Pulley Bow
Pulley Bow is a long-range bow found on a siege tower on Mt. Gelmir. Its pulley mechanism emphasizes exceptional range, while Mighty Shot and broad arrow compatibility support distant pulls and precision openings.
Key Takeaways
Pulley Bow is a standard longbow distinguished by its exceptional reach and built-in Mighty Shot skill, making it a ranged option for players who value distance over rapid fire.
Long-range identity
Its defining advantage is unusually strong range for a bow, allowing attacks from farther away than many comparable options.
Skill and ammunition
The bow uses ordinary arrows and begins with Mighty Shot, a charged shot suited to deliberate, high-impact attacks rather than constant fire.
Accessible requirements
Its Strength and Dexterity requirements are modest, so it can fit several physical builds without becoming a specialist-only weapon.
Main limitation
Compared with shortbows, it gives up some close-range mobility and firing tempo in exchange for reach and heavier individual shots.
Acquisition
Pulley Bow is found in Mount Gelmir, making it an exploration reward rather than a standard early-game vendor purchase.
Upgrade flexibility
It follows the regular Smithing Stone upgrade path and its bow skill can be treated as part of its progression and build customization.
Overview
Pulley Bow is a standard bow in Elden Ring, distinguished by its unusually long effective reach and Mighty Shot weapon skill. It is a base-game ranged option for players who want dependable archery without committing to a greatbow.
The Pulley Bow belongs to Elden Ring’s bow family rather than the greatbow class. Its defining feature is the pulley-based construction described by the weapon’s identity: it gives the bow a long-range role, making it useful for opening encounters, testing enemy reactions, and attacking targets before they enter ordinary melee distance. It remains a conventional bow in how it uses arrows, so its practical performance still depends on ammunition choice, the player’s attributes, and the situation in which it is fired.
Its default skill, Mighty Shot, gives the weapon a deliberate aimed attack instead of treating every shot as a quick poke. That makes the Pulley Bow particularly suited to players who are willing to create distance and choose individual targets, rather than relying only on rapid fire. The bow is therefore more than a cosmetic alternative to the Longbow, although it does not replace the broader utility of every other ranged weapon or remove the need to manage arrow supplies.
As a standard weapon, the Pulley Bow occupies a different progression space from Elden Ring’s named unique weapons. Its identity comes from its reach and ranged attack pattern, not from a one-off legendary passive or a plot-dependent transformation. This makes it a flexible choice for a general ranged setup, while its bow classification keeps it relevant to builds and equipment choices that specifically support conventional archery.
The weapon is part of the base Elden Ring arsenal and is not a Shadow of the Erdtree-exclusive variant. Its main point of distinction is practical: compared with a more ordinary bow, it offers a long-distance option for scouting, pulling enemies, and applying arrow effects from a safer position. Compared with a greatbow, it serves a lighter conventional-bow role rather than presenting itself as a separate heavy projectile class.
Statistics
Elden Ring publishes no 0–100 stat bars, so this page lists the verified requirements, scaling and handling figures instead. Taken from the project's verified weapons database, not from generated text.
- CategoryBows
- Damage TypePierce
- Primary ScalingDex C
- Weight5
- SkillMighty Shot
- Str Req11
- Dex Req20
- How to ObtainLoot, Volcano Manor
Figures verified against Consolidated Game Weapons Database.
Compared to similar bows
| Weapon | Str Req | Dex Req | Weight | Primary Scaling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pulley Bow | 11 | 20 | 5 | Dex C |
| Erdtree Bow | 9 | 20 | 4.5 | Fai D |
| Serpent Bow | 9 | 20 | 4.5 | Arc D |
| Black Bow | 9 | 20 | 4.5 | Dex C |
| Horn Bow | 9 | 15 | 4.5 | Dex D |
Requirements, scaling grades and weight are the game’s own published figures. From Consolidated Game Weapons Database.
How to Obtain
- Elden Ring base game access to Mt. Gelmir; no DLC, quest, boss, stat, or NG+ prerequisite is required.
- The pickup is available during a normal playthrough and is not ordinarily missable. It can be collected again in subsequent NG+ cycles.
- 01Travel to the Craftsman's Shack Site of Grace in Mt. Gelmir. From the shack, look for the nearby siege tower standing on the elevated ground; the tower is reached by following the surrounding cliff path and making the required jump across the gap.
