Runescape 3 Ranged Perk, Ability & Equipment Guide

04.05.2024 - 13:20:05
Game Guides , Runescape

Runescape 3 Ranged Perk, Ability & Equipment Guide

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Runescape 3 Ranged is one of the original combat skills in the game, alongside melee and magic. Runescape 3’s main focus is PvM and to have a good time in the game, one must know the most optimal ways of using each combat style. During your play of RS 3 you will encounter a lot of situations where you will have to use Ranged as your combat style. Since Runescape 3 is a really old and bloated game, it can get confusing to learn what you actually need to do. In this guide we will go over all the things you need to know about Ranged and give you lists that you can follow depending on where your account stands!

Ranged Weapons & Perks

                                                                                

In Ranged your weapons of choice will fall under two categories:

  • Two-handed

  • Dual wield

Two handed weapons, just like in melee will deal more damage and will be slower than the main/off hand weapons. However there are different, more complex factors that play a part in this as well. Some creatures will be only weak to bolts, meaning you would want to use crossbows, some will be weak to arrows, some will be weak to straight up ranged. In some scenarios a two-handed weapon might be more effective than a dual-wield one. You must decide what you need to bring, depending on the activity you want to accomplish. Also two-handed bows are much more effective in most scenarios and cost a lot more gold to get, so if you don’t have a lot of money to buy high tier bows, dual wielding is the way to go. Depending on what you use, you will also be able to utilise different abilities, that’s why high-end PVMers bring switches so they can utilise both the two-handed and the dual-wield threshold and ultimate abilities.

Recommendations:

For two handed, Hexhunter bow/Noxious longbowSeren godbowBow of the last Guardian.

For dual-wield: Shadow glaive → Ascension crossbow → Blightbound crossbow

Two-Handed

                           

Tier

Weapon

Cost

Notes

70

Crystal bow

331K

  • Requires level 50 Agility.

  • Requires the completion of the quest “Roving Elves”.

  • Does not require ammunition.

80

Zaryte bow

8.7M

  • Cheap alternative for mid game bows.

80

Royal crossbow

352K

  • Requires the completion of the “Song from the Depths” quest.

  • Requires level 70 Smithing and level 60 Summoning.

  • Untradable and made by combining a coral crossbow with 4 crossbow parts. After combining you must let it bathe in the fires of queen black dragon.

80

Hexhunter bow

278M

  • It has a passive effect that gets activated against magic classed enemies or enemies that have a weakness against arrows.

  • +12.5% damage boost.

  • +10% hit chance.

  • +5 affinity buff to the player.

  • Damage boosting effect of the bow can be further upgraded by imbuing the bow with the enchantment of dispelling. This further increases the effect by 5%.

  • Against magic class targets, this bow effectively has a tier 97 damage and tier 94 accuracy.

85

Wyvern crossbow

29M

  • Has a passive effect that poisons your targets. Potency of the poison is increased the more times the target is attacked.

87

Upgraded poison blowpipe

2M

  • Has a passive effect that poison the target. The weapon halves the poison damage but doubles how often it hits.

  • Has tier 90 accuracy and 85 damage, hence it becomes a tier 87 weapon.

87

Decimation

6M

  • Does not need ammunition.

  • Has a special attack that costs 50% adrenaline and makes all of your attacks, area-of-effect attacks for 10 seconds. The area consists of 3 tiles of your main target.

90

Noxious longbow

282M

  • Cheapest alternative to the high tier bows.

  • Has a special attack that consumes 100% of your adrenaline and summoıns a mirror back spider. This spider lowers and reflects damage by 50% for 10 seconds. It has a cap of 10K life points worth of damage.

92

Seren godbow

1.2B

  • This weapon also does not require any ammunition.

  • It has a special attack that costs 30% adrenaline. It launches 5 arrows into the air, all 5 arrows deal damage to your target and it deals more damage against larger targets. This has a 30 second cooldown.

92

Eldritch crossbow

786M

  • It has a special attack that costs 25% adrenaline. It makes it so that your soul split curse deals damage to your target instead of healing you. Causes damage equivalent to four times the quantity of life points it would typically restore.

95

Bow of the last guardian

2.6B

  • This bow has a passive effect:

  • For each hit that you deal to a target, gain a perfect equilibrium stack.

