Access Directions | Skeletal wyverns are located in their own chamber of the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon, the entrance of which is on the peninsula south of Port Sarim. The fastest way to get there is via the fairy rings. Access the ring system either near Edgeville or by using a ring of slaying to teleport to the Fremennik Slayer Dungeon, which has a ring right next to it. Dial in code "A I Q" to get to Mudskipper Point, then go north to the dungeon's entrance.
Go inside, then head west, north and then east to the ice part of the cave, where there are ice giants and ice warriors. Head southeast until you find a separate area with a warning sign next to it. You will get a serious-looking warning before you can enter the wyvern's cavern -- be sure not to proceed until ready for battle. |
Equipment | Skeletal wyverns have an ice breath attack that can hit up to 500 unless you are wearing an elemental shield, mind shield or dragonfire shield. You cannot use a regular anti-dragon shield, and prayer will not stop the high damage. If you have one, the dragonfire shield is preferred for meleeing, as it gives more defence and a strength bonus. The wyverns will even charge it for you! If ranging, use an elemental or mind shield.
Note that antifire potions have no effect on this monster, and neither, presumably, do super antifires. So you are stuck with one-handed weapons.
I have spent many hours trying different methods and types of equipment to fight these difficult foes. And the best method I have found so far is to use melee armor with prayer bonuses (such as Verac's)
and then employ the Turmoil or Piety prayer to increase defence and speed up kills. Turmoil is preferred, if you have the ability to use it.
While these monsters are technically weak to crush attacks, there are no good single-handed crush weapons. In my tests, a plain ol' abyssal whip easily beat a dragon battleaxe, so stick to the whip.
A cannon is also extremely effective against wyverns, increasing kill rate by a good 30%. Of course you do have to spend money on the cannonballs, but you may get enough in extra drops to cover the cost.
You can also range the wyverns. If you do, wear your best ranging gear, but bear in mind that you will still have to use Protection from Ranged, so aim for prayer bonuses as well. And don't forget the shield!
Some folks like to use a dragon dagger (p++) or dragon mace for its special; I don't bother.
If you have these for a Slayer assignment, definitely wear a black mask, or even better, a Slayer helmet. Note that the Salve amulet does not work on skeletal wyverns.
Finally, I used to wear a ring of wealth here, but now that its mechanism is known not to help with the wyverns' rare drops, I no longer bother with it. |
Supplies | As with other difficult monsters, supplies needed will depend on your levels and skill and how often you plan to bank. In particular, the better a beast of burden you can summon, the more food you can carry and the longer you can stay on each trip. You should adjust the number of doses of potions you bring based on how long it takes to use up your food and/or fill your inventory with bankable drops. In my most recent test using a pack yak, I was able to stay for around 35 minutes using a full inventory and familiar full of food.
The food that best balances providing plenty of healing with reasonable cost is monkfish. I bring mostly these, and also some salmon (to eat early in the process to free room for drops.) If you are using a method involving prayer -- recommended -- then remember prayer potions; I bring four 4-dose potions for a 30-35 minute trip. |
Familiar | Use the highest level beast of burden you can summon, to carry in extra food and carry out bones and other drops. |
Combat Notes | Whoever decided to give skeletal wyverns a combat level of 140 had a twisted sense of humor -- these are one of the toughest single-combat monsters in the game, and should probably have a combat level of at least 250.
What makes them so difficult? They have multiple attacks and there is no way to completely stop their breath weapon. Antifire potions have no effect, and the required mind/elemental/dragonfire shield only reduces breath damage, it doesn't eliminate it. So, this means you are going to take damage continuously as you fight these monsters. Add to that melee and ranged attacks, high defence, and an annoying freeze attack (which can't be blocked) and you have quite a challenge.
Many players don't realize that they have a ranged attack -- I didn't at first myself. I tried many combinations of various armor types and protection prayers, but ranged protection is the only one that substantially cuts down on damage done. I used to use this but now instead prefer to spend my prayer points on Turmoil, which cuts down on damage and simultaneously lets me get faster kills.
The wyverns can attack from a long distance which ends up dragging you all over the cavern -- quite annoying. To try to prevent that, head for the monster in the alcove just to the west of the entrance; this is the best place to fight, because most of the time you can just kill the same wyvern over and over in that alcove (they respawn quickly).
You will need to closely watch your health and prayer points, eating and potting when necessary. The best time to do this is when frozen -- you can't attack but you can eat, drink and interact with a familiar. As you use up your food, withdraw more from your beast of burden and store bones and other drops within it.
Wyverns are quite susceptible to cannon damage; you'll hit a lot of zeroes, but also get some good hits, and with these things every bit helps. There's no place you can set it up to have it hit just one wyvern, so don't even try. Just set it up west of the entrance so it can "see" two or three wyverns, and just attack whichever one attacks you. If the wyvern is out of range of the cannon or gets right on top of it, walk on top of the wyvern, which will cause it to move, potentially allowing the cannonball to hit it again.
If you want to range the wyverns, you must use Protection from Ranged and stay out of their melee range. There's also a little trick that some players use: after the wyverns stop being aggressive, it is possible to put your bow on long-range and attack them from far enough away that they can't retaliate, effectively safe-spotting them. In my experience though, this is rather "fiddly" -- sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It's also rather slow. |
Drop Notes | These monsters were "improved" a couple of years ago, but their new drops aren't much better than their old ones. Their special drop -- granite legs -- simply isn't worth much any more, and given their difficulty, they drop too much junk like low-level herbs, elemental runes and bone bolts.
Seemingly recognizing this, Jagex has made a couple of relatively recent changes to spruce the wyverns up a bit. They are fairly regular charm droppers now, giving two at a time on a majority of kills, and they have a convenient bias towards crimson charms. Also, the new super prayer potion was designed to use ground wyvern bones as a secondary ingredient, greatly increasing the value of these bones -- be sure to carry them out, not bury them.
One final note: these monsters seem to drop only uncut emeralds, rubies and diamonds -- no sapphires or half-keys. Strange. |
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