So I have found several places on the internet that say conflicting things. Some say that you should pick a low power bow and weak arrows, while others say you should pick the highest damage possible. I can't tell which is leveling faster because I'm skill 85 and it barely moves no matter what. If the high damage thing is true, should I where enchanted armor that give me an increase in archery?


Other than the Thief stone, what are some tips?


Also, I don't use mods or pay money to the trainers. Every skills level needs to come from an arrow I shot. Just the way I want to play the game.

Good question. I'd like to know this as well. I would also like to know if practicing on an archery dummy helps as well. If not, whats the point of having them?

Higher damage = faster leveling.

Archery is under the Warrior Stone, btw.

Actually, I can't remember her name, but there is a woman south of Falkreath high up on the mountain that trains you in archery by you physically shooting at targets. You level once each time you hit the targets.

UESP says arrow type is irrelevant, but that's all I could find. It does mention a method of leveling your archery by using the weakest bow and arrows, but I believe that is for the sake of cheapness rather then most effective.

I use hunter bows and iron arrows and I level up pretty fast but then I have noticed with high damage weapons like crossbows it kind of levels you a bit more faster than low damaged bows. Oh I don't even use any stones that give double exp for archery or anything if that matters. So my opinion is that archery is just the fastest to level up and the high damage bows just double the exp. I may be wrong though.

No its not. This misconception has been beaten into the ground. The CK confirms that archery is not on the warrior stone.

The skill is all done by the base damage of the bow(untempered damage) so higher tier bows will increase xp faster. Fortifying your archery would kill foes faster but it wouldn't increase the xp you gain per shot.

Technically speaking http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Angi training is done by completing archery challenges(not paying money) so every skill increase would be from an arrow you shoot. Something to consider when you reach 94.

Fortify marksman potions and poisons help increase the skill, so if your using a low-tier bow, this can help.

This.

For the purposes of leveling and the Thief Stone, Archery is in the Stealth category and therefore the Thief Stone will make it level faster.

The more shots the better. Meaning you need a weaker bow.

The xp is calulated on the base damage(unmodded by tempering or magic) of the weapon. A dragonbone bow will level faster then a hunting bow because the base damage is higher. Its the reason crossbows seem to add more xp per shot then regular bows.

I was once interested in this topic and researched it carefully a few months ago. Here is what I learned:

Q: Which guardian stone should I choose if I wanted to level up Archery quickly?
A: Thief Stone
Q: Shouldn't it be Warrior Stone since Archery is a combat skill?
A: No. In Skyrim, Thief Stone helps you level up Archery quicker.

Q: Should I use weak bow or strong bow?
A: Depends what you mean by that. Experience gain depends only on the Base Damage of the bow. Smithing, Enchanting, Potions and Poisons affect the damage, but do not change experience gain from that shot. So, for the fastest skill gain, you may want to use unsmithed unenchanted Daedric Bow and use Forsworn arrows to deal least damage with your best weapon. Sneak shots double or triple your damage, so you probably don't want to sneak.

Q: I don't believe you.
A: You can test this yourself. That's what I did.

Using Bound Bow might be a good way too. You deal more damage than you would with Daedric Bow because the arrrows are good, but it's free and plentiful...

No. This is wrong. Using Fortify Markman potion hinders increasing the skill since it kills the opponent quicker. Using high-tier bow gives you more experience gain per shot.

Want to bet?

abacus707 speaks truth

Use fortify restoration glitch make a potion that fortifies archery a few thousand percent, fire the arrow at a dragon and tell us if you gained much xp.
Without mods installed.

omg, no. Enchantments do not level skill but fortify marksman potions increase it. Fortify marksman potion, not fortify marksman enchant.

Then make a potion, using the fortify restoration glitch so it fortifies archery a few thousand percent.

Do you even lift?

No. It only depends only on the base damage of the bow. Damage boost from the potion does not change experience gain.

The percentage of a potion that is rised up with enchantments doesn't count, but the base fortify marksman potion does. So if you have a high alchemy skill, the potion will raise up your skill fast.

Anything fortified with an enchantment is subtracted towards skill, that iincludes enchantments towards potions.

Here's an example, you have 10 potions that fortify marksman by 50% (using no enchantments to improve the potion) - that 50% damage contributes to base damage, hence helping you level faster.

If your alchemy skill is low and you can only make a potion that is fortify marksman 10%, and then you use glitches to enchant the potion, that damage gets negated and your only doing 10% damage that contributes to your base damage.

Goddam milk drinkers. They come in here with their half donkey untested beliefs and they are absolutely sure that they are right. They are so sure that they don't even bother to test it. No. They just say whatever they believe and that's it. Big Iron on His Hip, you are one such milk drinker.

Here is the test I just did.

I loaded up one of my characters,

Test 1: I shot an arrow with a bound bow and killed a deer 18 experience gain.
Test 2: I shot an arrow with a bound bow after drinking a 85% fortify marksman potion. 18 experience gain.
Test 3: Added Mystic Binding perk in Conjuration. Shot an arrow with Bound Bow to kill a deer. 24 experience gain.

You get x amount of experience point each time you shoot an effective shot into a target. That x is base damage of the bow. You get 6 experience points for shooting and killing a skeever with a Longbow. You get 19 experience points for shooting and killing a skeever with a Daedric Bow. You get 6 experience points for shooting and slightly damaging a mammoth, you get 19 experience points for shooting and damaging a mammoth with an iron arrow.

You get the same 19 experience points for using a tricked out Legendary Daedric Bow enchanted with awesome Fire and Lightening Damage, wearing all your fortify archery gear for 200% damage improvement. Drinking your 100% fortify marksman potion, and killing an Ancient Dragon with one awesome sneak shot, doing 3000 damage. Yes. Your experience gain from that awesome shot is the same 19 points that you get for killing a skeever with your vanilla daedric bow.

Smithing improves damage, but does not change the experience gain.
Enchanting with fortify archery improves damage, but does not change the experience gain.
Poisoning your bow with damage health potion improves damage, but does not change the experience gain.
Drinking fortify marksman potion improves damage, but does not change the experience gain.

Longbow: 6
Elven bow: 12
Bound Bow: 18
Daedric bow: 19
Bound Bow with Mystic Binding: 24

Milk-drinker? I'm not the one with an avatar showing off my character's junk. Besides werewolves and mecenary work is for the weak and worthless.

So, if this is correct, does that mean wearing Linwe's hood, which raises bow damage by 15% is actually slowing down my Archery progression?

With Faendal you can reach lv50 archery for free, then Angi's shack gives you like 4-5 free archery points as well if you practice with her. Then there is eagle-eye in Solitude where if you get his helmet for him he gives you 1 to Archery as well.