Strategies for Ironman Mode

This article is a strategy guide for Ironman Mode. Information on mechanics, setups, and tactics is on this page.

Ranged is one of the 3 combat styles.

Armour

Tier	Requirements	Equipment		Obtaining	Type
1	-		Soft leather armour	Lowe's Archery Emporium	Tank
N/A	-		Amulet of accuracy	Imp Catcher	Amulet
10	10		Hard leather armour	Lowe's Archery Emporium	Tank
20	20		Studded leather armour	Lowe's Archery Emporium	Tank
30	30		Carapace armour	Lowe's Archery Emporium	Tank
40	40		Green dragonhide armour	Lowe's Archery Emporium	Tank
50	50		Blue dragonhide armour	Valaine's Shop of Champions + Oziach's Armour	Tank
50	50		Spined armour	Dagannoth drops from Waterbirth Island (lighthouse does not work)	Power
65	65		Superior spined armour set	1000 deathmatch points or Wilderness shared loot table + spined armour	Power, degrade to dust
70	70		Armadyl armour	Kree'arra	Power, augmentable
75	75 93		Dinosaurhide armour	Big Game Hunter	Tank, augmentable
80	80		Anima Core of Zamorak	Twin Furies	Power, augmentable
80	80 80		Pernix armour	Nex	Power, augmentable
82	82 40		Elite Robin Hood armour	Treasure Trails: Robin Hood equipment + Golden thread	Power, augmentable
85	85 90		Death Lotus equipment	Player-owned Ports	Tank, augmentable
88	88		Superior Morrigan's equipment	Wilderness slayer revenant task drop/Wilderness shared loot table + revenant/Chaos Elemental drop	Power, augmentable, degrade to dust
90	90 93		Sirenic armour	Various drops, see Sirenic scales	Power, augmentable, degrade to dust
92 (95 damage)	92		Elite sirenic armour	Above + Seiryu the Azure Serpent	Power, augmentable, degrade to dust (outside Elite Dungeons)

Note that void knight equipment performs worse than augmented Armadyl armour.

Weapons

This section lists primary weapons. Weapons used for their special effects are listed in #Other equipment.

Tier	Requirements	Equipment	Obtaining	Type
6	-	Kayle's chargebow	The Blood Pact	Chargebow (does not use ammunition, but can use special arrows)
10	5	Quickbow	Gudrik	Chargebow
20	20	Willow shortbow	Lowe's Archery Emporium	Bow (fires arrows)
30	30	Maple shortbow	Lowe's Archery Emporium	Bow
40	40	Yew shortbow	Lowe's Archery Emporium	Bow
50	50	Rune crossbow & Off-hand rune crossbow	Valaine's Shop of Champions	Crossbows (fire bolts)
60	60 59	Red salamander	Hunter	Salamander (fires tar)
70	70 50	Crystal bow	Roving Elves	Augmantable chargebow
70	70 67	Black salamander	Hunter	Augmentable salamander
70	70	Blisterwood stake & Off-hand blisterwood stake	Branches of Darkmeyer	Thrown
75	75 150	Vanquish (ranged)	May's Quest Caravan	No ammunition
75	75 61	Hand cannon	Chaos dwarf hand cannoneers	Augmentable hand cannon. Can explode, if augmented will drain extra charge.
78	78	Sunspear (ranged)	River of Blood	Augmentable, no ammunition
80	80 80	Chaotic crossbow & Off-hand chaotic crossbow	Dungeoneering tokens	Augmentable crossbow
80	80 90	Attuned crystal bow	Attuned crystal weapon seed	Augmentable chargebow
87	87 85	Decimation	Wilderness slayer	Augmentable chargebow with useful special attack
90	90	Noxious longbow	Araxxor	Augmentable bow
90	90 95 94	Ascension crossbow & Off-hand ascension crossbow	See below	Augmentable crossbows
92	92	Seren godbow	Telos, the Warden	Augmentable chargebow with useful special attack
92	92	Blightbound crossbow & Off-hand Blightbound crossbow	Solak	Augmentable crossbows that sometimes save bolts
92	92	Eldritch crossbow	The Ambassador	Augmentable crossbow with useful special attack

2-handed versus dual wield

For ranged, dual wield will perform a little better than 2-handed equipment. This is because Needle Strike is a lot better than Dazing Shot. Greater Dazing Shot makes up some of the difference against high health enemies, but needle strike is still generally better.

However, because of Ruby bakriminel bolts (e), crossbows perform much better than regular bows at high level.

Ammuntion

Damage tier is the minimum of weapon and ammunition tier, meaning there is no penalty for equipping better arrows, as long as it matches the type of weapon used.

Tier	Requirements	Ammunition	Obtaining
10	10	Iron arrows	Lowe's Archery Emporium
20	20	Steel arrows	Lowe's Archery Emporium
30	30	Mithril arrows	Lowe's Archery Emporium
40	40	Adamant arrows	Lowe's Archery Emporium
50	50	Runite bolts	Crossbow Shop (Dwarven Mine), Hickton's Archery Emporium, Valaine's Shop of Champions
50	50 55 55 Smoking Kills	Broad-tipped bolts	Unlock with 300 slayer points.
60	60 39	Tarromin tar	Tar can be obtained from aberrant specters, cave slimes or Big chinchompa.
70	70 44	Harralander tar	Tar can be obtained from aberrant specters, cave slimes or Big chinchompa.
75	75 Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf	Hand cannon shot	Chaos dwarf hand cannoneer
80	80 60	Royal bolts	Queen Black Dragon
90	90	Araxyte arrow	Araxxor
90	90 90	Ascension bolts	Fletch from ascension shards
95	99 95 93 85	Gem-tipped Bakriminel bolts	Bloodwood tree, see bakriminel bolts page for relevant boosts

Bakriminel bolt types

There are 5 relevant types of bakriminel bolts. This calculator compares them:

• Ruby bakriminel bolts (e) deal high damage against high health target but deal some self-damage.
• Diamond bakriminel bolts (e) deal damage with increased accuracy.
• Dragonstone bakriminel bolts (e) deal increased damage.
• Onyx bakriminel bolts (e) deal increased damage, heal but are difficult to obtain, increase death costs if taken in high quantities and the bolt tips could be alched for a lot of gold pieces.
• Hydrix bakriminel bolts (e) increase adrenaline but have all the onyx bolt drawbacks while also requiring attention to use correctly.

Ascension Crossbow guide

After reaching 99 slayer players get access to the Sunken Pyramid, which they can fill with capsarii (5 souls are required to fill a room). With the correct setup and the equilibrium aura, enough damage can be reached such that every capsarius is killed in 1 hit in legacy mode. These are 3 common setups:

Sunspear setup

This setup uses the least charge and supplies and is easy to achieve, but has a theoretical cap of 1,000 kills per hour. The cap cannot be reached due to uneven spawn speeds inside the pyramid.

• Use an Augmented Sunspear (ranged).
• Sunspear perks: Precise 5 and the highest rank of Scavenging.
• No augmented top or legs necessary.

Attuned crystal bow setup

This setup has a theoretical cap of 1,200 kills per hour and has higher requirements (access to ancient invention as well as Plague's End and 90 or a drop from Nex).

• Use an Augmented attuned crystal bow or an Augmented Zaryte bow.
• Bow perks: Precise 6 and Ruthless 3.
• Requires overloads (holy aggroverloads, aggroverloads or holy overloads recommended, in that order).

Decimation setup

This setup can reach the same theoretical cap of 1,200 kills per hour but does not need overloads. However, decimation requires Wilderness slayer.

• Use an Augmented Decimation.
• Bow perks: Precise 6 and Ruthless 3.

Hexhunter setup

This setup is the highest theoretical kills per hour but requires an extremely rare drop. This setup does not always 1-hit, but the high damage of the hexhunter bow makes up for it.

• Use an Augmented hexhunter bow.
• Bow perks: Precise 6 and Ruthless 3.
• Requires overloads.
• Requires ammunition, araxyte arrows are the easiest to get.

Shared setup

• The Equilibrium aura is required for this. It works 2 hours by default or can be extended to 4 hours with 40 vis wax. Note that the Equilibrium perk does not stack with the aura.
• Use the Overpowering Force prayer with the Amulet of zealots. This gives a consistent +16% damage boost. Leech Range Strength occasionally drops to +12% on legacy leading to missed one-hits.
• If possible play on RuneScape mobile. The area loot area is larger.
• For a pet/familiar, these are the best options in no particular order:
  • Legendary pet with the scavenging ability and a yak pouch. Requires banking roughly every 2 hours (sometimes sooner).
  • Pack yak with Winter Storage scrolls. Requires no banking but works best on mobile.
  • Lorehound pet with the increased area loot ability. Take enchanted notepaper to 'bank' the signets.
• Either an Augmented Armadyl chestplate or an Augmented Armadyl chainskirt with the Scavenging 4 and Enhanced Efficient 4 perks.
• Aggression flasks. If going 2 hours, take 3 (6) doses. Can be combined with overloads through aggroverloads or holy aggroverloads.
• Prayer renewal flasks. If going 2 hours, take 3 (6) doses. Can be combined with overloads through holy overloads or holy aggroverloads.
• Enhanced Excalibur for additional healing.
• Spring cleaner for drop cleaning. Capsarii drop tiny spiky rune salvage, medium plated adamant salvage and various battlestaves.
  • Alternatively, take alchemy runes for the above drops. This is a more efficient than using components (the salvage can still be disassembled for free with the spring cleaner).
• Best in slot ranged bonus equipment which does not degrade. Options include:
  • Anima core helm of Zamorak or Armadyl helmet.
  • Anima core body of Zamorak or Armadyl chestplate, if using augmented legs or Sunspear.
  • Anima core legs of Zamorak or Armadyl chainskirt, if using augmented body or Sunspear.
  • Armadyl gloves or Demon slayer gloves. If using hexhunter bow, Cinderbane gloves with weapon poison+++ can provide additional kills.
  • Armadyl boots or Demon slayer boots.
  • Tirannwn quiver 4 or below for the prayer bonus.
  • Archers' ring (i) or Asylum surgeon's ring (i) since luck has no effect.
  • Any illuminated god book in the pocket slot. If none have been completed, the spring cleaner goes in the pocket slot. If using the hexhunter bow, the superior scrimshaw of cruelty can increase kills per hour at a cost of 2.5 ancient bones per hour.
  • Constitution cape for healing or Defence cape for hardcore safety. If the skillcape stand in the Anachronia base camp is unlocked (or the Max cape has been unlocked), use a TokHaar-Kal-Xil or Ava's alerter.
• Ancient elven ritual shard (optional) for additional prayer restore.
• Lantadyme incense sticks (optional) for decreased potion usage. Note that prayer renewals will restore less prayer per minute with these active.

Other equipment

Equipment	Requirements	Obtaining	Effect
Ava's alerter	-	Do No Evil	Once unlocked permanently collects ammunition. High ranged bonus.
Dark bow	70 70 90	Dark beasts	Useful special attack, but deals less damage.
Fleeting boots	80	Raksha, the Shadow Colossus	Allows the wearer to use rapid fire while moving.
Hexhunter bow	80 99	Soulgazers, always use Seeker charms	Augmentable bow with high damage against certain enemies.
Mechanised chinchompas	75 50	Invention	Deal damage in a 3 by 3 area.
Nightmare gauntlets	85 , Children of Mah	Nightmares, 1/2000 on task	Allows the wearer to use snipe while moving.
Ranged cape	99	Armour Salesman	Makes bakriminel bolts more likely to activate.
Superior scrimshaw of cruelty	80 92	Player-owned Ports	Increases damage by 6.66% for 4 hours.
Swift gloves (black)	See page	Dominion tower	Deals additional damage, lowers stats and binds but degrades quickly.
Wyvern crossbow	85 96	Wyverns, 1/2000 on task	Augmentable crossbow, deals increasing damage over time against a single target.

Unlockable abilities

Ability	Unlocking	Level	Type	Effect
Corruption Shot	Liberation of Mazcab drop	70	Additional basic	Deals high damage over time, spreading to adjacent targets.
Death's Swiftness	The World Wakes	85	Additional ultimate	Adds 50% damage for 30 seconds as long as the user stays in a 5 by 5 area.
Demoralise/Rout	Unspeakable horrors	58	Additional basic/threshold	Knocks back target, but puts Binding Shot/Tight Bindings on cooldown which have a longer bind. Unlike binding shot, demoralise cannot be combined with Piercing Shot.
Greater Dazing Shot/Salt the Wound	Shattered Worlds	60 (90 in ranged, melee or magic recommended)	Replacement basic/additional threshold	Adds a damage over time effect. Salt the Wound deals damage depending on how high this damage over time is.
Greater Ricochet	Raksha, the Shadow Colossus	45	Replacement basic	Adds damage, especially in conjunction with the Caroming perk.
Shadow Tendrils	The Dig Site	75	Additional threshold	High damage threshold ability that also deals damage to the user.

Training the skill

Ideally, the skill is trained while collecting resources or training Slayer or Prayer. If that's not desired, see pay-to-play Ranged training.