Ranged

Ranged is one of the three combat classes in Old School RuneScape. It involves using bows, crossbows, and thrown weapons to damage opponents from a distance, and Ranged armour can mostly be made from animal hides. Players who specialise in this skill are known as rangers or archers.

Rangers are capable of having the highest accuracy of any combat type, boasting a maximum of +234 to Ranged attack, beating both Magic with a maximum of +152, and melee with a maximum of +170 to slash. For this reason, it is often used against monsters with very high Defence.

The combat triangle dictates that Rangers are strong against mages but weak against Melee fighters.

The ability to attack from a distance means that a player can safespot a melee monster while fighting from safety. Keep in mind that some melee monsters have high Ranged Defence, so a high Ranged level may be needed. Crossbows are useful against monsters with high Defence, as they are very accurate.

Equipment
Stats

There are three ranged stats, two for attack (Ranged Attack and Ranged Strength) and one for defence (Ranged defence).

Ranged weapons provide + Ranged Attack for accuracy and + Ranged Strength for max hit and armour provides + Ranged defence

NOTE: In the case of crossbows and bows, the bows provide the Ranged Attack and the ammo provides Ranged Strength, while with darts and knives (where the ammo is the weapon) both stats are provided by the weapon. This is in contrast to the common misconception that the higher arrows (and bolts) are no better to use than the lower ones.

Weapons
The rapid combat stance gives the fastest attack speed of all three stances while having a lower maximum hit compared to the accurate or long range stances, which have a higher maximum hit. The accurate stance treats your ranged level as if it were 3 higher than it really is, the long range stance increases ranged by 1, while the rapid stance does not boost ranged at all. However, the accurate and long range stances have slower attack speeds. Also, the long range stance gives Defence experience, and as the name suggests, has a longer reach.

Enchanted crossbow bolts
Bolts that are tipped with gems can be enchanted for a wide variety of passive effects, each of which has a small chance of activating when an enemy is damaged by the bolt.

Skill choice
Upon completing any of the following quests, players may choose to allocate experience to Ranged. These rewards usually come in the form of items, such as lamps or books, and are independent of any experience rewards directly received for completing the quest.