The Variant Hunter Bows are special Hunter Bows of "Rare" value with 2 modification slots, which can be acquired through the treasure boxes tab at merchants. Like the standard Carja Hunter Bow, the available ammo types are Hunter Arrows and Fire Arrows.
In the Complete Edition of the game, the Carja Mighty Bow and Banuk Culling Bow boxes are free of charge, but are only available outside of the Embrace. In other editions, they can be acquired at any merchant, but require special tokens. These tokens are pre-loaded in the inventory, and do not reload upon starting New Game+.
In Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, all three variant bows can be purchased from any merchant in exchange for a token.
Carja Mighty & Banuk Culling Bows[]
The Carja Mighty Bow has superior impact damage over the standard Hunting Bow, while the Banuk Culling Bow specializes in Tear Damage. Fire arrows shot by the Banuk Culling Bow deal low tear damage instead of fire (see EDIT hereafter). These bows are available alongside matching outfits, Carja Storm Ranger and Banuk Trailblazer, in certain editions of the game.
Aug 29th 2024 EDIT : The Banuk Culling Bow has very likely a hidden stat : 25 Fire Effect at least (but less than 38) in Ultra Hard Mode.
Indeed Aloy can meet the 75 threshold on a small machine with only 3 fire arrows, against 6 fire arrows with the Carja Hunter Bow, Carja Mighty Bow or Nora Longshot Bow (which have each a 13 Fire Effect), all of them without any modification. (Please see Damage for Severity Thresholds theorycraft)
This hidden Fire Effect stat is also factually increased when using Fire Modification (by example, using modifications for a total 50% improvement reduces number of required Fire Arrows from 3 to 2 to enable Fire Status on a weak machine).
So even if the Fire Stat is not displayed for the Banuk Culling Bow, it does exist and apply and the idea that this bow is doing Tear damage instead of Fire is wrong.
Nora Longshot Bow[]
The Nora Longshot Bow deals the same amount of damage as the standard Hunting Bow, but has greater handling. This bow was available exclusively as a GameStop and EB pre-order bonus, along with the Nora Lookout outfit. The box is not available for free in the Complete Edition, and its token is not included with any editions of the game. To obtain the token, a pre-order code must be redeemed in the PlayStation Store.
With Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, the Nora Longshot can now be purchased from any merchant in exchange for a token.
Ammo[]
Numbered damage values are presented in left-to-right order following Story to Ultra Hard. Note that Elemental and Tear damage remains at the same number on Easy, Normal, Hard and Very Hard difficulties. Numbers in Bold are of Normal difficulty.
| Ammo Type | Bow Variant | Damage 
|
Elemental Severity 
|
Tear 
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter Arrow | Nora Longshot | 60-15-15-14-12-11 | None | 50-25-13 |
| Banuk Culling | 60-15-15-14-12-11 | 60-30-15 | ||
| Carja Mighty | 64-20-16-14-13-11 | 50-25-13 | ||
| Fire Arrow | Nora Longshot | 48-15-12-11-10-8 | 38-25-13 | None |
| Banuk Culling | 48-15-12-11-10-8 | Hidden (?-?-25 or more) | 10-5-3 | |
| Carja Mighty | 64-20-16-14-13-11 | 38-25-13 | None |
Acquisition Details[]
Note that the free trades are only available once per playthrough, and neither free trades nor tokens reload on New Game+.
| Variant | Sources | Cost | Additional Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carja Mighty Bow | General Merchants |
Carja Mighty Bow Token |
Only available in some editions of the game and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered |
| Tier 2/3/4 Merchants |
N/A | Available free of charge in Complete Edition | |
| Banuk Culling Bow | General Merchants |
Banuk Culling Bow Token |
Only available in some editions of the game and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered |
| Tier 2/3/4 Merchants |
N/A | Available free of charge in Complete Edition | |
| Nora Longshot Bow | General Merchants |
Nora Longshot Bow Token |
Only available after redeeming an exclusive pre-order code in the PlayStation Store and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered |
Trivia[]
- Due to superior base Handling, the Nora Longshot Bow is the only variant to have any sort of attribute advantage over the Banuk Striker.
- However, the Banuk Striker has more modification slots that can be used to cover the shortcoming.
| Horizon Zero Dawn Weapons | |
|---|---|
| Ranged Weapons | Blast Sling - Forgefire - Hunter Bow - Icerail - Rattler - Ropecaster - Sharpshot Bow - Sling - Stormslinger - Tearblaster - War Bow |
| Melee Weapons | Spear - Sylens' Lance |
| Stealth Weapons | Traps - Tripcaster |
| Heavy Weapons | Deathbringer Gun - Disc Launcher - Firespitter - Firestriker - Mine Launcher - Oseram Cannon - Ravager Cannon |