is bow a good end-game weapon?

[Geek Ultra]

i'd like to be an archah like in terraria and minecraft

[Niuq]

It is wonderful when you have time.
It is terrible if you are getting rushed.

[Gnasty Gnorc]

Once you get the compound bow or crossbow, absolutely.

[tazman1]

the bow from start to end is a damn good weapon

untill about day 14 you don't even need to think about more then easy to craft stone arrows for it. And with the perks in archery you can ensure your killing zombies with head shots when they don't magically phase through the things.

That being said its not that good a weapon in close quaters so make sure you have a back up preferably a knife because guns are loud and costly in ammo

[GinsengSamurai]

Originally posted by tazman1:

the bow from start to end is a damn good weapon

untill about day 14 you don't even need to think about more then easy to craft stone arrows for it. And with the perks in archery you can ensure your killing zombies with head shots when they don't magically phase through the things.

My wife uses the crossbow. I find it funny when there are a bunch of zombies and I quickly run up to them, BOOM, take their head off, then see a bolt fly by. Then run up to another zombie, BOOM, their head blows up, and I see another bolt fly by. ^_^ I even tell her, "Just use the pistol in close quarters!"

I wasn't contradicting what you were saying. It just reminded me of my experiences with it. However, definitely a great weapon to have, especially when bolts and arrows are much easier to get resources for, than bullets and shells.

[Khissi]

I don't play stupid high difficulty, use Adv., actually, but, I just love doing Tier V infested and do so with crossbow/military armor. My current GS is 140ish and I have very little trouble doing those. However, certain of the normal Tier V and Tier VI POis have a particularly nasty mechanic where triggered mobs swarm you. Therefore, for those areas, you'd need to be certain to have a high quality Tactical or M60, loaded and ready to rock. I use a silenced shotty, as well, but, when things go super sideways, spray-n-pray is essential. The rest of the time, club and crossbow. Works just fine.

[Amins]

From day 1 I use a bow liberally. It works great with stealth and softening up zombies at minimal cost to stamina. I can even use it when my stamina is depleted. Once I get iron arrows, they can quite often one-shot zombies with a stealth attack to the head allowing me to thin a group before waking everyone up. Then when I graduate from the primitive bow and again up to the compound level, forget about it! I'm dropping even the toughest zombies in silence. Even into "End-Game" I always have a bow or crossbow for picking off large clusters of zombies I don't feel like dealing with all at once. At least until I'm able to get a silenced sniper rifle and enough stealth perks to rival it.

Also, I've never actually given explosive arrows much of a try outside of horde nights. But I would imagine they are very effective as well.

[Shneekey]

Eh, with the new spawning mechanics of larger PoI's, you're going to need a backup to your bow or crossbow. But sure, bows are viable. Even horde nights once you get exploding arrows recipe.

However, knives are only good in ambush, and that's almost impossible with the new spawning mechanics of A21. It's fun, don't get me wrong, but you're gonna die a lot if you just have a bow/crossbow and a knife, especially when you start getting ferals and rads that spawn already aggroed so you can't sneak snipe them.

An SMG-5 would pair well, as it can get you out of tight situations, or perhaps a Desert Vulture, since it's in the same stat tree as archery.

[Kai]

In small POI that is 1 to 3 tiers, it's often indoors and in tight spaces which makes bows kinda meh.

[william_es]

I don't use a bow as main weapon. It's something I snipe zombies with from far away or from up high. The ammo is basically free. So it doesn't matter how often I miss, as long as I hit them. I always carry a bow or preferably a crossbow (flatter trajectory, instant firing).

Bows and crossbows are silent, so many times if I hit a zombie from far away it doesn't know where to run, and just keeps standing there... shoot it again and again.

But using it indoors, inside a POI... LOL... no, just NO.

[☠Dragnoros, der Wächter]

you can use it inside a POI.. but you have to know how the zombies react inside the room.

Example: You can clean the whole roof and 70% of the of the floors big library relatively well with the bow. Because these zombies are not woken up by certain places but by the volume.

The weapon can only be used depending on the situation.

If you compare the bow to the other end weapons... this one is in midfield. Better than most melee weapons but inferior to most ranged weapons, but better than crossbow as firing speed is more important than damage (my opinion).

[Pain Weasel]

Yes, it is a good end game weapon, but it cannot be your only weapon.

I have been able to clear probably 80%-90% of most T5+ POIs with the bow and stealth. I can usually clear close to 100% of lower tier POIs without waking any zombies up.

However as others have mentioned there are breakpoints where you will trigger a horde and there is nothing you can do to avoid it. I usually carry a machete, SMG-5 and a .44 as backup for when I hit those instances where 20 irradiated zombies pop out of thin air and are sprinting towards me. Relying solely on a bow in that scenario will get you killed.

The only other downside to using a bow is speed. It is great for picking off targets one at a time but that is just much slower than intentionally aggroing the room and mowing everything down with an M60.

[onanonehand8]

The bow needs a heck of a lot of love to make it an effective weapon. If it's all one has then use it. But to make the argument that a t5 primitive bow is as effective as a t5 pipe machine gun is, imo, an unconvincing argument. Yes ammo is presumably easier to get, but not really.

Then considering the slow rate of fire, it's not even a consideration.

[Kill'em ALL]

Originally posted by Geek Ultra PH:

is bow a good end-game weapon?

No, it's not. Not in the sense of "being the main weapon to use when dealing with end-game content".

End-game (such as is) basically means a lot of armored/HP-sponge enemies rushing you at the same time (either unavoidable triggers in POIs or during bloodmon hordes) and bow has absolutely nothing on that. Even people who claim otherwise above admit that it's only "good" in certain conditions and/or if you have another - better - weapon to deal with the actual *hard* encounters.

The simple fact is that anything a bow/crossbow/melee can kill in this game, firearms can kill easier and faster. Nothing beats a modded M60 loaded with AP ammo. Using something else is a matter of taste, role playing or self-imposed challenge. Or really hating to mine/loot at all, I guess.

[tazman1]

Originally posted by Kill'em ALL:

Originally posted by Geek Ultra PH:

is bow a good end-game weapon?

No, it's not. Not in the sense of "being the main weapon to use when dealing with end-game content".

End-game (such as is) basically means a lot of armored/HP-sponge enemies rushing you at the same time (either unavoidable triggers in POIs or during bloodmon hordes) and bow has absolutely nothing on that. Even people who claim otherwise above admit that it's only "good" in certain conditions and/or if you have another - better - weapon to deal with the actual *hard* encounters.

The simple fact is that anything a bow/crossbow/melee can kill in this game, firearms can kill easier and faster. Nothing beats a modded M60 loaded with AP ammo. Using something else is a matter of taste, role playing or self-imposed challenge. Or really hating to mine/loot at all, I guess.

yes guns are a far better weapon then bows that is not debatable they make up for that with having harder ammo to replenish and being louder which attracts zombies.

the bow is easier to get the ammo for and is silent so less chance of pissing off the zombie down the street.

and I can kill cops and demolition zombies with a bow so not sure what you mean by end game.

[Clay-Pigeon]

Did he just say he wanted to bring a bow to an M60 fight ?!