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This article or section requires a cleanup.
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This article provides information for members about effective ways to train Attack, Strength, and Constitution through melee combat. It contains some general training tips and suggestions for suitable monsters to kill for a wide range of levels. In this article, monsters are sorted according to the level of the skill being trained, not the recommended overall combat level.
This article assumes that players are training Attack, Strength, and Constitution more or less equally. If not, see the pure melee guide.
- Use the best equipment you have and a weapon that has a style the monster you are fighting is weak to. (For example, moss giants are weak to slash attacks so it is a good idea to attack them with weapons such as the abyssal whip or the dragon 2h sword rather than weapons using crush or stab).
- Complete Slayer tasks whenever possible in order to train Slayer while training other combat skills. (+12.5% att/str bonus while wearing a black mask or slayer helm when on a task). However, remember that Slayer tasks may give you monsters with weaknesses to ranged or magic, rather than melee.
- Wear a ring of wealth, or better, whenever fighting a monster that drops items on the rare drop table if you are interested in valuable drops rather than slightly faster experience rates from rings with combat-related stats.
- An emergency teleport that can be activated with one click can be useful to avoid death. A simple teleport to house tablet is cheap and could end up being a lifesaver.
- Use of potions to boost skill levels is essential to maximise experience rates. A super set (consisting of super attack, super strength, and super defence potions) is recommended. For those who have completed Plague's End and unlocked the recipe, a Super melee potion will be preferable to a super set. However, these can be bought and used without the quest requirement from the Grand exchange.
- Completing some of the easier quests such as Fight Arena, Holy Grail, Waterfall Quest, Scorpion Catcher, and Tree Gnome Village gives efficient combat experience if done at a low combat level.
- Healing abilities are a must have for extending the length of a training trip. The Resonance ability is a basic level Defence ability, that causes the next hit to heal instead of damage you. Rejuvenate is an ultimate Defence ability that restores 40% of your life points over several seconds. Regenerate is a basic Constitution ability that uses whatever adrenaline you have left to restore your health if you're not in combat.
- Although the Resonance and Rejuvenate abilities require a shield to be equipped, you only need to equip the shield for as long as it takes to activate the ability if you prefer to dual wield or use two-handed weapons.
- Another great healing ability is Guthix's Blessing, which will heal you 8% of your maximum life points every two seconds, up to ten seconds. This ability should only be used when not in direct combat with a monster as the summoned butterfly can be attacked and killed, ending the effect prematurely.
- Consider using threshold abilities instead of ultimate ones; the damage done by thresholds is lower, but they use less adrenaline, meaning more than one can be used in a row.
- Set up your action bar before you go into combat, making sure all the abilities you want to use are on there, and that all the abilities are ones you can use with the weapons you have. Remember that you can have multiple bars set up at once, and there is no penalty for changing which one you're using.
Common equipment, accessories, and setups[edit | edit source]
- You can select what specific skill earned XP will go into through the Combat Settings tab in the Powers menu (F4 to open). For melee training, you can choose between Attack, Defence, and Strength (XP will automatically go to Constitution).
- Jot down monster weaknesses and utilize them. Using a crush weapon against a monster weak to crush gives a much higher chance to hit against that monster, and significantly higher hits. Avoid monsters who have a weakness to ranged attacks, as they will have a very high defence to melee attacks.
- Always use the best tier of weapons you can wield and afford. Better weapons ensure higher damage output and a higher chance to hit.
- The abyssal whip is a popular weapon for combat training due to its rapid attack speed and low cost. It can be upgraded to the abyssal vine whip (a level 75 weapon) however this requires level 80 Slayer. The non-degradable off-hand equivalent for an abyssal vine whip is the enhanced excalibur.
- The next-best weapons above whip vine/excalibur are chaotic (level 80) and Drygore weaponry (level 90). However, chaotic and drygore weaponry degrade with use and will incur a maintenance cost.
For extended combat training, consider wearing high defence and life point armour (such as Barrows armour). This allows for prolonged training in one sitting. However, a better choice for training would be to use offensive armour (such as Bandos armour), as it will allow you to increase your damage output and kill at a faster rate.
Barrows armour is a cheaper alternative to Bandos armour, and can be used with the corresponding weapons for powerful set effects. The trade-off, however, is that it degrades with use, meaning that it will incur a maintenance cost. Alternatively, the Void knight melee armour (from the Pest Control minigame) has a set effect of increasing your attack and strength bonuses, but at the cost of having low defensive stats. This is a viable way to train melee fast due to the increased damage output, if you are willing to use extra food or, if available, Soul Split.
