Buster Blade weapon overview.
The Buster Blade is a heavy powerhouse. Its a slow attacking weapon that specializes in hitting hard when it does connect. Its Parrying Upper allows it to block incoming attacks and strike back without missing a beat. Its Charge Crush is a heavy overhead slash that needs time to charge up but deals a lot of damage when it hits. Buster has some very good Burst Arts that aid in increasing its attack speed and overall DPS.
Buster Blade deals both Crush & Slash damage. The Buster Blade can also use ‘Advanced Guard‘ which essentially allows it to cancel recovery animations by transitioning into a guard (added in 1.20)
Strengths:
- Hits hard
- Long range
- Strong selection of Burst Arts
- Parrying Upper allows you to guard & attack at the same time
Weaknesses:
- Slow attacking speed
- Somewhat hard to use effectively
- Charge Crush Burst Arts are kind of underwhelming
- Parrying Upper has a slight learning curve to be used effectively
This weapon is for players who don’t care about their attack speed as long as they’re dealing damage. Its Burst Art selection is good and makes the weapon not as slow as it initially may seem. However, Buster is a weapon that benefits greatly from a player’s experience level which can make it hard to use for beginners. This is due to Charge Crush having a long charge time and Parrying Upper only blocking attacks during the first portion of the attack or not blocking certain attacks at all.
BUSTER BLADE BASICS
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| Ground Light Attack Combo | ◼>◼>◼
Basic combo. 3 heavy horizontal slashes. |
| Ground Heavy Attack Combo |
▲>▲>▲ Basic combo. 3 Heavy vertical slashes. |
| Air Light Attack | AIR ◼
Basic air attack. Upwards slash. |
| Air Heavy Attack | AIR ▲
Basic air attack. Drops down with the Buster in an overhead slash. |
| Light Step Attack | Step+◼
Basic step attack. Lunging horizontal attack. Fast startup. |
| Heavy Step Attack | Step+▲
Basic step attack. Heavy overhead attack |
| PARRYING UPPER | R1+◼
Quickly opens your shield then strikes with upwards strike. Blocks certain incoming attacks. Guard properties correspond to the kind of Shield type you are using. |
| CHARGE CRUSH | Hold ◼ then release
Gathers strength and then releases a heavy overhead strike in the direction you are facing. Long charge time. |
BUSTER BLADE BURST ARTS
Show/Hide Burst Art Special Ability Key
ICON |
SPECIAL ABILITY DESCRIPTION |
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Allows you to perform air action follow-ups after executing the Burst Art. |
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Allows you to repeat the Burst Art continuously by pressing the attack button repeatedly until you run out of Stamina. |
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Allows you to ignore some incoming attacks during a portion of the Burst Art. You still take full damage, but you don’t get staggered out of the attack. |
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Allows you to absorb a certain amount of HP on hit. |
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Increases the amount of OP the Burst Art gains on hit. |
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Increases damage to Aragami weakpoints. You know you’ve struck a weakpoint when the damage counter turns yellow. |
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Increases damage when Aragami are downed. |
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Damage isn’t reduced when attacking an Aragami’s hardest parts. In other words, you won’t deal grey damage when using these Burst Arts. |
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Increases damage when using an elemental weapon and an Aragami is weak to that element. |
GROUND BURST ARTS
Show/Hide Ground Burst Arts
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
SPECIAL |
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ライオットスワイプ |
Ground Light Attack Combo Art
Adds oracle energy to the basic ground light attack combo. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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Buster Blast 爆砕撃 |
Ground Heavy Attack Combo Art
Powers up the basic ground heavy attack combo. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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オーバーキル |
Charge Crush Art
Hold ◼ then release A powerful Charge Crush. Has 3 levels of charge with each level more powerful than the last. Full charge time is incredibly slow. Lv3 Charge ignores armor. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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ライジングクラッシュ |
Charge Crush Art
Hold ◼ then release An upwards striking Charge Crush. Useful for floating targets. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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Crazy Stride クレイジーストライド |
Charge Crush Art
Hold ◼ then release After charging, dives forward rapidly and transfers the momentum into a heavy Charge Crush. Dive can be steered. Be careful when using this at point-blank range. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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Adrenaline Rush 無心の境地 |
Parrying Upper Art
R1+◼ Powers up the Parrying Upper attack. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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不倶戴天の一撃 |
Parrying Upper Art
R1+◼ A very strong Parrying Upper. You need to block an incoming attack with the parrying portion of the move for the Burst Art to successfully activate. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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Jormungandr ヨルムンガンド [*Added in v1.30] |
