Monster Hunter Bow Guide for Monster Hunter Generations: Everything you need to know about how to use and master the bow in Monster Hunter Generations. Lets go over things such as the bow coatings, bow shot types, etc.
Suggested Post: Monster Hunter World Bow Guide
Suggested Video: 20 Tips for Monster Hunter World
So I’ve been playing Monster Hunter for quite a long time now. In fact, I cannot even remember which of the Monster Hunters I started playing first back in the day. At that time though, I didn’t know much about the game. I just bought it to play with other people who was also playing. Being a fan of ranged weapons, I naturally picked up the Bow as my main weapon.
Fast forward to the past few years, I also main the Bow in both Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. We are now in Monster Hunter Generations; and I am still using the bow as my main weapon. A lot of people think that the Bow is just a support weapon, but I can’t even begin to explain how wrong they are. I can see where they would draw up such an idea though; if you don’t properly know how to use the Bow then it could take you twice as long to kill a monster than it would an experienced Bow user.
In this guide, I will be covering some points that you will need to know when using the Bow. Those points are;
1. Shot Types
2. Critical Distance
3. Charging
4. Coatings
Lets look at Shot Types first. There are 4 different shot types in Monster Hunter Generations. Those types are:
- Spread Shot
- Heavy Shot
- Pierce Shot
- Rapid Shot
Spread Shot basically does what the name implies; shoot a horizontal spread of arrows with the middle arrow doing the most damage. This type of shot is a close range shot type and is primarily useful for monsters with a wide body span, like the Rathalos. This is also good for killing smaller monsters. The shot level indicates how many arrows are thrown out per shot so a level 4 spread shot will shoot out less arrows than a level 5 spread shot.
Heavy Shot is a new type a shot introduced in Monster Hunter Generations. This type of shot fires a single large arrow and just like the name implies, it’s a heavy arrow so these arrows are a bit difficult to aim and don’t really fly far. The benefit to this type of shot is that each arrow has part-breaker which means that these arrows do massive breaking damage compared to other arrows. This shot also has an increased critical distance, which I will cover later.
Pierce Shot, just like heave shot, fires a single arrow, but this arrow pierce through monsters and hit multiple times, which makes this type of shot bad for smaller monsters but good for large monsters.
Rapid Shot fires multiple arrows like Spread Shot, but in a vertical line. Rapid Shot is great for more of a “focus fire” when aiming at weak spots on monsters. Just like Spread Shot; the higher the shot level, the more arrows it shoot out.
Critical Distance
Critical Distance is the distance in which each shot type does maximum damage. So yes, you have to watch your distance from the monster in order to do maximum damage. In other words, being too close will do less damage for certain shot types. For others, being too far will do less damage.
Luckly, they made it easy to identify when you are hitting with max damage. When you fire an arrow at a monster, look for the screen to shake. Also look for yellow hit marker. If you don’t see this you are not doing the maximum amount of damage possible and this is why it takes some people who try out the Bow twice as long to defeat monsters; which makes them believe the Bow is a support weapon.
As I mentioned, each shot type has a different critical hit range so be sure to find the sweet spot of that shot type. Critical hits do 150% damage. Close hits do 100% damage and far hits outside of the range of the shot type can do around only 50% or lower. Heavy Shot has an increased critical distance range so that’s a selling point for that shot type.
Charging
The rules for charging is simple; always try to charge at the highest level since it does the most damage. Most Bows have 3 charges so try to fire on that 3 charge. There are abilities that give you a fourth charge. That charge does more damage than the 3rd charge but the time to actually get to that charge may make it worth not using all the time. If I am using the 4th charge, I usually have a perk called fast charge on my armor set; which increases the speed of your charges.
Coatings
Coatings are pretty self-explanatory. Hit a monster enough times with a poison coating, he will become poisoned unless that monster is immune to poison. Same with paralysis. The main coating that you will be using is the Power Coating. It adds an additional 35% damage. You can see now how the bow is starting to become a power house. Power coatings combined with the charge at the correct critical distance makes it a lethal weapon. Introduced in Monster Hunter Generations is the level 2 power coating that some bows can use which does an additional 50% damage.
To select a coating, hold the L button and cycle through using the X and B button. To equip a coating, equip your Bow and press the X and A button together. Not all Bows can use every coating so be sure to examine the bow that you’re using to see what coatings it has the ability of using.
The Bow does have a melee attack but for the most part it is useful for smaller monsters (use on kelbi to get kelbi horns) and cutting monster parts off. You can perform this melee attack from your un-drawn Bow position by pressing X and A. You can also perform an areal attack while jumping off a ledge with this melee. This is good for mounting monsters. Just jump off the ledge near a monster and press the X and A buttons.
Bows also have special shots called the Power Shot and Arc Shot. These can be performed by charging your bow to level 2 or 3 and pressing the A button. There are a few different variations of the Arc Shot; which are the focus, scatter and the Blast. These shots are good for adding status ailments to a monster and stunning if you hit the monster on the head enough times, but not really used often.
Power shots are definitely where it’s at. Press the A button after firing your shot to do an additional shot. The power of this shot will be at your next charge up so if you do a level 2 charge shot, it will be level 3. This shot uses a bit of stamina but allows you to do some damage in a short amount of time.
Hopefully this has excited you about the Bow. Monster Hunter Generations also introduces arts and styles. I recommend using either the Adept style, which might be the best, or the Guild style. I like Adept because I also use lots of bombs while using the bow. With Adept, you can set 2 bombs, use the melee from your bow to blow up the bombs and use the dodge ability of the Adept style to dodge the explosion.
Comments (2)