Best Light Bowgun Build for High Damage

Best Light Bowgun Build for High Damage



Ranged weapons are just one of the ways you can fight the wyverns and other beasts in Monster Hunter Now, and the Light Bowgun has been available from the very beginning. It’s true that each individual shot may not do as much damage as a swing of a sword or slice tails off of certain monsters. However, this weapon does allow you to manually target parts that are barely reachable for melee builds, such as the wing of a Rathalos while it’s in mid-flight.




While the Light Bowgun could be kitted out in a similar way to the Monster Hunter Now Heavy Bowgun build, there is an alternative below that takes advantage of this weapon’s key advantage: you don’t need to be near the monster to deal damage to it. With this Monster Hunter Now Light Bowgun build, you’ll find the skills you need to maximize the damage each shot will do to the enemy, and the best Driftsmelt Ores you can equip to the available slots.

Related
Monster Hunter Now: Best Gunlance Build for High Damage

This guide details all of the weapons and armor needed to make the best Monster Hunter Now Gunlance build, as well as Driftsmelt Ore recommendations.

Best Monster Hunter Now Light Bowgun Build

A Hunter standing with their Light Bowgun in Monster Hunter Now.

Keeping as far away from your target while dealing as much damage as possible is the main point of this thunder-element build. For each extra level in Peak Performance, you get a set amount of attack power for as long as your health is full. Players will also want to ensure that their reload speed and recoil are as low as possible. To make this Monster Hunter Now Light Bowgun build as accessible as possible, we’re limiting ourselves to one event-based monster to hunt.


Full Monster Hunter Now Light Bowgun Build

Item

Effect

Weapon

Khezu Syringe

  • Spread Thunder Ammo
  • Piercing Thunder Ammo
  • Peak Performance I (Grade 8)

Helmet

Kushala Daora Helmet

  • Kushala Frostwind I (Grade 6)
  • Reload Speed I (Grade I)
  • Earplugs (Grade 8)
  • Driftsmelt Slot (Grade 8)

Mail

Paolumu Mail

  • Recoil Down I (Grade 3)
  • Recoil Down II (Grade 6)
  • Driftsmelt Slot (Grade 8)

Vambraces

Deviljho Vambraces

  • Peak Performance I (Grade 5)
  • Peak Performance II (Grade 6)
  • Dragon Attack I (Grade 5)
  • Driftsmelt Slot (Grade 8)

Coil

Coral Pukei-Pukei Coil

  • Reload Speed I (Grade 5)
  • Recoil Down I (Grade 6)
  • Driftsmelt Slot (Grade 8)

Greaves

Anjanath Greaves

  • Peak Performance I (Grade 4)
  • Peak Performance II (Grade 6)
  • Driftsmelt Slot (Grade 5)

Weapon

Thankfully, unlike the monster choice for the best Monster Hunter Now Charge Blade build, the Khezu is a far more accessible monster to hunt. You’ll likely need to complete a certain number of chapters in the Season 4 story before it appears, but it’s a relatively easy one to hunt for the Khezu Syringe. This item grants its wielder the Peak Performance skill at Grade 8.


Helmet

The Kushala Daora might be tricky to hunt, but since the Elder Dragon’s introduction, they’ve been present in every Elder Dragon Interception. As long as you gather a bunch of fellow hunters to hunt this monster, you should have no problem getting the Kushala Daora Helmet. While the Kushala Frostwind and Earplugs skills are decent, it’s the point in Reload Speed that is most beneficial for this build. This reduces the time you spend refilling your ammo after it runs out. However, it’s recommended to replace it if Reload Speed becomes available in a newer helmet after Season 3.

Coil & Mail

Monster Hunter Now Light Bowgun build: A hunter attacking a Coral Pukei-Pukei in a swamp near a bridge.

The sole event Monster to hunt is the Coral Pukei-Pukei for its Coil. Hunting this monster will require you to complete quests in Season 4 for it to reappear in hunts. This is because it not only has the second point in Reload Speed, but also a single point in Recoil Down. You can maximize Recoil Down, which gets better with every rank, by also wearing the Mail from the Paolumu. Thankfully, it’s the easiest of the monsters on the list to track and hunt down by far.


Vambraces & Greaves

For the final two armor parts, you need to gather materials to craft gear for the rest of the levels in Peak Performance. While Anjanath, which you need for the Greaves, is relatively simple to hunt and track down, you’ll need to venture into Volatile territories to get a chance to hunt Deviljho to make the Vambraces. The good news is that neither of these two monsters is tied to the seasonal changes each year, so you should be able to hunt them without many issues.

Best Light Bowgun Build Driftsmelt Slots

A piece of armor and some Driftsmelt Ores to go into the smelter to make the best Monster Hunter Now Light Bowgun builds.

Fortunately, even though the Driftsmelt Ores in this build each require relatively high grades in the armor slots available, you don’t actually need them to complete the build. These are all nice-to-haves rather than essential to the build working. Therefore, with the suggestions below, you can take one or use multiple copies in the available slots.


  • Attack Boost: increases attack power by 20 at Rank 1 and up to 120 at Rank 5. (Common)
  • Thunder Attack: increases the weapon’s thunder-element value by 50 at Rank 1, and up to 500 at Rank 5. (Amber only)
  • Artful Dodger: makes perfect evades easier to perform. Only slightly at Rank 1, but significantly easier at Rank 5. (Azure only)
  • Critical Eye: increases affinity. 10% increase at Rank 1, and up to 40% at Rank 5. (Cyan only)
  • Burst: landing consecutive hits in a short span of time increases attack power for four seconds. 5% attack power increase at Rank 1, and up to 30% at Rank 5. (Amber only)

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Systems

Released
September 14, 2023

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