Armour/Melee armour



Melee armour, used in the Attack, Strength and Defence skills, is generally made out of some kind of metal. There is a "default" (regular) series of armour, consisting of Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black/White, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, and Dragon (in ascending order of the quality of the armour). For each piece of armour, there is a counterpart made for each other type of metal (with the exception of Dragon armour which has some items yet to be released). All these can be made from the Smithing skill, with the exception of Black, White, and Dragon, which can only be purchased or received from a monster drop.

All armour items not made from those metal types can be considered "special" and generally cannot be made from the Smithing skill, but rather sold by an NPC or obtained as a monster drop. Some players may consider these more desirable, as they often provide higher bonuses than other forms of armour.

Defenders cannot be obtained by non-members, as they are received from the Warriors' Guild.

Melee Armour Sets
Set totals include full helmet, platebody, platelegs/plateskirt, and kiteshield whenever possible.

Helmets
Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, White(m), Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon(m)

Helmets offer lower protection compared to full helms (shown below), but provide the same health benifits at a lower cost.

Full helmets
Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, White(m), Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon(m)

Full helmets encase the whole of the players head and provide better range and melee defence than other helmets. A full helmet, however, imposes larger negative modifiers to Magic and Ranged attacks,  The Rune full helm is the best melee head armour available to Free-to-play, apart from the Corrupt dragon helm.

Chainbodies
Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, White(m), Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon(m)

Chainbodies are made up of small rings linked together. Chainmail provides a lower armour rating than platebodies, but they do provide the same health benifits.

Platebodies
Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, White(m), Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon(m)

Platebodies are much heavier and stronger than chainbodies, providing higher defence. Rangers and Mages are at a great disadvantage trying to aim their ranged and distance magic attacks in this restrictive and heavy metal armour. The Rune platebody is very popular, and is the best melee torso armour available to Free-to-play, besides the Corrupt dragon chainbody. However, you need to have completed the Dragon Slayer quest to wear one.

Platelegs and plateskirts
Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, White(m), Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon(m) Platelegs and Plateskirts are a vital part of a warrior's armour, and provide the second best defensive bonuses after the platebody. The dragon platelegs cannot be smithed by players.

Square shields
Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, White(m), Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon(m) The square shield has adequate melee and range defence bonuses, and provides the same health bonuses as the kiteshield. Square shields are not often used, as most players prefer the kiteshield for its higher defence bonuses.

Spikeshields
Adamant, Rune Spikeshields are a reward that can be purchased with tokens from the Fist of Guthix activity. They degrade with use like Barrows equipment, and can be recharged by paying Reggie a small amount of tokens. They can only be traded when completely uncharged. The Adamant spike shield costs 50 tokens to buy, 8 tokens to recharge and level 45 defence to wield. The Rune spike shield costs200 tokens to buy, 35 tokens to recharge and level 55 defence to wield. Like Barrows equipment, their bonuses will only decrease after the shield has completely degraded to 0%, but unlike Barrows equipment it does so after only 6 hours of solid combat. When fully degraded, spikeshields can be traded with other players or via the Grand Exchange. Spikeshields tend to be overshadowed by Berserker shields, due to their lesser bonuses. However, they are easier to obtain and charge than their counterparts.

Kiteshields
Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, White(m), Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon(m) Kiteshields offer better defence than a square shield, although like most heavier armour it is awkward to use in combination with Magic and Ranged.

Berserker shields
Adamant, Rune Berserker shields are a reward that can be purchased with tokens from the Fist of Guthix activity. They degrade with use like Barrows equipment, and can be recharged by paying Reggie a small amount of tokens. They can only be traded when completely uncharged. The Adamant berserker shield costs 100 tokens to buy, 17 tokens to recharge and level 45 defence to wield. The Rune berserker shield costs 300 tokens to buy, 30 tokens to recharge and level 55 defence to wield. Like Barrows equipment, their bonuses will only decrease after the shield has completely degraded to 0, but unlike Barrows equipment it does so after only 6 hours of solid combat. When fully degraded, spikeshields can be traded with other players or via the Grand Exchange. The Rune berserker shield is the best melee shield available to Free-to-play, when fully charged, besides the harder to obtain corrupt dragon square shield.

