We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

FFXIV modder plays Archer with a Nerf bow controller

YouTuber Louis 'Super Louis 64' Hamilton has found a way to make playing the Archer job a wee bit more immersive

Some early artwork of FFXIV's Bard job

A controller modder has found a way to play Final Fantasy XIV‘s Archer class with a toy bow and arrow, which is pretty cool to imagine until you realise that most of your time would be spent picking up bits of foam off the floor.

Louis ‘Super Louis 64’ Hamilton explains on Twitter that taking the arrow off the quiver tells a board what ability he will use. The board then uses maths to determine if an arrow has been shot before relaying that information to the game. “The build itself uses a handy-dandy Arduino along with touch sensors and gyroscopes,” Hamilton explains. “My hardware game is slowly levelling up so I was able to set up my own code and algorithm to detect the force of the arrow being shot.”

Hamilton also explains that, yes, he did not realise how much time he would have to spend picking bits of foam off his floor. “It wasn’t until testing [that] I realised that I accidentally made a too-realistic controller. There was an unhealthy amount of time spent searching the floor for used arrows.”

If you’d like a more in-depth breakdown, or just want to see someone enjoying the critically acclaimed MMORPG FFXIV with a toy bow, you can find the video below:

YouTube Thumbnail

Hamilton has created several impressive modded controllers for FFXIV now. The modder literally ran across Eorzea in two hours using Ring Fit Adventure controls, and played the Machinist job using a limited-edition set of Final Fantasy X-2 gun controllers.

In other FFXIV news, we’re hearing all about patch 6.1 in a Live Letter next week. The team will be slowing the update cadence down to promote healthier working, but the FFXIV roadmap is still looking packed with goodies.