Best Bow in Elden Ring – Ranking All Bows
Jun. 7, 2024Best Bow in Elden Ring – Ranking All Bows
In thisElden Ring Best Bows and Ranking Guide, we’ll be taking a look at the 7 Bows in Elden Ring and discuss why you might use them in combat. We’ll take a look at attack power, damage type, length, Weapon Skills, and other factors such as how long it takes you to acquire them, to determine if they are best suited for you. We are doing a guide for all Weapon types in Elden Ring, and these will be updated to reflect those added withShadow of the Erdtreeas well.
Best Bows in Elden Ring
Bows are one of the 31 Weapon types in Elden Ring, soon to be 39 whenShadow of the Erdtreereleases on June 21st. Bows have a higher attack rating than Light Bows. They are more versatile when it comes to Ashes of War compared to Greatbows, and they’re only slightly heavier than Light Bows, which can be an insignificant number. They are tied with Greatbows for the longest range.
However, you can not move and shoot with Bows, making them more difficult to use in tight quarters vs. Light Bows. It has a slightly longer draw speed than Light Bows. You also can’t find the good Bows early on in Elden Ring, so you will get to use them much later on in the game.
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TheHorn Bowdoes Physical and Magic Damage, and is tied for second heaviest Bow in Elden Ring, weighing 4.5. It requires 10 Strength, 14 Dexterity, and 12 Intelligence in order to use effectively.
PROS
CONS
Attack Rating with 35 STR, 49 DEX & 16 INT:232 Base + 76 Scaling(308)
Conclusion: TheHorn Bowis arguably the worst Bow in Elden Ring as it does terrible damage compared to most other Bows in just about every instance. However, you can change itsAsh of War, you can find it pretty early on inSiofra River, and it increases the damage ratio ofDwelling Arrowsto more Magic Damage, allowing you to boost their damage more easily with things likeMagic Scorpion Charm,Magic-Shrouding Cracked TearandTerra Magica.
This weapon scales the best with DEX up to 50, then STR. INT scales horribly with this weapon, which is a shame as this can help boost magic damage.
If you’re going to use this weapon you pretty much must use Dwelling Arrows exclusively or you might as well use another Bow. However, since the scaling is mostly DEX, you could use a second Bow with regular Arrows and swap to this one when you want to deal Magic Damage with Dwelling Arrows without sacrificing damage on the other Bow.
TheSerpent Bowdoes Physical Damage, and is the lightest Bow in Elden Ring, weighing 3.5. It requires 8 Strength, 15 Dexterity, and 11 Arcane in order to use effectively.
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Conclusion: TheSerpent Bowis a strange weapon. It adds 15 Poison build up to any Arrow it fires, it’s the lightest Bow in Elden Ring, and its native Arcane Scaling means that arrows fired from it like Blood, Poison or Sleep will have more build up than other Bows.
However, and this is a big HOWEVER: placing points into Arcane does not increase arrow damage, and only increases these Status Effect build ups. This means you must choose between more damage, or more Status Effects with your arrows, and since even when optimized for the most damage possible the Serpent Bow still has lower damage than other Bows, you should really only be using this weapon if you plan to go this route.
Mighty Shotdoes not make this easy in close quarter boss fights though, and you cannot roll and shoot or land and shoot like a Light Bow, making this a tricky Bow to use.
TheLongbowdoes Physical Damage, and is tied for the second lightest Bow in Elden Ring, weighing 4. It requires 9 Strength and 14 Dexterity in order to use effectively.
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Conclusion: TheLongbowis a solid all-around Bow. It does decent damage, you can acquire it very early in Roundtable Hold, and it’s one of three Bows that can change Ashes of War.
The scaling on it is very slightly better with DEX than STR, making it viable for either type of Build. It’s the best Bow you can use early on in the game if you want to swap outMighty ShotforRain of Arrows, but eventually you’ll likely want to replace it with the Albinauric Bow.
