In this episode of the Bannerlord Perks guide we will look at the crossbow skill perks. By the end of this video, you will have a complete understanding of what each one does and which to pick based on your specific needs. I put timestamps in the description for your convenience and without further ado, let’s get started!
Level 25 – Marksmen: This perk is deceptively good – 25% is a big number but looking at the test results it doesn’t look like much. Keep in mind though, aiming faster is critical to hitting accurate shots more rapidly, increasing your overall damage output.
The secondary perk is okay, increasing the morale of our ranged troops. It’s tagged as party leader, so we can use it with our main character, which is nice.
Level 25 – Piercer: This perk ignores armor below 20, which means attacks on lower tier troops will do more damage. We can see from the testing, without the perk our first shot is reduced by 1 from armor and the second shot by 16. With the perk, there is no reduction on either. This can be great for taking down lower tier troops with a single shot.
The secondary perk will save us 20% on recruiting ranged troops. It’s pretty good because it’s tagged as party leader and we can get it at level 25, which in the early game can help out a lot!
This is a tough one and I don’t think you can go wrong with either pick. I think Marksmen is better for late game builds and piercer will help us more for the early game.
Level 50 – Unhorser: Having 40% extra damage against horses can really help take down cavalry. In the testing, we can see no bonus damage for the attacks without the perk, but a +32 and +22 with. This is a 40.5% & 39.3% increase respectively. For once, I can’t say TaleWorlds Mathematics!
The secondary perk is reasonable as 20% is a good increase. However, it’s limited to crossbows and picking this will be limited to which ranged troops we use.
Level 50 – Wind Winder: Another 25% bonus! This time, it’s decreasing reload time which is huge. We can see from the testing that it saved over two thirds of a second per reload. The total reload time is a little over 3.5s, so the decrease accounts for a 19% drop in reload time.
The secondary perk only gives a 5% reduction to reload time for crossbow troops, which seems a little small to be useful.
For our main character, wind winder is really hard to pass up. If you’re fighting against a lot of cavalry then consider unhorser, but I still prefer wind winder.
For the captain perk, I still prefer wind winder as even a 5% increase to reload speed can be helpful.
Level 75 – Donkeys Swiftness: A 30% decrease to accuracy loss from movement is pretty good for those planning on moving and shooting a lot. We can see from the testing a big reduction to the spread of our aiming reticle with the perk.
The captain perk is amazing, giving a 30 skill point increase to for crossbows which increases their accuracy and reload speed.
Level 75 – Sheriff: Picking up 50% more damage to headshots can be great in some situations. At close range, we can see that even without the perk we do a significant amount of damage. With the perk, we do even more – more than a 47% increase! The real power of this perk comes at greater distances where damage falls off, making 1-shots still possible from distance. We can see a 135 shot distance does not 1-shot unless it’s to the head, thanks to our 50% perk!
The captain perk is quite good, doing an extra 10% damage to infantry by our crossbow troops. Thank you for making it more than 2%!
For our main character, I find the extra headshot damage to have more utility overall but this is subjective. For those who like to move while shooting, Donkey’s swiftness can be good. For the captain perk, if you need more accuracy and reload speed then Donkey is the pick but since crossbow skill increase doesn’t change damage, consider taking sheriff if you want more damage output.
Level 100 – Peasant Leader: We can increase morale for our lower tier troops with this perk, making our mob of peasants much more useful. In testing, we can see a pretty big increase in staying power for our tier 1 army. In the first battle, we let the AI take over and our army was narrowly defeated with only 37 troops left on the other side. With the perk, fighting the exact same army we, we can see a massive difference, resulting in a victory with 184 troops left standing.
The governor perk is quite good as well, giving a 20% reduction in ranged troops. And since siege defenses rely heavily on ranged troops, we can put this perk to good use.
Level 100 – Renown Marksmen: This perk gives a passive 2XP per ranged troop per day, which can be helpful when leveling lower tier archers.
The governor perk helps increase the effectiveness of ranged troops on town security, which I find is helpful when first taking over a town but nearly useless once it’s stable.
For our main character, the pick is situational – If you find yourself with large groups of lower tier troops then peasant leader is good. If you have trouble leveling up your archers, then renown marksmen is the pick. For the governor pick, I recommend peasant leader most of the time, although having 1 companion with good perks to stabilize a new conquest can be helpful.
Level 125 – Fletcher: Quiver stack size has always been an issue, with the vast majority having only 18 – 20 each. This perk gives a +4 to each, which makes a huge difference! Without the perk, we can have up to 60 bolts, but with the perk that number jumps to over 70!
