I have -got- to get back into this game. I've only played about four or five hours of it.

Judging by this thread that's about one squillionth of the average.

@anandxxx

Chack is nuts about Agnaktor armor too though. I think theres a pretty good skill attached to it.

But yeah, RgR, like Anand said you can probably get stronger armor out of the box w/ Plus stuff.
(Don't sell ANY of your old armor though!!)

@Y-Alpha

Squillionth is the appropriate number.

Yeah, stop making shirts and start making Jaggis cry!!
How dare you try to make money when you could be playing with usss?!

I have Agnaktor Bowgun armor... but if you have lower-level armor, some Plus beasts will just one-shot you.

@Y-Alpha
I don't even want to think about how much time I've put into this game. It's now probably as much as 2-3 years of ALL OTHER GAMES. Maybe even 4 years.

lol guys, read the list. By the way, I'm HR 40 now. At that point I didn't have the agnaktor hunt offline (still don't have it) , and I figured it would take less time to just hunt online and get it. I have it now and I'm even going for plus armor. Agnaktor armor is good for lancers, which is my preferred weapon.

Going back to the offline hunt, I'm now approaching the final hurdle. I'm in 5-star quests and the ones I haven't done (from the ones that are available) are hunting a rathalos, barioth and diablos.

Oh, it actually didn't even occur to me that you weren't at that point in the single-player yet. But it's totally possible, I guess.

Good luck with the Barioth.

Thanks, I was actually stuck at one point. It was before I started playing online. I could not hunt a gobul for the life of me. Now it seems so silly because last week I went back and slayed it without much trouble. Better armor and weapons definately helped, but I also have a lot more experience as a hunter now. Still, I have to confess that I dread the prospect of fighting any one of those monsters alone, especially diablos. That's why I want to improve my arsenal some more.

I hate fighting the Gobul. Everyone has problems with different monsters. For me, it's the Gobul, the Gigginox, and the Barioth.

And Big D, of course.

@Tranquilo

Whoa, you're 40 now? Slow down, big man! Did you do your Urgent?

I dislike the Gobul as well.

@anandxxx

I generally don't like anything that flies, haha. Thats like...half the game.

My armor of choice is 'weak' compared to what is available to me. That infuriates other players for some reason, but I dig it. It also makes things more complicated when I have to fight stronger dudes.

Ok, I just fought all three and it was surprinsingly easy. I think the monster that is more difficult to fight for me is uragaan, at least it used to be but I'm getting better at it. Diablos is second, but this is of course in online. I knew monsters were a lot stronger than in single player but I never thought I'd fell those three so easily. Now I have to hunt rathalos again as well as uragaan twice. The second being a capture mission. I might go back later since I want to get to the final boss as quickly as possible.

Oh, and the fight I really hate is gigginox, because it's mostly in the dark. You hardly know what's going on half the time. That's why I always pick the torch whenever I'm up agaisnt it. The fight itself isn't very difficult, just annoying, and cheap even.

Anand, do you have any tips for a noob bowgunner such as myself? I was saddened that my flame ammo didn't work with my bowgun and I had no idea how to explain it - I only found out once in the thick of things. Can you recommend me the best ammo for each monster, and perhaps recommend a good set of components to get me going on the right path?

Sure, I guess... I'd be a lot better equipped to answer this question if you asked me a couple of months ago. I haven't even used a bowgun in a while.

Let's see... When you build your bowgun loadout (Frame + Stock + Barrel, I think?), you can use the analog stick to roll over and see the ammo supported by each piece, as well as the total. So if the Frame has 1 Flaming Shot, the Stock has 1, and the Barrel has 1, your final gun will have 3 Flaming Shots. You will almost never be able to have EVERY type of ammo. So you can build a bunch of different loadouts, for different uses (Pierce loadout for armored guys, Clust/Crag loadout for explosives, Pellet loadout for single-player).

There is no point in bringing ammo that your gun can't use. When you are loading ammo into your bag, there will be a message on the bottom of the screen if the ammo isn't compatible with your gun.

Only the frames are upgradeable. Damage is determined by the frame and the barrel, I think. Often, the strongest guns will have the most deviation (the info screen will tell you how strong the deviation is, and in what direction). Other important variables are the range, reload time, and combined weight, which will classify the gun as a Light, Medium, or Heavy gun, affecting your movement speed and available moves (with a Light gun, you can hop out of the way after shooting). Folding frames take longer to draw. And some heavier frames will automatically block.

