Heavy Bowguns provide both outstanding offense and defense in Monster Hunter World thanks to their numerous ammo types and attachments. They are surprisingly versatile and extremely effective at the hands of a skilled gunner.
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All this power is offset by an increased need for preparation and planning. If you want to use a Heavy Bowgun in Monster Hunter World, then you absolutely must have a decent build that can account for the weapon's strengths and weaknesses. Here are two builds for the HBG, one for the base game and another for the Iceborne expansion.
MHW Heavy Bowgun Build For Base Game
Equipment | Decorations |
|---|---|
Dark Devourer | Weapon Mods: 2x Reload, 1x Shield |
Xeno'jiiva Headgear Alpha | Expert Jewel 1 |
Xeno'jiiva Hide Alpha | Expert Jewel 1 |
Xeno'jiiva Claws Alpha | Expert Jewel 1 |
Drachen Coil Alpha | Spread Jewel 3 |
Drachen Greaves Alpha | Elementless Jewel 2 |
Attack Charm III | |
Skill Summary | |
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This build is not fully optimized, but it gets the job done well enough. As always, allow some room for changes when setting up your own HBG build, and use the above list of gear and decorations as a guide on what skills to use.
The Xeno'Jiiva set is the best High Rank armor you can get that has Spare Shot, a mandatory skill for ranged weapons that grants a chance for your HBG to not use any ammo. Ideally, you should be using the Gamma version of the Xeno'Jiiva set for extra decoration flexibility. Pair it with two pieces of the Drachen set to get more decoration slots as well as some more points for Attack Boost and Critical Eye.
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For the weapon, we're going with a Spread HBG for maximum close-range damage. You can use any HBG for this as long as it has access to Spread Ammo 3. The Dark Devourer from Deviljho is a great option if you don't have a good Kjarr gun.
MHW Iceborne Heavy Bowgun Build
Equipment | Decorations |
|---|---|
Loyal Thunder | Tenderizer 2 Weapon mods: Recoil Suppressor, Close Range Up, 3x Shield |
Nargacuga Helm Beta+ | 2x Expert Jewel |
Nargacuga Mail Beta+ | Spread Jewel 3 |
Shara Ishvalda Braces Beta+ | Spread Jewel 3 |
Nargacuga Faulds Beta+ | Refresh/Attack Jewel 4 |
Garuga Greaves Beta+ | Fortitude/Attack Jewel 4 2x Attack Jewel 1 |
Attack Charm IV | |
Skill Summary | |
| |
This is a mid-late Iceborne Spread HBG build that can tank almost absurdly high Spread Ammo 3 damage while tanking almost every attack in the game head-on with triple shields. Loyal Thunder has low recoil with Spread Ammo 3, greatly boosting its rate of fire.
The skill set here offers a nice balance between DPS and comfort. Evade Window boosts the HBG's generous dodge iframes while Stamina Surge makes sure you always have the stamina to block attacks. The rest are for boosting your DPS via critical hits and raw damage boosts. If you get lucky with your decorations, try to fit in some Ironwall Jewels for the Guard Up skill to replace Peak Performance with.
Monster Hunter World
- Franchise
- Monster Hunter
- Released
- January 26, 2018
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Metascore
- 90
