Combat Guide
Introduction
This guide is meant to replace the great, but outdated, Gear Progression guide written by Tim Feels. Much of the content will be adapted from his work and updated to match the current state of the end game. It was written by TheAlpacalypse#8105 and Verisimilitude#0001 on Discord.
As stated there, this guide will not give you DR requirements for Dungeons (though it will give recommended gear), nor will it give you the most efficient level paths. With the current amount of content in the game, we highly recommend using the excellent Combat Simulator browser extension for measuring the optimal XP/hr rates for whichever combat style you are using.
Additionally, this guide is written for characters in STANDARD. Hardcore changes the numbers, especially for Fire God Dungeon.
The base guideline of gear progression is to have the highest possible damage whilst not dying, as dying will result in you losing a piece of gear. Losing your Tidal Edge from greed really sucks.
There are now a multitude of skills that provide useful resources to combat. To summarize:
- Agility - Many of the obstacles provide combat bonuses
- Herblore- Diamond Luck IV potions are among the highest DPS increases in the game
- Thieving - There are a multitude of useful item drops from several NPCs, including Chapeau Noir, Knight's Defender, and others
- Astrology - These are easy to obtain bonuses to your character. The hidden levels provide accuracy bonuses, as well as other nice easy to acquire boosts
- Summoning - The tablets provide boosts to combat effectiveness and do damage. The Dragon burn effect is great against hard to hit enemies.
Some other skills are necessary for smooth progression, or to provide the bankroll necessary for progression:
Gear Stats
All gear has certain stats linking it to certain combat styles (melee, ranged, or magic). More difficult to obtain gear is (usually) better. Once you approach the endgame, the choices become more situational rather than strictly better.
For stat breakdowns and math, use combat simulator or read the Combat wiki page.
Attack Speed
Attack Speed, or AS, is determined mainly by the attack speed of your weapon. It is given as seconds per attack, so lower is better. Things that affect your attack speed are:
- Elder Crown - Helmet, drops from Elder Vampire
- Sand Treaders - Boots, drops from Turkul Riders
- Surge I / Surge II / Surge III - Spells
- Otto - Pet from Dark Waters
- Knight's Defender - Thieving from Knight, melee only
- Ring of Barrage - Craftable ring
- Guardian Amulet and Spiked Shell Ring - These negatively impact your attack speed
- Guardian Amulet - Drops from Earth Chests upgraded from Earth Shards, Earth God Dungeon
- Spiked Shell Ring - Upgrade from 10 Guardian Rings and 500 Stinging Essence. Endgame item
- Slows
Damage Reduction
Damage Reduction, or DR, is for the majority of the game the stat to optimize for. DR, HP, and Auto Eat tier all determine what is the highest damage hit you can survive, and relatedly what content you can... idle. This is not an exhaustive list, but DR can be found on:
- - All gold-trimmed armor pieces
- - All Ancient tier gear, trimmed to max
- - All god dungeon gear
- Silver Diamond Ring/ Silver Diamond Necklace
- Damage Reduction Potion I/ Damage Reduction Potion II/ Damage Reduction Potion III/ Damage Reduction Potion IV
- Leonardo - Defense Pet
- Erran - Earth God Dungeon Pet
- Agility Obstacles
- Safeguard/ Stone Skin - Prayer
- Absorbing Shield - Gain DR, lose evasion rating
For the end game, there are some prayers and items that drop from File:Impending Darkness.png Impending Darkness that affect your enemies DR:
- Battleheart - Prayer, reduces enemy DR
- Shield of Ranged Power
- Shield of Magic Power
- Shield of Melee Power
- Ring of Power
- Bone
Auto Eat
Auto Eat is the built in upgrade that makes you eat at low health. Upgrading this as quickly as possible is critical. Auto Eat Tier along with your health and damage resistance controls the vast majority of accessible content. You can do dungeons much, much earlier with Auto Eat - Tier III.
With Auto Eat, they type of food you are eating does not matter insofar as you do not run out. Whether you eat Potatoes or Whale (Perfect) only affects how much health you gain, and how much time you are spending Cooking / Farming instead of fighting monsters.
