Free-to-play melee training

This is an article which provides safe, effective and economical training in the melee combat skills including Attack, Strength and Defence.

This guide is laid out in such a way, that players should not need much food.

Equipment
Players should use the best equipment they can afford, and use weapons according to their style. For example, Moss Giants are weak to Slash attacks, so it would be wise to use a slash weapon.

An Amulet of Strength would be very useful, due to the fact that it increases a player's max hit. Or perhaps an Amulet of Power, as it grants players a significant bonus to all defenses and attacks.

Use Fancy boots or Fighting boots awarded in the Stronghold of Security.

Rat
Head on over to the Man-Hole in Varrock, just east of the Castle Courtyard.

Descend into the Man-Hole and take an immediate east-ward turn, players will see a small body of water. Next to this water a player will find level 1 Rats and Spiders.

Pros: They have practically 0 Defense, and at level 5 Strength players can one-shot nearly every time. Each rat gives around 11-12 experience. Not to mention, they pretty much cannot hit through armor,which means no food cost at all.

Another bonus is that these rats have an instant respawn timer. Meaning a player can just click the same spot on the floor over and over as they respawn. A player could potentially do this all the way to level 35, until other options where one can hit higher more often become available.

Cons: No loot, and very frequent clicking required.

Recommended gear:

- Bring a crushing weapon.

Goblin (Level 2)
Cross the bridge in front of Lumbridge Castle and you should see an abundance of Goblins.

These Goblins are level 2 and should pose no threat to a new player wishing to train from level 1 skills, although it is recommended to bring some armour as they can hit.

Pros: They are fairly weak at: level 2, and therefore can be easily slain for 20-24 experience. Generally no food is involved so you don't need the cost, they also occasionally drop Cabbages.

There is a lot of Goblins in this area so you won't usually have trouble training here efficiently, plus it is generally close to the bank of Lumbridge so you can have a relatively good access to your stored items.

Cons: Having said about the abundance of Goblins it has become a very common place for new players to first train their stats so if you're on a heavily populated world don't be surprised to find 10 or more players in that area.

They have a tendency to hit 1's on players with little defence and no armour.

Recommended gear:

- Bring some form of armour.

Level 20-39
- Al Kharid Warriors ( level 9 )

To find these, make your way to Al Kharid palace, in the rooms on the east and west you should find them.

Many guides recommend fighting these enemies at a much earlier level in the game. However, they also expect you to bring inventory after inventory of food. If you are keeping your stats balanced, you should have no problem taking these guards down at level 20 combat stats.

Pros: Players will find that these guards attack automatically, once attacked. This means less clicking. Also, their armor is fairly weak, and the guard's health is just enough to yield better hit ranges than rats.

Cons: This is a multi-combat area, meaning more than one guard can attack the player at once. However at 20+ Defence, you should have no worry. Also, since multiple people can attack guards, you can BARELY get a chance to attack one and gain XP.

Recommended Gear:

Bring a slashing or stabbing weapon. Wear a platebody. Bring a few pieces of salmon or trout, in case the guards get lucky.

Level 40+ Options
Level 40 and onward is about the time that finding the "best monster" to train on is a bit ambiguous. Players will find that many, many options become available, and it is all about what they are willing to give up for an increase in something else. For example, increased money gain by sacrificing speed of killing. This article editor will now add a method for each sort.

Also, these following methods are pretty much the best to finish off to 99 with. You may need some food, but none of these are great danger when training, and you will earn more money than you spent on food.

The Speedy Method
- Guard (level 21)

Guards can be found at the entrances of Falador, at the small prison in Edgeville, at the entrances in Varrock, as well as in the Varrock Palace.

Pros:

The guards rarely hit through 40+ Defence and proper armour and therefore can be killed without food.

Drops that are worth picking up are mainly Coins and Runes which drop frequently.

Cons:

Guards are often crowded and if one has to wait for them to respawn their experience rate can decrease strongly.

Guards only have 21 hitpoints, granting only 84 xp per kill.

Recommended Gear:

Bring maybe 5 trout and a fast stabbing weapon.

High Experience + Good Drops Method

- Moss Giant (Level 42)

A player can find Moss Giants in the end of the Varrock Sewers, past the spiderwebs. There are two rooms with multiple moss giants.

The Loot Method
- Ankou (Level 75-86)

A player can find Ankou within the 4th "Death" level of the Security Stronghold. Quite a few rooms have them.

This method's title says it all: This is (arguably) the highest loot-effective method of melee training in-game. Ankous drop many stackable items, meaning less trips to the bank for the sake of loot. Players have many items to look for when looting, such as Adamant Arrows, Mithril Ore, and so on.

Their defenses are particularly weak.

Cons:

While their defense is low, they can pack a mean punch, with a maximum hit of eight!

Players WILL need food for this, however the loot gain from these undead foes counters the food cost with immense value.

Recommended Gear:

Food, plenty of it (about ten lobsters per trip, depending how long a player wants to let the loot stack up.) This enemy is weak to Stab, so bring an appropriate weapon.

SIDE NOTE: It is a common argument, that ankou attacks are magical-melee. However, the official wiki here dictates that these are purely melee attacks.

Balanced Method
- Moss Giants (Level 42)

These enemies are located in the deepest bowels of Varrock Sewers, Crandor Isle, and the deep Wilderness.

Pros:

These Moss Giants have it all. Weak defense, weak attacks, good loot, and a substantial amount of health yielding high combat experience.

The drops may not be as insane as Ankou loot, but they drop useful items, such as law runes, nature runes, big bones, 124 coin, Iron and Steel arrows, large amounts of elemental runes such as 12 - 18 air runes, 22 earth runes, etc...

These are an all-around great monster to fight. Not as fast exp-wise as guards, not as loot-rewarding nor slow as ankou.

Cons:

While weak, they still hit fairly regular. Players will need about 8 lobsters or 12 tuna before the loot begins to over-fill their inventory, this will force people to bank their loot.

These Moss Giants are quite popular, and each location only holds about 3 - 8 of them, meaning fighting training on these will be competitive.

They're a hostile monster, in a multi-attack area, meaning a player can have a number of these bludgeons attacking them at one time.

Recommended Gear:

About a half-inventory of food and teleport runes. For equipment, wear chain armor to reduce the crush damage of the moss giant. Giants are weak to slash, so prepare accordingly.

Reducing The Price of Training
Over at Barbarian Village, on the river's edge, non-ironmen players can find that fishermen are dropping raw or cooked salmon and trout nearly 24 hours a day. If it is raw, don't worry! There is a fire in the barbarian hall, the helm shop, and a range in Juliet's house.