Skyrim:Archery

Skill: Archery
Specialization: Combat

Archery is the skill governing the use of bows and crossbows^DG. The higher one's skill level, the more damage is done. 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
	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

Skill Usage

Arrow damage is a sum total between the quality and material of the bow and arrows being used, as well as the bow's draw length. Better quality arrows contribute more damage to each shot, but most of the damage inflicted is determined by the bow being used. The longer a bow is drawn (up to one second), the farther the arrow will fly, and the more damage will be dealt. Inversely, arrows drawn briefly will fly only a few yards, dealing less damage. Drawn bows can be cancelled by pressing the 'Sheath Weapon' button.

The trajectory and speed of arrows are determined by the player's personal skills. These variables are independent of a character's skill level in Archery; only damage increases with skill level. When shooting an arrow, archers will discover that arrows have significant 'loft', or upwards movement, particularly at medium ranges (See Notes). To compensate, an archer should aim just below their intended target in order to hit them properly. 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 as you would without slowing down time. If the target is farther away, then aim above the said target because 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 without 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.

An archer using a bow cannot block attacks; however, he or she can make a weak punching counter-attack with the back of the bow by pressing the 'Block' button. Doing so costs Stamina, but will stagger the foe, giving the archer time to set up a shot, flee to a safer distance, or draw close-range weaponry. In addition, having high skill in Block and having the Deadly Bash perk will inflict significant damage. (5.5 * 5 = 27.5 at 100 skill and Deadly Bash 5x damage perk.)

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 DLC. There are places where NPCs can sometimes be found taking target practice, and arrows and bolts may be retrieved from the target dummy, e.g. in Dragonsreach, Great Porch, or in the cistern area of The Ragged Flagon. Arrows and bolts shot by the player can sometimes be recovered from enemy corpses. The Hunter's Discipline perk increases the chance of recovery. Arrows and bolts that hit other surfaces can almost always be retrieved. Note that arrows/bolts that strike home often bounce back toward the shooter if the target is not of flesh, and so will be found between the shooter and the target. Enemies that break apart upon death (such as skeletons) will drop all the arrows you have shot them with after they die. All archers should be on the lookout for better arrows whenever possible, as the damage difference between iron and Daedric arrows is significantly larger than between any iron and Daedric weapon.

Eagle Eye and Steady Hand

With the perk Eagle Eye, the player can press the Block control to focus his/her view, zooming in their vision. However, doing so slowly drains the archer's 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 the player more time to think through and set up the shot. However, the action of drawing the bow will occur in slow-motion if the player has not nocked the arrow before pressing the Block control. 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:

1. Nock the arrow.
2. Draw the bow.
3. 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 one 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 negligible when sneaking, as only base damage matters.

It is worth noting that with the Dawnguard plug-in, a unique Dwarven bow called Zephyr is added to the game which, given its 30% faster fire rate enchantment, gives it a DPS of 11.7, making it, potentially, a brilliant bow for early and late game, especially if enchanted to make it do more damage per shot. Another bow added with the Dawnguard plug-in, Auriel's Bow, shoots at the same speed as the Zephyr, as well as having a higher base damage and a unique enchantment.

Range and Trajectory

Range and Trajectory are also affected by weapon 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 the player to aim high to compensate, while slower bows will hit the target much closer to the crosshairs--though players 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

• Father Of The Niben
• The Black Arrow, v2
• The Gold Ribbon of Merit
• The Marksmanship Lesson
• Vernaccus and Bourlor

Free Skill Boosts

• Angi offers a series of four archery challenges. Each challenge you complete increases your Archery skill. The first challenge gives an increase of one point for each of the three targets hit. Each subsequent challenge increases the archery skill by one point.
• +1 Archery reward (+1 all combat skills) from Giraud Gemane (Bards College) for completing the quest Rjorn's Drum.
• +5 Archery (and other combat skills) by selecting "The Path of Might" from the Oghma Infinium after completing the quest Discerning the Transmundane.

Gaining Skill Experience

Skill gain is based solely on the base damage of the used bow (see Leveling). Perks, tempering, enchantments, potions or arrows have no effect on skill gain. Every arrow that hits a valid target yields the same xp, regardless of critical hits, sneak attacks or bow draw. As a result, the fastest skill gains can be achieved by shooting with minimum power, i.e. minimum draw time, which implies training at (almost) melee range. The reduced damage from the partially drawn bow also increases the number of arrows needed per enemy, which in turn increases xp gain per target.

