The Archer is one of the first classes introduced. Early on in Realm, he used to have an extremely long range attack that did not pierce enemies. He had no ability until Build 97, when the quiver was implemented. Tiered bows became capable of piercing enemies in Build 117, and had a complete rework in Exalt Version 2.3.0.0 (Mar 2022). The Archer also used to be the first class most new players got to use until that honor was passed on to Wizard.
The Archer is a fairly powerful class in almost anyone’s hands, but takes skill in timing and dodging if you want to be successful with it, whether it’s for getting loot or staying alive. Unlocking Archer requires level 5 with Priest, though it should be noted that new accounts created via Steam are allowed to play this class first. See his stat gains, caps, and averages here.
Along with the Huntress, the Archer uses the bow and wears leather armor. Most notably, the Archer features the exact same stat caps as the Huntress; with a very high ATT of 75, above average bulk (due to leather armor), but middling stats otherwise. Most UT bows are dramatically different than tiered bows; the former is documented below.
Tiered bows are a unique weapon class, most notable for their 3-shot spread.
The Bow of Innocent Blood, Bow of Covert Havens, Bow of Mystical Energy, and Bow of Deep Enchantment, in order, are the most powerful tiered bows. Tiered bows fire 1 “main” shot - which deals the most damage, and 2 “side” shots - which piece armor. The tiered bow’s ability to pierce enemies and their wide spread give them unmatched minion-clearing potential. But in order to hit all three shots on a single target, you must stand fairly close (4.07 tiles) to them. Note that hitting 2 shots has a fairly decent range while maintaining fairly decent damage. If you have access to other UT bows, it is heavily recommended to keep a UT bow on hand for higher effective range.
The Doom Bow (DBow) has one of the slowest rates of fire in the game, but one of the highest damage/shots in the game - easily able to go up to the thousands. These traits make it very effective against high DEF enemies, such as any incarnation of Oryx. Combined with its fairly high range, and there’s few better wapons to get soulbound damage with. The slow firerate is a downside, requiring more precise aiming to be effective. And note that this bow’s overall DPS is relatively low, assuming you are in tiered bow range. It drops from Septavius the Ghost God, in addition to being tradable.
The Coral Bow (CBow) fires two shots in a tighter spread, havin a much higher true range of 6.35 tiles. While it is barely outdamaged by Covert, this bow retains the multishot and piercing while being much easier to actually use. It is tradable, dropping from Thessal the Mermaid Goddess.
The Leaf Bow fires one, non-piercing, wavy shot - but fires faster, and far more DPS than most other bows. Its single shot also gives it a great true range. The +5 SPD is a bonus to the fairly slow Archer. It is dropped by the Murderous Megamoth.
The Thousand Shot (TShot) is quite literally a machine gun, with a massive 200% rate of fire modifier. While dealing less damage than the Leaf Bow, the TShot maintains piercing from an even higher range, making it effective whenever said piercing is required. It can be dropped by The Puppet Master (Encore).
The Bergenia Bow, uniquely, pierces armor, in exchange for not piercing enemies. It boasts surprisingly good DPS for an armor-piercing weapon (even against 0 DEF), completely outdamaging the Doom Bow at all defenses from a great 8-tile range. It is found in the Woodland Labyrth..
The Bow of the Void (VBow) and the Deathless Crossbow are single-shooting, very rare bows that boast extraordinary DPS at dagger range. The Void Bow sports endgame damage from an endgame boss (the Void Entity), though fires slightly wavy. Deathless deals ~10% less damage in all cases, but is from the much more attainable Cursed Library. Unlike other UT bows, these do not compromise much for their amazing damage.
The Warmonger sports very comparable damage to the Bow of the Void, but it fires 2 very tight, 8 tile range shots that pierce, making it much better for clearing minions. However, firing while in combat will provide a large DEX decrease. For easy content, or when you can just dodge, the Warmonger is a great competitor deserving of its position as a Shatters drop.
Archers wear leather armor, which bolster defense a little more than robes. They also boost the Archer’s average DEX stat. Unfortunately, those wanting to effectively use tiered bows have to get within sword range, without the heavy armor to back them up.
The Griffon Hide Armor, Hydra Skin Armor, Wyrmhide Armor and Leviathan Armor are the primary armors for the Archer, providing ample defense and great dexterity boosts. You can never go wrong with a tiered armor.
These relatively cheap, tradable leather armors provide a slight variation of stats (compared to the high tiered armors).
The Hirejou Tenne (Tenne) and Centaur’s Shielding sacrifice the majority of their DEF boost for an unrivaled increase in damage. Tenne gives an unconditional +16 DPS stats, while the Centaur’s gives even more if you have the 
Healing status.
The Luminous Armor (Lumi) provides a massive +200 HP, but has zero defense. When defense is irrelevant (or hardly relevant), this armor is great for tanking. It drops from the Crystal Cavern.
The Archer’s Quiver fires a powerful, piercing arrow in the direction of your cursor, with a range of 15. Quivers deal moderate damage, and inflict a status; lower tiered quivers Slow, while higher level quivers Paralyze. Either status is very useful for both yourself and the group, making vulnerable enemies that much easier to handle. Untiered quivers may inflict a different status, or none at all.
Quivers are fairly straightforward, firing a straight shot with regular speed. For dealing with particularly fast enemies, you may have to lead your shot - lest you waste all that MP for nothing.
The Quiver of Elvish Mastery and the Quiver of the Autumn King are the main quivers used when paralyzing enemies. They have the most damage, and highest stats, of any paralyzing quiver.
Despite being low tier quivers, the T0 Magic Quiver and T3 Elvencraft Quiver are useful for inflicting Slow or Paralyze, respectively. They are the most MP-efficent (tiered) quivers for these statuses. However: the Magic Quiver is typically harder to aim than the Huntress’ Traps for enemies that you actually want to slow, while the Elvencraft Quiver has less DEX and just deals less damage.
The three Beehemoth Quivers inflict Slow for 5 seconds, deal much more damage, and shoot out 3 shots instead of 1 (which is easier to aim). Their damage doesn’t come at the cost of MP efficency, making them superior if you can actually get them to drop from their three respective Beehemoths.
The Quiver of Thunder (QoT) is the only practical item that inflicts the Dazed status - which halves the quantity of enemy projectiles. For the small subsection of lategame enemies immune to Stun, but vulnerable to Daze (like the Killer Bee Queen or Crystal Worm Child), this is a very useful debuff that makes it easier to dodge for everybody. It is also useful in cases where stunning is difficult, like with Oryx 2, or if there’s just no Knights. Like the Daze debuff itself, the QoT is a paricularly rare drop from a Greater Nature Sprite.
The Quiver of the Shadows does not provide a status; instead, firing 5 shots of pure damage. While its true range is fairly short, even hitting only one shot will outdamage most other quivers (for the same MP cost as T7). It drops from the Void Entity.
Archers are a fairly standard class when it comes to ring choice.
The Ring of Exalted Health, Ring of Unbound Health, and Ring of Decades, as with any other class, remain excellent generalist options for increasing endurance. Wizards appreciate the health more, considering their general fragility.
The Ring of Unbound Defense, is typically an undesirable option; health on a ring is typically valued more than defense. Considering Wizards have only average defense, it may be worth it, though take this with a grain of salt.
The Experimental Ring and Ring of the Pyramid are good generalist rings, increasing HP and offense at the same time. The Experimental Ring is much more common and gives MP, but the Ring of the Pyramid offers more HP and attack, as well as Defense.
The The Forgotten Crown is an excellent offensive ring, providing one of the highest boosts to offenses (+12 stats) while also giving a great boost in HP.
The Chancellor’s Cranium and Exalted God’s Horn are both great endgame rings that balance DPS with survivability. Chancellor’s Cranium, helps short ranged classes, like an Archer with a tiered bow. The Exalted God’s Horn is the more popular choice, as it rewards DPS to classes can take less damage - like an Archer with a not tiered bow.
The Archer’s main strength comes from crowd control support. Tiered bows are great at supressing gods of just about any quantity, while their Quiver makes handling said gods ever easier. The Quiver is also great for dealing damage, getting soulbound, and disabling vulnerable bosses.
Unfortunately, time has not faired well for the Archer… at least when concerning endgame content. Even with the tiered bow rework, the Archer’s talents, crowd clearing and paralysis, aren’t very helpful. Most bosses are single target, and most endgame things are immune to para. For anything that is vulnerable to Paralysis, or even slow, however, the Archer is quite a useful class.
A fresh, level 20 Archer is quite effective overall. The bow’s generous aiming arc and quiver’s generous range gives many oppertunities to get damage (that counts toward soulbound). As the Archer gains stats and UT items, they’ll gain an effective true range, become more effective at both killing and disabling, and have a variety of UT armors available.
The Archer’s group role mainly consists of killing large mobs of compacted enemies, and paralyzing certain bosses for faster killing. Other than that, there isn’t much for the Archer to help his group out. But these two parts that the Archer plays in are very effective, and makes up what the Archer is.
Event bosses’ strategy for the quiver is a bit more complicated. You must judge when you can go away from the group towards the boss without dying (or in big groups, hide behind the melee meatshield). Wait for the skulls or cubes to clear out halfway with an opening (gap between minions) before venturing out towards the skull and cube. Keep on shooting your bow at the skulls or cubes. Your piercing spread of arrows are vital in mowing down the minions.
Once you’re away from the group, go towards the event until you can tell that it’s less than 14 tiles away. It should be at the edge of your screen on off-centered view, and halfway towards the edge of your minimap. Once you’re within quiver range, accurately shoot your quiver’s arrow toward the quest icon, and rush back towards the group. This should deal a good amount of damage to the event. Repeat this a few times, and you should get enough damage to get a soulbound. Play safe though as if you are solo, you aren’t in a hurry and if you are in a group, 2 shots is still enough damage!
Another strategy for killing events with a quiver is hiding behind rocks and trees (but not walls). Rocks and trees block all enemy projectiles for you, but your quiver can pass through it! So finding an event in a forest is your lucky day. Just hide behind a tree, and snipe at the boss! Make sure you run back if you get too far though; you won’t survive forever behind a tree. With these in mind, you should be getting a soulbound sooner or later, just use your quiver effectively against the events at the right place and time.
Most powerful dungeon bosses have a period of invulnerability mixed with a period of vulnerability. You should know it’s invulnerable when there’s a Mithril Shield (
) icon above the enemy. Effective timing of your quiver is indispensable if you’re in a huge group.
You should always watch for the period of vulnerability. Once the boss becomes vulnerable, shoot your quiver ACCURATELY at the enemy. Just a few shots plus your bow should earn you a well-deserved soulbound. If you cannot see the Mithril Shield icon, either go above the enemy, or use the off-centered view. Correct timing of your quiver should earn you a soulbound. You should definitely use off-centered view in Oryx 1 battles during the artifacts stage. Shoot a quiver every time he’s vulnerable! Don’t forget your quiver also paralyzes your enemies! This makes it much easier for you to get even more shots from your bow, thus earning more soulbound damage.
The archer class is an interesting class. It has a hard time eventing without being fully maxed, but does excellent in Godlands, dungeons and both Oryx chambers. The class it a bit squishy for some people, as taking down a godwall isn’t as easy as people claim it to be. It does take some skill to master quivering, and is important for the class. The archer can be a great team player with the ability to paralyze. The class is extremely effective in Davy Jones Lockers, because of the paralyzing causing the boss to lose the shotgun ability. And in Tombs of the Ancients, the final bosses can easily be dealt with when in “rage” mode. The class is extremely balanced, it is a bit squishy, deals good DPS, is a team player and reserves some damage for itself.
If you’ve noticed, most effective strategies involve group roles. This is because of his quiver; it gives him a unique chance-to-get-a-soulbound amongst a lot of others characters. The Archer is a powerful character than can get you loads of soulbound loot if used correctly. If you prefer an offensive character who can take down groups of enemies, with slightly better than average defense, the Archer is for you.
Master aiming the quiver. Remembering and following enemies’ movement patterns is key to catching enemies with the quiver. Shoot to catch them where they are going to be, and not where they are at the moment, unlike hitting with a Wizard spellbomb– manipulating enemy movement by luring it with your character is key for certain enemies.
