What is the highest combat level in OSRS?

126. That is reached with all seven combat skills at 99, which gives a base of 61.75 plus 64.35 from melee, for a total of 126.1 that floors to 126. The lowest is 3, the level of a brand new account.

Which skills count towards combat level?

Seven: attack, strength, defence, hitpoints, prayer, ranged and magic. Slayer, hunter, construction and every other skill are ignored completely, so training them never changes your combat level.

Why are ranged and magic multiplied by 1.5?

Because a ranged or magic level replaces both an attack and a strength level at once. Multiplying by 1.5 puts those styles on the same scale as melee, where two separate levels contribute. Without it, a pure ranged account would show a combat level far below what it can actually fight.

Can I tell someone's build from their combat level?

No. Combat level collapses seven skills into one number, so many different builds share the same level. A level 85 could be a melee account, a ranged pure or a mage, and their actual fighting strength differs enormously.

OSRS Combat Level Calculator

The formula

base = 0.25 × (Defence + Hitpoints + ⌊Prayer / 2⌋)
melee = 0.325 × (Attack + Strength)
range = 0.325 × ⌊Ranged × 1.5⌋
mage = 0.325 × ⌊Magic × 1.5⌋
level = ⌊ base + max(melee, range, mage) ⌋

Only the largest of the three style values is added. You do not add melee and ranged together — the game takes the best one, which is why a hybrid account is not penalised for having a second trained style.

The floor is on the total, not on each part

This is the detail that makes calculators disagree, so it is worth being precise. If you floor each component first and then add, a maxed account comes out at 125. Floor only at the end and you get 126, which is the real maximum.

Account	Floor each part	Floor the total	In game
Brand new (1s, 10 HP)	2	3	3
Everything at 99	125	126	126

Both rows are wrong by exactly one under the component-flooring method, which is the kind of error that never gets noticed until someone is one level off their planned build.

Why prayer is halved, and why ranged and magic are multiplied

Prayer contributes at half weight because prayer points are a resource rather than a damage stat — 99 prayer gives a lot of convenience and some powerful unlocks, but it should not push your combat level up as fast as 99 strength does.

Ranged and magic are multiplied by 1.5 because each of them replaces two melee skills at once (attack and strength). The multiplier puts a single ranged or magic level on the same footing as an attack level plus a strength level, which is what keeps the three styles comparable.

Slayer does not count. Neither does hunter, construction, or any other non-combat skill. This is why slayer-focused accounts keep a low combat level while having a very high total level — and it is the whole basis of the "low combat, high total" skilling builds.

What the number does and does not tell you

Combat level is a single number derived from seven skills, so it is a very lossy summary:

It tells you: roughly what bracket an opponent sits in, and whether they can attack you in the Wilderness.
It does not tell you: their build. A level 85 melee account and a level 85 ranged pure share a number and nothing else — one has 70 defence, the other has 1.
It does not tell you: gear, prayers, or skill. Two accounts at the same level can be wildly different in a fight.

The practical use is planning: knowing that adding 10 defence levels will or will not push you over a bracket, before you train them. That is a calculation, which is exactly what this page does.

Frequently asked questions

Does training hitpoints raise my combat level?

Yes, and faster than most people expect — hitpoints goes into the base term at full weight, alongside defence. It is also the skill you raise without choosing to, since every fight trains it.

Can my combat level go down?

No. Skills in Old School RuneScape do not decrease permanently, so your combat level only ever rises. Temporary drains from certain attacks do not change it.

Is this the same formula as RuneScape 3?

No. RS3 has a different, longer formula that includes Summoning and other skills. This page is Old School only.

Why does a maxed pure still show a high combat level?

Because ranged and magic are weighted at 1.5×, a pure with 99 ranged and 99 hitpoints lands in the 70s–80s rather than staying low. Low defence keeps a pure below a main, but it cannot stay low forever once the offensive stats are maxed.

Sources

Combat level formula — Jagex's published formula, reimplemented here and checked against both end points of the scale: a fresh account must give 3 and a fully maxed account must give 126, checked 26 October 2026.
Official site — runescape.com/oldschool

If your in-game level disagrees with this page, that is a bug here, not a rounding choice — please tell us the seven stats.