Wild Hearts Maul weapon guide for beginners

The Wild Hearts Mallet is a giant hammer with an extended handle that increases damage, but is slow and will destroy any structures you build nearby. Using the mallet requires a certain amount of attention and patience, because I realized that you have to choose your moment carefully to attack – but if you get it right, it will devastate everyone nearby. I’ll cover everything you need to know in our Wild Hearts Maul guide below so you can really break the Kemono moving forward.

How to use Wild Hearts Maul

The Mallet in Wild Hearts is slow, heavy and powerful – a blunt force weapon that deals serious damage and increases that damage if you can time your button entries right. This is based on extending the arm by pressing the trigger buttons during flashes, and as the arm gets longer during the combo, Maul deals more and more damage during this, but resets when the combo ends. Probably the slowest of the Wild Hearts weapons, but each attack deals massive damage.

Wild Hearts Maul has the following attacks and move set to keep in mind.

• Square/X: pound attack
• Triangle/Y: Jumping Smash (slower, higher damage)
• R2/RT: Power Smash (consumes stamina, deals very high damage, destroys nearby Karakuri structures)
• R2/RT during combo (when Maul is flashing): Lengthens the handle and increases damage for the rest of the combo.

Beyond that, there’s a wide variety of (slow kicking) combos to learn, all of which can be powered by the handle extension – let’s talk about that.

The Maul’s greatest feature is its ability to extend the arm or “Screed”. You do this in the middle of the combo: as you spin it around, you’ll notice its head flashing after each hit – when that happens press R2/RT and it will extend the arm, increasing the damage for the rest of the combo. You can do this multiple times in a combo, greatly increasing Maul’s damage along the way, but it’s important to remember you still need to enter the rest of the combo for it to continue! You hit the arm extension button, but you also need to quickly enter the next phase of the combo, otherwise it ends there and returns you to zero.

If you’re feeling like hammer time in Wild Hearts, here are some basic tips for getting you off the ground and flying through the air with a giant blunt force tool.

• The maul extension trigger does burn some stamina, if not much. Keep that in mind in case you need to escape.
• Maul has no defensive abilities and moves slowly, so most of your game will be about retreating and looking for opportunities to attack.
• If an enemy stops for any reason – fall, rest after an attack, etc – it’s time to rush for a high-damage combo!
• Maul’s Power Strikes will destroy any Karakuri you have built nearby. This can be helpful sometimes when you want to clear the battlefield, but it’s more likely to be an obstacle that destroys structures you have set up and may need. Make sure you’re clean before you hit your way.

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