Dark Waters/Guide

This page was last updated for (v1.1).

T90 Farming

Following completion of Into the Mist, you now have access to Dark Waters, the penultimate slayer area. These 3 mobs drop fragments for the T90 weapons, the highest level, and often most powerful, weapons in the game that are extremely helpful in completing the following slayer area, as well as the Impending Darkness Event. These are extremely long grinds, and require quite a bit of preparation. Each weapon requires 100 fragments, and the fragments have a 2% drop rate. That's 5,000 kills on average.

We recommend acquiring them while fighting each monster as a slayer task, this will require you to turn OFF auto-slayer, and will encourage semi-frequent check-ins. Doing these on task will increase your damage dealt to them from various buffs, namely Slayer Skillcape. This will make the order you obtain the final weapons in effectively random, but if you don't want to deal with the hassle of rerolling, or simply want to do them in a specific order, we recommend the following:

• Shockwave - Made from Shockwave Fragment, dropped by Rokken
• Ocean Song - Made from Ocean Song Fragment, dropped by Ku-tul
• Tidal Edge - Made from Tidal Edge Fragment, dropped by Umbora

Additionally, you should also acquire the pet Otto whilst doing this grind, if you do not, continue farming whichever mob you kill the fastest on or off task until you get it.

Item fragments are very rare drops, (the average amount of kills required to obtain all of the drops with no doubling is 5000 per monster), and it should be noted that there is a Township Task that requires the player to Kill 5,000 Ku-tul, 5,000 Umbora, and 5,000 Rokken, therefore Item Doubling is not as important for this specific grind as it might otherwise be.

Additionally, there is another Township Task that requires 1 of each Fragment and rewards 3 of each Fragment, to shorten the grind a little.

After completing the task, or if you simply want your first copies as soon as possible, you should attempt to sneak in as much item doubling into your gear as possible. Using the Combat Simulator to measure your Drops/hr with no deaths is highly recommended.

Order

The order you obtain these items in is not particularly important.

Using the weapons obtained from killing each monster makes sense, unfortunately, they have historically not always the best available options, however a balance patch in Melvor Idle 1.1 has changed the meta an amount, and this guide will strive to stay updated. For now, the only recommended order is to obtain Shockwave and use it to obtain Ocean Song.

Again:

- Shockwave then Ocean Song then Tidal Edge

- Tidal Edge then Shockwave then Ocean Song

Between those two, the required time is roughly equal.

Many people combine the grinding of these weapons with the grind for the master slayer gear. An added benefit is the increased damage given by the Slayer Skillcape and buffs from Astrology while fighting slayer tasks. Another benefit is the ability to buy prayer points, Light Runes, and Food at a profit with the use of Generous Resupply.

Requirements

There are very few hard requirements beyond the ability to survive and the entry requirement of  Slayer Level 90, but there are several skills and items that will make this grind significantly easier, and we would be remiss to not mention them

Suggestion	Benefit
Slayer Skillcape	25% Flat Slayer Area Effect Negation
Level 99	Less need for DR
Level 99	Pillar of Combat
Level 90	Dragon Synergies
Level 95	Battleheart
Slayer Helmet (Elite)	15% Flat Slayer Area Effect Negation
Slayer Cowl (Elite)	15% Flat Slayer Area Effect Negation
Infernal Claw	Safest, earliest way to massively reduce the DR requirement of Rokken
Cloudburst Staff	Extremely powerful magic weapon
Slayer's Crossbow	Highest damage non-T90 ranged weapon for slayer
Stormsnap	Powerful ranged weapon comparable to Slayer's Crossbow

Below are some gear suggestions. Depending on what Prayer, Potions, and Agility buffs you use or have access to, your optimal gear can change.

