Gunlance guide for Monster Hunter Potable 3rd (JP) By Sephiroth1491 (a.k.a. Kon-sama1491) Version 1.25 Copyright 2011 Pablo Diaz Samaniego ===================================================================== Contents 1.- Introduction 2.- Abbreviations 3.- Changes from Monster hunter freedom unite/portable 2nd G 4.- The Basics 4.1.- Starting up 4.2.- Shelling 4.3.- Wyvern Fire 4.4.- Full Burst 4.5.- Charge Shells 5.- In depth info 5.1.- Combo'ing 5.2.- Combo with shelling 5.3.- Other Info 6.- Skills 7.- Calculating shell damage 8.- Monster Walkthrough Guild Card Monsters Page 1 [GCP1] 8.1.- Great Jaggi 8.2.- Great Baggi 8.3.- Great Froggi 8.4.- Qurupeco 8.5.- Red Qurupeco 8.6.- Bulldrome 8.7.- Aoashira 8.8.- Urukususu 8.9.- Rangurotora Guild Card Monsters Page 2 [GCP2] 8.10.- Barroth 8.11.- Ice Barroth 8.12.- Uragaan 8.13.- Steel Uragaan 8.14.- Doboruberuku 8.15.- Deviljho 8.16.- Royal Ludroth 8.17.- Purple Royal Ludroth 8.18.- Happurubokka 9.- Weapon recommendations 9.1 Starting weapons 10.- Autoguarding 11.- Contact and Credits ===================================================================== Changelog ===================================================================== 12/27/11 Version 0.5 First release of the guide 02/02/12 Version 1.0 -Added monsters in monster walkthrough -Fixed some data and errata 07/02/12 Version 1.20 -Added more monsters to Monster Walkthrough -Fixed errata and added more small info here and there 09/02/12 Version 1.25 -Added more monsters to Monster Walkthrough -Added some notes and missing info -Fixed some typo 01/05/12 Version 1.30 -Added notes and new info -Corrected some typo -Fixed some errata 24/06/12 Version 1.40 -Added small information -Corrected typos 01/11/12 Version 1.50 -Corrected a lot of grammar errors -Added new info on weapons list -Added new info on the current monster listed -Fixed some typos and erroneous info 08/11/12 Version 1.55 -Added more monsters to monster guide 27/12/12 Version 1.60 -Added new section "Starting weapons" -Added more info and fixed some errors on monsters walkthrough ===================================================================== 1.- Introduction ===================================================================== Welcome to this in-depth guide. This is my first guide ever done, I love the Monster Hunter saga so much, that i decided to share the in-depth knowledge i learned to new people but might also be useful for older ones that want to get more serious with gunlance. This one is a tricky weapon, but for me it's so fun to use, once you get the hang of it can work very good for solo and online modes. This guide will cover from the very basics of the weapon like how to use and get started, to advanced tactics, like learn which attack recovers faster, how much effective shells are, etc. I will also include some basics on how to defeat monsters easier with the gunalnce, like when to attack, positioning, etc. Sadly i can't make any videos, i'm sure this would help mostly with the specific monster walkthrough, there's some things that just can't be explained with words and would be better seen in play. But i still hope this information can be enough. I hope you find this useful, now to work. ===================================================================== 2.- Abbreviations ===================================================================== I will use many abbreviations to terms and skills in this guide. Terms: Gunlance----------------------------------(GL) Charged Shell-----------------------------(CS) Regular Shell-----------------------------(RS) Full Burst--------------------------------(FB) Wyvern Fire-------------------------------(WF) Charged Spread Shell----------------------(CSS) Any bombardment Level---------------------(LVL X) Normal type-------------------------------(NT) Long type---------------------------------(LT) Spread type-------------------------------(ST) Skills: Sharpness+1-------------------------------(S+1) Speed sharpening Increased----------------(SSi) Sharp Sword-------------------------------(SS) Gunnery Master----------------------------(GM) Gunnery King------------------------------(GK) Guard+1/+2--------------------------------(G+1/2) Evade+1/+2--------------------------------(Ev+1/2) Load Up-----------------------------------(LU) Attack up S/M/L---------------------------(AuS/M/L) Autoguard with Gunlance-------------------(AGGL) ===================================================================== 3.- Changes from Monster hunter freedom unite/portable 2nd G ===================================================================== If some of you tried out Gunlance in the past games, they got a big change all-round this time. The most notorious one is that now instead of 3 simple stabs, the last attack will be a slam attack, stronger but slower and has a bigger 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, at end-game the weapon doesn't fall behind in tier, in fact is one of the stronger weapons in the game, never as strong as a hammer (of course may vary from monster to monster and player to player) but way better than almost every other weapon. But in the end,it's the player that makes the weapon, not otherwise. (Even if some weapons are easier to pick up >_>) In 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. Very useful to go from defense to offensive. ===================================================================== 4.