OSRS Combat Levels Explained

Combat level is the number next to your name, and it is the single most misunderstood figure in Old School RuneScape. It is not a measure of how strong you are. It is a formula, and understanding what feeds it changes how you build an account.

What combat level is made of

Your combat level is calculated from Attack, Strength, Defence, Hitpoints, Ranged, Magic and Prayer. The game takes your defensive stats as a base, then adds whichever of your three offensive styles contributes most: melee, ranged or magic. Only the highest of those three counts.

Two consequences follow from that. First, training a second offensive style barely raises your combat level until it overtakes your first. Second, Defence, Hitpoints and Prayer raise your combat level regardless of how you fight.

Why that matters

Combat level determines who can attack you in the Wilderness and it gates some content. If you intend to do any player versus player, a low combat level with high offensive stats is a real advantage, which is why pure accounts deliberately leave Defence at its starting value.

For everyone else, this is mostly a warning against training aimlessly. Levels you did not need still raise the number, and the number is not free.

The combat triangle

Melee, ranged and magic are not interchangeable. Each is strong against one and weak against another: melee beats ranged, ranged beats magic, magic beats melee. Armour follows the same logic. Metal armour offers good protection against melee and ranged but is poor against magic and blocks spellcasting entirely. Robes defend against magic and almost nothing else.

Fighting the wrong style against the wrong enemy is the most common reason a fight feels harder than it should.

Choosing a style

Melee is the cheapest to train and the most forgiving early on. Ranged costs money because ammunition is consumed, but it lets you attack from a distance and safely handle some enemies that melee cannot. Magic is the most expensive early and the most useful later, because it unlocks teleports and utility spells that have nothing to do with combat.

Most accounts train melee first and add the others once they have income.

Hitpoints and Prayer

Hitpoints rises passively whenever you deal damage, so it needs no deliberate training in the early game. Prayer is trained by burying bones or using an altar and gives access to combat prayers that meaningfully change longer fights. It is slow and expensive, which is why the quests that reward Prayer experience are worth doing.

A practical rule

Train Attack, Strength and Defence in step with each other unless you have a specific account build in mind. If you are not sure whether you want a pure account, you do not want one, and evenly trained stats will serve you better across every part of the game.