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This article is about the unit in Age of Empires II. For the unit in other games of the series, see Chu Ko Nu. |
| “ | Chinese unique archer with rapid-fire attack. | ” |
| —Age of Empires II description | ||
The Chu Ko Nu is the unique unit of the Chinese in Age of Empires II. It is a foot archer that fires multiple arrows in quick succession.
Only the first arrow does full damage, though. All the other arrows fired deal 3 pierce damage and 0 melee damage (the latter is very helpful when battling rams). A regular Chu Ko Nu fires three arrows per volley, and an Elite Chu Ko Nu fires five.
Chu Ko Nu can be upgraded to Elite Chu Ko Nu in the Imperial Age.
Fandom Trivia
Quiz | Test your knowledge on the Age of Empires series!6 questions |
Tactics[]
Chu Ko Nu are usually used in a combination with Monks as healers and Scorpions behind them along with some Villagers. They are great against non-defensive buildings and most close combatant units, especially when high pierce-armor units. Chu Ko Nu also do very well when mixed with infantry. Another way to utilize Chu Ko Nu is to use them to protect Castles, both garrisoned and ungarrisoned. If garrisoned, 13 fully upgraded Elite Chu Ko Nu are enough for a Castle to fire all 20 extra arrows. If ungarrisoned, groups of Chu Ko Nu are a great deterrent against Rams, due to each arrow having a 0 melee attack, thus doing 3 damage per arrow against rams. They do not have the same effectiveness against Armored Elephants, however, since they can receive armor upgrades to negate their -2 melee armor.
The Chu Ko Nu, in a similar fashion to the Kipchaks, have the distinction of still faring fairly well against archer-resistant units. This is because archer-resistant units (such as Skirmishers) can survive archer fire due to their pierce armor. But due to the high number of arrows fired the Chu Ko Nu (especially Elite) still deals a considerable amount of damage, especially to Rams. However, they should still try to avoid anti-archer units in general and they match poorly against Huskarls and Ghulams. Most other archers have one more range than Chu Ko Nu and can hit-and-run them. Meanwhile, Chu Ko Nu are not good at hit-and-run due to how their multiple shots work in terms of reloading, and due to their long attack delay.
Chu Ko Nu are best countered with longer ranged archers, Skirmishers, heavy cavalry charges (in large numbers), Huskarls, Ghulams, or siege weapons that deal splash damage.
Further statistics[]
As Chu Ko Nu are unique to the Chinese, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Infantry, buildings, Rams |
| Weak vs. | Skirmishers, Scorpions, Mangonels, cavalry, Huskarls, Eagle Warriors, Genitours, Ghulams |
| Upgrades | |
| Attack |  Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Chemistry (+1) Rocketry (+2)
|
| Range | Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1)
|
| Firing rate |  Thumb Ring (+25%)
|
| Accuracy | Thumb Ring (increases accuracy to 100%) Ballistics (hit moving targets)
|
| Armor |  Padded Archer Armor (+1/+1) Leather Archer Armor (+1/+1) Ring Archer Armor (+1/+2)
|
| Conversion defense |  Faith
|
| Creation speed |  Conscription (+33%) Kasbah (+25%, with a Berber ally only)
|
| Upgrades |  Elite Chu Ko Nu
|
Civilization bonuses[]
- Chinese: Technologies that benefit Chu Ko Nu are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
Team bonuses[]
- A team containing Britons: Researching Thumb Ring is 10% faster.
- A team containing Bulgarians: Blacksmith upgrades are researched 80% faster.
- A team containing Lithuanians: Faith is researched 20% faster.
- A team containing Magyars: Chu Ko Nu have +2 Line of Sight.
- A team containing Malians: Researching Chemistry and Ballistics is 80% faster.
- A team containing Portuguese: Upgrades that benefit Chu Ko Nu are researched 25% faster.
- A team containing Saracens: Chu Ko Nu have +3 attack against standard buildings.