The secondary perk is good as well since it’s party leader enabled and gives all of our crossbows +2 per quiver. In longer fights, these extra 2 shots can really go a long way!
Level 125 – Puncture: Ignoring 10% of the enemy’s armor can come in handy when fighting higher tier troops. For lower tier troops, it’s irrelevant, but as we can see in our test against high armor it makes a big difference. Damage absorbed by armor without the perk averaged to 75, but with the perk only 59.
The captain perk does the same, but at a 5% reduction.
Again we are faced with a difficult pick – If you find yourself running low on bolts in most battles, but need the equipment slots for a shield and melee weapon then fletcher is a nice pickup. It also has the added bonus of giving our troops more bolts. If you’re looking to go heavy on end-game crossbow damage, then puncture is the pick. Puncture is the only captain perk here, trivially making it the pick.
Level 150 – Deft Hands: The interrupt threshold is the amount of damage needed to stop the reloading animation, forcing us to start over and slowing down our output. This perk doubles that threshold, although as you can see in testing there was no difference. We even went all the way down to looter rocks, but everything stopped our reloading process.
The same can be said for the captain perk, which is unfortunate.
Level 150 – Loose and Move: And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for – the movement speed perk. No Discussion needed, let’s jump into the testing! We tested 2 scenarios – one with full armor and carrying 4 crossbows in total and the other with nothing equipped but a crossbow and a quiver of bolts. We ran for 19s with the perk and saved a whole 2.5m with 4 crossbows equipped! For the other loadout, the difference was just over 1m difference for the same 19s. If we take into consideration some error tolerance, then both results are effectively the same.
The captain perks gives a flat 5% movement speed bonus, which means it will actually have some impact!
For our main character, the pick here is loose and move with the reasoning being that someday TaleWorlds may fix these perks and you will have invested in the right one. However, without the fix, both are awful and we lose either way.
For captain perk, loose and move is the pick as it actually has an effect!
Level 175 – Counter Fire: Taking damage from incoming projectiles is not fun, so perks like these really help out. In our testing, we don’t see any damage reduction without the perks and anywhere from 2 – 5 with the perk. It’s not a huge amount, but with higher tier armor it can make an even bigger difference towards our survivability.
For the captain perk, TaleWorlds went wild and gave us 3% damage reduction from projectiles instead of the obligatory 2%. Not very good still.
Level 175 – Mounted Crossbowman: Being able to reload any crossbow on horseback can come in handy since the higher tier crossbows can only be reloaded on foot without this perk. The biggest issue with using a crossbow is mobility, forcing us to stop for the first half of the reload. On horseback, this deficit is eliminated so this can help a lot!
The secondary perk is for party leader, which means we can use it at all times. Gaining +5% XP for all ranged troops after battle can help a lot since ranged troops cause the majority of casualties.
The pick here is pretty simple – if you plan on stay on horseback, then mounted crossbowman is critical. Otherwise, counter fire is a great pick. Counter fire is the only option for captains.
Level 200 – Sniper: This perk really lives up to it’s name as you can see from the testing. Notice that our main character’s head disappears because we are zoomed in so far! When testing earlier for the headshot damage, I had to use this perk to get accurate headshots at 135m, so it really comes in handy for anything past 100m.
The governor perk gives a +1 to militia per day, which is an amazing bonus!
Level 200 – Steady: When moving on a horse, our accuracy is worse. It’s even more so when the horse is moving left or right. We can see in testing only a slight reduction to aim penalty moving in a straight line, but a huge difference when swerving left to right. I also tested to see if there was any effect to our character moving around to aim, but there is no difference even without the perk. Aim penalty on horseback is only tied to the horse’s movement, but when on foot it is tied to the movement of our character.
The governor perk gives a 5% increase to tariffs, which is quite small.
For me the pick here is easy – sniper is more useful as it will not only help with aiming, but also when direction our army on the field and observing enemy movements. I just don’t find myself swerving left and right with my horse while trying to aim, but if you do then this can certainly help. For the governor perk, I prefer sniper. If you’re struggling to make money and own a town, then steady can help, but I still feel like 5% is too small to make a difference.
Level 225 – Hammer Bolts: Aside from Javelins rag dolling enemies, there isn’t anything more satisfying that knocking cavalry off their horse. Hammer bolts is so much fun, watching enemy cavalry tumble off. Dehorsing enemies can often be a death sentence, so this perk is great.
The captain perk is amazing since it’s 10% more damage and is effective against all enemy units!
Level 225 – Pavise: When I first tested this perk I was a little confused because I couldn’t get it to work. It turns out, certain shields aren’t programmed to work with this perk so be aware of that. With a Pavise, it works wonders though! It’s really satisfying to deny the enemy archers some satisfaction from an accurate shot on target. 75% is a huge chance to block all incoming damage!
The governor perk is interesting, giving more accuracy for ballista during sieges. The problem here is we have no control over which engines are built so it’s wasted when our fief makes onagers.
The pick here is agonizing as I don’t want to give either one up. Taleworlds, why do you play with my emotions like this?! If you plan on fighting a lot of cavalry, then hammer bolts is useful. Otherwise, Pavise is amazing.
Captains pick hammer bolts and governors pick pavise. (puh-veez)
Level 250 – Picked Shots: This perk is interesting as both work as the party leader. The first gives us a 50% reduction in wages for all tier 4 and above ranged troops and the second giving all ranged troops +5 HP. I’m a huge fan of both of these!
Level 250 – Terror: The party leader part of this perk has a chance to inflict more casualties upon bombardment, but as we will see in the testing it was difficult to notice any difference. Bombardments without the perk have a chance to inflict from 0 – 2 casualties per siege engine destruction. With the perk, this number increases by 1 at a 20% chance. I tested 10 sieges with and without and had an impossible time telling the difference between the two.
This captain perk is S tier – causing 25% more morale loss is huge since crossbows are extremely potent in battle. Keep in mind, the sooner the enemy flees, the less casualties our army sustains so this can not only help us win battles, but also minimize casualties for any battle.
For our main character, picked shots is the pick and it’s not even close. For captains, Terror is the pick.
Level 275 – Mighty Pull: Crossbows are quite different from their bow counterpart in that each level increase for crossbow does not effect damage – it only increases accuracy and reload speed. However, the final perk helps fix this issue by increasing both reload speed and damage. As always, we test from level 0, level 275 without the perk, 275 with the perk and 330 with the perk. The difference in reload speed is incredible! At 330, we finish reloading at the same time level 0 is finishing up the 2nd reload. Looking at the difference in damage, we see no difference from 0 and 275, but a good increase at 275 with the perk and a massive increase at 330 with the headshot damage nearly doubling! This is one of those perks that I can recommend trying to reach 330 for if you’re planning on using crossbows as a primary weapon.
We are nearing the end of the video, which means it’s time for the bonus!
Ultimate Ranged Supremacy – There is a saying – Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. When it comes to ranged units in Bannerlord, I disagree completely! To prove this point, let’s build a ranged only army that can beat significantly bigger armies and doesn’t use OP Fian Champions ! We take all of the good personal combat crossbow perks as well as the 250 perk for ranged unit wage reduction. We also take a couple roguery perks that will make our bandit archers cheaper and more effective. Finally, we take all of the good steward perks that reduce troop wages.
Now let’s look at army composition. We could hire 500 Fian Champions and call it a day, but that would be too easy. Instead, let’s achieve the same results with significantly worse troops! We take 200 hired crossbows and 300 archer bandits. In order to be effective on the field, we must use our hired crossbows in a different way – They become our shield wall. We place them in the infantry group, tell them to hold fire and form a shield wall. As the enemy approaches, we can order them to fire a volley and then return to shield wall formation. The results are devestating!
Now let’s look at a couple battles to see how effective this strategy really is.
For the first battle, we take on nearly 900 troops, dwarfing our force of 500. We begin by pushing our mercenary crossbow to the front and form a firing line. The enemy doesn’t have many ranged units, so we can skirmish without taking casualties. Their massive shield wall approaches quickly from the front, so we send our shield wall to the left and our main archer line to the right, forcing the attackers to make a costly decision. If they attack our archers, they take fire from behind from our shield wall. If they attack the shield wall, they catch a volleys of arrows from our archer line. They decide to attack our shield wall, which we oblige with a hold fire and charge command. Our archers continue to pour arrows from their rear flank while our shield wall holds them in place. After their initial shield wall is demolished, we can freely pick apart their staggered reinforcements. By the end of the battle, we have lost only 5 troops and destroyed their army of nearly 900 troops.
Now let’s up the ante and take on an even larger force that is well balance with plenty of archers and cavalry. Our same 500 ranged troops against their 1150 troops. We start by retreating back up A hill, avoiding flanked attacks by their cavalry. We leave our shield on hold fire as the cavalry close the distance too quickly. We lose hardly any troops in the scuffle and begin to prepare for the main assault. Our shield wall rushes to meet the attackers head on, driving them back eventually. They send wave after wave of reinforcements, but it’s not enough to break our lines and we hold firm. Their forces eventually route, giving us an incredible victory. We suffer over 50% casualties, but less than 10% deaths.
Not only have we defeated much larger armies, but we did it without Fian Champions AND we had our army paying us the whole time!
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