Endgame Light Bowgun Meta & Progression

Raw Pierce LBG (Generalist)

credit: dxvis

Note: Elemental Bowgun is very strong and is one of few weapons where Elemental damage is also meta. However, Bowguns deal Elemental damage through Ammo, and only a few skills apply to increase this damage.

As such, Bowguns follow most other weapons in building high Raw/Affinity. This set looks to build Raw/Pierce to be effective in any scenario.

Pierce Ammo is the best raw ammo type, and the one we are going to focus on. It deals more damage than Normal Ammo in the majority of cases, while Spread Ammo is clunky due to its recoil.

For armor, we are combining 4 pieces of Gore Magala for its set bonus, Black Eclipse II, and Arkvulcan Mail β which is usually the best-in-slot chest piece.

How does Gore Magala's set bonus work?

Black Eclipse II gives 10 raw damage against large monsters, increased to 15 after cleansing Frenzy. It continuously inflicts you with Frenzy throughout fights, so the Skills' uptime is almost 100%.

NOTE: Remember that cleansing Frenzy gives 15% affinity for a time, plus an additional 10% from Antivirus 3 (The tooltip is bugged).

Is Gore 4pc the best armor set?

TL;DR: For regular play, it's always better. In certain speedrunning set-ups, if the monster dies before losing rage, Gore 2pc sets can be slightly better.

In regular play (which means you're not trying to speedrun), Black Eclipse II has a much better uptime than Agitator with almost the same offensive capabilities. Furthermore, Gore 4pc also gives Evade Window Lvl. 2 which is great defensive Skill for weapons that rely on dodging, and Gore beta armor hands out a few more Decoration Slots to work with.

Weapon Customization

Szelatya Clairgun (Rey Dau Tree)

• Mods: Pierce Ammo Magazine + Rapid Fire Mod
• • Make sure to customize your Bowgun on the second page of Gemma's smith menu.

This weapon is used over Artian due to having access to Pierce Level 3 Ammo, Rapid Fire, and high Raw.

Decoration Options

You can swap Mighty Jewel for Jumping Jewel to max out Evade Extender, which can be a great choice when playing solo against endgame monsters like Arkveld or Gore Magala.

Gore 4pc gives one free Lvl1 decoration slot you can fill with your favorite Skill. The recommended Skill options are Protection Jewel, Flash Jewel, Physique Jewel.

You can replace Precise Jewel II with more Opener Jewel II or Critical Jewel II, but the range is very nice QoL.

About Corrupted Mantle

Corrupted Mantle is hands down your best option, as it gives attack and affinity. But it even has a few more hidden interactions that you can use:

• Duplicates hits with △ attack inputs.
• Makes Elemental ammo deal additional damage if the FPS cap is set at 35.

Agitator vs WEX

In speedruns or fast multiplayer runs with Corrupted Mantle, you'll want more Agitator than Weakness Exploit. Simply replace Arkvulcan Mail β with Blango Mail β and the Talisman/Jewels to Challenger Jewel / Challenger Charm II.