The two most common monsters having 100% accurate ranged attacks is so annoying.

[LadyWYT]

42 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

How early in the game can you make your first shield?

The minute you exit character creation. The crude shield only requires reeds and sticks, and while it may not last very long it's quite handy against projectiles.

 

43 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

Even if the bowtorn is behind you?

Shields won't prevent damage if the enemy flanks you. They do offer good protection, but you need to be facing the threat for them to be effective.

[Bruno Willis]

7 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

Huh! Even if the bowtorn is behind you? How early in the game can you make your first shield?

No - that's true. If they're behind you then you'll just get an extra spine sticking out of your back (I think that's what the bowtorn are firing after the update D-:} ) I usually make an improvised shield and rush for iron, but you can make a decent shield as soon as you've got bronze to spare. The main difference with the real shields is durability. I just checked, and all shields have a 20% chance to block attacks passively, and all the shields made with metal rims and plank bodies block 6 projectile damage. That might not be enough for you, if the bowtorn are already a problem, but it feels like it makes a big difference to me. 

[Jpusa88]

All the enemies are way too quiet 

[vinnland]

a couple wacks with the curvy sword thingy and they are down. With iron, it's 2 hits. 

Easy kills.

[Thorfinn]

On 9/2/2025 at 2:53 PM, Echo Weaver said:

[Being unable to dodge their uncanny accuracy] doesn't help much if you don't know where the shot is coming from and every single arrow hits you.

Unless you change your playstyle to always bobbing and weaving all the time you are not in a green zone. The AI that can address human unpredictability has not yet been written, at least not that can run in real time on a potato. Use your human advantage. Be unpredictable.

Falling into a rut is also human, and that's why roadside IEDs were so devastatingly effective. The AI is predictable. Use that against them.

[Hafthohlladung]

On 9/1/2025 at 10:55 PM, LadyWYT said:

They don't have 100% accuracy though, unless you're standing still. 

I'm usually standing still when they first creep up and fire at me, that's part of the problem. 

Edited September 6, 2025 by Hafthohlladung

[Hafthohlladung]

On 9/4/2025 at 10:37 AM, vinnland said:

a couple wacks with the curvy sword thingy and they are down. With iron, it's 2 hits. 

Easy kills.

And whilst doing that you're effectively standing still for a few seconds, whilst the Bowtorns 2 other friends will bullseye you with their 100% accuracy.

[vinnland]

9 minutes ago, Hafthohlladung said:

And whilst doing that you're effectively standing still for a few seconds, whilst the Bowtorns 2 other friends will bullseye you with their 100% accuracy.

Never stand still. side to side, up an down, jump attack. All over the place. They never hit me. 

Although, I am terrified the whole time haha.

[Bumber]

On 9/3/2025 at 5:08 AM, CastIronFabric said:

should we really get hung up on 99% vs 100%?

You are, apparently. It's all you seem to talk about.

Despite claiming this topic is irrelevant to you. Despite saying people can move on.

Edited September 10, 2025 by Bumber

[Krougal]

Considering how annoyed I was with them when they were first introduced, I have to disagree with the people who are complaining.

They really have been toned down in 1.21 and seem reasonable, although it seems like they spend a lot of time acting like baseball pitchers (they stand around and scratch their ass and spit chaw before they throw). It is pretty easy to run up on them and beat the hell out of them without them getting a shot in.

It used to be rapid fire shots in the dark from beyond sight and you were dead. Even if there was just a tiny opening for them to fire at you.

@Bumber From DF forums?

[Teh Pizza Lady]

Maybe if you throw a rock and you miss your target you weren't really aiming at the target.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

Also all this talk about how to combat the bowtorn and people have missed one crucial detail: Just go in the opposite direction or run away from them. You don't have to fight any of the enemies (with rare exception) in order to proceed and complete the game... and at that point you'll probably have several spears if not a falx of your own. And if you truly must fight, one thing bowtorn do not like is being close to the player, so use that to your advantage. Get in close. They'll run away, leaving you to aim your spear. It takes about two hits of a stone spear to take one down and they are easy to make.

[Krougal]

31 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

Also all this talk about how to combat the bowtorn and people have missed one crucial detail: Just go in the opposite direction or run away from them. You don't have to fight any of the enemies (with rare exception) in order to proceed and complete the game... and at that point you'll probably have several spears if not a falx of your own. And if you truly must fight, one thing bowtorn do not like is being close to the player, so use that to your advantage. Get in close. They'll run away, leaving you to aim your spear. It takes about two hits of a stone spear to take one down and they are easy to make.

