~ mazereon presents ~ ------------------- _____ _ ___ /__ \ |__ ___ / __\ _____ ____ _ _ _ _ __ / /\/ '_ \ / _ \ /__\/// _ \ \ /\ / / _` | | | | '_ \ / / | | | | __/ / \/ \ (_) \ V V / (_| | |_| | | | | \/ |_| |_|\___| \_____/\___/ \_/\_/ \__, |\__,_|_| |_| |___/ ___ _ _ / __\___ _ __ ___ _ __ ___ _ __ __| (_)_ _ _ __ ___ / / / _ \| '_ ` _ \| '_ \ / _ \ '_ \ / _` | | | | | '_ ` _ \ / /__| (_) | | | | | | |_) | __/ | | | (_| | | |_| | | | | | | \____/\___/|_| |_| |_| .__/ \___|_| |_|\__,_|_|\__,_|_| |_| |_| |_| _ _ _ _____ ________ ___ ___ _____ _____ | | | | | |_ _|_ _| \/ | / _ \_ _| ___| | | | | | | | | | | . . |/ /_\ \| | | |__ | | | | | | | | | | |\/| || _ || | | __| | |_| | |____| | _| |_| | | || | | || | | |___ \___/\_____/\_/ \___/\_| |_/\_| |_/\_/ \____/ ------------------- For Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (aka Monster Hunter Tri G) v 0.5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================================= Contents Change History Introducion Part 1: Bowgun Mechanics Bowgun 101 Ammunition Elemental shots Upgrading Bowguns Heavy Bowguns Suggested HBGs Siege Mode Light Bowguns Suggested LBGs Rapid Fire Armour Skills Using Bowguns in Multiplayer Support Damage Part 2: Armour Sets and Skills Armour skills for Gunners Suggested Low Rank sets Suggested High Rank sets Suggested G Rank sets Part 3: Strategies for Gunning Every Creature Bird Wyverns Great Jaggi/Baggi/Froggi Qurupecco and Crimson Qurupecco Pelagus & Fanged Azuros Urcusis Volvidon Jinogua & Stygian Jinouga Flying Wyverns Rathalos & Azure Rathalos Silver Rathalos Rathian & Pink Rathian Gold Rathian Diablos and Black Diablos Gigginox and Baleful Gigginox Barioth & Sand Barioth Naruga and Green Naruga Lucent Naruga Brute Wyverns Barroth and Ice Barroth Uragaan and Steel Uragaan Duramboros & Desert Duram Brachydios Deviljho & Hungry Jho Leviathans Royal Ludroth and Purple R Ludroth Nibelsnarf Gobul Agnaktor and Glacial Agnaktor Lagiacrus & Ivory Lagiacrus Abyssal Lagiacrus Elder Dragons Jhen Mohran and Hallowed Jhen Alatreon Ceadeus and Gold Ceadeus Dire Miralis Part 4: Mark of a Hero Part 5: Credits, Contact & Copyright Info ============================================================================= Change History ============================================================================= v0.6: Updated with some info I'd missed and some fixed errors. Thanks to the guys on GameFAQs and the MH Podcast group for helping with this. v0.5: Draft Compendium is released ============================================================================= Introduction ============================================================================= Welcome all to the Bowgun Compendium Ultimate; May all your days be long upon the earth. This guide is an attempt to distil all the information about gunning you'll need in order to successfully use the Bowgun classes in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Getting to grips with all the intricacies of Bowguns can be quite daunting at first, so the aim of the Compendium is to get you the information you need as well as analysis about what that information means in terms of gameplay. In the interests of getting the guide out, I've run with some assumptions which may affect the accuracy of some of the information. These are: <> The damage formula is fundamentally similar to all previous games in the MH series <> Monsters that are returning from Portable 3rd or Tri have similar weaknesses and weak points as they did in those games. While these are assumptions, there are good reasons to run with them until the information is confirmed - this is mainly because Capcom doesn't tend to change much between games in its formulae. Still, be aware this first iteration of the Compendium will inevitably change before it's finalised. With that caveat in mind, I have actually tested all the strategies detailed below in this draft version of the Compendium, so they do actually work. Throughout the guide there are YouTube links to videos I've made to demonstrate tactics. To view these, copy and paste them into your internet browser. In the interests of time, some of these videos are taken from Portable 3rd from where creatures are identical, for all intents and purposes. Alternatively, you can jump right to my eponymous channel on YouTube at youtube.com/mazereon and locate the videos from there. - mazereon ============================================================================= Part 1: Bowgun Mechanics ============================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bowgun 101 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are a number of different types of damage you can deal in Monster Hunter games. The Hammer and Hunting Horn weapons deal Impact damage (and so do some other attacks from other classes), bladed weapons do Cutting damage, Barrel Bombs and Cannons do Explosive damage, and Bowguns usually do Shot type damage. This is important to know because where creatures are weak to getting hit by melee weapons isn't always where they're weak to Shot type damage. To further complicate things, Bowguns can use Elemental shots. When using these shots, your gun doesn't do Shot damage, it instead does damage of that element. This means that you're going to need to know a fair bit of information to gun well - not just how to shoot, but where to shoot, and with what type of damage. Don't worry about that just yet, but keep it in mind while we talk about controls. Controls Unsheathe is X, and there’s no unsheathe 'attack', though pressing R trigger, X and A together unsheathes and loads your gun with your currently selected ammo. Reloading is X while unsheathed. Selecting ammo is by holding L trigger, then selecting the desired ammo with X and B, and then releasing L. You must re-load if you switch out of your chosen ammo and then back to it. A to fire. Your scope is R trigger once unsheathed, aimed with the analogue stick. R trigger again to unzoom. Tapping the bottom right of the touch screen with both classes does a melee bash attack that does little damage, but adds KO value. It's not very useful in multi. If you hold L trigger while pressing any direction key, you switch to a third person view that allows you to aim on the fly. Good for scoping surroundings in a pinch, and very handy with faster aiming in Siege mode. Pressing X and A together with a Heavy Bowgun enters Siege mode, and you can use X and then A to confirm the Siege ammo. Pressing B makes you roll or sidestep depending on your current situation. Using the analogue stick allows you to direct the sidestep if you've just fired or roll direction otherwise. Range When you fire your BG, there are five ranges, from shortest (1) to longest (5). How far away you are from a creature impacts on how much damage you'll do. For Pierce and Pellet, ranges 2 and 3 do the most damage, 1 and 4 are next most and 5 (the longest distance away) is the lowest damage. To observe this, try sniping a small minion monster at very long range - it takes around twice as many shots to kill compared to firing point blank. Elemental shots however are range independent - so they do full damage at range 1 and range 5. Note though that they don't fire past about range 5. For Normal, ranges 1 and 2 do the most, then 3 and 4, and finally long range shots at 5 do very little. Normal 3 is effective up to range 3, though. while underwater, effective ranges are halved. That means when underwater, fire Normal shots from a single 'roll' back and Pierce from 2-3 back. Crag and Clust shots do fixed damage aside from the initial contact hit, and can be fired at any range with virtually the same effect. Clust's damage depends on how many of the bomblets explode on or near the creature - obviously the more, the better. You'll soon find the sweet spot to shoot from to maximise your damage, and you'll see that the impact flash is larger at the right range. Deviation, Recoil and Reload All BGs have a listing on the info page for Shot Deviation, recoil and reload. Shot deviation is how far off centre your shots fly. It's not a huge issue, and can be corrected for with the Precision skill. Recoil and reload affect how much your shots push you back, and how quickly you load more shots. These values mix with shot types' natural values, and that's how fast you load or how far you recoil. For example, Normal 1 shots reload very fast. So even on a gun with Slow reload, you'll reload quickly. Or, you might have a gun with Light recoil, but firing Dragon shots will still push you back. While these values on a gun are important, the shot's natural reload/recoil values are a little more important. The rule of thumb is that you only need Recoil- on your armour if you can't fire your shot of choice without recoil. That means often Pellet 3 or Pierce 3 users need to find a gun with low recoil, or use a set featuring Recoil-. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ammunition ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- To be a range master, you must understand your weapon. And to understand a range weapon, you must understand what you’re firing. Please note numbers listed are for the default bag size of shots and with combines, you can take more ammo. Firstly, you'll notice when selecting ammo that some shots have a special border in your shot list while most are white. Red shots indicate ammo that is Rapid Fired (LBG) or can be Siege fired (HBG). Normal 1 and 2 are simple shots: You fire them, and they hit and damage the hitzone they land on. Normal 1 has infinite ammo but does very little damage – if you end up with only this left on a quest, you should probably abandon if the monster you’re hunting isn’t almost dead. Normal 2 does good damage and is simply targeted and fired. Works well generally and on small, fast monsters or where pierce shots don’t work well. You can carry one Normal 1 that fires infinitely and 99 Normal 2. Normal 3 is slightly different. It hits, then damages the hitzone it lands on and shards fly off. These will either hit adjacent hitzones or fly off. If you land ricochets, it’ll do a lot of damage. Takes a bit of practice to use effectively but you’ll learn where to hit to land most ricochets, most often. It has a longer effective range than Normal 1 & 2 do. You carry 99, and the shot is slightly more effective than in second generation Monster Hunter. Underwater, this shot has a tendancy to ricochet much more often, and since it has a longer range, it's highly recommended for your aquatic battles. Pierce 1, 2, 3: These all work the same. They hit one hitzone and travel through to the next one, then the next until they hit the appropriate number of times or exit the creature. Pierce 1 hits 4 times, Pierce 2 hits 5, and Pierce 3 hits up to 6 times. While lower level shots will do more per 'hit', if you connect all the hits from higher level shots, they'll do more damage. Also, high levels of Pierce are more effectively fired from longer back. A point blank Pierce 3 won't do as much damage as if you were four rolls back. You carry 60 of each level. Pellet 1, 2, 3: These shots are different from the above in that they require little precision. You fire, and the shot splits up and hits hitzones in your cone of vision. It's not totally random, and certain monster parts will attract pellets more than others. Works excellently for dromes: fire, and a half second later shards will hit a few points. You can pack 60 of level 1, 70 if 2 and 80 of 3. Sub 1 and 2: An underwater specific version of Pellet S. I haven't done a lot of hunts with this shot, but if you're underwater and having a tough time aiming other shots, give it a whirl. More info to come. Crag: A simple shot: You fire, it hits and a split second later explodes. Does good damage and acts like a sonic bomb. Enough damage (more accurately, KO value) from this will KO a monster like a hammer if you hit the head. It’s not much use in solo play, but it’s very good for online battles. Again, has recoil to watch out for. Max 9 shots per level. Clust: You fire a shell, and when it hits it does minor damage while sticking