- A team containing Teutons: Chu Ko Nu are more resistant to conversion.
Changelog[]
The Age of Kings[]
- Non-Elite Chu Ko Nu train in 19 seconds.
The Conquerors[]
- Chu Ko Nu gain a +2 attack bonus against Spearman.
- Main and secondary projectiles deal 0 melee damage too (i.e., +3 damage vs rams with –3 melee armor).
- Thumb Ring introduced.
- Rocketry introduced.
The Forgotten[]
- Non-Elite Chu Ko Nu train in 16 seconds.
Lords of the West[]
- With update 50292, Chu Ko Nu add the correct amount of extra projectiles to fortifications when garrisoned inside them.
Heroes[]
There is one hero in the game with the appearance of a Chu Ko Nu:
Trivia[]
- Chu Ko Nu (諸葛弩) literally means "The crossbow of Zhuge." Zhuge Liang was a famous strategist-tactician who lived and died during China's Three Kingdoms era. However, the Chinese more commonly refer to it as the "Lian Nu" (連弩), literally translating to "Repeating Crossbow".
- Despite its name, the Chu Ko Nu was not invented by Zhuge, being in use some two hundred years before his birth. However, it is likely that he improved its design to make it a more effective weapon of war.
- The actual Chu Ko Nu had a firing rate of around two arrows per three seconds, making it the most rapid-firing weapon in existence until the invention of the Gatling gun 1800 years later.
- Due to a quirk in the engine in regards to duplicate projectiles and the design of the arrow projectile, Chu Ko Nu's arrows do 0 melee damage along with the extras dealing 3 pierce damage. Normally this makes no difference, but because Rams have -3 melee armor, each arrow actually deals 3, not 1 damage to Rams. This makes Chu Ko Nu one of the best anti-Ram units in the game as an Elite Chu Ko Nu can deal 15 damage per volley at a distance to Rams.
- Historically, Chinese military writers considered repeating crossbows to be too weak for battle, but rather was a weapon for home defense against wildlife. Nevertheless, there have been reports of repeating crossbows being used as late as the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894.
- The Elite upgrade is, in terms of gold, the second most expensive of all unique units (base value), costing 950. Only the Elite War Elephant upgrade costs more gold with 1,200. The Chinese civilization bonus, however, reduces the cost to 760.
- Even if the target stands right in front of a Chu Ko Nu, the latter can still fail to hit with every arrow in the volley.
- With 14 attack, a fully upgraded Elite Chu Ko Nu has the highest attack of all foot archers as well as the second highest attack of all ranged units outside of the siege and gunpowder section (only behind the Elite Arambai, with 15 attack).
- "The Zhuge Nu (literally: Zhuge Crossbow) is a handy little weapon that even the Confucian scholar or palace women can use in self-defence... It fires weakly so you have to tip the darts with poison. Once the darts are tipped with "tiger-killing poison", you can shoot it at a horse or a man and as long as you draw blood, your adversary will die immediately. The draw-back to the weapon is its very limited range." - from the Gujin Tushu Jicheng, the Imperial Encyclopedia (Qing Dinasty).
- The earliest metal crossbow-locks and crossbow bolts are indeed found in Shandong, China and dated to around 650 BCE; however, linguistic evidence indicated that crossbows might have been invented by ancient Austroasiatic-speakers.
- The Chu Ko Nu is the unit that benefits the most from Thumb Ring in firing rate improvement, at 25%.
History[]
| “ | The crossbow was invented in China in ancient times and the chu ko nu was an improved crossbow invented there during European Middle Ages. The chu ko nu was something like a semi-automatic crossbow. It was fitted with a magazine of bolts. When the operator pulled back the bowstring, a new bolt was automatically loaded. When the bowstring reached its limit, the weapon fired automatically. The operator pulled back as quickly as he could to maintain a rapid fire. The weaknesses of the weapon were a short range and weaker power compared to larger single-shot crossbows. | ” |
Gallery[]
Video[]
ELITE CHU KO NU vs EVERY UNIQUE UNIT (Lords of the West) - AoE II- Definitive Edition
40 comments
Unfortunately, additional arrows have a chance to miss. Tested it in the editor on a Paladin who didnt move.