- The Basics ===================================================================== This info is pretty basic, it's made to mostly help newcomers, some of this info could be obvious for advanced players, but i guess it never hurts to give it a check just in case. ------------------- 4.1.- Starting up ------------------- So let's start by a picking any GL, you start with a one weapon of each type, 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. -Low Stab: Just press triangle, it can be chained twice. -Slam: Third attack after chaining 2 low stabs (Triangle), or by pressing triangle after a fast reload. -Shell: Press circle. -Upstab: Press Triangle+Circle. -Forward stab: Press triangle while moving the analog. It's 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 shell. -Back/Side hop: Press Cross, 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. -Charge shell: Hold R button as you press circle 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 circle 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. -Guard: Press R button. -Guard Stab: While guarding press triangle. -Unsheath Guard: Press R+circle+triangle at same time with the weapon sheathed. -Reload Shells: Guard and press circle, or do a hop and press circle. -Fast Reload: After firing a shell, press circle 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 triangle+circle. -Full burst: After a slam attack, press circle and you will unload all shells currently loaded at the same time. ------------------- 4.2.- 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. Also, 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 4, though the 4th level is only restricted to 3 end-game gunlances, so don't expect to have them any time soon, and even then they aren't the best at all. 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 without so many reloads but they do the lowest damage. -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. -SPECIAL EFFECT.- Its Wyvern fire is stronger among all types. Using Gunnery king with this type might be very useful for this. ---------------- | Spread (ST) | ---------------- Only carries 2 shells, though they do superb damage. Its FB is terribly weak, so you shouldn't by any mean use FB with this shell type. -SPECIAL EFFECT.- Its charged shells get a 45% boost. You can spot which type is your GL by checking the upper right corner of the weapon details. ------------------------ 4.3.- 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 a lot of 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. 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. -------------------- 4.4.- 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 unlike NT GL's, Spread Type shells have the lowest damage with FB, shell number-wise and also get a modifier penalty. -------------------- 4.5.- 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, like happurubokka. 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. ===================================================================== 5.- 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. ---------------------- 5.1.- Combo'ing ---------------------- 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. These are some basic rules to keep in mind when combo'ing: -The attacks damage output are represented here: Slam 40% Forward stab 32% Upstab 28% Low stab 24% Guard stab 18% So you should try to do the Guard Stab as less as possible, though there's some exceptions like deviljho, ni which it can be useful to hit its stomach. -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. Though still it wouldn't be the best idea to go all out on this, if you checked the damage values above you'd notice it could be a better idea to use the upstab and slam as most as you can, so for example doing an upstab>guard stab>upstab can do more damage than 2 low stabs and shell. --------------------------- 5.2.- 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 any amatsu part, if you know the correct position you could even hit a doboru hump from below with them. -If you fire a shell after an upstab or guard stab, you can follow up with a forward stab, hadny 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. ------------------------- 5.3.- 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. -Another good thing to know would be that the skills "Gunnery master" and "Gunnery king" (GM,GK) 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 GK also decreases the cool down time of it from 2 min. to 1:30 min. So if your thing is using WF like, and especially when using a LT GL, GK 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. ==================================================================== 6.