The aquanite hopper is a ranged off-hand requiring 60 Ranged, equipped alongside a crossbow for an 11% chance to fire a second shot — though that extra shot suffers a heavy cut to accuracy, damage and enchanted bolt proc chance. It carries no defensive bonuses, just +12 ranged attack and +1 ranged strength. Made via Smithing from an aquanite tendon and mithril bar, it's tradeable on the Grand Exchange — see the live price and history chart below for its current value.
Equipment bonuses
The aquanite hopper is a shield-slot item requiring 60 Ranged, adding +12 ranged attack and +1 ranged strength with no defensive bonuses, alongside attack penalties of -5 stab, -5 slash, -3 crush and -13 magic.
Attack bonuses
Defence bonuses
Other bonuses
Its real appeal comes from its passive effect rather than these raw numbers — equipped with a crossbow, it gives an 11% chance for a shot to fire twice.
Grand Exchange price history
How to get the aquanite hopper
The aquanite hopper isn't a monster drop — it's created through Smithing. Using an aquanite tendon on an anvil while carrying a mithril bar and a hammer creates one aquanite hopper, requiring level 60 Smithing (boostable) and taking 7 game ticks per craft. Each successful creation grants 350 Smithing experience.
Once made, it's fully tradeable and can also be bought outright on the Grand Exchange.
The aquanite hopper's passive effect
The aquanite hopper has no defensive bonuses of its own — its purpose is a passive effect that only matters when the wielder is also using a crossbow. While equipped, each shot fired from a crossbow gets an 11% chance to fire a second shot.
That bonus shot isn't a full extra hit: it takes a 66.7% reduction to its accuracy, damage, and enchanted bolt proc chance. If the first shot already triggers an enchanted bolt effect, the second shot can never trigger one of its own.
The wiki also flags a known bug: when paired with a Dorgeshuun crossbow, Hunters' crossbow, or Hunters' sunlight crossbow, the player stops attacking entirely when the passive effect should activate.
Is the aquanite hopper worth it?
The aquanite hopper isn't a straightforward upgrade. The wiki's own comparison to a twisted buckler in a maxed ranged setup shows the hopper giving a range strength of 146 instead of 155. Adding the hidden +64 base strength, that works out to an effective strength of 210 instead of 219 — and even after factoring in the ~10% chance of the second shot hitting 33% more, the hopper only reaches roughly 217, about 1% below the buckler setup.
In practice the gap is bigger than the numbers suggest: the wiki notes the hopper's expected damage output is significantly lower than a twisted buckler's once the second shot's accuracy and proc penalties are combined with the hopper's own lower ranged attack bonus. It's a niche or completionist pick rather than a clear best-in-slot swap.
