Minecraft Bow

Minecraft Bow

Bow

Type	Combat
Rarity	Common
Durability	384
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	No

Usage

Weapon

Bows can be drawn back by using it. In order to use a bow, the player must have at least one arrow in their inventory, or be in Creative mode. While the bow is being charged or remains fully charged, the player is forced to move at sneaking speed, unless they are riding a horse, minecart or boat. The arrow shown inside the bow always looks like a regular arrow, regardless of what kind of arrow is actually being fired from the bow.^[1]

When drawing a bow, the display zooms in slightly. Charging the bow to its maximum causes it to visually shake as an indicator. Releasing the button releases an arrow. A white sparkling effect signifies a critical hit from a full charge. At minimum charge (3 ticks), the arrow deals 1 and barely travels one block. At full charge (1 second), the arrow travels up to 64 blocks upwards, flies with a speed of roughly 53 m/s, and consistently deals 9 damage, with a smaller chance of dealing 10. If the arrow hits another player, it makes a high-pitched "ding" sound.

Charging time	Attack damage
0–0.2 s (no charge)	1
0.3–0.9 s (medium charge)	6
1+ s (full charge)	9
Critical hit	10

Damage caused by the arrow is unaffected by the Strength status effect.

Endermen cannot be shot using an arrow, because the arrow either disappears as the enderman teleports, or it gets deflected. An arrow shot from a bow enchanted with Flame can ignite the enderman, however.

Enchantments

Bows can receive several different enchantments, and have a base enchantibility of 1. Bow enchantments have no effect on arrow speed or distance.

Name	Summary	Max Level
Power	Increases the damage by 25% times the level of Power plus 1.	V
Punch	Increases the knockback (+3 blocks per level) applied by the bow.	II
Flame	Ignites arrow, dealing Fire damage. In addition to damaging mobs, a flaming arrow can be used to ignite TNT and light a Campfire from a distance.	I
Infinity	Prevents the bow from consuming arrows when fired. A single arrow is still required to fire. Fired arrows shot from an Infinity-enchanted bow cannot be retrieved if they land on the ground.[note 1] Tipped arrows are consumed even with Infinity.	I
Unbreaking	Unbreaking causes a(100/(Level+1))% chance a shot fired reduces the durability of the bow.	III
Mending	Allows a certain proportion of XP orbs collected to contribute towards repairing the bow, rather than raising the player's experience.[note 1]	I
Curse of Vanishing ‌[Java and Legacy Console editions only]	Causes the bow to disappear instead of dropping on the ground when the player dies. The keepInventory gamerule overrides this.	I

Notes

1. ↑ ^{Jump up to:a b} Mending and Infinity are mutually exclusive.

Fuel

A bow can be used as fuel in furnaces, smelting 1.5 items per bow in the Java and Legacy Console editions or 1 item per bow in the Bedrock Edition.

Arrows

Main article: Arrow

As arrows are affected by gravity, they take an arcing path over distances. One must aim above the target when firing from a distance, or gain higher ground, to effectively make a hit. Arrows slow down if shot through water.

Arrows that hit solid blocks become stuck and can be recollected, unless the arrow was shot by a bow enchanted with Infinity, a player in creative mode, or a skeleton/illusioner.

Arrows shot through lava ignite, similar to the Flame enchantment. The arrow likewise ignites any entities it hits. If not extinguished, the fire damage can be up to 4. If a wither skeleton holds a bow, it also shoots flaming arrows.

Arrows from bows can trigger wooden pressure plates and wooden buttons, as well as tripwire. However, they cannot trigger stone pressure plates or stone buttons.

The player can choose which type of arrow to fire based on its location in the inventory. Arrows in the off-hand, or the selected hotbar slot if the bow is in the off-hand, are prioritized first. If there are no arrows in the off-hand or selected hotbar slot then the arrow closest to slot 0 is selected.

Sounds

Sound	Subtitle	Namespaced ID	Subtitle ID	Source	Pitch	Volume	Min. volume
	Arrow fired	entity.arrow.shoot	?	?	?	?	?

Achievements

Main article: Achievements

Icon	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Availability				Xbox points earned	Trophy type (PS)
				Xbox	PS	Bedrock	Nintendo
	Sniper Duel	Kill a skeleton with an arrow from more than 50 meters	Use a launched arrow to kill a skeleton, wither skeleton, or a stray from 50 or more blocks away, horizontally.	Yes	PS3	Yes	Yes	30G	Silver
					PS4, PSVita				Bronze
	Dispense With This	Construct a Dispenser.		Yes	PS3	Yes	Yes	20G	Silver
					PS4, PSVita				Bronze
	Archer	Kill a creeper with arrows.		Yes	Yes	Yes	Wii U, Switch	10G	Bronze
	Cupid	Kill 2 players in a round of a public Battle mini game using a bow and arrow.		Yes	Yes	No	Wii U, Switch	20G	Bronze

Advancements

Main article: Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Internal ID
	Take Aim	Shoot something with a bow and arrow	Monster Hunter	—	minecraft:adventure/shoot_arrow
	Sniper Duel	Kill a Skeleton from more than 50 meters away	Take Aim	Kill a skeleton with a projectile while being at least 50 blocks away horizontally.	minecraft:adventure/sniper_duel

