5 STRONGEST UNIQUE BOWS (+LOCATIONS) in TESV: Skyrim SE - Caedo's Countdowns

Welcome to a list of the highest damage unique bows in TESV: Skyrim. I talk about both their stats, and their locations if you're looking to pick them up yourself! Items listed: Zephyr, Auriel's Bow, Dwarven Black Bow of Fate, Glass Bow of the Stag Prince, Nightingale Bow & Enhanced Dwarven Crossbow.

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[campbellstrickland]

Favour the bow eh? I’m a sword man myself

[simonplante]

I’m always rocking the bound bow because of its so fast and doesn’t need to be crafted. And it casts soul trap

[Phanbot]

I like the look of the Nordic bow buffed to legendary, enchant it with chaos damage and soul trap or paralysis. Sniping enemies with dragonbone arrows gives some nice kill cam moments.

[terricrosby]

I recently found the bow of shadows and its become my best friend, add muffled boots and you can sneak past anything, my stealth skills are benefitting greatly

[blacklight]

If you want the dwarven black bow of fate without the hastle of tracking all over salty-time, just grab 3 plates or platters, hold them up to the gate and sprint through them. Easy peasy.

[xanithdegroot]

There's actually a small mistake here, and one that is commonly made. The best bow in Skyrim in terms of DPS is actually Zepher. However, if you are going for a sneak archer, then the Nightingale bow is better. Or the enhanced dwarven crossbow. Just keep in mind that it has an ungodly slow reload speed, so it's only good for eliminating a single target unless your sneak is high enough to keep you hidden while you reload. I happen to be playing an archer play-through right now, so I decided to share my knowledge.

TL, DR: Zepher is best bow unless your sneaking, in which case this tier list is correct

[grimmauld]

I mean, there is always the assassins bow you get from saving Balgruuf in Whiterun. That bow packs a punch and makes sneak archer incredibly easy.... That aside, Daedric Bows with fiery soul trap (and with Enchanting lvl 100 maybe an extra enchant of your liking) tends to be the strongest i regularly use. Pair it with the Black Star and running out of souls to fuel the bow won't be an issue any time soon.

[DJSkittles]

Best build is the Tanky Heavy Duel Wielding Stealth Mage Archer. Always the best.

[NotaVampyre]

I have always liked the bound bow especially after picking up the related conjuration perks.. It even allows you to use physical arrows if you equip them so the various elemental arrows can be used if you want. It can trap souls and dispel summoned critters as well if the perks are selected,

[HybridSpektar]

Favorite Bow has to be Auriel's Bow. But it's such a pain in the ass to get though.
Ebony Bows are great for the early game and I try to get one as soon as possible.
Stalhrim bows are amoung my favorites too because I just like Stalhrim stuff.

[eobardthawne]

I love the stalhrim bow and how It enhances the chaos and frost enchantments, its upgraded to do lots of damage and combined with my more bow damage enchantment it has a base damage of over 1000

[BinaryJoe]

Can confirm that darkening the sun with Auriel's how helps with sneak, counts as shadow everywhere for the Nightengale perk that makes you invisible in shadow and moonlight.

I'm kicking myself about the Nightengale bow...it's one of the 1st bows I get...on purpose ..and I never knew it scaled up if I get it later. 😢

[murmuratingmemories]

My honorable mention would for sure be Firiniel's End. While "only" a frosty elven bow, it can be acquired pretty early and easily, and stealth archers will be more likely to pick its tempering perk over the dwarven ones. In fact, having a tempering perk at all means that it will eventually surpass the Nightingale Bow.

[Piranhica]

This is beautiful Mako Finisher, thank you

[chaosglitch]

Honestly the bow I prefer to use is the Bound Bow. After all, using it may require Conjugation magic, and a base 180 Magic points, It has 100 arrows for each time it is used. With each summon, It refills the Bound Arrows. Plus when you fully upgrade the Appropriate Conjuration skills, and a maxes out Archery skill, it becomes one of the best bows.

[hunghung]

Zephyr is my best choice. Go with paralyzed poison and quick shot. Infinity stun.

[nitsuanomrah]

I haven't played in years and just got the Anniversary Edition and was playing last night. Got a quest in whiterun to stop an assassin from killing the jarl of whiterun. This guy was using a ebony bow that turns you invisible when you equip it plus some other enchantments I can't remember.. my guy was still finding iron and steel equipment at this point lol. I'm not using any mods, just ps5 creation kit. But now my character feels op all because of this one crazy side quest and my new bow.. 🤷‍♂️

[kumarsen]

Dwarven BBOF is my favorite bow. The glowing inscriptions when you draw the bow looks so amazing😍

[birdman]

I’m usually just using a dragon bone now that I enchanted myself using twinsouls

[NannyOggins]

I start out every walkthrough intending to try a different character style but always end up as a stealth archer, even if I have Illusion, alchemy and forging up to 100 I end up raising stealth to 100 and using my own ebony bow with absorb health and paralyse. I just find stealth archer to be so much fun I can’t leave it alone! Thanks for this tutorial.