In Old School RuneScape, seeing a player with a skull icon above their head usually means someone’s gotten hurt (or worse) recently.
Being skulled as a player means you now have the worry of not dying, so you don’t lose all of your stuff instead of just keeping your three most valuable items.
Recommended Read: Old School RuneScape – Melee Gear Progression Guide
The skull mechanic is an interesting one: providing high-risk, high-reward for players testing their luck in the Revenant Caves and in deep wilderness. Here, I’m going to run you through the multiple ways to get rid of your skull status in OSRS.
In Old School RuneScape, your skull either expires after a range of 10-30 minutes, goes away after you die, or you enter and exit an instanced area (the Gauntlet, Clan Wars portal, etc.).
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What does “Being Skulled” Mean?
In OSRS, being skulled means you have a skull icon above your head from either attacking another player or by requesting it from the Emblem Trader in Edgeville.
You can also get skulled by entering the Abyss north of Edgeville or from certain items (i.e. the Amulet of Avarice or the Cape of Skulls).
Normally if you die in Old School RuneScape, you will keep your top three valuable items (top four if you are using the “Protect Item” prayer) while losing the rest.
But if you are skulled and die, you will lose all of your items, regardless of if you are killed by a player or other monster.
That being said, players who find themselves skulled typically want to get rid of it as fast as possible. Thankfully, there are a few ways to do so.
Methods to Get Rid of Skull in OSRS
There are three different ways to get rid of skull in Old School RuneScape:
Wait it Out
This is the most common method of getting rid of your skull. In OSRS, a skull on a player will go away naturally between 10-30 minutes of acquiring one, the time depending on how they received it.
- Entering the Abyss: 10 Minutes
- Wearing an Amulet of Avarice or Cape of Skulls: 20 Minutes after Unequipping
- Attacking Another Player: 30 Minutes after their last attack on a player
Lose Your Skull By Dying
If you are skulled, a simple way to get rid of it is to die.
While this may not be the most helpful option if you are in deep wilderness with Pkers hunting you down, this method is commonly used after a player has already returned to a bank safely and deposited their items.
Then, they can go to their favorite boss, or even have someone else kill them in the wilderness, and they’ll respawn without a skull to worry about.
Enter/Exit an Instanced Area
Players who want to remove their skull quickly to get back in the action as soon as possible can do so by reaching an instanced area and leaving.
The most common places that people use are the Gauntlet minigame in Prifddinas and Last Man Standing in the Ferox Enclave (a handy location as it’s in the heart of the Wilderness).
Other locations include the Clan Wars portals in the Ferox Enclave as well.
It is worth knowing that you do not have to actually complete the Gauntlet nor a round of Last Man Standing to get rid of the skull; just the action of entering the area and leaving will cause you to lose it.
That is how to get rid of skull in Old School RuneScape!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