in the target. But then it fragments into several bomblets which explode. If all hit, it does severe damage, but will take practice to land. This works very well on bigger, slower creatures, but again on a faster monster it’s not great because the bomblets won’t stay on it if it moves. Another shot with recoil. Max 3 shots per level. Exhaust: Creatures have an invisible stamina gauge in this game. As they attack, that gauge depletes until they are forced to break off and recover stamina and will stand on the spot taunting. Exhaust S helps to lower their stamina faster, and will do KO damage like Crag S if you get a head shot. You can take 12 of these at level 1 and 8 at level 2. Slicing: Normal Bowgun shots do Shot type damage (apart from elemental and explosive shots). This shot type does Cutting damage, meaning that gunners can now cut tails off with enough cutting damage dealt. Note that a certain amount of cutting damage is needed, so you can't shoot it with any other shot type and expect a tail to fall off with 1 Slicing S. They do minimal damage though, so it's usually best to plan to help melee users cut the tail rather than expect to do it easily yourself. Status shots (Poison S, Sleep S, Paralyze S): These shots all lower a monsters' tolerance to that status. When the status tolerance reaches 0, they will be poisoned, sent to sleep or paralyzed. Each time they are inflicted, their tolerance rises for the next time. You carry 12 level 1 and 8 Level 2. Slime S: Slime is a new element in 3U. As you coat a creature in slime, it'll build up until you reach enough and then it explodes for similar damage to a Large Barrel Bomb. This shot type is not as good as the melee equivalent, and best used when you can apply it quickly (like RF'd or sieged shots). Wyvernfire S: Still testing this one. Basically, think a version of Gunlance's shot of the same name. Recover S: This shot does what it sounds like: heals any target in its wide radius. And yes, 'any' target means you will heal monsters you hit with it too. In practice, it's better to sheathe and use a Lifepowder as it's faster than changing ammo and aiming at your team mate, and it heals everyone in the zone and not the monster. Tranq S, Armour S, Demon S: These shots are utility shots. Demon shots raise team mates' attack, Armour S obviously does the same for defence, and Tranq S will have the same effect as Tranq bombs (although you must hit the head). In all honesty, these are all but useless shots in practice. I know that a lot of the Tri players swear by Demon/Armour shots, and the point of using them is to help kill a creature faster. But if you focus on more of a damage role instead of a supporting one, you'll probably find you kill creatures faster anyway. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elemental Shots ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elemental shots (except Dragon) are 'normal' style shots. That means, they hit an do all their damage to a single hitzone. As in previous games, these shots do elemental damage that scales with your Bowgun's raw, including Dragon S. Dragon S is still a pierce style shot, so it passes through multiple hitzones unlike the other elemental shots. It's very powerful and has a huge recoil, but given its very limited ammo capacity (even with combines) it's best not to base a hunt around this shot type. While above it says elemental shots are only elemental damage, that's not strictly true. Elemental Shots are mostly elemental damage, but do have a small Shot damage portion. Only the shot damage is affected by Affinity, so if you have a gun with strong negative affinity it will still function well with Elemental shots. The raw portion of an elemental shell is miniscule though, this note is only here for completeness sake. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upgrading Bowguns ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- So congratulations, you’ve decided to get into the mysterious and new world of bowgunning. Off you run to the creation store and plonk down your Rathalos Plate for that shiny new cannon. Now you’ve made it, what are those options you get? You may only attach one of the two possible options, which are different for heavy and light bowguns. Power barrel: Gives a good boost to damage. When you have defensive skills on your armour, this is probably the attachment of choice. Roughly 10% extra damage. OR, a [HBG Only] Shield: An attachment to have if you have offensive armour skills and need some protection. While you aren’t attacking, you’ll auto block attacks, including screams. The residual damage you take is higher than other classes, but it's better than getting run over by a Diablos. Your shield will work when you're in Siege mode. [LBG Only] Silencer: This device noticeably lowers recoil. If you're using a Pellet, Pierce, Crag or Clust set primarily, this is a very handy attachment to have. For recoil-less shots, it's not worth using. And with both of those, you can equip a: Zoom Scope: When in zoom mode, you can zoom your gun in further. Not really that useful in most situations, since without the Target range down skill, your shots won’t reach as far as you can see. But hey, why not? Limiters Once you hit G rank, Rare 6 and above BGs have the option of removing their 'Limiter'. On HBG, this option increases your damage and clip size at the cost of removing Siege mode, and on LBG it removes Rapid Fire from your weapon in exchange for being able to load all your shot types at once and allowing you to switch between them without having to re-load when re-selecting as you normally would. For LBGs, this requires some careful consideration, as Rapid Fire is often a serious source of damage. If you're using a LBG for its damage and/or clip size on a non-RF shot, it's a no brainer. For HBGs, a Limiter should be considered mandatory in almost all cases. Siege mode was introduced in Portable 3rd to address the removal of Auto Reload in MHP2G/Freedom Unite, to try and re-balance them. A larger - but not infinite - clip in exchange for being stuck in place might sound like an acceptable trade off, but given how range and mobility dependant this class is, in practice Siege mode is not very useful solo except in few circumstances. It's more useful in multiplayer, but again only where a creature is immobilised - so, not much of the fight. A limiter will slow your movement speed slightly on HBG too, as well as restricting your rolling capabilities. It's for this reason that except where noted, I always recommend you put a Limiter on your HBG. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heavy Bowgun Specific Information ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the removal of Speed Fire/Auto Reload from 2nd gen and the addition of Siege mode, much has changed. While quick kill times are still to be had with this class, a little more strategy is required. But on the plus side, you can Siege with every HBG, allowing a pseudo Speed Fire much more easily accessible than previously. As above, Siege mode is entered with X and A, and ammo selected with X and then A to confirm. It's worth noting that Siege capable shots don't have to be Siege fired, they can be used normally. This is a welcome departure from LBG's enforced Rapid Fire. HBGs do have their downsides. As you’ve no doubt noticed, when unsheathed, it has limited mobility (comparable to a Gunlance). Limited ammo (ignoring the Normal 1 shot which does negligible damage) means if you aren’t accurate, you'll end up having to use subpar ammo or even worse, completely unable to finish a quest. And you’ll need to be stationary while firing, leaving you open. But the fact is, with practice and skill, these issues can be practically negated. The strengths of HBG are many, as it’s a class that can be played a number of ways. It’s got great elemental damage and great raw damage. Ammo limits aren’t really a problem when you learn weak points and bring combines, and you can equip a shield and use the Guard Inc skill to constantly tank all hits – and even without it, the shield auto-blocks if you aren’t firing. Or you can go all out offence and use a power barrel for even more damage. HBGs also use a different damage formula from LBG - it gets a boost of around 12% as a hidden multiplier in the formula. That means if you have a HBG with 200 raw and a LBG also with 200 raw, the HBG gets a (200 * 1.12) 24 damage boost. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Suggested HBGs ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The rule of thumb when choosing a gun is to look for what shots you plan to be using most. In addition, large clips (so above 6) of Normal 2/3 are always useful, and lower recoil/reload speeds makes the higher impact shots more useful. Pellet: Crimson Pecco's weapons are excellent here. Good clips, good recoil and slots as well as good interaction with a Limiter makes these Pellet guns of choice. Normal: Rathian's line is excellent and easily made, though when available, Jhen's (and to a lesser extent Ceadeus's) are better choices. The Nibel and Ivory Lagi guns also work very well here, especially if you do find many opportunities for siege fire. Pierce: The Naruga weapons are the real stars here. Don't be put off by the lower raw - the affinity and reload/recoil means your damage per second is going to be high. General use: Alatreon's weapon is a great all-round elemental machine, and Jhen's cannons fire a lot of useful ammos. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Light Bowgun Specific Information ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- In second generation MH, given armour skills like Evade Inc and Speed Fire that nullified HBG's downsides, LBGs were a reasonably poor cousin to their bigger brethren. In most cases, as their damage output often couldn't compete and their upsides weren't overly useful, there wasn't often much reason to use the LBGs, especially solo. But now that HBGs have lower raw overall and no Speed Fire to assuage their low clip sizes and reload values, LBGs are really stealing the spotlight. Rapid Fire (below) is a hugely valuable tool, given that creatures seem a little more elementally resistant and ammo is often a concern. And now that monster's hitboxes are much tighter, LBG's mobility really lets you stay close and deliver more damage. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rapid Fire ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rapid Fire (RF) is a mechanism unique to LBGs. Most LBGs have a shot (or shots) that they RF, which is listed in the last page of the gun description. A shot that is rapid fired will launch multiple shells for every one attack initiated, while still using a single bullet. For example, a gun that Rapid fires Thunder S will fire three Thunder rounds, one after the other, while still just using one of your Thunder S shots in your inventory. While each individual shot in that volley does less damage than normal, if the whole volley connects it'll do more damage than that single non RF'd shot. However, it takes a little longer to do it in. Proper use of RF can massively reduce quest clearing times. Most elemental RFs use three rounds per shot, at 70% of the original power. If all 3 hit, that's 70% x 3 = 210% of the initial power, while still consuming less ammo. While it's often faster to fire two non RF'd shots in the same time (so, 2 x 100% = 200%) you'll end up needing to reload more often without RF. This is quite different to 2G/FU where LBG users could use Speed Fire - making RF in 3U a more attractive option. RF works extremely well on status shots, since they have a fixed value and long range. Since status tolerance rises over time, the faster you inflict it, the more effective it is. RF can deliver status very quickly, making it easier to inflict. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Suggested LBGs ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- As with picking a HBG, it's crucial to think about the shots you're going to be using most in a given quest. Looking for a gun that rapid fire that shot is usually your best option, even if that gun's raw is a little lower than another choice. And again, a good Normal 2/3 clip never hurts. For each element, look for the gun with the highest raw that Rapid Fires the element you're after. Normally, that's Rathalos (Fire), Lagi/Jin (Thunder), Barioth (Ice) and Water (Plesioth). Pellet: Use the Dobo line. Good clip sizes and Weak recoil plus good raw. The Rathian and Pink Ian lines work too, though need a Silencer or Recoil-. Normal: The Barroth and Jade Barroth guns are solid and double as Pellet weapons, and the Giggi guns do Normal well and Poison very well, which is useful on almost all creatures. The Zinogre and Lagia weapons are excellent Normal guns once you can make them. Pierce: The Barioth weapons have a good clip size/damage/affinity matrix and with a Silencer have good recoil. The Naruga weapons are also good, but ideally you'd want Load Up with them. General use: For use on Brute wyverns the Giggi guns' Poison RF is useful. The Ancient/Rusted weapons are very good for the explosive shots in the cases where they work well. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Armour Skills ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just like how blademasters tend to have favourite skills for their weapons (Sharpness +1, anyone?), there are several skills that greatly increase BG’s potential. Evade +2: This is a staple skill that you should learn to use. You can use the split second of invulnerability to roll through roars and most attacks, allowing you to remain in the thick of battle and play very aggressively. Now that hitboxes are fixed, it's a luxury rather than a requisite. Evade Inc: This is a good skill to boost mobility. It’s simple: you roll further. Allows for aggressive play, and it's more important on HBG. Pierce/Pellet/Normal S Up: These all boost the damage of their associated shot. They have enough of a bonus to make them worthwhile, but are best suited to use on specific monsters. For example, an armour with Pierce Up is great for long monsters but not much use versus Azuros. Pierce and Normal Up are +10% and Pellet Up is +20%. Reloading Speed+ : Much like it suggests, increases your reloading speed. Useful if you're going for a Pierce/Pellet set, but not hugely useful otherwise. Critical Eye +1/2/3: A simple damage skill. CE +1 increases your DoT by 2.5%, +2 by 5% and +3 by 7.5%. It works by increasing your chance of a critical hit (+25% damage) by 10% per level. If you have negative affinity it makes you less likely to do a negative critical hit (-25%). Since BGs have low-ish raw, you'll almost always get a better bonus from a given shot type boost (like Normal Up) instead of Critical Eye +3. Attack Up: This adds a fixed damage boost to every shot. At +10 points it adds 10 damage, +15 points (Attack Up Medium) adds 15 damage and +20 points (Attack Up Large) adds (wait for it...) 20 raw. While this is a mediocre boost, at low rank it can often be better than skills that add a % of weapon raw. Elemental Attack Up: Increases the damage of your elemental shots. This can be a great skill for fighting element weak monsters, but for creatures that have low elemental weaknesses it’s not helpful. Boosts elemental damage by 20%. It's also only found naturally on Alatreon armour. (Elemental) Attack +1/2: These skills (one for each element) boost damage by +10% at +1 and 20% at +2. In effect, they replace EAU on most sets. While it's annoying having to re-gem sets for different elements, at least now you can store sets and gems in your house. Load Up: Means your ammo limits per clip are increased by one shot per clip. You get this skill from many armours as an equivalent to Sharp +1 (so on sets like Helios, Jho). It's useful always, but it'll never really take a gun from mediocre to good. Handy on many RF guns. Adrenaline +2: When you get very experienced, this is a great skill. When at less than 40% health, your damage increases by 30%, the single biggest boost of any skill except Felyne Heroics. Since Heroics no longer stacks with Adrenaline +2, I would suggest this one instead since Heroics only activates when you’re under 10 health, making it very dangerous. Being under 40% health isn’t fun but at least if a Rhenoplos gets niggly, it won’t one-shot you. Being an experienced range player means you need never get hit, so being on reduced life isn’t an issue. Stinger/Exploiter: This skill gives you a 5% damage boost when hitting monster's weakest points. Only applies to raw damage though, but on a Normal focussed set it's a decent boost to damage over time if you're accurate. Bonus Shot: This skill means when you RF a shot, it'll add another bullet to the end of the current volley. I'm still testing whether it adds it at the same damage % as the others or a reduced one, but it does hold you in place longer which is dangerous. On slow foes though it can be exceptional. Recoil reduce: the Pierce and explosive shots can have a big recoil, and different guns have different recoil rates. You should always be careful about when you shoot, but this skill can help you get more hits in. Earplugs: Not as essential as for blademasters, but a great skill to have. You shouldn't always be within scream range or be able to evade through it if you are, but everyone makes mistakes. The difference is that for gunners in G rank they can be fatal :) Combination Pro: This cheap (5 slot) skill is much more useful than you think. Most creatures have a weakness to a specific shot level or type, and this skill lets you maximise that weakness. For a lot of elemental shots, it's a great skill. Precision: Now that guns have a built in deviation, this skill can correct it. Cheap to gem in and often worth it at low rank. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Suggested Armour Sets ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the above information in mind, here are some armour sets for different situations. To be updated with more soon - but given how the skills on armours are much more diffuse in 3U, it's probably the case that mix sets are almost always superior. If you download a program called the Armour Set Searcher (It's currently hosted on forums.Minegarde.com) by the excellent Athena, you can put in the skills you want and charms you have and it'll tell you how to make the set you want. HR1 - 3: LOW RANK Ingot: A simple to make set that's packing useful skills. HR4 - 6: HIGH RANK Volvidon: Evade+ and Attack up are two great skills for any type of gunning, and this set isn't overly hard to make. Narga: Evasion heavy set that's more useful for HBG. Ingot S: A great performer for Pellet and easily made. Azure Los: Earplug, RA+, and can fit in Normal Up and Evade Inc - a great set for all round play, and especially good with the Jhen HBG. Alatreon - a very good elemental set, especially with the versatile Alatreon LBG. HR6 - 999: G RANK Rust Duram: The skills here are great for any type of gunning, and the slots (two OOOs and three singles) let you put in (Shot type Up) very easily without a charm adding to it. A great versatile set at the start of G rank, and it looks really sweet, too. Ingot X: Pellet/Recoil- makes an excellent combo, especially with the Rust Dobo gun. Goldbeard Ceadeus: While this set isn't as prolific for gunners, the Load Up and Earplug combo is quite useful. It's also got slots enough to expand as well as having good def. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- General Gunning Tactics ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For each monster, you’ll need careful preparation and thought before heading off into a quest. Rocking up with whatever gun and armour can be the difference between a five minute quest and multiple failures. Once you’ve decided what monster to hunt, there are a few simple steps to make sure your quests are fast and fun. Basically, for anything you fight, you want to have enough ammo of the right type to finish the fight without having to resort to using ineffective shots. Sometimes, this means having a primary and a secondary ammo type. Firstly, is what you’re fighting elementally weak or not? Every creature has a weakness to an element, but if the creature in question is slightly weak to an element, then finding a gun that fires that element should be a secondary priority. But if you’re fighting something like a Naruga, Barioth or Ludroth, then bring your Fire S by all means. If it has two big weaknesses, then an elemental gun should be your first priority. Secondly, are you fighting a long monster, fast monster or one with a big weak spot? For long monsters, look for guns that fire Pierce 3 and/or 2. For fast ones, Scatter 3 and Normal 2, and for ones with an obvious weak point (like Rathalos’s head) then take Normal 2 and 3. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Bowguns in Multiplayer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Many of you reading this will be playing Ultimate as a sequel to Monster Hunter Tri, and while I never played Tri, I have heard a lot of anecdotal stories about gunners’ behaviour online and it has confirmed what I’ve seen from playing Freedom Unite and Portable 3rd online. If you’re approaching gunning as a way to look like you’re doing something useful while waiting for the other players to kill the monster because you’re not confident fighting it, then what you ought to do is jump offline learn how to fight the creature solo first. Gunning should not be seen as a way to be legitimately outside of harm’s way. If you’re “sniping” from most of the zone away, you’re either doing next to no damage and using up a spot on the team or you’re using range- independent shots like Clust, and you’re going to be exploding the blademasters away and drawing the monster away from them. Trust me on this, you’re not doing yourself any favours and you’re going to be unlikely to earning friends online. It's my firm opinion the game is much more fun when you’ve got a good handle on the mechanics. To gun effectively online, there are two broad approaches: Support and Damage. Regardless of which path you focus on, there are a few notes that will make you a better gunner: <> Don’t use Pellet online. Any damage you do will be outweighed by the fact up to three other players are suddenly unable to do any damage because your shots are flinching them. <> Your shots can’t hurt other players, but they can hit them. When players are between you and a monster, take a half-second to aim up at a creature. <> Shots like Heal S, Demon S, Armour S, Paint S – don’t use them. Heal S will heal monsters as well as players, and it’s faster to put your gun away and use a Lifepowder, which heals everyone in the zone (and you) without risking healing a monster. Ditto Demon/Armour S – if you’re dead set on giving other players the pretty minor boost those shots offer, take a Wide Area set instead and eat power/armour seeds. It’ll save time as well as buffing you. <> Stay close to the monster. Even if you’re using range independant shots or are focussed on Support rather than Damage, the monster will eventually target you. If you’re across the zone, you’ll drag the creature away from your team mates which is a direct drop in damage over time. It’s also easier to make all your shots count if you’re close. This obviously crucial if you’re playing a Damage role and you’re underwater, since you’ll be up close and personal. Support Support is probably what many players think of as the classical role of a gunner in an online match, if they haven’t seen the potential of a good HBG user. There is nothing wrong with focussing on playing a supporting role, and against some creatures and with certain teams it’s actually a better option. If you’re playing with friends who aren’t very developed in their hunting or with a team of randoms and you’re the most experienced on the team, it’s a good idea to play Support at first. The focus of this role is to provide support (duh) to your team mates in killing the boss. You’re going to be doing this in a number of ways: <> Using Paralyze shots to hold the creature in place for your other team <> Using Poison shots to help with damage on heavily armoured targets <> Using Sleep shots and Barrel Bombs to assist in huge damage bursts <> Using Crag S and Exhaust S to help stack KO damage on a monster’s head <> And of course, actually shooting the creature for damage So obviously using status inflicting shots is a priority. Remember that each status infliction takes most shots than the last, so once you’ve caused three inflictions of a status, it’s time to switch to another, or to move to straight damage shots. Finding the right weapon is important – anything with Rapid Fire of a status shot will be very powerful, and if you’re in a team with some heavy hitters (hammer/GS users mainly) then it’s worth sacrificing some damage if it means you can better help those team mates pump out damage. If you are going to attempt to sleep something so you can sleep bomb it or have a team mate do a big attack to wake it up (the first attack on a sleeping creature does 3x damage) then co-ordination is key. Don’t use the last few shots you think will send it to sleep while it’s already KO’d or paralyzed, wait until it’s physically a bit away from the melee players so they don’t accidently wake it up immediately. If you are using Exhaust S or Crag S, don’t forget you need to get head shots to build up KO value. If you’re the only person doing consistent KO damage (so there aren’t any HH/Hammer users or other players with Crag S) then after the second KO switch to another shot type as the third KO will take a while and you’re more valuable at that point going for another status or damage. For armour skills, Abnormal Up is important as it’s 12.5% more status. That’s not often the difference between 3 and 4 inflictions, but it does give you a little more wiggle room in terms of how much ammo you need or getting a status off in time (status value counts down over time, so if you’re going to apply it, make sure you do so quickly). Having the lowest recoil helps too, but a silencer is a better choice than Recoil + skills usually. Load Up is usually great on these sets. Once you’ve identified the statuses you’re going to use on a given hunt (it’s best to pick two so you’re not juggling too much) take those shots (level 1 and 2) and combines, and always take stacks of Normal 2 and 3, and you’re good to go. Damage HBG was once a King among weapons. Back in the late days of second generation Monster Hunter, HBGs became notorious for how fast they could potentially down elementally weak targets. Since those glory days things have been restrained somewhat, but BGs do retain a unique property in that they don’t have to suffer any drop in damage output in multi. A melee user will end up having to deal with a monster that doesn’t present its weakpoint as often and multiple hammer users can’t all hit a creature’s head. But a gunner’s damage output is usually undiminished online when played well. A Damage gunner setup works off the idea that instead of spending a minute or so firing non-damaging status shots at a creature for ten seconds of free hits, it’s better to spend that minute just damaging it instead. And if you have a team that doesn’t need the support, a constant stream of maximised damage is going to put a severe dent in any creature and shorten your kill times dramatically. Essentially, you play very much as if you were playing solo, though making some adjustments: <> Don’t use Pellet S. Seriously. <> Ensure you aim horizontally or vertically away from other players, if they are between you and the target <> Get point blank That last note – about getting really close – is going to have to be tempered with your shot choices. Many players from Tri swear by Pierce S, which requires that you’re back 2-4 rolls from a creature to maximise damage. But if you’re using Pierce 3 and hanging out 5 rolls back, you’ll often be dragging a creature away from your team mates, which isn’t conducive to speed runs. Consider using Normal 2/3 instead or switching to an Elemental shot set. You’re also going to want two targets. Creatures always have a primary shot damage weak point (often the head) which you’ll find isn’t always an option. Always know where else you can shoot – and with what ammo – to ensure you’re pumping out the damage. If you find that a creature’s back is always to you and raw Shot damage isn’t great, consider going for the front or back legs for a trip instead, and then Siege when it’s tripped (for example). As for using Adrenaline, it's up to you. But if you have to ask if it's a good idea, it's probably a good indication it's a bit too risky just yet. ============================================================================= Part 2: Strategies for Gunning Every Creature ============================================================================= Firstly, please note furthermore that there is no ‘right’ way to gun any creature. There is only successful or not. These tips represent my experience, and are the way I find fastest to gun every creature. Other strategies are just as valid, though perhaps not as fast. Each brief strategy has a few parts. Recommended Ammunition: The shot types to use, in order, to kill everything. Using the recommended ammo, you should always be able to kill your target if you use weapons/armour appropriate to the level you’re attempting (ie, high rank gear on high rank creatures). Always take combines for the shots you’re using, especially for your element shots. Armour Skills: These come in two flavours, Recommended and Required. No armour skill is ever truly required, but these will make the fight either much faster or much easier. Recommended skills are good to have, but can be done without. It’s important to note that additional damage skills like Reckless Abandon+ or Attack Up are always beneficial. Difficulty to gun: Every quest can be soloed at every rank with every weapon. Still, there are some creatures that are not easy to gun. If a creature is listed as High difficulty to gun, seriously consider using a melee weapon. Like how most people hate to use non-guarding melee weapons on Plesioth, sometimes it’s just not worth the aggravation if you can avoid it. Where a creature really is made simpler by additional mobility, I've noted that and suggested Light bowguns. It'll usually mean a slightly longer quest, but will often reduce frustration. From here, it’s a bit of an epic wall of text, so Ctrl+F is your friend. Just hit those two buttons, and enter the name of the monster you’re after and you’ll be taken straight to the part you want. Where multiple monsters have the same strategies, they are listed together. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bird Wyverns ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Great Jaggi, Great Baggi, Great Wroggi ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 2 or Pellet 3 (Fire S for Baggi) Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Normal/Pellet Up Difficulty to gun: Easy The 'drome' wyverns are a great place to start gunning if you haven't done a lot of it before. These creatures may be harder than previous games, but they are still very much a push over with any class. Your main tactic will be to stay at medium range and blast them with Normal shots. They seem to have only two hitzones - head and body. Shoot them in the head whenever you can, as it'll let you break their crest/frill as well as doing more damage. Be wary of their minions, though - they can easily interrupt attacks and set you up for a hipcheck, which does a surprising amount of damage compared to their regular attacks. As long as you keep the minions at bay with a few shots every now and then, you should have no problem parrying the attacks and firing in return. It's a great time to get familiar with range, as well, since Normal shots aren't effective from long range. You can also spam Pellet shots at the dromes, but Pellet has really been beaten with the nerf stick in this game. You won't need to aim, but it'll take longer. It will however hose down the minions nicely. Qurupecco and Crimson Qurupecco ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 3/2 and Ice S Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Ice Element +, Normal Up, Earplug (for Crimson). Difficulty to gun: Easy (Moderate for Crimson) Qurupecco is much like Kut Ku, from previous games - a slightly more advanced walking target from the dromes. While it looks like a big turkey, you'll need to be aware of what it can do in a pinch. Your main target will be its head, and you can crack its beak as well as breaking the flints off its wings. If you keep the pressure on with Normal or Ice shots, you'll down it reasonably fast. The main thing you'll need to watch out for is its summon dance. If it starts waggling around and you see sound waves coming from the beak, it's trying to call another monster to help it. At low rank it'll usually call a monster like an Azuros or Ludroth, which are annoying. But the High rank ones can summon creatures up to the fearsome Deviljho, who you're not going to be equipped to fight. It's important that you bring dung bombs if you can; throwing faeces at a creature will drive them from the map. When it clicks its wings together twice, it's going to jump at you and use the flint on its wing tips to create and explosion. It's simple enough to dodge by rolling left or right, but you really do want to avoid getting hit as it'll do a lot of damage and leave you on fire (which will drain your health, but rolling three times will put it out). Crimson Quru can use its flints to do a flash attack that'll leave you dizzy, and it'll inflict Thunderblight instead of Fireblight. This will leave you more easily KO'd while it's active, which can be deadly at high rank. Most of the time it'll do a hopping charge at you, or spit acid that inflicts defence down. These attacks are simple to avoid, and then you can retaliate with a couple of Normal 2 or a Ice S RF volley. Crimson Qurupecco is a much more worthy adversary than its green cousin. When you've done enough damage to rage it, it'll actually shriek at you which requires earplugs to block. It's also more prone to summoning Deviljhos, and it's got a fair bit more health. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same fight, but it does seem to love hovering. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pelagus and Fanged Wyverns ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azuros ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 2/3 Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Normal Up Difficulty to gun: Low Azuros is designed to ease new players into the cut and thrust of more advanced hunting (well, more advanced than Bulldrome and the Bird Wyverns, at any rate). Its weakest shot point is the head, and it's usually up on its hind legs, meaning you'll need to pan your targeting reticule up to hit him there. Once

