Ranged


 * Archery redirects here. For the minigame, see Archery competition.



Ranged is the combat style that allows players to shoot enemies from a distance with projectiles. Players who practice the ranged combat style are often referred to as rangers or archers.

Overview
According to the RuneScape combat triangle, Ranged is effective against Magic, and weak to Melee.

Ranged combat allows players to shoot enemies from afar; therefore, it is recommended that players stand behind an obstacle so that they can avoid damage, though still deal damage to the opponent.

Similar to the other combat classes, ranged combat has a variety of attack styles: accurate, rapid, and long-range.

All the attack styles provide both ranged xp (experience points) and hitpoints xp. The amount experience gained by each style is shown in the table below.

The rapid attack style will attack the opponent the quickest, whereas accurate and long-range attacks hit the opponent at an equal, slower rate. It is recommended that you train using the Rapid attack style. This will give a high rate of experience, but will use a greater number of arrows compared to the Accurate style. Accurate mode will improve your chance of hitting. Long-range allows you to attack from a greater distance, while also offering defence xp, with reduced ranged xp. Ranged armour and weapons offer both ranged defence and attack bonuses. The ranged attack bonus determines how accurately the ranger hits. The ranged defence bonus determines how effective the armour is against ranged attack. The ranged level and arrows used by the ranger determine how high the damage can be.

- Max Hit (Free to play): Using adamant arrows, with a maple shortbow or longbow, the Eagle Eye prayer activated, and level 99 Ranged, a player's maximum damage able to be dealt (max hit) is 18.

- Max hit (Members): 165, on a steel titan using Ruby bolts (e), and full void knight armour with a Void ranger helm

Range bonus


To the right of the inventory menu is the equipment menu. Here, players can see their stat bonuses. These bonuses give players advantages and disadvantages in combat.

Ranging armour has one of the the highest defences against magic attacks, along with giving a range attack bonus and range defence bonus. The higher the magic defence bonus is, the better defence a player has against mages.

Range bonuses DO NOT add attack damage to your range. It only increases the accuracy of attacks.

Players can also use ranged prayer spells to give themselves an extra boost while ranging.

Ranged weapons

 * Main article: Ranged weapons



Shortbow and longbow
Both the shortbow and longbow of all types of wood require arrows as ammunition.

Arrowheads are made using the smithing skill. Completed arrows are made using feathers and arrow shafts using the fletching skill.

Higher level bows can use increasingly powerful arrows as you progress. For example, shortbows made of the lowest level wood (normal) can only use bronze or iron arrows. Non-members cannot use all the bows available in the game and can only use arrows up to adamant with maple bows.

Players also have a choice as to what kind of bow they want. There are two kinds of bows: shortbows and longbows. Longbows are the more accurate and fire arrows further, though they can't shoot as fast. It is usually recommended that players use a shortbow when ranging, especially when training, to deal more damage over time. Usage of longbows requires less arrows, allowing you to use arrows made of greater metals, thus dealing a bit more damage.

The Lumbridge Ranged Tutor can provide a training bow for new players. It's a bow for rangers fresh from the tutorial. Claiming from the ranged tutor (north of the Lumbridge guide and south of the general store) will give you a training bow and 25 training arrows. You may get 25 more training arrows every 30 minutes, however the magic tutor and the ranged tutor work on the same 30 minute time block, so you can only have either arrows or runes every 30 minutes, not both.

Because of the time limit of 30 minutes, when your ranged level gets higher, it is a waste of time waiting for the 30 minutes to be up so that you can get more training arrows. At around level 5 ranged it would pay to switch to the shortbow with iron arrows.

Arrows
Arrows are used for ammunition with bows. The better the arrow, the higher damage a player can deal. However, some arrows can only be shot by certain bows, and some bows can only shoot certain arrows. Non-members can only use bronze to adamant arrows. Members have rune and dragon arrows, in addition to special kinds of arrows used in Quests.

