History Main / AutomaticCrossbows

In real life, it is [[RealityEnsues much more difficult]] to create such a weapon than many works assume. Automatic firearms work by using excess energy from the detonation of the propellant to reload and recock the weapon. In a bow powered by elasticity, there is no such simple source of excess energy. This is no fun, as you still want said automatic weapon. There are several ways this might be accomplished. The most realistic options use various types of hand-powered mechanical device to produce repeating bows that are similar to RealLife [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_crossbow historical examples]] but [[UpToEleven dialed up to eleven]]. Others might use SchizoTech or magic to accomplish this purposes. If it is the latter, the use of magically justified BottomlessMagazines might make the Automatic Crossbow even more powerful.

** The Crossbow Expert feat in fifth edition allows characters to ignore the "loading" trait of crossbows, which normally require the shooter to stop and reload between shots, turning the weapons into this trope.

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* In the argentine comic ''Gilgamesh The Immortal'', a story is set after a nuclear war has returned mankind to the technological level of the Middle Ages. A man, using old and worn construction plans, is building a steam engine, but a priest considers this an abomination and a heresy. The priest leads a mob that seeks to destroy the machine, but the builder casually says that over the years he has acquired some practice, and shows them his latest invention: a crossbow equipped with a rotating drum with 12 arrows. And the mob decides to leave him alone.

* In Eric Cox's ''The Relic Guild'' series - Namji, an Aelfir noblewoman and allied magic-user to the Relic Guild, owns a stolen Aelfir pistol crossbow. This item is a master-crafted, {{Magitek}} weapon that uses power stones. While there's charge in the stones, the weapons will automatically reload and cock after each trigger pull. The weapon carries a magazine of pencil-sized crossbolts that are all enchanted with a single-use offensive spell cast by Namji. In a world, where {{Magitek}} guns are commonplace, her crossbow gives her firepower that often outclasses enemy firearms.

* In D20 rpg ''Dark Legacies'', there are standard automatic crossbows out of Dungeons and Dragons, but also there are even more advanced assault crossbows, which are automatic crossbows with an ammo belt to create a constant rate of fire. And a certain class can further mount these assault crossbows on a steam-powered armour and then improve the crossbow with things such as flywheels, high-tension strings and etc. Note that in most fantasy worlds, these assault crossbows would be the highest level of technology. But in ''Dark Legacies'', it's set in our world in the post-apocalypse, demon-haunted far future, so the assault crossbows and other tech is a big step down.

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' gunslinger archetype, the Bolt Ace, is used for [[FantasyGunControl settings where the early firearms of Golarion are not commonplace.]] It allows the normally slow-to-reload crossbows to act as [[BottomlessMagazines firearms from an action movie.]] One class ability, ''Inexplicable Reload,'' [[LampshadeHanging acknowledges the absurdity]] of a crossbow reloading as quickly as it does -- as many as [[MoreDakka six shots or more in six seconds]] for a sufficiently advanced character.

* Steamlogic's ''Mechanical Dreams'' has repeating crossbows. The most basic versions can store 3 bolts while the best quality ones can hold 12 bolt. Then there's the Arrow Rotary, this is a drum-fed automatic crossbow that can hold 100 arrows and will continuously shoot so long as the trigger is pressed.

* The Desert Striker Crossbow from ''VideoGame/{{Rage}}'', is a future semi-automatic, reverse-draw crossbow that functions as a scope-less sniper weapon with varied ammo in early game.
* In the 1980s, light-gun shooter ''Crossbow'' an arcade game from Exidy had you protect a hapless group of adventurers from incoming monsters with a rapid-fire crossbow.
* ''VideoGame/{{Gauntlet}}''-clone, ''Demon Stalkers: The Raid on Doomfane'' had your heroes rip into the forces of evil with rapid-fire crossbows.
* ''Gemstone Warrior'' and its sequel ''Gemstone Healer'' from SSI had its hero fight his way through demons to the magical Gemstone with a rapid-fire crossbow that was weak but had a large ammo supply and fireballs which OneHitKill but your ammo supply was very limited.

* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', most crossbows hit hard but have a low rate of fire. Coupled with the relative scarcity of their ammunition [[note]]every bandit or kobold has a full quiver of arrows, but bolts must generally be bought in shops[[/note]] this makes them inferior to handbows. Not so with "The Army Scythe", a magical crossbow that fires faster than most handbows and has according to the FlavorText been used to carve out a small kingdom in the past. The only drawback is that you go though bolts even faster than before.

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' gunslinger archetype, the Bolt Ace, is used for [[FantasyGunControl settings where the early firearms of Golarion are not commonplace.]] It allows the normally slow-to-reload crossbows to act as [[BottomlessMagazines firearms from an action movie.]] One class ability, ''Inexplicable Reload,'' [[LampshadeHanging acknowledges the absurdity]] of a crossbow reloading as quicky as it does -- as many as [[MoreDakka six shots or more in six seconds]] for a sufficiently advanced character.

* In ''Film/VanHelsing'', its titular hero is given a [[MoreDakka pressurized gas-operated, drum magazine-fed, fully automatic crossbow]] (pictured above) upon his return to the Vatican after the opening fight with Mr Hyde. The Knights of The Holy Order (a multi-faith AncientOrderOfProtectors that resides beneath the Vatican and protects mankind from evil) gives it to him (among other fantastical weapons and gadgets) to help him in his fight against Dracula and his minions. Sadly though, this weapon is only used [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS9N8dEdZCQ in one scene out of the entire film]] before he switches to regular firearms.

Automatic Crossbows are crossbows that allow the user to shoot several times before having to reload, just like modern guns do.[[note]]Technically, most examples are ''semi''-automatic crossbows (one bolt per pull of the trigger), while a fully-automatic one would fire several bolts per trigger-squeeze.[[/note]] Many works of fiction are set in a time period when firearms are not available, and crossbows are the nearest equivalent. This is especially true in the fantasy genre, where FantasyGunControl is the default. However, crossbows take time to reload, which can be frustrating for people used to the rapid action of modern gunfights. And to those who are used to modern sporting crossbows, which are much faster to reload but also much shorter-ranged and less powerful than the typical medieval version. Sometimes in a work the urge to use some GunsAndGunplayTropes is just too powerful. So the obvious solution to this dilemma is to give crossbows the ability to shoot an entire magazine of ammunition without having to reload. Not only do they add [[RuleOfCool instant awesome]], but they allow having MoreDakka.

* In ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'', Guts's primary ranged weapon is a wrist-mounted repeating crossbow operated by turning a crank, which he primarily uses against humans. His ''other'' ranged weapon is a [[ArmCannon steampunk gunpowder cannon built into the replacement for his left arm]], which he uses to turn the tide against demons. Later in the series, Rickert invents a machinegun-sized repeating crossbow to protect his refugee group against monsters.

* In ''ComicBook/CerebusTheAardvark'', The Roach (in his Punisherroach identity) wields two "pearl handled semi-automatic" belt-fed crossbows that shoot explosive-tipped bolts and have a firing rate similar to a machine gun.

* In ''Film/VanHelsing'', its titular hero is given a [[MoreDakka pressurized gas operated, drum magazine fed, fully automatic crossbow]] (pictured above) upon his return to the Vatican after the opening fight with Mr Hyde. The Knights of The Holy Order (a multi-faith AncientOrderOfProtectors that resides beneath the Vatican and protects mankind from evil) gives it to him (among other fantastical weapons and gadgets) to help him in his fight against Dracula and his minions. Sadly though, this weapon is only used [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS9N8dEdZCQ in one scene out of the entire film]] before he switches to regular firearms.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels use this quite a bit. ''Literature/TheTruth'' and ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'' even feature a small spring-powered crossbow that's been so heavily modified that it's a gun in everything but the most technical sense. There's also Sergeant Detritus's "Piecemaker," a giant siege weapon that fires six foot long arrows, which he converted into [[{{BFG}} biggest handheld weapon on the Disc]]. Although both are described, most emphatically, as being ''slow'' to reload.

