Free-to-play PvP equipment

This article describes the items commonly used in player-versus-player combat in the free-to-play worlds, including detailed comparisons of available equipment, as well as common inventory setups.

Weapons

Free-to-play offers a wide range of weapons unlocked by the attack, strength and ranged skills. The following sections describe only the best items are still viable once rune weapons and maple bows are unlocked, requiring 40 attack and strength, as well as 30 ranged levels respectively.

Note that the same commentary applies to lower tier equivalents of the listed weapons and might be relevant to players with low combat levels. For example, shortbows should be used over longbows, the scimitars usually offer the highest melee damage-per-second value followed by swords, the 2h swords, battleaxes and warhammers are viable melee knockout weapons, and so on.

3-tick weapons

See also: Attack speed

The fastest weapons available in the free-to-play worlds, allowing to attack every 3 ticks (or 1.8 seconds). These weapons work well as the main attack used to wear down the opponents before delivering the knockout attack.

4-tick weapons

These weapons allow to attack every 4 ticks (or 2.4 seconds), which matches the speed of regular unarmed melee attacks. Commonly used as the main attack.

Knockout weapons

Slow, but powerful weapons that are commonly used to deliver knockout attacks.

When choosing a melee knockout weapon, players can use the following recommendations:

• If below 40 Attack: Rune warhammer
• If at least at 40 Attack:
  • To maximize the max melee hit and the accuracy bonus: Rune 2h sword
  • To minimize the recovery time after each attack: Rune battleaxe
  • To maximize the accuracy against opponents in plate armour: Hill giant club
  • To minimize the recovery time and improve the accuracy against opponents in plate armour: Rune warhammer

In risk fights or within the safe PvP minigames such as Clan Wars or Castle Wars, players can consider using the Hill giant club or the Gilded 2h sword.

Jewellery

Free-to-play jewellery typically has no combat skill requirements to wear, although ironmen might need a sufficient crafting or prayer level to create certain amulets. Note that no ring available in the free-to-play worlds has any combat bonuses.

Amulets

Outside of the actual weapons, amulets are some of the few free-to-play items that provide offensive bonuses—including melee strength. While arguably other defensive pieces of armour can be skipped due to negligible bonuses, amulets are crucial to maximise damage output.

Armour with no defence requirements

This section lists all non-cosmetic items available to free-to-play combat pures with 1 defence level.

Bodies

A pretty diverse slot, providing considerable options for all combat types.

Boots

Free-to-play boots without defence requirements offer negligible defensive bonuses.

Capes

Free-to-play capes offer negligible defensive bonuses.

Gloves

Dominated by leather gloves and vambraces, this slot offers some considerable options for ranged combat.

Helmets

A pretty diverse slot, providing considerable options for all combat types.

Other items for the head slot include castlewars hoods, which offer slight defensive bonuses with no accuracy penalties. However, they are inferior to the leather cowl, which also has no attack penalties in any combat style.

Legs

A pretty diverse slot, providing considerable options for all combat types.

Shields

A defensive piece of gear, somewhat neglected due to common usage of two-handed weapons and lack of sensible one-handed ranged weapons.

Armour with defence requirements

This section lists items relevant to free-to-play combat pures and other players participating in player-versus-player combat with at least 40 defence level.

Note that the same commentary applies to lower tiers of the listed items, as they often share similar strengths and penalties. For example, adamant pures might use the adamant armour pieces instead of rune. However, god armours are only available to players with at least 40 defence level. The trimmed variants of low tier armours do not grant any additional bonuses.

Bodies

Note that the Dragon Slayer I quest needs to be completed in order to have access to all body armours including the rune platebody and green d'hide armour.

Boots

This slot contains the only item other than an amulet or a weapon that increases the equipment strength bonus.

Capes

Free-to-play capes offer negligible defensive bonuses.

Supplies

Free-to-play worlds offer some basic food products and a couple of potions. There are no items like the karambwan that can be eaten immediately with no delay, which limits the combo eating capabilities. There is also no way to restore prayer points with any items, and the energy restoration is limited to a single potion.

