Don't you think crossbows are an incredibly overlooked weapon in the game? Don't you find it unfair how they just can not compete with bows whatsoever? Do you wish crossbows were even remotely worth using instead of a bow?.

This Add-On introduces 9 new crossbows to the game, which include 4 enhanced versions of the original crossbow and 5 elemental crossbows, each with its own unique abilities, all of them capable of having modified attributes with the new Crossbow Station, and being fully compatible with all vanilla crossbow enchantments.

NEW! DUAL WIELDING

All weapons from this Add-On can now be used in the Off-Hand, which in turn makes it possible to fire two of them at the same time AND deal double damage!.

HOW TO USE

To use a crossbow in your offhand, you simply need to grab it in your inventory and put in the second hand slot, where you would put a shield.

The crossbow, if you have the amount of arrows needed, will reload automatically. To actually fire the crossbow all you need to do is interact like you would normally (right click/left trigger/holding your screen) in order to shot. As simple as that

You can use any two crossbows you want, you are not limited whatsover in this area. Feel free to try combinations at your will.

ACTUAL DAMAGE SYSTEM

You might think, "but wait, Minecraft has a system that makes hurt mobs invincible for a couple of ticks, isn't this kind of pointless?" Well thanks to the brand new ACTUAL DAMAGE SYSTEM that is no longer a concern!

The ADS (Actual Damage System) allows for you to bombard an enemy with crossbow attacks as fast as you want and have them take all of the damage. This means if you use two crossbows at the same time, you will effectivly deal double damage!

CROSSBOW TYPES

Regular Crossbows

These crossbows are conventional crossbows that only vary in their initial stats, otherwise their functionality is the same as the vanilla crossbow.

Basic Crossbow

Just a normal crossbow, this is a cheap way to get into the new features the Add-On provides

Damage: 3 + 6 || Durability: 264 || Reload: 1.25

Iron Crossbow

More durable and more lethal, a perfect middle ground.

Damage: 3 + 10 || Durability: 634 || Reload: 1.25

Golden Crossbow

Slightly more powerful than the basic crossbow, but it has a very fast reload speed, being the crossbow with the fastest reload. Make it even shorter with Quick Charge!

Damage: 3 + 7 || Durability: 264 || Reload: 0.7

Diamond Crossbow

Good damage and good durability, and a slightly faster reload time.

Damage: 3 + 12 || Durability: 1254 || Reload: 1.0

Amethyst Crossbow

Not a high durability, and an average reload time, but this is the crossbow with the highest damage in the Add-On

Damage: 3 + 14 || Durability: 386 || Reload: 1.25

Elemental Crossbows

These crossbows have somewhat average stats, however, when attacking enemies, they have special and unique abilities that will harm targets in different ways.,

ELEMENTAL CROSSBOWS CAN ONLY BE CRAFTED IN THE CROSSBOW STATION

Scorching Crossbow

Damage: 3 + 6 || Durability: 386 || Reload: 1.25 || Special: Sets entities in a range of 5 blocks on fire || Bonus: When used in the Nether, it will deal more fire damage and the fire effect will last longer.

Aquatic Crossbow

Damage: 3 + 6 || Durability: 386 || Reload: 1.25 || Special: Throws enemies within a radius into the air || Bonus: When used while it's raining, the impulse enemies receive will be stronger.

Frost Crossbow

Damage: 3 + 6 || Durability: 386 || Reload: 1.25 || Special: Deals +2 damage to enemies in a 4 block radius along with a variant slowness effect || Bonus: When used during rain or a storm, it will deal more freezing damage, and the slowness effect will last longer

Electric Crossbow

Damage: 3 + 6 || Durability: 386 || Reload: 1.25 || Special: Deals +5 lightning damage to entities in a 4 block radius, and if the weather is that of a thunderstorm, it has a chance of summoning lightning bolts || Bonus: When used during a thunderstorm, it has a chance of spawning lightning bolts on the targets.

