Flinching: the retaliation delay, 8-tick timer and a flinch table for every attack speed

Flinching means hitting a monster while it is out of combat, getting out of its reach before it can hit back, and repeating once it has calmed down. It works because of two timers. A monster you hit from idle waits half its attack speed, rounded down, before its first swing. If it cannot reach you when that delay ends, it stays angry for 8 more ticks and then forgets about you. Get both right and you take no damage at all, however strong the monster is.

What flinching is

The OSRS Wiki covers it under Flinching, also called hit-and-run or hit-and-hide (Flinching, OSRS Wiki). The cycle is always the same: one hit, step away to a spot the monster cannot reach, wait, come back. You trade speed for safety. A flinched kill takes longer than standing and trading blows, but it costs no food, and it lets a low-level account kill something that would otherwise beat it.

Everything below is counted in game ticks of 0.6 seconds. If ticks are new to you, the game tick guide explains them and how a click waits for the next tick.

The retaliation delay: half the attack speed, rounded down

Every monster attacks at a fixed speed, counted in ticks: a 4-tick monster swings once every 2.4 seconds, which the Wiki lists as the most common speed (Attack speed, OSRS Wiki). When your hit lands on a monster that is out of combat, it does not swing back at once. It waits half its attack speed, rounded down. A 4-tick monster waits 2 ticks. A 5-tick monster also waits 2 ticks, because of the rounding, and a 3-tick monster waits just 1 tick.

The delay starts when your hit lands, not when you click. In Microgrind the monster takes its turn before you within each tick, so your melee hit lands on the tick after your swing (what happens inside one tick). Call your swing tick 0. With a 4-tick monster, your hit lands on tick 1 and its first swing comes on tick 3.

When you have to step out

Because the monster acts first within a tick, a step taken on the tick of its swing is too late: it swings before you move. Your step out has to go in on tick 2 at the latest for a 4-tick monster. In general that is delay ticks after your swing, which for a 3-tick monster means tick 1: the very next tick. Since a click waits for the next tick, queue that step as soon as your swing goes off.

"Out of reach" also means more than one tile away or behind something. On its swing tick the monster gets one step before it swings, and melee needs a tile directly beside you (never a diagonal one). Walk a single tile away on the last tick and it simply steps after you and hits.

The 8-tick timer: when it calms down

When the delay runs out and the monster cannot reach you, it stays angry for another 8 ticks. Then it calms down and walks back to where it started. So a clean flinch on a 4-tick monster calms it 2 + 8 = 10 ticks after your hit landed. From the calm tick on, your next hit counts as a fresh one and gets the full delay again.

Hitting it too early

A hit that lands while the monster is still angry gets no delay at all. Its own attack timer ran out long ago, so it swings the first tick it can reach you. This is the usual way a flinch goes wrong: you count short, walk back in, and take a hit.

If it gets a swing in

When the monster does land a hit, its temper starts over from that swing: its full attack speed plus 8 ticks. For a 4-tick monster that swung on tick 3, calm comes 14 ticks after your hit instead of 10, so one late step costs you a hit and 4 ticks of waiting.

Flinch table for attack speeds 3 to 8

Every row comes from running Microgrind's flinching simulation with a monster of that speed: swinging and staying put to find its first swing, stepping out on each tick in turn to find the last safe one, then hiding and waiting for it to calm, once cleanly and once after taking one hit. Count your swing as tick 0.

How to read it:

• Retaliation delay is counted from the tick your hit lands, which is tick 1.
• Step out by is the last tick, counted from your swing, on which your move can go in. A tick later and the monster swings first.
• Calm, clean flinch is the number of ticks from your hit landing until it is calm. Your next hit should land then or later, so this is the shortest possible cycle from one hit to the next, before any walking.
• Calm after a counter-hit is the same count when it swung at you once before you left.

Two patterns fall out of the table. Odd speeds give you nothing extra: a 5-tick monster is flinched on exactly the same count as a 4-tick one, and a 7-tick one the same as a 6-tick one. And fast monsters are the hard ones: against a 3-tick attacker you have a single tick to get away.

What a cycle really takes

The calm-down time is a floor, not a pace you can hold. Microgrind's levels ship with a scripted bot that proves each one can be won with gold, and it flinches the way a careful player does: hit, hide, wait until it sees the monster calm, then walk back in and swing. Its measured cycle on the two timer levels:

The extra 3 ticks are reaction and walking: the bot only sets off once the monster has calmed, and the walk from the hiding tile back to a tile beside the monster takes time. Starting the walk back a little early, so that you arrive just as it calms, is how good flinchers close that gap.

Some monsters let you skip the wait altogether. If a monster has a home area it will not leave, stepping outside that area makes it give up on the spot, and the next hit gets a fresh delay straight away. On Flinching 1: Step Out the same bot swings every 4 ticks, which is simply its weapon's speed.

How to flinch, step by step

1. Find a spot the monster cannot reach. Monsters step straight at you every tick and stand still when the way is blocked, so a rock, fence or tree between you is usually enough.
2. Check it is out of combat, and look up its attack speed. The table gives you its delay and its calm-down count.
3. Swing. Your hit lands next tick, and that is where your count starts.
4. Queue your step out straight away. Against a 3-tick monster there is no time to watch the hit land first.
5. Count delay + 8 ticks from the hit landing. On Flinching 4: Count to Eight, a 4-tick Brute, that is 10.
6. Walk back and swing so that your hit lands on or after the calm tick. If you are early, it swings at once.

How to practise it

Flinching 3: The Gate shows the monster's timers and puts a fence between you, so you can watch the delay and the 8-tick timer run out. Flinching 4: Count to Eight is the same idea with every timer hidden: you count it yourself. Flinching 1: Step Out and Flinching 2: Quick Feet use a home area instead, and the second one is a 3-tick Brute that gives you one tick to move. Gold needs a kill without taking a single hit, inside the level's par time.

Quick answers

What is the flinch timer in OSRS?

Half the monster's attack speed, rounded down, plus 8 ticks, counted from when your hit lands. For a 4-tick monster that is 10 ticks, or 6.0 seconds.

Can I flinch without a safespot?

Yes, against monsters with a home area you can step out of. Otherwise it keeps chasing you until it calms down, so you need somewhere it cannot reach, or room to keep running: you cover two tiles a tick running, it covers one.

Why did it hit me when I came back?

You came back while it was still angry. A hit before the calm tick gets no delay, and the monster's attack is already ready. Count again from the tick your hit landed, not from your click.