Training archery to 9 in .71 without fighting

Game Talk The Bunker
1

Archery was nerfed. At low levels it is NOT useful. However at high levels it is far more accurate and you get access to better items. At 9 archery you get the best bow in the game. You need some mechanics skill to get the best arrows. Archery is still useful but weaker. However, now you can train it up without fighting. I dont think this is a .7 change. I just noticed it.

Steps below will get archery to 9 so you can make a recursive bow in 2-3 game days plus let you do other stuff. keeping skills at 9 is tough… due to degrade rate. its ok. you just need it to 9 t get the bow.

How to train:

Get survival to 2

  1. get survival to 2, so you can craft arrows. 2 methods:
    – throws rocks at rabbits and butcher (you will need food anyway and cooking 1 is needed to make a stone pot for water, but you will fail almost all the time before level 2 anyway… this does train throwing quickly. its often better to throw rocks to kill rabbits to train throwing since bow can be trained other ways
    – forgot who mentioned this. 's’mash small trees (1 on a map) this gives heavy sticks. Craft digging sticks. This will get you to 2 survival in a few minutes

Now you can craft arrows. do this until level 6 archery

  1. now you can craft arrows and a self bow. go to shelter. smash benches. craft arrow shafts.
    – 2 options. make field point arrows.
    – make fire hardened arrows. take splintered wood from bench OUTSIDE and far from shelter (fire is more dangerous)
    – drop 1 piece of wood. 'a’pply matches on splintered wood
    – fire is more dangeorus in .71. it is advised that you either have a filter mask (commonly found on scientist corpses) for smoke or get 40 rocks and use ‘*’ constructions to make a fire pit or you will take damage. making some fire hardened arrows and taking some damage is ok. make sure you dont die. then make game arrows

Need a stone axe to chop down trees for more 2x4s

  1. do the above until you reach 6 archery. can actually do this in a day with just the benches. by now you will be out of benches. so you need a stone axe
    – requires 2 string or plant/animal fibre. 2 string can be gotten from smashing shelter windows (make sure to use board them up… will show how) or go to outskirts of town and smash house windows. each smashed window gives 1 string. Then see ingredients for stone axe. under miscellenous
    – go to regular trees (7). press ‘*’ chop down trees into logs. there you go make more arrows

Heavy arrow shafts. give 7% per success at level 6. goes down some, but alot more than weaker arrows.
– requires fletching to turn these into arrows. its ok, you just want to train now

– now you can make HEAVY ARROW SHAFTS. This gives you 7% per success (drops as you level up, but much more than small).
– these are better arrows but you will need fletching to turn these into arrows. (not necessary to train up archery, but better arrows)
– fletching materials kill crows (v). i think these need to spawn more. find plastic bags of chips/candie.
– 'w’ield plastic bag of candy/chips (this is non-intuitive), press 'U’nload. your chips are out of the bag. you can now make fletching. chips are unhealthy food. i just drop them in case im desperate.
– even if you dont have fletching just make heavy arrow shafts

materials for your recursive bow

string is the only thing you need to work to get. 3 options
– smash shelter windows for string. then use 2x4s to board up. dont like this. i like to be able to see outside. plus you now need window light to read or sew.
– run to outskirts of town. smash windows to get string. get 4 string. you may fail making your bow
– kill some wolves/dogs. somewhat dangerous. depends whether you found some corpses for better weapons.

prefer to run to outskirts of town. get in, get out. you may run into strong zombies and your not ready. safer at night.
– note: only house windows give string. not stores.

Other notes

  1. hard to keep archery at 9. its ok you want your bow. its not as hard as other skills given the availability of crafting items. but the time it takes will make it harder to raise other stuff. this is ok
    let it go down some. just get your recursive bow
  2. mechanics is necessary to make the best arrows. level 3 is necessary for good stuff. train this by smashing lockers in shelter and craft crowbar,improvised lockpicks.should get to 3 with just this if focus is good
  3. fletching is key to good arrows. adds accuracy and required for heavy arrows. tougher to get. crows are rare (i think this is the only bird).
  4. plastic bags for fletching. 'w’ield plastic bag of chips/candy/whatever, and then press 'U’nload to get the bag out. then make fletching. this is not obvious… we could use more crows
  5. arm encumbrance kills archery now. the break point is 2-3. above taht you will have trouble hitting anything even with 10 archery
  6. need 10 str to use recursive bow. this means you need to take negative traits (see my guides for recommended ones). you also need 12 perception (never raise above this) and 14 dex to get rid of range penalty. I dont think intelligence is that important anymore since it doesnt improve training speed any longer. its especially not important for early game survival
  7. fletching is a bottleneck. so alsways keep fire hardened arrows with you to use on weaker opponents
  8. arrows break alot more often.
  9. archery still trains firearms ALOT. bullets are limited. arrows are not. this is a great way to train firearms.
  10. arrows are heavy. may want to create stashes along the way to wear you are going for later use. so you can go to town. loot. if you get in trouble with arrows. drop loot. get more arrows
2

I like this. A lot.

3

Good guide. I’ll just add a few thoughts.

Practising archery with a slingshot from zero skill will also boost you up quickly (in in-game time), and you don’t need any skill levels to get started - just get a rubber hose from a fridge to make it. The main advantage here is that you’re also boosting Firearms right from the start, so Archery becomes reasonably effective in combat (at least at close range) from level 3-4.

Has something changed in the latest build regarding computer consoles? Generally, you can read or sew by the glow from the console screen if you’re adjacent to it - no need for windows.

Crows aren’t all that terribly rare, and once you’ve skilled-up Survival you can reliably harvest fair quantities of feathers from them.

Once you have the tools and skill level for it, it’s worth making metal arrows - they’re only a little better than heavy wood arrows, but the armour penetration is valuable against tougher foes, and they seem to be very reliable for recovery after firing.

4

I think the easiest way to get survival to level 2 is just go into the woods and pick underbrush.

5

We could probably use a ‘guides’ forum. since the general forum is so active, these fall off.

Strelek: I dont understand what you mean by ‘pick’ underbrush. please list commands.

MarkB: you can use a slingshot, but the crafting is a hell of alot faster. there are unlimited arrow crafting supplies. once you can make heavy arrow shafts you get 7% per train with even a decent focus.

6

Press e and “examine” the bushes, like you would to pick strawberry’s and blueberry’s (you can do this multiple times per piece of underbrush).

7

You dont have to wield them to unload them, if you go in your inv and press the button for the bag and then do ‘U’ it will also work, saves you having to rewield your weapon.

8

Sure - but you were saying you thought Archery was worthless at low levels, whereas I’ve found it reasonably effective at levels 3-4. I suspect the difference is that your method of levelling doesn’t give you the basic firearms skill to back up your archery.

9

Agreed.

10

so i can just sit next a to a bush and press ‘e’ to train trian survival? do you learn anything? This strikes me as an exploit that should be removed.

11

After a couple times the bush will go away, you can also find wild veggies by doing this so it does have a purpose.