Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Gunlance Guide and FAQ By Sephiroth1491 (a.k.a. Kon-sama1491) Version 1.00 Copyright 2013 Pablo Diaz Samaniego ===================================================================== Contents 1.- Introduction 2.- Changes from previous games 3.- The Basics 3.1.- Starting up 3.2.- Shelling 3.3.- Wyvern Fire 3.4.- Full Burst 3.5.- Charge Shells 4.- In depth info 4.1.- Combo'ing basic rules 4.2.- Combo with shelling 4.3.- Other Info 5.- Skills 6.- Frequently Asked Questions 7.- Contact and Credits ===================================================================== Changelog ===================================================================== 30/05/13 Ver 1.30 - Added more questions to FAQ section Added more info everywhere (Skills, armors, etc) 23/05/13 Ver 1.23 - Fixed some typos Added more questions to the FAQ 17/05/13 Ver 1.20 - Fixed some errata to 3U Added new FAQ section More small info in many places 29/04/13 Ver 1.15 - Clarified some stuff Added some points here and there Fixed some typos 25/04/13 Ver 1.10 - Fixed typos Minor fixes and clarified some missing info. 24/04/13 Ver 1.00 - First release Added FAQ section Fixed some errata Added some more info here and there 23/04/13 Ver 0.75 - Fixed some errors Fixed some typos 22/04/13 Ver 0.50 - Started Gunlance guide parting from P3rd guide Removed obsolete information Added new info ===================================================================== 1.- Introduction ===================================================================== Welcome once again to the world of gunlancing, like i did previously with MHP3rd, i intend to make a guide explaining every feature,skills and other tidbits to help the new and old players who are willing to pick up this awesome weapon or that don't know it at all from MH3. Decided to redo this guide for this game after seeing so much questions and doubts about this weapon in MH3U boards, so most of the info was already mentioned and debunked in my old P3rd GL guide so i thought "why the hell not do it again?" So here i am, hope you find this useful, and now onto it. ===================================================================== 2.- Changes from previous games ===================================================================== If some of you tried out Gunlance pre-MHP3rd, they got a big change from there. The most notorious one is that now instead of 3 simple stabs, the last attack will be a slam, stronger but slower and has a longer recovery time, but that can chain to other new shell attacks, explained below. The shells system got improved, Now each shelling type has its own advantages, while the weapon is more responsive, and works faster. Also at difference of Unite, and similarly to P3rd at end-game the weapon won't fall behind in tier, in fact is one of the strongest weapons in the game, in this one especially is almost broken, especially if you put slime weapons into play. Of course this may vary player to player, but we're gonna change that. In the end,it's the player that makes the weapon, not otherwise. (Even if some weapons are easier to pick up >_>) Since P3rd, the Gunlance lose less sharpness with shelling, and you can do long hops even without the need of an attack first. And you can now hop from guard stance now. Very useful to go from defense to take the offensive. ===================================================================== 3.- The Basics ===================================================================== This info is pretty basic, it's made to mostly help newcomers, some of this info can be obvious for advanced players, but it won't hurt to give it a check just in case. ------------------- 3.1.- Starting up ------------------- So let's start by a picking any GL, you start with a weapon of each type since the start of game, so you surely have one already. it's best to try out the moves and get familiarized with them, it has so many you would need to memorize them before going on a serious quest. Note that the weapons move the same underwater safe for certain tidbits i will adress below. -Low Stab: Press X, it can be chained twice. -Slam: Third attack after chaining 2 low stabs (X), or by pressing X right after a fast reload. -Shell: Press A. -Upstab: Press X+A.Underwater have a long reach below too. -Forward stab: Press X while moving the analog. Is also the unsheath attack of the GL. Can also be used by doing an attack while moving the analog to a direction as first attack. This can also be used after firing a mid/high height shell. Underwater has a long forward reach so it can be used to attack from away or to even move. -Back/Side hop: Press B, if you pull the analog to a side after an attack, the hunter will hop to that side, and if you pull it backwards, the hunter will do a long hop, roughly the equivalent of 2 small ones. Sadly unlike lance, GL can only do one hop. -Underwater Up/Down evade: Right after an attack, press up or down and B to go up or down. -Charge shell: Hold R button as you press A to fire a shell. Can only be done after the first attack, so firing one just like that can't be charged, but unlike regular shells, you can do a hop after firing one of these. -Forward stab cancel->shell: As you do a forward stab, press A before it does the actual attack, the hunter will cancel the thrust and fire a shell instead. This shell can also be charged making it the only "first" shell attack that can be charged. There's a JUST version, if you press A just when the char screams as it would start the stab, it will still fire the shell, but the stab will also hit if you're right next to target. -Guard: Press R button. -Guard Stab: While guarding press X. -Unsheath Guard: Press R+X+A at same time with the weapon sheathed. -Reload Shells: Guard and press A, or after any hop press A. -Fast Reload: After firing a shell, press A again, and it will instantly reload 1 shell. -Wyvern Fire: While guarding, if the third stab of a combo is a guard stab or after a slam attack, press X+A. -Full burst: After a slam attack, press A and you will unload all shells currently loaded at the same time. ------------------- 3.2.