Free-to-play combat pure training

This article describes how to effectively train combat skills of the so-called free-to-play combat pures, or accounts suitable for free-to-play PvP.

While many optimal training methods are only available for members, this guide assumes that the accounts are mostly trained in the free-to-play worlds.

Skills ratio

Ranged and Magic skills can be both trained up to roughly ⅔ of the sum of Attack and Strength without affecting the combat level. For example, a player with 40 Attack and 50 Strength, the total of which is 90, can train both Ranged and Magic up to 60 without the combat level becoming either Ranged- or Magic-based. Optimizing the ratio between melee, Ranged, and Magic skills allows to maximise the damage output on each combat level.

Attack and Strength can be kept in different proportions as both of these skills have an equal effect on the combat level. Neglecting Attack in favour of Strength can make the melee attacks stronger overall by reaching higher maximum melee hits at the cost of the accuracy and the variety of available weapons. Players that do not train Attack can still wield rather strong melee weapons in the form of warhammers up to rune, since they only have Strength level requirements.

The following table lists the optimal sum of melee skills that do not affect the overall combat level given the respective Ranged or Magic level. Both melee skills have an equal effect on the combat level and can be distributed freely. For example, with a sum of melee skills at 100, a player might have 1 Attack and 99 Strength or 40 Attack and 60 Strength with the same combat level, given similar levels of other combat skills. Once the Ranged or Magic level surpasses 67, players have to start training Attack even with 99 Strength in order to optimise the build. Note that Magic has an equal effect on combat level as Ranged, so always pick the higher of the two skills to determine the optimal melee levels.

/	+	/	+	/	+	/	+
20	30	40	60	60	90	80	120
21	31	41	61	61	91	81	121
22	33	42	63	62	93	82	123
23	34	43	64	63	94	83	124
24	36	44	66	64	96	84	126
25	37	45	67	65	97	85	127
26	39	46	69	66	99	86	129
27	40	47	70	67	100	87	130
28	42	48	72	68	102	88	132
29	43	49	73	69	103	89	133
30	45	50	75	70	105	90	135
31	46	51	76	71	106	91	136
32	48	52	78	72	108	92	138
33	49	53	79	73	109	93	139
34	51	54	81	74	111	94	141
35	52	55	82	75	112	95	142
36	54	56	84	76	114	96	144
37	55	57	85	77	115	97	145
38	57	58	87	78	117	98	147
39	58	59	88	79	118	99	148

Training melee skills past the sum of 148, or 49 Attack with 99 Strength, always has an effect on the overall combat level, making it melee-based.

Many players also tend to minimise their Hitpoints level in order to have higher damage output on their respective combat levels. Unfortunately, most training methods that do no grant Hitpoints experience for skills such as Ranged or Strength are members-only.

Melee training

When training melee skills, make sure to use strength potions at all times, and use the best tier of scimitar available along with an amulet of strength or amulet of power. While every few levels the amulet of power allows to achieve a similar maximum hit in addition to the minor accuracy bonuses, amulet of strength will allow to drink strength potions less often before degrading to a lower maximum hit.

Early on, goblin paint cannon and other 3-tick melee weapons can outdamage low tier scimitars. This is especially relevant when following a strength pure build in which case the training should be performed with a 3-tick melee weapon initially, and eventually with the best available warhammer once it outdamages the other available weapons.

Training on alternative accounts

*With over 100 combat level, dealing damage to this account yields 12.5% extra experience, making it ideal to train on.*
Maxed combat pure
	99		99
	99		1
	99		99
	99		101

The most effective way to train melee skills in free-to-play worlds is to use alternative characters. Killing unarmoured 1 Defence level players in Clan Wars free-for-all area or Castle Wars are among the fastest ways to gain combat experience, although these training methods usually come with a cost and are free of any loot. Since experience in PvP combat scales with opponent's combat level, training on high level combat pures is the most effective.