Auto Eat Threshold
Auto Eat Threshold reduces the effective HP necessary to trigger your auto eat, lowering the necessary HP/DR required. This is a somewhat new feature, so we highly recommend you test this in Combat Sim. This can be found on:
- Wasteful Ring - Drops from Wicked Greater Dragon
Auto Eat Efficiency
Auto Eat efficiency increases the amount of HP healed per piece of food eaten. This can be found on:
- Cooking item mastery
- Astrology constellation modifiers
- Agility Obstacles
- Famished Potion I/ Famished Potion II/ Famished Potion III/ Famished Potion IV
Slayer Area Effectiveness Reduction
Slayer Area Effectiveness Reduction reduces the effect of the slayer area effects on your character when fighting in one of these areas. These can range from annoying (Forest of Goo, Arid Plains) to downright progress blocking (Dark Waters, Unhallowed Wasteland). This is another stat where Combat Sim testing is highly effective. This stat can be found on:
- Pillar of Combat - Agility capstone
- Hunter's Ring - Drops from Hunting Greater Dragon
- - All slayer armor from the shop (higher tier provides more)
Armor/Evasion Rating
These are included on all pieces of armor, and are highly linked to the combat triangle. The higher the number, the better.
It's important to note that this DOES NOT affect what content you can idle! This simply affects how much you are hit at all, and related how much food you eat. It doesn't help you kill more quickly either, provided the enemy can't stun, slow, or sleep you.
Melee Stats
Melee gear focuses on 4 stats:
- Strength bonus: One of the factors that determines max hit
- Stab/Slash/Block bonus: Determines the accuracy (chance to hit) of that particular attack style. Every weapon favors one of the styles, and using the correct one will boost your effective DPS.
Magic Stats
Magic armor and weapons focus on 2 stats:
- Magic Damage Bonus: A % increase in max hit
- Magic attack bonus: Determines your accuracy
Additionally, magic also benefits from Rune Preservation Chance and Rune Cost Reduction. These can be found on:
- - All staves
- - All imbued wands. Crafted via Runecrafting from Magic Wand (Elite)
- Book of Eli - Drops from Hall of Wizards dungeon
- Book of Occults - Drops from Necromancer (lv. 110)
- Salem - Magic Pet
- Skull Cape - Slayer Shop
Ranged Stats
Ranged armor and weapons focus on 2 stats:
- Ranged strength bonus: Determines your max hit
- Ranged attack bonus: Determines your accuracy
Additionally ranged gear also benefits from Ammo Preservation. This can be found on:
- Ranger Boots - Drops from Spider Chest, Spider Forest (lv. 158)
- Ranger Hat - Drops from Spider Chest, Spider Forest (lv. 158)
- Ranged Skillcape - Skillcape for 99 Ranged
- Cape of Ranged Preservation
- Marahute - Ranged Pet
- / - All Throwing Knives and Javelins
- Throwing Power Gloves - Negatively impacts ranged preservation using throwing weapons
Special Attacks and Loot Passives
Beyond stats, many pieces of equipment have Special Attacks or passive effects.
Special Attacks
Special Attacks have a percentage chance of triggering when in combat and will replace your standard attack. The gear with specials is truly too numerous to list.
Loot Passives
Loot Passive effects are bonuses that are always in play. These will increase your GP/hr as well as provide more loot to speed up many of the long grinds in the game. Item doubling is the most critical. These can be found on:
- Aorpheat's Signet Ring - Made with parts A/B, collected from doing combat/non-combat skills while wearing a Gold Topaz Ring. It is not an exaggeration to say this is likely the most critical item in the entire game. This can cut the time on some grinds by days.
- Chapeau Noir - Rare Thieving Drop
- Pillar of Generosity - Agility capstone
Gold doubling is much more niche. This can be found on:
- Gloves of Silence - Drops from Thief (lv. 86)
- Fine Coinpurse - Thieving Woman (lv. 1)
- Gold Crested Shield - Thieving King (lv. 79)
- Jeweled Necklace - Low Town Thieving Drop (lv. 1)
- Ring of Wealth - Royal Castle Thieving Drop (lv. 79)
- Sneak-Ers - Rare Thieving Drop
External Tooling
Combat Sim
Combat Simulator is a browser extension maintained by TinyCoyote that allows you to estimate quite a number of attributes of Melvor combat, namely Death Rate, XP/hr, Drops/hr, DPS, etc. It makes it trivial to test out if your setup is going to work, and uses the same webworker as the game itself so it's quite accurate. A link can be found to it here: Scripting_and_Extensions.
This will be expanded.
Can I Idle?
Additionally, for those not playing on the browser, there is the excellent Can I Idle? site built out by Silber. A link can be found here Can I Idle?. To use, you simply enter in some of the stats found on the combat page, and it tells you which enemies you can or can't idle. Very useful early until you understand the mechanics more.
