As a bow main with 500+ hours playing Monster Hunter games, I‘ve slayed countless beasts with my trusty elemental arrows. But finding the right bow build in Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak gave even me trouble at first.
The expanded switch skills and armor abilities allow for diverse new bow setups – but that can feel overwhelming for new hunters. This 2000-word guide will break down how to craft optimal bow builds for all stages of Sunbreak, along with plenty of personal tips from my experience.
Bow Types and Shot Attributes
All bows fall under three shot types, each with distinct properties:
Rapid
- Highest rate of fire
- Lowest damage per arrow
- Largest close-range spread
- Best all-rounder shot type
Spread
- Fires a horizontal fan of arrows
- Highest damage per arrow at close range
- Lowest range of the three shot types
- Requires very close positioning
Pierce
- Arrows penetrate the monster hitting multiple times
- Moderate damage per arrow
- Highest range of the three shot types
- Position laterally to maximize hits
I suggest rapid bows if you‘re newer to Monster Hunter ranged weapons. Their balance of damage and range gives more leeway for error compared to spread or pierce bows.
As you improve at positioning, spread bows can provide the fastest clear times due to their tremendous damage potential. Pierce bows can also pump out nice damage but rely more on specific monster matchups. Their arrows need to connect along a longer body axis to maximize hit counts.
Now let‘s examine how armor skills can amplify your bow‘s killing potential…
Must-Have Armor Skills
These skills provide the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to dishing out damage:
Critical Eye
Boosts your affinity rate, giving you more frequent critical hits for that sweet 12% bonus raw damage. Extremely useful for consistent DPS. With high-rank weapons reaching up to 30% affinity, you can get nearly 100% critical rate with Critical Eye 7.
Weakness Exploit
Up to 50% affinity rate when hitting weakened monster parts – contributes heavily to achieving 100% affinity with Critical Eye. Great for focusing tenderized parts using spread or pierce shots.
Critical Boost
Increases critical hit bonus damage from 12% to 30% at level 3. Massive damage spike especially paired with 100% affinity setups.
Normal/Rapid Up
5/10/15% attack increases for normal and rapid shots on bows. One of the largest percentage damage boosts for bows specifically.
Shot Type Up
10/15% damage increase for your bow‘s shot type (spread, pierce etc). The Shredder armor set bonus provides this natively for spread bows.
Stacking these offensive skills allows you to cut hunt times dramatically. But let‘s talk about defensive skills that give you greater combat flexibility…
Helpful Defensive Skills
Bow is an extremely mobile weapon, but you sacrifice defense for that unmatched evasive capability. Useful skills like Constitution and Stamina Surge improve your mobility uptime considerably.
Constitution
Reduces stamina depletion by 10/20/30% at levels 1, 3, and 5 respectively. One of the best defensive skills for bows bar none. You always need enough stamina for emergency dodges!
3 levels of Constitution plus food buffs gives you near infinite charges, powershots, and dodgebolt dashes. Very comfortable baseline.
Stamina Surge
Speeds up stamina recovery by 10/20/30% per level. Great supplement to Constitution for maintaining agility and charge stamina.
Recovery Up
Increases health recoveries by 10/20/30%. Helpful for offsetting the incremental health drain from Dereliction or Bloodlust armor effects. Lets you stay in the fight longer.
Recovery Speed
Accelerates red portion health recovery by 30/50/70% per level. Augments healing from attacking (Bloodlust) or items making it easier to undo chip damage.
Divine Blessing
30% chance at 20/30/50% damage reduction when hit. Random but unreliable – still useful for surviving huge attacks. 3 levels can save you from certain carts.
Adjust defensive skills to suit your preference, but Constitution should be your first priority. Now let‘s jump into early game build options…
Starting Off Strong: Early Game Bow Sets
As a new Master Rank hunter with limited decorations, what armor skills should you prioritize early on for bows?
Skills to Target
- Constitution – Core skill for any bow build period.
- Shot Type Up – 10% for your bow‘s shot is huge early.
- Attack Boost – Raw increases are great before access to affinity skills.
- Stamina Surge – Maintain Dodgebolt mobility.
The early game Shellis Headgear X, Shellis Vest X, and Shellis Crura X armor provides Shot Type Up naturally. Paired with the staple Kamura armor pieces we get:
- Constitution 2
- Shot Type Up
- Attack Boost 4
- Stamina Surge 3
- Critical Eye 1
This gives fantastic baseline offense and constitution. You can slot in extra constitution if you want but it already performs great.
For rapid fire Khezu Syringe or pierce Despot‘s Earlybolt are top choices for early Master Rank bows. Their high raw, white sharpness, and 15% affinity gives great per arrow damage.
