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Archery Guide

Below you'll find everything important to know about using Missile Bows.

In a Nutshell

Pros

  • Can attack from close or even several paces away.
  • Arrows can remain stuck in your target, draining their fatigue until they are able to have them removed.

Cons

  • Archery is practically ineffective in Franlius Battlerground, high winds prevent most shots.
  • More difficult to train than any other combat skill. Not recommended to newer players as a starting skill.
  • Only 1 incomplete layer of defense (CMs) + 1 Difficult Block (Handle Parry).
  • Many of the fundamental skills are Difficult or Impossible with very few Easy skills in the set.

Advice & Tips

  • Archery damage scales with increased ranks in Basic Shot. All shot damage reaches its maximum potential at rank 151 in Basic Shot.
  • Archery skill effectiveness scales with increased ranks in each skill. Each skill reaches its maximum effective potential (e.g. stuns, pins, etc.) at rank 151, as has been confirmed by GM Tale. 1 2
  • Use the get arrow from target command to retrieve arrows from an archery target.
  • Use the pull arrow from command to retrieve your arrows from an individual corpse.
  • Use the retrieve arrows or recover arrows command to retrieve re-usable arrows from all of the corpses in the current area.
  • Use the load with command to manually load your bow.
  • Use the scan clear command to clear your scanned targets.
  • Use the weather command to gauge how much wind there is from your position. Stronger winds increase the penalty to shoot. Wind Gauging can be used to offset up to 50 RB of penalty (max rank 100)."
  • 100 ranks in both Quick Load and Quick Shot will allow you to automatically load your empty bow before every shot.
  • The ammo command will set your preferred arrow type, when using Quick Load while carrying multiple types of arrows.
  • Do not take arrows out of the small bag that the bank clerks gives you. It will increase the weight of your arrows.
> ammo
USAGE: ammo bows|slings <ammo type>|none
You have not specified any preferred ammunition.
> ammo bows iron-tipped
Your ammunition preference for bows has been set to an iron-tipped arrow.
> load
USAGE: load <bow> with <arrow_type>
>load bow with arrow
You load a short bow with an arrow.

Suggested Training Plan

Special Thanks to therisifus#9783 for the training plan.

Phase 1 (~650 SP)

Name: 2-Shot Rotation
Required SP: ~650 SP

# Skill To Rank
1 Archery 20
2 Wind Gauging 1
3 Off-Position Firing 1
4 Point Blank Targeting 1
5 Long Range 1
6 Basic Shot 20
7 Steady Aim 20
8 Foot Shot 20
9 Hand Shot 1

Phase 2 (~398 SP)

Name: 3-Shot Rotation
Required SP: ~398 SP

# Skill To Rank
1 Archery 40
2 Basic Shot 40
3 Steady Aim 40
4 Head Shot 1
  • Getting Archery to 40 is working on your 3-shot rotation & increasing your time on the target and learning the second shot.

Phase 3 (~558 SP)

Name: Final rotation
Required SP: ~558 SP

# Skill To Rank
1 Quick Load 20
2 Quick String 20
3 Quick Draw 20
4 Quick Shot 1
  • Rapid Fire Shot doesn’t count as a separate shot, it counts as 2 basic shots that are fired instead of a different shot.
  • All the passives till later on only need to be at 1 for you to gain some benefits.
  • You should now get the best sp-gain from here on out.

Phase 4 (~2,260+ SP)

Name: Level Grinding
Required SP: ~2,260+ SP

# Skill To Rank
1 Wind Gauging 10
2 Slope Gauging 10
3 Off-Position Firing 10
4 Long Range 10
5 Point Blank Targeting 10
6 Archery 101
7 Basic Shot 101
8 Head Shot 101
9 Foot Shot 101
10 Quick Draw 43
11 Quick Load Until Success of 1
  • Rank 101 is when you can start hitting people regularly.
  • If you feel up to it, you can also get 1 rank in Simple Stringing, Simple Unstringing & Range Assessment.
  • If you have bad stats, stat skills () could be learned in Phase 4 in addition to others.
  • If you’re working towards hunting with people, you can also learn 45 ranks in Shot Timing.
  • Rank 43 in Quick Draw typically means a success of 1.

