MH4U Bow Compendium

Laxaria's Bow Guide

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Gameplay
  3. Bow Mechanics
  4. Bow Relics
  5. Armour Skills
  6. Bow Damage Calculation
  7. Sources

Introduction

The Bow is one of three Gunner weapons in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The Bow is not a sniper weapon and is best considered a "melee gunner weapon". The Bow's most effective ranges are much closer to monsters than the Bowguns. The Bow puts you within a monster's general effective attack range. However, you lack the defensive armour available to Blademasters. In short, the Bow is a high skill, high reward weapon.

This document serves two purposes. Firstly, this serves as a reference for information about the Bow, with resources sourced from many different official and unofficial sources. Secondly, this serves as an introduction to the nuances of the Bow as a weapon. Some game knowledge is expected to get the most out of the information provided here. Questions, clarifications and corrections can be directed to /r/Laxaria.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Excellent raw damage output, decent elemental output
  • Versatile (numerous shot types available, numerous status options)
  • Excellent against Khezu
  • High-skill, rewarding gameplay

Cons

  • Vulnerable with gunner armour
  • Challenging skill curve

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Gameplay

I will cover the general gist of using a Bow. For first time users, there are a lot of mental gymnastics involved in managing all of a Bow's mechanics. Many of these mechanics are not intuitive to people who have never used a Gunner weapon in Monster Hunter. The Bow requires more practice than other weapons to reach a desirable hunt completion time.

Gameplay: Control Schemes

It is important to learn the controls of the Bow and adapt to its control schemes. There are a few core controls unique to the Bow, namely a button to charge and fire arrows, a botton to access the aiming reticle (which is used to add greater precision when firing arrows) and a set of buttons to add Bow coatings to arrows.

MH4U offers two different control schemes:

  1. Type 1: This is the control scheme used in previous Monster Hunter games. For this scheme, you hold X to draw and charge an arrow and R to access the aiming reticle. You can unsheathe your weapon and start charging an arrow with X.
  2. Type 2: A new control scheme catered to the Nub-stick on the N3DS and a Control pad Pro. For this scheme, you hold R to draw and charge an arrow and X to toggle the aiming reticle. To unsheathe your Bow and start charging an arrow simultaneously, you hit R+X+A.

For both schemes, you can dodge roll with an arrow drawn by tapping Y or B and a direction on the Slide-Pad. Hitting B with no direction held will result in a backhop. Both the backhop and dodge rolls have the same invulnerability frames. X+A is used to load Bow coatings.

There are many ways to tweak these settings to your preferences in the Options menu of MH4U. I strongly suggest using the Caravan 1* Bow Tutorial quest to try out different control schemes and tweak the Bow settings to your preferences. One way to set up Type 2 controls is to follow /u/Arctruth's guide here.

Although each control scheme has its strengths and weaknesses, using either control scheme does not instantly make you a better Bow user. For example, Type 1 makes it very difficult to use the aiming reticle effectively while moving. However, I personally use Type 1 controls and I get along just fine. Repeated practice with a control scheme will enable you to exploit its strengths effectively and work around its weaknesses. Player skill is a larger determining factor to the effectiveness of either Type 1 or Type 2 controls than the control scheme itself.

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Gameplay: Using the Bow

I will concentrate on explaining my approach here. There are many ways to approach the Bow and I am not claiming that my approach is the best. This is mainly to give insight into how I approach the Bow and I hope this will be useful for people.

I will separate Bow usage into three components: (1) Charging shots, (2) Aiming shots, and (3) Positioning. These components happen concurrently during a hunt: As you are charging your shot, you will want to think about what you are going to hit and where you want to stand to hit it. It takes practice for these three components to become second nature.

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Charging Shots

Charging your shots is important with the Bow. As you hold down your main attack button (X for Type 1, R for Type 2), your nocked arrow charges. As it charges, the flahes on the bow get brighter. Each flash indicates that the Bow has reached a higher charge level. Higher charge levels convey larger raw and elemental multipliers to your shot. As a result, uncharged shots (ones where you just tap X/R and let go) deal very little damage.

Charging shots drain stamina at a constant rate. Stamina is important for many things, including sprinting, evade-rolling and dealing damage effectively with a Bow. You do not want to run out of stamina with a Bow. More importantly, you want to keep track of your stamina so you are not charging a shot as a monster is about to hit you and you lack enough stamina to evade roll the attack.

Stamina Management is a really important player skill to have when using the Bow. Managing your stamina improperly is detrimental to your effectiveness with the Bow. Some examples of poor stamina management are as follows:

  • Holding a shot for too long and running out of stamina (what I call overcharging a shot)
  • Excessively using Power Shots. Power Shots are a huge stamina drain so you need to make sure they connect cleanly

The best strategy to stamina management is timing your shots appropriately. Let us assume that it takes y seconds for your shot to charge up to the desired level. The best time to let your arrows loose is exactly at y seconds. If you charge your arrow for y + 20 seconds, you do not deal more damage than if you had only charged for y seconds. Getting this timing down takes a lot of practice. Effectively using these timings will increase your effectiveness in a hunt.