Azuros becomes fatigued though, it'll spend more time with its head at ground level, giving you much easier access. When it's on its hind legs and pulls one arm back, it'll start doing a drunken slash attack with its paws. While it's not too deadly, it can attack with a full 360* range of motion, so be careful about how close you stand. Other than rolling away from that and not firing at it while it's charging you down, most of its attacks are quite linear and well telegraphed. It doesn't have that much health, so don't feel compelled to risk attacks. It's a good chance to try out different gunning tactics to get a feel for them, so if you want a punching bag for your Clust, Crag, Pellet or Pierce shots then you can use Yogi. Lagombi ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Fire Element +2 Difficulty to gun: Low While Lagombi is faster than Azuros and can use projectile attacks, it's also ultimately a very linear creature. It's also got a reasonably crippling Fire weakness on the head, meaning you can break the ears off and have it staggering frequently even with level appropriate gear. Most of the fight will be spent almost like being a matador - let it slide past you, and then aim at the head with Fire shots. Other than being careful of its multiple sliding attack, you'll only have to look out for the boulder toss and the circular slider attack. This latter one is important to learn to recognise and dodge, as it's got a wide range and will take a chunk out of your HP. If you don't have a Fire capable gun then Normal shots are almost as effective. If you find yourself firing at medium-long range often, use Normal 3 instead as it's got a longer effective range. Try not to stand right behind it, as it can back up and sit on you reasonably quickly. This fight should be reasonably fast. It's tempting to spam fire shots at its back, but if you wait a second till it turns around for a head shot, you'll make more effective use of your ammo. Volvidon ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Water S, Normal 2/3 Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Paralyze Difficulty to gun: Moderate Volvidon is like a big armadillo pinball, and it's got a few tricks that can prove annoying for gunners in the first few attempts. Its main attacks are a deceptively long range tongue whip (which will reach to the limits of effective Normal 2 range), the bouncing attacks, short range dung gas halos, and a medium range paralyze spit. The best way to counteract the tongue whip is to roll into it. That may sound counter-intuitive, but right after you hit 'X' to roll, your character will be invulnerable to any attack in the game for about 2/30ths of a second. It's called your 'moment of invulnerability' (MOI) and it's important for gunners to get to grips with. You can extend this time with Evade +1/2, but most attacks in the game can be avoided without it. So, when you see Rango drop to its front paws and cock its head to the side, get ready to roll left or right. You'll probably get hit the first few times, but you'll eventually get the hang of rolling. The paralysis spit has a wider area of effect than you'd expect, so it's important to avoid it. Volvi seems to always follow up an effective Para with a bounce attack, which you'll be helpless to avoid. While the multiple bounces do inflict quakes on the ground, rolling away from them is usually sufficient. By this point in the game you'll be able to make the Ludroth LBG, which RF's Water S, which Volvi really doesn't like. Firing off a single volley and then pausing to see its response is a very effective way to safely pump out lots of damage. As always though, using raw damage (Normal shots) will also get the job done. Zinogre & Stygian Zinogre ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Pellet Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Pellet Up, Evade Inc (if HBG) and Recoil- if required. Difficulty to gun: Moderate Zinogre was the P3rd's flagship monster, and it's also going to end up as a wall for many new players who so far will have been breezing through the game. Fear not though, because Zinogre's movements are slow when it's not powered up and easily enough avoided in rage mode, when you know what to look out for. I've listed this as a 'Moderate' fight because while not taking damage is easy enough, Zinogre doesn't take large levels of shot or elemental damage, so you'll be fighting for long enough to make a few mistakes if you're not careful. Zin's horn is a magnet for Pellet shots, which will deal a whole lot of damage to it fast. It also means you don't need to fine aim, but you do need to be aware of your ranges (too close and you won't get as many pellets in). Zinogre's normal state is reasonably slow, and it'll often let you fire at it while it stalks you. Fire at the head when you can, and back otherwise. As soon as you see it start powering up, concentrate fire on the horns. If you let it power up successfully twice, it'll go into a second state where its attacks are faster, more damaging and most dangerously, inflict 'Thunderblight', meaning that you're much more likely to become KO'd (dizzy). Its major normal mode attack to be aware of is the paw slam. If it jumps towards you and tries to hit you with its paw, it'll pause for a second and then attack again. Don't start attacking until it's done both attacks, tempting as it may be to. If it turns its side to you, it'll do a shoulder check. Avoid it by rolling backwards away from it, or if you're close, roll/hop sideways, making sure you're rolling sideways parallel to its head. When it enters the second powered up state, it can go into rage mode (it'll roar and you'll get caught if you don't have earplugs). Once it's in its second state, it'll do two new attacks. One is a long range body slam that leaves it on its back and will do a lot of damage, and the other is a vertical jump/break dance move where it'll try and attack you with a tail slam. Also, its two jump paw slam attack becomes a three paw slam attack. Don't try and use shock traps or flash bombs when it's in its powered state, since it'll absorb them. It's important to target hitzones consistently, since it requires a flinch or a certain amount of damage to force it out of being powered up. Keep the pressure on, but be careful to pick your moments since you'll take longer to clear the quest if you have to break off often to heal. Here's my take on gunning the Dual Zinogre quest from P3rd with rank appropriate gear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuB_zaNuKjY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Flying Wyverns ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rathalos & Azure Rathalos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 2/3 Required Skills: Earplug Recommended Skills: Normal Up, Evade Inc Difficulty to gun: Moderate/Hard Rathalos is a wyvern to be taken seriously, and is a real chore if you don't have a good gear set up. Judging by Tri's Rathalos, it takes mediocre elemental damage, especially since Dragon S isn't a hugely viable shot for most of the game. That means you're going to be using Normal 2/3 constantly, and you're going to be aiming for the head. Rathalos in this game is much more frustrating for blademasters, since it flies much more often and lands less predictably. It's this same lack of easy openings that makes it annoying to gun, although hitting the head with Normal shots isn't overly difficult. As a bonus, when you flinch it in mid air, you'll get the satisfying animation of dropping it from the sky so you can get a few free hits in. When it's airborne, it's usually going to be at distance, especially when it's fireballing. That means Normal 3 is the superior shot when it's flying, and Normal 2 will work well while it's on the ground and you're at close range. In all honesty though, the difference isn't huge, so go with whatever will give you a higher clip (usually, Normal 3). This can get a very frustrating fight, so taking some Exhaust S can be a good idea. When it's tired, it'll keep fail fireballing often, and so tiring it out quickly can quickly remove the stress from the fight. If you've raged it, it will always scream and jump back into a fireball. This can be a deadly move at High rank, so if you don't have Earplugs, you need to immediately roll away if you see it rearing up to roar. Azure 'Los is very similar, the major difference being his air bite has an AoE fire effect now. Just avoid him when he's hovering at you slowly and otherwise treat it like a normal Los. Silver Rathalos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Thunder S, Normal 2/3 Required Skills: Thunder Element +2 Recommended Skills: Evade Inc Difficulty to gun: Moderate/Hard In previous games, Silver Los was simple to melee and tough to gun, but 3rd gen has really reversed those fortunes. Now that the wings are very Thunder weak, gunners can exploit this from range and happily ignore or dodge most of Silver's attacks. Try and keep track of wing staggers, because if you get a mid air wing stagger it'll fall down, giving you several free wing hits. Try and target the wing/body joint, since the wings move around a fair bit and you can miss shots quite easily. Obviously, as a G rank creature, he's going to be putting out a fair amount of damage and you've got less defence than a blademaster, so you'll need to tread carefully. If you're playing multi, definitely consider a Thunder/Para /Poison set up to help your short-range compadres. Here's a visual demonstration that'll hopefully give you all the guidance you need: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y3Dm-tmFp0 Rathian & Pink Rathian ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 2 Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Earplug Difficulty to gun: Low While Rathian is a much better foe in 3rd generation compared to 2nd, it's still a relative pushover for gunners. A constant stream of Normal shots on the face is reasonably easy to accomplish, and as it takes reasonable shot damage it's effective. When Rathian is hovering, it's tempting to go for a few headshots, but you need to exercise caution. She can quite quickly do a mid air tackle that covers a fair amount of ground, as well as flying to you and poison flipping quickly. If you're not confident, it's better to wait until she's landed. When she's fireballing is a great time for headshots, but be careful of her new area of effect napalm attack. Staying two rolls left (her right) of her head will mean you're safe from all her attacks. From that position, you'll be in good Normal shot range and can keep up the punishment. Just be careful not to get greedy with attacks as she's turning toward you for a charge and you'll soon find her limping off. Pink Ian's only new moves are a wider poison flip that you should be nowhere near and having a fire effect on her bite. It just means you can't exploit that attack from as close. If you're hear her when she does it, try and roll under her or to her left. Gold Rathian ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Thunder S, Normal 2 Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Earplug Difficulty to gun: Moderate Gunning Gold Ian is similar to gunning the green version, except your focal point will be the legs rather than the head for Normal shots, and the wings for Thunder. As long as you're staying a couple of rolls away, her fireball attack should be easily dodged. One thing to watch out for is her new napalm attack, where she can fire three times while moving back. It covers a large amount of ground and will hurt, so it's best to avoid her while she's doing this unless you're confident you can avoid it. Otherwise, apply the above Rathian tactics, making note of the alternate weak points. It'll take longer, but it's not a hugely difficult fight. Diablos and Black Diablos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Ice S, Normal 3 or Pierce 2/3 Required Skills: Evade Inc (HBG), Normal/Pierce Up or Ice Element +2 Recommended Skills: Combination Pro Difficulty to gun: Moderate Diablos is a tricky beast. While in some respects it's easier in this game with the stamina system and more precise hitboxes on the charge, the shot damage weak point is no longer automatically targeted with Pellet shots. So while it's easier to avoid getting hit, you'll also sadly be putting out less damage. So far the best way I've found to gun Diablos is to fire Ice shots at the face. This does good damage and will also break the horns reasonably fast, but will require a bit more precision than previous 'Blos fights. After you've run through your Ice shots, you'll want to aim Normal shots at the tail. Note though that the tail stub (the hammer bit) is actually a different hitzone and takes little damage. The tail is relatively thin and moves around, so aiming at the crotch end of the tail is a good way to go. If you can't shoot the tail, the wings are the next best point and take around 75% of the damage the tail does. Dodging Diablos's moves is reasonably simple now that the charge hitbox doesn't extend so far on either side, and it feels like Blos is a bit slower. While you don't want to be far away from it (this encourages it to charge more) you do want to be careful to avoid its circular twist attack (once in normal, often twice