Wilds introduced a arsenal of new defensive options that fundamentally change how Lance approaches combat. Each guard and counter technique serves distinct purposes, offering different levels of protection, damage potential, and follow-up opportunities. Mastering these tools transforms Lance from a simple poke-and-block weapon into a sophisticated counter-attacking powerhouse.

Charged Counter is Lance's most powerful new tool: a counter that completely negates all damage and grows stronger the higher the charge level is.

Each attack in your three-hit combo sequence increases your starting charge level. Starting from neutral gives you level 0 (briefly), after one attack you begin at level 1, after two attacks you start at level 2, and after three attacks you immediately reach the maximum level 3 charge. Each level is represented by a different color and

• 1️⃣

  Level 1 Charge Counter deals 20% more damage (white)

• 2️⃣

  Level 2 Charge Counter deals 40% more damage (yellow)

• 3️⃣

  Level 3 Charge Counter deals 70% more damage (red)

Charge Counter Transitions

Charge Counter Transitions

This is a clip of Arch Tempered Uth Duna, where the hunter keeps stacking up to red level with 3 pokes, then performs a max level charged counter, aligning perfectly with the monster's attack pattern.

While you can manually charge from any level to increase damage further, this rarely proves worthwhile in practice as it's faster to simply perform additional pokes to reach the desired charge level.

To successfully perform a Charged Counter you need to release it just before an attack connects. This precise timing triggers a counter that grants i-frames, negating all damage regardless of your guard skill investment. Even attacks that normally require Guard Up become completely "blockable" through this counter window.

Successfully countering an attack delivers two damage instances instead of one, dramatically increasing the total damage output. Combined with the charge level multipliers, a successful red-level counter represents some of the highest damage attacks Lance can perform.

Funnily enough, even though you i-frame through the attack (not block it), it still procs the Offensive Guard skill, making this one of the best counters in the game, especially if used at yellow or red charge level.

The true power of the Charged Counter

The true power of the Charged Counter

We transition into a charged counter from the mid-thrust combo, countering Lagiacrus's big AOE thunder attack. This attack actually has 3 hitboxes, but a well timed Charged Counter allows us to negate all of them. We stand still for a bit, until after all hitboxes have passed, before we start poking again.

Charged Counter also has this unique property, that if you counter a multi-hit attack, like Zoh Shia's Flame Breath or the Lagiacrus's Thunder AOE, for as long as you don't press any buttons (including move stick) afterwards, you'll ignore all future hitboxes of that attack. This is very useful, as it allows you to just wait out some longer multi-hit attacks that would otherwise chip you to death.

You can even chain charged counters together, but the timing is a bit tricky: input the next counter after both damage numbers appear and the lance begins retracting toward neutral position. If you press too early, you will just perform a high thrust, too late and you might not be in time to counter the next attack.

This technique allows back-to-back counters against certain monster attack patterns, though it requires good knowledge of attack timings.

Perfect Guard is performed by pressing the guard button right before the monster hits you. If done right, you will see a white flash and the counter shield attack deals increased damage and KO. Additionally, all follow up attacks are significantly stronger.

For the follow up attacks, you have three different options:

• ⚡

  Return Thrust

  A very quick thrust that deals medium damage, but allows you to attack or block again immediately. In most cases, this is what you want to use, as it allows you to chain perfect block on very quick attacks while still squeezing in some damage.

• 💥

  Retribution Thrust

  A slow attack where you jump back and then thrust forward, dealing good damage with the option to follow up with a dash attack. This makes it a really good option for situations where you actually have the time to perform it and the dash attack.

• 💸

  Payback Thrust

  A slow attack where you jump forward and thrust upwards, dealing mediocre damage. This is option honestly doesn't see much use, as the damage and speed are bad so you usually wanna choose between the first two options.

Perfect Guard Chain

Perfect Guard Chain

Nu Udra has a very quick attack chain, where the first attack has enough time to perform a charged counter on it, on the second attack we do a perfect guard and because the third attack is very quick, we follow up with a return thrust into another perfect guard. The final attack leaves Nu Udra open so we can perform a Retribution Thrust out of the perfect guard.

Perfect Guard functions best as a defensive safety net rather than your primary defensive option. While Charged Counter and Grand Retribution Thrust typically offer superior damage and utility, Perfect Guard shines in some situations:

• 🔄

  Multi-hit attacks or fast attack Chains that Charged Counter struggles to handle

• ⏱️

  Panic situations where you lack time to charge a counter

So think of the perfect guard as a last resort option, a panic button.

So when you compare blocking attacks with guard level 0, using normal block and perfect guard, you will notice that the perfect guard results in less chip damage and faster recovery. This is because perfect guard has some built in levels of guard. Unfortunately, this seems to be fixed though, and does not scale with the guard skill, meaning that you can't improve the perfect guard knockback or chip damage with guard skills.

So no matter if you have guard level 0 or 3, it seems you always take the same amount of knockback and chip damage, when using perfect guard, completely ignoring the guard level, which is a very weird game design choice, basically making it impossible to improve the knockback and lag you take on strong attacks, when using perfect guard.