  • Once you reach 8 stacks, a single attack is launched that depletes all 8 stacks.

  • Damage dealt is the sum of 8%-14% ability damage and 35%-60% of the attack that triggered this damage.

  • This attack can critically hit and can apply arrow effects.

  • If you use the weapons special attack, the number of stacks required for this is lowered to 4.

  • This bow also has a special attack that uses 30% adrenaline.

  • The number of stacks needed to trigger the passive effect mentioned above is lowered to 4 for 30 seconds.

  • Launches an attack that deals 175%-375% ability damage.

  • You can trigger the passive alongside this attack if you have 3 or more stacks built up already.



Main-Hand

                

Tier

Weapon

Cost

Notes

70

Karil’s pistol crossbow

1M

  • Cheap ammunition & cheap bow

75

Armadyl crossbow

3.8M

  • Does not degrade

80

Chaotic crossbow

200K Dungeoneering tokens

  • Requires level 80 Dungeoneering.

85

Shadow glaive

8.7M

  • Has tier 90 accuracy and tier 80 damage.

  • Does not require ammunition.

90

Ascension crossbow

44.8M

-

92

Blightbound crossbow

136M

  • Grants a 25% chance to save bakriminel bolts.

  • Great option if the player cannot afford high tier two-handed bows.

Off-Hand

                

Tier

Weapon

Cost

Notes

70

Karil’s off-hand pistol crossbow

1M

  • Cheap ammunition & cheap bow

75

Off-hand Armadyl crossbow

3M

  • Does not degrade

80

Off-hand Chaotic crossbow

100K Dungeoneering tokens

  • Requires level 80 Dungeoneering.

85

Off-hand Shadow glaive

10.6M

  • Has tier 90 accuracy and tier 80 damage.

  • Does not require ammunition.

  • Does not affect ability accuracy.

  • This is pretty much the same as the off-hand chaotic crossbow.

90

Off-hand Ascension crossbow

45M

-

92

Off-hand Blightbound crossbow

171M

  • Grants a 25% chance to save bakriminel bolts.

  • Great option if the player cannot afford high tier two-handed bows.

Ammunition

Arrows


Tier

Arrow

Cost

Notes

70

Dark arrow

59 GP

  • Deals 672 damage.

90

Araxyte arrow

180 GP

  • Deals 864 damage.

92

Black stone arrows

4K

  • Deals 883 damage.

  • Each attack dealt with these arrows will reduce your target’s armour by 0.75%. This effect has a cap of 15%.

95

Deathspore arrows

615 GP

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • Grants an extra +3% critical chance.

  • Dealing a critical hit using these arrows grants a stack of feasting spores. After gaining 5 stacks your next Ranged ability will not cost adrenaline.

95

Splintering arrows

394 GP

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • After using the greater dazing shot ability, you will be able to apply puncture stacks with all attacks for 4 seconds. This also increases the max puncture stacks possible to 13.

95

Wen arrow

1.4K

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • All your basic abilities will grant you a stack of Icy chill. You can get a max stack of 15.

  • Threshold, special and ultimate abilities will consume all these stacks and grant you 3% base damage and hit chance per stack.

95

Ful arrow

1.4K

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • All your abilities deal 15% increased damage and have -10% accuracy.

  • There is a 33% chance to consume an arrow when using an ability.

95

Bik arrow

1.3K

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • All your abilities have a 33% chance to consume an arrow.

  • All your abilities have a chance to apply a stack of toxin, max 200 stacks.

  • Each stack will increase the poison damage the target takes by 2%.

95

Jas dragonbane arrow

1.6K

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • Has a passive effect that grants +30% damage and +20% hit chance against dragons.

95

Jas demonbane arrow

3.1K

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • Has a passive effect that grants +30% damage and +20% hit chance against demons.

Bolts

Tier

Bolt

Cost

Notes

80

Royal bolts

89 GP

  • Deals 768 damage.

90

Ascension bolts

3.3K

  • Deals 864 damage.

94

Ascendri bolts

7.9K

  • Deals 902 damage.

  • Requires level 90 Ranged.

94

Ascendri bolts (e)

8.3K

  • Deals 902 damage.

