Elden Ring Bows Are OP! All 165 Bosses Bow Only Challenge Run!

[@Cracks094]

I did a bow-only run once, which was actually one of the most enjoyable challenge playthroughs i've done in this game. Except for one thing, I didn't know the Black Bow allows rolling and jumping attacks, so i was using a short bow against Malenia. With bleed and frost arrows, it took 3 days of 6+ hour attempts to finally beat her. I actually ran out of arrows at the very end and had to menu to equip different ones to do the killing blow with a greatbow, which was propably the most adrenaline inducing moment i ever had.

[@drizzlybear350]

I'll drink to that. cheers mate gd!

[@Samwise_92]

Hahaha hell ya congrats

[@TryingPositive]

Congrats fellow tarnished

[@Lucky_Limes]

that sounded painful

[@pashkodreshaj2558]

Gino makes menu equip look really easy, that shit is hard to do in the heat of the moment😂

[@sunkframe6289]

5 hours…. Shout out to the editor man !!

[@Ben_E_Boi]

Shout out Hunter

[@GamblingAdvocate]

W editor alert

[@CharlieKellyEsq]

What do you mean W editor? An editors job is to cut out the boring stuff and put in clips of the interesting stuff. I love elden ring.... but no matter what weapon I use. It's not 5 hours of content.

[@CharlieKellyEsq]

If the editor would have uploaded 30 hours of this run does that mean he did a better job? What about 60 hours? Edit, run was only 20 hours. 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@justaloaf2698]

@@CharlieKellyEsq 🤓

[@shoe3019]

ive seen this entire video and can confirm this is a certified Gino classic

[@sunbleachedangel]

it's been 6 minutes

[@multifleks]

🥸

[@Buzk_4]

Speedrunner

[@SSNebula]

@@sunbleachedangelhe probably means he’s seen it all on twitch where it was originally streamed 😅

[@Asakana1012]

???

[@brace7807]

I love the "coming up next" bits. And I always appreciate the item descriptions whenever you pick one up. Keep up the good work.

[@brofenix]

I actually don't like them :( I don't appreciate it spoils what will happen next and gives away crucial moments in the run. I wish the editor just kept the running list of tasks/items to collect.

[@wendigotoes]

Fletching suits me. It’s difficult and sometimes tedious, but a well made arrow strikes forth like the fury of a god.

[@wolfheart5408]

Skyrim reference? I forgot his name, the redgaurd in solitude

[@spankyjeffro5320]

No.

[@wendigotoes]

@@spankyjeffro5320 bro is pressed for no reason

[@adawg3032]

@@wendigotoes i like that mentality like you go around and collect mats to make your arrows not because its a hassle but because it gives your enemy something to dodge

[@spiritalthing]

i hope gino still has fun playing this game after so many runs, cause i love watching these. Especially watching him dominate in bingo brawlers, i hope he does another one soon !

[@sniezka9794]

yoooo wasnt expecting this run today, thank you hunter and gino

[@christianwilke305]

You know you do too many insane challenge runs when you find yourself saying "you know, bows are actually pretty good"

[@monhi64]

It’s also kinda fucked that bows, a major weapon class just in and of itself is considered a challenge run. It’d make more sense if there was like three bows and they felt like a gimmick but no they have so many there’s at least three subclasses. I guess we do hate on them more than they deserve but still damn. I have heard that offhand crossbows are beyond viable maybe even good. I would probably use a staff though

[@monhi64]

Now that I’ve watched more of the video I’m in complete awe at how much damage he’s doing. Like one shotting fairly hard enemies and five shotting full blown bosses idk what’s going on or how he’s doing this much damage

[@Myhaay]

It makes sense, it would become the next stealth archer from skyrim if they were on par with melee or magic. It's supposed to be an extra tool in certain situations not a main weapon, i did a playthrough dex-faith and had a crossbow offhand and it saved me so much trouble/hp/fp. Long range kills, finishing off mobs/bosses safely, status, they are good imo.​@@monhi64

[@TheWonkster]

Bows ARE pretty good in Elden Ring, to the point where I wouldn't even call it a challenge run, more like a themed playthrough

[@Nikarus2370]

@@monhi64 For damage, much of it is coming from talismans and the wonderous physic. Also headshots do extra damage if you can aim them. Bows get a lot of advantage from shooting "unaware" targets as well.