- Shelling ------------------- Now, Shelling, at difference of normal attacks, have fixed damage and ignore the hitzone defense, so no matter where it hits, it will always do the same amount of damage. Though, if the monster has fire weakness, it will do a bit more damage varying on the hitzone fire weakness. You can shoot them at any time as long you're not in red sharpness. Keep in mind that shells deplete your weapon sharpness at the rough equivalent of 1 shell=2 stabs, so keep this in mind if you need to watch your sharpness level. You can chain a shell after any type of stab attack, and if you do this, the attacks count will reset, so doing a stab after a shell will be counted again as "stab 1", making easy to chain attacks, like doing 2 consecutives low stabs and then firing a shell, the count will reset and then next attack will be a low stab instead of a slam. Another thing to note is the bombardment level, displayed next to the attack value. The higher level, the stronger shells will be. It ranges from 1 to 5. Shells are separated in 3 types: --------------- | Normal (NT) | --------------- It carries 5 shells per load, the most of the 3 types, so it can be easier to chain combos with them but they deal the lowest damage. Wyvern Fire is normal. Charged shells deal normal damage, 20% damage bonus. -SPECIAL EFFECT.- Its full burst (FB) is stronger than the other 2 shell types. But can also burn your sharpness faster. -------------- | Long (LT) | -------------- It carries 3 shells, the shells do higher damage than the NT, and the shells have a longer reach. A balanced style. Full burst deals normal damage, but a bit lower than NT thanks to lower shell quantity per load. Charged shells do normal damage, 20% damage bonus. -SPECIAL EFFECT.- Its Wyvern fire is stronger among all types. Using Gunnery king with this type might be very useful for this for the cool down decrease. --------------------- | Spread/Wide (ST) | --------------------- Only carries 2 shells, though they do superb damage. Wyvern fire is normal, no extra bonus. Full burst is weaker, not just because less shells per load, but the attack gets a damage penalty. -SPECIAL EFFECT.- Charged shells get a 45% boost. You can spot which type is your GL by checking the upper right corner of the weapon details. ------------------------ 3.3.- Wyvern Fire (WF) ------------------------ This is one of the best features of the gunlance, to use it, you need to be in guard stance, or right after a slam attack, or if the 3rd attack of a chain you did was a guard stab. The attack takes a bit to fire, but it deals heavy neutral damage that is separated in 4 hits. Though, the 4 hits will hit the closest part to the tip of the gunlance, so say you wanna use it on a rathalos wing, then you have to get a bit farther from him, if you use it right next to it, the WF will surely end up hitting the body instead. The Wf shot hits 4 times whichever it can hit on reach, so if a jaggi and a great jaggi get hit by it, both will get 4 hits instead of them spreading on them. After shooting it, it takes 2 minutes to cool down before it is available again. So be sure to use it when its guaranteed you will hit the target. Also remember if you use a long type GL, the WF will get stronger damage. Wyvern Fire and shells can also break any part of a monster that don't require cut-only (like tails) or impact-only (Barroth head). Also an important thing is that WF power is based directly off the bombardment level, meaning a LVL3 NT and ST wyvern fire will do the same damage even if shells vary. -------------------- 3.4.- Full Burst -------------------- This is a new feature of GL. After doing a slam attack, you press circle while the hunter still has the GL in the ground, then all the shells loaded at the time will be fired together. So this attack takes a serious advantage of the number of shells it has loaded, a NT gunlance gets the best advantage of this, since it already unloads the most shells and they get an extra class damage boost. But like stated above, it's not recommended to use this at all with spread type Gunlances, you'll only burn sharpness without doing any substantial damage. This attack is especially useful in multiplayer, since other players are also dealing damage, you can literally stagger lock monsters with a lvl4-5 NT Full burst, can even be done with LT GL's. -------------------- 3.5.- Charge Shells -------------------- Charge shells are one of the best improvements of GL, the shell takes a bit longer to fire, but the damage is 20% boosted, and all shells get benefitted from it. It's also the only way you can hop right after a shell, quite useful for hit and run tactics where the monster has high defense or very hard to hit weak points, like nibelsnarf or duramboros. But spread type shells get the best advantage by far, getting a wider reach and the shells get a 45% boost compared to the 20% the other two types get. ===================================================================== 4.