Bow

The bow is a weapon that can shoot arrows to kill mobs and players from a greater distance than melee weapons like the sword.

Using the Bow
To use a bow, it must be the active item and there must be arrows somewhere in the player's inventory; they do not need to be on the action bar. Simply right-click to use the bow, which will shoot the arrows. Holding right-click will pull back the string and send the arrow flying faster/farther when released. Pulling the string back all the way releases an arrow with a sparkling effect, causing more damage. The Bow also shakes when fully charged -presumably from the tension of the bow- although it seems to not affect your aim. While the bow is being pulled back, the player will be forced to move at sneak speed.

It should be noted that the bow is very effective at killing powerful foes from afar, such as Ghasts, Skeletons, Creepers, Spiders, Cave Spiders and Spider Jockey: all of which either use ranged attacks, or are dangerous in close proximity. Endermen are extremely difficult to kill with arrows, as they teleport away every time they are hit, even if the player is wearing a Pumpkin.

As arrows are affected by gravity, they shoot in a parabolic arc. This is hardly noticeable at close range, but becomes more apparent with greater distance. One must aim above mobs at a certain distance, or gain higher ground to effectively neutralize the target. Some players have noticed a slight rightward tendency of shot arrows, although this is speculative.

Previous to 1.8, bows often failed to interact with objects, but would instead shoot. This was a pain when trying to open doors, interact with wolves, etc. This was due to the fact that shooting arrows was an instantaneous action. Now that players are required to 'charge' their bow, this is no longer as much of a problem.

As of 1.0, a fully charged arrow consistently deals damage, with a rare chance of dealing. This means that 2 fully charged arrows are often required to kill most passive mobs, while 3 are often required to kill most hostiles.

As of 1.1, the bow can be enchanted.

Arrows that cause no damage to targets (i.e.: when you miss) will become stuck in the block they hit. You are able to re-collect these arrows. Bows in creative mode will always shoot an arrow, even if you have none in your inventory. Also, be careful when destroying blocks with arrows stuck in them, as falling arrows also cause damage.

History
In Survival Test, the player did not need a bow to shoot arrows. Instead, the Tab key was used to fire arrows. However, arrows still had to be collected to shoot. Launching arrows this way was much slower than the bow now fires them. As of the Beta 1.2 update, bows are used in the dispenser block crafting recipe, presumably for propulsion/dispensing.

Before Beta 1.8, the right mouse button could be held down to fire in rapid succession. Each arrow dealt for each hit. They would fly in a ballistic trajectory affected by gravity and drag in air or water and would travel approximately 15 blocks when fired parallel to a flat plane. Arrows also had a maximum range of around 52 blocks when fired at a 38 degree angle on a flat plane.

Arrows used to stick in any block before Beta 1.6, even some non-solid ones. For example, they could stick in Torches, Sugar Cane, and Portals.

As of release, bows have a durability. Bows do not need arrows for ammo in Creative Mode.

Since Minecraft 1.1, bows can be enchanted.

Arrows
Arrows provide ammunition for a bow, and can either be crafted or found as a common drop from skeletons. When fired. they will fly in a ballistic trajectory affected by gravity and drag in air or water and will travel approximately 3 blocks when fired parallel to a flat plane with no charge, 15 blocks average with medium charge, and 24 blocks average with maximum charge. Arrows in water get much more drag than in air, and leave a trail of bubbles in their wake. As of 1.8 pre-release, arrows (with bow at full strength) can travel 120 blocks when fired from the optimal angle.

They deal damage when fully charged (or, rarely, ). If are charged to medium, they will deal, and if not charged at all. Immediately after hitting the target, there is a cooldown during which the target will be immune to further arrow damage. Arrows hitting the mob in this state will lose all speed and drop to the ground. Before 1.8 the bow could fire as quickly as the button could be pressed, which could be as quick as one arrow every two miliseconds (ms).

Arrows will also stick into objects they come in contact with and will remain there for exactly a minute before disappearing; the distance from the object and the angle determine how far into the target the arrow will go. Arrows that have been fired by the player and stuck into terrain are retrievable and never break. Arrows that hit a target such as a mob will stick in the mob but cannot be recovered. Skeleton-fired arrows are special entities and cannot be collected. If an arrow is stuck in a block and the block in which the arrow is stuck in is broken, then the arrow will fall, and the sound of an arrow hitting a block will be triggered again, even if the arrow just falls one block down.

