Volcanic Cave/Guide: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 22:01, 27 April 2024

The Volcanic Cave is the dungeon that unlocks all of the Legendary dungeons. The guide covers gives recommendations on gear needed to idle this dungeon. Idling has a significantly higher skill and equipment requirements than manual clears.

Why Clear Volcanic Cave?

Clear 1 time:
- To unlock Air God Dungeon and Infernal Stronghold
- To get the Fire Cape which grants 2% DR
- To get the Elite Chest
Clear 50 times:
- For a Township Task that gives Dragon Bones, and
- To start obtaining ancient armour in preparation for the Air God Dungeon
Clear 100 times:
- To unlock Ancient Magicks which gives you powerful spells such as Slicing Winds, Icicle Volley, and Ignite.
Clear 100+ times:
- To farm for the full ancient armour set and Ancient Crossbow
- To farm for the 10 Amulets of Fury needed for the Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs (FEZ). Check the FEZ/Guide for more details.

According to simulations, to get the full ancient armour set it will likely take:

640 clears with a 50% chance
817 clears with a 75% chance
1377 clears with a 95% chance

When to Clear Volcanic Cave?

There are no downsides to attempting Volcanic Cave early as you will obtain powerful gear if you manage to complete it. However, it will be a significant challenge if you attempt this dungeon under-levelled.

In general, you will want at least Level 70 so that you can equip the Ancient Armor and you should be able to complete Dragons Den relatively easily before attempting this dungeon. Ideally, you will want sufficient Auto Eat to survive the dungeon without resorting to manual eating, but if you take this route then see the last section for further recommendations on how to survive the dungeon the hard way.

Ancient Magicks

After you clear the Volcanic Cave 100 times you gain access to Ancient Magicks which are a more powerful form of magic. When you have a Ancient Magicks spell equipped, there are no curses available, but you can still use Auroras.

In general, the spells you receive are very powerful:

Winds is best used when your chance to hit is relatively low because you are guaranteed not to miss if your accuracy is 20,000+.
Ignite is a more powerful spell and has a good chance of killing monsters in one-shot.
Icicle Volley is a good all rounder, and can be used in all other cases.

Ancient Magick spells do not scale in the same way as standard magic (i.e. with equipment buffs and debuffs), but they are still impacted by the Combat Triangle in the normal way. Typically, when you first obtain Ancient Magicks it is more powerful than the regular magic and so should used in preference. However, late-game these spells will not scale with gear and so will become less useful.

Gear To Idle

The boss of Volcanic Cave uses the Melee style and so it is not recommended that you attempt to idle this dungeon with Ranged due to the Combat Triangle penalties. This guide assumes that you have Auto Eat - Tier III equipped which greatly reduces the DR requirements.

The calculations in this guide assume Hardcore/ Adventure modes, and so should work for most play styles, however if you have lower HP or DR than the guide recommends then check out Can I Idle or the Combat Simulator to see if you build will survive.

Melee

Volcanic Cave is often idled with Melee because the dragon armor set can be obtained with Level 99, further, the armour can be upgraded to provide 30% DR.

This Melee build requires 820 Hitpoints to idle the dungeon. However, this should be seen as a minimum DR/HP, and any less will push you below the max hit of Malcs. The Sandstorm Ring can be omitted, but at the expense of clear time.

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

Lower tiers of armor may be used if HP or DR is increased through other sources such as Agility, Summoning, or more Hitpoints levels, etc.

Pre-Volcanic Magic

Idling with Magic is recommended once you have stronger gear as it will ultimately speed up your clear times.

To idle the dungeon with the build below, you need 780 Hitpoints and Weakening III active.

Slot	Item	DR%
	Air Expert Wizard Hat	5%
	Air Expert Wizard Robes	5%
	Air Expert Wizard Bottoms	5%
	Air Expert Wizard Boots	5%
	(U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces	6%
	Skull Cape	3%
	Elite Amulet of Magic	2%
	Aorpheat's Signet Ring	0%
	Any Magic weapon	0%
	(G) Dragon Shield	6%
Total		37%

Fire Robes have the exact same stats as Air Robes. The secondary effect of robes (+20 minimum hit for matching spells) outweighs the damage increase of higher level spells. However, you should use the highest level spell and robe combination available to you. For example, if available, use the Ring of Spirit Power instead of the Aorpheat's Signet Ring for more damage/second.

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Air Expert Wizard Hat	Fire Expert Wizard Hat
	Air Expert Wizard Robes	Fire Expert Wizard Robes
	Air Expert Wizard Bottoms	Fire Expert Wizard Bottoms
	Ring of Spirit Power	Aorpheat's Signet Ring

100+ Volcanoes Magic

After clearing the Volcanic Cave 100 times you will unlock Ancient Magicks which require a minimum of Level 72.

