Royal crossbow

The royal crossbow is a level 80 two-handed crossbow that bears the likeness of the Queen Black Dragon. Using the royal crossbow requires: It is currently the strongest two-handed crossbow in the game, and as a level 80 weapon, comparable to the zaryte bow, chaotic crossbow and off-hand chaotic crossbow, all of which are currently the 3rd highest-leveled Ranged weapons available to players, only beaten by the death lotus dart (and its off-hand variant) and the ascension crossbow (and its off-hand variant).

Despite the examine information saying that the crossbow will inflict heavy damage in prolonged encounters, this is now outdated as it was the crossbow's ability prior to the Evolution of Combat - it can deal the same damage regardless of the length of a fight.

Parts
The core of the royal crossbow is the coral crossbow, which is untradeable but freely obtained after completing Song from the Depths. Players who have lost their coral crossbow may retrieve another from Sir Rebrum outside the Grotworm Lair. Each player may only own one royal crossbow at any time since Sir Rebrum will not supply coral crossbows needed to create additional royal crossbows.

Aside from the coral crossbow, four other items are required to assemble the royal crossbow, all of which are tradeable and available as drops from the Queen Black Dragon:

The total cost of the components of the crossbow when bought from the Grand Exchange is. (Excluding the coral crossbow, which is rewarded free upon completion of Song from the Depths.)

Assembly
Once a player has acquired the four pieces plus the coral crossbow, they must take them to Thurgo at Mudskipper Point, who will gladly combine the pieces into an unforged royal crossbow. He will also comment that incredible heat will be required to complete the weapon, far greater than any furnace can provide; in fact, only the fire of an ancient dragon could produce enough heat. At this point, the crossbow gains a left-click "Brandish" option, as well as an option to disassemble the weapon into its pieces.

The only ancient dragon remaining in RuneScape is the Queen Black Dragon, who slumbers deep beneath Asgarnia in the Grotworm Lair. Players must enter her lair and battle her up to her fourth form, at which point she will begin using her extremely hot dragonfire attack (see her strategies article for more information). The Queen Black Dragon's normal dragonfire attack is not hot enough to forge the crossbow; it must be done in her extremely hot attack. Players must stand directly in the middle of the attack, taking its full damage, and brandish the unfinished royal crossbow. Doing so will forge its components together into a usable weapon. Note that the Queen Black Dragon is a very dangerous, very powerful monster, and standing in the middle of her extremely hot dragonfire will result in very high damage. Actually defeating the Queen Black Dragon is not a requirement for forging the crossbow - even if you die, you can select to keep it on death. Player may use a temporary level boost to boost Smithing to brandish the unformed crossbow.

IMPORTANT: You must be facing the Queen Black Dragon when you brandish the unformed crossbow, otherwise it doesn't work.

It should be noted that once the royal crossbow has been forged by the Queen Black Dragon, it can never be split apart again, so it becomes permanently bound to the player unless lost on death or if you destroy it, in which case it will not be reimbursed. Upon death in the Wilderness, 5,000 coins appears on the ground to the killer.

Recharging
As the royal crossbow is used, it begins to degrade. It lasts 10 hours in combat before degrading fully and becoming royal crossbow (degraded). In this state, it has stats equal to a bronze 2h crossbow. It will also degrade by 20% if it is dropped on death. It can be repaired by taking a degraded royal crossbow along with all of the four royal crossbow components to Thurgo. Prior to it fully degrading, any of the four components can be used on the bow to recharge it by 25%.

Analysis
As a level 80 Ranged weapon, the royal crossbow is among the strongest and most accurate ranged weapons in the game. It shares this position with the zaryte bow, as well as the chaotic crossbow with its off-hand. While it is slower than the zaryte bow and the chaotic crossbows it has a longer range, meaning it can shoot targets further away. Unlike the zaryte bow, the royal crossbow gains extra damage from its ammunition. It can fire any type of bolt but when firing ascension bolts they have reduced damage that makes them equal to royal bolts.

The royal crossbow's purchase cost is a small fraction of the zaryte bow's, though depending on the ammunition fired, the royal crossbow may be more expensive per shot than the zaryte bow. Use of one of Ava's devices to automatically retrieve bolts can significantly reduce the cost per shot of the royal crossbow. In addition, since abilities do not use bolts (and consequently, no durability charges are spent), normal usage of the royal crossbow does not necessarily require much maintenance or upkeep cost, given that royal bolts, the most commonly used ammunition, cost each.

Trivia

 * Prior to the Evolution of Combat, the royal crossbow was a one-handed weapon with a requirement of 85 ranged rather than 80. It could only fire royal bolts. It also had a unique ability in that all shots fired would deal their damage to targets in a damage-over-time effect, rather than dealing their full damage all at once. The total damage dealt per shot tended to be higher than with other crossbows. It was designed to be most useful when fighting boss monsters. Because the weapon was designed to deal damage over a long period of time, it was relatively weak against monsters without many lifepoints. It was also ineffective against players, dealing very little damage to them.
 * Prior to an update on 7 January, 2014, the royal crossbow had the option to be recharged by brandishing it at the Queen Black Dragon, the same as for the original assembly. As of now, the player can use a Royal crossbow part (any works), which will consume the said item and recharge 25% of the crossbow.