Gunlance

Weapon Traits



 * The Gunlance has piercing damage (meaning it has a bonus damage in every piercing attack you do), and most of the monsters in the game are very weak to this kind of damage. It could be said that the damage goes almost directly through a monster, this meaning that while most weapons will have a damage reduction due to the monsters defense, a Gunlance user (as well as a Lance user) will have most of its base damage go unaffected.


 * The Gunlance provides the hunter with Shielding capability, as good as a Lance user due to the size of the shields, Lance and the Gunlance have the strongest Shielding capability, and can block some attacks that to other shielding weapons would otherwise be unblockable.


 * The Gunlance has the quick draw feat, allowing the hunter to quick draw the weapon to shielding position just by pressing "R" button and then triangle while standing still, which can be very useful.


 * The Gunlance has the shelling ability. As the name implies, the lance has a gun embedded in it, which will activate by just pressing circle. The best way to think about it is a really long shotgun with a bayonet. The shots are quite short ranged, but works well when linking it with the stabs of the lance. You can see the amount of shells you have remaining on the upper left side of the screen and you can reload by pressing circle while defending with the R button, or by pressing "O" after a back jump.


 * The type of shells fired differ depending on the individual Gunlance. These usually range from level 1 to level 3 shelling (though some go as high as level 5), and come in three different types: normal, spread, and long. As the names imply, each type acts differently.
 * Compared to a [Normal] type gunlance, a [Spread] type's Wyvern Fire will have a wider blast radius, while a [Long] type is granted greater range. Regardless of level, a [Normal] Gunlance has 5 shots, [Long] types have 3, and [Spread] types have 2. However, [Long] and [Spread] shots inflict more damage than [Normal] shots.
 * This is a rough estimate, but this is what a shell shot and a wyvern fire is worth in sharpness. Three stabs is one shell. Four shells is worth one Wyvern's Fire.


 * The shelling feat has a downside; it burns through the weapon's sharpness, so using it will quickly dull the weapon. Whetsones are strongly recommended when using this weapon.


 * Gunlances come with an incredible explosion damage attack, Wyvern Fire. This attack can be done by pressing the circle and triangle buttons while defending with the R button. The delay is usually 3 seconds, and you have to be close for the attack to land. The downside is that after using it you'll have to wait for your weapon to cool down before being able to use Wyvern Fire again (cool down period is 110 seconds). Wyvern's Fire is four times the length and four times the damage of its shell shot. It is one long blast that is divided into four sections, so if you hit a wyvern very close up you would do the full four times the damage, but if you hit it at half the length, you only do twice the damage of shell shot and so-on.


 * The Gunlances, just like the lances, can chain attacks. An example would be an attack from 3 single forward stabs to a shelling shot and repeat, or mix up with an uppercut (circle plus triangle) to diagonal attacks. See the video below for a great tutorial on how to do these combos.
 * The Gunlance recieved a large boost to its moveset in MHP3rd, making it a more aggressive weapon compared to the Lance. After firing, the hunter can now do a Quick Reload, which reloads a single shell at high speed with the opprotunity to fire a slightly delayed shot afterwards; this shot in turn can be chained into another Quick Reload for an easy infinite combo. In addition, the forward stab can be comboed into a downward smashing attack; the smash can then be chained into a Wyvern's Fire attack or a new move (Japanese name directly translates to "Full Burst") where all of the Gunlance's shells are fired at once, creating a massive explosion that greatly damages all foes within its radius.

Videos
The Monster Hunter Wikia does not take credit for these videos

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Movements on Detail
Well, the list of Combos possible with the gunlance is very big. Honestly, this is one of those weapons capable of performing an infinite combo, but then again, those won't be as useful, or as battle wise, to perform anyway. Quite fun though.

Weapon Sheathed
The Rushing upward attack can be used to move out of dangerous spots as it has a very fast reaction move to the direction compared to all other attacks (and to lance attacks as well).

Weapon Drawn
The Gunlance is a special weapon when it comes to its way of chaining the attacks, it is as follow, you can do up to 3 lance attacks, be it uppercut, frontal thrust, diagonal stab or regular one. Even though its this way you can Link more together by using either a shell shot or a sideways movement or back jump. This way a hunter can perform an "infinite" series of chained attacks as long as stamina allows to perform the jumps or there's ammunition for shellshots. In MHP3, by repeatedly pressing the Circle button, a hunter can infinitely cycle between firing shots and reloading one bullet; however, this will burn through the weapon's sharpness very fast.

As well, in MHP3, a Gunlance user may perform a 5-combo attack by executing a running stab (Triangle while moving), two frontal thrusts (Triangle), an uppercut (Triangle + Circle), and a slam (Triangle), which can be followed up with a Wyvern's Fire, Full Burst, or simply a step. This technique is highly useful, as this combination can be executed even with the Gunlance sheathed, and is perfect for monsters who fell, as it sacrifices less sharpness than simply shelling, and offers a smaller interval than merely executing Wyvern's Fire;

(Warning: The following technique has been labeled as "cheating", read, learn, and use at your own risk. Chinese Stickman 03:54, September 5, 2011 (UTC))

as well, if the user has the Auto-Guard ability, one may cancel the attack at any time by shelling with Circle, and Auto-Guard activates even when shelling and Quick Reloading (Please note that Auto-Guard does not activate when Wyvern's Fire is charging, during the slam attack, or after a Full Burst).

Controls

 * MHF2 and MHFU: Gunlance Controls
 * MHP3rd: Gunlance Controls