Free-to-play PvP | OSRS Index

This article serves as an overview of the free-to-play guides on player-versus-player activities, account builds, and other related topics.

Guides

Overviews

Free-to-play combat pure guide: an introduction to the combat pure account builds and PvP in general.
Free-to-play account builds: an overview and listing of the viable free-to-play builds.
One-defence pure (free-to-play): an overview and listing of the combat pure accounts with a Defence level of 1.

Advanced topics

Free-to-play PvP equipment: a detailed comparison of the free-to-play items relevant to PvP combat. Includes typical loadouts for various account builds and activities.
Free-to-play PvP techniques: an overview of the techniques used in PvP combat.
Free-to-play combat pure training: free-to-play training methods of combat pure accounts.
Free-to-play PvP culture: descriptions of activities, locations, behaviours, and slang relevant to the free-to-play PvP culture.

Account builds

One defence

One-defence combat pures sacrifice defensive capabilities to maximize the damage output within their respective combat level brackets. They are arguably the most common type of combat pures made specifically for PvP activities.

Build	Skills		Viability
Build	Primary	Secondary	1-vs-1	Multicombat
Ranged-melee pure			High. The most common build for arranged 1-vs-1 combat.	High. Consistent damage output with both combat styles. Can tribrid with Magic support spells like Snare and Tele Block.
Melee pure			Medium to high. The second most common build on high levels. Commonly used for risk fighting.	Low. With no ranged attacks, they are extremely vulnerable to binding spells and farcasting.
Magic pure			Medium early on, low afterwards. Combat spells can outdamage other combat styles early on, but due to their low speed and lack of knockout attacks they are difficult to combo with. Low speed and lack of damage progression past 59 Magic level causes combat spells to be severely outdamaged by other combat styles, leaving magic pures rather ineffective in 1-vs-1 combat outside of the deep wilderness.	High. Magic is the most common combat style in the ultra low level clan wars scene, and utility spells such as Snare and Tele Block are extremely useful on higher levels. Magic can also do severe damage to armoured opponents, especially when multiple mages focus on a single opponent.
Strength pure			High. High damage output early on with rune warhammers makes them a considerable threat on the low combat level scene. However, their low melee accuracy prevents them from consistently damaging opponents that train Defence.	Medium early on, low afterwards. Viable on low levels if using Ranged and Magic switches. However, they cannot overuse neither ranged nor magic attacks without their combat level becoming Ranged- or Magic-based. The lack of fast and accurate melee attacks makes them less viable on higher levels.
Ranged-magic pure			Medium early on, low afterwards. They are somewhat viable with ranged-to-magic combo when combat spells are still competitive with melee attacks in terms of the damage output. However, their combos are easier to heal against than in the case of the classic ranged-to-melee switches.	High. The most common build in the ultra low level clan wars scene. Later on, they are usually converted to ranged-melee pures and used as tribrids.
Ranged pure			Low. Lack of knockout weapons severely limits their ability to perform combos. While they do have high damage output, they might find it difficult to actually knock their opponents out without them running out of supplies first. Commonly used for activities such as ragging rather than legitimate combat.	Medium. Somewhat viable due to the high damage output, but lack the flexibility of the hybrid builds.

Medium defence

Defence training does not unlock any major free-to-play weapons or other items that would significantly affect the output damage or change the combat techniques. Because of that, medium Defence builds can be thought of as progressions of the common 1 Defence builds such as ranged-melee pure, melee pure, or strength pure following similar principles in combat. However, their higher defensive skills do improve their survivability and allow employing riskier tactics in general.

Currently, the only free-to-play item with a Defence requirement that has a strength bonus is the set of gold decorative boots from the Castle Wars minigame. With a strength bonus of +1, these boots are necessary to maximise damage with some melee weapons such as the rune scimitar or rune warhammer. Additionally, some ranged body armours with superior ranged accuracy bonuses have a Defence requirement, although they do not affect the maximum ranged hits. These include the hardleather body, studded body, green d'hide body, and gilded d'hide body.

With access to armours such as rune or green dragonhide, accounts with higher Defence levels are especially viable in the deep Wilderness and multicombat areas due to their notably higher defensive capabilities.

Build	Defence	Progression of
Rune pure	40	Ranged-melee pure, melee pure
Adamant pure	30	Ranged-melee pure, melee pure
Strength tank	30, 40	Strength pure

Additionally, clan pures with unrestricted offensive combat skills are common among members of clans that require specific Defence levels rather than overall combat levels. Rather than aiming for the lowest possible combat level, clan pures tend to train all combat skills without restriction with the exception of Defence capped at a specific limit such as 25.

