Monster Hunter Wilds: Complete Light Bowgun Weapon Guide

What's better than getting up close and personal with the gigantic beasts that inhabit the dangerous environs of Monster Hunter Wilds? Why, staying away from them but still managing to take them down, of course! Of the 14 weapons available to you in the game, only three of them are suited to long ranges, and the Light Bowgun may be the safest of them all.

With an emphasis on movement and targeting weaknesses, the Light Bowgun may be the easiest of the three ranged weapons to get to grips with, and there's a lot of room for optimisation and impressive moves. Let's dive into this flexible weapon!

You can see the specific Light Bowgun controls for your platform by going into Settings > Info > Play Guide > Weapon Controls > Light Bowgun.

Light Bowgun Overview

The Light Bowgun is a ranged weapon that straddles between Bow and Heavy Bowgun in terms of mobility - while the Bow is a very mobile weapon, the Light Bowgun is not very far behind it. With the Light Bowgun, you'll be firing bursts of ammo into your foe, repositioning, and then firing again - it's a very active and reactive moveset to get to grips with.

The weapon's effectiveness hinges not on your ability to simply pump the most rounds into your foe, but your ability to use its special forms of shooting. Specifically, this means using Rapid Fire Mode to its best extent and firing off Chaser Shots whenever possible.

This is a weapon that we heavily recommend a session in the Training Camp with - getting used to the rhythm of Chaser Shots, Rapid Fire Mode, and reloading is difficult on the field as a total newbie!

In addition to the three unlimited ammo types (Normal, which is basic, Spread, which gives the Bowgun shots a wide angle, and Pierce, which deals damage constantly as it passes through a monster), there are many craftable/purchaseable ammo types that can be used to great effect. In brief:

• Elemental Ammo will give your gun elemental damage. Similarly, Status Ailment Ammo is the only way to build status ailments on enemies. This is the only way to access these types of damage, unlike other weapons where they're intrinsic.
• Slicing Ammo will deal lots of damage to a monster, but specifically slicing damage, so it can be used to sever tails.
• Recover Ammo can be used to heal allies - really only useful in multiplayer situations.
• Tranq Ammo does the same thing as Tranq Bombs, meaning this ammo is only really useful when trying to capture a monster rather than slay it.
• Sticky Ammo causes explosions, which may knock enemies down if they target the monster's head.

Critical Range

A key aspect to ranged weaponry is the idea of a Critical Range. This is something you can see very blatantly when aiming your weapon with the L2/LT button - something you should be doing at all times when attacking with a ranged weapon.

You'll have a targeting reticle visible in the centre of your screen when aiming. When you are at the 'Critical Range', this reticle will be outlined in orange - if there's no orange, you'll either need to get closer or further away from your target. If you fire outside of the Critical Range, you'll be doing less damage than the alternative!

Different ammo types have different Critical Ranges! For example, Spread Ammo, which turns your gun into something of a shotgun, will have you closer to your target than other ammo types.

Rapid Fire Mode

A central feature of the Light Bowgun is its Rapid Fire Mode. Underneath the special ammo bar and above the regular ammo tracker on the right-side of the screen, you'll see a gauge that is either yellow while full, or blue while reloading. This is your Rapid Fire allotment.

Hitting the Circle/B button while in the normal mode that you'll begin in when equipping a Light Bowgun will put you into Rapid Fire Mode, which you'll be able to see visibly on the weapon; the hunter will put a whole other magazine on the right side of the bowgun.

You can leave Rapid Fire Mode at any time by hitting the Circle/B button again.

While in Rapid Fire mode, you're able to either hold down the fire button to continuously fire your chosen ammo into an enemy, or perform greater Chaser Shots than usual.

Only your unlimited ammo types can be used in Rapid Fire mode - don't worry about not using your limited ammo types to their best potential by not saving them for Rapid Fire mode!

Chaser Shots

Another key aspect of the Light Bowgun moveset is the humble Chaser Shot. After firing a round of ammo, you can follow up this shot with a Chaser Shot using the Circle/B button. This will fire a stronger-than-usual followup attack using the same ammo.

The only reason not to use Chaser Shots in your main combos is if you need to very quickly move out of a monster's path or avoid an attack, as Chaser Shots will have you stationary for a short while. It's a little bit 'risk for reward', so learning a monster's attack patterns and when it's safe to execute Chaser Shots will make hunts far cleaner than otherwise.

Another benefit to Chaser Shots is that they will refill your Rapid Fire gauge more than regular shots, so if your gun is far more suited to dealing damage through Rapid Fire (for example, if you're not targeting an elemental weakness or a status effect and you just want raw damage), you'll want to use Chaser Shots more for that juicy Rapid Fire uptime.

Light Bowgun Combos And Tips

Bowgun Customisation

A central aspect of both Bowgun weapons is the fact that you can customise them and bring along a pack full of ammo that suits the exact hunt you're taking them on. To customise a Bowgun, you'll need to head to the Customise Bowgun page at any Camp's menu or at a Smithy.

Bowguns can be equipped with a range of mods (which are all provided by the game, no need to craft them!) that improve certain aspects. They are Magazines, which increase certain ammo types' capacity, letting you fire them more before you need to waste time reloading. Different mods have different levels of utility:

• Normal Ammo is very powerful in this game, so the Normal Ammo Magazine is always a useful mod!
• Pierce Ammo is most useful when facing very large or very long monsters, to get the most damage out of a shot.
• Spread Ammo is most useful when facing very large monsters who have very large vulnerable spots.
• Elemental Boost will improve the magazines of all elemental ammo, which is really fantastic when facing enemies with particularly strong weaknesses.
• Rapid Fire Magazines will be most useful when you're focusing on non-elemental builds and going for raw damage.
• Special Ammo Magazines will give you two ammo for your special ammo (detailed below), which can be very useful if you're deft at exploiting them to their best.

Ultimately, the best choices here will come down to your experience with the Light Bowgun as a weapon and what you're hunting at the time. Experience will be the key decider.

Wyvernblast Vs. Adhesive Ammo

Light Bowguns have two 'special' ammo types that can be used by pressing the Triangle/Y button at the same time as the Circle/B button. Like the modifications we just talked about, they can be swapped by heading into the Customise Bowgun page in a Camp menu or at a Smithy.

• Wyvernblast will place a lit flare in the ground that will explode whenever it is attacked, whether it's by your hunter or an enemy. It will also explode when walked on by an enemy. This is fantastic for fighting grounded enemies that like to get up close and personal, and you can trigger the explosions very easily with some well-aimed Rapid Fire shots.
• Adhesive Ammo will fire a sticky round that will actually stick to a monster if it hits one. After a while, it will explode, like Slicing Ammo, but the damage it deals will be based on how many times you can shoot it while it's in place on the monster. This is really fantastic when used against monsters who aren't too mobile, letting you aim at the adhesive ammo more. It's also a fantastic punishment for monsters while they're paralysed or knocked down.

Both types of ammo certainly have their place, but Adhesive Ammo is the one that seems to have the most applications and universality, so if you're looking for an outright recommendation, Adhesive Ammo is the recommendation we'd give.

Both types of ammo are on a standard cooldown. You cannot restore this cooldown quicker by attacking, unlike with Rapid Fire Mode. You can see if your ammo is ready by checking above the Rapid Fire gauge - the symbol on the left denotes your Special Ammo, while the symbols on the right denote your Focus Strike ammo.

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