Battlefield 3 Crossbow (XBow) Weapon Guide and Stats – Everything You Need to Know

The Crossbow makes its debut in Battlefield 3: Aftermath, a heavily modified assault rifle that can be equipped with up to four different bolt types. But, how does it work?

We dug up some interesting statistics regarding the Xbow which you may not have been aware of. Thanks to the help of YouTuber rivaLxfactor, we might learn how to become effective killing machines with this unique weapon yet.

In this video guide, rivalXfactor takes us through each of the four different bolt types: the Standard Bolt, the High Explosive Bolt, the Scan Bolt, and the Balanced Bolt, and outlines how you can effectively utilize each in the heat of battle.

[youtube id=”xfeDsdOIgbY” width=”618″ height=”378″]

Through the Symthic forums, we’ve also been able to gather exact damage stats against both infantry and vehicles. Check it out below.

XBow Damage Statistics

General information

  • The XBow has place for 10 arrows and can be resupplied by an ammo kit.
  • You can unlock it by winning 3 rounds of Scavenger, but you can also temporarily pick it up from the ground in the same game mode.
  • You can change your bolt type in game without having to access your spawn menu.
  • You can’t use it on your weapon with underslung rail, like the MASS or M320.
  • Player who picks up the xbow of a corpse can only use the bolts he unlocked himself.
  • The XBow doesn’t show up on the minimap.

Explosive bolt

  • Extreme drop at range
  • Reactive armor also deals with this, like with RPGs

Attack helicopters and Scout helicopters

  • Direct hit takes 91% damage at any spot
  • Scouts are easy to hit when hipfiring

MBT

  • Front -> 10%
  • Angled front-> 8%
  • Side -> 18%
  • Angled side -> 8%
  • Rear -> 28%
  • Angled rear -> 12%

Apparantly you hear a unique explosion sound when the arrow hits your tank.

Jeep

  • 41% to all sides including ~25% damage to the people in it

Jets

  • Same damage as helicopters -> 91%
  • Super effective against F-35

Amtrack

  • Front, sides and rear -> 21%
  • Angled hits -> 12%

IFV

  • Front, sides and rear -> 25%
  • Angled hits -> 15%

Normal bolt

  • OHK at all ranges when headshot
  • OHK everywhere in CQC
  • Annoying drop, but not that hard to calculate (more than bolt actions)
  • At long range, a body shot does around ~60% damage

Balanced bolt

  • Point blank -> headshot 100% damage
  • Point blank -> bodyshot 80% damage
  • 70m range -> headshot 100% damage
  • 70m range -> bodyshot 56% damage

At 70m range, the ballanced bolt doesn’t have any bullet drop.

Update

According to TheRussianBadger’s guide, you will OHK an enemy to the upper chest with the Balanced Bolt within 20 meters. Proving this further, you’ll even notice that, in rivaLxfactor’s guide, he deals 97% damage just outside of the 20 meter range when hitting to the upper chest with the Balanced Bolt.

Scanning bolt

  • Single scan
  • Radius: 12m
  • Headshot -> 24% damage at all ranges (as well as point blank as 70m)
  • Bodyshot -> 10% damage at all ranges (as well as point blank as 70m)

If you hit the target with an arrow, it also spots that person.

DISCLAIMER: All these damage values come from indepth ingame testing and wasn’t extracted from actual gamefiles.

So, learn anything new? Have you used the XBow all that much in Battlefield 3? Let us know in the comments!

Battlefield 3: Aftermath is now available for download to all Premium members including regular PlayStation 3 users. Regular Xbox and PC users will get their hands on Aftermath December 18.

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