Arrows

[Captain Canard]

As I keep leveling up and expanding outward on the map, my selection of arrows keeps growing, but I find myself going back to the old trusty and easy to craft scrap arrows. In most cases, I'm not seeing an advantage of using higher-level arrows like the copper, bronze, or fossil arrows, because usually it still takes the same number of arrows to down an enemy. For example, a single bronze arrow might take a lion creature down to 10% health, requiring a follow-up shot to finish it, whereas a scrap arrow may take it down to 40% health, requiring the same number of total shots to finish it off. A bronze arrow is a bear to craft, while a scrap arrow is easy to gather the components for. I just raid the scavenger base outside the starter zone for scrap metal, and I'm always picking up twigs, so it's easy to have hundreds of scrap arrows on hand. Not so for bronze, fossil, poisoned copper, etc.

The exception is those specialty arrows like bone arrows, explosive arrows, shroud arrows, etc. For bone arrows, I visit the first Hallowed Halls and mine bones and glowy grreen stuff from the bone piles. The other arrows take a little more work, but I save those for special occasions like bosses, mobs, etc. For the "day to day" exploring defense round, the old scrap arrow works just fine.

Am I the only one who does this? Am I missing something with these other arrows like copper and bronze, like enemy weaknesses to certain metals? From my experience, they are just not worth the work (gathering, smelting, etc) to craft them.

[AlexLM777]

Personally, I see the difference, especially on low-level enemies, bronze arrows kill with one shot, and copper ones, even less damage, with several! The easiest way to see the difference in level is to shoot at the dummies and targets that the huntress makes!

[AlexLM777]

I'm level 29 and if I go with copper arrows, where the enemy is level 20 and higher, these arrows are immediately more noticeable worse, so I go there only with bronze ones, but where the enemies are level 15 and copper ones are fine! I don't see any problems making arrows, especially since I don't only use them!

[Gearotic]

I just stick with the basic arrows. I'd rather shoot a few more times than waste precious resources.

[Ommamar]

One reason I would craft the higher level arrows is you can make poisoned version of them I haven't seen a recipe that allows you to do that with the lower levels. Admittedly I haven't seen all the recipes so I can't say for certain this isn't there.

I generally save the poisoned arrows for bigger enemies or bosses. There are certain ones like a heavy shield bearer that makes them so much easier for bow users. Even if the shot is blocked the poison seems to be still applied. A great kiting technique is to shoot with a poisoned arrow then move around and dodge while it does its work.

[Captain Canard]

I didn't realize poison arrows were that effective. I do save precrafted arrows I find in the wild that can later be upgraded to poison version, but didn't bother with them much since most normal enemies die from the arrow(s) itself. I'll have to give them a try on a boss.

Is the poison effect additive, or is it wiser to hit with one poisoned arrow and then switch to non-poison to save those special arrows? I do wish there was a faster way to switch arrows from the long draw (L2 on controller) rather than from inventory / action bar.

[AlexLM777]

Publicado originalmente por Gearotic:

I just stick with the basic arrows. I'd rather shoot a few more times than waste precious resources.

I play on a difficult level and enemies of my level kill me with 2-3 attempts, for me an extra shot can be critical. Of course, if you use a bow only from safe places, then you can make 100 shots, why rush! ))) Moreover, I go to places where the enemies are 5 or more levels higher than me, and sit and shoot 100 arrows while I kill one mob, this is insanity. What precious resources are you talking about? There are plenty of resources, that's the point of survival games.

[Dude]

I do wood arrows. Farming for arrows is not worth it imo. In the late game I crafted a boatload of steel arrows and save them for special situations. Otherwise, the incremental difference was too small.

[Ommamar]

Publicado originalmente por Captain Canard:

I didn't realize poison arrows were that effective. I do save precrafted arrows I find in the wild that can later be upgraded to poison version, but didn't bother with them much since most normal enemies die from the arrow(s) itself. I'll have to give them a try on a boss.

Is the poison effect additive, or is it wiser to hit with one poisoned arrow and then switch to non-poison to save those special arrows? I do wish there was a faster way to switch arrows from the long draw (L2 on controller) rather than from inventory / action bar.

They don't seem to be cumulative but the poison has a count of how many ticks it applies once it takes effect. So if you use another poisoned arrow it resets the counter, I notice a greenish cloud tint similar to the one if you eat food raw around them when the poison is active. So if you have good situational awareness you can rotate between poisoned and regular arrows. Or just stick with the poisoned to make sure you always have poisoned applied.

