So how effective is the crossbow REALLY?

[-Atlas- 5]

Just a basic question. I just picked one up and before I fire the single steel bolt that I have at a zombie, I'd like to know if that is enough to kill him. Headshot kills instantly? Body shot? If anyone could give me some info on this that would be GREAT.

Oh, and how is the 'bullet' drop? Is it hard to aim? I would run into the woods and do some practicing (since you can pick up the bolts after you fired them, correct?) but with only 1 bolt that'd be a very time consuming venture.

[kannibalkiwi 7]

1 shot kills to the body or head, effective range of 30m or 100m (i can't remember) its a silet weapon, but it;s easy to aim at stationary objects, moving ones are a little awkward. you can retrieve steel bolts, try to line zombies up with walls, so that if you miss, the bolt is stuck in a wall. not to sure on drop (:

[Kruemelkatze 5]

The crossbow kills with one hit, independent of where you hit the zed. I've run along with a crossbow around 20 hours, until I found a MP5SD6. It's totally worth having one, as you can kill zombies noiseless. But always keep another weapon in your backpack, just in case you meet a hostile player.

Concerning the bullet drop: Don't try to shoot zombies when they are running, you are going to miss. And for information: On short distances, the bolt impacts around 1cm above the point designated by the crossbow's iron sights! Also forget to search for bolts lost in fields/woods, it's worse than searching a needle in a haystack. In general, you will be able to regain 50-70% of the bolts you fired. Sometimes you miss, sometimes the bolt flies through walls and sometimes the zombies will cover the steel bolt.

[-Atlas- 5]

Exactly the info I was hoping for. Thanks guys. Enjoy mah beans.

[Bobcomss 189]

Posted this on another thread about C/bow...

Hi and welcome to hell!

Ok lets see...

Crossbow:-

.Very good at taking out zeds quietly but if you spook more then one your a gonner unless you can get into a building

.Slow reload

.1 bolt takes up 1 item slot and does not stack (stupid IMO)

.Can recover ammo but in my experiance 40-50% of time glitches out.

.Can only recover ammo by hovering over where you shot (very hard when Cross hair (CH) is off.

.Ammo is scarce, but using it right you can last on 1-2 bolts

.Hard to impossible to aim with :S

Silent Guns:-

M9SD Pistol

MP5SD

M4A1 camo SD

.Generally quite weak except M4A1

.Ammo is super rare (uses silent ammo...WTF?)

.IMO Wouldn't recommend

Silent Melee:-

Hatchet

.Weak can kill between 1-10 hits (random)

.has to reload...lol (10,000 swings though :D)

.Find near enough anywhere

.my advice...Spawn>Find hatchet> Use until die to get used to using a hatchet and get a feel for its range> Become a Viking god ;)

.Can attach to toolbelt so can have a primary and hatchet and swap out to get silent kills in buildings.

As far as I am aware knife can not be used in melee and if it can I haven't found how to.

Footsteps:-

.Not sure if glitch but...

.holding W or S and either A or D (walk sideways) seems to produce no sound while (only) crouch walking.

Hope that helps :)

AJ

Edited July 31, 2012 by Bobcomss

[alderous (DayZ) 16]

You are talking about zombies or players? According to this chart it has a power similar to 5,56 mm assault rifles. I think that hitting something farther than 30 meters is hard (no real ironsights)

[jimmydamage 44]

My crossbow stopped oneshotting Z (bodyshot) at the patch/bug that nerfed the 1911. Two arrows required on body to down a Z. Dunno if it's been fixed/buffed again.

[thepcv 32]

I personally find the crossbow outclassed by the hatchet. I NEVER pick one up. It's a cool novelty weapon that has a niche use, but the hatchet works just as well for an early game silent killer. Each bolt takes up an inventory slot, which is the deal breaker for me. Yeah you're supposed to be able to pick em back up, but they glitch out and shit and you lose em 30-50% of the time anyways. So it sucks...

On another note, it's silent only to zombies. Players can hear it. Just as it is with silenced guns. I don't know about you... but I'd rather have a silenced M9/hatchet when a survivor runs into the building I'm in over a damn crossbow.

