Ranged is one of the three styles of combat used in OSRS, with the others being Magic and Melee.
And range is pretty unique among the three. Because many players agree that it’s the most commonly used for high-tier PvM, since many bosses and raids are dominated by players using this particular style – the DPS is just much higher.
The range skill also has a ton of useful weapons associated with it, making it even more popular.
But which ones are the best? Let’s go through some choices that you should have in your ranged arsenal!
10. Dorgeshuun Crossbow
First on our list is the Dorgeshuun Crossbow, which is actually really good for an early game crossbow.
This thing has a decent range attack bonus of +42, and is very easy to obtain early game – it’s just locked behind an early game quest, The Lost Tribe.
Note that it only uses Bone Bolts, which are very cheap to obtain, and has the added benefit of being one game tick faster than any other crossbow. This may not seem like much, but it adds up to a strong damager per second in the long run.
Overall, this is a popular choice among Ironmen and early game players looking to obtain some quick inexpensive Ranged experience.
How to Get: After completing The Lost Tribe you can buy this crossbow from Nardok.
9. Magic Shortbow (i)
Requiring level 50 Ranged to wield, the Magic Shortbow is the best Shortbow in the game – and it possesses the ability to fire Amethyst arrows, making it quite the useful option.
This shortbow also has a special attack “snapshot” which shoots two arrows at once, costing 55% of the special bar.
However, if you imbue the shortbow, this will only cost 50% of the special bar. Then it can be used back-to-back for higher amounts of damage.
And since it’s so easy to actually get your hands on this shortbow, it’s often used by Pk’ers.
How to Get: You’ll need to fletch this from a magic log and string it with a bow string. This requires level 80 fletching.
8. Black Chinchompas
Black Chins are one of the best area of effect (AOE) type of weapons in the entire game.
When thrown, you’ll do damage to a 3×3 square area, and damage everything within that specific area.
In PvM, damage is capped at 12. And in PvP this cap is 10.
Due to the way this range weapon works, it’s often used to stack large groups of enemies and hit them all at once for crazy high amounts of ranging experience. This is generally referred to as chinning, and common places to do this are in the Monkey Madness I and II tunnels.
It’s important to note that if you die, all of your chins will be unrecoverable, since they’re technically “alive” and will run away. So keep that in mind if you’re taking these out for some fun.
These specific black chins require level 65 range to wield.
How to Get: You can catch these with level 73 hunter in the Wilderness hunter area.
7. Dwarf Multicannon
The Dwarf Multicannon is an amazing tool, only requiring that the Dwarf Cannon quest be completed.
You can setup one cannon at a time, and fill it with a maximum of 30 cannon balls. The cannon will spin 360 degrees and shoot at any enemy within its range.
The total range experience you get is half of normal range experience, and no hitpoints experience.
But the benefit of using this is you can still attack with your normal gear, and simply use the cannon to supplement you DPS.
After 30 minutes of use, the cannon will decay and you’ll be required to repair it. But this costs nothing, just requires a simple click.
How to Get: You can buy this for 750k once you’ve completed the Dwarf Cannon quest from Nulodion.
6. Craw’s Bow
Craw’s bow is one of the three wilderness weapons obtainable by killing Revenants.
In my opinion, it is also the best of the three weapons.
This has a very high+ 75 range attack bonus, as well as +60 range strength. It’s specifically used in the Wilderness since it does extra damage when used on enemies in the Wilderness.
This special effect allows the bow to be 50% more accurate, and deal 50% more damage. So if you’re heading into the Wilderness anytime soon, you might want Craw’s bow.
To use this you’ll need level 60 range, and Ethereum ether to charge it, since it has its own ammunition and doesn’t use normal arrows.
How to Get: This is dropped from Revenants in the Revenant Cave and is very rare.
5. Crystal Bow
This bow is similar to the Craw’s Bow in that it has its own built-in ammunition, and degrades slowly over time.
And like you might guess from the name, this bow is charged with Crystal Shards.
It has an impress range attack bonus of +100, and a +70 range strength bonus. It’s also one of the few bows that has an attack distance of over 10 squares – making it capable of firing from very far away.
This makes is very useful for Fight Caves and DKS, where distance is a useful ally.
To wield this bow you need level 50 agility and level 70 ranged, as well as completing the quest “Roving elves”, along with the Hard Western Province Diary completed.
It’s a lot of work, but well worth it.
How to Get: You can get this bow from a crystal weapon seed, provided the quest and diary are complete.
4. Armadyl Crossbow
As one of the best crossbows in all of OSRS, the Armadyl Crossbow has an impressive +100 range attack bonus.
And like all crossbows, this is one-handed, meaning you can wear an offhand like a shield with it.
The Armadyl Crossbow (ACB for short) is the best for everything except fighting dragons, as the Dragon Hunter crossbow outclasses it there.
Also note that this requires 70 range to wield, and has a special attack that doubles your accuracy.
It’s also the only crossbow in OSRS to have a prayer bonus (which is +1).
How to Get: The Armadyl Crossbow is dropped solely by commander Zilyana in the Saradomin encampment at GWD.
3. Dragon Hunter Crossbow
Now this crossbow is the best in slot range weapon for fighting many dragon type enemies, such as Vorkath.
Reason being that it’s one of the game’s Dragonbane weapons.
The Dragon Hunter Crossbow has a respectable +95 range bonus, and provides a 30% increase to damage and accuracy when fighting against dragons.
This effect stacks with void, slayer helmet, and salve bonuses. So getting the right gear can help a lot.
It’s also the second best in slot item for the range phase of the Olm fight in Chambers of Xeric.
But before you can go out slaying, you’ll need level 65 range to equip this crossbow.
How to Get: A rare drop from the chambers of Xeric.
2. Toxic Blowpipe
This is easily one of the best, if not the best, weapon for all round DPS.
The blowpipe has a range attack bonus of +60, however it has one of the fastest attack speeds in the game – meaning that when this is used with high level darts, you melt your enemy’s health away.
In PvM the attack speed is 3 game ticks, and in PvP this is increased to 4.
The blowpipe uses darts, and it must be loaded with both darts and Zulrah scales to fire.
An average of two scales is used for every one dart fired. This can make the weapon very expensive.
There’s also the possibility that your blowpipe can envenom enemies. And this possibility becomes a 100% chance when used in conjunction with the Serpentine Helmet.
So overall, the blowpipe can be used everywhere: for raids, GWD, most slayer bosses, slayer tasks, and range training. This weapon is just extremely effective!
All you’ll need is a decent amount of gp to support it.
How to Get: You’ll need to kill Zulrah and obtain a Tanzanite Fang. With 53 Crafting you can turn the fang into the Toxic Blowpipe.
1. Twisted Bow
And finally we reach the top of our ranking. The Twisted Bow has to be the best ranged weapon in OSRS, and the most sought-after bow in the game.
It has a +70 range attack and +20 range strength bonus, however, this is not why it’s so popular.
Twisted Bows have a passive effect that allows you to hit higher depending on your enemy’s magic level.
The higher the level, the higher you can hit.
This means that on certain enemies you can hit 80’s with ease, and almost all the time. The sheer amount of damage you can output here is ridiculous.
As an example, the max hit of the Twisted Bow outside of the Chambers of Xeric is 83, and within it’s 104.
Considering these are just normal attacks and not special attacks, these numbers are absurdly high.
The Twisted Bow is commonly used for Giant Mole, Raids, KBD, Hydra, Fight Caves, and much more – as there are plenty of enemies with high magic levels in OSRS.
How to Get: On the mega-rare drop table for Chambers of Xeric.
