Strength

Strength (often abbreviated as Str) is a melee combat skill that determines how much damage is done in melee combat. The higher the Strength level, the higher the maximum hit and the higher the average damage.

Strength is also required to wield certain weapons and armour. It is also a necessary stat in several agility grapple shortcuts, for barbarian fishing, and is a requeriment for several quests.

Strength is the most common level 99 skill and the skill with the highest minimum requirement to be ranked.

Combat
A formula is used that decides how much experience a player obtains when fighting using the "aggressive" attack style. If a player hits an opponent, whatever damage they deal is divided by 2.5 and given to the player's experience in their Strength skill. In other words, you receive Strength experience equal to 40% of the damage dealt. For example, if a player hits a 10, then they will receive 4 Strength experience.

If a player fights with the "controlled" attack style, then whatever damage they deal will be divided by 7.5 and given to the player's Strength, Attack and Defence experience.

The Constitution skill also receives some experience, but it will be equal to the damage dealt divided by 7.5 regardless of combat or attack style. For example, if a player hits a 30 while on aggressive style, then they will receive 4 Constitution experience, in addition to the 12 experience in Strength.

Many people believe that the higher you hit, the easier it will be to train other melee skills. Thus, Strength is usually kept higher than Attack and Defence to maximise experience gained. However, if Attack is neglected, the training can become more difficult. It is no use to be able to hit 500 at level 30 if you never hit at all. It is the same with Defence, as if your Defence is too low you will not be able to train effectively. You will need to run to banks all the time to get more food,or use prayer potions, which is impractical for training.

For high-levels, the best weapon for training strength would be the chaotic rapier in terms of experience per hour. However, many prefer the Saradomin sword to train Strength, as it has the same stats as an abyssal whip. However, it is a two-handed weapon. Although the abyssal whip is cheaper, the only way to train strength using it is by selecting the controlled attack style, rendering the abyssal whip inefficient for training strength on its own. Most players that can't afford a Saradomin sword use a Dragon scimitar instead. The Staff of Light is now considered to be an equal if not better alternative to using a Dragon scimitar to train Strength. The only drawback is the high price of the Staff of Light. Characters who are pure strength with a low attack often use a Red topaz machete or an Obsidian maul with a berserker necklace, due to their null attack level requirements.

Experience rewards
You can get Strength experience as rewards for completing certain quests for a total of 262,774.5 experience. There are also lots of quests that allows the player to choose the skill that will receive an experience reward.

Experience lamps, gained through tasks and random events can be used to grant experience to any skill. Players can also trade points gained in activities for experience in strength level. Other ways to get reward experience in strength is through the Dragonkin lamp, penguin points and Tears of Guthix.

Other ways to increase experience

 * The Brawling gloves (melee) provide 50% bonus experience whilst training on any of the Melee skills (Strength, Attack and Defence). In addition, the gloves provide 300% bonus experience if players train whilst in the Wilderness. The gloves last for around 100,000 combat experience, and disintegrate after the player receives all this bonus experience.
 * Wearing any charged piece of Sacred clay equipment, a reward from the Stealing Creation activity, will grant 100% bonus experience of whatever experience you gain in Strength, Attack, Defence, Magic, Ranged and Constitution. Players will always get 24450 bonus experience per piece (including the experience gained in Constitution) no matter how many pieces they equip. If you can earn more than the bonus experience in the amount of time it takes to recharge a Stealing Creation armour piece (15-25 mins a game lasts) then training with Sacred clay equipment is innefective.
 * You don't gain any experience from combat (or from any type) during a Stealing Creation game.
 * A player can train Strength on the Shot put room at the Warriors' Guild, the player will receive 9-12 experience per yard thrown.
 * Players receive combat experience from the damage dealt by their Summoning familiars, the skill that receives the experience varies depending on the familiar, except that Constitution always receive 13.3% of the damage done by the familiar. The following familiars grant 40% of the damage they deal as Strength experience; summoning level requirement and combat level of familiar are listed as well:
 * The following familiars grant 13.3% of the damge dealt as Strength, Attack and Defence experience; summoning level requirement and combat level of familiar are listed as well:
 * The player receives a small amount of experience, varying from 5 to 11, for every fish caught using Barbarian fishing.
 * When using salamanders as weapons with the Scorch attack style activated, the player will receive 40% of the damage dealt as experience in Strength.
 * Players receive 125 Strength experience when they swing onto Bandos's Throne (complete the lap) on the Bandos Agility Course.
 * Players receive 2 Strength experience per tick while pumping heat on the Blast Furnace.

