Where do I get arrows?

[Bill Garthright]

I just bought this game, and I'm playing an archer. It's going great, except that I've run out of arrows.

I used up the Fletchers Kit I started with, then spent nearly all of my money buying another one at the bandit village. But they didn't have any arrows, and I can't find any other shops. And what good is an archer without arrows?

Note that I've found a few quarrels, but I've never even seen a crossbow. I used a sling, briefly. It wasn't nearly as good as my long bow, so it took more bullets to kill things, and I had very few bullets, anyway.

I can't carry much without becoming burdened, either. But my main problem is that I can't find any arrows. Help, please?

[vysionier]

You can throw rocks and get nearly the same damage output. The early game is pretty tough to find arrows sometimes. If you are insistent on only shooting arrows though, then wander around in grasslands until you find barbarians and they’ll shoot plenty of arrows at you. And sometimes drop arrows too. Also sometimes drop longbows. Kobold encounters are quite similar as well.

[[[Soozey]]]

In the early game it will be a big problem trying to find arrows. I'd advise not entirely relying on ranged combat if you can find a decent blade. No need to risk breaking your arrows shooting at rats, even though it does train your archery. In early game I substituted my arrows with a sling and a bunch of rocks. You don't really need to carry all that much because rocks tend to be plentiful and you don't need to care about their curse-status, they hurt just the same.

When you get further into the game you will start getting quite a few special arrows that you need to identify, and in late game you will really need them. Slaying Arrows of different sorts, that is. The only way to mitigate the increasing corruption of chaos is to never engage creatures that corrupt on hit in melee, and the only reliable and efficient way to do that is to pick the right arrow for the right monster. I wanted to keep my barbarian's blood pure and had to flip between a bow and a crossbow just to barely make it with the specific slaying arrows and quarrels I had managed to find and buy.

[Bill Garthright]

OK, thanks guys. I started over with a wizard character, since I was having so much trouble with finding arrows for my archer. (Also, pretty much EVERYTHING he was wearing was cursed, and I never found a way to get rid of that, since he was never successful when he tried to read a scroll.)

But I might try a different archer character sometime. I liked that. It's just hard to figure out a game like this, at first.

[vysionier]

Ooh. Wizards are fun! Don’t neglect your melee and ranged skills though, or you’ll run out of spell knowledge too fast!

[GIGACHAD]

in older game, wandering wildly around the plains would get you attacked by plainsmen barbarians. They yield a LOT

[Bill Garthright]

OK, thanks. I'm not as fond of how this works as in other roguelikes, so maybe I'll just try a melee guy who doesn't run out of stuff so fast. We'll see.

But I DID like the archer, so I could try starting over with another one if I can get arrows that way. The wizard is... I don't know. I don't like one of the spells I started with or any of the other spellbooks I've found, so far. It's just so random.

My Magic Missile spellbook disappeared after reading it twice, and there doesn't seem to be any way to get another one, except through random chance. (Of course, if I use my OTHER offensive spell, the fire bolt, I'll likely burn up any spellbook carried by an NPC, right?)

[vysionier]

Originally posted by Bill Garthright:

OK, thanks. I'm not as fond of how this works as in other roguelikes, so maybe I'll just try a melee guy who doesn't run out of stuff so fast. We'll see.

But I DID like the archer, so I could try starting over with another one if I can get arrows that way. The wizard is... I don't know. I don't like one of the spells I started with or any of the other spellbooks I've found, so far. It's just so random.

My Magic Missile spellbook disappeared after reading it twice, and there doesn't seem to be any way to get another one, except through random chance. (Of course, if I use my OTHER offensive spell, the fire bolt, I'll likely burn up any spellbook carried by an NPC, right?)

No. You only burn up stuff sitting on the floor. It’s also useful for cooking food

[Bill Garthright]

Originally posted by vysionier:

No. You only burn up stuff sitting on the floor.

That's good to know. Thanks!

[gnmad]

if you run into barbarians keep running around the map while they shoot arrows at you until you get bored then kill them and pick up all the arrows.you can get as many as a hundred arrows that way.

[Sputnik]

Wot gnmad said. Barbarians and Bandits can be found in great numbers in the wilderness and will happily pepper you with scores of arrows (to avoid death make sure your armour and dodge skills are decent). Kobolds are good source within the early dungeons.

That way you can save your fletching kits until you have 100 flettching skill for much better arrow production.

[Dagoth_Ur]

if you start Archer class - you will have fletcher set and handaxe in your inventiry. WIth it you can go in forest, cut tree and make arrows, bolts or quarrels.

[inreoh]

Originally posted by Dagoth_Ur:

if you start Archer class - you will have fletcher set and handaxe in your inventiry. WIth it you can go in forest, cut tree and make arrows, bolts or quarrels.

Yep. Never use your fletchery sets on sticks unless absolutely necessary - always use them on logs if possible (you'll get *way* more arrows that way).
Also, train fletchery as much as possible - as soon as you get the *expert fletcher* class power, you'll start creating really excellent arrows (my only winner so far was a Gray Elven Archer - I never bothered with melee unless for doppelgangers and other monsters deflecting missiles).