~ mazereon presents ~ _____ _ ___ /__ \ |__ ___ / __\ _____ ____ _ _ _ _ __ / /\/ '_ \ / _ \ /__\/// _ \ \ /\ / / _` | | | | '_ \ / / | | | | __/ / \/ \ (_) \ V V / (_| | |_| | | | | \/ |_| |_|\___| \_____/\___/ \_/\_/ \__, |\__,_|_| |_| |___/ ___ _ _ / __\___ _ __ ___ _ __ ___ _ __ __| (_)_ _ _ __ ___ / / / _ \| '_ ` _ \| '_ \ / _ \ '_ \ / _` | | | | | '_ ` _ \ / /__| (_) | | | | | | |_) | __/ | | | (_| | | |_| | | | | | | \____/\___/|_| |_| |_| .__/ \___|_| |_|\__,_|_|\__,_|_| |_| |_| |_| _____ __ |__ /_________/ / /_ armory jewel head: no slot body: armory jewel arms: (E)A jwl +3 Waist: (E)A jwl +3, (E)A jwl +1 Legs: 3x armory jwl Charm: (E)A +8 you need (E)A +8 charm for each element; +9 if u want to get rid of "worry" negative skill 2. Silver Sol custom machine gun set (Dual Jin cleared in 13 min) skills: Load Up, Normal/rapid S Up, Exploiter, RF+1, AUS, health-10 Weapon IOTG > RF jwl +1 head: barrage piercing body: SSol > 2x debilitate jwl +1 arms: SSol > RF jwl +4 waist: SSol > attack jwl +3(2 slot) legs: SSol > strong shot jwl +4 (normal/rapid S up +4 jwl) charm: RF+5 3. "Writhe in Pain" para/crag/clust set (Superb for AHP) skills: Load up, Gunnery king, RF+1, Recoil+2 weapon: IOTG with silencer! > Howitzer jwl head: barrage piercing Body: Atia S > RF+1 jewel arms: Diablos U > Howitzer jwl waist: Diablos U > 3x Howitzer jwl legs: Atia S > howitzer jwl charm: Recoil +3 w/ 2 slot > 2x howitzer jwl credits to: Mazereon and Shizuka(minegarde) for set 1&3" ============================================================================= Part 2: Strategies for Gunning Every Creature ============================================================================= Firstly, please note furthermore that there is no ‘right’ way to gun any creature. There is only successful or not. These tips represent my dedicated gunning character’s 900+ hours of experience, and are the way I find fastest to gun every creature. Other strategies are just as valid, though perhaps not as fast. Each brief strategy has a few parts. Recommended Ammunition: The shot types to use, in order, to kill everything. Using the recommended ammo, you should always be able to kill your target if you use weapons/armour appropriate to the level you’re attempting (ie, high rank gear on high rank creatures). Always take combines for the shots you’re using, especially for your element shots. Armour Skills: These come in two flavours, Recommended and Required. No armour skill is ever truly required, but these will make the fight either much faster or much easier. Recommended skills are good to have, but can be done without. It’s important to note that additional damage skills like Reckless Abandon+ or Attack Up are always beneficial, though Attack Up is largely useless at G rank. Difficulty to gun: Every quest can be soloed at every rank with every weapon. Still, there are some creatures that are not easy to gun. If a creature is listed as High difficulty to gun, seriously consider using a melee weapon. Like how most people hate to use non-guarding melee weapons on Plesioth, sometimes it’s just not worth the aggravation if you can avoid it. Where a creature really is made simpler by additional mobility, I've noted that and suggested Light bowguns. It'll usually mean a slightly longer quest, but will often reduce frustration. From here, it’s a bit of an epic wall of text, so Ctrl+F is your friend. Just hit those two buttons, and enter the name of the monster you’re after and you’ll be taken straight to the part you want. Where multiple monsters have the same strategies, they are listed together. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I Bird Wyverns BWVY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Great Jaggi, Great Baggi, Great Froggi ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 2 or Pellet 3 (Fire S for Baggi) Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Normal/Pellet Up Difficulty to gun: Easy The 'drome' wyverns are a great place to start gunning if you haven't done a lot of it before. These creatures may be harder than previous games, but they are still very much a push over with any class. Your main tactic will be to stay at medium range and blast them with Normal shots. They seem to have only two hitzones - head and body. Shoot them in the head whenever you can, as it'll let you break their crest/frill as well as doing more damage. Be wary of their minions, though - they can easily interrupt attacks and set you up for a hipcheck, which does a surprising amount of damage compared to their regular attacks. As long as you keep the minions at bay with a few shots every now and then, you should have no problem parrying the attacks and firing in return. It's a great time to get familiar with range, as well, since Normal shots aren't effective from long range. You can also spam Pellet shots at the dromes, but Pellet has really been beaten with the nerf stick in this game. You won't need to aim, but it'll take longer. It will however hose down the minions nicely. Qurupecco and Crimson Qurupecco ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 3/2 and Ice S Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Ice Element +, Normal Up, Earplug (for Crimson). Difficulty to gun: Easy (Moderate for Crimson) Qurupecco is much like Kut Ku, from previous games - a slightly more advanced walking target from the dromes. While it looks like a big turkey, you'll need to be aware of what it can do in a pinch. Your main target will be its head, and you can crack its beak as well as breaking the flints off its wings. If you keep the pressure on with Normal or Ice shots, you'll down it reasonably fast. The main thing you'll need to watch out for is its summon dance. If it starts waggling around and you see sound waves coming from the beak, it's trying to call another monster to help it. At low rank it'll usually call a monster like an Aoashira or Ludroth, which are annoying. But the High rank ones can summon creatures up to the fearsome Deviljho, who you're not going to be equipped to fight. It's important that you bring dung bombs if you can; throwing faeces at a creature will drive them from the map. When it clicks its wings together twice, it's going to jump at you and use the flint on its wing tips to create and explosion. It's simple enough to dodge by rolling left or right, but you really do want to avoid getting hit as it'll do a lot of damage and leave you on fire (which will drain your health, but rolling three times will put it out). Crimson Quru can use its flints to do a flash attack that'll leave you dizzy, and it'll inflict Thunderblight instead of Fireblight. This will leave you more easily KO'd while it's active, which can be deadly at high rank. Most of the time it'll do a hopping charge at you, or spit acid that inflicts defence down. These attacks are simple to avoid, and then you can retaliate with a couple of Normal 2 or a Ice S RF volley. Crimson Qurupecco is a much more worthy adversary than its green cousin. When you've done enough damage to rage it, it'll actually shriek at you which requires earplugs to block. It's also more prone to summoning Deviljhos, and it's got a fair bit more health. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same fight, but it does seem to love hovering. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- II Pelagus and Fanged Wyverns PLGF ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bulldrome ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 2 Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Normal Up Difficulty to gun: Low Bulldrome is a very simplistic creature - it's a big warthog that will almost always just charge right at you. If you treat it like a matador would and fire at it, dodge the charge, and then turn around and fire again, you'll be killing it fast in no time. While it does have a circular charge, it's not a huge departure from FU. It is weak to thunder, but there aren't any good Thunder guns by this point in the game, so any weapon with a decent Normal 2/3 clip will work fine. Aim for the head when you can. Otherwise, there's not really much to say :) Aoashira ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 2/3 Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Normal Up Difficulty to gun: Low Aoashira is another new addition to the Monster Hunter stable, and it's designed to ease new players into the cut and thrust of more advanced hunting (well, more advanced than Bulldrome and the Bird Wyverns, at any rate). Its weakest shot point is the head, and it's usually up on its hind legs, meaning you'll need to pan your targeting reticule up to hit him there. Once Aoashira becomes fatigued though, it'll spend more time with its head at ground level, giving you much easier access. When it's on its hind legs and pulls one arm back, it'll start doing a drunken slash attack with its paws. While it's not too deadly, it can attack with a full 360* range of motion, so be careful about how close you stand. Other than rolling away from that and not firing at it while it's charging you down, most of its attacks are quite linear and well telegraphed. It doesn't have that much health, so don't feel compelled to risk attacks. It's a good chance to try out different gunning tactics to get a feel for them, so if you want a punching bag for your Clust, Crag, Pellet or Pierce shots then you can use Yogi. Urkusu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Fire Element +2 Difficulty to gun: Low While Urkusu is faster than Aoashira and can use projectile attacks, it's also ultimately a very linear creature. It's also got a reasonably crippling Fire weakness on the head, meaning you can break the ears off and have it staggering frequently even with level appropriate gear. Most of the fight will be spent almost like Bulldrome - let it slide past you, and then aim at the head with Fire shots. Other than being careful of its multiple sliding attack, you'll only have to look out for the boulder toss and the circular slider attack. This latter one is important to learn to recognise and dodge, as it's got a wide range and will take a chunk out of your HP. If you don't have a Fire capable gun (though the Yukomo LBG will work) then Normal shots are almost as effective. If you find yourself firing at medium- long range often, use Normal 3 instead as it's got a longer effective range. Try not to stand right behind it, as it can back up and sit on you reasonably quickly. This fight should be reasonably fast. It's tempting to spam fire shots at its back, but if you wait a second till it turns around for a head shot, you'll make more effective use of your ammo. Rangotora ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Water S, Normal 2/3 Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Paralyze Difficulty to gun: Moderate Rangotora is like a big armadillo pinball, and it's got a few tricks that can prove annoying for gunners in the first few attempts. Its main attacks are a deceptively long range tongue whip (which will reach to the limits of effective Normal 2 range), the bouncing attacks, short range dung gas halos, and a medium range paralyze spit. The best way to counteract the tongue whip is to roll into it. That may sound counter-intuitive, but right after you hit 'X' to roll, your character will be invulnerable to any attack in the game for about 2/30ths of a second. It's called your 'moment of invulnerability' (MOI) and it's important for gunners to get to grips with. You can extend this time with Evade +1/2, but most attacks in the game can be avoided without it. So, when you see Rango drop to its front paws and cock its head to the side, get ready to roll left or right. You'll probably get hit the first few times, but you'll eventually get the hang of rolling. The paralysis spit has a wider area of effect than you'd expect, so it's important to avoid it. Rango seems to always follow up an effective Para with a bounce attack, which you'll be helpless to avoid. While the multiple bounces do inflict quakes on the ground, rolling away from them is usually sufficient. By this point in the game you'll be able to make the Ludroth LBG, which RF's Water S, which Rango really doesn't like. Firing off a single volley and then pausing to see its response is a very effective way to safely pump out lots of damage. As always though, using raw damage (Normal shots) will also get the job done. Jinogua ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal, Ice S Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Pellet Up, Evade Inc (if HBG) and Recoil- if required. Difficulty to gun: Moderate Jinogua is the game's flagship monster, and it's also going to end up as a wall for many new players who so far will have been breezing through the game. Fear not though, because Jinogua's movements are slow when it's not powered up and easily enough avoided in rage mode, when you know what to look out for. I've listed this as a 'Moderate' fight because while not taking damage is easy enough, Jinogua doesn't take large levels of shot or elemental damage, meaning that bowguns aren't going to be setting speed records on this creature. Jinogua's normal state is reasonably slow, and it'll often let you fire at it while it stalks you. Fire at the head when you can, and back otherwise. As soon as you see it start powering up, concentrate fire on the horns. If you let it power up successfully twice, it'll go into a second state where its attacks are faster, more damaging and most dangerously, inflict 'Thunderblight', meaning that you're much more likely to become KO'd (dizzy). Its major normal mode attack to be aware of is the paw slam. If it jumps towards you and tries to hit you with its paw, it'll pause for a second and then attack again. Don't start attacking until it's done both attacks, tempting as it may be to. If it turns its side to you, it'll do a shoulder check. Avoid it by rolling backwards away from it, or if you're close, roll/hop sideways, making sure you're rolling sideways parallel to its head. When it enters the second powered up state, it can go into rage mode (it'll roar and you'll get caught if you don't have earplugs). Once it's in its second state, it'll do two new attacks. One is a long range body slam that leaves it on its back and will do a lot of damage, and the other is a vertical jump/break dance move where it'll try and attack you with a tail slam. Also, its two jump paw slam attack becomes a three paw slam attack. Don't try and use shock traps or flash bombs when it's in its powered state, since it'll absorb them. It's important to target hitzones consistently, since it requires a flinch or a certain amount of damage to force it out of being powered up. Keep the pressure on, but be careful to pick your moments since you'll take longer to clear the quest if you have to break off often to heal. Jin's horn is a magnet for Pellet shots, which will deal a whole lot of damage to it fast. Here's my take on gunning the Dual Jinogua quest with rank appropriate gear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuB_zaNuKjY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- III Flying Wyverns FLYW ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rathalos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 2/3 Required Skills: Earplug Recommended Skills: Normal Up, Evade Inc Difficulty to gun: Moderate/Hard Rathalos is a wyvern to be taken seriously, and is a real chore if you don't have a good gear set up. Judging by Tri's Rathalos, it takes mediocre elemental damage, especially since Dragon S isn't a hugely viable shot for most of the game. That means you're going to be using Normal 2/3 constantly, and you're going to be aiming for the head. Rathalos in this game is much more frustrating for blademasters, since it flies much more often and lands less predictably. It's this same lack of easy openings that makes it annoying to gun, although hitting the head with Normal shots isn't overly difficult. As a bonus, when you flinch it in mid air, you'll get the satisfying animation of dropping it from the sky so you can get a few free hits in. When it's airborne, it's usually going to be at distance, especially when it's fireballing. That means Normal 3 is the superior shot when it's flying, and Normal 2 will work well while it's on the ground and you're at close range. In all honesty though, the difference isn't huge, so go with whatever will give you a higher clip (usually, Normal 3). This can get a very frustrating fight, so taking some Exhaust S can be a good idea. When it's tired, it'll keep fail fireballing often, and so tiring it out quickly can quickly remove the stress from the fight. If you've raged it, it will always scream and jump back into a fireball. This is a deadly move at High rank, so if you don't have Earplugs, you need to immediately roll away if you see it rearing up to roar. Silver Rathalos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Thunder S, Normal 2/3 Required Skills: Thunder Element +2 Recommended Skills: Evade Inc Difficulty to gun: Moderate/Hard In previous games, Silver Los was simple to melee and tough to gun, but P3rd has really reversed those fortunes. Now that the wings are very Thunder weak, gunners can exploit this from range and happily ignore or dodge most of Silver's attacks. Try and keep track of wing staggers, because if you get a mid air wing stagger it'll fall down, giving you several free wing hits. Try and target the wing/body joint, since the wings move around a fair bit and you can miss shots quite easily. Here's a visual demonstration that'll hopefully give you all the guidance you need: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y3Dm-tmFp0 Rathian ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 2 Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Earplug Difficulty to gun: Low While Rathian is a much better foe in P3rd compared to Unite, it's still a relative pushover for gunners. A constant stream of Normal shots on the face is reasonably easy to accomplish, and as it takes reasonable shot damage it's effective. When Rathian is hovering, it's tempting to go for a few headshots, but you need to exercise caution. She can quite quickly do a mid air tackle that covers a fair amount of ground, as well as flying to you and poison flipping quickly. If you're not confident, it's better to wait until she's landed. When she's fireballing is a great time for headshots, but be careful of her new area of effect napalm attack. Staying two rolls left (her right) of her head will mean you're safe from all her attacks. From that position, you'll be in good Normal shot range and can keep up the punishment. Just be careful not to get greedy with attacks as she's turning toward you for a charge and you'll soon find her limping off. Gold Rathian ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Thunder S, Normal 2 Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Earplug Difficulty to gun: Moderate Gunning Gold Ian is similar to gunning the green version, except your focal point will be the legs rather than the head for Normal shots, and the wings for Thunder. As long as you're staying a couple of rolls away, her fireball attack should be easily dodged. One thing to watch out for is her new napalm attack, where she can fire three times while moving back. It covers a large amount of ground and will hurt, so it's best to avoid her while she's doing this unless you're confident you can avoid it. Otherwise, apply the above Rathian tactics, making note of the alternate weak points. It'll take longer, but it's not a hugely difficult fight. Diablos and Black Diablos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Ice S, Normal 3 or Pierce 2/3 Required Skills: Evade Inc (HBG), Normal/Pierce Up or Ice Element +2 Recommended Skills: Shot Mix Difficulty to gun: Moderate Diablos is a tricky beast. While in some respects it's easier in this game with the stamina system and most precise hitboxes on the charge, the shot damage weak point is no longer automatically targeted with Pellet shots. So while it's easier to avoid getting hit, you'll also sadly be putting out less damage. I'm still testing out strategies here, but so far the best way I've found to gun Diablos is to fire Ice shots at the face. This does good damage and will also break the horns reasonably fast, but