u/AccelRiderX

I've returned to Freedom Unite after a break, had previously finished all village low rank quests. I'm waiting for my friend to free up his backlog so we can do hub together, so in the meantime I attempted to advance Nekhot's quests and ran into a problem. For context, I'm an HBG main. I've found it hard to upgrade my gear to high rank because most sets unlocked through village quests require materials from monsters that don't have 7-star village quests and therefore are very awkward or impossible to farm without going into hub, and all HBGs available at this stage appear to be worse than the elder dragon HBGs I already have. Most I've managed is making most of Hermitaur S for Reload Speed, but defense-wise it doesn't seem much better.

To be more specific, I'm currently using Lunastra's Cannon (low rank Kirin or Cenataur sets), Daora's Delphinidae (Hermitaur S set) and Lao Shan Lung Cannon (low rank Death Stench set).

I've barely managed to get past double Monoblos urgent and unlock 8-star quests, but seeing as Hermitaur S barely gives me any defense over Kirin or Death Stench and I can't really make better guns than Lao Shan Lung Cannon at the moment, I feel extremely undergeared to proceed any further. Should I attempt farming new gear in village anyway or wait for my friend to come back to the game so we can unlock hub content and expand available gear line-up? (Soloing hub is out of question because we would fall out of sync and I am genuinely not built for soloing hub content in MH games.)

Has anyone actually found any viable use for Chaos Wing/Albadash/Altheos Aetheria in this game? Seeing as Limiter Removal doesn't affect elemental ammo, elemental ammo on HBG is at best barely enough to get a monster capture-ready in Caravan quests (in my limited testing) and its only good raw without using Pierce S+ is Pierce 2 that needs a level of Recoil Down, has anyone actually found a way to make anything useful with it? Main reason I'm asking is I'm just really confused it's the only Alatreon weapon included in a game it doesn't really seem to fit in (especially with G-rank gunner Escadora no longer having Elemental skill). Doesn't seem to be worth all the effort of farming Dalamadur for it.

And no, it's not an Insect Glaive

Recent posts calling out use of Raging Brachy weapons for Alatreon got me thinking if I could do it with one for a meme anyway. Funny enough, Lightbreak Gun is actually fairly decent for Flaming Ammo and has higher raw than the heavy bowguns I would usually use for anti-Alatreon builds, so despire lacking rapid-fire I figured it could deal with Escaton on ice active start provided I fully augmented it for element. That said, the only raw damage option I could use between topples is... auto-reload Pierce 1. So while I got a no-cart 23 min clear, let's say the process was extremely awkward and I'm never doing this again.

Sadly, Lightbreak Cannon does not include any elements, so R. Brachy HBG is still off limits.

https://preview.redd.it/k5oc9tg1ijjh1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=65add8619594a42cb1ed56f36699bf2336a74585

A little fun build I wanted to share since I have a bit of a beef with Lunastra. Based on old Angbata11's videos showcasing Albadash. Takes advantage of built-in Ice Attack 6 on Rimeguard Gamma parts and combination of Critial Element and Dragonvein Awakening. Albadash is augmented for Affinity I and Element II, reaching 70% unconditional affinity and additional 30% when Maximum Might is active. Due to high raw on Albadash, this build reaches the rough damage output of Kjarr HBGs (around 100 per tick on good elemental hitzone, give or take) while also having the comfort of not needing to constantly tenderize (elemental ammo doesn't really benefit from it without Weakness Exploit) and worrying about critical distance (as elemental ammo deals the same damage at any range as long as it connects).

The build is meant primarily for monsters with high ice weakness, with some burst dragon damage for good measure. Windproof can be taken out to add another element for different matchups (due to the bowgun not being fully augmented for element and only 3 pieces of Safi being used, elemental damage will cap out at [Element] Attack 4, so no need to take it all the way to level 6). Elderseal Boost and Heat Guard are personal comfort skills since I couldn't think of what else to add in the few remaining slots and I like to see Luna tweak out when that Elderseal hits. I've considered Item Prolonger for item buffs and Weakness Exploit to compensate for Maximum Might downtime. Mantles are also optional and can be swapped out according to preferense, though boost from Dragonproof Mantle helps a lot with burst dragon damage.

