Dark bow

The dark bow is the second most powerful shieldbow in the game, behind the Strykebow and requires level 70 Ranged and 70 Defence to use. While it shoots at little over 7 seconds between attacks (double the time in between attacks (3.6 seconds) compared to other shieldbows), it shoots two arrows with each shot resulting in the same amount of arrows shot over time as any other shieldbow. It is a drop unique to dark beasts, which require level 90 Slayer to kill.

The dark bow is classified as a shieldbow, so wielding it allows the use of abilities requiring a shield.

A wyrm scalp can be added to a dark bow to turn it into a more powerful strykebow.

Special Attack
The dark bow has a special attack called Descent of Darkness which hits twice with doubled damage, or tripled if using dark or dragon arrows. The special attack uses 65% adrenaline. Upon using it, no ammo is used. Note: when using dark or dragon arrows the spec is called Descent of Dragons.

Other uses
The dark bow can be used for the Archery competition minigame. It can also shoot as fast as a player can shoot the target and close the score window, allowing the dark bow to be just as fast as any other bow in this minigame.

It is not possible to use this bow for barbarian firemaking. Attempting to light a fire using a dark bow will prompt the message, "The innate darkness of the bow sucks all the heat from your Firemaking attempt. You realize that this type of bow is useless for firelighting."

Development Diaries
The Impetuous Impulses development diary has a description of the development of the dark bow. The diary contains artist impressions of the dark bow, which form the basis for the development of the bow itself and its special attack.

Colouring
In a Guaranteed Content poll created by Jagex on 16 February 2010, the dark bow was nominated for a recolouring, similar to how the abyssal whip was recoloured (allowing the player to decide between four colours). The poll ended on 22 February 2010, with the dark bow winning with 24% of the votes. The coloured versions of the bow are obtainable as a reward from the Barbarian Assault minigame. After Jagex said a new item was to be coloured, people suspected the dark bow would win the poll. As a result, the dark bow rose in price from 1.1m to 1.9m within a few weeks. The dark bow increased further in price just as the Abyssal whip did after the update.

On 29 March 2010, Commander Connad was updated so he would recolour dark bows because it was the Guaranteed Content poll winner. The colouring will make the bow untradeable; however, to remove the colouring, simply use a cleaning cloth and the bow will return to its regular state. Buying a colour for the dark bow and abyssal whip costs 50 points in any role. Once purchased, the colour can be used on either weapon as many times as needed. The dark bow has the same colour options as the whip.

Trivia

 * Before the Evolution of Combat, this weapon had two special attacks, these were as follows:
 * Descent of Darkness inflicted up to 30% more damage and did a minimum of 50 damage per arrow (25 on players).
 * Descent of Dragons inflicted up to 50% more damage when using dragon arrows and does a minimum of 50 damage per arrow (80 on players).
 * On 8 October 2013 with the release of elder bows, the dark bow's Ranged level requirement was increased from 60 to 70, and the damage and accuracy bonuses were also increased. This was done to preserve the dark bow's title of best shieldbow in the game.
 * On 2 March 2015, a level 70 Defence requirement was added to the bow.