OSRS Best Ranged Weapon Progression Guide

Armour gets you halfway there. The weapon in your hand does the rest, and it's honestly the bigger lever: a level 75 account running a Toxic Blowpipe will outdamage a level 90 account still using a Rune Crossbow, and it isn't close. This is the companion piece to my Ranged armour guide, covering every bow, crossbow, and thrown weapon worth knowing about from level 1 to 99.

I checked every stat below, including the Ranged Strength bonus, which many guides either skip or quietly copy from each other without checking. Here's the part that surprises people: almost every standard bow and crossbow on this list carries zero inherent Ranged Strength. That number comes entirely from your arrows or bolts. Crystal Bow, Bow of Faerdhinen, and the throwing knives are the exceptions, and I'll flag them as they come up, because it changes how you should actually be gearing.

If you want to read about Armour Progression, you can check this Ranged Armour Progression Guide here.

Let's get into it!

Why Your Weapon Matters More Than Your Armour

It's tempting to spend your GP on armour first because it feels like the safer, more permanent purchase. In practice, weapon upgrades move your DPS far more directly:

• Attack speed compounds. A 2-tick weapon fires roughly twice as often as a 5-tick weapon. No amount of armour makes up for that gap.
• Most weapons rely entirely on ammo for damage. Since the majority of bows and crossbows carry zero Ranged Strength themselves, upgrading your arrows or bolts is often a bigger DPS jump than upgrading the weapon.
• Passive effects change matchups completely. Dragon Hunter Crossbow, Twisted Bow, and Venator Bow aren't just stat sticks. Each is built for a specific fight, and using the wrong one in the wrong place wastes the GP you spent.

Ranged Weapon Progression Overview

This table covers the standard progression: the weapon you'd reasonably use for general training or PvM at each level, in order. Chinchompas, Craw's Bow, the Dragon Hunter Crossbow, and the Dark Bow are excellent but situational, so I've moved those into their own Niche Weapons chapter rather than force them into a straight level order.

Note: The DPS is calculated for Sand Crabs, so a higher or lower figure here does not mean the weapon is good or bad. It also depends on bosses and their stats; for example, the twisted bow has a DPS of 4.666 on Great Olm (head) and 1.912 on Sand Crabs. So lower DPS on Sand Crabs doesn't mean the weapon is useless. The prices are also based on the date when this guide was published always check Grand Exchange before purchasing anything expensive.

Ranged Weapons Breakdown

Shortbow

• Level: 1 Ranged
• Price: ~78gp
• Tick Speed: 3 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 3.235

The Shortbow is what everyone starts with, and there's no reason to overthink it. It carries zero Ranged Strength on its own, so your actual upgrade path at level 1 is your arrows, not the bow. I still remember grinding Al Kharid scorpions with iron arrows on one of these: cheap, disposable, and completely fine for the first few levels. Move on the moment Oak unlocks.

Iron Knife

• Level: 1 Ranged
• Price: ~40gp
• Tick Speed: 2 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +4
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 4.451

Iron Knives are one of the only ranged weapons in the game with no level requirement at all, and unlike the Shortbow, they carry their own Ranged Strength (+4) since the knife is both weapon and ammunition in one. I used these in my first-ever pure Ranged years ago simply because there was nothing to unlock yet. Rapid style fires at 2 ticks, faster than almost anything else this early, but you'll burn through your supply fast.

Steel Knife

• Level: 5 Ranged
• Price: ~64gp
• Tick Speed: 2 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +7
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 4.853

Steel Knives improve on Iron in every stat that matters, and the price barely moves. There's no reason to keep the iron ones in your bank once you hit level 5. Grab a stack and don't think about it further.

Black Knife

• Level: 10 Ranged
• Price: ~36gp
• Tick Speed: 2 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +8
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 4.859

Black Knives are the quiet upgrade nobody talks about: better stats than Steel for roughly the same price, sometimes cheaper depending on the market. I switched the moment I noticed the price gap and never looked back. It's one of the rare cases in OSRS where the stronger item isn't also the more expensive one.

Mithril Knife

• Level: 20 Ranged
• Price: ~183gp
• Tick Speed: 2 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +10
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 4.862

Mithril Knives round out the throwing knife line with the best stats of the set: +11 accuracy and +10 Ranged Strength, both baked into the knife itself. If you're speedrunning early levels with knives instead of a bow, this is where that particular line ends before Chinchompas take over later on.