in rage). it's easy to avoid the main hit but still get caught by the tail. Blos also seems to do a three quick charges and then taunt attack - don't get hit by this if at all possible, since you'll end up dizzy easily and be unable to stop it trolling you with a third charge. While you still can Pellet the tail, you'll find most of the pellets hit the tail stub (so, a body hitzone) or the hammer end of the tail. Pellet shots feel significantly weaker than previous games, and the combine for Pellet 3 is now limited since you can carry 49 less of the material. It's still possible to pellet a Blos, it's just not as efficient now. When the 'Blosses have burrowed, sometimes you'll see a large dust cloud where they are. Sheathe at this point, and as soon as the dust cloud stops frothing, superman dive. You'll see Blos fly out of the ground a split second later, and instead of coming up vertically it can fly out of the ground at a 45* angle. It'll often taunt after jumping out like this though, giving you free hits. Gigginox And Baleful Gigginox ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S (Giggi) and Water S (Baleful Giggi) Required Skills: Elemental Shot +2 Recommended Skills: Combination Pro, Poison Negate Difficulty to gun: Easy Gigginox at High rank and above is a headache for Blademasters, with its area of effect poison attacks - G rank poison is no joke. But just like with Khezu, Giggi is a breeze to gun. The elemental weak spot is the head, and for normal shots it's the head in normal mode, and the tail/fake head in rage mode. Since Giggi is reasonably slow and telegraphs its moves, it's reasonably easier to either Siege or Rapid fire at it. Now that Water shots are normal style, you can use exactly the same tactics on Baleful 'Nox, too. Don't stand directly in front of Giggi, but about two rolls away and one roll to the side. That way, you're still in close range, but you're able to quickly get out of harm's way. When you see it doing its slow charge, it's better to resist the temptation to hit the face and just roll backwards once. Giggi charges at where you are, so once you've rolled back it should stop its charge just in front of you. After a charge, roll backwards and to your left, as it'll do its stretchy head swipe which hits close and left, and then far and right. You can roll through the attack simply enough, but it's a risk you don't need to take and means you can't retaliate as fast. While Baleful 'Nox is essentially the same creature, be aware it uses Thunder attacks. When it's spitting thunder balls at you, you'll usually be at medium range. If that's the case, try and stand between the three balls, as you don't have to move far to get between them safely. Usually though, a roll to the side will allow you to get out of harm's way as the balls travel together before diverging at medium range. So just keep up the elemental firing, switch to Normal shots when appropriate and don't be under it when it's on the roof. It'll usually be out of effective range, or in attacking range so it's best to just leave it to drop down. Barioth and Sand Barioth ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S (Barioth) and Ice S (Sand Barioth) Required Skills: Elemental Attack +2, Evade Inc (Desert Barioth) Recommended Skills: Earplug Difficulty to gun: Low Barioth is a creature that's really easy to dominate as a gunner. If you focus a few bursts of fire at one wing, you'll break it. This not only trips it over, but significantly restricts its mobility for the rest of the fight, making it fall over when it tries to jump around you. Generally speaking, target the head with raw damage and the head or wings with your elemental. Most of the time in the fight, it'll do its medium speed hopping charge at you. It's tempting to fire at the head as it rushes you, but you'll take heavy damage if you misjudge the staggers, so it's usually better to roll to the side instead. When it's past you, go for the wings. Whenever it's safe, fire at the head. When it backs up a couple of steps quickly, it's going to ice or sand blast, so it's important to recognise the attack early and roll out. When Wind Barioth fires a sand blast, it'll create a tornado. While annoying by itself as it restricts movement, Barioth can also jump into the tornado to launch itself at you. It's quite possible to dodge this attack by MOIing through it, but it's simpler to sheathe and superman dive when you see it running to the tornado. When Barioth flies up, try and get under its shadow or far enough away so you can pan the camera up to see it. While its aerial attacks are pretty obvious, just be aware that if you're in a zone it enters, it won't land in one spot, it'll usually fly at you. Tail whips are simply avoided, and another great headshot opening. Here's a demonstration of the above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v7H1BfbuYQ Naruga and Green Naruga ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Thunder S Required Skills: Evade+, Element Attack + Recommended Skills: Earplug Difficulty to gun: Low/Moderate I've listed this fight as 'Low/Moderate'. What that means is that this battle is easy if you're familiar with gunning Naruga, but if you're not used to how it moves and evasion, you'll find it trickier until you get the hang of it. Immediately after you press 'X', you are invulnerable for a fraction of a second. It's this moment of invulnerability (MOI) that lets you roll though virtually all of Naruga's attacks, since they move so fast. Evade + extends how long this invulnerability lasts, so if you're not used to rolling it will help. You're going to be firing Thunder S at Naruga's head, and Thunder S at Green's head and wings. While regular Naruga's fire resistance has been raised, it's still a very fast method to kill it, but sadly there won't be any more sub 5 dual Naruga antics... When the head isn't available, the tail is a secondary weak point on normal Naruga, and you'll be aiming for Green's wings again. Naruga's movements can be quite disorienting at first. It's going to keep jumping around you, and then jumping right at you quickly. You'll need to be good at used the Claw hand technique to quickly re-orient the camera so you can keep track of it. When it starts its charge, it's a good time to get a head shot or two. When it reaches you, it'll usually tail-whip. This move is easily rolled, but again, you'll need to get familiar with the timing. It'll take some trial and error, so if you don't get it right away, don't fret. When it looks at you and scowls, it's going to tail-slam. This can be deadly, so make sure you roll backwards and right asap, before unloading at the tail. The Green one can slam once and quickly jump up and re-slam, so don't start attacking until you're sure it's not going to jump again. That might seem a little unusual, so watch a Naruga gunning video from Unite if you're after some visual tips. I'll try and make a P3rd Naruga video shortly. Lucent Naruga ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Required Skills: Recommended Skills: Difficulty to gun: (Coming soon) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brute Wyverns ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barroth and Jade Barroth ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S (and Water on Barroth) and Normal Required Skills: Earplug Recommended Skills: Evade+ Difficulty to gun: Moderate Barroth has an interesting elemental weakness mechanic. When it's covered in mud, those hitzones are weak to water. once you've 'washed' the mud off the head, it's then weak to fire. Otherwise, the tail is the raw shot damage weak spot of choice. Barroth telegraphs its moves quite far in advance, especially the charge attack. Quite often it'll charge past you, giving you several free shots at either the tail or parts of the body still covered in mud. Otherwise, it tends to tail whip or shake mud at you, which allow you to sit back out of range and blast it with relative impunity. The major issue to beware of is the rage mode transition, which makes it significantly faster. It's easy to get caught by the roar and hit before you're able to recover, which makes Earplugs an investment for this battle. Keeping the pressure on normal Barroth is reasonably straightforward, and most of its attacks seem to be targeted at blademasters, so gunners should typically find this a reasonably simple fight as long as you're careful not to get your self charged or muddy. Both Barroth are poison weak, so if you're going up against the normal one, the Ludroth gun with Water, Normal and Poison options is a good weapon to have handy. Jade Barroth is much more niggly. It's weak to fire all over, and after you've melted off the snow over its body, Fire S on the head is going to leave it hurting. But it's much more mobile than its muddy cousin, and can charge very erratically. The 'ring around the Rosie' charge can be quite devastating, as can the double head-bash that inflicts snowman. It'll also do a pimp walk at you without attacking, which can be quite unnerving. It's got a fair chunk of HP too, so it's a good idea to use the Rathalos LBG for its Fire S RF. Fire a volley at its side, and then re-position so you're not in front of it when it turns. You can down it reasonably fast, but you will need to be careful since one unlucky curve charge and you can be riding the kitty express back to camp. Here's a video of Ice Barroth from the P3rd demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ1Wffo_St4 Uragaan and Steel Uragaan ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Water S and Poison S Required Skills: Water Element + Recommended Skills: None Difficulty to gun: Low If you remember Black Gravios from previous MH games, you'll be right at home fighting Uragaan. It shares the same crippling weaknesses to Water and Poison, and is just as easy for gunners to exploit. Uragaan takes among the highest poison damage of any creature in the game, so while status shots are often not worth the time in solo play, they become important here. Both the Ludroth and Gigginox guns will let you keep Ura poisoned, and you can actually kill it without raging it once just by keeping it constantly poisoned. After you've poisoned it, you're going to want to move to Water shots on the face (the chin, specifically). While this will send him into rage mode fast, his attacks aren't too hard to avoid. When he does enter rage mode though he'll cut his roar short to chin pound twice, so it's best to roll out if at all possible. Steel Ura is the same, and seems to spend lots of time doing the tail whip. While the tail isn't as Water weak, it's still worth shooting as you'll break parts off for extra rewards. If you keep switching between Water and poison shots, you'll be able to kill it quickly at very low risk. As long as you're comfortable side-stepping the rolling attack you should have no trouble here. Duramboros & Rust Duramboros ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S (Water on Rusty), Normal 2/3 Or Pierce 2/3 Required Skills: Damage boosting skills Recommended Skills: None Difficulty to gun: Low/Moderate The great moss mountain wyvern Duram is enormous and has HP for Africa, but isn't especially hard for gunners besides taking a while. And unusually, gunners are able to shoot its tail off, as well as breaking the back and horns. Duram is weak to Fire (Rusty is weak to water), and its shot damage weak point is the tail. That's helpful, because during most of the fight it'll be trying to hit you with it, giving you lots of openings for attacks. it'll quite often back up, and look like it's about to attack your cats or leave the zone, but more often than not it's actually trying to swipe at you with its massive tail. The best option is to roll/hop backwards twice and then while out of its range, blast away. Its other major attack is the roflcopter tail. You can either simply get out of range and then fire at it, or dodge the first revolution and get under it and fire at the legs, aiming for a trip. If you don't trip it and it flings itself away, you're still able