Void Crossbow

Damage: 3 + 6 || Durability: 386 || Reload: 1.25 || Special: On hitting a block or entity, the player will be teleported to the location of the arrow, along with a small negative side effect || Bonus: When used in The End, users will not receive any negative effects for using it.

OBTAINING THE CROSSBOWS

To get these crossbows you have two ways to do it, first being a conventional crafting recipe in the crafting table, and the second being crafting them in the brand-new crossbow station, which allows to customize some of the attributes of the crossbow as well as crafting the elemental crossbows.

Crafting Table

If you do not want to engage with the whole perks and attributes system, you can craft SOME of the new crossbows in a crafting table, you simply need the materials from the recipes and you're good to go!

ELEMENTAL CROSSBOWS CAN ONLY BE CRAFTED IN THE CROSSBOW STATION

Basic Crossbow

Iron Crossbow

Golden Crossbow

Diamond Crossbow

Amethyst Crossbow

Crossbow Station

If you decide to use the crossbow station, you will be compensated with the possibility to make your crossbows stronger as well as crafting the elemental crossbows.

NOTE: All the features listed in this section are exclusive to the new crossbows, vanilla crossbows do not work with the crossbow station.

When you use the crossbow station you will see the following menu, select Craft to make a new crossbow, select Modify to change aspects of one you've already made.

Crafting

If you select the option to craft, you will see all the options you can choose, which are the following:

Body Material: Determines the material the crossbow is made of, which sets some of the base stats, such as reload speed, durability and base damage (you can read in detail in the previous section of the article). This is also how you can craft elemental crossbows, by selecting the corresponding element in this field.
String Material: Determines the tension the crossbow will have when you load an arrow into it, in other words, it will increase the damage dealt by the arrows you shoot.
Perks: Give an extra feature to the crossbow, you can have up to three different perks at the same time, you can also choose to not have any perks if you wish
Name Tag: Give a name to the crossbow you are going to craft, if you want.

Once you confirm all the attributes you want for your crossbow, you will see a confirmation screen, which will tell you what you will be crafting along with the materials you will need to do so:

Now simply press the confirm button and if you have all the ingredients your new crossbow will be crafted! You can also press cancel to go back to the previous screen.

NOTE: As a QoL feature, now if you exit the crossbow creation screen without choosing cancel, if you open it again with the same crossbow you will be shown the confirm crafting screen again.

Modifications

If you select the option to modify, you will be presented with a menu that will allow you to change some aspects of a crossbow you have already made

String: Allows you to further upgrade the string material of your crossbow. PERKS CAN NOW BE STACKED, MEANING IF YOU PUT THE SAME PERK ON ALL SLOTS IT WILL HAVE x3 THE EFFECT
Perks: You can change or remove the perks you have for your crossbow
Rename: Change the name of your crossbow, for no cost!

Perks

Burst Shot: [Requires: Dispenser] You can shoot 3 arrows in succession, this will, of course, require you to load 3 arrows into the crossbow.
Whiplash: [Requires: Piston] This will make entities you hit with an arrow to receive a knock back, similar to the punch enchantment from bows.
Critical: [Requires: Quartz] When you shoot an arrow, there is a random chance it will deal extra damage, which is also randomized, it can go from +2 damage up to +5 damage.
Hunting: [Requires: Spyglass] When you crouch, you will be able to see further away.
Flame: [Requires: Blaze Powder] Arrows will set targets on fire. This is different from the effect of the scorching crossbow, since this only affects entities directly hit and the fire effect is shorter.
Swift Arrow: [Requires: Feathers] Arrows will not be affected by gravity and will travel faster, as well as dealing slightly more damage
Close Shot: [Requires: Glowstone] ONLY WORKS WITH MULTISHOT. Will make the arrows from the multishot burst be shot closer to each other, ideal with the new ADS system.
Sempiternal: [Requires: Ghast Tears] When loading a crossbow, there is a chance it will not consume any arrows on load.

