Elden Ring , released on Feb. 25, 2022, for the PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox 1, and Xbox Series Ten, is a difficult game. That's actually not besides surprising considering Elden Ring is from the aforementioned people who gave the world Night Souls, also as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Anyone who's played a game in the Souls serial knows how hard they tin be.

Bows are generally not the best weapon in games like Elden Ring, since at that place is more than of a focus on melee gainsay. Bows are deadening, it's piece of cake to miss, they crave ammunition, and their damage generally leaves a lot to be desired. To add to this list of negatives, in Elden Ring many bows are not compatible with the Ashes of War; which upgrade equipment. That existence stated, these weapons accept their uses, and players will come across situations where a bow is the almost efficient weapon for dispatching enemies. What are the best bows in Elden Ring ?

10 Lion Greatbow

Using the Lion Greatbow's weapon skill in Elden Ring

Although the Lion Greatbow occupies the final spot on this listing, information technology is withal an fantabulous ranged weapon. Excluding ballistae, this greatbow does more base damage (120) than all the bow weapons except the Greatbow and Golem Greatbow. The Lion Greatbow also has fantastic range, which is an important factor to consider in Elden Ring.

Near bow weapons have one of three skills. The Lion Greatbow has a unique weapon skill – Radahn's Pelting. This power allows the role player to burn down an pointer into the heaven and have a pelting of arrows come up down around their character. However, this ability takes too long to perform and leaves the player vulnerable to attack. Radahn's Rain does at least practise enough damage to kill, or significantly wound, many of the bottom enemies.

9 Erdtree Greatbow

Finding the Erdtree Shortbow in Elden Ring

The cloak-and-dagger to obtaining this greatbow is only just at present beginning to go out among Elden Band players. It involves using a bow to driblet big pots on the moving chariot trap in the Tomb of Knowledge. The Erdtree Greatbow stands out among the bows by splitting its harm betwixt physical impairment (lx) and Holy damage (65). Every bit a greatbow, this weapon also has excellent range.

The Holy damage can exist a double-edged sword; as some enemies are resistant to this type of damage. Another drawback to using the Erdtree Greatbow is that Ashes of War upgrades are not uniform.

viii Crepus' Black-Fundamental Crossbow

Locating Crepus' Black-key Crossbow in Elden Ring

Crossbows demand a little piece of work in Elden Band. They're certainly ameliorate than they were in the Dark Souls games, but they yet need a little balancing. The deal with crossbows in games, traditionally, is they offer a trade-off to players; they are slower to reload but more than accurate and damaging than bows. In Elden Band, crossbows do quite a bit less damage than bows – even many low-cal bows have college damage ratings.

The Crepus' Blackness-key Crossbow has the best range of the crossbows in Elden Ring . This will let the player snipe from a little further away. This weapon cannot be upgraded with Ashes of State of war.

7 Composite Bow

Looking at the Composite Bow in the inventory in Elden Ring

The Composite Bow is becoming a favorite among players. It doesn't exercise a lot of harm (65); however, it can be fired fairly rapidly. This bow tin can be obtained early into a game from a merchant near Bellum Church in Liurnia of the Lakes. The Composite Bow can be infused with Ashes of War.

This weapon has the Mighty Shot weapon skill. The Mighty Shot skill does a lot more than harm than a standard shot but requires the player to draw the bow back fully before firing. This is the only lite bow with the Mighty Shot skill. Since the Composite Bow is faster than nigh other bows, information technology allows the role player to fire Mighty Shots faster than the larger bows that typically get this skill.

6 Cherry Co-operative Shortbow

Using the Red Branch Shortbow in Elden Ring

In terms of base of operations stats, the Red Branch Shortbow and the Blended Bow are identical. They both deal the same amount of damage (65), they both have the aforementioned range (29), and they both have the same Force and Dexterity scaling. The merely major difference between the two is their weapon skills.