Metal gauntlets
Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon(m)

Metal gauntlets are obtained by playing Fist of Guthix. Generally, they give higher melee defence bonuses than their Metal Gloves counterparts, but unlike Metal Gloves,are rated as "melee only" while Metal Gloves are consider "all combat styles". . Metal gauntlets are only tradeable when fully degraded - they only degrade when a player dies, drops them, or gives them to Reggie and asks him to degrade them. They are significantly better than gloves in defence bonuses.

Culinaromancer's gloves(m)
Basic, Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, White, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon, Barrows

The Culinaromancer's metal gloves can be bought from the Culinaromancer's chest after completing varying numbers of Recipe for Disaster subquests, the exception being White gloves, which are purchased from Sir Vyvin. White gloves are also the only tradeable metal gloves. Ingame, all of the gloves are simply called "Culinaromancer gloves #", but they look like certain metals, from leather up to dragon and then Barrows. Again, the exception is white gloves, which are called "White gloves" in-game.

Metal gloves provide good protection against all attack styles. Befoe EoC, Barrows gloves once gave the best attack bonuses for all attack styles of any pair of gloves, and also the highest strength bonus. However they were surpassed by the three gloves from the Dominion Tower. Currently, they provide good all around protection at the expense of not degrading.

Defenders(m)
All metals except white

Metal defenders are small dagger-like items worn in the shield slot. They count as an off-hand weapon, allowing for using dual wielding abilties, and provide defensive and health bonuses as a shield would. They cannot be made nor bought, only received as a drop from cyclopes on the top floor of the Warriors' Guild. Once the first - bronze - defender is received, it must be shown to Kamfreena outside the room before an iron one may be received, which must then be shown before a steel one may be received, etc. The final dragon defender is a much more common drop from Cyclossus than from Cyclopses, but at least a rune defender is needed for them to appear. Entrance to the cyclops room is temporary and the Guild's tokens are required for access. The owned amount slowly decreases as one is in the room.

Bronze armour
Bronze armour is the worst of all melee armours and worn only by the newest of players, requiring no levels whatsoever and costing next to nothing. Bronze is a copper and tin alloy and as such may be smelted using copper and tin ore. It can be made on an anvil by even inexperienced blacksmiths.

Iron armour
Iron armour is slightly better than bronze, and requires level ten Defence. It is made from iron bars.

Steel armour
Steel armour is slightly better than the previous metal, iron. Steel armour and weapons require level 20 Defence and Attack respectively to equip and may also be smithed from steel bars, which are the result of smelting iron ore with coal. Steel is the third worst armour in-game and as such only worn by new players as well.

White armour
White armour does not offer great defensive bonuses, although better than steel, but does offer decent prayer bonuses. White armour, however, requires the completion of Wanted! to equip. White armour may be bought from Sir Vyvin on the second floor of Falador Castle with sufficient White Knight rank, which is received from killing Black Knights. White armour is worn by White Knights of Falador, and a number of varieties exist, them being initiate, proselyte, acolyte and partisan armour as worn by the Temple Knights.

Initiate armour
Initiate armour is worn by Temple Knight recruits, which the player becomes after completion of Recruitment Drive. It offers relatively low defence bonuses but this is compensated by decent prayer bonuses. The set consists of a sallet, hauberk and the choice of a cuisse or tassets. The set may be bought from Sir Tiffy Cashien in Falador Park, requiring no Black Knight kills. It appears to be yellow-trimmed white armour.

