Archery Tips: Sway, Wind and the X Ring
How to score more in Archery, the 3D target game: drawing and releasing, the steady window, aiming into the wind, the X ring and the moving bonus target.
Archery is target archery on an outdoor range, drawn in real 3D. You stand on the shooting line with a bow, the target waits down a mown lane, and flags along the range show the wind. Each arrow flies on a true arc: gravity pulls it down, the air slows it, the wind pushes it sideways, and the camera follows it into the target to show where it stuck. This guide covers the controls, the scoring, and the habits that turn a good round into a high one.
How a round works
A round is four ends of three arrows. The first three ends are at 18, 30 and 50 metres; the fourth is a bonus end at 70 metres, where the target slides slowly from side to side. After each end a scorecard shows your three arrows and the total so far.
| Where the arrow lands | Score |
|---|---|
| The X, the small ring in the middle of the gold | 10, counted as an X |
| The gold (the two yellow rings) | 10 or 9 |
| Red | 8 or 7 |
| Blue | 6 or 5 |
| Black | 4 or 3 |
| White | 2 or 1 |
| Off the face, in the straw, the bank or the grass | a miss |
An arrow that touches the line between two rings scores the higher one, as in real archery. The best possible round is 120 points with twelve Xs.
Drawing and letting go
Put your finger or the mouse anywhere on the range and drag down: the bow comes back as you drag, and a fifth of the screen's height is full draw. The view zooms into the sight as you draw, and a ring marks where the arrow is aimed. Once the bow is fully drawn, moving your finger moves the sight (up raises it), and lifting your finger shoots.
If you let go before the bow is half drawn, the archer lets it down without shooting. That is useful: if the sight is wobbling or you started the draw at the wrong moment, relax and draw again. Nothing is lost.
On a keyboard, hold Space to draw (it takes about three quarters of a second to reach full draw), aim with the arrow keys or W, A, S and D, and let go of Space to shoot.
The steady window
Holding a drawn bow is hard work, and the sight shows it. Right after full draw it wobbles while the archer settles; about half a second later it calms down to a small drift and stays that way for about two seconds. After that it starts to shake, more and more the longer you hold, and after nine seconds the archer lets the bow down.
The ring around the sight changes colour to help: green while it is steady, yellow when the shake is growing, red when it is time to let go or let down. The best scores come from a rhythm: draw, settle, a small correction, release while the ring is still green.
A clean end at 30 metres
Drag down smoothly to full draw and keep your finger still while the sight settles. Look at the wind dial: a breeze from the left at 2 m/s. Nudge the sight a fingertip to the left of the gold, let the ring turn green and lift your finger. If the arrow lands a ring to the right, aim a little further left for the next one; small, steady corrections win more points than a perfect first arrow.
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Reading the wind
The dial at the top left shows which way the wind blows as seen from the shooting line, and how hard. The flags beside the target and half way down the range stream the same way. The wind is steady for an end, but each arrow gets its own small gust, a little stronger or weaker and turned a little.
The further the target, the longer the arrow is in the air and the more the wind moves it. At 18 metres even a strong breeze moves the arrow only a couple of centimetres; at 70 metres a crosswind of 4 m/s moves it about a third of a metre, which is several rings. Aim into the wind: if the dial points to the right, aim left of the gold. A wind blowing straight down the range or straight back at you barely moves the arrow sideways.
The moving target
In the bonus end the target slides from side to side, and at 70 metres the arrow takes about a second and a quarter to arrive. Aim where the gold will be, not where it is. The easy moment to shoot is when the target reaches one end of its slide and turns round: for a moment it barely moves, so a small lead in the direction it is about to go is enough. Shooting while it crosses the middle at full speed needs a lead of most of a metre.
Modes and records
The daily challenge gives everyone the same gusts and the same moving target, so it is the round to compare with friends. Free play deals new wind every round. Easy mode has no wind and half the sway, a good place to learn the steady window. Your personal best for each mode and your ten best rounds are kept in the High scores box under the game, in your browser only.
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Questions and answers
How do I shoot in Archery?
Drag down anywhere on the range to draw the bow, move to aim once it is fully drawn, and let go to shoot. On a keyboard, hold Space to draw and let go to shoot.
Why did the bow not shoot?
It was let down because it was not drawn at least half way, or it was held drawn for more than nine seconds. Draw again and release sooner.
What is an X worth?
Ten points, the same as the rest of the gold. Xs are counted separately on the scorecard, as a tie breaker between equal scores.
How much does the wind matter?
Little at 18 metres, a lot at 70. A crosswind of 4 m/s moves an arrow about a third of a metre over 70 metres, so aim into the wind.
Written by the DailyGameClub team from the rules as DailyGameClub plays them. Updated October 31, 2026. New to a word? See the glossary. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.