Since rate of stamina drain from charging shots is constant, decreasing the time needed to hit a desired charge level will also reduce overall stamina consumption. Focus is the armour skill for the Bow, because it reduces the time you spend charging to a desired shot level but does not increase the rate of stamina drain. For the same charge level, a shot with Focus will consume less stamina than a shot without Focus.

Using focus brings with it one caveat: Timing shots becomes much more important. Let us assume you take b seconds to reach the desired charge level with Focus. To get the most use out of Focus, you need to fire your shot after b seconds and before y seconds. This is because if you have Focus but still take y seconds to charge a shot, you lose the stamina reduction benefit that Focus confers.

An advanced strategy to take stamina management skills further is timing your shots to the moments when a monster is vulnerable to attack. If you take b seconds to charge a shot, the best time to start charging is b seconds before the monster becomes susceptible to attack. This takes a lot of practice and requires a lot skill. However, this playstyle is very rewarding.

The need for Stamina Management is removed with infinite stamina. Dash Juice, Mega Dash Juice, stamina songs from Hunting Horns and Mushroomancer can provide infinite stamina. However, I discourage learning the Bow with infinite stamina tools. Learning effective stamina management does not only teach you how to not consume stamina needlessly but it also teaches you good habits in the process, particularly in timing your shots effectively.

To summarise, charging your shots is really important becuase higher charged shots have higher raw and elemental damage multipliers. Charging your shots consumes stamina. Managing your stamina well is necessary to be successful with the Bow.

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Aiming Shots

There are two halves to dealing effective damage. The first half is charging your shots and the second is aiming them to connect on the right hitzones. All monsters are split into different hitzones, some of which are more susceptible to damage than others. Knowing what these hitzones are and focusing on these hitzones is very important to successful Bow usage. Good hunting practice involves knowing how to use the weapon and also knowing enough of the monster to succeed.

For example, when hunting Shagaru Magala, his head is a 60 shot hitzone, and his neck and back legs are 45 shot hitzones[13]. You want to prioritise shooting its head if using Raw-Rapid shots; if the head is unavailable or troublesome because Shagaru is not facing you, consider hitting his back leg.

Weak hitzones are not always heads. Teostra's weakest shot hitzone is its tail, at 60 [14]. It is important to research the hitzones of the monster you are fighting. Resources like Kiranico are very useful for this.

It is important to hit weak hitzones and therefore seems obvious that the aiming reticle would be useful for this. Practically, you do not need the aiming reticle to precisely hit many monsters' weak hitzones on flat ground. Monsters like Gore Magala, Rathian and Shagaru Magala have heads that can be easily hit without using the aiming reticle at all. It is important to have a good feel for how arrows travel without any aiming reticle adjustment.

Unfortunate, there are monsters that require aiming reticle use. Zinogre, for example, has a 70 shot hitzone that you really want to aim up to hit.

When elevation comes into play, the Bow becomes much harder. Shots do not behave very predictably and I have not found a reliable way to describe how they travel when you stand on an incline. In these situations, you will have to use the aiming reticle to aim every shot. It is easier to do this with Type 2; Type 1 requires a lot more effort. You can consider positioning yourself on flatter ground or throwing a dungbomb to chase a monster away into a flatter area. Knowing a monster's attacks very well will enable you to adapt to the inclines much better. Fortunately, most end-game content in the form of guild quest areas are on flat ground.

Accurately aiming and hitting weak hitzones takes practice and experience. Being patient with your shots is important and make them count. A clean shot on a weak hitzone will deal a lot more damage overall than a clean shot on a non-weak hitzone.

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Positioning

The final component to effect Bow usage is in positioning. Good positioning enables you to stand in the safe zones of a monstter's different attacks and retaliate quickly when the attack misses. Knowing the monster you are hunting is very important to succeeding. On top of knowing hitzones, it is important to know their attacks, tells and behaviour.

Let me illustrate this with Shagaru Magala's frontal blasts. Shagaru fires two blasts, one of which explodes horizontally and perpendicular to Shagaru's face. The second blast that follows is "T-shaped," and extends vertically past Shagaru's face. If you face Shagaru, you can position yourself to stand away from the horizontal blast and fire a shot. You can start charging your second shot and side step to avoid the vertical blast to get your second shot in.

Good positioning is about knowing a monster's attacks and using those attack patterns to aggressively retaliate in damage. It is about knowing the right places to stand to avoid damage and using those positions to hit weak hitzones. Familiarity with a monster is critical for success.

