As Lethal as it Needs to Be: Bows, Beautiful Bows (Patreon)

 Contents:

1. Introduction 

2. Axes 

3. Bows 

As we are moving alphabetically through these weapons, we get to hit the absolute king of weapon classes in our very second article. It's time for bows!

Overview:

Ooof, where to start? 

So the general design philosophy behind bows is that they are a weapon that has the ability to attack at range, is normally cumbersome, has benefits from elevated terrain and can make use of quivers and arrows as additional gear. 

They also have a bunch of nasty reaction types they are excluded from because they have the ranged keyword instead of the melee one - generally low speed, variable accuracy and high strength.

Generally if you're looking for a weapon with flexibility and power. The bow is your best choice!

The Weapon Specialisation is very strong, it gives us a full reroll on all misses - which means that accuracy on bows should always be considered to be higher than they actually are - the exact maths on this depends on the bow you are using, it's easier to think of it in real terms rather than probabilities. "So if I miss with this bow 60% of the time, then 60% of those misses I can turn into hits" - Is a bit cumbersome to work with and not needed for this game.  Suffice to say, it's good.

The Mastery is really powerful, not only does it remove cumbersome, which is one of the few downsides that the Arc and Ink Blood bows have, but it also hands out Deadly 2 to all bows. Deadly is rarely assigned a number higher than 1 for good reason, so Deadly 2 is a premium piece of real power and it is one of the reasons why having a bow master (especially one bred via Family) is amazing for any hunt party.

I'm going to briefly put on my critic hat here however, because having spent some time using bows a great deal, I feel that the design of them has a few deep flaws that should be highlighted.

Monster AI struggles against ranged attackers on the whole, an inbuilt side-effect of the way that the game works means that monsters target archers less than any other survivor. This is pretty much across the board because of how common the word 'closest' is. The game rewards you for being at a distance from monsters. So you would expect bows to be a bit less potent than other weapons, but that's not the case. They're more potent, in fact using multiple bows just makes a hunt party stronger.

The largest issue is that bows have such high, reliable ways of wounding. They have a high level of base strength combined with the ability to stack survivor strength on top. This means that because they are just as strong as melee weapons, more accurate and can be used from a longer range, that they excel and dominate the game's meta. The only reason we don't see 4x bow parties (even though they are the best ones to use) is because people like variety - we're self imposing that matter on ourselves.  I've played a full bow hunt party and honestly, it's pretty much Kingdom Easy: Monster.

If I was re-designing bows, I would lower the accuracy of them across the board and not allow survivors to add their own personal strength to a shot. As someone who's done a fair bit of archery I can tell you that it helps for you to be strong in order to be able to use the bow, but your strength doesn't help the arrow hit harder, the bow does all that work - these are not thrown weapons, they're propelled by tensile and potential energy from the interaction of the bow and the string. There's a finite amount you can pull the bow back and to get more strength from a bow, you go for a large bow.  

Now this would actually suggest that if you were going to be more realistic, you'd put a minimum survivor strength requirement on the more powerful bows (like old Warhammer's Long Bows), but that's excessive - instead I think just not allowing survivor strength to add to a bow's strength is a sufficient balance for the benefits of range X.

There are currently only 6 bows in the game (2 Core, 2 Sunstalker, 1 Flower Knight and one People of the Sun specific) so I'm going to look at all 6 of them here.

Cat Gut Bow

Power Level: Early Game

Speed: 1 or 2 speed is really good for this weapon, many of the early monsters you'll be shooting at tend to run at you when you hit them, so not triggering too many reactions per shot is solid. It's also great to have the flexibility of 'I'll spam 2 shots or take 1 accurate one'. Needless to day, this speed design is amazing - I love it to bits.

Accuracy:  Linked to the speed, you're either firing 2/7+/3 or 1/5+/3 shot. 5+ accuracy is very high for a LY1 weapon and having a 7+ option is also great. It's very important as well to note that this weapon is very accurate for the time you get it, few other weapons in the early game manage 5+ accuracy.

Strength: 3 is on the money for the place where you get access to this bow, it's sufficient to allow you to threaten both the L1 Phoenix and the L1 Sunstalker, which are your next stops in the (non-broken) bow progression path.

Affinities: The up blue half affinity is honestly kind of useless. You can use it in a nearly naked support build to activate the rawhide headband, but most of the time full rawhide is a better way to go for a bow/support hybrid because of how survival intensive that playstyle is.

