Dragons Den/Guide

Why clear Dragons Den?

Dragons Den is usually cleared for the Ancient Crossbow, (U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces, and (U) Ancient D-hide Shield because they are wanted for the Air and Water God Dungeons.

Other parts of the Ancient set are of little importance because you will use the Aeris God Armour for the Water God Dungeon. Keep them only if you didn't already get your Ranged to level 85.

Gear to idle

Because all enemies in Dragons Den are Melee, it is advised to use a Magic or Melee build due to the Combat Triangle.

This guide assumes that you have Auto Eat - Tier III. Crabs were used as a food of choice to reflect the approximate cooking level at the time of clearing the dungeon.

The simulations are run on a character with lvl 80 in all combat skills except Hitpoints.

Due to the wide range of cases, it is recommended to use the Combat Simulator to compare the options tailored for your situation.

The ring slot in the given builds is free. It is suggested to use Ring of Wealth if you have it or Aorpheat's Signet Ring otherwise.

Basic Magic

Below is a basic build that needs Level 90 to create, Level 78 to wear, and 830 HP to idle.

The spell of choice is Fire Surge with combination runes.

Item	Slot	DR%
Fire Expert Wizard Hat	Head	5%
Fire Expert Wizard Robes	Body	5%
Fire Expert Wizard Bottoms	Leggings	5%
Fire Expert Wizard Boots	Boots	5%
Paladin Gloves	Hands	4%
Magic Wand (Powerful)	Weapon	0%
Total		24%

Melee

The following build needs Level 99 to create, Level 70 to wear, and 780 HP to idle.

Item	Slot	DR%
(G) Dragon Helmet	Head	6%
(G) Dragon Platebody	Body	6%
(G) Dragon Platelegs	Leggings	6%
(G) Dragon Boots	Boots	6%
(G) Dragon Shield	Off-hand	6%
Paladin Gloves	Hands	4%
Promotion or Glory	Neck	0%
Sunset Rapier or Ancient Claw	Weapon	0%
Total		34%

Advanced Magic

For comparison, here's the magic build that takes less time to acquire than the Ancient Claw and needs 860 HP to idle.

Item	Slot	DR%
Fire Expert Wizard Hat	Head	5%
Fire Expert Wizard Robes	Body	5%
Fire Expert Wizard Bottoms	Leggings	5%
Fire Expert Wizard Boots	Boots	5%
Magic Wand (Powerful)	Weapon	0%
Enchanted Cape	Cape	0%
Elite Amulet of Defence	Neck	2%
Book of Eli	Off-hand	0%
Elementalist Gloves	Hands	0%
Total		22%

Adjusted clear time

Adjusted clear time is the time it takes to prepare all needed food and runes plus the time of the clear itself.

Build	Adjusted clears per hour
Sunset Rapier	3.7
Basic Magic	4
Ancient Claw	4.1
Advanced Magic	5.3

Details
Adjusted clear time [math]\displaystyle{ A }[/math] is calculated by dividing the overall time [math]\displaystyle{ T_{all} }[/math] by the number of dungeons [math]\displaystyle{ D_h }[/math] cleared per one hour. The overall time [math]\displaystyle{ T_{all} }[/math] is calculated by the sum of one hour plus the time required to produce the Crabs [math]\displaystyle{ T_c }[/math], mine essence [math]\displaystyle{ T_m }[/math], and create runes [math]\displaystyle{ T_r }[/math]. All measured in seconds. The number of spent Ancient runes is noted as [math]\displaystyle{ N }[/math]. The Crab total preparation time is 6.9 seconds per Crab. The Fire Surge with the combination runes is used. The approximate Adventure situation is taken for Runecrafting. In particular, Mining Gloves and Elemental Potion are not used. The Runecrafting 95% milestone of the mastery pool is active, and the runes have 99 mastery, meaning that 16 runes are produced per two seconds. No rune preservation or doubling. The mining time is the one with the Dragon Pickaxe upgrade - 1.3 seconds. The number of needed essence considers all runes used in crafting: Essence, Air, Fire, Smoke and Ancient runes. [math]\displaystyle{ T_m = N * (7 * (1 + 2/16 + 2/16) / 16 + 1 / 16) * 1.3 = N / 16 * (8.75 + 1) * 1.3 = N * 12.675 / 16 }[/math] For [math]\displaystyle{ T_r }[/math] compared to [math]\displaystyle{ T_m }[/math], the only difference is that the number of mined essence is multiplied by 2 instead of 1.3. [math]\displaystyle{ T_r = N * 9.75 * 2 / 16 = N * 9.75 / 8 }[/math] You can check out the intermediate steps with the following Google Sheet (link).

Advanced Magic is the clear leader, therefore it is recommended to farm the Dragons Den dungeon with the Advanced Magic build.

Food expenditure

The bulk of time is spent on preparing food, so it's heavily recommended to level your food-producing methods when possible. As an example, with some upgrades ( Fishing Skillcape, Cooking Skillcape, 99 mastery, top fishing rod, Amulet of Fishing), the fishing and cooking times are the following:

Food	Fishing time (s)	Cooking time (s)	HP	HP per second
Whale (Perfect)	1.97	9.35	580	51.2
Crab	0.96	5.95	150	21.7

In other words, if you prepare Whales instead of Crabs, you would more than double your speed of food preparation, which is a huge boost to the clear time.