The Complete Guide to Ranging
Which Kicks ***
By Agent Waffles
Ranged - Brief Overview
Ranged is one of the three combat skills and also the least commonly used. With good reason too, as it is severely lacking a major good update. Karils is pathetic, the Seercull couldn't kill a cow and Third Age is so rare that it might as well be knocked off the list of worthwhile weapons and armours. The most commonly used is the Magic short bow Ranged requirement? Level 50 -.-. Thanks Jagex.
Let's Get Started
To get yourself equipped for your mind blowing adventure, you will first need a bow, and some arrows. Equip the bow and arrows and attack the monster. Simple, the higher you level the better weapon you can use, the more damage you can inflict and the more efficiently you can kill things.
When you fire arrows, they will fall to the ground so you may recover them, the recovery rate, ie how often they won't break, is 80%. After a minute the arrows will be available for anyone to pick up. People who pick up these arrows are known quite simply as arrow stealers, especially if the target is still being pincushioned. You may want to note that the best bow in the game, the crystal bow, doesn't take any ammunition.
When using any ranged weapon, excluding salamanders, you will have the option to set the firing style. The firing style can be changed to accurate, rapid or long-ranged.
Accurate will mean you will hit more frequently.
Rapid will increase your firing rate.
Long-ranged will make you fire further.
Ranged Bonus
Your accuracy is also affected by your Ranged Attack bonus. All ranging armours provide an attack bonus. Your ranged bonus will not affect how high you hit with your weapon. Your max hit is only affect by the type of projectile and only increased by Ranging Prayers and the Ranging Potion.
Ranging Equipment
It would be fair to say that the amount of bows that have been alchemized is equal to that of arrows fires. Fletching gives you the ability to make your owns bows and arrows and crafting, armour. Unlike Meleers, Rangers don't have to scan the very horizons of RuneScape for the adequate armour.
Weapons
Rangers have a fairly large variety of weapons at their disposal. Look below to find out what not to buy.
Bows
Bow | Ranged Req | Ranged Bonus | Arrows |
Normal | 1 | +8 | Bronze and Iron |
Oak | 5 | +14 | Bronze to Steel |
Willow | 20 | +20 | Bronze to Mithril |
Willow Composite | 20 | +22 | Bronze to Mithril |
Maple | 30 | +29 | Bronze to Adamant |
Ogre | 30 | +38 | Ogre and Brutal |
Composite Ogre | 30 | +38 | Ogre and Brutal |
Yew | 40 | +47 | Bronze to Rune |
Composite Yew | 40 | +49 | Bronze to Rune |
Magic | 50 | +69 | Bronze to Rune |
Magic Composite | 50 | +71 | Bronze to Rune |
Seercull | 50 | +69 | Bronze to Rune |
Crystal | 70 | +100 | None |
The Crystal Bow
The pride and joy of the rangers, which to be honest, at the end of the day is a piece of crap. After you have completed Roving Elves you can choose it as a reward, you will receive it at 2/10, which is 500 arrows. At 10/10 or full, it has 2500 arrows and at a minimum of 180k for the bow (2.5m to drive the cost down that far) it will cost you 72gp per shot. Ok so I slightly exaggerated it's lack of ability, but even a good old Dragon Long-sword is a better bargain.
They are tradeable if you buy for 900k from Islwyn.
Arrows
Arrow | Minimum Bow |
Bronze | Any |
Iron | Any |
Steel | Oak and above |
Mithril | Willow and above |
Adamant | Maple and above |
Ogre | Ogre Bow |
Brutal arrows | Ogre Composite |
Rune | Yew and Magic |
Thrown weapons
Nothing beats hurling objects at the foe, then watching them fall to the ground while clutching their crotch. Here at Ranged Co, we aim to please, miss, and break your valuables. Thrown weapons include darts, javelins, axes, knives, combusting rodents, holy water and 2Kg steel balls.
Darts
Fast, potentially dangerous and the weapon of choice when versus the evil balloon man. Poison-able.
Type | Req | Bonus |
Bronze | 1 | +3 |
Iron | 1 | +4 |
Steel | 5 | +5 |
Mithril | 20 | +8 |
Adamant | 30 | +11 |
Rune | 40 | +15 |
Javelins
Lethargic and inaccurate, if you ever get killed by one of these you are seriously pathetic or at least 50 levels lower than your opponent.
