How to Make a Pure Account on Runescape

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Reason: Needs more info on training, quests, equipment, and crucial unlocks, as well as a brief introduction into PvP. See the Free-to-play combat pure guide for reference.
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A combat pure is a character whose combat stats are specifically trained in order to optimise performance in player-versus-player scenarios (Wilderness, PvP worlds, Duel Arena, etc.), often prioritising offensive stats whilst maintaining a low combat level. Though the concept of a pure most commonly refers to account focused on offensive skills with a low Defence level, there are other types of more defensive pures with access to superior items and prayers.

Combat skills [edit | edit source]

Combat pures in general tend to focus on offensive skills to gain an advantage in their particular combat level range. Skills that do not directly increase maximum hits are often trained just high enough to unlock specific items or abilities. Commonly restricted combat skills include Defence, Prayer, and Hitpoints, as well as Attack.

Due to the combat level calculation formula, Ranged and Magic can be trained roughly up to ⅔ of the sum of Attack and Strength without affecting the overall combat level. As a result, some builds that focus on different combat styles are compatible with each other. For example, a player with 50 Attack and 99 Strength can train Ranged up to 99 through methods such as cannoning to avoid gaining Hitpoints experience, allowing them to use both melee and range attacks effectively without increasing the combat level. Builds that are inherently incompatible with each other vary by their Defence levels, as well as Attack to Strength ratios, often putting the accounts in vastly different combat level ranges.

Attack [edit | edit source]

Attack affects melee accuracy and unlocks melee weapon tiers. Along with Strength, it is one of the melee combat skills.

Attack is often trained high enough to unlock specific tiers of weapons, such as granite or dragon. While further training does increase the overall damage output by improving melee accuracy, it has no effect on maximum melee hits, and hence commonly restricted to minimise the combat level.

Strength [edit | edit source]

Strength raises the maximum damage dealt with melee attacks and unlocks selected melee weapons. Along with Attack, it is one of the melee combat skills.

As Strength is necessary to maximise the maximum melee hits, this skill is often trained without restriction by combat pures that use melee attacks.

Accounts that restrict Attack to a minimum and focus solely on Strength are called maulers or strength pures. They utilise weapons without Attack requirements such as dragon warhammer and obsidian maul, as well as rune warhammer in the free-to-play worlds, to deal considerable damage at low combat levels at the cost of the accuracy of their attacks.

Defence [edit | edit source]

Defence lowers the chance of receiving damage, and unlocks protective gear. Along with Hitpoints, it is one of the defensive combat skills.

Defence is among the most commonly restricted combat skills. Although it can indirectly increase the damage output by unlocking armours with offensive bonuses, Defence is often trained only high enough to unlock specific tiers of equipment, or even not trained at all.

The pros of Defence include access to better items that can also increase the damage output through Melee, Ranged, and Magic damage. Accounts with higher Defence levels are easier to train, can do more quests, and can engage in more PvM activities. They are also harder to kill in PvP combat by decreasing opponents' accuracy. However, accounts with lower Defence levels can output significant damage while maintaining low overall combat levels. As a rule of thumb, low Defence accounts dominate the low level combat brackets, while high Defence accounts are more effective in late mid and high level brackets.

1 Defence pures are a common type of account that are extremely effective on lower combat levels.

Ranged [edit | edit source]

Ranged affects accuracy and maximum damage of ranged attacks. It also unlocks leather gear and ranged weapons.

As Ranged is necessary to maximise the maximum ranged hits, this skill is often trained without restriction by combat pures that use range attacks. Other accounts can still benefit from training Ranged to unlock leather equipment with notable magic defence bonuses.

Magic [edit | edit source]

Magic increases magic attacks accuracy and magic defence, as well as the maximum damage of some spells and magic weapons. It also unlocks magic spells and equipment.

As Magic is necessary to unlock spells that maximise the maximum magic hits, this skill is often trained without restriction by combat pures that use magic attacks. Other accounts can still benefit from training Magic, as it improves magic defence and unlocks magic equipment. Some spells such as Vengeance as crucial even for PvP builds that do not use regular magic attacks to deal damage.

Prayer [edit | edit source]

Prayer unlocks skill boosts, gives access to various utility prayers, and raises maximum prayer points amount. It also unlocks some equipment such as the spirit shields. It has a lesser impact on the combat level than either Hitpoints or Defence, as well as all of the offensive skills.

