Elden Ring features 5 primary non-magic weapon types for ranged combat: Bows, short bows, great bows, crossbows and ballistas (which are essentially “heavy” crossbows). Choosing which you should use isn’t always as simple when planning your build’s ranged combat capabilities, so let’s dig into the pros and cons of each!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bows get a number of advantages in Elden Ring relative to crossbows. First off is the fact that there are a lot more bows (when counting types of bows) to choose from than crossbows, which is also important when you look at the next feature of bows: Weapon scaling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bows have limited weapon scaling, including the option to scale off of other stats you may want to pump beyond strength or dex. While this scaling is much lower than other weapons, you do at least gain some additional advantage as you level up your character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, bows can equip new Ashes of War. While your choices are fairly limited regarding ranged Ashes of War, there are some really interesting and powerful choices here (such as Rain of Arrows or Enchanted Shot) that are worthwhile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, bows in general tend to have better range (besides shortbows) and damage over crossbows, which is going to be important as you level your character if you plan to make an archery-focused build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things aren’t sounding good for the crossbow, but there are still some advantages that may surprise you. Let’s take a look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n