Monster Hunter World Bow Guide

Monster Hunter World Bow Guide

So what most you already know, is that the bow has 3 progressive level shots with each level increasing the bows power. In previous monster hunters, you would always ignore the first 2 levels and charge the bow to the 3rd level before releasing a shot. In Monster Hunter World, they added a new mechanic to the bow to where if you shoot a level 1 shot, your next shot  will be at level 2. Then, shooting another shot after level 2 will result in a level 3 shot or a charged shot.

So now, instead of always holding a charge until the 3rd level, you should now shoot a level 1 shot, then a level 2, then the level 3 shot. This will ultimately result in you putting out more damage per second. Another thing worth mentioning is that you can move while shooting during the first 2 shot levels, something you can’t do in the previous Monster Hunters.

Charging Sidestep

Their goal for the bow in Monster Hunter World was to make it one of the most (if not thee most) mobile weapon class in the game, which is why they added this next thing that I’ll talk about; the charging sidestep. This ability allows you to sidestep in any direction and charges your bow up one level each time. In addition to that, if you do a charging sidestep after a level 3 shot, your next shot will also be level 3. This results in you having the ability to chain level 3 shots since you can do a charging sidestep after any shot, while being a hard target to hit.

Another thing about the sidestep is that if you do it into a wall that you can run up, you will jump off and shoot a charged shot. This also charges the bow faster than normal before firing a lv3 shot. Therefore, don’t underestimate it.

Critical distance

This is the distance at which your bow is most effective and does the most damage. There is a distance where you will be considered too far away and will do less or no damage.

To identify your bows critical distance, aim your bow and look at the reticle. If you see once circle outline, then that means that you are too close or too far and your bow will do less damage. If you see two circle outlines, then that is the distance where your bow will do the most damage per shot and that is the distance that you want to always aim for.

Unique Shots

So now that we talked about the level stages of the bow and the charging sidestep, let’s now talk about the bows 4 unique shots:

The special shot
The power shot
The arc shot
And the Dragon Piercer

First let’s talk about the special shot and the power shot. They are both the same type of shot, shooting in a horizontal spread, but opposite from each other in terms of power and execution. The special shot does much less power than the power shot and can only be done as the first shot of your attack by pressing circle or the corresponding button if you’re on xbox.

The benefit of doing this shot type is that it does more damage than your regular level 1 shot since it shoots out 3 arrows. So replacing this shot as your level 1 (lv1) shot will result in more damage. You can still follow this up with a level 2 (lv2) and level 3 (lv3) shot.

The power shot, on the other hand, is stronger and can only be done after ANY shot by also pressing circle. Doing this shot after a level 3 shot will shoot out 5 arrows at slightly higher damage per arrow than the regular level 3 shot itself, not to mention the fact that a level 3 shot only shoots out 3 arrows. You can do a power shot after a level 1 shot but it will shoot out fewer arrows, which would be a waste of the shot in most cases.

So between theses two shots, your aim is to always try to shoot a special shot at the beginning of your attack and always try to shoot a power shot after a level 3 shot. However, it may not always be beneficial to try to go for these shots and I will explain why a bit later.

Next let’s talk about the arc shot.

The arc shot is pretty unique as it is a shot that arcs up into the air then rains down pellets to the ground. These pellets do knock out damage, so hitting a monster enough times on the head with these pellets will result in a KO. This is an attack that does damage over time and if you were to hit a monster with the full damage of this attack, it can do as much damage as a level 2 shot.

I typically use this shot to KO kelbi to get kelbi horns, to try to KO a monster or to hit monster that’s out of reach. A good example of this is when I fight a Rathalos. Whenever I know that he’s going to roar, I will shoot an arc shot to attack while staying out of the area of effect of its roar.

I also know that he will be stationary for a short time so I’ll aim at the head to try to get a KO. This shot can also be included in combos but I will get into that later on.

Dragon Piercer

Now, let’s talk Dragon Piercer. This is the bows ultimate attack, which can be done by pressing circle and triangle together. This is a super charged shot that does massive damage and is a piercing arrow type, which means that the arrow will travel through the body hitting several times along the way.

So your goal with this shot is to try to shoot it along the longest length of the monster, that being through the head and out the tail or through the tail and out the head. It also does cutting damage which means you can cut tails off with this shot. This shot lives under the same rule as a power shot; it does more damage if done after charging the bow to max level.

Combos

Now, we talked charge levels and we talked shot types. Next, let’s talk combos now im going to give you a foundation of 3 combo with what I like to call an opener combo that you can do but realistically there isn’t a one-size fits all combo that you can do in any situation. What I mean by that is you may have to change or adjust certain parts of the combo depending on the situation you’re in and I’ll explain this as we go along.

But starting with the opener combo: First do special shot, then a lv2 shot, then lv3 shot, then do a power shot. This is the opener combo that you will want to do most of the time but as I stated before you may need to adjust.

For example, if a monster charged you after your lv2 shot, you may need to instead do a charging sidestep then go into your lv3 shot. Or, Maybe the monster is raging.The special shot is most effective at close range but getting close to a rage monster isn’t a good idea so it’s best to keep distance.

With that said, starting a combo with a lv1 shot instead of the special shot would be ideal since the level 1 shots have further effective range. But all of this is just situational awareness and can’t be taught. It only come with practice using the bow so I’m going to move to the next combos you can utilize, but just keep this in mind.

So now that you have your opener combo you can branch off into two different follow-up combos after. If you don’t have the monster trapped, you can follow-up the opener with a charging  sidestep, then a lv3 shot, then a Power shot, a charging sidestep, a lv3 shot, then a power shot or basically just keep doing this until you’re low or out of stamina. If you do have the monster trapped then follow the opener with arc shot | power shot | arc shot | power shot | Dragon Piercer

Now the key here is to NOT run out of stamina before Dragon Piercer. Keep chaining the attacks until you have a small amount of stamina left for the Dragon Piercer.If you run out of stamina before doing Dragon Piercer, it will decrease in power.

So if you do arc shot then power shot but only have a little stamina left, do the Dragon piercer right there. But again, this is all situational. If you trap a monster but don’t have time for a full combo, just hold charge the bow to max level and go straight into Dragon Piercer.

Now let’s talk about the Bow lunge attack. If you press triangle after a charging sidestep, your character will leap forward and strike with an arrow. Not only does this do slightly more damage than a special shot and a lv2 shot, but you can use this to mount monsters. Another thing worth mentioning is that when ever you perform the charging sidestep, if press R2 before pressing triangle to do the lunge attack, you can get a shot off before lunging. A of course, if you want, you can do this after doing the opener combo.

But, as far as the handling of the weapon goes that’s pretty much it.  We can talk now about coatings. Their quite simple but very important when it comes to bows.

You highlight the coating you want and press triangle and that puts that effect on the bow. So if you want to sleep a monster use the sleep coating. After a certain number of shots with this coating, the monster will go to sleep.

My favorite is the blast. The way blast work is the effect build up over time then explodes and do a good bit of damage. Keep in mind that not all coatings can be applied to all bows. So when forging bows be sure to see what coatings you can use on that bow.

Also keep an eye out for a stat called affinity. This is basically a stat that causes the bow arrows to do more or less damage at random times or in other words, critical damage. If you have positive affinity then your bow will do more damage randomly. This has the opposite effective your bow has negative affinity but bows with negative affinity usually have high raw damage.