Whatever arrows I find until Poison > Needle > Carapace.

I use the Arbalest more than bows now though, considering that I've transitioned entirely into magic, the arbalest is a better fit.

I typically use 'whatever arrows I have laying around' from loot, with the exception of bosses and the harder enemies for the tier I'm at (so trolls when I was at black forest, abominations when I was at the Swamp tier, etc.). For those harder enemies, I use whatever is the 'best' arrow I can make for the job, leveraging resistances, etc.

If I used the bow a lot outside of hunting (for which I just use wood arrows), I'd probably have to craft arrows more often, at which point I'd use whatever was decent and not a lot of gathering time to get materials for, but so far I guess I haven't used the bow all that much, seeing as I have a chest half-full of different types of looted arrows.

For me it was: wood > fire > needle > chitin

wood for common use
fire against specific fire-weak enemies like growth
needle in endgame areas
then switch to crossbow with simple bone bolts

Originally posted by CombatWombat:

Wood for birds
Poison seems pointless I haven't found a use for them

if i remember this right, Moder is weak to poison, so it's a good choice for this only fight

Am I the only frost arrow fan, then?

I don't generally even make obsidian. Pretty much my only use for bows are troll (fire), drake (fire), fuling villages (needle), Gjall (needle). I'm sure there are more optimal strategies, but I don't have the inventory space for more than one stack of arrows at a time, and it's a ranged attack, so it's mostly just a question of time and/or arrow usage, not life and death.

You'll all end up using Carapace Arrows/Bolts since not only are they the highest damage arrows in the game but they are cheap/easy to make. You'll end up with toooons of carapace....

Originally posted by Calteru:

Am I the only frost arrow fan, then?

Frost are nice but I don't care to farm drakes just to get more ammo. Its a situational ammo for me because of that. The stuff I shoot in bulk are the things I can make with what falls into my lap, not stuff I have to seek out.

Whatever is in the chests for the progression. Stack of flint arrows from clearing burial chambers, moving on to stack of iron or poison from swamp when those run out. Poison and obsidian>needle are what I build if I'm out. Haven't gotten to mistlands yet so can't comment on anything beyond plains from hearth and home update.

It usually goes
wood -> obsidian -> needle -> carapace

In addition, I use arrows I find from burial chambers, crypts, and mountains, because they are usually good (flint, iron, poison, and frost). Those arrows are not usually worth making compared to the others, and the metal arrows (iron, silver, etc) are a complete waste of materials.

Using metal for arrows is probably something one could do for a boss fight, in case they ran out of the other materials. But obsidian is so plentiful and easy to gather that there isn't much point in spending bronze, iron or silver for them.

There are many ways one could utilize looted arrows, but the chore of swapping ammunition types doesn't make it that appealing.

Originally posted by deadshooter:

Originally posted by CombatWombat:

Wood for birds
Poison seems pointless I haven't found a use for them

if i remember this right, Moder is weak to poison, so it's a good choice for this only fight

If by weak you mean susceptible/neutral, yeah. Poison also works on the mistlands boss.

Poison arrows are good way of keeping track of targets which move a lot or whom may hide in the mists or in bad weather and so on, though you don't need that effect if you are using draugr fang.

Poison arrows are just as effective against seekers as frost arrows are, though the slowing effect of frost is very useful in itself as well, even if there's no damage benefit. But sometimes you may want an enemy to come to you quickly instead of having it slowed down.

I like needle arrows most since I don't need to grab any wood to make them, just needles and feathers from my workbench chest.

Originally posted by Honorable_D:

You'll all end up using Carapace Arrows/Bolts since not only are they the highest damage arrows in the game but they are cheap/easy to make. You'll end up with toooons of carapace....

They are not cheap. They require wood. Needle arrows only require needles, which you likely also have toooons of, and feathers, which also pile up once you start raising chickens.

Wood doesn't grow on trees, you know! wait...

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

Wood doesn't grow on trees, you know! wait...

It grows in greydwarf nests.

I Crafted Wood > Flint > Obsidian > Needle/Frost

But I've used countless metal/elemental arrows that I've looted from chests

Hindering your opponents movement will always give you a significant advantage in any game. Because movement kills. Thus Frost arrows are the greatest of all the elemental arrows in general. (There's a reason why Frosntr is still used in Mistlands).