Sacred clay equipment, a reward from Stealing Creation, gives a set amount of bonus experience that is rewarded as players train. This allows players to wear any armour, while still receiving the bonus experience. However, you can normally earn more experience from killing monsters than from the time it takes to get a piece of sacred clay equipment. Therefore most players choose to use their Stealing Creation on skills that cost money to train rather than combat, which is usually profitable.
Armour types:
Accessories and other equipment[edit | edit source]
Having a good set-up overall includes using the best accessories too, such as capes, rings and amulets. These items are typically the best to use:
Generally speaking, most of the time you will not need food if you use healing abilities such as Rejuvenate, an ultimate ability which restores 40% of your health (but requires a shield, and can only be used once every 300 seconds, due to a recent update), Regenerate, which can be used outside combat to convert remaining adrenaline into health, and Resonance, which makes the next attack that hits you heal instead of dealing damage.
Other methods of healing include:
- Using food
- Guthan the Infested's equipment has excellent defence bonuses, a feasible two-handed weapon, and a set effect, which players can use to heal themselves. However, use of Guthan's has a few downsides. Use of Guthan's helm prevents the use of other head-slot items, such as a slayer helm or face mask. In addition, though Guthan's spear is a good training weapon, it pales in comparison to stronger weapons such as Godswords and chaotic/Drygore weaponry.
- Bones to Peaches is a spell unlocked at the Mage Training Arena which allows players to convert bones and big bones into peaches, each of which heals 500 life points. Players who have not unlocked this spell can instead buy and use bones to peaches tablets.
- Soul Split requires 92 Prayer and access to the Ancient Curses. It heals its user 10% of the damage dealt if it is activated during a successful hit against a monster. Because of its rapid drain rate, many players use the prayer flashing technique to drastically reduce, or outright nullify, Prayer point drain.
- The Saradomin godsword's passive effect, Healing Blade, has a 25% chance of healing the player 3% life points and 3% prayer points every hit.
- Auras such as vampyrism help by healing the player by 5% of damage dealt with every hit.
- Healing familiars such as the Bunyip and Unicorn stallion.
| Image
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Monster name
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 Level
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 Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Mountain troll
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Varies to your combat level
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470, 580, 660, 780
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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Gives great XP, very easy to kill and quite good looking.
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Compared to other creatures it is a little more out of the way.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Gnome troops
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44
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1,600
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72.6 (and 23.9  experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Low life points, making for quick kills.
- You can one-hit these, leveling up quickly.
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- No drops since on a battlefield.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Hill giant
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44
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3,200
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108 (and 35.6 experience)
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Giant Champion's scroll
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- They are weak to slash.
- Low life points, making for quick kills.
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- Poor drops in general.
- Edgeville dungeon location requires a brass key for quick access.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Moss giant
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51
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3,700
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136.5 (and 45 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- They are weak to slash.
- Low life points, making for quick kills.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Ogre
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67
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4,800
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227.7 (and 75.1 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- They can be safespotted while using a halberd, negating the need for food.
- They have a rather better percentage of dropping gold charms than Rock Crabs
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- Mediocre drops
- Fairly high defence
- At 50 Attack and Defence, recommend to move to Jungle spiders. (more experience and good drops)
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Jungle spider (green)
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86
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3100
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297 (and 98.3 experience)
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Spider carcass
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Since they are weak to crush weapons, Use the Tzhaar-ket-om and the optimal 2-handed Action bar preset.
- You can use Overpower to instantly kill every 10th spider (when your adrenaline is at 100%)
- Fairy ring cls very close for easy access
- Drop Spider carcass, which sells for a good amount on the GE, making this a good spot for money-making as well as training
- Can easily kill and collect spider carcasses East of Yanille and use the bank in Yanille to store them.
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- Not aggressive, and the left-click option is "walk here", being an inconvenience (though this can be changed in settings for easier attacking).
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Deadly red spiders
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95
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3,400
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399 (and 131.6 experience)
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None
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Since they are weak to crush weapons, Use the Tzhaar-ket-om and the optimal 2-handed Action bar preset.
- You can use Overpower to instantly kill every 10th spider (when your adrenaline is at 100%)
- Killing deadly red spiders can be a good source of charms.
- Normally red spider eggs spawn near red spiders and it is good money making
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- They have no drops other than charms and effigies.
- Their ranged attacks can hit fairly hard even against melee armour.
- At lower levels, using anything other than crush attacks can hamper experience rates.
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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TzHaar Fight Cave
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Varies depending on the creature.
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Varies.
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Varies.
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Being a safe minigame, dying is no cause for worry.
- Tokkul can be earned from playing this, and can be spent on valuable rewards from TzHaar shops.
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- The creatures do not drop anything, You can get drops of tokkul from the creatures outside the fight cave as a drop but do not fight them at this level.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Pest Control
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Varies depending on the creature.
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Varies.