Weapons
This is a list of all weapons that require you to have a specific base strength level to be able to wield them. As the requirement is based of your base level, using boosts will not allow you to wield a weapon that you do not have the level required to wield.
 * Barrelchest Anchor - Requires level 40 Strength and level 60 Attack to wield.
 * Granite maul - Requires level 50 Strength and level 50 Attack to wield.
 * Granite mace - Requires level 50 Strength and level 50 Attack to wield.
 * Obsidian maul - Requires level 60 Strength to wield. Boosts can't be used.
 * Dharok's greataxe - Requires level 70 strength and level 70 attack to wield.
 * Torag's hammers - Requires level 70 strength and level 70 attack to wield.
 * All Halberds - All halberds require a Strength level half of the Attack level required to wield, except for the steel halberd, which requires no strength.
 * For example the Rune halberd requires level 40 Attack and 20 Strength.

Armour
This is a list of all equipment that require you to have a specific base strength level to be able to wear them. As the requirement is based of your base level, using boosts will not allow you to wear a piece of quipment that you do not have the level required to wear.
 * Black Mask - Requires level 10 Strength and level 10 Defence to wear.
 * Full slayer helmet - Requires level 20 Strength, 10 Defence, 20 Magic, 20 Ranged and the completion of the Smoking Kills quest to wear.
 * Void Knight equipment - Requires level 42 Strength, 42 Attack, 42 Defence, 42 Constitution, 42 Magic, 42 Ranged and 22 Prayer to wear.
 * Granite equipment - Requires level 50 Strength and Defence to wear.
 * Torva armour - Requires level 80 Strength, 80 Defence and 80 Constitution to wear.

Other features

 * You require a certain Strength level to do certain quests. Quests marked with an asterisk on the previous link means that Strength can be boosted to fulfill the requirement. The highest requirement is level 78 Strength for The Void Stares Back.
 * You also need a certain Strength level to complete certain Tasks, they involve, among other things, quest requeriments, the use of grapple shortcuts, and the highest leveled task being to caught a raw shark barehanded requiring level 76 Strength.
 * Strength is a requirement for many agility shortcuts involving grapples.
 * Strength helps you in a variety of ways on barbarian fishing.
 * Strength is used on the Dungeoneering skill in several ways.
 * A Strength cape can be purchased for 99,000 coins from Sloane (or Yadech Strongarm after While Guthix Sleeps) at the Warriors' Guild by players who have achieved level 99 Strength.
 * To gain access to the Warriors Guild you need a combined total of 130 levels in attack and strength or level 99 in either.
 * You can push through the magical wheat in Puro-Puro easier with a higher strength level.
 * 30 Strength is required to pump heat on the Blast Furnace.
 * 60 Strength is required to enter the God Wars Dungeon via the Strength route.
 * A door in the God Wars Dungeon, leading to Bandos' enclosure and General Graardor, requires each player to have level 70 Strength and a hammer to open.

Strength bonus
Most weapons have a strength bonus which can be seen in the equipment menu, beside the inventory menu. This bonus, along with the Strength level, is used to calculate maximum melee hit.

The more powerful weapons such as the two handed swords or battleaxes have higher strength bonuses, while the weaker weapons such as daggers and swords have lower strength bonuses. Also, the stronger the metal, the better strength bonus. For example, a rune two-handed sword has a higher strength bonus than an adamant two-handed sword.

