Ultimate Ironman Guide/Melee

UIM Guide

Melee, including the Attack and Strength skills, is one of the core combat styles used throughout the game. Most melee training, as with other combat skills, will come passively through training Slayer, completing quests, or other combat situations. Between the two skills, it is recommended to keep them relatively close for low and mid-level training, with the goal of entering the Warriors' Guild as soon as possible. Afterwards, Strength is generally more important than Attack, except when reaching certain thresholds like the abyssal whip's level 70 Attack requirement.

For more information about melee equipment, see Ultimate Ironman Guide/Equipment.

Quests

Main article: Quest experience rewards

A number of quests reward Attack or Strength experience without requiring significant combat, or only requiring combat against enemies that can be easily safespotted and killed with Magic. Completing some of these quests before training much melee through combat is highly recommended, especially because a higher Attack level will allow the use of stronger weaponry from the very start.

• Witch's House rewards 6,325 Hitpoints experience.
• Death Plateau rewards 3,000 Attack experience.
• Vampyre Slayer rewards 4,825 Attack experience.
• Tree Gnome Village rewards 11,450 Attack experience.
• Fight Arena rewards 12,175 Attack experience.
• Waterfall Quest rewards 13,750 Attack and Strength experience.
• The Grand Tree requires 25 , rewards 18,400 Attack experience

Barbarian Fishing

Main article: Barbarian Training § Barbarian Fishing

Training Fishing with Barbarian Fishing gives small amounts of Agility and Strength experience along with the Fishing experience. It is best to do Barbarian Fishing as early as possible, as the passive Strength and Agility experience has a much bigger benefit at lower levels than higher.

For every 100,000 Fishing experience gained through Barbarian Fishing, the player should expect about 9,000 Strength and Agility experience as well. This means that if the player trains Fishing to level 99 exclusively through Barbarian Fishing, they would get more than one million Strength and Agility experience as a byproduct.

For more information, see Ultimate Ironman Guide/Fishing.

Levels 1–70/99: Crabs

Killing crabs is one of the easiest and fastest ways of training melee stats at lower levels. They require minimal attention and are ideal for low-level training, as they have very low offensive and defensive stats. Crabs are aggressive for 10 minutes when walked by, and after 10 minutes of combat players need to simply run away far enough and then back to reset aggressiveness. Players should stand in a location that makes at least 3 crabs aggressive.

While crabs can be killed at very low levels, it is strongly recommended to complete quests that give Melee experience to skip the early levels. This allows players to wear much better equipment and have much higher damage output when they start training. Players should not need any food once they have at least around level 40 Defence and are wearing some defensive equipment.

Higher-level players can use the dragon battleaxe special attack to boost the Strength level for faster experience. Since crabs have very low Defence, the accuracy loss from using the special attack makes a neglible difference for damage output, as players are already very accurate against them.

Ammonite Crabs on Fossil Island are the best option for melee training. They have the highest Hitpoints out of all crabs, and their occasional fossil drops can be stored for use in Prayer training or for accessing items in the Volcanic Mine Item Retrieval Service. Players must have completed Bone Voyage to gain access to Fossil Island.

Sand Crabs in Hosidius have no requirements, but they have lower Hitpoints and do not drop any fossils. They are often much more crowded as well, however players who have completed The Depths of Despair may kill them in the Crabclaw Caves near the Woodcutting Guild, which is usually less crowded.

For more information, see Ultimate Ironman Guide/Prayer and Ultimate Ironman Guide/Item Management.

Levels 70–99: Nightmare Zone

At higher levels, melee stats can be trained in the Nightmare Zone. Using normal customisable rumble with absorption potions offers a very straightforward and the most AFK-able way of training melee stats in the game, allowing the player to stay in combat for 20 minutes without any player input. However, Nightmare Zone dreams require a coin fee to start and it does not allow activities which require a lot of inventory space.

For more information, see Nightmare Zone/Strategies.

Passive training methods

Slayer

Like other combat skills, melee skills will naturally be trained while training Slayer.

For more information, see Ultimate Ironman Guide/Slayer.

Prayer

Killing green dragons for Prayer grants a fair amount of passive melee experience in the process. Pest Control also grants some experience, although much less in comparison.

For more information, see Ultimate Ironman Guide/Prayer.