To unlock this arte you must raise Alphen’s Sword Strike proficiency to 800 and then equip it into one of his six Ground Attack slots. It inflicts multiple times more damage than the majority of his other artes, and does so in a single hit. As it does so in one strike, it is a fast ability, and easy to spam. It’s a single-target arte that costs 2AG. Note: AG (Artes Gauge) is represented by the blue diamonds above Alphen’s health bar. It’s very effective against many regular monsters as well as bosses, particularly once their guard is broken.
Unlocking Reigning Slash
Step 1: Raising Proficiency
To unlock the arte, Alphen’s Sword Strike proficiency needs to be raised to over 800, at which point Reigning Slash will activate in battle.
Due to the relatively low requirements, it can be unlocked rather early on in the adventure, even within the first 5-10 hours depending on how frequently you utilize Sword Strike artes.
To check how high a character’s Arte Proficiency is, you can press L1, LB, or Q (depending on your platform) in the main menu to see their stats screen.
To raise Alphen’s Sword Strike proficiency, you need to repeatedly use Sword Strike type artes. Each arte will specify whether it’s a Sword Strike, Aerial Strike or Flame Strike in its description.
Put simply, each time a Sword Strike arte is used, the Sword Strike proficiency count will increase by one.
As such, if you don’t already have the 800 Sword Strike proficiency required, keep using artes like Demon Fang, Swallow Blade or Sonic Thrust. They’re all examples of early game Sword Strikes.
Step 2: Equipping the Arte
Once it has been unlocked, you won’t want to miss out on using it!
To equip Reigning Slash, select the Artes option in the game menu. You will then be presented with the artes selection screen, with Ground Attacks on the left and Aerial Attacks on the right.
In the list of Ground Attacks, select the arte that you wish to replace and then choose Reigning Slash from the list that will appear on the right hand side.
Using Reigning Slash
Pros
Has a high damage output Single hit attack Precise Spammable, especially in the late game Effective against bosses Only costs 2AG Can be followed up with a Flame Strike (once Incendiary Wave is unlocked)
Cons
Has very limited range; will rarely hit more than one target 2AG can be expensive when first acquired Difficult to combo into most other artes
Extra Details
A player with a strategy primarily focused around Reigning Slash will probably find their gameplay becoming more reminiscent of Dark Souls, Monster Hunter or The Witcher III, in which they’ll be dodging and rolling away from enemy blows before sweeping in with devastating, single strike attacks.
When fighting a boss, and upon knocking it down, the player can move in to spam Reigning Slash for maximum effect. This way thousands of points of damage can be dealt in an incredibly short period of time.
This is because it hits like a freight train.
While other artes Alphen employs may inflict damage in the low hundreds at an early stage in the game, Reigning Slash can hit for over a thousand and a critical hit will go substantially higher. It will only get more powerful as the game goes on.
Unlike other artes, like Double Demon Fang for example, it’s a single strike.
As a result, you aren’t locked into an animation or rooted to the spot for long.
Linking to the previous point is the fact that the animation is rather fast, meaning the move is easy to spam. Whilst a boss is recovering with its guard down, you can deal several thousand points of damage rather easily and quickly, without the need to combo other artes.
Note: Spamming should only really be done when the target is stunned or has low hp. Otherwise you’ll be standing in one spot dealing, but also taking, a lot of damage.
It’s a very precise attack, wherein Alphen swings his sword in an upwards arc. Because of this, it can be devastating against a boss’ weak points and can easily inflict core breaks. However, this does require good positioning.
It also reaches quite high on the upswing and can be used to hit aerial targets.
Additionally, once the Flame Strike Incineration Wave has been unlocked, this can be charged from Reigning Slash for a short, destructive combo.
However, there are some trade-offs to Reigning Slash that should be taken into consideration.
For one thing, it has a very limited range, with no lunge or momentum behind it. Alphen will need to be standing adjacent to his target for the blow to connect and sometimes the initial use of the arte will knock the target out of range of a second strike.
Note: This doesn’t apply to bosses, who can’t be knocked into the air and/or juggled in this game.
Due to its limited hitbox, Reigning Slash will almost never hit more than one target at a time.
Also, while the animation is fast, certain enemies are faster (Wolf type enemies seem to evade it regularly from personal experience). This means it’s not the blanket ‘best option’ for every encounter in the game.
Finally, when it’s first acquired it will consume a large chunk of Alphen’s AG per use. However, this will become far less of a problem as the game progresses and Alphen acquires more AG.
