Light Bowgun (LBG)
The weapon requiring the least effort and risk for reward. Stand at a distance, shoot, reload, and dodge when an attack comes your way. A decent special too. Skill tax hurts, though.
Notes
Armor marked by a 🔸 indicate that the piece is optional, and adds either minimal power to your set or has strong competition in the slot. These sets are created to maximize offensive firepower without many difficult-to-activate conditional skills. The listed grades will be the minimum required to obtain the offensive skills, and it is recommend you upgrade them further than listed if you find the need for more defense. **The build site shows max armor skills.
Other weapon builds
Early Game (Pre-Anjanath)
| Head | Kadachi Helmet (Grade 2) |
| Body Armor | Lumu Mail (Grade 3) |
| Vambraces | Girros Vambraces (Grade 2) 🔸 |
| Belt | Leather Belt (Grade 2) |
| Greaves | Barroth Greaves (Grade 2) |
Girros Vambraces could be replaced with Tobi for Evade Extender. Before Tobi and Paolumu, use Leather Headgear and Leather Mail.
Mid-Game (Pre-Diablos)
| Head | Kadachi Helmet (Grade 2) |
| Body Armor | Lumu Mail (Grade 3) |
| Vambraces | Legiana Vambraces (Grade 5) |
| Belt | Jagras Coil (Grade 4) 🔸 |
| Greaves | Barroth Greaves (Grade 2) |
Jagras Coil is interchangeable with Tobi Coil for Thunder LBG, Legiana Coil for Ice LBG, or Paolumu for defensive properties. Anja Coil works too, to buff your Special.
End Game (Pre-Rathalos)
| Head | Kadachi Helm (Grade 2) |
| Body Armor | Lumu Mail (Grade 6) |
| Vambraces | Legiana Vambraces (Grade 6) |
| Belt | Jagras Coil (Grade 6) 🔸 |
| Greaves | Barroth Greaves (Grade 2) |
Once again, the Jagras Coil is interchangeable with Tobi Coil, Lumu Coil, Legiana Coil, and Anja Coil. If you find yourself using a gun where you're comfortable losing a level of reload or recoil, you can swap out Kadachi Helm/Barroth Greaves for Rathalos Helm or Kulu Greaves respectively.
Light Bowgun (LBG) Weapon Choice
| Jagras Blitz (Jagras) | a potent early game option given how many monsters are weak to water (Kulu, Girros, Tobi, Anja). |
| Thunder Blitz (Tobi-Kadachi) | your only thunder option. You may need this to progress past the Raths. |
| Madness Rifle (Jyuratodus) | the better water LBG. Statistically just better than Jagras. Better ammo types, too. |
| Blazing Rifle (Anja) | your go-to fire LBG. Having only 2 good ammo types, it's easy to cycle between mid ranged fire ammo and strong blasts of sticky fire. |
| Snow Blitz (Legiana) | your only Ice LBG. You'll probably need this to progress past Diablos, given how tanky he is. |
Footnote:
Yes, I didn't list any raw LBG options. Most of them are addled with unfortunate ammo types (Lumu has spread AND pierce, which wants you to go close and far away). If you're truly going to invest into just 1 raw LBG, the Barroth LBG is an acceptable choice but you'll inevitably end up walled. And regarding Anja being the better Fire LBG; Rathalos has *pierce* and *slicing* fire ammo, both of which tend to be much more inconsistent than Anja's sticky. Anja also provides Rising Tide, while Rathalos provides Earplugs.
