Gun Lance
Low Rank

Gun Lance appears to be like Lance in that it’s mostly defensive, but it’s much more aggressive. Guarding is a nice bonus, but you won’t be relying on it nearly as much. Gun Lance’s will absolutely shred their sharpness, but it will allow you to absolutely dunk on enemies.

Comon and Slam, and welcome to the Jam.

Gun Lance progression is very clean and easy, but you will have a few options for low rank, and high rank depending on your preferences.

The short answer is:

Build the Jagras Gun Lance, then optionally build the Tobi Kadachi and upgrade it to then Rathian Gun Lance, then continue with Jagras or Rathian through High Rank. Then you can pick up Bazelgeuse, and Nergigante’s Gun Lances.

Now for the long answer:

The Iron Gun Lance 1 you start with is good for the first missions. You’ll want to build the Bone Path as soon as possible.

Make a Bone Gunlance 1, and upgrade it to a Bone Gunlance 2 by using 3 Monster Bone S.

You’ll use this to take on the Great Jagras

After your victory, immediately upgrade your Bone Gunlance 2, into a Jagras Gunlance 1 by using 1 Great Jagras Claw, 1 Great Jagras Hide, 3 Great Jagras Scale, and 1 Sharp Claw. You can get sharp claws from regular old Jagras.

Make sure to build this, you’ll be using it for awhile.

Use this to hunt Kulu-Ya Ku, and Pukei Pukei.

Once you unlock Wildespire wastes, hunt Barroth. Then take out Jyuratodus.

Continue with your mandatory story hunt of Tobi-Kadachi.

Here you can build the Pulsar Gunlance 1. Upgrade your original Iron Gunlance 1 to an Iron Gunlance 2 by using 2 Iron Ore. From there upgrade it to a Pulsar Gunlance 1 by using 1 Tobi-Kadachi Claw, 3 Tobi-Kadachi Scale, and 2 Tobi-Kadachi Pelt.

This has less raw damage than the Jagras Gunlance, but gains 10% affinity and 120 thunder. It’s roughly equivalent. However, you can use this to bridge into the very powerful Rathian Gunlance.

Instead of hunting Anjanath, deviate and hunt a Rathian.

After your hunt, upgrade your Pulsar Gunlance 1 into a Princess Panoply (pan-o-plee) by using 3 Rathian Spike, 5 Rathian Scale, and 4 Rathian Shell.

This Gun Lance will be adequate for the entirety of low rank. It’s the only upgrade available in Low Rank, and won’t be able to be upgraded further until high rank. You should pick this up as it is the strongest Gunlance available until after you hunt Legiana, then Jagras gains more raw damage, and you can swap to that.

Then hunt Anjanath, followed by Zorah Magdaros.

Afterwards it’s Zorah Magdaros…. Setpeice… etc.

In the Coral Highlands, you’re forced into an expedition to explore.

Gather bone piles for Coral Bones, and hunt Tzitzi-Ya Ku for claws. If you’re using the Jagras  path, upgrade your Jagras Gunlance 1 into a Jagras Gunlance 2 by using 2 Great Jagras Claw, 2 Great Jagras Mane, 2 Coral Bone and 3 Tzitzi-Ya Ku claws.

Hunt Paolumu, then you’ll descend into the Rotten Vale, and take out Radobaan.

Then you’ll have to take on Legiana.

After Legiana you’ll hopefully get 3 Monster Bone+. Use them to upgrade your Jagras Gunlance 2, into a Jagras Gunlance 3 by using 3 Monster Bone+, 5 Great Jagras Scale, 3 Great Jagras Claw, and 3 Great Jagras Mane.

The Jagras Gunlance 3 finally surpasses the Princess Panoply in raw damage, but you’ll lose the affinity and poison. It’s an optional upgrade.

Finish up your mandatory hunts of Odogaron, followed by Rathalos and Diablos.

After beating the Zorah Magdaros setpeice, and killing a deceptively strong Pukei-Pukei, you’ll gain access to High Rank quests. Congratulations, the baby gloves are coming off.

High Rank

Our immediate goal in High Rank is a weapon upgrade to compensate for the increased health of monsters, with a long term goal of bringing our sharpness to the next level.

You have a few options once you hit High Rank.

If you’re using the Jagras Gunlance, hunt Great Jagras for materials to upgrade from a Jagras Gunlance 3 to a Glutton Gunlance 1 by using 6 Great Jagras Scale+, 4 Great Jagras Claw+, 6 Great Jagras Mane, and 5 Piercing Claw. Piercing Claw’s can be carved from regular old jagras.

