Arrow

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 they 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, however this feature was removed in 1.0.0. 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 until they pass through water. 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 bones and arrows when killed; they now also have a chance of dropping bows when killed(2.5%).

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 will not trigger said inputs directly, 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.

Additionally, a Wooden Pressure Plate can be activated by firing an arrow at it directly. This, however, requires one to force the block occupied by the pressure plate to update after the arrow makes contact. This can be achieved in SSP by passing particles through the pressure plate (by placing a torch or source of fire nearby or dripping lava or water above) and in both SSP and SMP by placing a boat on an adjacent half block (so part is over the pressure plate but not touching it). Arrows can also activate a pressure plate if fired at the side of the block to which it is attached, although only if fired at the top half. This can be used to create completely invisible switches that can be activated at a distance.

An alternative implies shooting an arrow on the upper half of a block holding a Rail (Powered or not). The minecart should stop on this track instead of going on; the cart can either be blocked (or sent back if in the middle of a ramp), in combination with looped minecart circuits, this can be an effective trigger, and does not require particle updates

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.