Proselyte armour
Proselyte armour is worn by Temple Knight proselytes who have advanced in rank. Players may buy the armour off Sir Tiffy Cashien after completing The Slug Menace. Basically being an upgrade of initiate armour, it offers both higher defence and prayer bonuses. It looks like gold/orange-trimmed white armour.

Black armour
Black armour, as worn by the Kinshra, has an evil and dangerous look, but is not any better than white armour. It is, in fact, worse, not offering any prayer bonuses. Black armour, like white, cannot be smithed, only received as a drop or bought from several shops. A number of different versions exist, all received from Treasure Trails. There is gold-trimmed black armour, white-trimmed armour and five different sets of heraldic armour. It requires 25 defence to wear, as does White armour.

Elite black armour
Elite black armour is received during While Guthix Sleeps in the Black Knights' Catacombs from killing elite black knights. It offers much higher bonuses than regular black armour and has more gold than gold-trimmed armour. One set is received as a drop, while another must be stolen from Dark Squall's desks to give to the imprisoned Silif to use as a disguise. People often wear this armour to show off or because they simply like it. It used to resemble the armour worn by the elite knights, but no longer does since the armour graphical updates.

Mithril armour
Mithril is a medium level metal, requiring 30 defence to equip pieces of armour of. Mithril bars are smelted from mithril ore and coal in a 1:4 ratio. Mithril armour offers decent bonuses for players who can just equip it. It is generally not used by higher levelled players. A set of mithril armour may be placed in one's study in a POH.

Adamant armour
Adamant armour is the second highest smithable armour and green in colour. It offers decent bonuses and is quite cheap and as such often used by player killers who do not want to risk losing their own armour. Adamant is extracted from adamantite ore. It requires level 40 defence to wield. Like black, Treasure Trails offer variations to this armour, including gold-trimmed, white-trimmed and five sets of heraldic armour.

Rune armour
Rune armour is the best armour for free-to-play that does not degrade and requires level 50 defence to wear, although a smith wishing to make runite equipment needs at least level 85 Smithing. Due to runite ore being very precious, and only found in a few locations, a full set of rune armour is relatively expensive. It is often worn in pvp situation as it provides good bonuses and is easily replaced if lost. The rune platebody requires completion of Dragon Slayer to be worn and can only be bought from Oziach or the Squeal of Fortune. Rune is cyan in colour. As with adamant and black armour, rune armour has Treasure Trail variants, them being: gold-trimmed, white-trimmed, five sets of heraldic armour and six different sets of god armour, with the colours of Saradomin, Guthix, Zamorak, Armadyl, Zaros and Bandos.

Dragon armour
Dragon armour is one of the most sought-after armour sets and pieces of dragon equipment can cost million of coins. Dragon cannot be smithed by players and is only for members. The weaponry may be received as a rare drop from a very limited amount of monsters or bought from several shops (often requiring quests to be completed), while the armour is limited to the former. The fabled dragon platebody cannot even be dropped by monsters, although tormented demons drop it in pieces. Once the three pieces are collected, a very talented smith may forge the lumps together with a blast fusion hammer in the Dragon Forge. The origins of dragon armour are unknown, but it is widely believed the Dragonkin created it and brought dragon metal to Gielinor. Dragon armour requires level 60 Defence to be worn and is very popular. In addition, dragon armour may be gold-trimmed or have spikes added using special ornament or spike kits received from treasure trails.

Corrupt dragon armour
"Corrupt" versions of a small amount of dragon weapons and armour exist, which means that they still require 60 Defence to use, but are not members only. However, they degrade when used and disintegrate after 30 minutes of being equipped, making them very expensive but also desired by wealthy free players. Corrupt dragon armour (and Ancient Warriors' equipment) used to be received as drop on Bounty or PvP worlds, but since their removal they may only be received as drop from the Chaos Elemental or any of the revenants in the Forinthry Dungeon. The great disadvantage is that all of these places are in the Wilderness, where other players can (and enough of them are eager to) kill treasure hunters seeking the armour, increasing the armour's value even more.