They can bounce off entities like Minecarts and damage immune mobs. In multiplayer, if PvP is on, a player can hurt themselves if they run forward while shooting arrows while the server is lagging. It is also possible for players to damage themselves with their own arrows by firing one directly up and standing still. Arrows fired directly upward using a fully charged bow will fly so high that they disappear from view, but eventually fall. If that arrow lands on a block, and the player is directly beneath that block, then the player breaks that block, the arrow will fall and do one heart of damage to the player.

If the block in which an arrow is stuck in is destroyed or disappears (e.g. leaves), the arrow will fall and can injure the player or a mob.

Arrows shot through lava, but not fire, will catch aflame and show an appropriate animation. They can set other entities they hit on fire.

Arrows shot at Minecart track will stop the minecart from passing over that block until the arrow despawns or is collected.

An Arrow shot at a Storage Minecart will cause the minecart to break, dropping a Minecart, a Chest, and the contents of the Storage Minecart.

Before the version 1.2, Skeletons would only drop arrows when killed; they now have a chance of dropping both bones and arrows when killed.

If a bow is used to make a Dispenser, and arrows are loaded into it and then connected to a Redstone power source correctly, it will shoot and damage mobs, animals, and players by shooting or "Dispensing" arrows for.

Arrows and Circuits
While arrows shot at Switches or Pressure Plates will not trigger said inputs directly (unless fired from a dispenser onto a pressure plate), workarounds can be used to trigger circuits from a distance. For instance, a minecart can be used in such a way that destroying it with arrows releases the wooden pressure plate it is resting on, or a painting can be shot off a wall and fall onto a wooden pressure plate to activate it. As of 1.8 and the increase of arrow damage, boats can be used as targets since a fully charged bow will break the boat in one shot.

History
During Survival Test, skeleton arrows were purple. The purple arrow texture can still be found in the minecraft.jar file, in the same image as the normal arrows, but it is not in use.

Before release 1.1, arrows could be on fire (like other entities), but they did not set what they hit on fire, and there was no enchantment to fire flaming arrows.

Trivia

 * Tilling grass when an arrow is on it causes the arrow to fall to the block below.
 * When an arrow is shot at a painting, the painting will break and the arrow despawns.
 * If an arrow is shot at wheat and then the wheat is destroyed, the arrow falls through the farmland block below it.
 * Arrows can trigger wooden pressure plates if there is a particle effect source nearby.
 * Before the Seecret [sic] Friday update 7 (1.0.14), the recipe for arrows used iron instead of flint, proving far more costly to make them.
 * In previous versions, if a player shot him or herself with an arrow, any tamed wolves that belonged to that player would attack him or her.
 * Shooting a Ghast, Giant or a large Slime with an arrow will cause the stuck arrow to grow huge.
 * When fully charged, arrows will leave a trail of white particles to represent critical hit.
 * In Minecraft Release Candidate 1, bow durability was added.
 * Arrows shot through lava will now set mobs on fire.
 * The bow could be enchanted in 1.0.0 via console commands, but no spell would affect it.
 * Bows can now be legitimately enchanted in Minecraft 1.1. Currently, there are 4 enchantments: Fire, Punch, Power and Infinity (Gives infinite shots with a single arrow, until the bow breaks.)
 * If TNT is blown up just as an arrow passes by, the arrow is misdirected opposite of the blast
 * Since snapshot 12w06a, Skeletons have a rare chance of dropping a bow. Sometimes, the bow will be enchanted with Power I.
 * Arrows will slow down if shot through water.
 * If the player fires an arrow at an Enderman, the arrow will disappear, and the Enderman will teleport away.

Bugs

 * The trail of orange particles (see above) is not rendered in multiplayer.
 * If you have Tiny or Short rendering distance and fire outside of the render, the arrow will be stuck in midair.
 * If an arrow is shot into a block by a player and the game is exited the arrow can no longer be picked up by the player when the game is re-entered. This also happens with arrows shot before dying.
 * Arrows can suddenly lose momentum when it hits the smoke of a dying mob.
 * Arrows in multiplayer will seem to teleport to the top edge of the block above the one its stuck on.
 * Lit arrows (that have gone through lava) will disappear immediately once it enters the Void while normal arrows fired by the player do not immediately disappear.
 * Shooting an Enderman with an Enchanted bow with the flame enchantment will still cause the Enderman to light on fire, even though the arrow doesn't stick. You can light multiple Endermen on fire with this, but you may pre-aggro the Enderman before you hit it.