The post-imp Elite Chu Ko Nu (4 additional arrows) would make 7-11 dmg/hit, averaging at 9-10 (after armor).
So instead of attacking with 8+6+4=18 on paper, it is somewhere around 16-17 in avg, meaning 1-2 additional arrows miss on an unmoving big hitbox from close distance. Thats the same as with the Kipchak, instead of all 3 additional arrows hitting, sometimes one misses, sometimes two and in rare cases all 3 miss.
Has someone noticed this too?
This was never mentioned in the wiki. I remember it's a thing for years and a reason why I would not pick Chinese or Cumans due to this probability thing.
If someone has the math behind the hitting quota of the additional arrows, please update the wiki.
"The Chu Ko Nu is one of the few unique units that does not have any base melee armor nor pierce armor. The others are the Imperial Camel Rider, Gbeto, Slinger, and Missionary."
Do you mean among Elite versions? If that's so, Imperial Camel Riders, Slingers, and Missionaries aren't a good comparison because don't have an Elite upgrade (and Elite Kipchaks and Flaming Camels are missing). If you include non-Elite versions, the following have 0/0 base armor: Throwing Axeman, Kamayuk, Shotel Warrior, Dismounted Konnik, Mameluke, Longbowman, Mangudai.
IMO, that paragraph should be removed to avoid confusion. And the same for other pages with a similar paragraph.
When did Chu Ko Nus start giving Castles extra arrows when garrisoned? The last time I played as Chinese (DE version), they didn't seem to shoot that many extra arrows when garrisoned in a castle.
Since last week's update.
Do we need a changelog section detailing those updates/bug fix/buff?
Yes, we should add that to the changelog.
Ironic, 'cause SOTL proved that Chu Ko Nu win against Skirms' with a 3:4 death ratio
That's already pointed out in the article.
"The Chu Ko Nu, in a similar fashion to the Kipchaks, have the distinction of still faring fairly well against most anti-archer units. This is because most anti-archer units (such Skirmishers) can survive archer fire due to their pierce armor. But due to the high number of arrows fired the Chu Ko Nu (especially Elite) still deals a considerable amount of damage, especially to Rams."
CKN+Halb+Ram deathball. Cheap, destroys almost anything but gets destroyed by onagers.
this is the most BS unit in the game along with Letis. Dirt cheap and overwhelming fire power with better hp than standard arbalest
You mean bullshit ?
Bruh
Very hard to mass if you only have one castle.
Compare to Chu Ko Nu, I prefer to set "Yi Wo Feng(Bee Swarm)" rocket as Chinese unique unit, while all the data can remain the same, just change the appearance. B/C "Yi Wo Feng" associates more with UT "Rocketry". It is an individual-used rocket launcher that can fire several rockets at one time. And Chinese people did not use Chu Ko Nu during the AOE2 period, during the time that Chinese people used this weapon, Europe was ruled by the Roman Empire.
Update: Coming soon in Age of Empires iV
Devs : China seems to be the biggest market for this game so let's make the Chinese OP by giving them some kind of cheap ass machine guns, economy bonus and stuff.
CHU KO NU is a super strong unit good vs most units /apart from Paladins, onagers, Longbowmen/ , I just love it and it is amazing they benefit from the cheaper techs /imagine having to pay for ballistics, chemistry and BS techs in age IV /. Just LOVING THEM !!
We have a lot of counter to Paladins and Longowmen. Our Light cav is average.
throwing axemen are a good counter to coks
Are they though?