will require a bit more precision than previous 'Blos fights. After you've run through your Ice shots, you'll want to aim Normal shots at the tail. Note though that the tail stub (the hammer hit) is actually a different hitzone and takes little damage. The tail is relatively thin and moves around, so aiming at the crotch end of the tail is a good way to go. If you can't shoot the tail, the wings are the next best point and take around 75% of the damage the tail does. Dodging Diablos's moves is reasonably simple now that the charge hitbox doesn't extend so far on either side, and it feels like Blos is a bit slower. While you don't want to be far away from it (this encourages it to charge more) you do want to be careful to avoid its circular twist attack (once in normal, often twice in rage). it's easy to avoid the main hit but still get caught by the tail. Blos also seems to do a three quick charges and then taunt attack - don't get hit by this if at all possible, since you'll end up dizzy easily and be unable to stop it trolling you with a third charge. While you still can Pellet the tail, you'll find most of the pellets hit the tail stub (so, a body hitzone) or the hammer end of the tail. Pellet shots feel significantly weaker than previous games, and the combine for Pellet 3 is now limited since you can carry 49 less of the material. It's still possible to pellet a Blos, it's just not as efficient now. When the 'Blosses have burrowed, sometimes you'll see a large dust cloud where they are. Sheathe at this point, and as soon as the dust cloud stops frothing, superman dive. You'll see Blos fly out of the ground a split second later, and instead of coming up vertically it can fly out of the ground at a 45* angle. It'll often taunt after jumping out like this though, giving you free hits. Gigginox And Thunder Gigginox ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S (Giggi) and Water S (Thunder Giggi) Required Skills: Elemental Shot +2 Recommended Skills: Shot Mix, Poison Negate Difficulty to gun: Easy Gigginox at High rank is a headache for Blademasters, with its area of effect poison attacks - High rank poison is no joke. But just like with Khezu, Giggi is a breeze to gun. The elemental weak spot is the head, and for normal shots it's the head in normal mode, and the tail/fake head in rage mode. Since Giggi is reasonably slow and telegraphs its moves, it's reasonably easier to either Siege or Rapid fire at it. Now that Water shots are normal style, you can use exactly the same tactics on Thunder 'Nox, too. Don't stand directly in front of Giggi, but about two rolls away and one roll to the side. That way, you're still in close range, but you're able to quickly get out of harm's way. When you see it doing its slow charge, it's better to resist the temptation to hit the face and just roll backwards once. Giggi charges at where you are, so once you've rolled back it should stop its charge just in front of you. After a charge, roll backwards and to your left, as it'll do its stretchy head swipe which hits close and left, and then far and right. You can roll through the attack simply enough, but it's a risk you don't need to take and means you can't retaliate as fast. While Thunder 'Nox is essentially the same creature, be aware it uses Thunder attacks (no kidding, huh?). When it's spitting thunder balls at you, you'll usually be at medium range. If that's the case, try and stand between the three balls, as you don't have to move far to get between them safely. Usually though, a roll to the side will allow you to get out of harm's way as the balls travel together before diverging at medium range. So just keep up the elemental firing, switch to Normal shots when appropriate and don't be under it when it's on the roof. It'll usually be out of effective range, or in attacking range so it's best to just leave it to drop down. Barioth and Wind Barioth ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S (Barioth) and Ice S (Desert Barioth) Required Skills: Elemental Attack +2, Evade Inc (Desert Barioth) Recommended Skills: Earplug Difficulty to gun: Low Barioth is a creature that's really easy to dominate as a gunner. If you focus a few bursts of fire at one wing, you'll break it. This not only trips it over, but significantly restricts its mobility for the rest of the fight, making it fall over when it tries to jump around you. Most of the time in the fight, it'll do its medium speed hopping charge at you. It's tempting to fire at the head as it rushes you, but you'll take heavy damage if you misjudge the staggers, so it's usually better to roll to the side instead. When it's past you, go for the wings. Whenever it's safe, fire at the head. When it backs up a couple of steps quickly, it's going to ice or sand blast, so it's important to recognise the attack early and roll out. When Wind Barioth fires a sand blast, it'll create a tornado. While annoying by itself as it restricts movement, Barioth can also jump into the tornado to launch itself at you. It's quite possible to dodge this attack by MOIing through it, but it's simpler to sheathe and superman dive when you see it running to the tornado. When Barioth flies up, try and get under its shadow or far enough away so you can pan the camera up to see it. While its aerial attacks are pretty obvious, just be aware that if you're in a zone it enters, it won't land in one spot, it'll usually fly at you. Tail whips are simply avoided, and another great headshot opening. Here's a demonstration of the above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v7H1BfbuYQ Naruga and Green Naruga ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Thunder S Required Skills: Evade+, Element Attack + Recommended Skills: Earplug Difficulty to gun: Low/Moderate I've listed this fight as 'Low/Moderate'. What that means is that this battle is easy if you're familiar with gunning Naruga, but if you're not used to how it moves and evasion, you'll find it trickier until you get the hang of it. Immediately after you press 'X', you are invulnerable for a fraction of a second. It's this moment of invulnerability (MOI) that lets you roll though virtually all of Naruga's attacks, since they move so fast. Evade + extends how long this invulnerability lasts, so if you're not used to rolling it will help. You're going to be firing Thunder S at Naruga's head, and Thunder S at Green's head and wings. While regular Naruga's fire resistance has been raised, it's still a very fast method to kill it, but sadly there won't be any more sub 5 dual Naruga antics... When the head isn't available, the tail is a secondary weak point on normal Naruga, and you'll be aiming for Green's wings again. Naruga's movements can be quite disorienting at first. It's going to keep jumping