Effectove positioning requires standing in critical distance. Critical distance provides a 1.5x raw multiplier (no elemental bonus) to your shots. You want as many of your shots as possible land in critical distance. This is indicated by a screen shake when the arrows connect. Critical distance adds complexity to the Bow because you cannot stand either too close or too far from a monster. You need to make sure you are far enough back to avoid damage and hit weak hitzones, and be close enough to benefit from critical distance.

Pierce, Rapid and Spread shots have different critical distances. Knowing these distances and adapting to them is important. In general, Spread shots have the closest critical distance, followed by Rapid, then Pierce.

Positioning keeps you alive when using the Bow and enables you to deal damage. This is important in the end-game content of MH4U, where many things will effectively one-shot Gunners. Good positioning is the most effective way to avoid damage.

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Summary version

  • Manage your stamina well
    • Do not hold a shot for too long; roll out shots if your opening to land one has disappeared
    • Do not use Power/Arc shots excessively; watch your stamina usage! The backswing animation can kill you
    • Assume it takes z seconds to charge your shot. The best time to charge your shot is about z seconds before your opening appears
  • Hit weak hitzones. Know what these are and pew pew pew!
  • Elevation sucks. Dung Bombs to chase monsters into flatter areas, fight in flatter areas, or adjust and be quick with using the aiming reticle
  • Critical Distance. Stay in Critical Distance. 1.5x raw multiplier
  • Use coatings! Power Coatings are a 1.5x raw multipler! Use them, and bring combines for more (Nitroshroom + Empty Phial)
  • Know the monster well. Figure out where to stand. Know how to avoid their attacks and use their attack animations against them

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Bow Mechanics

The Bow has many mechanics. I will outline them here.

Bow Mechanics: Charge Levels

The Bow is a charging weapon, similar to the Greatsword. As such, your damage comes from charging your shots. There are four different charge levels available for Bows. For many Bows, the armour skill Load Up is required to unlock all four charges. For some Bows, Load Up is required to unlock the third charge.

When you draw an arrow and hold it, a glow will start to gather on your Bow. When the glow flashes, it indicates that a new charge level has occurred. Charge Levels on the Bow are discrete levels.

Each Charge Level of the Bow is a damage multiplier on your raw and elemental damage. These multipliers are as follows [1]:

Charge Level Raw Multiplier Elemental Multiplier Poison Status Multiplier Paralysis/Sleep Status Multiplier Notes
Charge Level 1 0.4x 0.7x 0.5x 0.5x An effectively uncharged shot
Charge Level 2 1.0x 0.85x 1.0x 1.0x
Charge Level 3 1.5x 1.0x 1.5x 1.3x
Charge Level 4 1.7x 1.125x 1.5x 1.3x

These values emphasise a few general points:

  1. Do not spray uncharged arrows. Uncharged arrows do not do a lot of damage
  2. Charge your shots! They contribute to a large portion of your damage

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Bow Mechanics: Primary Shot Types

Unlike the Bowguns, there are three core shot types for the Bow. These are the Pierce Shot, the Rapid Shot, and the Spread Shot. I will run through the shot types in turn, then summarise this section with their motion values.

Pierce Shots

The Pierce Shot fires 1 arrow that pierces through a monster numerous times. This shot is often reserved for particularly long or large monsters where the arrow can pass through a monster many times. Such monsters include Deviljho, where you want to aim your arrow to the long profile of its body and Dah'ren Mohran, where you can shoot into its mouth. As far as I understand, Pierce shots calculate critical distance on each hit it makes, so there is a chance that the last hit or two will not get the critical distance bonus if you are too far back from the monster. A Pierce Shot of Shot Level 4 or higher has their critical distance extended on the back end. What this means is that a higher Pierce Shot Level extends the distance in which your Pierce Shot can be in critical distance[15]. It does not shorten the time between hits.

Pros:

  • Effective at dealing elemental damage
  • Effective over long distances
  • Effective at reaching hitzones that may be hard to hit (e.g. Gravios' belly)

Cons:

  • Ineffective against small monsters
  • Ineffective at concentrating damage on weak hitzones for most monsters

Rapid Shots

The Rapid Shot fires multiple arrows that are stacked vertically. This shot is often used for close to medium ranged combat with the Bow. This is frequently considered the "bread and butter" skill of the Bow, and oftentimes the most used shot for many situations. This shot is reserved for monsters where they have specific hitzones that are particularly weak, because the vertically stacked arrangement of Rapid shots enable the concentration of damage on these weak hitzones. Such monsters include Zinogre (head), Rathian (head) and Shagaru Magala (head).

Pros:

  • Very effective at dealing raw damage
  • Very effective at concentrating damage on desired hitzones

Cons:

  • Compared to the other shot types, less effective at dealing elemental damage and status application

Spread Shots

The Spread Shot fires multiple arrows that are arranged horizontally. This shot is often used for applying elemental damage and status effects. It is used primarily in close-ranged situations, and generally reserved for monsters that are particularly vulnerable to elemental damage, such as Gravios and Black Gravios, to apply status effects. Some monsters are particularly weak against Spread Shots due to their body layout, such as Gogmazios' chest.

