Weapon Special attack

This article is about various special attacks. For the item also known as "spec", see Spectral spirit shield.

Some weapons in RuneScape have special attacks available for them. There are many types of special attacks, from temporary boosts in stats, to strikes dealing extra damage.

The messages given when a player has regained 50% and 100% special attack energy respectively.

They are activated by the player by clicking on the special attack bar under the Combat Options interface. 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 rate of 10% every 30 seconds, requiring 5 minutes to regenerate from empty to full. The bar will not regenerate while the player is logged out, nor will it regenerate while a player is in their bank window. The energy bar is related to the player, not to the weapon; in other words, changing weapons won't change your energy bar. At the moment, special attacks are only available for members' weapons and therefore only members can use them.

<NOTE: Future updates will move individual weapon specials, to player specials based on level; Combat beta.>

A Ring of Vigour can be bought from the Dungeoneering skill for 50,000 tokens, and will reduce all special attacks by 1/10th of the total cost of that special attack when worn. So for example, a Dragon scimitar's special attack normally uses up 55% will, when the Ring of Vigour is worn, use up only 50%. Note: To wear the ring, you must have level 62 Attack and Dungeoneering.

With level 86 Prayer, members who have access to the Zarosian Ancient Curses can use the Leech Special Attack to boost their own special attack energy while draining their opponent's, up to 10%.

Recover special potions restore 25% of the special attack bar percentage. This potion can only be drunk once every 30 seconds. They may not be used in the Wilderness.

It is possible to block special attacks received from other players by using the spell Disruption Shield on the Lunar Spellbook just like normal attacks, even those that is composed of multiple hits. This can be seen clearer on the Dragon claws special attack, when all of the 4 strikes are nullified.

Jagex will remove the current special attack system with the Evolution of Combat update, and will be replaced with abilities.

Melee weapons

Dragon weapons

Dragon dagger

Puncture. 25% drain.

Two quick slashes with increased accuracy and damage. Often used to quickly finish off opponents by high-level players.

Extra: Requires the completion of Lost City to equip.

Dragon Dagger's "Puncture" Special Attack.

Dragon pickaxe

Shock. 100% drain.

Drains 5% from the opponent's Attack, Ranged, and Magic.

A large overhead swing that takes longer than a normal attack.

File:Dragon pickaxe.gif

Dragon Pickaxe's "Shock" Special Attack.

Dragon scimitar

Sever. 55% drain.

A slash with increased accuracy that, if successful, prevents the target from using protection prayers for five seconds.
Extra: Requires the completion of Monkey Madness to equip

Dragon Scimitar's "Sever" Special Attack.

Dragon longsword

Cleave. 25% drain.

Deals extra damage.
Extra: Requires the completion of Lost City to equip.

Dragon mace

Shatter. 25% drain.

Drastically increases Strength and decreases accuracy for one hit.
Extra: Requires the completion of Heroes' Quest to equip.

Dragon battleaxe

Rampage. 100% drain.

Temporary boosts:

Strength +20% of original level

Attack -10% of original level

Defence -10% of original level

Ranged -10% of original level

Magic -10% of original level

Extras:

Often used in conjunction with restore potions to make up for loss of attack and defence levels. Requires the completion of Heroes' Quest to equip.
The formula used is $Boost=10+\lfloor 0.25\times (\lfloor 0.1\times magic\rfloor +\lfloor 0.1\times range\rfloor +\lfloor 0.1\times defence\rfloor +\lfloor 0.1\times attack\rfloor )\rfloor$ ; note that the boost depends on the current levels of the other combat skills (boosting/draining other combat skills affects the boost).
The player shouts out "Raarrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!" when the special attack is performed

Dragon halberd

The dragon 2h sword's **Powerstab** special attack.

Sweep. 30% drain.

A wide slash with increased strength that strikes multiple enemies if they are lined up correctly (in a multi-combat zone) and will hit larger monsters twice. Can do well over 400 damage with each swipe.
Extra: Requires the completion of Regicide to equip.

Dragon spear

Shove. 25% drain.

