Minecraft:Bow

Template:Distinguish Template:For Template:Infobox item A bow is a ranged Minecraft:weapon that can fire Minecraft:arrows, Minecraft:tipped arrows, and spectral arrowsTemplate:Only. The damage and range of fired arrows depends on the arrow type, Minecraft:enchantments on the bow, and how long the Template:Control was held before releasing.

Obtaining

Mob loot

Skeletons, strays, bogged, parched and illusioners

Minecraft:Skeletons, Minecraft:strays, Minecraft:bogged, Minecraft:parched and Minecraft:illusionersTemplate:Only have an 8.5% chance of dropping a normal or enchanted bow on death when killed by a Minecraft:player or a tamed Minecraft:wolf.

The chance of dropping a bow is increased by 1% per level of Minecraft:Looting, allowing up to an 11.5% chance of dropping.

The chance of being enchanted depends on the Minecraft:difficulty level, but the random enchantment level (5–22) does not.

Bows of Minecraft:skeleton horsemen are always enchanted at a random level from 5 to 23. The exact level depends on Minecraft:regional difficulty, as on Easy it is always a level-5 enchantment.

Fishing

Template:Main Enchanted bows are obtainable through fishing, with a 0.8% chance per attempt. See Minecraft:fishing for more details. When caught, the bow may be damaged and contain random Minecraft:enchantments equivalent to a level 30 enchantment from an Minecraft:enchanting table, including treasure enchantments like Minecraft:Mending.

Usage

Attacking

File:Steve aiming with Bow.png

File:Alex aiming with Bow.png

Bows can be drawn back by Template:Control them. The player must have at least one Minecraft:arrow in their Minecraft:inventory or be in Minecraft:Creative mode in order to use a bow. Arrows inside bundles cannot be used. When drawing a bow, the display zooms in slightly. Charging the bow to critical charge causes it to visually bob up and down, and causes the fired arrow to have a trail of critical hit Minecraft:particles. Releasing the button shoots an Minecraft:arrow. Drawing a bow can be canceled by switching to another hotbar slot while holding use. Arrows shot by bows are blocked by shields.

File:Bow shooting.gif

Shooting a bow Template:In.

While the bow is being charged or remains fully charged, the player is forced to move at Minecraft:sneaking speed, unless they are Minecraft:riding a mob, Minecraft:minecart or Minecraft:boat, or flying with Minecraft:elytra. When an arrow hits another player, the player that fired the arrow will hear a high-pitched "ding" sound to indicate the successful shot.Template:Only Fired arrows are not affected by the Minecraft:Strength or Minecraft:Weakness effects.

Critical charge is achieved by drawing the bow for 1 second or longer, unlike melee critical hits which are dealt by attacking while falling. Shots at critical charge deal <math display="inline">\left ( \frac{3x}{2} \right ) + 2</math> damage, where <math>x</math> is the damage after any enchantments. The listed values below describe maximum damage from a bow with no Minecraft:Power enchantments, assuming the target is at a distance where drag and gravity are negligible. The average damage of a shot at critical charge is around 9, as damage is dealt at a random value between Template:Hp and Template:Hp, using the formula <math>x</math> and <math display="inline">\left ( \frac{3x}{2} \right ) + 2</math>, and it is rare to have minimum or maximum values. The damage dealt can ultimately be less than the maximum damage if the arrow slows down after being shot. The game stores the damage of arrows even in values with a decimal point. For example, it is possible for a critical arrow shot to cause damage values such as 6.4. In this case, the game can round up or down and store the amount for subsequent damage sources. Holding the bow at maximum charge for more than 72000 ticks (1 hour) results in the charge being reset without shooting an arrow.

A few mobs cannot be shot using an arrow, because the arrow either disappears or it gets deflected. This includes:

• Minecraft:Endermen - even while immobile, the enderman is immune to damage from arrows;
• Minecraft:Breeze;
• Minecraft:Wither under half health, when it gains wither armor;
• Closed Minecraft:shulkers;
• Minecraft:Ender dragon, while sitting on top of the Minecraft:exit portal.

Statistics

Java Edition

Template:IN, bows have the following statistics:

Unenchanted
Type	Projectile damage	Charge time	DPS	Inaccuracy	Lifetime damage inflicted	Durability	Enchantability
Template:ItemSprite (no charge)	Template:Hp	0.1s	2	1	Template:Hp	384	1
Template:ItemSprite (medium charge)	Template:Hp	0.2s - 0.8s	5.5		Template:Hp
Template:ItemSprite (full charge)	Template:Hp	0.9s	6		Template:Hp
Template:ItemSprite (critical charge)	Template:Hp to Template:Hp	1s	5.4 to 9.9		Template:Hp to Template:Hp

Enchanted
Type	Power I	Power II	Power III	Power IV	Power V
Template:ItemSprite (no charge)	Template:Hp	Template:Hp	Template:Hp	Template:Hp	Template:Hp
	4 DPS	4 DPS	4 DPS	6 DPS	6 DPS
Template:ItemSprite (medium charge)	Template:Hp	Template:Hp	Template:Hp	Template:Hp	Template:Hp
	8.8 DPS	9.9 DPS	11 DPS	13.2 DPS	14.3 DPS
Template:ItemSprite (full charge)	Template:Hp	Template:Hp	Template:Hp	Template:Hp	Template:Hp
	9 DPS	11 DPS	12 DPS	14 DPS	15 DPS
Template:ItemSprite (critical charge)	Template:Hp to Template:Hp	Template:Hp to Template:Hp	Template:Hp to Template:Hp	Template:Hp to Template:Hp	Template:Hp to Template:Hp
	8.1 to 14.4 DPS	9.9 to 17.1 DPS	10.8 to 18 DPS	12.6 to 20.7 DPS	13.5 to 22.5 DPS