Notes

Crafting crossbows (without any perks) is cheaper in the crossbow station
Adding or modifying perks to an existing crossbow costs more than crafting the crossbow with the same perks

HOW TO USE

The crossbows added by the Add-On work just like the vanilla crossbows, to load them, you simply need one or more arrow in your inventory as you use the crossbow. Hold it for the reload duration and done, now simply use it again to shoot the arrow loaded.
You can also use tipped arrows in these crossbows, you load them just the same as normal arrows. Similar to vanilla crossbows, the priority of what tipped arrow to use is, first, the arrows in your offhand, and second, the arrows in your inventory, so if you have several tipped arrows and you want to specifically use one of them, put it in your offhand.
All crossbow enchantments work exactly as they work on the vanilla crossbows.

THE STRAINED

It's only fair that mobs get a chance to fight back with these. In retaliation they came up with the STRAINED, a skeleton that can use and load all sorts of crossbows.

Health: 15 HP

Can spawn with and use:

Golden crossbows
Iron crossbows
Diamond crossbows
Scorching crossbows
Aquatic crossbows
Frost crossbows
Electric crossbows
Void crossbows

IN-GAME GUIDE

Does this blog contain too much text to remember? Don't worry, throught the Crossbow Station you can now access a new "Information" tab that will give you information on both the perks and the elements of the crossbows of this add-on.

SETTINGS MENU

This second release of the Add-On includes a brand new menu, which allows the players to easily configure some aspects of the Add-On without leaving your world.

To access the settings menu simply type in chat: "/rev:crossbowmenu"

From this menu you will be able to access the following:

NOTE: The command works perfectly fine on survival, although for whatever reason it will not allow you to press TAB to autocomplete it

PREFERENCES

Within preferences, you can configure the following options:

Enable holding animation: Enable or disable the third person holding animations for the crossbows. Disable if encountering weird issues with animation packs.
[!] Restrict offhand use while sneaking: While enabled, players will not activate boomerangs if they are sneaking, this as a way to better control the use of the weapons of the offhand. Disabling it will remove this restriction completely, which is not recommended.
[!] Restrict offhand use with certain items: While enabled, players will not be able to use boomerangs from their offhand if the item in their offhand is a:
- Block
- Food
- Spear
- Shovel
- Hoe
  - Disabling it will remove this restriction completely, which is not recommended.

ADVANCEMENTS

Finally, as a small bonus, this Add-On includes internal Advancements. These are simple goal posts that, when achieved, will grant the player with a certain amount of XP LEVELS:

Common: Grants 2 XP LEVELS
Rare: Grants 5 XP LEVELS
Epic: Grants 7 XP LEVELS

The full list of advancements can be seen in-game through the /rev:crossbowmenu command

NOTE: These are rewards in XP LEVELS, not raw XP, meaning you will always gain this amount of levels no matter how much XP you have at the moment.

ACHIEVEMENT COMPATIBILITY

As of Minecraft version 1.21.70, this Add-On can be used in a world without achievements being disabled, thanks to a change made in this version. However, this feature MIGHT get removed in future versions, although it is still uncertain.

My first time 100% Achievement completing Minecraft : r/xboxachievements

Credits & Notes

All crossbow textures were made by @Sam_BakJoh
CREDITS TO Ewan Howell, who made the plugin for generating Minecraft style titles, used in the featured image. You can find the plugin and his socials here: Minecraft Title Generator - Ewan Howell
All particles were made with Snowstorm, as well as the textures used in them were made by Snowstorm in the example particles.
This was only tested on a Windows 10 computer, compatibility with other platforms is expected but NOT verified.
If you encounter any issues or bugs, please let me know through a Twitter DM (@gv_roy) so I can know ASAP.
CREDITS TO Vibrant Realism PBR (used in some screengrabs): Vibrant Realism PBR (LITE) - Minecraft Bedrock Texture Packs - CurseForge

Crossbow Frenzy - More Crossbows