Elemental weaknesses are the same as they are for other weapons. Rathians and Rathalos are weak to lightning and dragon, Fire guys are weak to water, Water and ice guys are weak to fire, certain monsters (Uragaan?) are weak to poison... If you want to know a monster's exact weaknesses and strengths, go to the armor store and look at the stats.

Rapid fire is an interesting twist. If you see a yellow-highlighted spot in the ammo list, it means that shot can be rapid-fired. So for every piece of ammo, you will fire 2-4 rounds. Each round is a bit weaker, but if you hit all the shots, you do more damage. The drawback is that firing takes longer. Rapid fire is cool, though. I have one gun that rapid-fires Crag and Pierce.

Clust and Crag are always good to have to soften up the enemy with some explosives. You can buy Level 1, but have to make Levels 2-3. Pierce is good for busting through armored monsters, since it penetrates multiple body parts. It's best at medium-range. Pellet is a shotgun. Good for single-player or clearing out small enemies, bad for multi, since you'll hit your teammates. Better at slightly longer-range. Normal are cheap and multi-purpose. Best at close-range. The elemental and explosive bullets do negligible raw damage, but decent extra damage or status affect (which doesn't vary with range). Optimal range varies with your bowgun range. Exhaust shots will take away a monster's stamina, and exhaust shots to the head will bring the beast closer to KO.

Believe it or not, the rabbit hole actually goes a lot deeper. I'd advise checking a FAQ. You have to know your priorities before picking a loadout (rapid fire vs. total damage vs. well-rounded ammo vs. accuracy vs. reload time).

Now you understand why it always takes me so frigging long to prepare for a battle.

Oh, and the bowgun armor is mostly exclusive and much, much, much weaker. And certain super-fast enemies (like the Barioth) will just eat you alive. Also, get used to rolling. Blocking is no longer part of your repertoire. You have to pick and choose your times to shoot. If your bowgun is heavy, you will have to sheathe it against some monsters to stand a chance at evading them. Also, press R-Trigger to target specific areas and body parts. One nice thing is that you can shoot annoying flying creatures right out of the sky. And you are less vulnerable to area attacks, like when the Gigginox flops down or the Uragaan starts to steam.

Those are my tips. Was that somewhat helpful or just confusing?

That was very helpful, man. As I suspected, there is a ton of stuff to take into account, but I'm willing to make the investment, as I believe gunners are very valuable to a team and I almost never see people use the bowgun online.

Thanks!

Yea man, gunners are defiantly a great help. If you guys remembered, I said we needed a support bowgun after we failed with deviljho. I'm hoping to make a support set as well for healing and status attack. At the rate I'm going, I'll probably have cleared all the quests (minus the event quests and arena battles) which is par for the course since the set is designed to help somebody and not be in the forefront of things. That means that I'll probably just hang around in recruiting popping up when there is a hunter in need of assistance, as some sort of gat wielding superhero.

@Tranquilo

Haha, did you really say that? I don't remember that happening. Anand is a Bowgun master. Or something.

I'd like to attempt it again sometime soon (this week?), possibly with us four. Mikey is almost 40, too, which means that we can do an entirely new set of quests as a whole once he gets up. Tranquilo, once you and Anand hit 47, you guys are able to help me with my 50. It'd be nice if mixmaster MIke could be there, too.

I still have to beat the offline game. Didn't play Metroid Prime 3 last night or the night before. Thats a bad habit to get into for me. Must..stay on games..

Mustache, I've been playing MH exclusively for the past two-three weeks. And yes, I did say that, I remember that Anand even responded saying that he could do it, but jho would kill him in one hit because the armor is too weak. And my play time might be limited from now on. I might be getting a job.

@Tranquilo

A job?! Boooooooooobs. I have a job, woo. Anand works at a library where he reads children's books or comics.

Some of that information might be inaccurate.

But yeah, we'll have to get back out there soon. Is this week no good?

I can do Wednesday night (PROBABLY. BIG PROBABLY. Way better than "maybe").

Perhaps, I'm just saying that I can't make any promises.

@Tranquilo

Oh, haha, thats fine! Its more of a guideline and not a "you said you'd be there!!" type of thing.

I always say one thing, and end up posting "sorry, I got stuck at work late" about 5 hours after.

I must admit that got a chuckle out of me.

@Tranquilo

Its not funny when you hit town all alone, haha! That part kinda stinks.

Oh well!