to run up and fire at it for a few seconds freely. As long as you always assume it's trying to hit you with its tail, you should be able to stay safe. You can either Fire S the head, Normal the tail or Pierce down the tail to preference. Brachydios ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 2/3 Or Water/Ice Required Skills: Damage boosting skills, Evade Inc Recommended Skills: As above Difficulty to gun: Moderate/Hard Brachydios is the new flagship monster for 3 Ultimate, and he's a tough customer to gun down. Pellet shots are ineffective and he doesn't have huge elemental weaknesses, which when combined with his huge HP pool and fast movement makes for a tricky fight. Normal 2 or 3 to the head or tail (both equally shot-damage weak) are your go-to shots here, so any gun with big Normal clips is a good option. His normal mode shouldn't prove too tricky, and once you get the hang of his patterns you mainly need to remember to get rid of slime hits ASAP and watching his tail, since on many attacks it'll swing round deceptively far. Rage mode though is different. He's quite fast and many of his attacks have a large area of effect, so it's about picking your shots well. His arm lick into jump attack does huge damage with its explosion, which renders the mobility you'd normally look for in a LBG a little moot, since you can't always roll out of range. It's better to be walking/running to one side when you see him charging up for it, and then evade through the explosion, or roll towards his body (instead of sideways). Always stay on 90%+ HP when possible since it's easy for him to get a slime hit on you and then detonate it with a follow up attack while you're recovering. It's worth considering strategies like sleep or paralyze bombing him, or using exhaust shots to fatigue it faster, to help whittle down its HP. Deviljho ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Thunder S and Normal 2/3 Or Pierce Required Skills: Damage boosting skills, Evade+/Evade Inc Recommended Skills: As above Difficulty to gun: Moderate/Hard Jho is one of the most charismatic creatures seen in MH for a long time, and it's also one of the most consistently challenging and fun fights you'll have. Jho is a giant Tyrannosaur creature, as you've no doubt seen. Uniquely among MH creatures, his attacks have massive range and speed, but tiny hitboxes. As long as you stay on the offensive, his attacks will rarely connect. But if they do, you're in trouble since he hits like a truck. In normal mode, Thunder/Shot damage on the face is effective, and in rage, you want to re-aim at his belly when you can, though either hitzone in either mode can be used. His rock throw can be dodged by simply rolling to the side, and his multi- bite attack (which will either be done three or five times) can be walked under without the need for rolling. It's tricky at first, but try and recognise the difference in load up between his walking bite and his bite into tail spin, because you'll want to time the dodge differently. In either case though, roll under him *between* the legs, not outside his legs, since the tail can often clip you for small damage. Take armour seeds if you can, because when he's fatigued his bite attacks inflict defence down which can be problematic if you fail an evade. Jho eats voraciously, and this can really be used to your advantage. Tainted, drugged and poisoned meats will be consumed with aplomb, and while each is effective just once (unless you're in multi), it gives you a free chance to sleep bomb or parahaxx some of his huge HP away (for perspective, in Tri it had more HP than Alatreon, the last boss). The two main approaches are Thunder S RF, or Pierce abuse. While both are effective, you'll always get the full Thunder damage on it if you connect, whereas Pierce shots can exit his body if you don't hit down his face or tail. Jho is an intimidating, but fundamentally fun, fight. Here's my take on gunning Jho: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D95yosa2riw ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leviathans ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Royal Ludroth, Purple Royal Ludroth ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Poison negate is useful for Purple. Difficulty to gun: Low As most of you have played Tri, I'm sure you'll all familiar with Spongy. Ludroth is a quite simple fight, and even a non perfect run can net you sub 3 minute times with rank appropriate gear. As long as you're using Fire S on the sponge or Normal 2 on the head, it'll go down pretty fast. None of its attacks are especially intimidating either, so as long as you avoid getting jumped on you can even tank it a bit. Poison Ludroth is essentially the same creature, just with the ability to sap your HP faster. Antidotes can help with that. Here's a video from the P3rd demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivHYeyFMXsk Gobul ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Thunder, Normal, Pierce Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Damage boosting Difficulty to gun: Moderate With the way Normal 3 ricochets underwater and Gobul's dislike of Thunder, you've got a couple of good options for taking down the oversized puffer fish. Gobul's weakpoint is the lantern, closely followed by the chest and head. If you're focussing hits on his face (especially underwater) you'll quickly find you can break the lantern off, which stops him being able to flash at you. Gobul's attacks tend to focus on reasonably linear, either straight forward or to the side, and while he doesn't do huge amounts of damage, it can add up quickly if he uses his long vacuum underwater, so be wary. A couple of Normal 3/Thunder S volleys at the face, then repositioning if you need to and repeating, will reasonably quickly kill Gobul. It's not hugely weak to Shot damage but it does have a lot of openings. Again, be careful of the range it can quickly cover. Another option is to stick with Pierce, since once it's bounded past you'll often be forced to shoot at its back or wait for it to turn. Pierce down its body or along the legs and it'll soon be trippin', letting you get lots of tasty free hits in. Nibelsnarf ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Ice S or Pierce 2/3 Required Skills: Evade Inc for HBG Recommended Skills: N/A Difficulty to gun: Low/Moderate Nibel is an unusual fight. Without special tactics it can be a drawn out fight, but if you know how to fish it up, then you can really dominate them. Snarfy has many attacks that involve it running at you or attacking with its mouth wide open, like its Jaws style un-burrow or the back and forth waltz across the desert. If you lay a LBB or LBB+ down and it attacks into them, it'll end up eating the bombs. If it does this, it'll explode shortly after, which is your cue to run up to it and press O to fish it up (follow up with some vigorous button mashing). Once fished out, you're able to fire at its Uvula (the weak spot, the dangly pink thing at the back of its throat) freely. The belly is a good secondary if you can't get round to his mouth reliably. You can bomb it like this multiple times, though each time you need to use more explosives than the last (try a LBB, then two, then a LBB+, then two of those). Otherwise, if it burrows under, sheathe and sprint around. When its sand spout stops, it's about to surface under you, so superman dive. It'll frequently sit on the surface of the sand doing little, giving you lots of openings to blast the head with Ice S. This will break the ears/gills pretty handily. You also don't have to worry much about the sand flop attack it does. When it's sucking up sand for its sand beam attack, try and get behind it and you'll be able to fire at the back of its head. Otherwise, it's a reasonably placid creature when not attacking, and after a couple of fights you'll find that for a lot of the fight you can keep firing away without worrying about retaliation. Snarfs have a fair bit of HP so if you see it limping, it's usually a better idea to go for a capture unless you particularly like fighting big creatures in small caves. Agnaktor and Glacial Agnaktor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Water S and Fire S (Ice Agnak) and Normal 3 OR Pierce Required Skills: Evade Inc, Damage boosting skills Recommended Skills: Damage boosting skills, Blightproof Difficulty to gun: Moderate/Hard Agnaktor is a worthy foe, for both gunners and melee. While it's simple enough to target its weak points, it's got a lot of attacks that can easily hit players at medium range and it can do a lot of damage with them. Firstly, your main targets with your respective elemental shots are the head and chest. If you want Agnaktor Claws, you'll need to break the lava/ice off all four limbs, but this will suck up a lot of ammo and time. For raw damage, aim at the face. When Agnak has been out of the lava for a while, its skin cools down. When it's like this, water shots are a better option than raw. Conversely, Ice Agnaktor thaws if it's out of the ice for a while, so you'd start with Fire and move to Normal if you wanted to maximise your shots. Always try and stay on the left of Agnak's head (so, your right). At high rank it'll do a beam that sweeps around, but won't get you if you're close (two rolls away) on the left. If it pulls back for a charge, try and resist rolling or running left or right until the last second. It's quite good at predicting where you'll be, but if you walk in a straight line backwards or stay still it'll come to where you are. When it burrows under, sheathe and keep moving. Always run straight left or right of where it entered the ground, and if it's in the roof, be ready to superman dive if you need to. If you get hit when it's in lava mode, you'll be fireblighted, so roll to put it out. If it's under the ground and you feel a small quake, it might be about to half emerge and do a 360* beam. Get right next to it if you can, or right away sheathe and be ready to dive otherwise. You can flinch it with head shots pretty easily. When it's fatigued, it's far less threatening too, so if you can prevent it from feeding on Rhenoplos then do so. So, the main plan is to be aiming for the head when possible, or the chest otherwise, especially if the head is moving around a lot. While I don't recommend this below tactic, it is extremely efficient at farming Agnaktor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g9FOgdUxhI Lagiacrus and Ivory Lagiacrus ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S and Normal 3 Required Skills: Damage boosting skills Recommended Skills: Blightproof Difficulty to gun: Moderate While underwater fighting is the bane of many MH player's life (unless you're a lancer), it's actually not that bad as a gunner. You don't need to worry about getting disoriented as much since first person aiming fixes that nicely. Unlike in Pokemon, Fire is very effective on many water based creatures, and Lagicarus really hates it. Fire S on the chest, horns and back will quickly break those parts, and it'll break the claws for easy trips quite handily, too. If you can make a Fire S RF gun it'll make things much smoother. While underwater, Fire S on the above places and Normal 3 on the chest and back will very effective, as Normal 3 ricochets a lot underwater. Lagiacrus is going to spend a lot of time charging back and forth, so if you dodge to one side and fire at its back when it's gone past you'll get into a quick rhythm. Make sure you're close enough to get the right range too, as you'll need to be closer when underwater. When it's in Rage and doing the thunder ball, it'll often do a second right after, so don't fire at it after the first one. If it starts circling you, it'll stop after a few seconds and launch at you. It's best to sheathe if you see it doing this so you can sprint out of the way. When on land it's a simple fight; dodge the slide charges and fire at the back or chest. For Ivory, the fight is all land-based, and you don't need to worry about its AoE thunder coat since you should be just out of range. I'll update this