Archery (Skyrim)



"Favor the bow, eh? I'm a sword man myself."

- Guard

Archery is one of three offensive weapon-based skills in. Falling under the six skills commonly associated with The Warrior archetype, users of the skill are called archers. An archer is trained in the use of bows and arrows. The greater the skill, the more deadly the shot. Archery is heavily involved in The Thief's gameplay as well, as it allows low-health and light-armored characters to engage heavy attackers from a safe distance, and allows repeated sneak attacks from a good vantage point. The Archery skill is raised by and governs the use of bows and crossbows.

Bows
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. The weight of the bow dictates the effort required to pull the string back, or "draw". The heavier the bow, the longer it will take to fully draw. The longer it takes to fully draw a bow, the more damage a shot will do, and the faster and farther an arrow will travel. While a bow is drawn, movement is reduced significantly.

Bows can be found in stores all over Skyrim, most stores that sell them are dedicated to that purpose, mostly carrying both bow and arrows, as well as certain armors a player using bows can use. Many different creatures carry bows, including the Draugr found in most dungeons and caves in Skyrim. Bows, like swords, get stronger depending on their make.

Crossbows
A crossbow consists of a bow mounted horizontally onto a mechanical stock. The bow string is pulled back onto a catch which holds the string taught. A bolt is then loaded into a groove in front of the catch. When a lever located at the bottom of the stock is pulled, the catch is released and the bow string pushes the bolt forward. Crossbows are slower to reload than most bows are to redraw, but they shoot projectiles at a higher velocity than most bows. Unlike bows, crossbows can be loaded without affecting movement speed. A crossbow is less likely to be used by the more sneaky players, due to its large reload time. A bow would be better for these "sneaky" players due to the fact that after releasing an arrow, they can quickly place another on the string and let off a follow-up shot. Crossbows are generally more expensive than their bow counterparts, but this is expected.

Range
There are two types of ranges for both bows and crossbows, arc range and maximum range.

Arc range
"Keep that arrow in your quiver, Archer..."

- Guard

The arc range varies between each type of bow and crossbow. It is directly proportional to a bow's/crossbow's firing velocity.

Bows always fire in an upwards arc, propelling the arrow slightly upwards. A bow with a high firing velocity will have a long arc range. When fired from a high velocity bow, the arrow will continue traveling in an upwards arc for a longer period of time, and will eventually start to drop and arc slightly downwards. After this, the arrow will eventually come to a point in which it drops steeply and its horizontal speed decelerates immensely. If in the air for a long enough period of time, the arrow will have lost all horizontal velocity and fall completely.

This works similarly for crossbow bolts, however when bolts are fired they are not propelled in an upwards arc. Instead, they will travel straight from the Crossbow. Because they don't travel in an upwards arc, they will begin to drop immediately and will enter a steep downwards arc much earlier than that of any arrow.

Maximum range
The maximum range is a range that is universal for both bows and crossbows. It is the maximum range an arrow or bolt will travel from the Dragonborn before it stops doing damage. This range usually occurs around 60m-65m. At this point, all arrows and bolts will do 0 damage to NPCs, regardless of whether or not the NPC is in rendering range of the player. Arrows and bolts that hit an NPC past this range will most often clip through them and continue traveling until hitting an object (i.e. a tree, the ground, etc.). A non-hostile NPC will not become hostile when this happens, however an already hostile NPC will immediately begin to look for the Dragonborn if the projectile lands close enough.

Books
List of books that can increase this skill:
 * Vernaccus and Bourlor
 * The Black Arrow, v2
 * The Gold Ribbon of Merit
 * The Marksmanship Lesson
 * Father of the Niben

Trainers
List of individuals that can increase this skill by giving them gold:
 * Faendal (Common)- Riverwood (Lvl 15 - 50). With Faendal as a follower, spent on training can be removed from his inventory and spent on more training sessions.
 * Aela of The Companions (Expert): Jorrvaskr, or the training area behind it, in Whiterun (Lvl 15 - 75). Like Faendal, when Aela is a follower, spent on trainer sessions can be regained from her inventory, allowing for unlimited, free training sessions.
 * Niruin of The Thieves Guild (Master)- Riften (Lvl 15 - 90)
 * Angi at Angi's Camp (Master) - 6 levels of free training for completing her challenges. (Lv 1 - 100)
 * Sorine Jurard Fort Dawnguard (Master) - (Lv 15 - 90) A New Order must be completed for The Dawnguard in order for her to offer training.

