The Bow is a weapon that appears in The Last of Us. It is silent, making it ideal for stealthy situations, although it has a limited range. It belongs to the long gun group.
Overview
Arrows follow a trajectory, similar to the way they do in real life. At range, the player must aim higher to hit targets.
Arrows travel significantly slower than bullets, requiring the player to lead moving targets at range.
The range, reload speed and draw speed of the bow can be upgraded.
Singleplayer
The bow is first found in Bill's Town with the remains of an encampment. During the Lakeside Resort chapter, Ellie uses a different bow for hunting deer and later fighting the infected. It was later revealed that Ellie had scavenged the bow from a dead cannibal during the events of Left Behind.
In an environment where ammunition is scarce, reusable projectiles such as arrows make the bow an essential survival weapon. However, arrows have a chance of breaking causing the player to lose them. Arrows deal more damage to enemies unaware of the player's presence. When human enemies without armor as well as Runners and Stalkers are unaware of the players presence, one single shot is normally all it takes to kill them, provided it's in the body or the head. However this will not work for Clickers if you hit them in the body, you must get a dead on headshot in order to kill them with one arrow. However, be warned that this has about an 80% chance of breaking your arrow so unless you are out of Shivs, using your Bow is not advisable. This will work when playing as either Joel or Ellie.
Multiplayer
Like suppressed weapons, the bow is completely invisible to the radar. The sound of arrows bouncing off environment can be heard however. Unlike all other long weapons, the bow costs 3 loadout points, making it cost in-between suppressed weapons and unsuppressed weapons. Players start off with seven arrows if it is not boosted; as with singleplayer, arrows may sometimes be recovered after firing. It has a similar effect in the multiplayer, arrows shot into certain walls or players can be retrieved.
If the user is aiming with the Bow for an extended period of time, the user will suffer shaking, making it gradually more difficult to aim. Letting go of the aim button and then aiming again resets the shaking effect.
A single arrow can break armor, and it takes two arrows to the body or one to the head to down unarmored enemies. It takes one shot to execute downed enemies. The Bow is a very good choice for players that can attack while they are out of the enemy's sight, and has good aiming and skill to successfully land strikes on moving targets.
The Bow is identical in terms of damage to the Hunting Rifle, and can be considered a silent alternative that fires more quickly but is trickier to aim. Once it has its second upgrade, due to the fire rate being so fast, it can even rival the Tactical Shotgun if the user is skilled.
In Factions, players who don't have the bow as their main weapon can still pick up arrows; this can be used strategically to deprive enemies of recoverable ammo.
Workbench Upgrades
The following is a list of upgrades available for the bow at workbenches, and the parts and level of tools required to upgrade each.
| Upgrade | Description | Level |  |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reload Speed | Allows you to reload the weapon faster. | |||
| Range | Increases the range of the weapon. | 2 3 |
30 50 |
4 5 |
| Draw Speed | Allows you to draw the weapon faster. | 2 3 |
30 50 |
2 4 |
Tactics
The bow is a nearly silent weapon. The arrows are reusable, but have a chance of breaking. Use it for stealth kills and judge when an arrow might be more effective than a bullet. Keep in mind the bow does less damage to enemies who are aware of your presence.
In Factions MP, the bow's biggest weaknesses are its slow projectile velocity and its draw speed. Against moving targets, arrows must be shot so they lead into the target, even at relatively short ranges. The bow also has to be fully drawn before it is fired; shooting earlier will release the arrow, but the arrow will not deal damage to its target. This makes it very difficult to use the bow against enemies with fast-firing weapons such as the burst pistol and rifle. A good way to fight with the bow up close is to shoot at the target and then sprint sideways, repeating as necessary. This technique also works with other weapons that down in two shots, such as the tactical shotgun and the hunting rifle. The bow also had difficultly fighting at longer ranges, as the shaking from aiming too long and the slow arrow speed makes hitting moving targets much more difficult than with the hunting rifle.
Used by
- Joel
- Ellie
- Bill (Mentioned Only)
- Cannibal (Left Behind)
Gallery
Trivia
- In a gameplay demo, Ellie asks Joel if she can use the bow and claims that she is experienced with it. This event occurs in the full game in Bill's Town on top of a white delivery truck which Bill appeared to use as a make shift look out post. Joel denies her the use of the bow possibly because he doesn't want her to have to kill anyone or anything. This can be interpreted multiple ways because of him saying to Ellie shortly after her request for him to give her the bow "How 'bout we just leave this kind of stuff to me."
- In Factions, after killing enemies that are downed with an arrow, the arrow will remain hovering in the air even after the body of the enemy has disappeared and spawned elsewhere.
- The bow, flamethrower and shorty are the only weapons in the game that aren't used by the enemies against Joel and Ellie in-game, although a cannibal briefly uses the bow on clickers.
| Long guns | Assault rifle · Bow · Flamethrower · Hunting rifle · Military sniper · Shotgun |
|---|---|
| Pistols | 9mm pistol · El Diablo · Ellie's pistol · Revolver · Shorty |
| Melee weapons | 2x4 · Baseball bat · Hatchet · Lead pipe · Machete · Switchblade |
| Craftable items | Health kit · Melee upgrade · Molotov cocktail · Nail bomb · Shiv · Smoke bomb |
| Supplies | Ammunition · Crafting materials · Food · Parts · Supplements · Tools |
| Other items | Armor · Backpack · Bottle · Brick · Flashlight · Gas mask · Sarah's birthday card · Weapon holster |
| Miscellaneous | Safe · Shiv door · Workbench |