Crystal bow (i)

The imbued crystal bow is a degradable bow created by imbuing a Crystal bow at the Nightmare Zone. It offers the same stats as a fully charged crystal bow, and unlike the crystal bow, its stats do not degrade as it loses charges.

Along with being extremely accurate when fully charged, providing a Ranged bonus of +100, the crystal bow also has one of the longest ranges in the game, the same as a longbow, able to hit targets up to 10 squares away. However, Longrange does not increase attack range. This makes it ideal for battles which require long-range attacks such as Dagannoth Kings or the TzHaar Fight Cave. The only attack which can be performed from a further distance is the dragonfire shield special attack, with a range of 13 squares.

Unlike other bows, the Crystal bow has a unique attack speed of 5, which is between that of a shortbow and a longbow in speed. It is faster than a crossbow by 1 game tick.

Degrading
The crystal bow degrades over time. After 250 hits, it degrades into a "Crystal bow 9/10 (i)", and thereafter for every 250 hits, it will degrade another 1/10th until it reverts into a crystal seed after a total of 2,500 hits, and must be recharged before it can be used again. Unlike its unimbued version, the stats of the imbued crystal bow do not degrade as it loses charges.

Recharging
Ilfeen will recharge crystal seeds into crystal bows, crystal halberds, or crystal shields. She can be found teleporting back and forth between two clearings in Isafdar. Once an imbued crystal bow has reverted to a crystal seed, it will lose its imbue, and will need to be reimbued after being recharged into  another crystal bow.

Initially, Ilfeen charges 900,000 coins to re-enchant a crystal seed into a crystal bow. However, the price is decreased by 180,000 coins each time Ilfeen re-enchants a seed for a player, in the following manner, until reaching the minimum recharge cost of 180,000 coins:

The amount that Ilfeen charges is dependent on the number of crystal seeds she has re-enchanted, not the number of crystal bows she has recharged. For example, a player who pays Ilfeen 900,000 coins to re-enchant a crystal seed into a Crystal shield will only have to pay her 720,000 coins to recharge a seed into a crystal bow.

Analysis and strategy
Although crystal bows do not require any ammunition, they still have a cost associated with their use, in the form of their recharge cost. When the recharge price is 900,000 coins, the cost per shot (at 2,500 shots) is 360 coins. However, when the recharge price decreases to 180,000 coins, the cost per shot is 72 coins. Compare this to rune arrows, with a +49 bonus to Ranged Strength, whereas the crystal bow, on average, has a Ranged Strength of +61.

The chief disadvantages that crystal bows have, compared to other bows, are the requirements for using them and the relatively short degrading time. Crystal equipment has the second shortest lifespan of any equipment in the game (ahead of Iban's Staff). One crystal bow will last for 1 hour and 40 minutes of continuous shooting on Rapid, or 2 hours and 5 minutes on Accurate or Long range. Players who plan to use crystal bows on extended trips may wish to bring more than one bow. Additionally, players who would normally pick up their ammunition (either manually or through an Ava's device) may not save money by using a crystal bow, which requires no ammunition and therefore leaves behind no arrows to pick up.

Trivia

 * The number of shots fired by crystal bows is tracked per player rather than per bow, making it possible to prevent a fully charged bow from degrading by using another crystal bow for every 250th shot.
 * Attempting to cast Low Level Alchemy or High Level Alchemy on a crystal bow results in the message "You can't do that to elven crystal!" This is due to a glitch that allowed players to alchemise crystal bows on free-to-play worlds for 540,000 coins each. Players could buy crystal seeds, enchant them into bows for 180,000 coins, and alchemise the bows for significant profit. Because of this, Jagex made it impossible to alchemise members' objects on free-to-play worlds, and made it impossible to alchemise crystal equipment.
 * The crystal bow requires 50 Agility to equip, however it is impossible to navigate the forests of Tirannwn during the required quests without level 56 Agility (or as low as 51 with a summer pie boost).
 * 10 tiles is the maximum distance for any attack in 'RuneScape'. The Crystal bow's attack range on Accurate and Rapid is 10, therefore Long Range can have no effect on this.