Crossbow

Crossbow

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Rarity color	Common
Durability	JE: 326 BE: 464
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	No

A crossbow is a ranged weapon similar to a bow that uses arrows or fireworks as ammunition.

Obtaining

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Stick + Iron Ingot + String + Tripwire Hook

Repairing

Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Damaged Crossbow or Damaged Arrow Loaded Crossbow or Damaged Firework Loaded Crossbow		The durability of the two crossbows is added together, plus an extra 5% durability.‌ Any loaded ammunition is lost.

Mob loot

Pillagers

When killed, a pillager has a small chance (8.5%) of dropping a loaded or unloaded crossbow with random durability; the drop rate increases by 1% per level of Looting: 9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III. The dropped crossbow can rarely (10% chance) be enchanted at level 5–19 regardless of being enchanted when it spawned.

Crossbows dropped by pillagers may have multiple enchantments, including duplicate enchantments on the same weapon.

Piglins

Piglins have a chance of wielding a crossbow upon spawning, and they also have a small chance (8.5%) of dropping a loaded or unloaded crossbow of random durability when killed; this rate increases by 1% per level of Looting: 9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III. It can rarely (10% chance) be enchanted at level 5–19 regardless of being enchanted when spawned.

Chest loot

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition
Crossbow	Bastion remnant	Generic chest	1	9.8%
	Pillager Outpost	Chest	1	100%
Damaged Enchanted Crossbow	Bastion remnant	Bridge chest	1	11.2%
Damaged Enchanted Crossbow	Bastion remnant	Generic chest	1	6.7%
Bedrock Edition
Crossbow	Bastion remnant	Generic chest	1	16%
	Pillager Outpost	Chest	1	100%
Damaged Enchanted Crossbow	Bastion remnant	Bridge chest	1	12.2%
		Generic chest	1	12%

Trading

Journeyman-level Fletcher villagers offer to sell an unenchanted crossbow for 3 emeralds.

Master-level Fletcher villagers have a ¹⁄₁₆ (6.25%) chance of selling an enchanted crossbow for 8 emeralds.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Master-level Fletcher villagers have ²⁄₃ chance of selling an enchanted crossbow for 7-22 emeralds.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Usage

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Despite using iron ingots in their crafting recipe, crossbows cannot be smelted into iron nuggets.

Weapon

File:Crossbowcooldown.gif

Charging and shooting the crossbow in Bedrock Edition.

Crossbows are similar to bows, but take longer to load and are slightly more powerful, shooting farther with slightly higher accuracy. Load them by using them, which makes the player move at sneak speed. Unlike bows, the arrow or firework rocket can be fired only after it is fully charged. At this point, it must be used once more to fire its bolt.

Once it has reached full charge, the player's speed returns to normal. After that, shooting a charged crossbow does not delay any of the player's current action like sprinting or swimming.

The crossbow can even be placed in another inventory slot or into an item frame without the arrow or firework rocket being unloaded or fired. A charged crossbow also remains charged after enchanting it with an enchantment table or with an anvil.

In order to use the crossbow, at least one arrow or firework rocket must be present in the inventory. The player can choose which type of arrow to fire based on its location in their inventory:

• Arrows in the off-hand, or the selected hotbar slot if the crossbow is in the off-hand, are prioritized first.
• If there are no arrows in the off-hand or selected hotbar slot, the arrow closest to slot 0 is selected.

Crossbows take 1.25 seconds (25 ticks) to load.

The player can load either an arrow (tipped still works) or a firework of any color.

Endermen teleport away from projectile paths, so they cannot be hit with crossbow arrows. However, they can still get harmed by firework rocket explosions, if they can't detect the firework rocket.

Attack strength

Java Edition:

Damage
Minimum	69px9px9px
Maximum	119px × 5.5
Maximum (With Firework)	189px × 9
Average	99px9px9px9px9px

Bedrock Edition

• Always 99px9px9px9px9px

Fireworks

Firework rockets can be fired by loading the crossbow only while holding the rockets in the off-hand. They fly at 32 m/s. Firework rockets with higher flight duration have a longer time before they explode and therefore travel farther. Firing a firework rocket uses 3 durability points per shot.

Firework rockets also work with the Multishot enchantment, enabling the player to shoot 3 firework rockets at a time. The increased durability usage stacks, resulting in 9 durability being consumed with each shot.

