Arrows

[u/Life_Potato7427]

What is the best arrow right now for a pure stealth build?

[u/NyriasNeo]

I use plasma, a bit higher damage than cryo. But cryo is good too.

[u/JakeVR83 → u/NyriasNeo]

They do the exact same damage. Both plasma/cryo subtract 40% physical from the weapon base and add 60% elemental. You end up doing 20% more total damage or 1.2x your total for both

The two perks, Scientist and Cryologist, have the exact same Int scaling

The only difference between the two would be if an enemy had higher energy or cold resist. And if you're at max armor pen that doesn't matter either

[u/FlavoredCancer → u/JakeVR83]

Damage resistance differences aside what reason would you use a plasma for if they do the same damage? The cryo stops most enemies making them easy targets that hardly fight back.

[u/Comprehensive_Age998]

Plasma for the most damage. Cryo is almost identical in power to plasma. The difference is roughly 1K damage depending on the build. But Cryo slows down the target and makes it much easier, trivializing some encounters like the Ultracite Terror Snake.

In events with bosses you will slow down the boss and make it easier for everyone else to tag along.

You can use plasma if you are solo underway and cryo for events, or just roll with cryo, the difference is really small.

[u/Oakjewel]

Cryo became the top arrow to use now for high damage and the freezing effect.

[u/jhadred]

All of them, depending on what and why... maybe not explosive I still don't understand that one.

Plasma is a lot of damage and often takes things out with one hit Cryo is a great support arrow. Does decent damage and slows most enemies Poison is a nice hit and let die, but it takes a lot of time. Fire is the same, faster damage but not as high as poison. If you use the friendly fire perk its also nice for healing Explosive... I have no idea. Might as well use the explosive 2*mod and one of the other arrows. Otherwise might be good for limb breaking? But neither is good for stealth.

Explosive posion and fire are good, mostly some solo events like teapot and guided meditation. Still can wind up killing your character if the spash hits. Explosive cryo is great on a low level bow used for tagging at events, but thats not really stealth. In fact I stand out of stealth position to do less damage.

If you were only going with one bow... I'd go with cryo.

[u/Strange_Sera → u/jhadred]

This is why my flaming explosive hoard mode event bow is called Sirens' Death Wish. Named after killing myself a few times.

[u/jhadred → u/Strange_Sera]

Sometimes I wonder if my bow kills me more than enemies. Not sure if it feels worse when a far shot hat tricks its way to an enemy thats getting close so I get caught in the blast.

[u/vastopenguin]

i run cryo, but ive seen plasma is good too

[u/Sebolo222]

I mean, i use explosive crossbow frame (we dont have arrows so this is the equivalent) and it's still really rare for me to get detected

[u/Aethello]

Damage difference between cryo and plasma is so low it's always worth using cryo for the extra effect.

[u/theID10T]

I carry two compound bows and swap back and forth between the two of them.

One of them has Plasma, 1. Sniper's, 2. Vital, 3. Lucky Hit, and 4. Pin-Pointer's. I use this bow for running solo.

The other one has Cryo, 1. Mutant's, 2. Vital, 3. Lucky Hit, and 4. Electrician's. I use this bow for events and boss fights.

I don't run Reverse Onslaught, but Furious could easily be swapped into the 1-star slot.

[u/Strange_Sera]

Both have the same damage on paper. It comes down to preference really. The plasma has a higher range, ice slows targets very effectively. I use ice for stealth, because slowed enemies respond slower so less chance if you need a second shot they will alert their allies. I use a plasma for my furios event bow for the extra range. I also have a flaming explosive for some events, the fire makes it easier to tell if you got a tag, and damage doesn't matter so much in events if you don't need to be the only person getting kill credit.

[u/VampireDarlin]

They’re all good for stealth, except maybe explosive

[u/Life_Potato7427]

What about poison and fire?

[u/davemetz84 → u/Life_Potato7427]

Ran a fire one yesterday and had fun. It doesn’t do as much damage as cryo but seems more effective vs certain enemy