Composite Bows & Crossbows

Cooking

Fletching

Magic

Quests

Overview
The Composite Bow/Crossbow quest can be completed by players of varying levels. The damage modifiers and different properties of the bows vary substantially, depending on which components you use to craft your weapon and how high your skill level is at different points during the construction. To add an Attack Bonus plus some additional spells, you can attach a handle to your weapon by carving an Undead Thighbone after stringing the bow.

The Crossbow version of this quest requires an additional step in its construction, called the Stock, made from a Wood Golem Heart.

Lower Level Components:
Fire Auroch Horns (2)
Small Lugian Sinews (2)
Sclavus Tongues (3)
Undead Thighbone (1) optional

Higher Levels Components:
Mattekar Horns (2)
Large Lugian Sinews (2)
Ravener Guts (3)
Dark Revenant Thighbone (1) optional

Crossbow Component:
Wood Golem Heart (1)

Skill Requirements
All three trade skills are used for this quest. Cooking is required to Cure your Sinews. Alchemy (not fletching as you might think) is required to oil your string. Fletching is required to carve the handle. In addition, a skill check takes place when you string your bow. Making the highest level (X)Bows is difficult indeed, requiring the skill of an extremely accomplished archer. The (X)Bow becomes no-drop after you have attached the sting. It's possible to hire out the cooking, alchemy and fletching, but you must string the bow yourself.

The Book
The quest begins in Ayan Baqur (59.9S x 87.9W). Look for Yuan Hanzu the Bowyer (60.1S, 87.9W). He'll tell you about a book he wrote which he distributed to the local Ivory Crafters. This book, which can be obtained by giving the Ivory Crafter a Fire Auroch Horn, details the steps involved in crafting these fine weapons. You can read it here.

The Stock
The Stock is used for the Crossbow only. Follow the instructions of Yuan Hanzu and find Barnar the Tinker in Stonehold 68.8N, 21.5W. If you bring him a Wood Golem Heart, he'll craft it into the Stock for you.

The Sinews
Sinews come in two varieties: large and small. The Large Lugian Sinews are trophies on Gigas, Extas and Taitus Lugians. The Small Lugian Sinews are found on Amploth, Obeloth and Lithos Lugians. The sinews are used in the construction of the arms of the (X)Bows. They are first cured, then stretched over the horns to aid in resistance.

To cure the sinews, you'll need to cook them in a Cooking Pot. You can produce three different varieties of Cured Sinews, depending on your cooking skill and whether you used a Large or a Small Sinew.

1. Cured Small Lugian Sinew
Made from the failed cooking of a Small Lugian Sinew.

2. Cured Lugian Sinew
Made from expertly cooking a Small Lugian Sinew, or from the failed cooking of a Large Lugian Sinew.

3. Cured Large Lugian Sinew
Made from expertly cooking a Large Lugian Sinew.

To succeed in expertly cooking your sinews, you should have at least a cooking skill of 250. Even then, you'll have about a 50% chance of failure. It's also possible to succeed at a much lower skill level, but you'll probably need to have a few extra sinews on hand. As your skill level increases, your chances of expertly cooking your sinews increases also. A skill level over 300 appears to be the best bet for expertly cooking the sinews most of the time.

The properties given by the Sinews are still unconfirmed, although they do appear to determine the speed.

The Arms
To make the Arms, in addition to your sinews, you'll need two horns of the same type. Your two choices are two Great Mattekar Horns or two Fire Auroch Horns (must be from BULLS). Both arms need to be constructed from the same material to have a balanced weapon.

Carving the Horns
When you have your two horns, you'll need to bring them to Yuan Hanzu in Ayan Baqur to have them carved.

Composite Arms
The Shaped horn needs to be combined with the Cured Sinew to make the completed arm. Use the Sinew on the Horn to get a Composite Arm. Horns determine the Melee Defense with Mattekar Horns yielding +6% and Auroch Horns yielding +2%.

The Stave
Making the Stave is easy and straightforward. Simply combine your two arms to get your Composite Stave. This is what you'll use to string your bow. There's no skill check required at this step. The Stave can still be dropped or given away.

If you're making the Crossbow, combine your Stave with your Crossbow Stock to get a Crossbow Stock with Stave.

The String
Ah, the string! This is the point that will make or break many an archer! Like the Lugian Sinews, the string can be made from two different creature trophies, and there are three possible outcomes to the Alchemical process.  You'll need three Sclavus Tongues or three Drudge Ravener Guts. When you combine the first two, they become twisted together. Combine the third for either Braided Sclavus Tongues or Braided Drudge Ravener Guts. This is what you apply the Bloodseeker Oil to for your string. The string determines the damage modifier for the bow. The best string is made by a successful oiling of the Ravener Guts.

