Games

OSRS: The 10 Best Melee Weapons (Ranked)

Published

1 year ago

July 3, 2023

Dan Western

Which are the best melee weapons in Old School RuneScape?

Old School RuneScape is surging in popularity again, as seems to happen every few years.

The recent pandemic has had people breaking out their favorite vintage games and setting up servers and games with friends they may have not had time to play together with, in several years.

Even people that have never played are enjoying the game for the first time, and wondering what kind of gear they’ll need to make it in the huge world of RuneScape.

OSRS: The 10 Best Melee Weapons (Ranked)

Good news. We’ve got a list of the ten most powerful melee weapons in the game.

Whether you prefer one-handed or two, there is something here for everyone who likes to get up close and personal in their battles.

Not only that, but we’ll tell you where you find them, where they drop, or how to craft them and what you’ll need.

Strap in, we’re going old school.

10. Granite Maul

Part of the granite equipment set; the Granite Maul is a 2-handed weapon that is found exclusively in the Slayer Tower.

The only way you can get a Granite Maul is by coming across one dropped by a Gargoyle. It cannot be made by utilizing the Smithing skill.

This weapon is a surprisingly powerful tool to use, especially with power-up activated. During a Power surge, Quick Smash can be performed in rapid succession, in turn dealing more damage than other special attacks.

The upgraded version of the Granite Maul is the Granite Maul (or), which is the original weapon with a granite clamp attached. This clamp does not give the user any special power or bonuses as it is only used as a way to decorate the maul.

9. Dragon Claws

Made from dragon metal, Dragon Claws are most well known for their special attack, which deals high amounts of damage in quick succession.

There are a couple of ways to go about getting them.

They can be obtained as rare rewards players earn upon completion of the raid in the Chambers of Xeric, or they can be temporarily obtained if found in an object that has been opened by the bloodier keys while playing a game of Last Man Standing.

In addition to winning or finding Dragon Claws, they can be traded or they can be created by using the Smithing skill. With an attack speed that matches a dagger, claws have the highest speed out of all two-handed weapons.

It has a special attack called the Slice and Dice which hits your enemy four times in succession.

8. Crystal Halberd

Known for its special attack, the Crystal Halberd can deal high damage to big enemies and to groups of enemies.

As it is significantly more powerful than the Dragon Halberd, this is a great choice if you’re looking for a melee-safe spot weapon.

Acquiring a Crystal Halberd isn’t the easiest thing to do. In order to obtain this weapon, you need to have 35 Strength, 50 Agility, and 70 Attack.

The first step to take is to complete the Hard Western Provinces Diary.

The next step is locating and speaking to Islwyn, who will then offer you a Crystal Halberd for 750,000 coins.

7. Dragon Dagger

The Dragon Dagger is the second most powerful dagger in the entire game, and it has what is arguably the best dagger special attack.

You’ll need an Attack of at least 60 to get some stabbin’ done with this gnarly piece.

The special attack is called Puncture, which deals two hits at once with boosted accuracy and damage for both strikes.

6. Dragon Scimitar

This Old School RuneScape melee weapon requires the player to have gained an Attack level of at least 60, and they should also have already run the Money Madness 1 quest fully to completion.

The Dragon Scimitar is one of the most popular melee weapons in its class and is one of the single most popular melee weapons used for OSRS melee training.

For the non-Ironman version, you can pick up the Dragon Scimitar from the Grand Exchange.

For Ironman, however, you can only get the Dragon Scimitar by visiting the Daga’s Scimitar Smithy in the Ape Atoll area.

Just make sure you’ve gotten paid recently, the Ironman Dragon Scimitar will put you out 100,000 coins.

5. Abyssal Tentacle

If you have leveled Attack to 75, you can wield the Abyssal Tentacle which can be crafted by combining a Kraken tentacle with an Abyssal Whip.

It boosts the Slash to +8 and a +4 to damage. There is also a 25% chance per hit to inflict poison on an enemy. Once poisoned, your enemy will receive start to receive 4 damage.

