Defence

This article is about the skill. For information on training defence, see Melee training, Magic training, Ranged training or Necromancy training.

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Defence
Release date	4 January 2001 (Update)
Members	No
Type	Combat
Max. level	99
Statistics
Minimum level to be ranked	15 (as of 30 Apr 2026)
Players with 99	287,016 (as of 30 Apr 2026)
Players with 120	57,402 (as of 30 Apr 2026)
Players with 200M XP	23,839 (as of 30 Apr 2026)
with 99	23,426 (as of 30 Apr 2026)
with 120	4,288 (as of 30 Apr 2026)
with 200M XP	1,726 (as of 30 Apr 2026)

Defence is a skill that grants players protection in all forms of combat. For this reason, Defence is one of the skills that will raise the combat level of a player regardless of other combat skill levels.

The higher the player's Defence level, the more benefits they obtain:

• A player's Defence level determines which equipment they are able to wear, as most pieces of armour or other equipment have a Defence level requirement.
• Defence affects players' (and monsters') base armour rating, with every level increasing it at a rate of F(a)=0.0008a3+4a+40, where a is the player's Defence level. Having a higher armour rating increases the chance of completely blocking an opponent's attack.
  • Additionally, every Defence level reduces melee, magic, ranged, and necromancy damage the player takes by 0.1%, up to 9.9% at level 99 Defence.
• Access to powerful abilities like Resonance, Barricade and Immortality.

Defence is thus a vital skill for enduring attacks for long periods of time.

Gaining experience

Combat

A monster's Defence level allows it to resist an attack from a player.

Defence plays an important role in all forms of combat. The higher a player's Defence level, the more likely the opponent is to miss an attack, dealing 0 damage.

Defence can be trained in combat using any of the four combat styles: Magic, Melee, Ranged or Necromancy. This is determined by opening the Settings interface > Gameplay tab > Skills & Experience drop-down > Combat XP menu, then selecting to train Defence for each combat style, or train a combination of defence and the skill related to that combat style. For melee attacks, Defence can be trained by itself or alongside Attack and Strength. For the other three combat styles, Defence can be trained by itself or alongside the combat style skill.

If using legacy combat mode, the Combat XP selection may also be made in the Combat tab.

Experience is gained when the player kills the enemy, and its amount depends on the enemy's stats. Combat experience is added in one block, 1/4 of which is given to Constitution and the rest is split equally between the selected skills in the Combat XP menu.

Experience rewards

Main article: Defence/Experience rewards

Players can get Defence experience as a reward for completing certain quests for a total of 166,037 experience. There are also lots of quests that allows the player to choose the skill that will receive an experience reward.

Experience lamps, gained through tasks and random events can be used to grant experience to any skill. Players can also trade points gained in certain minigames for experience in Defence level. Other ways to get reward experience in Defence is through the Dragonkin lamp, penguin points, Tears of Guthix and by completing Court Cases with a successful defence.

Other ways to gain experience

• The brawling gloves (melee) provide 50% bonus experience whilst training on any of the Melee skills (Defence, Strength and Attack) using the melee combat style. The gloves last for around 100,000 combat experience, and disintegrate after the player receives all this bonus experience.
• A player can train Defence on the Catapult room at the Warriors' Guild, the player will receive 10 experience per successful defence.
• Harvesting the fruit from a Prickly pear will grant defence experience related to your defence level.
• Players receive combat experience from the damage dealt by their Summoning familiars, the skill that receives the experience varies depending on the familiar, except that Constitution always receive 13.3% of the damage done by the familiar.

