Game square

Game square
Released		1998 - Update Unknown (edit)
Type		Game unit of measurement

Game squares, also known as tiles, spaces, and steps, are the basic unit of area that divide the ground of Old School RuneScape. Information about scenery objects, items, and environemntal effects is always linked to at least one particular square.

Entities, such as players or dropped items, occupy at least one square; however, some larger monsters, such as the King Black Dragon occupy multiple squares at once. For these larger monsters, their location is defined by the south-westernmost square they occupy. This is the location used by most calculations, such as where items drop.

The smallest unit of area in the game is a square. Groups of 8x8 square are partitioned into zones, and groups of 8x8 zones make up mapsquares, more popularly known as chunks by players.

The World Map is built around mapsquares, with towns, cities, and islands typically aligning with mapsquare borders. Music tracks often change across borders of mapsquares, and missing sections of the world map tend to fall directly on mapsquare borders.

Players move across game squares any time their character paths from one place to another. There are two movement speeds used in Old School RuneScape:

• Walking moves the player one square every one game tick.
• Running moves the player two squares every one game tick, twice as fast as walking.

A player moving both diagonally (north-east, south-east, south-west, or north-west) or orthogonally (north, east, south, west) will walk or run at these same rates of 1 and 2 game squares per tick, respectively. Because of this, travelling diagonally whenever possible will reduce the travel time.

Since objects are tied to the game square they're placed on, players can utilise the fact that running moves players two squares to bypass various traps and obstacles throughout the game. This is known as the run trick.

Some combat mechanics are influenced by a monster's size. A monster's size is equal to the number of game squares along one edge of the entity's square. A 3x3 monster is a size 3 but occupies 9 total game squares.

• The dragon and crystal halberds have a special attack that hits 2x2 or larger monsters twice.
• The colossal blade has a passive effect which increases the maximum melee hit of the player based on the size of the monster being attacked.
• The scythe of Vitur has a passive effect which hits 2x2 monsters twice, and 3x3 or larger monsters three times

There are many combat mechanics influenced by the distance between the target from the player and the types of squares between the target and the player: refer to attack range, hit delay, flinching, safespot, and aggressiveness for more.

Squares also contain environmental information, such as blocking, whether a square triggers area effects, and whether or not a square is considered safe in PvP.

Various forms of blocking can be caused by squares. Graphics on these squares can range from fences and rocks, to large pillars and chasms. Some of these cannot be stood on. Others block movement and action in a certain direction, but allow an entity to be on the square itself; examples of this include walls, some fences, and some cliff edges. Additionally, some squares block ground movement for most entities, including being on the square itself, but still allow action across, such as letting implings move over them, and permitting long-range actions, such as ranging or maging, to path over them. Examples of this include bodies of water, and short blockages, such as fences or wheat.

Some squares perform what's known as "pushing." These "push tiles" do not prevent players from walking on them, but will immediately push them off once they stand there. Typically, these squares are used when areas where players might be stood are changed, such as when introducing new scenery. Per Mod Elena:

We usually use [push tiles] for when we change an area where players might be stood. For example: During the Halloween event in 2020, a part of the Lumbridge Swamp suddenly had a new camp, with several NPCs and new scenery that shouldn't be stood on. If a player logged in on top of any of those, they would be moved off it. Usually that's accompanied with having actual blocking on the new thing placed on the tile, such as an NPC that doesn't let you walk on top of it or similar.

Some squares are designated as being "safe," which prevents PvP combat from taking place while standing on them. These squares also apply a "bank" attribute, that allows for players to use bank-use items while standing there. Most bankers and bank booths are placed in the centre of a 5x5 grid of "safe squares." Because this "bank" attribute is added to all safe square automatically, safe areas with no bank nearby still allow bank-use items to be used, such as any location on all four levels of the Ferox Enclave.

v t e Mechanics
Engine	Java RuneScript RuneTek
Game clients	Jagex Launcher Desktop Mobile Third-party RuneLite HDOS Discontinued OSBuddy Konduit Java
Performance	Bad luck mitigation Cache format Clickbox Drop rate Game square Game tick Line of sight Player identification number Stealth
Exploits	Run trick Tick manipulation Tick eating Drop trick Animation stall
Graphics	Interface Graphical updates (historical)
Servers	Server Ping Lag