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Varies.
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Commendation points gained from this game can be spent on additional exp.
- If you die during the game, you will respawn safely with all your items.
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- This minigame can become somewhat repetitive over time.
- There is little direct monetary gain from this method.
- All combat experience earned from this minigame is halved.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Hellhounds
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92
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3,300
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361 (and 120 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- They are weak to slash.
- Killing hellhounds can be a good source of charms and hard clues.
- This method is both fast and requires little attention.
- Can be safe-spotted with a halberd.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Abyssal leech
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72
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2,600
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183 (and 60.3 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Multiple enemies may cause a lot of damage to lower level players.
- Run through Wilderness can be risky
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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TzHaar creatures
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86
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Varies depending on the creature.
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Varies.
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• Tokkul
• Onyx tips
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- The drops from these creatures are somewhat valuable, such as Tokkul for the valuable onyx.
- There is a bank nearby.
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- The monsters can hit quite high on lower levelled players.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Dagannoth
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77; 78
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2,750; 2,800
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211.5 (and 69.7 experience); 221.7 (and 73.1 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Due to the large number of them, a player could easily be piled and killed.
- The money return from these monsters isn't that great.
- An update reduced the aggression range of the ones in Waterbirth, hampering XP rates. A cannon can be used to bypass this, but the cannonball usage can be very costly.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Living rock creatures
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Varies depending on the creature.
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Varies.
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Varies.
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- The drops can be quite profitable.
- They aren't exceptionally crowded.
- They have a low defence level and low life points.
- The living rock strikers are weak to crush.
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- The creatures can hit very accurately, and food could be needed for lower levelled players.
- They are fairly spread out throughout the caverns.
- Spawn rates are completely dependent on the player; they take longer to spawn if their remains are not mined.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Frost dragons
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119
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8,500
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1085.4 (and 358.1 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- They require 85 Dungeoneeering to access.
- Being careless or not paying attention can lead to a swift death.
- The dragons hit high and accurately, so good method of restoring life points is necessary.
- Super antifire potions are also a semi-requirement, as they will increase kills per hour significantly.
- Their defence is fairly high, and using anything other than stab weapons can hamper experience rates.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Armoured zombies
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86
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6,200
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445.9 (and 147.1 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- The zombies don't hit very high if using higher end gear, making food optional.
- Drops can be somewhat valuable.
- There is a prayer altar nearby to recharge prayer points.
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- They require partial completion of Defender of Varrock to fight.
- Weak to magic, strong against melee.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Mighty banshee
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91
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3,250
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344.4 (and 113.6 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Commonly drops Swordfish.
- Good source of charms.
- Low health makes it possible to kill large amounts in a small amount of time.
- Banshee has low defence to melee.
- Drops can be somewhat valuable.
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- Requires 15 Slayer to kill, and earmuffs (or better), which eliminates possible use of full set bonuses
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Spiritual rangers
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98
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7,000
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661 (and 218.1 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- They are weak to melee, making kills quick.
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- They require a Slayer level of 63 to kill.
- Residing in the God Wars Dungeon, a Zarosian item such as the Torva full helm or Shard of Zaros is recommended to make monsters unaggressive
- Are fairly spread out, and lack profitable drops.
- The Armadylean rangers cannot be fought with melee.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Fight Cauldron
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Varies depending on the creature
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Varies
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Varies
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- A safe minigame, death should be of little concern.
- Considered the best exp in the game, this minigame allows for very quick levelling.
- Obsidian shards can be obtained, which with suitable Smithing levels can be made into Obsidian armour.
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- Requires completion of The Brink of Extinction to access.
- Some monsters aren't weak to melee, hampering the exp/hour.
- The monsters that are weak to melee are weak to crush, and using stabbing or slashing weapons can hamper rates further at lower levels.
- Dying will result in half the obsidian shards earned during the minigame being lost.
- Heated tiles can force you to move out of melee range.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Nechryael
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96
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8,000
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628.6 (and 207.4 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Killing them in the Slayer Tower with a contract can give good experience and money.
- They are weak to crush.
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- Food may be required.
- They require a Slayer level of 80 to kill.
- The death spawns that they summon can be an annoyance if the player chooses to kill them.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Exiled kalphite guardians
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98
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7,000
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661 (and 218.1 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Very good charm drops can be obtained.
- The money gained from killing these is quite good.
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- The area to kill them could be dangerous, especially if piled by multiple creatures.
- They can cause poison, though it is mild and generally ignored.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Abyssal demons
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98
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8,500
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661 (and 218.1 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Killing them in the Slayer Tower with a contract can give good experience and money.
- They have good drops.
- They are weak to slash.
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- Higher stats will give better experience rates. As such, melee stats of 85+ are a semi-requirement.
