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RuneScoop.com  >  The RuneScoop Beastopedia - RuneScape Monster Data, Combat Guide and Drop Logs       >  The RuneScoop Beastopedia - Understanding the Beastopedia            >  The RuneScoop Beastopedia - Understanding the Monster Pages

Beastopedia Monster Pages - Drop List and Ratings The RuneScoop Beastopedia - Understanding Source Lists and Resource Tables

Last but certainly not least, at the bottom of most of the monster pages you will find one or more combat and drop logs. These show the results of actual combat tests I performed to determine how quickly I could kill each monster, what this cost me in terms of supplies, and what drops I got for my trouble.

For an explanation of the decisions I made in performing combat tests, see the description of combat test and measurement methods.

Drop logs are shown only in the members’ site.

The Rationale Behind Drop Logs

Drop lists are certainly useful, but they are also rather limited: they tell you what you could get by fighting a monster, but don’t say much about what you will get from it. The problem is that lists don’t show you how common the drops are. Even if a monster has a very impressive list of items it can possibly drop, does it matter if you’re not likely to see any of them?

A great example of this is the dark beast. Peruse this monster’s drop list and you’ll see the famous dark bow, along with other high-value drops such as the dragon medium helm, rune kiteshield, 100 noted silver ore, runite bars and so forth. Sounds great! But in practice, if you fight dark beasts for an hour you aren’t likely to get any of these. You might, if you’re lucky, but it’s far more likely that you’ll get some runes, lesser armor and weapon items, herbs, gems and so forth.

This discrepancy between maybe and likely when it comes to drops was one of my main justifications for conducting actual combat tests and recording drops for the monsters in the Beastopedia. By examining these logs you can see what I actually obtained in an hour of fighting, which will help put those long drop lists in perspective. Drops are random, of course, so every hour will be different, but this should at least give you a general idea of what to expect.

In addition to showing “real world” drops for monsters, the drop logs also provide you with a great deal of other useful information. They show you a kill count, so you know how many of a monster you can kill per hour at high levels. They also give you an idea of how much healing and how many potions you should bring into combat. Finally, for some monsters I have done more than one log, which lets you see how different methods compare in terms of kill speed and cost.

Combat and Drop Log Table Entries

You will find one drop log column for each test conducted for a particular monster. The log starts out describing the test and the conditions under which it was done, then lists drops using the same categories as the drop list tables, and concludes with some extra notes where relevant.

As with the drop lists, each item has a clickable link that takes you to its Grand Exchange page (except untradeables). The quantity received of every item is indicated in brackets after its name, even for a quantity of one.

Here are the entries in each drop log:

• Date: The date that the combat test was done. An explicit note will appear here for “obsolete” logs.
  
  
• Location: Which of the monster’s locations was used for the test.
  
  
• Method: A very general description of the technique used for the test. In the case where multiple monsters were killed simultaneously, you’ll find here references to each monster that was fought.
  
  
• Time: The length of the test in minutes. In most cases this is 60 minutes, but for some monsters I did shorter tests of 30 or 15 minutes and then prorated the kill count and drops up to the equivalent of an hour. This was most often done with low level monster or those with predictable (non-random) drops.
  
  
• Number of Kills: How many monsters were killed during the test. For lower level monsters where keeping track would be difficult, I sometimes estimated kill count by using XP totals; this is indicated by a tilde (“~”) before the number and an explanatory note at the end of the log.
  
  
• Equipment Description: A summary text description of the sort of gear used in the test.Supplies Used: All of the consumable items used during the test. In the event of prorated tests these are scaled up to represent what would be used in an hour. For example, if I used 12 pineapple pizzas to do a 30 minute test, 24 pizzas would be listed here. Drops are multiplied the same way, of course.
  
  
• Equipment: An image showing exactly what I wore during combat. Note that on occasion my standard combat gear will change, but I will continue to show here the equipment I wore when the log was made.
  
  
• Coins, Gems, Runes, Talismans, Herbs, Seeds, Ores, Bars, Food, Potions, Weapons, Armor, Ammunition, Charms, Charms Ratings, Clue Scrolls, Miscellaneous: These exactly match the categories in the drop list table, showing what drops I got during combat.
  
  
• Log Notes: Additional explanatory information about the test or drops obtained.

In some cases you may find a drop log in the Beastopedia that represents out of date information, because a monster or its drops have changed. I think that this sort of historical data is still interesting, so I keep these obsolete logs around (as long as I have space for them) but distinguish them from current logs by adding an explanatory note, shading them darker, and using italicized text.

Beastopedia Monster Pages - Drop List and Ratings The RuneScoop Beastopedia - Understanding Source Lists and Resource Tables