Guides · The world
Weapons: bows, arrows, the crossbow and daggers
A sword for the close fight, a dagger for the strike from behind, and from the Bows and Keepers update a Recurve Bow and a crossbow for everything that keeps its distance. Damage below is before armour; on players and bosses some numbers change, and the tables say how.
The Recurve Bow
Hold right click to draw and let go to shoot. The longer the draw, the harder and further the arrow flies: a tap does 2 damage, half a draw 4, a full draw (one second) 7. Twelve marks round the crosshair fill as you draw and turn gold at full draw. Arrows drop as they fly, so aim a little high at range.
- While drawing you walk at 40% of your speed and cannot run.
- Held past three seconds, the aim starts to sway. Sneak (Shift) and it steadies.
- One bow shot a second at most: quick taps never out-damage full draws.
- Arrows hit creatures and players, never a teammate.
The crossbow
The crossbow loads instead of drawing. Hold right click for 1.25 seconds and an arrow goes onto the stock; a click then shoots it. Every shot does 9 damage, flies faster and flatter than a bow's, and always carries an elemental arrow's effect. You walk at 60% while loading and at full speed once it is loaded. A loaded crossbow stays loaded when you switch slots, put it in a chest or drop it, and other players can see the arrow lying on the stock.
Arrows
Flint over a haft over a feather makes four arrows. Flint comes from gravel: one block in ten drops it. Feathers come from chickens; string for the bow from Crawlers and from chests in cabins and dungeons.
- A shot takes arrows from your offhand first, then the leftmost arrows in your hotbar, then your bag. Keep the kind you want in the offhand.
- The bow's hotbar slot shows how many arrows of the next kind you have.
- An arrow that hits a block sticks in it and can be picked up again. One that hits a creature breaks.
- Bonewalkers shoot arrows that fall the same way yours do: their arc is your warning.
Elemental arrows
Four arrows round a Keeper's elemental ore make four elemental arrows. Each hits as hard as a plain arrow and carries its element, as long as the draw was at least half (a crossbow shot always has it). The effects are shorter on players and bosses, and each Keeper shrugs off its own element.
| Arrow | On a creature | On a player | On a boss |
|---|---|---|---|
 Tidal | Chill 3 s | Chill 1.5 s | Chill 1.5 s (not the Frost Wraith) |
 Blazing | Burning 4 s | Burning 2 s | Burning 2 s (not the Magma Colossus) |
 Quaking | Rooted 1.5 s, knocked back twice as far | Rooted 0.5 s, knocked back further | A normal knock (not the Thorn Guardian) |
 Gale | Held in the wind 1 s, then thrown about 4 blocks | Blown 3 blocks back and 1.5 up, short of a harmful fall | A small push (not the Tempest) |
ChillMove slowerTidal arrows
BurningLose half a heart a second; water or rain puts it outBlazing arrows. They never set blocks alight
RootedHeld in place by roots; you can still swingQuaking arrows
WindboundCaught in the wind, then thrownGale arrows, on creatures
Against the Elemental Core and the Crowned Wyrm, an arrow of the element they hold at that moment does nothing extra: change arrows as the element turns. On Easy, effects on you last half as long.
Daggers and the backstab
Every tier that has a sword has a dagger: one material over one haft. A dagger hits for its tier's sword damage less 2, swings every 0.2 seconds (a sword every 0.3) and reaches 3.5 blocks (a sword 4.8). Hit something from behind, within 45 degrees of straight behind it, and the dagger backstabs: double damage on creatures, half again on players (at most 4 more) and a quarter more on bosses, once a second on each target, with a violet slash and a flash at the edge of the screen. Reduced motion drops the flash.
| Tier | Dagger | Backstab, creature | Backstab, player |
|---|---|---|---|
 Wooden | 2 | 4 | 3 |
 Stone | 3 | 6 | 5 |
 Iron | 4 | 8 | 6 |
 Gold | 5 | 10 | 8 |
 Dawnstone | 6 | 12 | 9 |
 Moonstone | 7 | 14 | 11 |
 Tungsten | 9 | 18 | 13 |
 Obitite | 11 | 22 | 15 |
Armour still applies to every number above. A 
glacite dagger chills what it hits, like the glacite sword.
Swords and critical hits
A sword hits for 4 (wooden) up to 13 (obitite); the full list is in the crafting guide. Hit a monster while falling from a jump for a critical hit: one and a half times the damage. A critical hit and a backstab do not add up; the bigger one counts. Gauntlets make every hit you land stronger.
On touch screens
With a bow or crossbow in hand, the Draw button shows above the camera button. Hold it to draw (or load), slide the same thumb to aim, and lift it to shoot. While you draw the look slows to steady your aim, a little more with a creature in your sights, never over a player. The small socket on the Draw button's corner switches the arrow type. Arrange controls (Settings > Controls) moves it like any other button.
Which weapon when
- Night on the surface: a sword for Hollows; a bow for Bonewalkers that keep their distance.
- A Keeper's towers: arrows reach the crystals from the ground while you stay out of reach of the boss.
- Creatures that turn their backs: the dagger. Twice the damage is often a kill.
- The Crowned Wyrm: elemental arrows for its pillars' crystals and a crossbow for the dive. See the Keepers.
Next: Magic. All sections: the guides.