Beginning Archer Tips, First Spider Boss

This is a guide for beginner Legolas types: How to shoot well; What to shoot besides creatures; Several boss strategies....

So You Fancy Yourself A Marksman?

Choosing the archer and following the Marksman way was my first choice, but after a few enemy encounters, I went full chickenheart and switched to the warrior. Right away as the warrior I was given a crossbow as a secondary weapon, so it was at that point that I went back to archer and decided to strategize that class and give it another go, not finding a whole lot of difference between the two. I just needed better control options.....and a lot of testing and experimenting.
After the tests, I have come to the conclusion that the archer was the best class choice for my tastes, and while I felt it was a harder start, it had a much easier and more satisfying mid- and end-game. The goal of this guide is to give a few pointers on starting out with the archer.

So when you find yourself at the crossroads of class decision, don't be afraid to try the marksman!

Who Has Control? Master Control!

The first tip I can give you is to study the question marks carefully (during the tutorial and while in the lobby), as you may miss one or fail to read all the way through. There is no help section yet where tips are collected into one location, so pay attention!
The first question mark is a meter in front of your starting point in the lobby. It has to do with the control scheme, and the most important thing I can add is that the controls are accessed through your belt "gear" icon. The game gives you the choice of 3 main control schemes, and the white arrows on the controller options menu screen allows you to cycle between the three styles.
Note: The lobby will default you back to the starting control scheme every new session, which is annoying and will hopefully change in a future update. When you load a savegame, the scheme IS remembered, though.

How To Aim Mo' Better

It seems VR has really taken advantage of its features and made the best of its ♥♥♥♥ and introduced a lot of archer and/or crossbow-type of weapons, tools, and mechanics, and this is fine by me. I am sure some folk are bored to tears with it, but VR and bows work well together. In real life I have shot many kinds of firearms (nothing full auto), and also bows, both standard and compound (never a crossbow). Really, I prefer a bow. I love the practicality of a bow, and how quiet it is, almost contemplative, and it never ever breaks immersion. Guns? I am not a huge fan, and the movies and games never get the feel or the sound right. In my experiences, guns are so loud and full of recoil that it would hardly be practical to use one all day hour after hour. For me, guns break immersion from time to time for several reasons.

For VR I use an HTC Vive, and the Vive wands are bulky, cheap-feeling, and they have a major flaw where their thumbpads go bad, sometimes within 1 hour of their unboxing. The issue is so bad, HTC should issue a full recall and replace, but of course they refuse to admit this faulty design. They were first to market, & have had plenty of time to dominate through market saturation, but sadly the peripherals opportunities have been missed one after another. Where is the new Knuckles? Why are wands sold as of right now still broken? Why are there no peripherals? 2 years later and we get a tracker? That's it? They can't even develop wireless and get it to market, and wireless is the key to having VR in every living room. This huge long rant is mainly an unnecessary preamble highlighting how difficult it is to use a bow and arrow properly with the Vive gear. The wands smack into the headset or each other, and every collision, even a gentle tap, risks breaking the fragile, flawed Vive wand internals, which are made out of gossamer gnat spit, spider mite webs, and hummingbird eggshells.

I have found that what works best for me is to hold the bow sideways, urban-style. Yep, that is the secret for better aim: ya gotta go full killshot.

I am right-handed, so I set the bow up so that my left hand is holding it. I simply turn my left hand sideways, making my arm into sort of a large crossbow frame, so to speak. I grab the arrow with my right hand, and I pull my right had back to the exact same spot on my sternum every time. That way I can aim with my left bow hand.
Also, I have just a bow in one quick slot, and the next quick slot (by right thumbpad right press) brings up my 2 daggers, which I switch to if I need to windmill a baddie that gets too close. And yes, I windmill them, because the game registers swinglengths and momentum, so ye olde windmill is surprisingly effective.
If you cross the daggers into an X, they act as a shield, so you can cross them over-chest or over-head, which is a great tip for boss battles like the boss spider.

Take A Li'l Peesh O' Meh Heart

OK, so now that you got the aiming down, you need to remember to shoot everything in the game, and if it is alive, shoot it in its face. A lot.
What I mean by shoot everything is to specifically shoot every pot and at least every thing in the backgrounds at least once to see what is or is not loot-filled, because if it breaks or blows up it is likely to have loot. Or a poisonously dangerous bug, so be ready. If you break a pot and can reach the shards, do so. Use your bow to collect loot, as it has the most reach, and sweep around every broken pot, as you may collect loot hidden by a broken shard.
Remember that for a low $70 or so, you can buy a sacrificial heart and reset a dungeon, which resets the loot and monsters. That is the manner I used to defeat the boss spider: I did a run, avoided the boss, then reset the dungeon, did a second run, and by that time I had the oak bow, 2 of the deluxe double daggers, and the upgraded leather helmet and jerkin. The boss spider was still mean, but do-able on easy.
For boss battles I tend to use 1 of 2 strategies: 1.) The Donkey Hodey: I get on my knees and windmill the boss with the long daggers in each hand, making the daggers into an x to block shots I know are coming, tanking with health, or 2.) The Robin Hood: I run far, shoot 2 arrows, grab any loot, run to opposite side, shoot 2 arrows, grab any loot, run over here, shoot 2 arrows, gimme gimme loot.....

Duuuuh I got the heart, but how do I sacrifice it?

Do you really need to ask?
When I bought my heart, I had no idea what to do with it either. Maybe for me it is just too much of the stuff that just went legal here in California, but yep, I had no idea, and I had tried eating it, stabbing it, dropping it, shooting it, burning it in a wall sconch.....then I remembered the fire at the entrance portal! A-ha! Eureka!
So to reset a dungeon, you have to sacrifice the heart by burning it in the violet fire at the portal to each dungeon. It resets loot and monsters, including bosses already whoopt up on.




OK all, that is it for my brief starter guide for archers. I hope you found a strategy or two that will help you. I think this is a game worth playing through if you can get past the iffy controls, and it is probably my favorite RPG made specifically for VR (although there is really only 2 or 3 good ones besides).

If you have ideas you would like to see make it in this guide, or if you find something just plain wrong or a bad idea, please let me know! Thanks!

Happy hunting!
Count Jackula

[PakkuVen]

Late Additional Tips:

Using environmental cover works. Get used to teleporting your ass around cover. You can also teleport away from a melee foe but this one isn't a necessary skill as quick swapping to melee weapons and immediately blocking is.

Now about dodging enemy arrows. As far as i can tell your hit box is your head and middle of the chest.Ducking and leaning to sides work.Enemy arrows that hit you are annoying cause they will stay there for awhile and obstruct or vision. Or worse making it harder to draw your own bow.

When a melee foe is trying to run in range of you they will dodge or block. Aiming at legs doesn't do a lot of damage but if you cripple them you got more time to turn them into a pin cushion. Plus they're not very good at dodging leg shots.

The belt position can be editted in settings for easier access. Pressing the pause button will toggle it on/off so it won't be distracting or accidentally interacted with at inopportune times.

[Daniel Mist (Under a Rock Dev)]

Great Guide Count Jackula!
thank you for your support! More fun content coming soon!