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Crafting a bow and arrow in Minecraft allows you to begin fighting with a ranged weapon. Bows are fun to fight with and relatively easy to craft. Later on, bows can be enchanted. Read on to figure out exactly how to craft a bow and arrow from raw materials.

Recipe

Method 1
Method 1 of 2:

Making a Bow

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  1. Crafting tables can be made by placing a block of wood in the 2x2 crafting area, making 4 wooden planks. These 4 wooden planks are placed in the crafting area again, giving you a crafting table.
    • Crafting tables can be placed on the ground. They show a 3x3 grid in which many of the game's item can be made.
    • Crafting tables can also be found in villages.
  2. In order to craft a bow, you will need:
    • 3 Sticks
      • In order to make sticks, you need two wooden planks.
      • In order to make wooden planks, you need wood.
    • 3 Strings
      • You can get string by killing spiders. It is common for spiders to drop 0 to 2 strings at a time, so you may have to kill more than one spider in order to get string.
      • You may also find string by searching a mine for a web and breaking it.
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  3. Arrange your sticks in the following triangle pattern in order to begin crafting a bow:
    • In the upper 1/3 of your crafting table grid, place one stick in the middle
    • In the middle 1/3 of your crafting table grid, place one stick on the right
    • In the bottom 1/3 of your crafting table grid, place one stick in the middle
  4. Arrange your strings in the following straight line pattern in order to finish crafting a bow:
    • Make a straight line descending down the left of the grid, using three strings
  5. Click on the craft button in order to turn the raw materials into a bow.
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Method 2
Method 2 of 2:

Making Arrows

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  1. In order to craft an arrow, you will need:
    • 1 Stick
      • Sticks are made by turning wood blocks into wooden planks, and wooden planks into sticks.
    • 1 Flint
      • Flint can be found by mining gravel. When mining gravel, there is a 10% chance that a piece of flint will drop instead of a gravel block.
    • 1 Feather
      • Feathers can be found by killing chickens.
  2. Place the items in the following way to craft an arrow:
    • In the upper 1/3 of your crafting table grid, place one flint in the middle
    • In the middle 1/3 of your crafting table grid, place one stick in the middle
    • In the bottom 1/3 of your crafting table grid, place one feather in the middle
  3. Click on the craft button in order to turn the raw materials into four arrows.
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Community Q&A

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  • Question
    Do arrows do more damage than swords?
    Community Answer
    Yes, arrows can do more damage than swords in Minecraft when used with full power.
  • Question
    How do I use a bow and arrow?
    Lily
    Community Answer
    Select the bow and arrow and hold right click to pull back the bow. Release to fire. You must have arrows to use a bow and arrow.
  • Question
    How do I make a bow and arrow?
    Community Answer
    Use a Crafting table. You put the stick in the middle, then the flint on top, then the feather down to get 4 arrows.
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      Tips

      • You can also get a bow from a hostile mob. Look for a skeleton at night. Kill it, then check its drops. Grab the bow it has dropped. The bow will usually be damaged.
      • You could change the settings to 'peaceful' mode to get the items immediately.
      • On Minecraft PC, you can craft 8 arrows with a lingering potion to create 8 tipped arrows. Tipped Arrows give the potion effect to anything they hit.
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      About This Article

      Article Summary X

      To make a bow in Minecraft, place 3 sticks into the grid on your crafting table, with one stick each in the top and bottom rows of the middle column, and one stick in the middle row of the far right column. Next, place 3 strings into the first column of the crafting table, then click the craft button. To make arrows for your bow, place your ingredients into the middle column, with a flint at the top, a stick in the middle, and a feather on the bottom. Click the craft button to create 4 arrows. If you want to learn how to collect the materials for your bow and arrow, keep reading the article!

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