Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate - Kiwi Hunters, Unite! -

[Jaimas]

So MH4U is out, and it looks like Capcom has a possible GOTY on its hands with this motherfucker. It's huge, it has fantastic online capability, and it's fun as fuck to play. I've been playing it with @KidKitty and @Godot on and off (my first match was with helping Godot try to capture a Khezu; easily my single-most-hated monster subspecies since it triggers constant paralysis/thunderblight). Since there's a lot of us playing this son of a bitch right now, I thought I'd get together this little thread on it. We can discuss tactics, monsters, weapons, and especially hilarious Kiwi Farms hunts.

I'll be doing breakdowns on various weapon types when time allows.

 

[Godot]

You should copy paste that armor thing you messaged to me, I'm sure that will be very informative to new players

 

[Jaimas]

Let's start getting into weapons.

Each weapon in Monster Hunter has its own advantages, disadvantages, and unique traits. Every weapon has literally some unique gimmick that gives it higher utility, better damage output, or both. As such, all of the weapons in the game are truly unique in utilization, with a variety of different mechanics.

Great Sword: This classic Monster Hunter weapon is a powerful one. It offers a combination of high sharpness potential, heavy damage, and massive impact. It's also one of the few weapons that can block - an immensely powerful skill - and indeed, it's one of the strongest weapons for doing so. This weapon is both heavy and bulky, however, so you will need to balance its slow speed when drawn with approach moves and dodgerolls. A "hit-and-fade" strategy is often advised due to its mass, but the Great Sword offers massive damage potential and a brute force that's seldom matched. You're not going for long combos with this beast - you're going for raw impact. Great Swords can deal more (or less) damage depending on where the strike lands - a hit from the center of the blade does the most damage.
Special Ability: Charged Strike - The Great Sword can charge its strikes up to three seperate levels, each of which offers increasing damage. A level 3 charged strike offers massive damage potential, making the Greatsword one of the best overall weapons in terms of damage output for both the short and long term.

Long Sword: Weeaboo faggots, rejoice, because your weapon has been folded 1000 times and is ready to make up for being underpowered in d20 Modern. The Long Sword family is weaker than the Great Sword family, but strikes faster, more efficiently, and with much greater alacrity. Though it can't block, the Long Sword has a much faster move rate and its wide, sweeping strikes and good reach make it an excellent weapon for a wide variety of circumstances. Unfortunately, it's also more fragile than other weapons, necessitating frequent sharpening. It also has poor combo dodges, so beware.
Special Ability: Spirit Mode - as you score hits with the Long Sword, it builds up a special spirit meter. When the meter is full, You get a small but noticeable attack power increase, and, when active, all attacks from it bypass defenses and sharpness levels alike, allowing it to strike at full force through protections - this makes it a stellar weapon for severing tails and other components of a monster. A full combo of spirit mode attacks will consume about half the meter. The focus of the Long Sword is thus less raw damage than it is making sure it strikes at full effect.

More soon.

 

[Overcast]

This game has me hooked.

I'm nearly 90 hours in I think and I've just gotten into G Rank 1.

Right now, I'm sporting a full Najarala S set with a Paracoiled Saber Long Sword. Pretty much my go to set in High Rank.

I also made a full Vangis set with a Rathalos Glimsword GS. Gotta say, I like this set up. I can drink potions and eat meat faster, and my sharpness goes down at half the rate it does. I really like it. It does make me lose stamina more quickly though, which makes sense considering who I killed over and over to get this set.

 

[LordGoomy]

I've loved Monster Hunter since the first iteration and I am a complete nutter over MonHun in general.

4U has been a slow start for me, but I have friends kicking my ass into gear. I'm only HR4 (and in 5star offline quests) and I've only sunk about 35 hours into it despite getting it the day of release. (Though I was the same way with 3U and Freedom Unite, so whatever.) I still slide by wearing low-rank Tetsucabra armor, but I'm eyeing a Gravios set.

Frankly not completely thrilled with the charge blade, but the insect glaive is something I can get behind, if I'd only let go of my precious hammers and switch-axes for five seconds.