Phase 5 (~1,970 SP)

Name: To The Moon
Required SP: ~1,970 SP

# Skill To Rank
1 Wind Gauging 20
2 Slope Gauging 20
3 Off-Position Firing 20
4 Long Range 20
5 Point Blank Targeting 20
6 Archery 151+
7 Basic Shot 151+
8 Head Shot 151+
9 Foot Shot 151+
Archery Target Locations

Archery targets can be used until you've earned up to 1,000 total combat skill points. It is recommended for newer characters to start their training journey with archery targets, and continue it until their reach the maximum.

Archery targets are available in the following locations:

Campus Martius Training Courses (Campus-Martius): From the Carcass Buyers mark: W, NWx3, N, NEx4, Ex3
Behind Bowyer's Shop (Quartz-Heights): From the Temple mark: SW until you can't, S into the Bowyer's Shop (Pungo), S
Vetallun Training Courses (The-West-Grasslands): From the Crossroads marker: W until you can't, NWx3, N, Ex3
Rock Valley Archery Trainer (Town-of-Rock-Valley): West side of town, just outside the Archery Trainer (Brauthos). From the caravan dropoff: Ex10, Nx2, Wx3, Nx7, Ex2, N, W, S

Weapons

This is the list of bows & arrows that can be used by the Archery skill set.

Special Notes:
* Use the ammo command to quickly set your preferred ammo. (ammo bows|slings |none )

Weapons How to get it Est. cost in shops
Short Bow Sold by various shopkeepers > +1t 400d
~ Arrows ~ How to get it ~ Est. cost in shops (20 arrows)
Crude Arrows Found on TM Archers = n/a
Reed Arrows Sold by various shopkeepers = 39d - 75d
Bone-Tipped Arrows Crafted by Hunters = n/a
Stone-Tipped Arrows Crafted by Hunters = n/a
Barbed Arrows Sold by various shopkeepers = 63d - 253d
Bronze-Tipped Arrows Sold by various shopkeepers= 190d - 332d
Iron-Tipped Arrows Sold by various shopkeepers = 316d - 399d

Summary

In most serious cases you'll want a to use iron-tipped arrows. Reed arrows are the arrow of choice for training or casual shooting.

A rank of 1 signifies the best in this category. In the case of archery, the short bow itself doesn't impact the skill, so we will focus on ammo types.

Ammo Damage Rank Speed Rank Weight Rank Overall Rank
Iron-Tipped Arrows 1 1 3 1
Bronze-Tipped Arrows 2 1 2 2
Barbed Arrows 3 1 1 2
Reed Arrows 5 1 1 3
Crude Arrows 6 1 3 4
Bone-Tipped Arrows 4 1
Stone-Tipped Arrows 2 1

Ammo Damage

A rank of 1 signifies the best in this category. The below is a guesstimate, confirmed testing is needed.

Ammo Damage Rank
Iron-Tipped Arrows 1
Bronze-Tipped Arrows 2
Stone-Tipped Arrows 2
Barbed Arrows 3
Bone-Tipped Arrows 4
Reed Arrows 5
Crude Arrows 6

Ammo Speed

A rank of 1 signifies the best in this category. All arrows have the same speed, no difference based on type of arrow used.

>> Rank 90 Reflexes >> Maxed Speed
~ Ammo ~ Speed Rank ~ Median Speed ~ Speed Rank ~ Median Speed
Iron-Tipped Arrows 1 ?? 1 ??
Bronze-Tipped Arrows 1 ?? 1 ??
Stone-Tipped Arrows 1 ?? 1 ??
Barbed Arrows 1 ?? 1 ??
Bone-Tipped Arrows 1 ?? 1 ??
Reed Arrows 1 ?? 1 ??
Crude Arrows 1 ?? 1 ??

Ammo Weight

Ammo Weight Rank Weight (per 100 arrows)
Reed Arrows 1 0.1 lbs
Barbed Arrows 1 0.1 lbs
Bronze-Tipped Arrows 2
Iron-Tipped Arrows 3 2 lbs
Crude Arrows 3 2 lbs
Stone-Tipped Arrows
Bone-Tipped Arrows

Note: Standard short bows weigh 2 lbs.

Moves

Worthwhile

Less useful

  • TBC

Complementary Skill Sets

Complementary Traits

Miscellaneous

  • Arrow can auto-group if you place them all in the same container.
  • If you have mixed different qualities or types of arrows, just ungroup them and it will separate the dissimilar arrows.
  • Attacks that inflict a wound levels of 2 (puncture) or more will stick in the target.