around you, and then jumping right at you quickly. You'll need to be good at used the Claw hand technique to quickly re-orient the camera so you can keep track of it. When it starts its charge, it's a good time to get a head shot or two. When it reaches you, it'll usually tail-whip. This move is easily rolled, but again, you'll need to get familiar with the timing. It'll take some trial and error, so if you don't get it right away, don't fret. When it looks at you and scowls, it's going to tail-slam. This can be deadly, so make sure you roll backwards and right asap, before unloading at the tail. The Green one can slam once and quickly jump up and re-slam, so don't start attacking until you're sure it's not going to jump again. That might seem a little unusual, so watch a Naruga gunning video from Unite if you're after some visual tips. I'll try and make a P3rd Naruga video shortly. Tigrex and Black Tigrex ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Thunder (Water on Black) and Normal 2/3 Required Skills: Evade Inc, Normal Up Recommended Skills: Evade+ Difficulty to gun: Hard Tigrex was always a pain to gun in previous games, and now it's even worse with Black Tigrex's addition to the game. If you're a proficient melee user, I strongly recommend you consider another class. The Tigrexes take limited shot damage and are fast, and rarely let you get good head shot openings. Of course it's possible to gun them, but it's more stressful than killing them needs to be. Both 'Rexes are weak to their respective elements on their head, as well that being the primary shot damage point. A second shot weakness point is the back legs, and that's going to be your main target more often than not, as Tigrex love to charge around. Since the charge is reasonably fast, you'll need to get used to firing at the legs without scoping, and just using the analogue stick to aim. Once they become Fatigued, you're much more able to target the head, but they don't stay tired for long (especially Black Rex). One option is to focus on using Normal damage during the first phase of the fight and switching to a RF elemental shot when it starts stumbling around. If you stay at point blank range to Tigrex, you'll bait it into charging less and using the spin, bite or rock throw attacks. While these are easily avoided, they don't offer much more safe head openings. You'll also have to be very wary of Black Tigrex's new roar moves, since they have a large range and can OHKO unwary gunners. Thus, the basic strategy is to stay reasonably close, going for the head when safe and the back legs otherwise, and being careful. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- IV Brute Wyverns BRUW ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barroth and Ice Barroth ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S (and Water on Barroth) and Normal Required Skills: Earplug Recommended Skills: Evade+ Difficulty to gun: Moderate Barroth has an interesting elemental weakness mechanic. When it's covered in mud, those hitzones are weak to water. once you've 'washed' the mud off the head, it's then weak to fire. Otherwise, the tail is the raw shot damage weak spot of choice. Barroth telegraphs its moves quite far in advance, especially the charge attack. Quite often it'll charge past you, giving you several free shots at either the tail or parts of the body still covered in mud. Otherwise, it tends to tail whip or shake mud at you, which allow you to sit back out of range and blast it with relative impunity. The major issue to beware of is the rage mode transition, which makes it significantly faster. It's easy to get caught by the roar and hit before you're able to recover, which makes Earplugs an investment for this battle. Keeping the pressure on normal Barroth is reasonably straightforward, and most of its attacks seem to be targeted at blademasters, so gunners should typically find this a reasonably simple fight as long as you're careful not to get your self charged or muddy. Both Barroth are poison weak, so if you're going up against the normal one, the Ludroth gun with Water, Normal and Poison options is a good weapon to have handy. Ice Barroth is much more niggly. It's weak to fire all over, and after you've melted off the snow over its body, Fire S on the head is going to leave it hurting. But it's much more mobile than its muddy cousin, and can charge very erratically. The 'ring around the Rosie' charge can be quite devastating, as can the double head-bash that inflicts snowman. It'll also do a pimp walk at you without attacking, which can be quite unnerving. It's got a fair chunk of HP too, so it's a good idea to use the Rathalos LBG for its Fire S RF. Fire a volley at its side, and then re-position so you're not in front of it when it turns. You can down it reasonably fast, but you will need to be careful since one unlucky curve charge and you can be riding the kitty express back to camp. Here's a video of Ice Barroth from the demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ1Wffo_St4 Uragaan and Steel Uragaan ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Water S and Poison S Required Skills: Water Element + Recommended Skills: None Difficulty to gun: Low If you remember Black Gravios from previous MH games, you'll be right at home fighting Uragaan. It shares the same crippling weaknesses to Water and Poison, and is just as easy for gunners to exploit. Uragaan takes among the highest poison damage of any creature in the game, so while status shots are often not worth the time in solo play, they become important here. Both the Ludroth and Gigginox guns will let you keep Ura poisoned, and you can actually kill it without raging it once just by keeping it constantly poisoned. After you've poisoned it, you're going to want to move to Water shots on the face (the chin, specifically). While this will send him into rage mode fast, his attacks aren't too hard to avoid. When he does enter rage mode though he'll cut his roar short to chin pound twice, so it's best to roll out if at all possible. Steel Ura is the same, and seems to spend lots of time doing the tail whip. While the tail isn't as Water weak, it's still worth shooting as you'll break parts off for extra rewards. If you keep switching between Water and poison shots, you'll be able to kill it quickly at very low risk. As long as you're comfortable side-stepping the rolling attack you should have no trouble here. Doboroberuku ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S, Normal 2/3 Or Pierce 2/3 Required Skills: Damage boosting skills Recommended Skills: None Difficulty to gun: Low/Moderate The great moss mountain wyvern Dobo is enormous and has HP for Africa, but isn't especially hard for gunners besides taking a while. And unusually, gunners