 

[Naamaleipuri]

I haven't had as much time to play MH4U as I'd like between work, social life and raiding in WoW. My friends and I are planning on hitting mid G ranks this weekend though.

So far I've been using the Great Sword almost exclusively and after I got the Stygian Zinogre set with Focus (Fast Charge), I've pretty much been blazing through the hunts. When I have the time, I'd like to create some solid Dual Blades, Sword & Shield and a Switch Axe.

 

[Jaimas]

Moar weapons time. Let's rock.

Sword and Shield: This weapon is the one the game defaults to when you start - and with good reason. In terms of overall balance, the Sword and Shield is the gold standard by which all weapons must be measured. It can block, it has a good attack speed, it maintains sharpness exceptionally well, it combos beautifully, has exceptional reaction speed, and allows the player an excellent run speed and access to solid dodges when used. Damage-wise, it's unspectacular, but with so many other advantages, the Sword and Shield offers the most reasoned, useful overall moveset, to the point where many players swear by it. It's its unique trait, however, that takes it from simply being great overall to truly excellent - it offers something no other weapon has, and is so easy to overlook that it's honestly kind of stunning. The Sword and Shield rarely accomplishes anything earth-shattering in its use, but works so well as a generalist weapon that only a fool overlooks it.
Special Ability: Small Frame - Uniquely, the Sword and Shield can use items when drawn. This is an impossibly useful ability, since you need not put the damned thing away to use useful items. This adds an entirely new level of strategy and complexity, because you can chuck items, nom herbs, or use whetstones without putting the weapon away, or use Boomerangs or Throwing Knives in conjunction with the Sword and Shield's close-combat potential.

Dual Blades: These beasts attack with blinding speed and allow for massive combo attacks. Paired with the fact that it can build up status effects, the Dual Blades are absolute monsters of Damage-Per-Second (especially with their special ability) and cause status effects ridiculously easy. They offer the fastest running speed (alongside the Sword and Shield), as well. Unfortunately, their drawbacks are steep - they have short range, poor sharpness curves, low per-hit damage, no ability to block, and often lock the player into combos when used for barrages of attacks or consume a lot of stamina in the special mode. Balanced out, however, no weapon is capable of matching the protracted damage output of these devastating weapons... Especially when their special ability kicks in....
Special Ability: Demonization Mode/Archdemon Mode - By hitting R, you can activate Demonization Mode. This causes the Dual Blades to do much more damage and cut through armor easier, but this can only be maintained for a short time, and it cranks up how much stamina your weapon uses and how much sharpness it burns through. A number of new attacks are enabled, and you can easily out-damage even the strongest weapons with this furious assault active. If you fill the bar in Demonization mode before ending it, you enter Archdemon mode, which gives you even greater damage output and ridiculously good dodge frames, but Archdemon Mode won't last long.

 

[Dr. Octo-PARKER]

I've been using the IG the entire time. I decided not to use the Lance or the Gunlance for this game since I"ve been maining Lance since MH on the ps2, and GL since Freedom 2. I'm absolutely loving the weapon, though I could do without the Kinsect creation being a huge problem if done wrong.

I've hit G2 and I've been dicking around until I get off my ass and get to G 3.

Also, since you're making a weapon overview, you should definitely check out Gaijinhunter's weapon videos.

 

[Jaimas]

I've been using the IG the entire time. I decided not to use the Lance or the Gunlance for this game since I"ve been maining Lance since MH on the ps2, and GL since Freedom 2. I'm absolutely loving the weapon, though I could do without the Kinsect creation being a huge problem if done wrong.

I've hit G2 and I've been dicking around until I get off my ass and get to G 3.

Also, since you're making a weapon overview, you should definitely check out Gaijinhunter's weapon videos.

This is completely true. Gaijin's videos are entirely in-depth, and highly recommended. My little segments here are intended to show the basics on what a weapon can do and what its advantages and drawbacks are.

