Does anybody even use Bows late game?

[Simple Tora]

I'm currently day 23 into my permadeath world (got a few mods that make it harder than your average permadeath run) and I have had so many close calls with death due to feral armored (mods) zombies when I try to sneak kill them with a compound bow and it doesn't 1 shot them. I often find myself ignoring that I even have a compound bow and resorting to bat/pistol i've got ahold of. I want to like using archery but it just doesn't seem feasible to me later in the game when everything is feral/radiated and the zombies are usually grouped up and set off even if you sneak kill 1.

Maybe i'm just bad tho

[1997]

I'd love to use bows and crossbows, they are fun, but I judge all weapons based on how useful they are during the horde night. Can't justify putting skill points into it. The explosive arrows are cool.

Nice to clear out some enemies during quests though without waking up half the building.
But like I said, other skills come first.

[xycotta]

Right..but you added mods to make everything harder. Of course the bow won't keep up. I have no idea how it does without the mods at that level, but you are already biasing the bows damage with the mods.

[Jack Cheddar]

In my SP game I maxxed my character, have all the perks and read all the books. I can't one shot some sleeping ferals. For me, the whole point of a xbow is silently making my way through a POI. The first one that isn't killed, the xbow becomes nearly useless due to reload rate. It's as accurate and powerful as the sniper rifle, but that's a limited use. I'll take the sniper and a silencer, because I can second shot them while they're are still reeling from the first, if needed. The xbow is just a novelty now.

[xycotta]

Originally posted by Jack Cheddar:

In my SP game I maxxed my character, have all the perks and read all the books. I can't one shot some sleeping ferals. For me, the whole point of a xbow is silently making my way through a POI. The first one that isn't killed, the xbow becomes nearly useless due to reload rate. It's as accurate and powerful as the sniper rifle, but that's a limited use. I'll take the sniper and a silencer, because I can second shot them while they're are still reeling from the first, if needed. The xbow is just a novelty now.

What level are you and what is the day out of curiosity?

[Brevan]

Surely the best sneak weapon is the compound crossbow, not much survives it. I prefer to use the bow for it's niche purpose - being able to reload and attack (at range even) without using stamina or slowing down your character.

[ElDudorino]

I hate regular bows in 7DtD but crossbows are outstanding. I regularly use one throughout the game once I have one. But I don't play above Warrior because bullet sponge difficulty has no appeal for me.

I don't usually put skill points into bows, either. Unskilled stealth head shots are enough.

[Jack Cheddar]

@xycotta - had to go look - lvl 187 - gs 284 - day 51 <--- keep in mind this number is low because I artificially raise my char early on. I don't do survival, just build and kill. I want a sea of green on horde night.
My point shouldn't be lost, though. There are zombies that can't be one shot at all levels.

@ElDudorino - you nailed it - the bullet sponge effect is the main drawback (sorry for the pun) for the crossbow.

[xycotta]

Originally posted by Jack Cheddar:

@xycotta - had to go look - lvl 187 - gs 284 - day 51 <--- keep in mind this number is low because I artificially raise my char early on. I don't do survival, just build and kill. I want a sea of green on horde night.
My point shouldn't be lost, though. There are zombies that can't be one shot at all levels.

@ElDudorino - you nailed it - the bullet sponge effect is the main drawback (sorry for the pun) for the crossbow.

Nice, I get bored after day 10 or so

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by Jack Cheddar:

In my SP game I maxxed my character, have all the perks and read all the books. I can't one shot some sleeping ferals. For me, the whole point of a xbow is silently making my way through a POI. The first one that isn't killed, the xbow becomes nearly useless due to reload rate.

You absolutely can, by carrying more than 1 loaded crossbow. With the crossbow (but not bows) you put more than 1 side by side on your toolbelt and fire them one after another as fast or even faster than the sniper rifle. With 2 xbows side by side and maxed archery skills there's no sleeper in the game, on warrior difficulty, you can't drop silently and virtually instantly (including rad bikers and rad cops). Use 3 xbows for a higher difficulty setting.

Despite that, a silenced rifle will outdo the crossbow on a stealth build in my experience. Plus be more useful on horde night. And ammo is so abundant there's no reason to use bows. So I agree that bows in general, need some significant love to be more than a self imposed, but fun to play, handicap.

However, it's still worth making people aware of the "put more than 1 on your belt" technique. Since the vast vast majority of players never seem to think of it.

[Blue Hasia]

Bow is amazing late game.

max it out with steel arrows, nothing really survives a sneak head shot

and saves on bullets

the big kicker is getting that sneak bonous damage perks and the bow already has a huge sneak bonous damage

[Macdallan]

I would wager that your mods are preventing you from doing what you can do in the vanilla game with bows and crossbows. Even on higher difficulty settings the bow and crossbow are still viable in the later days of the vanilla game. In one A20.X game I am on day 155+ and am playing on the standard difficulty settings. My regular crossbow usually one shots almost everything if I hit the head and I have no bow perks and none of the stealth perks. I'm sure if you invested in the stats and perks that boost them, and if you picked up the stealth perks, and are getting head shots (as long as your mods haven't disabled the dismember chance or the bonus damage for a head shot) then you'd have a much better chance of one shotting even the modded zeds. Then again maybe the armoured zeds simply don't take criticals or they're just so tough that even a head shot with all the perks and stats you can buy will not kill them.

From my recent experience in the vanilla game on Nomad difficulty the bow seems to be much quieter than the crossbow but with the stealth perks the crossbow ought to be fine, too. Not sure what the experience would be with feral senses on but I assume they would both still be fine most of the time. Your mods might make that an issue, too, but I don't know what your mods have changed.

[THARN]

I use bows most of the time until theres a group of them or feral..

[Crashtian]

The bow is slow. Fantastic for exploration and general purpose, but on horde night you either lean into explosive arrows or use something else.

IDK what explosive arrows are like now, but they use to just lack the punch needed to be effective at late stages. Having a player on explosive arrows was nice for the knock down but not much else.

I think it's been buffed since then, but it's just so slow.

[pApA^LeGBa]

Yes, compound crossbow, skilled, modded and with points in sneak attack, is a beast. Also explosive bolts can be shot trough bars, wich a rocketlauncher or grenades can´t do.

Explosive bolts/arrows need the demolitioner perk to be good though.

[Reeva!]

In higher difficulties, it's useful for clearing buildings when you're not confident you can handle 5-7 zeds waking up at once, especially if you're at high Gamestage and some of them can be feral or radiated. Even then though, they're not as reliable as other weapons, and take a lot of extra care and aim compared to a powerful tier 6 club fully specced with mods and your own skill levels.

They're fun for sure, and they change up playstyles. I like stealth playstyles, but as someone mentioned earlier, usefulness is typically tiered into what can be most effective in Horde Night. Bows simply do not hold up. They don't have the fast-firing reliability of even a pistol.