Javelin | Ranged Req | Ranged Bonus |
Bronze | 1 | +5 |
Iron | 1 | +8 |
Steel | 5 | +12 |
Mithril | 20 | +17 |
Adamant | 30 | +24 |
Rune | 40 | +38 |
Throwing axes
The rune version has a nice special for collateral damage. Not recommended.
Axe | Ranged Req | Ranged Bonus |
Bronze | 1 | +4 |
Iron | 1 | +5 |
Steel | 5 | +8 |
Mithril | 20 | +12 |
Adamant | 30 | +17 |
Rune | 40 | +26 |
Knives
The weapon of choice for power levelling. Fast, poison-able and generally used to prepare food.
Knives | Ranged Req | Ranged Bonus |
Bronze | 1 | +4 |
Iron | 1 | +5 |
Steel | 5 | +8 |
Mithril | 20 | +11 |
Adamant | 30 | +15 |
Rune | 40 | +25 |
Chinchompas
Every moderately good Hunter will have a few of these floating around from power training. These do not hit particularly high, but if you need to use something in a quick round of castle wars, these hit the mark.
Chinchompa | Ranged Req | Ranged Bonus | Location |
Normal | 45 | +45 | Piscatoris Hunter Area |
Carnivorous (Red) | 55 | +70 | Feldip Hunter Area |
Salamanders
The first flamethrower of RuneScape. Obtained through net trapping, these salamanders used herbs mixed with swamp tar to create a burning. Salamanders are two handed but they cover all three combat classes. Scorch for strength, flare for Ranged and Blaze for Magic.
Reptile | Requirements | Combat Bonuses | Ammunition |
Swamp Lizard | 30 Attack, Ranged and Magic | +10 Slash, +20 Ranged, + 22 Strength | Guam |
Orange Salamander | 50 Attack, Ranged and Magic | +19 Slash, +29 Ranged, +31 Stength | Marrentil |
Red Salamander | 60 Attack, Ranged and Magic | +37 Slash, +47 Ranged, +49 Strength | Tarromin |
Black Salamander | 70 Attack, Ranged and Magic | +59 Slash, +69 Range, +71 Strength | Harralander |
Holy Water
These do **** all but make nice novelty items for druids of the like. Giving a plus six Ranged bonus, these can be made by using vials on a full bowl of water from the spring in the Khazari Jungle, must be up to a certain point in Legends' Quest to create these. Only effective against demons. Otherwise your just giving your opponent a blessed shower.
Crossbows
Well gosh darn I have a lot to write about here, I wouldn't mind if it was actually worthwhile, but crossbows are crap and I can't call a guide complete without all the information. None-the-less, let's get this over with.
Crossbows are essentially 1 handed bows. That’s not all though. They are less accurate, heavier, slower and are hard to find. They also involve the application of Cooking, Smithing, Fletching and Crafting or Hunter if you want to make one yourself from scratch.
Crossbow | Ranged Req | Ranged Bonus | Bolts |
Normal | 1 | +6 | Bronze |
Phoenix | 1 | +6 | Bronze |
Bronze | 1 | +11 | Bolts |
Blurite | 16 | +17 | Up to Blurite |
Iron | 26 | +23 | Up to Iron |
Dogreshu'un | 28 | +42 | Up to Iron+Bone |
Steel | 31 | +28 | Up to Steel |
Mithril | 36 | +32 | Up to Mithril+Grapples |
Adamant | 46 | +41 | Up to Adamant |
Hunters' | 50 | +55 | Kebbit bolts |
Rune | 61 | +50 | Up to Rune |
Karil's | 70 | +84 | Bolt racks |
Karil's crossbow will only take bolt racks, which can be gleaned from Barrows or bought from Ak-Haranu in Port Phasmatys, or 300-400gp ea from your nearest merchant (player).
Dorgeshu'un Crossbows will also take bone bolts, however they can't take enchanted or tipped. Of course Jagex crams the only shops which sells bone bolts in a rather inconvenient location, under Lumbridge. Don your bronze med and iron chain to fit in the locals (this is of course a joke, if you seriously believed that then you must be thicker than 3 planks and a cinder block).
The Hunters' crossbow will only take kebbit bolts. Long kebbit spikes are equal to Adamant, fairly easy to get hold of. The Hunter’s crossbow also has a speed of 5, placing it in between normal bows and crossbows. I recommend trying one if you have kebbit spikes lying around from Hunter training.