That said:

Hammer: Let's level for a second - there are times you want to tell subtlety to take a hike and paint in broad strokes. Hammers are for this exact purpose. Similar to Great Swords in utility but very different in practice, these weapons have very short range, but offer a faster swing and move speed than the Great Sword class. At a glance, the hammer seems like a mediocre weapon - being a blunt weapon, it does less damage than comparable weapons and generally can't sever a monster's appendages. It also has relatively bad Sharpness on average (it does, however, burn off its Sharpness much slower). Why go for this weapon with these in mind? The answer lies in this weapon's overwhelming physical power - it has the highest of any weapon type. Its powerful, heavy blows deal enormous damage and tremendous impact - enough to knock down even large monsters and potentially even dizzy the bastards. Topping it all off, it has its own version of a charged attack, specifically intended to give it much higher impact. When properly used and in trained hands, the Hammer offers one of the highest single-hit damage potentials of any weapon, making it uniquely suited to beating down tougher opposition, and making it highly desirable to round out a Hunting Cadre. It's much safer to use with teammates around than the Great Sword, as well.
Special Ability - Charged Swing: Similar to the Great Sword, the Hammer can be charged. Unlike the Great Sword, the hammer can be moved with whilst charging. However, it consumes stamina to keep held in this fashion. The charge has three levels of power - at max it's capable of delivering devastating amounts of damage.

Hunting Horn: This unusual weapon is the technological counterpart to the hammer, offering better sustained damage but substantially lower burst damage and impact. Despite being quite powerful as a weapon, and being generally similar to the Hammer in theory, in practice, the Hunting Horn is a very different weapon with a very different purpose. Its main draw comes from it being a musical instrument; in addition to longer range and a more diverse suite of attacks, the Hunting Horn's unique ability is that it can play music, enabling the wielder of this weapon to buff themselves and their allies (including Palicos). As a pure weapon, the Hunting Horn's more protracted damage and actual cutting attacks with lunges mean it's technically a bit more reasoned as a weapon, but without the Hammer's potent swings or charged strikes, it struggles to deal the same damage output. In proper hands, it's a damned fine weapon, but it essentially needs its special ability to be used to its fullest.
Special Ability - Recital: By using certain attacks (they vary on the individual horn), the Hunting Horn can create extremely powerful bolstering and supportive effects. It can buff allies' stats, make them resistant to elemental damage, block and/or cure status effects, and even heal them. These abilities can be used successively and effect all players and Palicos in range, which means that this weapon shines brightest when paired with other Hunters. The Hunting Horn's music lets its user perform multiple roles as needed - providing heavy melee in close-combat, or backing off to provide buffs and healing support.

 

[autism420]

Thank you for this thread @Jaimas

I got this on release and I'm very new to the series, it's damn complicated.

 

[Overcast]

Over 100 hours into the game...

And I'm not done yet!

 

[Jaimas]

Next up, the toughest melee weapons to use in the entire damned game:

Lance: Don't go by the relatively elegant-looking sprite this weapon has in the menu - this weapon is one of the biggest around, with massive reach and often sharpness to match (sadly it burns this off quite quickly). The Lance is long, heavy, and focused on defense - you can't roll when using a Lance, and you heavily rely on guarding. Fortunately, the Lance offers an amazingly powerful shield that's far more powerful than many others in its class. Indeed, this weapon - and the one to follow on this ongoing list - have the highest defense of any weapon in the game. Lances are formidably powerful, too - They're the only weapon able to attack whilst blocking (aside from the one below) and they have better mobility than their more technologically-advanced counterpart. This is not a weapon for the faint of heart or the inexperienced. It has only a few lateral moves and focuses heavily on the player's own aim. But when used correctly, it's a game-changingly powerful weapon, capable of strong combos and even stuns with shield bashes. The Lance is also one of the best weapons for diving and jumping attacks. Its unique ability makes it one of the best weapons for running down fleeing monsters.
Special Ability - Running Charge: By guarding and hitting A+X together, the Lance can be used in a running charge attack, building up steady momentum. This attack scores multiple hits (though it will tear down sharpness like crazy) and quickly depletes stamina. This attack will keep going until you either end it, you run out of stamina, or use one of two charge finishers; one does a powerful final thrust, whilst the other will do a jump that can be turned into a jumping attack, and can be used to mount monsters.

Gunlance: This is a technological relic from the Dragon Wars, and, as such, intended to fight Dragons. The Gunlance is a very hard-to-use weapon and in many ways is similar to the Lance - but is far less mobile (indeed, it's the least mobile weapon), has lower reach, and lower damage as well. All of this conspires to make the Gunlance a poor weapon on paper, but stats do not tell the full story. Instead, the Gunlance uniquely does large amount of piercing damage - this damage type is highly effective against armored monsters, so even though the Gunlance doesn't deliver damage on par with the Lance, it's much more consistent. It's the Gun component of the Gunlance, however, that makes it unique. The Gunlance carries a number of powerful, shaped-charge shells designed to improve the weapon's punch against armored targets. These shells are not long-ranged projectiles - they're short-range only, like a shotgun shell, and they come in 3 flavors: Standard shells, which do the least damage, but hold the most ammo, Long shells, which have longer blast ranges, but hold less ammo, and Wide shells, which do the most damage and go off like a shotgun blast, but hold extremely limited ammo. Despite Normal shells being the weakest, they also can work in the player's favor by being the most numerous shell when used in a Lance Discharge, which is used when discharging after a lance slam (and consumes all ammo in the clip). All Gunlances have unlimited ammo, but need to reload. Every shot consumes sharpness, and paired with the Gunlance's focus on shield use as well, this means that the Gunlance often burns sharpness faster than any other weapon, putting even Sharpness-devourers like the Dual Blades and Switch Axe to shame. Time and patience are needed to get any mileage out of this weapon, though using it is often more of an art than a science.
Special Ability - Wyvern's Fire: This attack is done by hitting X+A when blocking. It takes amost 3 full seconds to pull off this attack, which charges and then discharges a special unique round (no need to reload) that bypasses armor and does massive amounts of damage. At close-range, it deals roughly four times the damage of a standard shell. However, this shot does massive damage to the weapon's sharpness and overheats the Gunlance, preventing the use of Wyvern's Fire for roughly 110 seconds.

 

[Godot]

Guildmarm is best girl. That will be all.
Also pm me your friend codes if you wanna hunt

 

[Jaimas]

Guildmarm is best girl. That will be all.
Also pm me your friend codes if you wanna hunt

Man, it's all about Chef Miao.

Anyway, 2 more weapon entries before work!

Switch Axe: This is one of those weapons that often goes ignored; it seems way more complicated than it actually is and is a very straightforward weapon. Indeed, it's actually a very newbie-friendly weapon, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. The Switch Axe is a big, heavy, 2-handed weapon. It's notable for its unique ability to change between two seperate forms. The Switch Axe as a whole has enormous reach and high damage, lagging just behind the Greatsword and Hammer families, but it also has a decent swing speed. It has relatively middling sharpness, however, and tends to burn it off quite quickly. The Switch Axe's namesake, however, is where its biggest advantages come into play - it can operate as either a halberd-like greataxe, or as a sword. In its potent sword form, it's actually weaker per hit than in its axe form, but swings much faster and has a much higher damage-per-second rating, appearing as a weaker (but vastly faster) greatsword. This sword form is powered by a special phial built into the Switch Axe, which feeds into the weapon like a battery. There are a number of possible phial types, including Power (increases raw physical damage of the sword mode), Element (increases elemental damage done in sword mode), Status (Increases Poison/Paralysis buildup in Sword Mode), and Exhaust (damages enemy stamina/deals knockout damage in sword mode). The Switch Axe's sword mode consumes some of its fuel phial with each swing; it'll recharge slowly on its own, but if you use too much, the game will allow you to kick-start the process by reloading the Switch Axe. The Switch Axe has limited mobility - rather like the Great Sword - but because it has longer reach, accessible moves, and doesn't quite demand a lot of precision from the player, it's actually a very newbie-friendly weapon. With high damage and a straightforward mechanic, it's a solid weapon overall. Its biggest drawback, obvious problems with being a large weapon aside, is its sharpness curve, which is notoriously front-loaded and has a bad tendency to go down at an inopportune time.
Special Ability - Concentrated Discharge: In sword mode, X+A will deliver a powerful, lunging thrust. The player will then hold the weapon in place, and if X is hit repeatedly, the weapon will deliver up to six additional hits before unloading a brutally powerful explosion from the phial. This consumes an enormous amount of the phial's energy, and burns through the Switch Axe's sharpness like crazy, but is remarkably effective at helping break through an enemy's defense.

