Hexhunter bow (Dungeoneering)

The Hexhunter bow is a bow found in the dungeons of Daemonheim while Dungeoneering. The bow is a unique drop from the soulgazer, requiring 98 Ranged to wield. The bow is one of the rarest and most sought-after items in Dungeoneering.

Though soulgazers officially require level 99 Slayer to damage, they can be killed by a player with any Slayer level using the Retribution prayer, Wrath curse, or the special effect of the blood necklace. 99 Slayer is also required for recoil damage (such as Deflect Curses and Vengeance) to damage a soulgazer. A survivalist's potion can be used to temporarily raise your Slayer level. With a strong survivalist's potion, the soulgazer can be killed with 88 Slayer.

Sagittarian longbow
As you can see from the table above, the sagittarian longbow and the hexhunter bow have similar stats. However, the sagittarian longbow has an extra 73 armour rating while the hexhunter bow is 1.2 seconds faster. Both bows give the same life points boost. The 17 April 2013 update increased the hexhunter bow's base damage, making the hexhunter bow no longer be equal in damage to the longbow.

The longbow has more armour than a hexhunter, but it has equal accuracy and inferior damage output.

Sagittarian shortbow
In comparison with the hexhunter bow, the sagittarian shortbow has more base damage - at 99 Ranged, the shortbow has 1967 damage compared to the hexhunter bow's 1309. However, the hexhunter bow is 0.6 seconds faster than the sagittarian shortbow, gives a defence and life points boost, and also gives access to shield abilties. Anyone choosing between the sagittarian shortbow and the hexhunter bow would have to weigh the benefits of the extra damage of the shortbow to the increased speed and armour/life points boost of the hexhunter bow along with the shield abilities the bow unlocks. The rarity of the hexhunter bow can also play into the decision. While the sagittarian shortbow is a random drop from the Skeletal Trio on all Occult floors, the hexhunter bow is a rare drop from soulgazers, making it harder to obtain.

Dropping monsters

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Former bonus
Before the Evolution of Combat, the hexhunter bow had a passive bonus: its ranged damage increased as the opponent's Magic level increased. This made it one of the most desirable items in Daemonheim, as it could hit very highly and accurately on forgotten mages, necromancers, reborn mages, demons, and dragons. Its damage per second easily exceeded the damage per second of the most damaging melee weapons, and it was a far more damaging weapon than any other bow in Daemonheim. The bow was also very good against most bosses (even those that would not seem to have high Magic levels, like Dreadnaut and Gravecreeper, though this was most effective when employing the use of a Bloodrager's Sundering Strike special attack to lower the boss's Defence).

Trivia

 * The hexhunter bow is one of only two bows in the game with a speed of 'Fastest', with the other being the seercull.
 * The name of the hexhunter bow is derived from the word 'hex', which means an evil spell or curse, the equivalent of the German word 'hexe', to practise sorcery. Hex is also pronounced in the same way as the Dutch 'heks', which means witch.
 * The hexhunter bow's former passive effect was removed with the Evolution of Combat, although a Jagex moderator has said that it may possibly be reimplemented . It is unknown if this is still a planned future update as it would make the hexhunter bow much more damaging than any other weapon in the entire game (let alone Daemonheim).
 * Before the release of The World Wakes on 4 March 2013, the bow had a damage bonus similar to that of the sagittarian longbow. Due to the hexhunter bow's faster speed, this not only made it superior to the longbow in every aspect aside from accuracy, but also made it rival (and potentially even surpass) the Saggitarian shortbow due to the hexhunter bow's ability to deal similar damage while still retaining armour, lifepoint, and shield bonuses. The damage bonus was removed with the update for balancing purposes.
 * The hexhunter bow was given a damage buff on 17 April 2013 to make it on par with tier 11 Dungeoneering bows, but it will still deal less damage per second than the saggitarian shortbow.
 * After the EoC, many player have complained that the hexhunter bow, despite its rarity, is weaker than the sagittarian shortbow. Players have argued that although the hexhunter bow only requires 98 Ranged, as opposed to the sagittarian bows' 99 Ranged requirement, the hexhunter bow indirectly requires 99 Slayer to kill the soulgazer, so it should be stronger. Players have also argued that the hexhunter bow can take months to get, while the sagittarian bows are relatively easy to obtain in comparison.

fi:Hexhunter bowo trivia