Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Best arms for Nero

Nero is the main protagonist for Devil May Cry 5 for a decent portion of the game. And his biggest improvements is the Devil Breaker system, which replaces his demonic arm from the last game and gives him a whole new suite of toys to try out. But help regarding the Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker system in the game is quite thin or hidden in loading screens. So in order to help you with the Devil May Cry 5 arms, we’ve compiled a guide on each one. Here is how each arm works, what each arm does, and some Devil Breaker tips.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Overture

In-game description: A general-purpose Devil Breaker. Blow enemies away with an electrical blast or thrust it into foes and detonate from a distance.

Regular attack: This arm just sends out a shockwave. If the enemy is above you, you’ll fire the blast upwards. If you are slightly above the enemy, you’ll fire it down, which slams them to the ground.

Charged attack: It attaches a bomb to the nearest enemy. You can either wait around 30 seconds for it to explode or manually detonate it with your gun. The enemy with the bomb on it beeps and will have a glowing circle on it.

Tips: This is a good general arm. It’s nothing too special but it can extend combos with you use the regular blast at the end of juggles. There are a lot of recovery frames so it’s hard to continue a combo after you use the general blast, hence why it is good at ending combos and not continuing them.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Tomboy

In-game description: A Devil Breaker with hidden power that lets you power up Blue Rose and Red Queen. You can adjust the power up duration.

Regular attack: Activating it powers up your sword and doesn’t let you lock on, but lets you unleash powerful normal sword attacks. By pressing the lock on button and sword, you can unleash a powerful launcher that you can keep going for quite some time. Hitting the sword attack button twice in mid-air makes you slam down on the ground.

Pressing the gun button puts you in manual aiming mode that lets you shoot a powerful shot. Holding the shoot button down gives you a much more powerful shot.

To end Tomboy mode, just press the Devil Breaker button again.

Charged attack: It has the same effect as just pressing it. The big difference is that don’t lose your arm if you get hit, but it breaks automatically after about 20 or so seconds.

Tips: This arm is high risk and high reward. Powering up your sword and gun attacks can lead to some big damage and neat juggles but if you get hit while its active, you’ll lose it. It acts as a use modifier for your normal attacks and is good to keep around.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Helter Skelter

In-game description: This Devil Breaker makes up for a lack of range with superior piercing power. Use it to break through enemy guards.

Regular attack: This drills into the enemy and continues to drill as the player mashes the Devil Breaker button.

Charged attack: It drills through the air and spins so much that it lifts you and the targeted enemies up. This also breaks through all barriers and shields.

Tips: Helter Skelter is not too bad for keeping enemies suspended in the air during juggles or mixing up your ground attacks as it stops you and the enemy from falling. But its main use comes from breaking shields. Because of this, it is most useful against the Scudo Angelo and Proto Angelo enemies, the ones that look like demonic knights, and the Death Scissors, which are the big ghost things with scissors. It’s not too great at staggering other harder enemies though.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Banana Devil Breaker

The Banana Devil Breaker is just a reskinned version of the Helter Skelter that came with pre-orders of the game in Japan (but there’s no word on if it will come to other regions). So look to the above entry for some guidance.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Mega Buster

In-game description: Mega Man’s buster in Devil Breaker form. Specializes in long-range combat and alters some actions when equipped.

Regular attack: True to its heritage, it shoots a small energy ball. If you don’t shoot for a few seconds, it charges up automatically and shoots a more powerful blast.

Charged attack: Again, like its Mega Man counterpart, it fire out giant, powerful blast that pierces through enemies.

Tips: While a nice nod to the Blue Bomber, it’s not too practical. You can’t lock on while shooting and it only fires in a straight line. It can be used to pepper some enemies as you get in and does more damage than your regular pistol shots, but it’s harder to aim in the heat of battle. The Mega Buster has its uses and isn’t bad but it’s more of a novelty than anything.

And it also changes your jump animation as well as your death and spawn animation if you die or spawn with this equipped.

This is one of the four Devil Breakers that is exclusive (at least for now) to the deluxe edition.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Punch Line

In-game description: This Devil Breaker runs rampant, offering powerful strikes and flying rocket punches.

Regular attack: It sends out a rocket to repeatedly punch and stun one target. You can even mount it to move around. It will explode and break after a set amount of time but it does not damage you.

Charged attack: When charged, it sends out a super uppercut that knocks an enemy high into the sky.

Tips: This arm is incredibly useful for crowd control. It can keep one enemy busy while you wail on another. Or you can just keep wailing on the enemy you sent it at. You can even ride it if you send it out, press the Devil Breaker button (O on PS4 or B on Xbox One), and then jump and press the Devil Breaker button again. You do have to time it but if done correctly though.

You can attack while riding the rocket, too. The gun button does some sort of kickflip that juggles enemies, the Devil Breaker button zooms forward and knocks enemies around, and locking on and pressing back on the stick and the sword button will launch the enemy (like you would launch them normally with your sword). You can jump off it with the jump button.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Buster Arm

In-game description: A Devil Breaker that can execute a one-hit kill using the Devil Breaker “Buster” technique. Its incredible power makes it fragile and prone to breakage.