*** The Piecemaker has actually been fired, it applies so much force that the arrows instantly shatter. The target is then hit with a spray of fast moving wood and metal chips of what used to be arrows. It has the same effect as a shotgun, dialed up to 11. Often being used to vaporize pesky obstacles that block their path.

* The dwarves in the Swedish RPG ''TabletopGame/{{Eon}}'' invented the Krell-Spaz, a semi-automatic, pump-action crossbow, as well as its derivatives, the Krell-Hon, the Krell-Hon-Spaz, and the Krell-Khan-Hon-Spaz, the last of which is sadly not a viable option in regelar combat as it's actually a ''siege weapon'' weighing in at almost 130 lbs.

** They return in ''V''. Here, the Cho-Ku-Nu is actually weaker than the normal crossbow, but can fire two times per turn.

* In the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' universe, there currently exists exactly ''one'' repeating crossbow--namely, Varric's [[ICallItVera Bianca]], first seen in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII''. It is unique because it is actually a product of two genius engineers who worked on it at different times, and because Varric had to kill one of them later, while publicly giving him full credit for its creation to protect the other one's ([[spoiler:his OldFlame after whom the crossbow is named]]) identity from the underworld powers [[NoManShouldHaveThisPower that really want to obtain the secret of its manufacture]]. Officially its creation was a fluke that couldn't be reproduced; in reality they just don't want to. [[note]] The main reason it's being suppressed is that it's actually quite ''simple'' to reproduce if you know how it works, so any advantage it gave would be immediately countered when everyone else builds them too; meanwhile, the already violent world would suddenly be filled with automatic weapons that any random idiot can pick up and use. The creators concluded this would achieve nothing but higher bodycounts.[[/note]]
* In ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown'', the common Crossbow weapon your characters could pick has a firing rate as fast as the player's trigger finger. There's also the semi-rare Cranequin crossbow, which has a slightly slower rate of fire, but comes with a SpreadShot.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' [[{{nerf}} used to]] have bows and crossbows that fired absurdly fast; a dwarf who really leveled up the relevant skill could fire off seven or eight bolts before the first one hit. This was extremely CoolButInefficient, as ranged weapons were also somewhat overpowered at the time and the odds were good that the first arrow or bolt had scored a OneHitKill, so the remainder were wasted. The problem has since been fixed by not allowing units to loose a second shot until the first has landed.
** All that being said however, actual rates of fire are slightly difficult to determine, as VideoGame/DwarfFortress is a rather extreme example of VideoGameTime.

** Similarly, the third ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' games introduces Motonari Mori, who uses a wrist-mounted version of this that he can even stab people with.

* ''VideoGame/FistOfTheNorthStarKensRage'' gives Mamiya (and later Bat and Lin) automatic crossbows as weapons. All three of them can deal a barrage of rapid-fire shots as part of their moveset, but given the setting, these are downgraded to AnnoyingArrows individually--it usually takes the better part of its bolt magazine to kill a squad of generic {{Mook}}s that a dedicated fighter like Kenshiro or Rei could annihilate without a second thought, but these crossbows carry around ''50'' shots and can be reload in roughly two seconds. They also become ''much'' more lethal when used in [[LimitBreak Signature Moves]].

* In ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' Twitch has an extremely high base attack speed, and usually gets items to increase it, so that he fires crossbow bolts at a rate greater than one a second.

** Some Minecraft griefing clients not only restore the fully automatic nature of the bow, but can make it fire ''even faster''.