Instead of getting Mighty Shot, like the Composite Bow, the Red Co-operative Shortbow has the Barrage skill. This skill allows a weapon to burn down much faster than normal. In general, this skill isn't every bit desirable equally Mighty Shot, although Avalanche does take 1 advantage. A barrage of arrows has a much better chance at inflicting a status disquiet on an enemy than a single shot.

5 Greatbow

Finding the Greatbow in a chest in Elden Ring

Many players use ranged weapons in Elden Ring to weaken enemies a trivial earlier switching to a melee option to kill the target. With the Greatbow, a histrion ofttimes doesn't need to resort to melee at all. The Greatbow does a tremendous corporeality of impairment (125) per shot, and information technology has outstanding range. In fact, the Greatbow's damage is comparable to the heavier melee weapons. The Strength scaling for the Greatbow is besides slightly amend than most other bows.

The Greatbow has the Through and Through skill, which gives arrows the ability to penetrate and hitting enemies behind the target. Enemies have a tendency to pursue the player-grapheme in a single-file line. It'southward too not difficult to find narrow areas through which a thespian can make the enemies pass.

four Pulley Bow

A top-down view of a character holding the Pulley Bow in Elden Ring

The Caster Bow is arguably the best bow in Elden Band , at to the lowest degree so far. This weapon has the best range (55) of the bows or crossbows currently available in Elden Ring. Having a long range is maybe the most of import aspect for this type of weapon. A longer range allows for not only more shots before an enemy can close the altitude to the tarnished, merely it also lets the histrion pick-off enemies without alerting whatsoever other enemies lurking nearby.

This bow inflicts a lot of impairment (77) for a not-greatbow. Mighty Shot is this weapon's skill, and information technology works well with the Pulley Bow's extended range. This weapon can exist improved with Ashes of War.

three Jar Cannon

The powerful Jar Cannon in Elden Ring

The Jar Cannon is an actual cannon – like one that would be constitute on a pirate send in the 19th century. This means two things; it deals an incredible amount of damage per shot (192), and it's painfully tiresome to recharge. Fortunately, the Jar Cannon does and so much impairment that whatever enemies are still continuing, excluding bosses, will certainly be left at death's door.

As a ballista, the Jar Cannon has the Boot skill. This skill gives the wielder a boot attack that pushes enemies back and causes them to lower their guard. This seems weak, simply information technology'southward perfect for setting upwardly the target to receive maximum impairment.

2 Hand Ballista

Overlooking a forest with the Hand Ballista in Elden Ring

The Hand Ballista is the other weapon currently bachelor in the Ballista class. Although it'southward called a "Hand" Ballista, it is virtually as large as the Jar Cannon. This weapon does less damage (135) than the Jar Cannon, but it reloads faster and is a fiddling more stable while firing. Both weapons have the same range. The reward of the Hand Ballista'southward faster reload fourth dimension outweighs the Jar Cannon's higher harm.

With the correct talismans, the Paw Ballista tin drop nigh whatever non-boss with one shot. It has the Kick skill; which, again, seems underpowered but is perfect for enemies that get also shut.

1 Pulley Crossbow

The rapid firing Pulley Crossbow in Elden Ring

This weapon has a complex system of gears and pulleys that allow it to burn down a burst of bolts with a single trigger pull. Since this is a crossbow, the damage (65) isn't that high, but the ability to fire multiple shots with one pull of the trigger negates this negative aspect. The Pulley Crossbow doesn't have the best range; however, players will want to use this ranged option at a closer distance than the other weapons on this list to ensure all the bolts hit.

The problem with this weapon is that the player tin can chop-chop exhaust their supply of bolts. On the other hand, this weapon basically has two skills – Avalanche (via the inherent flare-up firing adequacy) and Kick. Like the Ruby Co-operative Shortbow, this weapon is great at inflicting status ailments on a target.

Elden Band is bachelor on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox 1, and PC.

More: The Best 3rd-Person Gamble Games Of All Time, Ranked

What the Next Prince of Persia Can Learn from Metroid Dread

Read Next

About The Author