- 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 blue to white or if it gets more sharpness than it could get "doubled" with sharp sword. Otherwise pass it up. Attack up S/M/L: Increase the attack by 10, 15 and 20 respectively, AuL works roughly equally as good as s+1, a basic offensive skill. And best option if S+1 is useless on the weapon you're using, like having a weapon with already white sharpness, though having both AuL and S+1 is always good on weapons that don't. Exploiter: Gives an instant +50% affinity when you're hitting the weak point of monsters, it's one of the best skills to use in the game. Though it's not recommended if the weakpoint is hard to reach, like doboruberuku's humps or rathian and rathalos subspecies backs, or hapurubokka's mouth and gills. Speed sharpen: Gunlance lose sharpness really quick thanks to shells and the usual attacking, so this skill helps maintain a good sharpness. Sharp sword: Same as speed sharpening, though this one also might help you save whetstones, and keep very small sharpness levels for more time, like uka/aka weapons. Downside of this is it conflicts with sharpness+1, so if you want SH+1 and this you need a VERY good charm. 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 easier. Jinouga is a good example of this, since it has faster recovery after attacks that you can't win with just G+1/2. Gunnery master/king: 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. Destruction king: In case you need to brake a monster part faster this is for you, works like charm comboed with shell, if not try asking uragaan chin. Guard Inc.: This IMO, isn't very useful, but if you're new to GL or got the lazy guard+1/2 curse it might work for you, it let's you guard the otherwise unblockable attacks, like gigginox poison fart or agnaktor beam. Even amatsu ohko tornado can be guarded with this. ==================================================================== 7.- Calculating shell damage ==================================================================== Shell and wyvern fire damage can be easily calculated, thanks to the fixed damage they have. Thanks to Holywoodchuck's guide for the formula i could get the numbers, then with some research with HP show hacks i could rectify if numbers were correct. These are the shells values: Type / Level Neutral Fire Normal 1 10 4 Normal 2 14 5 Normal 3 18 6 Normal 4 21 7 Long 1 15 9 Long 2 21 11 Long 3 28 14 Long 4 32 16 Spread 1 20 6 Spread 2 30 8 Spread 3 40 10 Spread 4 44 11 Wyvern Fire Level Neutral Fire 1 30X4 10X4 2 35X4 11X4 3 40X4 12X4 4 45X4 13X4 And here's the formula: [(NEUTRALxNSKILLxNSPECIAL)+(ELEMENTxEHITZONExNESKILLxESPECIAL)] x(GSHARP) x(DEFENSExRAGExSTATUS) = total damage The formula tells us to take the neutral damage, multiply it for skill modifier and the charge modifier. I.E.: Lets say i have a Spread lvl3 GL with Gunnery king and i shoot a charge spread. 40 X 1.2 (GK) X 1.45 (Charge) = 69.6 Then we calculate elemental damage, in most cases this is useless since not all monsters are weak to fire, but lets say we're fighting a gigginox. The formula tells us we take element damage, multiply for the monster hitzone (in this case where it hits matters), multiply element modifiers, that most of the time isn't needed, and another multiplier that isn't used. 10 X 0.3 (Giggi head) X 1 X 1 (When a value isn't altered is 1) = 3 damage ___________ Then we add them: 69.6+3= |72.6 damage| ----------- Then multiply that for the defense of the monster, that is changed from quest level. And the status of the monster, like being paralyzed or asleep. So, if its a village gigginox you would be damaging 72 But if it was a high rank one with a defense modifier of .75, it would be doing 54 72.6 X 0.75 = 54.45 For calculating wyvern fire you could just sum the hits, like a level 3 WF would hit 40*4, then you just place 160 damage on the Neutral value in the formula. If you are hitting a sleeping monster Then multiply it X6, as instead of hitting 160 you would be hitting 240 neutral. ==================================================================== 8.- Monster Walkthrough ==================================================================== Now this section will cover info on how to fight a certain monster, I will list them in order of the guild card, so some monsters might appear before some other in the game, but in the guild card they appear before, like great jaggi and great baggi. ======================================== Guild Card Monsters Page 1 [GCP1] ======================================== ------------------ 8.1.- Great Jaggi ------------------ Weakness: Fire This monster is pretty simple, the weak point is the head, but the body takes a fairly good amount of damage, so it doesn't really matter if you aren't hitting the head all the time. WHile gunlancing him you should be always one step before him, since he's really fast and you are slower than normal he can corner you fast or build damage with small attacks, so your positioning comes into play, try to stay to his left, that way if he tries to do his tail whip you have a faster gap to evade it. He will usually do some back jump to reposition himself, and most of the times do his hipcheck, it can be easily guarded or if you have a good position evaded with a hop or a forward stab. He will fall really quickly, but can really help you on hone your reflex skills, since is one of the faster monsters in the game. ------------------ 8.2.