* ''{{Videogame/Terraria}}'' has repeating crossbows that are crafted from Cobalt, Palladium, {{Mythril}}, {{Orichalcum}}, Adamantite, Titanium and Hallowed metal that fire automatically compared to previous bows that had to be fired with each click of the mouse. When you get access to Chlorophyte, you can craft a Chlorophyte Shotbow that [[{{MultiShot}} fires three arrows for the cost of one (or zero if you have a chance not to consume ammo)]]. There's also a Halloween themed Stake Launcher that fires wooden stakes automatically like the repeaters and, as expected, it's a OneHitKill against vampires in the Solar Eclipse event.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' has the Attica, a Tenno made crossbow that fires high-damage bolts at decent rate. A later patch doubles its firing rate and allows it to equip the [[StuffBlowingUp Thunderbolt mod]], essentially turning it into a fast-firing automatic rocket launcher. A later update introduced the Zhuge, which is more of a crit-based weapon.

* ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' features several instances of automatic, semi-automatic, wrist mounted and sniper-scoped crossbow weapons. Some are entirely mechanical, others may have [[{{magitek}} magical cores]] to help the motions. Generally speaking, the Drow in the setting are both adept at {{magitek}}-anything and are excellent craftsmen.

** A large problem with the jamming turned out to be just how it was fired. With the right cranking technique it worked fairly well.

* When ''Series/ScrapheapChallenge'' did an episode on repeater bows, they showed a full-size but down-powered model of an original Chinese design dating to 200 AD. It essentially had an ammo hopper on top which was gravity-fed, and a wheel on the side which pulled the string back once with each rotation. It could fire pretty much as fast as you could turn the wheel, getting through maybe 40 shots per minute.
** Historic repeating crossbows all had the same problem, they lacked the range and penetrating power of their slower firing brethren. Great for volume of fire, less then spectacular when it comes to precision marksmanship, long range target shooting, and armor penetration. Which is why the bolts were often [[PoisonedWeapons poisoned]], or scaled up to the size of artillery.

* In the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' universe, there currently exists exactly ''one'' repeating crossbow--namely, Varric's [[ICallItVera Bianca]], first seen in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII''. It is unique because it is actually a product of two genius engineers who worked on it at different times, and because Varric had to kill one of them later, while publicly giving him full credit for its creation to protect the other one's ([[spoiler:his OldFlame after whom the crossbow is named]]) identity from the underworld powers [[NoManShouldHaveThisPower that really want to obtain the secret of its manufacture]]. Officially it's creation was a fluke that couldn't be reproduced; in reality they just don't want to. [[note]] The main reason it's being suppressed is that it's actually quite ''simple'' to reproduce if you know how it works, so any advantage it gave would be immediately countered when everyone else builds them too; meanwhile, the already violent world would suddenly be filled with automatic weapons that any random idiot can pick up and use. The creators concluded this would achieve nothing but higher bodycounts.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/{{XIII}}'' has two scoped crossbows that act as this game's silent sniper weapons. The normal one must be reloaded after every shot, but the improved semiautomatic version holds three quarrels in... well, nobody knows because it looks exactly like the standard version. It still shoots considerably faster[[note]]you can release all three shots well before the first one hits[[/note]] without needing longer to reload, which by the time you get it is often sorely needed to silently neutralize multiple guards before one of them can trigger an alarm.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels use this quite a bit. ''Discworld/TheTruth'' and ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'' even feature a small spring-powered crossbow that's been so heavily modified that it's a gun in everything but the most technical sense. There's also Sergeant Detritus's "Piecemaker," a giant siege weapon that fires six foot long arrows, which he converted into [[{{BFG}} biggest handheld weapon on the Disc]]. Although both are described, most emphatically, as being ''slow'' to reload.

