Skyrim:Archery

Skill: Archery

Specialization: Combat

Archery is the skill governing the use of bows and crossbows^DG. Each skill point grants a +0.5% bonus to the damage dealt with bows and crossbows. The Archery tree has a total of 9 perks, requiring 16 perk points to fill.

In-game Description: An archer is trained in the use of bows and arrows. The greater the skill, the more deadly the shot.

Skill Perks

Overdraw

Critical Shot

Eagle Eye

Steady Hand

Power Shot

Hunter's Discipline

Ranger

Quick Shot

Bullseye

Archery Perk Tree

Perk	Rank	Description	ID	Skill Req.	Perk Req.
Overdraw	1	Bows do 20% more damage.	000babed
	2	Bows do 40% more damage.	0007934a	20 Archery
	3	Bows do 60% more damage.	0007934b	40 Archery
	4	Bows do 80% more damage.	0007934d	60 Archery
	5	Bows always do twice as much damage.	00079354	0 80 Archery
Critical Shot	1	10% chance of a critical hit that does extra damage.	00105f1c	30 Archery	Overdraw
	2	15% chance of a critical hit that does 25% more critical damage.	00105f1e	60 Archery
	3	20% chance of a critical hit that does 50% more critical damage.	00105f1f	30 90 Archery
Hunter's Discipline		Recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies.	00051b12	50 Archery	Critical Shot
Ranger		Able to move faster with a drawn bow.	00058f63	60 Archery	Hunter's Discipline
Eagle Eye		Pressing Block while aiming will zoom in your view.	00058f61	30 Archery	Overdraw
Power Shot		Arrows stagger all but the largest opponents 50% of the time.	00058f62	50 Archery	Eagle Eye
Quick Shot		Can draw a bow 30% faster.	00105f19	70 Archery	Power Shot
Steady Hand	1	Zooming in with a bow slows time by 25%.	00103ada	40 Archery	Eagle Eye
Steady Hand	2	Zooming in with a bow slows time by 50%.	00103adb	40 60 Archery
Bullseye		15% chance of paralyzing the target for a few seconds.^†	00058f64	100 Archery	Ranger or Quick Shot

†	The paralysis lasts 10 seconds. This effect is affected by any Alteration modifiers, such as the Stability perk.

Skill Usage

Arrow damage is the sum total of the quality and material of the bow and the arrow being used, as well as the bow's draw length. A bow will not deal its normal maximum amount of damage until finished being fully drawn. Arrows that are misfired accidentally before firing the bow result in a damage penalty. Drawn bows can be cancelled by pressing the 'Sheath Weapon' button.

The trajectory and speed of arrows are independent of a character's skill level in Archery; only damage increases with skill level. When shooting an arrow, you will discover that arrows have significant 'loft', or upwards movement, particularly at medium ranges (See Notes). To compensate, you should aim just below the intended target in order to hit it. If the target is moving, aim where they are going to be, as the arrow is a rather slow projectile. Note that the Steady Hand perk affects neither the speed of the arrow, nor the enemy, so lead your target the same as if time was not slowed. If the target is farther away, then aim slightly above it, as gravity has an influence on trajectory. Note that the Eagle Eye perk does in fact decrease the influence of gravity, so do not aim as high as you would if you were not zooming in. Since there is no hit location recognition in Skyrim, trying to achieve headshots will not cause increased damage, but rather may cause your shot to miss if you do not properly account for the arrow's trajectory.

While you have a bow equipped you cannot block attacks; however, you can perform a melee strike with the bow by pressing the 'Block' button. Doing so costs a small amount of Stamina, but will stagger the foe, giving you time to set up a shot, flee to a safer distance, or switch to a melee weapon. In addition, having high skill in Block and the Deadly Bash perk will cause the strike to inflict significant damage. (5.5 * 5 = 27.5 at 100 skill and Deadly Bash 5x damage perk.)

Most bows and crossbows can be upgraded at a grindstone based on perks invested in Smithing. Arrows and bolts can also be crafted if you have the Dawnguard add-on. You should always be on the lookout for better arrows whenever possible, as the damage difference between iron and Daedric arrows is significantly larger than between any other iron and Daedric weapon.

There are places where NPCs can sometimes be found taking target practice, and their arrows and bolts may be retrieved from the target dummy; for example in Dragonsreach, Great Porch, in the courtyard of Castle Dour or in the cistern area of The Ragged Flagon.

