Ranged
Gates bows, crossbows, thrown weapons and ammunition, with 57 tracked unlocks spanning wooden bows, metal crossbows, throwing knives, chinchompas and salamanders.
Ranged is one of the three attack styles, fought at a distance with bows, crossbows, thrown knives and chinchompas. Your level does two jobs: it scales the damage of every shot, roughly doubling it by 99 and climbing further to 120, and it sets how often you land against the target's Defence. It also gates every weapon and every grade of ammunition, counts one and a half times towards your combat level, and decides how hard a Dwarf Multicannon hits.
Level 1 to 120
You train Ranged by shooting things, so the grind is really about weapon upgrades and a steady ammunition supply. A hit banks one Ranged XP for every 6 damage dealt, and half that again as Constitution XP, so high health targets are worth far more than quick ones. Early on you climb the bow tiers around Lumbridge, from the forties chinchompas open up, and past 70 you settle on dragon gear against dragons and demons.
- Oak and willow bows around Lumbridge 1 to 10
Lowe in Varrock sells the oak bow and bronze arrows at 1, and the willow bow and iron arrows at 5. Shoot rats, chickens and cows around Lumbridge. Kayle's chargebow, from the Lumbridge Catacombs quest, hits as hard as an oak bow and never uses ammunition at all.
- Teak and pine bows on goblins 10 to 30
Teak bow at 10, steel arrows at 15, pine bow at 20, all still on Lowe's shelves. Goblins in the Goblin Village and the Goblin Cave, imps around Lumbridge, skeletons in the Varrock Sewers. A crossbow is the alternative: it hits softer but fires every second against a bow's 1.5.
- Sequoia and magic bows on giants 30 to 50
Sequoia bow and mithril arrows at 30, magic bow and adamant arrows at 40. Shops stop at the pine bow, so both bows come from Fletching, drops or another player. Hill giants in the Tree Gnome Village dungeon first, then moss giants in the Varrock Sewers and Taverley Dungeon, which carry enough health to pay properly per kill.
- Chinchompas 45 to 120
Chinchompas throw every second and burst in a three block radius, but the splash only reaches more than one target where multi combat applies, which means Wilderness level 30 and deeper. Stand outside your own blast or you take it too. Box traps catch the plain ones at Hunter 53 in Kraken Cove, carnivorous at Ranged 55 and Hunter 63 in Corsair Cove Cave, black at Ranged 65 and Hunter 73 in the deep Wilderness.
- Baobab and elder bows on demons 50 to 70
Rune arrows and the baobab bow at 50, elder bow at 60, both fletched from their own logs or taken as drops. Greater demons in the Slayer Tower, lesser demons in the Lava Maze and Mor Ul Rek, hellhounds in the God Wars Dungeon and on the Ice Path. All of them always drop ashes, so you bank Prayer XP alongside.
- Dragon bow and Karil's crossbow 70 to 85
Dragon bow and dragon arrows at 70, Karil's crossbow with bolt racks at 75, the Armadyl crossbow at 80. Green dragons in the Wilderness drop the dragon bow themselves; blue dragons in the Ice Caves and skeletal wyverns work as well, and every one of them drops bones worth burying.
- 3rd age bow 85 to 120
The 3rd age bow at 85 is the hardest hitting bow in the game and comes out of elite and master clue scrolls. From here it is long fights against the biggest health pools you can handle: black and red dragons, metal dragons and the God Wars bosses.
Ammunition
Lowe in Varrock stocks bows up to pine, and crossbows, arrows and bolts up to mithril. The Ranged shop inside the Ranging Guild carries the same list, but the guild only opens at Ranged 50. Anything above mithril you fletch, take as a drop or buy from another player, and bolt racks for Karil's crossbow are sold by Ak-Haranu in Port Phasmatys.
An arrow's grade multiplies the bow's damage rather than adding to it, so a dragon bow loaded with bronze arrows gives up more than a third of every shot. Keep the two within a tier or so of each other.
What it feeds
Combat level counts Ranged at one and a half times, the same as Magic, so it climbs your combat level faster than any single melee skill, and every hit also pays Constitution XP at half the rate.
The Dwarf Multicannon works its damage out from your Ranged level, and the Sharp Eye, Hawk Eye, Eagle Eye, Rigour and Sniper prayers raise ranged damage from 2% at Prayer 9 up to 20% at 95.
Worth knowing
- Set your combat style to Ranged in the profile settings. On Balanced, half of every hit's XP goes to Defence instead.
- Ava's attractor saves 40% of your ammunition from Ranged 30 and the accumulator 60% from 50. Animal Magnetism unlocks Ava, who sells the attractor and trades it up to the accumulator for 75 steel arrows.
- Bows fire every 1.5 seconds, crossbows every second and thrown knives every 1.2, so a slower weapon has to hit noticeably harder to be worth carrying.
- The level 99 cape saves half your ammunition. Until then, fletch: arrows and bolts come 15 at a time from headless arrows and arrowheads.
The full table
Level 1 to 9 12 entries
Level 10 to 19 5 entries
Level 20 to 29 2 entries
Level 30 to 39 6 entries
Level 40 to 49 6 entries
Level 50 to 59 6 entries
Book of law You can repair a damaged Armadyl book on a prayer stand. You must have the 4 pages of Armadyl to repair the book 50 
Level 60 to 69 7 entries
Level 70 to 79 9 entries
Elysian Spirit Shield Boosts ranged damage by 10% with a 30% chance to reduce incoming damage by 25% Forged from a Blessed spirit shield and an Elysian sigil 75 
