Why CRUSH Isn't Good in OSRS


Date	2026-03-05
Type	news-opinion
Video	youtu.be/tDyb-FazeKw

Summary

Gnomonkey reacts to the Blood Moon Rises reward poll and argues that crush is weak in OSRS mainly because of Oathplate and slash gear, not because of Scythe's crush option. He says the Crimson Kisten should stay a (now two-handed) spec weapon, and that a crush mega rare for Raids 4 makes no sense without more crush-weak bosses.

Outline

0:00 Poll overview: where crush fits and whether Scythe's crush is broken
0:31 Crimson Kisten analysis: two-handed clarification
1:50 Why crush is the least used style: slash is too strong
2:51 Calcs showing Oathplate and Scythe beat crush at Araxxor, Tekton, Cerberus, Sarachnis
5:55 Phosani's Nightmare as the one place Scythe crush wins, and the Scythe crush debate
8:28 How to improve crush viability: new bosses, or leave it a niche style
9:04 Crossbow comparison and why every weapon need not be equal
10:04 Oathplate's effect on the meta and Phosani's drops
11:32 Does Crimson Kisten need to be a main hand weapon?
12:13 Raids 4 reward speculation: crush mega rare
15:43 Balancing mega rares: Jagex backed into a corner

Topics covered

Poll: Blood Moon Rises rewards

(0:00) The reward poll for Blood Moon Rises came out, letting players vote on whether rewards are added or not.
(0:00) Gnomonkey is not a big fan of the Leechfin sandwich but does not discuss it in this video.
(0:00) Gnomonkey says a lot of misinformation was brewing about crush and the update, which he first thought was a nothing-burger.
(0:17) The poll clarifies in game that the Crimson Kisten is two-handed, whereas Gearscape and fans assumed it was one-handed because the artwork shows it held in one arm.
(11:32) Gnomonkey says the other Blood Moon Rises rewards (the upgrade to Anguish and the Seeker arrows) are strong enough to carry the update, so a more side-grade reward like the Crimson Kisten is fine.

Crimson Kisten

(0:31) The Crimson Kisten is the new crush special attack weapon, described as basically crush claws.
(1:00) Gnomonkey says the two-handed clarification makes the Crimson Kisten quite a bit worse: it remains the Phosani's Nightmare spec but is less good there, and at places like Theatre of Blood it is now quite a bit worse than Burning claws.
(1:27) Gnomonkey says he would have kept the Crimson Kisten one-handed because it was already not that good, but it is already two-handed in the poll.
(1:27) Gnomonkey agrees with Jagex that the Crimson Kisten should not be a main hand weapon, since crush weapons are currently not very good and he doubts it would see much use even as a spec.
(11:32) Gnomonkey concludes the Crimson Kisten is fine as is, maybe okay as a one-handed weapon, and that it is not a problem to have a lesser-used spec when the boss drops other very strong rewards.

Crush

(2:00) Gnomonkey says crush is by far the least used combat style in OSRS, largely because slash weapons (Scythe, Soulreaper axe, Abyssal tentacle) are so strong.
(2:29) Gnomonkey says many bosses like Araxxor or the Royal Titans have a minor crush weakness, but with Oathplate you just use slash because of the extra damage and accuracy.
(3:00) At Araxxor with Oathplate, the Inquisitor's mace is 8.5 percent worse than Scythe in Gnomonkey's calcs; Araxxor has 75 slash defence and 15 crush defence.
(3:28) Oathplate gives 16 slash bonus on the body and 12 on the top (a total of 28 slash bonus as Gnomonkey says), which overpowers crush bonus when paired with a mega rare.
(3:58) At Tekton (165 slash defence, 105 crush defence), Oathplate with a slash weapon beats an Inquisitor's mace on crush even in a Challenge Mode; this holds in normal Chambers too, where Gnomonkey says you wear full Oathplate or a Torva helmet.
(4:32) Cerberus used to be crush with Scythe or Inquisitor's, but now it is Oathplate with slash: Cerberus has 100 slash defence and 25 crush defence but a defence level of only 100, which Oathplate plus a Slayer helmet powers through.
(5:24) At Sarachnis (40 slash defence, 10 crush defence), Scythe on slash wins, with the Inquisitor's mace about 93 percent accurate even with its armor buff against about 90 percent from Scythe on a higher max hit.
(5:55) Phosani's Nightmare has 150 defence level with 120 stab, 180 slash and 40 crush defence, so Scythe's crush is used there: it has 69 percent accuracy versus 81 percent from the mace but a higher max hit.
(6:31) Gnomonkey says crush's weakness is less about crush weapons being bad and more about Oathplate being really broken good; it used to have a use case after Oathplate that is now gone.