High defence

High Defence accounts sacrifice damage output to improve their defensive capabilities. They are often used as support accounts for scouting, luring, ragging, boxing, carrying supplies, and other secondary activities. While rarely used for legitimate 1-vs-1 PvP combat, there are some clans that specialize in these types of accounts and organize clan wars in multicombat areas.

Build	Skills		Comment
Build	Primary	Secondary	Comment
Tank			Accounts that maximise their Defence levels while maintaining some offensive capabilities. Usually high level.
Magic tank			Typically used for scouting, luring, and world hopping. Can cast supportive spells such as Snare and Tele Block.
Defence pure			Low level accounts that usually only train Defence. While they are extremely weak offensively, they can be used for tasks such as scouting, luring, or carrying supplies.
Main			Player accounts without any combat skill restrictions, typically used in PvP in the very last combat level brackets.

Activities

Dangerous

Wilderness: a large area north of the kingdoms of Asgarnia and Misthalin where players can engage in combat. Venturing further into the wilderness increases the maximum combat level difference between the opponents, allowing high level players to attack low level players, and vice versa.
PvP worlds: dedicated worlds where players can engage in combat in the majority of available locations with the exception of safe areas located near banks and respawn points. The maximum combat level difference between opponents is 15 in most of the dangerous areas, with the wilderness level increasing it even further.

Safe

Castle Wars: a capture-the-flag minigame where players are separated into two teams. Notable rewards include decorative armour, with the gold decorative boots being the best free-to-play item in the feet slot.
Clan Wars: a minigame where clans can arrange fights within a set of arenas. It also offers a free-for-all mode, popular for casual fights. Offers no rewards.
Emir's Arena: a minigame allowing players to engage in safe arranged duels under specific sets of rules. The legacy duel mode is available in the free-to-play worlds, while the core of the minigame remains members-only.
Last Man Standing: a battle royale minigame where players compete in 1-vs-1 duels to be the last remaining player. The items, prayers, and spells used during the minigame are typically only available to members; there is no game mode that resembles typical free-to-play conditions. Players can no longer earn points in free-to-play worlds, which limits their ability to buy the rewards.

Activity types

Activities involving player combat can be split into player-versus-player engagements between willing participants, and player killing with a hunter-versus-hunted dynamic.

Player-versus-player

Dangerous player-versus-player (PvP) activities between willing participants take place around the established hotspots such as Edgeville, Ferox Enclave, or the PvP world Lumbridge, as well as some multicombat areas within the wilderness or the PvP worlds during prearranged clan wars.

Safe player-versus-player activities include all existing free-to-play PvP minigames with a notable inclusion of Clan Wars. The Clan Wars free-for-all area in the wilderness-themed world 308 is usually rather active, allowing players to safely try out both 1-vs-1 and multicombat PvP.

Player killing

Hotspots where player killers often attack unwilling targets engaging in other activities include:

Lava Maze runite mine where players mine runite rocks.
Lava isle near the Demonic Ruins where players attempt to telegrab the nature runes.
Moss giants south-east of the Lava Maze near the final canoe station where players collect moss keys.
Bandit Duty Free shop where players can be found trying to sell items at increased prices.
Chaos temple where players might telegrab the wines of Zamorak.
Demonic Ruins where players might kill greater demons while regaining prayer points.
Various monster spawn locations throughout the PvP worlds including hill giants or ogresses where players train combat skills or collect loot.

When attempting to kill other players that might be unwilling to engage in combat, player killers are advised to use utility spells such as Tele Block or Snare to prevent the targets from escaping the dangerous locations.

Unique mechanics

The following mechanics are unique to the dangerous PvP areas and PvP worlds:

Initiating combat with other players yields the skull status to the attacker.
Items lost on death are available to the player with the registered kill. Only selected untradeable items are transferred to the grave or left broken in the inventory.
- Above the 20th level of the Wilderness, all untradeable items are destroyed upon death.
Autocast option is not remembered after removing the weapon and has to be set up every time a magic weapon is equipped.
Manual casting on a player target fires the spell 1 tick faster than autocasting on NPCs.
Food, including raw, is not visible to other players when dropped manually even after an initial delay. Other items such as weapons or armour are immediately visible to the other players.
Supplies, including potions and food, disappear faster from the ground than regular items.
Players cannot pick up or telegrab supplies if they are or were in PvP combat within 15 game ticks outside of multicombat areas unless they dropped them themselves or looted them from NPCs.
Players cannot trade if they are or were in PvP combat within 20 game ticks outside of multicombat areas.
PJ timer is increased to 20 ticks, or roughly 12 seconds. There is an additional 20 tick grace period after a kill during which the player cannot be attacked in single-way combat areas.
Defeated players might yield loot keys instead of or in addition to dropped items if that option is turned on.
PID is swapped more often.
Items causing the player to perform certain animations or emotes, as well as the Runefest 2014 home teleport animation override, cannot be used.
Gravestone left in a PvP world can only be looted in the PvP worlds.

