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Equipment degradation

Equipment degradation is the process by which some armour and weapons wear down with use until they break completely. Some items are repairable, while others are not and degrade 'to dust'.

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Mechanics

Items that degrade have a specific number of charges which varies by the type of item. When equipped, they lose one charge for every hitsplat done by the user or to the user - that is, one charge for:

  • every hit taken,

  • every ability/special attack used,

    • combo abilities use multiple charges (e.g. Fury drains 3 charges per use, as it hits 3 times)

    • bleeds (e.g. Dismember) use one charge for their duration

  • every auto-attack used.

These three methods are collectively referred to as per hit.

There is a hard cap of 1 charge lost per tick (100 per minute). In general combat (against one or two monsters), expect 30-60 charges to be consumed per minute. Certain items lose 2 charges per hit, so the limit and average are doubled (200 charges consumed per minute max, 60-120 charges consumed per minute average).

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Full degradation

When an item fully degrades (reaches 0 charges), one of three things will happen to it:

  • It degrades "to dust", falling apart completely and disappearing from your possession; for example, sirenic armour.

  • It reverts to a component, which can then be used to re-make the item (at a cost); for example, ganodermic armour.

  • It turns into an broken or drained version, which can usually be repaired (at a cost); for example, barrows equipment.

    • Sometimes the item retains usability, but loses some benefits, for example blood amulets retain their equipment bonuses when drained, but lose the passive effect.

Upon death, equipped items lose charges if reclaimed from a gravestone (in general, 20% for degrade-to-broken items, 10% for degrade-to-dust items). They do not lose charges when reclaiming them by buying them from Death, as the degradation cost is covered by the reclaim cost.

Completely degraded weapons all have an accuracy rating of 110, equivalent to a tier 1 weapon, and an attack range of 1, forcing players adjacent to their target regardless of combat style. Completely degraded armours have no bonuses of any kind.

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Degradable equipment

For a table of items with their charges, see Equipment degradation/List.

For a complete index of degradable equipment, see Category:Degrading equipment.

 

Repairable

Repairable items, as their name suggests, can be repaired when degraded or broken. There is one common shared method to repair items - the armour stand - and many unique methods for those that do not use the armour stand.

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Armour stand

An armour stand, where many items can be repaired

Many items are all repairable using coins, by taking them to any of:

Alternatively, one can repair them on an armour stand in a player-owned house (or a whetstone device anywhere), where the cost is reduced by your Smithing level with 0.5% discount per level, including boosts. Assists do not work.

All items of this repair type degrade to a broken or drained version.

Examples of this include:

 

Other

Marmaros, the rewards trader, repair NPC for Dungeoneering equipment

There are many items that are repairable in a specific way. Some items of this type degrade to a broken or drained version, while others revert to a component. Some examples of this:

Non-repairable

Malevolent armour, a set which degrades to dust

Many items cannot be repaired at all, and 'degrade to dust' (fall apart and vanish) when fully degraded. Some items of this type have a pseudo-repair mechanic, where two of the same, partially degraded item can be combined to consolidate the charges - for example, a 5% charged sirenic mask and a 14% charged sirenic mask can be combined to form a 19% charged sirenic mask.

Some examples of degrade to dust equipment include:

Expected usage time

The amount of usage an item gets before it degrades is often quoted as a time. This is often misleading or sometimes incorrect - the time that news posts give are usually the minimum combat time, using the maximum degradation rate of 1 charge per tick (and may ignore the double charges lost by some items). In real combat, charges are lost much less frequently: solid revolution uses 33 abilities per minute (with no combo attacks, like Fury), and most monsters cannot attack as fast as that - and they will often hit as you use an ability, which will negate the degradation that hit causes (as only 1 charge can be lost per tick). In addition, in a lot of combat there are often breaks between monsters, where of course no degradation occurs.

Thus, you can generally expect around 30–60 charges drained in an average minute of combat. Common charge amounts are given here with three time values for how long it will last before degrading fully.

  • Average combat uses a value of 30 charges lost per minute

  • Intense combat uses a value of 60 charges lost per minute

  • Minimum time uses the maximum rate of 100 charges lost per minute (1 charge lost per tick)

ChargesAverage combatIntense combatMinimum time

15,000 8.3 hours (500 min) 4.2 hours (250 min) 2.5 hours (150 min)

30,000 16.7 hours (1000 min) 8.3 hours (500 min) 5 hours (300 min)

60,000 33.3 hours (2000 min) 16.7 hours (1000 min) 10 hours (600 min)

72,000 40 hours (2400 min) 20 hours (1200 min) 12 hours (720 min)

100,000 55.6 hours (3333.3 min) 27.8 hours (1666.7 min) 16.7 hours (1000 min)

Other types of degradation

Main article: Degradation

Equipment degradation is not the only type of degradation. Many items, both combat related or otherwise, have limited usage until they break or fall apart. Items that do not degrade according to the above system are not defined as degrading equipment (although the term 'degradation' is often used in relation to them).

Some examples of limited use items which do not fall under the equipment degradation system:

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https://runescape.wiki/w/Equipment_degradation

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