[Blinky Dorf]

Publicado originalmente por Captain Canard:

Am I missing something with these other arrows like copper and bronze, like enemy weaknesses to certain metals?

You are not. Materials don't matter, only the damage types matter. Enemies have resistances and weaknesses to different damage types; those skeletons take extra damage from blunt, so those crystals you're farming for those bone arrows? Really only useful in there, ironically. And shooting the Shroud bugs, but they're so weak it doesn't matter.

The reason you're getting so much mileage out of the scrap arrows is twofold: First, scrap arrows are split into pierce, cutting and poison damage pretty evenly, so they cover a lot of damage weaknesses from multiple enemies. The second reason is because you probably haven't spent a lot of time in the mountain region; iron and obsidian arrows are a common loot drop out there, and they just do so much more damage.
Additionally, your playstyle of using bows from a safe vantage point means that the time and resources spent using large amounts of inferior arrows doesn't really matter, so for you, the efficiency of superior arrows is a moot point. If you haven't found it yet, there's an "Eternal Arrow" that costs mana to fire instead of being an actual arrow; it's not very powerful, but it's technically infinite and eliminates the problem you seem to have with spending time grinding for materials to make arrows.

[Captain Canard]

Publicado originalmente por Blinky Dorf:

...; those skeletons take extra damage from blunt, so those crystals you're farming for those bone arrows? Really only useful in there, ironically...

Bone arrows have another "superpower" that makes me like them - they are the FMJ ammo of the game, as in they pass through multiple enemies, so if a line of enemies is rushing you, you can take them all out with a couple of shots, since the arrow keeps going through the front one to the back one.

The second reason is because you probably haven't spent a lot of time in the mountain region; iron and obsidian arrows are a common loot drop out there, and they just do so much more damage.

I just wandered into the mountains this weekend. I'm not ready to be there full-time (still have a lot of desert to explore), but I did mine some iron, which opened up the iron pickax, and that makes a huge difference in mining metals. The iron arrow is almost double damage of the scrap arrow, so I do see stocking up on those for more powerful enemies.

If you haven't found it yet, there's an "Eternal Arrow" that costs mana to fire instead of being an actual arrow; it's not very powerful, but it's technically infinite

I knew not of this arrow until you mentioned it. I like the idea for the "easy zones", where a basic wood arrow will one-shot enemies, because I hate using a sledgehammer to drive a nail.

[Blinky Dorf]

Exactly. I use the magical Eternal Arrow for normal exploration, and I save my iron and obsidian arrows for more dangerous encounters.

[Kappa]

I tried to get a bow, especially now I am playing a dex build, but found easier to just get the animal ally feat and let spellcasters with eternal spells deal with flying enemies ( the undead ones. Just them ).

If I am solo I go wand.

Bow feels way underwhelming imo ( eternal arrow is a scam ).

[PaPaKat]

Publicado originalmente por Blinky Dorf:

Exactly. I use the magical Eternal Arrow for normal exploration, and I save my iron and obsidian arrows for more dangerous encounters.

just fyi you would be better off using just plain wooden arrows for the simple fact that they do 10 damage as compared to the 4 damage with magical arrows and are really simple to craft while out exploring.

[q4TEKS]

Publicado originalmente por Blinky Dorf:

... I use the magical Eternal Arrow for normal exploration ...

is frost damage and you can increase frost damage by 30% via the wizard tree. and with that you can only play the eternal arrow if you have enough mana regeneration via armor.

//edit

bows:

https://enshrouded.gdg.wiki/weapons/bow/devilish-bow
https://enshrouded.gdg.wiki/weapons/bow/horned-beast-bow

[Blinky Dorf]

Publicado originalmente por q4TEKS:

is frost damage and you can increase frost damage by 30% via the wizard tree. and with that you can only play the eternal arrow if you have enough mana regeneration via armor.

//edit

bows:

https://enshrouded.gdg.wiki/weapons/bow/devilish-bow
https://enshrouded.gdg.wiki/weapons/bow/horned-beast-bow

Fun fact, they actually do NOT scale with your wizard tree stuff! Bow damage is always Dexterity, no exceptions. Even bows that have added "magical damage" suffixes don't scale; it's a flat addition on top of the base bow damage. Keen Games really shot themselves in the foot with the strict perk synergy they implemented.
However, you can get the perk that restores 20 mana on bow crits, and that helps a bit with mana expenditure. I find that larger mana pools work better than mana regeneration when it comes to the eternal arrow.