Volcanic Cave/Guide
This page was last updated for (v1.2.2). |
The Volcanic Cave is the dungeon that unlocks all of the Legendary dungeons. The guide covers gives recommendations on gear needed to idle this dungeon. Idling has a significantly higher skill and equipment requirements than manual clears.
Why Clear Volcanic Cave?
- Clear 1 time:
- To unlock
Air God Dungeon and
Infernal Stronghold
- To get the
Fire Cape which grants 2% DR
- To get the
Elite Chest
- To unlock
- Clear 50 times:
- For a Township Task that gives
Dragon Bones,
and
- To start obtaining
ancient armour in preparation for the
Air God Dungeon
- For a Township Task that gives
- Clear 100 times:
- To unlock Ancient Magicks which gives you powerful spells such as
Slicing Winds,
Icicle Volley, and
Ignite.
- To unlock Ancient Magicks which gives you powerful spells such as
- Clear 100+ times:
- To farm for the full
ancient armour set and
Ancient Crossbow
- To farm for the 10
Amulets of Fury needed for the
Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs (FEZ). Check the FEZ/Guide for more details.
- To farm for the full
According to simulations, to get the full ancient armour set it will likely take:
- 640 clears with a 50% chance
- 817 clears with a 75% chance
- 1377 clears with a 95% chance
When to Clear Volcanic Cave?
There are no downsides to attempting Volcanic Cave early as you will obtain powerful gear if you manage to complete it. However, it will be a significant challenge if you attempt this dungeon under-levelled.
In general, you will want at least Level 70 so that you can equip the
Ancient Armor and you should be able to complete
Dragons Den relatively easily before attempting this dungeon. Ideally, you will want sufficient
Auto Eat to survive the dungeon without resorting to manual eating, but if you take this route then see the last section for further recommendations on how to survive the dungeon the hard way.
Ancient Magicks
After you clear the Volcanic Cave 100 times you gain access to Ancient Magicks which are a more powerful form of magic. When you have a Ancient Magicks spell equipped, there are no curses available, but you can still use Auroras.
In general, the spells you receive are very powerful:
Winds is best used when your chance to hit is relatively low because you are guaranteed not to miss if your accuracy is 20,000+.
Ignite is a more powerful spell and has a good chance of killing monsters in one-shot.
Icicle Volley is a good all rounder, and can be used in all other cases.
Ancient Magick spells do not scale in the same way as standard magic (i.e. with equipment buffs and debuffs), but they are still impacted by the Combat Triangle in the normal way. Typically, when you first obtain Ancient Magicks it is more powerful than the regular magic and so should used in preference. However, late-game these spells will not scale with gear and so will become less useful.
Gear To Idle
The boss of Volcanic Cave uses the
Melee style and so it is not recommended that you attempt to idle this dungeon with
Ranged due to the Combat Triangle penalties. This guide assumes that you have
Auto Eat - Tier III equipped which greatly reduces the DR requirements.
The calculations in this guide assume Hardcore/
Adventure modes, and so should work for most play styles, however if you have lower HP or DR than the guide recommends then check out Can I Idle or the Combat Simulator to see if you build will survive.
Melee
Volcanic Cave is often idled with
Melee because the
dragon armor set can be obtained with
Level 99, further, the armour can be upgraded to provide 30% DR.
This Melee build requires 820
Hitpoints to idle the dungeon. However, this should be seen as a minimum DR/HP, and any less will push you below the max hit of
Malcs. The
Sandstorm Ring can be omitted, but at the expense of clear time.
Slot | Item | DR% |
---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | 6% |
![]() | ![]() | 6% |
![]() | ![]() | 6% |
![]() | ![]() | 6% |
![]() | ![]() | 4% |
![]() | ![]() | 1% |
![]() | ![]() | 2% |
![]() | ![]() | 0% |
![]() | ![]() | 0% |
![]() | ![]() | 6% |
Total | 37% |
Lower tiers of armor may be used if HP or DR is increased through other sources such as Agility,
Summoning, or more
Hitpoints levels, etc.
Pre-Volcanic Magic
Idling with Magic is recommended once you have stronger gear as it will ultimately speed up your clear times.
To idle the dungeon with the build below, you need 780 Hitpoints and
Weakening III active.
Slot | Item | DR% |
---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | 5% |
![]() | ![]() | 5% |
![]() | ![]() | 5% |
![]() | ![]() | 5% |
![]() | ![]() | 6% |
![]() | ![]() | 3% |
![]() | ![]() | 2% |
![]() | ![]() | 0% |
![]() | Any | 0% |
![]() | ![]() | 6% |
Total | 37% |
Fire Robes have the exact same stats as
Air Robes. The secondary effect of robes (+20 minimum hit for matching spells) outweighs the damage increase of higher level spells. However, you should use the highest level spell and robe combination available to you. For example, if available, use the
Ring of Spirit Power instead of the
Aorpheat's Signet Ring for more damage/second.
Slot | Item (most effective → least effective) | |
---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
100+ Volcanoes Magic
After clearing the Volcanic Cave 100 times you will unlock Ancient Magicks which require a minimum of
Level 72.
It is recommended that you have 20,000+ accuracy when using the Slicing Winds as this means that the spell will never miss. This is important because you will want to keep a high DPS to make idling worthwhile. You can improve your Accuracy with:
Magic Assistance Potions
Astrology
Prayer
Agility
- Increase
Magic, for example at
Level 93
For a magic build Prat, the Protector of Secrets will be the biggest hitter, and with this build it will be very close to your Auto-Eat threshold, so if you need to deviate, then check your setup with the Combat Simulator.
