The bow is useless.

[galdon2004]

So I recently started playing the game, and it is enjoyable. As I've worked my way through the early game though, I am finding that bows seem to have unfortunately ended up in an unfortunate position in the game.

The primative bow is basically useless. It's barely stronger than a power attack from your fists, and weaker than one from the wooden club. It is also next to impossible to aim, as once your target is any distance away, aiming high enough to hit them leads to the bow covering up your target and making it difficult to see if you are still aligned horizontally.

Another nitpick is that actually using the bow can be finicky, when you fire, you automatically reload your next shot; but if you hold the mouse button to fire again too soon, it does not queue up your next shot in a smooth action, but instead just sits there doing nothing until you release the mouse button and press it back down.

While technically the primative bow does give you the "advantage" of ranged attacks, that advantage quickly wears off when you realize that whatever you are shooting will reach you long before running out of hit points and you'll have to finish it off with another melee weapon anyway. So, why waste the resources; one stone, one wood, and one feather for each arrow that breaks, when you can just headshot the zombie with a melee weapon and finish it off before it can stand back up, costing you only a couple wood when you eventually need repairs.

The main purpose of my bow ended up being just a weapon to use to chip away at horde health during a blood moon, but even then, my traps did almost the entirety of the damage.

I unlocked wooden bows with a perk, which gave me brief hope that bows would get better as I move up the tree; but that hope was quickly dashed. You need "Bow/Crossbow parts" to actually build a wooden bow. 6 of them. How do you get those? You can't craft them; you can only find them by luck or buy them, at 300 tokens a pop. 1800 tokens just to get the mandatory parts needed to craft a wooden bow for an increase in damage output of... 2 points.

On the other hand, I could spend 800 tokens on a lvl 1 pump shotgun. Half the cost for three times the damage output. Even without the range advantage, a single shot does more damage than the bow would have done during the zombie's entire approach.

This leaves bows ultimately in a position where they never really get a place to shine. They are outperformed by melee in the early game, and by the time you start to need ranged damage, guns become both more user friendly and affordable, while outclassing the bow entirely in damage.

I think the easiest fix with minimal changes would be to make the wooden bow more accessible; removing the requirement of expensive uncraftable parts would give the wooden bow a chance to shine before guns become the go-to option. Bows would still end up being outperformed eventually but it would allow bows to better fill that niche of a cheap self-sufficient option for a ranged weapon.

I think a damage buff for the wooden bow would also be a good idea, but that might require reworking the damage balance between a lot of weapons to keep things proportional.

[Dozz]

if you don't use the Blunderbuss early on, your missing out pal, ill be real didn't read ANYTHING above, as blocks of text aint my thing, but use the Blunderbuss early.

[Ban885]

head shots do double damage, bows are not useless i use them often.
you need to put more points and find more mods for the bows to increase the power.
bows are fine the way they are. i find them pretty balanced.

[SylenThunder]

Bow is my primary weapon for most of my gameplay. Sure the primitive bow is not great, but it's a starter item, so it's not expected to be. Once you upgrade to the wooden bow, and again the compound bow, it improves dramatically.

Also, how is the wooden bow not accessible? Early on you just loot and visit traders. Usually have one set up by the second horde.

Your dissertation sounds like you want bows to be more on-par with guns. Which just isn't reasonable. They're currently pretty well balanced for the gameplay they are designed for.

[Shurenai]

First, Bows are precision weapons- If you're not hitting the head, you're failing. On the default difficulty, Even a Q1 primitive bow without a mod in it using stone arrows can drop normal zombies with 3-5 solid hits to the head. By the time you have a decently modded wooden bow and a mid-to-high skill level in the Archery skill and using iron arrows you'll frequently be one or two shotting enemies you hit in the head, especially if its done from stealth. By high quality compound with steel and mods you'll be close to if not actually one shotting even the beefier zombies.

Second, The damage increase from Primitive to Wooden is more than you might realize. The loaded ammunition type is reflected in the listed damage value on the bow; Further, equipped mods increase weapon damage by 15% per mod. So if you're comparing a modded out primitive bow loaded with iron or steel arrows to a freshly crafted and unmodded bow, which defaults to being loaded with stone arrows, then you're not seeing a proper view of the disparity in damage.

[Lelo Mariin]

The bow / crossbow are absolutely fenomenal weapons during raiding a poi. Headshots with iron arrow / bolt is 90% instant kill on normal and non special zombies

its absolutely worthless during horde nights

[Go_Coup]

If anything, bows are too strong.

