Hello,

I’m an imperial level 15. I started practicing my archery early in the game, until I found all that magic and started using that. Now I just started using my fine Imperial bow again and it’s really weird. I got iron, steel and Nordic arrows. When I shoot all arrows they only shoot 2 feet far.

I don’t understand. Could it be that I got a disease which makes me weak? Or am I wearing wrong apparel? Or an amulet that interferes with it? I haven’t rested in some time, now that I think of it. Other weapons such as swords, axes work fine. It was kind of funny at first, having my bow out, trying to shoot and the arrows nearly dropping at my feet, but now I want to shoot some.

Any help is appreciated.


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FIX: So yesterday I tried some things.

Loaded game and the problem still existed. I got in and out of sneak, in and out of 1st and 3rd person, shooting about 30 arrows. I went button crazy.

And to my surprise it worked!

One happy archer

Hopefully this will help other people also.

Need to hold onto fire button longer. arrows just drop otherwise

Forgive me if this is oversimplifying this.

You aren't just pointing and tapping the button are you? You need to hold it down to draw the bow fully. Aim and shoot like a gun results in no power due to not drawing the bow.

He probably isnt since he's used it before o.o unless he's forgotten he had to hold the button?

Wait till it glitches and will not stop firing limp arrows

You need to hold the mouse button down until the bow is drawn all the way back, it takes a couple of seconds.

It picks up a lot with perks and equipment, I dont know how viable an unperked archer would be though.

Archery + Stealth is easy-mode. Even once stealth is broken you can generally get away with a lot in combat without switching out to melee or spell...if you are perked for it. Without the perks, though, probably not so much.

Bows are my primary weapon, I hardly find them to be weak. If anything they're overpowered, try holding the fire button down and fully drawing back the arrow before releasing.

Sorry it's xbox version. I did hold the RT long enough, the bow draws all the way back. I'll try again tonight. Skill is 28. Like I said I did succesfully shoot before. Maybe a glitch? I thought some kind of arrows were too heavy but looking at these answers it's not.

How do I make it glitch? I got no idea.

its not suppose to it just happens, my bow does nothing but shoot limp arrows

I second that, my Archery is at 96 and is even more deadly with the Sneak x3.0 damage.

Of course I meant it's really weak in my situation right now. I'll try again tonight. I held the button even longer than 5 sec... If it is a glitch I hope it'll stop soon.

So it happened to you too then? Just wait till the glitch stops then?

I've seen a few people reporting this, I've seen it myself too. I think it's just an intermittent glitch.

While some would call this an exploit, it was programmed into the game and seems to me to be working as intended. Once you have Sneak 100 and Shadow Warrior perk, you can fully draw, aim, then quickly stealth and release arrow. You'll get a sneak attack if you time it right and can be done multiple times against the same enemy (assuming they live that long).

Well I remember I tried shooting iron arrows with a Dwarven bow, and they just dropped, even though I held mouse down for about 10 seconds to line up a shot. I switched to steel arrows and it worked just fine. I'm guessing that the higher quality of the bow, you need higher quality arrows as well. Might've just been a glitch, though,

hmm yeah maybe your arch skill isnt high enough for the arrows you are using??

I have the same problem as OP.
I can hold R1 (PS3) for ten seconds or more, and the arrow will always fall a few feet ahead of me no matter what.

What bow and what type of arrows are you using?

I reckon they're powered right. A bow is an extremely deadly weapon, and I don't want to see a return of the Oblivion bows, where I may as well have been throwing arrows at my opponents.

No, that's a problem. Game lets you use any arrows with any bow. Sounds like some weird bug.

I don't really use bows because of this problem... But I've tried a few combination, always with the same result though.
I know at one point I tried the Dwarven-bow with a Dwarven-arrow, no luck I'm afraid...

Then it's just another glitch. I was wrong.

Try flipping in and out of sneak.

I had an issue where I would start sprinting but stop after 1 second, was very annoying. Fixed it when I went to sneak and back out again. Could be similar, but I doubt it.

Obvious glitch. Post in bugs section, hopefully get added to the long list.

They guy preaching in winterhold can't die, I leveled up my archery to 100 and i can't kill him
I fired 3 arrows at his head and nothing happend, the guards didn't even take notice of the fact i was
shooting him.