Average Charge Shot Damage
- Non-weakspot: 18 + 21 = 39
- Weakspot (10%): 20 + 23 = 43
That‘s fantastic considering you can shoot them so rapidly using Focus Shot. Now let‘s see how mid game builds can enhance your offense further…
Unleashing Max Deeps: Mid Game Sets
By MR4 you‘ve likely fought staples like Aurora Somnacanth, Garangolm, and Lunagaron. This gives access to more offensive skill combinations. Two mid game options stand out for tremendous damage potential:
Set 1 – Critical Status
- Shellis Headgear X – Shot Type Up
- Vaik Mail S – Rapid Morph 2
- Rathalos Braces S – Attack Boost 2
- Anjanath Coil S – Normal/Rapid Up
- Shellis Crura X – Shot Type Up
With decorations this provides:
- Shot Type Up
- Attack Boost 4
- Normal/Rapid Up 3
- Critical Eye 3
- Weakness Exploit 3
- Critical Status 2
Awaken elemental status on your bow for a 30/40% boost to status buildup from Critical Status 2 – extremely strong for elemental matchups.
You‘ll also pump out high raw damage with Shot Type Up, Attack Boost, and Normal/Rapid Up active.
Average Charge Shot Damage
- Non-weakspot: 22 + 25 = 47
- Weakspot (15%): 25 + 29 = 54
Set 2 – Maximum Might
- Vaik Helm X – Critical Boost 2
- Vaik Mail S – Rapid Morph 2
- Rathalos Braces S – Attack Boost 2
- Ingot Coil X – Maximum Might 3
- Ingot Greaves X – Maximum Might 2
Gems give us:
- Critical Boost 3
- Attack Boost 4
- Rapid Morph 3
- Maximum Might 5
- Critical Eye 4
Maximum Might activates 9 seconds after your last attack giving you 30/40/50 affinity when your stamina is full. This has great synergy with Dodgebolt‘s high mobility hit and run style.
You have an 85% affinity rate when Maximum Might activates in addition to landing weakpoint hits. This means almost all your arrows will be critical, boosted further by Critical Boost 3. Devastating raw damage!
Average Charge Shot Damage
- Non-weakspot: 25 x 1.12 = 28
- Weakspot (40%): 34 x 1.4 = 48
As you can see, mid game sets offer tremendous damage potential for bows. Now let‘s explore revolutionary endgame builds!
Ruler of All Monsters: Meta Endgame Sets
Thanks to armor augmentation and additional slots, you can achieve 100% affinity critical bow setups that absolutely demolish monsters. These damage-oriented endgame builds require some rare decorations, but provide the pinnacle of bow play.
I‘ve included mathematical spreadsheets detailing true raw calculations and expected affinity rates. Let‘s dive in!
Set 1 – Comfy Meta
Prioritizing comfiness and versatility, this set maintains great damage thanks to the combo of Dereliction and Mail of Hellfire armor. Together they provide a large attack boost at the cost of red health that Bloodlust allows you to recover. Very fun and aggressive!
- Malzeno Helm – Critical Eye 2
- Mail of Hellfire – Dereliction 1, Attack Boost 2
- Archfiend Armor – Weakness Exploit 2, Resentment 1
- Malzeno Coil – Rapid Morph 2
- Malzeno Greaves – Critical Eye 2
Decorations
- Charger Jewel 2 x2
- Mighty Bow Jewel 2 x1
- Critical Jewel 2 x2
- Tenderizer Jewel 2 x2
- Attack Jewel 2 x1
Key Skills
- Weakness Exploit 3
- Critical Eye 7
- Critical Boost 3
- Attack Boost 4
- Bloodlust 3
- Dereliction 3
- Stamina Surge 3
- Rapid Morph 3
- Resentment 1
- Bow Charge Plus
This build reaches 100% affinity on weakspots supported by high raw attack. You gain a large attack boost from Dereliction and Bloodlust at a minimal survivability cost thanks to health recoveries. Very fun, aggressive style!
True Raw Calculation
- Malzeno Bow – 190
- Dereliction Active – 190 x 1.07 = 203
- Powercharm/talon – 203 x 1.06 = 215
Expected Affinity
- Critical Eye 7 – 40%
- Weakness Exploit 3 – 50%
- Total – 90%
You can slot in Latent Power or Coalescence for even more damage at the cost of comfiness. But this offers a nice balance and still wrecks monsters with simple charged shot spam.
Set 2 – Glass Cannon
This set achieves the meta goal of 100% affinity and Critical Boost 3 to enable enormous critical hit damage. But with lower defense you‘re quite fragile, making evasion and shield skills more valuable.
