Free-to-play Ranged training

Compared to Ranged in the Members only game, Ranged in the Free-to-play game is a very limited combat style in terms of both power and choice of equipment. Applied properly, however, it can easily become a very deadly force in combat. This guide focuses on offering free players tips for honing their Ranged skill.

Weapons
In general, a free-to-play ranger should wield the best shortbow that they are capable of wielding; this goes for both training and combat. Iron arrows are recommended for training, unless the player's budget allows for more expensive options. In dangerous player-versus-player combat, the player should choose the best arrows they are capable of wielding. For less dangerous player-versus-player combat, what arrows to use are entirely up to the player.

Shortbows
The shortbow is the ideal ranged weapon for free players. With its rapid rate of fire and equivalent accuracy and power to a longbow of the same material, it is superior for both training and PvP combat in nearly every situation in free servers.

Longbows
Longbows are not recommended as a primary weapon under any circumstances. Longbows are seldom seen in free-to-play servers; they have the same power and accuracy as a shortbow, but a slower rate of fire. The only advantage the longbow has over the shortbow is the distance at which you can attack enemies- up to about 10 paces from the enemy on rapid from the shortbow's 6 on rapid. This might be useful for attacking an enemy that is attempting to run and/or is otherwise out of range, but it is rare for the longbow to be useful enough in a combat situation to justify having one rather than an additional piece of food. Longbows are therefore essentially useless in the free game.

Crossbows
Crossbows may be a good alternative to the normal shortbow for players with a very low Ranged level or budget due to the wide availability of the bronze bolts that they fire. The crossbow's maximum hit when compared to equivalent bronze/iron arrows is higher, although it fires more slowly and is less accurate than even the Shortbow. Once a player can wield an oak shortbow or higher, it is recommended that they use those rather than a crossbow.

Armour
Rangers should wear the best ranging armour their money and level can provide or allow. Most ranging equipment sets are cheaper than their melee counterpart and should be no trouble for most players. Free players can also craft the most basic ranging armour such as the leather chaps up to the hard leather body.

Rangers are advised to get the best full ranging armour from head and body down to vambraces. Better ranging armour not only provides better overall protection from magic, melee, and range attacks, it also provides improve ranging attacks and accuracy, which can be even more helpful in making a hit and raising the ranger’s experience points in ranging. However, ranging armour is weaker to both range and melee attacks than their melee armour counterpart so rangers who were once training on melee must take this weakness as a consideration.

Level 1 – 9 Defence
Recommended set: a cowl, a pair of leather chaps, a pair of leather vambraces and a leather body

Players should get a cowl, a pair of leather chaps, a pair of leather vambraces and a leather body should they be able to acquire these items. These items have no skill requirements. Because these items are made from cowhides, are fairly easy to craft (in Al Kharid which is Lumbridge's neighboring city) and the materials are easy to acquire. For more information about the leather armour and how to craft them, please see their articles and the skill crafting.

Level 10 – 19 Defence
Recommended set: a cowl, a pair of leather chaps, a pair of leather vambraces and a hard leather body

Rangers should replace their leather body with a hard leather body (which is tends to be in high supply in the general stores of Lumbridge, Al Kharid, and Varrock). Alternatively, rangers can craft cowhides into hard leather body when their crafting level is 28 or higher.

Level 20-39 Defence and Ranging
Recommended set: a coif, a leather vambraces, a studded hard leather body, and a pair of studded chaps.

Rangers are recommended to buy a coif, a studded hard leather body, and a pair of studded chaps. The studded hard leather body and the studded chaps can be sold in Varrock through Horvik but these items to be in low supply because only members can craft them and no free-to-play monsters drop these items. The GE probably has some in stock of a member crafter who wants to get rid of them. The coif can be sold from the Champions Guild (which requires 32 quest points to enter) but the coif can only be crafted by members.

Level 40 or higher Defence and Ranging
Recommended Set: a coif, green dragonhide chaps, and green dragonhide vambraces, green dragonhide body '''

Players can now use green dragonhide chaps and green dragonhide vambraces, both of which can be sold from the Champion's Guild. The green dragonhide body can only be worn after achieving a defence and Ranged level of 40 and after finishing the quest Dragon Slayer. Players who had finished Dragon Slayer and had fulfilled the minimum level requirements must equip these armour as soon as possible since full green dragonhide armour can greatly increase accuracy and protection much more than other free-to-play ranging armour.

With the Fist of Guthix update, a new ranging item has been introduced - the Green d'hide coif. It is only slightly better than a normal coif in defence stats, having only a +1 range defence addition and identical stats for all others, but it also gives twice the range attack bonus (+4 instead of +2) making it the best range headgear for free players.