Power Guard returns from previous games with a new hidden meter mechanic. You can enter Power Guard by holding the dodge button while blocking or charging a counter, entering a distinctive stance with 360-degree guard angle.

The stance offers several defensive advantages: it allows blocking attacks from all directions, and the continuous stamina drain system allows indefinite blocking as long as stamina remains available. This makes Power Guard excellent for handling complex multi-hit combinations or attacks from multiple angles.

However, Power Guard increases chip damage compared to normal blocking, creating a trade-off for better stamina management and stronger follow ups at the cost of taking more damage. Unlike Iceborne, Wilds does not have the automatic Guard Up effect, so unblockable attacks remain unblockable regardless of Power Guard duration.

Power Guard's primary value lies in it's strong follow ups and new level mechanic, allowing access to Grand Retribution Thrust, Lance's highest-damage attack when conditions align properly. Blocking any attack while in Power Guard fills a hidden meter visible through your lance's glow intensity.

Grand Retribution Thrust

Grand Retribution Thrust

Versus Rey Dau, when he does the double wing attack, you can Charge Counter the first one, then you could do another CC on the second one, but since your combo will be max at level 1 (giving you a low damage CC), you can also do a GRT with guaranteed orange level, dealing slightly more damage and being able to punish the wide opening with a triple thrust or a dash attack immediately after.

Grand Retribution Thrust executes as a backward leap followed by a devastating forward thrust dealing three damage ticks instead of the typical two. A GRT at red level is the highest damage attack Lance can perform, surpassing even the Charged Counter.

GRT isn't the only follow up from Power Guard, there's also other follow-up attacks like Leaping Thrust. In some situations, this boosted leaping thrust can also be a valid option as it's very quick, deals good damage, and closes quite a bit of distance.

The meter progression affects follow up attack damage significantly:

• ⬜

  White

  minimum you need to perform the Grand Retribution Thrust. Blocking any attack will at least give you this level. It buffs attacks by 10%

• 🟧

  Orange

  Boosts the damage of follow up attacks by 30%.

• 🟥

  Red

  Boosts the damage of follow up attacks by 70%.

Despite its damage potential, GRT carries several practical limitations that prevent it from replacing Charged Counter as the primary Counter option:

• It is slower requiring a longer opening to perform, especially if you want to use its full potential and follow up with the dash attack.

• It requires you to block a strong attack so you can get to red level immediately. Blocking a strong attack often means you will take a lot of chip damage and knockback.

• To prevent chip damage and knockback, you can slot in guard levels, but this means most likely you need to sacrifice other skills you would use otherwise

• Power Guard drains stamina continuously, meaning skills like max might turn off, making you uptime worse.

• Because you are in power guard, its impossible to proc offensive guard, meaning you will not get the damage boost from it unless it's already active

But even with all these downsides, there's still some use cases. First of all, many monsters have roars that for some reason just give you a free red level, in many situations it's also better than doing a charged counter on no combo and you know you get orange or red on the GRT. Additionally, there's an advanced trick (covered in the next section) to increase the range, allowing you to punish attacks you otherwise couldn't reach.

Especially with the august balance patch, increasing GRT damage and reducing power guard chip damage, make this move a lot more viable than before.

So to summarize, Power Guard and Grand Retribution Thrust are good when you have no charge level for a charged counter and you know you can get a red level buff on the power guard. It can also be used for gap closing, as charged counter is very stationary.

Let's look at how to get even more out of GRT: as we learned when performing the Grand Retribution Thrust, you will jump back before jumping forward with a thrust. Now there's a really cool tech where you can combine these two movements into the same direction, allowing you to close even larger gaps and dealing massive damage in the process.

To perform the GRT Jump Tech you want to:

• 🚪

  Exit Focus Mode, face away from your target (hold stick backward), begin charging a counter

• ⚡

  Enter Power Guard just before impact, then input GRT after blocking

• Re-enable Focus Mode during the backward leap, aiming toward the monster to redirect the forward thrust

Styling on Monsters with GRT Jump Tech

Styling on Monsters with GRT Jump Tech

We can see two use cases of the GRT Jump Tech against Mizutsune here. In the first case, both a Charged Counter or a GRT facing the monster don't have enough range to punish. In the second scenario using the GRT Jump Tech allows us to get and punish on the head hitzone instead of being stuck on the tail or body.

This technique is quite complicated and takes some practice to get right, but once you master it, it will open up a way to punish certain attacks harder than ever before + you will look really cool doing it.

Guard Dash is also back in this game, but because of the triple thrust finisher and the nerf of leaping thrust, it barely sees any use.

Even when you want to use it as a gap closer (like you do in up some older games) you now have better options, as you can perform a leaping thrust out of neutral, by pressing both poke buttons at the same time. Most of the time (thanks to the august balance patch) this distance is more than enough, making you deal damage and not lose stamina for max migh on top of closing the distance.