Pros:

  • The best shot at applying elemental damage and status effects
  • Does not require much precision; just aim at a monster and let your arrows loose

Cons:

  • Requires being close to a monster (a little shy of being in melee range)
  • Tricky to use against small monsters (e.g. Kut-Ku, Iodrome)
  • Ineffective at concentrating damage

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Bow Mechanics: Critical Distance

Critical Distance refers the "sweet-spot" of a shot where its damage is increased. It is indicated by screen shakes in MH4U, which act as visual feedback to tell you if your shot was made at critical distance.

If you shoot too close or too far away, you lose the benefit of critical distance. Critical Distance is a 1.5x raw multiplier to your damage. The below table roughly sketches out how distance affects the raw damage dealt with the Bow [2]. These distances are measured in backhops and are meant to be general guidelines. Generally, two backhops is about one full evasion roll. Please use the visual feedback from screen shakes in MH4U as a better indication of hitting in critical distance.

Shot Type 1.0x Raw Multiplier 1.5x Raw Multiplier 1.0x Raw Multiplier 0.8x Raw Multiplier 0.5x Raw Multiplier
Pierce 1-3 backhops 3-6 backhops 6-8 backhops 8-9 backhops 9-13 backhops
Rapid 1-3 backhops 3-5 backhops 5-6 backhops 6-12 backhops 12-15 backhops
Spread 1-3 backhops 3-4 backhops 4-5 backhops 5-9 backhops 9-12 backhops

Take note is that while Pierce shots have a longer critical distance, the critical distance is applied on each hit arrows do. A Pierce shot can make three hits in critical distance and one hit outside of critical distance (the furthest hit from you). Ideally, you want to be a bit closer than the very furthest distance for Pierce shots.

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Bow Mechanics: Coatings

Bow Coatings are an additional mechanic that Bows can benefit from. There are numerous coatings, and are listed as follows:

Coating Name Stack Coating Effect Notes
Power Coating 50 1.5x Raw Multiplier Bread and butter coating
Close Range Coating 20 Turns shorter than critical distance shots into critical distance shots[3] Close Range Coating does not add additional shot damage[3] and turns the melee attack of the Bow into the equivalent of a White Sharpness weapon
Paint Coating 99 Applies a paintball effect to monsters when hit
Paralysis Coating 20 Applies Paralysis Status
Poison Coating 20 Applies Poison Status
Sleep Coating 20 Applies Sleep Status
Blast Coating 20 Applies Blast status
Exhaust Coating 20 Applies Exhaust/KO Status Exhaust is a status effect that drains a monster's stamina pool. Like other status effects, applied Exhaust status must pass a threshold before the effect takes place. Exhaust coating hit on heads can KO [4]

In addition, Bows can have a "Coating Boost" effect. This is a 50% increased effectiveness of the coating. For Close Range Coating Boost (an effect exclusive to the Seregios Bows), it turns Close Range Coating into a 1.5x Raw multiplier[5], making it the equivalent of Power Coating.

If a Bow has an element or status component to it, Bow Coatings will override the element or status component.

For a list of the values associated with status coats, check the very end of the guide.

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Bow Mechanics: Secondary Shot (Arc/Power)

The Arc Shot and Power Shot of the Bow are shots I consider "secondary shots". They are shots that you use depending on the situation, and are not the primary shot type(s) that you use during a hunt.

The secondary shots are not meant to be spammed or used instead of your primary shot. They are best used to supplement your options when using the Bow, and should not take the place of using the primary shots outlined earlier.

Arc Shots

The Arc Shot from MH3U returns in MH4U. They are split into three different forms, the Focus Arc Shot, the Wide Arc Shot, and the Blast Arc Shot. All of these Secondary Shots are affected by Coating. Generally, the Arc Shot is useful for hitting monsters that have moved far away due to a charge, or are in positions where normal shots are unable to hit easily. They can be used to hit particular points of a monster that are harder to hit, such as the backs of Ukanlos and Akantor. They can be used against roaring monsters (once again, Ukanlos and Akantor) that clip you with a roar if you get too close.

All arc shots are affected by Charge Level, Coating, and Critical Distance (values unknown right now; use screen shakes for indication). Arc Shots are not affected by ShotTypeUp skills. Blast Arc Shots are not affected by Bombardier or Felyne Pyro as they are actually a motion value of damage, not an explosion.