Dragonbone armour
Like infinity robes, a dragonbone upgrade kit may be used on several pieces of dragon armour to change their appearance, although this is only cosmetic and does not give any advantages. These kits are very expensive though, being a very rare possible drop from the first dragon ever created: the Queen Black Dragon, who can be accessed through a portal on the deepest floor of the Grotworm Lair, a tunnel network under Rimmington. The ornaments may always be removed, yielding the original piece of armour and the good-as-new kit.

Fremennik armour(m)
Yak-hide, Rockshell, Helm, Shield, Warrior helm, Berserker helm, Helm of neitiznot

Rockshell: Helmet, Plate, Legs, Gloves, Boots

Yak-Hide: Top, Legs, Roundshield

Fremennik helmets
Out of the six Fremennik helms, three are suitable for warriors.

Fremennik helm
The Fremennik helm is the most basic helm that the Fremennik have in store and is received as a drop from Fremennik warriors or bought from Skulgrimen's Battle Gear. Due to its low bonuses, it is generally not used by players.

Warrior helm
The warrior helm is a more popular choice of helmet, as it gives decent defence bonuses. This helmet too may be bought off Skulgrimen or received as a drop from Dagannoth. It may be enchanted by Pikkupstix to hold one's summoning scrolls.

Berserker helm
Like the warrior helm, the berserker helm offers decent bonuses and can be bought as well as dropped by Dagannoth and may be enchanted by Pikkupstix. Before EOC it had a small strength bonus, now its stats are equal to the Warriors helm.

Helm of Neitiznot
The helm of Neitiznot is by far the most popular Fremennik helm. Not only does it yield higher bonuses than the other helms, it also has an additional prayer bonus. It is received from Mawnis Burowgar, the burgher of Neitiznot, after completion of The Fremennik Isles and may be re-obtained from him if lost.

Yak-hide armour (top) detail.png-hide armour
Yak-hide armour and the Fremennik roundshield are relatively weak, but valuable against Ice trolls, as the armour lowers the maximum hit of the males, and the shield lowers the maximum hit of the females. They are made during The Fremennik Isles from yak-hide and split Arctic pine logs. Its poor bonuses do not make the armour being used very often.

Rock-shell armour
Rock-shell armour is very similar to rune armour. It is made from hides and rocks dropped by Dagannoths and Giant rock crabs, respectively. Rock-shell, spined or skeletal armour must be worn when speaking to a Fremennik as part of the hard Fremennik Achievement Diary. It's not very widely used due to the difficulty to obtain and there being better armours.

Bandos armour(m)
Helmet, Chestplate, Warshield, Tassets, Boots

Bandos armour is very strong armour, providing excellent defensive bonuses. Bandos armour is one of the best armours in the game. Bandos armour is dropped by General Graardor (who wears the armour himself) and his sergeants in Bandos's Stronghold in the God Wars Dungeon, requiring level 70 Strength and a hammer (dropped by the imps in case one is not brought) to enter, as well as having killed forty Bandosians in the dungeon.

Barrows armour(m)
Dharok's, Guthan's, Torag's, Verac's

Helmet, Platebody/Brassard, Platelegs/Plateskirt, (weapon: Greataxe/Warspear/Hammers/Flail)

Barrows armour is very strong and popular, and like white armour, provides a small prayer bonus. It is obtained from the Barrows minigame, or from trading with another player. If the player is lucky enough to receive all the items from one of the brothers' armour sets (including the weapon), they'll be rewarded with a set effect. Barrows armour needs to be repaired every 15 hours of combat, for a price. This can be done on an armour stand (with discounts based on one's Smithing level) or by speaking to Bob in Lumbridge.

Guthan's armour
The armour set of Guthan the Infested has a very desirable bonus effect, as it may heal the wearer when he does damage. The weapon of the set is a long warspear.

