User:TimFeels
Introduction
This guide will feature standard gear progression, in a way that will fit the playstyle of most players. Melvor Idle grants plenty of gear choices to experiment with, so by no means is this guide for everyone. Especially for Combat-only players, please refer to the #HCCO guide#. This guide will assume you started with non-combat skills, or at least some basics.
This guide will not give you DR requirements for dungeons, or most efficient level paths. For this, please refer to other guides or join the discord channel.
The base guideline of gear progression is: The highest possible damage whilst still having enough Damage Reduction to survive.
Gear stats
All gear has certain stats, linking it to a certain combat style (melee, range or magic). As with most gear progressions, more difficult to obtain or upgrade gear will provide better stats.
For stat breakdown and math, refer to the combat page.
For most part of the game the most important stat is Damage Reduction. Damage reduction, in combination with your HP level and auto eat tier, is the main thing holding you back from that next dungeon or slayer enemy. Damage reduction can only be found on armor and shields, not weapons. Potions and prayer can be used to add extra damage reduction.
Armor (and staffs/wands) also has defensive stats. These are divided in melee, range and magic defense. In most cases these defensive stats correspond with the combat triangle. For example, most melee gear, used to fight ranged enemies, will have high range defense, but lower (or even negative) magic defense.
A last shared stat is bonus slayer xp. This is a useful stat when training slayer, as it gives you extra exp per slayed monster.
Melee stats
Melee armor and weapons focusses on 4 stats: Strength bonus: determines your max hit Stab, slash & block bonus: determines the accuracy of training on that particular attack style.
A higher strength bonus is always beneficial. For training purposes, certainly in early levels, it is important to look at stab, slash & block bonusses. For example, it is best to use a sword for stab/attack training, a scimitar for slash/strength training & a dagger for block/defense training.
Ranged stats
Ranged armor and weapons focusses on 2 stats: Ranged strength bonus: determines your max hit Ranged attack bonus: determines your accuracy
Besides your armor and weapons, your ammunition (bolts and arrows) also have additional stats.
Magic stats
Magic armor and weapons focusses on 2 stats: Magic damage bonus: a percentage increase in magic damage Magic attack bonus: determines your accuracy
Your max hit is also determined by the spell you use.
Specials and passives
Besides stats, equipment can also have special attacks or passive effects.
Special attacks have a percentage of triggering when in combat, and will replace a standard attack.
Passive effects are bonusses that are always in play. Prime examples of this are ammo conservation on some ranged equipment, reduced rune costs on staffs and wands and slayer area effect negation of slayer gear. Very important here is the chance for double drops, as given by a signet ring or Chapeau Noir. These are very often used while farming dungeons.
Melee gear progression
For most players, melee is the first style of combat they use, since it requires no additional resources like ammunition or runes.
Melee gear progression in the early to mid-game levels is heavily tied to smithing. With 99 smithing you can bassically gear yourself for your first elite dungeon.
Melee armor progression
Melee armor early game
Early game is defined as the leveling phase up to your first elite dungeon, the volcanic cave. The advised gear progression will make you level efficiently, whilst working towards enough DR to taccle the volcanic cave.
Work your way up through the standard metal armors. It is not needed to upgrade any metal to (S) or (G) variant besides the dragon armor.
[Insert table with bronze=>dragon with defence levels required]
If you lack the appropiate smithing levels, there is a possibility to farm rune items from the rune knight; silver and gold bars come from Statues.
The dragon armor (G), compiled of the (G) Dragon helmet, (g) dragon platebody, (g) dragon platelegs, (g) dragon boots & (g) dragon shield, will provide you with 6% DR each, totaling 30% DR. This will fill only 5 out of 8 armor slots.
For the glove slot there are two possibilities: Paladin gloves give 4% DR, and can be dropped by the Paladin. (u) black d-hide vambraces or (u) ancient d-hide vambraces give 5% and 6% DR respectively. A crafting level of 79 is needed for the black vambraces, ancient d-hide vambraces can be farmed from dragon's den.
For the amulet slot there are multiple possibilities: for training purposes (or where you don't need the DR), an amulet of strength or amulet of glory (or their elite versions) are best. In case you do need DR, a silver diamond necklace is the easiest solution. This will provide you with 2% DR. Other possibilities for 2% DR are the elite amulet of defence and elite amulet of magic. For non-dungeon farming, an amulet of looting from the spider dungeon chest is a must-have for every player.
