The War Bow is a ranged weapon in Horizon Zero Dawn. It is 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 BowFW is only available from special merchants in The CutFW for 12 Bluegleams. 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
The War bow can use 3 types of arrows, with a maximum possible ammo capacity of 30 each.
Shock Arrows inflict Shock Damage and severity and can cause anelectrifying explosion if shot at exposed Power Cells.
Freeze Arrows inflict Freeze damage and severity and can cause freezing explosions if shot at unprotected Chillwater Canisters.
Corruption Arrows do no damage and cause targets to be hostile towards anything instead, if hit with a large enough dose.
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 | Crafting Requirements | Variants | Damage 
|
Elemental Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shock Arrow | 10x Ridge-Wood5x Metal Shards
5x Sparker |
Basic/Carja/Shadow | 20-6-5-5-4-4 |  38-25-13
|
| Lodge | 20-6-5-5-4-4 | 40-30-15
| ||
| Banuk Champion | 20-6-5-5-4-4 | 75-50-25
| ||
| Freeze Arrow | 10x Ridge-Wood
5x Metal Shards 3x Chillwater |
Carja/Shadow | 20-6-5-5-4-4 |  38-25-13
|
| Lodge | 20-6-5-5-4-4 | 40-30-15
| ||
| Banuk Champion | 20-6-5-5-4-4 | 75-50-25
| ||
| Corruption Arrow | 10x Ridge-Wood
5x Metal Shards 2x Metalburn |
Shadow | None |  75-50-25
|
| Lodge | 90-60-30
| |||
| Banuk Champion | 120-80-40
|
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.
| 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 |