How to use this Guide
All of the combat skills tie into each other, and it is impossible to be a Melee pure or vice versa if you wish to do all of the content in the game.
Most people start with melee as it is the easiest to gear and train. We highly recommend leveling all of the skills in tandem so you aren't like me, where you finish Volcanic Cave and then have to level your Ranged from level 1 for 2 weeks.
Each of the different combat triangle points has a guide subsection that lists out all of the best XP/hr monsters and idleable dungeons at this gear breakpoint. It assumes that you are using exactly the gear listed with no potions or prayers, both of which will greatly accentuate your clear speeds and XP rates.
Auto Eat tiers are listed out when buying the next tier would allow you to clear a dungeon you otherwise couldn't.
I've tried to list out all of the monster levels where possible. This should roughly guide you on what item to work towards next.
Melvor's combat is not put on a leaderboard, so regardless of what I put here, I recommend setting a goal and working towards it. Things like FEZ are highly satisfying to finish. Clearing God Dungeons also greatly assists the core game skills, so maybe Master of Nature is your goal.
Slayer
I highly recommend doing Slayer for early levels and unlocking Auto Slayer as quickly as possible. Not only will it give great XP, it will also level your skills.
One of the most common noob traps is ignoring Slayer early, then realizing later that you need Elite Slayer / Master Slayer gear. It takes 15 Normal Slayer tasks to buy the Basic Slayer gear. The Slayer Gear Upgrade Kit (Strong) / Slayer Gear Upgrade Kit (Elite) / Slayer Gear Upgrade Kit (Master) take 25 Hard Tasks / 30 Elite Tasks / 40 Master Tasks respectively.
Slayer Areas sometimes require items that must be purchased using slayer coins from the Shop. You should try and acquire these as soon as possible. One note, the monsters locked in these areas will not be rolled in slayer tasks until the item is purchased from the shop. You can leverage this to control the task rolls.
Early Game (Pre-Volcanic Cave)
Leveling Guides
These guides assume that your character is using an appropriate Auto Eat level, and Shrimp for your food. The gear is absolutely bare minimum (Full Armor of the selected tier, base scimitar and shield, no cape, amulet, or rings), there are no prayers, potions, astrology stars, or agility obstacles. In reality, you should be able to go much, much higher than this. All levels are set to equal the level required to gear out the set.
Using Combat Sim or CanIIdle should be your guide over anything printed here. I accept no responsibility for your untimely demise.
For optimal routing, I would follow this simple priority guide:
Mob with drops I want > Slayer Tasks > Highest Combat XP/hr
Hitting Frozen Archers for 2 weeks is a really boring way to play this game.
Gear Goals
An early goal for most players is the Amulet of Looting, found in the Spider Forest, which will make combat a fully automated activity. Beyond that, it's mainly a matter of learning how combat works and leveling up your skills. Some general goals for all classes are the following drops:
- Elite Amulet of Defence - Drops from Undead Graveyard or from combining 100 Amulet of Defence. Provides 2% DR, which will carry you through God Dungeons in the neck slot
- Amulet of Looting - Drops from Spider Forest
- Sand Treaders - Drops from Turkul Riders (lv. 56)
- Desert Wrappings - Drops from Turkul Archers (lv. 80)
PSA: The following item recommendations are up to T70, as that is where you will likely begin clearing Volcano. These are not all strictly necessary, but they do all help a significant amount.
Melee
Leveling
For melee, your goal is to wear and wield the highest level gear available to you. I have replicated the tables here, abbreviated for the point where you're going to need to start clearing the higher-level dungeons.