[@Jkirek_]

Both the fire arrows and erdtree greatbow sucking more than expected early on is because split damage is terrible until you start dealing more damage in general

[@sunbleachedangel]

Yeah, since damage reduction in this game is flat+percent multiple damage weapons get double dipped and suck

[@monhi64]

Then why does the wiki say that fire arrows pierce defense and are hardly split? They’re almost entirely fire damage with just a few points of physical damage that we can practically ignore. Someone on the wiki left a warning comment that possibly answers this, said inexplicably fire arrows only scale off faith. And at least as far as I am into the video he hasn’t really invested into faith, so they’ll stay shit until a significant faith investment. Mostly inexplicable because I thought fire was strength so you’d expect them to scale with his strength

[@iamniss1155]

@@monhi64 Fixed the wiki a bit. Whoever wrote it meant to say it does Pierce type damage. The fire damage on arrows (or holy) does not scale with anything but faith and *ONLY* if you are using the Erdtree bow which has faith scaling on it. Same for the Erdtree Greatbow, which will buff holy damage on great arrows. The physical portion of the arrows damage seems to scale with Strength and Dexterity at the same rate the bow does so I'm assuming it's the same for elements. Lighting Arrows actually scale the elemental damage portion with Dexterity so you'll get a lot of attack power using those on your bow and they're actually kind of likely to pierce defenses at higher level especially with a lot of strong enemies being weak to lightning. And yeah split damage is kinda bad early. Unless you are firing way more damage than enemy defense (which is between 100 and 123 in non-NG) you are eating up to 90% of that flat damage reduction *per damage type/element* on an attack. This can reduce the bonus fire damage to practically zero since the fire damage isn't scaling on your bow. When your damage starts to exceed the enemy defense it becomes less effective until you only lose 10% of their defense in damage. Meaning a very large hit does 12.3 less damage against Malenia for example as her defense is 123. Multi-hit attacks suck early game but are great late game as overall damage is higher but with low scaling and no damage boosts it eats too much defense. Barrage is actually quite bad early game.

[@monhi64]

@@iamniss1155 damn yeah this is absurdly needlessly confusing, they only deal 15 base pierce damage which you’d think pierces defense from the name but I don’t think it does. So I’m not sure how you’d ever beat out the flat defense without mega high scaling UNLESS I guess you’re supposed to add that number to the physical damage of the bow in which case it finally does something. The main thing I know is in all the fromsoft games I’ve played I’ve never gotten a fire arrow to out damage regular arrows and have sworn them off but never tried em with the erdtree bow at least in Elden Ring. Appreciate the help though

[@Wonkydock26]

Also another reason the erdtree greatbow was doing less damage than expected is because it scales with faith as well as having a faith requirement of 14 and since he only had 10 faith it means that he had a reduced damage penalty.

[@ThiagoCRocha-fh6lg]

2:46:48 That is a double imput glitch that happens at the last couple frames of the jump attack. It works on any weapon.

[@onagda]

Lionel input reads so hard he dodge rolled a shot aimed at the other champion

[@QRIO44]

Sky shot struggles to hit moving targets but for a stealth build it has the best locked-on range and guarantees a Headshot.

[@austinbench363]

I really, really appreciate the amount of effort that is put into not only your stream, but your videos too! I mean this is a 5 hour video and there is never a dull moment!! By far my favorite content creator right now. Keep it up!!

[@itzpigeon]

I have waited well over a month for this playthrough and I am so happy to finally see it fully edited. Thankyou Hunter

[@PoyoDesuka]

Enchanted Shot is surprisingly good for consistently hitting dragons in the face. Also it is pretty much as potent as mighty shot, just costs a little more FP.

[@kaiquebrasil1031]

Gino, first of all great vid as always. Second, the purpose of the Erdtree bows (both the Longbow and the Greatbow) are that they scale phys dmg with Faith too, so they become a good choice for Faith builds and when used with Holy Arrows they get even better. As you focused on Str/Dex and just then you did a little Faith the both bows didnt shine enough. I'm sure that overrall the other bows are better if you scaling Str/Dex, but with minimum Str/Dex and High Faith they are the best. xoxo

[@ThePalebloodDoll]

at 2:30:00 of course it's gonna do less damage, yes the avatars are weak to fire BUT it's also raining, meaning both the player and the avatar gain the "wet" effect making them very resistant to fire damage, so in a way, his test was flawed

[@lonewolf0909]

The amount of bosses that just bug out when shooting them with arrows makes me feel like it's more a "bruh, a bow? really?" from the bosses.