Changes

Major updates

This section includes some notable updates that affected the free-to-play PvP scene.

Date	Changes
22 July 2026 (Update)	Shaman mask magic bonus increased to +2 from -6, making it on par with wizard hats. This makes it the best-in-slot Magic item whenever melee and ranged defence bonuses are more important than the magic defence bonus. Autocast settings are now preserved through death. Looting a grave should now automatically sort the inventory to match its layout prior to death.
17 June 2026 (Update)	Untradeable items that previously did not break, such as mooleta or decorative boots (white), will no longer be lost on death above level 20 of the Wilderness. Untradeable items that previously broke, such as barronite mace or decorative boots (gold), will continue to break whether below or above level 20 of the Wilderness, but will no longer be lost on death. Untradeable items with no combat benefits should no longer be lost on death. Several fixes and adjustments were applied to the Last Man Standing minigame. Bank tags were added to the official mobile and desktop clients.
25 March 2026 (Update)	In PvP areas, if a player has not attacked another player in the last 20 ticks (12 seconds), swapping between weapons will retain any autocast settings that have been set. The PJ timer in PvP worlds increased to 16 ticks (9.6 seconds) up from 8 ticks (4.8 seconds). In single combat, players can no longer telegrab food dropped by others in the Wilderness. If a player has dropped a piece of food in the Wilderness, or a monster the player has slain has dropped some food as loot, they are now able to pick up that food if they are in combat with another player. Outside designated Castle Wars worlds, barricades will always appear under players. On designated worlds, they will continue to appear on top of other players. On non-designated Castle Wars worlds, bandages will heal a maximum of 18 hitpoints. Added a toggle to disable Combat XP at Castle Wars and Clan Wars. These toggles can be accessed as follows: Castle Wars: Right-click Lanthus. Clan Wars: Right-click the white or purple portal. A number of items was added to the Last Man Standing along with several changes to the starter gear for the "Max/Med" bracket to align the equipment with the current meta. Additionally: Players can no longer lose their skull by entering a Last Man Standing game lobby, logging out and hopping world while inside the lobby. Players can now hold up to 3 Saradomin brews (cap increased from 1), but only 10 sharks (cap decreased from 11). "Max/Med" bracket has had its Defence level increased to 85. "Zerker" bracket has had its Attack level increased to 80.
25 February 2026 (Update)	Mooleta was added a drop from a new bull boss, Brutus. It is an offhand item with similar stats to the steel defender including a notable +1 strength bonus. Unlike the defender, it has no requirements to wield. Most notably, it raises the maximum damage of the rune scimitar and rune warhammer for the maxed low Defence pures to 26 and 30 respectively. Previously, this required 30 Defence to wear the decorative boots (gold) with a similar strength bonus. Cowbell amulet was introduced as a reward from The Ides of Milk quest. This teleportation item has no requirements other than finishing the quest, and works up to the 20 level of Wilderness unlike similar items such as the Chronicle.
1 October 2025 (Update)	Players can no longer pick up food or potions within 15 ticks of PvP combat outside of multicombat areas within the Wilderness and PvP worlds. Players cannot trade within 20 ticks of PvP combat outside of multicombat areas within the PvP worlds, matching the Wilderness restrictions. The minimap can now be hidden in the desktop client without any third-party plugins while using the resizable mode.
2 April 2025 (Update \| poll)	A number of changes and quality of life updates was added to the Castle Wars minigame. Dedicated Castle Wars world changes: You can now only enter through the Guthix (green) portal to ensure more balanced teams. Players will now earn 1 additional Castle wars ticket for participating in a game. All Castle Wars world changes: The Castlewars brew now also applies the effects of a stamina potion and super restore when consumed. However, the reduction in run energy depletion associated with stamina potions does not occur on free-to-play worlds. Helmets can now be worn in Castle Wars. Bandages now scale with your Hitpoints level and can overheal, similar to members-only anglerfish. With 99 Hitpoints and a Castle Wars bracelet charge, the bandages can heal up to 27. Castle Wars bracelets can now be handed to Lanthus to store charges, automatically consuming one per game. Noted bracelets are also accepted, allowing to store a specific number of noted items. Players now receive a rune pouch when entering Castle Wars, providing unlimited runes for selected spells. These spells do not grant Magic experience when cast. To earn full Magic experience, players must provide their own runes. On free-to-play worlds, the spells include all strikes, bolts, and blasts, as well as binding spells such as Bind and Snare. A new barricade cap on dedicated Castle Wars worlds restricts teams to 7 barricades outside and 10 inside the base. Barricades placed now have a coloured rope to indicate what team they belong to. Barricades can now be placed in front of the respawn barriers. A new element has been added to the Castle Wars Heads-Up Display, showing the number of barricades your team has placed both inside and outside your base. Small walls have been added to the stairs and ladder at the respawn point, allowing players to range over them and create more strategic barricade placements. There is now a table with buckets in the supply room where the bucket spawn used to be. Fixed a bug where the player's overhead yellow arrow would not disappear after depositing the flag.
8 January 2025 (Update)	Run energy depletion and regeneration rates were improved on all Agility levels including 1. Since the energy drain rate is now dependent on the Agility level, this further increases the advantage that accounts trained on the members-only worlds can have over pure free-to-play accounts.
29 May 2024 (Update)	The minimum hit has been increased from 0 to 1, slightly increasing the average DPS. Every successful accuracy roll now results in at least 1 damage. The damage of the air, water, and earth elemental spells including strikes, bolts, and blasts now scales up to 8, 12, or 16 respectively, matching the strongest unlocked spell in the tier. As such, Wind Blast should now be preferred over Fire Blast in PvP scenarios due to a lower cast cost. Mystic Lore and Mystic Might now increase magic damage by 1% and 2% respectively. However, with no other magic damage bonuses available in free-to-play worlds, they have no effect on the maximum magic damage. Prayer points drain rate of Thick Skin, Burst of Strength, Clarity of Thought, Sharp Eye, and Mystic Will was decreased from 5 to 1.67 points per minute. Effectively, they should drain at a third of the speed they used to. Sharp Eye and Burst of Strength now boost the Ranged and Strength by at least 1 level respectively, even if those levels are lower than 20. Attacking an NPC with the auto-cast enabled no longer incurs an extra 1 tick (0.6s) delay.
10 April 2024 (Update)	Raw food no longer appears to other players when dropped in the Wilderness. This prevents players from being able to transfer food mid-fight by cooking the picked up raw food. Manually dropped food and potions now despawn faster in the Wilderness to prevent from stacking extra supplies prior to the fights and juggling the items during combat. Aggression range of the selected Wilderness monsters including Ankou, Lesser Demons, Ice Giants, and Hill Giants was modified. Unintended PJ timer interactions across single-way and multi-way combat borders were removed. This prevents from situations where a player exiting a multi-way combat area might have been safe from attacks if they attacked a different opponent that the last one that have hit them while still in the multi-way combat zone. A bridge over the lava just south of the Wilderness Chaos Temple was added, yielding much faster access to the altar when approaching from the south. A zombie pirate ship was added to the eastern shore of the Wilderness. It has little use in the free-to-play worlds, since the lockers cannot be opened, but the ladder there can possibly be used to escape a PKer when running from locations such as the nature runes spawn or the Demonic Ruins.
6 March 2024 (Update)	Previous PvP combat information is now wiped upon death. This prevents players who have just died from coming back to fight their opponent again without being skulled.
15 June 2022 (Update)	A Loot Chest has been added to the Lumbridge Castle courtyard on the PvP worlds.
11 May 2022 (Update)	Bryophyta's staff is a now a free-to-play item, becoming the best-in-slot free-to-play magic weapon with magic accuracy and defence bonuses at +15.
23 March 2022 (Update)	Players can no longer trade in the Wilderness if they are or recently were in combat, which prevents from transferring supplies mid-fight.
9 March 2022 (Update)	PJ timer was increased within the single-way combat areas of the Wilderness. Combat interruption prevention was added. This significantly affected multiplayer activities in and near single-way combat areas, and made techniques such as boxing or PJing obsolete. Loot Chests were added to the Grand Exchange and the Edgeville bank, significantly increasing their utility on the free-to-play worlds. The cost of unlocking the loot keys was decreased from 5,000,000 coins to 1,000,000 coins.
23 February 2022 (Update)	Loot keys were introduced as an opt-in feature. Players can unlock the option to enable loot keys by paying 5,000,000 coins to Skully. When enabled, items dropped by opponents killed by the player are not dropped into the ground, and the player receives a loot key instead. The loot can be retrieved from the loot chest in the Ferox Enclave. Players can hold up to 5 keys, and can modify whether food and other supplies or valuable items are stored in the loot chest or not. Due to the lack of reliable transportation methods to the Ferox Enclave, the utility of the loot keys remained limited to the areas around the enclave itself, as well as the deep Wilderness.
22 September 2021 (Update)	The defence bonuses of the items from the green dragonhide armour set and its trimmed variants were significantly lowered. Note that the gilded dragonhide armour was unaffected, becoming the best-in-slot ranged equipment in terms of defensive capabilities.
26 May 2021 (Update)	The clan system was overhauled and fully launched. The classic clan chats are now available as chat-channels.
21 April 2021 (Update)	Warhammer wielding requirements were changed from Attack to the equivalent Strength levels. The strength bonuses of warhammers were significantly increased. Now they are slightly lower than the bonuses of the battleaxes from the same materials. Maces are now 1 tick faster, matching the speed of the scimitars. Ranged accuracy penalty was removed from medium helmets and square shields. Ranged accuracy penalty of the full helmets, kiteshields, platelegs, plateskirts and platebodies was increased by roughly 50%. This update made strength pures a viable build common among low level players.
2 December 2020 (Update)	Full helmets were introduced to the decorative armours from the Castle Wars rewards shop. They has equivalent bonuses to the steel, mithril and adamant helmets respectively. Red, white, and gold decorative boots with bonuses equivalent to the steel, mithril, and adamant boots respectively were introduced to the Castle Wars Ticket Exchange. With notable melee defence bonuses, they became the best items in the footwear slot. In particular, gold decorative boots offer the highest melee defensive bonuses, as well as strength bonus of +1, which increased maximum melee hit of some weapons such as the rune scimitar (from 25 to 26). Castlewars brew was introduced to the Castle Wars minigame, significantly increasing maximum hits of melee and ranged weapons. Combined with the Castle wars bracelet, it allows to achieve the highest possible hits and DPS values within the free-to-play worlds.
23 July 2020 (Update)	The Ferox Enclave respawn can now be unlocked and used by the free-to-play players by paying 5,000,000 coins to Ferox.
16 July 2020 (Update)	The Ferox Enclave was introduced to the Wilderness. It is the first settlement with a bank within the free-to-play Wilderness bounds. The town now contains the lobbies of the Clan Wars and the Last Man Standing minigames that were moved there from Al Kharid, as well as a portal to the Castle Wars lobby. Notable features also include the Pool of Refreshment that can heal players' hitpoints, prayer points, run energy and skill changes.
5 September 2019 (Update)	The Snare spell was added to the free-to-play worlds. The binding duration of the Bind and Snare spells is no longer halved by the Protect from Magic prayer.
6 June 2019 (Update)	The Tele Block spell was added to the free-to-play worlds. The skull status is no longer removed upon entering Clan Wars.
17 August 2017 (Update)	Players can now toggle whether the arrows are placed in the inventory or automatically added to the ammunition slot upon picking up by talking to the ranged combat tutor.
10 August 2017 (Update)	Castle wars bracelet can now be traded on free-to-play worlds, which increased the viability of the Castle Wars minigame for training by significantly increasing the DPS as well as the number of hitpoints healed by the bandages.
20 July 2017 (Update)	The Castle Wars minigame was added to the free-to-play worlds. At the time, players could get there by a portal located in Al Kharid next to the Clan Wars lobby. Some Castle Wars rewards including melee decorative armour were introduced to free-to-play. Zamorak monk robes were added to the free-to-play worlds as uncommon drops from the monks of Zamorak. In particular, Zamorak monk bottom is the only free-to-play item in the legs slot with a magic accuracy bonus, surpassing the leather chaps as the best legs armour for magic combat.
19 February 2015 (Update)	The free-to-play mode was permanently added to the Old School RuneScape.
27 March 2014 (Update \| poll)	Rune god armour now gives a +1 prayer bonus per piece, becoming the best-in-slot melee equipment surpassing regular and gilded rune armour.
26 July 2013 (Update)	The Edgeville respawn can be unlocked by paying 5,000,000 coins to Krystilia and now works on free-to-play style worlds.
9 May 2013 (Update)	"F2p-style" worlds were added for subscribers that wished to play without the members' features.

Minor updates

This section lists less impactful changes related to items used in PvP activities, or mechanics affecting PvP combat.

Date	Changes
27 May 2026 (Update)	Players must first win a game of Last Man Standing before they can purchase any tradeable items from Justine's stuff for the Last Shopper Standing. Players who have not won any games can only purchase the untradeable items from the shop. If a player dies without having been in combat with another player within the last 30 seconds, their death will be treated as a PvM death instead of a PvP death - even if they were attacked by another player earlier. This applies to all account types. If the player was not in player combat in the last 30 seconds before dying, the PKer can no longer receive the loot, and the lost items can be reclaimed from a Grave or Death. Otherwise, standard PvP death mechanics will apply.
29 April 2026 (Update)	Giant easter egg no longer causes players to stall on PvP worlds.
1 April 2026 (Update)	An axe can now be stored at the canoe stations, saving an inventory slot when travelling to the deep Wilderness by a canoe. Applied tweaks to the Last Man Standing minigame: Increased the timer before a game is forcefully ended to 20 minutes, up from 16 minutes 15 seconds. Venom effect from the noxious halberd and burn effect from the eclipse set are now cleared from the player's character when they win a fight. Players can now hold up to 2 sanfew serums in their setups, rather than just 1. Point awards were increased in the ranked mode (unavailable in the free-to-play worlds).
20 August 2025 (Update)	Wilderness loot key interface now matches the Deadman mode style. Loot chest can be opened without consuming a loot key, allowing for partial removal of the content without removing the loot key from the inventory.
13 August 2025 (Update)	A new category was added to the "Report Abuse" menu: "PvP Cheating". This may be used when someone is suspected of cheating while partaking in PvP activities, including through the use of macroing software.
13 November 2024 (Update)	Loot keys containing less than 1,000,000 coins worth of loot can now be destroyed in unsafe areas, up from 30,000 coins. Players that are in combat in a multicombat area can now retaliate if attacked by a player in a single-way combat area.
25 September 2024 (Update)	A new "Energy threshold to re-enable running" setting was added. When set to a non-zero value, it will re-enable run after the player runs out of energy and then regenerates it to a specified threshold.
28 August 2024 (Update)	Legacy Duels at the Emir's Arena are now restricted to the specific 'Legacy Duels' worlds. Worlds 483 (east United States) and 571 (Australia) were marked as the designated Legacy Duels servers in addition to the existing world 379 (United Kingdom).
23 May 2024 (Update)	The "Classic F2P" option was added to the "Magic" dropdown in the Clan Wars options with Bind being the only available freeze spell. This allows organizing PvP events with Snare being disabled.
1 November 2023 (Update)	Players may now own an unlimited number of fancy boots and fighting boots, including both at once. Players who have a Jagex Account can now obtain fancier boots from the Cradle of Life with identical bonuses to both fancy and fighting boots. All 3 types of boots rewarded from the Stronghold of Security are longer destroyed on death, and instead they are sent to the gravestone upon death below the 20 level of the Wilderness. They are now about as convenient to use as regular boots, which makes them a viable option for low Defence pures, especially at lower levels to counter low Attack opponents.
20 September 2023 (Update)	The cursed goblin hammer now has -100 melee accuracy bonuses, making the player wielding it always hit a 0 on their targets. This allows free boxing without the possibility to damage the target, locking both players in combat in single-way areas.
13 September 2023 (Update)	Bind and Snare now yield varying amounts of Magic experience depending on whether the projectile hits or splashes: For Bind, a success now gives 31 XP, up from 30. For Snare, a success now gives 61 XP (plus optional damage), up from 60.
23 March 2023 (Update)	Canifis boots are now tradeable on the free-to-play worlds similarly to the gloves. They offer the same bonuses as the leather boots.
10 August 2022 (Update)	NPCs attacking the players within PvP areas now work under a shorter 5 second PJ timer instead of the full 12 second grace period, matching the behaviour from before the PJ timer increase. One-defence pure and zerker modes were added to the Last Man Standing minigame.
3 August 2022 (Update)	An optional golden trim for hitsplats was added. The trim is displayed when players deal their maximum hits in combat with the current weapon or spell and attack style. In free-to-play, the trim works for all combat styles including melee, ranged, and magic. It shows up both when the player deals maximum damage to an opponent, or if an opponent deals their maximum damage to the player. The effect is purely cosmetic and can be turned off in the settings.
6 July 2022 (Update)	Duel Arena was replaced with the Emir's Arena. Players are still able to challenge each other for safe PvP duels in the legacy mode, but coins can no longer be staked in fights.
14 April 2021 (Update)	Barronite mace was introduced as a reward from the activities within the Ruins of Camdozaal. With its 4-tick speed, crush-based attack, a strength bonus of +40 and a prayer bonus of +2, this mace can be an effective alternative to the rune scimitar.
17 February 2021 (Update)	The competitive mode of the Last Man Standing minigame can no longer be played on the free-to-play worlds, preventing free-to-play players from earning the reward points. A new map based on 4th Age Varrock was introduced.
29 August 2019 (Update)	The Last Man Standing minigame was overhauled. The Justine's stuff for the Last Shopper Standing shop was introduced with notable free-to-play rewards including the swift blade, a 1-handed 3-tick melee weapon with no combat bonuses. The items from the shop can be bought with points earned through the competitive mode of the minigame.
11 April 2019 (Update)	Treasure Trails were expanded with a wide range of new decorative free-to-play items such as gilded dragonhide armour, ham joint, amulet of power (t), trimmed monk's robes, heraldic platebodies, gold-trimmed leather armour and rune scimitar ornament kits. While at the time of release a vast majority of the new rewards provided equal bonuses to the existing items, they can be useful for risk fighting.
6 October 2016 (Update)	Obor was introduced as the first free-to-play boss with the hill giant club as a rare drop. The club provides the same strength bonus as a rune 2h sword and similar accuracy bonuses, but uses crush instead of slash attacks, which makes it more accurate against players wearing plate armour.
4 August 2016 (Update)	The Last Man Standing minigame was added. At the time, the lobby of the minigame was located at Al Kharid, near the Clan Wars lobby.
19 May 2016 (Update)	Gilded equipment is now available on the free-to-play worlds.
7 April 2016 (Update)	Additional rune god armours including Bandos, Armadyl, and Zaros are now available on the free-to-play worlds.