Level Requirement | Attack Material | Defence Material | Best XP Monster | Newly Idleable Dungeons |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Bronze | Bronze | Cow | - |
Iron | Iron | Cow | - | |
(Using Iron) | Slayer (Basic) | Cow | - | |
5 | Steel | Steel | Skeleton | - |
10 | Black | Black | Frozen Archer (Skip Black Armor, it's hard to gear for) | Chicken Coop (Requires Auto Eat - Tier II) |
20 | Mithril | Mithril | Frozen Archer | - |
30 | Adamant | Adamant | Frozen Archer | Undead Graveyard |
(Using Adamant) | Slayer (Strong) | Frozen Archer | - | |
40 | Ice | Ice | Frozen Archer | Spider Forest / Frozen Cove / Bandit Base |
Rune | Rune | Frozen Archer | Miolite Caves (Requires Auto Eat - Tier III) | |
(Using Rune) | Miolite | Frozen Archer | - | |
50 | Desert Sabre | (Using Rune) | Bandit | Deep Sea Ship / Hall of Wizards |
Miolite Sceptre (Using Surge II & Anguish II) | (Using Rune) | Bandit | - | |
60 | Dragon | Dragon | Bandit | - |
Slayer (Elite) | Vampire | - |
Gear Goals
Before Volcanic, you can grind the Castle of Kings area to find most of your upgrades to supplant any gear not gained from smithing. You can also get some very good melee weapons in pre-Volcanic Cave areas. Drops to look for:
- Ice Sword - Drops from Frozen Cove (lv. 191)/ Ice Monster (lv. 75)
- Elerine Spear - Drops from Elerine Warrior (lv. 96)
- Amulet of Torture - Rare drop from Fierce Devil (lv. 100), Deep Sea Ship (lv. 177)
- Warberd - 2H, Drops from Raging Horned Elite (lv. 125)
- Desert Sabre - Drops from Turkul Giant (lv. 125)
- War Axe - 2H, Drops from Seething Horned Elite (lv. 161)
- Ancient Sword - Drops from Deep Sea Ship (lv. 177)
- Sunset Rapier - One of the best melee weapons early, Deep Sea Ship (lv. 177). This can carry you through Air God Dungeon / Infernal Stronghold. It's probably the most important drop for Melee.
- Miolite Sceptre - Drops from Miolite Caves (lv. 178) dungeon
- Sandstorm Ring - Drops from Sand Beast (lv. 197)
- Dragon Claw - Very long grind, Dragon Claw Fragment drops from Griffin (lv. 124).
- Ancient Claw - Very long grind, Ancient Claw Fragment drops from Pegasus (lv. 182).
Ranged
Same as Melee, you should be doing the highest XP/hr monster with the highest possible gear. Due to the slower attack speed and the relative difficulty of Fletching large amounts of bolts, you shouldn't use crossbows until you have the Dragon Crossbow or better. For bolts, anything worse than Emerald Bolts is sellable. Save the Diamonds for Diamond Luck IV Potions.
Leveling
Gear Goals
- Ancient Longbow - Drops from Bandit Base (lv. 115) dungeon
- Ranger Hat/ Ranger Boots - Drops from Spider Forest (lv. 156) dungeon
- Desert Shortbow - Drops from Turkul General (lv. 164)
- Elder Dragonhide gear - Drops from Dragons Den (lv. 272) dungeon
- Ancient Crossbow - Drops from Dragons Den (lv. 272) dungeon
Magic
Leveling
For early magic levels (1-35) you get comparable XP/hr rates using Alt Magic.
This table is mostly incomplete until Combat Simulator is updated.
Magic Level | Weapon | Spell | Best XP Monster | Idleable Dungeons |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Base Staves | |||
Magic Wand (Basic) | ||||
30 | Battlestaves | |||
Magic Wand (Powerful) | ||||
40 | Mystic Staves | |||
60 | Magic Wand (Elite) |
Gear Goals
- Mystic Staves - Craftable, Runecrafting (lv. 70)
- Nature's Call Staff - Drops from Elerine Mage (lv. 103) and Druid (lv. 63), combine both halves
- Upgrades into Nature's Wrath Staff with materials from Giant Moth (lv. 223) and Miolite Caves (lv. 178)dungeon
- Shaman Ring - Drops from Shaman (lv. 93)
- Upgrades into Nature's Blessing Ring with 10,000 Nature Rune
- Magic Wand (Powerful) - Drops from Dark Wizard (lv. 108)
- Ancient Magic Gear - Drops from Hall of Wizards (lv. 121) dungeon
- Book of Eli - Drops from Hall of Wizards (lv. 121) dungeon
- Miolite Gear - Drops from Miolite Caves (lv. 178) dungeon
Volcanic Cave
Link to Guide: Volcanic Cave/Guide
Volcanic Cave is usually done with melee gear, as it is very easy to fill out the required DR via smithing. A full gold-trimmed set of dragon armor provides 30% DR, as shown in the below table. Level 99 smithing is required to trim a full set.
