Bow

The bow is a weapon that can be crafted in Indev, Infdev, and Alpha.

Using the Bow
To use a bow, it must be the active item (in your hand) and there must be arrows in the player's inventory. Then simply right-click to use; the bow will shoot the arrows.

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.

Arrows
Arrows can be fired from a distance and in rapid succession. They will fly in a parabola and will travel approximately 15 blocks when fired parallel to a flat plane. Arrows have a maximum range of around 50 blocks when fired at a 45 degree angle on a flat plane, though they will travel farther if the terrain is sloped downwards. Arrows deal two hearts of damage if they successfully hit the target.

Arrows will also stick into objects they come in contact with and remain for exactly a minute before disappearing; the distance from the object and the angle determine how far up the arrow will be. They can bounce off entities like mine carts and damage immune mobs. It is possible for players to damage themselves with arrows if they move into the path of the arrow. When shot directly upwards arrows appear to travel approximately 25 blocks before falling.

It is possible to shoot burning arrows if you are standing in front of lava or fire and shoot through it. However, this doesn't get you any additional damage effects and seem to be purely for show. It is rumored that burning arrows are planned by Notch as a craftable recipe. Burning arrows have a luminance of 1. An Arrow fired by the player that either misses a mob or hits an object is retrievable, and therefore can be used again. Arrows fired by Skeletons are special entities, unusable by the player. These arrows may not be retrieved.

Arrows are dropped by killing Skeletons, or can be crafted via a combination of Flint, Sticks and Feathers.

Crafting
Bow



Arrows



Trivia

 * Arrows will not break Glass when fired at it.

Bogen