Game tick

"Tick" redirects here. For information about build ticks, see Clan Citadels. For Farming ticks, see Farming training/Growth guide.

The game tick is the fundamental quantum of time used in RuneScape. It is a unit equal to length of 0.6 seconds. All actions that require server processing are governed by this value. Purely client-side actions (such as opening a right-click menu or switching interface tabs) are processed separately, and thus unaffected by the tick.

Cannons demonstrate game ticks clearly, rotating 45° every tick

Each action you register within one tick, will start to take place by the beginning of the next tick.

The length of a tick can be measured by timing a repeated action. For example, Disassembly takes 2 ticks (1.2 seconds) per item.

Examples

Main article: Game tick/Ticks per action

Combat

• Attack speed, the time between attacks.
• Global ability cooldown is 3 ticks.

Skills

• Gathering skills generally have 1 chance at retrieving a resource every 1–5 ticks, depending on the action.
• Production skills can make 1 item every X number of ticks, with the interval varying based on the action.

Other

• Walking moves the player character 1 square every game tick; running, 2 squares.
• Player chat messages stay above their heads for 5 ticks, unless another message is sent sooner.