Strength is one of the most popular skills in RuneScape. People love to see their characters hit high number and ‘K0’ others with just a few hits.

Today’s article is about Strength, the equipment stat that is not the skill. From my studies on strength I’ve found that about every 5 points of strength bonus gives you one more point of damage. About a year ago I didn’t understand why people were paying hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) for just a few more strength bonus points, but now I do…sorta. Though I still don’t condone paying 1 million for two more points, I do admit that 5 points can make a noticeable difference and that even two points here and there adds up.

Strength

Helm
There are only two helms which give strength bonus: the Helm of Neitiznot and the Berserker helm. Both give +3 to Strength and have nearly identical defense stats of +31 stab, +29 slash, +33 crush, +0 magic, +30 ranged, and +7 summoning. The Helm of Neitiznot, however, gives 1 more crush, 3 more magic, and 1 more summoning defense, as well as a +3 prayer bonus, putting it in first place.

The only reason to wear the Berserker helm over the Helm of Neitiznot is if you haven’t completed the Fremmenik Isles quest and/or don’t have 55 defense.

Both helms are well worth the investment about 50k each since they both can also be enchanted to hold Summoning scrolls.

Amulet
Hard to believe some beads on a string can make you stronger, but it’s true.

As it’s name implies, the Amulet of Strength has the highest strength bonus for a piece of neckware. At only about 2k, there’s no reason not to have one.

The Amulet of Fury comes in second with +8 to strength. It also gives +10 to all attacks, +15 to all defence, and +5 to prayer, which helps make up for the price of about 2.2m.

Third is actually the Berserker necklace with +7 to strength. However because it reduces all attacks by 10 and all defences by 20 I don’t suggest it. Only use it if you plan on using an Obsidian weapon as it let’s you do 20% more damage.

The Amulet of Glory and the Amulet of Power are tied for Fourth with +6. With these two you have to look at what bonuses you want. The Glory gives +10 to all attacks, +3 to all defences, and +3 to prayer whereas the Power gives +6 to all attacks, +6 to all defences, and +1 to prayer. The Glory costs about 40k and the Power costs about 3k. The nice thing is that the Amulet of Power is Free to Play, which makes it a great variation if you don’t want the Amulet of Strength.

Cape
There’s only one cape that gives a bonus to Strength, and that’s the Fire Cape. If you’ve defeated the TzTok-Jad and have one of these then you’ll be well rewarded with +4 to strength, +1 to all attacks, +11 to all defences, and +1 to prayer, as well as being able to say ‘I pwned the Jad!’.

Body
Body armor, which would seem like the most likely piece to give a strength bonus, is actually quite lacking, having only two items.

The Fighter Torso and the Bandos Chestplate are tied in Strength bonus for first with +4. The Bandos Chestplate, however, easily takes first with its other stats, giving +98 Stab, +93 Slash, +105 Crush, -6 Magic, +133 Ranged, and +52 Summoning, as well as +1 to prayer. The Fighter Torso only gives +62 Stab, +85 Slash, +62 Crush, -10 Magic, +67 Ranged, and +40 Summoning, which is great for mid levels or players who can’t afford the rather high price of about 15m.

Gloves
There’s a few options here, but if you’ve done a certain lengthy multi quest you’ll only need to use one of them.

The Barrows gloves, which can be bought and worn after the completion of Recipe for Disaster quest, hold the record with +12 to strength. The great thing about these gloves is that you don’t sacrifice defense or attack bonus for the added strength. These gloves give a whopping +12 to melee and ranged attack and defence bonuses and +6 to magic attack and defence bonuses. Costing only 100,000, these gloves are a must for any combative.

Second through eighth place are all taken by the Recipe for Disaster gloves which give +9 (starting with dragon) to +3 (with Iron). The amount lessens by 1 with each set of gloves going down from Dragon to Iron through the grades of metal (adamant, mithril, black, etc).

The Combat Bracelet is tied with the Mithril gloves for fifth place with +6 strength. The Combat bracelet gives slightly better attack bonuses and slightly worse defensive bonuses, as well as telling you how many Slayer monsters you have left to kill on every 10th.

