Sometimes you want to keep things simple. When you’re picking a weapon to focus on in Monster Hunter Rise, the Heavy Blowgun lets you do exactly that. Whether you want to focus on spreading damage out over a wide area or hammering a single target, the Heavy Blowgun has some of the highest damage potential in the game. Depending on how you build your character around this weapon, it can lay some serious hurt on monsters.

Here are a few of the best possible builds with the Heavy Blowgun in Monster Hunter Rise, giving you everything you need to know about how to wield these mighty weapons. Like our Insect Glaive builds, this weapon needs a little care in how you build your character around them.

The best Heavy Blowgun builds in Monster Hunter Rise

Critical Spread Build

This build focuses on increasing the power of your Spread ammo and upping your Critical Hit chance by exploiting monster weak spots. If your goal is raw damage output, this is your best option.

  • Weapon – Sinister Dreadvolley – This weapon has a devastating 220 attack rating, so it is an obvious choice for damage dealing builds with the Heavy Blowgun.Armor – Rakna Helm, Rakna Mail, Valstrax Braces, Rakna Coil, Golden Hakama – Mix and match your armor to get the right skills. You’ll get several Reload Skill and Spread Up skills from these pieces, plus some skills to increase your Critical Hit chance and damage.Talisman Skill – Weakness Exploit Level 1Decorations – One Precise Jewel 2, Three Absorber Jewel 1, One Critical Jewel 2, One Brace Jewel 1, Three Mighty Jewel 2Skills – Weakness Exploit Level 3, Recoil Down Level 3, Maximum Might Level 3, Spread Up Level 3, Reload Speed Level 3, Critical Boost Level 3, Dragonheart Level 1, Flinch Free Level 1, Latent Power Level 1, Ballistics Level 1

Critical Piercer Build

This build focuses more on upping critical hits and getting past enemy armor. It doesn’t have the super high damage output that some other builds have, but against enemies with nigh-impenetrable armor, it can still lay the hurt down.

  • Weapon – Arknamortar – This Heavy Blowgun doesn’t have quite as high a base attack score as the one above, but it has an extra slot that we’re going to use to make it more devastating to armored enemies.Armor – Rhenoplos Helm, Vaik Mail, Valstrax Bracers, Anjanath Coil, Golden Hakama – These pieces of armor come with skills that up Attack and Critical damage as well as Pierce Up to help push that damage through enemy armor.Talisman – Wirebug Whisperer – This skill is going to make you more mobile and up your survivability.Decorations – One Pierce Jewel 3, Three Attack Jewel 2, One Critical Jewel 2, One Tenderizer Jewel 2, One Wirebug Jewel 2, Three Absorber Jewel 1, Three Quickload Jewel 1, Two Steadfast Jewel 1Skills – Attack Boost Level 5, Critical Boost Level 3, Weakness Exploit Level 3, Pierce Up Level 3, Reload Speed Level 3, Recoil Down Level 3, Stun Resistance Level 3, Wirebug Whisperer Level 3, Latent Power Level 1, Dragonheart Level 1

Heavy Artillery Build 

This build focuses less on outright damage and more on inflicting different types of damage, making this an explosive and diverse build that you can use against multiple monster types.

  • Weapon – Rampage H. Blowgun – This weapon has a high attack score, but it also is highly modular, allowing it to be customized to reach an even higher base damage output while spreading that damage across multiple damage types.Armor – Utsushi Mask, Vaik Mail, Anjanath Vambraces, Anjanath Coil, Mosgharl Roots – These pieces will give us higher Attack Boost skills while the Wirebug Whisperer skill will decrease your wirebug cooldown and keep you moving freely around the battlefield.Talisman – Wirebug Whisperer – Again, this keeps you mobile and makes you harder to hit as you attract plenty of attention.Decorations – Three Artillery Jewel 2, One Attack Jewel 2, One Thrift Jewel 2, One KO Jewel 2, Three Quickload Jewel 1, Two Sniper Jewel 1, One Absorber Jewel 1Skills – Attack Boost Level 5, Spare Shot Level 3, Slugger Level 3, Artillery Level 3, Reload Speed Level 3, Recoil Down Level 3, Wirebug Whisperer Level 3, Razor Sharp Level 2, Steadiness Level 2