If player wants some defence to keep melee users at bay without sacrificing huge amounts of his/her range accuracy, then rune med helm and rune chainbody are the armour to be considered. With both of them, player will have MUCH better defence bonus against physical attacks, while range bonus still being well over 50.

Amulets
For most part, amulets are used as an adjunct or as an assistance to the ranger's regular armour and weapon. Amulets are not a must to players in training unless they are in need of defence or faster training since amulets, for most part, end up getting lost when a player dies. While amulets are readily available to wealthier players or players with high crafting and magic level, low level players would find one amulet costing as much as their entire armour in terms of street prices.

Since no store sells enchanted amulets, it is advised that players carrying any amulet must judiciously decide to carry them or not. Also, rangers carrying any amulet be prepared to escape danger.

Amulet of Defence
The Amulet of Defence provides the highest boost of defence against magic, range, and melee attack. This amulet is recommended for players with low Defence as well as players trying out new training grounds as these amulets are inexpensive and can be crafted fairly low Crafting level.

If the player desires to fill the amulet slot to practice on new training grounds, especially when fighting stronger monsters, the amulet of defence is advised due to its cost, low crafting requirement to craft one, and its availability in terms of item and raw material to make them.

The Amulet of Power offers similar bonuses, but also gives large attack bonuses, so it is recommended for rangers that can afford it.

Amulet of Accuracy
The Amulet of Accuracy may be the first or one of the first amulets available to new players or new accounts. This amulet is acquired after completing the Imp Catcher quest and provides a fair amount of boost in ranging, as well as magic and melee, attacks. However, the bonuses provided in this amulet become obsolete after acquiring an Amulet of Power.

Amulet of Power
The Amulet of Power is the most powerful amulet overall. In terms of ranging, it provides the best ranging bonuses in comparison to other amulets, enough to make a difference in accuracy even with the best ranging equipment.

The Amulet of Power is recommended for all rangers. However, any player with an Amulet of Power should be prepared to escape danger quickly to avoid losing their amulet. Also, players "exploring" new dungeons and places with stronger monsters are not recommended to carry the Amulet of Power unless they have carried a teleport set of runes to escape the dungeon or area rather than train until their health points drop too low.

Arrows and bolts
For new players, the training arrows are the best as they are free and are the only arrows that cannot be picked up from other players. However, as the ranging level advances and strong monsters to be fought becomes tough enough to withstood the training arrows, players would be advised to get stronger arrows.

Any player wielding an oak bow or stronger bows should be prepared with bronze arrows (sometimes in the hundreds) since the training arrows can only be used with the training bow. Depending on the player’s financial capacity and willingness to spend (stronger arrows are more expensive), the monsters to fight (stronger monsters are more resistant to weak arrows), and the players’ desired result, player can train on any arrows in any amount (adamant arrows being the most powerful available to free players). However, steel arrows are considered as the upper limit as gathering hundreds or thousands of mithril or adamant arrows would be very slow and such amount would cost hundred of thousands of coins for the player.

Bronze bolts
Bronze bolts had their application only to the crossbow - the only bolt and crossbow available to free players, respectively. For most part, this combination of crossbow and bolts are comparable in terms of training result with the combination of training arrows and training bows or the shortbow and bronze arrow. Crossbows are slower in terms of fire rate than a shortbow but with the introduction of training bow and training arrow, many players shun from using crossbows since they can get free arrows from the ranging tutor but crossbows and bolts had be acquired either from shops, monster drops (goblins drop bronze bolts), or other players.

Bronze bolts and crossbows had their best application when the players carry them as a reserve ranging weapon, in addition to their regular bow and arrows, just in case they ran out of all their arrows. Even still, the bronze bolts fared poorly starting at monsters above level 30, like the moss giants. Many players who reached level 50 in ranging would altogether abandon the use of crossbows and any bronze arrows.

Training arrows
All new players should train on the training arrows using the training bow first until they reach level 10 ranging. At this level, they can wield the oak bows (which training arrows cannot be equipped with as ammunition). Note that training arrows can serve as ammunition only to training bow and training bow cannot use any other arrows as ammunition.

However, players wishing to still save money can keep training on training arrows but by the time players reach level 20, training using the training arrows becomes impractical as it takes much more experience points and therefore much more arrows to train well. This impracticality stems on the fact that:
 * Only the range tutor can provide training arrows
 * training arrows cannot be traded from other players
 * the ranging tutor gives only 25 training arrows at a time
 * training arrows cannot be dropped but can be destroyed
 * it takes 30 minutes of time elapsed before the range tutor can give more arrows
 * its not possible to keep much more than 30 training arrows as the range tutor will not give training arrows to players who still have training arrows in their inventory or bank (even if it is just 1 training arrow), if this happens and you use or destroy the arrow(s), You will have to wait the 30 minutes AGAIN, so don't forget to check out if you still have training arrows in the bank or inventory...