Dorgeshuun Crossbow

• Level: 28 Ranged
• Price: ~3K
• Tick Speed: 4 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0 (weapon); Bone Bolts add +49
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 3.867

This is the budget hero of early Ranged training. It fires at 4 ticks on rapid, a full tick faster than most other crossbows, and pairs with Bone Bolts, which cost next to nothing. I trained an entire Ironman's early Ranged levels on this exact setup and never felt like I was missing out. Requires The Lost Tribe to buy from Nardok.

Maple Shortbow

• Level: 30 Ranged
• Price: ~188gp
• Tick Speed: 3 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 4.333

Maple Shortbow is the best bow available to F2P accounts, and still a reasonable pick for members working through the 30s. It carries no Ranged Strength of its own, so keep upgrading your arrows alongside it rather than treating the bow as the finish line.

Yew Shortbow

• Level: 40 Ranged
• Price: ~345gp
• Tick Speed: 3 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 5.162

Yew Shortbow at level 40 is where the basic bow line starts to feel respectable again. It's still zero Ranged Strength on the weapon itself, so by this point you should be pairing it with mithril or adamant arrows actually to see the damage move.

Magic Shortbow

• Level: 50 Ranged
• Price: ~800gp
• Tick Speed: 3 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 5.456

The base Magic Shortbow is a genuine jump in accuracy over Yew, and it's cheap enough that there's no reason not to buy one outright the moment you hit 50. I'd treat it as a placeholder, though. The imbued version is a single scroll away and meaningfully better in every way that matters.

Magic Shortbow (i)

• Level: 50 Ranged
• Price: ~37K (bow + scroll)
• Tick Speed: 3 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 5.462

Imbuing turns a decent bow into one of the most efficient weapons in the game for its price. The special attack drops from 55% to 50% of your bar, which means you get an extra proc noticeably more often than on the uncharged version. I've used an MSB (i) on more Slayer tasks than I can count, and it's still relevant well past the level you unlock it.

Rune Crossbow

• Level: 61 Ranged
• Price: ~9.3K
• Tick Speed: 5 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 4.913

Rune Crossbow is the crossbow line's mid-tier workhorse. It fires up to Ruby and Diamond bolts for genuine PvM utility, and because it's one-handed, you keep a free shield slot alongside it. I kept mine equipped through most of my Slayer grind purely for that flexibility.

Dragon Crossbow

• Level: 64 Ranged
• Price: ~667K
• Tick Speed: 5 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 5.079

Dragon Crossbow closes the gap to end-game crossbows without the price tag of the Zaryte or Armadyl lines. It's still one-handed, so a shield stays an option, and firing dragon bolts gives it real teeth against tougher Slayer tasks.

Crystal Bow

• Level: 70 Ranged (50 Agility)
• Price: 900K first recharge, drops to 180K after 5+
• Tick Speed: 4 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +78
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 4.925

Crystal Bow is unusual among bows in that it actually carries its own Ranged Strength (+78), since it's a blessed weapon that generates its own ammunition rather than relying on arrows. The catch is the 2-hour-5-minute charge window on accurate style, after which you need Ilfeen to re-enchant it. Your first recharge costs 900,000 coins, but the price drops by 180,000 each time you go back, bottoming out at 180,000 from your fifth recharge onward. I only bring mine out for content where I actually want that strength bonus.

Armadyl Crossbow

• Level: 70 Ranged
• Price: ~35M
• Tick Speed: 5 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 5.082

Armadyl Crossbow is one of only two ranged weapons in the game that grants a Prayer bonus, which matters more than people give it credit for on long PvM trips. It also counts as Armadyl-aligned gear in God Wars Dungeon, which stacks nicely if you're already running Armadyl armour there.

Karil's Crossbow

• Level: 70 Ranged
• Price: ~97K
• Tick Speed: 3 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0 
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 5.469

Karil's Crossbow is the odd one out on this list: a two-handed crossbow, which nothing else here is. Paired with the full Karil's set and an Amulet of the Damned, it gets a 25% chance to deal a second hit per successful attack. I wouldn't chase the full set just for this weapon, but if you already own Karil's for the armour, it's worth wielding.

Toxic Blowpipe

• Level: 75 Ranged
• Price: ~9.7M (uncharged)
• Tick Speed: 2 ticks PvM 
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +20, scales with dart tier used
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 8.106

Toxic Blowpipe earns its reputation honestly. Rapid style fires at 2 ticks in PvM, faster than almost every crossbow or bow on this list, and its Ranged Strength scales with whatever dart tier you load into it. I've trained more Ranged levels on this single weapon than any other item I own, and it stays relevant from the moment you unlock it well into end-game Slayer.

