Lance

The

Lance in Frontier is an enhanced version of the traditional , retaining its core forward and upward thrusts, with the final hit in a combo dealing extra damage. Frontier introduces new features, such as guarding a small area, performing a strong guard that grants , and the ability to move without altering the shield's guard angle. While counters are absent across all styles, skills like can help fill that gap.

Lances in Frontier automatically adjust between Impact and Cutting hitzones to select the most effective damage type. This adjustment applies a 0.72x multiplier to the Impact damage before deciding which hitbox to use. For instance, if you have a 20 Cutting hitbox and a 35 Impact hitbox, the lance would choose the Impact hitbox, as 0.72 x 35 (which equals 25.2) is greater than 20, resulting in Impact damage being dealt instead of Cutting.

For an explanation on element damage, see our Elements page

. For more information on motion values, see the Damage Calculator

Earth Style

Earth Style is the standard

Lance style, featuring the basic forward and upward thrusts along with all the new original motions introduced in Frontier.

Heaven Style

Heaven Style replaces the Lance Charge with the Sky Stab, allowing you to combo all thrusts up to four times instead of three. Sky Stabs are vertical thrusts with a motion value of 38 for the first three stabs and 43 for the last, making them as powerful as the final hit in a normal upthrust combo.

Storm Style

Storm Style retains the changes from Heaven Style but replaces the guard poke with a shield charge. The shield charge uses Guard Point frames, meaning you take no damage during its blocking duration and gain the benefits of

Guard+2 . This move deals Impact damage and can inflict , though it’s not particularly effective for that purpose. The shield charge can only be followed up with either evades or a Charge Thrust.

Extreme Style

Extreme Style is an upgraded version of Storm Style. It lacks the Lance Charge but retains all three basic thrust types.

While running, the

Lance behaves like any other weapon. You can perform a dash guard with short guarding frames and no knockback, followed by either a normal thrust (50 motion) or a Jump Thrust, which covers more distance but also has a higher motion value of 50.

In addition to running actions, Extreme Style introduces two significant new thrusts: Finishing Thrusts and Evasion Thrusts. The Finishing Thrust is a powerful attack with a motion value of 91 but doesn’t count as a regular thrust. The Evasion Thrust is similar to other weapons' offensive evades, dealing 30 motion while jumping backward with iframes. You can chain up to seven hits in a combo by performing a Dash Jump Thrust, followed by four Standard Thrusts, a Finishing Thrust, and an Evasion Thrust.

Extreme Style also features a new Guard Gauge interface with three Shield Phials. These phials fill up as you guard, and using a special action consumes all filled phials at once. The first phial is White and provides the effect of

Lifepowder , the second is Yellow and grants the effects of , and the final phial is Red and boosts True Raw by +50. These effects apply to the entire party, so be cautious not to disrupt teammates who might be relying on .


Lance Tech Master	Twin Hiden, 30	Sharpness level +1 is added to Lance Tech 【Heavenly Spear】.
Lance Tech 【Heavenly Spear】	30	Gives Super High-Grade Earplugs, Attack x1.2 when wielding a Lance and Fencing+1. No damage taken when successfully blocking attacks. Able to perform 4 hops instead of 3. Motion Value +10 for final (3rd or 4th) Normal, Diagonal, and Sky-Stabs.
Lance Tech Kaiden	20	Increases attack by 1.1 and grants Fencing+1 when wielding Lance.
Lance Tech Expert	10	Fencing+1 when wielding Lance.
Lance Tech Novice	-10	Attack x0.8 when wielding Lance.

Skill Interactions


	Adjusts the element hitzones by +15. Determination applies the effects of Dissolver without the need for hitzone requirements, effectively forcing elemental damage or reducing/negating negative hitzones.
	+4 True Raw per hit. Up to 80 True Raw can be gained through leeching.
	20 seconds uptime. The duration can be refreshed by successfully using i-frames again.
	+5 sharpness recovery. When using Stylish Up get 3 free hits before sharpness is reduced.
	-3 sharpness per hit. Lavish Attack reduces the free hits granted by Stylish Up to 1.
	Max stack of 300 True Raw. Obscurity Up maxes out after two perfect guards, allowing subsequent guards to restore 2 or 10 sharpness depending on timing.
	1/12/26 hits to reach stage 1/2/3 respectively. All weapons share the same stage decay timer; Ice Age Up only affects the third stage’s decay rate.
	27/1350/? total Motion Value to reach stage 1/2/3 respectively. The third stage, exclusive to Rush Up, has a limited duration.
	12 seconds decay window. 13/36/44 hits required to reach stage 1/2/3 respectively (10/27/44 with Ceaseless Up). The third stage is also exclusive to Ceaseless Up, which decays by stages rather than all at once.
	35 seconds duration. 10/6 hits to reach stages 1/2 respectively (8/5 with Fencing+2). The previously hit hitzone is more vulnerable at Stage 2, and Fencing +2 slightly eases activation.
	1/2/5 evasions or perfects guards to reach stage 1/2/3 respectively. These effects apply to both successful evasions and perfect guards (where applicable), but attacking is necessary to advance stages.

Sigils Usability Ratings


		Boosts the Motion Value of the Shield Rush (3･25 > 4･37). Only for Storm and Extreme Styles.	Tech Boost
		Boosts the Motion Value of the Charge Finisher Attack (50 > 75). Earth Style Only.	Tech Boost
		Changes the Charge into a Drill Charge attack (25 x Hits > (31･16) x Hits). Earth Style Only.	Tech Change
		Increases the length of your weapon and decreases your True Raw by 25. Does not affect the True Raw decrease if multiple of this sigil are used.	Other
		Increases the motion value of all unsheathe attacks with a Lance by a 1.50x multiplier.	Other

Tips and Tricks

Long length is the most common on Zenith Lances, although Very Long length can be useful too.
Weapon
Lance retains its cutting/impact hitzone adjustment modifier; if 0.72x of the impact hitzone is superior to cutting, uses the impact value as Cutting damage. (Carapaceons are a good example of this.)
With
Armor Skill
Lance Hiden , , and , only a few attacks in the game cannot be blocked safely. This list mainly includes modern nukes, DOTs, , etc.
Zenith-level hazards will always cause pushback unless you’re using Heavy Guard, Guard Advance, or Running Shield Bash.
The Shield Bash while running prevents any pushback from guarding and has innate
Armor Skill
Guard+2 . The only equivalent from a neutral stance is Storm’s Guard Advance, which is much more rigid.
The Ranged Guard works by blocking the hit yourself to protect other players.
Blocking
Weapon
Heavy Bowgun's Heat Beam can fill all of your phials almost instantly.
In order to deal the most damage with
Armor Skill
Reflect , try blocking monsters' laser attacks with and .
Backhop thrusts return to guarding faster, and you can perform them from a neutral stance.
Guard lancing can be a useful way to learn parrying with other weapons.
The stamina buff varies in duration depending on how much stamina you are using.
With a Heavy Guard,
Armor Skill
Guard+2 and you can block many monsters' ultimate attacks, for example .
The attack buff lasts 3 minutes.
The area guard can block more attacks than guard shields available. It will continue blocking attacks, including after all guard shields are consumed and before the animation ends.
The area guard is capable of blocking the needle from
Monster
Zenith Hyujikiki ultimate attack, nukes, etc.
You cannot heal
Weapon
Dual Swords users that are in Extreme Demon Mode, except in periods where they got hit and thus lost the mode.
This weapon type is very useful in
Location
Hunter's Road teams, although with the introduction of it is not as common.

Weapons: Long Sword

Weapons: Gunlance