The Heavy Bowgun is a long-range weapon that fires from a long distance and has Ignition Mode to fire continuously in Monster Hunter Wilds. See all the new moves for the Heavy Bowgun, its mechanics, controls, best ammo, advanced tips, and how good it is!

Heavy Bowgun Mechanics

Heavy Bowgun Mechanics
Fire Shots From a Distance Use Ignition Mode to Fire Special Ammo Fight Safely with Auto-Guard Apply Mods on your Bowgun Parry Attacks with Wyverncounter Destroy Wounds wiith Wyvern Howl

Fire Shots From a Distance

The Heavy Bowgun is a long-range weapon that has low mobility but can fire ammo from a distance. Its weakness is that it can be difficult to avoid attacks but this is mitigated by having an option to block.

Ammo Type Dictates Critical Distance

Depending on what ammo you're using, your effective range will change.

Do note that not all Bowguns can use every ammo type so make sure you inspect the weapon you're crafting in case it doesn't use the ammo type you want or need.

You Can See the Critical Distance on Your Crosshair

You can tell if you're within Critical Distance when the reticle glows orange while you are aiming or in Focus Mode.

Use Ignition Mode to Fire Special Ammo

Ignition Mode will allow you to fire special ammo by expending the Ignition Energy Gauge. The gauge will fill up over time and when you successfully land attacks.

Learn the Different Special Ammo Types

It's recommended to familiarize yourself with the different special ammo types so you can effectively manage your Ignition Gauge. For example, if you're not threatened by enemy attacks, you can greedily use Wyvernheart Ignition for more damage.

Fight Safely with Auto-Guard

While your Heavy Bowgun is drawn, attacks from the front will automatically get blocked with the Auto-Guard feature. Unfortunately, this doesn't guard attacks from the side or your back. It will also not guard if you are currently firing the Heavy Bowgun.

Apply Mods on your Bowgun

Mods allow you to improve certain aspects of your bowgun, including its ammo capacity for certain bullets, improving the Ignition Gauge Recovery, or upgrading its Standard Mode.

You can equip Mods on your Bowgun either through the Base Camp Menu, or through Gemma the Smithy.

Parry Attacks with Wyverncounter Ignition

You can parry attacks using the special ammo Wyverncounter Ignition. To do so, enter Ignition Mode and start charging Wyverncounter Ignition. Right as the monster's attack is about to hit you, release your charged up attack. This will offset the monster and potentially knock them down, opening them up to attacks.

Destroy Wounds with Focus Blast: Wyvern Howl

When Wounds form on a monster, you can destroy them using Focus Blast: Wyvern Howl. Once you see a wound, enter Focus Mode and shoot a Wyvern Howl directly at a monster's Wound. After a brief delay, it will explode, dealing heavy damage to the monster and possibly toppling them.

Heavy Bowgun Controls

Heavy Bowgun Standard Mode Actions

PC

PS5

XBOX

Action
Fire
Aim / Focus ▼ Focus Blast: Wyvern Howl Shot	(Hold) ▼ +
Reload
Ignition Mode On / Off
Guard	+
Select Ammo	+ /

Action
Fire
Aim / Focus ▼ Focus Blast: Wyvern Howl Shot	(Hold) ▼ +
Reload
Ignition Mode On / Off
Guard	+
Select Ammo	+ /

Action
Fire
Aim / Focus ▼ Focus Blast: Wyvern Howl Shot	(Hold) ▼ +
Reload
Ignition Mode On / Off
Guard	+
Select Ammo	+ /

Heavy Bowgun Ignition Mode Actions

PC

PS5

XBOX

Action
Fire Special Ammo
Aim / Focus ▼ Focus Blast: Wyvern Howl Shot	(Hold) ▼ + (Can be charged)
Wyverncounter Ignition	(Can be charged)
Ignition Mode On / Off
Guard	+

Action
Fire Special Ammo
Aim / Focus ▼ Focus Blast: Wyvern Howl Shot	(Hold) ▼ + (Can be charged)
Wyverncounter Ignition	(Can be charged)
Ignition Mode On / Off
Guard	+

Action
Fire Special Ammo
Aim / Focus ▼ Focus Blast: Wyvern Howl Shot	(Hold) ▼ + (Can be charged)
Wyverncounter Ignition	(Can be charged)
Ignition Mode On / Off
Guard	+

Heavy Bowgun Best Ammo

Ammo Tier List

Tier	Ammo
	Pierce Ammo Cluster Ammo Demon Ammo Armor Ammo Recover Ammo
	Spread Ammo Normal Ammo Paralysis Ammo Sleep Ammo Poison Ammo Slicing Ammo
	Sticky Ammo Thunder Ammo Freezing Ammo Flaming Ammo Water Ammo Dragon Ammo
	Wyvern Ammo

Note: Most of the placements here apart from the available ammunition are based solely on speculation from previous Monster Hunter games.

In general, the Heavy Bowgun excels in hitting hard with base bullets like Spread and Pierce, as well as explosive bullets like Cluster and Sticky. However, changes to the bowgun's ammo system has affected which bullets are the best.

