Archery (Skyrim)



An archer is trained in the use of bows and arrows. The greater the skill, the more deadly the shot.

Archery is a skill in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and is one of the six skills that falls under The Warrior. However, Archery is heavily involved in The Thief's gameplay, especially with the Sneak skill. Archery skill is raised by the use of bows that the player can equip and use.

Archery is a skill type that has appeared in The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall as well, and It is similar to Marksman that was in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Archery, as opposed to Marksman, is considered a combat skill, not a stealth skill.

The stronger your bow in this game the longer the draw-back time will be. Also note that your stamina will not be drained (as opposed to how it was in Oblivion) unless you unlock and use the Eagle Eye perk which zooms in the view of your bow allowing longer shots to become more easily made. The bow also acts more like a long-range high-precision high-damage weapon (contrary to the short to mid-ranged bows of previous installments), there are certain perks that allow you to hold your breath and use pre-ballistic slow motion while aiming a bow.

Archery is a useful combat ability by itself; it is possible to play through the whole game as an archer, without the need of any melee weapon. With a high Archery skill and a fully upgraded weapon, bows can deal tremendous amounts of damage.

Bows can be upgraded in the same way melee weapons can.

When carrying too much weight to run, sneaking with a drawn and pulled-back bow slightly increases speed.

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 (Adept): Riverwood (Lvl 15 - 50)
 * Aela of The Companions (Expert): Jorrvaskr, or the training area behind it, in Whiterun (Lvl 15 - 75)
 * Niruin of The Thieves Guild (Master): Thieves Guild in Riften (Lvl 15 - 90)

Bows
The following are the confirmed weapons that benefit from this skill:

Note: Table still under construction and may not include every type of bow in the game.

Named Bows
The details are subject to change as some are leveled items.


 * Bow of the Hunt - Damage: 10 Weight: 7 Value 457 - Found in Clearspring Cave.


 * Dravin's Bow - Damage: 12-14 Weight: 7 Value 50 - Found below the Ragged Flagon.


 * Firinel's End - Damage: 13 Weight: 12 Value: 785 - Target takes 20 points of frost damage to Health and Stamina. (Obtained during the quest Bound Until Death)


 * Froki's Bow - Damage: 6 Weight: 5 Value: 307 - Does 10 points of Stamina Damage.


 * Gauldur Blackbow - Leveled Item (Low lvl - High lvl) - Damage (8-14) Weight: (12-18) Value: (225-1315) - Absorbs (10-30) points of Magicka. Drops from Sigdis Gauldurson at Geirmund's Hall.


 * Nightingale Bow - Leveled Item (Low lvl - High lvl) - Damage (12-19) Weight: (9-18) Value: (470-3700) - Freezes the target for (10-30) points" and "shocks target for (5-15) points.


 * Angi's Bow - Damage: 7 Weight: 7 Value: 50 Awarded to the player after completing the Archery challenges at Angi's Camp.