Risk versus reward – achieve the highest potential per-hit damage in the game but cart more easily. Following the meta demands flawless, aggressive play.
- Dragonlord‘s Crown – Critical Eye 2
- Silver Solmail – Critical Eye 2, Critical Boost 1
- Silver Solbraces – Critical Eye 2
- Malzeno Coil – Rapid Morph 2
- Malzeno Greaves – Critical Eye 2
Decorations
- Charger Jewel 2 x2
- Mighty Bow Jewel 2 x1
- Critical Jewel 2 x4
- Tenderizer Jewel 2 x2
Key Skills
- Critical Eye 7
- Weakness Exploit 3
- Critical Boost 3
- Rapid Morph 3
- Bow Charge Plus
You achieve an absurd 100% affinity rate on weakspots with this setup. Paired with the 1.4x critical boost from Critical Boost 3, your damage output borders on broken.
True Raw Calculation
- Nergigante Bow – 210
- Powercharm/talon – 210 x 1.06 = 222
Expected Affinity
- Critical Eye 7 – 40%
- Weakness Exploit 3 – 50%
- Total – 100%
Every single arrow that hits a tenderized monster part will be a 1.4x damage critical shot. Complete destruction.
The lack of defensive skills means you‘ll cart more easily to big hits. But with perfect play you can annihilate monsters faster than any other weapon type.
Bow Combos and Damage Maximization
Now that you understand various setups and skills, let‘s discuss bow attack combos and maximizing damage uptime.
The Focus Shot switch skill is mandatory as it enhances your level 1 charge into a much stronger triple arrow blast. Your bread and butter combo is:
- Dodgebolt dance into close range
- Focus Shot x3 into monster weak zone
- Charged Shot level 2 critical into same zone
- Dodgebolt away and re-position
Strings of this combo facilitate fantastic damage thanks to exploiting monster elemental weaknesses and hitting those delicious 45+ hit counts on powershots.
Maximize Damage Uptime
- Maintain peak power on bow coatings
- Keep landing fully charged power shots
- Reapply poison/blast status efficiently
- Avoid low damage tick shots
- Don‘t overcommit combos, stay mobile!
Remaining mobile and re-positioning appropriately is imperative to maximize damage uptime.
Now let‘s discuss proper uses of thousand dragons and which arrows types to focus when…
Exploiting Thousand Dragons and Shot Types
A key mechanic of the bow is charging up and releasing thousand dragons explosions. But how do you gain charges efficiently?
After any evasion you gain a free thousand dragons charge. With Dodgebolt and high constitution that‘s easy to facilitate. Dash Juice removes ALL limitations – you can literally infinite thousand dragon by chaining dodges.
So when do you release thousand dragons versus regular combos?
Small Monster Groups – Great for removing pesky small monsters interfering with the fight. Dash juice can let you chain these indefinitely with Dodgebolt for area control.
Between Monster Zones – Free damage while the monster transitions areas without wasting too much uptime. Easy dash juice value.
Wakeup Hits – Nice way to open the wakeup slap party. Just don‘t destroy sleepy bois alone!
Downed States – Sometimes better to just unload your best raw combos on softened weak zones. But still solid occasional part breaks.
And what about shot types? Remember rapid gives mobility, spread offers max raw damage, and pierce depends greatly on hitzone matchup.
Adaptive Strategy
I suggest starting with rapid bows for smooth hunts. If you want speed kills, pay attention to shot type hitzones and don‘t be afraid to craft multiple bows! Spread 2 decimates if you can consistently land close range volleys on ideal monsters. Groups of small monsters are pierce‘s time to shine.
The bow‘s flexibility encourages an adaptive mindset to really dominate hunts. Elementally match your bow, analyze monster patterns from a distance, and dance within their sweet spot ranges. Now go puncture those beasts!
Conclusion
Creating the perfect bow build in Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak allows you to dance circles around monsters and shred apart beasts at astonishing speeds.
To play at an extremely high level requires meticulous mastery of spacing…
Familiarity of thousand dragons charging through fluid Dodgebolt chaining…
Intimate elemental hitzone knowledge to abuse critical status and bow charge plus powers on precise weakpoints…
And untouchable finnesse to properly punish the smallest monster openings with charged shot spam.
This is the pinnacle of bow play – effortless waltzing within the beast‘s arena to surgically deconstruct your prey with vibrant elemental precision. A titillating tango indeed.
I hope this guide helps you create and fully optimize incredible bow setups to enhance your Master Rank journey however you see fit!
The bow‘s unmatched fluidity keeps me enraptured hunt after hunt. Here‘s to many future victories scored harrying monsters with barrages of humming arrows!
Let me know what setups you end up enjoying most in the comments below. Happy hunting!
