Poison

This article is about the status condition. For the item needed for several quests, see Poison (item).

Not to be confused with Venom.

A player taking damage from poison

Poison is a status effect that players and monsters suffer when they are attacked by a poisonous weapon. Many NPCs are able to inflict poison naturally, whilst players can use weapons laced with weapon poison (or smoke spells from the Ancient Magicks) to inflict poison. However, not all monsters can be inflicted with poison; a full list of monsters susceptible to poison can be found here, whilst a list of monsters immune to poison can be found here.

Monsters that can inflict poison may do so regardless of whether or not they inflict any damage, even if protection prayers are used. Player inflicted poison does need to deal damage to apply.

Poison damage is dealt based on an internal timer that is unique to each NPC. For certain NPCs, this timer is used for other actions instead, such as cows mooing; as a result, they cannot be poisoned, even if Monster Examine shows they're not immune.

While there is currently no way to be afflicted with poison in free-to-play, players can still take damage if already afflicted from a member's world. As such, hopping to a free-to-play world does not cure poison.

Listed below are examples of the various sources and severities of poison:

• Smoke spells, capable of inflicting poison starting at 2 (Rush/Burst) or 4 (Blitz/Barrage) damage.
• Various poisoned weapons, starting at 2-6 damage depending on the weapon type; see the section below for more details.
• Venom converted into poison via a means of curing poison - barring those that would also cure venom outright - will start at the same amount of damage the venom would have dealt.
• Poison applied by enemy NPCs, starting at 1-20 damage depending on the enemy. The aggressive tribesmen of Karamja, for example, inflict poison starting at 11.
• Aside from recurring poison, certain NPCs, such as lizardman shamans and Xarpus, have special attacks that can deal singular hits of potentially lethal amounts of poison damage if not avoided. Such attacks can often be circumvented by moving out of the way of the attack or by wearing certain protective equipment. Depending on the enemy, having active poison immunity may or may not reduce the initial damage taken, however it will still work to protect against their recurring poison.
• Certain scenery objects may inflict poison and/or simply deal a small amount of non-recurring poison damage to the player when interacted with. Examples of this include opening the sinister chest, failing to cross the tripwire traps in Isafdar, and attempting to pick nettles without gloves.

Mechanics

When a player or monster is poisoned, a number appears with a green hitsplat () instead of a red or blue one, indicating the amount of damage the poison has dealt. Poisonous entities are assigned a "poison severity" value, which determines the amount of intervals the poison will deal damage, calculated using the formula $\lfloor \frac{Severity+4}{5}\rfloor$. This starting damage can range from 1 to over 20 depending on the value of the poison severity.

The victim is damaged by this poison once every 30 game ticks (18 seconds) until it is either cured or naturally wears off. Visibly, the starting damage is decreased by 1 for every 5 occurrences of poison damage. In reality, poison severity is decreased by one for every time the player is dealt poison damage, meaning it will wear off once the poison severity value reaches zero.

For example, a reanimated kalphite has an assigned poison severity of 30. If it successfully inflicts poison, it will deal 6.8 damage, rounded down to 6. The next four times the player is dealt poison damage will also deal 6 damage (as the poison damage calculation continues to round down to 6). Once the poison severity is reduced to 25, poison will deal 5.8 damage, rounded down to 5. This continues until the poison severity value reaches zero, at which point the player will be naturally cured, taking a total of 105 poison damage over the course of 9 minutes.

Poison doesn't do damage (or wear off) when a player has an interface open. It will hit once immediately after the interface is closed, and continue damaging the player every 18 seconds after that (30 game ticks).

Curing poison

Poison can be cured through antidotes in the form of anti-poison potions. Anti-poison potions come in various levels, providing progressively longer immunity to becoming poisoned in addition to curing it. Players who are poisoned can use one of the following remedies or simply left-click their Hitpoints orb on the minimap and their character will automatically use a remedy that they have. Just like how poison does not damage the player with an interface opened, the antipoison timer will not go down until the interface is closed.

Those who don't have any form of cure can simply exit a player-owned house.

When curing poisons through the Hitpoints orb, the strongest remedy will be used, starting with potions. If the player is carrying multiple of the cure, it will prioritise the one with the least remaining doses. If dosages are the same, the first one in the inventory will be used.

Name		Immunity (minutes)	Hourly cost	Members	Notes
	Antipoison	1.5	3,710.00	0
	Superantipoison	6.0	4,165.00	1
	Sanfew serum	6.0	40,488.00	1	15 minutes immunity to disease
	Antidote+	9.0	3,173.00	1
	Araxyte venom sack	11.7	8,272.00	1	First 1-18 seconds include immunity to venom
	Antidote++	12.0	10,030.00	1	First 18-36 seconds include immunity to venom
	Anti-venom	12.3	15,174.00	1	First 36-54 seconds include immunity to venom
	Anti-venom+	15.0	15,427.00	1	First 3.6 minutes include immunity to venom
	Extended anti-venom+	17.7	18,626.00	1	First 6.3 minutes include immunity to venom
	Prayer book	N/A	N/A	1	Requires prayer points and a holy symbol or hallowed symbol equipped
	Strange fruit	N/A	N/A	1	Cures venom
	Cooked moonlight antelope	N/A	N/A	1	Reduces venom to poison
	Guthix rest	N/A	N/A	1	Does not cure, but reduces poison damage per hit by 1. It will downgrade venom to poison if the player is envenomed
	Cure Me	N/A	N/A	1	Requires completion of Lunar Diplomacy
	Cure Other
	Cure Group
	Serpentine helm	∞	166,666.67	1	Charged with Zulrah's scales. Provides full immunity to becoming poisoned or envenomed while worn, but does not cure preexisting poison or venom when equipped. Hourly cost assumes a continuous hour of combat.
	Noxious halberd	N/A	N/A	1	The special attack cures poison and venom, at the cost of 50% special attack energy.

