Pfeil was involved in a number of accidents, including accidentally colliding with a lightship in 1890, a torpedo boat in 1894, and a schooner in 1898 (sinking the latter vessel).

After the start of World War I in August 1914, the ship was used to support the flotilla of torpedo boats that guarded the mouth of the Elbe until June 1915, when she was withdrawn for use as a tender for the commander of the High Seas Fleet.

Pfeil spent 1886 out of commission, but she was recommissioned in 1887 for aviso duty with the Maneuver Squadron, the main unit of the German fleet at that time.

Upon reaching the area, she joined the East Africa Squadron, under the command of Konteradmiral Karl August Deinhard, who flew his flag in the screw corvette Leipzig.

On 1 March, he sent Pfeil to patrol off Zanzibar; over the course of her time on blockade duty, she inspected 411 merchant ships, the most of any warship in the unit.

Pfeil was the first steel-hulled, unrigged warship ever sent by Germany to its African colonies, though her steel hull rendered her unsuitable to long-term deployments to the tropics, and she was detached on 29 September to return home.

Kaiser Wilhelm II was cruising with the division in his yacht Hohenzollern, and wished to be briefed by Deinhard on the situation in East Africa.

Pfeil met the unit on 26 October in Piraeus, Greece, while Leipzig joined the ships off the island of Mytilene on 1 November.

Deinhard delivered his report on 6 November, after which all of the German ships steamed to Venice, Italy, where Pfeil underwent repairs.

She took Admiral Max von der Goltz to make an official visit to the British Admiralty and to greet the training squadron returning from the Mediterranean.

Later that year, Pfeil accompanied Hohenzollern on Wilhelm II's state visit to Christiana, Norway, followed by the ceremonial transfer of the island of Helgoland from British to German control (by way of the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty).

During exercises in the Baltic Sea on 26 June, she assisted the armored division flagship, Baden, which had run aground in Danzig Bay.

She was used as a training ship for engine room personnel beginning on 28 August 1897, and she was employed as a scout for the fleet during the annual autumn maneuvers.

Following the conclusion of the maneuvers, she was sent on 21 September to replace the aviso Zieten on fishery protection patrols in the North Sea, the latter vessel needing repairs.

On 30 April, she returned to the fleet, and while on a cruise in the western Baltic, she collided with the Dutch schooner Leentje, accidentally sinking the merchant vessel.

The coastal defense ship Hagen suffered a machinery breakdown in early September, and Pfeil towed her back to Kiel for repairs.

She returned to service on 16 March 1900 for fishery protection duties, though during this period she was temporarily attached to I Squadron for the unit's maneuvers in the North and Baltic Seas.