- 02Climb to the top of the siege tower and loot the corpse there. The corpse contains the Pulley Bow as a guaranteed world pickup; it is not purchased from a vendor, awarded by a quest, or dropped by an enemy.
Mechanics and Handling
Pulley Bow uses the standard bow attack pattern: a quick shot from the light attack and a slower, charged shot from the heavy attack. Charged shots take longer to prepare but deliver a stronger hit, making them more suitable for deliberate openings than for reacting at close range. Its long effective reach gives those shots room to work, although arrows still follow a projectile arc and require aim compensation over distance.
Long-range aiming and shot timing
The Pulley Bow is most comfortable when the shooter can create distance before committing to a shot. Quick shots are useful for applying pressure or finishing an exposed target, while charged shots reward enemies that are stationary, recovering, or approaching along a predictable path. At extended range, the arrow's travel time and drop matter as much as the reticle placement, so moving targets may require leading the shot rather than aiming directly at them.
Mighty Shot
Pulley Bow's weapon skill is Mighty Shot. The skill replaces the normal attack with a deliberately prepared, high-powered arrow that is designed to pierce an enemy's guard. It has a separate activation and wind-up, so it is less forgiving than a quick shot when an enemy is already within striking distance. Against shielded targets or enemies that can be safely readied against, Mighty Shot gives the bow a more decisive option than relying only on ordinary arrows.
Ammunition and status behaviour
Each shot consumes the selected arrow type; the bow has no firearm-style magazine or reload cycle. Arrow choice therefore changes both the damage profile and the tactical purpose of the weapon. Status effects come from compatible ammunition or other external effects rather than from an innate Pulley Bow passive, so specialized arrows can broaden its role but also make sustained use dependent on the player's available supply. The bow itself does not provide a shield or parry while it is being used, leaving positioning and spacing as its main defensive tools.
Upgrades and Variants
Strengths, Weaknesses and Best Uses
Strengths
- Exceptional reach makes the Pulley Bow useful for engaging enemies before they enter melee range and for exploiting distant openings.
- Its fixed Mighty Shot skill gives charged attacks additional penetration, making deliberate shots more useful against armored targets than ordinary quick fire.
- As a bow, it can maintain distance while the player observes enemy patterns, pulls a single target from a group, or attacks exposed weak points.
Weaknesses
- Mighty Shot favors deliberate charged attacks, so the weapon is less suited to rapid close-range firing than bows with a faster or more flexible skill.
- Its effectiveness depends on carrying the appropriate arrows; sustained ranged use consumes ammunition and can become inefficient when common enemies require repeated hits.
- The Pulley Bow offers less flexibility than an infusible bow because its weapon skill cannot be freely replaced, limiting adaptation to specialized Ash of War setups.
Best uses
- Long-range opening attacks against isolated enemies, especially when a safe approach or single-target pull matters.
- Ammunition-supported exploration and boss attempts where distance, careful timing, and repeated shots at vulnerable openings are more valuable than burst at point-blank range.
- A Mighty Shot-focused ranged setup that prioritizes penetration and reach over rapid-fire pressure or skill customization.
Compared With Similar Weapons
| Weapon | Primary role | Skill / handling | Build and use-case distinction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pulley Bow | Mighty Shot; emphasizes deliberate aimed shots and projectile reach | Suited to players who value reach and ranged opening attacks over rapid close-range firing | — |
| Longbow | Mighty Shot; familiar aimed-shot role | A straightforward alternative when a conventional bow is preferred without Pulley Bow’s specialized long-range identity | — |
| Black Bow | Barrage; supports faster repeated shots and movement-oriented handling | Better suited to rapid-fire pressure and agile play than deliberate long-range sniping | — |
| Horn Bow | Mighty Shot; combines aimed shots with mixed physical and magic damage | A relevant alternative for builds that benefit from magic damage, while Pulley Bow remains the more direct conventional ranged choice | — |
Lore and Design
The Pulley Bow’s item description presents it as a bow constructed with a series of pulleys, emphasizing its mechanical design rather than a named wielder, faction, or major story event. Within Elden Ring’s arsenal, that framing gives the weapon a distinct technological character, but the text does not establish a broader historical connection or explain its maker in detail.
No documented developer commentary or explicit in-game relationship currently supports identifying the Pulley Bow with a real-world invention, a particular culture, or a named character. Its significance is therefore primarily functional and visual: the description calls attention to an unusual construction while leaving its origin and wider history largely unspecified.