Living Rock Protector - Access and Combat Recommendations

Access Directions

Living rock creatures are found in the Living Rock Caverns, a new combat/fishing/mining area added to the game in late 2009. There are two relatively easy ways to get there. First, starting at Edgeville, run northwest to the edge of the Wilderness, continuing west and then south, around the Prayer Guild, towards the bridge that leads to Ice Mountain. Continue southwest to the entrance to the Dwarven Mine, and go down the ladder. Run south and you'll find a rope leading down to the caverns on the west side.

An alternative is to take the dwarven mine cart from the trap door at the Grand Exchange to Keldagrim, and then hop back in the cart and ride to Ice Mountain. ...Run south, then east and then north, and you'll find the rope that leads down to the caverns.

There are both living rock strikers and protectors throughout the entire area. The strikers are quite annoying, because once they become aggressive towards you, they will throw rocks (ranging attack) from a distance. If you want to fight only the protectors, the best place I have found is to run south, then west and north around the main "rock island" where the deposit box is located. There, north of the concentrated gold deposit, you'll find three protectors near each other.

Equipment

These monsters are usually meleed, since that's the fastest way to kill them, but can also be ranged or maged. Wear gear appropriate to the style you choose. For melee, I recommend using Barrows armor for its high defence. You can probably get by using dragon or granite, but you'll need more healing, and there's only a deposit box (not a full bank) in the cavern.

Bring your best pickaxe if you plan to mine the living rock corpses for minerals (recommended).

Lower level players may wish to use prayer on these, in which case prayer-maximizing robes are preferred.

Supplies

Bring extreme sets or super sets to speed up kills, and food for healing. If you are praying, bring prayer potions. High level players using a healing familiar won't need a lot of food; I just bring a few baskets of strawberries.

Familiar

Use a healing familiar here; nearly all of these monsters' drops are stackable, so a beast of burden is of limited utility.

Combat Notes

These guys are most often meleed, but some players like to trap them along obstacles, or across a pond of water, and range them.

They are aggressive, but only if you get quite close to them, and unlike their big brothers (the Living Rock Strikers) they can be easily outrun if you don't want to fight one.

When in this cavern, be sure to keep an eye out for the rare living rock patriarch. He spawns randomly once every few hours, and looks like the other rock creatures but larger. When killed, he gives a treasure trove of valuable drops!

Drop Notes

Living rock protectors leave behind remains when they are killed, which can be mined to yield 5 to 15 living minerals. Doing this slows down combat, depending on your mining prowess, but is recommended because the minerals are useful (they are bait for fishing rocktails) and valuable (they can be sold if you don't want to use them).

In addition to the remains, living rock protectors drop a variety of noted ores and gems, and the occasional pickaxe, all fitting in nicely with their ore/mineral theme. These drops are very similar to those of living rock strikers, except the protectors provide fewer runes (3 or 4 versus 8 or 10).