When this special is used, the target is pushed back one square and stunned for three seconds. This attack does not inflict damage. Does not work on enemies that take up more than one space.
Extra: Most commonly used in minigames, such as Castle Wars, where it is used to push and trap people under rocks, killing them instantly.

Dragon hatchet

Clobber. 100% drain.

Lowers the target's Defence and Magic by 10% of damage dealt. (Comparable to the Seercull bow.)

Dragon 2h sword

Powerstab. 60% drain.

In a multi-combat area, all targets within 1 square of the player will take damage. No more than 14 enemies can be hit at a time with this attack. No advantages are offered by using this attack in a single-combat area.

Dragon claws

Slice and Dice. 50% drain.

Four very quick attacks performed at once with increased accuracy, but the last three hits depend entirely on the first hit. The second hit will always be half of the first hit, and the 3rd and 4th hits will always add up to the 2nd hit. For example, 200-100-50-50 or 180-90-50-40 or 120-60-30-30. Effectively, whatever you hit in the first strike, you will get double that hit after all 4 hits are dealt (200 + 100 + 50 + 50 = 400). There is also the chance that you hit a 0, as your first hit. This does not mean that you'll hit 0's as your first 4 hits (special attack). For example, you could hit 0-200-100-100, or 0-0-200-200 or even 0-0-0-350 (in this case damage is 1.5 times the original hit). Effectively, if one of the four special hits inflicts damage, the dragon claws guarantee damage of at least 1.5 times the original hit.

Others

Abyssal whip

Energy Drain. 50% drain.

An attack that transfers 25% of the target's run energy to the player (only works on other players).
The old special attack of a whip would transfer 10% of the target's run energy to the player (only works on other players).

Abyssal vine whip

Vine Call: 60% drain.

This attack summons a vine that will hit your opponent 10 times for 125% of your accuracy, and 33% of your strength. The attacks will only hit as long as your opponent is in range.

Barrelchest anchor

Sunder: 50% drain.

Deals 10% more damage, doubles the chance of hitting, and will lower the opponent's Attack, Defence, Ranged, or Magic level by 1% of the damage inflicted.

Brackish blade

'Rum'ify. 75% drain.

Doubles the chance of hitting, and adds 2.5% of the damage dealt to your Strength, Attack and Defence. For example if you hit 200, this means your Strength, Attack and Defence all get a visible 5 level boost.

Granite maul

Quick Smash 50% drain

An extra attack done instantly with no other effects.
Because of the speed of the granite maul, the special is very beneficial, allowing 3 strikes very quickly where it would normally take a long time.
The Granite Maul is also commonly used in combination with another slow weapon, like the dark bow or the dragon 2h sword, in a "combo breaker". In a combo breaker, a user uses the slow weapon, switches to the granite maul, and then uses all of the granite maul's special attack bar to add two additional hits to the already high hitting weapon. The granite maul, if under perfect conditions, can do over 450 damage with each hit.

Granite mace

Quick Smash 50% drain

An extra attack done instantly with no other effects.
If timed correctly, you can use one normal attack, two specials, then another normal attack. This is only possible because the special attack does not affect when the next normal attack will land. This is impossible with the Granite Maul because the special on the Maul delays the normal attack after a special.
If used as a first strike you will see this warning, "Warning: Since the mace's special is an instant attack, it will be wasted when used on a first strike."

Excalibur

Sanctuary. 100% drain

Temporarily increases Defence by 8 levels.
Extra: Makes the player shout out "For Camelot!" automatically.

Enhanced Excalibur

100% drain

The Enhanced Excalibur is an upgraded version of the Excalibur that can be obtained after completing the Seers' Village Tasks. It has an enhanced special attack that, in addition to an increased Defence boost (15% boost), heals the player 40 life points every 2 seconds up to 5 times for a total of 200 life points. If the elite section of the Seers' Village Tasks is completed, the sword will heal 400 life points total over twice the time.

Darklight

Weaken. 50% drain.

Temporarily reduces the target's Attack, Strength, and Defence by 5%. Twice as effective on demons (reduces each stat by 10%).

Rune claws

Impale. 25% drain.