Bolts
Fletchers and Smiths can produce bolts for crossbows, also with the addition of crafting they can be tipped, and then enchanted for an extra magical ability. Not that anyone uses them I'mn just obliged to tell you this.
Bolt | Tips |
Bronze | Barbed, Opal |
Blurite | Jade |
Iron | Pearl |
Silver | - |
Bone | - |
Steel | Red Topaz |
Mithril | Sapphire, Emerald, Grapple |
Adamant | Ruby, Diamond |
Kebbit | - |
Long Kebbit | - |
Runite | Dragonstone, Onyx |
Racks | - |
All but kebbit, gem tipped and rack bolts can be poisoned. The mithril grapple is not a weapon, merely a waste of programmer’s time.
Enchanted Bolts
If you have the misfortune to have turned your gems into bolt tips and stuck them to bolts with industrial strength glue, you can enchant these so they might be worth your time. Instead of trying to dazzle your enemy with fractured light, you might want to get them a tad wet instead. Hi-didley-ho and behold, the the better the bolt the greater the magic level (logical isn't it). Although I feel as if I wasted my time writing this table. I mean, who's going to use it?
Bolt | Enchantment | Magic | Runes | Effect |
Opal | Lucky Lightning | 4 | 1 Cosmic, 2 Air | May randomly strike opponent with lightning |
Jade | Earth's Fury | 14 | 1 Cosmic, 2 Earth | May knock opponent to the ground |
Pearl | Sea Curse | 24 | 1 Cosmic, 2 Water | May randomly hit opponent with a wave. |
Red Topaz | Down to Earth | 29 | 1 Cosmic, 2 Fire | May reduce targets Magic Level in PVP |
Sapphire | Clear Mind | 7 | 1 Cosmic, 1 Water, 1 Mind | May reduce opponent's Prayer points, giving a fraction to you. PVP only. |
Emerald | Magical poison | 27 | 1 Cosmic, 3 Air, 1 Nature | Will poison your opponent |
Ruby | Blood forfeit | 49 | 1 Cosmic, 5 Fire, 1 Blood | May remove extra damage in sacrifice of your own, working at a ratio of 1:2, will not work when you are under 25% Hitpoints |
Diamond | Armour Piercing | 57 | 1 Cosmic, 10 Earth, 2 Law | Chance of removing your opponent's Ranged Defence |
Dragonstone | Dragon's Breath | 68 | 1 Cosmic, 15 Earth, 1 Soul | May cause sudden burst of dragon breath on your opponent, negated if they have a Dragonfire shield or the opponent happens to be a dragon |
Onyx | Life Leech | 87 | 1 Cosmic, 20 Fire, 1 Death | Chance of causing extra damage and bringing a fraction of that back to you. |
Bolt Pouches
Huzzah! The bolt pouch! This might have been useful it held arrows and was called a quiver. Alas poor, uh, who? Anyway, this holds up to 255 bolts of a specific type. It will also display the wielded bolts. I had one of these once, purely out of curiosity. It ended up destroyed to save space in my bank. Ye crossbow seller in Keldagrim (where?) will sell these to you for god knows how much.
Grapples
The grapple is a pure piece of crap, designed to waste our time. The basic idea that we attack a mithril grapple to a mithril bolt and with our handy crossbow which we always carry around, shoot the grapple onto a likely area from which to secure a good hold. There are six such locations in the game and all are a complete waste of time. Further information might be one provided in my Agility guide.
Armours
One of the best things about the Ranged skill is the armours. It provides an all round defence bonus, is cheap, light and pretty fetching (*cough*). The lower end stuff that absolutely no body buys can be bought from Ranging Shops for a price. The higher end comes from Treasure Trails, Mini-games and application of the Crafting skill. Due to the limitations of BBCode I am only showing the Ranged Attack Bonuses on the armour, hopefully once this makes it onto the site, if ever, it can have all the Attack and Defensive bonuses, full and complete.