Food

Item		Heals	Comment
	Swordfish	14	Heals the highest number of hitpoints in a single bite. Commonly used in combat.
	Anchovy pizza	18 (9 × 2)	Heals the highest number of hitpoints per inventory slot. Pizzas are commonly used for combo eating in 1-vs-1 fights, and as the main type of food in the deep Wilderness and multicombat areas. After eating the first bite of the pizza, another piece of food might be eaten immediately after, which is often used in combination with a swordfish in order to heal 23 hitpoints in a short period of time. This technique is referred to as combo eating. Pizza halves can be used on each other to form a complete anchovy pizza. Note that using pizzas in arranged 1-vs-1 combat might be frowned up by some players, especially during risk fighting.
	Lobster	12	Cheaper and slightly worse than swordfish, lobsters are often used by lower level players to avoid so-called safing.
	Jug of wine	11	Extremely cheap. Temporarily lowers attack level by 2 upon consumption. Used by beginner level magic pures and other accounts that do not rely on melee attacks. Due to their low price and relatively high number of hitpoints healed, they can be used in safe PvP minigames such as Clan Wars or Castle Wars when training combat skills on alternative accounts.

Low level accounts might also use lower tiers of food such as tuna or meat pizza due to their lower prices, as well as to avoid overhealing. With lower overall hitpoints levels and maximum hits within the low combat level brackets, healing with high tier food might be considered "safing".

Note that while pumpkins and easter eggs are on par with swordfish, they are rarely used due to their high prices.

Kebabs can technically heal more than Swordfish in a single bite, since they have a 4% chance of healing 30 hitpoints and boosting melee combat skills. However, they are highly inconsistent and most of the time they will heal a smaller number of hitpoints.

Potions and beverages

Item		Effects	Penalties	Doses	Comment
File:Strength potion.png	Strength potion	+3—12 strength		4	Temporarily raises the strength level by 3 + 10% of the current strength level, rounded down. Necessary to achieve the highest melee maximum hits. Commonly used in fights by players that rely on melee combat.
File:Energy potion.png	Energy potion	+10% run energy		4	Immediately restores 10% of the run energy. While not crucial in 1-vs-1 fights, this potion is commonly used in the deep Wilderness.
	Wizard's mind bomb	+2—3 magic	-1—5 attack, strength, defence	1	Temporarily raises the magic level by +2 when under 50 magic level or +3 otherwise. Due to its rather insignificant boost and severe penalties to melee skills and defence, it is rarely used in practice. However, it does allow to access higher level spells without training the base magic level. For example, this drink allows to cast the Tele Block spell with 82 magic level.

Other consumable items with additional effects include:

• Kebab: has a 4% chance of boosting attack, strength and defence by 1—3. However, kebabs are largely inconsistent and rarely used in practice.
• Beer: boosts strength by 1 under 50 strength level or by 2 otherwise. Lowers attack by 1—6. Outclassed by the strength potion.
• Asgarnian ale: boosts strength by 2 and lowers attack by 4. Outclassed by the strength potion.
• Draynor Manor cabbage: boosts defence by 1 under 50 defence level or by 2 otherwise. Rarely used in practice.
• Castlewars brew: combines the effects of a super combat potion, a ranging potion and imbued heart, raising melee skills and defence by 5—19, ranged by 4—13 and magic by 1—10. Available only during the Castle Wars minigame. Provides excellent boosts for training.
• Antipoison: while available in free-to-play worlds, it currently has no effect on PvP combat due to the lack of poisoned weapons.

Example setups

This section lists some examples of common equipment and inventory setup used for various player-versus-player activities in free-to-play worlds.

Note that in safe PvP activities, such as Clan Wars or Castle Wars, players are encouraged to replace green dragonhide armour pieces with their gilded dragonhide armour equivalents due to their higher defensive bonuses. Similarly, gilded dragonhide items can be used for dangerous activities as protected items, or when unskulled.

Low defence setups

Common inventory setups of combat pures with 1 defence level.