TheBlack Bowdoes Physical Damage, and is tied for the second lightest Bow in Elden Ring, weighing 4. It requires 9 Strength and 20 Dexterity in order to use effectively.
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Conclusion: TheBlack Bowis unique for a Bow, since it operates identically to aLight Bowexcept that it’s a bit heavier and has much better range. It also has very low damage for a Bow which is better than all Light Bows, but worse than nearly every other Bow, and hasBarrageas its weapon skill, just like a Light Bow.
The weapon scales slightly better with DEX than STR, but not by much, making it suited for either type of build. The scaling of this weapon is better than Light Bows and some Bows, but is not great in general.
ThePulley Bowdoes Physical Damage, and is the heaviest Bow in Elden Ring, weighing 5. It requires 11 Strength and 11 Dexterity in order to use effectively.
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Attack Rating with 45 STR & 55 DEX:188 Base + 139 Scaling(327)
Conclusion: ThePulley Bowis fantastic. It has the best range of all Bow weapons in Elden Ring, it has the lowest requirements of all Bows and has the highest damage on average of all Bows. However, you don’t get it until the Mount Gelmir area of the game, and it is the heaviest Bow in Elden Ring.
Scaling-wise, DEX is just ever so slightly ahead of STR making it perfectly viable for both types of Builds, and it does have the best scaling of all Bows, so investing points is definitely worth it.
TheErdtree Bowdoes Physical and Holy Damage, and is tied for the second lightest Bow in Elden Ring, weighing 4. It requires 8 Strength, 12 Dexterity, and 14 Faith in order to use effectively.
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Attack Rating with 8 STR, 12 DEX & 80 FTH:220 Base + 66 Scaling(286)
Conclusion: TheErdtree Bowis interesting because it does increased damage with bothFireandGolden Arrowsdue to Faith scaling, though performs much better with Golden Arrows than Fire. And this damage is higher than any other Bow in Elden Ring, but only when using Golden Arrows.
The downside is that you cannot find this weapon until theLeyndell Royal Capital, Holy Damage is resisted by bosses, and when you don’t use Fire or Golden Arrows it deals the lowest per shot damage with any other Arrow type.
Scaling-wise, it scales best up to 80 FTH with minimum points in STR and DEX, making it perfect for FTH builds that spell cast wanting a long-range way of picking off enemies. This also allows you to useGolden Vow,Flame, Grant Me StrengthorHowl of Shabririeasily, further increasing your damage.
TheAlbinauric Bowdoes Physical Damage and is tied for the second heaviest Bow in Elden Ring, weighing 4.5. It requires 7 Strength and 18 Dexterity in order to use effectively.
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Attack Rating with 20 STR & 80 DEX:200 Base + 114 Scaling(314)
Conclusion: TheAlbinauric Bowis often overlooked by many would-be Bow users, and that’s probably because you cannot get it untilConsecrated Snowfields, and it can take some time to farm. However, it has the highest damage of any Bow that can useRain of Arrows, and it has the highest Base Damage of all Bows so it doesn’t rely as much on scaling as the Pulley Bow.
The scaling of the weapon is mostly DEX making this arguably the best choice of Bow when playing a DEX build if you don’t want to use Mighty Shot or Barrage.
If you enjoyed thisBows Ranked Guide, be sure to check out our other Weapon Guides, and also our article on how to Prepare forShadow of the Erdtree!
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
I am quite inexperienced in bows, being more of a caster myself, but I believe Radahn’s Greatbow is a very powerful bow. Jar Cannon would be one too – though it isn’t neccesarily a bow, per se. The Serpent Bow is useful with it’s upgraded Poison effect, though the firepower is not ideal. And if we’re counting Crossbows, the Repeating Crossbow (may not be it’s actual name, I don’t feel like checking) is also a very good crossbow, due to it’s triple shots and decent damage. Sorry for the wall of text!