Once the Abyssal Tentacle is crafted, it will break down after 10,000 hits, so use it wisely!

4. Abyssal Whip

When you’re looking for one of the best one-handed melee weapons in OSRS, you can’t go wrong with the Abyssal Whip.

It is one of the best, and most preferred weapons, particularly if the player is training up this specific Old School RuneScape skill.

This one-handed wrecker requires the player to have leveled Attack to level 70.

It’s a rare drop that you get from the Abyssal Demons and even has a well-known special attack that performs an energy siphon on your enemies.

In order to face the Abyssal Demons, you must already have a level 85 Slayer.

3. Sara Sword

The Saradomin Sword is the weapon of Commander Zilyana, in the God Wars Dungeon.

It can be obtained as a drop of a rare level from the Commander, or as a drop of a very rare level from any of her bodyguards. The Saradomin Sword is a two-handed sword that requires the player to have an Attack level of 70 to even wield.

It differs from many other two-handed weapons in that its attack speed is 4, making it every bit as fast as some of the most beloved melee one-handers like the Abyssal Whip.

The Saradomin Sword can be augmented by attaching Saradomin’s Tear to create the Blessed version, which boasts an +18 slash and +6 strength bonus, as well as an updated special attack.

The special attack of The Saradomin Sword calls Saradomin’s Lightning down to boost melee damage and magic damage, but it consumes the full special energy.

2. Abyssal Bludgeon

The Abyssal Bludgeon is a deadly two-handed crush weapon that the player can obtain by combining three untradeable components at The Overseer.

The player will need the bludgeon axon, bludgeon claw, and bludgeon spine.

It requires both an Attack level of 70 and a Strength level of 70 in order to wield.

If the player lacks the resources to create the Abyssal Bludgeon, they can be obtained from the Unsired by the Abyssal Spire.

To complete a full bludgeon, the player will need to kill, on average, more than 500 Unsired before being able to find the components in drops.

The Abyssal Bludgeon is unique in that it can only be used for strength training since every attack style it is capable of is aggressive. It can also only perform crush attacks.

The special attack is called Penance, which boosts damage dealt by a half percent for every prayer point the person wielding is missing.

It will consume half of the special attack energy.

1. Abyssal Dagger

The single most powerful dagger in the entirety of OSRS, the Abyssal Dagger requires the wielder to have an Attack level of 70.

On average, the player has a 20% chance to receive the Abyssal Dagger when they are using the Unsired on the Font of Consumption.

This gives it a nearly 1 in 490 chance of dropping from every Abyssal Sire kill.

The Abyssal Dagger exceeds even the Staff of the Dead in both Accuracy and Strength and adds a +5 Attack bonus and +3 Strength bonus to players over the Staff of the Dead.

It is generally a stabbing weapon, while the staff is usually a slash-type attack.

The Abyssal Dagger’s special attack is called Abyssal Puncture and is a two-hit attack with a 25% boost to accuracy and a 15% drop in damage, but only consumes half of the special attack energy.

The max damage the dagger can do is 40-40 against other player characters, and 46-46 while boosting the effects with a salve amulet and used against undead-type opponents.

It is worth noting that the Abyssal Dagger’s special attack is significantly lower damage than the Dragon Dagger’s special attack.

This is most obvious when comparing the max 40-40 damage of the Abyssal Dagger to the max hit damage of 48-48 for the Dragon Dagger, which also only uses one-quarter of the special attack energy.

Summary

No matter what your playstyle is, if you like melee weapons, we’ve got you covered.

These are the best and baddest weapons in the whole game.

Top damage, best specials, best effects.

If you prefer ranged weapons, this list may give you a starting point to train up some skills that you may have overlooked or skipped over during your training, so they are still worth a look, and maybe a spin around a battle or two.

If you enjoyed this article, check out some of our other OSRS gear lists:

Here’s a quick recap of the 10 best weapons in OSRS: