Help a noob out? (Ammo Edition)

Having played with it, I rather like working as a gunner.  However, I have run into some problems understanding how some of the various ammo types work.

First of all, what good are pierce shots?  Maybe I'm just using the wrong bowguns and none of them happen to be optimized for their use, but they always seem to have bad reload times with small cartridge sizes and don't seem to be hitting multiple times like their description says they should be.

Second, what is the optimum range for Level 2 Pellet Shots?  I've tried way far away to right up in the monster's face, but I can't ever seem to trigger the multiple hit effect like I can with the Level 1 Pellet Shots.

Third, outside of the elemental shots (freezing, water, fire, etc) I've not really been able to figure out which of the "special effect" shots are useful.  I realize every hunt is different, but in general are there any of these special status-inflicting ammo types such as sleep, paralysis, or poison I should be using more often?

And lastly, is there any way to craft Slime Shots?  With ammos that have low inventory capacities I usually pack ingredients to craft more on the spot when I run out, but I can't for the life of me find a recipe that even looks like it would be used to make these.  I've not used any Slime Shots yet, but as I'm currently working towards some Brachydios gear I figure they'd be worth looking into at least to experiment with.  Am I stuck buying these from the shop and only having 12 shots per hunt?

Thanks in advance for any help!

MasterOnion wrote:

You have to line up pierce shots, and they are not good on small monsters. They follow a line and continue hitting along that line, if there is not enough of the monster in the way after the first or second hit they do no further damage.


The optimal range for pellet shots is only about 1-2 rolls away from the monster. Just make sure you have the gun facing the monsters center for all the hits to land.


Yes there are status effect ammo's for bowguns, and you should be able to see every ammo type in your bowgun's equipment data.


Huskberry + Bomb Arowana makes Slime S

Thanks, that clears up some stuff
Though my third question was less about if there were different effect shots and more asking which ones were useful.  Which status effect shots should I be using, and which ones should I be avoiding?

Reaperfan wrote:

MasterOnion wrote:

You have to line up pierce shots, and they are not good on small monsters. They follow a line and continue hitting along that line, if there is not enough of the monster in the way after the first or second hit they do no further damage.


The optimal range for pellet shots is only about 1-2 rolls away from the monster. Just make sure you have the gun facing the monsters center for all the hits to land.


Yes there are status effect ammo's for bowguns, and you should be able to see every ammo type in your bowgun's equipment data.


Huskberry + Bomb Arowana makes Slime S

Thanks, that clears up some stuff 
Though my third question was less about if there were different effect shots and more asking which ones were useful.  Which status effect shots should I be using, and which ones should I be avoiding?

All of the elemental shots are good. You just have to use each one according to the monster's weakness. If you are fighting a Rathian, (weak to Dragon, then Thunder) You should try to bring a good gun that can hold one of those, or both. However, if you are fighting a Great Jaggi, (Weak to Fire, then I'm not sure what, because I've never needed to know, because it always dies incredibly fast) then try to find a gun that can hold fire ammo. Also, for better results, try to get a gun that can rapid fire them. Because this will make your shots last much longer, and making you do more damage. Allowing you to deal lots of damage for a longer period of time.

I'm assuming that you are using Light Bowguns however. If you are using Heavy Bowguns, then go for Bowguns with allot of raw damage and use Normal Lvl 3 and 2. As Normal can be a very powerful shot. If you use Heavy Bowguns, and use elemental shots, then I have no advice for you.

if you want to use status effects as a bowgunner then the most effective status's are situational and depend on if you're solo/grouped and how well the group is at picking up on the monster going to sleep if you're grouped.

if your group sucks at figuring out the monster is going to sleep then use paralysis and don't bother sleeping, they can just take advantage of the free hits.

if they pick up on sleeping well and take advantage of the opportunity to bomb it or cut it's tail then sleeping is pretty useful as the first hit to a sleeping monster does 3X damage.

if you're solo sleeping isn't that great unless you plan to carry bombs with you to detonate on it's head or whatever when you sleep it.
and i don't bother with paralysis when solo, it feels to me as though it takes too long to swap ammo and reload after getting it paralyzed to make the time spent getting it paralyzed worth the trouble.

so generally, paralysis is never bad when grouped, sleep is situational depending on the group, and imo status isn't really worth the trouble when solo unless you wanna use bombs with sleep.