- In depth info ===================================================================== This will mostly contain info that might be similar to the one above, but with the advantage it contains a better in-depth explaining and that unexperienced players might not understand at first. ----------------------------- 4.1.- Combo'ing basic rules ----------------------------- One of the best advantages of GL is that you can pretty much follow any attack after any other (some restrictions applies obviously). For example, every 2 hits you can shell and start the combo over, so it won't do a slam as 3rd attack and lose much time with the recovery of it. Gunlance is so diverse in combos that i would never finish if i was to list all of them, it's up to you to improvise according to the situation and take advantage of it. The gunlance has no limits in terms of making attack combos and thanks to the shield you can keep at close range most of the time without losing your position. And underwater this weapon is beastly, the side step can be very useful since it's short and quick, giving very fast response to go to guard or continue attacking. And all combos done out of water can be done under it. These are some basic rules to keep in mind when combo'ing: -The Forward stab doesn't count in the combo count, so you can do a forward stab, then follow with two low stabs and finish with a slam, that would be 4 attacks without a shelling in combo. -If the 3rd attack of a random combo is an Upstab, a slam will be always available at end, again chaining 4 attacks without a shell in between. -With these 2 notes above, you can do a 5 stab combo without a shell in between, with a forward stab, 2 low stab, upstab and end with a slam. -Dending on the monster behavior, some combos would be good to end in guard stab then go to guard stance. -Some monsters weak point position can be hit easier or only with the guard stab, it's better to do this than go attack somewhere else with a stronger attack most of the times. Or you know, just shell the hell of it anywhere. -Underwater forward stab has very long forward reach and has good reach below too. So you can use it to move toward monster but also from an angle it will be below you and still hit it. - Underwater upstab also have a lot of reach below your hunter, allowing you to do the same, which can be very useful to attack from above the monster in certain situations. Or to not attack directly from the front. --------------------------- 4.2.- Combos with shelling --------------------------- With the info above, the shells can play a big role in terms of combo'ing. Like with stabs, there's some basic rules you should know about shelling while you combo to maximize your reactions: -You can shell after every stab without exception, meaning you can even use the stab attacks to "aim" where you want to shell, like say, aim with an upstab to hit really high things, like hit a rathalos head while he's flying or sometimes even hit duramboros humps from below, you can also take advantage of this underwater, since you can hit monsters from way below. -If you fire a shell after an upstab or guard stab, you can follow up with a forward stab, handy to go from defensive to offensive. -You can use a charge shell at any time you can fire a shell, except when you just fire a shell as first attack. -You can follow a charge shell just after a regular shell without having to do a regular attack or fast reload in between. -Also with the above rule you can fire a charged shells after another one, use them consecutively without the need of a fast reload between each of them (obviously unless it's the last shell and needs to reload it forcefully). -You can do a hop to any direction after a charge shell without the need of an attack in between. -You can chain a Fast reload, to a slam and finish with WF/FB. -Another advice is that the mid/high shells have a faster recovery than a stab attack so you can guard faster after firing one in case you can't guard stab to guard. -Also if you have the GL WF used, when you do a slam you can press the WF input so it does the "unloaded" animation, that will cancel almost half of the recovery after a slam and works faster than a hop after slam, a pretty useful thing to know, it also works with using FB without shells, but it's not as fast. -Like the above if you have the shells unloaded you can fast cancel the upstab animation to faster recovery. ------------------------- 4.3.- Other Info -------------------------- A golden rule for gunlancing: NEVER let your sharpness level go below yellow, if it gets to orange you'll hit 75% of damage, so you're not only doing weaker hits with it and bouncing more, but the shells also suffer this penalty, and if it gets to red you won't be able to use them at all. -Take note that GL DPS isn't very good, so for an effective use of gunlance we have to take advantage of elements, in this game every monster is decently weak to an element, in certain monsters even 2 and luckily there's at least a good element GL for each one. So it's a better option to take advantage of this. Raw only gunlances are not really recommended, though they would still do the job well. -Slime and poison gunlances are really good in this game, if you can get your hands on these, you can trade out with any element GL for most of the monsters. -Another good