Best OSRS Weapons Guide

Finding the best weapons in OSRS can be difficult considering that there are lots to choose from. You also have to consider that certain weapons are best for specific scenarios, while they do badly in others.

The best weapons in the game aren't just about having the best stats or the highest damage. You also have to consider their passive effects. In fact, most of these weapons below are loved because of their bonuses. To give you a better idea of what you should work for in the game, we're going to list down the OSRS best weapons right now.

Melee Weapons

Abyssal Whip

The original Abyssal whip was released into the game on January 26, 2005, with the release of the Slayer skill. The Abyssal whip we know today wasn't always like this. Back then, we didn't have polls to vote on what content we wanted to see, or super detailed news posts about what's coming. It was more or less a little blurb about what was released on update day, and the community was left to figure out the rest for themselves but it Increased accuracy by 25% and transferred 10% of the target's run energy to the wielder.

The special attack was quite different back in the day - it had a 50/50 chance to either hit zero or the maximum possible hit, using 50 special attack energy. At that time, tick eating and HP recovery weren't common mechanics. Saradomin Brews didn't exist, and saved up when PKing was frowned upon. Essentially, if your HP dropped below 20, you had a 50/50 chance of living or dying.

However, PKing wasn't the only thing the Abyssal whip excelled at during that time. For a long time, it was the best option for training attack and defense for certain account builds and those progressing through the mid-game. Even today, it remains an affordable option with great DPS and affordability compared to other weapons.

As for its price over time, after the initial rush of being introduced to the game, prices steadily decreased. Unfortunately, this was before the price tracking of the Grand Exchange, so we only have our own experiences to speak from. After selling our first Abyssal whip for 65 million GP, prices steadily declined over the next few months.

The Abyssal whip's value today is largely due to its degradation when combined with a Kraken tentacle. This feature was introduced on April 10, 2014, with the release of the cave Kraken and the cave Kraken boss. Players could now combine a Kraken tentacle with the Abyssal whip to create an Abyssal tentacle, which provided additional slash attack bonuses, strength bonuses, and increased attack levels.

The Abyssal tentacle quickly became the staple option for melee-based PvM scenarios, including the God Wars Dungeon, Wilderness bosses, and other high-level PvM encounters. Its special attack also received an upgrade, consuming 50% special attack energy and binding the target for 5 seconds with a 50/50 chance of poisoning.

The Abyssal tentacle lasts for 10,000 hits before consuming the whip and leaving behind only the Kraken tentacle. Players would then need a new Abyssal whip to create a new Abyssal tentacle. Later updates allowed players to add two Kraken tentacles to the whip, giving it a total of 20,000 charges.

Today, we still have the original Abyssal whip for various uses, alongside the upgradable Abyssal tentacle, which remains a preferred weapon for many Ironman accounts until they acquire more advanced weapons like the Ghazi Rapier or the Blade of Saeldor. Other mid-level accounts also find it one of the best options for training attack and defense.

Ghrazi Rapier

If you're a player who loves doing PvM content, then one of the best weapons you can get for this purpose if the Ghrazi Rapier. It's an excellent choice when it comes to the highest level of PvM encounters. It has superb damage, accuracy, and more. It's currently the best Stab weapon in the game and using it against monsters weak to this attack will do you well.

Scythe of Vitur

Charging the Scythe for one charge requires one vial of blood and 300 blood runes. This one charge provides 100 swings. After calculating the costs, using a Charged Scythe costs 825 GP per swing. For many, it's so much money. But is it really? Dividing that by 0.6 gives us 6,000 ticks per hour. Dividing that 6,000 by the 5 ticks per swing of the Scythe, we get around 1,200 swings. At 825 GP per swing, we get 990k GP per hour if we're swinging the Scythe every single tick and don't miss at all - which is literally never going to happen.

The Scythe really isn't that expensive to use because it's going to be less than that number. It's going to be less than 1 million GP per hour, and most of the things that you would use it on, even lower tier stuff like Cerberus or the Smoke Devil, are going to yield more GP per hour than this number. The Scythe provides an absurd DPS increase.

Even with the usage, the Theater of Blood is more money with the Scythe than the Tentacle. We really do have to take Wiki raids with a grain of salt, but with the Tentacle, it's telling us that we're getting about 6.4 million GP an hour. But if we switch this over to the Scythe, even subtracting the cost of usage, we are looking at 7.6. We're focusing on the money aspect of the Scythe just because it's talked about so much, but there are tons of other reasons that you would want to speed up whatever you're killing - whether that be pets, collection logs, or just trying to get that task over with quicker.

That being said, the Scythe pays for itself almost everywhere it's used. The Scythe is going to be your best friend.

Osmumten's Fang

This thing is honestly one of the first weapons we would start to grind for after, a whip, and Trident. The thing is one of the most common drops from the Tombs of Amascut and is an accessible and soloable raid for most mid to high-level players. The weapon has been talked about a lot by other players for good reason. It boasts some incredible accuracy against high-defense monsters by rolling our accuracy check twice against a monster's defense on every attack. It really shows how important accuracy can be in a fight.

It does have a five-tick attack speed, so against low-level Slayer mobs, it is outclassed by other weapons. However, it's a great and powerful utility against a wide variety of high defense monsters like Bandos, the Corporeal Beast, metallic dragons, melee next, and of course, within the tombs of a Mascot itself.

The Fang is currently going for around 40 million GP and is honestly an incredible price for a weapon that is so versatile. It's not best in slot at a ton of bosses, but it comes damn near close with a staggering number of instances where the best in slot weapon is between 400 million and 1.2 billion GP.

Ranged Weapons

Twisted Bow

The OSRS community is pretty much familiar with how much damage the Twisted Bow can do. It's one of the best weapons in the game in terms of maximum hit so it shouldn't be surprising that it's on this list as well.

To get the weapon, you'll need to be very lucky as it's a rare drop from the Chambers of Xeric Raid. If that's not enough, you'll also need a Ranged level of 85 for this weapon but if you can do the Chambers of Xeric, your Ranged level should be high enough.

The bow is very dangerous against enemies with high Magic because of its bonuses. It's the bane of mages in the OSRS community. Like the Crystal Bow, this weapon has a range of 10 tiles which is relatively long.

Armadyl Crossbow

The ACB has the same physical appearance as the Hunter's Crossbow, although it has been given a different color scheme. As stated, the Armadyl Crossbow can be obtained by killing the commander of the Saradomin forces, Zilyana. The Armadyl Crossbow is dropped at a rate of 1 out of 508 every time the commander is slain.

While the Armadyl Crossbow cannot be smithed, it can be upgraded to the more powerful Zaryte Crossbow with a Nightshade and 259 Zaryte Shards. The horn and shards are obtained by defeating the Zarosian follower Nihils in the God Wars Dungeon. At the time of recording, the Armadyl Crossbow can be traded on the Grand Exchange for 44,400,000 coins.

The weapon has a minimum Ranged level of 70 is required simply to equip the weapon. Being a one-handed weapon, the Armadyl Crossbow allows players to equip an off-hand item alongside it.

The Armadyl Crossbow can fire any tier of bolt from bronze to dragon. With a base attack range of 8, the crossbow can be further extended by two by utilizing the Long-range combat style. Notably, it is one of only two crossbows that offer a prayer bonus, the other being its advanced iteration, the Zaryte Crossbow.

It has a special attack called Armadyl's Eye which eats up 50% of your special attack energy. This special move will grant a temporary boost to your accuracy, doubling both your level and gear accuracy for a single shot. Additionally, the base chance of an enchanted bolt's special effect triggering is also doubled during the Armadyl's Eye attack.

Being a level 70 Ranged weapon, this crossbow has a ranged attack bonus of +100 and does not give any defensive bonuses. As stated above, it does give a +1 prayer bonus.

It is a great ranged weapon for defeating enemies with high defense. As far as fashion scape goes, this bow is top-tier, even when worn alone, giving a +8 to a player's fashion scape if they have the ability to wield it.

Eclipse Atlatl

The Eclipse Atlatl is a very interesting ranged weapon that was added in the most recent Varlamore update just a few months back. The reason this weapon is intriguing is because its max hit is based on your melee strength, not your ranged strength. So, this means you can deal significant damage without needing multiple ranged switches.

It's a bit unconventional to use initially: your max hit is determined by your melee strength, but your accuracy is still based on your ranged bonus. To increase your max hit, you'd use a strength potion, but for accuracy, you'd opt for a ranging potion. Additionally, when it comes to prayers, you'd still use your ranged offensive prayer to maximize your max hit. So, you're using melee gear and a strength potion to boost your max hit, while also praying Rigour or Eagle Eye if available. It can feel a bit confusing when you first look at it on paper.

The Eclipse Atlatl is used mainly for PvP and players have already come up with amazing Pure builds surrounding this.

Magic Weapons

Kodai Wand

Now, the Kodai Wand isn't as powerful as the Sanguinesti Staff, Trident of the Swamp, or many other Magic weapons in the game. However, it's the best weapon in the game if you prefer fast-casting or splashing spells. The use of the Kodai Wand is very situational but where it works, it definitely does wonders.

One of the best things about the Kodai Wand is that it allows you to autocast spells from a variety of spellbooks including Ancient Magicks, Arceuus, and of course, the standard spellbook. Due to the fact that the wand has an unlimited amount of water runes, it's very cheap to use given that you're using certain spells.

If having unlimited water runes isn't enticing enough, it's also worth noting that the Kodai Wand has a 15% chance to ignore rune costs for spells that you cast that deal damage. This might seem like a measly chance but you're still saving a lot of money in the long-run. It's one of the cheapest best in-slot mage weapons out there.

Getting this is rather hard because you'll need to get the Kodai Insignia from the Chambers of Xeric which is a very tough raid. If that's not enough, the insignia is a rare drop too. You'll then have to combine the item with a master wand. The master wand shouldn't be hard to get and you most likely have it at this point.

Trident of the Swamp

The Trident of the Seas is a drop from the Kraken boss, and an uncharged regular Trident can also drop from smaller Kraken spawns, but not from the boss itself. To obtain the Trident of the Swamp, a Magic Fang dropped from Zulrah is used on the ordinary Trident, requiring level 59 Crafting. To wield either the Trident of the Swamp or Trident of the Seas, you need level 75 Magic. Arguably, it's probably the best magic weapon in the game for bossing, including areas like the Chambers of Xeric and the Kraken, as well as for activities like Barrows.

One interesting aspect about the Trident is that it cannot be used in PvP, most likely due to its potent capabilities. However, oddly enough, it can be worn and used on players in Castle Wars, where PvP is permitted. It has an attack speed of 2.4 seconds, faster than auto-casting any other magic spell in the game.

Each spell cast from the Trident of the Seas costs about 520 coins, meaning a full Trident with 2500 charges will cost approximately 1.3 million coins just in charges. It provides a magic attack and defense bonus of +15, with additional defensive bonuses of +2 stab, +3 slash, and +1 crush defense.

The Trident of the Seas has a base magic attack of +15, which is lower compared to other top-tier magic weapons like the Ancient Staff, which requires only 50 Magic to wield. This is a significant disadvantage compared to the Trident of the Swamp.

The Trident of the Swamp, on the other hand, costs about 630 coins per cast, making it approximately 1.57 million coins to fully charge. The uncharged Toxic Trident costs about 2.5 million coins, making it a choice primarily for wealthier players. It's important to note that when the Trident runs out of charges, you retain the uncharged Trident, so the initial investment isn't lost.

The Trident of the Swamp has a higher base hit, ensuring consistently higher damage output compared to the regular Trident. When comparing the two Tridents in the Nightmare Zone against the same bosses in defensive mode for five minutes, we found that the Trident of the Seas dealt approximately 980 damage with 82 casts, averaging 11.95 damage per cast. In comparison, the Trident of the Swamp dealt 1154 damage with 89 casts, averaging 12.97 damage per cast. While the Trident of the Swamp costs more per hit of damage, its higher damage output per cast makes it better if you want to get faster kills at places like Zulrah, potentially leading to quicker monetary returns.

Sanguinesti Staff

This is one of the most expensive weapons in the game and if you're planning on buying one, make sure to come prepared. But anyway, it uses Blood Runes actually to charge the staff. So if you compare it to the Toxic Trident and compare the cost per cast, it's actually cheaper to use the Toxic Trident. It costs 614 GP per cast and this new staff costs 690 GP per cast. The staff actually holds 20,000 charges in it.

This is actually max Magic attack bonus in the game. This is the best accuracy you can get, this is the maxed out gear right here. So 23% damage and 171 Magic accuracy, which is just insane. So if we put the Slayer Helm on, obviously get the 15% boost from everything, so it's going to be pretty dangerous especially when it comes to PvM.

This staff actually has an effect which makes it different from the Trident. The key differences are it actually has one higher max hit than the Trident, and it does scale in the way the Trident does, where the higher Magic level you have, the higher you can actually hit with the weapon. And it also has a one-in-six chance of healing you for 50% of the damage that you've dealt. So let's say you hit a 20 on a monster or anything, and you get that one in six, and it happens, you're automatically going to get healed 10 HP, which is the real reason why this staff is actually so good at certain places.

It's worth noting that this staff does not work on players in the Wilderness. It's the same as the Trident. You can't actually deal any damage to players, so just keep that in mind.

Tumeken's Shadow

Last but definitely not the least, we've got the Tumeken's Shadow. This is a staff that has a steep Magic 85 requirement but that shouldn't be surprising considering that this is an end-game weapon after all.

If you're lucky enough, you can get it by doing the Tombs of Amascut raid which in itself is home to a wide selection of amazing gear, including the Elidinis' Ward.

The Tumeken's Shadow is beloved for many reasons and it's not just because it looks great and it has high Magic damage. The staff has a unique passive that's tied to its built-in spell. With the passive effect, your attack and magic damage bonuses are amplified depending on your worn equipment. At most, you can get a 100% Magic Strength bonus which basically doubles the damage that you deal. To make things more interesting, the effect bypasses negative bonuses as well.

The problem with the Tumeken's Shadow however is that since its bonus is reliant on your gear, you'll need to have max mage gear to get the most out of it. However, if you're able to pull it off, you've got a potentially dangerous Mage fit for all PvE instances in the game.

You can maximize the staff's damage further, allowing it to become even more powerful than the Sanguinesti Staff. The Sanguinesti Staff still has the edge though because of its chance to heal you. Tumeken's is still not as powerful as the Twisted Bow in terms of damage but it more than makes up for it thanks to its accuracy.

Keep in mind that the developers are still keeping the weapon balanced. As such, the multiplying effect of Tumeken's will not work on PvP.

Equip Yourself With These BiS Weapons

Finding the perfect weapon in OSRS is obviously the dream of every player. With this guide, you'll at least now know which ones to focus on in your journey. Hopefully, you can find and secure these weapons for yourself. In case you're having trouble getting them, don't be afraid to reach out to RPG Stash for help!