Bow in alpha 19? :: 7 Days to Die General Discussions

Lady Ming

Dec 25, 2020 @ 3:26pm

Like with everything in this game its really up to how you want to play. The bow is fine for a stealth weapon if you want to play that way. Obviously since you can't stealth fight the bloodmoon its a bit lackluster there. But much like where I prefer to use stun batons even though I know they technically are lower "dps" I enjoy the play style with them. And as a typically int focused builds player it meshes well with my stat choice.

tldr version: They do well outside of horde night.

#1

Blue Hasia has 7 Days to Die

Dec 25, 2020 @ 7:23pm

because they locked the normal bow out till mid game by needing super rare crafting parts bow is pretty worthless till mid game but at that point you have guns

#2

Professor H. Farnsworth has 7 Days to Die

Dec 25, 2020 @ 7:38pm

Originally posted by Ming:
Like with everything in this game its really up to how you want to play. The bow is fine for a stealth weapon if you want to play that way. Obviously since you can't stealth fight the bloodmoon its a bit lackluster there. But much like where I prefer to use stun batons even though I know they technically are lower "dps" I enjoy the play style with them. And as a typically int focused builds player it meshes well with my stat choice.

tldr version: They do well outside of horde night.

I mean, you can still get every perk out there so, locking yourself in as an INT player seems a bit meh.

Originally posted by Blue Hasia:
because they locked the normal bow out till mid game by needing super rare crafting parts bow is pretty worthless till mid game but at that point you have guns

Yeah, it's silly honestly. You'll get a T6 gun before you get to craft a normal bow at which point you may as well just wait until you can craft the Compound Bow and/or Compound Crossbow.
They're amazing for stealth running stuff, but their damage is really lackluster against any higher tiered mobs. Shooting an Irradiated Infected is just pointless with a bow and them skyscrapers have tons of those.

Last edited by Professor H. Farnsworth; Dec 25, 2020 @ 7:40pm

#3

Lady Ming

Dec 25, 2020 @ 10:00pm

Originally posted by Professor H. Farnsworth:
Originally posted by Ming:
Like with everything in this game its really up to how you want to play. The bow is fine for a stealth weapon if you want to play that way. Obviously since you can't stealth fight the bloodmoon its a bit lackluster there. But much like where I prefer to use stun batons even though I know they technically are lower "dps" I enjoy the play style with them. And as a typically int focused builds player it meshes well with my stat choice.

tldr version: They do well outside of horde night.

I mean, you can still get every perk out there so, locking yourself in as an INT player seems a bit meh.

I like to have a day 2-3 minibike, a day 5-6 motorcycle, and a day 12-15 gyro. Its how I choose to play. Lets not pretend bloodmoon is hard on warrior (my preferred difficulty, higher then that and they don't really become harder, just more bullet spongy) before day 35 to begin with. You can completely avoid all combat skills till then and be just fine.

Though I also wasn't asking for opinions on my personal play style. Everyone has a preference, you don't have to agree with mine.

Last edited by Lady Ming; Dec 25, 2020 @ 10:04pm

#4

harlequin_corps has 7 Days to Die

Dec 26, 2020 @ 4:34am

Unfortunately, 9mm pistol w/ silencer beats bow/xbow in every aspect of game play. And pistol w/ both PP and ME gives you a silenced weapon, a high dps burst weapon and a rapid fire max damage single shot sniper rifle all in one spec line.

#5

Crater Creator

Dec 26, 2020 @ 6:08am

The bow is certainly worth it in the early game, because you won’t have much choice. If you want a ranged weapon immediately, it’s either the primitive bow or the stone spear I suppose, which I don’t care for. After that you have the Blunderbuss once you do some looting.

In the later game, the role of bows is clearly stealth. With a maxed out character, I believe only the knife has a higher sneak damage bonus than bows. However, if you’re specializing in bows you’re probably specializing in Agility more broadly, and it does seem like the pistol class (e.g. the SMG) outclasses bows when both are fully modded out.

#6

~{DCMT}~ComaWhite12~ has 7 Days to Die

Dec 26, 2020 @ 8:58am

I keep a bow on me until I get a suppressor. It's my go-to silent assassine up until I get a can.

