Skills

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The current stats display menu.

Level up fireworks

Plays when you level up in any skill

Skills are a player's trainable abilities that may be leveled throughout their game play. Any given skill can be trained by various actions that relate to the skill. Performing any of these various actions grants the player experience in that skill. Using items such as experience lamps can increase a skill by a variable amount of experience points based on the player's skill selection. Certain skills may allow players to cook, chop down trees, make fires, use magic, make runes, and so on. Some skills compliment other skills. For example, logs obtained from Woodcutting can be used for Firemaking, and fires from firemaking can be used for Cooking food. Food can then be used to replenish life points to help in Combat, which can be used to kill NPCs that drop herbs, which may then be used for Herblore. Some herblore potions may, for example, boost mining so you can mine ores to smith with, which may then be used to create nails. Nails can be used in Construction. Altars may be constructed within one's house, which can be used to further train prayer. The higher your level is in a given skill, the more resources you will unlock from that skill to enhance game play.

Achieving higher levels in skills can give players various advantages around RuneScape, such as agility shortcuts, faster cutting of wood, etc. Skills are often contrasted with money, some of which are profitable, and others which do not provide the player with any in game wealth whatsoever.

One of the members' skills, Agility.

With the release of Divination, there are now 26 skills available to train in RuneScape. Members have access to all 26 skills, while free-to-play players may only access 16 of these skills, resulting in less available content for the player.

Training certain skills may be profitable, such as selling logs obtained from woodcutting, selling the fish from the fishing skill, or selling the drop(s) from a slayer assignment. Please refer to the Money-making guide for more details. Conversely, other skills may not be profitable. While some skills may be less profitable than others, the main cause of loss of profit is through a lack of the player acquiring their own materials.

When training skills, it is important for players to consider the cost of not obtaining their own materials, including opportunity costs such as obtaining gems while mining ores. The advantage to obtaining materials by oneself is that it may yield a profit since no gold was spent acquiring items. The disadvantage of acquiring your own materials is that it can be very time consuming, and when considering opportunity cost (time you could have spent earning money elsewhere), it may be counterproductive, and become more expensive. When a player buys the materials, it usually results in faster skill training.

A player levels up his Firemaking skill.

Gold trimmed level-up icon for members only skills.

All skills, with the exception of Constitution, start out at level 1. Constitution starts out at level 10, so the player has a fair advantage against monsters. A player has 100 life points per constitution level. Players can advance a skill to level 99 (except for Dungeoneering, which can go to level 120); after that, they can increase their experience up to 200,000,000 - but gain no more levels for doing so. A player's combat level begins at level 4. The maximum combat level a player can reach is level 138. See the hiscores for the relative rankings of the different skills.

Every skill has a unique jingle that plays when the skill is leveled up. This jingle changes with each skill to be slightly more complex whenever the skill reaches level 50.

Skills can be temporarily boosted or lowered by using certain items or equipment, such as Capes of Accomplishment, beer, potions, certain foods, or a summoning familiar if the player is a member.

A player will appear on the hiscores if they are in the top 2,000,000 players of a skill, or if they are level 15 or greater in that skill and are a member.

Free to play skills

Free players have access to 16 skills.

Skill	Description
Attack	Grants players using melee weapons higher accuracy, thus increasing the number of hits dealt to an opponent during any given time period. Since more of the player's hits will be successful, the player's opponent will incur more damage per any given period of time. Stronger weapons also require higher levels of attack in order to equip.
Strength	During melee, higher strength increases a player's maximum potential damage to an opponent for each successful hit. Stronger members' weapons may also require higher levels to equip. Strength also gives access to various agility shortcuts.
Defence	Allows players to wear stronger armour, as well as decrease their chance of being hit. A common misconception is that high defence reduces the maximum possible damage taken during melee with an opponent's successful hit. This is not true. However, because the chances of being hit are lower, the player will sustain less total damage per any given time period while in combat. When the player is hit by an opponent, though, the full damage amount can be incurred.
Ranged	Allows players to fight with arrows and other projectiles from a distance and increases a player's chance to hit when using ranged. Ranged weapons, armour and some other items require a certain ranged level. Also gives members access to various agility shortcuts.
Prayer	Allows players to pray for assistance in combat, such as for stat boosts and immunity from attacks. Effects last until the player runs out of prayer points, or turns their prayers off. Can also be used to repair or bless gravestones. With a higher level you can also wear God robes, spirit shields, including the blessed variations , and temple knight armour.
Magic	Allows players to cast spells, including teleports and enchantments, through the use of different types of runes. Increases magic-based attack accuracy and reduces the chance for magic-based attacks to hit you.
Constitution	Allows players to sustain more damage without dying. Your base life points are one hundred times your constitution level. All combat skills train constitution at a rate of 1.33 experience per 10 damage done (with a few exceptions, such as when experience is not gained for any skill in the Stealing Creation mini-game).
Crafting	Allows players to craft items from raw materials, such as pottery, ranged armour, and jewellery.
Mining	Allows players to obtain ores and gems from rocks found in some specific places. Ores can be used with the smithing skill. Gems can be used with the crafting skill.
Smithing	Allows players to smelt ores into bars, and smith bars into armour, weapons, and other useful items.
Fishing	Allows players to catch certain fish. The fish can then be sold or cooked and then eaten.
Cooking	Allows players to cook food. The food can then be consumed to heal a player's life points. The higher the cooking level, the lesser the chance is of burning food.
Firemaking	Allows players to light fires, lanterns, etc. Players can cook on these fires.
Woodcutting	Allows players to cut down trees for logs, and to carve out canoes for transportation.
Runecrafting	Allows players to make runes in special altars using tiaras, talisman staffs, or talismans, aiding in the magic skill. Also a requirement to wield blast and surge boxes.
Dungeoneering	Allows players to progress further down the dungeons of Daemonheim, unlocking access to exclusive weapons, treasures, monsters, and areas. Relies on all non-member skills in F2P and all skills in P2P. Gives rewards only accessible through dungeoneering.

