Archery

What is Archery?

Target archery is the Olympic kind: archers shoot ends of arrows at a round face of ten scoring rings from a fixed distance, and add up the points. The gold in the middle scores 10, then red, blue, black and white rings count down to 1 at the edge. The inner half of the ten is the X, which counts 10 and settles ties.

Here you shoot a round of 12 arrows, in 4 ends of 3, on an outdoor range where the wind is the opponent. Every end brings a new wind, and the flag beside the target shows it. Three ranges are on offer: a close target in a morning meadow with only a light breeze, a farther one in an autumn forest where the wind is moderate and gusts a little, and a long shot on a mountain ridge with strong, gusty wind and a target that slowly sways. The Daily range gives everyone the same winds that day.

How to play Archery

• Draw. Press anywhere on the range and pull back, toward the bottom of the screen. The bow draws with your finger and a short dotted guide shows the first stretch of the arrow's flight.
• Power. The farther you pull, the faster the arrow flies and the higher it lands. Pull too little and it lands low, or falls short into the grass; pull too far and it lands high.
• Aim. Pull to one side to aim to the other, like a sling: pull left to send the arrow right.
• Shoot. Let go. Slide back up to where you started instead to lower the bow without shooting.
• Wind. The chip at the top left shows the end's wind: the arrow points where it blows and the number is its speed in metres per second. The flag beside the target streams with it. A wind across the range carries the arrow sideways, so aim into it.
• Scoring. An arrow touching a line scores the higher ring. An arrow on the straw outside the face, in the grass or past the target is a miss, marked M. The round inset at the top right shows this end's arrows up close.
• Keyboard. The left and right arrow keys aim (hold Shift for fine steps). Hold Space to draw, harder the longer you hold it, and release it to shoot. Escape lowers the bow.

Tips and strategy

1. Find your pull first. With no wind, the same pull lands at the same height every time. Learn the length that reaches the gold on your first arrows and keep it.
2. Correct by what you see. Look at where the last arrow went in the inset and move your pull by about that much the other way. Small corrections work better than big ones.
3. Read the number, not just the arrow. A wind of 6 m/s moves the arrow far more than one of 2 m/s. A wind blowing toward you or away from you also lowers or lifts the arrow a little.
4. Time the gusts. On the windier ranges the speed rises and falls every few seconds. Let go when the number is where you aimed for.
5. Watch the swaying target. On the hard range the target drifts from side to side. Aim for where it will be when the arrow arrives, a little over a second later, or wait for it to pass the middle.

Frequently asked questions

Is Archery free?

Yes. Like every game on Play, it runs free in your browser, with no download and no account.

What is an X?

The inner half of the gold ten ring. It still scores 10, but archers count their Xs to break ties, and so do the leaderboards here: two equal totals are told apart by the Xs.

How is my score worked out?

Each arrow scores the ring it lands in, 10 to 1, and a miss scores nothing. Twelve arrows make the round, so 120 is a perfect score.

What is the Daily range?

The medium range with the same four winds for everyone that day, so the scores compare directly on the leaderboard.

Why did my arrow land low?

You did not pull far enough: a slower arrow drops more before it reaches the target, and on the long range it can fall into the grass. Pull a little farther on the next one.