This channel lists the general natural combat style progression template for new players to follow devised by the RuneScape Discord Mentors in collaboration with PVME. From levels 1 - 50, where an item is marked P2P, this means it is a members item.
Last Revised: 13 April 2024
Attack 
and Strength 
are the two combat skills that define melee combat in Runescape.
⬥ General notes:
• Attack affects accuracy and its level is what determines what melee weapons you can equip.
• Strength determines your damage dealt with melee weapons.
• The best defence is a good offence: weapon upgrades take precedence over armour upgrades!
• As you get stronger, dual wield becomes better for single target combat and Two-handed (2H) for multi-way combat
• To switch xp gain between and : Settings → Gameplay → Combat & Action bar → Combat XP. Tick the skills to enable how you want the XP focused.
• All bars assume "Revolution++" is being used: Settings → Gameplay → Combat & Action bar. Activate revolution, make the revo outline cover 10 slots, and tick the boxes for thresholds and ultimate abilities.
Gear:
⬥ 1 
Bronze 2h sword or Bronze halberd; or Reese's sword & Reese's off-hand sword
• Latter are free from the quest Blood Pact
⬥ 5 Keenblade
• Free from Gudrik in Port Sarim
⬥ 20 Steel 2h sword or Steel halberd; or Steel dagger, mace, or warhammer + offhand.
Armour
⬥ 1 
Pathfinder armour
• This armour is free and can be obtained from Gudrik in Port Sarim.
⬥ 20 Steel armour
⬥ Amulet of strength
⬥ Bladestorm drape - Best in Slot cape for F2P
⬥ Silverhawk boots (non-ironman & P2P) can be freely claimed from the Marketplace and give a small damage boost.
• The boots can be upgraded at lvl 20, 40, 50 and 60 respectively.
Ability bars levels 1 - 20 
⬥ Use the lesser abilities as placeholders. These will update automatically as you unlock the full ability.
Bar at 1 /: For Dual-Wield swap 
with 
⬥ At level 2 add 
to Spot 1 on your bar
⬥ At level 3 remove 
and add 
to Spot 4 on your bar
⬥ At level 8 add 
to Spot 7 on your bar
At level 20 and , your bar will look like the bar below:
Monsters to kill 1 - 20
⬥ Ghostly Troll Thrower in City of Um cave.
⬥ Monsters in Lumbridge Catacombs. Requires Blood Pact quest.
⬥ Smithable gear will start having +1/+2/+3 upgrades. These improve their stats slightly but are generally not worth it.
⬥ Halberds are recommended for training on groups of enemies.
Gear:
⬥ 30 Mithril 2h sword (F2P) or Mithril halberd (P2P)
⬥ 40 Adamant 2h sword (F2P) or Adamant halberd (P2P)
⬥ 50 Rune 2h sword (F2P) or Rune halberd (P2P)
• 
: Rune halberd can bought in Champion's guild.
Armour
⬥ 50 Rockshell armour (P2P) > Rune armour (F2P)
• Former requires completion of the quest The Fremennik Trials.
⬥ Obsidian cape (P2P) or Cape of legends (P2P)
• Latter requires completion of the quest Legends Quest.
⬥ Amulet of glory (P2P)
⬥ Explorer's ring 3 (F2P) or Ring of Wealth (P2P)
• Former requires completion of the medium Lumbridge achievements
⬥ Silverhawk boots (non-ironman & P2P)
• The boots can be upgraded at lvl 20, 40, 50 and 60
Ability bars levels 20 - 50
Bar at 20 : For Dual-Wield swap 
with 
⬥ At level 24 add 
to Spot 5 on your bar.
⬥ At level 37 remove .
⬥ If 2H:
• At level 37 add 
to Spot 2 on your bar
• At level 48 add 
to Spot 2 on your bar
⬥ If DW:
• At level 37 add 
to Spot 2 on your bar.
At level 50 and , your bar will look like the bar below:
Two-Handed (multi-target focused)
Dual-Wield
Monsters to kill 20 - 50
⬥ Ghostly Troll Thrower in City of Um cave.
⬥ 30+: Dragith Nurn. Requires Blood Pact quest (
works!).
Gear:
⬥ 60 Dragon 2h sword 
, Dragon spear or Dragon halberd 
• Dragon halberd requires Regicide quest.
⬥ 70 Crystal halberd 
• Requires 50 
and completion of the Roving Elves quest
Armour
⬥ 65 Superior Rockshell armour - made using Rockshell armour and Fremennik equipment patches
• Whilst Superior Rockshell armour degrades, degradation takes a very long time - don't let this put you off!
⬥ 70 Bandos armour > Necronium armour
⬥ Salve amulet(e) if fighting undead.
⬥ Ring of Fortune
⬥ One of the God books 
• Requires completion of the quest Horror from the Deep
Ability bars levels 50 - 70
Bars at 50
Two-Handed (multi-target focused)
Dual-Wield
⬥ If 2H:
• At level 55 add Hurricane 
to Spot 2 on your bar
• Remove 
and and putting 
on spot 7.
⬥ At level 55 add Assault 
to Spot 1 (DW + remove ) or Spot 6 (2h) on your bar
⬥ If DW:
• At level 67 add Decimate 
to Spot 4 on your bar
• Put and on Spots 5 and 6.
At level 70 and , your bar will look like the bar below:
Two-Handed (multi-target focused)
Dual-Wield
Monsters to kill 50 - 70
⬥ Dragith Nurn. Requires Blood Pact quest ( works!).
⬥ The Abyss Monsters (req. Enter the Abyss miniquest).
⬥ Armoured Zombies (req. Defender of Varrock quest, works!).
⬥ Some dual wield weapons have more damage bonus than others. Are they better?
• No. When using abilities, weapons of the same tier deal the same amount of damage. Weapon speed and damage bonus together make it deal identical ability damage in the end.
• You can safely mix different types of Mainhand and offhand weapons.
⬥ Why is two-handed recommended over dual wield?
• 2H melee is better in multi-target situations than Dual-Wield, and therefore often lead to faster levelling.
• Flurry 
(37 ), Quake (36 ), Cleave (48 ), and hurricane (55 ) are multi-target attacks, often called Area-of-Effect (AoE) abilities, that hit multiple nearby monsters.
• These are 2H abilities (except for ) and benefit greatly from halberd's larger attack range.
⬥ Can I just train slayer?
• You certainly can if you want some variety. It is, however, slower to train at lower combat levels.
⬥ Why are weapons upgrades more important than armour upgrades? / Why is power armour recommended over tank armour?
• Frankly put: You gain more from hitting harder than from getting hit less. A higher tier weapon lets you hit harder by increasing hit chance and damage bonus. Power armour increases damage bonus too. This lets you hit harder and kill more monsters, which means more xp gained per hour.
