Main page/Skill guides/Ironman mode/Defence

Defence is one of the primary combat skills that grants players protection in all forms of combat. Many pures avoid training Defence as they want to get a lower Combat level than usual, while focusing all attention on increasing their max hit.

The higher your Defence level, the fewer successful blows an opponent will land against the player, this applies to all combat styles used against the player. Defence is thus a vital skill for enduring attacks for long periods of time, and can be extremely helpful against opponents with high Attack, Ranged, or Magic. Defence does not affect the amount of damage taken when a successful attack is landed on the player.

A higher Defence level also allows a player to equip stronger equipment, as most pieces of armour have a Defence level requirement.

Defence Training Styles

Melee weapons vary in their attack styles. Some have four options, with a controlled option, while others have only three options.

Defencive

The Defencive combat style is usually the bottom right option of the combat interface if there are 4 options, or the bottom left option if there are 3 options. When using the defencive style for every point of damage a player deals, you gain 625 experience in Defence and 312.5 experience in Hitpoints. Using the Defencive style provides an invisible +3 boost to your Defence level.

Controlled

The Controlled combat style is usually the bottom left option of the combat style interface if there are 4 options, or the top right option if there are 3. When using the controlled style for every point of damage you deal, you gain 208 experience in Attack, Strength, and Defence and 312.5 experience in Hitpoints. Using the controlled style provides an invisible +1 boost to your Attack, Strength and Defence levels. This attack style is only available in some melee weapons.

Getting Basic Armour

You can start at Edgeville. Inside ::shops you will find the melee store which sells some basic armour. To get better armour, you can buy it from players, use the blood money shop, get it by Donating or get it from drops.

Where to Train

Rock Crabs

The best place to start training any combat skill at a low level is at Rock Crabs.

Here you will find the Rock crabs that can be killed in order to start levelling up your combat stats. Start killing these until you feel you have a high enough Attack level to move on to killing other monsters such as Hill Giants, in Edgeville Dungeon or Yaks on Neitiznot (South).

Bandits

For players with higher levels, the best place train would be at the Bandits Camp, in the desert.

Here you will find a large amount of Bandits that will automatically attack anyone who is wearing Saradomin or Zamorak equipment, allowing for easy AFK experience.
An easy god item to obtain are the god capes from the mage bank. To get these simply teleport to the mage bank, in the 'Player Killing' category, when you arive, enter the pool and then follow the path north. Pray at one of the three statues, if you got the Guthix cape, choose another statue.
Once you have a Zamorak/Saradomin item, simply wear it and the bandits will attack you.

Slayer

If you are planning on training all your skills, it might help to do slayer at the same time as training combat. You can find a Slayer guide here.

Defence armour

Item	Image	Defence required level
Bronze		1
Iron		1
Steel		5
Black		10
White		10
Mithril		20
Shayzien		20
Adamant		30
Rune		40
Void knight		42 (and 42 all combat stats + 22 prayer)
Granite		50
Helm of neitiznot		55
Dragon		60
Bandos		65
3rd age		65
Ancestral		65 (with 75 magic)
Avernic defender		70 (with 70 attack)
Barrows armour		70
Armadyl		70 (with 70 ranged)
Neitiznot faceguard		70
Justiciar		75
Serpentine helm		75
Guardian boots		75
Primordial boots		75 (with 75 strength)
Eternal boots		75 (with 75 magic)
Pegasian boots		75 (with 75 ranged)
Dragonfire shield		75
Dragonfire ward		75 (with 70 ranged)
Ancient wyvern shield		75
Elysian spirit shield		75 (with 75 prayer)
Ferocious gloves		80 (with 80 attack)

Defence Boosts

Items that you may use to increase the Defence skill:

Picture	Item	Benefits
	Defence potion	Boosts Defense by 10% + 3 levels
	Super Defence	Boosts Defense by 15% + 5 levels
	Saradomin brew	Restores lifepoints by 15% and boosts defense by 18% + 2, but lowers attack, strength, ranged, and magic by 10% + 1.
	Super Combat Potion	Combines the effects of Super attack, Super strength and Super defence potions into one and stays boosted for 5 minutes.

The Skill Cape

f you reach level 99, you will get the skillcape and hood automatically. They don't give any boosts.

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