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



Tips and Notes

 * When using steady hand, string your bow then zoom in long enough to fire, then un-zoom while you re-string your bow again. This allows you to be a lot more accurate with your arrows while not losing as much stamina as you normally would from keeping zoom held in.
 * The aim on bows seems to be low, but that is just the arc of the arrow. The arrow will make the distance while hitting where the crosshairs are aimed.
 * Using the Steady Hand perk, it is possible to load a game in a semi-permanent state of slow motion. To do this, simply load a save while you have slowed time using this perk. To put time back to the correct speed pull out your bow and zoom in again or reload Skyrim
 * Demonstration of permanent Slow Motion, and how to create the effect. (Youtube)
 * Arrows make a noise when they hit walls and items. You can use this to draw enemy attention away fom you, allowing for sneak shots at an enemy's exposed back
 * If you have drawn an arrow but do not wish to use it, there is a 'release' key (R default on PC, X on the Xbox 360, and Square on the PS3). Use it to save arrows and to avoid making unnecessary noise.
 * You can easily capture souls by enchanting a bow with the shortest duration soul capture spell (1 sec). Even with petty soul gems, you can get many uses from the enchantment.
 * You can find an Ebony Bow in the Lost Valkygg near Labyrinthian early game. The item is drastically better than any other bow available at the time. WARNING: At lower levels a shot from the Draugr Deathlord can be a one-hit kill, paired with his use of Unrelenting Force it's a hard fight.
 * Using the Steady Hand perk, which slows time and zooms in, you can pop out around a corner, take a shot, and pull back extremely quickly. This is a great way to stay stealthed when engaging multiple enemies in a dungeon. Keep in mind, there are some 'invisible wall' issues, so make sure the shot is well clear of any walls or items.
 * Using the Extra Effect perk, you can place a 1 second soul capture and another damaging enchantment on a bow. Coupled with the Star of Azura, this makes for a devastating combination.
 * There's a cabin in the southwest corner of the map by Falkreath that a woman named Angi lives in. She trains in archery for free by letting you shoot targets. Gains you several levels easily! (Confirmed: You'll find it by ascending the mountain range from Falkreath. You'll level up your skills by shooting at targets, although it gets more challenging with each round.)
 * FARMING ARCHERY SKILL: There is a way to easily increase your achery skill, at a very fast rate, as long as you haven't done much in the main quest. [MILD SPOILER WARNING] In the Ratway Warrens underneath Riften, there is a door that appears as though you can open it, but when you try to, a section slides open and a man behind the door tells you to go away. This man is Esbern, so if you have already met him in the main quest, this technique won't work. If he simply opens the sliding part, tells you to go away, and then shuts it, this technique will work, and is a quick and easy way to level your Archery skill. Have your bow ready. Then, activate the door. In the small window of time when the sliding part is open, shoot Esbern with an arrow. This is a little difficult, but if you get the timing right, it becomes easier as you get used to it. It will add bounty to The Rift, but when you get Esbern's health down to a certain level, it automatically heals him to full health, but also says that you've killed the only witness, so it removes the bounty you had. This can be done over and over as many times as you want, and your Archery levels up very quickly.
 * You can get infinite arrows by picking up arrows from NPCs practicing archery. One such example are Thrynn and other guys in the The Ragged Flagon - Cistern (Thieves guild ) in the city of Riften, you'll find him practicing archery starting at 10am til 6pm. You can get better arrows by pickpocketing all the arrows and replacing them with better ones. See also - Solitude, because they starting shooting from 8am til 8pm. Don`t forget regularly take arrows, because they vanish after a while.
 * One you have acquired Shadowmere from The Dark Brotherhood questline, you can turn the difficulty to maximum and continually shoot Shadowmere for quick archery leveling. Be careful however, as Shadowmere can be killed by your arrows. You can also summon a Frost Atronach for the same kind of leveling. This technique also works with the other combat skills (Two-Handed, One-Handed, Destruction)
 * Another, more roundabout way of leveling archery you could use is to buy a soul trap spell and use it on any dead body until you are adept level in conjuration. Buy the bound bow, which also spawns 100 arrows, and use only three perk upgrades to get the half magicka for adept spells and when combined with the shadowmere tip above you can level archery without sacrificing any arrows and with a non hostile target. and by the time you deplete the arrows or the bow vanishes your magicka will be full again so theres no need to invest in it. This also gives you a very powerful bow if you also get the perks that make bound weapons more powerful and grants it soul trap (if you want to train enchanting). Which brings this method to leveling conjuration, archery, and enchanting while you shoot.
 * If your Archery skill is over level 30, guards at cities will occasionally say: "Favor the bow, eh? I'm a sword man myself..." and sometimes, "Keep your arrows in your quiver, archer".
 * With quickshot you can easily stagger a small/normal sized enemy when they recover, paired with the paralysis perk and a paralysis enchant (with absorb stamina set to low-mid and the first enchant if you want a lot of several second paralysis rolls per gem) you can make it a great tool for sitting behind melee allies by shooting with slow time after watching their kill animation a few times. You can also apply poisons and potions to improve this style farther (any stamina potions + paralysis poisons work well).
 * You gain 0.8% damage raise with all bows per Archery skill level. This stacks with Overdraw, making it possible to acquire a total of 190% extra damage with bows.
 * An extremely easy way to level your archery at early levels, when you first get to Riverwood out of Helgen you can talk to Sven and start the questline Sven's Fake Letter from Faendal but instead of turning the letter into Camilla Valerius talk to Faendal telling him of Sven's plan. Then go off and turn in the fake letter to Camilla, After doing so go over to Faendal talk to him so that he will be a follower. You should only need about 700 septims to do this. Train yourself as much as you can till you are out of gold then trade with him since he is now your follower and take back all of your gold.
 * You can also level your Archery skill by finding an NPC that won't die from attacks. When the NPC crouches from damage, just keep shooting and your Archery skill will increase given time.

Bugs

 * (Xbox 360) The Ranger perk may cease to function entirely, though it may begin functioning again at a later time.
 * Archery skill may drop to starting level, indicated by red highlighting of skill and not induced by disease. Levelling up Archery has consequently shown to fix issue. (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
 * When shooting someone while sneaking and unnoticed they may 'dodge' your arrow by sidestepping it at an extreme pace. (Xbox 360)
 * Wtf_arrow_stuck_in_the_air.jpg models consist of two pieces, the model that you see and a simpler, invisible collision box that determines where you and other things will impact the model. As in Oblivion and many other games that use this or a similar engine, the collision boxes in Skyrim are very carelessly fitted to the shape of the terrain that your character sees in the game, which can be extremely frustrating. One common occurence is to try to snipe through a hole or a gap in a wall, or over or around the edge, only to find that your arrows are bouncing off the invisible collision box, or even more ridiculous, sticking in the air. Screens and grates are unpredictable: some will allow the player to shoot through, and some will not. Don't count on making such a shot in a life and death situation.