History

Java Edition Classic
June 14, 2009					Notch discussed how bows and arrows would work in Survival mode: "Bows and arrows can be made out of wood. To use it, select the bow from your inventory and make sure you’ve got some arrows. Click in front of you, and an arrow goes flying using real physics. To actually HIT something, aim above it."
0.24 SURVIVAL TEST					The player did not need a bow to shoot arrows. Instead, Tab ↹ was used to fire arrows. However, arrows still had to be collected to shoot. Launching arrows this way was much slower than the bow that now fires them.
Java Edition Indev
0.31		January 22, 2010			Development has now began on the bow and arrow.
		January 30, 2010			Added bows. The right mouse button can be held down to fire in rapid succession. Each arrow deals 4 for each hit. They fly in a ballistic trajectory affected by gravity and drag in air or water. They travel approximately 15 blocks when fired parallel to a flat plane. Arrows also have a maximum range of around 52 blocks when fired at a 38 degree angle on a flat plane.
					Bows often fail to interact with objects, but instead shoot. This is very inconvenient when trying to open doors, chests etc. This is due to the fact that shooting arrows is an instantaneous action.
Java Edition Beta
1.2					Bows are now used to craft dispensers.
1.8		July 8, 2011			Notch teased hold-to-charge bows.
		July 13, 2011			Notch indicated that along with bow charging, he would add an achievement based around shooting a skeleton at 50 meters, eventually to be known as Sniper duel.[2]
		?			Bow behavior has now been overhauled;they now need to be charged to fire.
Java Edition
1.0.0		RC1			A fully charged arrow from a bow now consistently deals 9 damage, with a rare chance of dealing 10.
					Bows now have a durability of 385 uses.
					Bows no longer need arrows for ammo in Creative mode.
					The bow can now be enchanted via console commands, but no enchantment affects it.
1.1		?			Bows can now be legitimately enchanted. Four enchantments have now been added: Flame, Punch, Power and Infinity.
1.2.1		12w06a			Skeletons now have a 2.5% chance of dropping a bow. One fifth of the time, this bow is enchanted with Power I (20%).
1.4.6		12w50a			Bows can now be enchanted with Unbreaking using an anvil and an appropriately enchanted book.
		pre			When a player hits another player from far away with a bow it makes a high pitched "dinging" sound.
1.7.2		13w36a			Bows can now be obtained as a "treasure" item from fishing.
					Bows can now be enchanted with Unbreaking directly in an enchantment table without the use of an anvil.
1.8		14w02a			Fletcher villagers now sell 1 bow for 2–3 emeralds.
		?			Bow placement when drawing back has now been slightly changed.
1.9		?			When shooting,the arrows are no longer offset to the right of Crosshair.
		15w31a			The bow in the hotbar now shows an arrow when being drawn.
					Bows can now shoot an additional 14 types of arrows, selected based on which arrow type is in the off-hand or closest to slot 0.
					Bows cannot be used in the off-hand.
		15w37a			The bow can now be used in the off-hand.
					Bows now prioritize the selected hotbar slot for arrows if the bow is in the off hand.
					When using the bow in the off-hand, the bow does do the animation, but does not aim at the target.
1.10		16w20a			Bows are now used by strays and can now sometimes be obtained as a rare drop.
1.11		16w33a			Bows can now be used to fuel furnaces.
1.11.1		16w50a			Infinity and Mending are now mutually exclusive for bows.
1.12		17w16a			Bows are now used by illusioners and can now sometimes be obtained as a rare drop, although unenchanted.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 261.
1.13.1		18w30a			MC-88356：Fixed a bug： When using the bow in the off-hand, the bow does do the animation, but does not aim at the target.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.3.3					Added bows.
0.8.0		build 2			New bow rendering has now been added.
0.11.0		build 1			Bows can now be obtained as a "treasure" item from fishing.
0.12.1		build 1			Fully charged bows now cause particles.
					Bows can now be enchanted.
					Bows obtained by fishing can now be caught enchanted.
0.15.0		build 1			Added strays, which are equipped with a bow that can rarely be dropped by them.
					Bows can now shoot an additional 14 types of arrows, selected based on which arrow type is in the closest to slot 0.
Pocket Edition
1.0.4		alpha 1.0.4.0			Bows can now be obtained by trading with a fletcher villager.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Added the Mending enchantment, which can now be applied to bows and is mutually exclusive to the Infinity enchantment.
					Arrows can now be placed in the offhand slot and bows now prioritize the arrows in that slot.
Bedrock Edition
1.8.0		beta 1.8.0.10			Bows in the hotbar now show an arrow when being drawn.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.4			Fletcher villagers now sell unenchanted bows for 2 emeralds, and enchanted bows for 8 emeralds.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1		Added bows.
TU5					Bow behavior is overhauled;they now need to be charged to fire.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Bows can now be obtained by trading with a fletcher villager.
TU46	CU36	1.38	Patch 15		Bows can now shoot an additional 14 types of arrows, selected based on which arrow type is in the off-hand or closest to slot 0.

Issues

Issues relating to "Bow" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• If a bow is enchanted with a level 1 enchantment, it always gets Power 1.
• Bows are the first ranged weapon in Minecraft.
• Bows with its enchantments are effective against single targets, while the Crossbow enchantments affect multiple targets.
• There is no way to cancel a charged Bow, except on some platforms.