OSRS Freeze Timer

How long a freeze lasts

A freeze stops a target walking but lets it attack, eat and cast. Every length here is in game ticks of 0.6 seconds, counted from the tick the freeze lands, which is a tick or more after the cast. When it ends the target is immune for 5 ticks (3.0 seconds), 2 after a grasp spell, and only then can it be frozen again. A bind or an ice spell starts to thaw 3 ticks before it ends, with the message "The holding effect is beginning to fade." or "The freeze cast upon you is beginning to thaw.", and from that tick a frozen player can already jump the pillars in the Revenant Caves.

Protect from Magic and freezes

Protect from Magic does not shorten a freeze. It halved Bind, Snare and Entangle until 5 September 2019, and it never changed an ice spell. It cuts the damage of a player's spell, not its chance to hit, so the freeze lands just as often. Against monsters it matters for one freeze: Nex's Ice Barrage does not freeze a player who prays it. The spiritual mages, Glacies and the Deadman wizguards freeze you for their full length either way.

Gear that makes a freeze last longer

An ancient sceptre, plain or with any quartz, makes every ice spell last 10% longer, rounded down: Ice Rush stays at 8 ticks, Ice Burst becomes 17, Ice Blitz 26 and Ice Barrage 35. The ice ancient sceptre also hits more often against a target that is not frozen. Each swampbark helm, body and legs adds 2 ticks to Bind, Snare and Entangle, so all three make them 14, 22 and 30 ticks. A charged tome of water makes those three spells hit more often but not last longer. Zuriel's staff from Bounty Hunter makes ice spells more accurate, not longer.

Grasp spells, Mark of Darkness and Ward of Arceuus

Ghostly, Skeletal and Undead Grasp hold for 2, 3 and 4 ticks, but only on a hit and only by chance: 10%, 25% and 50%, doubled by Mark of Darkness, which makes Undead Grasp certain. They land one tick after the cast at any distance. A player with Ward of Arceuus up is held for one tick. In the Xarth fight in The Fractured Archive, Undead Grasp holds a corpse for 10 ticks, or 24 under Mark of Darkness, and a corpse doused by a water spell stops for ~8 ticks.

Special attacks that freeze

The abyssal tentacle's Binding Tentacle holds for 8 ticks whether it hits or not. The Zamorak godsword's Ice Cleave holds for 32 ticks, the length of an Ice Barrage, but only on a hit, and Protect from Melee does not stop it. The scorching bow's Scorching shackles holds a demon for 20 ticks, hit or miss, and does nothing to anything else. A spear's Shove pushes the target back and stuns it for 5 ticks; after that it cannot be bound for 5 ticks or stunned again for 1, except in Castle Wars, where a player can be shoved again at once. Shove does nothing to a monster bigger than one tile.

Freezing other players

A freeze on another player only holds while you stay within 10 tiles of them. Step further away and they can walk at once. Only the distance across the map counts, so you keep the hold if you climb a ladder and stay within range of them. A freeze stops walking, not being moved, so a player can still escape by planting mithril or adamant seeds or by using a ladder or a cave entrance next to them. Whose PID comes first decides whether the hit lands a tick later. A magic attack lands 1 tick after the cast at 1 tile, 2 at 2 to 4 tiles, 3 at 5 to 7 and 4 at 8 to 10. Last Man Standing hands out Entangle and the ice spells; the LMS calculator works out its points and rewards, and the skull timer times the skull that a fight in the Wilderness puts over your head.

Monsters that freeze you

Pick the attack and press "Frozen now" the moment it holds you. Lengths with a ~ are estimates. A few hold you until something happens, so their timer runs until you press "Free now". Kamil and Karamel use a stun that looks like a freeze and also stops you eating and teleporting, and Solus Dellagar freezes you only in a cutscene.

Monsters you cannot freeze for long

Some monsters resist freezes: a freeze on them lasts only part of its length, and at 100% it does not hold at all, even when the spell hits. Phantom Muspah resists 33%, so an Ice Barrage holds it for ~21 ticks; the Strange Creature in Secrets of the North is held for 75% of a freeze, 24 ticks of a barrage. Evelot cannot be bound or frozen, and Kamil shrugs off every spell but fire. The freeze chance on the Nylocas Matomenos at the Maiden rises with your magic attack bonus and is certain at +140; the DPS calculator works out a spell's chance to hit.

These are frozen for the full length: Corpse (Xarth), Dire bat, K'ril Tsutsaroth, Lesser demon (The Scar), level 82 and 94, Outlaw (A Ruff Situation) and Scarred greater demon, level 95.

Other timers

For the rest of a fight, the skull timer counts down a skull, the potion timer tracks your boosts and antifire, the aggro timer tells you when monsters stop attacking, and the item despawn timer shows how long a drop stays on the ground.