Weapon poisoning

Members can inflict poison by using weapons treated with weapon poisons, made primarily through the Herblore skill. There are several types of weapon poisons, which deal progressively more damage. Only spears, hastae, daggers, arrows, bolts, darts, throwing knives, and javelins can be poisoned. The abyssal tentacle and emerald bolts (e) are also capable of poisoning players. A weapon poison potion can only be used on five thrown objects before running out (e.g. 5 arrows or 5 darts). Poison can be removed from weapons by making use of a cleaning cloth, obtained by using Karamja rum with silk, by purchasing it directly from Tamayu after completing Tai Bwo Wannai Trio, or by purchasing it from the Grand Exchange for 669 coins.

A player must land a successful hit with the poisoned weapon to have a chance at poisoning their enemy. The chances of inflicting poison are 1/4 for melee and 1/8 for ranged and smoke spells. Poisons applied with ranged weapons have their Severity lowered by 14, though this reduction does not apply to enchanted emerald bolt procs.

Name		Severity	Initial damage		Total damage
			Melee	Ranged	Melee	Ranged
	Weapon poison	20	4	2	50	7
	Weapon poison(+)	25	5	3	75	18
	Weapon poison(++)	30	6	4	105	34
	Karambwan paste (poison)	30	6	N/A	105	N/A
	Dynamite(p)	30	6	N/A	105	N/A
	Abyssal tentacle	20	4	N/A	50	N/A
	Emerald bolts (e)	25	N/A	5	N/A	75
	Emerald bolts (e)	27	N/A	6	N/A	87

The total poison damage (Melee: D_M and Ranged: D_R) can be calculated by the sum of all numbers (n) up to the max hit (M), times the amount of hits per number (H=5).

$\begin{array}{ll}{D}_M(M)& =H\cdot \sum _{n=1}^{M}n=H\cdot \frac{1}{2}M(M+1)=2.5\cdot M(M+1)\\ D_R(M)& =H\cdot \sum _{n=1}^{M-1}n+M=H\cdot \frac{1}{2}M(M-1)+M=2.5\cdot M(M-1)+M\end{array}$

Poisonous Monsters

Monster		Initial damage
				Spider (Ape Atoll)	1
	Jungle spider (Ape Atoll)	1
	Big Snake	1
	Confusion beast	1
	Snake (Ape Atoll)	2
	Penance Healer	2
	Scarabs	3
	Scarab Swarm (Beneath Cursed Sands)	3
	Lizardman brute	3
	Scarab Swarm	3
	Poison Scorpion	3
	Snake (Mos Le'Harmless)	3
	Poison spider	3
	Grimy Lizard	3
	Lizardman	3
	Cave slime	3
	Fumus	4
	Hespori (Echo)	4
	Hespori (A Night at the Theatre)	4
	Kalphite Soldier	4
	Sea Snake Hatchling	5
	Spider (Ungael)	6
	Kalphite Guardian	6
	Assassin (While Guthix Sleeps)	6
	Scorpia's offspring (monster)	6
	Snakeling	6
	Reanimated kalphite	6
	Saradomin wizard	6
	Spinolyp	6
	Spitting Scarab	6
	Sea Snake Young	7
	Jogre Champion	8
	Cave crawler	8
	Bryophyta	8
	Nex	8
	Abyssal Sire	8
	King Black Dragon	8
	Giant Scarab	9
	Giant Sea Snake	9
	Lizardman shaman	10
	Tribesman	11
	Bush snake	11
	Tribeswoman	11
	Lizardman shaman (Chambers of Xeric)	12
	Chasm Crawler	12
	Vespine soldier	15
	K'ril Tsutsaroth	16
	Vespula	20
	Scorpia	20
	Corrupt Lizardman	N/A
	Tolna	N/A
	Kolodion	N/A
	Kalphite soldier (Construction)	N/A
	Poison spider (Escape Caves)	N/A
	Damien Leucurte	N/A
	Ruptura Araxyte	N/A
	Mirrorback Araxyte	N/A
	Hydra	N/A
	Dagannoth Supreme	N/A
	Stranger	N/A
	Great Olm	N/A
	Alchemical Hydra	N/A

Notes

• The poison's duration can be reset while the enemy is poisoned with the same chance as on an unpoisoned enemy.
• If you poisoned a monster while fighting it, you will not receive experience from the poison damage (you will receive full Slayer experience, however, even if the poison applied wasn't yours).
• Many monsters, such as wall beasts, turoths, waterfiends, and the God Wars Dungeon bosses, are immune to poison.
• Poison interrupts some actions, including most skilling actions (but not Woodcutting or Fishing) and the home and minigame teleports. Poison does not interrupt combat in any way.
• If a poisoned monster goes out of combat (no longer trying to attack) the effect of poison is immediately removed from the monster.
• The swamp lizard (salamander weapon) has a chance of inflicting poison equivalent to weapon poison++ when used in melee mode.
• Some monsters such as Cave slimes and Saradomin wizards can immediately poison a player when combat is initiated before actually dealing damage to a player.

Changes

Date	Changes
24 April 2024 (update)	Standard poison attacks will no longer downgrade an inflicted venom effect on an NPC to a poison effect.
15 March 2023 (update | poll)	The Poison timer will now only reset after 54 seconds of being out of combat, up from 18 seconds.

Trivia

• Poison and venom are mutually exclusive, but it is possible to be poisoned or envenomed and have disease at the same time, splitting your health orb in two to signify both applied effects.