Are broadhead/razor arrows good for anything?

[Coldhands]

I'm trying not to kill anyone unless I screw up and really need to, but shooting a searching guard right in the face on Master difficulty, even with a razor tooth arrow seems to have zero effect beyond giving away my position.
Is there some trick to using them I don't get?

[Draig]

A broadhead will usually kill a guard with a well placed headshot if he is unsuspecting and doesn't have a helmet on. You get a nice animation for it when you hit the sweet spot from distance. Razor will do the same even if they have a helmet on.

Alerted/searching guards won't usually drop even from a headshot with a broadhead but they sometiems do from a well placed razor.

You can skill up the damage done to make this happen even when they are alerted.

[dimmu1313]

Unless you are going for Ghost ranking, broadheads and sawtooth arrows are your friends :) You will encounter many snipers positioned such that they'll be alerted by your presence where others might not be, and usually a well-placed arrrow to the face can take them down without arousing suspicion. Headshot kills are typically quiet as long as the corpse doesn't fall off the building or platform into a well-lit or patrolled area. Also, sometimes you just want to get through an area quickly and don't want to deal with waiting to sneak and takedown from behind. Headshots are quick and quiet.

[Highduke]

I use them for killing dogs/birds as they can be VERY annoying. Warning though; they still count as kills torwards the 'Predator' rank.

[FetusZero]

I use broadhead like bottles. Shoot the arrow on a wall to distract them. I normally make my way trying not to alert anyone, but I had to use a distraction sometimes and if I don't have a bottle, the arrow works wonders.

[Draig]

Choke arrows for animals; blunt arrows for distraction.

[FetusZero]

Originally posted by Draig:

Choke arrows for animals; blunt arrows for distraction.

Didn't have the blunt yet, actually just acquired my very first blunt arrows, but have yet to need distraction since then.

[Lucifer]

Broadheads can also be used to activate environmental exploits (dangling timbers/crates, pulleys, vases) but blunt do the same thing for much less in price. Broadheads are mainly useful if you are allowed to kill (and sawtooth are their bigger brother for the helmeted guards). If you play the custom difficulty with no kills, then they're just more expensive blunt arrows with the addition that you shoot a guard anyplace but the head with them to soften him up for a blackjacking.

[Coldhands]

So guards are just more durable once they're altered? Hmm. : \
I guess I'll have to buy the bow upgrades. I don't generally like to kill guards that aren't hunting me already.

[Lucifer]

Even without the bow upgrade on Thief difficulty, I can shoot a broadhead into a guard's chest, groin, butt or foot and not kill him (usually drops to his knees where I can do a combat takedown and if I'm quick about it can get a combat takedown without ever being spotted - did that in the mission about the talking skull).

[Coldhands]

^I was on a customized Master, but I started over on Thief. I'd rather have the satisfaction of beating it on Master, and it wasn't actually all that incredibly hard ... it was just taking a really long time to make progress. I've got an ever rising backlog, and I'm afraid I'll end up burning out on Thief before I finish it if I keep playing on Master.
So I'll burn through it on Thief and have fun.

[Lucifer]

Yeah, I plan on doing a Master (or Custom) run later, but since I expected there'd be lots of hidden goodies (and rewards for 100% loot) from my previous Thief experiences, I decided on Thief for the first run because it's easier for me to scour every nook and cranny with less hassle (I was damned good at the previous games in the series and used to pride myself in completely ghosting mission on hardest difficulty - 0 Knock Outs and never being spotted)... plus I wanted to vent frustration every now and then by going on a murderous rampage when trying to locate the one or two pieces of loot eluding my searching eyes!

[Moon Punisher]

Well , it is either dont touch anyone or knock/kill free , since there is only 1 achiv for this.

I lost it when i could not drop from a vent guess chap 2? and had to jump over a guard to get down.

So to me , they are ways to make the game go faster now (outside chaps , where they account for ghost...) , problem is when people find the bodies heh.