Arc Shot Type Notes
Focus The Focus Arc Shot fires an arrow into the air that lands over a small area with pellets. Each pellet can deal some KO damage if it on a monster's head, and can also apply status effects of the coating.
Wide The Wide Arc Shot is similar to the Focus one, except the pellets fall over a larger area. Better for larger monsters.
Blast The Blast Arc Shot fires an arrow into the air that falls as an arrow. When the arrow hits the ground, it explodes. A monster can be hit twice by this arc shot, once from the falling arrow, and once from the explosion that occurs when it hits the ground.

Power Shots

The Power Shot is a new addition in MH4U. The Power Shot expends additional stamina to fire another shot almost immediately after your first shot. The second shot that it fires is based on these characteristics:

  1. It will fire a shot that is +1 Charge Level to the first shot fired
  2. If the first shot fired is the shot with the highest Charge Level on the Bow, it will fire the same shot again

For example, the Kama Sedition has 3 Charge Levels with Load Up. Under the above characteristics, this occurs:

  1. If your first shot is a Charge Level 2 shot, your Power Shot will be the Charge Level 3 shot
  2. If your first shot is a Charge Level 3 shot, your Power Shot will be the Charge Level 3 shot

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Bow Relics

For most Blademaster weapons, Relic weapons are amazing improvements over the best available crafted counterparts. Unfortunately, for the Gunner weapons, Relics are generally not as good. There are situations where they are quite strong, and I am going to outline them here.

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Relic Bow Raws

Firstly, raw. These are raw values that Relic Bows can have. Values in parentheses are the maximum values that the Bow can have after fully upgrading the Relic after polishing[16]:

Bow Displayed Raw Bow True Raw Bow Affinity Bow Defense +
288 -> (324) 240 -> (270) 0 0
300 -> (324) 250 -> (270) 10 -> (15) 20 -> (30)
324 -> (360) 270 -> (300) 0 0
348 290 10 -> (25) 0
372 310 0 5 -> (50)
408 340 -25 -> (-10) 0

With these values, the Relic Bow raws we want to target are 372 and 408 (310 and 340 true respectively). It is important to note here that the best Relic raw value, at a true raw of 340, is equivalent to an Attack Honed Kama Seditition. However, an Attack Honed Kama Seditition has 30% affinity, making it such that an Attack Honed Kama is a better true raw bow than ANY relic you can find.

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Relic Bow Elements

Elemental damage is a large component of Spread Bows. While it is ideal to get a 340 true raw Relic Bow, a 310 true raw Relic Bow is doable with a strong elemental component, due to the 1.3x raw multiplier of SpreadUp. The following table lists the elemental values that the Relic Bows can have[16]

Element Element (Awaken Required)
310 330
330 340
350 360
370 400

Ideally, we are looking for a elemental value of 370. Relic Bows cannot have Blast as an Element, and no Bow is able to have Poison, Paralysis or Sleep as it's status.

Knowing the above two pieces of information, we are ideally looking for a Relic Bow with 310 or 340 true raw, and preferably 350 or 370 element.

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Relic Bow Shot Patterns

There are 8 different shot patterns for the Relic Bow. For the most part, very few of them are very good. I'll list the patterns here^16 :

Shot Pattern Secondary Shot Charge 1 Shot Charge 2 Shot Charge 3 Shot (Load Up) Charge 4 Shot (Load Up) Coatings
1 Blast Arc Shot Spread 2 Spread 2 Pierce 4 Rapid 5 Poison, Exhaust, Sleep, Close Range, Paralysis
2 Power Shot Rapid 3 Pierce 2 Rapid 4 Pierce 4 Power, Poison, Close Range
3 Wide Arc Shot Spread 3 Rapid 4 Pierce 4 (Spread 5) Power, Paralysis, Close Range, Blast
4 Blast Arc Shot Rapid 3 Spread 4 Rapid 4 Rapid 5 Power, Poison, Close Range, Exhaust
5 Power Shot Pierce 2 Pierce 3 Pierce 4 (Pierce 5) Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, Close Range, Blast
6 Focus Arc Shot Rapid 3 Rapid 4 Spread 5 (Spread 5) Poison, Paralysis, Sleep
7 Power Shot Pierce 3 Spread 4 Rapid 5 (Rapid 5) Power, Sleep, Close Range
8 Power Shot Rapid 3 Spread 3 (Spread 4) Power, Exhaust, Blast

From these arrangements, we can conclude a few things. Firstly, shot patterns 7 and 8 are the ideal shot patterns. Pattern 8 is desired for Spread Bows, and Pattern 7 max raw Relic Bows can outdamage the Kama Seditition with the appropriate element.

For example, a Relic Bow with Pattern 7, 340 true raw and 370 Fire element will do more damage to Gore Magala's head than the Kama Seditition will. In other words, Relic-Rapid Bows are stronger than the Kama when elemental weaknesses are included.

The only pattern desired for Spread Bows is Pattern 8.

