[2020] Bow in alpha 19?

The bow is certainly worth it in the early game, because you won’t have much choice. If you want a ranged weapon immediately, it’s either the primitive bow or the stone spear I suppose, which I don’t care for. After that you have the Blunderbuss once you do some looting.

In the later game, the role of bows is clearly stealth. With a maxed out character, I believe only the knife has a higher sneak damage bonus than bows. However, if you’re specializing in bows you’re probably specializing in Agility more broadly, and it does seem like the pistol class (e.g. the SMG) outclasses bows when both are fully modded out.