The Better Archery Mod changes and adds a lot of archery related stuff to Minecraft.
First of all, it adds new bows to the game, such as the longbow (which can shoot arrows further) and the recurve bow (which shoots faster arrows, but has less durability than the normal bow).
The vanilla bow recipe has also been changed to include 1 piece of leather, but other than that, the “normal” bow is still in the game, and functions as it currently does, while also being an ingredient in some new bow recipes, such as for the longbow.
This mod also changes what happens when a bow breaks, as it will now remain in your inventory, and it gives you the ability to repair them, all you have to do is pull it all the way back while having 3 strings in your inventory and the bow will be as good as new. Enchantments are lost when this is done however. This means you don’t have to make a new bow from scratch each time it breaks, you just need 3 strings to fix it.
Arrows included in this mod range from fire arrows to explosive arrows, but it also includes some interesting arrows such as ender arrows (which teleports you to where they hit) and torch arrows (that plant a torch wherever they hit, but more interestingly, allows you to place multiple torches on the same block). Arrows have also gotten new models and effects, such as a smoke trail following fire arrows.
This mod also gives you the ability to make arrows from potions, so if you combine a healing or poison potion with an arrow, you can make poison arrows or healing arrows, you can even make them with an added splash, so you can poison whole groups of mob from afar.
The last thing this mod adds is quivers, which can hold 4×16 stacks of different arrows. Quivers also makes you shoot faster, and makes switching between different arrows much easier, as you can use the “+” and “-” buttons to quickly and easily change between the new arrows. To add arrows to your quiver, right click while having it equipped in your hands.
Quivers can also be dyed, by first dying them white with 3 bonemeal, then dying them what color you want with 3 dyes.
The creator has also made new UI elements for quivers, so you can see your active arrows and change between them that much easier.
Do note that mobs will also sometimes spawn with the new bows, and might drop them, so be warned.
Here are some screenshots to get a better idea of what the Better Archery Mod does:
The last two shots show of the new torch arrows in action, letting you fire and place a torch from far away, for those hard-to-reach areas. It is pretty cool, and can be very useful.
How to install Better Archery Mod:
- Download the mod.
- If you don’t have Forge, then download and install Forge for Minecraft 1.6.2 (remember to select the “Forge” profile in the Minecraft launcher)
- Open your minecraft.jar folder (in Windows it’s in “%appdata%\.minecraft\bin\”, if you use the vanilla launcher)
- Copy the mod from wherever you downloaded it to the “mod” folder found in your “.minecraft” folder
- Enjoy your new mod!
Here is a video showing the Better Archery Mod in action: