An archer is trained in the use of bows and arrows. The greater the skill, the more deadly the shot.
"Favor the bow, eh? I'm a sword man myself."
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.
The carry weight also describes the effort required to pull the string back, aka 'draw', so the heavier your bow the harder the draw & the longer it will take & the more powerful the shot. 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 are upgraded via Grindstone, in the same manner as melee weapons.
When carrying too much weight to run, sneaking with a drawn and pulled-back bow slightly increases speed unless you've obtained the Ranger perk.
Dravin's Bow - Damage: 12-14 Weight: 7 Value 50 - Found below the Ragged Flagon.
Firiniel'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.
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
Perk (Ranks)
Requirements
Description
Overdraw (5)
Bows do 20% more damage (+20% per additional rank)
Eagle Eye
Archery 30, Overdraw
Pressing Block while aiming will zoom in your view
Critical Shot (3)
Archery 30, Overdraw
10% chance of a critical hit that does extra damage (+5% chance and +25% critical damage per additional rank)
Steady Hand (2)
Archery 40, Eagle Eye
Zooming in with a bow slows time by 25% (50% for second rank)
Power Shot
Archery 50, Eagle Eye
Arrows stagger all but the largest opponents 50% of the time
Hunter's Discipline
Archery 50, Critical Shot
Recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies
Ranger
Archery 60, Hunter's Discipline
Able to move faster with a drawn bow
Quick Shot
Archery 70, Power Shot
Can draw a bow 30% faster
Bullseye
Archery 100, Quick Shot or Ranger
15% chance of paralyzing the target for a few seconds
Archery perks tree
Tips and Notes
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When using steady hand draw the bowstring then zoom in long enough to fire, then un-zoom while you draw the bowstring 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.
Arrows do not have flat trajectories. There is an arc built in, similar to ballistics. You have to compensate for the arc; the greater the range the less likely your arrow will hit where your cursor is pointing. The archery skill affects how high or low you must adjust for the distance with higher skill compensating more & making the shot easier. (This is why you aim for the throat & the target winds up with an arrow to the knee)
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
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 Lost Valkygg near Labyrinthian early in the 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.
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.
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.
You can gain a supply of good arrows by giving one to your follower. The follower will shoot an infinite amount of those arrows and you will be able to collect them after combat finishes.
Getting a headshot with a bow does not increase the damage dealt.
If your follower is a trainer, you can simply train the desired skill, and take the money back from him/her.
Though the Quick Reflexes bug, it is possible to shot and arrow, walk infront of it, and have it hit you. The arrow will fly though you and you will not take any damage, so it is impossible to do arrow suicides or to take your own arrow to the knee.
Leveling Archery
A female Archer in Skyrim.
The best way to quickly level Archery is as simple as this: Acquire Shadowmere, a Legendary Daedric Bow, and some Daedric Arrows. Stand right next to Shadowmere and spam attack so arrows are quickly lobbed into her. No full drawing necessary.
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.)
There are some training exploits which allow you to make trainers your Follower, train from them, then take your money back without stealing. But the below information is about how actual use or a skill levels your skill, not training.
There is also information on the web regarding different friendly NPCs who you can use your skills on with no or limited adverse affects. While real use of skills in real gameplay situations is supposedly the most fun, for level farming I use Shadowmere as my dummy.
Though I am a math wiz, I have not taken the time to make a literal formula, but the equation is 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, false or true
skillXP += bool(DamagingHit) * (lm(Bwd+Bad)/x)
As you can see, this first relies that you engage a damaging hit. Therefore, you must attack a creature which has hit points, and you must take away hit points. So the equation doesn't even trigger if they pass a block or dodge roll.
Upon a Damaging Hit, your skill experience raises based upon the Base weapon damage and the Base ammunition damage. One thing to note here is that there is nothing in the equation for perk increases, sneak multipliers, or enchanting damage additions. These considerations make no difference.
The division by x is to represent that the base damage is not directly translated into skill experience. I am not sure what x would be, but from level 60-61, it was 7.4 for me.
Another point I purposely didn't directly mention is draw amount, and the Overdraw perk. As I said, perks are not taken into account. Overdraw is a perfect example. As a matter of fact, any draw for leveling archery is not taken into account. If you spam attack so the arrow is only slightly lobbed into Shadowmere, it counts for just as much as a full or overdraw, because those are not variables in the equation.
In conclusion, the best way to level Archery is as simple as this: Get shadowmere, a Legendary Daedric bow, and some Daedric arrows. Stand right next to shadowmere and spam attack so arrows are quickly lobbed into her.
References:
Testing multiple levels with multiple situations, including using or not using perks, enchantments, multipliers, and different types of gear. - Guide by Suamere
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. (PC, Xbox 360 and PS3)
Arrow stuck in mid-air due to defective collision box.
World 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.
(Tested on PC) If you are trying to hit a moving NPC (not tested on creatures), and they are moving left or right (with respect to you), such as when you're trying to sneak attack someone, the natural response is to aim a short distance ahead of them - aim where they will be, rather than where they are. Unfortunately, the arrow will not shoot where your crosshair is, and rather, where the NPC is currently standing, making for a very frustrating miss. It's unsure whether this is actually a bug, intentional, or just an accident due to poor/careless auto-aim programming.