The ring slot also depends on the situation: For training purposes a gold emerald ring is most benificial. Another possibility is the gold topaz ring, in case you didn't get a signet piece yet. the DR ring for early game is the silver diamond ring, offering 1% DR. In case you do not need the extra DR, a great choice of ring for dungeon farming is the signet ring. This will give you 5% chance of double loot, including chests from dungeons.
Clearing the volcanic dungeon for the first time will award you with a fire cape, your first useful cape. It is advised to do this dungeon once manually to obtain the cape for its DR %.
Honorable mention: In case you do not need DR but are farming items or dungeons, the use of a signet ring and chapeau noir will give you 15% chance of a double drop, which adds up quickly for volcanic cave farming.
Melee armor mid game
The melee armor midgame is defined as the preparation phase towards god dungeons. The first god dungeon, the air god dungeon, is designed for melee combat. Depending on your hp level, you will need most, if not all, ancient items and upgrade them to their (G) version.
For the glove and ring slot not much changes. For the amulet slot, you can start working towards the Fury of Elemental Zodiacs (FEZ). This amulet will last you till the endgame.
[Insert table with ancient (G) stats]
The ancient shield (G) can be upgraded to a dragonfire shield, one of the main endgame shields. Besides a 8% DR stat, this shield will also boost your hp by 30, allowing you to run dungeons with less DR %.
Whenever possible, try to do the infernal stronghold once. This will give you one of the best endgame capes, with 4% DR.
Melee armor late game
Late game melee armor is the Terran God armor and the Ragnar God armor, from earth god and fire god dungeon respectively. Terran armor is defensive, Ragnar armor is offensive armor.
To obtain these items, you will also need progression into your range and mage gear.
Besides the god dungeon armors slayer gear gets more important. Lategame slayer zones have serious debuffs, which need to be taken care of by slayer area effect negation of the slayer gear. Aiming for elite slayer gear, and perhaps even master slayer gear in endgame is a good choice.
Another replacement for a god dungeon helm is the elder crown, obtained by killing elder vampires. This crown reduces AS by 0,1s, whilst also providing lifesteal.
In lategame a wider variety of jewelry is available. For the ring slot, a signet ring is used for a lot of farming purposes. A wasteful ring can reduce the DR you need for certain grinds. A hunter's ring is useful for slayer. A fighter ring is possible, but not often used due to lack of passive. As amulets, a FEZ is still one of the best choices, as well as the fighter amulet for its stun. The guardian amulet is used in more niche cases.
Melee weapon progression
Melee weapon early game
As with melee armor progression, early game is leveling and gearing up towards the volcanic cave dungeon.
Use stand metal weapons from bronze towards dragon, switching between a sword, dagger and scimitar to train attack, defense or strength respectively.
If you lack the appropriate smithing levels, you can obtain rune weapons from the rune knight and valkyries (advised). A dragon scimitar can be obtained from turkul giants or seething horned elites.
An upgrade from your dragon scimitar is the Desert Sabre, gained from killing Turkul giants. This sabre will help a lot during your farming for the next upgrade.
For your first real weapon upgrade, there are two (or three) possibilities: The dragon claw, made with 100 dragon claw fragments from griffins. A sunset rapier, loot from the deep ship dungeon. An ancient sword, loot from the deep ship dungeon. This one is very rare, and outclassed by both the dragon claw and the sunset rapier. Only use this to farm for the others.
The sunset rapier is better than the dragon claw, but you will need a dragon claw anyway for the mid- and lategame.
[insert: table with stats from dragon claw & sunset rapier]
Melee weapon mid game
For the melee weapon midgame you're supposed to have at least some decent combat stats, with one of the early game weapons and some ancient gear.
It is now time to grind for the ancient claw, the weapon that will carry you through the air god dungeon. The fragments for this weapon can be farmed from Pegasus.
The next upgrade is the infernal claw, which combines both the dragon and ancient claw, together with 10 infernal cores (from the infernal stronghold dungeon). Clear this dungeon as soon as you can.
There are other weapons that can be considered mid game melee weapons, like the darksteel dagger and sanguine blade. These will probably have some niche uses, but are in general worse than the infernal claw.
