The durability of the two crossbows is added together, plus an extra 5% durability. Any loaded ammunition is lost.
Mob loot[]
Pillagers[]
When killed, a pillager has a small chance (8.5%) of dropping a loaded or unloaded crossbow with random durability; the drop rate increases by 1% per level of Looting: 9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III. The dropped crossbow can rarely (10% chance) be enchanted at level 5–19 regardless of being enchanted when it spawned.
Crossbows dropped by pillagers may have multiple enchantments, including duplicate enchantments on the same weapon.
Piglins[]
Piglins have a chance of wielding a crossbow upon spawning, and they also have a small chance (8.5%) of dropping a loaded or unloaded crossbow of random durability when killed; this rate increases by 1% per level of Looting: 9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III. It can rarely (10% chance) be enchanted at level 5–19 regardless of being enchanted when spawned.
Crossbows are similar to bows, but take longer to load and are slightly more powerful, shooting farther with slightly higher accuracy. Alternatively, they can be loaded with a firework rocket, which flies in a straight trajectory.
Load them by using them, which makes the player move at sneak speed. Unlike bows, the arrow or firework rocket can be fired only if the player releases the use button after the crossbow is loaded[Java Edition only] or if the crossbow finishes its loading animation [Bedrock Edition only]. At this point, it must be used a second time to fire its bolt.
Once it has reached full charge, the player's speed returns to normal. After that, shooting a charged crossbow does not delay any of the player's current action like sprinting or swimming.
The crossbow can even be placed in another inventory slot or into an item frame without the arrow or firework rocket being unloaded or fired. A charged crossbow also remains charged after enchanting it with an enchantment table or with an anvil.
In order to use the crossbow, at least one arrow or firework rocket must be present in the inventory. The player can choose the type of arrow to fire based on its location in their inventory:
Java Edition first-person loading animation for crossbows.
Arrows in the off-hand, or the selected hotbar slot if the crossbow is in the off-hand, are prioritized first.
If there are no arrows in the off-hand or selected hotbar slot, the arrow closest to slot 0 is selected.
Crossbows take 1.25 seconds (25 ticks) to load.
The player can load either an arrow, spectral arrow, tipped arrow (of any effect) or a firework (of any color/type).
Bedrock Edition first-person loading animation for crossbows.
Endermen teleport away from projectile paths, so they cannot be hit with crossbow arrows. They can still get harmed by firework rocket explosions, either by direct hits or being in the blast radius of one on the ground.
Attack strength:
Java Edition:
Damage
Arrow
Max firework
Minimum
7
11 × 5.5
Average
9
14.5 × 7.25
Maximum
11 × 5.5
18 × 9
Bedrock Edition
Always 9
Fireworks[]
Firework rockets can be fired by loading the crossbow only while holding the rockets in the off-hand. They fly at 32 m/s. Firework rockets with higher flight duration have a longer time before they explode and therefore travel farther; commands can be used to increase the flight time and range of the rocket outside the normal window. Firing a firework rocket uses 3 durability points per shot.
Firework rocket range
Minimum
Average
Maximum
Gunpowder
32m (20 ticks)
40.8m (25.5 ticks)
49.6m (31 ticks)
1 ()
48m (30 ticks)
56.8m (35.5 ticks)
65.6m (41 ticks)
2 ()
64m (40 ticks)
72.8m (45.5 ticks)
81.6m (51 ticks)
3 ()
Firework rockets also work with the Multishot enchantment, enabling the player to shoot 3 firework rockets at a time. The increased durability usage stacks, resulting in 9 durability being consumed with each shot.
A shot firework rocket explodes instantly when it hits a mob or block.[Java Edition only] If the firework rocket has no explosion effect, it deals no damage. The explosion of a firework rocket deals 5 to 6 points of damage, with one firework star. The explosion has a radius of roughly 4 blocks, which is unaffected by the firework star's effect. Each additional firework star on the rocket deals an additional 1 to 2 points of damage, for a maximum of 11 × 5.5 to 18 × 9 with 7 firework stars. The flight duration of the firework increases the maximum range the firework can travel before exploding, but does not affect the damage output. Likewise, the damage remains the same regardless of any dyes used. Unlike an arrow shot from a bow, the firework does not slow down under water.
Fireworks crafted without firework stars shot from crossbows upon contact with terrains, slide on them. They continue their original trajectories as soon as they break contact from the blocks they slid on.
Repair[]
Crossbows can be repaired in an anvil or grindstone by combining two crossbows. Any loaded ammunition is retained from the crossbow in the first slot but sacrificed from the crossbow in the second slot.
Decreases the reloading time of the crossbow by level * 0.25 seconds. Crossbows with Quick Charge III fire slightly faster than bows. If commands are used to enchant a crossbow with Quick Charge V, the crossbow charges instantaneously. A crossbow enchanted with Quick Charge VI is effectively impossible to charge, which renders it useless. This can be done only in Java Edition.
Makes the crossbow fire a spread of 3 projectiles at once instead of a single projectile, which is useful for targeting mobs spread out in a small area. This works for both arrows and firework rockets. Firing with this enchantment still uses only one projectile, and because of that, it is possible to recover only one of the three arrows shot from a Multishot crossbow. Multishot crossbows use 3 durability points per shot, unless using fireworks for ammunition, in which case 9 durability is consumed. Mutually exclusive with Piercing.
Makes arrows shot from the crossbow pierce entities they hit and continue their flight, which allows each arrow to hit up to level + 1 entities. This is useful for targeting mobs closely packed together, and for conserving arrows, as they can be picked up after piercing entities. Arrows fired in this manner also ignore shields. Mutually exclusive with Multishot.
Causes the crossbow to disappear instead of dropping on the ground when the player dies. The /gamerule keepInventory overrides this.
I
Multishot and Piercing are mutually exclusive. Normal methods of enchanting allow only one of them to be applied to a crossbow.
Crossbows can receive 3 unique enchantments, and have a base enchantability of 1. Enchantments specific to crossbows include Quick Charge, Multishot and Piercing.
This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.
adventure/arbalistic
Sniper Duel
Kill a Skeleton from at least 50 meters away
Take Aim
Be at least 50 blocks away horizontally when a skeleton is killed by an arrow after the player has attacked it once.
adventure/sniper_duel
Bullseye
Hit the bullseye of a Target block from at least 30 meters away
Take Aim
Be at least 30 blocks away horizontally when the center of a target is shot with a projectile by the player.
Issues relating to "Crossbow" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[]
Alongside pillagers, crossbows were inspired by Minecraft Dungeons, even though they were added in the base game first.[2]
Crossbows enchanted with Quick Charge VI and above get stuck on the first frame on the recharging animation because the resulting charge time is negative, and the game never reaches the time markers that tell it to advance the animation or the reloading procedure itself. It is technically possible to charge such crossbows, but this would require overflowing the value that determines how long the crossbow has been charged. This takes such an amount of time that this is practically impossible: for example, charging a crossbow with Quick Charge VI would take 69.4 years to complete.
Although Piercing allows arrows to bypass shields, they can't get through the wither armor.
Even if a crossbow is already wound with a projectile, when it drops on the ground, it always looks uncharged.[3]
In real life, crossbows don't shoot the same arrows as bows, rather they shoot shorter, thicker, and oftentimes fletchless arrows (usually called "bolts") made to withstand the crossbow's increased power, which can shatter conventional arrows.
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Added piglins, which can spawn with and drop crossbows.
Added piglins, which can spawn with and drop crossbows.