Increases attack with 10% more Attack and Strength, but a slower speed.

Rod of Ivandis

Retainer. 10% drain.

Captures a vampyre juvinate that has 1/2 or less health.
Extra: It has 10 charges before it is destroyed and must be created again.

Ivandis Flail

Retainer. 10% drain.

Captures Vampyre juvinates and Vyrewatch that has 1/2 or less health.
Extra: It has 30 charges before it is destroyed and must be created again.

Bone dagger

Backstab. 75% drain.

Lowers the Defence of the target by 10% of damage dealt. Greatly increased accuracy on an unsuspecting target.
Extra: Requires the completion of Death to the Dorgeshuun to use the special, not to equip the weapon.

Brine sabre

Liquefy. 75% drain.

Doubles the chance of hitting, and adds 2.5% of the damage dealt to the user's Strength, Attack and Defence levels.
Extra: Can only be used underwater.

Ancient Mace

Favour of the War God. 100% drain.

Hits through Protect from Melee and drains Prayer points of the opponent by 100% the amount hit while recovering the user 100% the amount hit. (A hit of 100 drains 100 Prayer and grants 100 Prayer points to the user)
Requires completion of Another Slice of H.A.M. to equip. Can boost Prayer points over the base level (e.g. 750/600).

Statius's warhammer

Smash. 35% drain.

Deals up to 25% more damage and decreases opponent's Defence by 30%.
Extra: Can be obtained by killing revenants and the Chaos Elemental.

Vesta's Longsword

Feint. 25% drain

Deals 20% more damage and is more accurate.
Extra: Can be obtained by killing revenants and the Chaos Elemental.

Vesta's spear

Spear Wall. 50% drain.

Damages everyone adjacent and prevents melee attacks from striking you for 5 seconds.
Extra: Can be obtained by killing revenants and the Chaos Elemental.

Saradomin sword

Saradomin's Lightning. 100% drain.

Hits two lightning bolts, the first hit is a regular hit which grants experience in the chosen melee skill. The second hit is magic based, and can hit 50-180, giving magic experience. (Note: the special attack does not give defence experience unless defensive casting is enabled).

The Saradomin sword's Saradomin's Lightning special attack. — The Saradomin sword's **Saradomin's Lightning** special attack.

Zamorakian spear

Shove. 25% drain.

When this special is used, the target is pushed back one square and stunned for three seconds. This attack does not inflict damage. Does not work on enemies that take up more than one space.
This special attack has the same effect as the Dragon spear.

Korasi's sword

Disrupt. 60% drain. (15% drain during The Void Stares Back.)

This special will always deal between 50%-150% of your max hit, and in multiway combat, it can hit up to three enemies, with the damage being halved for each subsequent enemy struck. It is also capable of keeping the Pest queen from using her own special attack, but it must be deployed while she charges. During the fight with the Pest queen, the special attack only uses 15% of the player's special attack energy, but outside of it, it instead requires 60%.

Dwarven army axe

Cyclone attack. 100% drain.

This deals 3 lots of damage to 1 target. Your target will be hit for 20, 30 and 40 simultaneously, for a total of 90 life points, except if the opponent has Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee active, then the hits are reduced to 12, 18, and 24, which is 54 lifepoints in total.
However, if the opponent has less than 90 life points remaining, damage is reduced in a reverse order of the hits mentioned.
The damage dealt is not affected by prayers or the set effect of the Void Knight Equipment.

Keenblade

Critical strike. 75% drain.

The Keenblade hits for 50 damage. (30 through Protect from Melee.)
The animation looks similar to the Saradomin Godsword special attack.

Godswords

Armadyl godsword

The Judgment. 50% drain.

Inflicts 25% more damage.

Bandos godsword

Warstrike. 100% drain.

Attack does 15% more damage and drains one of the target's combat stats by 10% of damage dealt, rounded down, until it reaches 0. If the stat drained reaches 0 before all of the damage could be accounted for, another stat is drained by the amount remaining. Stats are drained in the following order: Defence, Strength, Prayer, Attack, Magic, Ranged.

