The whole formula is four lines long
Your combat level is not a lookup table. It is arithmetic on seven skills, and the wiki publishes it in full:
base = 0.25 × (Defence + Hitpoints + floor(Prayer ÷ 2))
melee = 0.325 × (Attack + Strength)
ranged = 0.325 × floor(Ranged × 1.5)
magic = 0.325 × floor(Magic × 1.5)
combat = floor(base + max(melee, ranged, magic))
Two things in that shape matter more than anything else on this page. First, the base term uses Defence, Hitpoints and half your Prayer, and it is always included — you cannot avoid it. Second, only the highest of melee, ranged and magic is added. The other two are ignored completely, no matter how high they are.
The calculator above prints the unrounded total as well as the displayed level, because the gap between them tells you how close you are to the next level.
What each skill is worth
Restating the same formula as per-level rates makes it much easier to plan with:
- 0.25 per level of Defence or Hitpoints — so four levels of either adds one combat level.
- 0.125 per level of Prayer — eight Prayer levels adds one combat level.
- 0.325 per level of Attack and Strength together — about three combined levels per combat level.
- 0.4875 per level of Ranged or Magic when that style is your highest — about two levels per combat level.
The asymmetry is the whole reason pure builds exist. Because ranged and magic are single skills carrying a 1.5× multiplier, they buy combat levels roughly twice as fast as melee's two-skill pair — which is exactly why a 1-defence ranged pure can hit level 79 with only 85 hitpoints.
Three worked examples
A brand new account
All skills at 1, Hitpoints at 10. Base is 0.25 × (1 + 10 + 0) = 2.75. Melee is 0.325 × 2 = 0.65, while ranged and magic are 0.325 × floor(1.5) = 0.325 each. The highest is melee, so the total is floor(3.4) = level 3 — which is what every fresh account shows.
A 1-defence pure
60 Attack, 99 Strength, 1 Defence, 85 Hitpoints, 52 Prayer. Base is 0.25 × (1 + 85 + 26) = 28.0, and melee is 0.325 × 159 = 51.675. Total is floor(79.675) = level 79. Note how much of that came from two skills: Attack and Strength alone contributed 51.7 of the 79.7.
A maxed account
Everything at 99. Base is 0.25 × (99 + 99 + 49) = 61.75 and melee is 0.325 × 198 = 64.35, for floor(126.1) = level 126. That is the ceiling, and it is a melee total — the ranged and magic figures come out at 48.1 each, well below it.
Why the highest style wins, and when it changes
Because only the top figure counts, you can train the other two styles "for free" up to the point where they would overtake your main one. The wiki puts the crossover in plain terms: once the average of your Attack and Strength passes 75, melee will always be the figure that counts, because 0.325 × (Attack + Strength) has pulled permanently ahead.
Below that average the picture is genuinely different, and this is where build planning happens. A player with 80 Ranged can raise Magic to 80 and push Attack + Strength to a combined 120 without gaining a single combat level from those skills — the melee total only starts counting once it exceeds the ranged one.
Planning the next level
The calculator reports the cheapest single skill increase that would raise your displayed combat level by one. That is more useful than it sounds, because the floor function means some increases are wasted: you can add several levels to a skill and see no change at all, then a single level tips you over.
Practical consequences:
- Prayer is the cheapest lever per point at 0.125 per level, but it rarely moves the displayed level on its own until you cross a floor boundary.
- Defence and Hitpoints are the ones to watch on a pure. Four levels is a full combat level, and quest rewards or accidental training are the usual way a build overshoots its bracket.
- Do not train Hitpoints accidentally. It is the only skill you gain without choosing to, and on a low-level build it is the most common cause of a bracket miss.
- Combat level does not include Slayer, Agility or any non-combat skill. Nothing outside the seven skills above changes it.
How this was checked
The formula is implemented exactly as the wiki publishes it, including both floor operations. It was verified against three published worked examples before release: a new account must return 3, a 1-defence pure with 60 Attack / 99 Strength / 1 Defence / 85 Hitpoints / 52 Prayer must return 79, and an all-99 account must return 126. All three match.
Sources and standards
Where these figures come from
Every constant and formula on this page was taken from the published reference below and re-checked before it was published.
- Old School RuneScape Wiki — the combat level formula, the per-level rates and the 75 average crossover.
- OSRS Wiki — how the highest-style rule is exploited when planning pure account builds.
- OSRS Wiki — the list of skills that do and do not affect combat level.
