Bow

Weapon Traits


Now, Bows are very fast weapons, and as it's likely in Monster Hunter, that means they would lack in damage, but that is not entirely true. We have to take in mind that there are several factors that will affect the damage that results in using a ranged attack with a bow.

The bow's attacks count as piercing damage. This is a great help when trying to break a monster's specific areas. However, the melee attack with an arrow, performed with circle button, counts as slashing type, which is ideal for cutting tails (though it should be noted that a shot is stronger than a slash).


 * Unlike bowguns, Bows have unlimited ammo, meaning that you won't have to worry about running out of arrows at the most crucial moments.
 * Bow hunters can also perform a series of melee attacks, by pressing the circle button while their weapon is out, the hunter will perform a slashing attack with an arrow at hand, this attack can be chained to a second attack.
 * Exclusive to Monster Hunter Frontier the Bow itself can be used to uppercut the monster with a far more damaging effect than simply slashing them with an arrow at hand.
 * Bow hunters can perform a 'quick draw' and have the weapon out and already preparing a charge.
 * Besides the elemental damage of the bow, most of them can use coatings. Coatings are special items prepared by the hunters that will cover the arrows in order to gain certain effects, in MHF2 the available coatings are Power coatings, Poison coatings, Paralysis coatings and Sleep coatings, each one providing the status effect mentioned from the name. As a side note, the power coating will give all arrow's shot with it an extra +50% damage, and is stackable by charging the bow, ingesting demondrugs, etc. Close range coatings are only avaliable in MHFU
 * While having Coatings, a small add-on menu will appear over the normal quick-item menu, while the normal item menu is horizontal and you'd use it with the circle and square buttons. This coating menu works vertically and using the triangle and "X" button. Also, in order to activate one coating for use, it will have to be selected and then press circle+triangle.
 * If you press the X button while having your bow drawn out, the hunter will perform a small hop back, you can do this as many times as the stamina allows in order to get a better shooting position.
 * When the bow is drawn and the "Triangle" button is being held down, a small flash will happen which indicates one charge has been activated. 'Charging' will consume stamina, so some hunters might find it more useful to carry a lot of power juices or mega juices. Most bows have 3 possible charges, and the capability for a 4th charge is possible with the Load Up/Capacity Up skill.
 * It is possible to move while charging unlike greatswords, giving you the opportunity to be preparing a heavy attack while waiting for the right moment to unleash it.
 * When the "R" Button is being pressed, the view will change to the aim mode. In this mode, you'll see a line showing the trajectory that the arrows will follow and with the control pad, you are able to change the direction in which you are aiming.
 * Because of the bow's mobility combined with its high elemental power, many experienced hunters utilize the skills Adrenaline +2 and Felyne Heroics to solo the strongest monsters in the Monster Hunter universe. In MHF2/MHP2, you were able to combine the effect of Adrenaline +2 and Felyne Heroics, to get an even more powerful effect.
 * Bows can now KO monsters in MHP3rd with their new Shrapnel Rain attack which is performed by pressing "O" after one charge level.
 * Shrapnel Rain attacks have an area of effect indicated by a red circle on the ground when in aiming mode with varying radii depending on the model of bow, ranging from a very small radius (about the diameter of 3.5 feet) to a diameter of approximately 10 feet (about the size of a Giginox or a small Tigrex wing tip to wing tip).

Charge Attack
Charges are a very important part of Bow's game play and strategy. The charges on a bow will drastically affect the way a hunter will go against a monster. They are also a main part of the damage formula with bows. The main reason is that each bow will have different charges on each level, not even necessarily the same. For example, the Hunter's Power Bow I will have Rapid Lvl 1 on the first charge, Rapid Lvl 2 on the second and Rapid Lvl 3 on the third, but once the 4th charge is activated, this comes up as Piercing Lvl 4. This will become important as each charge has a different behavior than the others. For instance, rapid fire will use a rapid strong arrow at first and each charge will add a new one behind the last one, the same goes for Piercing, but each piercing arrow can hit more than once a monster (if the size is good enough and aimed the right way it can hit up to 4 times). Spread will shoot 3 arrows on the first charge, but they will spread to the sides, this all will be explained more thoroughly ahead. Also, each arrow on each type of charge will use a certain numeric modifier (to add on the damage formula mentioned above). Further down is the numeric value for each arrow depending on the charge type, as well as an explanation of how this works.


 * Each charge will change a damage modifier on the attack used: the first charge has a modifier of 40%, the second will do 100% the damage and 3rd and 4th will do 150% damage. It's the hunters choice whether to unleash fast yet weak attacks or use stronger ones that would take more time to use (This damage is stackable with demon drugs, flute effects, etc.).


 * Also each charge will affect the elemental damage on the weapon, the first charge will be of 50% the amount, the second charge of 75%, third charge will have the 100% of the elemental damage listed and the fourth will have 112.5% the elemental damage listed. Unlike raw damage the elemental damage is not affected by range. To find the "true" elemental value use the following: ELEMENT / 10 x Elem Mod. = "True" elemental value

Rapid
It works by unleashing fast and powerful attacks. The first arrow will follow the path the aim would show, and with each charge a new arrow will follow but slightly lower than the last one, so with the second charge, 2 arrows will be unleashed, the First (shown in the next table) and a second one a bit lower (in the Table each extra arrow will be shown as an "A"). This is the fastest way to break a monster's part and slay a small monster.

Scatter
It works by shooting several arrows. Even from the first charge, each shot will have a central arrow following the normal path shown by the aim, shown as C's, and then extra arrows (depending on which charge is used), shown in the table as A's. The arrows will spread widely from the one at the center. This will handle a fast movement monster or a boss monster with its minions.

Pierce
Piercing arrows are very different than the other 2 types. While there's only 1 arrow being shot with each charge, what changes is the number of hits a single arrow will be able to do. At level 1 this means 3 possible hits and at level 4 it can hit up to 6 times. The number of hits is only possible if aimed right, and most hunters would take any chance to unleash a level 4 piercing attack aiming at the head and trying to make the arrow go through from head to tail, or from wing to wing, this because it needs that much space in order to hit several times and be more effective. '''This is the fastest way to slay a large monster. Only this type can pierce monster's webbing.'''

Distance
One importance thing that bow user must keep in mind is distance, because this will effect to your bow's attack power just like charging does. The bow's attack power will change exponentially according to distance. The best location from you to a monster's part is listed below... Your location is something in between, not too close and not too far. If your arrow has begun to descend when hit on any monster's part, that means you arrow does less than 50% of raw damage because you stand too far from it.

Movements on Detail
Now we will see more details on the movements and even some combos.

Weapon Sheathed
= Draw weapon = Roll R + +  = Quick Draw + Slash attack R + +  +  = Quick Draw + Slash attack 2 hit combo

Weapon Drawn
R(HOLD) = AIM will be shown (all following movements can be mixed with this one). AIM + Control Pad = Will fix the aim according to the Control Pad. = Shoot 1 arrow (HOLD) = Charge (HOLD) + Direction = Charge while Moving = Small Jump Backwards + Direction = Roll = Slashing attack + = 2 Slashing attack Combo