  • When the bolts enchant triggers, it grants the player 10% adrenaline and an additional 1% from basic abilities for 15 seconds.

95

Emerald bakriminel bolts (e)

1.3K

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • Requires level 99 Ranged.

  • Grants a 55% chance to poison your enemy for 2-4% of your weapon damage.

95

Ruby bakriminel bolts (e)

699 GP

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • Requires level 99 Ranged.

  • Grants a 5% chance to deal 20% of the enemy’s health as damage. This effect also deals 10% of your health as damage to your character as well.

95

Diamond bakriminel bolts (e)

1K

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • Requires level 99 Ranged.

  • Grants a 5% chance to hit with an 100% increased accuracy and 15% more damage.

95

Onyx bakriminel bolts (e)

5.2K

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • Requires level 99 Ranged.

  • Grants a 10% chance to deal 25% more damage and heal you for 25% of the damage potential. This caps at 2.5K.

95

Hydrix bakriminel bolts (e)

6.8K

  • Deals 912 damage.

  • Requires level 99 Ranged.

  • When the bolts enchant triggers, it grants the player 10% adrenaline and an additional 1% from basic abilities for 15 seconds.


Invention Perks

Here are the perks that you need to know:

  • Precise: Your minimum damage is increased by 1.5%, this number goes up with each rank.

  • Ruthless: Whenever you kill an enemy your damage will increase by 0.5%, this effect stacks up 5 times.

  • Aftershock: After dealing 50K damage, this perk will deal an additional 40+ ability damage to the area, this damage increases with rank.

  • Eruptive: This perk increases your ability damage by 0.5%, this number goes up with rank.

  • Caroming: Increases the target count of AoE abilities by 1 per rank.

Basic Perks

  • Two-handed tier 80-90: Precise 6

  • Main-hand tier 80-90: Precise 6

  • Off-hand tier 90: Eruptive 4

End-Game Perks

  • Two-handed Tier 92 (or hexhunterbow): Gizmo 1: Precise 6, Aftershock 1 - Gizmo 2: Caroming 4, Eruptive 2

  • Main-hand blightbound: Precise 6, Aftershock 1

  • Off-hand blightbound: Caroming 4, Eruptive 2

Getting the best in slot PvM Ranged weapons and perks in Runescape 3 costs a lot of gold, you can especially get unlucky with the Invention perks and waste millions upon millions on resources. If you want to jump straight into Runescape 3’s end game with the best possible setup consider buying gold on our website here.

Ranged Armours & Perks

There are two types of armour for any given combat style in this game, one is a tank armour which focuses more on the defensive stats and the other is a power armour which has less defence but more offensive stats. Depending on the task at hand you should decide what you need to use. Tank armour will provide a lot of armour rating and in high tier armour sets a lot of extra health as well, whereas the power armour will provide a lot of extra ranged strength, which will allow you to deal a lot more damage. Generally speaking you should always prefer power armour over tank armour, to increase your DPS.

Tier

Armour

Cost

Notes

70

Karil the Tainted’s armour

4M

  • Tank armour.

  • Degrades but cheap.

70

Armadyl armour set

11.5M

  • Power armour.

  • Does not degrade.

85

Superior death lotus armour

12M

  • Really tanky armour.

  • Untradable.

  • Has a tradable version but that version is much worse than the superior and will degrade into dust.

80

Anima core of Zamorak

22M

  • Power armour.

80

Pernix armour

72.2M

  • Requires level 80 constitution.

  • Power armour.

  • Has the same stats as anima armour but also has prayer and life points bonuses.

90

Achto Tempest equipment

Untradable

  • Best tank Ranged armour in the game.

88

Superior Morrigan’s armour

2.9M

  • Power armour.

  • Degrades to dust.

90

Sirenic armour

5.4M

  • Power armour.

  • Degrades to dust.

  • Has a set bonus that grants a 6% additional chance to trigger enchanted bolts.

92

Elite sirenic armour

1B

  • Power armour.

  • Has a set bonus that grants a 12% additional chance to trigger enchanted bolts.

90

Dracolich armour

76M

  • Power armour.

  • When wearing at least 1 piece, your rapid fire generates an additional 0.2 adrenaline (per piece worn) every 0.6 seconds.

