Bow Damage

[Jester]

Hi all. I need some help understanding bow damage. I have a level 6 bow that indicates it does 34 damage and shooting some stone arrows for testing (they do 25 damage). If I hit, does that mean, I will do 59 damage? I tested this out against a wooden block and it was only doing 5ish points of damage. Is that because its wooden and has some armor reduction or am I not reading the bow and arrow damage stats correctly?

Thanks in advance!

[aY227]

You can't test on block, because than "block damage" stat applies - you need to test on unarmored zombies on Nomad difficulty.
You can see hp with mod or in debug mode - F6 to spawn new zombies and "*" to turn off AI

Happy testing :)

[Jester]

Ahhh...thanks aY! Do you know if I am correct in my assumption that bow damage is bow plus arrow? Thanks again!

[aY227]

Originally posted by Jester:

Ahhh...thanks aY! Do you know if I am correct in my assumption that bow damage is bow plus arrow? Thanks again!

No
Your bow dmg changes as you change arrows. Unloaded is for stone ones. (this of course screws up comparing damage)
Its something like +12% dmg for iron and +24% for steel, but don't ask me for exact formula :)

[BigRowdy]

Originally posted by Jester:

Ahhh...thanks aY! Do you know if I am correct in my assumption that bow damage is bow plus arrow? Thanks again!

If you have a bow that good you should create iron arrows at least.

[The Giving One]

I actually enjoy using only stone arrows in the game. As my skill points in the archery tree increase, so does the weapon effects (knockdown, decapitation, dismemberment, etc.) but a kill with each shot is less likely. I like to torture 'em and it's more fun.

But as said above, the damage reported in the screen should change, depending on which arrow you currently have loaded.

[RasaNova]

Originally posted by aY227:

Originally posted by Jester:

Ahhh...thanks aY! Do you know if I am correct in my assumption that bow damage is bow plus arrow? Thanks again!

No
Your bow dmg changes as you change arrows. Unloaded is for stone ones. (this of course screws up comparing damage)
Its something like +12% dmg for iron and +24% for steel, but don't ask me for exact formula :)

This is exactly right. You can change your arrow type and the damage stat of your bow will change to the updated value. Something to be very aware of when comparing bows, you might find a much better one but think it's much worse, because the damage will be lower if your old bow has iron/steel arrows loaded.

[aY227]

Even funnier because unloading arrow won't change dmg to default :)
Stone arrow will have to be loaded.

[Mardoin69]

Originally posted by aY227:

Even funnier because unloading arrow won't change dmg to default :)
Stone arrow will have to be loaded.

yep....goes by whatever type arrow was loaded last.

To answer OP question....no.....it is not a combination of bow AND arrow. The value given by the bow IS the total damage with the arrow being used. So, when you first get a bow, it should be showing it's total damage as if it were loaded with stone arrows. If you switch type of arrow loaded, it will change to show it's total damage. The fact the arrows show a damage value is kind of misleading that way.....except that you can compare arrow types to see which is the most powerful arrow.

[The Giving One]

Not sure if it was mentioned, but what mods, if any, that are on the bow will change the damage reported also, although that will not change with each arrow that is loaded. That will stay the same, as long as those mods are on the bow.

I often will remove all my mods to compare a newly found weapon to the one I currently use.

[Jester]

Thanks everyone! Just what I needed to know. Now my numbers are making sense.