Poison (historical)



Poison is a detriment that players and monsters suffer when they are attacked by a poisoned weapon. Also, the Smoke-type spells from the Ancient Magicks may poison targets. Many non-player characters are also able to poison. The damage can range from 10 (Poison almost worn off) to 168 (K'ril Tsutsaroth's starting poison)

When a player or monster is poisoned, a number appears with a green splat instead of a red one, indicating the amount of damage the poison has dealt to their life points (for example, a player who suffers 68 poison damage will lose 68 life points). Poison wears off over time, decreasing by a value of two life points every time it strikes. After poison damage is reduced to 10, it disappears and the poison has abated.

For instance, if a player is hit by another player wielding a poisoned dagger, they would be hit for 48 damage after 18 seconds (or 30 game ticks), then 46 damage after 18 seconds, then 44, 42, etc., until the damage is reduced to 10 and then the poison would be gone.

It is worth noting that an attack with a poisoned weapon does not actually need to inflict direct damage to inflict poison. Whether this is a programming oversight or intentional is not known. This could possibly be that poison does not need a cut (i.e. dealing 1 damage) but just a graze which deals no damage to the player, but enough to get the poison into their bloodstream. Technically, this may be because an attack hits, but the strength of the hit is only 0. (Missing and hitting for 0 are different but appear the same.) Some monsters, such as tribesmen, Kalphites, or K'ril Tsutsaroth must inflict damage in order to poison a player (Prayers such as the Protect from Melee cannot negate this, and even if they hit zeros due to the prayer's effect, you are still poisoned). Others, such as Cave Slimes and Saradomin wizards, as well as other players, may inflict poison even if they hit a zero (unless the player is protected by an antipoison potion). As an additional note, being hit by a poisoned weapon does not guarantee becoming poisoned.

It is also interesting to note that being afflicted by poison does not disrupt Woodcutting, and players cannot rest if they are poisoned.

You do NOT gain any experience when doing damage with poison, so if you're training and every experience point counts, don't use weapon poison.

Tripwires in Tirannwn cause 28 poison damage.

Weapon poisoning
Clean, unpoisoned weapons can be poisoned by weapon poisons made through the Herblore skill. There are several types of weapon poisons which deal progressively more damage. Only spears, arrows, bolts, darts, throwing knives, javelins, daggers, and hastae can be poisoned.
 * Weapon Poison - poisoning deals 48 damage initially with melee weapons, 28 damage with ranged. Weapons with this poisoning have the suffix (p) on the end of their names (for example, Dragon dagger(p)).
 * Extra Strong Weapon Poison - hits for 58 damage with melee, 38 with ranged. Suffix (p+).
 * Super Strong Weapon Poison - hits for 68 damage with melee, 48 with ranged. This is the most popular type of weapon poison since it is tradeable and does the most damage, along with Karambwam paste. Suffix (p++)
 * Karambwan Paste - hits for 68 damage, cannot be cured by normal Anti-poison potion. This poison can only be applied to spears and hastae. Cannot be traded. Suffix (kp).

Remember, if a monster you are fighting gets poisoned by you, you will not receive experience from the poison damage. Some monsters, such as Wall beasts, Turoth, Waterfiends, and the God Wars Dungeon bosses are immune to poison.

Poison can be removed from weapons with a cleaning cloth, obtained by using Karamja rum with Silk. A new poison can then be applied to the weapon. If you attempt to apply poison to an already poisoned weapon nothing interesting happens. This is the case of all poisoned weapons except when you use an poisoned karambwan paste on an spear or hasta. For example, you have a dragon spear p++ and you also have poisoned karambwan paste, you can use the paste on the dragon spear p++ without needing to wipe off the p++ with a cleaning cloth.

Curing poison
Poison can be cured through antidotes. Anti-poison potions are the most popular antidote and they come in various levels which provide progressively longer immunity to poisoning. All poisons except for Karambwan paste can be cured by regular antipoison, even that inflicted upon players by K'ril Tsutsaroth, which hits 168 to start. Some antidotes provide immunity for a temporary period of time, in which you cannot be poisoned.


 * Antipoison
 * Super antipoison
 * Antipoison+
 * Antipoison++
 * Prayer book (no immunity)
 * Strange fruit (no immunity)
 * Guthix rest (reduces poison damage per hit by 10)
 * Sanfew Serum
 * Oo'glog thermal spa
 * Cure Me (no immunity)
 * Cure Other (no immunity)
 * Cure Group (no immunity)
 * Right-clicking "Cure" on the Unicorn Stallion familiar will cure poison and disease, although it does cost the player some summoning points, however, it will not grant the player immunity.
 * Wearing an Anti-poison totem in the shield slot provides full immunity to poison. This requires 60 Defence, 60 Dungeoneering, and 70 Herblore. The totem cannot cure poison; it only prevents players from becoming poisoned.

Another free alternative if you are really low on health is to teleport to your respawn location. This way when you die you can instantly obtain your items again. This is not advised in a player vs player world, if you have been attacked by another player, even if they have done one damage, you will lose all your items (unless on a bounty hunter world, you will lose all but one item).

Another safe alternative is to teleport to your Player Owned House, so when you die, you will not lose items and instead, be teleported outside of your house. A faster method involving the Player Owned House to cure poison is to simply leave the house by using the teleportation methods available in the house (e.g. Mounted Amulet of Glory, the Portal Chamber room or simply leaving your house through the Exit Portal). This will cure your poison completely.

Trivia

 * When the player is poisoned, the life points meter to the top-right the minimap turns green with a use cure (p) option.
 * You cannot rest while you are poisoned.
 * Players do not experience the effects of poison whilst wearing the Ring of stone.
 * Players do not experience the effects of poison whilst wearing the Easter ring.
 * Players do not experience the effects of poison whilst solving a Puzzle box from a Clue scroll.
 * Using the special attack of a poisoned Dragon dagger seems to increase the chance of poisoning a target, but this is unconfirmed. However, since the special hits twice, it is possible that there is a higher chance of poisoning the victim.
 * With the Constitution update, the total damage for poison was increased disproportionately to other forms of damage. Normal weapons' poison went from a total of 4 hitpoint damage (40 life point damage) to 57 total life point damage.
 * The effects of poison wear off after around two minutes, depending on the potency of the poison.
 * If you are poisoned and are somewhere remote, it is possible to pause the poison's progress by opening the price check screen. This allows you time to regain life points. It is unknown whether Jagex did this on purpose or if it is a bug/glitch in the game.
 * A low level player can easily incapacitate a larger foe with a strong poison. For example, using a Dragon dagger (p++) at level 65 on a Giant Frog (Level 99) and hiding behind something can prevent you from being hit, but the poison will still kill the target.