Disease is a status effect which can be caused by any monster found in the crypts of Jiggig: zogres, skogres, the zombie with the ruined backpack and Slash Bash as well as fever spiders and dire bats. It can also be caused by failing to pick the lock on an Ogre Coffin at Jiggig, while fletching scrapey bark from scrapey tree logs in Trouble Brewing (1/50 chance)[1], or sailing through the fetid waters without an inoculation station onboard. Additionally, the bottle of zogre's sloppy kisses found while charting will disease as well as poison the player. Every 1.5 minutes, its strength will reduce by 1. It can be reapplied and will reset the disease amount to the max value applied by the source.
When a player has disease, shown by a yellow hitsplat (
), one of the player's skills, excluding Hitpoints and Prayer, is reduced by the number on the hitsplat every 18 seconds; if the chosen skill drained is already at level 1, then it will instead reduce the player's Hitpoints,[2] making death a possibility if the conditions are met. Stats are restored one level every minute meaning it can take a long time to naturally recover from reduced stats.
Wearing an inoculation bracelet provides protection against the effects of disease by preventing the reduction of skill levels and reduces the damage taken to 0, but it does not cure or immunise against disease.
Curing disease
After a disease is cured the reduced skills will gradually recover on their own over time. To instantaneously cure the disease or restore the reduced skills the following options are available:
| Option | Cures disease | Restores skills | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Restore potion | No | Combat skills except prayer and hitpoints | N/A |
 |
Super restore | No | All skills except hitpoints | N/A |
 |
Relicym's balm | Yes | N/A | Cures most disease in 3 doses (except for Slash Bash's, which will require 5 at its max strength). |
 |
Sanfew serum | Yes | Prayer | Cures all disease in 1 dose (except for Slash Bash's), along with giving a fifteen-minute immunity to disease.
Also cures poison and gives a six-minute immunity to poison. |
 |
Bottle of Elidinis's life water | Yes | Prayer and hitpoints | Can only be consumed once and while on a boat.
Also cures poison and gives a six-minute immunity to poison. |
|
Pool of Refreshment | Yes | All skills | N/A |
 |
Ornate rejuvenation pool | Yes | All skills | N/A |
|
Elidinis Statuette | No | All skills | N/A |
The Cure Other, Cure Me, and Cure Group spells in the Lunar spellbook will not cure disease.
Disease is also cured upon death and respawn, including through safe minigames such as the Emir's Arena. This may be easier (and cheaper) than using potions.
Disease sources
| Monster | Initial hitsplat | Disease duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Zogre | 10 | 15 minutes |
|
Skogre | 10 | 15 minutes |
|
Zombie | 10 | 15 minutes |
|
Slash Bash | 15 | 22.5 minutes |
|
Fever spider | 8 | 12 minutes |
|
Dire bat | 1 | 1.5 minutes |
Trivia
- An early design of this status effect proposed a variety of different diseases one could be infected with, coupled with a corresponding number of cures, though this complexity eventually led to the proposal being abandoned due to appearing unfun.[3]
- According to slayer masters when asked for a tip with killing fever spiders, the type of disease the spiders carry is called the Spider Fever.[4]
- The dire bat's use of disease was the first monster to do so since the fever spider was added to the game 7,547 days (20 years, 8 months) prior.
References
- ^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 3 January 2022. Archived from the original on 4 January 2022. Mod Ash: "No, that's 1/50 flat rate."
- ^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 8 November 2021. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Mod Ash: "[Disease] picks a stat at random from a list that excludes HP and Prayer, with equal weighting for all skills on the list. If that stat is 2 or above, it'll drain the stat. If the stat is already on 1, it'll hit HP."
- ^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 22 April 2022. Archived from the original on 20 April 2023. Mod Ash: "An earlier draft of disease looked like it would have led to a wider variety of diseases, with players thus invited to plan which cures they'd bring along for a trip, and which they'd risk going without. I think that was dumped for not sounding much fun, at the time."
- ^ Slayer Master. Old School RuneScape. "Fever Spiders are giant spiders that carry the deadly Spider Fever. If you don't want to catch it I suggest you wear Slayer Gloves to fight them."