are able to shoot its tail off, as well as breaking the back and horns. Dobo is weak to Fire, and its shot damage weak point is the tail. That's helpful, because during most of the fight it'll be trying to hit you with it, giving you lots of openings for attacks. it'll quite often back up, and look like it's about to attack your cats or leave the zone, but more often than not it's actually trying to swipe at you with its massive tail. The best option is to roll/hop backwards twice and then while out of its range, blast away. Its other major attack is the roflcopter tail. You can either simply get out of range and then fire at it, or dodge the first revolution and get under it and fire at the legs, aiming for a trip. If you don't trip it and it flings itself away, you're still able to run up and fire at it for a few seconds freely. As long as you always assume it's trying to hit you with its tail, you should be able to stay safe. You can either Fire S the head, Normal the tail or Pierce down the tail to preference. Deviljho ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Thunder S and Normal 2/3 Or Pierce Required Skills: Damage boosting skills, Evade+/Evade Inc Recommended Skills: As above Difficulty to gun: Moderate/Hard Jho is one of the most charismatic creatures seen in MH for a long time, and it's also one of the most consistently challenging and fun fights you'll have. Jho is a giant Tyrannosaur creature, as you've no doubt seen. Uniquely among MH creatures, his attacks have massive range and speed, but tiny hitboxes. As long as you stay on the offensive, his attacks will rarely connect. But if they do, you're in trouble since he hits like a truck. In normal mode, Thunder/Shot damage on the face is effective, and in rage, you want to re-aim at his belly when you can, though either hitzone in either mode can be used. His rock throw can be dodged by simply rolling to the side, and his multi- bite attack (which will either be done three or five times) can be walked under without the need for rolling. It's tricky at first, but try and recognise the difference in load up between his walking bite and his bite into tail spin, because you'll want to time the dodge differently. In either case though, roll under him *between* the legs, not outside his legs, since the tail can often clip you for small damage. Take armour seeds if you can, because when he's fatigued his bite attacks inflict defence down which can be problematic if you fail an evade. Jho eats voraciously, and this can really be used to your advantage. Tainted, drugged and poisoned meats will be consumed with aplomb, and while each is effective just once (unless you're in multi), it gives you a free chance to sleep bomb or parahaxx some of his huge HP away (for perspective, in Tri it had more HP than Alatreon, the last boss). The two main approaches are Thunder S RF, or Pierce abuse. While both are effective, you'll always get the full Thunder damage on it if you connect, whereas Pierce shots can exit his body if you don't hit down his face or tail. Jho is an intimidating, but fundamentally fun, fight. Here's my take on gunning Jho: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D95yosa2riw ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- V Leviathans LEvW ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Royal Ludroth, Purple Royal Ludroth ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S Required Skills: None Recommended Skills: Poison negate is useful for Purple... Difficulty to gun: Low As most of you have played the P3rd demo to death, I'm sure you'll all familiar with Spongey. Ludroth is a quite simple fight, and even a non perfect run can net you sub 3 minute times with rank appropriate gear. As long as you're using Fire S on the sponge or Normal 2 on the head, it'll go down pretty fast. None of its attacks are especially intimidating either, so as long as you avoid getting jumped on you can even tank it a bit. Poison Ludroth is essentially the same creature, just with the ability to sap your HP faster. Antidotes can help with that. Here's a video from the demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivHYeyFMXsk Hapurubokka ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Ice S or Pierce 2/3 Required Skills: Evade Inc for HBG Recommended Skills: N/A Difficulty to gun: Low/Moderate Hapu is an unusual fight. Without special tactics it can be a drawn out fight, but if you know how to fish it up, then you can really dominate them. Hapu has many attacks that involve it running at you or attacking with its mouth wide open, like its Jaws style un-burrow or the back and forth waltz across the desert. If you lay a LBB or LBB+ down and it attacks into them, it'll end up eating the bombs. If it does this, it'll explode shortly after, which is your cue to run up to it and press O to fish it up (follow up with some vigorous button mashing). Once fished out, you're able to fire at its Uvula (the weak spot, the dangly pink thing at the back of its throat) freely. You can bomb it like this multiple times. Otherwise, if it burrows under, sheathe and sprint around. When its sand spout stops, it's about to surface under you, so superman dive. It'll frequently sit on the surface of the sand doing little, giving you lots of openings to blast the head with Ice S. This will break the ears/gills pretty handily. You also don't have to worry much about the sand flop attack it does. When it's sucking up sand for its sand beam attack, try and get behind it and you'll be able to fire at the back of its head. Otherwise, it's a reasonably placid creature when not attacking, and after a couple of fights you'll find that for a lot of the fight you can keep firing away without worrying about retaliation. Hapu have a fair bit of HP so if you see it limping, it's usually a better idea to go for a capture unless you particularly like fighting big creatures in small caves. Agnaktor and Ice Agnaktor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Water S and Fire S (Ice Agnak) and Normal 3 Required Skills: Evade Inc, Damage boosting skills Recommended Skills: Damage boosting skills, Blightproof Difficulty to gun: Moderate/Hard Agnaktor is a worthy foe, for both gunners and melee. While it's simple enough to target its weak points, it's got a lot of attacks that can easily hit players at medium range and it can do a lot of damage with them. Firstly, your main targets with your respective elemental shots are the head and chest. If you want Agnaktor Claws, you'll need to break the lava/ice off all four limbs, but this will suck up a lot of ammo and time. For raw damage, aim at the face. When Agnak has been out of the lava for a while, its skin cools down. When it's like this, water shots are a better option than raw. Conversely, Ice Agnaktor thaws if it's out of the ice for a while, so you'd start with Fire and move to Normal if you wanted to maximise your shots. Always try and stay on the left of Agnak's head (so, your right). At high rank it'll do a beam that sweeps around, but won't get you if you're close (two rolls away) on the left. If it pulls back for a charge, try and resist rolling or running left or right until the last second. It's quite good at predicting where you'll be, but if you walk in a straight line backwards or stay still it'll come to where you are. When it burrows under, sheathe and keep moving. Always run straight left or right of where it entered the ground, and if it's in the roof, be ready to superman dive if you need to. If you get hit when it's in lava mode, you'll be fireblighted, so roll to put it out. If it's under the ground and you feel a small quake, it might be about to half emerge and do a 360* beam. Get right next to it if you can, or right away sheathe and be ready to dive otherwise. You can flinch it with head shots pretty easily. When it's fatigued, it's far less threatening too, so if you can prevent it from feeding on Rhenoplos then do so. So, the main plan is to be aiming for the head when possible, or the chest otherwise, especially if the head is moving around a lot. While I don't recommend this below tactic, it is extremely efficient at farming Agnaktor. Dragon Shots are clearly more powrful than Capcom intended. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g9FOgdUxhI ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- VI Elder Dragons EDRA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jhen Mohran ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Pierce 2/3, Ice S Required Skills: Damage skills Recommended Skills: More Damage Skills Difficulty to gun: Low Jhen isn't an ideal creature to gun, since it's a big punching bag that is more easily exploited with melee. Still, it's not impossible. When the fight starts, grab the Ballista binder and ballista shots, and Anti Dragon bombs. Run up the ramp and grab a cannonball from the rear of the ship. It'll surface soon after on the right of the ship, and you should run to the cannon and hit O. Then, jump on the ballista, and start firing. You can break both tusks, but don't waste shots if you aren't accurate at range with them. When it does a small belly flop, it's thrown rocks at you, so roll off the ballista right away. Jump back on and keep firing. When it gets closer and you've used your ten ballista shots, spam two or three more cannon balls at it. Then, you should be wary of body slam attacks. If it pulls back from the boat, you can jump on the ballista and select the yellow binder, and fire. You'll pull it close and stop its attack. Jump on the lower leg soon after, and run up to the cracked part of the spine. Plant two Anti dragon bombs, and then straight away run around the spine to the other side of the same crack, and start Ice blasting it. After the spine is cracked, jump back on the boat and keep using the cannon. Soon, it'll jump over the boat. While it's doing this, grab more ballista shells from the spear rack (crouch to gather faster). Fire at it on the left side of the boat, and when it goes under, get three more ballista shells or heal. It'll surface, coming right at the boat, which is when you want to hit the gong. When it approaches the boat and you've used your ballista shells and a couple of cannons, jump on the tusks and run to the closer spine, and fire at it till it cracks. You should soon see it dive and surface far away on the left side of the boat. When this happens, it'll dive again and then come at the boat from the front. It'll come up, dive back under, and come up again. As soon as it come up the second time, activate the ship's dragonator. All going well, you'll force it to the final showdown. Ballista x 10 from long range, then run to it and Pierce 3/2 into the mouth from side on. When it gets close to the boat, dragonate or bind it if you have to. Keep it up and in no time you should have a dead Jhen! Alatreon ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Normal 3/2 and Clust 2 Or Pierce Required Skills: Damage skills, Evade Inc, Shot mix Recommended Skills: Evade+ Difficulty to gun: High Alatreon is the final boss of MH Tri, and makes its first debut on a Portable game here. As a final boss, it's much more challenging and interesting than Fatalis, and you must fight and kill it in a single round. Firing Pierce down its body is effective, but it's got a host of attacks that hit in front of it. For this reason, I'm currently recommending Normal shots instead. I also strongly recommend Silver Sol armour, as Stinger, Normal Up and space for Evade Inc and AUL is crucial in a fight like this. A gun with high raw and normal clips is also important, and the Uka or Jin LBGs are good choices. The head is the shot damage weak point, but Alatreon doesn't take much shot damage. While a hammer user can typically kill it in half the time a gunner will, gunners have the advantage of breaking the wings reasonably simply. If you do want webbings, for the first part of the fight, let it charge past you and then Normal 3 at the wing, where it joins the body. Don't forget to take headshot openings whenever you can though. You'll get good head shot openings when it fireballs, and when it charges its horns for the horn flick. You should be getting three head shots even time it does this. Whenever it's charged past you and turns 180*, it'll always have its head low to the ground and can be shot then, too. If you have access to a gun with Clust 2 (at LEAST 2 shells per clip, too) as well as having a good Normal clip, then it's a good way to go. Aiming at the neck or wings will allow you to pump out damage (53 Clust 2 worth) and hopefully rip the wings, which will save you time doing it later. After your clusts, follow the Normal to the head strategies above. Be very careful to manage your recoil and reloading, though. Flight mode is a real pain, and you'll spend a lot of time dodging left or right away from attacks. Be wary of its air tail whip, it's got deceptively long range. This fight can take around half an hour at first, so you'll need 99 Normal 2 and 3, and combines for more. Bringing Normal 1 is also a good idea for your first few bouts. Felyne Aim (+10% normal S damage) is extremely important to have active if you possibly can, too. Amatsu Matsuguchi ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire S, Normal 2/3 Required Skills: Fire Element Up, Earplugs OR Pellet Up Recommended Skills: Evade Inc Difficulty to gun: Moderate Amatsu is the final urgent quest you'll receive in game. It's an unusual creature, and for gunners, it's a bit of a floating punching bag. You might