[hpsfamily]

all are good points above though i elect to miss out on the blunderbuss lol @lawnmover man :) lets mention too that the bow and crossbow add a huge sneak damage unlike other weapons until blade perk so in a pov its huge. i have 1300 hours and i never not have a crossbow in my binds.. just too much fun popping heads. That being said i agree that i dont use the bow often first couple of days until i get a tier 2 bow. wood club does the work

[Henry]

(Cross)Bows have a 200% stealth damage (additive with the normal stealth damage). So they are more suited for surprise attacks on zombies. If the Zeds are already after you they are not a weapon of choice. So they are not generally useless but they are useless in SOME situations. So when you use them for the right purpose you may have more success with them. They are no general purpose weapons, but for me this is a good thing.
I like crossbows more than bows. Especially because you can strap a scope on them. This makes precision aiming much easier. Even indoors. So maybe give crossbows a try. Crossbows were my favourite weapon since I started playing in A15 or so. But I can imagine that they need a special playstyle and some skill/training to get used to them. And certainly they are not weapons for everyone. So if you dislike (cross)bows it's fine. You have plenty of other weapons to choose from. Noone forces you to use them.

[Khissi]

I love playing stealth and that wonderful multiplier for sneak shots for bows makes a HUGE difference for me in the early game in higher difficulty playthroughs. I mean, above Warrior difficulty, they're not quite as effective until you've put a few points into Archery and Hidden Strike but, once you have that multiplier up to x5 and more... well, good grief! Even a primitive bow could be considered godly but by the time you've invested that many points, you're probably up to compound bows or compound crossbows. Compound crossbows, though... those are the ones that make your heart skip a beat when they take off zombie heads with silent precision. It's just a beautiful thing to be able to sneak an entire POI without waking one zombie. *and no, I'm not talking about Tier 5 POIs... pft... suck*

I love my bows...

[Groucho]

The Bow and Crossbow are the best weapons during POIs raids, it allows to clean a room undetected

[Crater Creator]

Three things.

1. Bows are quiet weapons, and the sneak bonus multiplier truly is substantial when used effectively.
   
2. When comparing bows to shotguns, you should factor in the cost of the ammunition as well.
   
3. The devs are going to add pipe pistols/pipe rifles to fill out the early game ranged weapon options.

[Kyle]

It’s definitely not a good idea to compare a ranged attack to a melee power attack. Power attacks consume extra stamina, and then hinder stamina regeneration. Don’t get used to them, you will run out of stamina fast. Regenerating stamina also costs food.

I view the bow as the safest early game weapon, while being cheap to use. Low stamina to use, it all came earlier from mining the stone or iron. Not going to make any noise to attract anything else.

You also got very lucky by finding that level 1 pump shotgun for sale. Level 1s for sale early on are awesome, but don’t count on it to keep happening in every new game.

[Aaronthelemon]

When pipe guns are added bows will become even more useless.

Bows are only good at stealth and nothing else.

Awful guns outclass good bows and even the cost of ammo doesn't offset this.

I dont understand how anyone can defend them.

[CoinSpin]

I play stealthy almost every time I play - never did find that a tank/melee build appealed to my play style. So, I use bows about 10 times as much as any other weapon in my arsenal (with the exception of blood moon nights, of course).

The thing with bows is the sneak damage, as noted by many in posts here, but also by the fact that they don't bring every neighboring zombie in a tri-county region when you fire them. It becomes much easier to pick off individual targets, even from a crowd or small wandering horde.

As was also mentioned, headshots are key for bows. Yes, aiming the primitive is clumsy, but it's also fairly predictable and you can get crazy good at aiming with some practice. But, there's another factor to consider with bows that can greatly improve your odds of living, if you master it: hobbling. When I go into a situation with my bow, whether it's sleepers or wanderers, I take a 2 pronged approach to initial contact. Open with the headshot, if you didn't pop the noggin and the zombie is now highly motivated to eat your brains, then fire an arrow into a leg. The hobbling effect is great, it typically gimps the zombie and slows their advance, giving you a little more time for adding headshots to finish them off. That head->leg->head->head pattern is highly effective. Even serves to slow down ferals later with higher level bows / crossbows. It has gotten me out of more scrapes than I care to count.

And all that still doesn't even touch on the fact that the ammo for the bow is incredibly cheap/easy to make, and you have a decent chance to recover some of that ammo. There's a lot of balance at play to compensate for the relatively low per shot damage impact of the bow.

[ImCalledBethy/Sparklefarts5]

It's all about head shots, stealth, better bows & crossbows, explosive / burning ammo. They're difficult against hordes.

Originally posted by Aaronthelemon:

When pipe guns are added bows will become even more useless.

Bows are only good at stealth and nothing else.

Awful guns outclass good bows and even the cost of ammo doesn't offset this.

I dont understand how anyone can defend them.

Because we know how to use them?