Greatbow

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

Acquisition

Great bows can be manufactured at any smithy once the greatbow research has been completed; from 60 Wood and 9,000 ticks (2.5 mins) of work. A crafting level of at least 6 is required.

Great bows can also 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%

Analysis

The greatbow is the most powerful pre-industrial ranged weapon. Roughly on par with weak firearms like autopistols and revolvers, it is rapidly outclassed by most other guns. Due to the research required, crafting greatbows usually not a great idea. However, a greatbow obtained from other means (quest, event, shop) can be useful in the early game.

As a weapon, the greatbow dominates all weapons for its tech level. For a bow, it is great accuracy and max range. While the AP is worse than even a short bow, the damage easily makes up. With the highest range before bolt-action rifles and a relatively short cooldown, the greatbow is ideal for both preventing, and escaping from, hunted animals going manhunter. It's worth noting that the greatbow has a longer warmup than cooldown, which is reversed for the other two bows. This synergizes well with Aiming Time reductions.

Compared to a recurve bow of the same quality, the greatbow has overall better damage and range. A recurve bow one or two quality levels above can have better DPS at the short-medium range, though.
Compared to autopistols and revolvers, the greatbow is more accurate from a distance, and has higher max range. However, both handguns outdamage the greatbow up close.
The greatbow is actually very similar to the bolt-action rifle, just with worse stats. A bolt-action rifle has better DPS, range, long-range accuracy as a greatbow of the same quality.

The main issue of this weapon is the research required - greatbows are a dead-end project, and greatbows themselves are outclassed quickly. Therefore, actually doing the research is often a waste of time. Should you find or craft a particularly high quality greatbow, however, it might remain competitive in the early game.

It also may have a small niche in 500% threat scale runs, as greatbows have lower wealth than better weapons. In any difficulty below 500%, including Losing is Fun, this wealth is completely irrelevant.

Quality Comparisons

High quality greatbows can occasionally be obtained as a quest reward. Particularly high quality greatbows can be better than many types of guns.

A masterwork greatbow beats an excellent (and lower) bolt-action rifle at any range the bow can reach, though its AP and max range are still shorter.
Up close (12 tiles), a greatbow 1 quality level higher generally beats a bolt action, e.g. good greatbow > normal bolt-action. The one exception is that an excellent greatbow is still inferior to a good bolt action rifle.
At medium (25 tile) range and beyond, an excellent greatbow is outdamaged by a poor bolt-action.

Stats

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.

Attack table

Ranged

Greatbow			Accuracy (Touch)	Accuracy (Short)	Accuracy (Medium)	Accuracy (Long)	DPS (Optimal)	DPS (Touch)	DPS (Short)	DPS (Medium)	DPS (Long)	Market value
Quality	Dam.	AP	Accuracy (Touch)	Accuracy (Short)	Accuracy (Medium)	Accuracy (Long)	DPS (Optimal)	DPS (Touch)	DPS (Short)	DPS (Medium)	DPS (Long)	Market value
Awful	15.3	13.5%	52%	68%	60%	40%	4.37	2.27	2.97	2.62	1.75	52
Poor	17	15%	58.5%	76.5%	67.5%	45%	4.86	2.87	3.74	3.3	2.19	78
Normal	17	15%	65%	85%	75%	50%	4.86	3.16	4.13	3.65	2.43	104
Good	17	15%	71.5%	93.5%	82.5%	55%	4.86	3.5	4.57	4.03	2.67	130
Excellent	17	15%	78%	100%	90%	60%	4.86	3.79	4.86	4.37	2.92	156
Masterwork	21.25	18.75%	87.75%	100%	100%	67.5%	6.08	5.35	6.08	6.08	4.13	260
Legendary	25.5	22.5%	97.5%	100%	100%	75%	7.29	7.14	7.29	7.29	5.47	520

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality. Values shown in Red indicate the weapon is out of range at the reference point for this range band.
The value is provided due to the interpolated nature of accuracy between range points.}

Melee

Feature	Toggle
Attacks

Greatbow			Limb (Blunt)					Limb (Poke)					Human: Left & right fist (Blunt)					HP	Value
Quality	DPS^[1]	AP^[1]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	Dam.	Cool.	AP	DPS	Chance^[2]	HP	Value
Awful	3.98	11.6%	7.2	2s	10.4%	3.6	12.5%	7.2	2s	10.4%	3.6	12.5%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 37.5%	100	52
Poor	4.08	11.85%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	25%	8.1	2s	11.7%	4.05	25%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 25%	100	78
Normal	4.4	12.75%	9	2s	13%	4.5	37.5%	9	2s	13%	4.5	37.5%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	104
Good	4.74	13.73%	9.9	2s	14.3%	4.95	37.5%	9.9	2s	14.3%	4.95	37.5%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	130
Excellent	5.08	14.7%	10.8	2s	15.6%	5.4	37.5%	10.8	2s	15.6%	5.4	37.5%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	156
Masterwork	5.92	17.14%	13.05	2s	18.85%	6.53	37.5%	13.05	2s	18.85%	6.53	37.5%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	260
Legendary	6.59	19.09%	14.85	2s	21.45%	7.43	37.5%	14.85	2s	21.45%	7.43	37.5%	8.2	2s	12%	4.1	2× 12.5%	100	520

^{For the full effects of qualities, see Quality.}

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Note: This is the actual base average derived from the melee verb system updated in 1.1.2610, it may sometimes disagree with the listed value in the in-game infobox.
It may also change depending on the stats and the melee verbs available to the wielder if the weapon is wielded by some other than a baseline human.
↑ Chance for attack to be selected, assuming the weapon is wielded by a baseline human. It may change depending on the melee verbs available to the wielder

Version history

0.3.410 - Added
At some point between Beta 18 and 1.2 it was nerfed. Accuracy was decreased from Touch accuracy was changed from 93% to 65%, range was decreased from 32 to 30 and damage from 18 to 17. It was also increased in weight from 1.2 to 3.0.

Weapons