Special attacks

A full special attack bar.

Some weapons in Old School RuneScape have special attacks available for them. There are many types of special attacks, from temporary boosts in stats, to strikes dealing extra damage. They are activated by the player by clicking on the special attack bar under the Combat Options interface. Hovering over the special attack bar will show a tooltip with the weapon's special attack's name and description.

Special attacks have an energy bar that is drained when you use the attack; this is drained of varying amounts according to which weapon is used. The special energy bar regenerates at a rate of 10% every 30 seconds, or five (5) minutes to regenerate from empty to full. The bar will not regenerate while a player is logged out, nor will it regenerate if a player has their bank window open. The special attack bar also does not regenerate on death or upon exiting the Clan Wars portal. However, the Elidinis Statuette at Nardah, a restoration pool or higher in player-owned houses, and exiting a Nightmare Zone dream fully restore special attack energy.

The energy bar is related to the player, not to the weapon - in other words, changing weapons does not change the special energy bar.

While players are the most common users of special attacks, NPCs are known to use them too. The stranger that may be encountered during Desert Treasure is capable of using his dragon dagger's special attack. He does not seem to be limited by a special attack bar and can even unleash consecutive special attacks per game tick.

Melee weapons[]

Dragon weapons[]

Weapon	Name	Special attack energy used	Description
Dragon dagger	Puncture	25%	Two quick slashes with 25% increased accuracy and 15% increased damage.
Dragon scimitar	Sever	55%	A slash with increased accuracy that, if successful, prevents the target from using protection prayers for five seconds.
Dragon longsword	Cleave	25%	A powerful attack that deals 15% more damage.
Dragon mace	Shatter	25%	Increases damage by 50% and accuracy by 25% for one hit.
Dragon battleaxe	Rampage	100%	Lowers the user's Attack, Defence, Ranged, and Magic levels by 10% each, but increases their Strength by 10 + (levels drained / 4).
Dragon warhammer	Smash	50%	An attack that deals 50% additional damage and will lower the target's current Defence level by 30% on a hit other than 0 (stackable; relative to current level).
Dragon halberd	Sweep	30%	Swipe all targets in front of you for 10% extra damage. For large monsters that occupy two or more spaces, like giants, the halberd will hit twice, although the second hit will have 25% decreased accuracy.
Dragon spear	Shove	25%	Push your opponent back and stun them for three seconds. This attack deals no damage and doesn't work on creatures that occupy two or more spaces.
Dragon 2h sword	Powerstab	60%	Hit up to 14 enemies surrounding you.
Dragon pickaxe	Rock Knocker	100%	Increases the player's Mining level by 3.
Infernal pickaxe
3rd age pickaxe
Dragon axe	Lumber Up	100%	Increases the player's Woodcutting level by 3.
Infernal axe
3rd age axe
Dragon harpoon	Fishstabber	100%	Increases the player's Fishing level by 3.
Infernal harpoon	Fishstabber	100%	Increases the player's Fishing level by 3.
Dragon claws	Slice and Dice	50%	Hits 4 times in quick succession with great accuracy.
Dragon thrownaxe	Momentum Throw	25%	Improves accuracy by 25% along with guaranteeing that the player will attack on the next game tick.
Dragon sword	Wild Stab	40%	Hits the target with 25% increased accuracy and damage. If the target is using Protect from Melee, the special attack will ignore the prayer for one attack.

Godswords[]

Weapon	Name	Special attack energy used	Description
Armadyl godsword	The Judgment	50%	Inflicts 37.5% more damage and doubles the accuracy.
Bandos godsword	Warstrike	50%	Attack does 21% more damage, doubles the accuracy, and drains one of the target's Combat stats by the amount of damage dealt, until it reaches 0. If the stat drained reaches 0 before all of the damage could be accounted for, another stat will be drained by the amount remaining. Stats are drained in the following order: Defence, Strength, Prayer, Attack, Magic, Ranged.
Saradomin godsword	Healing Blade	50%	Increases damage dealt by 10% and doubles the accuracy. Attack restores the user's Hitpoints by 50% of the damage dealt (with a minimum of 10 Hitpoints) and Prayer by 25% of damage dealt (with a minimum of 5 Prayer points). The attack has no effect if it misses completely but will always take effect if the attack hits anything.
Zamorak godsword	Ice Cleave	50%	Increases damage dealt by 10% and doubles the accuracy. If the special attack hits successfully, it freezes the target for 20 seconds.

Other[]