thing to know would be the skills "Artillery novice" and "Artillery expert" can increase the damage of shells, by 10% and 20% respectively. -With those 2 skills, WF also gets higher damage, getting the same multipliers as above, but remember it's separated in 4 hits. And AM also decreases the cool down time of it from 2 min. to 1:30 min. So if your thing is using WF all the time, and especially when you're using a LT GL, it would be a very good option. -Shells get a X3 damage multiplier when shot to a sleeping monster. -A wyvern fire shot to a sleeping monster would only get the first hit with triple damage, the other three will hit normally. So it's not a good idea to do this. -Similarly, use Full burst on a sleeping monster will only result in one shell getting triple damage, the rest will hurt normally. ==================================================================== 5.- Skills ==================================================================== The GL has many armor skills that can be helpful, but most of them are the usual that could work with any other weapon. I won't list element skills, because even if GL's benefit more from elemental attack, it's always better to buff the raw damage. This is a list of recommended skills, i will post the description just in case some of you may not know them (or for the lulz): Sharpness+1: Increase the sharpness level (duh), only recommended if the weapon can reach a higher level of sharpness, like from white to pink or if it gets more sharpness than it could get "doubled" with sharp sword. Otherwise pass it up. It's a shame that it's only available in Grank. Attack up S/M/L: Increase the attack by 10, 15 and 20 NONMULTIPLIED power respectively. A basic offensive skill. The GL multiplier is 2.3, so multiply that for 10,15 and 20 to get the numbers the weapon wil show as bonus. I.E: 10*2.3= 23 with Aus, the weapon will "seem" to get 23 atk power, despite the real adding is 10 points. Not as good as S+1 if your weapon gets pink sharpness, but a great skill nonetheless. Honed Blade - Only unlocked from Nether armor (Abyssal Lagia): This especial skill gives instantly the both skills mentioned above, Sharpness+1 and Attack up Large, VERY useful for armor combos, except you need really rare charms with Edgemaster for it, or wear the full Nether set, which imo isn't that good that way. Tenderizer: This skill is tricy to use, since it gives a +5 boost to the MONSTER HITZONE, so using this skill to increase the weakpoint value of monsters whose have "not that weak" weakpoints will be very useful, good examples of this would be gigginox and zinogre, since their weakpoints won't take that much damage anyway. But using it on a monster like rathian, or duram humps which already got very weak hitzones wouldn't apport a decent boost of damage compared to any other offensive skill. Critical Eye 1/2/3: This skill is tricky to use, since it triggers randomly and is only recommended to use in G rank especially CE+3, when weapons have strong enough power to make the damage bonus substantial over time. Namely, GL's with 614 MINIMUM attack power can take advantage of this skill better than gemmin up AuL. Any buff item counts into this, so remember as long you have higher than 617 atk shown in status CE+3 should be better than AuL. Bombardier: Obviously only use this if you're using a slime weapon, Zvolta Destroyer is IMO the strongest Gunlance in the game, and using this skill to boost its already high slime can be beastly in virtually every quest. Recommended to couple with Felyne Pyro too. Speed sharpen: Gunlance lose sharpness really quick thanks to shells and the usual attacking, so this skill helps maintain a good sharpness. Especially useful if you're relying on your pink sharpness from S+1 to do a lot higher damage. Razor Sharp: Same as speed sharpening, though this one also might help you save whetstones, and keep very small sharpness levels for more time. But it's not as easy to gem in as SSi. Guard+1/2: Gunlance and lance have the advantage of having a bigger shield, and with this skill, you can pretty much protect from every attack with small to none pushback and stamina loss, also helps you to gain a faster recovery time to use to attack on certain monsters.A barroth is a good example of it, you can recover faster than him after his head ram gving you time to attack the arms from below it. Evade +1/2: This skill lets you evade through monster attacks easier, in some monsters, this can help you take advantage of openings after some attacks that can't be evaded normally without it, like zinogre body slam or just to help you evade stuff if it's still too hard for you. Artillery Novice/Master: Increase neutral damage by 10% and 20% of shells and wyvern fire, it also decreases Wyvern fire cool down time in 30 sec. Not GL related but it also increases damage of cannons, ballista, and some bowgun ammo, just in case you feel like using them on jhen or such. Guard Inc.: This IMO, isn't very useful,except for very specific cases since it let's you guard the otherwise unblockable attacks, like gigginox poison fart or plesioth water beam, etc. Earplug: This skill isn't that great, espexially considering you got a shield to guard any roar without trouble. But if you're usually playing with helios Z pieces for armor sets, you may notice youy can trigger or it or already did from a couple pieces. It's decent to use in monsters like rathian or such, since the earplug work for you not deffensively, but giving you more openings as they do roar animation. High grade earplug isn't recommended, since you can guard those anyways, and IMO is more of a waste of skill points/slots than what is worth, at least for Gunlance and Lance. -------------------------------- 6.