Once specific prayers are unlocked, the Prayer level has no effect on their efficiency. Further training only allows the prayers to last longer without techniques such as prayer flicking. That is why Prayer is commonly trained only high enough to unlock specific boosts necessary to maximise the damage output.

Hitpoints [edit | edit source]

Hitpoints affect how much damage can be received before death. It also unlocks some items such as enchanted zenyte jewellery. Along with Defence, it is one of the defensive combat skills.

The overall combat level is affected equally by the Defence and Hitpoints levels. For example, players with 1 Defence and 99 Hitpoints, or 60 Defence and 40 Hitpoints would end up with the same combat level given similar melee, Ranged, and Magic skill levels. This gives an advantage to players training their combat skills with methods that do not grant Hitpoints experience to purposefully lower their combat level, although at the cost of fragility.

As standard training methods of the majority of combat skills involve gaining Hitpoints experience, making it hard to avoid levelling Hitpoints, this is the only defensive skill that is commonly trained by the vast majority of combat pures regardless of their build. A notable exception includes Ironmen accounts with extremely low Hitpoints levels used for rushing, as they do not gain combat experience when fighting other players, allowing them to maintain extremely low combat levels.

Builds [edit | edit source]

Combat pure builds often come down to choosing a specific combination of restrictions for Attack, Defence, and Prayer in order to maximise damage output with one or several combat styles within a specific combat level bracket. As a rule of thumb, the skill level caps can be freely chosen in any combination, although there is some synergy between specific unlocks that should be considered. For example, players with 70 Defence level can benefit from high tier prayers such as Piety or Rigour, while combat pures with a low Attack level might consider getting 60 Defence for the obsidian armour, as it increases the damage and accuracy of the obsidian maul.

Attack level caps [edit | edit source]

The combat level difference between 1 and 99 Attack level accounts is roughly 32, assuming similar levels of other combat skills.

1 Attack [edit | edit source]

Combat pures with 1 Attack level sacrifice their melee attacks accuracy to maximise melee damage on low combat levels by focusing on Strength.

Accounts with extremely low Attack levels rely on melee weapons without any Attack requirements. These include faster weapons such as Slayer's staff, Bone dagger, and 3-tick weapons like the event rpg or swift blade, as well as slower but powerful weapons such as the obsidian maul, or warhammers including the dragon warhammer.

Even with 99 Strength, these pures can train Ranged and Magic only to 67 without affecting their combat level.

The free-to-play variant of this build relies the rune warhammers to perform knockout attacks.

7 Attack [edit | edit source]

This build plays similarly to the 1 Attack pure, but gains some notable improvement at the cost of roughly two combat levels. Getting level 7 allows to train Ranged level up to 71, unlock the ability to use black d'hide chaps instead of red d'hide chaps, as well as weapons such as the Armadyl crossbow. Addionally, it offers a +6 boost instead of a +5 from the super attack potion and the super combat potion, offering notable accuracy increase of the melee attacks.

13/14/16 Attack [edit | edit source]

These builds use similar equipment to the 1 Attack pure, with no major weapon unlocks at such low Attack levels. However, they do offer some additional melee accuracy, as well as the ability to finish some quests and to train Ranged level to a higher level. Notable builds in this Attack range have the following advantages:

13 Attack level can be viable for pures with 13 Defence that have finished the Nature Spirit quest. Completing the Fairytale I - Growing Pains quest grants 2,000 Attack experience, putting the players at 13 Attack, and eventually gives access to the fairy rings by unlocking the Fairytale II - Cure a Queen quest. It also allows to train Ranged up to 75 level without any effect on the overall combat level, which unlocks powerful ranged weapons like the twisted bow or the toxic blowpipe.
At 14 Attack, players get +7 boost when using a super attack potion or a super combat potion, maximizing the accuracy boost for the specific combat range.
The experience reward from the Death Plateau quest puts the player at exactly 16 Attack. This allows to wear climbing boots with a +2 strength bonus. While their strength bonus is inferior to spiked manacles, they are significantly cheaper and do not have any accuracy or defence penalties. This Attack level along with 99 Strength also allows to train Ranged up to 77 level without any effect on the overall combat level.
- Alternatively, players aiming for 45 Defence can achieve 16 Attack level by completing The Fremennik Trials quest to access the berserker helm.

20 Attack [edit | edit source]

This build also plays similarly to the 1 Attack pure, as there are no notable weapon unlocks at such a low level. However, it further increases the accuracy of melee attacks, as well as the efficiency of the attack boosting super potions, with a +8 boost starting from 20 Attack. This is typically the cutoff Attack tier for strength-based builds. Since these pures are able to get 80 Ranged level, they can use high tier weapons such as the toxic blowpipe and twisted bow, which ease the PvM challenges like obtaining the fire cape or infernal cape. These pures can also finish the Death Plateau quest granting access to the climbing boots, but it is worth noting that they are outclassed by the spiked manacles.

20 Attack is also somewhat common among free-to-play strength pures. While it does not unlock any weapons that would allow to outdamage the rune warhammer, it does significantly increase the melee accuracy, and allows to continue training Ranged to a higher level. With 20 Attack, these pures do have access to the mithril weapons, but their usage remains limited in PvP combat, as rune warhammers are significantly more effective. See this comparison for more details.

40 Attack [edit | edit source]

40 Attack level is commonly used by free-to-play pures as it grants access to the rune weapons.

Although there are more powerful tier 40 weapons on the members worlds such as the brine sabre, they lack special attacks or high strength bonuses necessary to perform effective combos. As a result, 40 Attack level is rarely the goal outside of the free-to-play worlds.

42 Attack [edit | edit source]

42 Attack level is necessary to wear the Void Knight equipment, which offers balanced defence bonuses and notable damage increase in multiple combat styles. Pures that do not use melee attacks, often focusing on Ranged instead, might choose to leave Attack at 42 level to avoid getting additional Hitpoints experience.

50 Attack [edit | edit source]

50 Attack level is used by many different types of pures, as it unlocks some notably strong weapons such as the granite maul, granite hammer, and ancient staff. It is a common Attack level among low and mid level member pures. This is the most common initial Attack tier among combat pures that do not follow a dedicated Strength build.

This Attack tier can also be a natural progression for high combat level 40 Attack pures. With 99 Ranged or Magic, as well as 99 Strength level, Attack can be trained up to 49 level without affecting the overall combat level. Depending on the other combat skills, this can be further increased to 50 or 51. Because of that, many free-to-play pures also choose to train this skill to 50 for a notable melee accuracy improvement without any impact on the overall combat level, even though there are no further item unlocks on the free-to-play worlds. Outside of pures specifically built for multicombat and clans, this is a common final Attack level of maxed free-to-play pures.

60 Attack [edit | edit source]

60 Attack level is among the most common levels among various pure builds, as it unlocks a vast selection of weaponry including:

Barrelchest anchor, an extremely good knockout weapon with a high strength bonus.
Dragon dagger, a cheap weapon that can be poisoned, and provides a very good special attack with a low cost.
Dragon scimitar, a popular mainhand choice for its relatively cheap price, and the ability to drop opponent's protection prayers.
Dragon 2h sword, a knockout weapon with no quest requirements.
Dragon spear, a common weapon among clans and rushers for its special attack that stuns the player.
Dragon claws, a two-handed weapon with one of the best special attacks in game.

65 Attack [edit | edit source]

Not commonly stopped at but still has a few notable unlocks, as it gives access to both the Sarachnis cudgel and the leaf-bladed battleaxe. In particular, the leaf-bladed battleaxe has the highest strength bonus out of all one-handed melee weaponry.

70 Attack [edit | edit source]

Another tier not commonly stopped at but also unlocks some good weaponry. It unlocks Barrows weapons such as the Ahrim's staff and Dharok's greataxe, Saradomin sword, the option to start fighting with the abyssal whip (which will grant Attack or Defence experience), and less common weapons such as the abyssal dagger, and abyssal bludgeon.

75 Attack [edit | edit source]

75 Attack level is a very popular tier to stop at for many builds, as it unlocks powerful high tier weaponry. Notable items include:

Various Godswords with unique special attacks, notably including the Armadyl godsword.
The Staff of the dead and its various upgrades.
Abyssal tentacle, if additional Attack or Defence experience is not an issue.
The best one-handed weapons with consistent damage output such as the Ghrazi rapier, Inquisitor's mace and Blade of Saeldor. These are rarely used outside of clan wars because of their very high prices.
The strongest and most accurate two-handed weapon in the game, the Elder maul.

99 Attack [edit | edit source]

This is only sought after for its melee accuracy improvement, mainly among pures built specifically for clan activities.

Prayer level caps [edit | edit source]

Prayer levels are commonly suppressed by combat pures, as they have no effect on the damage output or defensive capabilities outside of unlocking certain items, quest rewards, and skill boosts.

