Progression in Runescape is usually defined through the level of your skills. Skills are attributes that each player has that will be trained throughout their time on Runescape.
The higher the level of your skill, the more content you will have unlocked, and different ways to train the skill will become available. Most quests also have skill level requirements, another incentive to train them.
Many people choose to manipulate skills to create certain account builds. This is primarily done for PvP purposes, but many choose to create certain accounts that complete difficult content at a low level or completely avoid combat skills.
Free to Play Skills
Free to Play Skills are the attributes that everybody who has an Old School Runescape account has access to. They are usually more basic and tend to be less lucrative then the Members Skills.
Attack and Strength
Otherwise known as the melee combat skills, Attack and Strength are some of the most common skills to train. Melee is a very popular combat skill due to its ease of use and the lack of ammunition used in the skill.
Attack impacts the accuracy of melee attacks. By possessing a high attack level players will be able to deal more damage consistently. In addition to its direct impact on fighting, Attack unlocks new melee weapons. Improving your weapons is one of the easiest ways to increase damage output and you can’t do that without training Attack.
Strength increases how hard you can hit in a fight. Raising your Strength level will increase your maximum hit considerably. A higher strength level will contribute more to your damage per second then raising attack, but they are both important.
Strength also unlocks some weapons in addition to having the requisite attack level. For example, the granite maul requires both level 50 Attack and Strength to wield.
Cooking
In order to prepare food players will have to level their Cooking skill. Cooking is exactly what it sounds like, players cook food. The cooked food can then be used for healing during fights. Players can cook food either in a fire from the Firemaking skill, or on a cooking range.
Players are not always successful when cooking food. The success chance of cooking depends on several factors, primarily what you are cooking the food on and the level required to cook the food.
If you barely have the level needed to cook something, odds are you will be burning quite a lot of it. Cooking on a range also offers a higher success chance when cooking, especially the ranges in Lumbridge and Hosidius.
Crafting
By training Crafting adventurers gain the opportunity to create armor and special jewelry. For those wishing to utilize ranged combat Crafting is an especially important skill to train due to its agility to create Ranged armor. With enough training, players could even create armor out of dragonhide.
Crafting also plays a role in creating some of the strongest jewelry in the game. With level 89 Crafting players can use Zenyte gems to craft the strongest jewelry in the game, provided they have the Magic level to enchant it.
Defense
Defense is another combat skill, which as you can guess, reduces the overall damage you take from all sources. Training your Defense skill is also necessary to equip better armor in all three combat styles.
Contrary to popular belief, Defense only reduces the chance for an opponent to hit you, it does not reduce the maximum hit an opponent can deal.
Firemaking
The companion skill to Woodcutting, Firemaking is used to light fires anywhere in the world of Gielinor. While it is one of the more useless skills in the game, having a high Firemaking level is required for many things. You need level 50 in the skill to battle the Wintertodt and level 66 to complete the Monkey Madness II quest.
Fishing
Fishing is an excellent companion skill to train with Cooking. Eventually adventurers can catch commonly used food items such as sharks and karambwan. Players can either use the food they fish to train their own Cooking or can sell it to others. Fishing is a versatile skill which is useful to most players.
Hitpoints
Hitpoints forms the basis of combat. It determines how much health you have and therefore how much damage you can take before you die. There is no specific way to train Hitpoints, you simply gain experience while doing other combat activities.
Many players have devised methods to train combat skills without training their Hitpoints level to limit their combat level.
Magic
Magic is a rare due to the fact it is both a combat skill and a standard one. It provides significant utility in combat, uses runes as ammunition, and increases magic defense. In addition to the combat benefits it is used to enchant jewelry, teleport around Gielinor, and perform alchemy spells. Overall it is one of the best skills for a player to train.
Mining
Mining is among the most widely used resource gathering methods in the game. It is critical for acquiring Smithing supplies which creates metal melee armor. It is popularly done to make money, especially among beginners.
While it does not make tons of money, it is guaranteed profit which makes it valuable in its own way. Any players wishing to earn a Quest Cape will have to train Mining, as a level of 72 is required to complete the quest Making Friends with My Arm.
Prayer
Among the most impactful skills in the game, Prayer is useful for every player interested in combat. Training Prayer consists of sacrificing different bones to altars or burying them.
One can also utilize the Ectofuntus to level their Prayer skill. Higher level Prayer unlocks more combat boosting abilities that will slowly drain the players Prayer Points. Prayer Points are determined by the level of the skill
Prayer flicking is a common method used for PvM in Old School Runescape. Prayer flicking requires knowledge of the tick system in the game and will preserve Prayer Points for an extended period of time compared to not flicking. It is primarily done with the protection prayers as they block all incoming damage of whichever type the prayer is against.
Ranged
The final combat skill, Ranged is commonly used for bossing due to the high damage output of its higher level weapons. Weapons like the Toxic Blowpipe and the Twisted Bow can output absurd amounts of damage in a short period of time.
In particular, the Toxic Blowpipe is used for many bosses due to its rapid attack speed. It can also be paired with agility to grapple across certain shortcuts.