Member skills

Members have access to all 26 skills, including the 16 free-to-play skills, and 10 additional skills, and more items that F2P can't use. For example, Dragon platelegs for defence, magic trees for woodcutting. A recent update has made F2P able to level these skills to level 5.

Skill	Description
Agility	Allows players to use shortcuts and increases the rate at which energy recharges. Certain pieces of equipment such as the Crystal bow also requires certain agility levels to wield. It is also used to enhance several other skills, such as allowing the player to catch multiple fish at once.
Herblore	Allows players to clean grimy herbs and to make potions which can be used to boost/restore skills. Certain potions also have other specific uses to players (such as curing poisoning, protecting from dragonfire without an Anti-dragon shield, or restoring health at the cost of offensive stats) and are sometimes necessary for survival. Also the higher the herblore level, the more untradable and powerful potions the player can make.
Thieving	Allows players to steal from market stalls, chests and certain non-player characters (and other players in Stealing Creation) and to lockpick doors.
Fletching	Allows players to create projectiles (such as arrows, bolts, and darts) and bows/crossbows which can be used for Ranged.
Slayer	Allows players to kill certain monsters using tactics not used in normal combat. Useful in raising combat skills. Has the potential to give very rewarding drops unique to slayer monsters. It is also helpful for killing the Avatar of Destruction and Avatar of Creation in the minigame Soul Wars.
Farming	Allows players to grow plants (such as fruits, vegetables, herbs, or trees) in certain patches across the world of RuneScape. Farming is notably very useful for collecting many common and rare herbs for Herblore.
Construction	Allows players to build a house and its contents, such as chairs, tables, workshops, dungeons, and more. Every players house is located inside its own instance, separated from the rest of the game. Portals around the world are used to gain entry into the player's own house, and to gain access to other players houses, allowing anyone to gain access to some of the very useful, high level rooms and furniture. Some very popular and useful house features include Teleport Tabs and Portals, storing of many costumes, play-fighting other players, Gilded Altars for huge prayer training bonuses, and much more.
Hunter	Allows players to track, net, deadfall, snare, and trap animals for their hides, abilities and treasures. Some of the animals caught can be used in other skills. For example, Red Chinchompa and Salamanders can be used as a ranging weapon.
Summoning	Allows players to summon familiars and pets to enhance game play in both combat and non-combat skills. Certain familiars can also hold additional items, allowing players to hold more than 28 items, and allows for an expanded pet list.
Divination	Allows players to collect divine energy around the world in order to create products such as signs and portents.

Skills types

There are four types of skills in RuneScape: Combat, Gathering, Artisan, and Support.

Combat: - These skills involve fighting in Combat.

Attack, Strength, Defence, Ranged, Prayer, Magic, Constitution and Summoning

Gathering: - These skills involve gathering raw materials (Resources) directly from the source.

Mining, Fishing, Woodcutting, Farming, Hunter and Divination.

Artisan: - These skills involve using Resource items to create other, generally more useful items.

Herblore, Crafting, Fletching, Smithing, Cooking, Firemaking, Runecrafting and Construction.

Support: - These skills help the player in various different ways:

Agility, Thieving, Slayer and Dungeoneering.

Experience

Main article: Experience

Experience, commonly abbreviated as Exp or XP, is a measure of progress in a certain skill. It is generally obtained by performing tasks related to that skill. After gaining a certain amount of experience, players will advance to the next level in that skill, which can result in new abilities, items, and other achievements. You can earn XP (experience) by training skills, completing quests and participating in various Minigames or Distractions and Diversions.

