Of the many weapons introduced inApex Legends' 3-year lifespan, none is stranger than the Bocek Compound Bow. Released back in season 9, Legacy,the Bocek Bowis a marksman weapon that exclusively uses arrows that have to be pulled back before being fired. The trade-off for this long draw time is a silent, mid-range weapon that can knock enemies down in a couple of shots. Arrows fired from the Bocek can also be reclaimed from surfaces and enemy death boxes. This gives the bow an almost infinite ammo capacity, provided players can safely gather their arrows.
With the release ofApex Legends' 14th season, Hunted, the Bocek Compound Bow has been removed from the base loot pool and turned into a care package weapon. To offset its rarity, the Bocek has had its stats altered to make it more powerful. While the buffs are very much welcome, adding the Bocek to the care package provides more advantages toApex Legendsas a whole than players realize.
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The Power of the Bocek Bow
Back during the initial launch of season 9,the Bocek Compound Bow was a force to be reckoned with. The time it took to charge up a shot was extremely short (0.54 seconds), and could be decreased even further when equipped with Deadeye’s Tempo (0.32 seconds). Fully-charged shots from the Bocek would do a whopping 70 damage regardless of where they landed, but by far the biggest advantage of the weapon was that it was extremely quiet, making it difficult for players to pinpoint the exact location of a bow user. Needless to say, the Bocek’s overpowered nature meant Respawn Entertainment had to nerf it just one week into the season, thereby reducing its overall usefulness.
The current Bocek Compound Bow brings back some of the overpowered elements of the old one. The damage of a fully-charged shot has been reverted to a frightening value of 70 and close-range pellets fired from the Bow now deal 12 damage instead of the old 11. Speaking of pellets, the Bocek now comes with 2 built-in hop-ups:Shatter Caps and Deadeye’s Tempo. This makes the bow viable at multiple distances. Players can no longer pick up arrows fired from the Bocek, but the weapon comes with a respectable 80 arrows that can be carried without taking up backpack space.
Freeing Up The Loot Pool
Aside from reducing the amount of items players have to find and carry to use the Bocek Compound Bow effectively, Respawn Entertainment has also drastically cleared up the loot pool by moving items around. This includes the Shatter Caps and Deadeye’s Tempo hop-ups as well as arrows. By doing so, other important items such asShield Batteries, different hop-ups, and ammocan be found in more abundance - decreasing the need to loot more often.
Desaturating the loot pool also allows Respawn Entertainment toadd more weapons and items toApex Legends, which has become increasingly difficult due to the number of weapons in the game. All-in-all, having the Bocek Compound Bow in the care package is advantageous on many fronts. The Bocek itself gets to enjoy some good buffs that make it stronger while keeping its unique nature. Likewise, items needed for the bow aren’t cluttering up the loot pool, allowing old items to become more common and opening the possibility of new ones to be added to the game. Seeing a bow being used inApex Legendshas always been an odd sight, but now the weapon feels even more special when players get their hands on it.
Apex Legendsis available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
