Every Bow in Valheim: Six Weapons, and the Skill Is the Real Upgrade
Valheim has six bows, running from the Crude bow's 22 Pierce to the Ash Fang's 94. But the biggest change to how a bow feels has nothing to do with which bow you are holding: draw time falls from 2.5 seconds at Bows skill 0 to 0.5 seconds at skill 100 — a five-fold improvement that costs no materials at all. And there is a ceiling on it that most archers never hear about.
On sourcing. Iron Gate do not publish system documentation. The figures below come from the community wikis and can change with any patch.
The Six Bows
| Bow | Damage (min/max) | Stamina | Knockback | Velocity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crude bow | 22/31 Pierce | 4 /s | 0 | 35 m/s |
| Finewood bow | 32/41 Pierce | 6 /s | 5 | 50 m/s |
| Huntsman bow | 42/51 Pierce | 8 /s | 10 | 50 m/s |
| Draugr Fang | 47/56 Pierce + 5/20 Poison | 10 /s | 20 | 60 m/s |
| Spinesnap | 72/84 Pierce + 5/20 Spirit | 14 /s | 25 | 60 m/s |
| Ash Fang | 82/94 Pierce + 0/15 Spirit | 14 /s | 25 | 60 m/s |
The min/max pair is the draw. The first number is what a snap shot does; the second is a full draw. On the Crude bow that gap is 9 damage; on the Ash Fang it is 12 — so a full draw is worth roughly the same absolute amount at every tier, which makes it proportionally far more valuable early.
Draugr Fang is where bows stop being pure Pierce. Its 5/20 Poison is the first elemental split in the line, and it matters enormously against the four bosses that resist Pierce — the poison half is not resisted.
Spinesnap and Ash Fang are the same stamina cost (14/s) for different profiles. Spinesnap carries 5/20 Spirit; Ash Fang trades a little of that (0/15 Spirit) for ten more Pierce. Against undead, Spinesnap's larger Spirit floor is the better pick; against everything else, Ash Fang.
Stamina cost roughly triples across the line — 4/s to 14/s. A top-tier bow drains you far faster, which is why archery becomes a food-and-stamina problem at the endgame rather than a damage one.
The Skill Is the Real Upgrade
| Bows skill | Draw time |
|---|---|
| 0 | 2.5 seconds |
| 85 | ~0.8 seconds |
| 100 | 0.5 seconds |
And here is the detail almost nobody knows: the bow can only be fired every 0.8 seconds regardless. That fire-rate cap is reached at skill level 85.
So levels 85 to 100 do not make you shoot faster. The draw continues to shorten to 0.5 seconds, but the weapon will not fire more often than once every 0.8 seconds — meaning the last fifteen levels buy you a longer window at full draw, which is accuracy and damage, not rate of fire.
That reframes early archery completely. At skill 0 you are spending 2.5 seconds per shot, which is why bows feel unusable at the start and excellent later. The bow did not change. You did.
Blocking cancels a draw without firing the arrow. That is a genuine tactical tool — you can abort a committed shot when something closes on you, rather than being locked into it — and it is also the most common cause of "my arrow disappeared".
And arrows cannot be retrieved. Every shot is spent, which makes bows an ammunition economy as much as a weapon choice.
Velocity and Spread
Two columns decide whether an arrow lands where you aimed:
| Bow | Max velocity | Min spread | Attack noise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crude bow | 35 m/s | 1° | 15 m |
| Finewood bow | 50 m/s | 1° | 15 m |
| Huntsman bow | 50 m/s | 0° | 4 m |
| Draugr Fang | 60 m/s | 0° | 15 m |
| Spinesnap | 60 m/s | 0° | 15 m |
| Ash Fang | 60 m/s | 0° | 15 m |
Velocity is arrow drop. A 35 m/s Crude bow arrow arcs noticeably; a 60 m/s Ash Fang arrow travels much flatter. At range, velocity does more for your hit rate than damage does.
Spread reaches 0° at the Huntsman bow and never gets worse. The first two bows sit at 1° minimum, which is a small but real scatter even at full draw. From the Huntsman onward, a fully drawn arrow goes exactly where the crosshair is.
All six bows share a 20° maximum spread, which is what a snap shot gives you. That is a wide cone — the difference between a snap shot and a full draw is far larger than the difference between two bow tiers.
The Huntsman bow is the stealth pick, and it is not close. At 4 metres of attack noise and 4 metres of hit noise against every other bow's 15 m and 8 m, it is the only bow that will not pull an entire camp. Combined with the Sneak skill and a Troll set, it is the assassination weapon of the mid-game.
Practical tips
- Six bows, from Crude (22/31) to Ash Fang (82/94).
- Draw time is 2.5s at skill 0 and 0.5s at skill 100 — a five-fold change, free.
- But fire rate caps at one shot per 0.8 seconds, reached at skill 85.
- Levels 85–100 buy accuracy, not speed.
- Blocking cancels a draw without wasting the arrow.
- Spread hits 0° at the Huntsman bow; snap shots are 20° on every bow.
- The Huntsman bow is 4 m noise against 15 m on every other bow.
- Draugr Fang's poison half is not resisted by Pierce-resistant bosses.
Running your own Valheim server
Archery is the skill that rewards a long-running character more than almost any other — 2.5 seconds to 0.5 is a hundred levels of shooting, not a weekend. A gamever Valheim server keeps your world and progress persistent for up to 10 players, with one-click backups so those levels are never at the mercy of whose machine was hosting.
Conclusion
Valheim's six bows climb from the Crude bow (22/31 Pierce, 35 m/s) through the Finewood and Huntsman bows to the Draugr Fang (47/56 + 5/20 Poison), Spinesnap (72/84 + 5/20 Spirit) and Ash Fang (82/94 + 0/15 Spirit) — with stamina cost roughly tripling across the line. But the largest single improvement to archery is free: draw time falls from 2.5 seconds at skill 0 to 0.5 at skill 100, and the fire-rate cap of one shot per 0.8 seconds is reached at skill 85, so the final fifteen levels buy accuracy rather than speed. Spread reaches 0° at the Huntsman bow, snap shots are a 20° cone on every bow, and velocity climbs 35 → 50 → 60 m/s, which matters more at range than raw damage. And the Huntsman bow's 4-metre noise against everything else's 15 makes it the only genuine stealth bow in the game.
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