The Alchemical Skill for applying oil to the string is similar to the Cooking skill required for the Sinews. A minimum of 250 is suggested, although something over 270 is recommended. If you can find someone with a skill of 300 or more, you greatly reduce your chance of failing. If you succeed in applying the oil to the string you will get this message, "You apply oil liberally to the string." If you fail, you will simply get the message, "You apply oil to the string." The three outcomes of this process are as follows:

1. Oiled String
Made from the failed oiling of Braided Sclavus Tongues.

2. Fine Oiled String
Made from applying oil liberally to Braided Sclavus Tongues or from the failed oiling of Braided Drudge Ravener Guts.

3. Excellent Oiled String
Made from applying oil liberally to Braided Drudge Ravener Guts.

Stringing the Bow
Now for the tricky part. It's time to string the bow. This is a step you must take yourself. After the string is on, your bow becomes no-drop. If you can't get your Bow or Crossbow skill up to at least 280, you might consider using the Oilied String or Fine Oiled String instead of the Excellent and making a lesser quality bow until your level improves. You don't need as high a bow skill to successfully attach an Oiled String or a Fine Oiled String. (Some players, however, are still reporting failures in the low 200s with the lesser strings.) Remember that even the lesser bows still make excellent weapons!

If you want to know how hard it is to string the bow using the Excellent Oiled String, just take a look around the boards and read message after message of people snapping their strings. (If you fail to string the bow, you will destroy your string.) It is possible to have success with the Excellent Oiled String with a skill stat in the low 200s, but it's not likely. This is a skill level more suited to one of the lesser bows. A skill of 250 seems to yield a 50% rate of success for the Excellent Oiled String. Again, your best chance for success for the highest level bow is to string it with a skill over 300. 350 is even better! If you succeed, you will receive this message, "You deftly attach the string to the stave."

The Handle
As Yuan Hanzu says, it's not necessary to attach a handle to use a bow. Although with the nice Attack Bonus and spells it adds, most people will probably want one. By now, you've probably guessed that there are three possible handles to attach, made from two different trophies. You can use an Undead Thighboen from one of several Undead Creatures: a Lich, Lich Lord, Revenant, Skeleton Bone Lord or Great Skeleton. Or you can use the Undead Thighbone from a Dark Revenant for the better handle.

To carve the handle you'll need a Fletcher and a Whittling Knife. The skill of the Fletcher will determine the quality of the handle, so get your skill as high as possible, once again. A minimum of 250 is suggested, but a skill of at least 280 is recommended. The intricately carved handle from the high undead is extremely difficult to make. Fletchers with skills solidly in the 300s are still only carving with an 80% success rate. The three outcomes of this process are as follows:

1. Bone Handle (carved from the bone of the undead)
Made from carving an Undead Thighbone.

2. Bone Handle (intricately carved from the bone of the undead)
Made from intricately carving an Undead Thighbone or failing to intricately carve a Dark Revenant Undead Thighbone.

3. Bone Handle (intricately carved from the bone of the high undead)
Made from intricately carving a Dark Revenant Undead Thighbone.

Next, mount your handle on your Bow or Crossbow. You'll get the following message as you complete this final step: "You deftly attach the handle to the crossbow." The handle determines the Attack bonus for the bow and adds Blood Seeker and (X)Bow Mastery Other to the weapon.

Hunting Tips:

Wood Golems can usually be found around Stonehold and are plentiful in the woods to the North.

The Livnak range outside of Qalaba'r is always a favorite Lugian hunting area. The newly discovered Lugian Citadels
56.5S x  67E
70.2S x 24.3E
67.9S x 62.6E
with their fast spawn rates and dense population have also proved popular for this quest.

Some good hunting areas for the Mattekars are around the Livnak Range near Qalaba'r along the mountains near Mayoi, up north in the colder areas by the Crater, and of course, the Mattekar Caves (65.4N x 16.7E). 

Fire Aurochs can often be found in the woods outside of Stonehold and approx. 26N, 51W..

A good place for Scalvus hunting is the Empyrean Foundry (25.2S x 54.2E), located outside the Blackmire Swamps near Sawato. The new Sclavus Cathedral is rumored to be not too far away (25.9S x 46.5E). Another good location is Sclavus Keep (38.9S, 48.4W), but if you do your hunting there, be careful of the traps on the upper level.

Drudge Raveners are plentiful in the  Dungeon of Corpses (56.1S x 49.6W). They are also quite easily found throughout the Direlands.

Dark Revenants can be found in the Serac Vault (75.9S x 29E), and deep in Sylsfear Dungeon (11N x 14.7E).