- Great Baggi ------------------ Weakness: Fire Rage Modifier: 1.00 Unlike Jaggi, this S.O.B. will never stop attacking, he's totally reckless when attacking and can move faster than great jaggi. To fight him follow the same rules as with great jaggi tho with more care, since it never stops attacking. Also the body takes considerably lower damage, so your best bet is to attack the head. A good thing about gunlancing him is with shells you could be doing good damage to the body, and since is weak to fire they do a bit more damage He can do 1 tail whip and stop at difference of most monsters that always do 2 tail whips. If he start with a hipcheck be careful, he may start using his hipcheck, he usually does 3 of them, but at times he suddenly only uses it until you stagger him or around 5-6 attacks. Is powerful and build KO damage on you, since you're gunlancing him it can be easy to guard, but he may deplete your stamina really fast. Also when he starts walking backwards, he is positioning to use his sleeping spit, it can be easily guarded, even without guard inc. Also try to take out the small baggis, they are really annoying and if you stand still, that with gunlance is usual, they will start to throw you sleep spits too. ------------------- 8.3.- Great Froggi ------------------- Weakness: Ice Great Froggi is another version of the jaggi, he's easier than baggi, but can hurt you bad if you let his poison hit you. Apply the same rules as great jaggi, take note of your position, mostly try to stay to his left so his tail whip is easy to evade. This one has a stronger body, so attacking the head would be best recommended. He can go cheap mode and start hipchecking you nonstop, the only way to stop this is staggering him or until he stops. When he starts walking backwards he's positioning to spit his poison cloud, is really easy to avoid it, if you go towards him you could be even attacking from the front without getting hit by it. Though be careful, if you break his sac, he will no longer throw a a poison cloud but throw a spit, that if you're right next to the head will hit you. Small froggis aren't as annoying as small baggis, but they can hipcheck you and can poison you, so try to take them out as fast as you can. --------------- 8.4.- Qurupeco --------------- Weakness: Ice Now this is where it gets serious, he can act faster than you can react, most of his attacks can be easily evaded or guarded though. A key point of fighting him is your positioning. He's weak to ice and With gunlance you have the advantage of hitting the head easy with an upstab, but it's very dangerous to stay directly in front of him, he usually does a charge or 4 peck attack if you stay in front. So the best way is to stay to a side, most of his attacks can be predicted and avoided with just walking. Never stay close to him from his left, his tail whip will hit you and has a tricky hitbox so you could end up hit from the right side. Try to keep above yellow sharpness, otherwise you will bounce in the wings, also the wings can be easily broken with shells. A general rule about peco is to bring dung bombs and sonic bombs, If he tries to do a song, use the sonics and he will stagger. If you can't stop the monster call, the dung bombs can be useful to drive him out, though i would say it's a better option if you dung the peco, he's more likely to flee, because the monster he called won't flee that easy. Never stay at 1-2 rolls of distance for too much, he will do a backwards fly with a burst that can deal serious damage, also this attack can do damage even if you guard it, the best option is to do a long hop. When you see him hitting his flintstones, depending of the number hits he will do 2 or 3 homing flame attacks, 2-3 slams for 2 attacks that will then follow with a taunt or fly back, or do 3-5 slams for a 3 attack combo that will always end in a taunt. It may be apparently homing but you can evade it with just walking to a side, just don't stop rounding him or doing forward stabs and it won't hit you without any trouble at all. You can do this even with the GL unsheathed. To prevent the air pushing you, do an upstab, charge a shell or do a forward stab. ------------------- 8.5.- Red Qurupeco ------------------- Weakness: Ice Basically the same info and tactics from regular peco works with this one. The changes between them is this one does thunder damage with their silex. His tail whip has a longer reach and does air pushing. He can do a KO'ing flash, you can easily spot it because he will stand still and start slamming their wings 3 times, the flash can be guarded and evaded, but evading it is tricky, so i'd suggest to guard it first. If you brake his beak, he will take 5 silex slams to do the flash. ---------------- 8.6.