DEEP DIVES

Fighting in melee is a dangerous game. You have a wide range of weapons, sure, but so does your assailant and how can you be sure that you’ll come out on top? I’ve always thought that the smart move is to fight from a distance instead.
近战这种交战方式风险相当高。虽然确实有许多武器可供选择，但你的对手也一样。而且你怎么敢肯定自己一定能挑得过对面呢？所以我一直认为，远战才是最明智的交战方式。

Minecraft only has a handful of ranged weapons - the most obvious is the bow. The least obvious is the trident . And in the middle? You’ve got our item of the month – the handy crossbow .
Minecraft 中的远程武器不多，最常见的当然是弓，最少见的应该是三叉戟。那么有没有介乎两者之间的呢？有请我们的本月物品⸺称手易用的弩。

Crossbows were added to Minecraft in the Village & Pillage update in April 2019. You can craft one, using sticks, string, iron, and a tripwire hook. Or you can steal one from a dead pillager or piglin, though the chance of it being in good working order is fairly slim. They’re also occasionally found in chests in pillager outposts and bastion remnants, and you can sometimes buy one from a fletcher in a village.
弩是在 2019 年 4 月发布的《村庄与掠夺》更新中加入 Minecraft 的，可以用木棍、线、铁加上一个绊线钩来制作。你也可以从毙了命的掠夺者和猪灵身上搜出一把来，但十之八九都是比较破烂的了。除此之外，偶尔也能在掠夺者前哨站和堡垒遗迹的箱子里找到弩，或是跟村庄里的制箭师交易得来。

Crossbows work similarly to bows in that you put arrows in and pain comes out the other end. They take longer to load than a bow does, but they’re more powerful and the arrow will fire farther and with more accuracy. You can even load one with a firework rocket if you want to.
弩的用法与弓类似，一端放入箭矢，另一头输出伤害。虽然它所需的装填时间比弓要长，但射得比弓更远、更精准、力道更大。只要你愿意，你甚至可以把烟花火箭装填到弩上。

To load a crossbow, hit the use button while holding it – it takes a little over a second. Once it’s fully loaded, you can put it away for later, or fire it immediately with another click of the use button. If you hit something, it’ll take an average of nine points of damage (or four and a half hearts).
若要给弩装填，需要把弩拿在手中并按下使用键⸺保持按住一秒钟多钟。完成装填后，可以选择不立刻射出，也可以选择按下使用键立即发射。击中物体后，平均会造成 9 生命值（即 4 颗半心）的伤害。

Crossbows can be repaired in an anvil or grindstone, and they can also be enchanted – some enchants make the reload speed faster, some make a crossbow fire multiple arrows at once, and some make arrows pierce through enemies. Finally, if you’ve had enough of your crossbow, you can use it as fuel in a furnace – smelting 1.5 items per crossbow.
弩可以用铁砧和砂轮来修补，也可以附上魔咒。有的魔咒可以加快装填速度，有的可以一次射出多支箭，有的可以一下击穿多个敌人。最后就是，如果你的弩多到用不完，可以放到熔炉里面当燃料烧，每把弩可以烧炼 1.5 个物品。

Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity" by Liang Jieming
梁杰明著《中国攻城战：古代机械火炮与攻城兵器》

In the real world, the crossbow dates back further than you probably think – all the way back to 650BC, when bronze crossbows were used in what is now China.They started appearing in Europe a couple of hundred years later, used by the Greeks and Romans.
在现实世界中，弩的历史可能比你想得还要悠久，可以追溯到公元前 650 年，当时的中国已经开始使用青铜弩。数百年后，欧洲也出现了弩，最早由希腊人和罗马人使用。

Today crossbows are still used for hunting and occasionally in scientific research to collect tissue samples from animals. They’re no longer used in warfare, but they have some niche uses in the case of establishing zip lines and grappling hooks and among special forces units.
时至今日，人们依然会使用弩来打猎，偶尔也会在科研中用来采集动物组织样本。虽然弩已经不再用于战争了，但在特种部队里仍有用武之地，可以用来拉设滑索、固定绳索勾。

Honestly, it’s a pretty great choice in Minecraft too. Get yourself a crossbow and try it out – but don’t get caught reloading when a creeper is bearing down on you...
说实在话，Minecraft 里的弩确实是件好东西。给自己弄把弩，亲自上手试一试吧！不过要是看到一只苦力怕在向你拔腿跑来，就别想着来得及把弩装填上了⋯⋯




【橄榄Chan（aka Olvcpr423）译自官网 2022 年 10 月 20 日发布的 Taking Inventory: Crossbow；原作者 Duncan Geere】
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