- Frequently Asked Questions -------------------------------- Q.- Is artillery expert a must use skill? A.- In this game not anymore, the weapons are very strong and unless you're going for certain monsters, you're better off using other offensive skills. If you're using spread type or long type GL's depending on situation it might be a good idea. But far from a must skill. Q.- Which armors are good for GL? A.- I will NOT get into custom armor sets here, especially due to the randomizing of the charm tables, so say i post an armor set only possible to make with charm table 10, lots of people would get locked from it cuz that charm don't exist in their table save. Full sets: LR: Jaggi, Barroth, Agnaktor, Rathalos. HR: Jaggi S, Barroth S, Uragaan U, Agnaktor U, Rathalos S. GR: Jaggi X, Barroth X, Helios Z, rathsoul Z, Damascus X Nether, Uragaan Z, Agnaktor Z, Grand jhen (still researching) Q.- Which are the best gunlances? A.- While this may be arguable, from many tests, the best 3 GL's are rathian's for poison and brachydios' for slime, and lucent for a good mix between raw and poison. The three have high raw damage, good bombardment, ridiculously high status damage and can take on almost every monster in the game without having to keep swapping weapons. While also having decent amounts of sharpness and good pink sharpness chunk with S+1.Obviously lucent GL don't even need S+1. The only GL that can surpass these in their element, is the miralis GL and to a lesser extent the last Nether GL. Q.- GL shield sucks, it's too slow. A.- This depends on the player, the weapon can be very sluggish at start, for some people even more than lance, but it requires good knowledge of the game to start using decently and once you get used to it can be very fast and also a powerhouse. Q.- Is it good to only use shells? A.- While shells provide good damage, you should only use these as support to your stabs, using shells only to attack is not recommended since you will only burn your sharpness and end up losing DPS. Q.- Lance is faster, why would i bother with GL? A.- While Lnace have a seamingly faster move and attacks, they also have the con of them having a very short gap of delay between attacks, while GL can continue a combo even after a bit of an attack done. Lances also have lower DPS than GL, making them more reliable on element than GL. And lances can also infinite combo, but can be seriously stamina expending if you don't know how well, while GL instead, consumes sharpness faster through shells. Q.- Is Load Up worth having with GL's? A.- For a short answer No. Why? Becuase what it does is only add one extra shell per load, which won't help boost your damage at all, other than avoid realoading more which is useless if you know when to reload. The extra NT shell is useless to cause a great boost in a Full burst. And an extra charged Wide shell isn't that great, in the long run. Q.- Is it worth using shells all the time? A.- Shells are a BIG increase of damage for GL, but only at low rank, considering the weapons deal super low damage and monsters have super low HP. As rank goes up, monsters get lots more HP, while the shells only get a slight higher boost per bombardment level. So by G rank, shells are not that good to use, other than to connect combos, or to aisle decent damage on a monster part you plan to stagger/break eventaully. But is far from being actually good as main damage output. Note by this i don't mean you shouldn't use them, they are perfect for chaining combos, what i mean is get sure your shell usage won't overruns your stabs one. At long term it might be more harmful and you'll lose damage over time, but again ONLY at G rank. Q.- You said GL gets more benefitted from element, why should i care with poison or slime? A.- At difference of older games, and even in this one compared to other weapons. The brachy GL, Rathian, and Lucent naruga Gunlances don't just have the status, but also good raw, sharpness, and even decent shells. Thanks to their nature and status, can destroy every monsters without smallest trouble, and both status are non hitzone dependent either, which means you can get explosions through only hitting the legs of a rathian, or poison it the same way. That along shells, and obviously attacking the weakpoints with their good raw makes them very deadly, and using many of these together online can be totally beastly. (1 Zvolta is crazy good, imagine two fighting one monster) (More to come) ------------------------- 7.- Contact and Credits ------------------------- If you want to contact me , notify any errors, if you find some- thing is missing and such or incomplete, you can find me in gamefaqs.com, username Sephiroth1491 or through theunspeakable14@gmail.com. Most of the info was researched by myself since i started the game, used info i already learned from older MH's, namely P3rd, which is the most similar to this one. And Of course another big thanks to Capcom for making another kickass MH game which already got me for hours despite having so few out. (At least in the occident) If you want to use parts of this guide feel free to, but give the correct credits for it. This guide is only permitted to be used at this point in: GameFAQs Copyright 2013 Pablo Diaz Samaniego