Successful hit

A successful hit occurs during combat when an attack overcomes its target's Defence.

This can be better explained by considering the following:

For every attack, there are two stages.

• Stage 1 (accuracy roll): Roll the attacker's offensive bonuses against the target's defensive bonuses. If true, proceed to stage 2. If false, produce a 0 (splash for player Magic attacks). This is not a successful hit.
• Stage 2 (damage roll): Roll a hit ranging from 0 to the attacker's maximum hit. If the roll is from a player, then 0's are rounded up to 1's.
  • Some monster special attacks have a minimum hit, such as General Graardor's ranged attack that deals a minimum of 15 damage).^[1]

A damaging spell cast by a player that hits a 0 which does not visibly splash is always a successful hit, and if it has additional effects (such as freezing for ice spells or chance to lower the target's Strength if Ahrim's equipment is worn) they will occur as usual.

Some passive effects only occur during successful hits - such as Guthan's and Karil's equipment set effects, as well as the serpentine helm where there is a chance to envenom the target.

Special attack effects also rely on a successful hit to activate; for example, godsword secondary effects require the attack to land. On a few occasions, the attack must deal damage alongside being a successful hit in order for the effect to activate, such as a dragon warhammer^[2]

Some monsters may use AoE attacks as their standard attacks, which land as successful hits if the player is caught in them.

There are circumstances in which damage from an attack is guaranteed, and will not hit a 0 or splash.

The following is a list of weapons with a special attack that skips the accuracy roll and therefore guarantees damage. The minimum damage is 1 unless otherwise stated.

• Bone dagger (if the player wasn't the previous entity to hit the opponent)
• Dark bow, dealing a minimum of 16 damage with dragon arrows and 10 with other arrows
• Dorgeshuun crossbow (if the player wasn't the previous entity to hit the opponent)
• Dragon warhammer (if the first hit on Tekton)
• Elder maul (if the first hit on Tekton)
• Granite hammer, dealing a minimum of 5 damage
• Magic comp bow
• Magic longbow
• Seercull
• Voidwaker, dealing a minimum of 50% of the user’s maximum melee hit
• Any melee weapons used within 10 ticks (6 seconds) after being under the effect of a soulflame horn's special attack.

The following have passive effects that skip the accuracy roll and guarantee at least 1 damage:

• Diamond bolts (e)/Diamond dragon bolts (e)
• Verac the Defiled's equipment

This list only consists of monsters who land guaranteed hits as auto-attacks; mechanics are not included.

• Kalphite Queen (Ranged and Magic)^[3]
• The Nightmare/Phosani's Nightmare (Melee)
• Thrower troll
• Ice troll female
• Duke Sucellus (shattering icicles, targeted AoE)
• Sol Heredit (auto-attacks, targeted AoE)
• Pestilent Bloat (Ranged)
• Sotetseg (Ranged and Magic)
• Verzik Vitur (Ranged)
• All monsters in the Fortis Colosseum (if Relentless 3 is active)

In the Barbarian Assault minigame, there is an Attacker role. Players who level up this role will always deal an extra amount of damage equal to the level of their role against monsters when assigned the Attacker role, making it impossible to hit 0.

v t e Combat Mechanics
Combat	Attack range Attack speed Auto Retaliate Autocast Combat triangle Special attacks Hitsplat Tanking Magical melee Magical ranged Ranged magic Ranged melee Typeless
Maximum hit	Maximum magic hit Maximum melee hit Maximum ranged hit Monster maximum hit
Damage per second	Damage per second/Melee Damage per second/Ranged Damage per second/Magic
Mechanics	Aggressiveness Buffs Elemental weakness Flinching Hit delay Retaliation Retreat Safespot Spawning Successful hit Maximum damage cap Flat armour Tolerance Wander radius PJ timer Red-X Line of sight
Other	Single-way combat Multicombat area Singles-plus combat Player killing