Free-to-play Ranged training

Weapons
For training, a player should use the strongest arrows that can be bought in bulk. In F2P these are either iron or bronze arrows. But as iron arrows cost just as much as bronze, and are stronger, they are commonly used as a cheap way to powertrain. For dangerous PvP combat, the ranger should use the best arrows he or she can wield (usually Rune Arrows). For safe PvP activities, the arrows used are entirely up to the player. The ranged strength calculator can help in deciding which arrow to use.

'''Please note that the ammunition used (arrows or bolts) with a given ranged weapon affects damage dealt in a hit, but does not affect the weapon's accuracy. A hit is determined only by the accuracy bonus of bows, while the strength of the hit is affected by the ammunition (arrows/bolts) as well as the Ddmage potential of the bow.'''

Shortbows
The Shortbow is the ideal ranged training weapon for free players. With its extremely high rate of fire and accuracy and damage per shot equivalent to those of a shieldbow of the same material, it is superior to shieldbows in almost all aspects of training. It is also the ranged weapon of choice in PvP situations as the high attack speed can quickly wear down the opponent's lifepoints. The best shortbows in F2P worlds are the magic shortbow as well as the gravite shortbow. However, as the gravite shortbow requires several hours of dungeoneering, and requires charging, the magic shortbow is more commonly used.

With the EOC update, magic shortbows are now available for F2P.

Shieldbows (formerly Longbows)
As they have equal accuracy but lower speed and damage per shot compared to a shortbow of the same material, shieldbows are considered inferior to their corresponding shortbows. Usage of any F2P shieldbow, except the Maple shieldbow (sighted) or Magic shieldbow (sighted), is discouraged, especially in training. Magic shieldbows are available in F2P after the EOC update. The sighted maple shieldbow is more accurate than a Maple shortbow  but this does not increase the damage per hit.

Shieldbows, however, have additional health and defence capabilities. This makes for better training against enemies if not in a safe spot or against enemies with ranged attack capabilities.

The only situation where the sighted maple longbow will deal more damage than a maple shortbow is when an enemy has high defence and/or is otherwise hard to damage. Training on such monsters is not recommended, as the point of training is to gain as much experience as possible by having a high damage rate.

The sighted shieldbow can be useful in PvP. More information can be found on its article.

Crossbows
The two crossbows available in free-to-play are the Crossbow and the Phoenix crossbow, but both are rather inaccurate. The only usable ammo available to non-members, Bronze bolts, provide a mediocre ranged strength bonus (equivalent to iron arrows), but both weapons are extremely slow. Players opting to train Ranged cheaply should opt for Kayle's chargebow, or use iron or bronze arrows.

The crossbow is the only one-handed ranged weapon available to non-members, so player with high ranged may find it useful when fighting Elvarg in Dragon slayer, against whom an Anti-dragon shield is necessary.

Chargebows (previously known as sling)
Kayle's chargebow is very easily obtained from The Blood Pact. There is also an ordinary Chargebow which is dropped by various spiders and creatures in the wilderness. The ordinary Chargebow (can be obtained easily from goblins) is not recommended, being slightly weaker than it. Kayle's chargebow attacks quickly (as fast as a shortbow), provides a small ranged attack bonus and is very weak. Requiring no ammunition, it is an arguably free method to train Ranged, but gives significantly less experience compared to a bow with, for example, steel or mithril arrows.

The true strength of training with chargebows lies not the speed of training but rather the low maintenance; since it requires no ammunition, it does not leave wasted arrows lying on the ground. Chargebows are therefore an excellent method of training at locations filled with hostile weak monsters. Kayle's chargebow however has a ranged attack bonus that is less than a bronze arrow, with low accuracy. It also has an invisible damage multiplier of 0.9, which implies a 0.9x experience penalty as the overall damage is reduced.

Armour
In general, a player should wear the best possible ranged armour available at their Defence and Ranged level. Free-to-play ranged armour is much cheaper than melee armour, as the raw materials for the armour are easier to obtain. Non-members can make all ranged armour except studded leather armour and green dragonhide armour and blue dragonhide armour with the Crafting skill. Because they are so commonly produced to train Crafting, all of the armour listed below can be bought easily off of the Grand Exchange.

Each of the following recommended sets of armour give a player the highest possible ranged attack bonus for their Ranged and Defence level. When training against monsters with low defences and without the use of a safe spot (such as giant spiders in the Stronghold of Security), it may help to equip more defensive armour to suit the targeted monster's attack type.

With the release of the Evolution of Combat, ranged armour shields were introduced, but since they can't be used with shortbows or shieldbows, they are of minimal use for F2P players.

Level 1 – 9 Ranged
Recommended set: a leather cowl, a pair of leather chaps, a pair of leather vambraces or leather gloves and a leather body and leather boots.

Level 10 – 19 Defence
Recommended set: a cowl, a pair of leather chaps, a pair of hard leather gloves and a hard leather body and hard leather boots

Level 20-29 Defence and Ranged
Recommended set: green d'hide armour and coif.

Level 30-39 Defence and Ranged
Recommended set: carapace armour.

Level 40-49 Defence and Ranged
Recommended Set: A carapace helm, green dragonhide chaps, and green dragonhide vambraces, green dragonhide body.

The Fist of Guthix minigame introduced the green d'hide coif. It surpasses the stats that the carapace helm provide, however it is not recommended for training as the additional bonuses are relatively insignificant and the time spent recharging it would be better used for training Ranged with the carapace helm.

After the EOC update, blue d'hide coifs can be bought with 200 fist of guthix tokens and rechargeable for 20 fist of guthix tokens. This is currently the best headgear for F2P ranged.

