We covered the close-range weapons for Swordmaster Hunters in Monster Hunter 4. If dealing with monsters up close or swinging a sword isn’t your cup of tea, there’s an alternative. In this feature, we cover distant and projectile-weapons that fall under the Gunner class, revealing their move sets, abilities and descriptions.
Tip: Speak to the Guildmarm and put yourself through some training for each weapon.
Bow
An extremely powerful distant-weapon if used right, the Bow takes patience to master. If you charge a shot, note that it drains your stamina. The key is to unleash powerful attacks by charging your arrows (up to three levels) and to use good aiming to land a hit at the proper range. Experiment with all three charge levels, as there are three types of firing: Rapid-type, Pierce-type and Spread Salvo (detailed below). Each Bow works with certain coatings that you can load into your arrows; example, an ailment effect such as Poison, or a power boost for your shots. Combining certain items can create several coatings, and you can also purchase them at markets.
The Bow’s melee attack is rather useless. It should only be used to buy you some time to defend yourself when you need to reload. After all, the Bow is meant to be used as a distant weapon.
- R – Normal Shot
- R (Hold/Release) – Charge Shots
- X – Aim
- L + X or B – Select Coating
- X + A – Equip Coating
- A – Arc/Power Shot
- Rapid-type – Fires multiple arrows; good for mid-range
- Peirce-type – Fires single arrow; good for mid-to-long range
- Spread Salvo – Fires multiple arc arrows; good for close-to-mid-range
Light Bowgun
The second Gunner weapon in the game, the Light Bowgun, works best from a distance and allows you to move faster than with the Bow. Its scope is much easier to aim than using the crosshair. Similar to the Bow, you can load the gun with various types of ammos and perks such as a Silencer (that keeps other monsters unaware), and purchase additional elemental ammo at markets to use against certain enemies; some enemies are weak to ice pellets, for example. Although the attack power is moderate-to-low, check your weapon’s description, as each Lightbow has a natural option to launch the Rapid Fire ability with specific ammo – a gun-blazing frenzy that fires multiple shots while using only one round. Again, the effect varies for each Bowgun.
Note that Rapid Fire will leaves you motionless for a minute, but it’s worth the risk as long as you have your target in your crosshairs. Another drawback of the Light Bowgun is its ammo capacity; you will reload countless times in the heat of battle. This of course depends on your specific Light Bowgun and ammunition type.
- X – Reload
- A – Fire
- R – Scope View/Quick-aim
- Circle Pad – Maneuver Scope
- L + X or B – Select Ammo
Heavy Bowgun
Simply put, the Heavy Bowgun is a powerhouse for Gunners. While powerful you move slow as a snail with it equipped, but since you’ll use this as a distant weapon, it’s a nice trade-off. Crouching Fire is the Heavy Bowgun’s special attack that continuously fires bullets rapidly, though you’ll want to prep the attack at a distance since it’s time-consuming. It’s best to position the special attack as a monster stalls in battle, simply because you’ll waste ammo while trying to hit a movable target. As usual, the special attack varies with different ammo and each Heavy Bowgun.
- X – Reload
- A – Fire
- R – Scope View/Quick-aim Mode/Aim
- L + X or B – Select Ammo
- X – Reload
- X + A – Crouching Fire
We’ll have more Monster Hunter 4 tips in the days ahead.
