MH4U: The Bow Overview!

Many people think the Bow is a shallow weapon of choice but in fact it's the other way around. The coatings, the level of shot type, the arc shot and the element pose a deep variation with each Bow. First and foremost let me list the important facts that should be noted by many.

(Image from MHwikia)

1. Distance is everything. When the screen shakes, it's an indication that you have the optimal range dealing 1.5x more damage.

-Rapid has 3-6 back hops away from the monster

-Spread 3-4 back hops away from the monster

-Pierce 6-8 back hops away from the monster

2. Rapid has concentrated fire. Useful for sniping specific monster parts. Spread level 4-5 fire 5 arrows forming a horizontal arc, good for wide monsters such as a zamtrios etc. Pierce as you guessed it, pierces the enemy, higher level means more hits (up to six).

3. The Arc shot type can vary from Focused, Spread and Blast. In MH4U a new arc shot was introduced, the Power shot.

-Focused - Rains pellets doing exhaust damage to the monster heads at a small radius.

-Spread - Rains pellets also doing exhaust damage to the monster heads but at a significantly larger radius compared to Focused. The pellets of Focused and Spread also hit fellow hunters so be careful as it may cause them to flinch and get hit by the monster.

-Blast - Shoot an arrow concealing a bomb that blasts an area. This by far has the highest exhaust damage compared to the first two mentioned above. Note that since it acts like a barrel bomb it knocks away fellow hunters.

-Power - I wish all the bows can have power shot because when you charge your bow and shoot it, you can press A to do a second consecutive attack which is stronger than the one you just charged up! You can also press A whilst charging but this isn't recommended.

3. Not all bows have access to all the coatings, they only have a specific selection of coatings so be sure to check the highlighted ones when you look at your Bow. The DLC Link's bow has the only access to all the coatings which is great when you want to do a bunch of status to a monster.

4. Mobility. Like the hammer, you can charge and move sniping in different directions. The running speed while the bow is out is equivalent to that of an unsheathed Dual Blades or Sword and Shield.

5. Element and status. The strength of the elemental/status damage of the Bow is solely based on the level of charge you use, this means you should use a level 2 or 3 charge. Bows only have Elemental and Blast there is no Bow that has an innate status on it. Some Bows have a special characteristic that they enhance the coating such as Sleep coating boost etc. This means faster paralyzing/sleeping effect with less coatings used.

6. Bring book of combos 1,2,3,4,5 (4 and 5 are optional). Why you ask? you can bring empty phials and combine it with nitroshrooms, parashrooms, sleep herbs, whetfishes to make more power, paralyze, sleep and close range coatings respectively. This will surely cut your hunting time by a lot.

There you have my list of perks that the Bow has. Wish this helped you become better at being an Archer! More hunts to come!

If you've enjoyed reading this, please leave a like/share/comment because it really helps me out. Thanks!