Charge Blade: This weapon is another multiple-weapons-in one package, like the switch axe, but functions much differently. Its basic form is a sword and shield, but a much larger and heavier set than the weapon type of the same name. Charge Blades have better reach and higher damage, but are much less combo-friendly and with lower movement speed. Instead, the Charge Blade focuses on building up a charge and using this charge to fuel its secondary mode, which is a powerful (but sluggish) axe similar to the Switch Axe. The Sword mode is primarily used to collect energy with attacks that will be used as fuel for the Axe mode. The weapon will glow in a certain color depending on its current energy level: yellow and red. That energy must be stored in the shield in order to have energy vials for the axe mode's powerful attacks. Storing energy while the sword glows yellow will grant 3 energy phials, while doing so with red glow will fill all 5 phials. These phials are consumed when using the axe mode's A button attacks; they enable massive damage combos and add extra traits to the weapon's Axe mode - Impact Phials increase the physical damage and stun of the Axe mode, whereas Element Phials increase the weapon's elemental damage in axe mode. The axe can be used without charging, but it will be less effective and will be unable to use its high-damage phial-based attacks. Careful balance between sword strikes (to build up a charge) and axe strikes (to use said charge) are important to get the most out of this finicky - but very effective - weapon.
Special Ability - Shield Charge: With a full stock of phials, if you prepare an axe phial combo, but cancel out of its final overhead attack with the R button, you will overcharge your shield, which will start glowing brightly. This consumes all phials, giving you 30 seconds of overcharge for every one consumed (including the 2 you used to start the combo), meaning the Overcharge lasts for 2 minutes and 30 seconds at max charge. When in this overcharged state, your Axe blows will deal 20% more damage, your shield will go from being roughly as strong as the Sword and Shield's to being more defensive than the Great Sword, and the Charge Blade can score counter hits on enemies who strike the shield for bonus damage. If you manage to get a full set of Phials whilst the shield is overcharged, this can be used with the overcharged Charge Blade for a devastating final attack that ends the overcharged mode and consumes all phials, but delivers enormous damage that allows it to rip through the armor of almost any foe one can imagine.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

Man, it's all about Chef Miao.

Anyway, 2 more weapon entries before work!

Switch Axe: This is one of those weapons that often goes ignored; it seems way more complicated than it actually is and is a very straightforward weapon. Indeed, it's actually a very newbie-friendly weapon, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. The Switch Axe is a big, heavy, 2-handed weapon. It's notable for its unique ability to change between two seperate forms. The Switch Axe as a whole has enormous reach and high damage, lagging just behind the Greatsword and Hammer families, but it also has a decent swing speed. It has relatively middling sharpness, however, and tends to burn it off quite quickly. The Switch Axe's namesake, however, is where its biggest advantages come into play - it can operate as either a halberd-like greataxe, or as a sword. In its potent sword form, it's actually weaker per hit than in its axe form, but swings much faster and has a much higher damage-per-second rating, appearing as a weaker (but vastly faster) greatsword. This sword form is powered by a special phial built into the Switch Axe, which feeds into the weapon like a battery. There are a number of possible phial types, including Power (increases raw physical damage of the sword mode), Element (increases elemental damage done in sword mode), Status (Increases Poison/Paralysis buildup in Sword Mode), and Exhaust (damages enemy stamina/deals knockout damage in sword mode). The Switch Axe's sword mode consumes some of its fuel phial with each swing; it'll recharge slowly on its own, but if you use too much, the game will allow you to kick-start the process by reloading the Switch Axe. The Switch Axe has limited mobility - rather like the Great Sword - but because it has longer reach, accessible moves, and doesn't quite demand a lot of precision from the player, it's actually a very newbie-friendly weapon. With high damage and a straightforward mechanic, it's a solid weapon overall. Its biggest drawback, obvious problems with being a large weapon aside, is its sharpness curve, which is notoriously front-loaded and has a bad tendency to go down at an inopportune time.
Special Ability - Concentrated Discharge: In sword mode, X+A will deliver a powerful, lunging thrust. The player will then hold the weapon in place, and if X is hit repeatedly, the weapon will deliver up to six additional hits before unloading a brutally powerful explosion from the phial. This consumes an enormous amount of the phial's energy, and burns through the Switch Axe's sharpness like crazy, but is remarkably effective at helping break through an enemy's defense.

