Dagannoth - Access and Combat Recommendations

Access Directions

These dagannoths primarily live in Waterbirth Dungeon, but fighting them in the Chaos Tunnels is recommended, for several reasons. First, it's easier to get to them in the tunnels. Second, there are more of them in one place. Third, you don't need anyone to help you. And fourth, the tunnels have the only multicombat room with just level 88 dagannoths.

Bank in Edgeville, then run northwest to the rift where the gargoyles are. Take the northwest portal and run west past the mummies, then take the northwest portal to the monks of Zamorak. Run northeast and take the portal to the dust devils, then the portal just NW of there to the black demons, and run west past them. Take the portal there to the room with the earth warriors and bronze dragons. Run north and take the northwest portal to the room with the dagannoths. Be sure you have Protection from Ranged enabled before you take the last portal!

If you want to fight these in Waterbirth, you'll need a friend to help you open one of the three sets of doors. One of these leads immediately to a large room with level 88 dagannoths in it, but you can't really fight them there. The problem is that this area is single combat, and since these dagannoths retreat, you'll usually get tag-teamed before you complete a kill.

Instead, turn off auto-retaliate, put on Protection from melee and enter the dungeon. Run northeast and then east to a door with two pads. You and a friend should each stand on one pad, then click the door to open it. You can do the rest solo.

Run all the way east and then south to a door; you'll see two more south and southwest of it. Wield the rune thrownaxe, click the special attack bar and then click the middle door (the one facing to the west). The rune thrownaxe special will knock down all three doors.

Put on Protection from Magic and go down the ladder. Run east, enable Protection from Ranged and go down another ladder. You're now in a room with ranging and meleeing dagannoths. Unfortunately, there are no rooms in Waterbirth with just level 88s (other than the single combat room ruled out earlier), so either fight here or continue on to one of the other 88/90 rooms. Try to get the level 90s trapped so they don't melee you. (Again, the Chaos Tunnels are much better!)

Equipment

Wear prayer gear, period. It's simply not worth trying to fight these without prayer -- they hit too often. And they can be really deadly in multicombat areas, which is where you need to fight them.

Another option is Dharoks, which can be quite effective here; you'll need to use this in conjunction with prayer, of course. The trade-off with Dharoks is more kills per hour, but you'll use more prayer potions.

Bring your holy wrench for extra prayer points on each prayer potion dose. Also, if you aren't using a weapon with a worthwhile special attack for monster killing, bring the ancient mace from the quest Another Slice of H.A.M. -- every five minutes you can switch to it briefly for its special attack, which can net you up to 20 (or even more) Prayer points for free.

Supplies

Bring 3 to 7 four-dose prayer potions, depending on your Prayer level and the equipment you are using. Also bring two Zamorak brews and two super strengths; if you want to save money you can skip the super strengths, since Zammy brews provide some strength boost as well (just not as much as a super strength does).

Consider bringing a chisel to get free Crafting XP from gems and oyster pearls, which these monsters drop often.

Bring plenty of alching runes. You do not need food if praying (and they drop edible seaweed anyway.)

Familiar

A beast of burden is very useful for taking home some of the drops you get from these monsters. Since you may be in combat continuously, remember that you can "use" items on a beast when in combat. The beast (except for a yak) can also help with kills by fighting a bit. Alternately, you could use a dedicated combat familiar.

Combat Notes

Again, fight these in the multicombat Chaos Tunnels area with prayer. As long as you keep up your prayer points, you're perfectly safe. Use the edible seaweed to top up life points lost due to the Zammy brews.

The monsters will eventually become unaggressive, but it usually doesn't last long, for one of two reasons: either you move too far chasing a retreating dagannoth, or you get kidnapped by a random. So I recommend keeping prayer on.

Dharoking greatly speeds up kills; I've found that using the crush setting seems to work best.

Drop Notes

Like most dagannoths, these have an eclectic drop list, but most of what they drop is low in value and often not worth even picking up. Their most abundant drop is seaweed, but it is unnoted so it mostly goes to waste. They drop regular Fremennik shields, blades and helms (which should be alched) as well as smaller numbers of herbs and aquatic items like caskets and oyster pearls. They will rarely drop one of the four special helms: archer, farseer, berserker or warrior.

Their most notable drops are spined boots and gloves, and three pieces of hide that are used as the base of the other spined armor pieces: the flattened hide makes the body; the streched hide the chaps; and the circular hide is used for the helm. Unfortunately, the value of this armor has dropped so low that it costs more to make the body or legs than to buy them, and they have no alch value. This means it is actually often not worth even picking up the stretched or flattened hides.

The circular hides are a different story, though: the spined helm is actually a worthwhile piece of gear, and has a relatively high high alch value of 36k. If you do get circular hides, check what they are selling for on the GE: if it is much lower than 36k, you can make some easy money by turning them into spined helms. Taking the circular hides, along with a regular dagannoth hide and 5k cash for each one, to Sigli the Hunstman near the entrance to Rellekka. The helms can then be sold or alched.