Runecrafting
Hated by most of the player base due to how tedious it is to skill, Runecrafting does have some use in the game. It is a major source of runes for Magic and it can be very profitable at higher levels.
Once a player reaches high levels of Runecrafting it actually becomes easier to train as it requires less attention then at the previous levels.
Smithing
Smithing is an expensive skill that consists of smelting metal bars from ores and turning the bars into metal armor.
Metal armor is the primarily armor of low level melee players, making it an excellent skill to pair with the melee skills and mining. It is also needed to create the Godswords, high level weapons from the God Wars Dungeon.
Woodcutting
Woodcutting is an excellent companion skill to several skills, including Fletching, Firemaking, and Construction. Wood is a major resource in those three skills making high level Woodcutting very valuable when it comes to training them.
The higher level your Woodcutting is the faster you will cut down low level trees and the better quality of tree you will be able to cut.
Members Skills
Agility
A skill mocked to the level of Runecrafting, it is a very tedious skill but significantly more useful then Runecrafting. It lacks any clear companion skill but is instead useful to every players gameplay. Higher Agility levels unlock more shortcuts and increase how long a player can run, speeding up how the player moves around Gielinor.
Construction
Construction is one of the most unique skills due to it involving a player owning and managing their own house. Player Owned Houses have changed the game forever due to their extensive utility and everyday use.
In order to have an effective house adventurers will need to train Construction, which costs tens of millions to reach the maximum level. Construction training primarily consists of building an item then destroying that item, repeating that cycle until the player reaches the desired level.
Farming
Farming is a laid back, useful resource gathering skill. It is trained through “farm runs,” where players go on a predetermined path harvesting and then replanting crops, usually herbs and trees.
Trees are known to take longer to grow and give more experience, while herbs are very valuable. Several mechanics are in place to prevent crops from death, including utilizing compost and paying local gardeners to watch over the plants.
Fletching
The perfect companion for Ranged, Fletching is the skill used to create Ranged Weapons. Fletching is an interesting skill in that it can either be completely AFK or take hyper focus.
By crafting longbows players can pay little attention while they train, but making arrows will take significantly more effort. A lesser known use for Fletching is crafting longbows which you then utilize high alchemy on to make a profit.
Herblore
Potions are vital for all high end PvM content, and Herblore is the most consistent way to get them. Training Herblore consists of making unfinished potions with water and herbs and then adding a secondary resource.
It gets very expensive as you get into the higher levels, but it is practically necessary to do end of game content. The cost can usually be justified due to the income you can gain from PvM activities with potions.
Hunter
Hunter is the newest skill in Old School Runescape. It consists of finding and capturing a variety of creatures, such as implings, chinchompas, and salamanders. There is plenty of variety in training the skill as there are numerous techniques to catch the different animals.
Slayer
The perfect complement to all of the combat skills, Slayer is a unique skill with plenty of variety. Slayer is trained by getting a task to kill a number of monsters from a Slayer Master and completing the task.
Experience is gained for each monster you kill and players earn points for completing the task. As the level increases better Slayer Masters and therefore more lucrative tasks become available.
Slayer is considered to be one of the best skills to train to build your account. Training Slayer will improve each combat skill you use and it will eventually be a very profitable skill. When you are unsure of what you want to train, you should probably train Slayer.
Thieving
For mischievous minded players, the Thieving skill beckons. The results of training Thieving are interesting in that adventurers will usually directly receive coins for their exploits, instead of having to sell resources to gain profit.
Several methods exist for training thieving and they are all viable. Players can steal from stalls, pickpocket NPCs, or participate in Thieving minigames. With high level thieving and the Rogues Outfit, players can make solid AFK money pickpocketing Ardougne Knights.
Types of Accounts
Skill levels, particularly combat skills, can be manipulated to create different types of accounts in Old School Runescape. By calculating the precise levels needed to reach certain milestones, players can create new account builds to fulfill certain needs.
This is especially predominant in the PvP scene, where players create a variety of “Pure” accounts to increase DPS while limiting their overall combat level.
FAQ
Question: What are the Combat Skills in Old School Runescape?
Answer: The combat skills are Prayer, Hitpoints, Magic, Defense, Strength, and Attack. Slayer is not a combat skill.
Question: What is the Best Skill to Make Money in Runescape?
Answer: In the long run Slayer is the best skill to train to make money. At high levels you can defeat Slayer Bosses and exclusive monsters to generate an excellent income.
Question:Â How Much Experience is Needed to Reach Level 99 in OSRS?
Answer: 13,034,431 experience is needed to reach the maximum skill level in OSRS. Experience requirements increase exponentially so level 92 is the halfway point to 99.
Skill Summary
Skills dominate every facet of Runescape. They are required for quests, critical to making money, and provide players a sense of achievement.
Reaching either the maximum level or maximum amount of experience is always a celebrated event in Runescape and brings people together. The skill system in the game separates it from other MMOs and is a vital part of the game we all love.
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