Damage
Understanding how damage is calculated in RuneScape combat
How Damage is Dealt
This section contains surface level details of how combat works, but we have a more detailed rundown further into this guide to explain all the different combat styles, modes, and some important abilities.
At its very core, you're rolling invisible dice like it's D&D to see how much damage you're going to do to an enemy, as every ability has a damage range. Wrack, for instance, does 90%-110% Magic damage. Additionally, each number in the range has an equal chance to roll, making the middle value the actual average.
Your damage potential is related to your accuracy, which can be found in the target information window. If it reads 100%, you're dealing 100% of your potential damage. However, if you're fighting something with a high defence value your accuracy could drop to 80% and you'll have all of your damage reduced by a factor of 0.8.
There are a few ways to improve your accuracy stat:
- Increase your combat skill level in the style you're using
- Increase the tier of your weapon
- Take advantage of monster-specific weaknesses for a large boost to accuracy
- Reduce the defense stat of your target
- Utilize player accuracy buffs such as certain auras, prayers, or special attacks
Critical Strikes
Critical Strikes are another part of the damage equation that we need to account for.
By default critical strikes multiply your damage by a factor of 1.1 and that damage factor increases with level. Starting at level 10, every subsequent 10 levels you gain will grant you an additional 5% Critical Damage.
Every player also has a base Critical Strike Chance of 10%. Unlike Critical Damage, this does not increase with level and the only way to modify your critical strike chance is through specific gear effects or ability modifiers.
| Level | Critical Damage |
|---|---|
| 1 | 10% |
| 20 | 15% |
| 30 | 20% |
| 40 | 25% |
| 50 | 30% |
| 60 | 35% |
| 70 | 40% |
| 80 | 45% |
| 90 | 50% |