Access Directions | The best place to bank in preparation to fight these monsters is Mobilising Armies, because it is right next to a spirit tree. Once you are prepared, right-click the tree and go to the mountains east of the poison wastes. Run west, then south to the sewer entrance and go inside. Click the ladder and you'll be in a room with two tortoises; this is where you need to get ready to run to where you will fight the terrorbirds.
Some people like to fight the birds in the room just to the east, but I find the area hard to navigate around because of its shape, and there are a lot of the monsters there. You're better off deeper in the dungeon. In particular, the best spot for meleeing is in a room near the end of the dungeon, close to where you fought three terrorbirds during the quest The Path of Glouphrie.
Put on Protection from Ranged, then open the metal door and the next one, and run east through the odd-shaped dungeon to a "U-shaped" room beyond it. Go down the ladder You'll be in a vertically-oriented room with two birds and one tortoise; run north and go up the ladder.
Run northwest through a large unevenly shaped room filled with terrorbirds and tortoises. Watch out for the tar, which will slow you down and turn off your "Run" setting. Go through the double doors. You're now in another "U-shaped" room; go down the ladder to the north.
You will arrive in a narrow room with three terrorbirds; this is a decent spot to set up in if you plan to use a cannon. Otherwise, run east and go up the ladder. Go west, then north around the tar pit (again there is tar on the ground) and open yet another set of double doors. You'll now be in a safe area with only two tortoises. To the west is a room with just a single terrorbird, which is the place to do straight melee combat on these monsters. |
Equipment | The two most common high-level setups for these are Guthans and Dharoks. Guthans is safer, and you only use the warspear when you absolutely need it, using a whip and defender otherwise. Dharoks is also an option, but in my tests it is not really that much faster than a whip and defender, and it is more dangerous. For this reason, I no longer recommend it here. You can also try to fight with prayer; in that case, use Veracs to provide melee protection and turn on Protection from Ranged or Deflect Ranged.
You need the crystal chime you obtained during The Path of Glouphrie in order to make these monsters attackable.
You can also bring a cannon with if you wish; for this, Veracs and prayer are pretty much essential. |
Supplies | These monsters alternate between two attack forms, so you are going to need food no matter what method you choose. Super sets (or extreme sets) should also be considered mandatory. If using prayer, you need prayer potions too, of course.
For food you have a number of options. I used to use pineapple pizzas (when they were cheap), but I now use mostly strawberry baskets. These are cheap, and since the normal combat method requires a few seconds between kills, this gives you enough time to empty the baskets and eat while waiting for a respawn.
Other options include using Bones to Peaches (probably not enough on its own, but could supplement), a healing familiar like a bunyip, bringing extra food in a beast of burden, or using Saradomin brews with super restores. Just remember that the best places to fight these are not near a bank, so you want to plan for longish trips.
Bring a few alching sets; they don't drop a lot of alchables. |
Familiar | The two most obvious choices are a healing familiar or a beast of burden. I prefer to use a beast of burden, because I'm a cheapskate and I want to keep all those nice drops. :) A bunyip or unicorn stallion can save you a lot of food and hassle, though. A lot depends on the method you are using to fight them. |
Combat Notes | Like Warped Tortoises, warped terrorbirds start out immune to all attacks. You must use the crystal chime on them to make them attackable; you'll get a message and see the beast change color from bluish to greenish. This can be done from a distance.
Vulnerability lasts only about 30 seconds; if you see the bird turn blue, chime it again. Note that you don't have to wait until it wears off to "re-chime" -- if you can tell that you won't kill it in time, just go ahead and chime it once more.
You might think that since these are similar to the tortoises but lower level that they are easier -- wrong! :) I have no idea how they choose combat levels for monsters over there in Cambridge, but these are much harder than a typical level 81. They have both a melee and ranged attack; the former hits harder but the latter is more accurate. Also, if you use a protection prayer, the birds will use the other attack more, and the whole area is multicombat.
If you want to just do straight melee, I strongly recommend the room with a single bird in it, located near the end the dungeon as described above. Don't use prayer, just eat food, and use Guthans if needed (and relevant). High-level players will usually be able to get a kill in 30 seconds so the birds don't turn invulnerable again.
Being on the ancient curses (instead of regular prayers) can be handy for fighting these monsters. The Soul Split curse, in particular, is very useful for getting a few extra points of healing when you need it.
If you want to cannon, you must use Protection from Ranged, or they will nuke you in short order. Then you simply rely on the defence of your Veracs armor to protect against melee attacks. I prefer to do this in the room with three birds in it as described in the access notes.
To be honest, I don't really care for cannoning these. It certainly is faster than just meleeing, but it's very expensive and rather annoying. You have to constantly chime them or you waste cannonballs (which do no damage when the birds turn blue), and since there are several of them, you rarely get a kill in 30 seconds or less.
Jagex recently improved the drops of these monsters, but they still don’t cover the cost of cannonballs, and I think the cannon doesn't increase the kill rate enough to bother with it, in most cases. |
Drop Notes | Most players hate fighting these, and one of the reasons is that their drops used to be awful. They are much better now -- warped terrorbirds provide plenty of valuable drops, including some rather odd items you won't get from many other sources. This includes emerald, ruby and diamond bolt tips, swamp tar, runite and adamant bolts, death and air runes, addy ores (unnoted), raw shark (noted) and two types of gnome cuisine: chocolate bombs and tangled toads' legs. You can eat these if you are hurt and need the healing, but it is better to save them to either use in the gnome delivery minigame, or sell (they are quite valuable!) |
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