Heavy Bowgun (Dual Element, Pierce 3)

Light Bowgun (Dual Element, Pierce 2, Spare Shot)

Light Bowgun (Ice, Pierce 2, Critical Element)

I've spent a couple months working out bowgun matchups for Iceborne Alatreon, as elemental ammo notoriously struggles with passing elemental DPS check, Frostfang Barioth bowguns don't offer the same easy alternative his other weapons provide and the info on how to deal with it is pretty scarse since most people opt to just eat carts for restocking. I've made some posts on this build in World subreddit before, but figured I want to compile my findings here as well.

All builds presented will require full Safi'jiiva armor to deal with low elemental damage cap of elemental ammo and will also require at least 3 (preferably 4) elemental augments to make sure your ammo supply can reliably last for 3 Escatons per element. The aim is to make sure you aren't actively required to cart to restock elemental ammo for the next cycle, the strategy is to get one topple per cycle and immediately go to town with pierce ammo until next Escaton. Glider Mantle uptime will be more than enough to last you until the next cycle for that extra damage from Piercing Shots. All these builds were tested only in singleplayer, but so long as your teammates bring their share of elemental damage, these should hold up to multiplayer scaling. Light bowgun ones may be able to carry a duo, but be wary of taking these to SOS calls as they're so only tested and optimized for your share of damage.

Heavy Bowgun dual-element setup: Legiana's Franz Glacia can achieve low recoil and fast reload on both Pierce 3 and Freezing Ammo with decent clip sizes, allowing to quickly get the topple and switch to raw DPS. It can also fire Flaming Ammo at normal reload and average recoil, which, while riskier, is good enough to get the topple in the event you miss the horn break, start on Ice Active or want to suppress 4th Escaton after you run out of horns. Since heavy bowgun relies on long distance rolls for evasion and Alatreon can easily gain distance, Ballistics has a lower priority here. Wyvernheart can help break horns with good aiming and timing, so if you're confident, you can remove decorations for the unneeded element and further optimize the build.

Light Bowgun dual-element Spare Shot setup: do not be alarmed by thunder-water Soulfire Rasp Styx choice. While fire and ice are preferred options for elemental DPS check, Safi'jiiva armor is such a huge jump in elemental light bowgun damage that Water and Thunder Ammo are good enough to pass the check with ammo to spare. There are 3 reasons I settled on this over Soulfire Rasp Blaze: low recoil Pierce 2 with the clip of 4 allows for greater raw DPS than you'd achieve with Blaze, built-in Spare Shot allows you to extend your ammo capacity without taking up a charm slot and 2 3-level slots allow you to fit Piercing Shots directly into your build and free up a tool slot (I went with Evasion Mantle because light bowgun makes it easy to use on demand and the 20% damage boosts affects both raw and element). Since this build is primarily built around switching elements, I chose to pass on Clutch Claw Boost, but if you're good enough with using Wyvernblast for horn breaks, you can once again omit some elemental decorations for build optimization.

Light Bowgun Critical Element setup: Kjarr Blitz Thunder is probably the only Kjarr light bowgun you will ever need for Alatreon. Massive clip of Freezing Ammo at low recoil and normal reload combined with True Dragonvein Awakening and Critical Element will easily get the topple despite the lack of rapid-fire. In terms of raw options it's essntially the equivalent of Soulfire Rasp Styx, except now the affinity takes higher priority in the build. Despite lack of thunder decorations, Thunder Ammo will still be able to get the topple due to Critical Element and additional element from custom mods, in the event you end up missing a horn break. Due to that, the build leaves just enough space to fit in Clutch Claw Boost and Critical Eye. Added affinity from custom mods, Critical Eye 7 and True Dragonvein Awakening add up to exactly 100% affinity at all times.

Note about Kjarr HBGs: I was not able to get Kjarr Assault Ice, so I could not test it, but looking at its ammo sheet, you wouldn't be able to get good recoil/reload settings on Pierce 2 and Freezing Ammo at the same time without sacrificing Power Barrel as it's primarily a Spread 2 bowgun, which is a poor choice for Alatreon. Kjarr Assault Rage was successfully tested in duo runs, but it can only adequately be setup for normal reload and average recoil for both Pierce 2 and Flaming Ammo, which not only leaves you open more often in solo runs, but results in less total DPS than Franz Glacia setup would due to the latter having access to low recoil Pierce 3.

