Dagannoth Guardian - Access and Combat Recommendations

Access Directions

Dagannoth guardians can only be fought during or after the quest Blood Runs Deep.

Getting to Waterbirth is easiest if you are on Lunar Magicks -- just teleport directly. You can also now use the highest-level Fremennik sea boots if you complete that area's achievement diary. Otherwise, take Jarvald's boat from the docks in Rellekka.

To get to Rellekka you can use the enchanted lyre, teleport home and exit your portal if your house is in Rellekka, take the fairy ring to Miscellania (code "C I P") and sail to Rellekka, or run up from Seers' Village.

Once on Waterbirth Island, go west to the large number of snape grass spawns and then south. Go past the main dungeon entrance to the far southwest corner of the island, where you went during the quest. Go down the entrance and then south through a couple of empty caves and you'll find the cavern where the guardians are. I just alternate between two spawns near the cave's entrance.

I sometimes prefer to bank in Jatizso before going to the dungeon. It is quick to get from the bank there to Rellekka, and I don't have to waste any inventory space on items or teleport runes.

Equipment

Oddly, where level 90 dagannoths hit much harder than you'd expect for their level, these hit much lighter than you'd expect. They do use two styles of combat, though -- their primary attack is melee, but they will switch to a ranged attack if you put on a protection prayer. Given that behavior and the fact that the melee attack isn't that strong to begin with, I recommend wearing high defence Barrows armor and meleeing them. Dharoks would also likely work well here, though I haven't tried it yet.

Since you need to do Blood Runs Deep to get to these, you should already have the "legendary" battleaxe Balmung, which is intended specifically for fighting dagannoths. It does hit hard, but it is very slow, so there is normally little net benefit over using a whip and defender combination. It is less effective than Dharoks. That said, it has the advantage of being much safer to use. Also, if you are on a Slayer assignment you can use Balmung with your slayer helmet to tear through these monsters.

Supplies

Bring super sets or extreme sets and food for healing. The quality of food needed will depend on your levels, and what sort of familiar you are bringing.

Don't bother with alching runes here, as they don't drop alchables of note.

Familiar

The two usual alternatives apply here: either a beast of burden or a healing familiar. A healer like a bunyip is usually enough for a high level player to not need much (if any) food. Instead, you can use a beast of burden to carry in food. This lets you use cheap food like salmon, and gives you room to carry back drops (like big bones) after you are done.

Combat Notes

As mentioned in the Equipment section, these monsters are weak for their level and switch attacks if you pray, so just fight them using standard tactics and heal damage as needed. Note that they are permanantly aggressive (like goraks and dark beasts) so they never stop attacking, but there are safe spots where you can hide from them if you need to log out or deal with a familiar.

Note that in a brief test, I found Balmung worked better on slash than crush.

Drop Notes

Given their level and the very good quantity and quality of items obtainable from several other types of dagannoth, these have very disappointing drops. They're another example of a monster that seems impressive when you look at the list of possible drops, but when you actually spend an hour killing them, you walk away with very little in your pack.

They drop a wide variety of items, but none in large quantities, and they take a long time to kill. The pure essence they drop is not even noted, which is inexplicable given that they are a newish creature, and they don't even drop charms.