against an enemy kemono that’s ready to attack. 

Square Button – Pound Combo

Pressing the Square button executes up to three attacks with the maul. These attacks involve a pound, followed by an upswing, then an overhead swing. While you can tap them in quick succession for a series of fast hits, they don’t really do a whole lot of damage and you generally want to be avoiding this particular combo.

Triangle Button – Jumping Smash

Pressing the Triangle button will execute a simple jumping smash. This moves your character in the direction of the smash by a small distance. Because this attack ends with the maul on the ground in front of you, you can actually chain this attack into Square > Square to execute the last two attacks of the Square combo. 

R2 Button – Power Smash/Extend

The R2 button does one of two things. When held, your character spins the maul around, flinging any karakuri the weapon comes in contact with. Holding the button further causes your character to spin around with the maul, dealing consistent damage in a circle around you. This move drains stamina, and after a certain duration, your character will perform one final downward power smash and deal significant damage in an area.

Pressing the R2 button on its own doesn’t do anything other than execute the first part of the spinning move, but when used just right after pressing a Square or Triangle attack, the maul extends. This extension can happen up to two times and changes the next attack you make with it.  The attack that comes after the extension depends on which button you press. Note that extensions drain your stamina.

The timing for pressing the R2 button in order to extend the helve is pretty tight, and it’s recommended you practice this timing for a bit to get a feel for it. The window is right after you see the flash of light and hear a specific sound effect, both of which signal that it’s time to press R2. Pressing the button too early or too late will do nothing and whiff the combo, so you’ll need to be consistent with your timings if you want to master the maul.

R2 Combos

Extending with R2 following an attack opens up lots of different combos. Because Triangle (Jumping Smash) and the first Square attack (Pound) both leave the character in the same pose, following this up with R2 results in the same “state” that you can then chain with another Square or Triangle attack. Pressing Square after this state executes an extended upswing, and following that up with another R2 > Square results in a fully extended pound, which deals a huge amount of damage, even more so than the final power smash after holding R2.

On the other hand, pressing Triangle after your first extension will instead launch you into the air and do a vertical spinning attack. This can then be followed up by another R2 into another Triangle attack to execute a fully extended jumping pummel. 

You’ll notice that the extension prompt appears despite already extending the maul twice. Pressing R2 once more, followed by another Triangle attack, will execute another fully extended jumping pummel. You can loop this jumping pummel as long as you have stamina, giving you up to four successive jumping pummels. This gives you serious air time and makes it difficult for some kemono to reach you, but you’ll need to time each pummel correctly in order to pull it off.

After extending the pummel twice following a Triangle attack, you can press Square instead of Triangle to execute Centrifugal Smash, a downward spinning move that deals moderate damage. It’s a great way to exit your aerial combo if you’d rather finish it before running out of stamina completely.

There’s also a way to enter the spinning power smash move mid-combo. After launching yourself in the air with Square > R2 > Triangle or Triangle > R2 > Triangle, you can hold R2 instead of pressing it during your next window to perform the power smash already fully extended. You’ll start spinning while still in the air and finish with the downward power smash once you run out of stamina.

Finally, you can actually execute a special extended attack after tapping Square twice. Following an unextended upswing after pressing Square > Square, you can press R2 and then Square again to perform an extended overhead swing. This has a very long animation and doesn’t do nearly as much damage as a fully extended pound, but it’s still better than finishing the Square combo without any extension.

You can also press Triangle instead of Square during this combo to enter the jumping pummel loop.

In summary, pressing Square after extending with R2 will generally result in a stationary attack, whereas pressing Triangle will result in an aerial one. Knowing when to use what type of attack during a hunt is what separates the novices from the pros.

Karakuri Moves

The maul has a couple of karakuri moves, one of which you may want to use quite often. The crate-based attack simply executes Centrifugal Smash, the same downward spinning attack that you can use to exit the aerial Triangle combo. 

The spring-based attack performs a flying jumping smash, which you can actually follow up into an extension and then a possible jumping pummel chain.

Using the spring to extend your maul may be more efficient than using a regular jumping smash, especially when you want to get close to a kemono right away.

In Action

Hunting with a maul can be a bit tricky. Since you don’t have reliable ways of creating openings yourself, you’ll have to look for them instead. You can use the jumping pummels to avoid certain kemono attacks while dishing out decent damage, and always remember to use the extended Square combo when the kemono is prone.

Karakuri is extremely helpful when using mauls as they can stun or knock down kemono. Always use them to your advantage and save enough thread for certain Fusion Karakuri as necessary (such as the Bulwark when hunting a Kingtusk).

The maul can feel a little clunkier than the other weapons in Wild Hearts, but it’s a great choice for those who love heavy-hitting weapons and are willing to take the time to wield it.

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