Wands, Bows & the Glass-Cannon Tradeoff
Ancient wands and bows are PvE-only weapons: they do nothing to other players, but they tear through everything the underworld throws at you. Both are pure ranged damage with a built-in catch — carry one and you take more damage in return.
What they hit
Wands and bows now damage all PvE content at their full rapid-fire rate:
- Shades and wraiths
- Every boss — Lamia, Echidna, Thanatos and Hephaestus, plus the four Uber bosses
- Erebus Pit guards, Tearkeepers, and every other mob the underworld fields
Against an Uber boss's minions both weapons hit all of them at once, so a wand or bow is the natural answer to an add-heavy fight.
They stay PvE-only, so don't reach for them in PvP — against another player they simply do nothing.
Buying one
Wands and bows are bought whole from the Weapons stall at /shop — there are no cores or components to craft any more. Prices run $300 at wood, $3,000 at gold, $30,000 at iron and $300,000 at diamond. Netherite isn't sold there: Surtr in the netherite mine forges netherite wands and bows for 100 Infernal Scrap each, the same price as his other weapons.
A freshly bought wand or bow arrives with no stored energy — click Ancient Energy onto it to charge it before you fire.
Held fire
Both weapons fire by holding right-click — channel a wand beam or loose arrows by keeping the button down. Each beam or arrow now lands once, with no attack-cooldown throttling. That means cast-speed and fire-rate builds genuinely scale your single-target DPS: faster fire equals more hits on the target.
Wands no longer slow you down while firing. Holding right-click streams beams at full walking and sprinting speed, the same as a bow — and a single click still fires exactly one cast. A bow volley also lands at most 1 arrow on the same enemy now; Prism arrows still hit separate targets.
Holding a bow no longer blocks opening chests and doors — firing only triggers on air, non-interactive blocks, or while sneaking, so you can still loot mid-fight. Arrows also land in Skywars now, complete with knockback.
The glass-cannon tradeoff
The cost is spelled out right on the tooltip. While the weapon is in your main hand, you take more damage from all sources:
| Weapon | Damage taken |
|---|---|
| Wand | +10% |
| Bow | +15% |
So when a fight closes in, swap to a melee weapon or a shield — don't tank a boss's burst with a wand still out. Like the rest of your gear and armour, these weapons are tools you mix and match, not a single loadout.
Bow as a real weapon
Bow base damage is now pinned a little above an axe at every tier, and just under a sword — so a bow is a true damage weapon, not a sidearm. For the full enchant lists that build on top of that base, see Bow Enchants and Wand Enchants. You can also dress either weapon with trims and other cosmetics.
Bows finally have a trim of their own: the Skyfall bow trim, the game's first, is a jackpot chase from the Skywars Champion Box.
Version history
v2.0.0
- Ancient wands and bows now damage all PvE content — every boss, all dungeon mobs, and Erebus pit guards — while staying PvE-only.
- Both can now be held to fire/channel, with every hit landing once so fire-rate builds scale single-target DPS.
- Added the glass-cannon penalty: +10% damage taken with a wand, +15% with a bow, shown on the tooltip.
- Bow base damage pinned just above an axe at every tier, and holding a bow no longer blocks chests or doors.
v3.0.0
- Wands no longer slow you down while you fire — hold right-click and stream beams at full walking and sprinting speed.
- Wand and bow cores and components are gone; both weapons are now bought whole from the Weapons stall at
/shop($300 wood, $3,000 gold, $30,000 iron, $300,000 diamond) or forged by Surtr for 100 Infernal Scrap at netherite. - Wands and bows now arrive with no stored energy — charge one with Ancient Energy before firing.
- A bow volley now lands at most 1 arrow on the same enemy; Prism arrows still hit separate enemies.
- Prism now works on bows, splitting your shot into 1 extra arrow per level.
- Piercing Shot now passes arrows through bosses and other vanilla mobs, not just shades, and arrows no longer bounce off bosses and hang in the air.
- Added the Skyfall bow trim, the game's first bow trim, from the Skywars Champion Box.
- Dungeons were removed, so dungeon bosses and dungeon mobs are no longer on the target list; the four Uber bosses and their minions are.