The patterns desired for Pierce Bows are Pattern 3 and Pattern 5. Pattern 3 is preferred, because sacrificing Power Shot to avoid gemming in Power Coat+ is a fair trade.

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Evaluating Bow Relics

To summarize all of this information, in essence we are looking for the following qualities:

  • Rapid Bows
    1. Max displayed raw (408)
    2. Element of some sort
    3. Power Shot (Pattern 7)
  • Pierce Bows
    1. 372 or 408 displayed raw (408 strongly preferred)
    2. Element of some sort
  • Spread Bows
    1. 372 or 408 displayed raw (408 strongly preferred)
    2. Element: Preferably 350 or 370
    3. Power Shot (Pattern 8)

Armour Skills

There are numerous armour skills associated with the Bow. Each player has their own preferences for different skills, and while some skills are fairly mandatory, some skills are more situational. I will outline exactly what each skill does (as best as I can), and append notes to my evaluation of why they are or are not useful and why they should be considered in usage. My opinion on skill usage does not necessarily mean that you must follow them, but my analysis and opinions come from my experience and understanding of them. My analysis fairly subjective and dependent on my playstyle, so take it with a grain of salt, but also be aware that it is coming from a large amount of gameplay experience.

I will group these skills into Offensive and Defensive sections, and I will make a note of Focus more explicitly in it's own section. This list is not exhaustive.

The best way to build an armour set is to use Athena's ASS This is a tool that enables you to input the charms that you do have and select a set of armour skills, then let the program come up with various possible combinations of armour pieces, armour decorations and charms to get what you want.

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Focus (FastCharge)

Focus is arguably the most required skill for the Bow. It reduces the charge time you need to spend to reach higher Charge Levels. This is crucial for many reasons, such as:

  1. More damage. When you take less time to charge a Charge Level 3 shot, you are able to fire off more shots in the same time frame.
  2. More openings. When you take less time to charge a shot, you enable yourself to use more openings to your advantage, openings that might not exist because the opening disappears due to a longer charge time.
  3. Stamina management. Spending less time charging means you spend less time drawing an arrow, reducing the demand on your stamina

There are numerous sources that outline the impact that Focus has on charge times. /u/Shadyfigure outlines the ratio values from MHP3's atwiki here and /u/aquabadger has timed the values here. Regardless, the impact of Focus on reducing charge times is really crucial, and by the time High Rank hits, a Bow user ideally wants Focus as their very first, primary skill on their armour set.

There is a very specific caveat to using Focus. The strength of Focus is that it reduces the charge time of your shot. Let's say that you take x seconds without Focus and y seconds with Focus. If you draw an arrow with Focus, and do not fire it in the difference between x and y, you've lost the advantage of Focus.

In other words, in order to make full use of Focus, a majority (or all) of your shots require you to fire them before the length of time you would take to charge the same shot without Focus. If you draw a arrow with Focus, and keep the arrow drawn for as long as the arrow would have taken to reach the same Charge Level without Focus, you've wasted the benefits Focus offers you. This, in turn, requires a good understanding of a monster's patterns and their openings, and knowing roughly how long before the opening appears to fire your shot. This requires a lot of practice, and contributes to the high skill floor/ceiling of the Bow.