Crossbows


Crossbows are one-handed ranged weapons (meaning the player can wield a shield with a crossbow) that are often reviewed by players as better all-round weapons for training and pking. They require bolts instead of arrows; bolts are made with the smithing and fletching skills. Bolts can be poisoned and enchanted as well. Crossbows are made with crossbow stocks from logs using fletching, metal limbs using smithing, and bowstring spun from flax using crafting. Limbs come in all the armour types (bronze, iron, etc.). There are also some special types of crossbows, like the Phoenix crossbow.

Crossbows are much stronger than bows. A player can hit well into the 50s with onyx-tipped runite bolts and a rune crossbow. They are also the favorite item of PKing teams in Bounty Hunter. Although crossbows and bolts cost more, (for example mithril bolts are almost 80 gp each in the Grand Exchange) they offer high dps in pvp situations. But because of the amount of bolts required for training and the speed, most players will either buy cheaper bolts (iron as opposed to rune) or use a shortbow when fighting monsters from a safe-spot.

Bolts
Bolts are the ammunition for crossbows. Members can create them with the smithing and fletching skills. Silver bolts, however, are crafted rather than smithed. Bolts that do not have gem tips can be poisoned, while gem tipped bolts can be enchanted. These options are only available to members. Karil the Tainted's crossbow can use bolt racks which can not be fletched or smithed but instead can be found in the Barrows minigame or bought from Ak-Haranu that resides in Port Phasmatys.

Enchanted bolts
If a member has gem tipped bolts, then they have the option of enchanting them. Each type of gem has a different magic in it, making some bolts better than others. To enchant bolts, players have to click on the spell book and use the level 4 spell Enchant Crossbow Bolt. Doing so will make a menu pop up that will ask what kind of gem tipped bolts they want enchanted.

Each spell require runes as well as a certain magic level. Players can only enchant 10 bolts per spell. Both enchanted and non-enchanted bolts can be traded.

Mithril grapple
Members can use a mithril grapple as a tool for scaling high obstacles, such as walls. Rangers can create mithril grapples and attach them to mithril bolts provided with the required smithing level. To use the grapple, players use a rope with the grapple and then use it on the shortcut. Players will need to have a crossbow equipped to use the grapple.

Each time a player uses their grapple, there is a chance that it will break. It cannot be repaired, meaning if a player's grapple does break, they will need to make a new one. Shortcuts that require grapples also require ranged, Strength, and agility levels.

Bolt Pouches
Members have access to a bolt pouch, allowing them to carry a variety of bolts without occupying too much of their bank or inventory space. They can be purchased from the crossbow sales dwarf in Keldagrim. Each player is also restricted to only one bolt pouch at any time. Destroying it or losing it upon death will result in having all the bolts in the pouch to be dropped onto the floor.

Bolt pouches can only hold 4 different kinds of bolts. To store bolts in a pouch, players have to use them with the pouch. Left-clicking on the pouch will open a menu showing players what bolts are currently in the pouch. Each of the four slots can hold up to 255 bolts. Bolts can be removed from the pouch or equipped by right-clicking on them. Grapples, however, cannot be stored in pouches. Bolt pouches are also untradable.

Throwing weapons

 * Main article: Ranged weapons

Members have a wide range of throwing weapons at their disposable. Though not as popular as bows or crossbows, some players prefer them over other ranged weapons as some weapons; namely knives and darts. These are the fastest weapons in the game, giving faster ranged experience.

Popular armour

 * Main article: Ranged armour

Rangers have their own sets of armour made out of various materials. Ranger armour is good against magic, though weak against melee. Also, all armour designed for ranging give no strength or prayer bonuses (with the excepton of Armadyl armour, which gives a +1 bonus to prayer with each piece worn), and most give no stab, slash, or crush attack bonuses.

Leather armour
Leather armour is good for beginning rangers. They are very cheap and can also be crafted. Leather armour can often be found in Al-kharid's general store, as many crafters often sell leather items there.

Snakeskin armour
Snakeskin armour is only available to members. Snakeskin armour can be made through the crafting skill from snakeskin, which can be obtained by killing snakes that appear in the Tai Bwo Wannai Cleanup, Temple Trekking minigames or by killing level 35 snakes at Mos'le Harmless Island.

