Combat

See also: Combat (disambiguation)

Combat is an event in RuneScape in which two or more characters and/or monsters or NPCs fight.

Combat skills

Damage calculating

Below is a brief explanation of the three combat styles that can be used.

A player fighting with Melee.

• In melee combat, the maximum damage is determined by Strength, along with the strength bonuses provided by equipment. Accuracy is determined by Attack and the attack bonuses provided by weapons and other equipment. See the article Melee damage-per-second for more information on calculating Melee damage output.

A player fighting with Ranged.

• For Ranged combat, both the Ranged level and the type of ammunition determine the maximum damage. The accuracy is determined by the Ranged level and the equipment used. See the article Ranged damage-per-second for more information on calculating Ranged damage output.

A player fighting with Magic via casting the Fire Wave spell.

• Magic-based damage is typically based on the selected Magic combat spell, not by Magic level (exceptions include Magic Dart, powered staves, and salamanders). Magic accuracy is affected by both the equipment bonuses and by the Magic level. See the article on Magic damage-per-second for more information on calculating Magic damage output.

Even though each level is designated for one style of combat, multiple styles of combat can be used in one fight, since players have the ability to switch weapons at will and at any time. The act of using two or more combat styles in a fight to gain an advantage is called "hybridding". While not usually popular or effective in PvP or low level Wilderness combat, hybridding is a necessary tactic in high level Wilderness combat. The purpose of hybridding is to maintain the advantage over your enemy and bypass protection prayers.

Experience gain

Players gain combat skill experience from dealing damage. The normal value is 4 experience per damage in ranged and melee combat styles, and 2 experience per damage in Magic combat style. However, certain high defence monsters have higher experience per hitpoint damage ratio. The normal value for hitpoint experience gained is 1.33 experience per damage done.

Magic spells also grant experience for the spell cast even if the spell splashes. Defensive mode in Magic and Ranged are also an exception. If a player uses Magic on defensive mode, the normal value is 1.33 experience to Magic and 1 experience to Defence per damage dealt, plus casting experience. For ranging with long range, the normal value is 2 Ranged experience and 2 Defence experience per damage dealt. If a player is using a melee weapon such as an abyssal whip or spear that shares experience between Attack, Strength, and Defence, then the normal value is 1.33 experience per damage done to Attack, Strength, and Defence.

PvM bonus experience

Some monsters give increased experience. The normal amount of experience is multiplied by a constant based on the stats of the monster itself. If a monster has a multiplier, the bonus experience gained will be in the following skills: Attack, Strength, Defence, Ranged, Magic, Hitpoints, and Slayer. The formula for calculating the multiplier is:

$1+{\frac {1}{40}}\left\lfloor {\frac {{\text{AverageLevel}}\cdot ({\text{AverageDefBonus}}+{\text{StrengthBonus}}+{\text{AttackBonus}})}{5120}}\right\rfloor ,$

where the Average terms are defined as:

${\begin{aligned}{\text{AverageLevel}}&=\left\lfloor {\frac {{\text{Attack}}+{\text{Strength}}+{\text{Defence}}+\min \left\{{\text{Hitpoints}},2000\right\}}{4}}\right\rfloor ,\\\\{\text{AverageDefBonus}}&=\left\lfloor {\frac {{\text{StabDefence}}+{\text{SlashDefence}}+{\text{CrushDefence}}}{3}}\right\rfloor .\end{aligned}}$

Some monsters have manually defined experience bonuses that ignore the formula. For example, Great Olm gives no bonus experience despite its high stats.

PvP bonus experience

Fighting a player in PvP situations, e.g. Clan Wars, Wilderness or in a PvP World, can give increased experience. The normal amount of experience is multiplied by a multiplier based on the Combat level of the opponent. The formula for calculating the multiplier is:

$\min \left\{1+{\frac {1}{40}}\left\lfloor {\frac {\text{CombatLevel}}{20}}\right\rfloor ,1.125\right\}$

Opponent combat level	Bonus
3 - 19	+0 %
20 - 39	+2.5 %
40 - 59	+5 %
60 - 79	+7.5 %
80 - 99	+10 %
100 - 126	+12.5 %

Defensive skills

Hitpoints

Hitpoints is the level that limits the health of a player or monster. This is the skill which essentially decides a battle, as an individual loses when their hitpoints hit 0. Since this skill is the deciding factor in Combat, there are various methods of adjusting your hitpoints.