Item | Slot | DR% |
---|---|---|
(G) Dragon Helmet | Head | 6% |
(G) Dragon Platebody | Body | 6% |
(G) Dragon Platelegs | Leggings | 6% |
(G) Dragon Boots | Boots | 6% |
(U) Black D-hide Vambraces | Hands | 5% |
Subtotal | 29% | |
Cape | ||
Elite Amulet of Defence | Neck | 2% |
Aorpheat's Signet Ring | Ring | 0% |
(G) Dragon Shield | Off-hand | 6% |
Total | 37% |
For gloves:
- You will need to either get the Paladin Gloves (4% DR) dropped by the Paladin in the Holy Isles Slayer area, or one of the dhide vambraces. /).
- The variants that are equivalent to or better than the Paladin Gloves are (U) Red D-hide Vambraces (4% DR), (U) Black D-hide Vambraces (5% DR), and (U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces (6% DR). Ancient Dhide Vambraces are dropped by the Dragons Den dungeon and upgraded using Elder Dragonhide. The others are dropped by the Spider Forest dungeon or crafted using the Crafting skill.
For capes:
- You will need either the Knight's Cape (1% DR) from thieving the Knight or Squire, or the Skull Cape if you absolutely need the extra DR ((3% DR) Not recommended for Melee or Ranged, it reduces your attack bonuses by a significant amount). If you do not need the extra 1% DR provided by the Knight's Cape, you may use any Skillcape (if you have one), or the Obsidian Cape dropped by Adamant Knights.
- Note: Once you clear Volcano once, swap your cape to the Fire Cape! It provides 2% DR and has better stats than the noncombat skillcapes.
For boots:
- Pretty straightforward, the boots you will most likely use are the (G) Dragon Boots, as these provide 6% DR and decent offensive bonuses. If you do not have the smithing level (94) to craft these, you can use the Rune Boots that are dropped by the Rune Knight and upgrade those to (G) Rune Boots for 5% DR.
For jewelry:
- You can use the Silver Diamond Ring (1% DR) if you need the extra DR, and the Elite Amulet of Defence that was listed above. If you do not need the 1% DR from the Silver Diamond Ring, you can use the Gold Sapphire Ring to add reflect damage in order to clear the Volcano faster.
- If you do not have the Elite Defense Amulet, the Gold Sapphire Necklace provides 1% DR if you are facing Ranged with Melee, and the same is true for other sides of the combat triangle using the Gold Emerald Necklace (Ranged v Magic) and the Gold Diamond Necklace (Magic v Melee).
Once you clear Volcanic Cave 100 times, you will unlock the basic tier of Ancient Magic - Slicing Winds, Icicle Volley, and Ignite. Of these, as of patch 0.23, Icicle Barrage is by far the strongest. Ancient Magic is way better than what basic magic can give you at your current level, but it is not affected by damage amplification in any way (Except for the combat triangle). No curses, no debuffs, no gear buffs.
Infernal Stronghold
Congratulations on beating Volcanic Cave. You now have the Fire Cape, your first useful cape. It provides 2% DR, which will greatly speed things up.
Your next objective is the Infernal Stronghold. Beat at least once for the Infernal Cape. The setup is almost identical to the Volcanic Cave. The extra 4% DR will carry you through the end of the game until you acquire the Max Skillcape.
Mid Game (God Dungeons)
, then God Dungeons. The four god dungeons, whilst somewhat intimidating, are all handled the exact same way once you complete Air God. Each is beaten with the gear from the previous tier.
- Air God Dungeon - Ancient Melee gear from Volcanic Cave
- Water God Dungeon - Aeris God gear from Air God Dungeon
- Earth God Dungeon - Glacia God gear from Water God Dungeon
- Fire God Dungeon - Aeris God gear from Air God Dungeon (Recommended) | Glacia God gear is possible and is faster, but requires significantly more DR)
Some additional useful drops for the midgame are the following, found in Elite Tier slayer areas:
- Elder Crown - Drops from Elder Vampire
- Magic Wand (Elite) - Drops from Cursed Maiden, used for Imbued Wands
- Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs - Bounty Hunter greatly accelerates this grind
- Elite Slayer Gear - Purchased in shop
None of the above are needed, but definitely worth obtaining here. You should also be nearing max combat as you progress through the dungeons.
To unlock the ancient spells, you will need to run each of the God Dungeons 100 times. Each dungeon also provides extremely useful drops, some of which are BiS.