Dharok's armour
Dharok the Wretched's armour set effect has a useful, but dangerous set effect. The lower the equipment's wearer is on health, the higher their hit is.

Torag's armour
Torag the Corrupted's: The special effect, of the hammer's ability to drain adrenaline.

Verac's armour
The set effect of the armour of Verac the Defiled is useful when fighting another player or the kq, as it hits through  prayer once in a while. In addition to its defensive stats, the armour also has  the best prayer bonus in the game.

Toktz-Ket-Xil(m)
Toktz-Ket-Xil(m) Buy one from TzHaar-Hur-Tel's Equipment Store in the TzHaar City, trade with another player or obtain one as a rare monster drop from a TzHaar-Ket.

Anti-dragon shield
The Anti-dragon shield does not provide much by way of armour, but it is indispensable when fighting dragons as it protects against most of their potentially devastating dragonfire. With the addition of a Draconic visage it becomes the powerful Dragonfire shield. Dragon Slayer must be partly completed to obtain the shield, which is done in the respective part of the quest by asking Duke Horacio on the first floor of Lumbridge Castle for one. Multiple shields may be obtained by talking to Duke Horacio again. No drop trick is needed for this.

Dragonfire Shield(m)
The Dragonfire Shield is a high-level piece of armour coming in magic, range, and melee styles. It provides protection not only from dragonfire, but also the breath of the Skeletal Wyvern.

Granite armour(m)
Helmet, Body, Legs, Shield

Granite armour is tough, resilient armour requiring not only a Defence level of 55 to wear, but also a Strength level of 55 due to its weight. The granite body and helm have slightly better bonuses than their rune counterparts. Granite armour is mainly obtained from monster drops, or trading with another player. The Granite body is obtained by playing Barbarian Assault and purchasing one from Commander Connad. Granite armour comes with a selection of weapons, them being the granite maul and granite mace. The armour is not very popular due to rune being easier to obtain as well as offering roughly the same bonuses.

Third-age warrior armour(m)

 * Helmet, Platebody, Platelegs, Kiteshield

Armour from the Third Age is incredibly rare and incredibly tough. However, Barrows armour and Bandos armous have better stats. Third Age, armour is a very rare reward from level 3 Treasure Trails, or can be bought from another player. Third age warrior armour is reportedly made from magical silver which has ceased to exist. Ancient Warriors' armour(m) Statius: ''Helmet, Platebody, Platelegs  Vesta: Chainbody, Plateskirt''

Statius's equipment
is the armour once worn by Statius. It, like corrupt dragon armour, is received as a drop from the Chaos Elemental or revenants, bringing the risks of player killers with it. As such, it is a very expensive equipment set. In addition, it degrades over time and completely vanishes after one hour of combat. A corrupt version of the armour exists, which requires only 20 defence to wear, as opposed to 78, however, it disintegrates after only 15 minutes of being worn, not necessarily in combat.

Vesta's equipment
Like corrupt dragon armour, is received as a drop from the Chaos Elemental or revenants, bringing the risks of player killers with it. As such, it is a very expensive equipment set. In addition, it degrades over time and completely vanishes after one hour of combat. A corrupt version of the armour exists, which requires only 20 defence to wear, as opposed to 78, however, it disintegrates after only 15 minutes of being worn, not necessarily in combat.

Spirit shields(m)
Spirit shield, Blessed, Arcane, Divine, Elysian, Spectral

Spirit shields are a range of shields available to members after they have completed the quest Summer's End. The shields are all derived from the "basic" one, obtained upon completion of the quest. Some holy elixir, dropped by the Tormented Wraith and Corporeal Beast, must be poured onto it to bless it, increasing its stats and value. The spirit sigils are items which can be added to a blessed spirit shield to modify its abilities even further. These sigils are arcane, divine, elysian and spectral. The divine spirit shield has a special effect that reduces the amount of damage taken and directs some of it to your prayer energy instead. The elysian spirit shield simply nullifies the damage, although a smaller percentage than the divine spirit shield. As such, the divine spirit shield is one of the most expensive items available, costing several hundreds of millions.

