Bow

A bow is a ranged weapon that fires arrows.

Skeletons and Strays
Skeletons and strays have an 8.5% chance of dropping a normal or enchanted bow on death when killed by the player.

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

The chance of being enchanted depends on the difficulty, whether it is normal or hard. The enchantment level are equal to enchant level 5-22.

Bows of skeleton traps are always enchanted at level 5 to 22. The exact level depends on regional difficulty, as on Easy it is always a level-5 enchantment.

Illusioners
Illusioners have an 8.5% chance of dropping an unenchanted bow when killed by the player. The chance of dropping a bow is increased by 1% per level of looting, allowing up to an 11.5% chance of dropping.

Trading
Apprentice-level fletcher villagers sell bows for 2 emeralds as part of their trade, and expert-level fletcher villagers sell enchanted bows for 8 or 17-22 emeralds as part of their trade.

The enchantment level are equal to enchant level 5-19.

Fishing
Bows have a chance of being caught by fishing as part of the treasure category. When caught, the bow may be damaged and contain random enchantments equivalent to a level 30 enchantment from an enchantment table, including treasure enchantments.

Weapon
Bows can be drawn back by it. In order to use a bow, the player must have at least one arrow in their inventory, or be in Creative mode. While the bow is being charged or remains fully charged, the player is forced to move at sneaking speed, unless they are riding a horse, minecart or boat. The arrow shown inside the bow always looks like a regular arrow, regardless of what kind of arrow is actually being fired from the bow.

When drawing a bow, the display zooms in slightly. Charging the bow to its maximum causes it to visually shake as an indicator. Releasing the button releases an arrow. A white sparkling effect signifies a full charged shot.

At minimum charge (3 ticks), the arrow deals damage and barely travels one block. At full charge (1 second), the arrow travels up to 64 blocks upwards, flies with a speed of roughly 53 m/s, and consistently deals from to, albeit sometimes doing critical hits. A critical impact damages to, and occurs in 25% of shots.

Damage caused by the arrow is not affected by the Strength status effect.

Endermen cannot be shot using an arrow, because the arrow either disappears as the enderman teleports, or it gets deflected. An arrow shot from a bow enchanted with Flame can ignite the enderman, however.

Enchantments
Bows can receive several different enchantments, and have a base enchantibility of 1. Bow enchantments have no effect on arrow speed or distance.
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History
Historical sounds:

Trivia

 * If a bow is enchanted with a level 1 enchantment, it always gets Power 1.
 * Bows are the first ranged weapon in Minecraft.
 * Bows with its enchantments are effective against single targets, while the Crossbow enchantments affect multiple targets.
 * Bows were intentionally left unchanged in the Texture Update as to appear to be made of a different wood type from crossbows.