Tortoise

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This article is about the Tortoises near the Tree Gnome Village. For other uses, see Tortoise (disambiguation).

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Tortoise
Release																				24 April 2006 (Update)
Members																				Yes
Actions																				Attack, Examine
Race																				Tortoise
Examine																				A large tortoise. / Massive beast of War with extra Gnome.
Combat info
Combat level																				50
Life points																				1,800
Aggressive
Poisonous
Combat experience
XP																				86.7
XP																				28.6
XP (2H/MH/OH)																				5 / 3 / 1
Offensive
Max hit
144															0															0															? (edit)
Style																														Rate
																														4 ticks (2.4s)
Combat levels
36																				1																				1
Accuracy
553																				0																				0
Defensive
Armour																				Weakness															Susceptible
553										36
Base hit chance
90															55															45															65
Immunities
Not immune															Not immune															Not immune															Not immune
Advanced data
NPC ID															3808, 3819
Links															bestiary • MRND
FAQ • doc

The tortoise (Testudines Giganteus) are trained tortoises used by the gnomes in battle. They train in the pen north of the Tree Gnome Stronghold swamp. Trainer Nacklepen is in charge of their combat development.

The giant tortoises are not originally native to gnome lands. They were discovered by gnome explorers in an unspecified location during the reign of King Healthorg in the Fourth Age. The king then authorised a breeding pair be brought back and the gnomes have bred them since. One of the gnome explorers, the famous Admiral Bake, presented the king with a newborn tortoise named Mibbiwocket, which became the king's personal mount and is still alive to this day.

Locations

Location	Levels	Members	Spawns	Map
Tree Gnome Stronghold	50		3	Maplink
Battlefield	50		2	Maplink

Fighting

Tortoises are very good for training and making coins at the same time. A full inventory of tortoise shells can bring in about 759,920 coins. Tortoises have very high life points and low attack, but good defence. They are weak to air spells. With a fair variety of drops, they are arguably better than yaks or rock crabs for training purposes, but since they are a lower level than the latter they are not commonly used. It is recommended for training only if you can hit high enough to effectively damage them, particularly if you choose to use ranged or melee. The best way to damage them is to use an air battlestaff or better in tandem with the best air spell you are capable of casting, as this provides a cost-free way of killing them with a decent damage rate. An alternative for higher levelled players is to use a Polypore staff with the Polypore Strike spell, due to its cheap cost per cast.

When fighting the tortoise with riders, the three gnomes take turns attacking the player. The mage uses a bluish spell, the archer shoots steel arrows, and the tortoise attacks with the driver holding the reins if the player is within their meleeing range. Protection prayers aren't very effective because the riders use all 3 combat styles; however, the tortoises hit hardest with melee, so that prayer will stop the most damage. When the mounted tortoise is slain, the riders will all attack the player that killed it simultaneously. This can prove somewhat dangerous for low levelled (under 80 combat) players, as these gnomes are fairly accurate for their level. If the player runs away, however, they become unaggressive, and eventually disappear when the tortoise respawns.

There are two mounted tortoises at the Battlefield of Khazard.

Drops

100% drops

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Price	High Alch
	Big bones	1	Always	441	1
	Bones	3	Always	1,323	3

Main drop

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Price	High Alch
	Wergali seed	1	Common	7,490	38
	Cabbage seed	4–29	Common	1,336–9,686	60–435
	Redberry seed	1	Rare	192	2
	Potato seed	4	Rare	1,372	16
	Onion seed	4	Rare	1,244	24
	Tomato seed	3	Rare	720	6
	Watermelon seed	1–2	Rare	881–1,762	33–66
	Marigold seed	1	Rare	389	50
	Rosemary seed	1–4	Rare	378–1,512	58–232
	Woad seed	1	Rare	604	6
	Dwellberry seed	1	Rare	190	15
	Asgarnian seed	1–3	Rare	196–588	36–108
	Barley seed	2–4	Rare	384–768	44–88
	Strawberry seed	1–2	Rare	341–682	10–20
	Nasturtium seed	1–2	Rare	367–734	6–12
	Yanillian seed	1–2	Rare	184–368	126–252
	Hammerstone seed	1–2	Rare	179–358	31–62
	Sweetcorn seed	1–4	Rare	287–1,148	4–16
	Grimy guam	1	Common	381	18
	Grimy marrentill	1	Common	1,230	1
	Grimy tarromin	1	Common	228	1
	Grimy harralander	1	Rare	1,036	1
	Grimy ranarr	1	Rare	3,998	1
	Grimy irit	1	Rare	478	1
	Grimy avantoe	1	Rare	811	1
	Grimy kwuarm	1	Rare	2,547	1
	Grimy cadantine	1	Rare	1,898	1
	Grimy lantadyme	1	Rare	4,053	1
	Grimy dwarf weed	1	Rare	4,594	1
	Grimy wergali	1	Rare	4,367	1
	Swamp toad	1	Common	1,359	1
	Pineapple	1	Common	461	1
	Cabbage	16–101 (noted)	Uncommon	20,496–129,381	16–101
	Worm batta	1	Uncommon	353	1
	Toad crunchies	1	Rare	13,528	1
	Blurberry Special	1	Rare	17,069	18
	Tangled toads' legs	1	Rare	648	1
	Law talisman	1	Uncommon	2,825	2
	Nature rune	1–3	Common	741–2,223	74–222
	Earth rune	10–14	Uncommon	280–392	30–42
	Soul rune	5–11	Rare	7,900–17,380	410–902
	Steel arrow	12–23	Common	204–391	324–621
	Mithril arrow	6–13	Uncommon	138–299	270–585
	Pink boots	1	Uncommon	834	120
	Pink robe bottoms	1	Uncommon	211	108
	Pink robe top	1	Uncommon	360	108

Tertiary drops

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Price	High Alch
	Tortoise shell	1–3	Uncommon	27,140–81,420	600–1,800
	Perfect shell	1–3	Rare	600–1,800	600–1,800
	Long bone	1	1/400	3	3
	Curved bone	1	1/5000	4	4
	Teak logs	1; 2; 4	Uncommon	312–1,248	18–72
	Mahogany logs	1; 2; 4	Uncommon	1,017–4,068	30–120
	Humerus bone	1	Uncommon	1	1

Universal drops

Universal drops are dropped by nearly every monster and skilling action outside of Daemonheim.

These items are dropped alongside main drops.

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Price	High Alch
	Key token	1	Rare	Not sold	Not alchemisable
	Mimic kill token (m)	1	1/10000	82,558	Not alchemisable

Achievement

• La Petite Mort ( 0) – Obtained a collection of unique drops from Slayer monsters located within Kandarin.
  • Regular and perfect tortoise shell drops

Update history

This information has been compiled as part of the update history project. Some updates may not be included—see here for how to help out!

• patch 8 August 2016 (Update):
  • Tortles are no longer referred to as Tortoises in the Hunter skill guide.

• ninja 25 April 2016 (Update):
  • Improved respawn rates for Battle tortoises.

• patch 1 April 2009 (Update):
  • Tortoises will no longer block you when you’re walking causing you to get stuck.

• update 24 April 2006 (Update):
  • Added to game.

Trivia

• The tortoise exhibit in the basement of the Varrock Museum is the one from before the Gnome Graphic Update.
• Along with their graphical update, their movement speed was reduced, similar to that of real-life tortoises.
• Prior to the Evolution of Combat, the Gnome Archer was always the first to strike when he falls off of the tortoise. Now, all three riders attack the player that killed the tortoise at once.
• The Gnome riders named their tortoise "Dobbie".

See also

• Battlefield of Khazard
• Warped tortoise
• Terrorbird
• War tortoise
• Gnome archer
• Gnome mage
• Gnome driver