BowCharge answers a question vanilla never quite does: "is my bow ready yet?" When you start drawing a bow — or charging a crossbow — a thin progress bar fades in above your hotbar showing the exact charge percentage. A red->yellow->green gradient tracks the pull, and the moment you hit full draw the bar locks green and the label flips to DRAWN! (or LOADED! for crossbows). Release; bar disappears. No fluff, no config screens, just the one number you actually want to see while aiming.
What it shows
While drawing a bow the bar shows Draw: 73%; at full draw it locks green and reads DRAWN!. For a crossbow being cranked it shows Load: 60%, flipping to LOADED! when it locks in.
How it works
- Bow draw progress uses vanilla's own pull curve
(t^2 + 2t) / 3, so the bar lines up exactly with when your shot becomes a power-3 arrow. - Crossbow progress is a straight 25-tick charge (the vanilla unenchanted load time).
- The HUD is drawn through Fabric's
HudRenderCallback, so it respects F1 (hide HUD) automatically and never overlaps the hotbar. - Everything is read-only — no mixins, no input interception, no movement changes. Drop it on any server.
Controls
- B — toggle the bar on / off (default: on)
The key is read via raw GLFW polling so it works identically on every supported Minecraft version without a separate rebind screen.
Compatibility
Works on Minecraft 1.21.8, 1.21.9, 1.21.10, and 1.21.11 (Fabric Loader 0.16+). One JAR for all four versions — install with Fabric API and drop into your mods/ folder.
- Pure client-side — install on the client only, works on any server, no anti-cheat impact.
- Hides automatically when you press F1 to hide the rest of the HUD.
- Zero config files; nothing to set up.
Why
Vanilla gives you a hand-animation hint that the bow is drawn, but no precise feedback — and crossbows give you almost nothing until the click. BowCharge turns "feel" into a number you can read at a glance, which matters in PvP, long-shot archery, and anywhere you want to time a max-power release.