Level 50+ Defence and Ranged
Recommended Set: Batwing hood/Rune full helm, blue dragonhide chaps, blue dragonhide vambraces and blue dragonhide body

Players who have many tokens from playing the Fist of Guthix activity may choose to replace their coif with a blue d'hide coif. This piece of ranged headgear is the best available to non-members, but it is quite costly if bought on the Grand Exchange and the same bonuses can be attained from a Batwing hood or a Rune full helm (though the combat triangle should still be taken into consideration).

Amulets
The amulet of power is the most commonly used armour in the neck slot, as it provides the highest possible ranged critical bonus for non-members. It has no requirements to use and can be easily obtained from the Grand Exchange, so players can and are recommended to train with it at any Ranged level.

The amulet of defence may be helpful against monsters that deal damage quickly but also have low defence, as it provides a +10 armour rating as well as a respectable critical bonus of 2.6%. This amulet should be considered in situations where safe spots are not available, as the increased armour rating may be worth the lesser critical bonus in comparison to the amulet of power.

The twisted bird skull necklace may also be used by players who train Ranged with Prayer. This can allow players to occasionally use Ranged-oriented prayers such as Hawk Eye and Eagle Eye. It is recommended to only equip this while burying bones, and wear an amulet of power while actually attacking monsters, therefore keeping it in your inventory when you are not burying bones to increase your ranged critical bonus.

The amulet of zealots can be conjuncted with the Eagle Eye prayer to hit slightly higher than with an amulet of power. However, this amulet is considered ineffective for training because its ability is very limited; it only boosts the max hit by less than 10 damage (this is with adamant arrows; with mithril or weaker it is far less), and it gives a negative prayer bonus, reducing the effectiveness of flashing Eagle Eye by using up Prayer points fast. However it is possible to use it with the twisted bird skull necklace to restore Prayer points. It also costs 40,000 Dungeoneering tokens to purchase which is considered by most players to be overpriced.

Bronze Bolts
Bronze bolts are not recommended for use under any circumstances as they have low ranged strength and can only be fired by a crossbow, which is both inaccurate and slow.

Training arrows
Training arrows can only be obtained from Beefy Bill at the cow pen north of Lumbridge. They are the equivalent of bronze arrows but are not recommended for use as they are untradeable and only 30 arrows can be acquired at a time.

Bronze arrows
Bronze arrows were once the arrows of choice for training as they were cheap and could easily be bought on the grand exchange and given free by Lowe. However, after the introduction of the personalised shop update, the supply of bronze arrows have been diminished and they're now very difficult to buy on the grand exchange. Some high-level Rangers choose to buy massive amount of bronze arrows so they can train at a certain location (eg. the Karamja volcano) and powertrain (not pick up arrows) for a long time.

Iron arrows
Iron arrows are the arrows of choice for training as they're easily bought on the grand exchange and are fairly cheap. They're also a fairly common drop from Minotaurs in the Stronghold of Security and Hill Giants at Edgeville Dungeon. At around 15-20 Ranged, you could actually start gaining more iron arrows than you brought with you. For example, a free player would bring 300 iron arrows to train with, and end up with over 500 arrows worth of drops.

Steel arrows
Steel arrows, though not as popular as iron, hit a little higher than iron and cost a few coins more. They are commonly dropped by zombies on the second level of the Stronghold of Security.

Mithril arrows
Mithril arrows are great for training against high-level monsters such as lesser and greater demons, ankous, and cockroach soldiers, as they hit nearly as high as adamant arrows but are much cheaper. They can also be used in PvP if adamant arrows are too expensive. They are dropped by ice warriors in the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon, Catablepons in the Stronghold of Security, and black and white knights at their respective castles/fortresses. These are recommended for higher levelled players with a good sum of money.

Adamant arrows
Adamant arrows are the second most expensive arrows in free-to-play and are used almost exclusively in PvP combat. They are not recommended for training due to their high cost. They are dropped by ankous on the fourth level of the Stronghold of Security and Ice giants at the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon.

Rune arrows
Rune arrows are the most expensive and powerful arrows in free-to-play and are used exclusively in Pvp situations. Rune arrows became available for free-to-play with the launch of the Evolution of Combat.

XP Settings and Abilities
XP Settings are located under the combat section of the players HUD. As a ranged player you have 3 choices, you can gain ranged & defence experience, ranged only, or defence only.

There are multiple ways in which to handle your character and its special attacks. Most notably of which being "cycling" and "momentum".

Cycling is the act of using your abilities in a way that maximises DPS. Rather than just randomly using abilities, you use your lowest cool down ability every time it's up, and then use 1 of higher cool down after it, then repeat. This brings out the most DPS as you will almost always have a skill to use, which means your adrenaline bar will increase much faster.

Momentum is an ability from the constitution skill that can be activated after charging your adrenaline bar to 100%. After that all you do is count on your auto attacks. Your character will sometimes use basic abilities on its own while you have momentum activated. If you activate an ability yourself it will immediately deactivate momentum. Essentially momentum is a 20 minute buff that dramatically increases auto attack damage at the cost of not being able to use any of your other abilities.

Tips

 * Prayer flash to get a ranged boost without losing prayer. Select Sharp/Hawk/Eagle Eye as your quick prayer and doubleclick (without delay between clicks) on the prayer icon. With the help of the XP Counter, make sure that the prayer sound effect is played while experience is gained.
 * Remember Rangers can attack diagonally, a great advantage against large monsters who move 1.5 squares, as they can be easily blocked by small obstacles that are otherwise easily avoided by regular monsters.
 * Use the safespots. Just get the right adjustments and then fire from an angle.

Levels 1 - 40
For those new members daring enough to go to the crafting guild, ranging the hobgoblins from the cows pen is highly recommended!