Bow of Faerdhinen

• Level: 80 Ranged (+ 70 Agility)
• Price: ~110M (inactive, before charging)
• Tick Speed: 4 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +106
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 5.756

Bow of Faerdhinen is what the Crystal Bow becomes once you've fully committed to the crystal weapon line. The Ranged Strength jumps to +106, and once made permanent as the Bow of Faerdhinen (c), it stops degrading entirely. I'd treat this as a genuine end-game weapon, not a stepping stone.

Zaryte Crossbow

• Level: 80 Ranged
• Price: ~354M
• Tick Speed: 5 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 5.088

Zaryte Crossbow is the other weapon in the game that gives a Prayer bonus, on top of being one of the very few ranged weapons that add Ranged Defence. It's built from an Armadyl Crossbow and a Nihil horn, which means you need to have already farmed the base crossbow before you can even start on this one.

Venator Bow

• Level: 80 Ranged
• Price: ~66M
• Tick Speed: 4 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +25
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 5.123

Venator Bow does one thing extremely well: hitting closely packed groups of enemies for up to 233% of your normal max hit through its ricochet passive. It's close to useless in single-target fights and against large monsters, so this is a weapon you bring for specific content, not an all-rounder.

Twisted Bow

• Level: 85 Ranged
• Price: ~1.35B
• Tick Speed: 5 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +20 base, scales up against high-Magic targets
• DPS (Sand Crabs): 1.912

Twisted Bow's listed stats undersell it completely, because its real power comes from a dynamic bonus that scales with the target's Magic level. Against high-Magic bosses, it's the best ranged weapon in the game by a wide margin. Against low-Magic targets like Sand Crabs, it's mediocre, which is exactly why that DPS number looks so low above. I wouldn't buy one without already knowing which boss I'm bringing it to.

Niche & Specialist Weapons

Not every ranged weapon fits a clean level-by-level progression. The picks below excel at very specific jobs and are mediocre outside them, so I've kept them separate rather than force them into the main table.

Craw's Bow

• Level: 60 Ranged
• Price: ~14.5M
• Tick Speed: 3 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +60
• DPS (Artio): 2.635

Craw's Bow only makes sense if you're actually fighting inside the Wilderness. Charged with revenant ether, it adds a 50% accuracy and damage boost against any NPC there, stacking additively with a Slayer helmet or multiplicatively with a Salve Amulet. Outside the Wilderness, it's just an expensive Shortbow with decent stats, so that I wouldn't buy one for general PvM.

Dragon Hunter Crossbow

• Level: 70 Ranged
• Price: ~27M (fluctuates heavily)
• Tick Speed: 5 ticks (rapid)
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0 (weapon); scales with bolts used
• DPS (Vorkath): 3.464

Dragon Hunter Crossbow is built for exactly one job: killing dragons and wyverns. Its passive adds 30% accuracy and 25% damage against draconic creatures specifically, making it the best-in-slot pick for Vorkath and the draconic phase of the Chambers of Xeric's Great Olm. Against anything non-draconic, a Rune or Dragon Crossbow does the same job for a fraction of the price.

Dark Bow

• Level: 60 Ranged
• Price: ~613K
• Tick Speed: 8 ticks
• Ranged Strength Bonus: +0

Dark Bow lives and dies by its special attack, which fires two arrows at once for some of the highest single-hit potential of any ranged weapon in the game. It's slow on regular attacks at 8 ticks, so I'd never use it for standard training, but for PvP burst damage it's still a staple loadout piece.

Chinchompas

Chinchompas are the fastest AFK Ranged XP in the entire game, thrown in a 3x3 area so they hit every enemy standing near your target at once. They explode on impact and can't be picked back up, so the real cost is in volume, not per-unit price.

I'd only reach for Black Chinchompas once you're training somewhere with dense, stacked spawns; that's where the AoE actually pays for itself. Anywhere with scattered or single targets, a normal bow or crossbow ends up more GP-efficient for the same session.

If you wanna know more about using chinchompas to level up your Ranged fast, check its dedicated guide here.

Final Thoughts

The pattern across this whole list is simple: most weapons are just a delivery system for your ammunition, and the handful of exceptions (Crystal Bow, Bow of Faerdhinen, Venator Bow, Twisted Bow, the throwing knives) are worth remembering precisely because they're exceptions. Don't let a big price tag convince you a weapon is better than it is for what you're actually fighting. A Dragon Hunter Crossbow is worse than a Rune Crossbow against anything that isn't draconic, and a Twisted Bow is a bad buy if you can't name the boss you're bringing it to.

Pair this with the armour progression guide, get your ammunition tier right for whatever weapon you're using, and the DPS numbers take care of themselves.

Good luck out there.