Crossbow is terrible

[DFS Optimum]

Any tips for winning with it on Darkness 15?

[Torniquet]

Mini Clip + Spark https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HFCLvDQp75LfA3r1pQWd_KzgvsbnZAOZ/view

[Zidolos]

uh it gets broken really really fast. Hell I used it with Diamond and didn't get any of her good perks till the minute 13 boss.
Grab it with it spark, with the entire double shot tree, reload tree, and lightning tree prioritized should make it pretty easy. Also I always use the every 50 enemies burned or frozen doubles your attack speed for 5 seconds rune so grabbing at least base freeze and burn early on make most guns great.

[Grijm]

take the rune that deals damage when reloading, take reload, bounce and knockback perks, i had a unlucky run i ended at level 20+, just pure pushing the enemies back till the time is up

[DFS Optimum]

Originally posted by Grijm:

take the rune that deals damage when reloading, take reload, bounce and knockback perks, i had a unlucky run i ended at level 20+, just pure pushing the enemies back till the time is up

Died after taking +2 bounce because enemies got thrown into my face (maybe because of ice?), I like the rest of the tips though

[MrDropps]

Easiest i have found is grab the knockback on reload and damage on last bullet perks... Grab reload early stand there and farm stack damage and reload speed getting kill clip is the winner. Don't worry about rate of fire build for miniclip and ice to shatter and profit. If they are iced up they can't be knocked around. Add frostburn and/or lightning for explosion or just get assasin if you don't get that much elemental choice

[Grijm]

Originally posted by DFS Optimum:

Originally posted by Grijm:

take the rune that deals damage when reloading, take reload, bounce and knockback perks, i had a unlucky run i ended at level 20+, just pure pushing the enemies back till the time is up

Died after taking +2 bounce because enemies got thrown into my face (maybe because of ice?), I like the rest of the tips though

oh right, i forgot to mention to take Fan fire, that should solve the problem as it knocks back close enemies

[Khorne on the Cob]

Originally posted by Grijm:

Originally posted by DFS Optimum:

Died after taking +2 bounce because enemies got thrown into my face (maybe because of ice?), I like the rest of the tips though

oh right, i forgot to mention to take Fan fire, that should solve the problem as it knocks back close enemies

I just did a run with Shanna on Crossbow where she got the triple the next upgrade and tripled a Fan Fire, it's pretty funny actually.

[daemon47]

It is pretty difficult to deal good damage with the crossbow. Most of my crossbow runs end up being about knocking back all the enemies around me instead of annihilating them.

[ZKaagelnaodsa]

Play Shana

Take Courage, Alacrity and Glass Cannon, and Cadence because you don't want to proc Ethereal. You could take the summon one, and try to rush an early dragon with rerolls, but that's it.

Priorities:
Reload > Fresh Clip
Double shot > Fan Fire
Synergy > Mini clip

Secondary:
Damage
Pierce
Freeze (Icicles too, because we're reloading.
Reload Divine Shield Upgrade

Fun ones:
Lightning > Energized
Magnet > The one that gives you 1 ammo 10% on exp pick ups.

The Fun ones are here because gaining ammo at 0, and reloading, has a funny interaction where you shoot and reload and shoot and reload causing your fan fires and icicles to fire off like nuts.

Overall gameplan:

Start the game, don't move. Nothing can touch you due to courage and your innate reload speed. If you get even faster reload speed, even better.

If possible, try to grab Fan Fire and Fresh clip before first elite spawns. If you do get Fan fire and Fresh clip, don't grab Mini clip just yet.

First elite chest
> If Halo's grab 2 halo pieces and then don't grab a 3rd until chest 2
> If Triple, try to reroll into Mini clip. If not, grab whatever you think will help most. Stalwart shield apparently reduces the divine shield cooldown to 0 seconds, so that's cool too.
> If exp, continue on.

At this point, don't bother waiting to triple mini clip, especially if you got Halo pieces to grab. Just grab it asap, and continue on.

Don't move til first boss, then dodge accordingly.

+Tome, take power. Anything else you can forget and leave.
-Speed, you don't need it
-Bounce, literally a detriment because the bullets pierce then knock them back into you
-Attack speed, you literally want 1 shot
-Summon, even if you wanted it you're lowering reload speed to do it so no.

At this point, you need to be careful of projectiles because they can't be stopped by courage. Also, the leech enemies move kind of fast, so be careful when spamming shots. If you have fanfire, icicles, and some reload at this point you should be fine. If you got mini-clip, even better.