  • When wearing at least 3 pieces and a bow, channelling rapid fire for its full duration, grants 3 seconds of increased critical chance by 20%. When wearing 4 pieces this is further increased to 4.8 seconds. With all 5 pieces this becomes 5.6 seconds.

92

Elite dracolich armour

1.4B

  • Power armour.

  • When wearing at least 1 piece, your rapid fire generates an additional 0.5 adrenaline (per piece worn) every 0.6 seconds.

  • When wearing at least 3 pieces and a bow, channelling rapid fire for its full duration, grants 3 seconds of increased critical chance by 40%. When wearing 4 pieces this is further increased to 4.8 seconds. With all 5 pieces this becomes 5.6 seconds.

Invention Perks

Perks that you need to know:

  • Crackling: Deal 50% of your ability damage to a creature per rank. 60 second cooldown.

  • Biting: Adds 2% critical strike chance to your weapon per rank.

  • Invigorating: Increases adrenaline gainage with auto-attacks.

  • Enhanced Devoted: Grants a chance to make protection prayers reduce the damage to 1.

  • Relentless: Grants a chance to not use adrenaline when using, threshold, ultimate and special attack abilities.

  • Devoted: Grants a chance to trigger the effects of devotion.

  • Impatient: 9% chance per rank to add 3% extra adrenaline when using basic abilities.

Basic Perks

  • Top (tier 90): Gizmo 1: Crackling 4, Relentless 3 - Gizmo 2: Biting 3

  • Bottom (Tier 90): Gizmo 1: Invigorating 4 - Gizmo 2: Enhanced Devoted 4

End Game Perks

  • Top (tier 90-92): Gizmo 1: Relentless 5, Crackling 4 - Gizmo 2: Biting 4

  • Bottom (tier 90-92): Gizmo 1: Devoted 4, Impatient 4 - Gizmo 2: Enhanced Devoted 4


Capes

                


Cape

Style Bonus

Notes

Obsidian cape

13.4 Hybrid

  • Strongest tradable range and magic cape.

Cape of legends

17.3 Hybrid

  • Requires Legends’ Quest

Spirit cape

17.3 Hybrid

  • Requires 50 Defence, Summoning, Dungeoneering.

  • Costs 45K Dungeoneering tokens.

  • Reduces the familiar’s special moves cost by 20%.

Skill Cape

21.6 Hybrid

  • Requires level 99 in a skill.

  • Strength or Ranged cape is recommended.

Ava’s alerter

26.3 Ranged

  • Requires partial completion of the quest “Do No Evil”.

  • Untradable.

Max cape

31.5 Hybrid

  • Requires level 99 in all skills.

  • Can be imbued with 3 skill cape perks.

Tokhaar-Kal-Xil

33.5 Ranged

  • Reward for beating the Fight Kiln with mostly Ranged damage.

Igneous Kal-Xil

43 Ranged

  • Requires 90 crafting to make.

  • The crafting materials can be obtained only from beating TzKal-Zuk without using checkpoints.

  • Reduces adrenaline cost of Deadshot to 60%.

  • Deadshot deals 42-210% damage plus 70% ability damage every 1.2 seconds for 8.4 seconds.

Igneous Kal-Zuk

43 Ranged

  • Requires 90 Crafting.

  • Requires completing a flawless hard mode run against Zuk.

  • Grants effect of its constituent capes.

Pocket Slot

Pocket Item

Style Bonus

Cost

Hourly Cost

Notes

Scrimshaw of cruelty

None

816K

272K

  • Requires level 80 Ranged.

  • Grants +5% damage.

  • Untradable once activated and lasts for 3 hours.

  • Requires 92 Fletching to make.

  • There is a superior untradable version that has more powerful effects and lasts longer.

Scrimshaw of ranging

None

863K

287K

  • Requires level 85 Ranged.

  • Grants +2% Ranged accuracy.

  • Untradable once activated and lasts for 3 hours.

  • Requires level 95 Fletching to craft.

  • There is a superior untradable version that has more powerful effects and lasts longer.

Holy wrench

None

N/A

N/A

  • Requires the completion of the quest “Rum Deal”. Increases the number of Prayer points restored by potions.