Using this build you may need extra DR:
- At 910
HP and with 33% DR, you can farm the dungeon without without extra DR.
- At 880
HP you can equip the
Stone Skin prayer to provide extra DR.
- Below 880
HP it is not recommended that you attempt to idle this dungeon.
Slot | Item | DR% |
---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | 5% |
![]() | ![]() | 5% |
![]() | ![]() | 5% |
![]() | ![]() | 5% |
![]() | ![]() | 6% |
![]() | ![]() | 3% |
![]() | ![]() | 2% |
![]() | ![]() | 0% |
![]() | ![]() | 0% |
![]() | ![]() | 2% |
Total | 33% |
In addition equip:
Slicing Winds and
Surge II
- Optionally, equip
Yak and
Dragon to not take any damage from burning (if you have enough marks)
Once you have sufficient accuracy rating, the Miolite Shield cam be swapped out for a ranged or melee shield with more DR such as
(G) Dragon Shield to lower other HP/DR requirements.
For this build, food usage is 200,000 HP to 250,000
HP per hour.
Weapon Choice
Weapon choice makes a big difference to the number of chests that can realistically be obtained per hour when idling. This table shows how the weapons compare when adjusted to include time required to produce consumables, with reasonable assumptions:
Weapon | Adjusted Chests/Hour | Potential Chests/Hour |
---|---|---|
![]() |
3.8 | 20+ |
![]() |
7.6 | 24+ |
![]() |
8 | 26.3+ |
![]() |
8.16 | 26.2+ |
![]() |
9.6 | 31.4+ |
![]() |
10 | 34.7+ |
18.1 | 28.3+ | |
23.5 | 25.8 |
Magic builds using Ancient Magicks generally produce more drops per hour than the Melee equivalents. However, due to the number of runes needed, and the non-scaling nature of Ancient Magicks, as you progress Melee builds will eventually give faster clear times.
This table uses data obtained from the Combat Simulator, and was adjusted by the time it takes to produce the required consumables with some assumptions made about the exact bonuses available for each skill. Use a copy of this spreadsheet to compare with your builds (link).
Gear Options
This section gives some alternative gear suggestions, in descending order of preference, based on the equipment available while idling the Volcanic Cave.
Gloves
Item | DR | Requirements |
---|---|---|
![]() |
4% | none |
![]() |
4% | |
![]() |
5% | |
![]() |
6% |
Note:
- Get the
(U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces from the
Dragons Den and these provide a good mid-game DR.
- Craft the
(U) Red D-hide Vambraces and
(U) Black D-hide Vambraces with
Level 73 or higher, or as a reward from the
Spider Forest
- Get the
Gloves from the
Paladin
Cape
Item | Provides | Notes |
---|---|---|
![]() |
3% DR | Reduces |
![]() ![]() |
3% DR | Upgrade of the ![]() |
![]() |
2% DR | After clearing |
![]() |
1% DR | |
![]() |
XP boost | |
![]() |
Reduce food/hour | No DR increase |
Ring
Item | Benefit |
---|---|
![]() |
Solid DPS increase for Melee, but can increase clear time for stronger builds. |
![]() |
1% DR |
![]() |
5% chance to double ![]() |
![]() |
7% chance to double ![]() |
![]() |
Powerful melee DPS increase, costs more prayer/potions per hit. |
![]() |
Powerful magic DPS increase, does not affect Ancient Magicks. |
Manual eating
The gear needed for a manual run through the dungeon is significantly lower than needed for idling. However, it also depends on how well you time your eating as this will interrupt your attack and lengthen the combat time.
In general, if you are considering a manual run it is recommended that:
- You have
Level 70 so that you can equip the
Ancient armor as soon as it becomes available.
- You have the highest
Auto Eat tier possible to avoid accidental deaths
- You use a
Melee build with a fast weapon, such as
Sunset Rapier, so that you can recover quickly after eating.
- You start with the highest DR and HP so that you have an easier time.
For example, in theory, this build could work with a hard cap of 40 for all skills (i.e. Level 40):
Slot | Item | DR% |
---|---|---|
![]() | ![]() | 4% |
![]() | ![]() | 4% |
![]() | ![]() | 4% |
![]() | ![]() | 4% |
![]() | ![]() | 0% |
![]() | ![]() | 1% |
![]() | ![]() | 0% |
![]() | ![]() | 1% |
![]() | ![]() | 0% |
![]() | ![]() | 4% |
Total | 22% |
In addition:
- Optionally, equip
Ultimate Strength and
Safeguard
- Optionally, equip
Wolf and
Yak
However, any improvements on this equipment set would be highly recommended as clearing the dungeon with this build would take around 13 minutes.
TL/DR
In summary, the suggested order for idling is:
- Obtain the
Sunset Rapier and the
Sandstorm Ring
- Perform 100
Volcanic Cave clears as Melee to unclock
Slicing Winds
- Do the remainder of
Volcanic Cave clears with
Slicing Winds with the Surge aurora.
Manual eating has a significantly lower requirement, but requires skill to not die.
Melvor Idle version v1.3 (Released: 15th November 2023) | |||||||||||||||||||
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