In-depth leveling strategies

• A very easy way to level Archery is to obtain a large amount of arrows, then travel to High Hrothgar. Crouch at the inside of the entrance so that you can just see a member of the Greybeards kneeling on the ground, then shoot them repeatedly while hidden (this is also a great way to level up your sneaking). This method is available very early on in the game.
• Another very easy way to level Archery along with your Sneak skill is to obtain a large amount of arrows, then complete the quest With Friends Like These.... When you first enter the Sanctuary you are able to sneak down the staircase and shoot Astrid with a barrage of arrows. She will only be able to be knocked down, and will not attack as long as you remain hidden, thus raising both your Archery and Sneak at the same time.
• Also, after completing the Dark Brotherhood quest and upgrading the Dawnstar Sanctuary, you can increase your archery level by shooting at the prisoners, with the weakest bow and arrow, so as not to kill them. Fire the arrows, heal the prisoners, and rinse and repeat. This may also be done with the vampire cattle in Castle Volkihar if you have installed the Dawnguard plug-in.
• If you complete A Lovely Letter in Faendal's favor, you can recruit him as a follower and exploit his goodwill to train archery, then take all of the money back.
  • This exploit is no longer possible as of version 1.2.6 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.

Dialogue

• If your Archery skill is over level 30, guards at cities will occasionally say: "Favor the bow, eh? I'm a sword man myself..."
• Sometimes the guards will also say "Keep your arrows in your quiver, archer".

Notes

• Despite being classified as a combat skill, it receives skill gain boosts from the Thief Stone rather than the Warrior Stone.
• The movement speed with a drawn bow (shot ready) is reduced in comparison to Oblivion, making archers less mobile. A perk is available to balance this issue.
• 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. Setting fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist to a high value (above ~10000) allows the character 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.

Skyrim.ini

[Combat]

f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7

f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7

f1PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.7

f3PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.7

[Actor]

fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=14000.0000

• Arrows can be used as distractions. Shooting an arrow will make enemies draw attention to the arrow, making it invaluable to stealth-oriented characters.
  • Be aware, however, that after checking out where the arrow hit they may investigate where it was shot from. Make sure to either kill them quickly, distract them again, or move to safety.
• Archery is one of two skills which has a different console ID than the name, the other being Speech. The actual console ID for Archery is "marksman". (Ex: A console code for improving Archery would look like AdvancePCskill Marksman <#>)
• Having high skill in Block in conjunction with the Deadly Bash perk can be useful for an archer. At 0 block skill, bow bashing only does 1.1 damage, but at 100 block skill a bow bash does 5.5 damage. With Deadly Bash perk, the 5x damage multiplier brings the bash damage up to 27.5. Bow type does not affect the damage magnitude.
• Another perk exists in the Creation Kit but was removed from the game before release. It is called "Trick Shot", and would have been available at 80 Archery skill if the "Quick Shot" perk has already been unlocked. The description for Trick Shot is: "25% chance to disarm an opponent."

• You can give yourself the perk using the console command AddPerk 105f1a. It won't appear in your skills menu, but it does work.

Bugs

• Bullseye's chance to activate is actually 16%. ^?
• If the player quickloads while zooming with a bow, it will cause the time, in the loaded game, to pass at the same rate as if the player were zooming. Zooming again turns it back to normal. ^?
• Sometimes while nocking an arrow, the arrow may not appear.
• The perk Bullseye actually works by sending out an instant Paralyze spell which strikes the target when an arrow is fired from a bow rather than when the arrow strikes the target. The negative effect of this is that if the bow is fired from a large enough distance, the target will instantly become paralyzed and fall to the ground before the arrow reaches them, causing the arrow to miss the target it supposedly paralyzed.
• Occasionally the perk Ranger will not seem to function if you unlock it while crouching. Be sure to be in a standing position when unlocking this perk. ^?
• The cinematic kill camera causes a wrong starting position for the bow/arrow. If the player is shooting from the rim of a ledge, the kill camera effect will start but then immediately end with the arrow striking the ledge even though a normal shot without kill camera would not be blocked.
• In close range with an enemy, right after firing an arrow that was fully drawn, the player can make a bash attack which is treated as a fully drawn arrow attack. This applies the paralysis effect, and also raises the Archery skill, rather than the Block skill. Note that the player has approximately 0.5 seconds after releasing the arrow to perform the bash for the extra damage.
• The range of Archery is internally broken, stopping at what seems to be long range, where the arrow will still appear, but cannot hit any entities.
  • This can be fixed by replacing this code in the [Actor] file.

fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=12288.­0000

• If you press (RT then release, hold RT, tap X) for crossbows, it will completely ignore reload and shoot up to around 2 bolts a second. ^?
• When the Bullseye paralysis occurs, killing an enemy with one shot may cause it to freeze in the stance it was in rather of collapsing. ^?
• Occasionally, when you perform a sneak-attack cinematic kill shot while zooming in with the Eagle Eye perk, your Stamina will be completely drained after the cinematic finishes.
• Making the Archery skill legendary does not actually remove the Ranger or Quick Shot perk effects.
• If you tap the attack button after releasing an arrow, but before the bow returns to the rest position, the bow will draw an arrow to full draw and stop. Tapping the attack button again will release the arrow.