Charge Blade: This weapon is another multiple-weapons-in one package, like the switch axe, but functions much differently. Its basic form is a sword and shield, but a much larger and heavier set than the weapon type of the same name. Charge Blades have better reach and higher damage, but are much less combo-friendly and with lower movement speed. Instead, the Charge Blade focuses on building up a charge and using this charge to fuel its secondary mode, which is a powerful (but sluggish) axe similar to the Switch Axe. The Sword mode is primarily used to collect energy with attacks that will be used as fuel for the Axe mode. The weapon will glow in a certain color depending on its current energy level: yellow and red. That energy must be stored in the shield in order to have energy vials for the axe mode's powerful attacks. Storing energy while the sword glows yellow will grant 3 energy phials, while doing so with red glow will fill all 5 phials. These phials are consumed when using the axe mode's A button attacks; they enable massive damage combos and add extra traits to the weapon's Axe mode - Impact Phials increase the physical damage and stun of the Axe mode, whereas Element Phials increase the weapon's elemental damage in axe mode. The axe can be used without charging, but it will be less effective and will be unable to use its high-damage phial-based attacks. Careful balance between sword strikes (to build up a charge) and axe strikes (to use said charge) are important to get the most out of this finicky - but very effective - weapon.
Special Ability - Shield Charge: With a full stock of phials, if you prepare an axe phial combo, but cancel out of its final overhead attack with the R button, you will overcharge your shield, which will start glowing brightly. This consumes all phials, giving you 30 seconds of overcharge for every one consumed (including the 2 you used to start the combo), meaning the Overcharge lasts for 2 minutes and 30 seconds at max charge. When in this overcharged state, your Axe blows will deal 20% more damage, your shield will go from being roughly as strong as the Sword and Shield's to being more defensive than the Great Sword, and the Charge Blade can score counter hits on enemies who strike the shield for bonus damage. If you manage to get a full set of Phials whilst the shield is overcharged, this can be used with the overcharged Charge Blade for a devastating final attack that ends the overcharged mode and consumes all phials, but delivers enormous damage that allows it to rip through the armor of almost any foe one can imagine.

Haven't played since freedom unite. Have to say my favorite new weapon is the charge blade. I'd post my friend code if my university's wifi actually liked non PC wireless connections.

 

[KingofManga420]

I finally caved and am off to go pick up a copy. I've been wanting to have a game to play with kiwis for a while now.

Edit:

#KOMD

 

[A Hotdog]

Hell yeah, I'm in! Let me know when you want to hunt.

I made a group for Monhun party related nonsense,

Spoiler: Shit i forgot cold drinks

https://kiwifarms.net/groups/monster-hunter-jolly-co-operation-station.83/

Let's kill us some monsters.

 

[Jaimas]

Another day, another entry.

