There is really only one rule: gear can't be equipped in a slot until that slot's Tier is reached. A Tier is reached once every item in the previous Tier has been obtained and equipped. Tier 1 starts unlocked, since all Tier 0 (stat-less) and negative-stat items are free from the start.
An item's Tier is the single highest positive combat bonus it has, across Attack, Defence, Strength, Ranged Strength, Magic Damage, and Prayer — the best stat counts, not the sum of all stats.
New in Season 2: every equipment slot progresses independently, instead of being lumped together. Helm, cape, weapon, etc. can each sit at a different Tier at the same time. Weapons are further split by combat style (Melee / Ranged / Magic), one style per weapon: staves/wands/sceptres etc. are Magic, anything else with a Ranged attack bonus is Ranged, and everything else is Melee.
Spotlight rule: a newly unlocked item with unique stats must actually be used — kill a boss, complete a slayer task, or do a quest with it — before it's "done." Purely cosmetic variants of an already-used item are exempt.
Exceptions cover the situations the ruleset can't avoid: Catch-22s (within a slot or across slots, solved by backlogging the smaller dependency), Mega Rares (optional — nice if they drop, not required), and Difficulty (must attempt each new Tier's hardest content at least once before invoking).
This is a summary — see the full document for exact wording, tables, and the Season 1 ruleset for comparison.
"Gear locked" is an original set of rules to restrict OSRS (Old School Runescape) ironman gameplay, forcing a slow upgrade system of equipable gear. Restricted accounts, also known as snowflake ironmen, add masochistic self-imposed rules for players that are interested to challenge themselves further or just see what unique situations the ruleset forces them into...
There is really only one rule:
Gear cannot be equipped in any given equipment slot, until its "tier" is reached.
All equipable items in OSRS have stat bonuses in various areas. We can categorize all weapons and armor by their highest stat, whether in "attack," "defense," or "other bonuses" (but not "target-specific or weapon speed).
For clarity, magic damage counts as if it weren't a percent. E.g., 5% magic damage = Tier 5. (However, I don't think this is the highest stat for any current item, so the point is likely moot.)
For example, the leather body has +10 crush defense as its highest stat, making it a "Tier 10" body-slot item.
The ability to progress different slots independently is what separates Season 1 and Season 2. While S1 lumped all slots into the same tier together, S2 treats every slot on its own. This means we can have an account with the following status:
OSRS, and the OSRS Wiki, typically divide gear into 12 equipment slots: Head, Cape, Neck, Ammunition, Weapon, Shield, Two-handed, Body, Legs, Hands, Feet, Ring.
I am using this, with the following two changes:
To encourage actual use of weird and forgotten items, even if outclassed by other unlocked gear, every new item must be used.
In particular, if the new weapon or armor is unique in its stats (even if those stats are worse than other obtained items), this new gear must be used in one of the following ways:
If an item is merely a cosmetic change to a previous item, this isn't strictly required. (E.g., 50 variants of wildy capes!)
There are three types of exceptions: Catch-22 within a single equipment slot, Catch-22 across equipment slots, Mega Rare, and Difficulty.
| Type | Description | Approach | Example(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catch-22 Single-Slot | An item cannot be obtained without equipping a higher tier item of the same slot. | Backlog — it's preferred to skip an item rather than equip another item early. | Dark dagger [Legend's Quest] is a Tier 5 melee weapon, but cannot be obtained until Draman staff (Tier 10) is unlocked [Lost City]. |
| Catch-22 Multi-Slot | A series of item dependencies that cross equipment slots, but result in an unavoidable circle. | Choose the minimal backlog possible. There are at least two items that could be backlogged, either one solving the catch-22. Choose whichever is a smaller backlog. | Ghostly robe (T5 body) requires Ice arrows (T16 ammo). Rada's blessing 3 (T1 ammo) requires Lunar torso (T40 body). Method 1 (backlog ghostly robe) backlogs 35 tiers of body; Method 2 (backlog Rada's blessing 3) backlogs 15 tiers of ammo — Method 2 is preferred. |
| Mega Rare | An item which would be unreasonable to expect to get within a time frame of about a year. | These are optional. If it comes, great. If not, it should not prevent tier completion. | Most clue uniques (not just 3rd age) are extremely rare when accounting for the drop rate of clues as well as completion rate of clues on an account that can't equip many items... |
| Difficulty * | An item which can only be obtained by a difficult activity such as raid or high-level boss. | Must attempt at least once every new tier to see if it's possible with new best-in-slot items. | Elidinis' ward is tier 9; I don't know if ToA will be possible with Tier 9 items... |
* This is the most amorphous of the exceptions. For my part, I will avoid this as much as possible and only invoke when it seems truly impossible. (As of Tier 4, I have not yet invoked this.)
"Gear locked" is an original set of rules to restrict OSRS (Old School Runescape) ironman gameplay, forcing a slow upgrade system of equipable gear. Restricted accounts, also known as snowflake ironmen, add masochistic self-imposed rules for players that are interested to challenge themselves further or just see what unique situations the ruleset forces them into...
There is really only one rule: Gear cannot be equipped until its "tier" is reached.
All equipable items in OSRS have stat bonuses in various areas. We can categorize all weapons and armor by their highest stat, whether in "attack," "defense," or "other bonuses" (but not "target-specific or weapon speed).
For clarity, magic damage counts as if it weren't a percent. E.g., 5% magic damage = Tier 5. For example, the leather body has +10 crush defense as its highest stat, making it "Tier 10."
There are three types of exceptions: Catch-22, Mega Rare, and Difficulty.
| Type | Description | Approach | Example(s) | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catch-22 | An item cannot be obtained without equipping a higher tier item. | Backlog — it's preferred to skip an item rather than equip another item early. | Ardy cloak 1 is tier 2, but cannot be obtained until priest gowns (tier 3) are available. Many quests all require equipping various higher tier items. | This exception is technically the only one that is 100% necessary. |
| Mega Rare | An item which would be unreasonable to expect to get within a time frame of about a year. | These are optional. If it comes, great. If not, it should not prevent tier completion. | Most clue uniques (not just 3rd age) are extremely rare when accounting for the drop rate of clues as well as completion rate of clues on an account that can't equip many items... | The account is meant to start slow, but accounting for every super rare item would prevent any reasonable progress. |
| Difficulty | An item which can only be obtained by a difficult activity such as raid or high-level boss. | Must attempt at least once every new tier to see if it's possible with new best-in-slot items. | Elidinis' ward is tier 9; I don't know if ToA will be possible with Tier 9 items... | This is the most amorphous of the exceptions. For my part, I will avoid this as much as possible and only invoke when it seems truly impossible. (As of Tier 4, I have not yet invoked this.) |