Air God Dungeon
Link to guide: Air_God_Dungeon/Guide
Item | Slot | DR% |
---|---|---|
(G) Ancient Helmet | Head | 7% |
(G) Ancient Platebody | Body | 7% |
(G) Ancient Platelegs | Leggings | 7% |
(G) Dragon Boots | Boots | 6% |
(U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces | Hands | 6% |
Subtotal | 33% | |
Fire Cape | Cape | 2% |
Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs | Neck | 2% |
Silver Diamond Ring | Ring | 1% |
Dragonfire Shield | Off-hand | 8% |
Total | 46% |
To start with, begin by collecting the full set of Ancient Melee gear from Volcanic Cave. A full set will provide 28% DR. Additionally, work on completing the Dragonfire Shield. This provides 8% DR and 30 hitpoints, and is useful through the end of the game.
Additionally, complete Infernal Stronghold so that you can get Infernal Cape, which increases DR to 4%.
You should have upgraded your melee weapon. Dragon Claw is probably the minimum, though Sunset Rapier will also do. We would highly recommend grinding Pegasus for Ancient Claw Fragments, as Infernal Claw ( Ancient Claw + 10 Infernal Core) is extremely good through ITM. Slicing Winds/ Gust are highly effective.
You will need about 46% DR to complete the dungeon. Notable drops include:
- Deadeye Amulet - BiS for Ranged
- Stormsnap - Situationally useful, but almost mandatory for farming Ocean Song
- Aeris God Gear - Ranged BiS. Save at least 10 for Unhallowed Wasteland glove upgrades ( Poison Virulence Gloves)
- Deadeye Ring - Save at least 10 for Unhallowed Wasteland ring upgrades ( Poison Virulence Ring)
Water God Dungeon
Link to guide: Water God Dungeon/Guide
Item | Slot | DR% |
---|---|---|
Aeris God Helmet | Head | 8% |
Aeris God Platebody | Body | 8% |
Aeris God Platelegs | Leggings | 8% |
Aeris God Boots | Boots | 8% |
Aeris God Gloves | Hands | 8% |
Subtotal | 40% | |
Fire Cape | Cape | 2% |
Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs | Neck | 2% |
Silver Diamond Ring | Ring | 1% |
Dragonfire Shield | Off-hand | 8% |
Total | 53% |
At this point, you should have a full set of Aeris God Gear. For your weapon, you should be using Ancient Crossbow, or Slayer's Crossbow/ Dragon Crossbow if you don't have one. Dragonfire Shield as well makes this a breeze so you can use Aorpheat's Signet Ring in the ring slot.
Emerald Bolts are probably your best bet. Jadestone Bolts work too if you have those.
This dungeon is a breeze if you have the above gear. Notable drops:
- Cloudburst Staff - One of the BiS weapons for magic. Situationally useful.
- Glacia God Gear - Magic BiS. Save at least 10 for Unhallowed Wasteland ring upgrades ( Burning Madness Gloves)
- Warlock Ring - Save at least 10 for Unhallowed Wasteland ring upgrades ( Burning Madness Ring)
- Magic Wand (Elite) - Useful for imbued wand crafting
Earth God Dungeon
Link to guide: Earth God Dungeon/Guide
Item | Slot | DR% |
---|---|---|
Glacia God Helmet | Head | 8% |
Glacia God Platebody | Body | 8% |
Glacia God Platelegs | Leggings | 8% |
Glacia God Boots | Boots | 8% |
Glacia God Gloves | Hands | 8% |
Subtotal | 40% | |
Skull Cape | Cape | 3% |
Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs | Neck | 2% |
Aorpheat's Signet Ring | Ring | 0% |
Dragonfire Shield | Off-hand | 8% |
Total | 53% |
Same ordeal as the Water God Dungeon. Equip the previous set of armor, then get to work. By now, you should likely have Skull Cape, one of the BiS capes for magic. Air Imbued Wand is highly recommended so you can use Gust for cheap along with the Dragonfire Shield.
