Royal crossbow

The royal crossbow is a level 80 two-handed crossbow that bears the likeness of the Queen Black Dragon. Wielding the royal crossbow requires 80 Ranged, and the process of creating it requires 70 Smithing, 60 Summoning, and completion of Song from the Depths. It is currently the strongest two-handed crossbow in the game, and as a level 80 weapon, it is comparable to the zaryte bow and chaotic crossbow/offhand chaotic crossbow, all of which are currently the highest-leveled Ranged weapons available to players. It can fire any type of bolts, including onyx bolts and royal bolts.

To create the crossbow, players must assemble its pieces onto the coral crossbow, then expose the weapon to the Queen Black Dragon's most intense dragonfire, the only source of heat extreme enough to forge the components together. The crossbow will degrade after 10 hours of combat; it can be repaired by re-forging it in the Queen Black Dragon's dragonfire.

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. 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.

Process
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 killing the Queen Black Dragon is not a requirement for forging the crossbow.

Once forged, the royal crossbow loses its brandish and disassemble options, and becomes untradeable. Destroying the crossbow will not provide a refund of any sort.

Degradation
The royal crossbow will last for approximately 10 hours of combat before it wears down and becomes unusable. When this happens, it can be repaired in one of two ways:
 * Return to the Queen Black Dragon and once again brandish the crossbow in the midst of her extremely hot dragonfire attack; or
 * Bring it back to Thurgo, who will repair it, though this method requires that the four royal crossbow pieces be replaced with new ones.

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 and offhand chaotic crossbow. While it is slower than the zaryte bow and the chaotic crossbows, it has a higher damage rating. Unlike the zaryte bow, the royal crossbow gains extra damage from its ammunition. It can fire any type of bolts, ranging from bronze bolts to broad-tipped bolts to royal bolts. Higher-leveled bolts have a higher damage rating, but are generally more expensive.

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 Ava's device to automatically retrieve bolts can significantly reduce the cost per shot of the royal crossbow.

With regards to abilities, the only difference between using the royal crossbow and two chaotic crossbows is that Incendiary Shot is available instead of Unload. Each of these abilities is powerful in different ways, and their relative usefulness is situational.

Trivia

 * Despite being a destroyable item, the royal crossbow will appear under a gravestone. If dropped in the Wilderness, it becomes converted to 5,000 coins.
 * This is the only crossbow in the game where a bolt is visible.
 * There is currently a glitch where it will not degrade over time.
 * Prior to the Evolution of Combat, the royal crossbow 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.