Bronze arrows
Bronze arrows wielded with an ordinary short bow (which is weaker than oak bows) are about as strong as training arrows with a training bow. Bronze arrows are advised for players who will not or cannot find practicality on training arrows, such as power ranging (those who keep training ranging round the clock) as well as those using oak or stronger bows.

However, since bronze arrows are weaker than iron and since the addition of the Stronghold of Security's minotaur (which is known to drop large amounts of iron arrows frequently), bronze arrows are not as popular or as good to train at than iron arrows.

Yet ranging players on training are advised to keep collecting bronze arrows and buying them from general shop (which sometimes can have a small supply of bronze arrows) when they get a chance as an extra set of arrows to keep pushing their supply up.

Iron arrows
Iron arrows are stronger than bronze arrows but are more expensive. The cost of iron arrows limiting its use in ranging were overcome with the update of the Stronghold of Security and the Minotaur in it (which had been known to drop plenty of iron arrows).

Iron arrows are much better in ranging than bronze, being more accurate and causing more maximum damage.

Players training on ranging should take every opportunity to go to the stronghold of security and fight the minotaur at the vault of war to get iron arrows. Some range and melee hybrids may find it easier to melee the minotaurs. However this is based entirely on your attack and strength levels which may vary from player to player.

Steel arrows
Steel arrows are more powerful than iron arrows – known to deal 12 points of damage to a high level ranger. Unlike iron or bronze arrows, steel arrows are hard to acquire for most rangers in training.

Steel arrows are considered the most expensive arrows that are still practical for training – in terms of cost and supply. Players may buy steel arrows from shops and other players with each steel arrows costing almost five times as much as iron, depending on the supply of the ranging shop and the prices the selling player declares.

Another way of getting steel arrows are to kill the zombies at the stronghold of security in the catacomb of famine level (level 2 dungeon). This method, however, is very tedious because of the following:
 * The catacomb of famine has very limited safe spot from zombies,
 * The zombies are aggressive and are of higher level (unlike the Minotaur),
 * The place is not a multi combat area, forbidding more than two players fighting one monster.
 * Zombies drop much less steel arrows than minotaurs drop iron arrows

Nevertheless, steel arrows are still the choice of arrows for demon-killing and giant-hunting rangers as it does pack quite a punch against these tough monsters.

Mithril arrows
Mithril arrows are very difficult to acquire (before the Grand Exchange was added). For free-to-play, the only possible means of getting mithril arrows is by buying from shops, buying the off other players, or getting them as monster drops. Monsters which appear to drop many mithril arrows are catablepons and white knights. However, many players who had a large stock on mithril arrows (especially those who were once members and had made many mithril arrows) would choose to train their ranging using mithril arrows as a way of spending them. Still, mithril arrows often find their application in PvP minigames such as Bounty Hunter to kill other players.

Adamant arrows
Better known as addy arrows, these are the most expensive and powerful arrows in free-to-play and are almost exclusively used in PvP combat, most often in Bounty Hunter. Because the adamantite arrow can cost as much as 6 steel arrows, adamantite arrows are often sold to other players (usually player killers) if they are not used.

Even with the cost of an adamantite arrow, it is not impossible for very rich, high-level players to use adamantite against lesser demons.

Accurate
The Accurate attack style "adds" three levels to your current Ranged level. For instance, if one's Ranged level is 60 and they attack a target while using the Accurate style, it will be as though they are attacking with a Ranged level of 63. This means greater accuracy when attacking with ranged as well as a potentially higher maximum hit. The Accurate style also results in the loss of fewer arrows compared to the Rapid style. It is recommended that inexperienced rangers begin their training with the accurate style until they reach a Ranged level of at least five (or perhaps even 20).

Obviously, this style has neither the speed of the Rapid style nor the defense bonus or long range of the Longrange style.

Rapid
The Rapid style allows a player to attack with twice the speed of accurate and longrange, which translates into a shot about once every 1.25 seconds. However, there is neither a "boost" in ranged level, defense level, or attack range when attacking with the Rapid Style. One also has a lower chance of recovering fired arrows when using the Rapid style.

The Rapid style should be used most often once a player can be fairly confident in their Ranged accuracy. Its excellent attack speed makes it ideal for intermediate and advanced training as well as pinning down lightly armored opponents.

