Skills/Bowcraft/Fletching

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Bowcraft/Fletching is the craft of the bowyer. A fletcher cuts wood into arrow shafts, fits them with feathers to make arrows and crossbow bolts, and carves bows and crossbows. Every archer in New Bradford goes through a lot of arrows, so a good fletcher is always welcome.

This page explains how fletching works in New Bradford, from your first arrow shaft to Grandmaster bows. To get the wood, see Lumberjacking. To shoot what you make, see Archery.

At a glance

Skill category	Crafting & gathering
Tool	Fletcher's tools
Workstation	None. You can work anywhere.
Materials	Logs or boards, and feathers
What you can make	Kindling, arrow shafts, arrows, crossbow bolts, bows, crossbows and heavy crossbows
Skill cap	100 (Grandmaster)
Stats it can raise	Dexterity and Strength
Starting gear	Choosing Bowcraft/Fletching as a starting skill gives you 14 boards, 5 feathers and 5 arrow shafts.

Fletcher's tools

	Tool	Buy from	Uses	Made by
	Fletcher's tools	Bowyers, 2 gold	25–75	Tinkers (35.0 Tinkering, 3 iron ingots)

Bowyers sell fletcher's tools for 2 gold. Tinkers can make them too (35.0 Tinkering, 3 iron ingots).
Each set of tools has 25 to 75 uses (100 if a tinker makes an exceptional set). Every item you try to make uses up one, whether you succeed or fail. When it runs out: "You have worn out your tool!"
The tools must be in your backpack or in your hands: "The tool must be on your person to use."

How to craft

Put your fletcher's tools and your materials in your backpack.
Double-click the tools. The BOWCRAFT AND FLETCHING MENU opens.
Pick a category on the left: Materials, Ammunition or Weapons.
Click the item you want to make.

You can't make an item until you have the minimum skill for it: "You don't have the required skills to attempt this item." The menu also has Make Last to repeat your last item.

Fletching can't repair bows or crossbows.

Making a whole stack at once

Arrow shafts, arrows and crossbow bolts use up everything you're carrying in one go. Click "shaft" with 50 boards in your pack and you get 50 shafts from one attempt. Click "arrow" with 50 shafts and 30 feathers and you get 30 arrows.

If the attempt fails, you lose half the materials and make nothing.
The whole stack counts as one attempt for skill gains. See Training.

Success chance

Every item has a skill range. At the minimum you have a 50% chance to make it. Each point above the minimum adds 1.25%, so you'll succeed every time once you're 40 points over the minimum.

For example, a bow needs 30.0 Bowcraft/Fletching. At 30.0 you have a 50% chance, at 50.0 a 75% chance, and from 70.0 you never fail.

When you fail, "You failed to create the item, and some of your materials are lost."

Exceptional quality

Only bows, crossbows and heavy crossbows can be exceptional. Kindling, shafts, arrows and bolts are always regular.

Your chance of an exceptional weapon is 15% at the minimum skill and rises 0.625% per point after that:

Weapon	At minimum skill	At 100.0
Bow	15% (30.0)	59%
Crossbow	15% (60.0)	40%
Heavy crossbow	15% (80.0)	27.5%

An exceptional bow or crossbow does 20% more damage and has 20% more durability. "You create an exceptional quality item."

Maker's mark

When you craft an exceptional weapon you can choose to sign it. Turn on Mark Item in the menu first: "You create an exceptional quality item and affix your maker's mark." Your name then shows on the weapon.

Materials

Material	Used for	Weight	Where to get it
Log	Kindling, shafts, bows, crossbows	2	Chop trees with Lumberjacking
Board	Same as logs	1	Cut logs with an axe
Feather	Arrows and bolts, 1 each	0.1	Carve birds, or buy from bowyers (2 gold)
Arrow shaft	Arrows and bolts, 1 each	0.1	Make from wood, or buy from bowyers (3 gold)

Logs and boards work the same. Cut logs into boards with an axe; boards weigh half as much. See Lumberjacking.
Feathers come from carving birds. Double-click a knife and target the corpse:

Bird	Feathers per corpse
Chicken, Bird, crane	25
Eagle, Phoenix	36
Harpy, Stone Harpy	50
Swoop	72