Saradomin godsword

The Armadyl godsword's special attack - The Judgment.

Healing Blade. 50% drain.

Attack deals 10% more damage and restores the user's life points by 50% of the damage dealt (with a minimum of 100 life points) and Prayer by 25% of damage dealt (with a minimum of 50 Prayer points). The attack has no effect if it misses completely but will always take effect if the attack hits and deals at least 1 damage.

Zamorak godsword

Ice Cleave. 60% drain.

Freezes the target for 20 seconds if successful, though the target can still attack a player in an adjacent square.
Also increase damage by 10% for the attack

Ranged Weapons

File:Powershot special attack.gif

The magic longbow's Power Shot special attack.

Magic shortbow

Snap-shot. 55% drain.

Fires two arrows very rapidly but with reduced accuracy.

Magic longbow

Powershot. 35% drain.

This attack uses the full power of the longbow and will never miss (unless blocked by Disruption shield).

Magic composite bow

Powershot. 35% drain.

An accurate shot that has an increased chance of hitting your opponent.

Rune thrownaxe

Chain Hit. 10% drain per hit.

Bounces between targets in multi-combat, striking multiple targets.

Seercull

Soulshot. 100% drain.

Inflicts damage and decreases the Magic level of the target by 10% of the damage dealt.

The Zanik's crossbow's **Defiance** special attack.

Saradomin Bow

Restorative Shot. 55% drain.

Deals regular damage, and over a period of time, heals twice the amount hit.

Guthix Bow

Balanced Shot. 55% drain.

Deals damage that is 1.5* the regular damage, and over a period of time, heals the amount hit that would have been done before the 1.5* multiplier.

Zamorak Bow

Twin Shot. 55% drain.

Deals double the regular damage of the shot.

Dorgeshuun crossbow

Snipe. 75% drain.

Lowers the target's Defence by 10% of damage dealt. Greatly increased accuracy on an unsuspecting opponent.
Extra: Requires completion of Death to the Dorgeshuun to use the special attack.

Zanik's crossbow

Defiance. 50% drain.

Deals increased damage (max. +150?) to players using Prayers and/or equipment marked by the gods. Does 30-150 extra damage to other enemies.
Extra: Requires completion of The Chosen Commander to obtain the weapon.

Dark bow

Descent of Darkness. 65% drain.

Fires two arrows and inflicts up to 30% more damage than a normal shot. Minimum damage is 100 (50 damage per arrow). Recommended is using rune arrows with this special attack unless you've got dragon arrows .

Descent of Dragons. 65% drain.
When using dragon arrows, inflicts up to 50% more damage. Minimum damage is 80 per arrow or 48 per arrow with Protect from Missiles.

Both attacks will always hit. Unless Disruption Shield was used prior to the Special Attack.

Morrigan's throwing axe

Hamstring. 50% drain.

Deals 20% extra damage and drains target's run energy four times faster for the next minute.
Extra: Can be obtained by killing Revenants or the Chaos Elemental.

The dark bow's **Descent of Darkness** special attack.

Morrigan's javelin

File:Morrigan's javelins.gif Phantom strike. 50% drain.

Inflicts continuous damage in the same way that poison does, but faster and target can still be poisoned.
Extra: Can be obtained by killing Revenants or the Chaos Elemental.
The additional damage from the special attack occurs at dart-speed until it doubles the damage dealt by the original special attack. Thus, if you hit a 260 with the special, the opponent will be hit by 50s at dart speed until 250 damage has been dealt.
This special attack can only be used in PvP.

Hand cannon

Aimed Shot. 50% drain.

It has increased accuracy, but takes longer to fire. It also increases the chance of the hand cannon blowing up and damaging yourself.

Quickbow

Twin shot. 75% drain.

Fires two arrows for 25 damage each, and always hit.

Enchanted bolts

Enchanted, gem-tipped bolts for the series of crossbows have a special effect which occurs randomly, differing for each type, similar to the Barrows specials.

After completion of the Seers elite tasks there is a speculated two-fold increase of the likelihood that the special effect of an enchanted bolt will occur.

They cannot be activated whenever the player wishes, and do not drain the special attack bar.