have seen the Japanese team videos of four gunners killing it in 1:43 - while that sort of time is obviously impossible solo, gunning it is still effective. Akantor armour is a natural fit for this quest, with Fire Element+ and Earplugs. Shot Mix and Attack Up are also good armour options. The Rathalos LBG is an obvious choice for gunning, too. The other option, which will kill it faster, is to use a Pellet based HBG like the Peco or Uca series guns. While your mobility is hampered, if you are able to deal with that, you'll find Pellet a faster method of killing Amatsu. This fight will largely consist of you avoiding its telegraphed attacks, and then responding with a Fire S/Pellet volley at its face. You can usually get one off both before and after it attacks, if it's not in Rage mode. It'll often tail whip (hits mainly under and just in front) and flail at you (hits very close), so most of the time you can continue attacking with minimal position changing. However, be very careful of its rage mode tornado summon and charges, as they have larger hitboxes than you expect and can put out a lot of damage. After your fire shots, you're going to be using Normal 3, predictably. Felyne Aim is a great skill to have handy. If you've chosen the Pellet route, move through Pellet 3, then 2, then 1. If you have a long opening, and a Pellet S seige option, then go for it. When it's very low on health (around <30% HP) it'll fly up high and do three water beams. The first one is straight, so run left or right (avoid walls, since after it hits, the ground erupts a second later). The second is horizontal, so run forward or back, and then the third is again straight. When you see it load up for the major tornado tunnel, sheathe and run (not sprint) away. When it reaches the part of the attack where you do start getting pulled in, sprint then. As long as you're not under it, you'll be ok. You can use the Ballista any time, and they do acceptable damage. After its attacks, Amatsu's wind shield drops for a second, and that's when you should use the orange binders. The first one you use will hold it in place for about 20 seconds; 10 seconds for the second and about two for each one after that. When it's at around 50-60% HP, the area will turn a dark purple red colour. That's basically it. Keep up the pressure, and be careful not to underestimate its rage mode, and you'll be fine. If you have access to Alatreon and Uca, then you can effectively use Dragon shots instead of Fire with the below method. It's about 30% faster than using Fire, but obviously requires slightly better gear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuXEjDqjUIA Akantor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Pierce 2/3 Required Skills: Pierce Up, Evade Inc Recommended Skills: Shot mix, damage skills as appropriate. Difficulty to gun: Moderate Akantor is like a huge version of Black Tigrex, but much slower. It does lumber about, but it's got some deadly attacks and the environment you'll be in is going to be fighting you too. Piercing a creature down the head would otherwise be a dangerous strategy, but Akantor is slow enough that you can get away with. Take opportune shots as they present themselves, and then wait to see what it does. Obviously, if it charges, you'll want to get out of the way by rolling under its left (your right) arm as it raises it to charge. If it's doing a wind tunnel, then get out fast. It's got a wide hitbox on it. Now, Akantor can dig across the map to its starting position, and actually do a wind tunnel across about 40*. Deadly if you're not expecting it, but superman diving or standing beside it will keep you safe. Tail whips, once you've rolled out of range, are a good chance to attack. Be aware it'll sometimes do two in a row. When it steps forward with both arms and lowers its head, it's about to pull some lava up on you. Rolling back a couple of times gets you out of harms' way, and means you're in prime position to retaliate with some Pierce at its head. Naruga S gemmed for Pierce up or any Pierce set (like Uragaan S) gemmed for Evade Inc will do nicely here, and the Naruga or Barioth guns are both good options. Ukanlos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Ammunition: Fire and Thunder S Required Skills: Fire Element +, Evade Inc for HBG Recommended Skills: Damage skills, Shot Mix, EAU Difficulty to gun: Moderate Uka is an enormous ice version of Akantor, but while it may look similar, you should approach it quite differently. Fire S on the back legs will be your major source of damage, and it'll trip it over often giving you free hits. Thunder S on the back legs is your secondary shot, and Normal after that. Because you're going for the back legs, you'll want to be point blank most of the time, and you can actually stay under it reasonably safely as long as you can keep an eye out for body slams. Be very careful of its new 180* shovel chin attack though, it can get you if you're too far around to the side. Uka's dig attack is much easier to avoid now that it doesn't instantly re- surface. If you're attacking the legs and it goes under, sheathe and watch where the ice cloud is, and run perpendicular to it. Be careful when approaching it after surfacing through as it'll usually do the 180* shovel. If it rears up on two legs and it's not roaring (for which you should roll away) then it'll be doing an ice beam. If you're using LBG, sheathe, run away and superman dive if need be. HBG users or LBG users caught under it should try to roll under the tail. Because you'll be by its back legs, most of its other attacks will miss. Try And target the back right leg, so that when it tail whips you're not in range. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================================= Credits, Contact & Copyright Info ============================================================================= This guide may not be reproduced under any circumstances without permission, and without permission it should not be on any site except: *GameFAQs If you want to quote from this guide, just ask me. As long as you note the source I'm pretty happy to let people use it. It goes without saying that using this guide without my express permission is a violation of Copyright law, including but not limited to the Brussels Convention. I am happy to take questions by email, too. My email address is in the introduction section as well, but it's mazereon@gmail.com. Please check to make sure though that your question isn't already answered in the guide itself. Lastly, credit where it’s due. To my brothers Vash_TS and Knives; you guys have made me the hunter I am today. Mad love to you both. You, the reader, for bothering to get this far. All trademarks are © Capcom. All analysis © mazereon, 2010-11.