Adrenaline urn

None

N/A

N/A

  • Obtained as a drop from Kal'gerion demons, this item accumulates charges when the player's adrenaline surpasses 100%. Upon exiting combat, these charges are utilized from the urn instead of draining the player's adrenaline. Notably, this functionality operates from both the pocket slot and the inventory.

Blood essence

None

312,109 - 376,648

Varies

  • Requires the completion of the quest River of Blood. 

  • Must be charged with congealed blood.

God book

57,907 - 392,051

16,885 - 117,096

  • Requires level 30 Prayer and completion of Horror from the deep. 

  • Created by filling a damaged book with corresponding god pages. When charged with pages, it grants special effects.

Illuminated god book

57,907 - 392,051

16,885 - 117,096

  • Upgraded variant of the god book, requires, One Piercing Note.

Erethdor's grimoire

217,539,374

6,239,072

  • When charged with torn grimoire pages, it grants 12% critical hit chance and increases the critical hit cap to 15K.

Scripture

23,059,797 - 320,732,953

13,032 - 999,100

  • Has different versions, “Ful” being the best one. Each version has a different power when activated.

Necklaces

Necklaces

Style Bonus

Cost

Hourly Cost

Notes

Saradomin’s murmur

36.8 Ranged

284K

-

  • Requires level 70 Ranged.

  • Very cheap.

Reaper Necklace

36.8 Hybrid

56M

37K

  • After every effective strike, you gain a bonus of 0.1% to your chance of hitting, capped at a maximum of 3%. This bonus persists for up to 54 seconds following your most recent strike. 

  • Once equipped, the item becomes untradable.

  • It wears down over time and requires onyxes for recharging. 

  • It can be upgraded by a ornament kit, this increases the style bonus by 2.

Farsight sniper necklace

44.1 Ranged

-

-

  • Requires level 80 Ranged and 70 Dungeoneering.

  • You can create this necklace by combining a saradomin’s murmur with a chaotic remnant which costs 100K Dungeoneering tokens.

  • You can also attach a blood necklace shard to it.

Amulet of Souls

46.3 Hybrid

56M

37K

  • Has a 50% chance to increase soul split heals for 25-50%.

  • Protection prayers block 10% more damage.

  • Repairs with onyxes.

  • Can be further upgraded with an ornament kit, this increases the style bonuses by 2.

Essence of Finality amulet

56 Hybrid

258M

512K

  • Has the effects of amulet of souls and reaper necklace.

  • After sacrificing your weapon, you can special attack whilst using any weapon of the same style.

  • Becomes permanently untradable.

  • Must be repaired with alchemical hydrix dust.

  • Can be upgraded with the essence of finality ornament kit. This increases the bonuses by 3.

Rings

Rings

Style Bonus

Cost

Hourly Cost

Notes

Ring of vigour

12 Hybrid

50K Dungeoneering token

-

  • Requires level 62 Attack and Dungeoneering.

  • When an ultimate ability or a special attack is used, it consumes 90% of the adrenaline instead of 100%.

Archer’s ring

17.3 Ranged

13.8M

-

  • Can be upgraded to have an extra 7.9 Ranged bonus.

Luck of the Dwarves

17.3 Hybrid

78M

-

  • Tier 4 luck ring.

  • Can be imbued, this makes the ring untradable and this process is irreversible. Costs 7500 Teci. Increases the style bonus by 2.5.

Sixth-Age circuit

21 Hybrid

-

-

  • Requires the completion of the following quests:

  • The World Wakes

  • Ritual of the Mahjarrat

  • The Firemaker’s Curse

  • The Branches of Darkmeyer

  • The Void Stares Back

  • The Chosen Commander

Asylum Surgeon Ring

21 Hybrid

-

-

  • Requires level 85 Defence.

  • Requires the completion of the Broken Home quest and all 3 replay challenges.

  • Grants 10% chance to prevent adrenaline loss when using threshold abilities and 40% chance to save 25% of a special attack’s cost.

  • Can be upgraded with 10k Teci, this increases the bonuses by 2.4.

Ring of Death

25.2 Hybrid

56M

37K

  • Has a 50% chance to restore 5% adrenaline when a target is killed.

  • Instead of dying, you’re teleported to your spawn with all your items when you die. Costs 15% charge.

