Elden Ring features a vast repertoire of weapons for players to employ. None see less usage than the bows, however, which can actually be quite powerful tools in their own right. So, here’s our best Bow build in Elden Ring that’s sure to help you clear any boss.
Optimal Bow Build in Elden Ring
Best Bow in Elden Ring
So, you want to be a Bow main. Well, there are many options for you to choose from in Elden Ring and its Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. But not all of them are that great, with one DLC Bow being perhaps the absolute best. That would be the Bone Bow, found in the Belurat, Tower Settlement region of the DLC’s Lands of Shadow.
It’s located northwest of the Small Private Altar Site of Grace, in the upper parts of Belurat itself, particularly in a ruined tower accessed from the swampy area infested with those annoying mosquito monsters. The Bow is guarded by some arachnid scorpions, though you can swing past them and pick the item up as they don’t drop anything spectacular if killed. Once you’ve got the Bone Bow, you can move on to our build proper and see what other items you’ll need to optimize your Bow build.
The primary reason we’ve decided to go with this Bow is its speed, as well as its Rancor Shot skill that lets you shoot at enemies with homing arrows that will glide through the air and almost certainly find their target.
Best stats for the Bow build
As we will be going with the Bone Bow, which primarily scales with Strength and Dexterity (D on each when upgraded), you might want to focus on those two stats for optimal damage. Going for a 40 to 60 split would be the best and high Dexterity plays a lot into your agile playstyle, though you should also heavily focus Endurance to be able to spam arrows to no end.
Best arrows in Elden Ring
No Bow build is complete without the proper arrows. Elden Ring offers players a myriad of different arrows, all carrying unique effects such as higher physical power, magic damage, stacking debuffs, and a ton of other fantastic stuff. But we will focus on a pair of arrows that would suit the Bone Bow best, those being the Stormwing Bone Arrows for maximum physical output, and some Holy Arrows for special occasions where the boss is weak to Holy Damage.
You should mostly focus on the former, though, since physical damage is the name of the game with this build and we don’t really want to focus that much on using any special arrows, except when the situation requires them.
Best Talismans for the Bow build
Now, as for Talismans, we’ll need a good mixture of physical damage and skill damage boosts. In the DLC, you’ll want to look for the Arrow’s Soaring Sting Talisman located at the Fog Rift Fort, and equip it alongside the Arrow’s Sting Talisman found near the Redmane Castle in the base game’s Caelid region. These two in tow will significantly boost the damage output and range of your arrows and let you home in on enemies from afar, taking them down before they become aware of your existence.
Aside from those, since you will heavily rely on the Rancor Shot skill to take enemies down effectively, you’ll need the Shard of Alexander to provide yourself with even more extra damage on your arrows. Milicent’s Prosthesis boosts your Dexterity and grants extra attack power with successive attacks, and trust me, there’ll be lots of those with the Bone Bow’s rate of fire. Those extra Dex points can be spent on increasing your Endurance or Mind, allowing you to spam even more arrows.
Best gear for the Bow build
For gear, you can wear basically anything you like. Fashion souls is completely allowed when using Bows as you will focus heavily on keeping a good distance between yourself and your target, thus rendering armor nearly useless. However, as I’ve often said in my other guides, Rakshasa’s Armor Set is a fine choice if you want to boost your damage output but keep in mind that you don’t make yourself mid-roll or, God forbid, fat-roll when using it.
