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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition

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Archery

By
Scott Peers

This page details an overview of the Archery skill in Skyrim, including recommended perks, leveling tips, and where to find Archery trainers.

Archery, Skyrim.

Archery Overview

Archery increases your damage with ranged weapons, and its perks give you useful abilities such as increased damage, critical hits, stagger, paralysis, the ability to zoom and slow time.

The Archery skill determines your damage with bows, and it’s arguably the best ranged option in the game. A high-quality bow enhanced by a character who has leveled the crafting skills and is wearing enchanted equipment that further boosts bow damage can do many times the damage per arrow than any spell can hope to achieve. If you actively want to play a ranger/archer type for roleplaying purposes it’s a no-brainer, and it’s a skill that makes assassinations considerably easier.

Recommended Perks

Suggested Perks Ranks
Overdraw 5
Eagle Eye 1
Critical Shot 3
Steady Shot 2
Hunter’s Discipline 1
Power Shot 1
Ranger 1
Quick Shot 1
Bullseye 1

Archery is one of the rare skill trees where pretty much every perk is enticing, or at least on the way to something enticing. Overdraw is an obvious investment, as it offers five ranks that each increase your damage by 20%. If you want to use bows regularly, there’s no good reason not to invest five perks to double your damage. Critical Shot has three ranks which further enhance your damage, while Eagle Eye and the two ranks of Steady Hand allow you to zoom on targets and slow time while you do so (albeit at a Stamina cost), making it much easier to hit things in general.

The Power Shot perk delivers by constantly staggering foes, giving you time to put more arrows in them, while Quick Shot allows you to draw a bow faster. Ranger is another great utility perk, as it allows you to walk faster with your bow drawn. It doesn’t sound like much but it makes all the difference while exploring. Finally, once you hit Skill Level 100 you can get the Bullseye perk, which has a 15% chance to paralyze targets. So, yeah, that’s a lot of good stuff. The only dud is the Hunter’s Discipline perk, which allows you to recover twice as many arrows from enemies. It’s not a bad thing to recover more arrows, but arrow damage compared to overall bow damage is trivial, so you might as well just use the cheapest arrows you can get, which doesn’t provide much incentive to fret over them.

Leveling Tips

Unfortunately, Archery is just one of those skills that takes forever to level up. To level it, you really just have to go around shooting things. Alot of them. Expect to expend over 3,000 arrows on this, and that’s a generous estimate. It unfortunately can’t be quickly and cheaply leveled in Helgen because you just don’t get many arrows before you leave. Aside from training this skill, there’s one way to boost it somewhat quicker. South of Falkreath you’ll find Agni’s Shack in the mountains. Find the shack’s namesake and, if you shoot targets with her, you’ll level up your skill very quickly as you meet her challenges. Waiting until your Skill Level is 90 or so is recommended as it’s better to get some progress at these painfully slow, higher levels. It’s also suggested that you invest whatever perks you plan to invest before taking on some of Agni’s harder challenges… being able to zoom in and slow down time will make this much, much easier.

Archery Trainer Locations

Trainer Skill Level Location
Faendal Adept (Lv. 15 - 50) Riverwood
Aela the Huntress Expert (Lv. 51 - 75) Whiterun, Jorrvaskr
Niruin Master (Lv. 76 - 90) Riften, Thieve’s Guild (Ragged Flagon - Cistern)
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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Bethesda Softworks
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, XB 360, XB One
  • Genre
    Action RPG
  • Guide Release
    11 November 2021
  • Last Updated
    7 November 2021
    Version History
  • Guide Author
    Greg Wright

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Skyrim is the homeland of the Nords, a fierce and proud warrior people who are well suited for the bitter cold and mountainous terrain which defines the land. Now scarred by civil war, Skyrim faces its darkest days with the return of the legendary dragons and their leader, the World-Eater Alduin. The future of Skyrim and even the lands beyond hangs in the balance, as the people await the prophesized Dragonborn, a hero born with the power of The Voice and the only one who can contend with the dragons. You are that Dragonborn; your task is to investigate why the dragons are returning, and discover a way to defeat them. At the same time, you’re free to explore Skyrim at your own pace, uncovering its many wonders along the way.

Version 1.2

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