  • Can be recharged with onyxes.

  • Can be upgraded to with 15K Teci, Increases its style bonuses by 2.5.

Reaver’s ring

27.7 Hybrid

149M

-

  • Created by combining 10 Berserk rings and a Heart of the berserker.

  • Requires level 70 Crafting.

  • Has a 5% critical hit chance and -5% accuracy.

Stalker’s ring

30.4 Ranged

141M

-

  • Can be created by combining 10 Archer’s rings and a heart of the archer. This process requires level 70 Crafting.

  • Has a passive effect that provides +3% critical hit chance when using a bow. Can also be further upgraded with enchantment of shadows.

Aura Slot

Aura Slot

Cost

Tiers

Duration

Cooldown

Notes

Vampyrism aura

5k Marks of War

2

1 Hour

3 Hours

  • Heal for 5% of the damage you deal.

Dark magic aura

12.5K Marks of War

3

1 Hour

3 Hours

  • Has a chance to inflict corrupting damage.

Mahjarrat aura

1K Reaper points or 3 Bonds

5

1 Hour

23 Hours

  • Increases damage dealt by 5%.

Penance Aura

23K Loyalty points

2

1 Hour

3 Hours

  • Gain prayer points equal to 5% of the damage you receive.

Inspiration aura

23K Loyalty points

2

1 Hour

3 Hours

  • Your attacks that hit generates an additional 0.5% adrenaline.

Sharpshooter aura

4.2K-107K Loyalty points

1-4

1 Hour

3 Hours

  • Your ranged accuracy is increased by 3-10%, depending on your tier.

Action Bar

How you set-up your action bar directly effects your overall DPS. There are also some abilities that you need to unlock via quests or codexes. Here is a simple list of ability bars that you can follows depending on where you are in the game:

Two handed

Basic Bar

No greater abilities.

With death’s swiftness.

Greater abilities unlocked.

Advanced Bar

Dual-Wield

Basic Bar

No greater abilities.

With death’s swiftness.

Advanced Bar


Familiars

Storage

  • Spirit terrorbird - 52 Summoning, 12 storage slots.

  • War tortoise - 67 Summoning, 18 storage slots.

  • Pack yak - 96 Summoning, special move sends items to your bank, has 30 storage slots.

  • Pack mammoth - 99 Summoning, has 32 storage slots. It’s special move will heal you using the food stored in his storage.

Damage Enhancer


  • Blood/Shadow/Smoke/Ice nihil - 87 Summoning

  • Blood reaver - 73 Summoning, deals damage to the enemy when the player character is healed.

  • Kal’gerion demon - 90 Summoning, 1% forced critical strike chance.

  • Ripper Demon - 96 Summoning, Increases your damage by 0-5% depending on your target's lost health. Special move deals 200%-320% of ripper demons max hit to the target. This familiar is the strongest in game even without using the special move scrolls.

Tank

  • Bunyip - 68 Summoning, passively heals you.

  • Unicorn stallion - 88 Summoning, special move heals you.

  • Hellhound - 45 Summoning, tanks 20% of any damage dealt to the player.

Archaeology Relics

Basic

Requires level 70 Archeology.

  • Shadow’s Grace: Cooldown of Surge, Escape, Bladed Dive and Barge is reduced by 50% but they no longer generate adrenaline.

  • Berserker’s Fury: Your damage increases up to 5.5% the lower your life points are.

  • Font of life: Increases maximum health by 500.

Intermediate

Requires level 97 Archaeology.

  • Fury of the Small: All basic abilities generate 1% more adrenaline.

  • Blessing of Het: Food and potions are 10% more effective.

Advanced

Requires level 120 Archeology.

  • Conservation of energy: After using an ultimate ability, regain 10% adrenaline


Best combination is Conservation of energy, Berserker’s fury and Font of life.

Best In Slot Ranged Gear

  • Elite Dracolich armour

  • Bow of the last guardian

  • Essence of finality (or)

  • Stalker’s ring

  • Igneous Kal-Zuk

  • Elder God Scripture


The total cost of this, including the perks and abilities comes out to be around 6B. If you just want to get to the end game and enjoy Runescape 3 to its fullest, consider buying gold on our website, with cheap rates!

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