Temporary boosts
Flat and perecentage strength level bonus don't stack with each other when they add up above the base strength level. They do, however, stack with the effective strength bonuses of prayers and equipment special effects, as they don't increase the strength level in any way but directly affect the actual max and average damage that can be dealt when in combat.
 * Strength cape - Boosts Strength level by 1 for a short period of time after using the skillcape emote.
 * Strength potion - Boosts Strength level by 3 to 12; the formula is: 3 + 10% of the player base strength level rounded down.
 * Combat potion - Boosts Strength level by 3 to 12; the formula is: 3 + 10% of the player base strength level rounded down. Also boosts Attack at the same time using the same formula.
 * Super strength potion - Boosts Strength level by 5 to 19; the formula is: 5 + 15% of the player base strength level rounded down.
 * Extreme strength potion - Boosts Strength level by 5 to 26; the formula is: 5 + 22% of the player base strength level rounded down. This item cannot be traded and the only way to obtain it is by making it yourself, this requires 89 Herblore.
 * Overload potion - Boosts Strength level by the same ammount as the Extreme strength potion, but also increases other stats and deals 500 damage over 5 the seconds after drinking it to the player. The boost to stats is reapplied every 15 seconds for 5 minutes, but they won't go above the cap. Also, after 5 minutes have passed, the player will heal by 500 life points. This item cannot be traded and the only way to obtain it is by making it yourself, this requires 96 Herblore.
 * Zamorak brew - Boosts Strength level by 2 to 13; the formula is: 2 + 12% of the player base strength level rounded down. It also raises Attack, and lowers Defence and current life points using different formulas.
 * Several ales boost or lower your stength level.
 * Braindeath 'rum' - Raises your Strength by 3 and Mining by one, but decreases Attack, Defence, Prayer, Magic, Agility and Herblore by 5.
 * Dragon Battleaxe special attack - Boosts your Strength level by 20%. However it also lowers your Magic, Attack, Ranged, and Defence level by 10%. Drains 100 percent of your special attack bar. This is not stackable with any other Strength boosts.
 * The special move of the Obsidian golem familiar raises your strength level by 9.
 * A player can use a captured Black warlock, a hunted butterfly, on another player in a multicombat area to increase the other player Strength level, the formula is: 4 + 15% of the player base strength level rounded down.
 * The Honey Badger special move increases the player Strength by an unknown amount.
 * A Brine Sabre special attack increases the player's Strength, Attack , and Defence levels by 2.5% of the damage dealt.

The following bonuses don't increase the player current strength level on the stats tab, but allows the player to deal more damage (see above):
 * While wearing the full Dharok's set a special set effect activates: Wretched Strength which increases the player effective strength by 0.1% for every life point missing from their total.
 * Prayer - Burst of Strength, Superhuman Strength, Ultimate Strength, Chivalry and Piety boost effective strength by 5%, 10%, 15%, 18% and 23% respectively.
 * Ancient Curses - Leech Strength boosts the player effective strength by 5%, then up to 10% after time.
 * Ancient Curses - Turmoil boosts the player effective strength by 23% + 10% of the opponent's level.
 * Black mask - When equipped increases effective strength and attack by 15% against monster currently assigned to you by a Slayer Master; not stackable with the bonuses of the salve amulet of either charge.
 * Salve amulet - Increases effective attack and strength by 15% against undead creatures. Not stackable with black mask of any charge.
 * Salve Amulet (e) - Increases effective attack and strength by 20% against undead creatures. Not stackable with black mask of any charge.

Fun Weapons
Fun weapons are weapons that give large negative attack and strength bonuses and are usually used by players not wanting to gain any strength experience or are used just for showing off. Examples of a fun weapons include the Easter carrot, the rubber chicken, and snow balls (From Holiday Event).