Bow

This page was last verified for Vintage Story version 1.21.5.

Bow
Durability	Crude: 180 Simple: 240 Longbow: 750 Recurve: 600
Attack
Power	Crude: 3 Simple: 3.25 Longbow: 3.75 Recurve: 4.0 hp
Weapons

Bows are ranged weapons for combat which use arrows as ammunition.

Obtaining

Bows can be crafted or purchased from Survival goods traders . Only the Hunter can craft the crude bow and the recurve bow.

Bowstaves

The longbow and recurve bow require bowstaves that must be dried before use. Bowstaves must be dried for 168 hours (7 days) before use. They will dry more slowly if they are in a container. To dry at the expected rate, keep them in your inventory or on a tool rack .

The raw long bowstave is crafted with a saw and 2 oak, maple, or walnut logs.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Saw 2x Maple, oak, or walnut log

The raw long bowstave may be crafted with a saw to obtain a raw recurve bowstave. It can also be crafted directly in a similar manner to the long bowstave by using bundles of bamboo stakes instead of logs.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Saw 1x Raw long bowstave

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Saw 2x Bundle of bamboo stakes

Crude bow

The crude bow recipe is available exclusively to the Hunter . It is the earliest bow that can be obtained. It is the weakest and least accurate bow, with a -5% accuracy penalty, slightly offsetting the Hunter's innate accuracy bonus.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
3x Stick 3x Rope

Simple bow

The simple bow is slightly more powerful than the basic crude bow, and has no accuracy penalty. It is the first bow available for non-Hunter players to craft.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
3x Stick 3x Flax twine

Longbow

The longbow is superior to the simple bow, with an additional 0.5 base damage and a 20% accuracy bonus. It is the best bow that non-Hunter players can craft. It is crafted from a dry long bowstave, 3 twine , a piece of leather or a small or medium pelt , and 2 of either fat , beeswax , or resin .

Longbows can be purchased from Survival goods traders and sold to Treasure hunter traders .

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Dry long bowstave 3x Flax twine 2x Fat , beeswax , or resin 1x Leather or pelt (small or medium)

Recurve Bow

The recurve bow is the best bow, with both the highest damage and the best accuracy bonus of 30%, but is slightly less durable than the longbow. It can be crafted by Hunters using a dry recurve bowstave, 2 raw bushmeat , 2 bones , 1 leather , and 3 flax twine . Unlike the longbow, the leather cannot be substituted with pelts.

The Recurve bow can be purchased from Survival goods traders and sold to Treasure hunter traders.

Ingredients	Crafting Recipe
1x Dry recurve bowstave 2x Raw bushmeat 2x Bone 1x Leather 3x Flax twine

Usage

Bows are used for ranged combat. Usage can be broken down into three steps:

• Charging the bow: Hold the right mouse button to charge (or nock/draw) the bow. Corners of a white square will appear while the button is held, indicating precision. They will quickly shrink to a small area on the screen, and then slowly move in and out. The smaller the square, the more accurate the shot. Moving will reduce accuracy based on the speed of movement.
• Aiming the bow: Aim the white crosshairs at the selected target and account for falloff due to gravity.
• Firing the arrow : Release the mouse button to fire (loose) the arrow.

The bow must be in the active hotbar slot and arrows must be in the inventory. Arrows are used in order from left to right, top to bottom. The bow must be fully drawn to shoot, which takes about 0.5 seconds. Running and jumping will not affect draw time, but moving harshly reduces accuracy. Damage is calculated from the bow and arrow combination.

Comparison

Note that some classes have ranged damage or accuracy modifiers.

Bow	Base damage	Accuracy modifier	Durability
Crude bow	3	-5%	180
Simple bow	3.25	None	240
Longbow	3.75	+20%	750
Recurve bow	4	+30%	600

Storage

Bows can be stored on a tool rack , or laid against a wall .

Gallery

• A comparison of the crude bow and recurve bow reticles. The smaller square of the recurve bow indicates its higher accuracy.
• 
  The Crude bow reticle.
• 
  The Recurve bow reticle.

• A comparison of firing 15 arrows at a 10 block range using each bow as a Commoner .
• 
  Crude bow
• 
  Simple bow
• 
  Longbow
• 
  Recurve bow