Familiar	Combat level	Required Summoning level
Granite crab	26	16
Spirit kalphite	39	25
Bronze minotaur	50	36
Iron minotaur	70	46
Steel minotaur	90	56
Mithril minotaur	112	66
Adamant minotaur	133	76
Rune minotaur	154	86
Iron titan	220	95

"Controlled Familiars", for whom 13.3% of damage dealt is converted to Defence experience:

Familiar	Combat level	Required Summoning level
Spirit spider	25	10
Spirit scorpion	51	19
Vampyre bat	44	31
Spirit larupia	93	57
Stranger plant	107	64
Arctic bear	122	71
Giant ent	137	78
Spirit dagannoth	148	83

Other features

• You require a certain Defence level to do certain quests. The highest requirement is level 80 Defence for The Brink of Extinction.
• The prayer Piety requires 70 Defence to be activated.
• You also need a certain Defence level to complete certain Tasks; they involve, among other things, quest requirements, trying out some equipment at certain places, and the highest levelled task being to enter the Seers' Village Courthouse with the Piety prayer activated.
• Defence is used in the Dungeoneering skill in several ways.
• Thieving using a Maple blackjack (d) requires having 30 Defence.

Equipment

Almost every single piece of combat equipment (except for the ones that go on the weapon, cape, ring, aura and amulet slots) requires a certain Defence level to wear. Here are links to tables of armour and equipment that require a Defence level to wear:

• Armour - For an overview on the different types of Armour.
• Melee Armour - An overview of the different types of Melee armour.
• Magic Armour - An overview of the different types of Magic armour.
• Ranged Armour - An overview of the different types of Ranged armour.
• Prayer Armour - An overview of the different types of Prayer armour.
• Defenders - A weapon that goes on the shield slot and provides offensive bonuses while also having an Attack and Defence levels requirement.

Cape of Accomplishment

A player wearing a trimmed Defence cape.

After achieving level 99 Defence, players can buy the Defence cape from Captain Harlan the master of Defence. He can be found north of the Lumbridge Fishing Supplies shop. The Defence cape is light blue in colour, and has a cream trim for players who have more than one level 99 skill. The Defence cape's perk provides the effects of a sign of life/portent of life once an hour, and unlike them, is not destroyed upon activation.

Temporary boosts

Main article: Temporary skill boost

Flat and percentage Defence level bonus don't stack with each other when they add up above the base Defence level. They do, however, stack with the effective defence bonuses of prayers and equipment special effects, as they don't increase the defence level in any way but directly affect the actual chance of dodging an attack when in combat.

Potions

Potion		Members	Level increase	Level to make	Notes
	Saradomin brew		1 + 4%	81	Drains Strength, Attack, Magic and Ranged by the same amount.
	Super Saradomin brew		1 + 6%	93	Drains Strength, Attack, Magic and Ranged by 1 + 4%.
	Defence potion		1 + 8%	9
	Defence mix		1 + 8%	11	Heals 300 life points.
	Super defence		2 + 12%	66
	Super defence mix		2 + 12%	71	Heals 600 life points.
	Super warmaster's potion		2 + 12%	85	Also boosts Attack, Strength, Magic and Ranged by the same amount
	Super melee potion		2 + 12%	81	Also boosts Attack and Strength by the same amount
	Grand defence potion		2 + 14%	79
	Extreme defence		3 + 15%	90
	Supreme defence potion		4 + 16%	93
	Overload		3 + 15%	96	Non-tradeable. Also boosts Attack, Strength, Ranged, Magic, and Necromancy, lasting 6 minutes.
	Supreme overload potion		4 + 16%	98	Non-tradeable. Also boosts Attack, Strength, Ranged, Magic, and Necromancy, lasting 6 minutes. Requires Plague's End.
	Elder overload potion		5 + 17%	106	Non-tradeable. Also boosts Attack, Strength, Ranged, Magic, and Necromancy, lasting 6 minutes. Requires Plague's End.