Weapon	Name	Special attack energy used	Description
Abyssal whip	Energy Drain	50%	An attack that has 25% additional accuracy and, when used against another player, transfers 10% of the target's run energy to the user.
Abyssal tentacle	Binding Tentacle	50%	Binds an opponent for 5 seconds and increases opponent's chance of being poisoned.
Abyssal dagger	Abyssal Puncture	50%	A double attack that deals 15% less damage with 25% more accuracy. If the first attack hits, so will the second attack. Otherwise, both attacks will miss.
Abyssal bludgeon	Penance	50%	An attack that deals 0.5% extra damage for every prayer point the attacker is missing.
Barrelchest anchor	Sunder	50%	An attack that doubles accuracy, increases max hit by 10%, and lowers the opponent's Attack, Defence, Ranged, or Magic level by 10% of the damage inflicted.
Granite hammer	Hammer Blow	60%	An attack with 50% increased accuracy. Adds 5 damage to the attack; this extra 5 damage applies even if the player was supposed to deal zero damage.
Granite maul	Quick Smash	50%	An extra attack done instantly with no other effects.
Rune claws	Impale	25%	Attack with 10% more Attack and Strength, but with a slower speed.
Excalibur	Sanctuary	100%	Temporarily increases Defence by 8 levels.
Darklight	Weaken	50%	Temporarily reduces the target's Attack, Strength, and Defence by 5%. Twice as effective on demons (reduces each stat by 10%).
Arclight	Weaken	50%
Bone dagger	Backstab	75%	Lowers the Defence of the target equal to the amount of damage dealt. Has a guaranteed hit if you weren't the last one to attack the target.
Brine sabre	Liquefy	75%	Doubles the chance of hitting, and adds 25% of the damage dealt to the user's Strength, Attack and Defence levels. Can only be used underwater.
Ancient mace	Favour of the War God	100%	Hits through Protect from Melee and drains Prayer points of the opponent by 100% of the amount hit while recovering the user 100% of the amount hit. (A hit of 10 drains 10 Prayer and grants 10 Prayer points to the user.) Can also restore Prayer above base level.
Saradomin sword	Saradomin's Lightning	100%	Call upon Saradomin's power to inflict 1-16 extra Magic damage upon your opponent. Increases the melee hit by 10%. The special attack rolls against the opponent's magic defence bonus using your slash attack bonus making this special attack extremely accurate on melee armour.
Saradomin's blessed sword	Saradomin's Lightning	65%	Magic-based attack that increases the user's max hit by 25%. The special attack rolls against the opponent's magic defence bonus using your slash attack bonus making this special attack extremely accurate on melee armour.
Zamorakian spear	Shove	25%	Push your opponent back and stun them for three seconds. This attack deals no damage.
Zamorakian hasta	Shove	25%
Crystal halberd	Sweep	30%	Swipe all targets in front of you for 10% extra damage. For large monsters that occupy two or more spaces, like giants, the halberd will hit twice, although the second hit will have 25% decreased accuracy.
Dinh's bulwark	Shield Bash	50%	Attacks surrounding targets in a 10x10 area with 20% increased accuracy.

Ranged weapons[]

Weapon	Name	Special attack energy used	Description
Armadyl crossbow	Armadyl Eye	40%	Doubles the player's accuracy for that shot.
Dark bow	Descent of Darkness	55%	A powerful double attack with increased damage inflicting up to 30% more damage with a minimum of 5 damage per arrow and a capped maximum of 48.
Dark bow	Descent of Dragons	55%	Inflicts up to 50% more damage for a minimum of 8 damage per arrow and a maximum of 48. Only activates if dragon arrows are used.
Dragon crossbow	Annihilate	60%	Hits all enemies in a 3x3 area. The primary target of the attack will take 20% extra damage, while all other targets will take 20% less damage.
Magic shortbow	Snapshot	55%	Fires two arrows very rapidly but with reduced accuracy. For some reason, it ignores Void's and prayer effects.
Magic shortbow (i)	Snapshot	50%
Magic longbow	Powershot	35%	A shot that is guaranteed to hit your opponent. For some reason, it ignores Void's and prayer effects.
Magic comp bow	Powershot	35%
Rune thrownaxe	Chainhit	10%	Throw an axe, which hits its target then bounces randomly at nearby targets. Costs 10% additional special attack for each target hit beyond the first.
Dorgeshuun crossbow	Snipe	75%	Has a guaranteed hit if you weren't the last one to attack the target and also lowers the opponent's Defence level equal to the amount of damage inflicted.
Seercull	Soulshot	100%	Is guaranteed to hit and decreases the Magic level by the amount of damage dealt.
Toxic blowpipe	Toxic Siphon	50%	Increases damage by 50% and heals the wielder for half of the damage dealt.
Light ballista	Concentrated Shot	65%	Increases accuracy and damage by 25% each for one shot.
Heavy ballista	Concentrated Shot	65%	Increases accuracy and damage by 25% each for one shot.

Magic weapons[]

Weapon	Name	Special attack energy used	Description
Staff of the dead	Power of Death	100%	Reduce all Melee damage by 50% for the next minute also stacking with the PvP damage-reduction effect of Protect from Melee. The damage reduction from this special attack only works while the staff is equipped. Unequipping the staff while the effect is still active will immediately end the effect.
Toxic staff of the dead	Power of Death	100%
Staff of light	Power of Light	100%
Rod of ivandis	Retainer	10%	Captures a vampyre juvenile or juvinate that has 50% or less health so the player can apply a dose of Guthix balance potion on the vampyre.
Ivandis flail	Retainer	10%
Dawnbringer	Pulsate	35%	Fires a powerful blast towards Verzik Vitur, inflicting 80-150 hitpoints of damage.

Shields[]

Dragonfire[]

The dragonfire shield and dragonfire ward can discharge a fireball hitting around 25 damage at an opponent. It doesn't use any special attack energy, but the attack can only be used once the shield has cooled down every two minutes.

Weapon	Description	Animation
Dragonfire shield	Use one charge to unleash a blast of dragonfire at a target once every two minutes, which can hit approximately 25 damage, up to 13 spaces away.
Dragonfire ward

Ancient wyvern[]

The ancient wyvern shield can discharge an icy breath attack at an opponent. It doesn't use any special attack energy, but once the shield has been activated, there is a cooldown before the player can use it again.

Weapon	Description	Animation
Ancient wyvern shield	When activated, the shield lets out a Wyvern-like attack and the target's stats are lowered accordingly. This attack also has a chance of freezing the target.

Trivia[]

Weapons previously did not have names for their special attacks in game; they were only found in the discontinued Knowledge Base on the RuneScape website. It was not until an update on 24 August 2017 that they were officially added in game.