Strength

Strength is a player's power in melee combat. As a player raises their Strength level, they can deal more damage against opponents. A high Strength level is often favoured by player-killers over their Attack level because it raises max hit, helping to generate the burst damage necessary to kill other players faster than they can heal themselves.

Combat
Players may receive Strength experience during combat, and the amount of experience gained is dependent on the attack style being used. Of the four melee attack styles available, Strength experience is only awarded when fighting in the aggressive or controlled stances.

When fighting in the aggressive stance, $$4 * x$$ Strength experience is awarded per hit, where $$x$$ is the amount of damage dealt. Fighting using the controlled stance, however, awards $$1.33 * x$$ Strength experience per hit, where $$x$$ is the amount of damage dealt. For example, a player who hits a 1 would receive 4 Strength experience when fighting in the aggressive stance and 1.33 Strength experience when fighting in the controlled stance. The amount of experience received when fighting in the controlled stance may be calculated in the same way that experience awarded to the Hitpoints skill is calculated.

The difference between these two stances is that the aggressive stance solely provides experience for the Strength and Hitpoints skills, whereas the controlled stance distributes experience equally among Strength, Attack, Defence, and Hitpoints. A player who hits a 1 would receive 1.33 experience in each one of these skills.

Fighting aggressively
In order to gain experience in the Strength stat, players must choose the aggressive attack style. While fighting aggressively, players will hit for higher levels of damage than they would if they were fighting accurately or defensively.

Strength bonus
Some weapons give players a Strength bonus. This bonus, represented as a single numerical value, represents the value of Strength gain. A +1 increase in Strength bonus is not the equivalent of +1 Strength skill, but is rather intended to be an indicator of what weapons and armour will allow the player to deal higher amounts of damage.

Generally speaking, more powerful weapons like Two-handed swords will have a significantly higher Strength bonus than weaker weapons like Daggers, assuming they are made of the same metal. Similarly, the more rare a metal (and therefore the higher Attack level required to wield weapons of that given metal), the higher the Strength bonus. In that effect, Rune weapons will have higher Strength bonus than Mithril weapons, which will have a higher Strength bonus than Iron weapons.

Other Strength bonuses
In addition to the normal Strength bonuses that come from weapons, there are some other wearable items that also contribute to total Strength bonus. They are as follows:


 * Head slot


 * Cape slot


 * Neck slot


 * Torso slot


 * Shield slot


 * Legs slot


 * Hands slot


 * Feet slot


 * Ring slot

Levels
In order to wield weapons, usually an Attack level is required. In some specific cases, a Strength level requirement is also in place. Notable examples are as follows:

Quests
The following quests give Strength experience upon completion.
 * Indicates that this is optional.

Temporary boosts
Certain items allow a temporary boost of the Strength stat. Commonly used Strength boosts are as follows: All percentage values given are calculated and then rounded down. For example, a 10% boost on a level 55 stat would result in, resulting in a +5 boost to that stat.