It is recommended that you have 20,000+ accuracy when using the Slicing Winds as this means that the spell will never miss. This is important because you will want to keep a high DPS to make idling worthwhile. You can improve your Accuracy with:

Magic Assistance Potions
Astrology
Prayer
Agility
Increase Magic, for example at Level 93

For a magic build Prat, the Protector of Secrets will be the biggest hitter, and with this build it will be very close to your Auto-Eat threshold, so if you need to deviate, then check your setup with the Combat Simulator.

Using this build you may need extra DR:

At 910 HP and with 33% DR, you can farm the dungeon without without extra DR.
At 880 HP you can equip the Stone Skin prayer to provide extra DR.
Below 880 HP it is not recommended that you attempt to idle this dungeon.

Slot	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%
	Aorpheat's Signet Ring	0%
	Magic Wand (Powerful)	0%
	Miolite Shield	2%
Total		33%

In addition equip:

Slicing Winds and Surge II
Optionally, equip Yak and Dragon to not take any damage from burning (if you have enough marks)

Once you have sufficient accuracy rating, the Miolite Shield cam be swapped out for a ranged or melee shield with more DR such as (G) Dragon Shield to lower other HP/DR requirements.

For this build, food usage is 200,000 HP to 250,000 HP per hour.

Weapon Choice

Weapon choice makes a big difference to the number of chests that can realistically be obtained per hour when idling. This table shows how the weapons compare when adjusted to include time required to produce consumables, with reasonable assumptions:

Weapon	Adjusted Chests/Hour	Potential Chests/Hour
Pre-Volcanic	3.8	20+
Dragon Sword	7.6	24+
Dragon Claw	8	26.3+
Ancient Sword	8.16	26.2+
Sunset Rapier	9.6	31.4+
Ancient Claw	10	34.7+
Icicle Volley	18.1	28.3+
Slicing Winds	23.5	25.8

Magic builds using Ancient Magicks generally produce more drops per hour than the Melee equivalents. However, due to the number of runes needed, and the non-scaling nature of Ancient Magicks, as you progress Melee builds will eventually give faster clear times.

This table uses data obtained from the Combat Simulator, and was adjusted by the time it takes to produce the required consumables with some assumptions made about the exact bonuses available for each skill. Use a copy of this spreadsheet to compare with your builds (link).

Gear Options

This section gives some alternative gear suggestions, in descending order of preference, based on the equipment available while idling the Volcanic Cave.

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

Note:

Get the (U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces from the Dragons Den and these provide a good mid-game DR.
Craft the (U) Red D-hide Vambraces and (U) Black D-hide Vambraces with Level 73 or higher, or as a reward from the Spider Forest
Get the Gloves from the Paladin

Cape

Item	Provides	Notes
Skull Cape	3% DR	Reduces Melee accuracy, so best for Magic builds
Golden Fire Cape	3% DR	Upgrade of the Fire Cape
Fire Cape	2% DR	After clearing Volcanic Cave once
Knight's Cape	1% DR	Level 66
Firemaking Skillcape	XP boost	Level 99 and no DR increase
Obsidian Cape	Reduce food/hour	No DR increase

Ring

Item	Benefit
Sandstorm Ring	Solid DPS increase for Melee, but can increase clear time for stronger builds.
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.
Ring of Blade Echoes	Powerful melee DPS increase, costs more prayer/potions per hit.
Ring of Spirit Power	Powerful magic DPS increase, does not affect Ancient Magicks.

Manual eating

The gear needed for a manual run through the dungeon is significantly lower than needed for idling. However, it also depends on how well you time your eating as this will interrupt your attack and lengthen the combat time.

In general, if you are considering a manual run it is recommended that:

You have Level 70 so that you can equip the Ancient armor as soon as it becomes available.
You have the highest Auto Eat tier possible to avoid accidental deaths
You use a Melee build with a fast weapon, such as Sunset Rapier, so that you can recover quickly after eating.
You start with the highest DR and HP so that you have an easier time.

For example, in theory, this build could work with a hard cap of 40 for all skills (i.e. Level 40):

Slot	Item	DR%
	(G) Adamant Helmet	4%
	(G) Adamant Platebody	4%
	(G) Adamant Platelegs	4%
	(G) Adamant Boots	4%
	Adamant Gloves	0%
	Knight's Cape	1%
	Silver Topaz Necklace	0%
	Silver Diamond Ring	1%
	Adamant Sword	0%
	(G) Adamant Shield	4%
Total		22%

In addition:

Optionally, equip Ultimate Strength and Safeguard
Optionally, equip Wolf and Yak

However, any improvements on this equipment set would be highly recommended as clearing the dungeon with this build would take around 13 minutes.

TL/DR

In summary, the suggested order for idling is:

Obtain the Sunset Rapier and the Sandstorm Ring
Perform 100 Volcanic Cave clears as Melee to unclock Slicing Winds
Do the remainder of Volcanic Cave clears with Slicing Winds with the Surge aurora.

Manual eating has a significantly lower requirement, but requires skill to not die.

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