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 and there must be arrows anywhere in the player's inventory; they do not need to be on the action bar. Then simply right-click to use; the bow will shoot the arrows.

It should be noted that the bow is very effective at killing powerful foes from afar, such as Ghasts, Skeletons, and Creepers, all of which either use ranged attacks, or are extremely dangerous in a close proximity to the player.

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 (arch) and will travel approximately 15 blocks when fired parallel to a flat plane. Arrows also can be fired underwater by a Skeleton and will have greatly reduced speed and range. The arrows will also leave a trail of bubbles in its wake. Arrows have a maximum range of around 50 blocks when fired at a 45 degree angle on a flat plane. 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 stuck into the target will be. 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 disappear. Skeleton-fired arrows are special entities and cannot be collected.

They can bounce off entities like Minecarts and damage immune mobs. In multiplayer, if PvP is on, a player can hurt him/herself if the player was running forward while shooting arrows when the server was lagging at the time. It is also possible for players to damage themselves with their own arrows, such as by firing an arrow directly up and standing still. Arrows fired directly upward appear to travel approximately 25 blocks before falling.

Arrows shot through lava or fire will catch aflame and show an appropriate animation, though they will do no more damage nor will they set anything else on fire. It is rumored that burning arrows are planned by Notch as a craftable recipe. Burning arrows have a luminance of 1.

Arrows are dropped by killing Skeletons, or a stack of 4 can be crafted via a combination of Flint, Sticks and Feathers.

Arrows and Circuits
While arrows shot at Switches or Pressure Plates will not trigger said inputs directly, workarounds can be used to trigger circuits from a distance. For instance, a cart be used in such a way that destroying it with arrows causes a circuit to activate.

Crafting
Bow



Arrows



Trivia

 * Arrows will not break Glass when fired at it.
 * Arrows will travel further when fired in The Nether

Bogen