Dragon gauntlets give +3 strength and have the best melee defenses with +14 Stab, +15 Slash, +15 Crush, -1 Magic, +14 Ranged, and +14 Summoning. However if you’re going just for strength I suggest Iron gloves from the Recipe for Disaster chest as they don’t require 60 defense (as Dragon Gauntlets do) and they’re much cheaper.

Rune Gauntlets are the best gloves for F2Ps with +2 strength and +10 Stab, +11 Slash, +11 Crush, -1 Magic, +10 Ranged, and +10 Summoning defenses.

Ring
Another one item spot is the ring.

The Berserker ring takes first, second, and third with +4 to Strength and to crush attack bonus. At about 1.6m it’s debatable on whether it’s worth it or not.

Legs
I think we need to start a petition to Jagex to make more Strength bonus items as there is only one piece of legwear, the Bandos tassets. This set of apparel gives +2 to strength as well as some decent defense of +71 Stab, +63 Slash, +66 Crush, -4 Magic, +93 Ranged, and +25 Summoning. One nice aspect of these is that they give a quaint little +1 to prayer, which helps make up for their price of about 13.3m.

Boots
This is one of the few places where Dragon items are still the best.

Dragon boots take first place with +4 to strength. The great thing about them is that they also give +16 Stab, +17 Slash, +18 Crush, +0 Magic, +0 Ranged, and +15 Summoning. Costing only about 380k, I find them very worth it.

Rune and Climbing boots are tied for second with +2 strength. They advantage of the Rune Boots is that they also give +12 Stab, +13 Slash, +14 Crush, +0 Magic, +0 Ranged, and +10 Summoning. The advantage of the Climbing boots is that they can be used to climb the rocks around the Death Plateau and Troll Stronghold, though they lack much defense.

Rune Boots cost about 35k and Climbing boots cost about 700 gold, or 12 from Tenzing on the route to the Troll Stronghold.

Shield
You wouldn’t think shields would be able to add much, if any, strength bonus, but they can!

The DragonFire Shield adds a surprising +7 strength bonus! Putting it in first place. One of the great things about the DragonFire Shield is that it combines the protection of an Anti-Dragonfire Shield with the melee and ranged defences of a Crystal shield and the Magic defenses of a Mind Shield, giving it +70 Stab, +75 Slash, +72 Crush, +10 Magic, +72 Ranged, and +67 Summoning (when fully charged). The price, however, is a bit annoying though I guess justifiable at 17.7m.

Note: The DFS always adds +7 strength bonus, regardless of its charge level.

The Obsidian Shield (Toktz-Ket-Xil) is tied with the Rune Defender for second with +5. These are two shields which also require consideration. The Obsidian shield gives decent melee and great ranged defenses (+40 Stab, +42 Slash, +38 Crush, +0 Magic, +65 Ranged, and +60 Summoning), but the Defender gives decent combat stats (+20 Stab, +19 Slash, +18 Crush, -3 Magic, and -2 Ranged). The nice thing about the Defender is that it gives equal defence as it does to attack, with the addition of +8 to Summoning.

The Defender is a possible drop from Cyclops’ in the Warrior’s guild, and the Obsidian shield costs about 125k (though you can get one from killing obsidian creatures in the Tzhaar city).

Coming in third is the Rune Berserker shield with +4. The reason this is the best F2P shield is because it gives +45 Stab, +49 Slash, +47 Crush, -1 Magic, +47 Ranged, and +41 Summoning. The bad thing about this shield is that it must be recharged after 5 hours of combat, which can become quite annoying.

Weapon
Now for the item that should add the most strength bonus (and does), the weapon!

Now I know some of you will say ‘the only weapon to mention is the GS!’, now while the Godswords do have the highest individual strength bonus and will most certainly be mentioned, they’re not necessarily the best weapon (you wouldn’t go very far against Steel Dragons wielding a Godsword if you forgot your Anti-Dragon breath potion now would you?).

I’ll do two lists of weapons, Two-Handed and One-handed.

