Bandos godsword


 * For the version won on Treasure Hunter, see lucky Bandos godsword.

The Bandos godsword is one of the four godswords that were fought over during the God Wars. Requiring 75 Attack to wield, it is created by attaching a Bandos hilt to a completed godsword blade, which has no requirements and can be done by any player. Along with the Armadyl godsword, the Saradomin godsword, and the Zamorak godsword, the Bandos godsword carries one of the highest melee damage bonuses outside of Daemonheim, surpassed only by vesta's spear, the chaotic maul and spear, and the Noxious scythe.

Both prior to and following the release of EoC, General Graardor was the most popular boss to kill in the God Wars Dungeon. Due to his relatively low lifepoints, the comparative weakness of his three sergeants, and the presence of a prayer altar in the boss room itself, he remains the most frequently-hunted boss in the main part of the dungeon. As a direct result, the amount of Bandos hilts in the game is quite high, and thus the completed sword is (and historically has been) the cheapest of the four Godswords.

Special Attack
The Bandos godsword has a special attack called Warstrike which deals 200% damage and uses 100% adrenaline as well as draining the enemy's stats. However the description has not been updated since early beta and the damage as well as effect has been tweaked several times since. Testing suggests the maximum hit is around 313% ability damage and the special applies a non-visible Defence debuff to the target (like the one turmoil provides) that directly decreases armour rating, and potentially provides debuffs to other skills upon successive use. This is arguably more useful than its pre-EoC special as a non-visible Defence drain cannot be countered by simply using potions such as overloads or regular restore potions. The special also applies to a visible drain to Defence, somewhat like it did pre-EoC, that appears to range from 0.5%-1% of the damage dealt (or 5%-10% of the damage dealt in Legacy), with lower damage draining closer to 1% (or 10% in Legacy). Successive use of the special attack will result in drains of diminishing returns to any stats already drained but also drains to other combat skills such as attack, range and magic and even prayer points (about 400-500 prayer points from tests).

The Bandos godsword has a passive effect that can be toggled on by using it on the altar within the boss room of Bandos' Stronghold (the room in which General Graardor is located), however, entering Bandos' Stronghold requires 70 Strength. It decreases the target's level in Defence by 1 if they are above 90% of their Defence level. This passive effect has a 25% chance of occurring with a successful hit. However, like most godswords, the passive effect is noticeably less impressive compared to its special attack, in this case due to its slow nature and drain cap.

Uses
The Bandos godsword is somewhat popular when fighting high-level boss monsters, such as Nomad, God Wars Dungeon bosses, and perhaps most notably the Corporeal Beast and Nex. The special attack can substantially drain the armour rating and the Defence level of the target's Defence, making the fight easier. The passive on the other hand can only drain up to 10% of the visible part of the enemy's Defence slowly over time, which is much less useful in comparison.

When fighting against players, Defence levels provide a damage soaking effect (since the EoC). Testing suggests (your Defence level)*0.1% of damage is mitigated when attacked by another player in PvP (however, this damage soaking effect doesn't seem to apply on monsters). Therefore Bandos godsword's defence draining effect not only indirectly increases ones' accuracy, it also indirectly increases ones' damage in PvP.

Trivia

 * Like all Godswords (and the God Wars Dungeon itself), the Bandos godsword received a graphical update in September 2012.
 * Previously, if a player wielding a Bandos godsword goes to a free-to-play world and attacks a target, they would do a unique animation in which they smash the target with the pommel, dealing the same damage as unarmed combat. After an update, members weapons now prevent players from attacking at all on free worlds.