That's just crazy talk!

[LadyWYT]

56 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

They'll run away, leaving you to aim your spear. It takes about two hits of a stone spear to take one down and they are easy to make.

It takes three if you're a Blackguard, which is still quite easy to manage. Bowtorn tend to be harder to manage when there's more than one, or a bunch of drifters there to dogpile. But in those situations, yeah, you want to be running and avoiding, and not fighting.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

7 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

It takes three if you're a Blackguard, which is still quite easy to manage. Bowtorn tend to be harder to manage when there's more than one, or a bunch of drifters there to dogpile. But in those situations, yeah, you want to be running and avoiding, and not fighting.

That sounds like either a temporal storm or someone went cave diving. In either situation, it's best to just say "NOPE" and run away.

[LadyWYT]

Just now, Teh Pizza Lady said:

That sounds like either a temporal storm or someone went cave diving. In either situation, it's best to just say "NOPE" and run away.

Or just the standard monster community meeting at dawn outside my house, assuming there's a rift or two nearby, anyway.

[Broccoli Clock]

On 9/10/2025 at 4:36 PM, Krougal said:

Considering how annoyed I was with them when they were first introduced, I have to disagree with the people who are complaining.

They really have been toned down in 1.21 and seem reasonable, although it seems like they spend a lot of time acting like baseball pitchers (they stand around and scratch their ass and spit chaw before they throw). It is pretty easy to run up on them and beat the hell out of them without them getting a shot in.

It used to be rapid fire shots in the dark from beyond sight and you were dead. Even if there was just a tiny opening for them to fire at you.

@Bumber From DF forums?

Definitely this, in 1.20 I was frustrated as hell with them, as they were damned accurate and could hit you hard. They also spawned quite a lot (shown in spoiler).

Spoiler

 

In 1.21, they feel far less accurate, hit much less and tend to signal far more clearly when they are about to let fly. 

They are annoying, of course, as the second you close in on them, they stop their ranged attacks and start running away from you. They also drop arrows now, bad arrows but arrows none the less, so there is some payoff to killing them.

[Krougal]

3 hours ago, Broccoli Clock said:

Definitely this, in 1.20 I was frustrated as hell with them, as they were damned accurate and could hit you hard. They also spawned quite a lot (shown in spoiler).

In 1.21, they feel far less accurate, hit much less and tend to signal far more clearly when they are about to let fly. 

They are annoying, of course, as the second you close in on them, they stop their ranged attacks and start running away from you. They also drop arrows now, bad arrows but arrows none the less, so there is some payoff to killing them.

Holy shit! That's like a convention. Most I've seen was like packs of 3, which was 3 too many.

Nice looking base by the way.

Oh, they also can drop the same crap as drifters; the bone arrow just had a much higher weight than everything else,

I actually made a mod to remove the bone arrow drop since they are just an annoyance (I always have the highest quality arrows I can make). 

[Echo Weaver]

Dang, if that video was something that could happen in 1.20, I'm glad my teen made me mod them out. Yeesh.

I'm glad to hear they've been tuned more. I figured I'd use Zippy's Bashful Bowtorns when I start a fresh 1.21 game, and I was looking at Bowtorn Balance to possibly grab just the range reduction.  Neither of these have been updated, and it sounds like their entire use case might be gone. Do temporal storm bowtorns still fail to retreat or despawn?

 

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Echo Weaver said:

Do temporal storm bowtorns still fail to retreat or despawn?

From what I've seen, the bowtorn that do spawn behave as they should, in that they will retreat if you get too close and will despawn at the end of the storm. Aside from the occasional straggler monster, that is. That's not to say one couldn't get a good handful of bowtorn spawning in the storm itself, but it's much better compared to what it was.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

4 hours ago, Krougal said:

Holy shit! That's like a convention. Most I've seen was like packs of 3, which was 3 too many.

Nice looking base by the way.

Oh, they also can drop the same crap as drifters; the bone arrow just had a much higher weight than everything else,

I actually made a mod to remove the bone arrow drop since they are just an annoyance (I always have the highest quality arrows I can make). 

I have screenshots of... close to 50, maybe more, of the highest tier bowtorn just chilling outside my house. Had to pop into creative mode and admin blade them.

[A3rospaced]

Imo it would be alot better if they throw/shot at a single point instead of tracking and accounting for the movement trajectory