Equipment	Inventory	Comment
File:Adamant arrow.png75 Attack bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Defence bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Other bonusesMelee strength: +0Ranged strength: +0Magic damage: +0.0%Prayer: +0 0.0 kg	File:Strength potion.png File:Energy potion.png	A common setup for the 1 defence pures that use range-to-melee combo to knock the opponents out. Maple shortbow is commonly used to deal most of the damage and setup combos, followed by the rune scimitar. Rune 2h sword is brought as a switch weapon used for combos. Alternatively, a rune battleaxe might be used as the knockout weapon instead of the two-handed sword, while a monk's robe top might be preferred over the leather body thanks to the additional prayer bonus.
Attack bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Defence bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Other bonusesMelee strength: +0Ranged strength: +0Magic damage: +0.0%Prayer: +0 0.0 kg	File:Strength potion.png File:Energy potion.png	A common setup for the melee pures. Rune scimitar is used to deal most of the damage, while rune 2h sword is brought as a switch weapon to knock the opponents out. Alternatively, a rune battleaxe might be used as the knockout weapon instead of the two-handed sword due to its shorter attack delay and ability to use a shield. Iron kiteshield might be omitted altogether when using a rune 2h sword for convenience during switching. This setup prioritizes defence bonuses over the prayer bonus.
Attack bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Defence bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Other bonusesMelee strength: +0Ranged strength: +0Magic damage: +0.0%Prayer: +0 0.0 kg	File:Strength potion.png File:Energy potion.png	An alternative setup for the melee pures with a high prayer bonus. Rune scimitar is used to deal most of the damage, while rune 2h sword is brought as a switch weapon to knock the opponents out. Alternatively, a rune battleaxe might be used as the knockout weapon instead of the two-handed sword due to its shorter attack delay and ability to use a shield. Iron kiteshield might be omitted altogether when using a rune 2h sword for convenience during switching.
File:Adamant arrow.png Attack bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Defence bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Other bonusesMelee strength: +0Ranged strength: +0Magic damage: +0.0%Prayer: +0 0.0 kg	File:Strength potion.png File:Energy potion.png	A common setup for the strength pures. Goblin paint cannon and maple shortbow are used to deal consistent damage, while the rune warhammer is brought as a switch weapon to knock the opponents out. The shortbow is more effective at setting up combos, but keep in mind that strength pures cannot train ranged level too high without their combat level becoming ranged-based. Fighting boots, fancy boots, and fancier boots provide slightly better melee defensive bonuses, which can make a difference against other low attack level opponents, but leather boots yield no ranged penalties and might be a bit more accessible. Monk robe top can be a good alternative when using prayers, while leather body offer a slight ranged accuracy bonus. An amulet of power can also be brought as a switch or instead of an amulet of strength to improve the low melee accuracy of such accounts.
Attack bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Defence bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Other bonusesMelee strength: +0Ranged strength: +0Magic damage: +0.0%Prayer: +0 0.0 kg	File:Energy potion.png File:Energy potion.png 60 80 80 110 10 11	An example setup for the magic pures. Both blue and black wizard robes provide the same bonuses. Zamorak monk top might be used instead for its additional prayer bonuses at the cost of a small magic accuracy decrease. A Bryophyta's staff can be used instead of an elemental staff to maximise the magic accuracy and defence bonuses, but due to its high price it is generally advised to be used only along with the Protect Item prayer or in a save PvP setting. Rune quantities and types might vary—this particular setup allows to cast Wind Blast, Snare and Tele Block. The supplies were chosen with multicombat areas and deep Wilderness in mind, where anchovy pizzas are more useful than swordfish in general, as they heal more hitpoints per inventory slot. Swordfish are still useful for combo eating.
File:Adamant arrow.png200 Attack bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Defence bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Other bonusesMelee strength: +0Ranged strength: +0Magic damage: +0.0%Prayer: +0 0.0 kg	File:Strength potion.png File:Energy potion.png File:Energy potion.png 60 80 80 110 10 11	An example setup allowing to fight with all combat styles used by high level 1 defence pures in the deep Wilderness and for multicombat fights. Since defensive bonuses are not as important in this setting, magic equipment is typically worn to ensure high accuracy of the Snare and Tele Block spells regardless of the wielded weapon. Wind Blast runes and the staff of air switch are both optional, but they do allow to deal considerable damage to armoured opponents. Elemental staves are also notable for their high magic accuracy and defence bonuses. A Bryophyta's staff can be used instead of an elemental staff to maximise the magic accuracy and defence bonuses, but due to its high price it is generally advised to be used only along with the Protect Item prayer or in a save PvP setting. A typical knockout weapon like the rune 2h sword or the rune battleaxe is optional, since the overall consistent damage-per-second value is often more important than the ability to perform combos, especially in multicombat areas. However, rune scimitar can fill a similar role since it can be easily stacked with the maple shortbow attacks. When not using any prayers or when fighting in locations with an altar, black robe or blue wizard robe can be worn instead of the zamorak monk top for a slightly higher magic accuracy bonus.