Leather
Armour | Requirements | Ranged Bonus |
Cowl | - | +1 |
Vambraces | - | +4 |
Leather Body | - | +2 |
Leather Chaps | - | +4 |
Coif | 20 Ranged | +2 |
Hard Leather Body | 10 Defence | +8 |
Studded Body | 20 Defence and Ranged | +8 |
Studded Chaps | 20 Ranged | +6 |
Snakeskin
This stuff is tough to get hold of but the boots make a nice alternative to rangers. Kill snakes on Mos le' harmles to get snake hides the most efficiently. Check any good crafting guide for more detail.
Armour | Requirements | Ranged Bonus |
Bandana | 30 Defence and Ranged | +4 |
Body | 30 Defence and Ranged | +12 |
Chaps | 30 Defence and Ranged | +6 |
Vambraces | 30 Defence and Ranged | +6 |
Boots | 30 Defence and Ranged | +3 |
Dragonhide
This stuff is definitely the best you can possibly get all-round. Excellent protection in all areas and you don't even need a Defence level for the chaps and vambraces. Blessed dragonhide can also be gleaned from Treasure Trails, made into the colours of the respective gods it requires a minimum of 70 Ranged to use. Despite first appearances.
Armour | Requirements | Ranged Bonus |
Green D'hide body | 40 Defence and Ranged | +15 |
Green D'hide chaps | 40 Ranged | +8 |
Green D'hide vambraces | 40 Ranged | +8 |
Blue D'hide body | 50 Ranged, 40 Defence | +20 |
Blue D'hide chaps | 50 Ranged | +11 |
Blue D'hide vambraces | 50 Ranged | +9 |
Red D'hide body | 60 Ranged, 40 Defence | +25 |
Red D'hide chaps | 60 Ranged | +14 |
Red D'hide vambraces | 60 Ranged | +10 |
Black D'hide body | 70 Ranged, 40 Defence | +30 |
Black D'hide chaps | 70 Ranged | +17 |
Black D'hide vambraces | 70 Ranged | +11 |
Blessed D'hide Coifs | 70 Ranged, 40 Defence | +7 |
Dagannoth
I think Urban camo pretty much sums this up. Grey and pretty dull. This can be obtained by getting Dagannoth parts from the depths of Waterbith island. Equivelant to Green Dragonhide.
Armour | Requirements | Ranged Bonus |
Spined Helm | 40 Defence and Ranged | +6 |
Spined Body | 40 Defence and Ranged | +15 |
Spined Chaps | 40 Defence and Ranged | +8 |
Spined Gloves | - | 0 |
Spined boots | - | 0 |
Karil the Tainted
Hail Karil the walking cactus. Obtained as a potential reward from the Barrows minigame, this requires 70 Defence and Ranged to use.
Armour | Requirements | Ranged Bonus |
Karil's Coif | 70 Defence and Ranged | +3 |
Karil's leather top | 70 Defence and Ranged | +30 |
Karil's leather skirt | 70 Defence and Ranged | +17 |
White D'hide
OMG IT DUZNT EXZTZ I hear you cry. White dragonhide does exist, however it goes by the name of Third Age Ranged armour. This is an extremely rare reward from Treasure trails, (1 in approximately 10,000). The coif has the best Ranged bonus for a helm in the game at an amazing +9. This was supposedly created in the Third Age during the god wars. White dragons are either extinct or hiding in there smoky lairs.
Armour | Requirements | Ranged Bonus |
Third Age coif | 65 Ranged, 45 Defence | +9 |
Third age top | 65 Ranged, 45 Defence | +30 |
Third age legs | 65 Ranged, 45 Defence | +17 |
Third age vambraces | 65 Ranged, 45 Defence | +11 |
Miscellaneous Items
Among the extra paraphernalia for Rangers, we have the Ranger boots and Hat, Robin Hood hat, Archer ring and helm and the penance skirt. These come from various places in RuneScape. Look below for more details.
Item | Ranged Req | Ranged Bonus |
Archer Ring | - | +4 |
Robin Hood hat | 40 | +8 |
Ranger boots | 40 | +8 |
Archer Helm | 45 | +6 |
Ranger Hat | - | +6 |
Penance skirt | - | +15 |
Ye Cannon
For the laziest of Rangers, chock up em and let em rip. Cannons can be purchased for 750k from Nulodion after the completion of Dwarf Cannon quest, although these can be bought from players for a lot less. Set up the cannon and use cannon balls on the cannon. It will automatically attack anything within the area. great for Dagganoth training. Regularly the cannon will rust away, talk to Nulodion for a new one, for free!