Insect Glaive: /v/ hates this thing, which is usually grounds for suspecting it's overpowered. Fucking ignore them. Insect Glaives have been widely documented by every credible pro the community has, from ProJared to the Japanese team as being perfectly balanced against the other weapons. But why the issue at all? Well, the answer is that the Insect Glaive is a Newbie Weapon par excellence, and, as such, /v/ hates it with a fury akin to /pol/'s feelings on the Jewish. It boasts both a fast, hard-hitting melee weapon, and a ranged attack from its unique Kinsect - an attached, domesticated Neopteran monster derived from Seltas stock. You can "blind fire" the Kinsect to attack from afar, or fire a "Pheromone Bullet" that allows the Kinsect to home in on its prey from afar. When the Kinsect hits, it will steal an "essence" from an enemy - a short lived effect that either provides a limited buff or some minimal healing to the wielder. As a basic weapon, it's comparable to the Long Sword, but shorter and a bit more pokey, its biggest advantage being a more utilitarian moveset that features several easy mounting moves. In practice, the Insect Glaive lags behind more offensive weapons pretty handily, even with a damned useful special ability. None of the Insect Glaive's leaps provide the invulnerability frames normal to other jumping abilities, it trends towards mediocre sharpness, and it remains the only weapon with two specific level-up paths - you need to level up the Kinsect seperately by feeding it nectar, then upgrading it, and then repeating the procedure until the Kinsect is a high enough threshold in order to upgrade the Glaive itself. Whilst the Kinsect is customizable because of the ability to elementally enhance the Kinsect itself (even put in contradictory elements like fire and water at the same time), one needs to extensively farm Kinsect Nectars to get their buggy companion to the point where it can be upgraded to an effective degree.
Special Ability - Essence Transfer: The Kinsect, depending on what enemy it hits and where, will steal a different colored essence and bring it back to the player to buff them with. Green heals the player slightly; white boosts speed slightly for a time, red boosts attack slightly for a bit, and orange increases defense for a little while. By combining different essence combinations (Red+White or White+Orange), you can dramatically increase the effects of the buffs. If you can score all three at once, you trigger an advanced mode that not only provides you with all benefits of both combinations above, but increases your attack speed and gives you a few additional moves. Note that none of the Insect Glaive's buffs last particularly long, necessitating multiple Kinsect attacks if one wishes to maintain the stronger buffs and making the Kinsect quite a bit harder to use.

Light Bowgun: "Bowgun" In the Monster Hunter universe is a catchall term for all rifles, personal cannons, and crossbows/ballistae. The Light Bowguns are, in essence, the battle rifles of the Gunner line - relying on large amounts of ammunition and being weaker than Heavy Bowguns, and have shorter effective ranges, but shoot vastly quicker, offer much better mobility, and are much more forgiving as a whole. Different Bowguns are compatible with different shells, and as a rule Light Bowguns focus on elemental damage. "Heavy Artillery" shells like Cluster and Crag rounds can still be used with many Bowguns, but they are a much more finicky proposition since relatively few Light Bowguns have those as an affinity choice. Bowguns can mount a wide variety of accessories, including extended barrels, silencers, and scopes to increase their capabilities. Each of these offers unique choices - a Silencer lowers the priority of a Light Bowgun user to be a target, and reduces recoil, but also imparts range and damage penalties (if slight). Conversely a Long Barrel increases damage, range, and accuracy, but increases recoil and your odds of being targeted. Like all ranged weapons, the Light Bowgun relies on accurate shooting and maintaining proper critical distance - if you fire it in a certain range, depending on the ammo, you deal notably more damage. This is essential to maximizing the damage of all ranged weapons. As a rule, Ranged Weapons are harder to use than melee, but the Light Bowgun is a bit more friendly than the others and definitely worth using.
Special Ability - Rapid Fire/Limiter Removal: Most Light Bowguns have the ability to Rapid Fire a specific kind of ammo (less commonly, more than one) quickly. This gives them high burst DPS, and though the rounds as a whole deal less damage, the concentrated damage means that they can rack up a lot of abuse rather quickly. Firing a burst only consumes one shot, but it roots you to the spot and prevents you from moving during the burst - don't fire a burst when a monster's charging. Late game Bowguns can perform a Limiter Removal ability - this temporarily removes their ability to burst-fire, but allows them to quickly swap ammo without having to reload, enabling a lot of tactical options - you can, for example, fire off piercing shots to unbalance a target before firing off paralysis rounds to stun them and then elemental rounds for raw damage (for example).

 

[Jaimas]

Another Day, Another weapon pair. This is the last one.