Ability: Really good abilities as mentioned above. Cumbersome is a reasonable penalty for any bow and Range 6 is respectable for an early game option. It's enough that you can avoid most danger, but it's still within the movement range of most monsters.

Summary: As baby's first bow, the Cat Gut Bow is a phenomenal weapon, it's easily better than any of the other White Lion options because it has more flexibility, more accuracy and as much strength as the spear/katar. In fact the only real downside to this weapon in the early game is the lack of deadly.

Conclusion:  One of the best options to get from the White Lion and easily the strongest weapon you can craft there, this weapon is high up on the shopping list for any and all survivors.

Vespertine Bow

Power Level: Early to Late Game

Speed: You can have 3 speed, or you can have it be slow. These two numbers are both right within the sweet spot for an attacking weapon.

Accuracy:  6+ or 2+ accuracy, I don't think I need to really explain why having a single shot that hits on a 2+ is a massive benefit for a team of hunters do I? It's accuracy is REALLY good.

Strength: 6 strength on a LY5 weapon is insane, that's up with all the grand weapons you can craft around that time and it's higher than many weapons you get from the Phoenix, Dragon King and Sunstalker. Just to put this into perspective, the number of weapons with a base strength that exceed the Vespertine Bow is around a dozen (and I included rare weapons in that, but not sharp).  It's nearly in the top 10 strongest non-sharp weapons in the game, that's bananas.

Affinities: These two affinities are great, you want your blue and green affinities to be horizontal because those are the ones that work with the organ grinder stuff. 

Ability: Just amazing. There's so much here to unpack.  First of all, this is two weapons wrapped into one. You have either a Range 5, Speed 3, Accuracy 6+, Strength 6 Deadly weapon or you have a Range 9, Speed 1, Accuracy 2+, Strength 6, Deadly Weapon.  The ability to play this as a 'Sniper Bow' to quote Matt, means that many traps in the game can be 'disarmed' without need for anything other than an arrow to the face. Additionally this makes it the perfect weapon for hitting a single critical wound resource location and chipping at monsters when you are not sure where the trap is. 

Additionally, when crafting this weapon you get access to the Necrotoxic Mistletoe event, which can give you an Acanthus Doctor and also unlocks the Lump of Atnas resource. All for the low, low price of 4 population.  It's a pretty sweet deal.

Summary: I do not rate this bow as being the best bow in the game, it's statistically the 3rd best, but it is the most overpowering bow for the point in time that you get it and it can be very hard to shake the addiction to this weapon because of how easy it is to get (and all the other intoxicating effects the Flower Knight has).

Arc Bow

Power Level: Mid to Late Game

Speed: This is a slow weapon, so it's never likely to have more than 1 speed. That's fine, a single hard hitting shot each turn is ample, especially because ammo uses its own speed stat.

Accuracy: Most weapons cap out at around 5+ or 6+ accuracy anyway, so 6+ with the weapon specialisation ability of bow is more than ample for this gear (and that's without considering the Giant Stone Face/Strategist).

Strength: The strength on this weapon is one of its two biggest draws. 9 is an incredible level of strength that's able to threaten most monsters in the game right now. As mentioned above in the Vespertine Entry there are precious few weapons that reach beyond 6 base strength, this is one of them.

Affinities: I am not the biggest fan of this affinity loadout. I find left red right green to be a little awkward to activate. It's not like you need to put the Monster Tooth Necklace onto a survivor using the Arc Bow (you can, but +2 strength onto 9 strength isn't as much of a gain as +2 onto 3 strength).

Ability: So this has Range 6 and the cumbersome downside, but that climbs up to Range 8 when you get the extra ability activated and that is a really strong base range for a bow.  Don't forget you can add onto that with the Sunstalker Quiver and the Giant Stone Face (Strategist on Sculpture) - which would represent 13 range. Very few monsters could threaten you at that point.

Summary: The Arc Bow is one of the best reasons to hunt the Phoenix, if the Sonic Tomahawks and Hollow Swords matched it in raw power then we'd be all singing a very different tune about the time chicken.

Ink Blood Bow

Power Level: Mid to Late Game

Speed: Honestly I wish that this weapon had been designed with one more speed, because 2 speed at this accuracy level is not the best way for a weapon to be. 

Accuracy:  7+ Accuracy is pretty dumpster tier for this weapon, it's not designed to be used in isolation, there are plenty of +accuracy gaining methods in the Sunstalker expansion, but really I'm not super impressed with this aspect and it's the reason why the IBB moved from #1 to #3 on my list.