Opal bolts (e)

Lucky lightning.

There is a chance of the bolts hitting extra damage, but the chances are very low.

Jade bolts (e)

Earth's fury.

This attack knocks an opponent to the ground. It is less likely to work on opponents with high Agility and Ranged.

Pearl bolts (e)

Sea curse.

There is a chance of a mighty wave of water hitting the opponent, dealing extra damage. This ability is negated by opponents wielding water staves but increased by opponents wearing fiery garments.

Topaz bolts (e)

Down to earth.

This attack has a chance of lowering an opponent's Magic. It only works on players, however.

Sapphire bolts (e)

Clear mind.

This gives the bolts a chance of lowering their target's Prayer points and giving part of them to the attacker. It only works on other players.

Emerald bolts (e)

Magical poison.

These bolts inflict 50 poison damage periodically on the target, with an increased chance to poison. This makes them possibly even better than (p++) bolts in damage (50 damage compared to 40) as well as being cheaper.

Ruby bolts (e)

Blood forfeit.

These bolts have a chance of removing 20% of the target's current life points by removing 10% of your life points. This is especially effective against opponents with many life points, such as the Corporeal Beast. This special attack does not work if the attacker has less than 10% life points left.

Diamond bolts(e)

Armour piercing.

The bolts get a chance of negating a sizable portion of their target's defence bonuses against ranged attacks.

Dragon bolts (e)

Dragon's breath.

The bolts get a chance of inflicting a dragon's breath hit against their target, unless they have an anti-dragon shield, have used an anti-fire potion, or are some type of fiery beast, such as a dragon.

Onyx bolts (e)

Life leech.

The bolts get a chance of doing extra damage and healing the attacker's life points by 25% of the damage dealt. This does not work on undead, as they have no life to leech.

Magical weapons

Staff of light

Power of Light. 100% drain.

Reduces all melee damage taken for the next minute by 50%.
Damage reduction is nullified if the staff is unequipped.

Penance trident

Reap. 50% drain.

Has a chance of instantly killing a monster if it has a combat level less than 50. Does not apply to bosses, summoning familiars, monsters with special methods of defeat or players.
When used on players, has a chance of doing damage equal to one third of their current life points.

Mindspike

Rune flame. 75% drain.

All four types (Mindspike (air), Mindspike (water), Mindspike (earth), Mindspike (fire)) have this special attack. Always hits 50 magic damage with a melee-range, rune-free spell of the same element that the staff is attuned to.

Barrows

Main article: Barrows equipment

Each set of Barrows armour comes with a special effect, which can only activate if the player has equipped the complete set; all three items of armour and the weapon. The set effect does not use or drain the special attack bar and cannot be voluntarily invoked. Instead, it activates at random during combat, with the exception of Dharok's effect, which is activated at all times.

Ahrim the Blighted

Blighted Aura

Damaging magic attacks have a chance of reducing target's strength. Visible effect.

Karil the Tainted

Tainted Shot

Damaging ranged attacks have a chance of reducing the target's agility by 25%. Visible effect.

Torag the Corrupted

Corruption

Damaging melee attacks have a chance of reducing the target's run energy by 20%. Visible effect.

Verac the Defiled

Defiler

Melee attacks have a chance to ignore the opponent's defence provided by their armour, as well as their prayer. Invisible effect.

Guthan the Infested

The healing effect of Guthan's armour set.

Infestation

Melee attacks have a chance to heal you by the amount of damage inflicted, on a 1:1 ratio. For example, if you hit a 20 you would recover 20 LP. As seen to the right, the effect is visible.

Dharok the Wretched

Wretched Strength

A player's strength increases with diminishing LP. For example, a player that has lost 700 LP will experience a strength increase of approximately 70 levels and may deal significant amounts of damage.
If the player's lifepoints fall below 10% of their maximum, their strength is doubled regardless of their max LP. Invisible effect. Visible in damage dealt.

Akrisae the Doomed

Doom

Melee and magic attacks have a chance to restore some of your prayer points. Visible effect.

References

<references/> es:Ataques Especiales