** Automatic or multi-shot crossbows are alluded in at least ''Discworld/MenAtArms'' and ''Discworld/TheLastContinent''. ''The Last Continent'' even used a crossbow to parody ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness''' famous ThisIsMyBoomstick scene.
** Crossbows in ''Discworld/NightWatch'' carry a magazine of several bolts, but the string still has to be pulled back.
** Lampshaded a bit in the end of ''Discworld/GuardsGuards!''. The protagonists storm the palace to catch the villain, and when the gate is locked, Captain Vimes, drunk on authority and briefly forgetting he's only ''acting'' like Dirty Harry, orders Sergeant Colon to "[[ShootOutTheLock shoot it open!]]" Colon is not sure how he's supposed to accomplish that with a bow and arrow.
** In ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', Moist, on several occasions, finds himself staring down the barrel of Miss Dearheart's... automatic crossbow, taking the place of the shotgun that a shopkeeper would normally have.

* In the movie adaptation of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Two Towers]]'', [[EliteMooks Uruk-hai]] marksmen use quick-reloading, lever-action crossbows during the siege of Helm's Deep. It's a detail that doesn't really come up in the film itself, but the design team at Weta Workshop included it because [[RuleOfCool it's cool]] and establishes the advanced technology used by Saruman's forces.

* Gretel from ''Film/HanselAndGretelWitchHunters'' carries an over-and-under version of this, which uses its own recoil to cock itself. It can also rotate to shoot bolts in opposite directions.

** The official light gun attachment for the Nintendo Wii, known as the Wii Zapper, comes packaged with ''VideoGame/LinksCrossbowTraining'', a Gaiden Game for ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]. Link's Crossbow never needs to be reloaded, and can be charged to fire Bomb Arrows; hitting the right target for a powerup will turn it into ''fully''-automatic crossbow for 100 bolts.

* Interestingly, the official lightgun attachment for the Nintendo Wii, known as the Wii Zapper, comes with ''VideoGame/LinksCrossbowTraining''. Link's Crossbow never needs to be reloaded, and can be powered up with 100 bolts of automatic rapid-fire. The idea was later expanded upon with Linkle's dual crossbows in ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors Legends'', which combines this trope with some mild GunKata.

** Historic repeating crossbows all had the same problem, they lacked the range and penetrating power of their slower firing brethren. Great for volume of fire, less then spectacular when it comes to precision marksmanship, long range target shooting, and armor penetration. Which is why the bolts were often [[PoisonedWeapon poisoned]], or scaled up to the size of artillery.

** However, a body recovered from the site of a Roman siege in south-western England showed that a bolt-head typical of a Roman repeating crossbow had enough force to go right through a human body from the front and lodge in the luckless target's spine, with the point penetrating out of his back. Ref. Adam Hart-Davis, below.

* A modern automatic crossbow that feeds from a large drum magazine is Ajay Ghale's go-to stealth WeaponOfChoice in ''VideoGame/FarCry4'', although the standard bow from the last game is still available as well, it really comes down to player preference.

** The crossbow in ''Videogame/HalfLife2'' is no longer automatic, and you can only carry twelve shots, but becomes the most damaging non-explosive weapon in the game. While it's no longer magazine-fed, it still has some automatic parts, allowing it to rearm itself while the user reaches for a new projectile.
** ''VideoGame/SvenCoop'' remedies this by making the fire rate longer between each shot.

** Trying to be funny, or referencing the RL slow fire rate? [[MathematiciansAnswer Yes]].

* Coincidentally there's ''another'' Queen Mercedes (this one an elf) in ''VideoGame/MapleStory'', who [[DualWielding dual-wields]] a pair of 'bowguns', which can be best described as this trope with a dash of GatlingGood. In her case, she never has to reload because her arrows are made of magic. Given her rate of fire, conventional ammunition would probably be impossible to reload quick enough unless it was belt-fed.
** Also from Maplestory there is the Wild Hunter class who is from a very Steampunk inspired faction and thus can use mechanisms to fire their crossbow at a rate comparable to Mercedes, without magic!

* ''VideoGame/OddworldStrangersWrath'' has the main character use an arm-mounted double-barrel crossbow that fire [[BeeBeeGun bees]] like machine-gun as well as various other critters.