You must understand the concept of area hosting before you can understand lilobug; a comprehensive guide can be found here: viewtopic.php?t=166
tl;dr: if you enter the monster's area first, you're the area host. if you don't, you're not. if the monster enters an area with multiple players, then it's a toss-up based on player colour, and you should probably exit and re-enter if you don't want to be the area host. If you're in a village hunt or a solo town hunt, you're always the area host.
Okay, so you know what area hosting is and you're not gonna crash anyone's party with the glitch. But what is it?
Part 1: What Is It
Lilobug (from the Japanese players' term リロバグ, also sometimes referred to as reload glitch or bowgun glitch) is an advanced technique for bowgun users in MH1J. It allows gunners to achieve a similar level of game-breaking power to a headlocking lance user, at the price of giving the gunner a hand injury in real life.
The glitch makes use of an unintended mechanic which is only present in MH1J: immediately after firing a bowgun shot, you can change what shot you're firing in midair. This has three major consequences, all of which are inexplicably referred to under the combined title of "lilobug." For the sake of simplicity, for the rest of this guide, I will be referring to the shot you initially fired with R3 as "shot 1", and the shot you switched to after firing as "shot 2". Got that? Okay, let's go:
- (Area host/non-area host) Bottomless: The clip size for shot 1 is set to the total number of shot 2s in your inventory. This effect lasts until you unload shot 1 from your bowgun. As far as I know, this has a limit of 99, but it doesn't matter in practice.
- (Area host) Recoilless: If you are the area host, then when you switch in midair, shot 2 hits the monster. Since the shot that hits the monster isn't the shot you fired, you can intentionally choose to fire a shot with preferable knockback/fire rate properties; for instance, you can fire a high-recoil shot like Dragon S with the recoil properties of Normal S Lv1.
- (Non-area host) Infinite: If you are not the area host, then shot 1 hits the monster instead; but remember that shot 2 is always the one whose ammo is depleted. This means that you can fire Clust S Lv2 while only depleting your stack of Normal S Lv1; that is, you can fire infinite shots of whatever ammo you like. Note that you must reset to Shot 1 every time
So these are the effects of lilobug; but how do you do it?
Part 2: How to Do It
Different gunners have different methods. Try to remember the basics of lilobug:
- Press R3.
- Hold L2.
- Hit Triangle/X depending on which ammo you need to switch to.
- With L2 still held, switch back to shot 1.
- Release L2 and repeat until monster dead.
My grip (playing on PS2 with a DualShock 2) is basically a two-handed claw. My left hand is in standard claw position: thumb on L3, index on the D-pad, middle finger on L2. My right hand is also clawed: thumb on R3, index resting across Triangle and X, middle finger on R1 (for the sniper scope).
Sammy plays on emulator, so he's rebound some of his controls to make lilo-bug a little less painful. He has R3 rebound to L1 and L1 rebound to right stick up, so he can just rest his thumb on Triangle or X as needed like a normal person.
Talking with Sammy earlier, he also suggested an experimental new grip for people who can't rebind: take your right hand fully off of the grip and rest the controller somewhere, then put index on R3, middle finger on X, and ring finger on Triangle. I've tried this a little bit and it works fine, although replacing my hand on the controller isn't great IMO.
Find a grip that works for you! (Or if you have lightning fingers, I guess you can try no special grip at all. I bet you don't use claw to control the camera, either. Weirdo.)
Once you have a comfy (or at least functional) grip, you can work on learning the timing. Go into a solo quest with Normal S Lv1 and a full stack of Normal S Lv2 and try to learn the Bottomless glitch first. So load your gun with Normal S Lv1, then get your hand into whatever position works for you. Fire a shot, then as fast as you can, hold L2 and press Triangle. If the chat menu pops up, then you pressed Triangle first; try again with pressing L2 first in mind. If your Normal S Lv2 doesn't deplete, then you switched too late; try to do it even faster.
If your Normal S Lv2 DOES deplete, then you got it! Just keep L2 held down, then press X to switch back to Normal S Lv1. You should notice the effects of the Bottomless glitch: your clip should display full capacity even though you just fired a shot, and if you fire a bunch more, it should stay apparently full. Once you fire 90+ shots, you'll start seeing it deplete (since you copied the ammo count of your Normal S Lv2.) Remember that if you unload your Normal S Lv1 by switching away, then this glitch expires, and you'll have to set it up again. If you want, try practicing this a few times, or optionally try triggering the glitch with X instead of with Triangle, if that's easier for you (it'll be useful later if you want to do Recoilless or Infinite with two different ammos, too.)
