Archery is a Survival Skill that involves the use of a Survival Bow to hunt Wildlife.
Archery's ability to attack from a distance means that a player can attack animals from positions of relative safety.
Overview
Archery requires some practice to use effectively and several factors should be taken into consideration with its use:
- Draw speed: the draw speed for a Survival Bow is a lot slower than aiming the Hunting Rifle.
- Horizontal sway: when drawn, the bow will sway from left to right affecting the arrow's flight accordingly. When it tilts to the right or left, the arrow will fly a bit to the right or left of the center of your aim. The sway increases if the player is tired.
- Vertical targeting: arrow flight trajectory forms an arc. Farther targets may require aiming higher.
- Arrow flight speed: arrows fly much slower than bullets, so the target's movement should be taken into consideration.
- Usability: the bow, unlike the rifle, cannot be fired while crouched unless the player's Archery skill is Level 5.
Equipment
Survival bow
The Survival Bow is a crafted weapon used to fire Simple Arrows or Fire Hardened Arrows. No hard sight exists, and the survivor must estimate when aiming. Bow condition will degrade about 2-3% per shot and cannot be repaired. Fired Arrows descend as they travel, so hitting more distant targets requires aiming higher.
- Arrows can be retrievable: hitting soft targets such as snow usually leaves arrows retrievable, where as hard targets like rock, metal, or ice usually destroys them.
- Arrows which strike an animal may be collected by Left-Clicking on the animal.
- The type of arrow used can be changed my pressing "R" while the Survival Bow is used.
There are two unique variants of the Survival Bow (except on Interloper mode): the Sport Bow and Woodwright's Bow.
Simple Arrow
Simple Arrows are reusable ammunition for game. Simple Arrows instantly kill Rabbit and Ptarmigan, and deal high damage (comparable to the Hunting Rifle) to big game with a high rate of Blood Loss on the body part struck (with Head, Neck and Torso being the best targets). Blood Loss from Simple Arrow hits is lethal (except to Moose), though large game (such as Black Bear) may take hours and run long distances before death.
Simple Arrows take 3-9% condition damage when striking snow, 27% when striking an animal, and 40-60% when striking metal, snow, or ice. Simple Arrows become Broken Arrows at 0% condition, which may be harvested for their Arrowhead and 2 Crow Feathers.
Simple Arrows persist in the world and may be retrieved later, even if stuck in an animal carcass which decays completely.
Fire Hardened Arrow
Fire Hardened Arrows function similarly to Simple Arrows, are much easier to craft (only requiring 5 Sticks and 5 Crow Feather), but will only kill Rabbits and Ptarmigans. They do not injure larger animals, but can cause them to flee if striking/landing near an animal undetected, or with a chance of scaring a charging Wolf. Simple Arrows cause Morale damage to Timberwolf Packs engaged with the player. Fire Hardened Arrows excel at being much easier to craft than Simple Arrows (requiring easier materials and any fire source, rather than birch saplings and forging)
Fire Hardened Arrows have a chance to become Broken Fire Hardened Arrows on use, based on the hardness of the target (from lowest to highest: snow, wood/hay, animals, rock/metal/ice). They may be harvested for 1 Crow Feather.
Fire Hardened Arrows stick into terrain and Rabbit/Ptarmigan, but fall to the ground (broken or not) when striking other animals.
| Kill Rabbit and Ptarmigan | Kill Big Game | Blood Loss | Startle Animals | Interrupt Wolf Charge | Crafting | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Arrow | Instant | Yes | Yes* | Yes | No | 1 Arrowhead (Forging), 1 Arrow Shaft, 3 Crow Feather |
| Fire Hardened Arrow | Instant | No | No | Yes | Yes | 5 Stick, 5 Crow Feather and any Fire Source (Makes 3) |
*No weapon inflicts Blood Loss against Moose.
Hunting
- Main article: Hunting
Hunting animals to kill and then harvest their flesh is an efficient means to acquire Food and materials in The Long Dark. Shooting animals with projectiles, such as arrows, is the most effective way to kill game while completely bypassing the animals' natural defenses. Arrows move too quickly to be blocked or dodged and can be fired from outside the animal's zone of perception.
Critical Hits
Critical hits are random occurrences, but are more likely in an animal's designated critical areas. Shots to the head and neck seem to have the best chance to cause a critical hit, with shots to the front shoulder and chest being second. Shots to the feet are immune to critical hits.
Bleeding
Direct hits to an animal with an arrow that are not a critical hit will cause a bleeding wound. Animals will bleed out according to which area they were shot in. Multiple shots to the same area will not make the animal bleed out any faster. However, shooting an animal in an area that bleeds faster than a previous wound it has already received will cause the timer to reset and the amount of time to bleed out changes to the amount of time required for the new wound. This makes it beneficial to just wait in most cases, especially when shooting again could provoke the animal to attack, or flee meaning the animal would have to be tracked down again. Also, waiting via sleeping, passing the time, reading, etc. counts as time towards bleeding out, but the animal will move at an accelerated speed so will wander just as far as if you had waited in real-time.
| Hit zone | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal | Head | Chest | Hind | Foot |
| Ptarmigan | Instant | Instant | Instant | Instant |
| Rabbit | Instant | Instant | Instant | Instant |
| Deer | 20 minutes | 25 minutes | 40 minutes | 120 minutes |
| Wolf/Timberwolf/Poisoned Wolf | Instant | 40 minutes | 45 minutes | 60 minutes |
| Bear | 45 minutes | 120 minutes | 240 minutes | 240 minutes |
| Moose | N/A[1] | N/A[1] | N/A[1] | N/A[1] |
Skill levels
Archery Skill is increased by scoring hits on live wildlife with the Survival Bow, crafting Simple Arrows, or by fully reading the Research Book "Stay on Target". Multiple copies of the book can be read, each granting skill points when fully read.
- A shot striking a live animal (except Crows) grants 1 skill point.
- Crafting a Simple Arrow grants 1 skill point.
- Crafting a set of 3 Fire Hardened Arrows grants 0 skill point.
- Stay on Target grants 10 skill points (5 hours of reading).
Once players have reached a new skill level, they unlock the effects described in the table below.
| Level | Skill points | Effects |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 |
|
| 2 | 15 |
|
| 3 | 40 |
|
| 4 | 75 |
|
| 5 | 125 |
|
| Primary |
| ||||||
| Secondary | |||||||
