Method Description, Instructions and Tips for Success

General Description

Flesh crawlers are one of the best herb droppers in the game, but go beyond that. They also drop fire runes by the boatload, along with body, nature and dust runes (which are handy combinations of earth and air runes). They even drop good quantities of noted iron ore!

Because of how good their drops are, flesh crawlers sometimes get rather crowded. However, if you don't fight during the busiest times (weekend days especially) you can usually find a world with only a couple of other players. These other folks can even be a boon to those who are fighting flesh crawlers to make money -- they frequently leave valuable drops on the ground. It is very common to see body and dust rune piles lying all over the place, for example. And while it is true that each of these drops is not valuable by itself, they add up quickly, especially if you are keeping both your drops and those of others. I have sometimes even seen people leaving noted iron ore on the ground -- I have no idea why anyone would do that!

With monsters that drop a large number of herbs, there are trade-offs between keeping all the herbs or leaving the lower-valued ones so you can try to get more of the ones that cost more. There is also a trade-off between using a beast of burden to get more herbs per trip, or summoning a macaw for its herb enhancing benefit, because the macaw increases the percentage of good herbs (ranarr and above) by a hefty 40%. The key factors that determine the best approach are the number of herbs you get per hour from the monster, the distance to the bank (and thus how much time you waste per hour banking if you take more trips) and the value of non-herb drops.

Flesh crawlers drop a good number of herbs for higher level players -- not as much as chaos druids, for example, but enough that if you kept them all you'd be banking frequently. And these monsters are not particularly close to a bank -- you have to run a fair distance from Edgeville, go down a level and run through a maze. Based on my tests, I have determined that at low and mid levels you should keep all herbs, using a macaw at mid levels (you can't at low levels). At high and very high levels you should use a macaw and keep only guams plus herbs harralander and up; this preserves most of the drop value while cutting bank runs down. Once you get to level 96 Summoning, I recommend my macaw / pack yak combo. In this technique you bring with both pouches, use a macaw until your inventory is full (to get its better herb drops) and then switch to a pack yak.

Specific Method Details

Teleport to Edgeville, and equip yourself in the gear listed, which is standard (non-Barrows) melee combat gear, except with an amulet of glory instead of an amulet of fury -- these are low-level monsters so the extra benefits of the fury are not needed, and doing this saves you an inventory slot. Take out of the bank 2-dose super attack and super strength potions, a macaw pouch and a pack yak pouch. Be sure your Summoning points are at least close to full (there's an obelisk near the bridge northeast of Edgeville.)

Run south to Barbarian Village, go down the hole in the center of town to enter the dungeon, then use the portal to the first floor "treasure room". Climb down the ladder to the second level, then use the portal there to get to the middle of the second level. Pass the double doors to the southeast, and then another set of double doors to the south. Go through a small maze (running past the zombies) to a final set of double doors. Open those and the crawlers will be there; they are aggressive to all levels and will attack immediately. Be sure to summon your macaw right away. At this level you will frequently one-hit the monsters, so get to it and collect all their decent drops as you go, including guams and herbs harralander and up. Be sure to check carefully as they often drop two items at once, especially fire runes with an herb. Keep an eye out for runes and other valuables left behind by other players. Once your inventory is full, fight until you have a couple of more non-stacking drops on the ground, then dismiss the macaw, summon the pack yak and transfer items to it. Keep fighting until the yak and your inventory are both full, which should be about a half hour. Teleport to Edgeville, bank and repeat.