- Bulldrome ---------------- Weakness: Thunder (to a smaller extent fire) A pretty simple monster, he can only charge forward, so stay to a side or behind him and you'll be fine. Don't stay next to him too much or he'll start attacking with the tusks. The head is the weak point and can be fairly easy to stagger. In high rank he has a new attack where he starts charging in an 8 form,but he can move towards you if he "centers" you. With gunlance this can be easily guarded, just never lose him of sight or he may end up hitting you from behind. --------------- 8.7.- Aoashira --------------- Weakness: Fire This one may be tricky, You have to attack his lower back, but he will try to stay facing you, with gunlance thanks to the reach it has, and depending on the shira size, you could even hit his back from the front. All his attacks can be guarded or evaded with GL, his favorite attack is the turning claw, but don't let it fool you, it has a longer reach than his short arm appear to have, this is really easy to evade through. So if you have a good position, that is behind him, but not directly and depending of shira's size, it's a better option to just evade it with a hop. If you stay around 5 rolls of distance, he will do a jump attack, the high rank version has a homing type. Also an important thing about GL'ing him is some movements will keep tripping you, mostly his small headbutt so maintain a good position, or do an attack to bypass the trpping, thou you'll get a bit of damage, like a forward stab or a charge shell. At first if you have yellow sharpness, you will bounce on his front arms, but you can break them with shells and WF. ---------------- 8.8.- Urukususu ---------------- Weakness: Fire This monster could fit as a color variation of the aoashira. He shares many attacks of him, and the same weak point. Though he is a bit faster, and can slide in the ice to reposition behind you, these slides won't damage you much, but can trip you. You can also hit the head if he lowers it and break the ears. All his own attacks can be guarded or evaded easily, so there's not a big advice to give. A basic monster to learn to fight with GL And since he's weaker to fire he takes more damage with shells. ------------------ 8.9.- Rangurotora ------------------ Weakness: Water Now this is the third "variation" of the shira breed, this one is more different than the other 2. This one can make themselves a ball, and ususally roll over you, and here is where gunlance shines (lol), since ranguro is a huge weakpoint when is in ball form, and you can either stab him, if you're sure you got the timing right, or shell him, that is a better option, and stagger him easy. Like the other 2 "shira breed" this one can be easily guarded or evaded. Though he has a paralyze spit, that has an incredible homing capability, and the farther you're of him the better aim he has. But luckily this can be guarded with no problem with gunlance. His weak point is the upper back and face, so it's a bit more tricky to hit, but you can shell him in the lower part of the body for good damage. Also if you hit the lower part of his carapace, from behind you will trip him and make him fall upside down, giving you time to attack the head and end with a WF. And since you're carrying a shield you can guard his fart cloud and keep attacking him as he finishes the animation. In case you don't have guard inc., it wouldn't hurt to bring some deodorants just in case. ===================================== Guild Card Monsters Page 2 [GCP2] ===================================== --------------- 8.10.- Barroth --------------- Weakness: When covered in mud water, without being covered fire This one may be tricky to gunlance at first, it moves to much, has a strong head where you bounce, and his headram has a wtf hitbox. If you're starting to gunlance, this is seriously one of the first monsters i recommend you to have guard+1/2, since most of his attacks have a stronger pushback. The trick is to try to hit their arms as much as possible, you could try to cut the tail too, and it takes somewhat decent damage. Barroth can only be tripped when he is NOT enraged, otherwise if you do a stagger hit to a leg, he will just stagger. Keep this in mind if you plan to take advantage tripping him since he have somewhat weak legs. Also you can keep making pressure with a random shell here and there, i'd recommend you to take the mud off his head with them, that way when he tries to do a head bash he won't splash mud. And since he is weak to fire without mud, you do a bit more damage with shells. The head ram is very hard to evade when it's already going towars you so if you're not very well positioned just guard it, and the high rank version has one with more homing and faster capability, though is easy to differentiate between them, since in the latter barroth stays with the head in the ground for what looks like a micro freeze. But both are easy to predict, since he always walk backwards to position himself, like the jaggis, before he does a head ram. ------------------- 8.11.