Potato cactus is a secondary ingredient used in both Herblore and Summoning, which can be found only at ground spawns deep in the Kalphite Lair. This location is both inconvenient and dangerous, and there are few spawns; as a result, few people gather potato cactus, making it quite valuable and a good moneymaker for those willing to collect it.
There are technically 8 potato cactus spawns in the dungeon, but 5 of these are in the lair of the Kalphite Queen, an extremely dangerous monster. That leaves just 3, which are themselves in a multicombat area with aggressive, poisonous level 85 kalphite soldiers. Thus, despite this being a "running" activity, you must wear combat gear designed to give you defence against their attacks. You also need food and antipoison potions. Even with these, bear in mind that lower-level players are in considerable danger in the Kalphite Lair, so they should be very cautious before trying this activity!
Respawn times for potato cactus depend on how full the world is. Since there are few very full worlds, I did my tests on one about half full, and the numbers here reflect this; if you can find a full or nearly full world where someone isn't already collecting the cactus, you can exceed the numbers shown here.
Use the highest-level beast of burden you can summon, to let you take more cactus per trip.
Note that at higher levels, I use regular antipoison potions taken as needed rather than super antipoisons, to save money. If you prefer, use super antipoisons, which last 6 minutes per dose instead of 1 minute for regular antis. |
All information based on Grand Exchange price data from: May 19, 2012. Note that the three-day delay in price updates is waived for RuneScoop members. 