Again, this dungeon is easy. Notable Drops:
- Terran God Gear - The defense-oriented melee set. Helps you splash melee pieces to hit DR thresholds. Save at least 10 for Unhallowed Wasteland glove upgrades ( Spiked Shell Gloves)
- Guardian Ring - Save at least 10 for Unhallowed Wasteland ring upgrades ( Spiked Shell Ring)
- Guardian Amulet - Situationally useful melee amulet
- Earth Layered Shield - BiS melee shield. Provides *12%* DR
Fire God Dungeon
Link to Guide: Fire God Dungeon/Guide
Item | Slot | DR% |
---|---|---|
Aeris God Helmet | Head | 8% |
Aeris God Platebody | Body | 8% |
Aeris God Platelegs | Leggings | 8% |
Aeris God Boots | Boots | 8% |
Aeris God Gloves | Hands | 8% |
Subtotal | 40% | |
Infernal Cape | Cape | 4% |
Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs | Neck | 2% |
Aorpheat's Signet Ring | Ring | 0% |
Dragonfire Shield | Off-hand | 8% |
Total | 54% |
This dungeon is a bit harder than the previous, as it mixes both melee and magic enemies. For that reason, use the Aeris god set. Gear setup is similar to the Water God Dungeon, but focuses primarily on DR breakpoints. Consider using the Stone Skin prayer or Damage Reduction Potion IV's. Getting enough DR without using prayer or potions will severely hamper your clear times, as you won't be equipping the proper DPS gear.
Highly recommend using combat sim to ensure you aren't killed by Ragnar or Ignis. This dungeon probably has the most variety in setups out of any of the dungeons, just ensure that you aren't in danger of dying.
Notable drops:
- Fighter Amulet - One of the BiS amulets for melee. CC is absolutely critical at high level combat.
- Fighter Ring - Save at least 10 for Unhallowed Wasteland ring upgrades ( Relentless Fury Ring)
- Ragnar God Gear - Offensively oriented BiS melee gear. Save at least 10 for Unhallowed Wasteland glove upgrades ( Relentless Fury Gloves)
Preparing for Into the Mist
Into the Mist is one of the most difficult challenges in the game. The Insane difficulty is accurate. It cannot be idled.
To start, you first fight 20 Afflicted versions of randomly chosen monsters between combat level 165 and 677. Any monster, save those from Unhallowed Wasteland or Dark Waters, including bosses, can be chosen.
Affliction is a special status effect applied by monsters that reduces your max HP. This means that the encounters are a race against the clock, forcing you to kill the enemy before your affliction stacks get too high. Due to this, it is recommended that you focus on DPS above all else when choosing your three gear sets.
This dungeon cannot be completed without the Dungeon Equipment Swapping upgrade purchased from the shop.
It is highly recommended that you have acquired *all* previously available BiS gear for each combat style before attempting ITM.
Recommended Gear from Best to Worst:
- All BiS God Dungeon Gear
- Diamond Luck Potion IV - As many as possible
- Combat Agility Obstacles
- Ragnar Godsword, Terran Godsword, Darksteel Dagger
- Stormsnap, Ancient Longbow, or Ancient Crossbow
- Jadestone Bolts, Ancient Arrows, Dragon Arrows
- Dragonfire Shield, Scaled Shield (Upgraded (U) Ancient D-hide Shield with materials from Toxic Swamps)
- Miolite Shield
- Skull Cape
- Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs
- Air Imbued Wand
- Level 84 Prayer
At this point you can probably begin to make your way towards one of the longest grinds in the game, Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs. FEZ, as it is often called, is made from the upgrading process by combining:
- 2 Elite Amulet of Defence - Made by combining 100 Amulet of Defence
- 2 Elite Amulet of Magic - Made by combining 100 Amulet of Magic
- 2 Elite Amulet of Accuracy - Made by combining 100 Amulet of Accuracy
- 2 Elite Amulet of Strength - Made by combining 100 Amulet of Strength
- 2 Elite Amulet of Ranged - Made by combining 100 Amulet of Ranged
- 2 Elite Amulet of Glory - Made by combining 100 Amulet of Glory
- 10 Amulet of Fury
- 10 Amulet of Torture
This item is by no means necessary, but it is very useful as a "catch all" type of amulet. No matter what situation you're in, FEZ is probably a good choice. See the following link for best practices while farming for the amulet.
Link to Guide: Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs/Guide
Into the Mist
Into the Mist consists of 3 set order phases, with pauses in between each phase.
Link to the guide: Into_the_Mist/Guide
There is too much information on ITM to copy to this guide, definitely worth reading the above, which is excellent.
Notable Drops:
- Access to the Dark Waters slayer area, where the T90 weapons can be obtained
- Pablo - Drops after 5 completions
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 most powerful weapons in the game. 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 in the following order, as the high evasion on Rokken makes it extremely hard to complete without Tidal Edge:
- Ocean Song - Made from Ocean Song Fragment, dropped by Ku-tul
- Tidal Edge - Made from Tidal Edge Fragment, dropped by Umbora
- Shockwave - Made from Shockwave Fragment, dropped by Rokken
Additionally, you should also acquire the pet Otto whilst doing this grind.