Two-Handed
Currently the Godswords take First place with +132 strength. The downside to this weapon’s extremely high strength bonus is that it is slow (like most two-handed weapons), expensive, and (of course) requires two hands. It’s high damage capability makes up for it’s slow speed sometimes, but, depending on the Godsword, a Dragon Dagger can do more damage in nearly the same time due to it’s speed. The highest known hit with a Dragon dagger is 50-50 on a special attack. In the time it would take a Godsword to hit 3 times, a dragon dagger could’ve done it’s special attack 4 times, which could amount to 400 damage, whereas the Godsword could use it’s special attack (Armadyl godsword: The Judgement) twice and then also do one normal attack, which could amount to around 300.

Aside from its speed is its restriction of a shield, which makes it not such a great weapon for fighting Dragons.

Coming in Second is the Dharok’s Greataxe with +105. Though it has a high strength bonus, it’s not commonly used alone due to its extremely slow speed (25% slower than a Godsword and twice as slow as a Dragon Dagger). When used in conjunction with its set and very low player hitpoints extremely high hits can be achieved. The current highest hit is 112. The downside to this weapon, as with all Barrows equipment, is that it must be repaired after 15 hours of combat.

Third place is given to the BarrelChest anchor with +100. Though it is as slow as the Godsword, it is still used by some players for its special attack, which doubles the chance to hit and has a chance of draining the opponent’s attack, defence, ranged, or magic by 10%.

Coming in Fourth is the Dragon Two-handed sword with +93. Because it’s so slow (equal to the Dharok’s Greataxe) it’s not commonly used. It’s special attack can hit up to 14 opponents and can do up to 50 to each of those for a total possible attack of 700. Due to this it’s most often used in PVP or multi combat areas where a player can use its special attack to hit multiple enemies.

For F2Ps the Rune Two-Handed sword is the best with +70.

One-Handed
The great thing about one-handed weapons is that you can wield a shield, which, as we’ve seen above, can add a decent strength bonus.

In first place is the Dragon Battle Axe with +85. Some would Argue that the Abyssal whip is higher, but in a moment I’ll show you it isn’t. The Dragon Battle Axe used to be one of the most popular weapons for high damage before the addition of the Abyssal whip. It was also much used to boost Strength with it’s special attack before herblore was made easy.

In second place is the well known Abyssal whip with +82. Now you see why it’s only in second. Yes I know a player could wield a defender, but a player could also wield a defender with a Dragon Battle axe. No, I’m not prejudice against whips, I like mine.
The downside to Abyssal whips is that their special attack is effectively (or ineffectively) worthless. It has a chance of stealing 50% of the other player’s run energy. The problem with this is that it rarely hits and can only be used on other players.
The upside to Abyssal whips is that their fast, strong, and only require one hand. At about 1.9m, almost everybody has one.

In third place is the Dragon Longsword with +71. The Dragon Longsword used to be the most popular weapon in RuneScape before the Abyssal whip and was considered to be all-around great due to its decent accuracy, damage, and great special attack. Its special attack Cleave has been known to hit 60 and only requires 1/4 of the special attack bar, meaning it can be used 4 times with a full special attack bar. This can result in 240 damage in just 4 attacks. Though it requires completion of the Lost City quest, it is a great weapon which should be respected everyone.

F2Ps should use a Rune Battle Axe which gives +64.

Totals
And now for the moment of truth (drum roll please)…

Two-Handed
The best total for a member: +175
The best total for a non-member: +82

One-Handed
The best total for a member: +135
The best total for a non-member: +80

For F2Ps it really doesn’t make much difference whether they use a Two-handed sword or not. I’d suggest using the Battle Axe and Berserker shield as you have better defence and are a bit faster that way.

As for Members it all depends on preferences. I like wearing shields so mine isn’t the highest, while the guy training next to you with an Armadyl Godsword may like to hit high so his is +175. Either way is still very respectable.

I hope I’ve helped clear up some myths and questions about different items and when and why to use them in this series. I don’t know if I’ll be doing anymore articles like these soon or not. If you liked them and would like to see more please comment here or message me on the forums.