[insert: table with stats from ancient & infernal claw]
Melee weapon late game
Late game weapons are the different godswords, but also still the infernal claw. Some godswords, particularly the Ragnar godsword, but also the glacia and terran godsword, have higher dps than the infernal claw. But the infernal claw is one-handed, making it the only option if you do not meet DR requirements without a shield.
The true endgame weapon is the Tidal Edge, classified as Tier 90 (T90), obtained from farming Tidal Edge fragments from Umbora.
[insert: table with godswords and tidal edge]
Ranged gear progression
As with melee gear and the smithing skill, ranged gear is tied to the crafting skill (for armor) and the fletching skill (for weapons).
Ranged armor progression
Ranged armor early/mid game
Early/mid game for range armor is leveling armor. The end goal is to obtain level 85 range, setting you up for the water god dungeon.
Progress from leather gear towards the different dragon gears: green, blue, red, black and ancient. All these gears (except ancient) can be crafted, although you will need to kill black dragons for their leather. Another option is to farm the spider forest dungeon. The spider chest contains a lot of range-related gear. For ancient gear you will need to farm Dragons Den. Shields follow the same route.
[Insert: table with colour d-hides & needed levels]
In general it is not needed to upgrade your d-hide to it's (U) version, since you will be switching to the god dungeon set at level 85 anyway. If you want to do some early dungeons with ranged, Dragons Den should give you plenty of hides to upgrade your ancient gear.
For boots and hats the ideal gear is the robin hood hat and ranger boots, both from the spider chest. These will add some much needed ammunition preservation. The Chapeau Noir can also be used to give extra double drop chance.
The cape of ranged preservation is your best choice for the cape slot, adding even more ammo preservation. These drop from Holy Archers.
For the amulet slot there are multiple possibilities: for training purposes (or where you don't need the DR), an amulet of range or the elite amulet of ranged is best. In case you do need DR, a silver diamond necklace is the easiest solution. This will provide you with 2% DR. Other possibilities for 2% DR are the elite amulet of defence and elite amulet of magic. For non-dungeon farming, an amulet of looting from the spider dungeon chest is a must-have for every player.
The ring slot also depends on the situation: For training purposes a gold emerald ring is most benificial. Another possibility is the gold topaz ring, in case you didn't get a signet piece yet. the DR ring for early game is the silver diamond ring, offering 1% DR. In case you do not need the extra DR, a great choice of ring for dungeon farming is the signet ring. This will give you 5% chance of double loot, including chests from dungeons.
Ranged armor late game
The late game range armor is the Aeris God set, farmed from the first god dungeon, the air god dungeon. As this is the last ranged armor set, it is advised to stay at the air god dungeon until you complete the Aeris God set.
For shield choices, most people opt for DR shields, like the DFS or ELS.
As with melee, the introduction of God dungeon gear gives a wider variety of jewelry. For the ring slot, a signet is best for farming, a wasteful ring can be useful to lower DR reqs and a hunters ring can be used for slayer. The deadeye ring itself is not used in many cases, because of the lack of passive. As necklaces, a FEZ is a good option for its DR stat. A deadeye amulet is a good choice for damage. As always, an amulet of looting can be used as well.
Ranged weapon and ammunition progression
Ranged weapons early/mid game
Important to note is that, if you are using a standard bow, it is best to use a longbow on rapid. This will give the same DPS as a shortbow, but with lower ammo consumption.
In the early levels, work your way up through the standard longbows. If you have the fletching level, you can just craft your own gear. It's also possible to get higher level bows from monsters, like the Frozen cove for the ice longbow, or the bandit base or holy archers for other bows.
As most lategame ranging is done with a shield, a crossbow is the weapon of choice for the lategame. Therefore, it is a good idea to work towards a dragon and slayer crossbow, followed by an ancient crossbow, from Dragons Den.
[Insert table with longbows, dragon/slay/ancient cbow]
Because of their fast attack speed, knives can also be used for training purposes, as well as a good choice in some niche situations, like goblin farming.
Arrows to use with a bow are either fletched yourself, or looted from monsters and dungeons. Frozen archers can be killed for ice arrows, which are close to rune arrows. Other arrows can be farmed through the Bandit Base.
For crossbows, bolts are used. These are made through the fletching skill. The bolt to use is the emerald-tipped bolt.