Planned changes

This article or section contains information about a scheduled future release or update.

The information is subject to change. As the wiki is not a crystal ball, this article should consist only of facts included in official Jagex releases and not speculation.

As a part of Summer Sweep-Up in 2026, the following change was announced:

Energy potion will restore 15% of the run energy per dose, up from 10%.

Comparison with RuneScape 2

Since the introduction of Old School RuneScape, a few notable updates affected the free-to-play PvP scene and the combat pure builds.

Items

Warhammers are now notably stronger and no longer require Attack levels. Instead, they require the equivalent Strength levels to be wielded. For example, the rune warhammer requires 40 Strength to be used, while providing comparable bonuses to the rune battleaxe, which makes it a common knockout weapon among low and early mid level players. This change made the free-to-play strength pure a viable build, and a considerable alternative to the classic melee pures and ranged-melee hybrids on early combat levels.
The attack speed of maces is now on par with scimitars. In particular, barronite mace can be a good alternative to rune scimitar against opponents with a low crush defence bonus if rune scimitar does not allow the player to reach a higher maximum melee hit.
Mooleta was added as a drop from the Brutus boss. It is an offhand item similar to the steel defender with a small Strength bonus of +1 and some melee accuracy bonuses. It has no requirements to wield.
Gold decorative boots were introduced as a Castle Wars reward. With bonuses equal to adamant boots, they provide a small Strength bonus of +1 that increases the maximum melee hit on some Strength levels. In particular, these boots raise the maximum hit of rune scimitars to 26 and rune warhammers to 30 on free-to-play worlds.
Hill giant club is a more expensive alternative to the rune 2h sword that can be more accurate against opponents with a low crush defence bonus.
Bryophyta's staff is the best magic weapon, offering the highest magic accuracy and defence bonuses on top of considerable melee attack bonuses. The staff stores up to 1,000 nature runes and has a chance to save on the nature rune cost of casting spells such as Snare. It requires 30 Attack and Magic to wield.
Zamorak monk robes are now available to free-to-play players. In particular, Zamorak monk bottom replaces leather chaps as the best-in-slot legwear item for mages.
Shaman mask is an item dropped by ogresses matching the magic accurracy bonus of wizard hats. It has melee and ranged defence bonuses comparable to the iron full helm.
Many cosmetic items, including gilded equipment, were introduced to free-to-play worlds. They are commonly used for the so-called risk fights.
Fancy boots and fighting boots are no longer destroyed upon death below the 20 level of the Wilderness. Fancier boots were introduced with identical bonuses.
Skull sceptre holds more changes, can be recharged with bone fragments, and can now autocast Crumble Undead.
Cowbell amulet is an item that allows the players to teleport to the Lumbridge cow field. It has no requirements other than finishing The Ides of Milk quest, and works up to the 20 level of the Wilderness.
Chronicle is an item that allows the players to teleport to the Champions' Guild near Varrock without any skill level requirements. Notably, it works on the PvP worlds, but it cannot be used within the Wilderness.
The melee and ranged defensive bonuses of the green dragonhide armour were reduced. Gilded dragonhide armour offers the same bonuses as the green dragonhide set before the reduction, although it is much more expensive.
Loot keys can now be unlocked to receive the entire loot from a defeated opponent as a single key rather than individual items. The keys can be used on a Loot Chest to retrieve the loot.
Rune god armours provide a prayer bonus of +1 on each piece for a total of +4.

