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Skill Fletching

Fletching can be used to make bows and arrows. Combines are made in a Fletching Kit.

Guide sections

Readable text is derived from the copied source revision. Referenced records open local pages when available.

Overview

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Basics

Fletching can be used to make bows and arrows. Combines are made in a Fletching Kit.

Referenced records: Fletching Kit

Almost everything you will ever need for fletching can be bought from a merchant. While the number of fletching components is relatively small, they can be combined in a multitude of ways, with over 216 arrow combinations and 63 bow combinations. Most of these combinations can result in identical stats, and therefore you should note this page focuses on the cheapest versions.

The main reason to do fletching is that making your own arrows is better than buying the merchant versions especially since in EQL you can upgrade arrows by merging. You should plan on making as many as 1024 arrows to max out a given arrow to +10.

The maximum range of a shot is calculated by adding the bow's range and the arrow's range.

Fletching Advice

Tips on Becoming a Master Fletcher by Siobhan, with edits and addendum for Everquest Live by Jokon

The nice thing about fletching is that you’re basically making two objects, bows and arrows, over and over again. That makes it very easy to figure out the relative difficulty of making a particular item. Basically, the higher the quality of your supplies, i.e. the more expensive they are, the more difficult they are to work with. If you seem to be getting a lot of failures with a particular type of arrow or bow, try downgrading one or more of your components to something cheaper. Please note that there isn’t a direct correspondence between the cost of arrows and bows and their relative difficulty. Rough hickory bows will be trivial to make long before you’re able to manufacture arrows costing several gp apiece.

When making bows, the bow staff determines base damage, range, and delay. Your string modifies this. The better quality the string, the less damage the bow does but the shorter the delay. This means that a hickory bow with a linen string will do more damage than a hickory bow with a silk string, but the bow with the silk string will be faster. Whittling knives and planing tools decrease delay even more but reduce damage as well. Cams also reduce delay and damage. Basically, the more stuff you put on the bow the faster it will get. It will also hit for less damage, but typically you always see an overall improvement in your ratio.

As for arrows, the better the arrowhead, the more damage the arrow will do. Same for shafts, the better quality the shaft is, the more damage the arrow does. Feathers modify range and damage. Round cut feathers will give your arrow a base range of 50. Parabolic cut feathers will increase the base range to 100. Shield cut feathers will reduce base range to 0 but increase the base damage of the arrow. Nocks modify the base range of the arrow so that the smaller, i.e. better, the nock the greater the range of the arrow.

Finally, when practicing to raise your general skill level always work on arrows instead of bows. Arrows are far cheaper to make than bows so your mistakes will be far less costly and you can make more attempts for the same amount of money. You will want to make bows to use in the early levels but for the most part, practice on arrows.

--Siobhan, Tunare Server

--Jokon, Rivervale Server

Level Up Guide

If you're just looking to level up Fletching you can follow these charts for the quickest and cheapest way. If you want to know more about the details about how to make custom arrows and bows you can find those details further below.

Dexterity, Intelligence, or Wisdom: whichever is higher governs your chance to gain skill increases.

The trivial of any arrow is determined by the highest trivial out of all 4 components. The absolute cheapest way to level fletching is to use just the single component which will yield an arrow with a high enough trivial to raise your fletching, and the cheapest things available for the other 3 components. However, this will usually lead to an arrow with terrible stats. If you have extra coin and plan to use the arrows upgrade first to Parabolic Fletching +50 Range then Small Nocks +50 Range then Bone Shafts +1 Dmg.

Referenced records: Parabolic Fletching +50 Range · Small Nocks +50 Range · Bone Shafts +1 Dmg

(Note: Gnome Necro with 228 INT, 56 CHA went from 1-162 skill in about 265pp total and 163-182 skill in about another 350pp. So grab 600pp at that INT and CHA to get the job done easily and have some money left over. This will be the fast track so you can buy stacks and move quickly.)

