RS3 Gear & Equipment Tiers Explained

RuneScape 3 equipment runs on a simple idea with big consequences: everything has a tier, and a higher tier means more damage, accuracy, and armour. Understanding tiers tells you what to wear, what to save for, and where your next upgrade should go.

What a "tier" actually means

A piece of gear's tier (roughly 1 to 92 and beyond) is its power level, and it usually lines up with the level required to use it. Higher-tier weapons hit harder and more accurately; higher-tier armour absorbs more. You climb the ladder as your combat levels and bank allow, you don't jump straight to the top.

Power armour vs tank armour

Armour comes in two flavours, and picking the right one matters:

Power armour adds damage for its combat style (at the cost of a little defence). This is what you want for almost all PvM, you kill faster, so you take fewer hits overall.
Tank armour trades damage for survivability. It's niche, useful for a few punishing fights or while you're learning, but most of the time, power armour wins.

Each style has its own top-tier power set:

Weapons: main-hand + off-hand, or two-handed

You either dual-wield a main-hand and off-hand weapon or use a single two-handed weapon. Broadly they deal similar damage, but some abilities and setups favour one or the other, the top-tier weapons are where you'll spend the most, so this is the upgrade that moves your damage the most.

Upgrade your weapon firstA better weapon raises your damage more than any single armour piece. Buy the best weapon you can afford before completing a top-tier armour set.

Degradation and repair

Most high-tier gear degrades with use and needs repairing (at an armour stand, smithing, or with coins), or, if it's augmented, it burns divine charges instead. Some gear degrades "to dust" and must be re-bought. Factor upkeep into a setup before you commit to it, especially on an Ironman.

Augmentation: perks on your gear

Once you have Invention, you can augment weapons and armour to hold perks, permanent boosts that make gear you already own noticeably stronger. It's one of the biggest power gains in the game; see the Invention guide for how it works.

What to actually buy right now

Best-in-slot gear and prices shift constantly, so check the maintained sources before a big purchase:

RuneScape Wiki, Equipment and the weapon pages for every tier.
PvME, gear progression and per-boss best-in-slot for each style.

Track the rare gear you earn as drops on your Codex profile. Item images here are courtesy of the RuneScape Wiki.