PC Crossbow vs compound bow

JohannFaulstich

JohannFaulstich

New member
In my latest play through I was using a compound bow from day 1.

They seem very easy to find.

I have perception 5, headshot 3, and head strike 3.

This has been very effective as I can 1 shot from stealth easily.

Recently I switched to a crossbow and it is fairly underwhelming.

It "feels" like I am doing less damage per hit.

However the XML indicated otherwise:

I looked at the XML

bows have a .3 entity damage multiplier

iron arrows have a entity damage of 30

Reload Speed Multiplier .9

crossbows are a .45 entity damage multiplier

iron bolts have a entity damage of 30

Reload Speed Multiplier .5

Perhaps its the slow reload speed of the cross bow that makes it seem less effective.

>>Is there any way to see the damage you do when you hit something?<<

This would be very useful to test the damage per hit.

Anyway surprising, in previous versions switching to the crossbow was a significant upgrade.

I am going to go back to my compound bow, even though I made 500 iron crossbow bolts.

Thanks

 
The crossbow is terrible.

1. Its reload is SLOW. REALLY SLOW! It's absolutely worthless if you need a follow up shot or twenty.

2. You practically can't move while you reload. This is a fatal problem, similar to the hunting rifle.

3. It's LOUD. Your stealth can boost into the 40s or 50's with just one shot, which is like banging a pickaxe on a safe.

4. You have to completely remake your entire ammo arsenal just for this weapon. You probably have hundreds of arrows by now, but maybe a few dozen steel bolts from loot.

The bow offers faster fire rates and better foot speed when either are critical, such as horde nights. The crossbow IS stronger, but only on paper. You can easily get OHK's on most normal zombies with the compound bow and iron/steel arrows, but the crossbow doesn't offer you anything the bow doesn't.. it won't one-hit a feral or cop. Even if you take it to make sure you kill in one shot, it's loud enough to wake up every zombie in the room.

 
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I'm currently using a crossbow modded with a 4x scope and it's pretty neat. Slowdown while reloading seems to be mitigated by the run & gun perk as well. Reload itself is pretty slow still, but I have nothing invested into the archery perk. And finally, the noise is pretty much not a problem after investing into the stealth perk that muffles your actions (not just walking).

 
I can't comment on the damage, but I will confirm the xbow reload is painfully slow, and should probably be tweaked.

The compound bow has been my ranged preference (when I'm not pounding heads into a red smear).

 
I posted a topic where i compared most ranged weapons based on the amount of shots fired and damage (without skills and with skills) HERE.

In short, the crossbow is not better than even the regular bow. It may have a faster shot projectiles, but if the noise generated is high then it is not a stealth weapon at all, not to mention lower DPS. I manage to clear POIs with even a regular bow and stone arrows.

Even at night i manage to kite Zs to me shooting with arrows as they come closer, but due to not knowing where i am exactly and not seeing me (i always stay stealthy even after multiple shots), they stop a few meters before or next to me, where i get a few better shots up close. Wouldn't expect the same from the crossbow.

Additionally, i tested this on max skills but you can kill even irradiated sleepers with one shot to the head from the bow.

 
Compound bow is by far the superior non-firearm ranged weapon in the current meta. Even with the buffs that help reloading time and damage, the crossbow continues to disappoint. I guess it doesn't hurt to have one around to burn up the random bolts you loot on occasion, but honestly I'd just melt those down and make steel arrows -> flaming arrows.

 
The crossbow is missing one of its best features which is the ability to use it at long range. It has a much higher projectile velocity than the bows but it seems that the dropoff rate scales with the velocity. So even though the bolt flies faster, it also drops faster, giving it equal range to the other bows.

The damage also is pretty lackluster even with better bolts and skillpoints. Iron bolts along with 20% damage increase from Perception and an added 75% to headshot damage still isn't enough to kill even low HP pool zombies in a single hit. If you made the same investment of points into Strength and headshot damage with melee weapons, you'd be one shooting most standard zombies.