Buffs

Agility

#	Obstacle	Reason
1	X
2	X
3	Pipe Climb	No particular reason beyond being the only obstacle that grants any combat benefits.
4	Coal Stones	No negative modifiers, technically saves some food.
5	Cliff Balance	+20 hp. This does make your prayers cost more, but as you're buying your prayer points anyways, the cost increase isn't quite as painful.
6	Lake Swim	+3% damage, +1% DR. Rocky Waters may help as a first line of defense for surviving if you're mildly undergeared, but will not be considered the default.
7	Boulder Trap	No negative combat modifiers.
8	Spike Jump or Raft Building	+5% Chance to Double Items, or extra HP and DR to meet thresholds. Pipe Crawl will be slightly faster, but the negative to slayer coins hurts, especially for Magic sets using the Cyclops synergy.
9	Ice Jump	This obstacle does everything you want it to.
10	Lava Waterfall Dodge	Ocean Rafting is technically the best dps option. Lava Waterfall Dodge is recommended slightly above it, as you preserve some of your ammo and runes, earn more coins, and have an easier time swapping to skilling to restock.
P	Pillar of Combat	Lots of beneficial combat bonuses

Prayer

For Melee, use Battleheart and Piety or the highest level combat style prayers you have available.

For Ranged, use Battleheart and Rigour or the highest level combat style prayers you have available.

For Magic, use Battleheart and Augury or the highest level combat style prayers you have available.

Potions

For all combat styles, use Diamond Luck Potions. If you absolutely need the extra damage reduction and can find no other source for it, use Damage Reduction Potions

For Ranged, with Shockwave, it is sometimes possible that Ranged Strength Potion IV is stronger than Diamond Luck Potions. This should never be done without checking Combat Sim for yourself, and should never be done unless the potion is specifically Ranged Strength Potion IV, and not any lower mastery.

Summoning

For Melee, use Dragon and Minotaur

For Ranged, use Dragon and Centaur

For Magic, use Dragon and Witch

Notably for Magic, using Cyclops and Witch tablets will earn you significantly more coins at a fairly minimal loss of kills per hour. This is most obvious with Cloudburst Staff.

Tidal Edge

To be able to idle Umbora with Magic, you'll need 48 DR assuming you have 950 Hitpoints.

We use Standard Magic as Ancient Magicks have a slower kill rate and higher rune cost.

With Cloudburst Staff, use Water Surge or Water Wave (reduced rune cost)

With Air Imbued Wand or Fire Imbued Wand or Ocean Song, use Fire Surge.

Use of Combination Runes is highly recommended for all methods.

Equipment

Curse: Anguish III
Aurora: Surge II
Prayers: Mystic Might & Mystic Mastery
Point of Interest: The Academia Arcanum
Potion: Magic Damage Potion IV
Disclaimer: Gem slot is not required but recommended.

Slot	Best to Worst
Head	Glacia God Helmet		Slayer Wizard Hat (Master)
Body	Glacia God Platebody		Slayer Wizard Robes (Master)
Leggings	Glacia God Platelegs
Boots	Glacia God Boots
Hands	Glacia God Gloves
Cape	Maximum Skillcape		Skull Cape
Neck	Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs		Elite Amulet of Magic		Warlock Amulet
Passive	Chapeau Noir		Master Slayer Item		Aorpheat's Signet Ring
Ring	Ring of Wealth		Warlock Ring		Guardian Ring
Gem	Slayer Gem		Agile Gem		Accuracy Gem
Weapon	Cloudburst Staff		Ocean Song		Air Imbued Wand
Offhand			Scaled Shield		Earth Layered Shield
Consumable	Fervor Scroll		Magic Hinder Scroll		Monster Hunter Scroll

Slayer Wizard Hat (Master) and Slayer Wizard Robes (Master) will kill you if used with Cloudburst Staff and the normal build above. If all you care about is fragments, it is possible to equip a build with Master Slayer armor that is approximately 4% faster than the above recommended build. This is accomplished by equipping Slayer Wizard Hat (Master), Slayer Wizard Robes (Master), Skull Cape AND Raft Building - all 3 pieces of equipment must be worn to outpace Glacia armor, and the agility course keeps you from dying. You need 1050 HP and 45 DR.