They have inferior range
Arguebly yes , (with Bearded Axe) and upgrade to elite - they have 5 range. Chuko nu 7 range ; Axeman have more HP (80) , are cheaper and have better armour, Equal number/resources they can mow down chuko nus
They used to have a Frame Delay of 3 in HD vs. 5 for Archers, Xbows and Arbs. They got a nerf in DE, with their FD being 19, while Archers have only 15.
Afaik their actual delay is unchanged (iirc that change was that they removed the frame delay from elite mamelukes) - first, the frame rate is tripled in the Defininitive Edition but then there are also other things that changed. For example, frame delay for mangudai was increased from 5 to 23 while cavalry archers went from 10 to 30 but the actual delay of the mangudai is still only half as high as it is for CA
Okay, I seriously messed up my own sentence there, lol. I wanted to say that with the exeption of elite mameluke, effective delays are unchanged for all units, lol
they work like a canhoneer: a ranged unit that neutralizes melee units at moderate range, but the canhoneer being an infantry specialized and the chu ku nu a more versatile unit (beating rams and maybe cavalary). This is why the chinese miss the canhoneer
if you want a ranged sniper go for regular arbalests or scorpions
it is so cheap 40w, 35g, this is why I love this unit usually , but the low range sucks
Because that's exactly the problem with this weapon in real life, much weaker, shorter range and inaccurate. The game stayed faithful to reality in this case, as it described: The weaknesses of the weapon were a short range and weaker power compared to larger single-shot crossbows.
Not much, pair them with Halbs, Or Mangonals should be good.
Is there any information handy, on why chu-ko-nu do so little in extra-arrows from towers, when being garrisoned?... it really seems like a bug to me. As if (maybe) the game judges them not by their entire volley of arrows (=their entire damage potential) but by only one, even one of their inferior extra-arrows (yikes!) out of all of them, when determining their attack strength to calculate extra arrows (spirit of the law (YT) made a good video on garrisoned archers, btw.); which would make for only 3 damage over 3.xx seconds (which would "equate" to roughly 2 damage for the rof of the tower. - which seems consistent with the testing sotl did)
Chu ko nu actually has a very low firing rate, with the arrows in the volley being generated by the projectile duplication mechanic.
Since tower arrows only look at firing rate and ranged attack, chu ko nu provide nearly no arrows due to the aforementioned very low firing rate. In fact, elite chu ko nu have an even slower firing rate in order to accomodate the two extra arrows per volley, and actually reduce the arrows provided iirc.
okay, so, towers calculate more arrows based on the damage output over 2 seconds, and adding an arrow for every time it meets the damage output requirement, the game displays to the PLAYER that they do 8 damage, but that 8 damage is actually 2x4 damage, and their fire rate is the time between volleys, is displayed as 4 seconds, the tower looks at the damage per arrow (2 damage) and then looks at the fact that they have a 4 second reload, and says "oh, I should take their damage output and split it in half" so now the Chu Ko Nu is only doing 1 damage every 2 seconds as far as the tower is considered, so to increase the tower damage, you'd have to garrison 6 Chu Ko Nu
Afaik the towers use one of the bonus arrows for calculation and as those only do 3 pierce damage ... well, the effect is minimal.
Rocketry shall increase all archer attack instead of only CKN & scrop.
It is no sense for the technology only apply for UU.
logistica, berserkegang and royal heirs are the techs that only affect UU that come to mind but I'm sure there is more.... obsidian arrow only affects one unit too. zealotry affects all camels and chieftains all infantry. I agree that Rocketry and logistica should affect more units though
Why does this article say that the CKN is "strong vs" buildings??
Are they? They don't even have any bonus!!
Most archers do only 1 damage to a Masonry upgraded building. An Elite Chukonu with Rocketry and 4 extra arrows can deals 7 or so damage to a Masonry upgraded TC. Even against a Castle or an Architecture upgraded one, the extra arrows still deals at least 1 damage, making them 5x more effective than a regular archer. This is offseted by the fact that they fire really slow, but a group of FU EChukonu can do the job you normally would do with seige units (the Chinese has accesed to Seige Ram though).