Skill	Release date	Time elapsed since last skill	Notes
Divination	20 August 2013	3 years, 4 months, 8 days
Dungeoneering	12 April 2010	2 years, 2 months, 28 days
Summoning	15 January 2008	1 year, 1 month, 25 days	Originally envisioned to be an extension to the Magic skill. (Existed in DeviousMUD.)
Hunter	21 November 2006	5 months, 21 days
Construction	31 May 2006	10 months, 20 days	Originally planned to be called Carpentry.
Farming	11 July 2005	5 months, 15 days	Originally planned to be released along with Carpentry.
Slayer	26 January 2005	9 months, 28 days
Runecrafting	29 March 2004	1 year, 3 months, 17 days	Released alongside RuneScape 2.
Agility	12 December 2002	7 months, 12 days
Thieving	30 April 2002	1 month, 5 days
Fletching	25 March 2002	1 month, 4 days
Herblore	27 February 2002	8 months, 10 days	Was named Herblaw in RuneScape Classic.
Fishing	11 June 2001	18 days	The first F2P skill released without being previously known as another skill.
Prayer	24 May 2001	16 days	Known as Necromancy at time of release. Was also known as good prayer and evil prayer at one point in Classic. (Also released initially on 4 January 2001)
Crafting	8 May 2001	1 month, 21 days	Known as Tailoring at time of release.
Magic	17 March 2001	2 months, 13 days	This original skill was initially divided into good magics and evil magics. (Was initially released on 4 January 2001).
Smithing	4 January 2001	—

Frequency of skill milestones

These are the number of players currently listed on the hiscores as having reached these levels in the skill.

Skill	Members	# of 99s	# of 120s	# of 200m xp
Attack	No	212,258	9,876	1,725
Constitution	No	240,048	19,308	5,345
Mining	No	132,412	8,463	1,977
Strength	No	236,179	8,744	1,639
Agility	Yes	101,003	2,707	765
Smithing	No	128,850	6,792	1,854
Defence	No	222,842	19,175	3,796
Herblore	Yes	160,742	5,102	1,159
Fishing	No	150,857	8,402	2,010
Ranged	No	209,828	15,362	3,556
Thieving	Yes	115,999	12,696	3,710
Cooking	No	204,671	4,947	1,763
Prayer	No	165,071	3,915	1,015
Crafting	No	117,362	2,671	838
Firemaking	No	199,750	8,739	2,232
Magic	No	235,348	16,544	4,255
Fletching	Yes	173,715	3,666	1,059
Woodcutting	No	180,555	3,674	1,103
Runecrafting	No	105,350	2,380	793
Slayer	Yes	148,441	17,883	2,406
Farming	Yes	102,949	4,219	1,176
Construction	Yes	101,331	2,254	756
Hunter	Yes	102,010	3,808	1,107
Summoning	Yes	144,434	7,520	2,224
Dungeoneering	No	119,157	36,923	9,655
Divination	Yes	96,752	3,118	986

Stat Wipe

It is possible for accounts with less than 10 Constitution to exist. In the early days of RuneScape Classic, rule-breakers would be stat-wiped, meaning all their skills would be taken back to 1, including Hitpoints, the predecessor to Constitution. When RS2 was released, Jagex banned many of these accounts. As of today, these accounts are extremely rare.

Accounts may also have less than 10 Constitution if they were created during the period where players chose a class when the account was created. Depending on the class chosen, it was possible to have a Hitpoints level lower than 10 (while starting with other stats boosted over 1), and this would remain if they never trained their Constitution level. In this case, this is extremely rare.

Accounts may also have less than 10 Constitution if they were created during RuneScape Classic and did not level it. This is because the required experience for level 10 was raised for RS2; therefore, characters who had not trained hitpoints in RuneScape Classic did not have enough experience for level 10 Constitution.

As of today, it is still possible for stats to be reset. If a user is to commit a serious offence, then unrelated skills may be wiped in addition to the exploited skill. An example of this would be: A user is boosting (using bots) their combat level. In this case, all combat related skills (Attack, Constitution, Strength, Ranged, Magic, etc...) may be reset.

On 29 May, 2001, Jagex released the following statement:

As part of our promised commitment to stamping down and stopping cheats in RuneScape we have developed a new system to automatically detect people using macro/bot software to gain stats unfairly.
It clearly says in our rules that using software to automatically play the game for you and raise your stats for you is cheating! This will not be tolerated. It is just not fair on the players who play the game honestly and get their levels fairly.
Our new system is extremely efficient and accurate, and in the last 24 hours we have already identified nearly 2000 players who have been cheating in this way. We also believe that we will be able to identify all future offenders and will continue modifying and improving our detection software to do so. From this point on if you use a macro or use a modified version of the RuneScape client, it is almost 100% certain that you WILL be banned or erased.
Since these people gained their stats/items unfairly we have unfortunately had no choice but to completely wipe the stats and inventory of the approximately 2000 people who we have caught using macro/bot software. It seems obvious that these players should not be allowed to keep what they did not gain honestly in the first place.
If you are one of the people who we stat-wiped then whining and making excuses to us won't help. Our new system is designed to have a 0% rate of false positives, and we KNOW you were cheating. The stat-wipe is irreversible, so if you want to get your stats back then the only way to do it is to start playing the game fairly, and EARN your way to greatness like everyone else has to.

Click here for a complete list of all the people who have already been stat-wiped. We expect to catch more people at it over the next few days. I hope this proves we are deadly serious about stopping this cheating in RuneScape.

See also

• Milestones
• Experience
• Level 99 skills
• Total level
• Cape of Accomplishment
• 200 million experience

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