Crossword Genius

Hits down by 50% affected archery ranking (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hierarchy

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'ranking' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'hits down by 50% affected archery' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'archery' is 'erarchy' which is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'hi' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hierarchy that I've seen before include "System of status rankings" , "Governing levels of organisation" , "System with grades of authority ranking one above another" , "System arranged in successive grades" , "Leaders in church" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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