To start leveling ranged you need a pistol, pistol/bowpistol ammo and "Hit rate+1" action stanza.

You buy the ranged skills at the Melee trainer. "Hit rate+1" is available straight away.

No, the ranged skill is only available on the mainland.

Ammo is available to buy at the ranged weapon merchant. The general consensus is that it is better to craft your own ammo. You will need alot of ammo in later levels and the merchant ammo has significantly lower damage than crafted ammo.

Medium armour.

The difference between a Bowrifle and Rifle are cosmetic ones. They are exactly the same in terms of damage, hits per minute and range. Rifle ammo requires less materials to craft the same amount of ammo.

Yes.

Yes.

No.

No. Ensure you keep your distance from your target whilst you run and shoot them.

Keep your packers nearby, carrying the materials needed to craft your ammo. Only craft ammo when you need it. Empty your inventory as much as possible to hold as much ammo as possible.

Quality of the ammo, quality of the gun and your level. Both the quality of the gun and the ammo need to be the same and atleast match the level of the skill you are training. If your level is lower than the quality of the ammo, the theoretical damage will be capped at that level.

The number in the brackets is the actual damage, dictated by your level. This number will never exceed the number outside of the box (the theoretical maximum damage).

Yes. You get alot of ammo to hunt each mob one at a time. For launchers, try and attack up to 6 targets at a time and run whilst shooting them, try and stay as far away from them as possible whilst shooting.

They use different "area of effect" types. The launcher uses the "Bomb" effect which effects up to 8 targets in a 360 degree radius, with the power of the explosion diminishing the further away from the main target the effect spreads. The Autolauncher uses the "ricochet" effect which effects up to 8 targets if they are within 4 meters of the main target and within a 45 degree radius of the main target. The power of the bullets diminish after each ricochet.

For hunting mobs, use the maximum "hit Rate" that you have available and the highest "Accurate attack" that your credit actions will allow. Only use credit HP and credit Stamina to begin with.

There are three ammo types: Slashing, Smashing and Piercing. Mobs have different vulnerabilitiesto different types of bullet.

Pistol: Range: 30, Speed: 30
Rifle: Range: 40, Speed: 24
Launcher: Range: 60, Speed: 12
Autolauncher: Range 50, Speed: 12

Ranged can be leveled straight away but it is a difficult skill and one that requires alot of time, patience and resources. For this reason players have usually reached a high level in their other skills before persuing this one.

There are various combinations of "choice" grade materials that will produce maximum damage bullets. One example is "Dung Resin", "Beckers Bark" and "Koorin Oil".

The nature of the ranged skill allows a player to level the skill without the need of a healer or additional attackers to kill the mobs successfully. However it is easier and faster to level in a team with healers and additional damage dealers. This can be said for most skills.

Firstly you need to buy "Range Weapon Crafting 1" and the Pistol crafting plan aswell as "Ammo Crafting 1" and an ammo crafting type (Slashing, Smashing, Piercing) from the "Crafter Trainer", all are available to buy straight away.
Next you need to buy the "Ammo" and "range Weapon" crafting tools from the Tool merchant. To craft ammo and/or guns, equip their respective crafting tool and click on the crafting action. In the craft window select the ammo type from the drop-down menu.
Assuming you have the correct materials for crafting in your inventory or Packers (which must be close by) it is simply a matter of placing the materials in their corresponding parts that make up the item. Once the materials have been placed, you can see a preview of the stats the item will have once crafted. Click the "Make the Item" button.

First you need to know what the maximum range and speed are for the weapon you are crafting. For example to get the maximum range on a rifle you need to divide 100 by 40 = 2.5 - 100 = 97.5. In this case 97.6 - 100 will guve you maximum range.