[arx 61]

Even tho I have this exact crossbow in RL and I expected it to be my primary weapon, in the end i never pick it up or use it. Bolts should be in bundles of 3. Then I would pick it up.. right now its just useless for zombie hoardes. it may have been decent before the patch but now i would take a hachet anyday. in fact i would take a hatchet over any other weapon in the game (guns just attract players).

seems fucked, since melee isnt so perfect, but still melee weapon wins

[ACOGshot 38]

Makes you feel a bit like Daryl from The Walking Dead, but unfortunately he makes it look easy in comparison. I'm sure if you were a sneaky person, needing to take just one or two zombies down strategically you could make it work, but god help you if you run into someone with a gun.

[tarquinbb 28]

i once picked one up in a barn with a new char, then a guy with an AK ran through the barn with zombie aggro.

i twitch fired the crossbow and it broke his leg, then he got eaten by zombies and i got free stuff :D

[sunnz 24]

.Ammo is scarce, but using it right you can last on 1-2 bolts

Hahaha no its not, the ammo for the crossbow is very common, i mean if you go to 10 loot areas ( the piles) you would easily find at least 3 to 5.

Edited July 31, 2012 by sunnz

[calabam 55]

Crossbow is rubbish ammo takes up space in your inventory and you prolly more like to get killed by another player if you have a weapon even though the chance of actually httin them with the thing is ziltch you'd be better throwin emtpy cans imo better to run around with none until you find a decent weapon.

[csharp 47]

Ammo is super rare (uses silent ammo...WTF?)

Subsonic bullets. And also, SD ammo is really not that rare :P

[Azrail (DayZ) 211]

crossbow is awesome.

if it only was a tinsy bit more powerful.

[dgeesio 1034]

should be a pouch of 5 or ten arrows with it

also i got shot in electro yesterday in a super market by a bloke with a gillie and a cross bow :lol:

Edited July 31, 2012 by dgeesio

[dizze367@hotmail.com 1]

Never used a crossbow myself, but watch this and see for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFGM81i5eYA

Edited July 31, 2012 by LtDizzee

[WalBanger 11]

I like the crossbow because it makes me feel like I'm playing the game "properly"...... You should be killing zombies quietly :-)....... And it make me feel cool :-)

But there is a down sides, and they are really big downsides

1) you will loose everytime in PVP even to a hatchet running from 50meters away... (unless they are under 5000 blood)

2) getting the ammo back from dead zombies etc is VERY bugged and I can go from 10 bolts to 1-2 in 1 town.. (I think it should go into the dead persons inventory.... Along with the empty can he was carrying lol)

3) the ammo taking up an inventory for each slot is just plan annoying and does need to be stacks of 2-3

4) reload is rediculously long (but realistic for real life)

5) put all this together and add a zombie attacking you at close range you have a fast moving zombie with "small" hit boxes, and if you miss it feels like a 2hr reload as he's munching in your face!!!

[arx 61]

should be a pouch of 5 or ten arrows with it

True that. The crossbow would be better with a quiver underneath.

I figure bundles of 3 or 5 beats high availability of single bolts with many zeds between

[b683960 3]

2) getting the ammo back from dead zombies etc is VERY bugged and I can go from 10 bolts to 1-2 in 1 town.. (I think it should go into the dead persons inventory.... Along with the empty can he was carrying lol)

In real live when a cross bow arrow hits a human body the arrow can get bend slightly even if its a steal bolt. The flight characteristics are screwed and so it is useless. Thats exactly what we see in Dayz with the only 60-80% getting back chance.

[Sula 1205]

I have never once managed to hit a single zombie with an arrow or with ten arrows.

[plrsniper 87]

It does 3555 damage. Headshot is an instant kill. You can break legs with it.

Thus, it's on par with most assault rifles that uses Stanag ammo. AK's do less damage. (2722)

Zombies die from one shot.

Ammo is very common but since bolts only come in singles it's still not easy to refill your ammo.

But there are a large number of downsides.

* Slow reload

* One bolt per inventory slot

* Not actually silent, can be heard quite far away by other players.

* If you hit a player with it, all you will succeed in doing is pissing him off and before you reload he will shoot you.

In the end, a hatchet is by far superior in every way despite the short range of the hatchet.

[svisketyggeren 662]

l use the xbow for those tasty nighttime ninja raids. So I make use of it and prefer it over most of the lower end weapons. I avoid pvp in these cases.

[Josh225 129]

I feel a need to get a crossbow kill before SA

[Toft 61]

(uses silent ammo... WTF?)

In the real world guns with supressors or silencers also uses speciel ammo, which would be subsonic rounds. also they do less dmg irl.

you would in most cases destroy the silencer or supressor by using ordinary ammo, atleast to my knowledge.

Edited February 4, 2013 by Toft