If you’re using the Rathian path, you can immediately hunt a Rathian to get materials to upgrade. Upgrade your Princess Panoply, into a Princess Panoply+ by using 3 Rathian Spike+, 5 Rathian Scale+, 4 Rathian Carapace and 1 Rathian Plate. The plate may take some time, hedge your bets by making sure to break all Rathian’s parts, including the tail, head and wings, and by killing to try and carve one from all your Rathian hunts. Investigation quests will also have a chance of having better rewards.

The Princess Panoply+ is preferred because it gains blue sharpness, and has the same raw damage as the Glutton Gunlance 1, while also having 10% affinity and 270 poison.

You’ll have to hunt a Pink Rathian now as part of standard progression, and thankfully it holds the next upgrade for the Princess Panoply.

After your hunt, upgrade your Princess Panoply+ into a Rose Burst by using 4 Rathian Spike+, 5 Pink Rathian Scale+, 4 Pink Rathian Carapace, and 1 Wyvern Gem. The Wyvern gem can be obtained from monsters like Barroth, Jyuratodus, and Radobaan.

If you’re content with using Jagras, hunt some more Tzitzi-Ya Ku and upgrade from a Glutton Gunlance 1 into a  Glutton Gunlance 2 by using 4 Monster Hardbones, 6 Great Jagras Claw+, 6 Jagras Hide+, and 5 Tzitzi-Ya Ku Claw+.

After Pink Rathian you have one more optional Gun Lance to build.

You’ve likely encountered Bazelgeuse and his epic music before as he comes in and carpet bombs the monster you’re hunting. He’s intimidating for sure, but if you’ve beaten Pink Rathian, and built a Rose Burst, you’re well equipped to beat the Beetlejuice. Gun Lance is surprisingly effective at taking it down. At the start of the battle, play very conservatively to avoid it’s bombs, and eventually you’ll be able to wear it down.

After your hunt, you can build the Bazel Buster 1 by going through the Bone Path.

Build a new Bone Gunlance 1, into a Bone Gunlance 2, into a Bone Gunlance 3, into a Bone Cannon 1, into a Bone Cannon 2, into a Bone Cannon 3. Finally upgrade this into a Bazel Buster 1, by using 3 Bazelgeuse Talon, 5 Bazelgeuse Scale+, 4 Bazelgeuse Fuse and 1 Firecell Stone.

Rose Burst and Bazel Buster 1 will be comparable. Bazel Buster has higher raw, but -10% affinity, better shells, but only 2 of them, and blast element. It requires you taking down potentially multiple Bazelgeuse. Pink Rathian is mandatory, and relatively easy to build, you’ll lose out on raw damage, but have 15% affinity and better blue sharpness. They’re roughly equivalent. Glutton Gunlance 2 will work in a pinch, but these two are preferred.

Your next mandatory hunt is going to be Nergigante. Any of these weapons will be viable choices.

If after your hunt, you got enough Elder Dragon Blood you can upgrade your Rose Burst, into a Royal Burst by using 3 Elder Dragon Blood, 5 Rathian Spike+, 6 Pink Rathian Scale+, and 1 Rathian Ruby. The Ruby makes this difficult, but it will be one of the better gunlances.

Of course, Nergigante’s Gun Lance is extremely powerful, so you should focus your efforts on that. Go through the Ore Tree by making an Iron Gunlance 1, and upgrading it to an Iron Gunlance 2, then an Iron Gunlance 3, and then into a Steel Gunlance 1, into Steel Gunlance 2, into Steel Gunlance 3, into a Chrome Gunlance 1.

Then upgrade your Chrome Gunlance 1 into a Nergal Ram by using 3 Nergigante Talon, 4 Nergigante Regrowth Plate, 2 Nergigante Tail, and 2 Nergigante Carapace.

Congratulations, you now have a weapon that’s completely capable of getting you through the rest of the game, and one of the best Gunlances. The extended blue sharpness on Nergal Ram will be extremely beneficial, on top of the Nergal Ram’s insanely high raw damage.

This will be adequate for taking out the remaining Elder Dragons as a baseline.

For final targets, after beating Teostra, and getting Teostra Powder, you can finish upgrading the Bazel Buster 1 into a Bazel Buster 2 by using 3 Teostra Powder, 4 Bazelgeuse wing, 4 Bazelgeuse Talon, and 1 Bazelgeuse Gem.

After taking out Xeno’jiva, you can upgrade the Nergal Ram one more time into Eradication Flame by using 2 Xeno’Jiva horns, 5 Nergigante Horn+, 5 Nergigante Talons, and 1 Nergigante Gem.

The Gems will make these difficult. If you go for one Gunlance, go for Eradication Flame because of it’s high raw, good blue sharpness, and reasonable dragon element. It will serve as a great general purpose weapon