 
The crossbow should, at the very least, have the same dps output as the compound bow (without any modification) considering it's cost and drawbacks.

I for one am not touching that clunky thing until it's the case, compound works just fine, I'd even rather use a regular bw with steel arrows before using the crossbow.

 
So yeah, since I just hit 30 and was making crossbows for the other guys I figured I'd give it a shot again. I'm ready to go back to my compound bow.

Enter debug mode (console command dm). Press numpad 0.
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Oh, nice!

 
The crossbow is not a good weapon for a running gunfight... until you invest some perk points...

Bows will always reload faster but crossbows do more damage. Up to you...

 
The crossbow is not a good weapon for a running gunfight... until you invest some perk points...Bows will always reload faster but crossbows do more damage. Up to you...
Click to expand...
It still depends on the DPS you make. On higher levels you can one-shot kill most zombies when sneaking (sneak damage modifier), but when they are walking it's pretty hard to do it (maybe the weakest could go like that). So that leaves at least 2 arrows/bolts to the head. Considering how fast you can shoot the bow compared to crossbow, you can dish out more damage and kill more Zs.

The increase of damage for crossbow from compound bow doesn't change much. I got some skill upgrades for sneak attacks and overall range damage, but i can only sneak one-shot the weakest zombies with the compound bow. So normally walking Zs will still require a number of shots either way, which can be done faster with the bow.

Comparing bolts and arrows - they have the same base damage.

 
The crossbow is terrible.
1. Its reload is SLOW. REALLY SLOW! It's absolutely worthless if you need a follow up shot or twenty.

.....
Click to expand...
That's about all we need to know right there.

It's too slow to use with the new system.

If you want to shoot and then run up and hit them, there's no way you can use a crossbow.

Compound looks to be the best we have for now.

I modded in a bow that uses bolts.

Doesn't do anymore damage other than what the bolts give and I'm fine with it.

Shame though... in A16 crossbow was my favourite weapon.

Maybe I'll fix it. Change that reload speed.

Either that or seriously increase the damage.

If TFP want to go semi-realism and make the crossbow slower... for ... you know... reasons...

... then let's get real.

- A crossbow would knock the brains right OUT of a zombies head!

- It would pierce anything but Military armour.

- It would cause ridiculous bleeding damage!

- And it would suck at long range and be short to medium range only.

That's not fun. That's not game play.

Loving A17 and many of the changes so it gets my thumbs up.

Not this though. Can't say I agree with what they did to the crossbow.

 
Yeah, the xbow was my weapon of choice prior to A17. I used to find it superior to both of the other bows mainly due to it's better long range accuracy and I could turn and run a little while it reloaded. Now both of those things seem to be gone. If they at least made it more accurate at longer range it would still be usable. Very disappointed.

 
Crossbow would be more viable is there wasn't stamina drain during aiming. Why the heck does anything other than bows drain stamina while aimed?

 
The crossbow sucks. Like others have said, the reload time makes it basically worthless. The extra damage it does per shot doesn't make up for that at all.

 
Bows also drain stamina, maybe at slower paces but they do when you got the arrow ready. It definitely is more drained when you aim with right click, but without it also takes a bit of stamina.

 
The crossbow is not a good weapon for a running gunfight... until you invest some perk points...Bows will always reload faster but crossbows do more damage. Up to you...
Click to expand...
If you are in a running gunfight, don't be in a running gunfight. Once you 'go loud' because ♥♥♥♥ hit the fan, it's 1000% better to swap to a melee weapon and back the ♥♥♥♥ out to someplace where you can control turf.

Without Run and Gun and Archery, crossbows are a death wish. You need a melee weapon to POI raid, and usually a back-up shotgun for ferals and irradiated. It goes without saying: ARMOR: YOU NEED IT. You don't outrun a feral, not with the ♥♥♥♥ty stamina system in play.

 
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