Guide · Skills
Crossbow bolts
Forge bronze, iron and steel bolts at an anvil, then finish Dragon bolts into Ember bolts that set monsters burning or Piercing bolts that punch through armoured dragons.
Every bolt is solid metal: there are no shafts or feathers. The plain bolts are forged at an anvil. Ember and Piercing bolts are Dragon bolts finished with Fletching, for hunting dragons.
Forging bolts
Take a 
Hammer to an anvil, use a bar on it, choose the missile heads and pick Forge Bolts. Each bar makes 10 bolts, at the arrow heads' Smithing level and experience for that metal.
| Bar | Bolts | Smithing | Fired by |
|---|---|---|---|
 Bronze bar | Bronze bolts | 5 | any crossbow |
 Iron bar |  Crossbow bolts | 20 | any crossbow |
 Steel bar | Steel bolts | 35 | any crossbow |
Dragon bolts are made as before: a dragon bar on 50 Crossbow bolts, at Fletching 80. They need the 
Dragon crossbow.
Finishing Dragon bolts
| Bolts | Use | Fletching | Makes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ember bolts |  Blaze-Runes on Dragon bolts, one rune a bolt | 82 | up to 10 at a time |
| Piercing bolts | a  Diamond on Dragon bolts | 85 | 50 from one diamond |
Both fire from the Dragon crossbow only. Against players they are plain Dragon bolts. A crossbow picks a finished bolt first, then the strongest plain bolt you carry.
Ember bolts
- One hit in 8 that lands sets the monster burning: 3 burns, a moment apart, each splatted as an orange FIRE burst.
- Each burn hits for the fire's heat. Heat starts at 1 and builds by 1 with every new fire within about 30 seconds of the last, up to 3. A boss stays at 1.
- The fire spreads to every monster standing right beside the one you hit, unless it is fighting someone else.
- Frost creatures, such as the Frost wyvern and ice giants, burn 3 times harder. Fire creatures, such as fire giants and the Elder dragon's molten form, never catch.
Piercing bolts
- They work only on the armoured dragons: the Armoured, Plated, Crystal and Two-headed dragons, and the Elder dragon.
- One shot in 7 punches through: it cannot miss, and it splats as a blue PIERCE burst. Against the Elder dragon it is one in 12.
- A punch-through also cracks a plate, taking 5% of the dragon's Defence for about 30 seconds. Up to 3 cracks stand at once, and the Elder dragon takes only 1.
- Against anything else they are plain Dragon bolts.