Would appreciate the feedback and suggestions for improvements or other bowgun builds you have managed to work out, if any.

https://preview.redd.it/sw69zb0i7dbh1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=53a4483b97dedbb2c54d972f053519f2fc74a853

Was experimenting with bowgun matchups for Alatreon and trying to see if there's any options I was overlooking, want to share some of my findings. Normally for light bowguns Lunastra's Soulfire Rasp Blaze is recommended since it can rapid-fire fire and ice, making it relatively easy to pass the elemental DPS check, but I kept running into a problem of not being able to use anything other than fire and ice with occasional Wyvernblast since ammo clip sizes and recoil/reload settings for pierce ammo left a lot to be desired.

After trying a dual element setup with Kjarr Blitz Thunder I realized that with full Safi armor water and thunder LBG could also be capable of passing the DPS check (Blitz Thunder can do it with no thunder decos due to Critical Element, but craftable guns would need build adjusments). Big advantage of Soulfire Rasp Styx over Blaze is that it comes with built-in Spare Shot, which means you no longer need to spend the entire charm slot on it. Additionally it's able to fire Pierce 2 at low recoil with a clip size of 4 (Blaze only allows 2) and 2 level 3 slots allow to comfortably fit in Piercing Shots without spending armor or mantle slots. While water and thunder are slightly less efficient, Spare Shot is enough to make up the difference and being able to lay on the damage with Pierce 2 makes a world of difference worth swapping to the "wrong" elements for.

Screenshot is the build I used for testing, may be useful for reference. Ideally I would fit in Clutch Claw Boost for fast tenderizing, but I ran out of slots.. If you're good enough at breaking horns with LBG consistently (I'm not XD), you could adapt the build to work with single element. I prefer running dual element setups to make sure I don't run out of ammo.

Note: bowgun is augmented for Element/Status Up III.

Was playing around with Alatreon's set bonus and combined with decos for defense/reaistances and food buffs, I managed to get to about 288 total for elemental resistances with full Escadora set (66 fire and ice, 48 water and thunder, 60 dragon). Has anyone else tried this and managed to get a higher number with a mixed set?

Not for any practical purposes, just curious about the numbers themselves.

Just started Wilds yesterday, first time committing to hunting horn (dabbled in it in World, so somewhat familiar with basics). I have figured out how to use Echo Bubbles and Focus Strikes for note stacking (though the timing on the latter feels a bit off still), but what I am a little confused about is how to use Echo Bubbles themselves for additional damage. I understand they cause shockwaves on any hit in and out of the bubble, but not sure how to properly manage their placement for better effect and how to keep monsters in their range.

Would like to hear some advice on how to approach this mechanic and how much I should be concerned about their position and damage, if at all. (Note: I'm playing with a friend, so a good portion of the hunts will be in duo for the time being.)

HBG main here. Have been experimenting with various bowgun builds and got curious about a certain HBG pair. I understand that Safi HBGs, most famously Snipe/Burstcannon occupy the top niche of Shield HBG builds for their respective types. However, I cannot figure out if there is any use for Scorchcannon and Freezecannon.

The way their ammo loadouts and mod charts are set up, it seems they are only meant to capitalize on elemental ammo and maybe Normal 3? But they don't seem to be any stronger with element compared to most HBG available immediately before them. Since they shoot fire+thunder or ice+water, I assumed they were meant to be anti-Alatreon guns, but since elemental HBG is not particularly effective against Alatreon even on his best elements, much less secondary, and they do not have much room for building into raw, I'm not sure if they are even worth using for this in particular. And for everything else it feels like there is no point in picking an element-only HBG (unless it's Kjarr) just to take advantage of shield mods when a raw HBG or elemental LBG would do a better job across the board.

One idea I had is to roll Silver Rathalos Essence to ease up the requirements on True Critical Element and allow it to be used with another set bonus, like Maximum Might Secret, but even then it just barely matches full Safi set damage output while allowing for less comfort. Since Close/Ranged Attack Up mods don't affect element, I don't see if there's any way to take advantage of weapon upgrades to make it any more powerful/useful than its contemporary alternatives.

Has anyone else tried these HBGs and managed to figure something out? I can't seem to find anything and I'm not sure if I'm missing something or there's really isn't any appropriate case where it's worth picking them over another mixed raw+element gun, let alone full raw or LBG elemental.