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"RCB" redirects here. For the feet slot item, see Rock climbing boots.
For this item's augmented variant, see augmented royal crossbow.

Royal crossbow detail

The royal crossbow is a level 80 two-handed crossbow that bears the likeness of the Queen Black Dragon. Using the royal crossbow requires:

  • 80 Ranged (to equip)
  • 70 Smithing (to forge) (can be boosted)
  • 60 Summoning (to enter the QBD lair) (cannot be boosted)
  • Quest map icon Completion of Song from the Depths

Despite the examine information saying that the crossbow will inflict heavy damage in prolonged encounters, this is now outdated as it was the crossbow's ability prior to the Evolution of Combat - it will deal the same damage regardless of the length of a fight.

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completedegraded
Combat Stats
RequirementsDegradesRoyal crossbow equipped
80 RangedYes
ClassSlot
Ranged Ranged2h slot
Tier
80
WeaponsMainOff
Damage1020-
Accuracy1924-
StyleBolts
Range9
Speed
Average (3.6s)
AttributesDamage reduction
DefenceArmour0PvM: 0%PvP: 0%
ConstitutionLife points0Style bonuses
PrayerPrayer0Strength0Ranged0Magic0
[FAQ][doc]
Combat Stats
RequirementsDegradesRoyal crossbow equipped
80 RangedYes
ClassSlot
Ranged Ranged2h slot
Tier
80
WeaponsMainOff
Damage63-
Accuracy150-
StyleBolts
Range9
Speed
Average (3.6s)
AttributesDamage reduction
DefenceArmour0PvM: 0%PvP: 0%
ConstitutionLife points0Style bonuses
PrayerPrayer0Strength0Ranged0Magic0
[FAQ][doc]

Creating[]

Parts[]

The core of the royal crossbow is the coral crossbow, which is untradeable but freely obtained after completing Song from the Depths. Players who have lost their coral crossbow may retrieve another from Sir Rebrum outside the Grotworm Lair. Each player may only own one royal crossbow at any time since Sir Rebrum will not supply coral crossbows needed to create additional royal crossbows. However, the player can bypass this restriction by augmenting their current royal crossbow. Augmented royal crossbow is considered a different item and Sir Rebrum will allow players to claim another coral crossbow.

Aside from the coral crossbow, four other items are required to assemble the royal crossbow, all of which are tradeable and available as drops from the Queen Black Dragon:

Royal crossbow Grand Exchange cost
Royal bolt stabiliserRoyal bolt stabiliser89,022 [graph]
Royal frameRoyal frame89,215 [graph]
Royal sightRoyal sight88,741 [graph]
Royal torsion springRoyal torsion spring90,606 [graph]
Total price357,584
[view] [talk]

Assembly[]

Once a player has acquired the four pieces plus the coral crossbow, they must take them to Thurgo at Mudskipper Point, who will gladly combine the pieces into an unforged royal crossbow. He will also comment that incredible heat will be required to complete the weapon, far greater than any furnace can provide; in fact, only the fire of an ancient dragon could produce enough heat. At this point, the crossbow gains a left-click "Brandish" option, as well as an option to disassemble the weapon into its pieces. 70 Smithing is required to successfully brandish the bow.

Forging[]

Note: Players may forge the crossbow using Practice mode at Queen Black Dragon, which prevents losses if the player dies during the battle.

The only ancient dragon remaining in RuneScape is the Queen Black Dragon, who slumbers deep beneath Asgarnia in the Grotworm Lair. Players must enter her lair and battle her up to her fourth phase, at which point she will begin using her extremely hot dragonfire attack (see her strategies article for more information). The Queen Black Dragon's normal dragonfire attack is not hot enough to forge the crossbow; it must be done in her extremely hot attack. Players must stand directly in the middle of the attack (next to the centre artefact) while facing the Queen Black Dragon, taking its full damage, and brandish the unfinished royal crossbow. Only click once and wait until the animation finishes or else the process will not complete. Doing so will forge its components together into a usable weapon. Note that the Queen Black Dragon is a very dangerous, very powerful monster, and standing in the middle of her extremely hot dragonfire will result in very high damage. Actually defeating the Queen Black Dragon is not a requirement for forging the crossbow - even if you die, you can select to keep it on death. The crossbow can be forged in practice mode, which ensures all items are kept on death for free.

It should be noted that once the royal crossbow has been forged by the Queen Black Dragon, it can never be split apart again, so it becomes permanently bound to the player unless lost on death or if you destroy it, in which case it will not be reimbursed. Upon death in the Wilderness, 100,000 coins appears on the ground to the killer.

Disassembly[]

[FAQ] • [doc]

Recharging[]

Prior to it fully degrading, any of the four components can be used on the royal crossbow to recharge it by 25%. If it fully degrades, it can only be repaired by taking the degraded royal crossbow along with all four royal crossbow components to Thurgo; re-brandishing it at the Queen Black Dragon is not necessary. The royal crossbow has 30,000 charges of combat before degrading fully and becoming royal crossbow (degraded). In this state, it has stats equal to a bronze 2h crossbow. Upon death, if the royal crossbow is equipped, it will degrade by 20% when retrieved from a grave, but does not lose any charge if it was in the inventory instead or is reclaimed from Death.

Analysis[]

As a level 80 Ranged weapon, the royal crossbow is among the strongest and most accurate ranged weapons in the game. It shares this position with the zaryte bow, attuned crystal bow, chaotic crossbow with its off-hand and the attuned crystal chakram with its off-hand. While it is slower than said weapons, it has a longer range, meaning it can shoot targets further away. Unlike the zaryte and attuned crystal bow, the royal crossbow gains extra damage from its ammunition. It can fire any type of bolt, but when firing ascension or ascendri bolts, they have reduced damage that makes them equal to royal bolts.

The royal crossbow's purchase cost is a small fraction of the zaryte bow's, though depending on the ammunition fired, the royal crossbow may be more expensive per shot than the zaryte bow. There are more requirements to obtain an attuned crystal bow and the main hand/off-hand attuned crystal chakram as Plague's End is required to get an attuned crystal weapon seed needed to create either weapons. Use of one of Ava's devices to automatically retrieve bolts can significantly reduce the cost per shot of the royal crossbow. Given that royal bolts, the most commonly used ammunition, cost 106 each, purchasing ammunition is not a costly endeavour.

Ironmen who use the royal crossbow must keep defeating the Queen Black Dragon for additional crossbow pieces when it needs to be repaired, since they cannot obtain the pieces from the Grand Exchange or from other players.

Comparison with other Ranged weapons[]

Two-handed[]

Name Reqs Cost Accuracy (Tier) Notes
Seren godbow Seren godbow 92 Ranged 923,416,219 2577 (92)
Noxious longbow Noxious longbow 90 Ranged 163,230,298 2458 (90)
  • Has a special attack, Mirrorback, that summons a mirrorback spider which reduces and reflects damage for ten seconds
  • Has a 9 square attack range, which decreases the distance a player needs to move in order to attack targets
  • Degrades: has 30,000 charges of combat (a minimum of 5 hours), and costs 4,500,000 coins to repair via a Repair NPC, or discounted at an armour stand
Decimation Decimation 87 Ranged 65,339,204 2287 (87)
  • Has a special attack, Locate, all of your attacks hit all available targets within 3 tiles of your main target (i.e. all of your attacks become area-of-effect attacks) for 10 seconds
  • Supplies its own ammunition, disallowing the use of Bane ammunition
  • Has a 9 square attack range, which decreases the distance a player needs to move in order to attack targets
  • Degrades: has 60,000 charges of combat (a minimum of 10 hours), and costs 4,500,000 coins to repair via a Repair NPC, or discounted at an armour stand
Wyvern crossbow Wyvern crossbow 85 Ranged 24,191,474 2178 (85)
  • Passive effect: damage-over-time effect that ramps up in damage the longer it is in combat against a specific foe that is treated as a poison
  • Has a 9 square attack range, which decreases the distance a player needs to move in order to attack targets
  • Degrades: has 30,000 charges of combat (a minimum of 5 hours), and costs 4,125,000 coins to repair via a Repair NPC, or discounted at an armour stand
Strykebow Strykebow 85 Ranged
85 Defence
13,534,872 2178 (85)
  • Passive effect: stores damage received in combat (must remain equipped)
  • Has a special attack, Deep burn which traps the target in a column of fire using the stored damage from the passive effect
  • As a shieldbow, it allows the use of defence abilities at a cost to damage dealt
  • Has a 9 square attack range, which decreases the distance a player needs to move in order to attack targets
  • Degrades: has 60,000 charges of combat (a minimum of 5 hours), and costs 5 dark bows (387,220 coins) to repair
Hexhunter bow Hexhunter bow 80 Ranged 169,376,270 1924 (80)
Royal crossbow Royal crossbow 80 Ranged
70 Smithing
60 Summoning
Song
from
the
Depths
357,584 1924 (80)
  • Must reach the Queen Black Dragon's fourth phase and brandish it when she uses her extremely hot flames to initially obtain one
  • Has a 9 square attack range, which decreases the distance a player needs to move in order to attack targets
  • Degrades: has 30,000 charges of combat (a minimum of 5 hours), and is repaired using royal crossbow parts (25% per part)
Attuned crystal bow Attuned crystal bow 80 Ranged
50 Agility
90 Smithing
Plague's
End

The Eyes
of
Glouphrie
Attuned crystal weapon seed, 2000 harmonic dust 1924 (80)
  • Has a chance (up to 12%, based on Agility level) to deal +25% damage
  • Supplies its own ammunition, disallowing the use of Bane ammunition
  • Has a 7 square attack range.
  • Degrades: has 50,000 charges of combat (double charges used outside of Prifddinas; a minimum of about 8 hours inside), and can be repaired by Eluned/Islwyn for a minimum of 200,000 coins
Zaryte bow Zaryte bow 80 Ranged 8,816,585 1924 (80)
  • Supplies its own ammunition, disallowing the use of Bane ammunition
  • Can be wielded in the God Wars Dungeon to protect from the four central factions
  • Has a 7 square attack range.
  • Degrades: has 60,000 auto-attacks, and costs 2,000,000 coins to repair via a Repair NPC, or discounted at an armour stand
Sunspear (ranged) Sunspear (ranged) 78 Ranged
River of Blood
Free after River of Blood quest, 600,000 to reclaim 1829 (78)
Hand cannon Hand cannon 75 Ranged
61 Firemaking
Forgiveness
of a
Chaos
Dwarf
804,514 1694 (75)
  • Uses hand cannon shot as its ammunition
  • Can also explode and do damage to the player using it (the higher the Firemaking level the lower the chance)
  • Has a 9 square attack range, which decreases the distance a player needs to move in order to attack targets

Dual-wield[]

Name Reqs Cost Accuracy (Tier) Notes
Blightbound crossbow Off-hand Blightbound crossbow Blightbound crossbow and off-hand 92 Ranged 496,358,591 (main hand)
592,343,565 (off-hand)
2577 (92)
  • Has a 7 square attack range
  • Degrades: has 60,000 charges of combat (but loses 2 charges per hit, so has a minimum duration of 5 hours of combat), and costs 4,500,000 coins to repair via a Repair NPC, or discounted at an armour stand
Ascension crossbow Off-hand Ascension crossbow Ascension crossbow and off-hand 90 Ranged 125,758,405 (main hand)
125,985,380 (off-hand)
2458 (90)
Superior Morrigan's throwing axe Superior Morrigan's throwing axe 88 Ranged 11,498,028 (main hand) 2343 (88)
Superior Morrigan's javelin Superior Morrigan's javelin 88 Ranged 11,529,528 (main hand) 2343 (88)
Elite Death Lotus dart Off-hand Elite Death Lotus dart Elite Death Lotus dart and off-hand 88 Ranged
92 Fletching
25 Death Lotus dart (or off-hand), Death lotus extract 2343 (88)
Shadow glaive Off-hand shadow glaive Shadow glaive and off-hand 85 Ranged 12,797,611 (main hand)
12,196,398 (off-hand)
2458 (90)
Death Lotus dart Off-hand Death Lotus dart Death Lotus dart and off-hand 85 Ranged
92 Fletching
Ancient bones, 25 Ascension shards 2178 (85)
Attuned crystal chakram Off-hand attuned crystal chakram Attuned crystal chakram and off-hand 80 Ranged
50 Agility
90 Smithing
Plague's
End

The Eyes
of
Glouphrie
2 attuned crystal weapon seeds, 2000 harmonic dust 1924 (80)
  • Has a chance (up to 12%, based on Agility level) to deal +25% damage
  • Thrown weapon, disallowing the use of Bane ammunition
  • Has a 7 square attack range
  • Degrades: has 50,000 charges of combat (double charges used outside of Prifddinas; a minimum of about 8 hours inside), and can be repaired by Eluned/Islwyn for a a minimum of 200,000 coins
Chaotic crossbow Off-hand chaotic crossbow Chaotic crossbow and off-hand 80 Ranged
80 Dungeoneering
Dungeoneering token 200,000 (main hand)
Dungeoneering token 100,000 (off-hand)
1924 (80)
  • Has a 7 square attack range
  • Degrades: has 30,000 charges of combat (a minimum of 5 hours), and costs (total) 3,000,000 coins, or 300,000 coins and 30,000 Dungeoneering tokens to repair
Armadyl crossbow Off-hand Armadyl crossbow Armadyl crossbow and off-hand 75 Ranged 5,594,315 (main hand)
5,598,386 (off-hand)
1694 (75)
  • Has a 7 square attack range
  • Does not degrade
  • Offers a prayer bonus
  • No ammunition of the corresponding tier

Trivia[]

  • Prior to the Evolution of Combat, the royal crossbow was a one-handed weapon with a requirement of 85 ranged rather than 80. It could only fire royal bolts. It also had a unique ability in that all shots fired would deal their damage to targets in a damage-over-time effect, rather than dealing their full damage all at once. The total damage dealt per shot tended to be higher than with other crossbows. It was designed to be most useful when fighting boss monsters. Because the weapon was designed to deal damage over a long period of time, it was relatively weak against monsters without many life points. It was also ineffective against players, dealing very little damage to them.
  • Prior to an update on 7 January 2014, the only option to recharge the crossbow was to brandish it again during another fight with the Queen Black Dragon (just as it was completed the first time). Since then, players are able use any royal crossbow piece on the completed crossbow, consuming the piece and recharging 25% of the crossbow's durability.
  • Its degraded form has 63 damage and 150 accuracy.
  • Even though the King Black Dragon is known to be the second dragon ever created (as referenced the Dragonkin Journals), the King is supposedly not "ancient," due to its inability to charge the Royal Crossbow. This means that the Queen Black Dragon is not only the single "ancient" dragon on Gielinor, but also the only "ancient" dragon ever to exist.
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