Kyron's Guide to the Heavy Bowgun

So, as promised, I’m back, this time, to talk about the Heavy Bowgun, or HBG. As with the Hunting Horn guide, my intent is to go over the basic mechanics of the weapon type, as well as some more advanced things (of which the HBG has a lot), and then to delve into the various HBGs, and what they’re good at. It’s worth noting that a lot, but not all, of the stuff detailed here is also applicable to the LBG.

Unlike the HH guide, this one is going to take a bit longer, and a lot more testing, as the HBG has a lot more moving parts, so to speak, than the Hunting Horn.

BOWGUN BASICS

The Bowgun is an evolution of sorts from the Bow, both technologically and gameplay wise. As with the Bow, the Bowgun places an emphasis on positioning. Your distance from a monster, as well as your relative angle to it, can affect the amount of damage you output.

RANGE

For the beginner, range can be broken down into how it affects your targeting reticle (that thing in the middle of the screen you aim with, your crosshairs). As you move about during a fight, you may notice that this reticle will change, depending on the distance between you and the thing you are aiming at. The form that your reticle takes is a rough indicator of the range that you are at.

1. Out of Range: This one is pretty obvious, grey, with the words “OUT OF RANGE” over it. At this range, your bullet is going to despawn before it hits the enemy. Get closer.

2. Pale Yellow, Single Middle Dot: Ineffective Range. If the aiming reticle is pale yellow, you are either a bit far, or a bit too close, depending on the ammo. If a bit too far, you will deal drastically less damage: a Pierce might deal 2 damage per hit rather than 20. Too close, and you will deal significantly less damage, such as 12 rather than 20.

3. Glowing Orange, Pulsing Interior Circle: This means you are roughly at optimum range. Within this range, you will be dealing close to the maximum damage.

The next couple of things are where the HBG starts to get complicated. If you’ve read my Hunting Horn guide, you may know that different Hunting Horns can use different songs, but those songs are equivalent (playing Defense XL with a Mansheena is just as effective as playing it with a Gama Horn).
HBGs go beyond that. Like the Horns with the Songs, different HBGs can use different ammo types. However, they don’t use those ammos equally. One weapon might be able to fire Paralysis Shots on the move, while another locks you in place for each shot. One weapon might only hold one Wyvern Blast sot per clip and reload it agonizingly slow, while another holds multiple Wyvern Shots and reloads them on the go. All of this is because of the different ways the HBGs apply the following stats to various ammo types.
RECOIL

In MH:W, Recoil operates a bit differently than you might think. In most games, Recoil affects your aim, such as by moving the reticle all over the place while firing repeatedly. However, here, it does not actually affect where your aiming reticle goes after each shot. Instead, Recoil affects how long it takes before you can fire again, and potentially your character’s place on the battlefield. Higher Recoil will lock you into longer firing animations than Lower Recoil. In essence, it acts like your Firing Rate, with lower Recoil allowing you to fire quicker (because you will have shorter firing animations) than higher Recoil. At high levels of recoil, your character will also be knocked backwards for each shot and have to recover, while lower levels may let your character move and shoot at the same time.

Recoil itself is something that varies between ammo, and between guns. For example, let’s take my main HBG, the Magda Gemitus. For Paralysis Ammo Grade 2, it has a recoil of 3. However, if we look at the Pulsar Shooter, that gun has a Recoil of 4 for Paralysis Ammo 2. You can check what the Recoil is by checking the Ammo page of a gun (highlight the weapon in the Forge/Inventory, then click the L-Stick).

Jandabear has a good comparison of how recoil affects your gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpn8iPTFJlU&feature=youtu.be

DEVIATION

Asides from meaning you draw Sanic OC smut on DeviantArt, Deviation is the MH:W equivalent to the traditional game notion of recoil, as it affects the motion of your reticle after each shot. If using a gun with high deviation, your reticle will bounce pretty far after each shot, meaning you have to bring it back on target. If using a gun with no deviation at all, the reticle won’t move at all.

RELOAD SPEED

Much like Recoil, Reload Speed is a matter of how long an animation is going to be. Reload Speed Very Slow is a long, drawn out affair, and locks you in place while you slowly load a new clip. Reload Speed Fast just has you ratchet the bolt back, and lets you move while doing so.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Some weapons apply special effects to certain ammo types. Currently, there is only one potential Special Effect for the HBG: Single Fire-Auto Reload. If a gun applies this effect to an ammo type, that ammo will have a clip size of one, but the reload will be super quick.

MOVEMENT

One of the things you have to get to grips with quickly is that the Heavy Bowgun is…well, heavy. With it unsheathed, you move at a snails pace. This is why, much like the Greatsword, it’s a good idea to follow this simple rule: if you aren’t about to fire, you sheathe it and reposition.
AMMO

As mentioned before, different weapons can use different ammo. What kind of ammo a gun can use is checkable by highlighting it in either the Forge/Inventory, and clicking L3 (pressing in the L Stick). The type of ammo, along with the recoil and reload the gun applies to those ammo types, is the main factor in determining the way a gun is best used. Below, I will describe each type of ammo.

Normal

Normal Ammo is your vanilla shot type. You have an infinite supply of grade 1 Normal, and the higher grades simply do more damage. Honestly, you probably won’t be using this too much unless you’ve run out of everything else.

Pierce

Pierce Ammo acts like Normal, except that it, well, pierces the target. If you have used/spammed Dragon Piercer before, this operates in a similar manner. A Pierce shot will continue through a target, causing damage every moment it remains inside (each grade of Pierce can only deal so many hits, however). It also deals better damage if you are a bit further away from the target (its optimum range is medium-far). To most effectively use this shot type, you want to maximize the amount of time the round is in the target: this means angling yourself so the shot will travel down the length of a monster, such as from head-to-tail, or wingtip-to-wingtip. Good for fights where the monster is big, and you don’t want to get under the feet of all the melee users.

Spread

This is your shotgun shell equivalent. When you fire, you actually fire off several pellets at once in a spread pattern, with higher grade Spread shells containing more pellets (Spread 3 has nine IIRC). The range drop off on this ammo type is ridiculous, quickly becoming ineffective as you move away from the monster. I tend to use this shot type if a monster is getting up in my face, or if I am trying to partbreak (especially effective on wings, as bullets are good for shredding those, or the face, making sure to stand off to the side so hammers/horns can go to town).

Paralysis

This is one of the Status Effect rounds, alongside Sleep and Poison. Each time you land a hit, it builds up that effect on the monster. Once you build the meter enough, the effect is applied. For Paralysis, the monster will be locked into place and stunned for a moderate amount of time. This ammo type is fantastic for making openings for yourself or your team. If you are playing solo, or with other ranged users, this is an excellent opportunity to drop a bunch of Cluster Bombs or Wyvern Shots on the monster, or to use Dragon Ammo. If there are other melee users, be careful not to knock them about with Cluster or Wyvern (it’s doable). This ammo/status is best for playing with randos, as unlike the next ammo type, people can’t fuck it up.

Sleep

This is both one of the best ammo types, and the worst. Once the status applies, the monster will stumble around for a bit, before falling over asleep. It stays asleep for a decent amount of time, meaning people can heal, sharpen, whatever. Unlike Para though, a Slept monster will be immediately woken up by any attack. HOWEVER, the damage on that wake-up attack will be tripled. This is why you see people stacking bombs around a sleeping monster before detonating them all at once: not only is it easier to place the bombs when the monster isn’t moving, but they’ll all do increased damage.

The reason I say “worst” is because in multiplayer, there are a lot of people, coughhalfofallInsectGlaiveuserscough who won’t or aren’t paying attention, who will just continue attacking a slept monster. This results in monsters getting slept, and a Naruto swopping in with his Dual Blades and dealing a 30 damage wakeup hit, rather than a series of bombs, Greatsword, or other hard hitting impact getting multiplied. Because it gets progressively harder to re-apply status effects, this can cause much rage.

As a general tip, if you see the monster stumbling about, and you hear the music dying down, stop attacking. The monster has been slept by something or someone, and you want a hard hitter to be the one who wakes it up.

Poison

The last status applying ammo. It does what it says on the tin: enough hits will apply a damage over time effect to the monster. I have also heard rumors that it might make the monster get hungrier faster, or tire out faster, but I haven’t tested it, and it sounds like wishful thinking to me.

Exhaust

This ammo type will drain a monster’s stamina. This is used to put a monster in an Exhausted state, where the monster is tired, and moves sluggishly. Haven’t actually used it much myself.

Recover

A healing round. Unlike the healing Songs for the horn, Recover ammo is…well, actually not shit. You have to aim, yes, but it actually heals for a decent amount (I tested using Recover I on a LR scrub, and it would heal a goodly amount of his health bar, though I don’t know if he had eaten or anything).

Armor/Demon

This is basically Demon/Armorpill in a can…fired from a sniper rifle. This one is going to need more testing (is the effect AOE? How close does it need to pass to someone, or does it need to be a direct hit). You’ll buff the target for increased Attack or Defense depending on the ammo type. This section will be expanded as I test.

Slicing Ammo

If you travelled back in time a few weeks, you would see people spamming this left, right, and center. The Tobi LBG became sacred, as it was able to carry the most Slicing Ammo. You see, the effect of this ammo is that it will hit and stick to a target, then release a cloud of razor sharp wire, dealing several hits of Sever damage in a cloud around the impact point. A few weeks ago, the amount of damage on the hits was somewhat high, and people would use slicing exclusively, because it required a minimum of aiming, no positioning due to the AOE, and resulted in zero threat gameplay because you could just murder everything from range. It ALSO would basically trip any melee users anywhere close to the impact point.

It had its damage nerfed, and the trip effect reduced, and people started declaring that not only was the ammo now useless, guns in general were useless because they weren’t capable of the zero-threat gameplay anymore.

Look, Slicing Ammo is still useful, still does decent damage, and can still cut tails, now without tripping everyone nearby. You can’t use it exclusively, but it works well in your repertoire.

Sticky Ammo

This ammo type involves shooting a sticky bomb. If it hits the terrain, it will just explode for a small AOE. If it hits the monster, it will latch on, and, depending on the grade (higher grade=longer fuse time) detonate. Unlike most ammo types, Range isn’t really a factor for Sticky. The only damage that gets modified by range is the damage applied when it sticks. The actual detonation is unaffected.

Cluster Bombs

This ammo type is both one you can have fun with, but also have to be supremely careful with. Unlike the other shots, which fire like Normal rounds, the Cluster is a mortar: you go into a firing stance for it, and it arcs. The shell that you lob will fragment into several smaller bombs (number of bombs determined by Grade) that will explode a few seconds later.
This ammo can actually be a bit tricky to use. You see, the initial shell will fragment the moment it hits anything, be it terrain or monster part, and you can’t actually affect the arc height. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fired, trying to land the shell on the monster’s back (where hopefully the explosions will be far enough away from my teammates to not launch them), only for a wing to intercept the shell, causing all of the gravity-affected cluster bomblets to land on the ground below.

Also, used incorrectly, this ammo type is the most likely to piss teammates off. There is a rather large knockback effect on the cluster bomblets, which affects your teammates, throwing them about if they are near. A Cluster 3, which has a great deal of bomblets, used poorly, can launch about everyone underneath a monster, interrupting their moves (especially egregious with Hammer users and their Charge). Even firing so the bomblets land above on the back of the monster can be dangerous if xXDarthmaulSwaglord420Xx is dancing through the air with their insect glaive. DO NOT BLINDLY FIRE CLUSTER BOMBS.

Wyvern

If you’ve used Gunlance, you know how this works. When you fire, you are locked in place for a few seconds while the shot charges, before firing off an explosion of fire. Much like the Clusters, this shot can knockback, so try to angle it so no one is near the cone of fire.
Some things to note about this shot that you may not have realized:
After committing to the attack, you can still turn, so you can reangle the shot if you realize you are going to interrupt someone.

The shot actually has more range than you think, and more than the game tells you. You see, there are actually 2 hits, an initial hit for a moderate amount of damage, and the explosion, which deals the majority of the damage, and hits a short distance further away from the initial hit. The initial hit is the one that the aiming reticle is considering when it says “OUT OF RANGE”, meaning you can fire a bit further away, sacrificing the moderate hit, but still getting most of the damage in.

Also, because this rumor has passed by me several times now, the game will actually apply both hits at the same time. This means that Wyvern Blasting a sleeping target will still have the explosive hit be multiplied by the sleep bonus. Wyvern Blasting a sleeping target is viable (though a Greatsword Final Slash will deal more damage in many cases).

Tranq

This ammo is the bowgun version of the tranq bomb, and is used for capturing monsters. To capture a monster, it needs to be weak enough (limping about, skull on minimap) have sufficient tranq build up, and be under the effects of a trap. Most people generally trap and then tranq, but you can also reverse it, and tranq then trap, as tranq buildup lasts for a short time. Generally about 2-3 shots of this is sufficient build up.

Elemental Ammo

Generally goes unused. As far as I can tell, this is just Normal Ammo with an Element attached to it. Hypothetically useful when using the right type against something weak to the given element, but you can get equivalent or higher damage numbers with any of the aforementioned ammo. One exception, however is….

Dragon Ammo

This ammo is actually kinda awesome. It is a super slow moving Pierce Round with Dragon Element attached, with a VERY high ceiling on how many hits it can do. Against things weak to dragon, if you can line it up properly, this thing can actually do quite a bit of damage (It might be possible to use it to break Elder Auras, as it mentions how it has Elderseal mixed into the rounds, but that could just be flavor). It is, however, exceptionally slow. The best use I’ve found for this is on knocked down or Paralyzed monsters, which will let it travel through them for the longest time.

SPECIAL AMMO

Currently in the game, there are two types of Special Ammo for the HBG: Wyvernheart and Wyvernsnipe. Each of these has a meter that builds up over time.

WYVERNHEART
This special ammo turns you into the Heavy from Team Fortress 2. Depending on how full your meter is (you can load Wyvernheart before the meter is full), you’ll start chainfiring bullets at rapid speed. This Special Ammo is useful for mobile targets, like Kirin, and for Partbreaking (because you can focus your fire on whatever part you are aiming to break).

WYVERNSNIPE
This Special Ammo is the bastard offspring of Pierce and Sticky rounds. Once the meter is full, you can load a single shot into your gun. When you aim it, you drop prone, and your aiming radius becomes restricted, so be careful. When the shell is fired, it will pierce through whatever target it hits, doing damage each moment it remains inside, much like a Pierce round. At each spot that it does damage, it will also leave behind an explosive, which will detonate a few seconds later. This is useful on bigger targets, especially things like Xeno’Jiva, if you can line the shot properly.

That’s it for right now. I’ll be fleshing this guide out with sections dealing with Weapon mods, Gun selection, and what have you, but there is a frankly absurd amount of testing I’m going to need to do for that, and I have coursework to do. As always, if the 6 other HBG users would like to point out where I am terribly, terribly wrong, it would be appreciated.