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%

When training in Clan Wars, using wines is the cheapest way of healing the alternative accounts by far, as empty jugs can be sold for roughly the same price as the wines themselves. Using two alternative accounts is the most effective, since the trained account can still attack after one of the accounts has been killed.

Castle Wars require more setup than the Clan Wars, but allow to achieve higher experience rates overall. First of all, there is a 2 minute downtime between games. Additionally, in order to maximise damage, the alternative character must hold the flag while being attacked. The most common strategy is to capture the flag with the alt and bring it to the spawning area, where the alternative character can easily pick it up after respawning. Make sure to wear castle wars bracelet before the match to receive a 20% damage bonus against the flag bearer, and to use a castlewars brew (obtainable during the match) every minute in order to maximise the damage. The bracelet bonus combined with the brew allows to achieve the highest DPS on free-to-play worlds by far. Note that the alternative characters can also wear the bracelets in order to improve the bandages healing effect by 50%. Ideally, the alt account should have at least 90 Hitpoints and 1 Defence to maximise the number of hitpoints healed with the bandages and the accuracy of the trained account.

Training on NPCs

Accounts with 1 Defence

Giant frogs, hill giants, minotaurs and flesh crawlers are all viable options when training on monsters. Seagulls are also excellent for the very first few levels until the maximum hit with the training weapon exceeds their entire health points, while golems can be effectively killed with a barronite mace due to its golembane effect.

Since magic defence can be improved by training magic and wearing leather gear, dark wizards are also worth consideration. They should deal less damage than monsters using melee with comparable combat levels. Also, in the Wilderness and on low combat levels, wizards are aggressive and attack player automatically, which can be a less click-intensive way to train.

Accounts with a higher Defence level

The biggest advantage of training a more defensive account is that it can leverage aggressive monsters such as flesh crawlers or spiders in the Stronghold of Security to train melee skills without much effort. When standing around aggressive NPCs with auto retaliate turned on, all the player has to do is drink a potion, eat some food every once in a while and reset the aggressiveness every couple of minutes, making the training much more convenient when compared to the click-intensive methods involving alts.

Other free-to-play training methods

Training melee skills can be slower and more dangerous than training Ranged or Magic, as safespots cannot be used and pures tend to have poor defences. Consider using experience lamps on strength, as it will slightly speed up the training and prevent from getting additional Hitpoints experience.

All melee skills can be trained up to level 3 with 176 experience without getting Hitpoints experience on the tutorial island during the Combat Instructor phase, as long as the assigned rat is not killed immediately. Instead, damage several rats until reaching the maximum experience.

The X Marks the Spot quest can be done to gain 300 experience in any skill including Attack or Strength.

The first 8 Attack levels can be trained using the dummy without gaining any Hitpoints experience. Completing the Vampyre Slayer quest also grants 4,825 Attack experience, which raises the level from 1 up to 20 when claimed with no previous Attack experience. Dragon Slayer I grants a considerable amount of Strength experience as well, but it should not be completed by 1 Defence pures due to its Defence experience reward.

Members-only training

Members have a distinct advantage of being able to train Attack through numerous quests that do not grant Hitpoints experience. Similarly, they can reliably train Strength without gaining Hitpoints experience through methods such as barbarian fishing or pumping. With low Hitpoints levels, these so called prods or product accounts can deal considerably more damage than their traditionally trained counterparts, especially with specialized builds focused on Strength at low and medium combat levels.

Ranged training

When training Ranged, use the best available leather gear and an amulet of power along with the best shortbow and arrows. Keep in mind that longbows have the same accuracy bonus and a longer max range, but are significantly slower and offer no additional damage bonuses, which makes them inferior for training.

Rapid combat style allows to achieve a higher damage-per-second on most levels due to the attack speed increase. Accurate combat style might be preferred only on the very first few levels, where a 1 point maximum ranged hit increase nearly doubles the damage output.