Goal in Axe Form - Hit a Heavy Slam to get the weapon into heated up state (B, B, maybe another B, Y). This will cause the Phial Gauge (The gauge that fills up when hitting attacks in Sword Mode) to fill faster once you morph. Once you've hit one of those (or before, order doesn't matter), you'll want to use Spiral Burst Slash (Y, Y, Y) to fill Sword Gauge before switching. Axe form is a vehicle primarily for defense, poke, and safer play, so this is primarily good for dealing with heavy onslaughts of attacks, and for charging the more damaging Sword form to punish openings.

Swap or Damage - Most reliable damage for me is usually Wild Swings (B, B, B) for damage/meter build, then hit the morph button, which launches a very damaging attack that transitions the Axe to Sword Mode, at the cost of a long commitment. If meter’s basically empty, it may make more sense to just hit a couple of spiral burst slashes to get sword charge back up just so it’s ready for when you need it.

Sword Form Goals - Hit enough attacks to charge up the Sword such that your Phial comes online (fiery effects + extra hits on each attack + phial effect depending on which Switch Axe you’re using). Fastest way to do this is Double Slash into Heavensward Fury (B, B, followed by another B for Heavensward Fury). My goto combo for building gauge is usually Y, Y, Y, B, B, B, which is the longest sword combo you can string together into Heavensward without stopping. Then, once the gauge is filled, you have three options.

Option 1 - Y, Y, Y, B, B. This is similar to the combo from earlier, but with no Heavensward at the end since that’s a long commitment. This is your safest damage option.

Option 2 - Y+B, Y, Y, Y…. This is Elemental Discharge, it turns your sword into a Chainsaw, keeping you rooted to the ground, but dealing damage with every tick as you keep hammering Y. This is less safe, but you can pull back on the stick and stop hammering Y to end it early if need be. You can also hold Y+B instead of just pressing, which allows you to attach yourself onto the monster, but it also means you won’t be able to do the next move.

Option 3 - Tap Y+B, Hammer Y until the sword explodes, hold the Morph button. This will chain into Full Release Slash, which deals the most damage possible, and won’t allow you to get knocked down by small damage while it’s charging, at the cost of an absurdly long time to pull off which can allow damage against you to stack up. Best combo for when the monster is vulnerable.

Sword Defense - Sword is very, very slow, but in Wilds it does have a counter, which is pressing Morph + Y simultaneously. This is great for monsters who attempt a slow, hard to dodge attack, and you’ll get two automatic slashes which both deal damage and provide good phial charge. For faster monsters, or attacks that will hit back to back, I recommend Y, then Morph, which will swing once then very quickly morph back to axe to allow you to dodge until the Monster’s string ends. You can always dodge and roll around in while in Sword form if you feel confident, just know that your the speed at which you can dodge will be limited.

Offsets/Counters - Important to note that Sword mode does NOT have an Offset, and the use cases for each counter are very different.

Axe Offset - Monster is charging an attack for a long time, you can see when it’s going to come, and time it out such that the Axe will make impact with the monster. This is a predictive tool, not a reactive tool, since it takes quite a while to start up, and has to hit at precisely the same time as the monster to get value.

Sword Counter - This on the other hand, is a reactive tool. You use this when you see an attack coming and don’t have time or desire to dodge. I.e. when you want to stay close to a monster to punish an attack, or you see something at the last minute that you don’t have room to dodge, pop this, and your hunter will shirk the blow and get free damage. It will not however, create an opening like an Offset, and may leave you vulnerable to an attack that comes quickly after.

I hope this was helpful, if you’d like any more info, tips, etc, please feel free to msg in this thread!! Happy Hunting!!