Volcanic Cave/Guide

This page was last updated for (v1.0.2).

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.

TL;DR

1. Get the Sunset Rapier,
2. Get the Sandstorm Ring,
3. Do 100 Volcanic Cave clears as Melee,
4. Do the rest of Volcanic Cave clears with Slicing Winds. Don't forget to enable the Surge aurora.

Why clear Volcanic Cave?

On each clear, you get the Fire Cape that gives 2% DR.

Volcanic Cave is the place where you gear up in preparation for the Air God Dungeon. According to the simulation, it takes 820 clears to get the full ancient set with 75% probability and 1350 clears to get it with 95% probability.

It is also a place to farm 10 Amulets of Fury for FEZ. Check the FEZ/Guide to see if it's the best option for you.

After you clear the Volcanic Cave 100 times, you will unlock Ancient Magicks - Slicing Winds, Icicle Volley, and Ignite.
Winds are used when the hit chance of everything else is not high. They don't miss if you have more than 20k accuracy;
Ignite is used to one-shot;
Volley is used for everything else.

Ancient Magicks are not affected by damage amplification in any way except the Combat Triangle. No curses, no debuffs, no gear buffs. However, it is much stronger than the basic magic at this stage. For instance, when basic magic could clear Volcanic Cave 8 times per hour, Ancient Magicks could do it 22 times.

Gear to idle

The main heavy-hitter of the Volcanic Cave uses the Melee style. Therefore, clearing it with pre-Volcanic Ranged build is unfeasible due to the Combat Triangle penalties.

It is assumed that you have Auto Eat - Tier III.

All calculations are done for the Hardcore/ Adventure.
If you play Standard and have lower HP or DR, use Can I Idle or Combat Simulator to check if you can survive with your build.

Melee

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.

Below is the melee build that requires 820 Hitpoints to idle the dungeon on any game mode. However, pay attention that even slightly less DR or HP will mean death for this build because it hangs a hair breadth away from the max hit of Malcs. Check with Can I Idle or Combat Simulator to see if you can idle with your build. Also, the Sandstorm Ring is very important for your clear time.

Item	DR
(G) Dragon Helmet	6%
(G) Dragon Platebody	6%
(G) Dragon Platelegs	6%
(G) Dragon Boots	6%
(G) Dragon Shield	6%
Paladin Gloves	4%
Knight's Cape	1%
Elite Amulet of Defence	2%
Sandstorm Ring	0%
Sunset Rapier	0%
Total	37%

Pre-Volcanic Magic

The other possible option is Magic. Clearing the Volcano with Magic from the start is not recommended because its adjusted clear time is slower than the Rapier's.

To idle the dungeon with the build below, you need 800 Hitpoints and Weakening III active.

Item	DR
Fire Expert Wizard Hat	5%
Fire Expert Wizard Robes	5%
Fire Expert Wizard Bottoms	5%
Fire Expert Wizard Boots	5%
(U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces	6%
Skull Cape	3%
Elite Amulet of Defence	2%
Silver Diamond Ring	1%
Any Magic	0%
Miolite Shield	2%
Total	34%

100-Volcanoes Magic

After clearing the Volcanic Cave 100 times, you will unlock Ancient Magicks.

It's theoretically possible to farm the Volcanic Cave with the 20k-accuracy Slicing Winds on the following build if you have 920 HP, Level 93, and a Stone Skin prayer active.

To farm the dungeon with 34% DR and without the prayer or potions, you need 940 HP. Your biggest threat is Prat, the Protector of Secrets with the resulting damage of 375 and your minimum HP being 377.

Check if you fulfill the accuracy quota with Combat Simulator. The 20k accuracy is important because after that number Slicing Winds cannot miss, becoming a top-DPS spell against the dungeon at this point of progression.

Item	DR
Ancient Wizard Hat	5%
Ancient Wizard Robes	5%
Ancient Wizard Bottoms	5%
Ancient Wizard Boots	5%
(U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces	6%
Skull Cape	3%
Elite Amulet of Magic	2%
Silver Diamond Ring	1%
Magic Wand (Powerful)	0%
Miolite Shield	2%
Stone Skin or DR potion II	3%+
Total	37%

Weapon choice

The information in the table below was produced by using the Combat Simulator and the respective builds above.

Details

The clears per hour are counted for a Hardcore character with level 70 in everything except HP and Magic that are adjusted for the magic setups. In the calculations, the time to prepare prayer points and curse runes is not accounted for because it's not as easy. In addition, the overall picture is obvious even without accounting for them. The adjusted clear time is calculated with the notation and assumptions from the Dragons Den/Guide, but Whales are used as food instead of Crabs. All intermediate steps are covered in a spreadsheet. (link)

Build	Adjusted clears per hour
Pre-Volcanic	2.7
Dragon Sword	4.5
Ancient Sword	4.6
Dragon Claw	4.9
Sunset Rapier	5.2
Ancient Claw	5.4
100-Volcanoes	11.9

It should be noted that the Melee clear times become tremendously worse without the Sandstorm Ring. Only Rapier and Ancient Claw are better than pre-Volcanic in this case.

It is suggested to start using the 100-Volcanoes build as soon as you can because the Prat and Malcs significantly slow your clear time by high evasion. 20k Slicing Winds don't miss.

Gear options

Gloves

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

The Ancient vambraces drop from the Dragons Den. You will very likely need them to idle the Air God Dungeon, so might as well get them now.
The Red and Black vambraces can be either crafted with Crafting or dropped from the Spider Forest.
Or you might just farm some Paladins for their Gloves.

Cape

Item	Upside	Downside
Knight's Cape	1% DR	Level 88 unique drop
Skull Cape	3% DR	Screws up Melee accuracy
Firemaking Skillcape	XP boost	Level 99, no DR increase
Obsidian Cape	Spend less food	Rare drop, no DR increase
Fire Cape	2% DR	You need to clear Volcanic Cave once

Boots

The choice of boots is small because we don't want to drop in DR too much.

Item	DR%	Requirements
(G) Dragon Boots	6%	Level 60
(G) Rune Boots	5%	Level 40

Ring

Item	Benefit
Sandstorm Ring	Insane clear speed buff for Melee
Silver Diamond Ring	1% DR
Aorpheat's Signet Ring	5% chance to double Elite Chest and 100% more money
Ring of Wealth	7% chance to double Elite Chest
Gold Sapphire Ring	30 reflect to clear the dungeon a bit faster

Conclusion

The suggested order of actions is as follows:

1. Get Sunset Rapier,
2. Get Sandstorm Ring,
3. Do 100 Volcanic Cave clears as Melee,
4. Do the rest of Volcanic Cave clears with Slicing Winds. Don't forget to enable the Surge aurora.

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