Ground Heavy Attack Combo Finisher Art
Stands in place ans swings the Buster from left to right repeatedly. Can be steered. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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CC Origin CC・オリジン [*Added in v1.30] |
Charge Crush Art
Hold ◼ then release A Charge Crush that resembles the original CC from earlier GE games. Has extended reach. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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JUMP BURST ARTS
Show/Hide Jump Burst Arts
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
SPECIAL |
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Deadly Glide グライドホライズン |
Air Light Attack Art
Slides forward in the air and performs a horizontal slash. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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断空斬 |
Air Light Attack Art
Performs a very fast diagonal slash in mid air. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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破滅のネメシス |
Air Heavy Attack Art
Performs a heavy falling overhead strike with the Buster. relatively long recovery time. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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STEP BURST ARTS
Show/Hide Step Burst Arts
NAME |
DESCRIPTION |
SPECIAL |
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スピニングブレイク |
Step+◼ Art
Performs a wide range circular strike with the Buster. Hits twice. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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ディバイドエッジ |
Step+▲ Art
An overhauled version of the default step attack. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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ディストラクション |
Step+▲ Art
Jumps in with an overhead strike. Compatible Burst Art Effect:
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RECOMMENDED BURST ARTS
Recommended Burst Arts are indicated with a 
in the tables above. Burst Arts that are recommended are due to them having appealing qualities such as good damage output, ease of use, low risk and good reward or good special passive effects. With that being said, I highly encourage all players to try out all of the Burst Arts and use what they like and feels natural to them. I also encourage players to change their Burst Arts according to what you will be fighting on the next mission to optimize mission efficiency.
Noteworthy Ground Arts:
- Riot Swipe (ライオットスワイプ)
- Overkill (オーバーキル)
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Rising Crush (ライジングクラッシュ)
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Anathema (不倶戴天の一撃)
Riot Swipe (ライオットスワイプ) is not a flashy art but it deals good damage to weakpoints and doesn’t consume stamina. Also a good compliment to the Buster’s overall strong set of Air Arts.
Anathema (不倶戴天の一撃) is a very strong Parrying Upper Art. It doesn’t work if you don’t parry an incoming attack. but when you successfully activate it, it deals a lot of damage and ignores a percentage of armor. Its proficient at breaking parts, but is useless on an incapacitated Aragami or if you are not proficient at parrying incoming attacks.
Overkill (オーバーキル)’s biggest pull is the high damage on downed Aragami and the ignoring armor property it gets at its Lv3 charge. But the glaring problem with this burst art is that, because the Lv3 charge time is so long, you can deal more damage with other Air and Step Arts in the time it would take to charge a Lv3 Overkill. It is also undesirable outside of a Lv3 charge. However, it can see some good usability on certain Aragami that have attacks that leave them extremely wide open (Ra’s Devour; Hannibal’s Fire Breath etc).
Rising Crush (ライジングクラッシュ) is a very good Charge Crush. It has the charge time of a normal CC and offers strong and reliable damage. The most tricky part of this art is the upwards striking hitbox which results in it having a slight learning curve in order for it to be used effectively.
Noteworthy Jump Arts:
- Sky Cleaver (断空斬)
- Nemesis (破滅のネメシス)
Sky Cleaver (断空斬) offers reliable damage and safe recovery. Its rapid-fire friendly and an overall good outlet of damage. Its damage is accentuated further if you use it along with an Elemental weapon.
Nemesis (破滅のネメシス) is a strong overhead Art that ignores a percentage of armor. It deals a lot of damage and has a relatively fast startup and large hitbox. It has a very long recovery time making it a bit unsafe to use in most circumstances, but you can mitigate this risk by guard canceling the recovery time.
Noteworthy Step Arts:
- Spinning Break (スピニングブレイク)
- Dividing Edge (ディバイドエッジ)
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Destruction (ディストラクション)
Spinning Break (スピニングブレイク) offers a really large area hitbox and decent damage all-round. Not long recovery time either making it a good ground burst art that can target legs easily. Works especially well when coupled with Riot Swipe (ライオットスワイプ).
Dividing Edge (ディバイドエッジ) deals a high amount of damage to downed Aragami. Its the same animation as the default step attack with no recovery so you can get several hits in on downed Aragami for high damage in a short space of time.
Destruction (ディストラクション) is an uninterruptible Art that is good at targeting weakpoints. It has a surprisingly quick recovery for its damage, but it lives in Dividing Edge (ディバイドエッジ)’s shadow when it comes to dealing downed damage in most cases.
BUSTER BLADE SAMPLE PLAY
BURST ART EFFECTS
The complete list of Burst Art Effects can be found here:
