Magic and ranged

Casting in free combat

• Set a spell to autocast on your staff, then left-click to cast where you aim. Hold the button and you cast about once a second.
• Every spell takes 3.0 s in RuneScape, so here a full-strength cast is ready every 1.5 s. Casting faster gives smaller hits but the same damage per second; casting slower than that loses damage.
• One exception: Storm of Armadyl with the Armadyl battlestaff is quicker, 2.4 s in RuneScape, so a full cast every 1.2 s.
• Clicking a spell in your spellbook and then a monster in range casts it straight away.
• Blood Burst and Blood Barrage heal a quarter of the damage they deal, but at most a quarter of the cast's max hit per cast, however many enemies they hit. On a single target that's the same as always.

Runes and ammo: you pay for the damage you deal

In free combat, runes, arrows, bolts, darts, knives and chinchompas are charged by the damage each cast or shot deals, not by the click. A half-strength cast costs half a set of runes: the game keeps a running tab and takes whole runes as it adds up.

• Spamming and timing your attacks cost the same per point of damage. Firing faster doesn't burn through supplies.
• You still need a full set of runes (or the ammo) in hand to cast or shoot.
• The small leftover on the tab (less than one of each rune or ammo) is forgotten when you log out.

Shots and casts that hit nothing

• Arrows, bolts and thrown weapons that miss fly on to the end of their range and land on the ground there. A miss doesn't use up your charged hit: the next shot that lands is still full size.
• Shots get a little help: one that passes just beside an enemy still hits it.
• Spells that hit nothing still use runes, but they don't throw away your charged cast: the next spell that lands is still full size.

Getting your ammo back

• Without a device, about 4 in 5 arrows, bolts and thrown weapons you fire land on the ground where they hit. Pick them up after the fight.
• Chinchompas and a few special ammo types are used up when you fire them.

Ava's devices

Worn in your cape slot, Ava's devices catch your ammo before it's spent:

Shots the device doesn't save land on the ground as usual.

Getting one from Ava

• Ava is in Draynor Manor, in the small room in the south-west corner of the ground floor. She only shows up once you've finished Ernest the Chicken.
• Her devices need the Animal Magnetism requirements. Talk to her and she tells you which quests and levels you still need.
• Your first device is free: the attractor, or your pick of the attractor or the accumulator if you have 50 Ranged.
• Lost it? She makes another for 999 coins plus 75 iron arrows (attractor) or 75 steel arrows (accumulator, 50 Ranged). She has a shop too.

Crossbows and reloading

• A crossbow reloads after every shot, and the reload is part of its attack speed.
• The reload is longer than half the crossbow's attack time, so every bolt lands as a full hit. That also means crossbows don't quite reach double their RuneScape damage the way other weapons do.
• Moving or rolling doesn't skip the reload, so moving and standing shots fire at the same pace. A click during the reload fires the moment it's ready.

Rapid or accurate

For bows and thrown weapons, Rapid deals the most damage per second: it is one tick faster than Accurate. For crossbows the two are about even. The weapons table shows both speeds for every ranged weapon.