Why do bows not one shot on headshots?

[Zooks]

Why do bows not one shot on headshots? I finally got a bow and was excited to be popping heads with it but was highly dissapointed when i do like 2% dmg to a zombies hp when i hit them in the head. pretty sure zombies are supposed to die with a head shot.. this is lame.

[๖ۣۜMk137]

Agree that headshot damage should be slightly more, though don’t agree it should always one-shot kill. Personally I don’t buy into the idea that a reanimated corpse can’t survive an arrow in the head, especially if it can survive 2 machete impacts to the head.

Also the melee/throwables/environmental combat is so good that I desperately do not want DL2 to turn into a “hide in shadows and click on head” simulator. Already went down that path with my Skyrim stealth archer. :)

[GubbyTheChubby]

Originally posted by Zookie:

Why do bows not one shot on headshots? I finally got a bow and was excited to be popping heads with it but was highly dissapointed when i do like 2% dmg to a zombies hp when i hit them in the head. pretty sure zombies are supposed to die with a head shot.. this is lame.

If you wear Range Armor (Arrow Symbol) they do headshot Zombies. I dont have any trouble to oneshot them. Even some Special Infected are Oneshot

[Kain]

Well, the PK crossbow with Sniper gear is op af.

[Zooks]

Originally posted by Kain:

Well, the PK crossbow with Sniper gear is op af.

I've gone the rout of the survivors so getting a bow took a few days playtime for me. I was excited to get it but disappointed in its combat capability. I might as well just smack'em in the head with a two-hander.

[Zooks]

Originally posted by ๖ۣۜMk137:

Agree that headshot damage should be slightly more, though don’t agree it should always one-shot kill. Personally I don’t buy into the idea that a reanimated corpse can’t survive an arrow in the head, especially if it can survive 2 machete impacts to the head.

Also the melee/throwables/environmental combat is so good that I desperately do not want DL2 to turn into a “hide in shadows and click on head” simulator. Already went down that path with my Skyrim stealth archer. :)

If not one shot then it should at least do some significant Hp damage. At least 25% 50% hp damage but not the measly 2% i was doing, I know that ranger armor exists but I dont really think i should have to sacrifice armor for ranged damage. I think A buff for bows should be in order. The first dying light was a bit more fun in that area.

[Pinger]

starter bows need element effects to be effective but once you get a artifact Paper Clip with its 140 damage or better yet the twitchdrop bow which you can't get anymore the Funkadelic. It seems to randomly redeem from blue to gold so have a few base damages but anywhere from 150 as a blue too 226 as an artifact

[Hashley Hashbrowns]

or just get the pk crossbow which is 994 damage at level 9 and can take some hp off a demo even when not wearing any ranger pieces

[haessliches Frettchen]

Originally posted by Hashley Hashbrowns:

or just get the pk crossbow which is 994 damage at level 9 and can take some hp off a demo even when not wearing any ranger pieces

A question about the pk bow. When I get it when I am level 6 then is the bow just level 6 forever or? And when I then level 8 the bow is still on 6 right?

[PocketYoda]

Bows for some reason do not scale and are hard locked to rank 6.. Crossbow goes to rank 9.. If thats not a tell tale sign that Techland hasn't got a clue how to balance a game and is super bias faction wise, i dunno what is..

[Nope]

Originally posted by haessliches Frettchen:

Originally posted by Hashley Hashbrowns:

or just get the pk crossbow which is 994 damage at level 9 and can take some hp off a demo even when not wearing any ranger pieces

A question about the pk bow. When I get it when I am level 6 then is the bow just level 6 forever or? And when I then level 8 the bow is still on 6 right?

It automatically scale with you so there no need to wait to get it

[Kain]

Originally posted by DanteYoda:

Bows for some reason do not scale and are hard locked to rank 6.. Crossbow goes to rank 9.. If thats not a tell tale sign that Techland hasn't got a clue how to balance a game and is super bias faction wise, i dunno what is..

Not sure about then bias, but the balance seems very wrong. Maybe they thought they needed to give a really strong weapon to the PK, since I can see a lot of people going for the survivors just by how easy they make the parkour.

[PocketYoda]

Originally posted by Kain:

Originally posted by DanteYoda:

Bows for some reason do not scale and are hard locked to rank 6.. Crossbow goes to rank 9.. If thats not a tell tale sign that Techland hasn't got a clue how to balance a game and is super bias faction wise, i dunno what is..

Not sure about then bias, but the balance seems very wrong. Maybe they thought they needed to give a really strong weapon to the PK, since I can see a lot of people going for the survivors just by how easy they make the parkour.

I'm at level 5 survivors and i hardly use their stuff..

[Sprocket66]

The bow gets the headshot damage modifier, the crossbow doen't seem to do extra headshot damage and the damage seems to reduce over distance. Up close the crossbow rocks, but for sniping and headshots or distance the bow does better. The Nail bow does 140 damage, with a couple of points in the arrow skills it almosts oneshots goons, just a sliver of health left. Oneshots volitiles with headshot, regular z's with a body shot. Wish I could find one better than level 6, don't know if they plan on fixing that.

Firespark81 did a short screwtube vid experimenting with bow vs crossbow damage.

[SnowWalker]

Mine do. And I've only got the sport bow. I killed almost every bandit in that huge two-skyscraper, bandit camp, almost all of them with one headshot each. Close-up and at a fair distance.

[WheresMyPants]

I'm currently doing my 2nd playthrough on hard difficulty. I just completed the "Let's Waltz" mission and was able to one shot all NPC human enemies. I was lucky enough to pick up a level 4 artifact bow with 81 damage at a vendor just prior to the mission. Keep in mind I've got both upgrades (better aiming & piercing) for ranged weapons though.