How to find and craft Fallout 76's new bow and arrows

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Want to become the Legolas of Appalachia? Here's how.

Fallout 76 bow compound bow location
(Image credit: Bethesda)

If you're looking for the new Fallout 76 bow added in the Wastelanders expansion, it's not hard to find: you just need to know where to look. You'll either need to visit the right vendors to buy the plans for the Fallout 76 bow and then craft it yourself (along with some arrows), or pick up the plans as a reward from one of Wastelanders' new questlines.

That's just the basic starter bow, however. There are better bows you'll eventually gain access to as well, like the compound bow, which will take quite a bit more time and effort. There are also new perks to increase your bow skills.

We'll cover all of that below—here's how to get started as the best archer in Appalachia.

Where to find the Fallout 76 bow

If you just want to buy plans to craft a bow, start by visiting one of the two new settlements in Fallout 76 Wastelanders: Crater, the raider stronghold built at the crashed space station in the north, or Foundation, the settler town in Spruce Knob in the south. With the lowest relationship rating of 'Cautious' from either faction, you'll be able to trade for basic gear from their vendors.

For the raiders, visit AE-RI: she's up the stairs under the sign reading 'Guns Guns Guns.' At Foundation, head to Sunny's General Goods, which you'll pass on your way in.

Where to find AE-RI in Crater (Image credit: Bethesda)

Sunny's General Goods in Foundation (Image credit: Bethesda)

Both vendors are selling plans for the bow for around 300 caps. Once you've bought the plans, don't forget to find them in your inventory and read them to learn the crafting recipe. Then you'll be able to craft the bow at a weapon bench—you'll find it listed in the 'machine guns' list. To craft arrows, use a tinker workbench. Keep in mind you can't use the bow while wearing power armor (boooo).

(Image credit: Bethesda)

If you don't want to spend caps on a bow, you'll also receive the bow plans as a reward while making your way through the questline at the Wayward, the new bar that's opened near Vault 76.

There's a compound bow in Fallout 76 Wastelanders, too, and it's much more work to get. You'll need to complete quests for either the raiders or settlers to raise their disposition all the way up to Ally, the highest rating, in order to gain access to their specialty vendors. That's going to take a lot of questing to accomplish.

(Image credit: Bethesda)

There are also new bow perks available to make your weapon even more deadly. You'll find them under Perception. The Archer perk (which can be upgraded to Expert Archer and Master Archer) will increase bow damage up to 30%. The Bow Before Me perk will let your arrows ignore a percentage of your enemy's armor and add a chance to stagger.

Christopher Livingston
Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.