[@monhi64]

Are you guys not blown away at all the damage he’s doing? I mean hell he practically two shot that stone digger troll just by hitting it in the head. Which must mean he’s doing approaching 1000 damage a shot. It’s nuts, anytime I use bows it’s like throwing a small rock in their direction

[@maxwhite4177]

@@monhi64 It's because he's tapping the art of war pretty much every shot.

[@maharreywilly]

​@@monhi64he's using a lot of buffs and talismans to boost the damage of them

[@quangtuantran7181]

@@monhi64 No? Because usually with that amount of buffs u should be able to one shot bosses. Dont get me wrong, it wasnt that bad, bows in ER r actually much better than in other souls games (besides ds2), but you should not think of his playthrough as how bows would usually perform. The amount of preparation, knowledge, and technical skills required, it would be pitiful if it didnt deal 1000 dmg.

[@monhi64]

@@quangtuantran7181 yeah I guess I’m just playing the game entirely fucking wrong because I can never get to one shotting bosses territory unless I choose an already high powered weapon. Bows are understandably generally one the least powerful attacks damage wise. 1000 damage doesn’t sound particularly crazy though I probably forgot the context that made that seem more powerful originally

[@danielgeorge5803]

Finally, the run I anticipated the most

[@Zach010ROBLOX]

I had to double-take when the dovahkin music started playing in stormveil xD

[@Deathstroke2666]

I have been waiting for this video I usually do NOT actually watch and just listen to the long form videos but I really like legitimately watching these as well as listening so sometimes I’ll listen to it while playing a game then go back and watch it later for whatever I missed

[@TheHipHopVlog]

One of the most interesting runs I've seen. Bows have some of the more weird game play mechanics I've seen so far.

[@IncoisaRadio87]

"I wonder why the Erdtree Greatbow isn't doing much damage!" He says while not levelling Faith as much as raw Strength and Dex

[@p1ngerss]

watching gino for 5hrs is unironically better than playing elden ring for 5 hours. praise be to the editors

[@rafl277]

Definitely, we actually get to relax and see some quality gameplay

[@IgnoranceisYourStrength.]

You progress a lot more watching him play 😂

[@Vinnare]

I do both :3

[@filipelopes99]

I feel like if barrage gets stamina consumption decreased, it can be viable even with the status proc nerf

[@valgarlienheart]

The tumbleweed at 1:04:52 just summed up the end to that death rite bird perfectly

[@fatsparr0w525]

finally a short video nice!

[@buzzymaxx6490]

I don’t think anyone has been able to keep my attention on a video as long as this as you have. Very charismatic and it makes watching enjoyable.

[@entropy_005]

I've been having a lot of fun doing a crossbow only playthrough, they're not particularly good by any means, but that means I've finally been getting to learn the bossfights instead of just nuking them. I'd recommend it.

[@claycarvell9217]

I’ve been slowly watching bits and pieces of this since it was uploaded and I can say it is very very good vid

[@tremolo_painter]

Six months later, and I still come back to this video; my samurai archer needs to listen to this more often :)

[@adamstevens3661]

Hunter=god tier editor

[@Zedd8787]

I love those moments when he like one-shots a dude in the head with a greatbow and he just gives this really satisfied smile and looks over at chat :D

[@sugipulaboule]

I watched all the streams/vods, and so I just know that these condensed 5 hours are gonna be amazing.

[@brianmelius6877]

I'm doing a bow run and I envy your ability to change arrows during combat

[@heinosenlasse]

I've waited my whole life for this video. Thank you for awesome content, love the long form videos and these kinds of challenges. Regionlock + weapon style is the best way to do it.

[@MetalheadAndy25]

I think I'm pretty good at the game but Gino is something else, unbelievably good. Loved this run

[@GO-cy3no]

That maliketh fight was like a poetic dance, bro. So smooth. You're right, that did look like an actual boss fight for most setups if he had a larger HP pool when we fight him.

[@BHZZRD]

When he died to the nights cavalry Caelid as soon as it Dodges the arrow is hilarious for some reason.

[@adoringfan1924]

ive watched all the vods of this...soooo that means its time to watch it again !

[@Garbarge2]

This video has the 3 best things, cheese, Gino and Elden Ring

[@laf4136]

Just finished the entire vid. Insane run

[@albinlundberg5583]

That last shot at the fire giant had me so surprised. ”I cant aim high enough”, the arrow in question: *NYOOOOM*

[@SneakyBastard-oi4eb]

Good that I found your channel, this is absolutely insane Black Bow is my favorite weapon, and NOTHING will change that

[@LovelyDonkey93]

Whoever edited this 5 hour masterpiece is goated

[@gerg905]

Im sure someone's said, but the reason split damage is so bad for bows is because the arrow add to the bow's BASE dmg. So if a bow has no INT scaling, then the bow doesn't get any scaling on that portion on the arrow dmg. Also because the scaling is super low in general for all bows. Edit: Adding onto this comment, I just learned that Fire is linked to Faith scaling for bows, akin to Flame Art. So the Erdtree Bow and Greatbows' only uses are for scaling fire damage and holy damage, but the total damage is just so much lower than the other bows that it doesn't matter.

[@Terminarch]

Bow only "1 shot 1 level" was a lot of fun. Never finished, of course... damn fire giant >.> Finished it regular though, black bow agility is amazing!

[@ParCBur]

I remember watching this live... the hour long grind for a 10% drop was the funniest thing. I also remember chat going crazy when you finally got it

[@osmium6832]

3:39:00 is my favorite part. He forced his mimic tear to panic roll for 5 seconds straight like he surprised someone in PvP.

[@TacoT-uy9zu]

I like how after he beats Melenia he’s like oh yay I got to actually beat the game😂

[@TheRealAce0]

5 hours? Too long… Jk! A Gino video can never be too long. I literally watched most of the two almost 10 hour all achievement nights hit ds3 videos he made. You can’t get enough of gino

[@parkerpyle]

How satisfying to be able to watch him play Elden Ring while the background music are from Skyrim. Enjoying the run of my favorite game while listening to music of another one of my favorite game. This is just blissful. 😊😊😊

[@junknoodles1028]

That Death Rite Bird ending had me rolling man. This has been so fun to watch!

[@naghelios3989]

I would love to see Gino Try an all boss no hit run, with specific weapon class

[@jrj6591]

The previews heading into each area of the game were a really nice touch!

[@gusix4418]

Zaxaeqxxxaxaxaxaxazaaxaxxazazaxaxazaxaxaxaxaazazaxazxaxzxazaazaxaxaa😉🤤😉😋😉🫠🤤🫠🤤🫠🤤🫠🤤🤤🫠🤤🤤🫠🤤🫠🫠🤤🤤🫠🫠🤤🫠🤤🫠🤤🫠🤤🫠🤤🫠🤤🫠🤤🤤🫠😉🤤😉

[@Buzk_4]

I lived long enough to finally watch this

[@jordanwooten9559]

I’m subscribing just from the sheer fact that you have a 5+ hour video doing this 😂 that is incredible

[@junknoodles1028]

That deathbed ending had me rolling man. It’s so fun to watch this

[@Kpgolfs]

Carrying KZbin for the past year Gino you’re a god amongst men

[@dakotacox3332]

you never used the black bow to its full potential. like shortbows you can jump shoot and upon landing fire another shot. that’s what really makes it so good.

[@Gryphon_2006]

Ngl, playing ER with Skyrim music in the background really helps lol Definitely better than hearing the same theme over and over again while exploring areas lol

[@indicatorbeatbox]

Imagine playing this game for the first time, dying to the scion, and then being gaslit into thinking you have to beat that boss in order to progress. Getting tree sentinel vibes

[@Wizza-bz5jf]

I’ve been seeing the yt shorts and I was excited for this vid!!!

[@gamersreactions9267]

The Limgrave Setup was like playing ARK Simulator, get on a cliff where they cant reach you and blast them

[@adawg3032]

now that the DLC is out we need a crossbow only run since theres the repeating and the spread crossbow now. also the DLC added so many crafting mats to bell bearings so you can basically have unlimited ammo by just having a crazy amount of mats on you at all times

[@licious6033]

Finally finished watching this 3 days after release lol. Really cool run and respect for somehow editing this entire thing

[@odin8352]

24:54 This is so cool, I didn't know he could cover his face.

[@Nightdude23]

Noob here. I've reached 3:47 hrs into the video so far, so the answer may come later in the video, but. Why is he running around with several hundred thousand runes, when he could just sit down and level up with them, like... a lot? Is he trying to stay under a certain level? I know he's good enough to basically never drop them, but why not spend them? Assuming he keeps some handy for arrow costs.

