Hokuto's Bow

**Hokuto's Bow** is a bow-type ranged weapon which  marks enemies with its shots, causing them to take additional DPS from any other source of damage.

## Details

* **Ammo:** 2
* **Special Effects:**
	+ - Arrows cause damaged enemies to take an additional 52 base DPS from all sources for 15 seconds.
	+ If an enemy dies while affected by this weapon's debuff, it spreads to nearby enemies in a large area of effect.
	+ The extra damage effect applied by this weapon can only be applied every 0.5 seconds at most.
* **Breach Bonus:** 0.7
	+ **Base Breach Damage:** 17
	+ **Base Breach DPS:** 34
* **Attack Duration:** 0.4 seconds
	+ **Charge:** 0.15
	+ **Lock:** 0.1
	+ **Cooldown:** 0.25
* **Tags:** HasBullets, Ranged, LimitedAmmo, NoCritical, NoAmmoPerk, UnlockInPublicEvent
* **Legendary Version:**
	+ **Forced Affix: Super Pierce**
		- "Shots pierce all enemies."

## Synergies

* Considering the pitifully low damage it deals, it's best to use Hokuto's Bow as a supportive tool to a more powerful weapon, as it will significantly increase the DPS of both weapons and skills should the player upgrade Tactics enough.
* Since the damage debuff lasts for 15 seconds and can be re-inflicted when it wears off by using it again, Hokuto's Bow is a viable support option for both crowd control and single fights. As it would otherwise occupy a valuable weapon slot, a good option would be Acrobatipack, since its DOT bonus does not suffer from the penalty and it only needs to be fired rarely for support.
* It works well with damage-over-time weapons like Firebrands, Throwing Knife and Alchemic Carbine because the mark effect damage bonus will be fully capitalized on as long as there is even a single damaging status effect on the enemy to constantly apply the damage buff.

## Notes

* Hokuto's Bow does not benefit from the mutation Ammo
* Though the refire time for Hokuto's Bow is 0.5 seconds, the player regains control after 0.25 seconds, resulting in a minimum wait time of 0.25 seconds between the end of one shot and the beginning of the next.
* The increased-damage-taken debuff inflicted by this weapon's arrows is applied *after* the enemy is damaged, provided they survive the attack. As a result, enemies that usually die in one hit, such as Bats and Kamikazes, cannot be used to spread the debuff unless they have been tagged by the death of another marked enemy.
* Affixes such as "+80% damage on poisoned targets" apply to the projectile damage but not the mark effect.

## Trivia

* The head of the arrow in the weapon's icon resembles crosshairs, symbolizing marksmanship.
* Hokuto's Bow is a reference to Fist of the North Star, Hokuto meaning North Star or Big Dipper. The line "You don't know it yet, but you're already dead" is a quote from Kenshiro, the anime's main character.

## History

* 0.7:  marks can now propagate to enemies behind walls.
* 2.1: Scaling changed from  Brutality/ Tactics to  Tactics.
* 2.4:  marks reworked.
	+ Base boost DPS decreased from 60 to 48.
	+ Duration decreased from 20 seconds to 15.
	+ AoE range decreased.
* 2.9: Unlock cost decreased from 80 cells to 50.
* 3.0: Small Rework and added a Legendary Affix:
	+ Reduced the  mark DPS from 144 to 104.
		- Reduced the  mark's tick rate from 0.33s to 0.5s.
		- Increased the  mark's tick damage from +48 to +52.
	+ Added the Legendary Affix "Super Pierce".