Hitpoints

Hitpoints (also known as 'health' or 'HP', or Constitution in the current game) represents a player's health. If it reaches 0, then the player will die.

Fighting
While fighting, both the opponent and the player will have a bar on top of them. This bar represents their HP.

There are two colours on the bar: green and red. The green part of the bar represents how much HP the player and opponent has left. The red part of the bar represents how much damage has been taken away from their HP. So if a player has only 5 HP left, then the bar on top of them would be mostly red, meaning they are near death. Players often refer to "being redbarred" when barely escaping or only just getting a kill.

Recovering HP
A player can heal to restore their hitpoints back to it's maximum. There are a number of ways to do this.


 * Let it recharge on its own. A player will naturally heal one hitpoint about every minute. However, this is very slow.
 * Eat food. Players can eat various foods to restore their hitpoints. The best foods that heal a lot are the ones that can be cooked by a player. This is the recommended way a player heal themselves.
 * The monks at the Monastery will heal players if they ask them. They heal 8 Hitpoints each time.
 * The nurses at the infirmary north of Al-Kharid Duel Arena will heal players if asked.
 * The prayer 'rapid heal' doubles the rate of recovery. However, this is still very slow.
 * Die. When a player dies, they respawn at full health and stats. This is recommended if the player has  banked all items and wants to go to an area near their respawn point.

Death
When a player's HP reaches 0, then they typically will die and respawn in one of two locations. The default location is Lumbridge. However a player will only keep up to 3 of their highest valued items based on the number of coins they would return via High Level Alchemy, rather than by player prices. One more item can be saved if a player dies with the Prayer Protect Item activated. All other items will be dropped onto the ground, becoming visible to other players in about 30 seconds and will disappear completely after only two minutes.

However, if a player attacks another player in the Wilderness that hasn't engaged in combat with them, or has used the Abyss for runecrafting, they are given a skull that appears over their head. If a player dies of any circumstances while being "skulled" they lose ALL of their items carried at the time. However, the Protect Item Prayer can still be used to keep a single item when skulled. The skull will disappear if a player who has a skull does NOT attack a player again in the Wilderness, or does not enter the Abyss within twenty minutes of receiving the skull.

A Ring of Life, an item craftable by players or as a drop, can also teleport the player safely back to their respawn point automatically upon reaching 10% or below their max HP. However, if the player is hit with a killing blow they will not teleport away. Also if they are beyond level 30 in the wilderness, they will not teleport away.

There are a few areas where if a player dies, the will not lose any of their items:


 * Pest Control


 * Castle Wars


 * Inside of a player owned house


 * Dueling with another player inside the Duel Arena.

Respawning
When a player dies, they will respawn, meaning they will live again. The default spawn location is located in Lumbridge. However, after the completion of  the Recruitment Drive quest, members have the option of respawning in Falador as well by talking to Sir Tiffy in Falador Park.

Earning experience
To earn xp in hitpoints, a player has to fight or do a quest which rewards hitpoints xp.

When fighting, whether it be by melee, ranging, or magic, a player will earn hitpoints xp whenever damage is dealt. For every damage point dealt, 1.33 experience is given to the player's hitpoints. However, a few quest monsters have greatly reduced experience due to their ability to regenerate.

Temporary boosts

 * Saradomin brew - Made using the herblore skill. Drinking this brew raises defence by 20% and hitpoints by 15%+2 even above maximum if a player's HP is 99, though all other combat skills decrease by 10%.


 * Altar of Elidinis - this altar in Nardah will heal you and raise your total hitpoints, and will also refill your prayer. Players need to have completed Spirits of the Elid.


 * Skill Cape of Hitpoints - Owners of a Hitpoint Cape can boost their hitpoints by 1 every minute, by operating the cape or re-equipping it. The cape is one of the Capes of Achievement, and can be bought and equipped by players with 99 hitpoints only.

Trivia
When RuneScape 2 (as it was then known) was released, the experience required for level 10 in any skill was slightly raised. This meant that characters with no extra Hitpoints experience in RuneScape Classic were brought to RuneScape 2 with only 9 hitpoints. The minimum combat level is still 3 for those players. However, since all accounts start fresh, no players in Old School Runescape have 9 hitpoints.