Crystal bow

The Crystal bow is a degradable bow made from enchanting a crystal weapon seed. It requires the completion of Roving Elves to wield, as well as 50 Agility and 70 Ranged. (However, 56 Agility is a boostable requirement for passing through the forests of Tirannwn.)

A crystal bow is created when an elf sings to a crystal weapon seed and enchants it into a bow. The most prominent elf with this talent is Ilfeen, who will perform this service for players for a price. Alternately, if you have 75 Smithing, you can make the bow yourself with Crystal Singing, at the crystal bowl in the Ithell district of Prifddinas. This requires a crystal weapon seed and 750 harmonic dust, and gives 750 Smithing experience.

Because it is blessed by the elven goddess Seren, the crystal bow does not require any arrows to use, as it generates its own when fired. This makes it one of the few Ranged weapons, along with the chargebow, Kayle's chargebow, quickbow, zaryte bow, boogie bow and dominion crossbow, that does not require ammunition. This lack of an ammunition requirement makes the crystal bow useful for firing at targets that are behind barriers that prevent normal collection of arrows, such as the greater demons in the Ogre Enclave, or the Lesser demon in the Wizards' Tower.

The crystal bow is only tradeable when fully charged.

Degrading
Crystal bows degrade during use. Each bow has 50,000 charges and consumes 2 charges for every auto attack, ability used or hit taken. If used in Prifddinas it will only consume 1 charge, lasting twice as long.

Once a crystal bow runs out of charges, it turns back into a crystal seed, and must be recharged before it can be used again.

Before the Evolution of Combat, the crystal bow (as well as shield) used to lose some of its combat bonuses every time it degraded. Now the stats remain the same all through the bow's use span.

Recharging
The bows/shields that are recharged by Ilfeen are non tradeable even when fully charged, and do not stack in your bank

Ilfeen will recharge crystal weapon seeds into crystal bows or crystal shields. She can be found teleporting back and forth between two clearings in Isafdar. (From the lodestone, take the northeast path, jump over the leaftrap, go to the end of the path, then turn left to go through the dense forest. You'll see the musician, and keep going northeast. You'll see another leaf trap, but just before it, you should go left through some trees, then around a fallen tree on the ground, and go north to the clearing. She'll be there, or if not, wait a few minutes and she will be). However, players who have completed The Prisoner of Glouphrie can also find her in the centre of the elven village Lletya.

Initially, Ilfeen charges 1,000,000 coins to re-enchant a crystal seed into a crystal bow. However, the price is decreased by 200,000 coins each time Ilfeen re-enchants a seed for a player, in the following manner, until reaching the minimum recharge cost of 200,000 coins:

Ilfeen is also able to re-enchant partially degraded crystal equipment, at a portion of the cost. For example, a crystal bow in '9/10' condition can be recharged back to full condition for 18,000 coins if the minimum recharge cost has already been reached. A recharge this way will not count towards reducing the cost for future re-enchantments.

The amount that Ilfeen charges is dependent on the number of crystal seeds she has re-enchanted, not the number of crystal bows she has recharged. For example, a player who pays Ilfeen 1,000,000 coins to re-enchant a crystal seed into a crystal shield will only have to pay her 800,000 coins to recharge a seed into a crystal bow.

However it is often more cost effective to buy a fully charged crystal bow on the Grand Exchange than to recharge a used one.

Obtaining and trading crystal bows
A crystal bow with 20% charges is a possible reward for completion of Roving Elves. (Players who choose a crystal shield can choose to let the shield revert into a seed, then re-enchant that seed into a crystal bow.) Additionally, players can buy new crystal bows from Islwyn for 1,000,000 coins each. Unlike Ilfeen's recharge price, the price of a new crystal bow does not decrease.

As crystal seeds are tradeable, players can buy them from other players or the Grand Exchange and pay Ilfeen to re-enchant them into crystal bows.

Analysis and strategy
Although crystal bows do not require any ammunition, they still have a cost associated with their use, in the form of their recharge cost. When the recharge price is 1,000,000 coins, the cost per charge (at 25,000 shots) is 40 coins. However, when the recharge price decreases to 200,000 coins, the cost per charge is 8 coins. By comparison, rune arrows are coins. A charge is consumed per hit dealt or taken. While in Prifdinnas, the charge consumption is halved.

As the crystal bow is a single item and does not use ammo, you do not lose arrows upon death. This makes it popular for use in the Wilderness, where the protect item prayer can be used to retain the bow on death.

Trivia

 * Attempting to light a fire using the crystal bow results in the message "The bow resists all attempts to light a fire. It seems that the sentient tools of the elves don't approve you burning down forests."
 * The above message used to say "You cannot light the fire, because the Crystal Bow has no string." Prior to the release of RuneScape High Detail, the crystal bow indeed had no string.
 * The attack range of the crystal bow is 7 spaces, the same as any shortbow.
 * Attempting to cast Low Level Alchemy or High Level Alchemy on a crystal bow results in the message "You can't do that to elven crystal!" This is due to a glitch that allowed players to alchemise crystal bows on free-to-play worlds for 540,000 coins each. Players could buy crystal seeds, enchant them into bows for 180,000 coins, and alchemise the bows for significant profit. Because of this, Jagex made it impossible to alchemise members' objects on free-to-play worlds, and made it impossible to alchemise crystal equipment at all.
 * The crystal bow appears to shoot green-glowing steel arrows.
 * If you die in the wilderness with the crystal bow you will lose it.
 * The new crystal bow was incorrectly listed on the Grand Exchange for being thrown ammo after the Evolution of Combat update.
 * When the crystal bow reverts to a crystal seed it stays equipped, giving you the pre-EoC walking stance and animation.

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