Bows

Bows are the class the early game is actually won with. The bow itself carries 22 to 178 damage, the arrow carries the rest, and the arrow is the cheaper half to upgrade.

Combat

Pros

• Range, and no Troll or Deathsquito has an answer to it. You can kill half the bestiary without ever being in its reach.
• The largest skill payoff in the game. Draw time falls from 2.5 seconds at skill 0 to 0.5 at 100, and you can reach the 0.8-second firing cap from skill 85. That is a fivefold change in rate of fire for doing nothing but shooting.
• The arrow is a damage lever you can pull at any tier. Arrow damage lands before the multipliers, so a better arrow scales with everything after it.
• Each shot costs 4 to 14 stamina, and you can hold the draw.

Cons

• Arrows are used up and cannot be picked back up, unlike a thrown spear, so every fight has a bill.
• At skill 0, a 2.5-second draw lasts most of a Greydwarf's walk towards you, so the class is at its worst exactly when you first pick it up.
• It has 3 block armour, which is effectively none. A bow build that gets caught is a bow build in trouble.
• Every arrow but a handful deals Pierce, and pierce is the most resisted damage type in the game.

Builds

Shoot everything from the first hour. The skill only rises by firing, and its payoff is the draw time, so levelling it costs arrows rather than risk. A Crude Bow and Wood Arrows into every Boar you see is the whole opening plan.

The arrow is the build. Because arrow damage is added before the multipliers, switching to Fire or Needle Arrows changes more than moving up a bow tier does. Carry 2 kinds and right-click the one you want in the inventory.

Blocking cancels a draw without firing and you keep the arrow, so it is your escape hatch when something closes in. Keep a melee weapon on the bar for when that happens anyway.

Against anything armoured, and the Ashlands is full of it, pierce is the problem. That argues for an elemental arrow rather than a different bow.

Bows are made at the Black forge, the Workbench, the Forge and the Frost Foundry.

The skill is Bows, and it levels up through use, not choice.

Best Bows

Build	Weapon	Image	Key Figure
Hardest hitter	Frostfire Bow		178 damage across all types
Cheapest to swing	Crude Bow		4 stamina a swing
Best guard	Ash Fang		3 block armour

Notes

• Holding the primary draws the bow, improving accuracy and damage until you release. Blocking cancels the draw and keeps the arrow.
• Draw time is 2.5 seconds at skill 0 and 0.5 at 100, but a bow can only fire every 0.8 seconds, a cap you reach at about skill 85.
• Arrow damage is added to the bow's base damage before any other calculation, so the arrow benefits from skill and quality instead of sitting outside them.

All Weapon Categories

All Bows

*stats displayed are item's base values. See upgrades under each item for item stats per level.

Name	Image	Pierce	Elemental Damage	Stamina	Block	Durability	Crafting Materials	Crafting Station	Spawn ID
Crude Bow		22	-	4	3	50	10x Wood 8x Leather scraps	Workbench	spawn Bow
Finewood Bow		32	-	6	-	100	10x Finewood 10x Corewood 2x Deer hide	Workbench	spawn BowFineWood
Huntsman Bow		42	-	8	-	100	10x Finewood 20x Iron 10x Feathers 2x Deer hide	Forge	spawn BowHuntsman
Draugr Fang		47	5 Poison	10	3	100	10x Ancient bark 20x Silver 2x Deer hide 10x Guck	Forge	spawn BowDraugrFang
Frostfire Bow		68	12 Fire, 88 Frost, 10 Spirit	-	3	400	1x Nord Bow 20x Bloodgold 1x Frostfire Essence	Black Forge	spawn BowGold_FrostFire
Spinesnap		72	5 Spirit	14	-	100	10x Finewood 40x Bone fragments 10x Refined eitr	Black forge	spawn BowSpineSnap
Ash Fang		82	-	14	3	100	10x Ashwood 16x Charred Bone 5x Flametal 5x Bonemaw Tooth	Black forge	spawn BowAshlands
Blood Fang		82	-	14	3	100	1x Ash Fang 5x Flametal 1x Bloodstone	Black forge	spawn BowAshlandsBlood
Root Fang		82	10 Poison	14	3	100	1x Ash Fang 5x Flametal 1x Jade	Black forge	spawn BowAshlandsRoot
Storm Fang		82	10 Lightning	14	-	100	1x Ash Fang 5x Flametal 1x Iolite	Black forge	spawn BowAshlandsStorm
Nord Bow		100	10 Spirit	-	3	400	1x Cast: Nord Bow 5x Liquid Frost	Frost Foundry	spawn BowGold
Thunderblood Bow		110	45 Lightning, 10 Spirit	-	3	400	1x Nord Bow 20x Bloodgold 1x Thunderblood Essence	Black Forge	spawn BowGold_BloodLightning

All Categories