#7

Khissi

Dec 26, 2020 @ 10:02am

I love my bow since, day 1, even using a Tier 1 primitive bow, you get a 3.5% multiplier to your initial shot when done from crouching (stealth) against an unaware enemy. That can make the difference between life and death in those early days, allows you to clear entire POIs without waking a single zombie and scales up when you put points into certain other perks in the agility line. Do check that out! At higher game difficulties, a quick switch to your club or stone sledgy means one more hit to take down even the highest HP zombies. You still need to be on a roof to take on a bear or dire wolf, but yeah, bow is very much worth using.

#8

nemshammer has 7 Days to Die

Dec 30, 2020 @ 5:45pm

Originally posted by harlequin_corps:
Unfortunately, 9mm pistol w/ silencer beats bow/xbow in every aspect of game play. And pistol w/ both PP and ME gives you a silenced weapon, a high dps burst weapon and a rapid fire max damage single shot sniper rifle all in one spec line.

That is true but you first need to get a hold of a pistol and silencer. I can nearly always find a pistol early on but the silencer is another story. They are fairly hard to get a hold of in my experience while bows and crossbows are common. I tend to use a bow or crossbow to stealth kill and save ammo. However I also keep a second weapon for when stealth is a bust or for ambushes. I would be happy to run through all the game using a silenced 9mm as my only ranged weapon but the RNG gods has more to say about that then I do.

#9

RasaNova

Dec 30, 2020 @ 10:35pm

Originally posted by nemshammer:
Originally posted by harlequin_corps:
Unfortunately, 9mm pistol w/ silencer beats bow/xbow in every aspect of game play. And pistol w/ both PP and ME gives you a silenced weapon, a high dps burst weapon and a rapid fire max damage single shot sniper rifle all in one spec line.
That is true but you first need to get a hold of a pistol and silencer. I can nearly always find a pistol early on but the silencer is another story. They are fairly hard to get a hold of in my experience while bows and crossbows are common. I tend to use a bow or crossbow to stealth kill and save ammo. However I also keep a second weapon for when stealth is a bust or for ambushes. I would be happy to run through all the game using a silenced 9mm as my only ranged weapon but the RNG gods has more to say about that then I do.

The bow will far out-damage a silenced pistol from stealth, letting you 1-shot tougher zombies. Also I might be wrong about this but in my experience silenced guns are still louder than bow/crossbows and seem to wake nearby sleepers that a bow wouldn't.

Last edited by RasaNova; Dec 30, 2020 @ 10:35pm

#10

Geordy

Dec 30, 2020 @ 11:49pm

You are correct; silenced guns still fill up your noisemeter. If only for a moment.

#11

nemshammer has 7 Days to Die

Dec 31, 2020 @ 12:01am

Originally posted by RasaNova:
Originally posted by nemshammer:
That is true but you first need to get a hold of a pistol and silencer. I can nearly always find a pistol early on but the silencer is another story. They are fairly hard to get a hold of in my experience while bows and crossbows are common. I tend to use a bow or crossbow to stealth kill and save ammo. However I also keep a second weapon for when stealth is a bust or for ambushes. I would be happy to run through all the game using a silenced 9mm as my only ranged weapon but the RNG gods has more to say about that then I do.
The bow will far out-damage a silenced pistol from stealth, letting you 1-shot tougher zombies. Also I might be wrong about this but in my experience silenced guns are still louder than bow/crossbows and seem to wake nearby sleepers that a bow wouldn't.

When I have had a silenced 9mm I have had no trouble taking out zombies while leaving others undisturbed. As to the one shot stealth damage for a bow it is generally better but honestly performing head shots and adding a few points to the hidden strike perk easily removes any issues. On the other hand there is not much of anything that significantly increases the rate of fire for a bow to keep up with a pistol.

Now its not like I hate the bow as a weapon. I use it all the time to conserve bullet ammo for blood moons but if you have one, a silenced pistol will generally give you a safer stealth run since there is no time needed to do weapon change during unexpected issues and it is still quiet so it will be unlikely to agro other nearby zombies like a shotgun or machine gun would.

#12