Greatbow

The Greatbow is a moderately heavy, single-shot ranged weapon in RimWorld which deals a slightly higher amount of damage per shot; slightly longer time between shots; slightly longer range and high overall accuracy.

Overview

Greatbows are the most powerful overall neolithic-tier ranged weapons in the game, slightly beating the recurve bow in terms of range and damage, and handily beating the other options in its class. Accuracy at short and medium distances is also very good, as well as stopping power which is high enough not only to stagger humans, but also slightly larger targets such as cougars and all insectoids. Damage output is high enough that the greatbow can even compete with basic firearms such as the autopistol and revolver at short-to-medium distances.

Interestingly, the greatbow has a shorter cooldown than the short bow and recurve bow, as well as a longer warmup than cooldown, which is reversed compared to the aforementioned bows.

Close-up accuracy is worse than the other bows though, with close DPS only being on par with the recurve bow's. This weapon's also less skill-friendly than the other bow variants due to the aforementioned close-up accuracy as well as a longer warmup/cooldown cycle. The greatbow also surprisingly has the second-lowest armor penetration out of all neolithic-tier ranged weapons; even the short bow has better AP - the greatbow's DPS makes up for this though.

Mass is also higher than most other neolithic-tier ranged weapons (similar to many rifle-class firearms), with only the pila having an even higher mass. However, the greatbow's mass is still low enough that it generally won't have an adverse effect on a colonist's caravanning capabilities.

Similarly to the recurve bow, the greatbow's suitable for offensive and support roles. However, unlike the recurve bow, the greatbow's strictly best used in short-to-medium distance engagements due to its relatively poor close-quarters accuracy. This weapon's also an excellent choice for a hunting weapon, being nearly as good as the bolt-action rifle in this regard.

Against an unarmored human, a greatbow can kill with 3 hits to the torso, 2 hits to the head or neck, or 1 hit to the brain; cripple or destroy limbs in 2 hits; and destroy eyes and digits with a single hit. It'll generally take around 4 hits (~18.6 seconds average) to incapacitate that human from pain shock.

Overall, the greatbow is best paired with a careful shooter up to level 11, and with a trigger-happy shooter beyond that point.

Melee Combat

Tool	Attack	Damage Type	Power	AP	Cooldown	Likelihood	Base DPS
Overall	-	-	9	13%	2.00s	-	4.50
Limb	Blunt	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	50.00%	4.50
Limb	Poke	Blunt	9	13%	2.00s	50.00%	4.50

Obtaining

Great bows can be purchased from neolithic war merchants and orbital combat suppliers, or obtained from the following raider kinds:

Raider Kind	Chance	Average Quality	Health
Heavy Archer	42.22%	Normal	50-180%
Archer Chief	93.25%	Normal	100%

Great bows can also be manufactured at any smithy once the greatbow research has been completed; from 50 wood and 9,000 ticks (2.5 mins) of work. A crafting level of at least 6 is required.

Greatbow vs. Comparable Weapons

This section goes over how well the greatbow fares against comparable weapons (similar value, tech level or similar characteristics) in 1 vs. 1 combat.

Methodology

All testing is semi-automated which allows for large sample sizes to be gathered per set of results with ease
All pawns have a skill level of 8 in shooting
No pawns have any traits that affect combat performance
All pawns are of 18 years of age and completely healthy
Pawns are divided by walls to prevent stray shots from skewing results in any way
Weather conditions are kept clear and no cover is used

Results in the tables below are the percentages of battles that greatbow either won or tied against the weapon listed in the first column of said tables, with a sample size of 2,000 battles per result. Higher percentages are better.

Unarmored

For the unarmored testing, all pawns wore normal quality plainleather pants and plainleather button-down shirts.

Greatbow vs.	3	7	12	18	25	32	40
Recurve bow	44.60%	51.15%	54.85%	54.50%	55.30%	-	-
Revolver	18.55%	24.20%	34.28%	45.25%	57.85%	-	-
Bolt-action rifle	41.25%	41.85%	41.75%	39.35%	33.50%	-	-

Flak Armor

For the flak armor testing, all pawns wore normal quality steel simple helmets, flak jackets, flak vests, plainleather button-down shirts and flak pants.

Greatbow vs.	3	7	12	18	25	32	40
Recurve bow	42.25%	46.15%	53.45%	51.60%	53.75%	-	-
Revolver	16.10%	23.60%	34.95%	41.75%	57.65%	-	-
Bolt-action rifle	31.70%	33.20%	35.10%	29.85%	25.10%	-	-

Marine Armor

For the marine armor testing, all pawns wore normal quality marine helmets, marine armor, plainleather button-down shirts and plainleather pants.

Greatbow vs.	3	7	12	18	25	32	40
Recurve bow	38.75%	44.85%	51.65%	51.30%	53.75%	-	-
Revolver	14.75%	22.60%	33.20%	43.15%	58.65%	-	-
Bolt-action rifle	28.55%	30.25%	32.55%	26.65%	21.65%	-	-

Quality table

Quality	Beauty	Deterioration rate	Market Value	Accuracy (close)	Accuracy (short)	Accuracy (medium)	Accuracy (long)	Damage	Armor Penetration	Melee Damage Per Second	Melee Armor Penetration
Awful	-3	4/day	$46.20	52%	68%	60%	40%	15	14%	3.6	11%
Poor	-3	3/day	$69.30	58%	76%	67%	45%	17	15%	4.05	12%
Normal	-3	2/day	$92.40	65%	85%	75%	50%	17	15%	4.5	13%
Good	-3	1.6/day	$115.50	72%	94%	83%	55%	17	15%	4.95	15%
Excellent	-3	1.2/day	$138.60	78%	100%	90%	60%	17	15%	5.4	16%
Masterwork	-3	0.6/day	$230	88%	100%	100%	68%	21	19%	6.53	20%
Legendary	-3	0.2/day	$460	98%	100%	100%	75%	26	22%	7.43	22%

Graphs

The graphs assume a normal quality greatbow against an adult human that's out in the open in clear weather. For DPS, projectile speed has also been factored into the equation, with the weighting based on the base amount of attacks that it'll take to put the aforementioned target into pain shock.