- They require a Slayer level of 85 to kill.
- Players will need food as they can hit hard and very accurately.
- Some of the better drops require the player to be on a Slayer assignment.
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At this level, almost any monster that you wish can be killed, but some of the more preferred ones are listed below. It is recommended to have drygore weapons or higher to kill these monsters for optimum XP rates, without drygore weapons it may be advisable to kill level 80-90 creatures
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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God Wars Dungeon Bosses (excluding Nex/Kree'arra)
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210
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40,000 to 60,000
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3,204 ((and 1,057.3 experience) to 4,796.55 (and 1,582.8 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Drops can be very valuable.
- At high levels, the bosses are entirely soloable.
- Using an instance can create very fast kills (provided that the spawn setting is on fast).
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- Risk of dying is incredibly high; this may result in high costs to buy back items.
- A killcount hampers exp gain, as it takes time between banking trips.
- Side note: Orks in God Wars Dungeon north of the entrance near the Bandos entrance become aggressive after killing one, and it resets after every killing, providing 100% AFK and averaging about 275,000 melee experience per hour. Bonecrusher, a Split dragontooth or Demon horn necklace, and Soul Split make your trips last as long as you like.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Automaton Tracer
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115
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20,000
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1,200.1 (and 396 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- All loots are noted, allowing for long trips.
- They are weak to crush.
- Can drop the Pneumatic gloves, worth 673,596 coins.
- Can be easily accessed with the Sixth-age circuit.
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- Can take a while to kill because of their high life points.
- Can only be killed when all parts of The World Wakes are completed.
- The shockwave special can easily kill you.
- Using anything other than crushing attacks can hamper experience rates.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Airut
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122
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16,875
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2,000.7 (and 660.2 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- They have a very dangerous special attack if not paying attention.
- Dual-wielded melee weapons are also required to counter this special attack.
- Their defence is high, and they will increase it further during the fight, resulting in longer kill times and reduced experience rates.
- They require a slayer level of 92 to damage.
- The player must be on a Slayer assignment to receive Razorback gauntlets as a drop.
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| Image
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Monster name
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Level
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Life points
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Experience
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Drops
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Crystal Shapeshifter
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112
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30,000
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2,894.4 (and 955.1 experience)
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| Advantages
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Disadvantages
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- Decent drops for their level.
- Most loots are noted or can be alchemised.
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- They will change combat styles depending on the player's combat style, equipment and prayers, which in turn changes their defence values.
- Can use abilities which can deal heavy damage, and if their aggression is not toggled by Angof, can easily kill the player if several are attacking at once.
- Requires completion of The Light Within in order to access.
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Alternative methods of gaining experience[edit | edit source]
- Training melee, magic, and ranged skills in the Abyss is perhaps the best AFK exp/hour in the entire game. The south-west and south-east corners spawn 15+ creatures that are aggressive and will attack the player upon respawn. There is a world-hopping safespot in the far south-west corner behind a tendril. The creatures become non-aggressive after 10 minutes. To reset the aggression timer simply run away and come back.
596,798.0 XP/h measurements: Melee halberd (power armour, blood amulet, super melee potion, dragon rider lance recommended): 596,798.0 exp/hour afk. Use Revolution++ with the following bar: Meteor Strike, Berserk, Hurricane, Quake, Cleave.
Blood amulet of fury or Bunyip is enough to heal for a complete AFK experience.
Bring a charming imp. Have him eat the abyssal, gold, green charms for easy Summoning exp. The monsters drop ludicrous amounts of charms due to the sheer volume of kills per hour.
- Alongside Abyssal training, killing Vyrewatch in Darkmeyer is another AFK method of training combat. The maximum combat XP/h sits at around 550-600k, but alongside this you also recieve 200k Constitution XP, 350-450k Prayer XP (if Morytania legs 4 are owned and equiped), 200k Firemaking XP and 100-150k Farming XP (if the player has seedicide unlocked). Alongside this, players can make upwards of 4.000.000 GP per hour if the player loots every 1-2 minutes.
Because of these rewards and the killing of Vyrewatch being (semi)afk,
this is a popular method of training. This method of training does require the Morytania elite tasks, many quests, seedicide and a high combat level to do.
At worlds 50+, Shattered Worlds can be a very good source of experience. In general, each world offers better experience per kill than the one before it until the player no longer has enough resources to continue. In addition to experience, Shattered Worlds awards the player with Shattered anima for rewards like Bladed Dive and slayer masks that are normally only obtainable from Treasure Hunter. It is recommended that players train around worlds 70-80, bringing their own armour and weapons, for the fastest experience rates.
Visit the links below for a list of quests granting experience in the respective melee skill on completion:
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| Free-to-play guides |
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| Members' guides |
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