Contents:

• Introduction
• Training
• Weapons
• Armour

Introduction

Ranging is the long distance skill of Runescape. You can attack and inflict damage upon your opponent while remaining safely out of the way. The typical weapon of ranging is the bow, but now over the coarse of time Jagex has released many other types of weapons, many of which require members.

To start off, you need a regular bow and arrows. You will need to wield your bow as your weapon by clicking on it in your inventory and then click on your arrows to hold them in your quiver. You will see your character now ready for action. Just like normal fighting, to start attacking you simply select attack on the monster you want to start ranging. You will see your character start taking arrows from his/her quiver and shooting at the enemy.

You can either attack up close or you can use an obstacle to stop the monster reaching you. This is a useful tactic to avoid damage. Beware however that some monsters have their own ranged weapons and will attack you from a distance as well. An important point is that some of your arrows fall next to the monster and you can pick them up to use them again. However some are damaged and are not recoverable, approximately one in three arrows that you fire will be damaged. The better the metal of your arrow, the more you will recover as they are less easily damaged.

Training

You will receive experience toward ranging depending on the type of style you use to attack. With Accurate or Rapid styles, for each damage point you inflict you will receive four ranged xp and approximately 1.3xp hits xp. However for Longrange, you will receive two ranged xp, two defense xp points and approximately 1.3 hits xp." points. It is up to you the style you want to train with.

It is worth noting that a short bow fires arrows faster than a long bow. How often you inflict damage depends on the value of your 'ranged attack' (show in blue below) of your equipment and the 'ranged defense' value of your opponent. This also applies in the reverse situation, where how much you get hit - depends on the value of your 'ranged defense' (shown in orange below).

Your 'ranged attack' value increases by wielding a better bow or wearing special leather armour as described below. 'Ranged Defense' works in the same way. For example, scorpions naturally have good solid body armour which would be hard to hit. As for how hard you hit, this increases with a higher ranged level and better arrows, as described later below. A higher 'ranged attack' only affects how often you hit.

If you want to get a high range level but don’t want to do a lot of work the here are some places where you can raise your range level really fast.

1-10: Chickens, preferably in Champions guild.

10-20: Barbarians

20-30: Gunthor the Brave (barbarian village)

30-50: White Knights (in torture room)

50+: Lesser Demons

Weapons

Bows

There are different types of bows which give different 'ranged attack' values and the better ones will need you to have a higher ranged level to wield them. Free players can only wield normal and Oak bows.

You can use your bow with different types of arrows. The better the arrows the higher you can hit , and the better the bow you need to be wielding so that you can fire it. Free players can use up to steel arrows.

Crossbows

They fire bolts and can hit harder than normal bows - at the cost of firing slower and much less accuracy. You get the advantage of being able to wield a shield, but the disadvantage is that the crossbow only gives +6 ranged attack value. Free players can only fire normal bolts

Bolts can only be purchased at a store. If you want them tipped, you must first make the additional tips. Take your item (like oyster pearls or an opal) and you must use a chisel on it. With the tips you get you can use them with normal bolts to make the special tipped bolts. Barbed tips can be bought from the ticket merchant in the ranging guild.

Darts (Members)

Darts can be made after completing the Tourist Trap Quest. You smith 10 dart tips per bar and attach feathers. They can also be poisoned and are stackable.

Throwing Knives (Members)

Can be smithed (1 bar=5 knives) and can also be poisoned, stacked. They have a shorter range than a bow.

Javelins (Members)

Can be purchased from a Tribal Salesman in the Ranging Guild (members).

Throwing Axes (Members)

Can be purchased from a Tribal Salesman in the Ranging Guild (members).

Dwarf Cannon (Members)

You must have completed the Dwarf Cannon Quest to use the cannon. This is the most powerful and expensive ranged weapon in the game. The cannon consists of 4 pieces that you can set up and load with up to 20 cannonballs. Once loaded and fired, the cannon will rotate and shoot a cannonball at every nearby npc. Cannonballs can be made using a steel bar and a ammo mould. One steel bar gives 4 cannonballs. You can buy a cannon from a dwarf near the Dwarven Mine entrance for 750k or in separate parts.

Armour

Just like there are different types of armour for fighters, there is also a good selection of leather armour for rangers. Refer to the crafting guide for the details of how to make them, but they are presented below with details of their stats. Armour for rangers has to be made from leather as it allows the greatest flexibility of movement and is light enough not to weigh the ranger down. It also provides a good defense against other rangers, but makes you slightly vulnerable to regular warriors. Free players can wear all these types of armour made from leather of cows.

However, there is a better type of leather you can get by killing Dragons - Dragon leather. This can be crafted to make even more useful Dragon Leather Armour as shown below. Different dragons give different hides which in turn can be crafted into different leathers. Only the green variety is available for f2p players from Oziach, after they complete the Dragon Slayer Quest. They are also proving to be the latest fashion.

They all need you to have a level of 40 defense to wear as well as,

• Green Leather Armour requires 40 ranged

• Blue Leather Armour requires 50 ranged
• Red Leather Armour requires 60 ranged
• Black Leather Armour requires 70 ranged