High defence setups

Common setups for accounts with at least 40 defence level.

Equipment	Inventory	Comment
File:Adamant arrow.png100 Attack bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Defence bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Other bonusesMelee strength: +0Ranged strength: +0Magic damage: +0.0%Prayer: +0 0.0 kg	File:Strength potion.png File:Energy potion.png	A common setup for 1-vs-1 combat with a range-to-melee combo. Maple shortbow is commonly used to deal most of the damage and setup combos, followed by the rune scimitar. Rune 2h sword is brought as a switch weapon used to knock the opponents out. Alternatively, a rune battleaxe might be used as the knockout weapon instead of the two-handed sword. The selected armour pieces provide decent defensive bonuses against all combat style while maintaining a positive ranged accuracy bonus. For more variants of this setup, see the rune pure guide.
Attack bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Defence bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Other bonusesMelee strength: +0Ranged strength: +0Magic damage: +0.0%Prayer: +0 0.0 kg	File:Strength potion.png File:Energy potion.png	A common setup for 1-vs-1 combat relying on melee attacks. Rune scimitar is used to deal most of the damage, while rune 2h sword is brought as a switch weapon to knock the opponents out. Alternatively, a rune battleaxe might be used as the knockout weapon instead of the two-handed sword due to its shorter attack delay and ability to use a shield at all times. Additionally, a monk robe set can be brought for no armour fights.
Attack bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Defence bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Other bonusesMelee strength: +0Ranged strength: +0Magic damage: +0.0%Prayer: +0 0.0 kg	File:Strength potion.png File:Energy potion.png	A no armour setup for 1-vs-1 melee fights. Rune scimitar is used to deal most of the damage, while rune 2h sword is brought as a switch weapon to knock the opponents out. Alternatively, a rune battleaxe might be used as the knockout weapon instead of the two-handed sword due to its shorter attack delay. When ranged attacks are also allowed, maple shortbow with adamant arrows can be used in addition to or instead of the rune scimitar as the main weapon. Full rune armour is optional, although it is often brought to protect against rushing after a fight and to increase the value of loot won after a fight (the so-called risk).
File:Adamant arrow.png200 Attack bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Defence bonusStab: +0Slash: +0Crush: +0Magic: +0Range: +0Other bonusesMelee strength: +0Ranged strength: +0Magic damage: +0.0%Prayer: +0 0.0 kg	File:Strength potion.png File:Energy potion.png File:Energy potion.png 60 80 80 110 10 11	An example setup allowing to fight with all combat styles meant for the deep Wilderness and for multicombat fights. Allows to cast Wind Blast, Snare and Tele Block. Additional equipment switches are meant to maintain high defensive bonuses and positive accuracy bonuses regardless of the used combat style. Rune med helm and rune sq shield can be considered for their lower magic and ranged accuracy penalties, but the defensive bonuses of both rune full helm and rune kiteshield are notably higher. Cheaper Castle Wars boots such as red decorative boots can be used to improve the melee defences, especially when not relying on magic, but keep in mind that they do have some slight ranged and magic accuracy penalties. A Bryophyta's staff can be used instead of an elemental staff to maximise the magic accuracy and defence bonuses, but due to its high price it is generally advised to be used only along with the Protect Item prayer or in a save PvP setting. A typical knockout weapon like the rune 2h sword or the rune battleaxe is optional, since the overall consistent damage-per-second value is often more important than the ability to perform combos, especially in the multicombat areas. However, rune scimitar can fill a similar role since it can be easily stacked with the maple shortbow attacks.