A shot firework rocket explodes instantly when it hits a mob or block.‌^{[Java Edition only]} If the firework rocket has no explosion effect, it deals no damage. The explosion of a firework rocket deals 59px9px9px to 69px9px9px points of damage, with one firework star. The explosion has a radius of roughly 4 blocks, which is unaffected by the firework star's effect. Each additional firework star on the rocket deals an additional 19px to 29px points of damage, for a maximum of 119px × 5.5 to 189px × 9 with 7 firework stars. The flight duration of the firework does not affect the damage output of the firework, only increasing the maximum range the firework can travel before exploding. Likewise, the damage remains the same regardless of any dyes used. The Piercing enchantment causes the firework rocket to pierce a number of entities based on its respective level before exploding.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Repair

Crossbows can be repaired in an anvil or grindstone by combining two crossbows. Any loaded ammunition is retained from the crossbow in the first slot but sacrificed from the crossbow in the second slot.

Enchantments

Name	Description	Max Level
Quick Charge	Decreases the reloading time of the crossbow by level * 0.25 seconds. Crossbows with Quick Charge III fire slightly faster than bows. If commands are used to enchant a crossbow with Quick Charge V, the crossbow charges instantaneously. A crossbow enchanted with Quick Charge VI is effectively impossible to charge, which renders it useless. This can be done only in Java Edition.	III
Multishot	Makes the crossbow fire a spread of 3 projectiles at once instead of a single projectile, which is useful for targeting mobs spread out in a small area. This works for both arrows and firework rockets. Firing with this enchantment still only uses one projectile, and because of that, it is possible to recover only one of three arrows shot from a Multishot crossbow. Multishot crossbows use 3 durability points per shot, unless using fireworks for ammunition, in which case 9 durability is consumed. Mutually exclusive with Piercing.	I
Piercing	Makes arrows shot from the crossbow pierce entities they hit and continue their flight, which allows each arrow to hit up to level + 1 entities. This is useful for targeting mobs closely packed together, and for conserving arrows, as they can be picked up after piercing entities. Mutually exclusive with Multishot.	IV
Unbreaking	Causes a(100/(Level+1))% chance a shot fired reduces the durability of the crossbow.	III
Mending	Allows a certain proportion of experience orbs collected to contribute toward repairing the crossbow, rather than raising the player's experience.	I
Curse of Vanishing	Causes the crossbow to disappear instead of dropping on the ground when the player dies. The /gamerule keepInventory overrides this.	I

Multishot and Piercing are mutually exclusive. Normal methods of enchanting allow only one of them to be applied to a crossbow.

Crossbows can receive 3 unique enchantments, and have a base enchantability of 1. Enchantments specific to crossbows include Quick Charge, Multishot and Piercing.

Fuel

Crossbows can be used as fuel in furnaces, smelting 1.5 items per crossbow.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
File:Crossbow loading start.ogg	Crossbow charges up	?	When crossbow starts to load	item.crossbow.loading_start	subtitles.item.crossbow.charge	0.15	1.0	16
File:Crossbow loading middle1.oggFile:Crossbow loading middle2.oggFile:Crossbow loading middle3.oggFile:Crossbow loading middle4.ogg	None	?	While crossbow is loading	item.crossbow.loading_middle	None	0.325	0.9 / 0.95 / 1.0 / 1.05 / 1.2	16
File:Crossbow loading end.ogg	Crossbow loads	?	When crossbow loading ends	item.crossbow.loading_end	subtitles.item.crossbow.load	1.0	0.866... - 1.2	16
File:Crossbow quick charge one1.oggFile:Crossbow quick charge one2.oggFile:Crossbow quick charge one3.ogg	Crossbow charges up	?	While crossbow with Quick Charge I is loading	item.crossbow.quick_charge_1	subtitles.item.crossbow.charge	0.25 / 0.325	0.9 / 0.95 / 1.0	16
File:Crossbow quick charge two1.oggFile:Crossbow quick charge two2.oggFile:Crossbow quick charge two3.ogg	Crossbow charges up	?	While crossbow with Quick Charge II is loading	item.crossbow.quick_charge_2	subtitles.item.crossbow.charge	0.25 / 0.325	0.9 / 0.95 / 1.0 / 1.05	16
File:Crossbow quick charge three1.oggFile:Crossbow quick charge three2.oggFile:Crossbow quick charge three3.ogg	Crossbow charges up	?	While crossbow with Quick Charge III is loading	item.crossbow.quick_charge_3	subtitles.item.crossbow.charge	0.25 / 0.325	0.9 / 0.95 / 1.0 / 1.05	16
File:Crossbow shoot1.oggFile:Crossbow shoot2.oggFile:Crossbow shoot3.ogg	Crossbow fires	?	When a crossbow fires	item.crossbow.shoot	subtitles.item.crossbow.shoot	0.8 / 0.9	0.9 / 1.0	16
File:Arrow hit1.oggFile:Arrow hit2.oggFile:Arrow hit3.oggFile:Arrow hit4.ogg	Arrow hits	Friendly Creatures	When arrow hits a block or entity	item.crossbow.hit	subtitles.item.crossbow.hit	1.0	1.0909... - 1.33...	16
File:Succesfull Hit.ogg	Player hit	Players	Plays when an arrow shot by a player hits another player	entity.arrow.hit_player	subtitles.entity.arrow.hit_player	1.0	1.0	16
File:Random break.ogg	Item breaks	?	When durability is exhausted	entity.item.break	subtitles.entity.item.break	0.8	0.8 - 1.2 Template:Checkthecode	?

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Form	Translation key
Crossbow	crossbow	Item	item.minecraft.crossbow

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Crossbow	crossbow	471	Item	item.crossbow.name

Item data

• Template:Nbt: The tag tag.

Player.dat format/Crossbow

History

September 29, 2018					Crossbows are announced at MINECON Earth 2018.
Java Edition
1.14		18w43a			32px32px32px32px 32px32px32px32px32px 32px32px Added crossbows.
					Crossbows can be enchanted with either the Quick Charge (Highest Level III), Piercing (Highest Level IV) or Multishot (Highest Level I).
		18w47a			Crossbows can now be found inside loot chests at the top of pillager outposts.
1.16		20w07a			Added piglins, which can spawn with and drop crossbows.
		20w16a			Crossbows now generate randomly enchanted in bastion remnants chests.
Bedrock Edition
1.8.0		beta 1.8.0.10			32px32px32px32px 32px32px32px32px32px 32px32px Added crossbows.
					Crossbows are currently apart of Experimental Gameplay.
1.9.0		beta 1.9.0.0			Added pillagers, which use and drop crossbows.
		beta 1.9.0.3			Crossbows now appear bigger in a pillager's hand.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Crossbows are now fully implemented and separate from Experimental Gameplay.
					Crossbows can now be found in pillager outpost chests.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.4			Unenchanted and enchanted crossbows can now be bought from fletcher villagers.
1.12.0		beta 1.12.0.3			Journeyman-level fletcher villagers now have 100% chance to sell unenchanted crossbow, rather than 50% chance.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Added piglins, which can spawn with and drop crossbows.
		beta 1.16.0.57			Crossbows now generate randomly enchanted in bastion remnants chests.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90					32px32px32px32px 32px32px32px32px32px 32px32px Added crossbows.

Issues

Issues relating to "Crossbow" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• Crossbows enchanted with Quick Charge VI and above get stuck on the first frame on the recharging animation because the resulting charge time is negative, and the game never reaches the time markers that tell it to advance the animation or the reloading procedure itself. It is technically possible to charge such crossbows, but this would require overflowing the value that determines how long the crossbow has been charged. This takes such an amount of time that this is practically impossible: for example, charging a crossbow with Quick Charge VI would take 69.4 years to complete.
• Loading a crossbow with fireworks and then firing it at an enderman or wither with its Wither Armor active can damage it. This is because fireworks deal explosion damage and not projectile damage. This is the only method of damaging an enderman or a wither with its Wither Armor at a long-range.
• The Piercing enchantment can be useful to save arrows because they can still be picked up after they hit a wall.
• Although Piercing allows arrows to bypass shields, they can't get through the Wither Armor.
• The Advancement "Ol' Betsy" is most likely a reference to the character Trigger from the 1973 Disney animated film Robin Hood, who has a crossbow he calls Ol' Betsy.
• The crossbow's first-person loading animation in Bedrock is different from Java.
• Even if a crossbow is already wound with a projectile, when it drops on the ground, it always looks uncharged.

Gallery

• CrossbowMinecon.png

  A crossbow shown at MINECON Earth 2018.

• PillagerMinecon.png

  A pillager armed with a crossbow, shown at MINECON Earth 2018.

• ALEXCROSSBOW.png

  How the crossbow is equipped.

• Enchanted Crossbow.gif

  An enchanted crossbow.

• Steve Charging Crossbow.gif

  Steve charging crossbow in Java Edition.

• Alex Charging Crossbow.gif

  Alex charging crossbow in Java Edition.

• Pillager Charging Crossbow.gif

  Pillager charging crossbow.

• Piglin Charging Crossbow.gif

  Piglin charging crossbow.

• Crossbow (MCD).png

  The Minecraft Dungeons Variant of the Crossbow

References

Items

View at: Template:Items/content [edit]