Each volley of the FU Non-Elite CKN deals a minimum of 4 damage to buildings in 3.65 sec or 2.92 sec with TR researched. Each volley of the Elite CKN deals a minimum of 6 damage to buildings in 3.84 sec or 3.07 sec with TR researched (assuming all arrows hit in both cases). Virtually all other archers deal a minimum of 1 damage, though they have base RoF of roughly 2.03 sec. Only Mayan Archer Line units with Obsidian Arrows (+6 damage per shot) or Elephant Archers (+3 norm, +4 elite) deal more damage vs buildings.
750 Gold to upgrade to Elite CKN and this only for an increase of 5 HP??
wtaf??
The CKN shoots multiple arrows per volley. The elite CKN shoots 5 arrows per volley instead of 3. So that means in most cases +2 damage per voley.
However the Elite CKN has a slower reload time. It is safe to say that Rocketry means more for CKN than the elite upgrade.
Can safely be ignored unless u wan't to use them as siege/vs elephants in wich case the upgrade is worth it otherwise u may better just dump that gold into siege/cavs/more regular chu's
No reason to ignore it as a 0.19 sec decrease in the RoF or a decrease of 5% is more than made up for by the additional 2 shots and slightly higher hp.
With one armor upgrade (or two if the opponent has research Chemistry) an Elite CKN can survive one shot from an Onager.
Given how vulnerable Chinese are against Onagers that is a very welcomed bonus.
Historically the Chu_Ku-Nu should be a weak trash unit. That is what they were historically. The repeating crossbow required almost no skill to use in contrast to a normal bow. In truth a skilled archer using a regular bow had a higher rate of fire in addition to higher accuracy, greater range and a lot more power. However the repeating cross bow was cheap to make and you can recruit thousands of farmers for a campaign and then just all arm them with it.
The same could be said for any Crossbow units (Crossbowman, Arbalest, even Genoese Crossbowman). Just because a weapon is easy to operate does not mean that it cannot be lethal, and with that, more lethal than harder to operate weapons.
Well, yes to an extent and they are that in the game. High performance bows like the Longbow are quite pricy compared to the average archer line.
However the Chu_Ku_Nu was even cheaper than a standard crossbow. As you didn't even need to aim. It has so little power that shooting at a distance is pointless anyway. Another problem is that the Chu_Ku_Nu was useless against armor. Even scoring a direct hit on the weak points won't do anything as even the soft cover underneath the armor is enough to stop those bolts.
The Crossbow did have a lot of power. However it did require enough practice to aim and hit a target at a fairly decent range. The lack of having to fight the bow made it easier but you still need practice. However you can teach someone to be proficient with a crossbow in just a few months while a longbow takes a few years. The Chu_Ku_Nu takes just a few hours.
Doesn't mean it's a trash unit. It takes practice to know how to use a spear probably. Also, you do realize that you practice not getting thrown off a horse?
"an Elite Chu Ko Nu can deal 16 damage per volley at a distance to Rams"
Why is it calculated like this? each arrow deals 3 and ECKN fires 5 arrow. So Is it 15?
No, ECKN fire six arrows. One normal and five duplicated.
The normal does 1 damage, the five do 3 each due to the Ram's -3 melee armor, for a total of 16.
Nope, the normal arrow does 3 damage to rams too. And there are only 5 arrows shots. It should be 15 damage, not 16.
Yet they still shred ram
Chu Ko Nu upgrade to E Chu Ko Nu
shall have more demage +2 & +1 range but keep the no. of arrows for banlance.
Also, the Rocket should increase the Chu Ko Nu demage to +4 instead of +2
so that Chu Ko Nu can be an anti anti-archer archer unit !
That would make no sense IMHO.