Arrows and bolts shot by you that hit your opponent can sometimes be recovered from their corpse; the Hunter's Discipline perk increases this chance of recovery. Enemy missiles that strike you may also be added to your inventory. If an arrow or bolt fired by you or an enemy misses its intended target, it can almost always be recovered from the ground or a nearby object, if you can find it. Note that missiles that strike non-flesh enemies, such as skeletons and mudcrabs, will often bounce back toward you. Enemies that break apart upon death (such as skeletons) will drop all the arrows you have shot them with when they die.

Eagle Eye and Steady Hand

With the perk Eagle Eye, you can press the Block control to zoom in on your target. However, doing so slowly drains your Stamina, and cannot be maintained indefinitely. With the Steady Hand perk, using Eagle Eye also slows time by a 25% (50% with the second rank), making everything appear to move in slow-motion. This effect allows you more time to think through and set up the shot. Although the action of drawing the bow will occur in slow-motion if you have not nocked the arrow before pressing the Block control, there is an exploit around this that can significantly increase DPS (See Bugs). Note that you cannot zoom in while under the effect of the Slow Time dragon shout, regardless of whether you have perks in Steady Hand or not.

Draw Speed

Firing a bow has three stages:

Nock the arrow.
Draw the bow.
Release the arrow and rest.

The nock stage appears to take about 0.4 seconds and the rest stage about 0.6 seconds regardless of bow or perks. The time required for a full draw depends on the bow, however; heavier bows tend to take longer to draw.

full draw time = 0.4s + 1.66s / (weapon speed * (1 + Quick Shot perk))

Bows made of better material tend to draw more slowly, but you can always choose to draw partially for heavier bows. Better material bows always have higher damage per second than lesser material bows, but weaker bows can stagger opponents more frequently, because it takes less time to fully draw them. Below is a chart displaying the damage per second of the base bows in the game. It is worthwhile to note that while the (Supple) Ancient Nord bow has the second highest DPS in the list, it can't be tempered, so it lags behind other bows as your Smithing skill improves. Bows with higher DPS fare better in close quarter scenarios. However, DPS is irrelevant when sneaking, as only base damage matters.

Ficheiro:SR-graph-Bow Damage.png

Note that a Bound Bow with the Mystic Binding perk achieves a DPS of 21, significantly better than any other bow in the game. Also, with the Dawnguard add-on installed, two unique bows are added: Zephyr, with a DPS of 11.7, and Auriel's Bow, which shoots at the same speed and has a higher base damage.

Detailed Bow Comparison

Name	Base Damage	Weight	Value	Speed	DPS
Ancient Nord Bow	8	12	45	0.875	7
Angi's Bow	7	7	50	0.937	6.559
Auriel's Bow	13	11	1436	1	13
Bound Bow	18	0	0	0.875	15.75
Bound Bow ^(Mystic)	24	0	0	0.875	21
Bow of the Hunt	10	7	434	0.937	9.37
Daedric Bow	19	18	2500	0.5	9.5
Dragonbone Bow	20	20	2725	0.75	15
Drainspell Bow	14	6	458	0.875	12.25
Dravin's Bow	7	7	50	0.937	6.559
Dwarven Bow	12	10	270	0.75	9
Dwarven Black Bow of Fate	13	10	1446	0.75	9.75
Ebony Bow	17	16	1440	0.562	9.554
Elven Bow	13	12	470	0.687	8.931
Falmer Bow	12	15	135	0.75	9
Falmer Supple Bow	15	20	410	0.75	11.25
Firiniel's End	13	12	785	0.687	8.931
Forsworn Bow	12	11	145	0.875	10.5
Froki’s Bow	6	5	307	1	6
Gauldur Blackbow ^{levels 1-11}	8	12	253	0.875	7
Gauldur Blackbow ^{levels 12-18}	8	12	407	0.875	7
Gauldur Blackbow ^{levels 19-26}	14	18	530	0.875	12.25
Gauldur Blackbow ^{levels 27-35}	14	18	750	0.875	12.25
Gauldur Blackbow ^{levels 36+}	14	18	972	0.875	12.25
Glass Bow	15	14	820	0.625	9.375
Glass Bow of the Stag Prince	16	14	375	0.625	10
Hunting Bow	7	7	50	0.937	6.559
Imperial Bow	9	8	90	0.75	6.75
Karliah's Bow	25	9	5	0.625	15.625
Long Bow	6	5	30	1	6
Nord Hero Bow	11	7	200	0.875	9.625
Nordic Bow	13	11	580	0.6875	8.9375
Orcish Bow	10	9	150	0.812	8.12
Stalhrim Bow	17	15	1800	0.5625	9.5625
Supple Ancient Nord Bow	14	18	235	0.875	12.25
Nightingale Bow ^{levels 1-18}	12	9	493	0.5	6
Nightingale Bow ^{levels 19-26}	13	11	838	0.5	6.5
Nightingale Bow ^{levels 27-35}	15	13	1409	0.5	7.5
Nightingale Bow ^{levels 36-45}	17	15	2240	0.5	8.5
Nightingale Bow ^{levels 46+}	19	18	3405	0.5	9.5
Zephyr	12	10	670	1	12

