Are bows even useful? And if so how?

Gameplay
#1

Hello Y’all.

I’m pretty new to this game but I’m having a lot of trouble making bows worth a shit. They are pretty impossible to actually aim; the trajectory and speed of the arrow seemingly changing drastically at all moments during pulling the arrow back. And the heavy sway makes the aiming that much more difficult.

And even if I do hit my target, if it’s a person, it seems to pretty much just stun them and give me a slight head start on their health. Which is not that worth it considering I generally kill entire camps via Batman-Arkham-Asylum-ing them to death with timed blocks and parties.

It seems only useful when hunting. But even then, hitting anything that isn’t completely still, stuck on a branch, or moving laterally at a snail’s pace generally dodges all my arrows. And so if I go out with 100 arrows, I might get like 8-10 hares and 2 deer/roe along with maybe a level in Hunting. Doesn’t seem worth it tbh.

Do I just suck? Some of you seem like you got pro gamer strats or something but I haven’t made it work. Or are bows just trash?

1 Like
#2

There are many different bows. High level bows with good arrows can kill full-plate-armor-enemys with few shots in there face, while it can take severel minutes to kill a bandit by sword. As with all the other skills it takes time and training to get better in shooting arrows. Imo.: if bowskill is on max. level and you use bow with 74 or higher you are quite overpowered :wink:

#3

If you use strong bow as noob at archery, your shots will be weak, so starting with some hunting one should be handy. Anyone starting with a bow will have same experience, missing a lot of shots because aim sways and requires a lot of stamina before releasing arrow straight to target. In your case, I’d keep hunting hares and level up somewhere above 8 when it’s pretty accurate and you’ll get used to that and only then use is as main weapon during fights. Bow gets pretty devastating once your aim is good.

2 Likes
#4

Also you can do archery contests and gain a bit of Money

#5

Bows are very good if you train up on them, get good ones with decent arrows. Persevere

#6

At a certain level of your Bow skill (I think level 5 maybe), you even start holding the bow differently which makes it a lot easier to aim. You’re still trying to visualize that your arrow will be shooting towards the center of the screen (and don’t forget to account for the arrow drop depending on your bow skill, bow, and arrows) but it will be easier to visualize this when your bow skill reaches that certain point.

I definitely agree to keep training on hares, and after some experience for yourself, you will definitely learn how to aim the bow properly.

For me, the bow is my main weapon basically, so hang in there and shoot some hares!

#7

This isn’t about aiming, or a reticle, or anything. I enjoy the difficulty of archery.

My issue is that I can put over 10 arrows into a guys face and it barely registers.

Im not hoping for Skyrim stealth archer OP level of power, just a realistic result of "Damn, I just shot that guy in the face !"SHAREit Appvn

#8

If you’re using the best bow, with high stats, and you hit in quick succession, then it will kill them. The way the game works is that stamina is drained, and then HP goes down. If you take too long between shots, or use a low damage bow, then you can fill them with arrows and they will never die.

Low armor NPCs will die in one to two hits from a high level bow. High armored take a few more. If you want them to be more effective, use poison on the arrows, and one will usually be enough, as long as you’re patient. Or don’t, and just use a melee weapon.

#9

When you get stronger at archery and get stronger bow, guys go 1 shot down. This was debated for a long time at release. It’s explained by Henry’s strength and his clumsiness. Visually they look deadly but statistically they’re weak shots.

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