Item fragments are very rare drops, and you should attempt to sneak in as much item doubling into your gear as possible. Using Combat Sim to measure your Drops/hr with a 0 Death Rate is highly recommended. This can be the difference in literal days of grinding.
Unhallowed Wasteland
After completing the T90 weapon grinds, you are ready to face the final content in Melvor. Unhallowed Wasteland is the final Slayer area. To access, you will need to purchase a Map to the Unhallowed Wasteland. This area requires maximizing a different stat than DR. All of the monsters here will heal a % of their HP every 2 attacks, which will outpace your DPS regardless of setup. To mitigate this, you will need the following example Melee set for use versus the Legaran Wurm:
Item | Slot | Slayer Area Effect Negation% |
---|---|---|
Slayer Helmet (Master) | Head | 20% |
Slayer Platebody (Master) | Body | 20% |
Ragnar God Platelegs | Leggings | 0% |
Ragnar God Boots | Boots | 0% |
Ragnar God Gloves | Hands | 0% |
Subtotal | 40% | |
Max Skillcape/ Slayer Skillcape | Cape | 25% |
Fighter Amulet | Neck | 0% |
Hunter's Ring | Ring | 10% |
Tidal Edge | Weapon | 0% |
Dragonfire Shield | Off-hand | 0% |
Slayer Cowl (Master) | Passive | 20% |
Agility Pillar of Combat | Pillar | 5% |
Total | 100% |
While you are here, you should work to acquire all of the set bonus gear, dropped from each of the UW monsters:
- Poison Virulence Gloves/ Poison Virulence Ring - Upgrades from Worm Spike/ Poison Essence respectively, dropped by Legaran Wurm
- Burning Madness Gloves/ Burning Madness Ring - Upgrades from Cursed Hands/ Burning Essence respectively, dropped by Cursed Lich
- Spiked Shell Gloves/ Spiked Shell Ring - Upgrades from Tough Shell/ Stinging Essence respectively, dropped by Spiked Red Claw
- Relentless Fury Gloves/ Relentless Fury Ring - Upgrades from Desecrated Bones/ Undead Essence respectively, dropped by Greater Skeletal Dragon
Impending Darkness
A guide does not yet exist for Impending Darkness. This is highly a work in progress.
Tips
Because Bane uses the modifiers from the slayer area you fight him in, you should always fight him in the Perilous Peaks. Your prayer will be Protect from Magic or whichever style he is, plus your other style prayer, rendering the area effect moot.
When fighting Bane, always eat through the Suffocate special attack. The stuns will cripple you. Fragile Mind can be extremely dangerous if you have high Affliction stacks, so be on the lookout for that as well.
Bane will force you to use the same attack style as he is. If you are hitting for 0, make sure you're not using the combat triangle default.
Running from Bane will not make you leave the event, just forces you to refight that slayer area. Bane's style will also be rerolled, if you want to avoid melee.
For passives, avoid giving + Max HP, or any sort of regen. These will extend the fights, which makes them deadlier and more expensive in food and gear. + Max Hit is fine, as special damage is unaffected. Obviously, avoid Affliction if possible. These do stack.
The final fight with Bane is a special version, Bane, Instrument of Fear
Gear
You will need to be able to switch your combat styles on the fly in Dark Waters and Unhallowed Wasteland. These areas WILL kill you if you are using the wrong combat style versus them. There is no pausing between monsters, so we highly recommend maxing out your Slayer Area Reduction on all 3 equipment sets.
Dragon tablets are nigh required for Bane, as the burn status effect will chisel away his HP even when you are stunned. Pair with Yak tablets.
For melee, Ring of Blade Echoes increases the number of hits you do, which pairs well with Dragon tablets.
For magic, Incinerate also provides more hits for burns. Towards the end, switch to Ocean Song and Fire Surge to finish him off with specials.
Loot
Each Bane kill drops the following loot, in this set order. All of these are BiS:
Acknowledgements
A special thank you to the following people:
- Steelsauce#0251 for guide feedback
- Tessa#0001 for guide feedback
- TinyCoyote#1769, Coolrox95#9670, and Visua#9999 for their work on Combat Sim and other scripting work
- Nomeru#4261 for contributing most of the Impending Darkness section
- Silber#6947 for creating Can I Idle and answering a ton of noob questions
- Malcs and Prat for making this game
Reach out to the author on Discord at TheAlpacalypse#8105