Strength
Raises how hard you hit in melee. It is a pure damage stat rather than an equipment gate: nothing is locked behind it, your hits simply land harder.
Strength is damage. It raises the ceiling of every damage roll, from just under a weapon's listed damage at level 1 to about a third above it at 120, which makes it the largest single lever on how fast anything dies. It gates almost nothing: a Bandos book at 50 and a divine spirit shield at 75 are the whole list. What it buys is kill speed, and since melee XP is paid per point of damage, kill speed is XP.
Level 1 to 120
The same fights as Attack, with your melee style set to Strength instead. Every point of damage becomes Strength XP at one per 7.5, so the fastest route is always the biggest health bar with the lowest Defence you can hit reliably. Because Strength gates no gear, most players push Attack and Defence first for weapons and armour, then settle into one long Strength grind from the forties to 120.
- Cows and chickens outside Lumbridge 1 to 15
Cows are 85 health for 11 XP and chickens 60 for 8, and the fields hold dozens of each. Waterfall Quest asks for nothing and pays 13,750 Strength, which will carry you straight out of this bracket.
- Rock crabs and hill giants 15 to 35
Rock crabs on the Rellekka coast are 230 health for 31 XP against 20 Defence, and hill giants in the Tree Gnome Village dungeon are 300 for 40 against the same. Both are soft enough that a mithril or adamant weapon rarely misses.
- Yaks on Neitiznot 30 to 50
500 health for 67 XP a kill and only 20 Defence, the best ratio of size to softness at this level. The Fremennik Trials opens the isles and asks for nothing to start.
- Abyssal guardians in the Abyss 40 to 60
590 health for 79 XP at 30 Defence, in a cave full of them, reached through the Enter the Abyss miniquest. The Abyss also holds abyssal walkers at 850 health for 113 XP once you can handle 80 Defence.
- Warriors' Guild cyclopes with a Hill Giant Club 55 to 75
Cyclopes are 700 health for 93 XP against 35 Defence, and getting in wants your Attack and Strength adding up to 100. The Hill Giant Club needs 55 Attack and is two-handed, and it always hits for your maximum, which makes it the most reliable Strength weapon of the mid game.
- Trolls and the Waterbirth dungeon 70 to 95
Mountain trolls at the Troll Stronghold are 720 health for 96 XP and spawn in numbers. Waterbirth pays better: rock lobsters are 1,650 health for 220 XP, wallasalki 173 and dagannoth 153, while the giant rock crabs down there are worth 200 but are far better armoured than anything else in the dungeon.
- Dragons, kalphites and Barrows 95 to 120
Kalphite guardians in the lair are 1,600 health for 213 XP. Metal dragons climb from 400 XP for a bronze to 667 for an adamant, and Barrows brothers are 467 apiece.
How Strength becomes damage
Every hit rolls a multiplier between a floor set by your Attack and a ceiling set by your Strength, then applies it to your weapon's damage. At level 1 the ceiling sits just under the weapon's listed damage, by 99 it is about a quarter above it, and at 120 about a third above.
The floor climbs from roughly two thirds to nine tenths as Attack rises, so training both together tightens your hits into a narrow band near the top instead of a wide spread. No weapon type scales differently: a maul and a scimitar take the same multiplier, they just carry different damage numbers and swing speeds.
Raising your max hit
An amulet of strength lifts the top of every roll, and the strength cape lifts it by a further tenth. A strength potion multiplies melee damage, super strength more, extreme strength more again, and combat or god potions boost every style at once.
Critical hits always land for your maximum, so anything that raises your max hit raises your crits with it. A defender in the off hand adds melee damage too, but only while your main hand is one-handed.
Quests
Waterfall Quest asks for nothing and pays 13,750 Strength, which is a huge lump this early. Dragon Slayer adds 22,000, though it wants 55 Defence, 12 quest points and green dragons you can kill, and the Fremennik Trials another 2,812 with no requirements at all.
Worth knowing
- The strength cape teleports you to the Warriors' Guild without limit, which is where a Strength trainer wants to be anyway.
- Judge a weapon by damage divided by swing time, not by the damage number. A fast scimitar and a slow two-hander can pay much the same per minute.
- Balanced style splits a hit three ways. If you only want Strength, switch to it: on balanced you are giving away two thirds of it.
- A shield or defender only works when your main hand is one-handed. Two-handers surrender the slot, its armour points and its damage bonus.
The full table
Level 30 to 39 1 entry
Level 50 to 59 1 entry
Book of war Repair the 4 Bandos pages into the Book of war at a prayer stand. The off-hand book checks level 50 in its own declared skill (strength). Grants +25% maximum prayer points and +7% melee damage. 50 Level 60 to 69 1 entry
Level 70 to 79 3 entries
Divine Spirit Shield Listed in the in-game wiki at level 75: boosts melee damage by 10% and absorbs 30% of incoming damage as prayer; forged from a Blessed spirit shield and a Divine sigil. Worth knowing: the shield itself actually asks for 75 Defence and 70 Prayer, not 75 Strength. 75