The basic spirit shield requires level 40 Defence and level 55 Prayer to hold, the blessed one requires 70 Defence and level 65 Prayer, arcane and spectral spirit shield 75 Defence, 70 Prayer and 65 Magic, and divine and elysian require 75 Defence and 75 Prayer.

Steadfast boots(m)
Steadfast boots, along with their Ranged and Magic variants (Glaiven and Ragefire boots, respectively.), make up the trio of best footwear available in the game. They offer great defensive bonuses. Steadfast boots may be fantastic, but they are extremely expensive and hard to get. They are dropped only by the dangerous glacors, ice elementals infused with the power of the Stone of Jas and summoned by the evil Mahjarrat Lucien to serve as his army (they were, however, defeated by Kuradal, who left only a few), under the Ritual plateau in their cave near the bane ore mine. This cave is only accessible after completion of Ritual of the Mahjarrat, and as such only elite players are able to receive these sought-after boots as a drop.

Obsidian armour(m)
Obsidian armour is a degradable armour that offers high defences in all combat styles when fighting against the TzHaar and TokHaar, but has no use outside of the TzHaar and TokHaar activities as one takes increased damage outside of those areas. The armour, unlike their Barrows and God Wars Dungeon counterparts, can be smithed by the player with Obsidian Bars.

Torva armour(m)
Torva armour is the second best armour you can repair in the game, next to Superior Tetsu. Hence the price, as the full set costs hundreds of millions of coins. Along with Virtus robes and Pernix armour, the fearsome general of Zaros Nex (and her minions Fumus, Umbra, Cruor and Glacies) has a very small chance to drop a piece of the armour. Because Nex is level 220, and very, very dangerous and hard to defeat, the armour is worn only by the strongest (or wealthiest) of players. On top of the very high defensive bonuses, Torva armour offers a boost to life points when worn, in a similar fashion to rocktails, only permanent, as long as the armour remains equipped. The armour degrades, but can be repaired similarly to Barrows armour, although more expensive. Level 80 Defence, Hitpoints and Strength are required to equip the armour.

Hybrid armour
Although hybrid armour is purely cosmetic in the general areas of RuneScape it offers substantial defensive bonuses while participating in PVP minigames, specifically Castle Wars, Fight Pits, Soul Wars, and Fist of Guthix. Although the boots are received from Pest Control, no armour bonuses are offered during this game as it is not a PVP minigame.

The armours are received in pieces (helm, body, leggings, gloves and boots) and at the end of several minigames, there is rare chance of receiving a piece. Each minigame offers a piece for a specific slot and, should one be lucky enough to get one, a screen opens up offering the choice between that piece of vanguard, trickster or battlemage armour.

Tetsu armour(m)
Tetsu armour is obtained from playing the minigame Player-owned ports. It is currently extremely expensive and comes in 2 forms, normal and superior, and both versions degrade in combat. The superior version is untradeable, yet has higher stats and lasts longer in combat. The normal version lasts 10 hours in combat while the superior lasts 12. Lastly, the superior version can be repaired while the tradeable one cannot and will degrade into nothing. The repair cost of the Superior armour set is 2,100,000 coins at level 99 Smithing.

85 Defence and Constitution are required to wear it. It can be made at 90 Smithing in the port's workshop. The material used to craft it is the trade good Plate.

Before the armour can be made you will need to unlock the ability to make it. To do this, you will need to collect 4 scroll pieces for every piece of the armour you wish to make. A total of 12 scroll pieces is needed to be able to craft all 3 pieces of the armour.

The armour looks very similar to armour used by Samurais, and is thought to have been based on the armour of the warriors of old.

Best  Non Degradeble Melee Armour
Armour/Melee armour