Now you can try to learn the Recoilless glitch. It's the same basic method, but you will have to get used to doing it at a consistently high pace, and learn the timing of the glitch with Normal S. Bring a high-recoil shot like Clust S Lv2 or Dragon S, along with your Normal S Lv1. Now load Normal S Lv1 and fire, glitching to Clust S. You should see the typical explosions, and your Clust S ammo depletes, but you don't get knocked back like usual, and you can fire again much faster. Try to fire three shots in a row, remembering that if you accidentally bring up the chat, you probably went too fast or failed to hold L2 first. See the [Dragon S] example below for a video.
Good job! Now that you've learned Recoilless, you've actually already learned Infinite too; it's the exact same execution, but you start with the shot you want to fire, then switch to the shot you want to deplete (usually Normal S Lv1). Remember that this glitch only works if you're not the area host, so you have to be in multiplayer with other players to try it. Also, visually, it'll never look like you're doing it correctly, because the game actually doesn't display the shot you're firing as you fire it. See this clip for an example of Sammy infinitely firing Clust: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXBJR5p85qI It doesn't look like he is actually firing it, but you can see the Lance users get pushed back from the explosions that are, in fact, happening. The only way to tell if your infinite ammo glitch is working is to see which ammo is being depleted (or not depleted, as it may be).
Notice that the order of your shots matters a lot! You can't "skip" a shot with this glitch; you can only switch between adjacent shots. So if you want to fire Recoilless Clust S Lv2, make sure it's next to your Normal S Lv1 (or other low-recoil shot) in your inventory. See [Dragon S] below for an example of how Sammy organized his inventory so that he can glitch to either Stun S or Dragon S from Normal S.
So that's how you do lilo-bug; but how do you break the game?
Part 3: How to Break It
[Dragon S]
Dragon S has some of the highest recoil in the game, but what if it didn't? Well, it turns out that you can kill a Gravios in under a minute. Wow! This is demonstrated by Sammy in the following clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnGLYkRuUXY Notice how he combines effects 1 and 2 so that he never has to reload, and can fire both Stun S Lv2 and Dragon S without ever losing his position.
[Capture Quests: the Funny Dance]
The ammunition they don't want you to have a lot of. Remember that in MH1J, tranqing a monster literally puts them to sleep in two shots. Now, what if you had infinite Tranq S...? Well, now you can! Just get Tranq S and Normal S Lv1 next to each other in your inventory, then don't be the area host; now you can perma-sleep the monster. This is probably the single most broken strategy in MH1J, even more so than headlocking, but it does only work on capture quests for obvious reasons.
[Clust S]
Phew, I sure like fighting Fatalis as a gunner, but I always run out of ammo after just a few rounds. What if I could just fire infinite Clust?
...I'm sure you can put two and two together here.
[Multiple Gunners]
You don't even need good ammo or consistent execution to make this strategy busted. Two gunners firing Bottomless Pierce S Lv2 across a Rathalos's wings can nearly stunlock it without even doing a Recoilless or Infinite glitch.
[What Gun Do I Use?]
Flechette Gun. It's made with Vespoid parts; grind the 4* Attack of the Giant Bugs quest until you get an Abdomen, then fill in the other parts.
This gun has a super good ammo selection, with Pierce 2, Clust 2, Poison, Status, and Dragon S. The big downside is supposed to be the terrible reload speed, but that doesn't matter if your clip is bottomless. The gun is also very easy to farm (you can lilobug Poison S to farm bugs better!)
If you're trying to use lilobug in low rank, then you should probably use Tankmage; it fires Stun S, Poison S, and Clust 2. If you've been Ruststone-farming, you've probably also picked up a Grenade Launcher; that's a fine choice as well, since it has Pierce 2, Poison, and Clust 2. If you have access to both, then it's a choice between Pierce 2 and Stun; your call! (I lean towards Pierce 2 personally.)
Afterword
Thanks for reading! Please post below if you have any corrections, comments, or questions; and feel free to ping me at @runesicle on Discord if you want someone to practice Infinite lilo-bug with.
Huge thanks to Sammy for posting his progress discovering various aspects of the glitch to the MH Oldschool Discord server, and also for letting me use his videos as examples here. Thanks also to the Japanese MH community who originally found this glitch and gave it such a cute name. Lilobug lilobug lilobug. Now go start gunning!