Other

Item		Members	Level increase	Requirements	Notes
	Excalibur		+8	Merlin's Crystal
	Enhanced Excalibur		+15%	Hard Seers' Village achievements
	Elemental Titan scroll (Titan's Constitution)		+12.5%	79
	Dominion marker		Varies	110	Non-tradeable. Boosts depends on marker stage, also boosts Attack, Strength, Magic and Defence.
	God banner		+5	55 or 55 or 55	Non-tradeable. Usable once per day for 30 minutes, also boosts Attack, Strength, Ranged and Magic.
	Defence cape		+1	99

Prayers and Ancient Curses

The following bonuses don't increase the player's current Defence level on the stats tab, but allows the player to be hit less often (see above) and will therefore stack with other boosts:

Name		Members	Book	Level	Boost
	Thick Skin		Prayers	1	+2
	Rock Skin			10	+4
	Steel Skin			28	+6
	Chivalry			70	+7
	Piety			70	+8
	Augury			70	+8
	Rigour			70	+8
	Leech Defence		Ancient Curses	80	+2 to +5
	Turmoil			95	+10
	Torment			95	+10
	Anguish			95	+10
	Malevolence			99	+12
	Desolation			99	+12
	Affliction			99	+12

Skilling pet (Wallace)

Main article: Wallace

Like all skills, there is a skilling pet obtainable from training this skill. For Defence, the pet is called Wallace.

Quests with a Defence requirement

• 25 - Heroes' Quest
• 25 - The Void Stares Back
• 33 - Elemental Workshop III
• 40 - Elemental Workshop IV
• 40 - Lunar Diplomacy
• 40 - While Guthix Sleeps
• 60 - Salt in the Wound
• 72 - The Mighty Fall
• 75 - The Lord of Vampyrium
• 76 - A Clockwork Syringe

Quests for Defence experience

Main article: Quest experience reward § Defence

Quest	Members	XP reward	Defence requirement	Other requirements
The Blood Pact		100	N/A	N/A
A Shadow over Ashdale		300	N/A	N/A
A Soul's Bane		500	N/A	N/A
In Search of the Myreque		600	N/A	25 Agility
In Aid of the Myreque		2,000	N/A	25 Crafting 7 Magic 15 Mining
Nature Spirit		2,000	N/A	N/A
What Lies Below		2,000	N/A	35 Runecrafting
The Fremennik Trials		2,812	N/A	40 Crafting 25 Fletching 40 Woodcutting
Heroes' Quest		3,075	25 Defence (Black Arm gang only)	53 Cooking 53 Fishing 25 Herblore 50 Mining
Between a Rock...		5,000	30 Defence	40 Mining 50 Smithing
Elemental Workshop III		8,500	33 Defence	20 Mining 33 Smithing
Defender of Varrock		10,000	N/A	51 Agility 51 Hunter 54 Smithing 59 Mining
Dimension of Disaster: Defender of Varrock		10,000	N/A	N/A
Olaf's Quest		12,000	N/A	40 Firemaking 50 Woodcutting
Holy Grail		15,300	N/A	30 Attack
Dragon Slayer		18,650	40 Defence	N/A
A Clockwork Syringe		19,000	76 Defence	50 Dungeoneering 61 Slayer 62 Construction 65 Summoning 74 Smithing 74 Thieving
King's Ransom		33,000	65 Defence	45 Magic
Salt in the Wound		45,000	60 Defence	50 Constitution 47 Herblore 45 Summoning 35 Dungeoneering
	Total	189,837

Development history

Before the Evolution of Combat update, the way in which Defence was trained was different for all attack methods:

Melee

Defence experience was only gained if a player hit an opponent while on Defensive attack style, chosen on the Combat interface. The Defensive attack style was available with all weapons besides the dwarven army axe.

If a player fought with the "controlled" attack style, then the experience was split across Strength, Attack and Defence.

It is worth noting that the Defensive stance gave an invisible +3 boost to Defence level, and the Controlled stance an invisible +1 boost to Defence as well as Attack and Strength.

Ranged

The player could earn Defence experience only when attacking with Ranged by using the Longrange attack style, which split experience equally between Ranged and Defence. 2 Ranged and Defence experience were earned for each 10 damage dealt. This attack style gave an extra square of range to all weapons, however speed of fire was sacrificed.

