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Crystal bow

Also known as?	CB, Cbow, Crys Bow, Elf Bow
Release date	7 February 2005 (Update)
Members only?	Yes
Quest item?	Yes
Tradeable?	Only when it is new or when it fully degrades into a crystal seed
Equipable?	Yes
Stacks?	No
High Alchemy	0 coins
Low Alchemy	0 coins
Destroy	Drop
Store price	900,000 coins
Exchange price	New crystal bow: 902,200 coins update, Crystal seed: 255,600 coins update coins
Examine	A nice sturdy magical bow.
Weight	1 kg

The Crystal bow is a powerful bow available for purchase from Islwyn after a player completes the Roving Elves quest, and is an optional reward from the quest alongside the crystal shield. To wield the crystal bow, a player must also have 70 Ranged, and 50 Agility. However, since one of the requirements of Roving Elves is the completion of Regicide, which requires 56 Agility (boosts allowed), it is safe to say that the Crystal bow requires 51-56 agility to use. It may also be purchased and sold on the Grand Exchange after being bought from Islwyn while it is in a "New" state. The completion of Roving Elves is still required to wield the bow if a player obtains it in this manner. However, recharged bows do not count as "new" bows.

The crystal bow degrades during use. When a player first obtains a crystal bow, it will be a New/Full Crystal Bow. After 250 shots, it degrades into a "Crystal Bow 9/10", and for every 250 shots thereafter it will degrade another 1/10th, until it reverts into a crystal seed after a total of 2,500 shots. As the crystal bow degrades, its ranged attack bonus drops, as shown on the table below. Once the crystal bow has reverted to a crystal seed, a player can buy a New Crystal Bow for the cost of 900,000 coins, or have their crystal seed enchanted into a bow by Ilfeen. While having the seed re-enchanted costs 900,000 coins for the first time, the price lowers by 180k each time you get it re-enchanted, from 900k initially to a minimum of 180k. It is important to note that a new and 10/10 crystal bow are different bows, and that it is impossible to sell a 10/10 crystal bow on the Grand Exchange. This means buying a crystal seed and recharging at a lower price to sell on the Grand Exchange does not work. It is important to note that the number of times you have had an object enchanted does not differ from bow to shield; if you have had a crystal bow chanted twice, a shield will cost 450k, as if you recharged it twice as well.

Bonuses Hover over image for type												A player wielding a crystal bow.
Attack bonus
0		0		0		0		64-100
Defence bonus
0		0		0		0		0		0
Other bonuses
0			52-70			0			0
Speed:
Item compare not supported

Combat styles

	Name	Combat style	Experience
	Accurate	Accurate	Ranged
	Rapid	Rapid	Ranged
	Longrange	Longrange	Ranged & Defence

Maximum hit

The maximum hit for the crystal bow is 25% of your range level. For example, if your range level is 70, your max hit is 17-18. You can increase this by using a ranged potion. Although 25% of your range skill is its max hit at 10/10, when your bow is on 1/10 it will have fallen to 20%. An alternative to the Crystal Bow is a Rune crossbow, which is one-handed. Due to the recent shop update Broad Tipped Bolts have increased drastically in price causing the Crystal Bow to rise in popularity.

Bugs

• Shortly after its release, players were able to buy the fully charged bow for 180,000 coins in a member server, then cast high alchemy on the same item for 540,000 in free-to-play. Jagex banned the accounts that abused this bug and prevented all players from casting alchemy on member items in free-to-play servers.
• When the new high-detail graphics came out in a beta stage, players using the crystal bow to attack would see the bow pulled back instead of the string on the bow. (This was fixed.)

Trivia

• When attempting to light a fire using the crystal bow, a following message appears: "The bow resists all attempts to light a fire. It seems that the sentient tools of the elves don't approve you burning down forests." It used to say "You cannot light the fire, because the Crystal Bow has no string" - Which was, before the graphic update, true. However, after the HD update, Crystal Bows were given a string, which made this message obsolete until it was changed.
• Even though it takes only 50 agility to wield the crystal bow, an agility level of 56 is needed to complete the Regicide quest, which is a prerequisite to complete the Roving elves quest. It is possible to complete Regicide using agility level boosts to reach level 56, using a spicy stew, however, this still requires level 50 Agility. It is however, possible to buy the bow from the Grand Exchange at full charge, but it cannot be wielded until Roving Elves is complete.
• As with javelins and throwing axes when equipping arrows and bolts the ranged strength does not change.
• The Crystal bow is the only bow that has its own Ranged Strength bonus.
• When the bow fully degrades, it appears as a Crystal seed in your weapon slot. When you unequip the seed, you can not equip it again.
• The Crystal bow has the second longest distance of all ranged weapons and is only beaten by the Dark bow .
• Before the HD update the bow's string was invisible.
• Many players believed that the Crystal Bow has a Special Attack and were disappointed to find that it doesn't.
• The number of shots fired by crystal bows is tracked per player rather than per bow, making it possible to prevent a fully charged bow from degrading by using another crystal bow for every 250th shot.

References

• RuneScape Game Guide
  • Crystal item guide
  • Grand Exchange Database - Current price for New crystal bow

See also

• Crystal seed
• Crystal shield
• Crystal halberd