Volcanic Cave/Guide

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.

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.

It is also a place to farm Amulets of Fury for FEZ. Check the Guide about FEZ to see if Volcanic Cave is the best option for you.

After you clear it 100 times, you will unlock Ancient Magicks - Slicing Winds, Icicle Volley, and Ignite - Icicle Volley is by far the strongest. Ancient Magicks is 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

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

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

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 loadout that requires 810 Hitpoints to idle the dungeon on any game mode. However, pay attention that even slightly less DR or HP will mean death for this loadout because it hangs 2 HP away from the max hit of Malcs.

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%

Magic

The other possible option is Magic.

Please note that to idle the dungeon with the build below, you must have Level 80 or higher and Weakening III active.

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%
(U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces	Hands	6%
Subtotal		26%
Skull Cape	Cape	3%
Elite Amulet of Defence	Neck	2%
Silver Diamond Ring	Ring	1%
Any Magic	Weapon	0%
Miolite Shield	Off-hand	2%
Total		34%

Weapon choice

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

The clears per hour are counted for a Hardcore character with level 70 in everything except level 81 Hitpoints. No other buffs.

Item	Clears per hour	Time to get (95% confidence)
Dragon Sword	6.39	instant
Ancient Sword	7.04	medium
Dragon Claw	7.07	medium
Sunset Rapier	8.49	medium
Ancient Claw	9.23	long
Magic Wand (Powerful)	9.28	fast

The Wand's clear speed was counted without taking Runecrafting into account. The adjusted clear time would definitely be lower than Ancient Claw's.

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

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.

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
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