Heavy Bowgun: Heavy Bowguns, unlike their light counterparts, are damage monsters. They use heavy ammo like Crag and Clust shots, which deal immense damage, and they have much higher damage per-shot than their light counterparts - but you are infinitely less mobile when using one. Instead of chainable dodge-hops, you have a simpler role, and your movement speed is about on-par with a Great Sword. On the other hand, the Heavy Bowgun is more powerful, more accurate, and loads more ammo. It's a hard weapon to use, especially for the untrained. Most of the advice for the Light Bowgun's style remains true for the Heavy, but the focus on raw damage output and the very different special ability makes the Heavy Bowgun infinitely harder to use correctly. It is, however, pretty much the strongest overall ranged weapon if mastered. Like the Light Bowgun, it can mount a number of accessories - including a shield, interestingly enough, which allows the Heavy Bowgun to block - but this is a personal preference. It goes without saying that this weapon works best with either strong teammates or Fighting Palicos with Flying-F Bomb and/or Support Palicos with Shock Traps.
Special Ability - Siege Mode/Limiter Removal: The Heavy Bowgun's version of Rapid Fire is a stance engaged by hitting X+A with R. This causes you to bunker down and ready the gun for rapid firing. In this state, you are immobile. This renders you extremely vulnerable, but allows you to load a ridiculous number of shots (20+ usually) and fire them off rapidly. This gives it the highest DPS of any ranged weapon, and puts it within striking distance to out-damage monsters like the Dual Blades! Its secondary ability is a Limiter Removal like the Light Bowgun - but rather than remove Rapid Fire for the sake of ammo utility, on the Heavy Bowgun it removes Siege Mode for the sake of a significant damage boost. As such, one must choose carefully whether to stick with DPS or with versatility.

Bow: This is an unusual weapon, and ironically the easiest ranged weapon to use. It has unlimited ammo, and no sharpness indicators. It's also very straightforward, though like all ranged weapons it takes considerable practice to use. It's the most mobile ranged weapon, and relies on the use of specialized coatings to give ammo benefits like damage boosts, elements, or status effects. It functions in many ways similar to the Hammer as far as charges on-the-go work, and can be used for either aimed shots or more general directional shots on-the-go. Like all ranged weapons, critical distance and careful aim is required to maximize this weapon's potential, and it requires much more finesse than a melee weapon. Correctly used, however, this thing makes for a damned fine general-use weapon, and boasts better melee attacks than any of the Bowguns. Like all ranged weapons, it has a much higher learning curve than any melee weapon. Of note: it has a much shorter effective range than Bowguns do, and its arrows, essentially being javelins, drop harshly after a relatively short range. You can use this to fire over obstacles. Each bow handles a bit different, with different ranges and crit ranges, so experiment with the various bows to find the one right for you.
Special Ability - Arc Shot/Power Shot: Like the Hammer and Greatsword, this weapon can charge up for more powerful shots. These shots are done by hitting A during a charged shot. Unlike those, there's multiple different kinds, and it's possible for the different shot levels to be much different - for example, the Hunter's Bow I shoots Rapid Shots with levels 1-3, but Pierce with level 4. The two shot types are Power Shots, which simply do more damage, or Arc Shots, which can make your arrows fire rapidly, fire a fan-shaped spray of arrows, or which explode on impact, depending on the bow.

 

[ATM]

These weapon guides are pretty cool @Jaimas. I gave the glaive a bit of a try the other day but I found it a bit too convoluted for my liking. I don't think I'll ever be able to tear myself away from my trusty GS and lance.
I spent pretty much all day today trying to get a Garuga guild quest so I can get a couple of shells to make a Kirin Thundersword. I cannot get the goddamn thing to drop, it's just an endless stream of Basarios quests. This is hugely irritating. I may just start doing the high rank Yian Garuga and hope that even with the shitty shell drop rate I may have better luck. It's pretty fucked up that I was able to get the materials to make the Ukanlos Destructor after killing it one time, yet making this shitty Kirin sword has taken me like 3 days and counting. Sorry this turned into a rant but yeah I mad.

I've got incredibly ghetto internet right now and I haven't been able to get online at all but I'm G2 at the moment. Hopefully if the situation improves I'll get to hunt with some kiwis, it'd be prete sik.