Monster Hunter Wilds – Complete Heavy Bowgun Guide

Heavy Bowgun Guide with Tips

Ву Kat.

All Sets listed in the following Sections generally assume players to have general knowledge on moveset options and knowing HBG’s kit and general matchup knowledge, aswell as having reached endgame and general access to the higher tier decoration quests.

Skill Priority

Armor Skill Priority

Offensive Armor Skill “Priority”

1	Agitator 5	All these Skills share two crucial things in common: They give affinity and are on Armor. Every single important move in HBG kit can Crit. or Will be made to.
1	Weakness Exploit
1	2 Piece Gore + Antivirus 3
2	Max Might	Only with fulgur.
2	Resentment	Free Raw on Guard

The table is called “Priority”, because there is no actual priority. You will fit all these skills together, most other skills are either immensely situational or just straight up don’t work. Whether they are “just” bugged or the intend to nerf a lot of alternatives to heavy crit investment is currently unknown.

Weapon Skill Priority

Weapon Skill Priority

1	Critical Boost 3	Undisputedly the best skill in the game, once again.
1	Tetrad Shot	Most optimal with 6 and need 6 minimum
1	Offensive Guard	Few RAW% exists in the game. its one of the few sources.
1	Opening Shot	Just as Good as the rest. Works best on Sub 6 Shot Guns.
2	Critical Element	Mandatory for Ele Sets.

Gear Requirements

Strictly speaking, the baseline requirement for most sets is HR41. 

Due to the Talisman and Weapon upgrades, aswell as the Artian Weapon Meta, most builds will only fully come online at around HR70-80, depending on grinding strategy and deco/material RNG.

Every Non-Level 3 Decoration becomes target meldable at HR 100, meaning you’ll never truly be locked out of a set completely. In situations of extreme strokes of bad luck, you might have to give up 1 level of crit boost, which hurts, but has no hunt-breaking impact given how short lived monsters in Base-base Wilds seem to be.

Other Considerations

Food Skills:

• First Slot: Meat as a base for food grants +2 Raw.
• Second Slot: Caprice Meal (Hi) (Airy Egg) gives +15 Raw in random intervals during its Duration, which last for 10 seconds each.

Alternatively, Tumbler Meal (Mud and Turbid Shrimp) grant additional Iframes on dodges. Lastly, Moxie Meal (Specialty/Slid Garlic) can prevent one cart.

Third Slot depends on Set and Location.

Ultimately, there is no stand-out absolute banger meal that will make a ginormous impact, so eating whatever is available or cooked by villagers or even just Meat is good enough.

Out of Quest-Set:

There is ongoing testing whether items consumed while having Mushroomancer and Item prolonger equipped retain their buffs through changing your Set, how they interact with Wide Range and if they persist through Quest Start. This might become optimal, and will receive an update in Section 3 if so.

Cat:

The current consensus is to either give it a Para Weapon or to leave it at home. Para is the preferred status, as it does not interfere with Agitator, which is taking a more central role in this Meta again. 

Cat unlocks extra abilities by doing its Side Quests, namely:

• Revive on cart with half health (once/quest)
• Spawn Vigor Wasps
• Steal materials

Cats max out at level 30.

Meta Build Guide

The following sets are ordered from weakest to strongest.

They do NOT assume Might Seed, Demon Powder, Mega/Demon Drug or specific food skills due to how annoying they are to farm. They DO however assume the Power Charm, obtained by doing the Double Ajarakan Arena quest (“As Gatekeeper”) from Rex’ Questline in Suja.

Additionally, Mantles will not be accounted for unless otherwise specified, as they do not reset between quests without the use of third party mods.

Preamble: Artian Weapons

The Current meta revolves around Artian Weapons. The Materials to craft the good ones are obtained from HR41+ Tempered Investigations. Good Investigations look like this:

Investigation Examples

The Three materials needed to craft a HBG are 1x Disc, 1x Tube and 1x Device. To craft an Artian HBG, talk to Gemma and select the Forge Artian Weapon option.

Next, Select the parts.

Crafting Menu

Each part has an Element (or a Status), and either Attack or Affinity associated with it. Using two of the same Element/Status makes the resulting weapon have that Element/Status. For Element HBG we go for Status instead of Pure element. The Reason is you get 5 Shots Base Depending on the Status you Picked

The above example uses 2 Attack Infusions and 1 Affinity Infusion, which means the resulting weapon will have 190 + (2×5) Attack and 5+(1×5)% Affinity.

Ammo Table of a “Paralysis Gun”

The “Infusions” on these parts always resemble 5. Current Highest Tier Artian Weapons have a base of 190 Raw and 5% Affinity.  They always have 3-3-3 Slots.

Artian Crafting Examples

Parts	Resulting Ammo
3 x Element	6x Level 2 Element Ammo
3 x Dragon	2 x Level 1 Dragon Ammo + 4 x Level 2 Fire Ammo
3 x Poison	4 x Level Poison Ammo + 5 x Level 2 Water Ammo
3 x Paralysis	4 x Level Paralysis Ammo + 5 x Level 2 Thunder Ammo
3 x Sleep	4 x Level Sleep Ammo + 5 x Level 2 Ice Ammo
3 x Blast	4 x Level Sticky Ammo + 5 x Level 2 Fire Ammo
3 x Random	Nothing Only Base.