The Cheapest Way to Fletch

Description

Trivial

Dmg/Rng

Combine Cost (CP)

Point

Shaft

Fletch

Nock

Arrow

Type 1

1/50

Field

Wood

Round

Large

CLASS 1 Wood Point Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 1 Wood Point Arrow

Type 2

1/75

Field

Wood

Round

Medium

CLASS 1 Wood Point Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 1 Wood Point Arrow

Type 3

1/100

Field

Wood

Para

Large

CLASS 2 Wood Point Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 2 Wood Point Arrow

Type 4

1/100

Field

Wood

Round

Small

CLASS 1 Wood Point Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 1 Wood Point Arrow

Type 5

2/50

Field

Bone

Round

Large

CLASS 1 Bone Point Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 1 Bone Point Arrow

Type 6

2/25

204

Field

Wood

Shield

Large

CLASS 3 Wood Point Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 3 Wood Point Arrow

Type 7

102

2/5

330

Hooked

Wood

Round

Medium

CLASS 1 Wood Hooked Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 1 Wood Hooked Arrow

Type 8

122

2/25

697

Field

Wood

Wood Vane

Large

CLASS 4 Wood Point Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 4 Wood Point Arrow

Type 9

135

3/50

1170

Field

Ceramic

Round

Large

CLASS 1 Ceramic Point Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 1 Ceramic Point Arrow

Type 10

162

2/75

1380

Field

Wood

Bone Vane

Large

CLASS 5 Wood Point Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 5 Wood Point Arrow

Type 11

182

3/50

4005

Silvertip

Wood

Round

Large

CLASS 1 Wood Silver Tip Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 1 Wood Silver Tip Arrow

Type 12

202

3/50

2797

Field

Wood

Ceramic Vane

Large

CLASS 6 Wood Point Arrow

Referenced records: CLASS 6 Wood Point Arrow

Surefall Fletching for Everquest Live by Jokon

One of the easiest ways to become a master fletcher is to A) Worship Karana and B) use Qaelin Hailstorm to craft lots of arrows. Note this guide is specifically for fletching from 203 onwards; prior to that skill level it's far cheaper to use traditional fletching components. Additionally, you're going to have to get blacksmithing up to 188 or so if you want to be truly self-sufficient; this is the minimum skill required for making the Steel Arrowheads that are required. To quickly summarize:

Referenced records: Steel Arrowheads

Step: Worship Karana as your active deity

Step: Have 203 Fletching and 188 Blacksmithing

Referenced records: Blacksmithing

If you can fill those requirements, it's time to talk to Qaelin Hailstorm. You need to get the Mark of Karana from him which is a necessary component for all meaningful subcombines in Surefall Fletching. The keyword is "I need a mark" - however, as of May 26, 2026 you need to say this while next to Qaelin Hailstorm but without targeting him. With that hurdle cleared, you're ready for the key recipe:

Referenced records: Qaelin Hailstorm · Mark of Karana

• Surefall Fletching Kit - Crafted (Blacksmithing, Trivial 162, Forge)

• 1x Small Brick of Steel – Bought (Qaelin Hailstorm, Surefall Glade, PoK | Loc: +180, +140)

• 1x Hinge Mold – Bought (Betty Brickbaker, Rivervale | Loc: -229, -204)

• 1x Container Base Mold – Bought (Betty Brickbaker, Rivervale | Loc: -229, -204)

• 1x Container Lid Mold – Bought (Betty Brickbaker, Rivervale | Loc: -229, -204)

• 1x Water Flask – Bought (Daleen Leafsway, Rivervale | Loc: -87, -343)

• 1x Mark of Karana – Quested (Qaelin Hailstorm, Surefall Glade, PoK | Loc: +180, +140, Hail Him, Returns on Combine)

All of your Surefall Fletching combines must be done in the Surefall Fletching kit. Load up on some Small Bricks of Steel hike to a place that sells the molds like Rivervale. Once you have a kit made, head back to the Qeynos area to craft your Steel Working Knife, which is a necessary subcomponent just like the Mark of Karana.

• 1x Steel Working Knife – Crafted (Blacksmiting, Trivial 42, Karana Diety only, Forge, Returns on Combine)

• 1x Water Flask – Bought (Grathin Nilm, Ranger Cabin, Surefall Glade | Loc: 117, -86

• 1x Hilt Mold – Bought (Dren Ironforge, North Qeynos | Loc: 21 , 51)

• 1x Dagger Blade Mold – Bought (Dren Ironforge, North Qeynos | Loc: 21 , 51)

• 1x Mark of Karana – Quested (Qaelin Hailstorm, Surefall Glade, PoK | Loc: +180, +140, Hail Him, Returns on Combine)

• 1x Small Brick of Steel – Bought (Qaelin Hailstorm, Surefall Glade, PoK | Loc: +180, +140)

Now you're ready to actually craft the arrows! Here's the recipes you need:

• 1x Small Groove Nocks – Bought (Jarse Kedison, Surefall Glade | Loc: 101, 101)

• 1x Steel Arrowheads – Crafted (Blacksmithing, Trivial 188, Forge, Yields 2)