Equipment degradation is the process by which some armour and weapons wear down with use until they break completely. Some items are repairable, while others are not and degrade 'to dust'.
Items that degrade have a specific number of charges which varies by the type of item. When equipped, they lose one charge for every hitsplat done by the user or to the user - that is, one charge for:
- every hit taken,
- every ability/special attack used,
- every auto-attack used.
These three methods are collectively referred to as per hit.
There is a hard cap of 1 charge lost per tick (100 per minute). In general combat (against one or two monsters), expect 30-60 charges to be consumed per minute. Certain items lose 2 charges per hit, so the limit and average are doubled (200 charges consumed per minute max, 60-120 charges consumed per minute average).
When an item fully degrades (reaches 0 charges), it can either:
- Degrade "to dust" - it falls apart completely, vanishing; for example, sirenic armour
- Revert to a component, which can then be used to re-make the item (at a cost); for example, ganodermic armour
- Turn into an broken or drained version, which can usually be repaired (at a cost); for example, barrows equipment.
- Sometimes the item retains usability, but loses some benefits, for example blood amulets retain their equipment bonuses when drained, but lose the passive effect
Upon death, equipped items lose charges if reclaimed from a gravestone (in general, 20% for degrade-to-broken items, 10% for degrade-to-dust items). They do not lose charges when reclaiming them by buying them from Death, as the degradation cost is covered by the reclaim cost.
The amount an item has degraded can usually be checked by using the Check-charges right click option for the item.
Completely degraded weapons all have an accuracy rating of 110, equivalent to a tier 1 weapon, and an attack range of 1, forcing players adjacent to their target regardless of combat style. Completely degraded armours have no bonuses of any kind.
Degradable equipment[]
- For a table of items with their charges, see Equipment degradation/List. For a complete index of degradable equipment, see Category:Degrading equipment.
Repairable[]
Repairable items, as their name suggests, can be repaired when degraded or broken. There is one common shared method to repair items - the armour stand - and many unique methods for those that do not use the armour stand.
Armour stand[]
Many items are all repairable using coins, by taking them to any of:
- Bob in Lumbridge
- Tindel Marchant in East Port Khazard
- Dunstan in Burthorpe
- The Squire on the Void Knights' Outpost
Alternatively, one can repair them on an armour stand in a player-owned house (or a whetstone device anywhere), where the cost is reduced by your Smithing level with 0.5% discount per level, including boosts. Assists do not work.
All items of this repair type degrade to a broken or drained version.
Examples of this include:
- Barrows equipment
- Ancient equipment
- Superior player-owned ports equipment
- Drygore weaponry
- Seismic wand and singularity
- Ascension crossbows
- Noxious weaponry
Other[]
There are many items that are repairable in a specific way. Some items of this type degrade to a broken or drained version, while others revert to a component. Some examples of this:
- Several Dungeoneering rewards - pay the rewards trader either a large sum of coins, or a smaller sum of coins and some dungeoneering tokens; degrades to broken
- Polypore equipment - using the relevant flakes or spores; degrades to component
- Royal crossbow - using crossbow parts; degrades to broken
- Crystal equipment - pay Eluned, Ilfeen, or Islwyn coins, or repair them with harmonic dust at the crystal singing bowl in Prifddinas; degrades to component
- Hydrix jewellery - using a cut onyx; degrades to broken
- Upgraded Glacyte boots - using the respective upgrade components; degrades to the standard boots.
Non-repairable[]
Many items cannot be repaired at all, and 'degrade to dust' (fall apart and vanish) when fully degraded. Some items of this type have a pseudo-repair mechanic, where two of the same, partially degraded item can be combined to consolidate the charges - for example, a 5% charged sirenic mask and a 14% charged sirenic mask can be combined to form a 19% charged sirenic mask.
Some examples of degrade to dust equipment include:
- Sirenic armour
- Tectonic armour
- Malevolent armour (excluding kiteshield)
- Razorback gauntlets, celestial handwraps, and ascension grips
- Ancient Warriors' equipment
Expected usage time[]
The amount of usage an item gets before it degrades is often quoted as a time. This is often misleading or sometimes incorrect - the time that news posts give are usually the minimum combat time, using the maximum degradation rate of 1 charge per tick (and may ignore the double charges lost by some items). In real combat, charges are lost much less frequently: solid revolution uses 33 abilities per minute (with no combo attacks, like Fury), and most monsters cannot attack as fast as that - and they will often hit as you use an ability, which will negate the degradation that hit causes (as only 1 charge can be lost per tick). In addition, in a lot of combat there are often breaks between monsters, where of course no degradation occurs.
Thus, you can generally expect around 30–60 charges drained in an average minute of combat. Common charge amounts are given here with three time values for how long it will last before degrading fully.
- Minimum time uses the maximum drain rate (1 charge per tick = 100 per minute)
- Average combat uses a value of 30 charges per minute
- Intense combat uses a value of 60 charges per minute
Charges | Average combat | Intense combat | Minimum time |
---|---|---|---|
15,000 | 8.3 hours (500 min) | 4.2 hours (250 min) | 2.5 hours (150 min) |
30,000 | 16.7 hours (1000 min) | 8.3 hours (500 min) | 5 hours (300 min) |
60,000 | 33.3 hours (2000 min) | 16.7 hours (1000 min) | 10 hours (600 min) |
72,000 | 40 hours (2400 min) | 20 hours (1200 min) | 12 hours (720 min) |
100,000 | 55.6 hours (3333.3 min) | 27.8 hours (1666.7 min) | 16.7 hours (1000 min) |
Other types of degradation[]
Equipment degradation is not the only type of degradation. Many items, both combat related or otherwise, have limited usage until they break or fall apart. Items that do not degrade according to the above system are not defined as degrading equipment (although the term 'degradation' is often used in relation to them).
Some examples of limited use items which do not fall under the equipment degradation system:
- Items which degrade over a fixed period of time
- Items which have a limited number of activations or uses
- Many enchanted jewellery items, such as a ring of duelling
- Frozen key
- Imcando pickaxe
- Items which degrade with a passive effect activation, such as crystal tools
- Consumables - items which have a single use before vanishing - like food and potions
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