Longrange
The Longrange style allows a player to attack with Ranged at a greater distance than they normally would with the other two attack styles. This distance varies by weapon, but it should be noted that it increases the range shortbows from six paces to ten paces (the range of a standard longbow). It also "adds" one level to both Defence and Ranged in the same manner that Accurate adds three levels to Ranged.

Longrange is only occasionally useful. It should never be used by ranging pures as experience gained from using the style is split between Ranged and Defence.

Monsters for training
Note that while any player can train on any monsters, the monsters below are either recommened for training or are popular to train on because of their drops and weaknesses.

Monks (combat level 5)
These are great monsters to train on, because, they have a good amount of hp (15), they do almost no damage (1's) and they heal you for free! Plus, there's a patch of cabbages north of there. You can find them in the Monastery,(Northwest of Barbarian Village)Even on higher levels, this is still a good place to train. The only problem is that many people train here, and it's hard to find a non-crowded world.

Goblins (combat level 2) and chickens (combat level 1)
For starters, training on Lumbridge is considered the best as there are plenty of chickens to kill and plenty of goblins around the area. In addition to these monsters, Lumbridge also has plenty of food available - a tutor fishing spot in the south, a fishing spot near the goblin house, a cow ranch. Many tutors are also stationed in Lumbridge, guiding and providing information to new players and sometimes providing free items such as training arrows and bows for those who use them.

Goblins drop many items, including bolts for crossbows which can help players keep a supply of ammunition. Chickens drop raw chickens which can be cooked for food in training as well as feathers which can be used for fishing and fletching (for members)

For most part, the advantage of ranging goblin and chicken lies in their low combat level - they can barely hit a player.

The disadvantage of these monsters arise when the player's ranging and overall combat level becomes high that the health points of these monsters become too low that they often die in one shot and their drops becomes unsatisfactory as higher-level players would seek stronger monsters to supply their material demands.

Wizards (combat level 7 - 20)
For players achieving a ranged level of 20 or higher, the two dark wizards in Draynor Village, found among the willow trees, near the bank, provide good ranging training as they are poorly effective against studded armour of rangers. Nearby is the wizards tower which is home to many level 9 wizards.

For players level 41 in combat and over 30 range can start fighting wizards at Delrith’s circle south of Varrock as they drop even more runes and are in greater number giving less likelihood of training overcrowding from other players.

Wizards drop copious amounts of runes which can be sold to other players or magic shops or can be later used for magic training. They are noted for their higher level rune drops, such as nature runes.

Players are, however, advised to have a good supply of food against wizards as the level 7 ones can have a maximum hit of 4 and the level 20 dark wizards can hit up to 6, even against rangers with over 70 defence and wearing full green dragon armour.

One of the main advantages of training ranged on wizards is that because they use a magic attack they stay where they are to attack. This means that when a player collects their arrows they will be all in the same spot. Melee targets will try to get as close as possible and will move, causing arrows to be scattered.

Minotaur (combat level 20 - 32)
The minotaur can be fought once players reach level 25 combat and ranging level over 20. Minotaurs are non-aggressive (attacking only if it is attacked first), allowing an inexperienced or distressed player not to be mobbed down.

Since minotaurs are weaker to melee than range, players who have good strength, attack, and defence and are yet to experience ranging minotaur should bring with them a melee weapon just in case minotaurs prove harder to range than expected. For experienced and high level players, minotaurs are easy to kill.

The minotaurs are found in the vault of war (the first level of the stronghold of security, which is found in the barbarian village) and because of their ease to kill and their drop of iron arrows, minotaurs tend to be heavily trained and fought over many players, leading to training overcrowding.

Minotaurs drop a large amount of iron arrows (often more than what is spent). As a result, players wanting to save money or wanting to train pure rangers can keep training on minotaurs until they reach their desired level.

Barbarians (Combat levels 9, 10, 15, 16, 17)
For players achieving 40 or higher ranging level, these are good to train on.

Attack the ones in the long hall at the north end of Barbarian Village. You can shoot these across the tables and go and pick up your arrows once they are dead. Barbarians are non-aggressive so you can pick up your arrows in safety. On the tables there is beer and cooked meat respawns. This is a place where you should train with a Maple shortbow and Iron arrows or it will take a while to kill them.

These monsters are popular to train with due to being easy to kill and there are food respawns. They do not drop very good items apart from a few Iron items for low leveled players.

For armour you should bring the best one possible. For the bow choice, it should be the best one possible and use Iron arrows or above. Bring an Amulet of Power if you can afford one. An Amulet of accuracy will be fine. Bring little food as there is readily available food there.

Flesh crawler (combat 33 - 44)
Flesh crawler are relatively weak monsters to high level players. They are one of the few weak monsters to be less trained at by players because of their remote location. These monsters have relatively poor drops but are very vulnerable to attacks. All players, however, should be warned that flesh crawlers are highly aggressive and players who had not encountered these monsters before should survey them first as flesh crawlers, despite being viewed as weak to most players, are known to kill players at combat level 20 - 30 very quickly.

Moss giants (combat 42)
For players achieving 45 or higher ranging level, moss giants are good to train at. These monsters are found at:
 * Crandor Island,
 * The wilderness (not a recommended location to train)
 * At the deepest end of the Varrock sewer.

Moss giants have stronger defences than minotaurs and wizards to any arrows and much higher health points. However, moss giants have very good drops including big bones (which it always drops and provides much high prayer experience points than regular bones or otherwise be sold for up to 400 coins), black square shields, steel bars, runes, and coins.

The moss giants are among the most popular training monsters for players, usually among warriors and rangers. As a result, training on moss giants tend to have a problem of overcrowding training and monster killing - so it is advised for players to change worlds should the area get too crowded.

Rangers new to training on moss giants are advised to bring iron or better arrows to train, a mithril or stronger weapon (not dagger), a teleport rune set (e.g. teleport to Varrock) and 10 salmons or better foods in case of emergency. It is suggested that rangers must restock their food supply whenever their food runs out (even with full health).

They can be found in the wilderness, the innermost part of the Varrock Sewers and Crandor for free to play. It is not advised to train in the wilderness due to the long distance to the bank. In the Varrock sewers, there are two spawn locations but these are separated from each other. On Crandor there are several which spawn on the south side of the island. At both locations you can safe. However it may be advisable to train on Crandor Isle mainly due to the fact that there are more spawns. Both locations tend to be crowded from melee and ranged training but Crandor Isle is a single combat area. This means another player cannot deal more damage than you on that monster and therefore steal your drop.

Lesser demons (combat level 82)
The lesser demons in Karamja, the Wizard Tower, and Crandor are attractive targets for the strongest players of RuneScape because of their expensive drops but seldom recommended to train at.

The lesser demon in the wizard tower is behind a fence. This prevents the lesser from hitting you, but it also prevents you from getting the drops or any shot arrows. Though it is more commonly used for training for medium level magers, range can be effective here. If you have a magic level of 33 or more, it is advised to bring air and law runes to cast the telegrab spell in case of getting an expensive drop such as a rune medium helm.

Lesser demons have significantly higher defence than moss giants. While experienced players training their lesser accounts would start attacking lesser demons at level 55 ranging, it is advised that new players must reach level 65 or higher ranging before fighting the lesser demons.

The lesser demons, while weak against warriors in full runite, can deal significant (sometimes continuous and devastating) blows to rangers even if they are wearing full green dragonhide armour. Rangers are advised to bring or equip the following before fighting these monsters:
 * Bring hundreds of steel arrows (or stronger arrows if the can afford a massive amount of these),
 * Wear full dragon with coif, amulet of defence, and maple short bow,
 * Fill the rest of their inventory with tuna or better food
 * Teleport runes set or the skull scepter (Teleport to Varrock for example)

Power amulets are not recommended for new players fighting lesser demons these amulets require a high crafting level, requires a diamond (which is hard to find), are very expensive (can worth up to 10,000 coins) and are not readily sold in any shops.

Ankou (combat levels 75, 82, 86)
While Ankou have lower combat levels than Lesser demons, Ankou are much more durable so players must be much better equipped and prepared for Ankou than they are for lesser demons. It is recommended that players must be level 70 in Ranged or higher before they start fighting Ankou.

Before fighting Ankou, the player must be prepared of the following:


 * Bring a couple of thousand steel arrows (or stronger arrows if the player can afford a massive amount of these).
 * Wear full Green Dragonhide with a Coif, Amulet of Defence, and a Maple shortbow.
 * Fill the rest of their inventory with Tuna or better food.
 * A method of teleportation (excluding Lumbridge Home Teleport, which is easily interrupted by combat).

Although there are Ankou with much higher combat levels in the Stronghold of Security, players are recommended to train on the weakest of Ankou, those at level 75. However there are no safespots for the level 75, so it is recommended to train on the level 82s, because of a safespot, but monsters can get in there and disturb your training. Ankou are aggressive to any players but they are seldom being trained on because of their high combat level and their remote location. The items which the Ankou drops are quite cheap compared to Moss giants but players in training will find much less competition among other players and therefore much more peaceful training.