Agility

Slot	Obstacle	Bonuses
4	Coal Stones	-4% Global Skill XP +10% Food Healing Value +20% GP gained from Thieving +3% Chance to Preserve Resources in Skills
5	Cliff Balance	+20 Maximum Hitpoints +5% Ranged Accuracy Rating +2 Prayer Point Cost for Prayers +5% Magic Accuracy Rating +5% Melee Accuracy Rating
6	Lake Swim	+1% Damage Reduction +5% Damage To All Monsters +3% Chance To Preserve Prayer Points
7	Boulder Trap	-20% Chance to Preserve Resources in Skills
8	Raft Building	+20 Maximum Hitpoints +2% Damage To All Monsters +1% Damage Reduction
9	Water Jump	+3% Global Mastery XP +8% Magic Max Hit +8% Ranged Max Hit +8% Melee Max Hit
10	Ocean Rafting	+5% Damage To All Monsters +10% Global Slayer Coins (except Item Sales) +5% Auto Eat Efficiency

Drops

Cloudburst Staff is the only Item where it matters what you put in the passive.

Both Ocean Song and Fire Imbued Wand were tested with Scaled Shield in off-hand.

Slayer Coins per hour is only with a Slayer Task.

Estimates of drops per hour.

Weapon & Armor (Passive)	Summons	Tidal Fragments per hour	SC per hour
Cloudburst Staff & Glacia (Chapeau)	Witch Dragon	3.1	113,000
Cloudburst Staff & Glacia (Chapeau)	Witch Cyclops	2.8	150,000
Cloudburst Staff & Glacia (Master Item)	Witch Dragon	3.3	130,000
Cloudburst Staff & Glacia (Master Item)	Witch Cyclops	3	180,000
Ocean Song & Master (Chapeau)	Witch Dragon	3.35	125,000
Ocean Song & Master (Chapeau)	Witch Cyclops	3.15	175,000
Fire Imbued Wand & Master (Chapeau)	Witch Dragon	2.3	87,000
Fire Imbued Wand & Master (Chapeau)	Witch Cyclops	2	110,000

Ocean Song

Equipment

To most efficiently kill Ku-tul you'll use one of Shockwave, Slayer's Crossbow or a Stormsnap.
Use of Jadestone Bolts is recommended, Emerald Bolts are not recommended as Jadestone Bolts should be easily obtainable at this point in progression from Hunting Greater Dragon.

Prayers: Eagle Eye to Sharp Vision
Potion: Ranged Assistance Potion IV
Point of Interest: Bandit Hideout

Slot	Better to Worse
Head	Slayer Cowl (Master)			Slayer Cowl (Elite)
Body	Slayer Leather Body (Master)			Slayer Leather Body (Elite)
Leggings	Aeris God Platelegs
Boots	Aeris God Boots
Hands	Aeris God Gloves
Cape	Infernal Cape
Passive	Chapeau Noir		Ring of Wealth		Elder Crown
Neck	Deadeye Amulet		Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs		Elite Amulet of Ranged
Ring	Ring of Wealth		Aorpheat's Signet Ring
Weapon	Shockwave		Slayer's Crossbow		Stormsnap
Offhand	Scaled Shield		Dragonfire Shield
Bolts	Jadestone Bolts		Emerald Bolts		Ruby Bolts
Arrows	Ancient Arrows		Dragon Arrows		Rune Arrows

Idle HP, DR and Drops/h

To be able to idle Ku-tul with Ranged, you'll need:

HP	DR	Selected Gear From Equipment Table	Drops per Hour
970	49	Shockwave, Scaled Shield, Slayer Cowl (Elite), Slayer Leather Body (Elite), FEZ	2.4
970	50	Shockwave, Scaled Shield, Slayer Cowl (Master), Slayer Leather Body (Master), Deadeye Amulet	3.1
970	49	Slayer's Crossbow, Scaled Shield, Slayer Cowl (Elite), Slayer Leather Body (Elite), FEZ	1.85
970	50	Slayer's Crossbow, Scaled Shield, Slayer Cowl (Master), Slayer Leather Body (Master), Deadeye Amulet	2.3
1040	47	Stormsnap, Slayer Cowl (Master), Slayer Leather Body (Master), FEZ	2.2

For Stormsnap you will need to swap Agility Obstacle 6 to Rocky Waters and Prayer from Eagle Eye to Stone Skin.