- Ice Barroth ------------------- Weakness: Fire when is covered in snow, thunder when isn't. This is a stronger version(?) of him, he ususally is bigger, and aside from the size has a bigger head than the regular one. He shares most attacks with the regular version, but has some tricks, for example he can do one tail whip and stop, and he can do the head ram in a cursive "L" way, so if he does this, guard behind you or move fast from there. He can also throw snowballs that require a good position to be safe, the 2 of the sides are thrown in diagonal to where he shot them, so as long you aren't directly in front of him is easy to stay safe. If not just guard them. When he's enraged he will usually do two consecutive head bashes, which can be bad if it hits you and make you a snowball. Most of the info for regular barroth works for this one, so there isn't much to add. Just be careful of his rare hipcheck, if you're attacking him from between his legs, he will usually do it to, get distance from you, usually followed by a head ram. ---------------- 8.12.- Uragaan ---------------- Weakness: Water and dragon. This is one of the most annoying monster to fight, even if it looks big and all, it's really fast, and if you're gunlancing he can corner you or deplete your stamina fast. If you're learning to fight him with GL, i'd suggest you to have guard+1/2 sincemost of his attacks have a lot of pushback and chip damage. Try to stay close to his legs and hit his stomach all you can, unlike barroth, this one can be tripped down no matter the situation, but his legs are stronger, so it's not very recommended to target the legs that much. An advantage GL has against him and if you're using guard+2 is that you can stay in front of him most of the time and shell his chin, that is if you can't have white sharpness so you won't bounce with it if you stab the head or don't have ESP. Ice agna GL works great for this monster thanks to his water weakness. Another advantage of having guard+ skills is most of his attacks are continous or long lasting, and if you guard them you have a lot of free time to attack while he finishes the attack animation. You can try to cut the tail, and since GL has a good upper reach is easy to attack it, just remember you have to break it first before you cut it. Most of his attacks can be evaded through, but require a tricky positioning, also his rolling attack is quite strong, but is easy to predict, like most bipedal wyverns (brute wyverns) the walk bakwards to position themselves and use his attack. Also take i count that all of his chin slam attacks have a hitbox that also covers his arms section, so to be safe below him, you'd have to place yourself between the legs. His rolling attack may be unpredictable once it starts, but the easiest way to avoid it is to go directly at him but to a side, he won't roll that close to where ti started and if it happens to do an U-turn it never goes back to where it started. --------------------- 8.13.- Steel Uragaan --------------------- Weakness: Water and dragon He shares most of the attacks and moves from the regular version, though there's some differences. His thrown stones release a stink gas every now and then, so avoid being close to them. Instead of having a sleep fart, he has a stink one, you can guard it, but unless you have guard inc the effect will still affect you, so i'd suggest to bring deodorants. If you're around 7-8 rolls of distance, he will do the 180 tail whip that throws the stones most of the time, but this ura can throw them in certain positions so they can hit you and even burst them instantly with a chin slam. Also be careful about the stones since even uragaan walking near them will burst them. Though a good point is both uragaans get hurt by the explosions of their own stones, somethig to keep in mind. The rest is pretty much the same style as with the regular one. --------------------- 8.14.- Doboruberuku --------------------- Weaknesses: Fire. Takes less damage when enraged Doboru has a mixed opinion, some people think is a giant punchbag, while others find it super hard. The monster can be a bit annoying to get used, especially while using a slow weapon like GL and you're not using Guard+ skills, but once you get the hang of it is easy. First, unless you need to brake his horns, it's always better to go for his legs. But, if by this time you have a good notion of when you'll stagger it, it's better to leave the legs for when he starts spinning. Most of his attacks can be evaded just by staying not directly in front of him. like his head ram, if you can predict it well, since he always leans back fast to do it you need to move to a side, not backwards. the tail slams can be annoying, if you're behind him, always stay directly behind him, since hi has sideways tail slams, and of you can't stay below it don't hesitate to go farther than his tail reach. He will usually try to walk forward and position to slam you, but you can avoid this just by going away from him rather than follow. Next, regarding his spinning attack, it's the only way to trip him. You need to stagger the legs so he lose balance and falls on his side, giving you chance to attack the humps. That's why you need to have a notion of when to attack and stop attacking the legs before he starts to spin. -To keep hitting the legs easier when he starts spinning, since you're gunlancing you can just guard the first 3 slow spins, or