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, 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 royal crossbow will degrade after 10 hours of combat; and could be repaired by re-forging it in the Queen Black Dragon's dragonfire.

WARNING: If you destroy the Royal Crossbow you will NOT receive the pieces to put it together again.

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

You must charge the crossbow the first time by choosing the Brandish option in front of the Queen Black Dragon's Extreme Fire Breath (4th Phase). Thereafter the crossbow can be recharged by fighting the Queen Black Dragon and re-brandishing it once it has reached 0%.

As the Royal Crossbow is used, it begins to degrade. It will last 10 hours in combat before degrading fully and becoming Royal Crossbow (degraded). In this state, it can be repaired in one of two ways: It can be taken before the Queen Black Dragon's extreme fire attack and brandished, or it can be taken to Thurgo to be repaired, though this will require each of the four royal crossbow parts to be added once again.

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 destroyed, in which case it will not be reimbursed. It will be left under a gravestone on death. Upon death in the wilderness, 5k appears on the ground for the killer.

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 defeating the Queen Black Dragon is not a requirement for forging the crossbow - even if you die, you can elect to keep it on death.

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.

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 (NOTE: extra damage gained from bolts does not count towards base damage for abilities, it only counts towards Auto Attack damage). 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

 * There is currently a glitch where on death, the crossbow will appear UNDERNEATH the player's grave, rather than in it, meaning that if the "equip all" option is selected when looting a grave, the crossbow will remain on the ground and must be picked up separately. The same also affects the degraded Chaotic and Drygore weaponry along with Polypore and Player-Owned-Ports armours if they are not protected upon death.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Prior to the Evolution of Combat, the Royal crossbow also had a requirement of 85 instead of 80 Ranged.
 * For a time after the EoC, this crossbow was not degradeable. This was, however, changed sometime during the beginning of March 2013.
 * The 70 smithing requirement CAN be boosted, so long as the player takes the smithing boost with them to the queen black dragon fight.