Gear & loot
Bows and elemental arrows
Every bow and what it's made of, the fire, poison and frost bows, and how an archer stands and draws.
Every bow is built to look like what it's made of, and its limbs really bend as you draw. Three of them loose elemental arrows that keep hurting after they hit. Base stats for every bow are on Weapons.
The bows
| Bow | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Bone Shortbow | Made of bones. A vertebra for a grip with spines standing off it, bound in sinew, ribs lashed along each limb with knuckled joints, and hooked bone tips. |
| Hunting Bow | A plain wooden self bow with visible grain, a leather grip and horn tips. |
| Ashen Recurve | Charred black wood, the tips curling away from you. |
| Yew Longbow | Tall and deep, pale sapwood on the front and dark heartwood on the face toward you, like a real yew stave. |
| Nightstalker | Dark lacquered limbs with metal fittings. |
| Starfall | Pearl-white enamel set with a gem (a Mythic). |
| Cinderheart | Smouldering wood with glowing veins of fire running along it. |
| Blightthorn | Twisted, thorny wood grown rather than carved, with a sickly green glow. |
| Rimefang | Pale wood crusted in ice, with crystals standing off the limbs. |
As you draw, the limbs bend back (mostly toward the tips) and the string comes back to your face. When you loose, it snaps forward and shivers to rest.
Elemental bows
Cinderheart, Blightthorn and Rimefang drop like any other bow. Each arrow they loose carries its element, with its own head, light and trail: a burning oil rag, a barbed green head or a glowing ice point.
| Bow | Arrow | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Cinderheart | Fire | Sets the enemy burning for 4 seconds, dealing another 70% of the hit as fire. An arrow that lands in the ground or a tree sets it alight. |
| Blightthorn | Poison | Poisons for 7 seconds, dealing 60% of the hit over that time. Stacks up to three doses, and each hit refreshes it. |
| Rimefang | Frost | Chills for 4 seconds, slowing the enemy to 60% speed. The third frost arrow while it's chilled freezes it solid in ice for 1.5 seconds. |
- Burning and poison can't be blocked or parried, ignore poise, and armour stops only half its usual share. They show their own coloured damage numbers.
- The kill is yours. An enemy that dies burning or poisoned counts as your kill, for contracts and the trophy wall alike.
- Fire and frost cancel out. Fire thaws a chilled enemy; frost puts the flames out.
- Bosses can be burned, poisoned and slowed, but never frozen.
- In co-op the host applies the effects and everyone sees the flames, the green fumes and the ice. Other players see the bow you're carrying and your arrows' element.
Drawing the bow
- Side-on. Raise a bow standing still and you turn side-on to the target, shoulders in line with the shot, head turned to look down the arrow. Walking while you aim, your legs keep going where you're headed and only your chest turns.
- The bow arm reaches out to the grip with the elbow rolled out, away from the string.
- The draw. Your fingers hook the string and bring it back to the corner of your mouth, the arrow under your eye, the fist beside your jaw and the string running from your face down across your chest. The drawing elbow comes round behind your shoulder at the arrow's height.
- Enemy archers stand and draw the same way, so you can read a Bone Archer's shot coming.
- First person. The bow is held low and to the left, so the middle of the view stays clear; the arrow still points where it will fly.