Scythe of Vitur

(6:36) Scythe of Vitur has a 30 crush bonus (between an adamant mace and a rune mace with no defender) versus 125 slash bonus, and with a little Oathplate over 150 slash bonus.
(6:37) Gnomonkey says nobody uses Scythe on crush except at Phosani's Nightmare, and that removing its crush option would change nothing except Phosani's Nightmare, so it would not fix crush.
(7:30) Gnomonkey says Reddit complaints about Scythe's crush option are parroted by people who do not own a Scythe, and thinks Raids 4 bosses with 250 defence and crush weakness would need an Inquisitor's mace or even a bludgeon rather than a Scythe.

Opinion: Crush does not need to be balanced equally

(8:28) Gnomonkey says Jagex can make crush viable by adding bosses with high defence level and low crush defence, but he does not think the game needs a perfectly even one-third slash, stab and crush spread across bosses.
(9:01) Gnomonkey likes that some weapons are used occasionally and not all the time, such as crossbows for ranged, which are typically not very good except for cases like the Dragon hunter crossbow.
(9:30) Gnomonkey says not every weapon needs equal use, as in the case of the Heavy ballista which is not used at all, and that if every weapon is used equally nothing stands out as special.
(10:04) Gnomonkey says Oathplate, from Yama, is fine as a raid-tier reward but shifted everything so crush is no longer used anywhere, arguably making things more boring.
(10:37) Gnomonkey says the best-in-slot crush gear comes from Phosani's Nightmare, whose drops are very rare, so if crush gear became required mains would pay a lot and Irons would need to grind it, which would not make the game more fun.
(14:34) Gnomonkey says to make crush a third of the meta Jagex needs many more high-level crush bosses, since even Mokhaiotl's crush weakness does not matter as you just use the Twisted bow; otherwise just leave it as a lesser-used style.

Raids 4

(12:05) Gnomonkey does not think the Raids 4 mega rare should be a crush weapon because there are not enough crush-weak bosses to support it: Tekton is one boss in Chambers, Ulm has neutral defence, and Tombs of Amascut and Theatre of Blood offer no use.
(13:08) Gnomonkey says a crush mega rare could only make sense far down the line, if a Coliseum 2 or similar content had everything weak to crush; otherwise a Scythe would be better 90 percent of the time and the weapon would collect dust like Torva versus Oathplate.
(13:40) Gnomonkey says even a non-mega-rare crush drop from Raids 4 would have few uses, as he does not own an Inquisitor's mace and sees no use for a crush weapon only 3 percent better.
(15:29) Gnomonkey says adding a mega rare that barely does anything would be lame, and that Jagex might as well not add one.

Opinion: Mega rares

(15:44) Gnomonkey says Jagex has backed itself into a corner with mega rares because there is now one for each style and no new one will feel as powerful as earlier ones.
(15:44) Gnomonkey says the Tumeken's shadow felt strong because it was good at so many places and replaced items across the game, cutting speedrun times by up to five minutes.
(16:17) Gnomonkey says Raids 4 either needs to power creep mega rares beyond Twisted bow, Shadow and Scythe, or not add a mega rare; he considers it a hard call and a topic for another video.
(16:53) Gnomonkey says adding side-grade mega rares is not worth it.