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Offensive Armour SKills

Skill Name Core / Situational Effect Laxaria's Notes
Focus Core Reduces Charging times Mandatory for G-Rank. See above for analysis on Focus
LoadUp Situational/Core Adds another Charge Level to Bows, up to a maximum of 4 Charge Levels MANDATORY for the Seregios and Akantor Chaos Bows. Very situational for the others. A good guideline for when Load Up is useful is when a Bow has a lacklustre Charge 3 shot, but an effective Charge 4 shot. An example is the Zinogre Bows, where Charge 3 is Pierce but Charge 4 is Rapid.
RapidUp Core A 1.1x raw multiplier[8] Mandatory in G-Rank. A 110% raw multiplier for numerous G-Rank Bows is larger than a AuXL boost. RapidUp also stacks with any raw increase (AuL + RapidUp is effectively 22 true raw, for example).
PierceUp Core A 1.1x raw multiplier[8] Mandatory in G-Rank. For the same reasons as RapidUp.
SpreadUp Core A 1.3x raw multiplier[8] Mandatory in G-Rank. For the same reasons as RapidUp. A really important component of a Raw Spread Bow's damage.
Attack up Skills Situational Adds 10/15/20/25 true raw (AuS/AuM/AuL/AuXL respectively) Really good additions to damage, but should not be prioritised above the three ShotTypeUp skills. Useful after having the ShotTypeUp skills. A really good idea in Low Rank as there are less armour skill choices available.
Brutality Situational Weakness Exploit and Critical Eye+2 (15% affinity) A stronger version of Weakness Exploit with additional affinity. Very popular due to being on the Kaiser X chest and a worth consideration because of how useful the Kaiser X chest is for Torso Up for more than just Brutality
Bombardier Core on Blast Bows Adds to Blast and Bomb damage Really useful for the Blast Bows. Decent for Sleep Bombing purposes, but the Bow is not a very effective Sleep Bombing weapon.
Critical Eye Skills Situational Adds affinity (10%/15%/20%/30%) with CE+1/+2+3/Critical God Not very effective because it requires a lot of true raw for the strength of Critical Eye to exceed Attack Up skills of an equivalent point investment. It can be useful, but worth doing the math for.
Challenger+2 Situational +25 true raw and 20% affinity while a monster is enraged A really strong offensive skill. Prioritised under ShotTypeUp. Other valuable skills should not be sacrificed for Challenger+2 as it can be fairly tricky to acquire.
Fleet Feet Situational Peak Performance + Evade Extender Tricky to acquire. Worth a consideration against certain monsters where Evade Extender can be useful, but should not be prioritised over core skills.
Weakness Exploit Situational Adds 5 to hitzones of 45 or higher The effect of Weakness Exploit is really useful if you can hit weak hitzones consistently. Not effective on monsters with hard to hit weak hitzones, or lack such weak hitzones to begin with for a majority of the fight (Gravios, for example)
Silver Bullet Situational RapidUp, PierceUp and SpreadUp in one skill A very lacklustre skill. It is tricky to acquire, and in numerous situations you are unlikely to use more than 2 of the available Primary Shot Types in a hunt.
[Insert Element] Attack Up Core for Elemental Bowing / Situational otherwise [E]A+1: 1.05x Element + 40; [E]A+2: 1.10x Element + 60; [E]A+3: 1.15x Element + 90[11] Mandatory if doing Elemental Bowing. Effective for Bows with strong elemental damage, such as the Viand Bowfish, or if prioritising Elemental damage over Raw. Values here are on displayed element (divide by 10 for true element)
Elemental Situational Without [E]A+#, a 1.10x element modifier. With [E]A+#, check here Functions in a similar, but weaker fashion, to [Insert Element] Attack Up. Prioritise under the above skill.
Trajectory Situational Extends the Critical Distance of your shots further back May be useful for Pierce shots. Generally not recommended
Peak Performance Situational Gives +20 true raw when health bar is full A really nice skill that is worth considering. Requires you to not get hit by anything, less effective in lava-filled areas as you will lose health from standing on hot ground.
Status Attack +1/+2 Situational SA+1: 1.1x + 1 SA+2: 1.2x + 1[7] Useful for status usage, but not prioritised in general.
Status Crit Situational A 1.35x status application on attacks that you crit and apply status^9 Not very good.

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Defensive and Utility Skills

Skill Name Effect Laxaria's Notes
Evasion +# Adds additional invulnerability frames Can be quite useful for some monsters. Positioning is important for the Bow. Keep in mind that Evasion+# does not benefit you if you don't use dodge rolls or back hops, and generally you don't use many of these with the Bow.
Evade Extender Extends evasion roll distance Situationally useful against certain monsters, like Rajang and Molten Tigrex
Guts Keeps you alive if your health is past a particular threshold and the hit would have killed you Equivalent to Felyne Moxie's effect. Drink for Moxie instead of using this skill
Mushroomancer Consuming mushrooms gives you particular effects Mainly used for infinite dash juice and free max potions. Dash Extracts can be duplicated at the JuJu guy and if you don't get hit you don't need max pots ;)
Marathon Runner Slows down the consumption of stamina drain Note that this is specific for things that drain your stamina slowly. Useful to have early on but not necessary.
Stamina Recovery Up Speeds up Stamina Recovery Makes your Stamina regenerate faster. Not necessary
Divine Blessing Reduces damage taken at a percentage chance Not that great; if you need it, consider a Defense Hone on your weapon

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Bow Damage Calculation

There are numerous components in the formula to calculate the damage a Bow does, split into Raw and Elemental components.

Bow Damage Calculation: Raw Damage

The basic gist of the raw damage formula is as follows:

            
    True Raw x Affinity x Shot-Type Up Modifier x Charge Level Modifier x
    Distance Modifier x Coating Modifier x Motion Value x Hitzone x [Defense Modifiers]

Breaking down the formula, as follows:

  • True Raw: Displayed raw divided by class modifier (for the Bow, the class modifier is 1.2)
  • Affinity: The chance of doing a critical hit for 25% more damage. The quick way of calculating affinity is using (1 + ( x * 0.25)), where x is the affinity on the weapon in decimal form
  • Shot-Type Up Modifier: The Raw Multiplier from NormalUp, SpreadUp or PierceUp armour skills
  • Charge Level Modifier: The Raw Multiplier from the Charge Level of the shot fired
  • Distance Modifier: The Raw Multiplier from distance;
  • Coating Modifier: The Raw Multiplier from coating use
  • Motion Value: The Motion Value associated with the shot
  • Hitzone: The area of a monster that is being hit
  • Defense Modifiers: These are modifiers on the monster that vary based on rank and Frenzy/Apex status. These values are not very well understood for every monster and every situation; practically we don't consider these in damage calculations for comparison reasons, but do note that they are there.

