Successful hit

A successful hit occurs during combat when an attack overcomes its target's Defence.

This can be better explained by considering the following:

For every attack, there are two stages.

• Stage 1 (accuracy roll): Roll the attacker's offensive bonuses against the target's defensive bonuses. If true, proceed to stage 2. If false, produce a 0 (splash for player Magic attacks). This is not a successful hit.
• Stage 2 (damage roll): Roll a hit ranging from 0 to the attacker's maximum hit. If the roll is from a player, then 0s are pushed up to 1.
  • Some monster special attacks have a minimum hit, such as General Graardor's ranged attack that deals a minimum of 15 damage.^[1]

Some passive effects only occur during successful hits - such as Guthan's and Karil's equipment set effects, as well as the serpentine helm where there is a chance to envenom the target.

Special attack effects also rely on a successful hit to activate; for example, godsword secondary effects require the attack to land. On a few occasions, the attack must deal damage alongside being a successful hit in order for the effect to activate, such as the dragon warhammer^[2] and tonalztics of ralos.

Some monsters may use AoE attacks as their standard attacks, which land as successful hits if the player is caught in them.

There are circumstances in which a successful hit is guaranteed, and the accuracy roll is skipped.

The following is a list of weapons with a special attack that skips the accuracy roll and therefore guarantees damage. Unless otherwise stated, the damage roll is still performed between 0 and the maximum hit as usual.

• Bone dagger (if the player wasn't the previous entity to hit the opponent)
• Dark bow, dealing a minimum of 8+8 damage with dragon arrows and 5+5 with other arrows
• Dorgeshuun crossbow (if the player wasn't the previous entity to hit the opponent)
• Dragon warhammer (on Tekton only if this is the first defence-draining special attack)
• Elder maul (on Tekton only if this is the first defence-draining special attack)
• Granite hammer, dealing a minimum of 5 damage
• Magic comp bow
• Magic longbow
• Seercull
• Voidwaker, dealing a minimum of 50% of the user’s maximum melee hit
• Any melee weapons used within 10 ticks (6 seconds) after being under the effect of a soulflame horn's special attack.

The following have passive effects that skip the accuracy roll:

• Diamond bolts (e)/Diamond dragon bolts (e)
• Verac the Defiled's equipment

This list only consists of monsters who land guaranteed hits as auto-attacks; mechanics are not included.

• Kalphite Queen (Ranged and Magic)^[3]
• The Nightmare/Phosani's Nightmare (Melee)
• Thrower troll
• Ice troll female
• Duke Sucellus (shattering icicles, targeted AoE)

In the Barbarian Assault minigame, attackers will always deal an extra amount of damage equal to the level of their role against monsters when using the correct style, making it impossible to hit 0.