Heavy Bowgun picking and mod Guide

Inspird by the spreadsheet, and Finding the right Bowgun for you. An explanation of Bowgun stats. threads, and discussion with u/CookieToniis with experimentation with low rank HBG, I want to share my findings.

TL;DR: HBG wiki needs serious revamp in any sites I could find, clip size is important, but so are recoil stats for each ammo, and reloading stats. You can only see the mod stats after you craft, so save before you upgrade and test it out before you commit.

When I first crafting HBG using clip size as my main choice, I went for the Tobi tree. Have 4 slice and very good distribution of ammo types I like to use. But upon using it in game with a reload mod, I feel really awkward as the recoil is keeping me from doing things properly. After checking the discussion with u/CookieToniis, I went and check stats and experiment all 3 base bone HBG in training field. As well as taking screenshot of the bowgun mod page to compare their results. Surprisingly, it changed everything I know about HBG and how to pick one. All the wiki sites needs serious tweak and some of the HBG you never really pay attention to should get a re-evaluation.

Every tree's bowgun and ammo/reload stats combination could be different. Choose wisely to fit your style

Let's get the simple one out of way, slice ammo, the base 3 trees(bone/pukei/kodachi) in bone HBG can not use mod to reduce it's recoil(all average), however, some can mod to have faster reload time. Judging from what I see so far, it could be changing in HR guns, but since it's a bit OP I don't think it could be lowered to Recoil+1.

The base normal/pierce/spread are our main source of dealing sustained damage, but some guns could have special attribute that help you to shoot special ammos faster and less recoil. Any ammo on your gun with Recoil+1/+2 can be shot on the go. Recoil+3/+4 will have heavy kick backs, so you can use those with ledge shooting or big opening. Where reload speed like in the find the right bowgun thread, slow and very slow are stationary reload. These should be in your head first, but DO NOT dismiss a gun if you initially seeing bad results from L3 status page, it's a general guide line of which ammo type it was designed to use(ie pukei have pierce1/2 with Recoil +1), what mods can do for each gun and ammo type are also different.

For example, Kodachi gun's pierce, you can not lower their recoil at all even if you put in 3 recoil mod. So if you want to shoot pierce efficiently, you may want to look at somewhere else. When you put on mods, equipment info L3 page shows you the improvement in yellow tinted stats text. So you want to check and experiment each family's mod tweaks before you commit and save your character. If you found the gun is terrible even after modding to suit your need or style, you might want to look somewhere else.

Another piece of information is, when a gun have Recoil+1 ammo, it won't show up in the recoil mod page, as it couldn't be lowered further. However, for other stat, like slice I mentioned above, even though I could not lower it with all 3 mods with LR HBG, doesn't mean the HR guns couldn't.

With these information, when you want to pick a tree to stick to, you need to first evaluate your play style, are you gunning solo? Which type of monster your are dealing with(small/big body type, movement speed, range of engagement)? And then the primary ammo types that are good for this gun AFTER you check how you can mod and improve them. Just save before you forge/upgrade, and then use gun mod menu to check how well you can mod them. Test them out in training before you save again.

Any bullet that can be mod to Recoil+2 or below is good enough for you to bring into the mission, and if those ammo also can be reloaded at average/fast then it's your primary ammo type. Everything else is situational and should only use with caution.(like don't pull the trigger when the clip is empty on slow/very slow reload type). I assume in HR, there could be guns that have good recoil ammo after mod but long reload time, these you just reload when monster is fleeing from area.

If HBG mains that already made most of the HR HBG, please share and gather those ammo/mod stats as well. Because otherwise, clip size may be a really misleading stats on picking a gun.

Thanks, I know this doesn't tell you which gun is best, since I can't be you and play like you do. People that are super good with low deviation and Recoil+3 ledge shooting they can probably fire pierce 3 mid air and cancel the recoil animation, it really heavily depends on your play style and the monster.

edit: formatting, minor editing