Bows (Skyrim)



A bow is a flexible, bent or curved ranged weapon, strung taut from end to end with a string. Arrows are nocked into the string and then drawn. The nock is then released and the string pushes the arrow forward.

Bows are found throughout Skyrim and are a common weapon, with many types varying in damage, arrow velocity, weight, fire rate, and value.

Improvement and damage
The damage of a bow varies from bow to bow, with the Long Bow being the weakest and Dragonbone being the strongest. Every bow's damage is governed by perks and the level of the Archery skill, but there are multiple other ways to increase a bow's damage.

Smithing
Almost all bows can be tempered using the grindstones found near or around blacksmiths. Depending on the material of the bow, a bow may be improved with certain ingots to increase the damage of the bow. Depending on perks and level of the smithing skill, bows can be made increasingly more powerful.

Enchanting
Bows may also be enchanted with various weapon enchantments for a variety of different effects. The strength of the enchantment depends on the size of the soul used and the level of the enchanting skill. Fire, frost, and shock enchantments also depend on the level of the Destruction skill.

Weight and fire rate
The weight of the bow also dictates the effort required to pull the string back, or "draw", meaning that the heavier the bow, the longer it will take, and the more damage the shot will do. The lightest bow is 5 and can fire 0.55 shots every second (1.818 seconds before 1 shot).

Starting at 5, each additional unit of weight added to the bow subtracts another 0.0125 shots/second, so a bow weighing 6 fires 0.5375 shots/second (1.86 seconds/shot).

The fire rates between 5 and 6 may seem insignificant, but the difference becomes much more noticeable with heavier bows. The Dragonbone Bow, for example, is the heaviest bow weighing in at 20 and fires at a rate of 0.3624 shots/second (2.759 seconds/shot).

Arrow velocity
Each bow fires arrows at various speeds depending on the bow's fire rate. The velocity at which a bow shoots an arrow is inversely proportional to the bow's fire rate. In other words, the greater the fire rate of the bow, the lower the velocity.

Usually this means that the heavier the bow, the greater the velocity of the shot. However there are two exceptions to this rule. In the case of Zephyr, a unique bow weighing 10 and which fires 30% faster than other Dwarven Bows, arrows fired from this bow will travel slower than even a Hunting Bow which weighs 7. This is due to Zephyr's previously mentioned unique enchantment. Also the Dragonbone Bow weighs 20, that is one more than the Daedric Bow, and the arrows have a lower velocity than those fired from a Daedric Bow.

Though the velocity depends on the fire rate, the velocity is not hindered by the quick shot perk.

Range
Bows have two types of range, arc range and maximum range. The former varies from bow to bow and is directly proportional to the bow's firing velocity. Arrows fired from a low velocity bow will come down in an arc earlier than arrows fired from a high velocity bow. To compensate for this shorter range, low velocity bows must be angled higher to hit targets at range.

The latter type of range, or maximum range, is a universal range between bows. After traveling a certain distance, somewhere around 60m - 65m, all arrows have a damage of 0. Arrows at this distance will most of the time clip through (pass through) enemies and land on the other side having done no damage. This will still cause hostile NPCs to become aware of the Dragonborn's presence and search for him/her, however this will not cause friendly NPCs to become hostile.

Trivia

 * Though the max range to hit an NPC is around 60m-65m, a bow can still shoot an arrow at a tree or most other structures from 100m away and still be retrievable.

Bugs

 * Sometimes when you shoot an arrow the arrow takes a couple of seconds to shoot after the animation shown you already fired it.