Extra Bows: Restrung – A Complete Tiered Bow and Crossbow Overhaul
Minecraft’s ranged combat has always revolved around the trusty bow and the heavy-hitting crossbow, but until now those weapons never received the same tiered progression as swords, pickaxes, or armor. Extra Bows: Restrung changes that entirely. This datapack – also available as a standalone mod – introduces a full set of tiered bows and crossbows, from stone all the way to netherite, each with its own stats, crafting recipes, and subtle gameplay tweaks. Whether you prefer sniping mobs from a distance or unloading quick bolts in a dungeon, this overhaul makes every material choice meaningful.
What Does Extra Bows: Restrung Add?
At its core, the pack gives every tool tier its own bow and crossbow variant. Wood, stone, iron, gold, diamond, and netherite weapons now sit alongside your regular arsenal. But these aren’t just reskins. Each bow and crossbow carries a unique “ranged damage” value that adds bonus damage to shot arrows, and a “strafe speed” stat that determines how fast you can move while drawing or aiming. Vanilla bows and crossbows are rebalanced to match wooden tools, so even the basic equipment feels consistent with the rest of your gear.
Crafting Tiered Bows and Crossbows
The recipes follow familiar patterns with a small twist. For bows, simply take the standard three-stick-and-three-string layout and add two more pieces of your desired material on the sides. A stone bow, for example, needs two cobblestone blocks flanking the central stick. Crossbows require a similar adjustment: replace the top and bottom middle slots of the vanilla recipe with your chosen material. This means a diamond crossbow demands two diamonds in those positions, while the rest of the crafting grid remains unchanged. The design stays intuitive, so you won’t need to memorize complex blueprints.
New Stats: Ranged Damage and Strafe Speed
Extra Bows: Restrung redefines how bows perform by introducing two visible stats. Ranged damage acts as a flat bonus added to every arrow fired. A vanilla bow effectively has 2 ranged damage, and the wooden bow keeps that baseline. Stone and iron versions climb gradually, while diamond and netherite bows deliver devastating hits. Crossbows scale even higher because they cannot receive the Power enchantment – a diamond crossbow can easily deal over 20 hearts of damage with a single bolt, turning it into a true boss-killer.
Strafe speed controls your movement penalty while aiming. The default value is 0.2 for bows and crossbows, but higher-tier weapons often slow you down slightly in exchange for their raw power. Spears, which appear in the creator’s other packs, use a 1.0 strafe speed for comparison. This subtle trade-off means you’ll need to decide between mobility and sheer stopping force.
Durability and enchantability follow the standard material tiers exactly. A netherite bow lasts far longer than an iron one, and gold bows enchant with the highest efficiency, just as you’d expect from their tool counterparts.
Vanilla Changes and Mob Upgrades
The pack doesn’t stop at player-crafted weapons. Several mobs now spawn with tier-appropriate bows and crossbows, making encounters more dynamic:
- Skeletons wearing higher-tier armor will also carry a bow of that same material. A stray in gold armor? Expect a golden bow.
- Piglins now spawn with a golden crossbow instead of a wooden one, matching their love for shiny gear.
- Pillager patrol leaders upgrade from a wooden crossbow to a stone crossbow, giving raiding parties a bit more bite.
Additionally, all bows can now be repaired with planks, just like wooden tools. The crossbow recipe itself has been simplified to accept any wood type rather than requiring iron ingots, making early-game crossbow crafting much more accessible.
Installation and Setup
To use Extra Bows: Restrung as a datapack, place the Extra Bows (Data).zip file into your world’s datapack folder. The companion resource pack, Extra Bows (Resources).zip, must go into your resource pack folder and be enabled in the game menu – without it, the custom items won’t display correctly. You can grab both files from the mod’s official download page. If you’re looking for an even smoother experience, the mod version can be installed effortlessly through the foxygame.net launcher. This modern launcher lets you browse and add mods directly from its menu, eliminating manual file shuffling and keeping your setup clean and flexible. Once installed, all existing bows and crossbows in your world will automatically convert to the new tiered versions, so be careful if any of your gear is heavily damaged – items with more than 64 durability loss might break instantly upon loading.
Known Issues and Quirks
A few unintended behaviors exist due to Minecraft’s underlying mechanics. Every bow and crossbow, including netherite variants, can be upgraded into a netherite version using a smithing table. If you accidentally use a netherite bow as the base for another netherite bow, the recipe will refund the netherite ingot and upgrade template, so you won’t lose materials. Another quirk allows bows of different tiers to repair each other in anvils or crafting tables, which also lets you transfer enchantments from a lower-tier bow to a higher-tier one. While this feels like an exploit, there’s currently no way to fix it until Mojang adds more control over repair recipes. Most players simply treat it as a convenient feature rather than a bug.
Conclusion
Extra Bows: Restrung breathes fresh life into Minecraft’s ranged arsenal by giving every material tier its moment in the spotlight. The addition of ranged damage and strafe speed stats makes weapon choice a genuine tactical decision, while the seamless integration with mob spawning and vanilla recipes keeps the game feeling cohesive. Whether you install it as a datapack or grab the mod version through a handy launcher, this overhaul is a must-try for anyone who loves archery or wants to see crossbows finally reach their full potential. Pair it with the creator’s other packs like Mobility Enchants or Rapiers for an even richer combat experience.