Magic

Defence could be trained while training Magic when casting offensive spells by toggling the "defensive casting" option in the lower right corner of the combat menu. 1 Defence experience (as well as 1.333 Magic experience) will be awarded for every 10 points of damage dealt. The experience awarded for casting the spell was not affected, and only awarded to Defence.

Update history

This information has been compiled as part of the update history project. Some updates may not be included – see here for how to help out!

• patch 7 May 2024 (Update):
  • Levelling up Attack, Strength, Defence, Ranged and Magic now plays their unique jingles again instead of the same combat jingle for all.
  • Levelling up Attack, Strength, Defence, Ranged, Magic and Slayer above level 50 now plays their unique greater jingles again.

• patch 15 May 2023 (Update):
  • Corrected tooltips for Crystal equipment unlocks in the Skill Guide menu - they now have the correct gear pieces.
    • Attuned crystal armour's icon was changed from crystal body to attuned crystal body.

• patch 27 July 2020 (Update):
  • Fixed a typo in the Defence skill guide.

• patch 19 August 2019 (Update):
  • The Corrupted slayer helmet now appears correctly under the Defence skill guide.

• patch 12 August 2019 (Update):
  • Dragon Slayer Quest is no longer listed as requirement on Defence skill guide to wear mystic armour and blue dragonhide.

• patch 31 October 2016 (Update):
  • The Defence skillguide has been split into Melee, Ranged, Magic & Other filters. A number of issues with text and outdated requirements have also been fixed.
  • A text error in the Defence skill guide for the 'Penance Insignia: Defender' has been fixed.

• patch 18 July 2016 (Update):
  • The Fremennik Trials quest requirement is now displayed as a requirement for skeletal armour on the Skill Guide.

• patch 8 June 2015 (Update):
  • The Mining and Defence skill guides have been updated, correcting and including certain entries.

• patch 14 September 2015 (Update):
  • The Defence level requirement for Warpriest armour displayed in the Defence skill guide has been corrected.

• patch 8 September 2014 (Update):
  • The defence Skill Advance Guide has been updated to correctly show the defence requirement for corrupt PvP armour.

• patch 21 January 2014 (Update):
  • The Orbful achievement no longer lists a Defence requirement.

• patch 23 July 2013 (Update):
  • Defence abilities used from the ability book now function correctly.

• patch 12 March 2013 (Update):
  • Robes of subjugation now have the correct level requirement listed in the Defence Skill Advance Guide.

• patch 28 November 2012 (Update):
  • We've fixed the decorative armour tooltip so it now displays the correct defence level.

• patch 31 January 2012 (Update):
  • The Defence skill guide's "Mastery" option now has a member's only padlock icon.

• patch 7 October 2009 (Update):
  • Matched the timing of defend sounds with their animations.

• patch 8 July 2009 (Update):
  • Dagon'Hai robes are now in the Defence skill guide.

• patch 17 March 2009 (Update):
  • The code that checks the Defence and Ranged requirements for items has been made more consistent.

• update 4 January 2001 (Update):
  • Runescape beta goes live, releasing Defence into the game.

Trivia

• In RuneScape Classic, the American spelling "defense" was used.
• In the early days of RuneScape Classic, players who chose to be a warrior in their character creation process started out with level 4 Defence, and players who chose to be an adventurer started out with level 3 Defence.
• The current minimum requirement to be ranked (at approximately rank 1,407,418) on the HiScores for Defence is level 15. As of 30 April 2026, there are 287,016 active players that have achieved level 99 in Defence. There are 57,402 active players that have achieved level 120 in Defence.

See also

• Defence/Experience table, a list of all Defence experience sources
• Defence/Level up table, a list of all requirements and unlockables within the Defence skill
• Defence/Experience rewards
• Combat Calculator