Note that you cannot mix and match Parts of differing Rarity. Rarity 6 and 7 Artian weapons are strictly not worth it.

this Makes the Optimal Pick for any Elemental Bowgun going for the Status since you get to Double Dip into a Free Status.

Pick the Reinforce option and the Weapon you want to gamble on:

Reinforcement Materials can be obtained by trading with the secondary forge in Azuz. Trade your unneeded Monster Materials and Licenses for Oricalcite. 

It takes 10 Oricalcite per roll, for a total of 5 rolls = 50 of those ores.

The gamba part

This is where the weapons are truly made. Each “Reinforcement” adds 1 of 3 possible rolls on the weapon. These are:

• +5% Affinity; +5 Raw; +1 Capacity (Max is 2).

For Raw Guns.  you want to hit 15% Affinity 2 Capacity Boosts, and the rest is Attack.

The Optimal Raw gun will be a Paralysis Gun with 2 capacity boosts. The roll mentioned above with 15% Affinity rest is Raw is the Best possible roll for the Gun.

For Elemental Guns. You want to get your Capacity EXACTLY to 6. Then the rest into Attack.

While I will Recommend you Craft 2 Raw 1 Affinity for Ele guns This is to make the Grind less annoying. a Optimal gun is going Full attack.

1 Roll off Optima Elel Roll

Optimal Raw Roll

You will likely not have a great result. While the Extra Capacity and affinity are good, If you Happen to Roll and you get a Roll like this thats 1 Roll off you can safely Keep it and use it as the gains arent as much or as big. 

If You get a Bad roll, go to the Reinforce/Dismantle Menu and select Dismantle.

G stands for Get back Ore

Dismantling an Artian weapon returns the Ore used to Reinforce it back to you. You lose the Parts (2x Disc, 1x Tube) used to craft it, but the Ores are one less worry you need to have.

What Gun for What?

Gun	Ammo
Gore Magala	Pierce
Artian / G.Arkveld	Normal
Artian	Element

Here is Every Craftable

Customization

• Powder When available. to get to Ele 2/Raw 3.
• Mag for Gun when applicable.(if you get ele Mag you take ele Mag).
• For Raw guns if its ST and you can upgrade it to ST 2 you get that.

Raw Gun Set

Requirements:

• Artian Weapon total rolls: 2x Affinity (15% Affinity total), 2x Capacity Boost.
• 1xChallenger, 1x Antivirus, 2x Tenderizer, 2x Mighty Jewel, Exploiter Charm 2.
• 1x Crit Boost 3, 1x Opening Shot 3, 1x Offensive Guard 3./ For Gore.  1x Critboost 3, 1x Opening Shot 2, 1x Opening shot 1

Gameplan:

Its bowgun. your gameplan is kill it. Recommended Comfort: Shockproof 1 for MP. Quick Sheath.

Element Build 

Requirements:

• Artian Weapon total rolls: 1x Affinity, 3 Attack, 1x Capacity Boost.
• 1x Chain Jewel, 1x Challenger Jewel, 3x Furor Jewel, 2x Mighty Jewel, 2x Anti Virus jewel.
• Best DECO: Guardian/Ele, Crit Ele/Ele, Tetrad(ONLY 6 SHOTS)/Ele.

Gameplan:

Its bowgun. your gameplan is kill it. Recommended Comfort: Shockproof 1 for MP. Quick Sheath.

Matchup Sheet

Nercscylla works for both Pierce and Fire so just pick whichever you want.

Alternative Builds 

Requirements:

• Artian Weapon total rolls: 1x Affinity, 3 Attack, 2x Capacity Boost.
• 1x Chain Jewe(can drop for EE)l, 1x Tenderizer Jewel,1x Earplugs 2, 3x Mighty Jewel, 1x Anti Virus jewel.
• Best DECO: Focus 3, Crit Boost 3, Special Ammo Boost 2

Gameplan:

Lock it down. Use Corrupt Mantle. Best used in MP with others running same build. If you cant seem to lock the monster down Swap to the general Raw build. Recommended Comfort: Shockproof 1 for MP. Quick Sheath.

FAQs 

Why not run Pierce/Spread/Normal Up?

They got Hard nerfed to only 5% Modifier. This makes it less worth than even Crit boost.

Why Offensive Guard?

Its one of the Few Attack% in the game and is an Insane Buff.

Why no mantles?

Because they don’t reset on Quest Start/End.

Stick

No. They killed it. No Spare shot.

Why do the sets overcap affinity? Frenzy gives 15% and Antivirus 3 gives 15%!

Frenzy gives 15% when cured. Antivirus only gives 10%. The description is wrong.

Why do the decorations in my Set not Save properly?

That feature is currently bugged, we don’t know why.

How much does Power Charm add?

Power Charm grants +6 Raw.

What’s Seikret Builds?

Seikret Builds are basically On back gunning while on the Seikret. While on the Seikret you incur a 10% Damage Penalty and Fire Even Slower. the Gain in speed does try to counteract it. it is NOT a good way to play however where merit is due its Viable enough of a Different Playstyle im willing to Theorycraft a build for it.