1 Prayer [edit | edit source]

Low-level pures that do not carry expensive +1 items usually try to keep their Prayer level as low as possible—this has the benefit of keeping combat level extremely low, but deprives these accounts of useful benefits like Ava's accumulator and Ancient Magic due to quest experience from Priest in Peril and The Restless Ghost.

13 Prayer [edit | edit source]

13 Prayer level unlocks the Superhuman Strength prayer, which can significantly improve the maximum melee hits at the cost of a slight combat level increase.

15 Prayer [edit | edit source]

This is the lowest Prayer level that an account can have while still being able to access the Ancient Magic and Ava's accumulator. The Accumulator adds Ranged bonus and allows a PKer to use less ammunition—this can be helpful when using relatively expensive weapons like the dragon knives. Ancient Magic is extremely useful for mid and deep Wilderness PKing, and also allows low and mid level pures to rush or PJ fights with Ice Blitz combos.

25/26 Prayer [edit | edit source]

With Protect Item unlocked at 25, pures can engage in dangerous activities with an expensive +1 item without losing it on death (unless Smited). While not commonly stopped at due to the lack of major skill boosts, it is viable for accounts on low combat levels that rely on specific items that they would not like to risk. The Prayer level can be further trained up to 26 to unlock Hawk Eye, a Ranged boosting prayer.

31 Prayer [edit | edit source]

Level 31 Prayer grants access to Ultimate Strength, which grants a 15% Strength boost, as well as the Protect Item prayer unlocked at 25 and Hawk Eye at 26. Most pures who choose to get Protect Item usually skip 25 Prayer and get 31—the minor amount of combat levels is worth forgoing for the notable Strength boost that Ultimate Strength provides. This prayer is necessary to maximize melee hits for one-defence pures and other accounts below 65 Defence level.

43/44/45 Prayer [edit | edit source]

43 Prayer level grants access to Protect from Melee, the last of the protection prayers. Protection prayers are extremely useful for any PKer—they protect from rushers and PJers, make the Fight Caves immensely easier, allow one-defence pures to tank more easily, and they allow PKers to survive much longer while Deep Wilderness PKing. However, most pures choose to stop at 44 or 45 instead—the added combat level is negligible and gives access to Eagle Eye and Mystic Might, the 15% level boosters for Ranged and Magic respectively. These boosts are the best ones available for accounts below 70 Defence level.

52 Prayer [edit | edit source]

This is generally the final stopping point for low Defence pures. 52 Prayer level grants access to Smite, a prayer that allows you to drain your opponent of their prayer, shutting down their Protect Item prayer and forcing them to drop their +1 item if they die. This prayer is extremely useful when the opponent has a lower Prayer level, but it should be noted that pures generally do not have the offensive power to use Smite effectively until the 75-80 combat bracket. For this reason, it is rarely seen in low and mid level PKing due to the combat level sacrifice required to obtain it over low Prayer level pures. Additionally, the Barrelchest anchor, a popular combo weapon with 60 Attack pures, requires level 50 Prayer to obtain.

55 Prayer [edit | edit source]

Berserker pures who participate in no honour or tribrid combat often choose to get 55 Prayer level for access to the normal spirit shield additionally to all the benefits of the 52 Prayer level.

70/74/77 Prayer [edit | edit source]

These Prayer levels grant access to Piety, Rigour, and Augury respectively, the best prayers boosting Melee, Ranged, and Magic skills in addition to Defence. Since all of these prayers require 70 Defence, however, these are only seen among late mid and high combat level brackets.

Defence level caps [edit | edit source]

Defence is arguably the most commonly restricted skill among combat pures. This skill is often optimized for a specific combat level range or PvP activity, with the levels just high enough to unlock specific armours, boosts, or abilities. When aiming for a specific low Defence level, players are advised to gain the experience through quest rewards in order to unlock as much content as possible.

1 Defence [edit | edit source]

The most common Defence level among low combat level pures, allowing to maximise the damage output and knockout potential. Fragile but dangerous, these pures can overpower other types of accounts with a similar combat level. They make up the majority of PKers in the low combat level brackets.

13 Defence [edit | edit source]

Thanks to the completion of the Nature Spirit quest, these pures have access to the adamant gloves with superior bonuses to the combat bracelet, as well as the Ardougne cloak 2. They can also use the slayer helmet, Xerician robes, black defender, hardleather body, and white armour unlocked at level 10.

20 Defence [edit | edit source]

20 Defence level grants access to the initiate armour and mystic robes, as well as the mithril defender and Falador shield 2.

On free-to-play worlds, this Defence level allows to wear mithril armour, studded body, and white decorative boots. However, these are not very significant unlocks, causing the so-called mithril pures to remain a very niche build.

30 Defence [edit | edit source]

30 Defence level allows to wear expensive but powerful armours such as the Inquisitor's armour and 3rd Age mage robes, as well as the proselyte armour, snakeskin armour, and adamant defender. These pures also have access to the frog-leather armour and infinity robes unlocked at 25 level.

The Inquisitor's armour in particular is a significant unlock for pures that utilise melee attacks due to its crush accuracy and melee strength bonuses, as well as the set effect further increasing the accuracy and damage of the crush attacks. Since it is very expensive, players are advised to use it only when unskulled to avoid the risk of losing it on death. However, this set does have a good synergy with knockout weapons without any Attack requirements such as the obsidian maul and dragon warhammer.

On free-to-play worlds, this Defence level allows to wear adamant armour, as well as the gold decorative boots with a small strength bonus. Since these boots are necessary to maximise damage with certain rune weapons such as the rune scimitar or rune warhammer, 30 Defence level is the lowest one that allows to achieve the highest free-to-play maximum hits with all combat styles including melee, given the appropriate Strength, Ranged, Magic, and Prayer levels, making the so-called adamant pures a considerable choice.

40 Defence [edit | edit source]

40 Defence level offers many significant unlocks including blessed dragonhide armour, fighter torso, rune defender, or Dagon'hai robes, as well as the Vengeance spell. However, many pures choose to train Defence further up to 45 level for the additional unlocks.

On the other hand, 40 Defence level is very common among the free-to-play combat pures, as it unlocks the rune armour and green d'hide body, which are the best items for melee and ranged combat respectively. With significant defensive bonuses, rune pures are excellent for both arranged 1-vs-1 combat, as well as multicombat and the deep Wilderness. It is worth noting that the Dragon Slayer I quest should be finished at most at 34 Defence level in order to avoid gaining extra Defence levels due to its experience reward.

42 Defence [edit | edit source]

42 Defence level allows to obtain the Void knight equipment, as well as the Barrows gloves, making it popular among void pures.

45 Defence [edit | edit source]

45 Defence level allows to wear the berserker helm, as well as the spirit shield with 55 Prayer level. This Defence level allows to achieve equipment strength bonuses that are only slightly worse than those of the maxed accounts, making the so-called berserker pures a considerable choice in mid combat level brackets.

60 Defence [edit | edit source]

60 Defence level unlocks the dragon armour along with the dragon defender, as well as the obsidian armour, malediction ward, and odium ward. Due to the obsidian armour unlock, which improves the accuracy and damage of obsidian weapons, this is a considerable level for obsidian maulers that focus on training Strength instead of Attack.

70 Defence [edit | edit source]

70 Defence level allows to wear most high tier armours including Barrows equipment, Armadyl armour, avernic defender, blessed spirit shield, crystal shield, and crystal armour, as well as the Bandos armour and ancestral robes unlocked at 65. It also allows to use powerful skill boosting prayers including Piety, Rigour, and Augury, given the appropriate Prayer levels.

75 Defence [edit | edit source]

75 Defence level unlocks top tier defensive gear including items such as serpentine helm, dragonfire shield, dragonfire ward, sigil spirit shields, primordial boots, and twisted buckler.

With access to the venom via the serpentine helm and dragonfire attack of the dragonfire shield, low combat level defence pures are a notable PvP build. While difficult to train, they can deal suprising amount of damage given their lack of offensive skills, and they are extremely difficult to kill due to their defensive capabilities.

Example builds [edit | edit source]

See the account builds article for a list of common combat pure builds.

Hybrid [edit | edit source]

A hybrid is a type of account that uses multiple combat styles in order to maximize the damage and knockout probability. For example, many builds rely on quick ranged attacks to deal majority of the damage and set up combos, with powerful melee attacks used to finish off the opponent.

Similarly, a tribrid is an account that uses all three combat styles including melee, ranged, and magic. Tribrid fights, sometimes referred to as no honour fights, are quite common in certain locations like the deep Wilderness.

Strategies and techniques [edit | edit source]

Please refer to the guides of the specific combat pure builds, or the general player killing mechanics and free-to-play PvP techniques guides.

Training [edit | edit source]

When maintaining low levels of skills such as Attack, Prayer or Defence, many combat pures choose to level up via quest rewards rather than traditional training in order to maximise the amount of unlocked content.

In order to minimise the Hitpoints and the overall combat level, combat pures can utilise training methods that do not grant any Hitpoints experience.