Heavy BowGun Ammo Types

[Tyranocif]

I picked up using zthe Heavy BowGun, but cannot use the Water Ammo Type with it. What gives?

[Saraf]

Press CTRL in the weapon tree workshop, it showed which ammo it can used.

[Vanessa]

I'm going to take a wild guess and say your bowgun can't load water ammo.

No bowgun in the game is able to fire every single ammo type.

[TT]

Certain guns use certain ammos, hover over it in the upgrade menu and it should show the keybind for seeing ammo types in the bottom right.

[Tyranocif]

Oh okay. Thanks! Good to know. Rapid fast response!

[Lyote]

In addition to just seeing which ammo types a particular Bowgun is capable of firing, you also want to look at the Clip Size, Recoil and Reload times for those shots.

Typically, each gun focuses around a "Main" ammo type. Legia Shattercryst for example can shoot all kinds of ammo, but specializes in Pierce Shots. This is indicated by Pierce Shots 1, 2 and 3 having large clip sizes, low Recoil and fast Reloads.
With that gun, Pierce is your mainstay shot.

On the other hand, take something like the Great Jagras HBG. It has a huge clip for Spread Shots with low Recoil and fast Reloads while Pierce and Normal are virtually useless.

Idea is to build your Gun around a "main" ammo type, and mix in alternative shots when the situation calls for it.
Like Wyvernfire Ammo for waking a sleeping Monster, dropping a Cluster Bomb or 3 on a downed/knocked out monster. But only if the melee aren't nearby. Culsters are cancer in multiplayer.
Or even Sleep, Paralyze and Poison Shots for that extra bit of team support.

But generally, focus on one type of shot and carry specialized supporting ammo on the side for when they're needed as dictated by the HBG in question.

[Mdaddy924]

Honestly outside of a few guns the elemental ammo is not worth firing because of poor recoil or slow reloads, but overall i found the elemental ammo for the HBG to be middling and just worse than the damage potential of the other ammo types you can be firing, unless im missing something.

[Vanessa]

Yeah I wouldn't bother with elemental. I've found in some very specific scenarios with very specific weapons it can be worth popping off the shots you have, but reloading and otherwise nah.