Bedrock Edition

Template:IN, bows have the following statistics:

Unenchanted
Type	Projectile damage	Charge time	DPS	Inaccuracy	Lifetime damage inflicted	Durability	Enchantability
Template:ItemSprite (no charge)	Template:Hp	0.1s	2	1	Template:Hp	385	1
Template:ItemSprite (medium charge)	Template:Hp	0.2s - 0.8s	5.5		Template:Hp
Template:ItemSprite (full charge)	Template:Hp	0.9s	6		Template:Hp
Template:ItemSprite (critical charge)	Template:Hp to Template:Hp	1s	5.4 to 9.9		Template:Hp to Template:Hp

Projectile motion

The projectile motion of an arrow fired from a bow is dependent on the angle the user is facing, as well as the user's movement speed. Calculators/Projectile motion

Repairing

Unit repair

A bow can be combined with another bow in an Minecraft:anvil, preserving the Minecraft:enchantments of both.

Enchantments

Bows can receive several different Minecraft:enchantments and have a base enchantability of 1. Bow enchantments have no effect on Minecraft:arrow speed or the distance it travels. Template:IN if a bow is enchanted with any level 1 enchantment, it always gets Power I.

Name	Description	Max Level	Method	Weight
Minecraft:Power	Increases the damage dealt by bow-shot arrows.	V	Template:BlockLink Template:BlockLink	10
Minecraft:Punch	Increases the knockback dealt by bow-shot arrows.	II	Template:BlockLink Template:BlockLink	2
Minecraft:Flame	Ignites arrows, dealing fire damage to targets hit as well as igniting TNT and campfires.	I	Template:BlockLink Template:BlockLink	2
Minecraft:Infinity<ref group=note name=note1>Mending and Infinity are mutually exclusive.</ref>	Stops the bow from consuming regular arrows when shot.	I	Template:BlockLink Template:BlockLink	1
Minecraft:Unbreaking	Grants a chance to negate durability consumption.	III	Template:BlockLink Template:BlockLink	5
Minecraft:Mending<ref group=note name=note1/>	Repairs the bow when obtaining Minecraft:experience.	I	Template:BlockLink	2
Minecraft:Curse of Vanishing	The bow vanishes on death, not dropping as an item.	I	Template:BlockLink	1

A bow cannot be enchanted with Multishot in survival mode. However, when using commands to apply Multishot, the enchantment behaves as expected, allowing the bow to fire more arrows at once.Template:Notelist

Fuel

A bow can be used as Minecraft:fuel in Minecraft:furnaces, smelting 1.5 items per bow Template:In or 1 item per bow Template:In.

Arrows

As in real life, a flying Minecraft:arrow in Minecraft is affected by gravity. Its vertical speed is modified by one block downward every second, resulting in a Template:W flight path. An arrow slows down if shot through water, reducing its damage to near zero unless brought back into the air or otherwise given momentum.Template:Only

Arrows that hit solid Minecraft:blocks become stuck and can be retrieved, unless the arrow was shot by a bow Minecraft:enchanted with Minecraft:Infinity, a player in Creative mode, or a mob.

An arrow shot through Minecraft:lava ignites, giving it the effect of the Minecraft:Flame enchantment, igniting any entity it hits. If not extinguished, the fire inflicts up to Template:Hp damage. Although a Minecraft:wither skeleton does not spawn naturally with a bow, it shoots flaming arrows if given a bow using commands.

On impact, an arrow can trigger a wooden Minecraft:pressure plate, Minecraft:target block, Minecraft:wooden button, or Minecraft:tripwire. Arrows cannot trigger stone pressure plates or stone buttons.

The player can choose the type of arrow to shoot 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

Template:JE: Template:SoundTable

Template:BE: Template:SoundTable

Data values

ID

Template:JE: Template:ID table

Template:BE: Template:ID table

History

Historical sounds

Sound	From	to	Pitch
Template:Sound	0.31	Sound Update	1.0

Trivia

• Bows were left unchanged in the Minecraft:Texture Update.<ref>Template:Bug</ref>
• Dinnerbone got the idea for the high-pitched "ding" sound from playing on a former PvP server called Project Ares.<ref>Template:Tweet</ref><ref>Template:Ytl</ref>

Gallery

Renders

• An enchanted bow.
  An enchanted bow.

Screenshots

• Using the bow.
  Using the bow.
• Drawback animation.
  Drawback animation.
• Using a bow to hunt rabbits.
  Using a bow to hunt rabbits.

In other media

• Bow in the Minecraft:Super Duper Graphics Pack
  Bow in the Minecraft:Super Duper Graphics Pack
• A bow as seen in Minecraft:Minecraft Dungeons
  A bow as seen in Minecraft:Minecraft Dungeons
• A bow as seen in Minecraft: Story Mode
  A bow as seen in Minecraft: Story Mode
• A bow as seen in A Minecraft Movie
  A bow as seen in A Minecraft Movie
• A bow as seen in Minecraft:Minecraft Earth
  A bow as seen in Minecraft:Minecraft Earth

External links

• Taking Inventory: Bow – Minecraft.net on April 13, 2023