take a safe distance for the FIRST 2 spins and right after that one run towards it, since the tail will take impulse and stay in mid-air, you can get below him before he spins to fast. Now, if you couldn't trip it, there's a safe way to predict how he'll fall, right before he jumps, the way you're when he jumps will be the place where his head will be facing, same for the other attacks where he jumps to body slam. This is VERY useful if you want to break the tail, or attack the humps, since the GL has a big reach you can place exactly behind him, between the leg and where the tail starts, and you can do guard stabs to hit the humps. Also, when he's standing, and you're right below him, close to his arms, if you aim your GL upwards with long type you can shell the humps. You can use traps on him to drastically lower the time of hunt, with one pitfall could be more than enough to attack the humps and if you're fast enough even brake them. --------------------- 8.15.- Deviljho --------------------- Weaknesses: Dragon and Thunder The giant pickle can ne a pain for most players, but if you examine it, you're basically fighting a giant great Jaggi. He shares most of his moveset and behavior. Though, of course he also has his own ways to kill you. The first thing is, when he is NOT enraged his head is the weakest point, with a GL should be no big deal. Tho it can be bad to stay in front of him too much. Never stay to his right, or he will do the stomp that is VERY strong. His tail whip is esactly like jaggi's, so you can evade it or guard. If you see him walk backwards walk away from him, he will do that spin attack that even if you guard with G+2 you will get hurt. If he starts to do the advancing bites attack, time it well and roll below him or towards the leg he just finished moving, if you do it it should never hit you. The next thing is, when he's enraged his weak point is the STOMACH. So don't even bother with the head while he's in rage, using upstabs would be the best, but for the position of the weakpoint you would usually end up hitting the arms so this is one of the very small cases where guard stab can be the best bet. While he's enraged he can do the sweeping dragon breath attack. This can be easlily avoided or if you're not confident on evading it you can guard without trouble. IMO when he's fatigued is more annoying, since all his bite attacks will lower your defense, and attacks more erratically. This is just me, but you can feed him tainted meats and such, or try and attack the head while in this state, which is annoying, since most of what he wil do be: Walk towards you and stop above you, then do a turning bite attack. Just attack the head, and stomach when in rage and shouldn't take too long. ------------------------ 8.16.- Royal Ludroth ------------------------ Weaknesses: Fire This is just a punchbag, IMO easier than even the dog-lizards. What you need to do as gunlancer is attack the chest, that's right. Just between the arms and where the sponge neck starts. It should be no trouble, and you can also do decent damage on the head and sponge, so it's no big deal if you fail to hit the weakpont. Just stay at one roll of distance from him when you're not attacking If you're closer he will do the claw swipe, that can be guarded or evaded. Try to stay on his left, if you go right he will usually do that body roll attack, which you can evade by walking to his left. If he starts to shoot the water balls, if it's one just keep attacking, if he does the triple shot, get away from him since he will always start that mindless stomping attack, similar to Gypceros in FU. The tail takes decent damage, so if you're planning to cut it, you're still doing decent damage for kill. ----------------------------- 8.17.- Purple Royal Ludroth ----------------------------- Weaknesses: Fire Nothing to say here, it's the exact same tactics used on normal luddy. Only difference is he can poison you with the water attacks. ------------------------ 8.18.- Happurubokka ------------------------ Weaknesses: Ice Happu is one of those annoying monsters that moves to much and hides all his weakpoints. Good thing is you're gunlancing and you don't care about them. Assuming you're using the best ice gunlance which is also a ST. what you only need to do is attack everywhere with charged shells. Sounds kinda stupid, but just doing that might guarantee a faster time than most weapons against him. Use the bombs and sonic tactics, place a bomb, when he burrows, sonic above the bomb, he eats it, explodes, you fish. WHen it's fished, you attack the stomach, being careful to not hit the arms, you have enough time to do 2 combos of 2 stabs and slam, ending with a WF on the last one. IF he gets enraged you could go and attack the nose with stabs. If you stagger him you pull him out of sand. ==================================================================== 9.