Ranged is one of the three combat styles in OSRS, alongside Melee and Magic. Ranged is similar to Magic in several ways. Like Magic, you can safely fight enemies at a distance with Ranged, meaning you can take on stronger enemies currently impossible to combat in Melee.
Ranged damage also scales much faster than Melee, meaning you can punch up at enemies quicker. It's an invaluable skill to have leveled up.
Today, we'll be covering the best F2P/P2P Ranged training methods. Move aside, Oliver Queen, the new master archer, is in town.
Recommendations
Ava's Assembler / Accumulator / Attractor
You can obtain Ava's devices by completing Animal Magnetism and having at least level 30 Ranged. These devices have a 60-80% chance of automatically recovering your ammunition, provided you aren't wearing metal armour.
Dwarf Multicannon
The Dwarf multicannon is a useful Ranged weapon for multicombat. You must complete the Dwarf Cannon quest to use one.
Access to Fossil Island
Fossil Island is home to ammonite crabs, one of the best monsters to train on in OSRS. To access Fossil Island, you must first complete the Bone Voyage quest, which requires at least 100 kudos at the Varrock Museum.
Completion of Corsair Curse
If you're a F2P player, you must begin the Corsair Curse quest to access Corsair Cove, arguably the best training area in F2P.
Recommended F2P Training Methods
Levels 1-20: Chicken, Cows, Men/Women, Goblins
To start your Ranged training, fight any low-level monster like chickens, cows, goblins, men, or women. In F2P, cows and chickens have the most useful drops, like cow hides and feathers. If training on cows, you may want to safespot them.
Always use a shortbow when training Ranged, and use the 'Rapid' attack option to speed up training. For the first 20-30 levels, you might feel inclined to use 'Accurate' for its invisible +3 Ranged boost, but it's up to you.
Levels 20-30: Barbarians
From levels 20-30, train on barbarians in Barbarian Village. You can easily safespot them in the Long Hall by hiding behind the tables, and the nearby fishing spots have easy access to cooked trout and salmon.
Levels 30-60: Giant Frogs
Giant Frogs are one of the best training monsters in F2P OSRS for any combat style. They have a lot of HP, low Defense, and drop big bones, the best bones available in F2P. Training Prayer in F2P is no easy task, so bury all the big bones you get your hands on.
Levels 60-70/99: Moss Giants
From levels 60-70, you should turn your attention to Moss Giants in the Varrock Sewers. Near the end of the Sewers, close to Bryophyta's Lair, there's an alcove of Moss Giants. These guys hit fairly hard, but you can safespot them by hiding behind the cauldron or the pile of bones near the sewer grate. They also drop mossy keys, which let you fight Bryophyta, who can drop Bryophyta's essence, which is worth 6.6 million GP.
If you prioritize EXP rates over GP, moss giants are the best monsters to train on in F2P.
Levels 70-99: Ogresses
Ogresses might be the best monsters to kill in F2P. They consistently drop law, nature, and death runes and have a 1/40 chance of dropping rune med helms. You can easily safespot Ogresses as well.
The only problem with Ogresses is that they have moderately high Ranged Defense, so don't think of coming here before level 70 Ranged. Due to their high Defense, your EXP rates will slow down, but many consider the profit worth it.
Recommended P2P Training Methods
For P2P players, you aren't limited to just shortbows. You can also use darts, knives, crossbows, chinchompas, the Dwarf multicannon, and more.
Levels 1-99: Slayer
If you like killing two birds with one stone, you can train Ranged to 99 by using it during most of your Slayer tasks. EXP rates will vary heavily, and the EXP rates of most low-level Slayer tasks are not good at all, but optimal EXP rates here aren't the priority. You need a high Slayer level to fight some of the most lucrative monsters and bosses in OSRS, so prioritizing leveling Slayer isn't a bad idea.
Levels 1-45/70/99: Crabs
Crabs are one of the best AFK-friendly training monsters in OSRS for any Combat style. The ammonite crabs of Fossil Island are the best of the bunch, having the most HP but also dealing the most damage. You will want some Defense levels before coming here.
The sand crabs on Hosidius are almost as good, but also more crowded since there are no requirements to train here. The rock crabs are significantly less crowded than sand or ammonite crabs but also have the least HP. As such, you'll need to pay more attention here.
Because of how AFK they are, some players opt to train to level 99 Ranged on crabs.
Levels 45-99: Chinning Maniacal Monkeys
To use this training method, you must have started Monkey Madness II, a Grandmaster quest. It's unlikely most players will still have only level 45 Ranged by the time they do this, but regardless, this is the fastest way of reaching level 99 Ranged.
You will be throwing chinchompas at maniacal monkeys in Kruk's Dungeon on Ape Atoll. To get the most out of this method, you will also need to use the strongest Ranged Prayers, like Rigour and divine ranged potions.
If you are training optimally, which is roughly just under 2,000 chinchompas thrown per hour), you can expect EXP rates of about 280,000-290,000/hour. And that's with regular chinchompas. Those EXP rates increase if you use red or black chinchompas instead. With black chinchompas, you can achieve EXP rates of 1 million EXP/hour after hitting level 90 Ranged.
Using chinchompas to train is significantly more expensive than training with arrows, bolts, darts, or knives, so only do this if you're loaded with GP and care more about efficiency than costs.
Levels 70-99: Nightmare Zone
The Nightmare Zone is a community favorite for endgame AFK training, and Ranged training is no exception. By setting up a customizable rumble, you can set up a Nightmare Zone scenario where you can AFK train for 20 minutes at a time. Using an imbued magic shortbow and amethyst or rune arrows is the usual way to go. You'll also need some super ranging and absorption potions.
The EXP rates cap at around 60,000-70,000/hour. This is a cheap and very AFK way of achieving level 99 Ranged. You can nearly double the EXP rates if you use a Venator bow, but if you're paying for Ranged training, you're better off chinning maniacal monkeys instead.
Final Thoughts
Ranged is an exceptionally useful skill to train up early on. Ranged and Magic are both inexpensive early on, but as you increase your combat levels, high-level Magic becomes more difficult to afford if used consistently than high-level Ranged. So long as you have a high Ranged level, even a bone crossbow and bone bolts are quite potent.
Not only is Ranged quite powerful, with things like the Dark bow spec, but it's also the most accurate combat style in OSRS. If you're having trouble hitting a foe, whip out your bow.
Or exploding furry creatures. Or whatever your Ranged weapon of choice is. You know what I mean.
