War Bow

War Bow
Type	Ranged Weapon
Ammo Pouch	War Bow Quiver
Effects	Corruption Freeze Shock
Source	Merchants
Base Stats
Handling	50
Ammunition
Shot Type Group	Arrow
Shot Type	Shock Arrow Freeze Arrow Corruption Arrow

The War Bow is a ranged weapon in Horizon Zero Dawn. It is a low damage bow that specializes in delivering elemental payloads to targets, forcing them into vulnerable states. This bow is best used in conjunction with other weapons due to its low impact and tear damage.

Special Variants

Aside from the ones available from normal merchants, War Bows have 2 different variants of "Very Rare" value. Both can use all available Ammo types as Shadow variant does.

The Lodge War Bow is acquired as the most prestigious reward from the quest Weapons of the Lodge, requiring Aloy to earn a Blazing Sun on all 15 Hunting Ground trials in the base game. It has superior base elemental strength over the regular variants, making it the most powerful War Bow in the base game.

The Banuk Champion Bow^FW is only available once per playthrough, from Bluegleam Merchants in The Cut. It normally costs 12 Bluegleam, though the Adept^NG+ version requires additional resources. It has superior base elemental power over all other variants and is capable of 'overdrawn' shots which allow the user to fire exceedingly powerful shots by holding the string back longer than usual. It could be considered the most powerful War Bow in the entirety of the game due to its stats and unique mechanism.

Ammo

Elemental damage remains the same outside of Ultra Hard and Story difficulties.

Shock Arrow

Shock Arrows deal low shock damage and medium shock severity on impact. They can be used to shock machines, temporarily stunning and locking them in place. Effective against machines with weakness to Shock. Successful hits on Power Cells will trigger explosive short-circuits, inflicting massive damage and shock severity to everything nearby.

Ammo	Game Mode	Damage	Elemental Severity
			Basic	Lodge	ChampionFW
Shock Arrow	Story	20	38	40	75
	Easy	6	25	30	50
	Normal	5
	Hard	5
	Very Hard	4
	Ultra Hard	4	15	15	25

Freeze Arrow

Deals low freeze damage and medium freeze severity on impact. It can be used to freeze enemies, slowing them down significantly and making machines more susceptible to impact damage. Effective against machines with Freeze weakness. Successful hits on Freeze canister will trigger cryo explosions that deals massive damage and Freeze severity to everything in vicinity.

Corruption Arrow

Deals no damage and high corruption severity on impact. Machines and humans corrupted by this arrow will be aggressive against other machines and humans while the effect lasts, and can be used to temporarily turn the odds in the player's favor. This corruption turns machines' lights green and, making them hostile to everything, including Aloy, unlike Override which makes them fight for her. Tougher enemy takes higher dose for the effect to kick in.

Weapon Stats

The numbered value of damages are displayed from left to right according to difficulty level from Story to Ultra Hard, numbers in Bold are of Normal Difficulty. Elemental damages are the same between Easy and Very Hard difficulties.

Ammo Type	Bow Variant	Damage	Elemental Severity
Shock Arrow	Basic / Carja Shadow / AdeptNG+	20-6-5-5-4-4	38-25-13
	Lodge / Adept LodgeNG+		40-30-15
	Banuk ChampionFW Adept ChampionFW NG+		75-50-25
Freeze Arrow	Carja / Shadow / AdeptNG+	20-6-5-5-4-4	38-25-13
	Lodge / Adept LodgeNG+		40-30-15
	Banuk ChampionFW Adept ChampionFW NG+		75-50-25
Corruption Arrow	Shadow / AdeptNG+	None	75-50-25
	Lodge / Adept LodgeNG+		90-60-30
	Banuk ChampionFW Adept ChampionFW NG+		120-80-40

Ammo and Modification Slots by Variant

Bow Variant	Shock Arrow	Freeze Arrow	Corruption Arrow	Mod Slots
Basic				1
Carja				2
Shadow				3
AdeptNG+				4
Lodge				3
Adept LodgeNG+				4
Banuk ChampionFW				3
Adept ChampionFW NG+				4

Acquisition Details

Variant	Sources	Regular Cost	Ultra Hard Cost	Sell Value
Basic	General Merchants	100	500	25
Carja	Tier 2/3/4 Merchants	300 5 Desert Glass 2 Slagshine Glass	1,500 10 Desert Glass 4 Slagshine Glass	50
Shadow	Tier 3 & 4 Merchants	800 1 Trampler Heart	4,000 2 Trampler Heart	100
AdeptNG+	Tier 3 & 4 Merchants	1,600 1 Trampler Heart 1 Thunderjaw Heart	8,000 2 Trampler Heart 2 Thunderjaw Heart	100
Lodge	Hunter's Lodge	15 Blazing Suns	15 Blazing Suns	100
Adept LodgeNG+	Hunter's Lodge	15 Blazing Suns	15 Blazing Suns	100
Banuk ChampionFW	Bluegleam Merchants (1 per playthrough)	12 Bluegleam	12 Bluegleam	100
Adept ChampionFW NG+	Bluegleam Merchants (1 per playthrough)	1,250 12 Bluegleam 1 Frostclaw Heart	6,250 12 Bluegleam 1 Frostclaw Heart	100

Trivia

• During one scene of Aloy training for the Proving, she is shown killing Watchers with normal arrows shot from a War Bow, which is not possible in gameplay.
• The War Bow appears in Monster Hunter: World as part of collaboration between the PlayStation 4 version of the game and Horizon: Zero Dawn. The Bow has latent Thunder Element and supports Poison Coating, reflecting 2 of 3 of its ammo in its native game.

Horizon Zero Dawn Weapons
Ranged Weapons	Blast Sling - Forgefire - Hunter Bow - Icerail - Rattler - Ropecaster - Sharpshot Bow - Sling - Stormslinger - Tearblaster - War Bow
Melee Weapons	Spear - Sylens' Lance
Stealth Weapons	Traps - Tripcaster
Heavy Weapons	Deathbringer Gun - Disc Launcher - Firespitter - Firestriker - Mine Launcher - Oseram Cannon - Ravager Cannon