Archery
Description
Archery is used for ranged combat against animals and players.
Targeting
To enter ranged combat, activate an equipped and strung bow, move within range, then right-click on your target to engage. (You can also use the icon on the select bar to quickly queue up multiple shots.)
Archery works best when standing at optimal range. You will miss more if you are closer than, or farther from, the optimal range.
| Bow | Range (in tiles) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Optimal | |
| Short Bow | None | 5 |
| Bow | 5 | 10 |
| Long Bow | 10 | 20 |
As you gain better skill in a bow, you get more targeting options. Right-click your target to select an option.
| Skill | Option |
|---|---|
| 30 | Shoot quickly |
| 35 | Aim at torso |
| 40 | Aim at left/right arm |
| 50 | Aim at head |
| 60 | Aim at face |
| 70 | Aim at legs |
Archery has a lower hit chance during the night (from 21:00 to 05:00 Wurm time). When firing a bow at night at an archery target for example, the message, "The dusk makes it harder to get a clear view of the archery target." will appear each time you shoot.
Notes on Bows
There are three types of bows:
To use a bow in combat, it must be strung with a bow string. Bow strings can snap.
- The higher the QL of the bow string, the better chance you have to hit your target.
- The higher the QL of the bow string, the less chance that it snaps.
- The chance of a bow string snapping is thought to be 1 in (QL of bow string * 10)
Additionally:
- Bows made with willow decrease the difficulty of your shot.
- The higher the QL of the bow, the more damage is inflicted on your target.
- Rare bows increase damage by 5%, supreme bows increase damage by 10%, and fantastic bows increase damage by 15%.
Notes on Arrows
There are three types of arrows:
- Hunting arrow
- War arrow
- Arrow shaft can be used as an arrow, without any arrow head affixed
When shooting a bow, the order of arrow selection is:
- Arrows in your backpack
- Arrows in an equipped quiver
- Arrows in a quiver in your inventory
- Arrows in your inventory not in a quiver
In addition to the order of precedence above, the type of arrow also determines the order of arrow selection:
- War arrows
- Hunting arrows
- Arrow shafts
If you have an empty quiver in your inventory, the bow will not shoot any arrows from any other quiver in your inventory, nor from any arrows in your inventory.
Additionally:
- Arrows made with cedar are easier to improve.
- Arrows made with cedar reduce the difficulty of the shot by 5%
- Arrows made with maple take 20% less damage.
- Arrows made with maple reduce the difficulty of the shot by 3%
- Rare arrows decrease the difficulty of the shot by 5%, supreme arrows by 10%, and fantastic arrows by 15%.
- Rare arrows increase the damage of the shot by 30%, supreme arrows by 60%, and fantastic arrows by 90%
Additional Damage Modifiers
- Every point in body strength increases archery damage by 1%.
- The biggest damage modifier is the ql of the arrows used.
- Shooting a bow from a position above your target increases damage, while shooting a bow from a position below your target decreases damage. For each level of dirt you are above or below your target, the modifier is 1%, up to a maximum of 20%.
- A target that is under water will take half damage unless the target is taller than 4 meters.
- The target’s armor is a significant factor in damage.
- Targets wearing a shield can block shots from inflicting damage.
Enchanting
Possible enchantments on bows:
- Circle of cunning can be put on a bow to increase archery and bow skill.
- Nimbleness will reduce the difficulty of the shot by (Spell QL / 30).
- Bloodthirst increases damage as it increases in power.
- Wind of ages will increase attack speed, but only until 55 archery skill, at which point you reach the hard cap for a bow’s action timer. You should enchant the bow with Nimbleness instead of WoA.
- Blessings of the dark are a substitute for CoC and WoA, but you should use CoC + Nimbleness instead.
- Mind stealer to occasionally gain skills
Possible enchantments on arrows:
- Each of the demise spells
- Frostbrand or Rotting touch or Venom to increase damage
- Life transfer to gain health
Skillgain Tips
- You may gain up to 30 skill in a bow type by practicing on an archery target (that is not a "hard-cap", you can raise archery to 40 with archery target at least, but with less skillgain probably). The main archery skill is also limited to 45 while practicing on an archery target.
- It is possible to gain 30 skill in one bow type, then begin a new bow type.
- Although they give less skill than real arrows, it is best to use arrow shafts when practicing on archery targets, as they are far easier to make and won't cause excessive damage to the target. Arrows that aren't broken can be picked up at the archery target.
- Firing on the target from outside your bow's optimal range will increase the difficulty, and thus increase your skillgain at higher skill levels.
- Practicing at night will similarly increase the difficulty, so if you find skillgain slowing, you may want to practice when it's dark instead.
- Beyond 45 skill, the only way to gain further is by using archery on animals or in player vs. player combat. Unlike fighting skill, you gain random archery skill for every shot and optimum archery skill for every successful damage dealt. Fighting skill is also gained after a successful kill.
- Using other players as targets to train is effective at any level. There is a 3 hour cooldown, which begins after the event message, "You will not gain skill for attacking #### for a few hours".
- WLers shooting same kingdom will become hunted.
- Skillgain is affected by Sleep bonus.
- You can't gain archery and sub-archery skills from bred animals.
- Every priest can use bows.
- Archery provides the fastest means to gains in body control.
Skills & Characteristics
Titles
- Archer at 50 skill
- Hawk Eye at 70 skill
- Eagle Eye at 90 skill