The buffing ammos like Demon and Armor ammo, for example, are now better thanks to the area-of-effect quality of life update on them. Sticky ammo, on the other hand, has gone down in favor of other ammo thanks to the cap on how many you can carry each hunt.

While Elemental and Wyvern ammo are both strong in their own regard, using them on the Heavy Bowgun is not as good. Elemental ammo is better used on Light Bowguns, and Wyvern ammo is only really used when sleep bombing a monster or when they are down.

Pierce is the Best Base Ammo

Out of the base ammo types, Pierce ammo is currently the best ammo thanks to its ability to hit a monster multiple times. This makes you deal a lot of damage per bullet, especially when buffed by weapon skills and crits.

Normal ammo is a strong second contender thanks to its reliability, decent range, and decent damage. This puts it above Spread Ammo, which currently suffers from very heavy recoil, making difficult to use.

Heavy Bowgun Advanced Tips

Heavy Bowgun Advanced Tips
Switch to Ignition Mode Often Manually Guard to Perform Perfect Guards Change Bowguns Based on Ammo Loadout Mount Monsters with Jumping Reload

Switch to Ignition Mode Often

Ignition Mode is an important part of your kit. Make sure to switch to it often to use powerful Special Ammo such as Wyvernheart Ignition and Wyverncounter Ignition.

Should you find your Ignition gauge empty, make sure to hit your shots in Normal mode and your gauge should fill up quickly.

Manually Guard to Perform Perfect Guards

Although Heavy-Bowguns now have Auto-Guard by default, it is still a good idea to manually guard against enemy attacks and perform Perfect Guards. Not only will this negate all damage, but it can also trigger a Power Clash, allowing you to deal more damage to the target should you win the clash.

Change Bowguns Based on Ammo Loadout

The Heavy Bowgun is known for its ability to deal huge amounts of damage using the three base ammo types, explosive bullets like Sticky ammo and Cluster ammo, Elemental Ammo as well as the occasional status effect like Paralysis or Sleep. Changing your Heavy Bowgun to one with an ammo loadout that matches a monster's weakness is an important part of playing Heavy Bowgun!

For example, if you are fighting the Rey Dau, bring a Heavy Bowgun with Freeze Ammo and Pierce Ammo, as these can deal large amounts of damage to it!

Set Up Radial Menu For Ammo Crafting

Although the base ammunitions are now unlimited, your other ammo types like the Elemental ammo is still limited. It is ideal to bring the materials in your Inventory to be able to craft the ammo you need when you run out. Additionally, you can set up a Radial Menu and allocate a slot for crafting ammo so that you can quickly make ammo on the fly!

How to Use and Customize the Radial Menu

Mount Monsters with Jumping Reload

As a Heavy Bowgun user, you will usually be keeping your distance from the monster. This means you will rarely have the chance to mount monsters. However, if the situation calls for it, you can mount a monster using your Jumping Reload. Simply jump off from a ledge, swing from a Wedge Beetle, or dismount from your Seikret to perform a Jumping Reload onto an enemy, potentially mounting them.

How to Mount Monsters

How Good is the Heavy Bowgun?

Tier List Ranking

Weapon Ranking
Damage Type	Entry Barrier	Difficulty to Master
Shot	Low	★★☆☆☆
Weaknesses and Strengths
Good Damage Output Decent Defensive Capabilities Great Flexibility Low Mobility Requires Monster Knowledge to Maximize Ammo Management is Important

Entry Barrier pertains to how easy it is to learn the weapon from scratch, while Difficulty to Master is a rating on how difficult it is to perfectly execute the weapon mechanics.

The Heavy Bowgun is an easy weapon to pick up and use, allowing you to deal good damage without the need to get up close and personal with the monster. Not only does the Heavy Bowgun provide decent defensive capabilities with its Auto-Guard and Perfect Guard, but it also gives you a lot of flexibility thanks to the variety of bullets you can bring in a hunt.

Its biggest downside, however, is its low mobility, requiring you to know a monster's moves to know where to positiion yourself in a fight, especially when hunting solo.

Ammo management is also needed for the Heavy Bowgun. Although the base ammunition is now infinite, other strong ammo such as the Cluster, Elemental, and Sticky ammo are still finite, so you will need to bring materials to craft extra ammunition.

Best Weapon Type Tier List

Monster Hunter Wilds Related Guides

All Weapons and Guides

All Weapon Guides

All Weapon Tutorials
Great Sword		Long Sword		Sword & Shield
Dual Blades		Hammer		Hunting Horn
Lance		Gunlance		Switch Axe
Charge Blade		Insect Glaive		Light Bowgun
Heavy Bowgun			Bow

All Weapon Trees

All Weapon Trees
Great Sword		Long Sword		Sword & Shield
Dual Blades		Hammer		Hunting Horn
Lance		Gunlance		Switch Axe
Charge Blade		Insect Glaive		Kinsects
Light Bowgun		Heavy Bowgun		Bow