The whole snakeskin set is hardly worn by rangers due to the huge amount of snakeskin hides needed. However, the snakeskin boots and bandanna offer most rangers a much cheaper alternative to the highly priced ranger boots and Robin Hood hat.

Spined armour
Spined armour is Fremennik armour armour for rangers, and the Spined helm, body, and chaps give a slight range bonus. Spined armour can be bought from the Relleka armour store (must have completed The Fremennik Trials)and also be earned from drops by the Dagganoths under Waterbirth Island.

Dragonhide armour
Dragonhide armour is the most popular and the recommended armour players wear when ranging. Free players can only wear green dragonhide armour, and must complete the Dragon Slayer quest in order to wear the green d'hide body. Blue, red, and black dragonhide is only available to members. Members can also craft dragonhide armour from dragon hides.

Karil the Tainted
Members can obtain a set of ranged barrows equipment, Karil the Tainted's, as a reward from the Barrows minigame. When a player is ranging with the complete set, including Karil's crossbow, some ranged attacks have a chance of reducing the opponent's agility. Before the December 2007 Wilderness updates, many Karil's rangers would go to the wilderness agility course and lower the agility of the target, making them unable to escape. Besides this spiteful use, the set effect has been given much negative criticism on the Runescape Official Forums.



Other weapons
Members also have access to different kinds of weapons. They are:


 * Dwarf multicannon
 * Holy water
 * Crystal bow
 * Ogre bow and ogre arrows
 * Ogre composite bow and brutal arrows
 * Seercull
 * Experimental crossbow
 * Salamanders
 * Chinchompas
 * Dark bow

Training
It is advised to use Battle Tactics for each of these strategies in order to conserve health.

Members training
The Dungeon of Tolna can be an excellent area to level Ranged for players who have finished Animal Magnetism and have Ava's accumulator or Ava's attractor. Creatures can be ranged from the central lobby without retaliating; as the device will collect arrows as they are fired, Ranged can be trained without fear of damage or having to pick up arrows.

A good way to make money whilst training range is to kill chromatic dragons for their hides and bones. Blue dragonhides can fetch over 2k coins each and red and black 3-3.5k. Black hides are not recommended for collecting to be sold though as the black dragons high defence as well as the hide price in comparison to red's makes it impractical.

If going to a dragon location for the first time it is recommended to take an anti-fire shield and a one handed ranged weapon (javelins, crossbow, etc) to check a safe spot works. Pures need to take extra care as they are at higher risk to dragonfire.

Temporary boosts

 * Ranging potion - Boosts ranged level by 3 levels plus an additional 10%, up to a maximum range boost of 13.
 * Sharp Eye. Ranged Prayer - Increases ranging by 5%
 * Hawk Eye. Ranged Prayer - Increases ranging by 10%
 * Eagle Eye. Ranged Prayer - Increases ranging by 15%
 * Wild pie - Boosts ranged by 4

The maximum boost can be achieved using a Fully Charged Crystal bow, Armadyl armour, Ranger boots, Archer ring, Ava's Accumulator, Barrows gloves, Ranging potion and Eagle Eye prayer.

The Void Knight Ranging Set exchanged for 850 Pest Control points increases accuracy and maximum hit by 10% and so is very useful in training Range.

Arrow and bolts droppers
Free-to-play and members
 * Al-Kharid Warriors (steel:2)
 * Ankous in the Stronghold of Security (Adamant:5-14)
 * Barbarians in Barbarian Village (Bronze:15)
 * Catablepon (mithril:1-3)
 * Guards (Steel:1, members: iron bolts)
 * Hill Giants (iron:3 and steel:10)
 * Ice Giants (adamant:5)
 * Ice Warriors (adamant:2 and mithril:3)
 * Men (bronze:7)
 * Minotaur (bronze:9 or iron:5-12)
 * Moss Giants (iron:15 or steel:30)
 * Zombie (steel:5-9)
 * White Knights (mithril and adamant)
 * Black Knights (mithril:3)

Members only
 * Dust Devils (Rune:12)
 * Fire Giants (Rune:12)
 * Red Dragons (Rune:4)
 * Dark Beasts (Rune:42)
 * Chaos druids (mithril bolts:2-12)