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Bow Damage Calculation: Elemental Damage

The basic gist of the elemental formula is as follows: 

        
    True Element x Affinity x Charge Level Modifier x Number of Arrows x [Defense Modifiers]

Breaking down the formula, as follows:

  • True Element: Displayed element divided by 10. Included in this value are [Insert Element] Up skills and the Elemental Attack Up armour skill
  • Affinity: Applicable only if the CritElement skill is active. Otherwise, this value is "1".
  • Charge Level Modifier: The Element Modifier of the shot fired
  • Number of Arrows: The number of arrows in the shot
  • Defense Modifiers: These are modifiers on the monster that vary based on rank and Frenzy/Apex status. These values are not very well understood for every monster and every situation; practically we don't consider these in damage calculations for comparison reasons, but do note that they are there.

To recap, charge level modifiers:

Charge Level Raw Multiplier Elemental Multiplier Poison Status Multiplier Paralysis/Sleep Status Multiplier
Charge Level 1 0.4x 0.7x 0.5x 0.5x
Charge Level 2 1.0x 0.85x 1.0x 1.0x
Charge Level 3 1.5x 1.0x 1.5x 1.3x
Charge Level 4 1.7x 1.125x 1.5x 1.3x

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Motion Values

Here are the motion values associated with each shot. These are percentage values. Numbers in parentheses is the sum of the motion values[12].

Shot Level Pierce Rapid Spread
1 3 hits x 6 (18) 12(12) 4-5-4 (13)
2 4 hits x 6 (24) 12-4 (16) 5-6-5 (16)
3 5 hits x 6 (30) 12-4-3 (19) 4-5-5-5-4 (23)
4 5 hits x 6 (30) 12-4-3-2 (21) 4-5-6-5-4 (24)
5 5 hits x 6 (30) 12-4-3-3 (22) 5-5-6-5-5 (26)

Here are the motion values associated with the Arc shots. All of these are percentage values, except for KO Status, which is the actual value applied.

Arc Shot Type Arrow Pellet Arrow Status Pellet Status KO Status
Wide 6 5 hits x 7 4 5 hits x 4 5 hits x 3
Focus 6 5 hits x 7 4 5 hits x 4 5 hits x 4
Blast 6 35 13 13 0 (arrow) / 20 (explosion)

Status Coat Values

These are static values[6]. Total in parentheses.

Shot Level Pierce Status Rapid Status Spread Status
1 3 hits x 5 (15) 13 (13) 5-5-5 (15)
2 4 hits x 4 (16) 7-7 (14) 6-6-6 (18)
3 5 hits x 4 (20) 5-5-5 (15) 4-4-4-4-4 (20)
4 5 hits x 4 (20) 4-4-4-4 (16) 4-4-4-4-4 (20)
5 5 hits x 4 (20) 4-4-4-4 (16) 4-4-4-4-4 (20)

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Sources

  1. GajinHunter; http://gaijinhunter.tumblr.com/post/92814625497/mh4-understanding-motion-values

  2. http://www.gamefaqs.com/psp/943356-monster-hunter-freedom-unite/faqs/57883

  3. /u/Shadyfigure; https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/30otks/close_range_coating_clarification/cpue5ip

  4. /u/Shadyfigure; https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/2zujcf/exhaust_costing_question/cpmerno

  5. /u/Shadyfigure; https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/30otks/close_range_coating_clarification/cpuql1z

  6. /u/cdngrep; https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/36de0d/mh4u_bow_status_damage/

  7. 特殊攻撃 ;http://www61.atwiki.jp/3dsmh4g/pages/143.html#id_153f180a

  8. http://www61.atwiki.jp/3dsmh4g/pages/143.html#id_2ce97d08

  9. http://www61.atwiki.jp/3dsmh4g/pages/143.html

  10. http://www61.atwiki.jp/3dsmh4g/pages/143.html

  11. http://www61.atwiki.jp/3dsmh4g/pages/143.html#id_391623d3

  12. /u/Shadyfigure; https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/22fwt4/question_about_bow_mechanics/cgmh7u2

  13. Shagaru Magala Hitzones; http://kiranico.com/en/mh4u/monster/shagaru-magala

  14. Teostra Hitzones; http://kiranico.com/en/mh4u/monster/teostra

  15. 貫通LV4以上はクリティカル距離の始点はそのままに、終点が後方に伸びる ;http://www42.atwiki.jp/mhp3/pages/77.html#snavi4

  16. Bow Relics; http://wiki.mh4g.org/data/1822.html

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