Items kept on death

In case of death in as a result of PvP combat, tradeable items are dropped to the opponent, while many untradeable items are destroyed and have to be reobtained. However, some untradeable items are not lost below the 20 level of the Wilderness, even if the player is skulled. Instead, they are transferred to the gravestone, or their broken variants remain in the inventory.

Intact

The following items are transferred to the gravestone and can be reclaimed for free below the 20 level of the Wilderness:

• Goblin paint cannon
• Fighting boots
• Fancy boots
• Fancier boots
• Silverlight
• Blurite sword
• Decorative sword (white)
• Decorative sword (red)
• Cursed goblin weapons
• File:Skull sceptre.pngSkull sceptre
• White decorative armour
• Red decorative armour
• Ornate armour
• Castlewars hoods
• Castlewars cloaks

Ornate armour, red decorative armour, and white decorative armour, with bonuses equal to iron, steel, or mithril armour, provide some of the best-in-slot defensive bonuses for accounts with 1, 5, or 20 defence levels respectively without being lost on death below the 20 level of the Wilderness. Castlewars cloaks provide the same bonuses as regular capes. Fancy boots, fancier boots, and fighting boots all offer bonuses equivalent to the bronze boots, yielding the highest melee defensive bonuses for accounts below 5 defence level.

Out of the weapons that are not lost on death, only the goblin paint cannon is considered to be viable in PvP combat due to its animation stalls and the 3-tick speed, which is on par with the shortbows with the rapid combat style. Although the skull sceptre has a magic accuracy bonus matching the basic elemental staves, it does not save any runes and cannot autocast any combat spells outside of Crumble Undead. However, in contrary to the Chronicle, its teleport can be used up to 20 level of the Wilderness, which makes the sceptre somewhat useful as a teleport item.

All these items get deleted in case of a death over the 20 level of the Wilderness.

Broken

The following items are broken and kept in the inventory upon PvP death below the 20 level of the Wilderness. The broken item variants can be repaired by using them on an armour stand available near the respawn points in the PvP worlds. The repair fee is equal to the extra coins that the opponent receives after a kill as additional loot. Considering the fee, no money is added or removed from the game by breaking and repairing an item in PvP combat.

These items include:

• Barronite mace: −10,500 fee
• Decorative sword (gold): −5,000 fee
• Gold decorative armour pieces: −5,000 fee each

It should be noted that the repair fees of the barronite mace and gold decorative platebody are both lower than the High Level Alchemy values of the rune scimitar and adamant platebody respectively. Barronite mace and gold decorative boots are also the only free-to-play items with unique bonuses with this behaviour.

All these items get deleted in case of a death over the 20 level of the Wilderness; the extra coins loot is still left for the opponent, but the items get destroyed.

Note that untradeable members objects with similar behaviour such as halos will also be broken or lost upon death on a free-to-play world leaving extra loot for the opponent, despite yielding no bonuses in combat.

Decorative

The following cosmetic items are transferred to the gravestone below the 20 level of the Wilderness and can be reclaimed for free:

• Green banner
• Runefest shield
• 20th anniversary outfit
• Untradeable random event rewards
• Deadman armour
• Robes of Ruin
• Victor's capes
• Cat ears
• Rainbow scarf
• Ghostspeak amulet
• Yin yang amulet
• Diango's claws
• Forestry kit

All these items get deleted in case of a death over the 20 level of the Wilderness.

Exceptions

Disassembled

The following untradeable items are dismantled and lost to the opponent (dropped as separate items):

• Rune scimitar (zamorak): Rune scimitar and Rune scimitar ornament kit (zamorak)
• Rune scimitar (saradomin): Rune scimitar and Rune scimitar ornament kit (saradomin)
• Rune scimitar (guthix): Rune scimitar and Rune scimitar ornament kit (guthix)

See also

• Free-to-play cosmetic items
• Free-to-play combat pure guide
• Free-to-play account builds