[@connor7329]

i feel like there’s a new insane video every other day lmao. the pace is unreal

[@Bionicbraden100]

Watching through a lot of your “only” / no-hit runs, and just wanted to say I would love to see a crossbow only run! Personally I’ve always loved range and magic builds in rpgs, and I would’ve done a bow build had it not been for the crafting requirement, I just simply will not be farming. Beat the game as magic only first run and doing a second run as a more melee magic hybrid to prepare for the DLC.

[@rubythebee3958]

So while bows aren't very good in general, this run highlights what makes them useful and why they have a place in the game. Like Gino says, they're really good at clearing areas out quickly and stealthily. They can also distract enemies, they can deal with flying enemies, they can status, and they have weird interactions. They aren't good for boss weapons, but having a great bow like Radahn's bow in your inventory with some arrows is very useful for general exploration.

[@jprec5174]

Ansbach's bow now makes bows legit for bosses heh

[@jasonragone7213]

11 pm. Work at 7. Looks like I’m getting a good 3 hours of sleep tonight

[@cabbage8527]

Found this video after i did the bow challenge myself, it was honestly the most fun and challenging run i ever did, also named my character TINK because thats what the sound the arrow makes when hitting a wall 😄

[@lukusridley]

I remember looking at the MVs for mighty shot and noticing just how high they were for status - it's just good!

[@Styxer1008]

Finally! I've heard you reference this run in other videos and it made me more and more excited for it!

[@RyptCripper]

Gino casually walking circles around waterfowl dance melts my brain, wtf dude

[@alicetippet6007]

Been waiting for this for ages!!! Feels like months since i saw your streams on it! Perfect accompaniment to a criminal ammount of nachos

[@MadsofMads]

This video deserves a subscribe... The fact that all I hear i Skyrim music is hilarious 😂

[@QRIO44]

I definitely would be happy to see at least a majority bosses crossbow/Ballista run. I’d like to see dual wielded crossbows at least a few times. I think crossbow’s strength lie in supporting other weapons with posture damage and status, but you’re creative and cool enough I think you could make a good all crossbow vid.

[@gentleseal1778]

I’ve been seeing so many shorts on this run, can’t wait to watch the whole thing

[@ivog2256]

Did you finish it

[@SunWukong-pp2tc]

Fun fact: Mighty Shot deals more status build up than a normal arrow shot

[@songbirdz7168]

my first playthrough i did rock a halberd but for like 80 percent of the game i use bows eventually i equipped blood and rot and(not always) summon mimic tear with a rain of arrows bow and cha ching i have literally stagger locked bosses with bleed like JLP would say its AMAZIN

[@navnatiomproduction4597]

I unironically have been waiting for this for so long

[@zappajohns4600]

editor of this is a big hero, nice job. bet that video export took a while

[@sadhomie9294]

The tumbleweed at 1:04:50 really summed up the fight at the end

[@shanca-ri9jz]

Watching this whenever I can currently at church

[@lostinsim]

You can deal with her with the greatbow (without late lock cheese). Just don’t wait till she attacks. Release not when she’s still, but when she walks: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIXVn4Kmh7itg6ssi=QSJE1fIvC-LexSCX

[@WhiteBeebs]

A video of this length brings me pure joy

[@Picarus1021]

Editor deserves a raise. Great video

[@nonobox2401]

The editing is really really great

[@botobop]

The golden epitaph/golden great arrow thing for some reason reminds me of how the Lloyd rings in DS3 technically don’t require full hp just really close to full

[@dmitriistartsev3857]

Finally some quality content arrived! Thanks for 5 hours without sleep!

[@Rahenno]

I have been waiting for the cut of this for so long! A nice way to spend the Sunday

[@kumoduo]

FINALLY!!! been waiting for this ever since the editor posted shorts of this run

[@khirasier]

havent watched the whole thing yet but the serpent bow is OP if you pump some arcane, cause its arcane scaling will make status arrows like bleed and poison scale and it has base 20 poison so all arrows will apply a bit of poison buildup, better than using short bows for applying status affects

[@fuNdy-0]

2:12 THE ELDEN RING GURU IS MY BOY HOW DARE YOU

[@AKAMP-t1c]

I love that every enemy turned into Boromir in this run

[@michaelpease2103]

The bird taking the stairs at 3:27:40 was out of control 😂

[@backburntoo]

Doesn't matter how many times i see someone getting blasted back like 10 feet, its hilarious every time. Perfect run, 10/10.

[@Vallarok117]

Doing a "all remembrances bow only run" and I've been surprised by how many fights I dreaded turned out not too bad (Hoarah Loux), but Radagon and Malenia have been absolute brick walls for me.