Elite 2: If you got Shana's halo in chest 1, kill the boss but don't open the chest. Instead, get exp until you can level up and complete Shana's halo, and then you want leave it on the floor so don't pick it up. Open the chest, and hope for a triple. If you get the triple, don't level up and instantly grab the halo. You will now have 75% Fire rate / Reload / Sight x 3, At this point, you're golden.

If not, just continue on with the normal halo.


This is what I do, crossbow is literally sleep mode. It's not a good or fun weapon, but because of courage and reload it's so safe that you literally cannot die unless it's by a projectile or you actively lower your reload speed like a dingus.

[Grijm]

Wow, appreciate the clear and concise way to make actual use of Shana's halo.

[ZKaagelnaodsa]

Originally posted by Grijm:

Wow, appreciate the clear and concise way to make actual use of Shana's halo.

Yeah, I tripled Halo on my first attempt on D15 and it was the most dumb thing in the world. I was using pistol too, and honestly I think a crossbow Miniclip build with it woulda been better because you'd think "1 ammo fire rate is lost on me" But that's not true, the fire rate increases the speed of which you fire your fan fire, which can be useful when you're spamming shots with a reload speed THAT high.

Note: If you aren't pushing enemies away fast enough with Courage/Reload alone in early game, Go Cadence and Grab Seismic wards. Cadence because the wards count as summons so... you can never have just 1 summon to get Dedication to proc.

They can help you out in the early game, for sure.

[the7thbeatle]

I used Hina and only got to level 20, then I was too weak to kill anything.

I still won, just by freezing everything and running away. Funniest run I've had.

[AvangionQ]

Crossbow makes me wish I had a turbo controller.

[Inner Sight]

Generally speaking if you find a gun you're not great with; prioritizing any and all summon upgrades tends to be a good way to try side-stepping around it. Just letting summons do the heavy lifting helps.

But if you ever feel determined to get better with the crossbow I'd mostly recommend perks that increase what it's already good at; generally playing to it's strengths.

---

• Damage Tree would provide a good boost due to the nature of the weapon already being high damage. Almost guarantees you'll one-shot anything that isn't a boss.
  
• Rapid Fire increases charge speed. Not a must-have if you have high damage anyway, but not bad. Everything else in the Fire Rate tree is either less useful or potentially dangerous to the user though:
  
  • Extra ammo will make things like Ice Shards and Fan Fire proc less while not actually adding much upside since you still charge each shot.
    
  • Rubber Bullet will often bounce things around unpredictably and lower your damage.
    
  • Siege doesn't do anything since you only have one bullet.
• The Move Speed tree obviously. Run and Gun is especially great for the crossbow since you'll be charging the crossbow more than you'll be shooting it.
  
• Everything in the Multi Shot tree is good. Especially Fan Fire since you'll reload every shot. It'll hold them off.
  
• The entire frost tree is pretty good. Especially since your ice shards will proc every shot.
  
• Anything with a little piercing helps a little to clear a path of as many as you can in one blast. This isn't necessary if the crossbow is charged up though.

Avoid upgrades that only apply to every set amount of shots; Fire Starter and the entire Electro Tree. These just don't help much for such a slow-fire weapon.

As far as tomes go the only options I found useful are Tome of Power or Tome of Speed. Everything else is more detrimental than helpful for the crossbow. Unless you went heavy into summoning in which case Tome of Summoning is cool.

Generally the way to go is grab multi shot and charge a shot up enough that you're confident it'll blast everything in the direction you're facing. Fan Fire will give you an opening to move into the new space you opened up.

[SCamp]

Crossbow is pretty easy. What ends up happening is you have so much space to play around that you aren't at threat from anything, but because enemies are so spread when they do die, you're essentially 10-15 levels below what other weapons tend to be at.

Just get movespeed from Haste(+Blazing Speed) and Divine Blessing (if you got the Holy Shield rune) to run around, preferably one or both before the deer boss. Go down the Multi-Shot tree and pick up Fan Fire for defense, Ice Tree for Frostbite. And then you're set for the rest of the game.

After that you, avoid anything that gives ammo capacity or is a summon. Damage? Grab it. Bullet speed? It's eventually leads to enemies having 20% less HP, so grab it. Reload speed? Gonna get you Fresh Clip and eventually Mini Clip synergy with Fan Fire so grab it. Burn? Enemies tend to be spaced away from you such that you tend to ignore them, so grab it.

For runes, I run elemental just for CC.