MH4U: Light Bowgun (LBG) Overview!

The LBG offers versatility with it's mobility and status inducing perks along with a good damage output due to its Rapid Fire capability. You can run and shoot, do sidesteps after shooting and even reload when jumping off ledges. Some may say that the LBG lacks power, but when you use the correct bullet type for monsters, you'll know that this weapon will deal tons and tons of damage to it.

(Image from MHwikia)

What you must always consider when picking an LBG:

1. Type of ammo it can Rapid fire.
2. The amount of ammo it can Rapid fire.
3. Types of ammo it normally uses.
4. Taking the limiter off or just leaving it be.
5. Recoil and Reload speed.
6. Deviation.
7. Ammo per reload (Magazine)


Rapid fire is a good way of dealing damage, but it does anchor you on the ground a bit so be sure to optimize your distance and position. (The skill Bonus Shot adds 1 more shot to your Rapid Fire)

Do note that when the screen shakes, you are doing optimal hunter to monster distance ratio which means your shots are doing 100% damage always. Being too far or too close may just take your shot's damage down to 60% or maybe even less.

Rapid firing pierce shots always has a short recoil after so watch out for that! Always remember that the Recoil Skill can't reduce the recoil from Rapid Fire shots.

Types of Recoil for Rapid Fire:
1. Low - No delay after shots (Mostly Normal)
2. Moderate - Short delay after shots (Mostly Pierce and Pellet)
3. High - (Mostly Crag, Cluster and Dragon)

If you have the option of using para/poison/sleep, use them to add more strategy to your LBG gunning (i.e. sleep shots for sleep bombing). Level 2 status shots almost always has a bit of recoil so be wary of that.

Elemental shots on the other hand are good if the monster is susceptible to elemental damage. Check out the damage chart on other websites to know which body part to hit with Elemental shots.

For rarity 6 or higher LBGs, you can take the limiter off. This enables you to load all your available ammo (X+A) to your gun and you can freely switch to whatever ammo you want without losing the previous ammo beforehand. Sounds great right? But there is a disadvantage, you lose the Rapid Fire ability so only remove your limiter to certain conditions.

Tip: The "average" recoil affects Pierce shots like the HBG. Getting the skill Recoil +1 or customizing your LBG with a silencer changes the "average" to "some" taking out the unwanted recoil animation. Though you can't put a silencer and power barrel at the same time, choosing either of the two will always help you so don't forget customizing!

Even if your LBG says "slow" on the reload description, it's still a decent reloading speed. But when it comes to "very slow", this'll be very annoying and unbearable so be sure to equip the skill Reload Speed +.

The Deviation like the HBG, can be troublesome if your deviation description is both LR(left and right). Invest some points (if you want) to the skill precision and you'll eliminate the deviation straight away!

Ammo clips of 5+ shots are always good. This means you'll be spending more time shooting than reloading throughout the quest. The skill Load Up increases all ammo capacity by 1 (this is great for crag, cluster, dragon). 1 may not sound a lot but it'll really help you in the long run.

If you're doing a multiple monster quest, you'd better take the book of combos 1,2,3,4,5 and a lot of ammo combines so that you'll almost never run out of ammo. Never use the Normal level 1 shot, sure it's infinite but it is the weakest ammo in the game!

These are my LBG gunning tips and I hope it helps you in some form manner. Get your LBG, stock up some ammo and let's hunt! happy hunting!!

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

MH4U: The Hammer Overview!

The Hammer! It truly is Hammer time when this weapon is wielded properly and is widely wanted by online groups (and also solo) because of its ability to KO monsters. How to KO monsters? hit them in the head, sounds easy right? No, it takes practice and dedication to pinpoint hit the head constantly to get those KO's in.

(Image from MHwikia)

The Hammer always packs a punch and does a lot of impact damage and KO/exhaust as well. Most notably the Charged Uppercut of the Hammer does a fair amount of damage and a lot of KO for the fact of the matter. (Also launches fellow hunters)

It has limited range, can't block but it prospers well with damage dealing.

You as a hunter should know the weakness of your weapon and grow from there. The trick here is to know what kind of charged attack you want to do. Every kind of charge attack has its own use, time it wisely and I'm sure you'll get those KO's fast and easy.

The Super Pound is a level 3 charge which does a lot of damage but the KO isn't that high. This also knock around hunters so be careful when using this attack online!

Either you're using elemental, status or just a plain raw Hammer, you're still doing a lot of damage. One of the best Hammers the game has is the Seregios Hammer because it has high raw, purple sharpness, 15% affinity and it has the ability to restore sharpness by 1 when you dodge/roll. This is great if you want to go to an aggressive play style. But still, there are a lot of Hammers out there that are just waiting to be abused and I'm talking about relics and end game monster weapons (Fatalis etc.).

When you KO monsters, they tend to grow more resistant to it after every KO they get so be sure to get in all those nice Golf Swings for a perfect damage output.

You can charge the Hammer and move unlike the Greatsword, you can also charge then run off a ledge to do a Jumping Super Pound followed by either the Uppercut or Golf Swing depending on the charge level you used.

The combos you can do are:

X,X,X - Double pound then Golf Swing
A,X,X - Side slap, Single pound Golf Swing
R,X,X,X,X - level 1 charge followed by an upward hit then does the Double Pound Golf Swing

You can always charge right after the Golf Swing for extended combos and more chained attacks. The Spinning attack can be done if you do the level 3 charge while moving and you can follow it with a Golf Swing after 4-5 spins.

The unsheathing of Hammer can launch other players so you can either use this for party mounting or just have a great time launching your friends up in the air for no apparent reason. Hope this helps out and have fun hunting!

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