Strength: The strength on this weapon is very impressive, while it's not as high as the Arc bow on the base level, you can use the Sunstalker's tendency to give out the following fighting art:

And Story of the Young Hero gives you a solid way to give yourself a lot of bleed:

Add in Bandages and you've got a reliable and powerful weapon that trumps most other bows.

Affinities: The affinities on this a good, really good. The blue fits right with the Lucky Charm so this thing can easily crit on an 8+ most of the time. The red isn't as important, but it's a freebie!

Ability: I think we've covered most of the ability already, this has a solid range, deadly and cumbersome. The ability to remove cumbersome when you're in darkness is pretty irrelevant because it requires either a Sunstalker or a Survivor with a Sunspot Lantern to provide a shadow for you.  Also Bow Masters ignore cumbersome anyway, so eh. Whatever.

Summary: The IBB used to be my #1 bow in the game, but time spent with the Arc and Sunshark Bows moved it down in the rankings because they are both easier to get and overall more powerful. However this bow is no slouch and it's a nice alternative to the Ink Sword.

Sunshark Bow

Power Level: Mid to Very Late Game

Speed: Yet another bow where you can flex between 3 speed and slow. In the case of the Sunshark Bow

Accuracy:  6+ is nothing to write home about, but it's not terrible either. However, it is worth noting that this is one of the few bows that will be able to make consistent use of the blind spot because of its design. So generally this is a 5+ accuracy bow, which isn't something you can consider when looking at other bows.

Strength: Either this weapon is 0+1d10 Strength or it's 4+1d10 Strength. Either way it's the single strongest bow overall because of that incredible reach on the sharp. 

Affinities: The down red affinity isn't anything special, and the affinity requirements on the bow are very steep. So it's not a good weapon on the affinity front, very demanding without giving much in return.

Ability: Alright, so the Range on this one is 0. But that is because this weapon is both melee and ranged. It has all of the benefits and downsides of both weapon types. The most important thing is noting that this weapon can be used with monster melee movement armor sets, in particular Phoenix and Dragon Armor. It's an absolute monster when combined with the Quiver and Sunstring because suddenly you have a range 3 melee weapon to combine with your charge/leap attack.  Dragon Armor + Quiver & Sunstring + Sunshark Bow is one of the best loadouts in the game in my opinion.

You've also got the option to flex onto a high strength 'grand weapon' mode with this item and the added flexibility this brings is just poetically perfect.

Summary: This is my vote for the overall best bow in the game. The combination of melee and ranged together allows for some incredibly powerful builds, especially in combination with Dragon or Phoenix armor (I prefer Dragon).  Also the design concept of this weapon is amazing, a giant blade that you mostly hit the monster with and occasionally fire off an arrow that can be converted into a short range bow is just perfect. I love Monster Hunter's Gunlances and this is as close as it gets in Kingdom Death.  Best. Weapon. Ever.

Sunring Bow

Power Level: Mid to Late Game

Speed: 2 Speed is right on the money. Nothing more to see here.

Accuracy:  This bow has a really unusual level of accuracy, 4+ is something you rarely see on any weapon in the game, 

Strength: The strength on this weapon is very low, however this weapon does not exist in isolation, it is usually wielded by Warriors of the Sun. So yes, it's a bad strength weapon, but that is not a deal breaker *cough* God String *cough*.

Affinities: I love odd affinity combos, and left/right red half affinities is one of those. It's quite a lot of fun figuring out how to activate this bow when you're using it with a non-Warrior.

Ability: We've talked about this ability before many times. Perfect hits turning into automatic wounds is really, really powerful. It's even more powerful on this weapon than it is on the Counterweighted Axe - but the reason people talk about this bow less often is because it's Sun specific, unique, it's not as powerful with Frenzy and not super easy to get.  I would have still preferred this ability to be like the Acid-Tooth Dagger one.

Summary: If there is anywhere I feel that this perfect hit ability is okay, it's on this weapon. Having the unique weapons of a campaign be a bit overpowered is absolutely fine in my book and as People of the Sun is an insanely abusive campaign anyway (One where you should be slapping Lion Gods) it's in a good place.

Conclusion:

There is just no avoiding bows, if you choose not to use them it is not because they are weak, it's because you've either failed to roll the required resources, or you're busy memeing with the melee gear.  Either way, bows are the kings of the weapon meta and they will remain that way for as long as the rules permit it.

We can do arrows and quivers in the future as a supplementary option if there is enough demand for it.