OSRS Skull Timer

How long a skull lasts

A skull lasts 30:00 when you attack another player first, 10:00 from entering the Abyss and 20:00 from the Emblem Trader, a cape of skulls or an amulet of avarice once it comes off. On the permanent Deadman world an attack skull is only 5:00. A game tick is 0.6 seconds, so a 30-minute skull is 3,000 ticks.

Since December 2021 a skull cannot run out while you are in combat with another player. The timer keeps a skull that ran out mid-fight for ~14.4 seconds after you mark the fight over, as long as the single-way PJ timer.

How to get rid of a skull

A skull goes on its own when its time runs out. Sooner, it goes when you die to another player or a monster, when you die in a Last Man Standing game, or when you go into the Gauntlet, unless you are wearing an amulet of avarice. Dying in your own house is a safe death that also clears it; a flame pit, built at 69 Construction, is one way to do that. On Hardcore Worlds a death in your house is an official death, and Last Man Standing is turned off there. Entering Clan Wars, dying in its free-for-all arena and logging out in a Last Man Standing lobby no longer clear a skull: the lobby trick stopped working on 25 March 2026.

To avoid a skull by mistake, turn on PK Skull Prevention in the settings. It stops you attacking an unskulled player first, but once you are skulled it does not stop you attacking again, so it can still make your skull last longer. Hitting back at someone who attacked you never skulls you.

Items kept on death

Unskulled you keep your 3 most valuable items on an unsafe death, and skulled you keep 0. Protect Item, unlocked at Prayer 25, keeps one more either way. It does nothing on a high-risk world or the Deadman world, and an ultimate ironman keeps nothing on an unsafe death. A death to a monster in the Revenant Caves counts as a death to a player.

The safe minigames are Castle Wars, Clan Wars, Emir's Arena, Last Man Standing, Soul Wars and TzHaar Fight Pit. A hardcore ironman's unsafe death also ends their hardcore status, and a hardcore group ironman's uses one of the group's lives. On Hardcore Worlds any death that is not safe is an official death: you reset or transfer the character, and the items that would have gone to a gravestone are deleted. A high-risk world gives everyone a skull of its own that never goes, even on death; it shows only when you have no other skull, and it never counts as a skull for a death to a monster. The item despawn timer times the items you leave behind.

Skull colours

The white skull is a normal skull, and it shows the number of loot keys you carry when you have any. The light blue skull is the Forinthry Surge, for top damage on the Revenant maledictus while wearing an amulet of avarice: 15% more accuracy and damage against revenants for 30:00. The red skull is the Fight Pit champion's. In the Bounty Hunter crater and on the Deadman world the skull's colour shows how much you are risking, and its eyes turn gold while you are skulled:

In Bounty Hunter, dying unskulled costs your minimum coffer deposit and dying skulled costs 10,000 coins. Unskulled you earn 50% less earning potential a minute and cannot upgrade an emblem past tier 5.

Skulls and revenants

A skull raises the chance of various revenant drops by about 45%. It makes the ancient emblem nearly 3.5 times rarer and takes the dragon med helm off the table. The high-risk world's own skull does not change the drops; only a real skull does, which is why players wear an amulet of avarice in the Revenant Caves.

Skulled on the Deadman world

On the permanent Deadman world a skull shuts you out of these places, and a teleport waits through a 7 second timer even when you are out of combat. The time left shows on the game's screen and updates every half minute.

A skull and a freeze often come together in a fight, so the freeze timer times freezes and their immunity beside this one, and the potion timer times your boosts. The LMS calculator works out Last Man Standing points, and the Gauntlet calculator its chest.