Monster Hunter Now: Heavy Bowgun Build for High Damage

As the last of the main ranged weapons from the main series to appear in Monster Hunter Now, the Heavy Bowgun has the potential to be one of the best in class. However, in order to get the most out of it, you’ll need to invest heavily in upgrades and if you want the very top-tier Heavy Bowgun build, you’ll need to slay many high-level monsters.

All the Heavy Bowguns in Monster Hunter Now have a wide variety of ammo combinations that will either be effective against certain monsters or have their own unique properties

Best Monster Hunter Now Heavy Bowgun Build

Out of all the Heavy Bowgun variations available in Monster Hunter Now, the cream of the crop is the Griffon Blazooka, thanks to its dedicated Pierce-type ammunition. Its only real downside is that you will need to wait until events when Black Diablos materials become available. However, should you have enough parts to upgrade this weapon fully, you’ll have an incredibly powerful ranged option for destroying body parts, stunning the enemy briefly while your allies take it down.

Of course, with the best Heavy Bowgun to hand, you’ll need a wide variety of augments to maximize its effectiveness. Your main focus should be to get the max rank Reload Speed perk, as it’ll help greatly with the Black Diablos’s main drawback. You’ll also want to get a few ranks of Partbreaker as the Pierce Ammo travels through your enemy, meaning more chances for this perk to trigger. Artful Dodger can be handy if you’re finding dodging a bit tricky, and it’s worth trying perfect dodges to amp up the power of your currently loaded shots.

The rest of the perks in this list are good to pair with this weapon, particularly the two ranks in Attack Boost, having the ability to Lock On, and two separate perks for keeping a steady footing against monster attacks. Here is the best Monster Hunter Now Heavy Bowgun build.

Best Heavy Bowgun build Driftsmelt Slots

With our Heavy Bowgun build, there are a total of five Driftsmelt Slots available. While you need to wait until reaching Grade 8 to get the last one, the other four are available as soon as each armor piece reaches Grade 5, which should take no time at all. Forging Driftstones does take a bit of luck as it’s random what you get when smithing the stones, but here are our recommendations on which ones to aim for, from rarest to most common.

• Windproof – Reduces or negates the effects of Wind Pressure. Increases to a maximum that negates both minor and strong wind pressure. (Crimson only)
• Tremor Resistance – Negates weak tremors. Rank 2 also reduces effects of strong tremors, while Rank 3 negates them (Azure only)
• Concentration – Increases Special Gauge fill rate. Adds 5% or 10% per rank, for a total of 30% increased fill rate. (Azure only)
• Burst – Landing consecutive hits in a short span of time increases your weapon’s attack power for 4 seconds. Starts at 5% for rank 1 and increases up to a max of 30% at rank 5. (Amber only)
• Divine Blessing – Gives a chance to reduce damage from a monster’s attack. Rank 1 gives a 30% chance to reduce damage by 50%, while rank 5 gives 50% chance to reduce damage by 80%. (Amber only)
• Special Boost – Increases the damage of Special Skills. Rank 1 increases by 10% while rank 5 increases by 30%. (Pale only)
• Attack Boost – Increases base attack power. It starts at 20, adding 20 per rank up to a max of 120 attack power. (Any Driftstone)
• Aggressive Dodger – Increases the damage of any attack performed following a perfect evade. It adds 10% per rank up to a max of 60%. (Any Driftstone)