Ranged weapons late game
For lategame, there are four weapons to use: Slayer's crossbow is a great choice for slayer tasks or slayer areas. The ancient crossbow is the best choice for early lategame, for example the water god dungeon. The true endgame crossbow is the Shockwave, which can be farmed from Rokken. All the crossbows use emerald tipped bolts or jadestone bolts (from the hunting greater dragon). The Stormsnap is a bow that scales with the magic level of your opponent (as well as with yours for the special attack). Use ancient arrows (from elder vampire, raging horned elites or the air god dungeon).
[Insert: shockwave]
Mage gear progression
For mage gear the linked skill is runecrafting. Runecrafting will provide you with magic weapons and armor, but more importantly with runes. Using magic without using runecrafting is very, very hard.
Mage Armor progression
Mage armor early/mid game
The early/mid game goal for magic is mainly leveling, getting you to level 85 magic so you are able to wear Glacia god armor, needed for the Earth god dungeon. Because there is the possibility of Alt magic, there is a possibility you don't any magic armor before you get Glacia. However, using magic can be optimal in some cases, like farming the volcanic cave.
It is best to start with Alt magic to at least some extent, but armor progression in the early game is very easy: For each element there is an Acolyte, Adapt and Expert version for the hat, top, bottom and boots slot. Just use the one you can that corresponds with the spell you are using.
There is also an ancient robe set, gained from the hall of wizards. Whilst being a better set than the expert robes, the grind to obtain it is often considered not worth it.
[insert: some robes like air aco-ad-exp & ancient top]
For the glove slot, the Elementalist gloves (from the elementalist) are your best choice, even in the lategame. These do lack DR, so if DR is needed, you will need to look to other combat styles (for example the Paladin gloves).
For the cape slot, an enchanted cape is your best choice until you saved up enough slayer tokens to obtain the Skull Cape.
As a shield, using a book of Eli gives the best damage bonus. A miolite shield can be used for extra DR.
For the amulet slot there are multiple possibilities: for training purposes (or where you don't need the DR), an amulet of magic or the elite version is prefered. An added bonus for the elite version is the DR%. In case you do need DR, a silver diamond necklace is the easiest solution. This will provide you with 2% DR. For non-dungeon farming, an amulet of looting from the spider dungeon chest is a must-have for every player.
The ring slot also depends on the situation: For training purposes a gold emerald ring is most benificial (does not work for Alt magic). Another possibility is the gold topaz ring, in case you didn't get a signet piece yet. the DR ring for early game is the silver diamond ring, offering 1% DR. The Shaman ring gives a 3% magic damage bonus. In case you do not need the extra DR, a great choice of ring for dungeon farming is the signet ring. This will give you 5% chance of double loot, including chests from dungeons.
Mage armor late game
The Glacia god set, obtained from the Water god dungeon, is the best magic set. It is possible to use elementalist gloves over the Glacia gloves, as these provide a higher damage % (but a lower DR%).
For the cape slot, you should now have a Skull Cape. The rune cost saving of this cape makes it BIS for pretty much every place.
For shields, a Book of Eli will stay your best bet for damage. For higher level farming a DFS or ELS is used for their DR%.
For the ring slot, a signet is best for farming, a wasteful ring can be useful to lower DR reqs and a hunters ring can be used for slayer. The warlock ring gives a nice 10% magic damage buff. As for amulets, besides the amulet of looting, a FEZ is a good choice if you need the DR. If not, a warlock amulet is a great choice, as its healing passive compensates for the lower defense of magic armor.
Mage weapon progression
Mage weapon early/mid game
There are two types of magic weapons, namely staffs (2-handed) and wands (1-handed). Most staffs and wands are tuned to one element, reducing the rune cost of the respective elemental rune.
For early- and midgame, you should use the best staff you can, which corresponds to the spell you are using. A wand can be used when you need DR from a shield. Do not make wands (certainly the elite wands) with runecrafting, as this is a huge waste of runes. Wands can be farmed later on.
Mage weapon lategame
Magic weapons in the lategame is all about the wands. By farming the water god dungeon, you should get yourself some elite wands. You should aim to have one of each element, but of course focus on the spells you are using first.
The cloudburst staff from the water god dungeon is rarely used.
The endgame weapon is the Ocean Song. This weapon will make standard magic yet again a contender, compared to ancient Magicks that will rule the lategame of magic.
[Insert: elite wands & ocean song]