further at a later stage, but check out the tips in the 'Mark of a Hero' section below. But with a good spawn and a little luck, you can clear this quest sub-5 with High rank gear. Abyssal Lagiacrus ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Required Skills: Recommended Skills: Difficulty to gun: (Coming soon) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elder Dragons ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jhen Mohran ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Pierce 2/3, Ice S Required Skills: Damage skills Recommended Skills: More Damage Skills Difficulty to gun: Low Jhen isn't an ideal creature to gun, since it's a big punching bag that is more easily exploited with melee. Still, it's not overly difficult. When the fight starts, grab the Ballista binder and ballista shots, and Anti Dragon bombs. Run up the ramp and grab a cannonball from the rear of the ship. It'll surface soon after on the right of the ship, and you should run to the cannon and hit O. Then, jump on the ballista, and start firing. You can break both tusks, but don't waste shots if you aren't accurate at range with them. When it does a small belly flop, it's thrown rocks at you, so roll off the ballista right away. Jump back on and keep firing. When it gets closer and you've used your ten ballista shots, spam two or three more cannon balls at it. Then, you should be wary of body slam attacks. If it pulls back from the boat, you can jump on the ballista and select the yellow binder, and fire. You'll pull it close and stop its attack. Jump on the lower leg soon after, and run up to the cracked part of the spine. Plant two Anti dragon bombs, and then straight away run around the spine to the other side of the same crack, and start Ice blasting it. After the spine is cracked, jump back on the boat and keep using the cannon. Soon, it'll jump over the boat. While it's doing this, grab more ballista shells from the spear rack (crouch to gather faster). Fire at it on the left side of the boat, and when it goes under, get three more ballista shells or heal. It'll surface, coming right at the boat, which is when you want to hit the gong. When it approaches the boat and you've used your ballista shells and a couple of cannons, jump on the tusks and run to the closer spine, and fire at it till it cracks. You should soon see it dive and surface far away on the left side of the boat. When this happens, it'll dive again and then come at the boat from the front. It'll come up, dive back under, and come up again. As soon as it come up the second time, activate the ship's dragonator. All going well, you'll force it to the final showdown. Ballista x 10 from long range, then run to it and Pierce 3/2 into the mouth from side on. When it gets close to the boat, dragonate or bind it if you have to. Keep it up and in no time you should have a dead Jhen! Alatreon ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 3/2 and Clust 2 Or Pellet Required Skills: Damage skills, Evade Inc, Combination Pro Recommended Skills: Evade+ Difficulty to gun: High Alatreon is the final boss of MH Tri, and as a final boss, it's much more challenging and interesting than Fatalis, and you must fight and kill it in a single round. Alatreon's head is a magnet for Pellet shots, so if you don't need webbings or would rather just kill it, then Pellet is a great method. It's also a reasonably robust strategy for a flying Ala, though you definitely want to keep an eye on when the Ballista Binder resets so you can ground it. If you're playing in multi, obviously Pellet isn't an appropriate tactic. You can instead use Normal 3 on the head, help your team mates with sleep or paralyze openings, or Clust 2 for decent damage and wing breaks. You'll get good head shot openings when it fireballs, and when it charges its horns for the horn flick. You should be getting three head shots even time it does this. Whenever it's charged past you and turns 180*, it'll always have its head low to the ground and can be shot then, too. If you have access to a gun with Clust 2 (at LEAST 2 shells per clip, too) as well as having a good Normal clip, then it's a good way to go. Aiming at the neck or wings will allow you to pump out damage (53 Clust 2 worth) and hopefully rip the wings, which will save you time doing it later. After your clusts, follow the Normal to the head strategies above. Be very careful to manage your recoil and reloading, though. This fight can take around half an hour at first, so you'll need 99 Normal 2 and 3, and combines for more. Bringing Normal 1 is also a good idea for your first few bouts. Felyne Sharpshooter (+10% normal S damage) is extremely important to have active if you possibly can, too. Dire Miralis ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 3, 2 Required Skills: Damage boosting Recommended Skills: As above, with Combo Pro Difficulty to gun: Moderate Miralis is akin to Fatalis from the older games. It's a huge dragon that summons meteors a la Crimson Fatalis. It's your HR7-8 urgent, and once you beat it, your HR cap is removed. You'll be fighting it on land and at sea, as it periodically decides to wander around the one zone you fight it in. Miralis is quite intimidating, but as with Jho, if you get right up close and personal you'll be in a better position to deal damage and stay safe. You can use any gear you see fit, but I recommend something like Agnaktor X and the Ivory Lagia HBG, with the limiter removed. This will give you Steadiness +2, Normal Up, Partbreaker. If you can squeeze in Combo Pro with a good charm then do. But a high clip of boosted Normal 3 is the priority. Once the fight starts, run forward and left a little to avoid a meteor. When you get to the water's edge, load your Normal 3 before his scream gets you. After you recover, swim up to him at the surface of the water, and get point blank to his chest. From here, unload your Normal 3 clip right into his shoulders or chest. You'll get the ricohets like crazy and as long as you stay point blank, he can't hit you, except for the big flop. If you hear rumbling sound rising in pitch, he's about to flop down and change stances to his slithering state. If he does this, it's the one attack that will hit you in front of him. If you hear it coming, sheathe and swim out or roll away, but even in rage it's not an OHKO with around 350 def. If he does get you, sheathe and sprint out to heal. When he's slithering, if you're next to the beach, then you can swim there on the surface and he can't get you except with fireballs. Do leave him be when he's slithering, as he'll do huge damage and moves fast. If you see him turn towards the shore and walk that way, he's probably decided to have his customary long walk on the beach. You can fire freely here if you're close enough. Once on land, load your Normal 2. Normal 3 won't ricochet as reliably here, so save it. You can stand just next to his feet next to his crotch under him and he won't be able to get you while you fire at his feet for trips (and once tripped, roll up and shoot the chest or head) or Normal 2 on his tail orb until it breaks. Again, listen for the whirring sound that signals his flops. If he's doing that then again, stay away. It's a good time to use the ballistas when he's doing this. Eventually, he'll wander back to the water. Repeat the first phase stuff with normal 3. He'll go back and forth, but after about 30 mins of blasting, he'll drop dead. Stay at full health and play it safe until you're happy with how he moves and you should be able to down the big molten dragon. Make sure to break his shoulders for Hellwings, head for Eyes and tail core for Smelter breaks. Ceadeus, Goldbeard Ceadeus ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 3, Pierce Required Skills: Damage boosting, Guard Inc (for Golbeard) Recommended Skills: As above Difficulty to gun: Low (Ceadeus) High (Goldbeard) Ceadeus is quite a procedural fight in the first instance (like Lao or Jhen) and a psuedo Leviathan fight after. In the first phase, once you break the Beard off, it'll speed up to the last phase. So, that's the first order of business. In the first phase, it's not going to attack you much at all, letting you fire volleys of Normal 3 with impunity at the beard. Get in close enough that you're getting the larger yellow flash on your hits (angle isn't so important). Try and swim ahead of it rather than firing from behind, and once your shots aren't in the sweet spot for range any more, sheathe and re-position. The breast (area under the beard) is also a good target. It will stop and swing at you ocassionally, but if you're in the right position (ahead of it and under it) you won't get hit. If you do, just heal up and continue. Once it's in the last zone, swim up to the dragonator (behind it when you first enter the area) and use it when he's in front of the dragonator button. If you can get 10 Underwater Ballista from the Argosy Captain then great and use them, but it's not a huge deal otherwise. It's got some big attacks, but if you stay under it and fire at the beard and breast, not many of its attacks will be close to you. Keep up the pressure and it should at the very least be a simple repel. Goldie is much more frustrating. It's a similar fight to the regular Ceadeus's last phase, though it's more aggressive and hits a lot harder. At the end of High rank too you don't have particularly great gear as a gunner. I recommend that you get a set with Guard up and put a shield on your gun to let you tank his water beams as they have huge range and are very fast. Other that that, try and stay close and shoot for the beard, face and horns (to break them) and breast. Normal 3 works wonders, and Pierce 3 is a good option as well after that since it's got a longer range than Normal 2. Combine Pro and Guard Up would form the basis of a good set here, and Felyne Sharpshooter to boost your Normal S is really helpful. ============================================================================= Part 4: The Final Offline Quest: Mark of a Hero ============================================================================= Traditionally, the final offline quest in each Monster Hunter game is a unique test in it features creatures a rank above the others from that quest

giver. So, a low rank quest giver's final quest would feature High rank monsters. It is a truer test of hunting ability, since you can't go online for assistance. This is also a great way to vet other players before playing with them - if you can get their guild card you'll be able to see if they've completed the quest or not. If they have, it's a sign they know what they're doing. Aside from just being a rank above the norm, these final quests are notoriously difficult. Ultimate's quest, Mark of a Hero, is no different. It's in the Arena and features a White Lagiacrus, followed by a Brachydios and an Azure Rathalos at the same time. Time is going to be an issue here, as are ammo limits. We'll need to carefully plan to make sure you don’t end up firing Normal 1. Make a Bonus Shot, Earplug, Combination Pro, Damage Boost (AU or RA+ - If your attack is above 320, RA+3 is going to boost your damage more than AUL) set, and the best Rathalos LBG you can. If you’re at High rank, that’s the Rathaling Phoenix. Unless you have a great charm you can’t get all those skills, so prioritise the non-attack skills first. Use Athena’s Armour Set Searcher (Google it, latest version is 1.15b) if you need to and plug in those skills and it’ll tell you the best way to do it with charms you have. Let’s go through that gear. *The point of earplug is for when Azure Los screams – you don’t need it for Ivory Lagi, but if you get caught stunned with a Brachy rolling about, you’re liable to take heavy damage. *Bonus shot is to help with the ammo restrictions you’ll face; and because that gun fires two excellent shots for the mission (Fire S for Ivory and Normal S for Brachy/Los). *Combination Pro is to get you more from your Normal S combines. And lastly, the damage skills should be obvious. If you’re doing the quest with High rank stuff, it’s de