Agility

Slot	Obstacle	Bonuses
4	Coal Stones	-4% Global Skill XP +10% Food Healing Value +20% GP gained from Thieving +3% Chance to Preserve Resources in Skills
5	Cliff Balance	+20 Maximum Hitpoints +5% Ranged Accuracy Rating +2 Prayer Point Cost for Prayers +5% Magic Accuracy Rating +5% Melee Accuracy Rating
6	Lake Swim	+1% Damage Reduction +5% Damage To All Monsters +3% Chance To Preserve Prayer Points
7	Boulder Trap	-20% Chance to Preserve Resources in Skills
8	Raft Building	+20 Maximum Hitpoints +2% Damage To All Monsters +1% Damage Reduction
9	Water Jump	+3% Global Mastery XP +8% Magic Max Hit +8% Ranged Max Hit +8% Melee Max Hit
10	Ocean Rafting	+5% Damage To All Monsters +10% Global Slayer Coins (except Item Sales) +5% Auto Eat Efficiency

Shockwave

While the other two weapons are pretty straightforward in terms of gear, the Shockwave is not.

Rokken is by far the most dangerous and is both willing, and able to kill you if you are not extremely careful in your setup. This monster is able to buff itself to an attack speed of 2.2s, and is able to stun you, which increases its damage against you by 30%. Your goal here is either to be able to survive the increased stun damage, or to never actually take the stun damage by having an equivalent or faster attack speed than the monster's fastest speed.

You need to use Melee for this grind, it is highly recommended that you use an Infernal Claw to complete this. Tidal Edge is too slow to reliably survive Rokken's stun without extra work (ie. Otto), requiring you to make compromises that can negatively impact your kill time.

Slot	Better to Worse
Head	Slayer Helmet (Master)				Slayer Helmet (Elite)
Body	Slayer Platebody (Master)				Ragnar God Platebody		Terran God Platebody
Leggings	Ragnar God Platelegs				Terran God Platelegs
Boots	Ragnar God Boots				Terran God Boots
Hands	Ragnar God Gloves				Terran God Gloves
Cape	Maximum Skillcape				Slayer Skillcape
Passive	Fighter Amulet			Chapeau Noir			Elder Crown
Neck	Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs				Fighter Amulet
Ring	Ring of Blade Echoes		Ring of Wealth		Aorpheat's Signet Ring		Guardian Ring
Weapon	Infernal Claw				Tidal Edge
Offhand	Dragonfire Shield				Earth Layered Shield

The Fighter/ FEZ is the best passive/neck setup, even beating out the item doubling from Chapeau Noir.

Slayer Helmet (Master) and Slayer Platebody (Master) positively impact the amount of fragments you receive, and if available, should be used.

For this setup to work safely without risk of death, the player's attack interval while in combat with this enemy must be less than or equal to 2.2 seconds, as this means the player is quick enough to avoid taking extra damage when Rokken attacks with the Shockwave special attack. To achieve this, we use a weapon that has a base 2.2s interval, and gather 40% total slayer area negation through Slayer Skillcape and Slayer Helmet (Elite). At 1,000 Hitpoints, which can be achieved with Level 97 and +30 HP from Dragonfire Shield, this method requires 48% Damage Reduction.

To safely use Tidal Edge in this grind, the player's attack speed must be 2.2s during combat, which requires 40% Slayer Area Negation and at least two sources of -0.1s interval. This is typically achieved by wearing the Elder Crown in the passive slot and ownership of Otto.

To use the Ultima Godsword the player must have at least 1,050 Hitpoints, 63% DR, and must have Wasteful Ring equipped

Check your setup with the Combat Simulator before engaging Rokken.

Melvor Idle version v1.3 (Released: 13th June 2024)
Combat: Attack Strength Defence Hitpoints Ranged Magic Prayer Slayer Corruption
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