Spells

Tele Block is now available on free-to-play worlds.
Snare is now available on free-to-play worlds.
The damage of the air, water, and earth elemental spells including strikes, bolts, and blasts now scales up to 8, 12, or 16 respectively, matching the strongest unlocked spell in the tier.
Bind and Snare binding effects are no longer shortened by the Protect from Magic prayer.
Bind and Snare offer varying amounts of Magic experience depending on whether they successfully hit the target or splash.
Snare can no longer be cast on an opponent currently immune to its binding effect.

Prayers

Mystic Lore and Mystic Might now increase magic damage by 1% and 2% respectively. However, with no other magic damage bonuses available in free-to-play worlds, they have no effect on the maximum magic damage.
Prayer points drain rate of Thick Skin, Burst of Strength, Clarity of Thought, Sharp Eye, and Mystic Will was decreased to effectively a third of the speed they used to have.
Sharp Eye and Burst of Strength now boost the Ranged and Strength skills by at least 1 level respectively, even if those levels are lower than 20.

Locations

Ferox Enclave is a small town with a bank added into the wilderness. It is a common regrouping spot for wilderness trips, and it now hosts free-to-play PvP minigames including Clan Wars. It cannot be entered under the effect of the Tele Block spell, encouraging no honour techniques. Area west of the Enclave on W308 is also a common 1-vs-1 combat hotspot.
Free-to-play PvP worlds were introduced. Lumbridge in the PvP worlds is a common 1-vs-1 combat hotspot, similarly to the wilderness area north of Edgeville on W308.
Edgeville respawn and Ferox Enclave respawn can be unlocked for a fee as alternatives to the Lumbridge respawn.
Wine of Zamorak spawn was added to the Chaos Temple in the deep wilderness.
Due to new accounts restrictions, locations such as the wilderness north of Varrock are much less active. Low level wars are usually organized by PvP clans instead of emerging spontaneously.
Canoes along the River Lum are now available in free-to-play worlds, providing a transportation method to the Ferox Enclave and the deep wilderness.
PJ timer within the single-way combat areas of the wilderness was increased. Combat interruption prevention was added.

Minigames

The Castle Wars minigame is now available in free-to-play worlds.
The Duel Arena was replaced with Emir's Arena. Players can go east of Al Kharid to arrange duels under specific sets of rules in the legacy mode, albeit without staking any coins.
The Last Man Standing minigame was added, although its competitive mode is disabled in the free-to-play worlds.
The Clan Wars minigame was moved to the Ferox Enclave.

Mechanics

Loot keys were introduced to the Wilderness and PvP worlds. After paying 1,000,000 coins to Skully, players can opt-in to receive the loot from the defeated opponents as loot keys. Instead of having to pick up the items off the ground, loot keys allow retrieving all items from a Loot Chest located at the Ferox Enclave, the Grand Exchange or the Edgeville bank, as well as the front of the Lumbridge castle in the PvP worlds.
The minimum hit has been increased from 0 to 1, slightly increasing the average DPS. Every successful accuracy roll now results in at least 1 damage.
Death mechanics were modified.
Clan system was expanded. Classic clan functionalities are now available as chat-channels.
Players can now toggle whether the arrows are placed in the inventory or automatically added to the ammunition slot upon picking up by talking to the ranged combat tutor.
Run can be automatically re-enabled after regenerating the energy to a threshold specified with the "Energy threshold to re-enable running" setting.
Supplies cannot be picked up and players might not trade during and shortly after PvP combat outside of multicombat areas.

Accounts

Players in the Ironman Mode cannot trade with other players or pick up regular loot, and do not gain any combat experience when fighting players except for basic spell casting experience. This allows to create optimized combat pures for specific combat level brackets. Since they can receive loot keys, it allows them to transfer the loot between accounts.
New accounts are restricted from trading, joining chat channels, and entering PvP worlds.

Miscellaneous

Run energy depletion and regeneration rates were improved on all Agility levels including 1.
Due to the changes made to warhammers, free-to-play Strength pures are now a common combat pure build in low and early mid combat level brackets.
Third-party game clients that offer quality-of-life features such as estimating opponent's hitpoints, combat skills lookup, or maximum hit calculation are now commonly used by players participating in PvP activities. Note that using unapproved clients that automate or ease actions such as eating or prayer switching is against the game's rules and may result in a ban.