Ranged Combat

Version 0.25: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Ranged Combat is a term used to describe any action that consists in striking from afar a target with a missile. To do so in a effective way, the attacker may need to wield a launcher.

Commands

The commands used by the player to perform ranged attacks are:

• f: After selecting a target, you shoot the next appropriate item.
• F: Like f, but you can also select the item to fire.
• Q: This command is used to select the item slot that will be used by next f command
• Tab: If wielding a launcher, attack the nearest monster with the quivered ammo, moving if necessary.
• Shift-Tab: If wielding a launcher, attack the nearest monster with the quivered ammo, without moving.

Requisites

The player is not always able to do ranged attacks:

• Felids are unable to use ranged attacks.
• Small species can't use longbows or javelins.
• Any transformation that makes you unable to wield weapons: Spider Form, Ice Form, Blade Hands, Dragon Form, Pig Form, Porcupine Form, Wisp Form, Fungus form and Bat Form.
• Being entangled by a net or a web.
• Being berserk.

The only monsters that can use ranged attacks are those with the Weapons armour flag or the Use starting equipment flag. Those monsters need to meet the following conditions:

• Not being incapacitated. Some effects that can cause this are paralysis, sleep, confusion, being entangled, and petrification.
• Not being submerged.
• Monsters with the Archer flag are more likely to use ranged attacks: 8/9 for archers vs. 4/5 for normal monsters.
• They need to be able to see their target.
• Monsters adjacent to their target won't use ranged attacks, except if they have the Archer flag.
• Monster with ranged spells won't use ranged attacks, unless they start with some ranged weapon.
• Fleeing and pacified monsters have lower chances to use ranged attacks.
• Not being inside sanctuary.
• Not being berserk.

See also

• Ranged weapon
• Weapon damage
• Weapon speed