• Hitpoints are primarily restored through the use of food, drinks, and some potions. Magic is also commonly used such as blood spells or from the passive effect of the Sanguinesti staff. There are some roundabout methods of healing, including healing others through butterflies and Magic, or going to an NPC for healing, such as a monk, but these methods are often ineffective and uncommon.
• It is possible to boost your hitpoints past the current maximum, through the use of Saradomin brews or some foods. While the majority of these boosts are temporary and your hitpoints would gradually reset to their regular level, they can be significant in a fight.

Defence

Defence is the second skill which plays an active role in nearly all combat situations, except when safespotting or any other instance where the opponent cannot retaliate. Defence as a skill doesn't directly reduce the damage taken per hit. Instead, it causes the attacker to be more likely to fail their attack, resulting in a hit of 0 for Melee and Ranged attacks or splashing for Magic attacks. However, if the attack is a successful hit, Defence will not reduce the amount of damage that will be dealt (which is a random number ranging from 1 to the attacker's max hit with 1 being twice as likely to be chosen than any other number). Because training in the defensive style reduces the damage dealt and therefore XP gained per hour, Defence is not as popular a combat skill to train. In this way, Defence could be equated to "evasiveness". The only way to reduce the damage taken from a successful hit is to wear specific equipment with damage reducing effects (such as Justiciar Armour) or to utilise protection prayers when battling other players or monsters that hit through prayer.

Magic defence

While Defence is responsible for reducing the accuracy of most hits, it is only 30% effective against Magic spells. Instead, 70% of the reduction of accuracy for a spell is determined by your own Magic level. To guard well against Magic, you would need a sizable Magic level yourself.

Monster magic defence

Monster magic defence is not affected by their Defence level, only Magic level and Magic defence bonus. See Magic.

Prayer

Prayer, the final combat skill, is optional to use. However, it is allowed in all combat situations, except in instances where it is specifically forbidden (for example, during the boss fight in Dream Mentor). Prayer allows the use of prayers, which are temporary passive boosts which a player can activate at will. Prayer effects include increasing stats while active, protecting items upon death, providing increased Hitpoints regeneration, and even the ability to deal damage upon death. Prayer is a unique system; while prayers are active, the player's Prayer points are slowly drained at a rate dependent on both the type of prayer and any prayer bonuses provided by equipment, and prayers can no longer be used when all prayer points have been drained. Like with Hitpoints, increasing your Prayer level increases your maximum Prayer points and allows access to a larger variety of prayers. But unlike Hitpoints, prayer points do not regenerate over time (outside of the Demonic Ruins) and can only be restored by praying at an altar, consuming potions, or using certain Special attacks.

Other factors

While skills are an important aspect of Combat, damage done and received is mostly determined by external traits, and there is a multitude of other factors which contribute to the fight.

Armour and weaponry

Generally, armour boosts a person's defensive capabilities by reducing the accuracy of incoming attacks, and weaponry boosts a player's offensive capabilities. However, armour may also provide offensive bonuses, and weapons usually provide minor defensive bonuses. For maximum effectiveness, players should use the best equipment available to them, since bonuses provided by equipment are at least as important as levels in combat skills.

Damage absorption

The Elysian spirit shield, Dinh's bulwark and Justiciar armour set effect are currently the only pieces of armour that provide general damage absorption abilities. Certain shields and potions can reduce the damage taken from Dragonfire and Icy breath, and the Neitiznot shield reduces damage taken from Ice troll females and Thrower trolls.

Skill boosts

Stat increases are available to anybody through the use of potions and certain food items. Through skill boosts, one can temporarily increase a combat statistic to a higher level. These boosts can cause your combat stats to exceed the known cap of 99.

Special attacks

Special attacks are specific to some weapons that player can wield. Special attacks consume a set percentage of the special attack bar in exchange for an effect specific to the weapon, which may include extra damage, additional hits, stat drains, and many others.

Attack speed

All weapons in RuneScape have a specific speed, which determines the interval between successive hits. Fast weapons tend to not be as accurate or powerful as their counterparts. Fast, inaccurate weapons are ideal against enemies with low Defence, while slower, more accurate weapons fare better against enemies with high Defence.