Vbion

Volcanic Cave contains only Melee monsters. Therefore, clearing it with pre-Volcanic Ranged setups is unfeasible due to the Combat Triangle penalties.

In this guide, it is assumed that you have Auto Eat - Tier III.

The guide is written with the goal of idling the dungeon. If you want to do it manually, the requirements are much more relaxed, although the more DR you have, the easier it is to do anyway.

Gear to idle

Volcanic Cave is usually done with Melee because the dragon armor set requires only Level 99 to produce. It then can be trimmed to provide 30% DR.

The other theoretically feasible option is Magic, but it has only 22% DR with expert gear and Miolite Shield. With other slots, the magic loadout has 31% DR and needs Level 97 to idle the dungeon. You will need to grind a lot to reach level 97 HP, so Magic is not recommended until you get the Glacia armor, which will come much later.

Below is the melee loadout that requires Level 80 to idle the dungeon on any game mode:

Item	Slot	DR%
(G) Dragon Helmet	Head	6%
(G) Dragon Platebody	Body	6%
(G) Dragon Platelegs	Leggings	6%
(G) Dragon Boots	Boots	6%
Paladin Gloves	Hands	4%
Subtotal		28%
Knight's Cape	Cape	1%
Elite Amulet of Defence	Neck	2%
Silver Diamond Ring	Ring	1%
Any Melee	Weapon	0%
(G) Dragon Shield	Off-hand	6%
Total		38%

Gear options

If you want to idle the dungeon and have more HP or DR than is needed, you can swap some of the gear.

Gloves

You have the following choice:

Item	DR%	Requirements
Paladin Gloves	4%	none
(U) Red D-hide Vambraces	4%	Level 60
(U) Black D-hide Vambraces	5%	Level 70
(U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces	6%	Level 80

Even though you might want the best option for you, think if you really want to farm Dragons Den for it, which can be both time- and food-expensive perspective. The Red and Black Vambraces can be either crafted with Crafting or dropped from Spider Forest. Or you might just farm some Paladins.

TODO

For the 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.

TODO For your weapon, you'd want to use a Ancient Claw, but in the lack of something better you could reasonably use a Sunset Rapier instead, since it takes a bit less time to get your hands on.

By using a Skull Cape from the Slayer shop, and a Silver Diamond Ring on top of this gear you can reduce the HP requirement even more.

Note that many of these items can be swapped out for better items, and there's some variance between what the player will have access to, and what levels they have.