Archery Weapons
The following are the confirmed weapons that benefit from this skill. Damage, weight, and value are base values, independent of skill level and perks.

Craftable bows
* only

** only

Non-Craftable bows
* only

Crossbows
All crossbows are craftable and are a part of only

Perks
The following are the perks that become available to select as the skill is leveled up



Tactics

 * 0.8% damage is gained per Archery skill level. This stacks with Overdraw, making it possible to acquire a natural total of 180% extra damage with bows.
 * If the player has drawn an arrow but does not wish to use it, there is a 'release' key (R default on PC, X on the Xbox 360, and Square on the PS3).
 * With the Bullseye perk, the Paralyze effect will be applied to the target when the arrow is released, not when it reaches the target (Confirmed on Xbox and PC).
 * This can be somewhat of an annoyance, as the target falling due to paralyzation may cause the arrow to miss.
 * Arrows fly in an arc, not along flat trajectories.  It should be noted that this arc still exists when aiming straight down, resulting in a downwards shot hitting slightly above the cursor.
 * Small/normal sized enemies can easily be staggered with a quick shot when they recover. Paired with the Bullseye perk, paralysis enchantment, potions and poisons, and possibly absorb stamina, can further said effectiveness, and make an archer highly effective at disabling enemies to be finished off by a melee-using follower.
 * Getting a headshot with a bow does not increase the damage dealt.
 * Arrows make a noise when they hit walls and items. The player can use this to draw enemy attention elsewhere, allowing for sneak shots at an enemy's exposed back.
 * The player can get infinite arrows by picking up arrows from NPCs practicing archery. The player can get better arrows by pickpocketing all the arrows of the practicing archer and replacing them with better ones.
 * Similarly, a good supply of arrows can be gained by giving one to a follower. The follower will shoot an infinite amount of those arrows, which can be recovered after combat finishes.
 * When overencumbered, pulling out a bow and keeping an arrow drawn speeds up movement.
 * Bashing with a bow immediately after firing an arrow will deal significant damage with the bash, as long as neither player nor target has moved horizontally since the shot.

Leveling Archery
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)

Thus, this first relies on a damaging hit being scored. Therefore, to gain experience, the player must attack a creature that has hit points, and that attack must take away hit points (so no experience is gained if they nullify damage with a block or dodge).

Upon a Damaging Hit, the skill experience gained is based on the Base weapon damage and the Base ammunition damage. A Legendary Daedric Bow and some Daedric Arrows are therefore ideal for leveling quickly. One thing to note here is that the equation ignores perk increases, sneak multipliers, damage boosts from enchantments, or fully drawing the bow. As a result, firing arrows rapidly into a target will yield just as much exp per shot as a full or overdrawn shot. This will therefore result in more exp being gained from a single target, and faster gain of that exp, by using quick and weak shots, since the target will survive more of them.

The division by x is to represent that the base damage is not directly translated into skill experience. Currently, the actual value is unknown.

Note that a Bound Bow will also allow one to increase Archery, as well as provide free Bound Arrows.

One method of leveling is to sneak attack Greybeards at High Hrothgar. Find one of the Greybeards (preferably in the main area meditating), sneak behind them at short distance, and simply shoot over and over (waiting a few seconds between shots yields sneak attacks, which will train Sneak at the same time). Note that using melee or magic will result in angering them.

Another good target for training is Shadowmere, who has very high HP, cannot die permanently, and will not fight back. However, this method requires significant progress in the Dark Brotherhood quest line.

Another way to quickly level Archery also requires joining the Dark Brotherhood. Upon entering the Falkreath Sanctuary, jump onto the ledge that oversees the pool and training area. This can be done by jumping from the nearby staircase. Once on the ledge, wait until Veezara sits on the ground, completely in view, and then enter Sneak mode and shoot him. As it is unlikely that anyone will see the player, it's possible to fire constantly, training both Archery and Sneak steadily. A similar technique can be used on Cicero.

A different method is to visit the special Archery trainer, Angi, who lives in a cabin in the southwest corner of the map by Falkreath. She trains in archery for free by letting the player shoot targets. Completing her training will grant a total of 6 free levels. This is best done with a high Archery skill, since like any other Trainer, each boost bumps the player's skill up to the next level, ignoring the experience required to reach it. Training with her at level 94 will allow the player to max the skill, skipping the final six levels, which would normally require the greatest amount of time to complete.

It is possible to make some Archery trainers Followers, train from them, then take the money back without stealing.