Regular attack: Like Devil May Cry 4‘s regular Buster arm, you grab and slam an enemy.

Charged attack: It’s the same as a regular grab but it does more damage and you can’t be interrupted if you get hit during the grab.

Tips: This is an incredibly useful arm. Not only does it give you another attack to mix up your style but it can also do huge damage against bosses. When they get stunned, you can run up there and grab them for huge damage like you could in Devil May Cry 4. This arm does look a lot of its appeal after you complete the game once, but it is a good arm to have on your first run.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Ragtime

In-game description: A Devil Breaker that controls time. Projects a special field that slows all objects within its range.

Regular attack: It simply shoots out a small sphere where time slows down.

Charged attack: It slows down time everywhere.

Tips: This arm is useful for juggling enemies or keeping some others at bay while you focus on another. It’s not too deep of an arm but it is help for slowing things down, especially for bigger foes. Although if you get hit while the field is out, which is about five seconds, you’ll lose your arm.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Gerbera

In-game description: A mobile Devil Breaker letting you cancel attacks with shockwaves or fire a converged beam of powerful energy.

Regular attack: It’s a dash attack that corresponds to how you are moving the stick and if you’re on the ground or in the air. Not moving the stick turns this into just a shockwave that keeps enemies off you but if you tilt the stick, it turns into a torpedo-like dive.

Charged attack: This arm shoots out a huge piercing laser beam. You are immobile while using this. Shooting it in mid-air unleashes lasers that bounces off the walls.

Tips: Given how the arm basically gives you a dash move, it is great a Devil Breaker to use offensively and defensively. Using the diagonal dash to bring combos to the air or extend your combos in the air is incredibly quick and you should be able to quickly continue your juggle after using it. This short amount of recovery makes it a good way to keep combos going. It’s also useful get dashing out of trouble. The charge beam is strong but it almost works better as a juggle extender and air dash.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Gerbera GP01

In-game description: A Devil Breaker colored by Shoji Kawamori. Excels in mobility, using shockwaves to allow for freer movement.

Regular attack: Like its name implies, it’s like the regular Gerbera. When pressing the stick in any direction, you’ll do a diagonal dash that can launch enemies or a dash in the air that can juggle them. When not moving the stick, it will shoot you (and a nearby enemy) straight up in the air and shoot you (and a nearby enemy) straight down if you’re already in the air.

Charged attack: Also like the Gerbera, it shoots a huge laser beam at enemies and it fires lasers that bounce off the walls if you’re in mid-air.

Tips: It’s a lot like the Gerbera so it has many of the same strengths. It’s just a slightly different variation of the same hand. Also Shoji Kawamori is a legendary anime creator in Japan.

This is one of the four Devil Breakers that is exclusive (at least for now) to the deluxe edition.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Pasta Breaker

In-game description: An odd Devil Breaker made to help Nero eat pasta. The end spins, but it is not very practical.

Regular attack: It shoots a fork at the enemy that functions a lot like Punch Line but it’s not as effective and you can’t ride it.

Charged attack: Like a combo of the normal Punch Line attack and Overture ultimate, Nero grabs an enemy, attaches a bomb to them, and then boots them away. But instead of exploding, the enemy gets launched and repeatedly attacked in mid-air and floats from the constant attacks. This allows the player to jump up and attack them

Tips: Pasta Breaker, as you may expect, is a bit of a joke arm. It’s not incredibly useful as it is a weaker Punch Line in most cases. Still, its ultimate can suspend an enemy in the air for quite some, which is good for those who want their targets to have maximum hangtime. And it does temporally cycle to your next arm during a regular attack, which has some combo possibility.

This is one of the four Devil Breakers that is exclusive (at least for now) to the deluxe edition.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Rawhide

In-game description: Boasts the widest attack. Use the metal whip for a long-distance strike, or to reel in certain heavy enemies.

Regular attack: Unleashes a whip attack that hits all around you. Timing the strikes right unleashes more attacks that hit more enemies.

Charged attack: This charged attack grabs one enemy and flips them around, damaging everyone around you. Bigger enemies just get stabbed a lot instead.

Tips: This one is more about crowd control than damaging one specific enemy but it is still a useful arm to have. Grappling to enemies with it damages them along the way and it has a slightly longer grapple length than the other arms. It’s useful for having an extra attack and also for those who love to use the Wire Snatch ability.

It can also use that Wire Snatch ability on bigger enemies that have been stunned. Activating Devil Trigger with Rawhide also lets you pull bigger enemies too.

Devil May Cry 5 Devil Breaker Guide | Sweet Surrender

In-game description: A Devil Breaker made with Kyrie in mind. The pliable materials are gentle on the skin, and it vibrates to sooth away pain.

Regular attack: It slowly and passively heals you.

Charged attack: Once charged, it heals a good portion of your health and then breaks.

Tips: This Devil Breaker, that is a essentially a big vibrator joke, isn’t too useful. The extra boost in health is nice but it doesn’t actually heal that much and it breaks as soon as you get hit.

This is one of the four Devil Breakers that is exclusive (at least for now) to the deluxe edition.