What you can make

Item	Menu	Skill needed	Never fails at	Success at 100.0	Materials	You get	Exceptional at 100.0	Buy from
Kindling	Materials	Any	Above 0.0	100%	1 log or board	1 kindling	—	Provisioners, 2 gold
Arrow shaft	Materials	Any	40.0	100%	1 log or board each	1 shaft per log or board, whole stack at once	—	Bowyers, 3 gold
Arrow	Ammunition	Any	40.0	100%	1 shaft + 1 feather each	Whole stack at once	—	Provisioners and bowyers, 2 gold
Crossbow bolt	Ammunition	Any	40.0	100%	1 shaft + 1 feather each	Whole stack at once	—	Bowyers 3 gold, provisioners 5 gold
Bow	Weapons	30.0	70.0	100%	7 logs or boards	1 bow	59%	Bowyers 40 gold, weaponsmiths 35 gold
Crossbow	Weapons	60.0	100.0	100%	7 logs or boards	1 crossbow	40%	Bowyers 55 gold, weaponsmiths 46 gold
Heavy crossbow	Weapons	80.0	120.0	75%	10 logs or boards	1 heavy crossbow	27.5%	Bowyers and weaponsmiths, 55 gold

Bows and crossbows

Weapon	Strength needed	Damage	Speed	Range (tiles)	Weight	Durability	Ammunition
Bow	20	9–41	20	10	6	31–60	Arrows
Crossbow	30	8–43	18	8	7	31–80	Bolts
Heavy crossbow	40	11–56	10	8	9	31–100	Bolts

All three are two-handed Archery weapons. Bows shoot arrows; crossbows and heavy crossbows shoot bolts.

Kindling

Kindling always works as long as you have any Bowcraft/Fletching at all (at exactly 0.0 it always fails), but it never raises your skill. Use it to light a campfire with Camping. You can also cut a piece of kindling from a tree with a sword or knife, no skill needed.

Training Bowcraft/Fletching

Every attempt can raise your skill, whether you succeed or fail.
Below 10.0 you gain on every attempt, sometimes several tenths at once. Above that, each attempt has a chance to gain 0.1.
Your chance to gain is best when the item is about halfway through its skill range, and it drops as you get closer to 100 and to your total skill cap.
Shafts and arrows make a stack in one attempt, so they give you only one skill check no matter how many you make. Carry just one or two boards at a time when training on shafts, and put the rest in a bag or the bank.
Bowcraft/Fletching tops out at 100.0 (Grandmaster). There are no power scrolls for Bowcraft/Fletching.
Reaching 100.0 adds Bowcraft/Fletching to the Skills Mastered count on your achievements.
Town bowyers will also teach you the basics for a fee.

Dexterity and Strength: crafting can also raise your Dexterity (the more likely of the two) and your Strength, as long as those stats are set to rise.

Suggested path

Bowcraft/Fletching		Make
0.0–30.0		Arrow shafts (one or two boards at a time)
30.0–60.0		Bows
60.0–80.0		Crossbows
80.0–100.0		Heavy crossbows

Bows sell back to vendors for 17 gold, crossbows for 23 to 25 and heavy crossbows for 27, which pays for some of your wood.

Messages you'll see

Message	What it means
You create the item.	Success.
You create an exceptional quality item.	An exceptional bow or crossbow.
You create an exceptional quality item and affix your maker's mark.	Exceptional, signed with your name.
You failed to create the item, and some of your materials are lost.	Failure. For shafts, arrows and bolts you lose half the stack.
You do not have sufficient wood to make that.	Get more logs or boards.
You don't have the required skills to attempt this item.	You're below the minimum skill.
You have worn out your tool!	Your fletcher's tools broke. Use another set.
The tool must be on your person to use.	Put the tools in your backpack.

Tips

Buy feathers and shafts from a bowyer (2 and 3 gold) when you just want arrows fast.
Carry spare fletcher's tools. They're cheap and wear out.
Keep your wood as boards to carry twice as much.
Work with a lumberjack. A bow takes 7 logs and a heavy crossbow 10, so you'll go through a lot of wood.