Animation stall

An animation stall is an action that causes a player to be locked into an animation for a short duration. There are "partial stalls" and "full stalls". Partial stalls allow the player to perform actions and to move around independently. While the character appears to be standing still performing an action, the true tile of the player is on another space. Conversely, a full stall does not allow the player to move independently or perform actions. Hits are usually queued up on the player, and received only after the action is complete. An example of this is the skillcape emote. Although this is not always the case; teleportation magic stalls the player, but hits do not stack when the animation ends.

Partial stalls mean the player is graphically disjointed from where the game internally considers them to be. This is usually caused by some items active effects, certain weapons attack animations, or certain spells (e.g. Spellbook Swap, Ice Barrage, Vengeance). If in a partial stall, when the animation ends, the player will be seen rapidly moving towards their true tile, in a manner similar to that of rubber banding.

Partial animation stalls are commonly used in PvP by players in order to fool their opponent into thinking they are farther away than they actually are (due to how the game renders players moving compared to where their true tile actually is), allowing one to catch an opponent off guard with a melee weapon's special attack when they do not visually appear to be within melee distance. They can also be used to hide the fact that the player has switched weapons; eating food/drinking a potion is commonly used for this purpose. Stalls are also commonly used by various lurers. The player attempts to trade with the lurer, who appears to be within a safe zone, but in reality is outside of it. This drags the player outside of the safe zone, where they are then killed for their items.

Full stalls can also be used by lurers and Player killers to trick the player into locking themselves into an animation where they can't eat food or run away while in the Wilderness. This allows the PKers to pick up an easy kill on the victim.

Examples of animation stalls

Note: This is not an exhaustive list. This list does not distinguish between full stalls and animation stalls. It also does not distinguish between patched and current. Many of the items used for animation stalls have been fixed. Calquat keg no longer has a drink option, for example.

Active items

• Commorb
• Calquat keg and other kegs found in the game
• Exploding vial
• Tea flask
• God books such as the Unholy book and Book of darkness
• Dwarf multicannon
• Books

Emotes

• Capes of Accomplishment and event capes
  • 32 ticks, or 19.2 seconds Achievement diary
  • 25 ticks, or 15.0 seconds Cooking
  • 20 ticks, or 12.0 seconds Smithing
  • 15 ticks, or 9.0 seconds Woodcutting, Strength
  • 14 ticks, or 8.4 seconds Quest point, Herblore
  • 13 ticks, or 7.8 seconds Crafting, Fletching
  • 12 ticks, or 7.2 seconds Construction, Fishing, Hunter
  • 10 ticks, or 6.0 seconds Farming, Prayer, Runecraft
  • 9 ticks, or 5.4 seconds Ranged, Banana cape
  • 8 ticks, or 4.8 seconds Max, Mining, Defence
  • 7 ticks, or 4.2 seconds Firemaking, Agility,
  • 6 ticks, or 3.6 seconds Hitpoints, Attack
  • 5 ticks, or 3.0 seconds Thieving, Slayer, Magic
  • 2 ticks, or 1.2 seconds Cabbage cape
• Uri transform

Spells

• Vengeance
• Spellbook Swap
• Boost Potion Share
• Most Teleports

Attack animation stalls

• Hunters' crossbow
• Hunters' sunlight crossbow
• Leaf-bladed battleaxe
• Dragon claws special attack
• Granite maul special attack

Other

• Most agility actions, such as the log balance in the Wilderness agility course
• Being hit with a dragon spear, Zamorakian hasta or Zamorakian spear special attack
• Being hit by "Earth's Fury", the special effect of jade dragon bolts (e) and jade bolts (e)
• Chiselling oyster pearls and other items.
• The elemental shield stalls the player when equipped for 1 tick, or 0.6 seconds
• Charging the Dragonfire shield by fighting a dragon causes an animation stall when hit with dragon fire.
• Using the Dragonfire shield's active effect when worn, by selecting "activate" in a fight, causes the player to stall for 4 ticks.

Trivia

• When stalled (for example, while mining crashed stars), followers will face the visual location of the player, not the player's true tile.