The Light Bowgun, or LBG for short, finds itself in a strange position in Monster Hunter World. It’s a fantastic weapon, able to adapt itself to any and every situation that the game world throws at it, replete with novel and interesting models and countless ammunition options. Unfortunately, in the early game at least, it’s reduced to a variety of different looking Normal Ammo, Rapid Fire options. This isn’t necessarily a problem, after all our list today is filled with powerful options that do plenty of damage to your targets, it’s just a little…Dull. That being the case, keep reading to see our Top 3 Early LBG that will do enough damage to get you to the mid & late game where interesting LBG can be found! We’re excited, honest!
LBG #3: Chain Blitz

Our first Light Bowgun option is probably the most basic of weapon recommendations we’ve given yet. Yes, Chain Blitz is essentially the generic ‘Ore’ line of weapons, most known for being avoided until you reach Nergigante. It’s positioned in our list for two main reasons; the LBG itself is actually quite good in the early game, and the model that you unlock when you do finally down the spiky horned lad is definitely worth preparing for. Consider this the training wheels that you’ll eventually cast off.
The weapon itself features the ability to Rapid Fire Normal Ammo 1. This may not sound like a fantastically powerful option, and you’d be right in thinking so, but it’s also infinite, meaning you’ll keep firing long after other ammunition runs out, something that’s likely to be a regular occurrence whilst learning new monsters. This particular weapon will also auto reload Poison ammo, which is a nice bonus, but the main reason you’ll want to keep and upgrade this LBG is for the upgrade in High Rank, Cataclysm’s Trigger. This is one of the absolute best LBG you can find at High Rank, and is ideal for pushing your way into the early Master Rank portions of Iceborne.
Early Features
- Rapid Fire Normal Ammo 1.
- Fantastic upgrade path through High Rank.
- Good, varied ammo selection to introduce you to the world of Bowguns.
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LBG #2: Defender Light Bowgun

We noted in our Lance article that we don’t really like recommending the ‘Defender’ set of equipment, mainly because they’re designed to be very powerful through Low and High Rank. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, after all we’re recommending powerful choices too, but these particular weapons have been tuned to be just a little too powerful, rendering things just a little too easy for certain weapons. Similar to the Lance, we’re happy to recommend this here because the LBG itself is a difficult proposition, and just having your hands on this won’t all of a sudden make you invincible.
As a weapon, the Defender Light Bowgun is a beast. It’s main focus is the Rapid Fire application of Normal Ammo 2, of which it has a high capacity, meaning you’ll get even more shots than usual. Itself this bonus isn’t anything special, after all every LBG we’re recommending for the early game focuses on Normal shots, but the raw damage of this thing really makes the difference. It’s about hitting your target very hard, lots of times over, preferably pointing at it’s squishy bits. Nothing more, nothing less.
Early Features
- Very powerful raw damage.
- High capacity Normal 2 Rapid Fire.
- Cannot be upgraded too far (though it’ll still be powerful in the late game).
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LBG #1: Garon Rifle

Yes, we’re recommending yet another Normal Ammo focused weapon and that might seem a little boring, but trust us the early selection of LBG really isn’t anything to write home about. You’ll struggle to find anything more powerful than Normal Ammo in the early game too, so having at least one of our choices by your side will keep the bullets flying and the monsters falling.
The Garon Rifle in particular has to be our absolute favourite, and not just because of the nice looking weapon model. It too houses the ability to Rapid Fire Normal 2 Ammo, bringing it in line with the Defender model, though you’ll immediately note that it cannot house as many shots. Happily, this model makes up for it by bringing along a chunk of affinity, 15% at base level to be exact. In the early portions of Monster Hunter World you’re unlikely to have access to Weakness Exploit or a high amount of critical jewels, so this affinity is a nice boon.
It’s benefits continue to grow as you upgrade it too. The affinity will jump up to 30% very quickly and eventually max out at 35% in Iceborne, and throughout all of this it retains a very low or completely nonexistent deviation, meaning your power critical shots can be as accurate as possible. Capping it all off is a fantastic weapon model, especially once it upgrades into the ‘Karma’ model at High Rank, something that’s too often missing from weapons in the base game.
Early Features
- Medium damage & high affinity, Normal Ammo 2 Rapid Fire.
- Upgrades into the fantastic Karma LBG in High Rank.
- High Affinity rating as it upgrades, allowing for skill diversity.

Categories: Monster Hunter World, Top 5