Note that the base damage and DPS does not include any damage added from arrows, or power attacks (fully drawn bow), or from enchantments that might exist on enchanted bows.

Range and Trajectory

Range and Trajectory are also affected by bow speed. On a full draw, slower bows will shoot arrows higher and with less drop, while faster bows will shoot arrows lower with more drop. This means that at short ranges, arrows shot from faster bows will be more accurate to the crosshairs, while slower bows will shoot high. At long ranges, arrows shot from faster bows will drop considerably, requiring you to aim higher to compensate, while slower bows will hit the target much closer to the crosshairs--though you may still need to compensate for drop depending on the range. Also, slower bows have a flatter ballistic trajectory, which means they will travel further than arrows shot from a faster bow. This effect comes solely from weapon speed--other factors such as weight and damage do not play a role. You can see a comparison of the weapon speeds of many bows at Bows. Of further note, the perk Quick Shot has no effect on range and trajectory.

Skill Increases

Character Creation

The following races have an initial skill bonus to Archery:

+10 bonus: Bosmer
+5 bonus: Khajiit, Redguard

Trainers

Faendal in Riverwood (Common)
Aela the Huntress of the Companions in Whiterun (Expert)
Niruin of the Thieves Guild in Riften (Master)
Sorine Jurard^DG in Fort Dawnguard (Master)

Skill Books

Free Skill Boosts

+1 Archery (and other combat skills) from Giraud Gemane (Bards College) for completing the quest Rjorn's Drum.
+1 Archery (and Block, Heavy Armor, and One-handed) from Wulf Wild-Blood^DB for finding his brother during Filial Bonds^DB.
+5 Archery (and other combat skills) by selecting "The Path of Might" from the Oghma Infinium after completing the quest Discerning the Transmundane.
+6 Archery in total from Angi for completing a series of archery challenges. There are four challenges; the first one gives three points and all the others one point each.

Gaining Skill Experience

Weapon skill gains are based on damage dealt against valid targets (those whose health can be damaged). You can increase your skill level fastest by choosing the best available ammunition and best available bow that has the highest DPS.

The equation governing skill gain in Archery is thought to resemble something like this:

Bwd = Base weapon damage

Bad = Base ammunition damage

lm = Leveling Multiplier (rest, stone, etc.)

x = Damage Translator

bool(DamagingHit) = 1 or 0, true or false

skillXP += bool(DamagingHit) * (lm(Bwd + Bad) / x)

Dialogue

If your Archery skill is over level 30, guards will occasionally say: "Favor the bow, eh? I'm a sword man myself..."
If you have a bow and arrows equipped, guards may also say "Keep your arrows in your quiver, archer".

Notes

Despite being classified as a combat skill, Archery receives skill gain boosts from the Thief Stone rather than the Warrior Stone.
- This issue has been addressed by version 1.2 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch; it is now boosted by the Warrior Stone perk.
The movement speed with a drawn bow (shot ready) is reduced in comparison to Oblivion, making archers less mobile. A perk is available to compensate for this.
Arrows will remain equipped (and appear on the back of your character accordingly) even if you have unequipped the bow. This will enable you to pin your bow of choice and melee weapon or spell of choice to your favorites menu, and swap between them on the fly, without having to re-equip your arrows.
Arrows are not accurate to the center pointer. The arrow shoots slightly above the crosshair. Use the archery practice targets to see the exact dynamics for different ranges.
- Arrows can be forced to shoot through the center point by modifying (or adding, if they don't exist) a few lines in Skyrim.ini, in the My Documents folder. Also, setting fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist to a high value (above ~10000) allows you to hit targets with arrows as far as the arrow can fly, rather than passing through targets (without causing damage) at long distances:

Skyrim.ini

[Combat]

f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7

f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7

[Actor]

fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=14000.0000

Alternatively, if Dawnguard is installed.