Assassin’s Creed Odyssey special arrows guide (2024)

Dealing damage to your enemies in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey falls into three broad categories — ranged or hunter, melee or warrior, and sneaky or assassin. It’s easier (and more fun) to deal damage of warrior or assassin types, but hunter damage dealt with your bow is a valuable alternative. There’s a nice area of effect attack you can unlock with Rain of Destruction, or you can deal some extra damage with the Predator Shot, but there’s one ability that adds new mechanics to your repertoire — and new arrows to your quiver.

Unlocking the ability

It’s easy to overlook the Arrow Master ability in the hunter skill tree — there are better and flashier abilities to unlock first, and those ability points are hard to come by. But Arrow Master opens up the ability to craft and use special arrows, which opens up some new gameplay (murder) options for you.

The special arrows unlock in stages, as you acquire and upgrade the Arrow Master ability. The first level will unlock paralyzing arrows, the second will add in fire and poison arrows, and the third and final will give you explosive arrows. Each level requires an ability point, but the second and third levels are gated by your character level.

Crafting special arrows

While you’ll find some special arrows in the weapons racks scattered around bases (and a few on enemies you’ve slain), you’ll need to make your own if you plan to use them in any quantity. Open your Inventory menu, then open your quiver. You’ll see your standard arrows along with any of the special arrows you’ve unlocked. Hover over the arrows you want to craft, where you can hold down the a button to craft a few, or another button to craft as many as you can. Standard arrows require only olive wood, while the special arrows require wood plus another of your resources. You can see what each type requires in the pop up as you hover over each arrow.

Special arrows and their uses

There are six types of arrows you can use — the regular kind you start with, four more you unlock with the Arrow Master skill, and one final type you get from completing a side quest. Here’s how they work:

Standard arrows. These are your basic, vanilla arrows.
Paralyzing arrows. These don’t pack the same damage as the other arrows, but they’re great for knocking out enemies you want to recruit.

Poison arrows. Poison arrows add some extra damage from venom and, once the poison builds up, drains the health of your enemies. (You can see the poison condition as a gauge above their head.)
Fire arrows. Fire arrows can set your target on fire (which is a lasting condition that deals extra damage like poisoning above), or can destroy supplies (which weakens regional leaders).
Explosive arrows. Explosive arrows add an explosive tip to your arrows for extra damage (and fun) at a distance.

Death arrows. You’ll get these arrows by defeating two legendary animals for the Daughters of Artemis. This is a pretty high-level quest — we found it around level 12 or 13 — so don’t expect to unlock them for a while. Death arrows deal extra damage and fly a little faster.