- Weapon recommendations ==================================================================== For the moment i will only list the best startnig paths and the best end game ones, since those are the hardest to take note. ----------------------- 9.1 Starting weapons ----------------------- Since your basic starting weapons suck, the best thing to do is to sell the Old yukumo Gunlance and buy a Yukumo gunlance from store. I suggest you to get at least 3 of those in the near future, since two will go to bone GL that in one point will divide to agnaktor and urukususu GL, and one to yukumo GL+ that will go to naruga GL. At village and low rank your best bets are Urukususu GL and Naruga. Since uruku has high raw and decent sharpness and ice damage, it's also the first spread type shell GL available, it's also especially useful for taking out the first jhen moran. Then Naruga is better for any monster not weak to ice, despite having lower Raw, at that point the sharpness and higher affinity can do wonders on low rank missions. So for short just for low rank you would go: Yukumo Gunlance--> Yukumo Gunlance+-->Hidden Gunlance (140, blue) Yukumo Gunlance--> Bone Gunlance--> Great Bone Gunlance--> Urukusu Ski--> Urukusu Ski+ (150, 32 ice, green) Yukumo Gunlance--> Bone Gunlance--> Great Bone Gunlance--> Wyvern Bone Gunlance (140, green)--> Flamethrower (150, 28 fire) This one for future hi rank use (Gun Chariot) Yukumo Gunlance--> Special Ops Gunlance--> Imperial Gunlance--> Red Rook (160, 25 fire, best fire GL at low rank) End game GL's: Raw weapons: Ancient exterminator: is the most balanced one, it has a sort of small sharpness but it has good raw and Spread type lvl3 shells. Also it has 2 slots. Perfect to start your collection of GL's. Also easy to get. Ukanlos Hail : has very high raw, but bad sharpness and a -20% affinity, but when used with a correct armor set it can become one of the best raw weapons. It also has long type lvl4 shells, having the strongest WF in the game. Fire: Agna Magma: is the best option, it has very few blue or white sharpness, but with s+1, even at blue still does really good damage. It has lvl3 long shots so it has a good WF. Water: Agna Aqua: like the one above, has very little sharpness but thanks to its high element ends up the best in its element. Thunder: Flaming Thunder: has a lot of raw damage, good thunder, has 1 slot, and with s+1 it gets really high white sharpness. Its only con is it has normal type shells, not something it would suffer much though. Gold Crown+: has a lot lower raw, but higher thunder, it also packs lvl3 spread making it great, and with s+1 it has a really long chunk of white sharpness, perfect for monsters with strong raw defense, like the metallic wyverns. Ice: Urukusu Sleigh: it has good raw, element and spread lvl3 so its quite the the best in its element, unless you count uka as an ice weapon too. Dragon: Obelisk: has long sharpness, good raw, element and spread lvl3 shots, the bad is it has -5% affinity and no slots. Gun Chariot: is equally good in dragon element terms, it has same raw as Obelisk (215), a bit higher element, but smaller sharpness, and lvl3 long shots, and 2 slots. They are pretty much interchangeable. Status: Poison: Radiant Ishtar: is the best poison GL, its so good in raw and status inflicting it could also work as a raw weapon, has good sharpness, and one slot, the only down is it has lvl3 normal shells. Paralysis: Fortune babushka could fit as a joke weapon, its terrible all round but is surprisingly effective in multiplayer for paralyzing, so this one is best recommended for online play. ===================================================================== 10.- Autoguarding ===================================================================== What can i say about it? It's a bug in the game where you equip the autoguard charm, and when you fire a shell or fast reload as a monster attacks you it guards instantaneously, cancelling the animation, but still getting the effect of it done, i.e. it cancels fast reload but still reloads the shell. A really cheap "feature" of the gunlance, if you plan to use it is at your own good, because while using it you're not improving in any way, in fact it may make you lazy to react to attacks. And some people look down at people who use it, so again use it at your own risk. For best results get a Spread type GL, gunnery king and guard+2. ------------------------- 11.- Contact and Credits ------------------------- If you want to contact me , notify any errors, if you find some- thing is missing and such, 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, though i supported from information provided by Holywoodchuck's Damage FAQ, and VioletKIRA's monster data guide, one of the best sources i used. Also i'd like to thank Nosukekuroki and his awesome math skills that got me into damage calcs, and mazereon that gave me a hand too on it at start. And special thanks to people that helped me in related information direct and indirectly for GL information and genral infomration on P3rd since i never played MH3 and didn't know most stuff: Literboy Tw1g_007 Rasengan_X Royerskull And Of course a big thanks to Capcom for making this great game i spend weeks playing (hours and days are just too small to count). This guide is only permitted to be used at this point on: GameFAQs Copyright 2011-2012 Pablo Diaz Samaniego