Bow Builds, Best Skills, & Armor

Monster Hunter Wilds reintroduces hunters to three different ranged weapons, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. While the Light Bowgun and Heavy Bowgun provide amazing firepower, the Bow offers unmatched mobility compared to the other two. If you want to learn how to run circles around large monsters using the Bow as your main weapon, this guide is for you.

How to use the Bow in Monster Hunter Wilds

The Bow is a versatile ranged weapon in Monster Hunter Wilds. Not only is it one of the few weapons that allows you to attack from a distance, but the Bow also offers great evasive maneuvers and deadly pierce damage. Quick Shots are your default source of attacks and are great for starting fights, while Spread Shots work best when you target wider monsters with large bodies or wingspans.

When you knock down large monsters, you can follow up on their vulnerable state with a powerful Arc Shot that drops shrapnel on your target. Hitting the head leads to a high chance of stun, keeping the monster knocked down for longer. Use this with Power Coating for best results.

If the monster is pinned down for longer, find the right angle for a devastating Dragon Piercer that can run through the monster’s entire body if fired right. With a high enough affinity and Pierce Coating, you should be able to inflict multiple wounds and possibly break monster parts with this attack.

You can then capitalize on wounded parts using the Focus button and firing homing Tracer rounds that will destroy every wound and make the monster flinch, if not knock them down again. Finally, equip some slinger ammo and launch it all at once using the Thousand Dragons attack. Ideally, you want to do this with a full barrel of slinger ammo for maximum damage.

Now that you know how to use the Bow’s quick attacks, you will need to know what the best Bow build is.

Best Bow builds in Monster Hunter Wilds

The best build for any Bow user involves crafting certain components with specific skills that benefit your build. While you could always build Artian Weapons with custom stats, this build will showcase the best weapon you can craft using monster parts without needing to use Artian components.

Since Bows work well with elements, this elemental build variation would work for targeting specific monster weaknesses.

If you’re not a big fan of using elemental attacks, this build variation using raw damage with high affinity and wounding power would be your best bet.

However, not every weapon works best in every situation. As a Bow user, you need to come prepared for specific fights, so keep these weapons handy at all times.

Best weapons

As mentioned earlier, Bows work well with elemental damage. The recommended Bows on this list will consist of the strongest elemental damage bows of every element type—Fire, Water, Thunder, Ice, and Dragon. You can only craft these Bows after you reach High Rank and defeat powerful large monsters that generate the specific elemental power you want to harness.

• Fire: Strange Kut-Ku Stave
• Water: Khviluk-of-the-Waves
• Thunder: Fulgurbow Guardiana
• Ice: Singha Sharanga
• Dragon: Renowned Tristram

The best Fire Bow you can have is the Strange Kut-Ku Stave, a weapon that stands at the pinnacle of the Kut-Ku tree. You will have to defeat a fair number of Yian Kut-Ku to acquire the Kut-Ku Carapace you need to craft this. Your best bet is to farm Tempered Yian Kut-Ku to get Hunter Symbols along with the parts. The final component you will need is the rare Nu Udra Flamegem.

Khviluk-of-the-Waves is the strongest Water Bow that can be crafted using parts of the Apex Predator Uth Duna. A few successful hunts will yield the Uth Duna Tentacles and Uth Duna Hides you need, but you might have to try harder to acquire the rare Uth Duna Watergem for this Bow. Once again, we recommend hunting Tempered Uth Duna to acquire the higher tier Hunter Symbols required.

If you want to hunt Uth Duna itself, you might want to bring the Fulgurbow Guardiana along as your Thunder Bow of choice. You will need to hunt Guardian Fulgur Anjanath for these components, especially the Guardian Fulgur Nosebone+ and the Guardian Fulgur Pelt+. Complete your crafting with a rare Guardian Fulgur Gem+ and some Hunter Symbols.

The Singha Sharanga is the bow you want to take along when you’re hunting monsters weak to Ice. You should find most of what you need by hunting a few Blangonga and their Blango minions, including some Blangonga Pelt+ and Blangonga Tails. You will also need to hunt the elusive Jin Dahaad for its rare Jin Dahaad Icegem with some Hunter Symbolds to craft this Bow.

Finally, the best Dragon weapon you could go for is the Renowned Tristram, an Arkveld weapon that is crafted using components only found from the flagship monster itself. You will need a few Arkveld Horn+ and some Arkveld Armorplates which are fairly easy to acquire. However, the Arkveld Gem is not that common, so be prepared to run a few Investigations to get what you need.

Best armor

The right armor set pieces can make all the difference between a good build and a mediocre one. Before you get to the ideal endgame build, we recommend sticking to the Dober Alpha High Rank set with all five of its pieces to get the following set bonuses.

• Dober Helm Alpha
• Dober Mail Alpha
• Dober Vambraces Alpha
• Dober Coil Alpha
• Dober Greaves Alpha

All of the set pieces together will grant you level five Constitution, level three Stamina Surge, level three Marathon Runner, and level two Mushroomancer, skills that are great for high stamina builds. Once you’ve hunted enough monsters and are looking to upgrade your build, we recommend hunting some Guardian Rathalos, Guardian Ebony Odogaron, and Guardian Fulgur Anjanath.

These specific set pieces will give you the bonuses you need.

• Guardian Fulgur Helm Beta
• Guardian Rathalos Mail Beta
• Guardian Ebony Vambraces Beta
• Guardian Ebony Coil Beta
• Guardian Fulgur Greaves Beta

The Guardian Fulgur Anjanath’s Agitator, Stamina Surge, and Coalescence with the Second Wind set bonus will help your hunting and stamina needs. The Guardian Ebony Odogaron will grant you Burst and the Burst Boost set bonus for even more elemental damage. Finally, the Guardian Rathalos chestpiece will grant you Weakness Exploit and Intimidator, making you a well-rounded Hunter.

Finally, for endgame armor pieces, you need to take down challenging monsters like Gore Magala and Arkveld for their components. These are the pieces that work well with a Bow build.

• Gore Helm Beta
• Arkvulkan Mail Beta
• Guardian Arkveld Vambraces Beta
• Gore Coil Beta
• Gore Greaves Beta

Once you have everything you need, it’s time to find the right Talismans.

Best talismans

The final part of this build revolves around finding the right Talismans for your Bow build. Talismans are usually slotted to fill in for the skills you need but don’t have or increase the level of certain existing skills essential for your build. For the earlier stages of the game, you can stick with the Blessing Charm if you want a maxed out Divine Blessing skill as a clutch save.

As you go up Hunter Ranks, your skill will inevitably improve and Divine Blessing will not feel as useful as it once did. This is when you switch to Talismans that give you new skills to help hunt larger monsters. Some good options are the Chainblade Charm for Flayer, the Breaker Charm for Partbreaker, the Challenger Charm for Agitator, and the Fitness Charm for Constitution.

When it comes to endgame Talismans, all you will need are options that boost your existing skills to max level. There is no fixed Talisman for any endgame build so feel free to experiment with skills you find effective and enhance them even further for those eight-star Tempered hunts.