RuneScoop.com - Mithril Dragon Guide - Advanced Ranged Technique

This advanced ranged technique is pretty much the same as the basic ranged method, except that it takes advantage of two of the new, untradeable, high-level Herblore potions. With an Herblore level of 85 you can use super antifire potions, which then frees up your shield slot to use an unholy book for its +8 Ranged bonus. And at level 92 you can use extreme ranging potions which give high-level rangers an additional 10 more bonus points to their Ranged stat.

These two changes make a small but still quite noticeable difference in kill speed when it comes to mithril dragons. That said, ranging is still the least effective of the three combat styles for these dragons. If you have 85 Herblore then meleeing using Veracs is both faster and cheaper. Maging is not cheaper, but you can get a lot of Magic XP fighting these dragons at high levels, while the Ranged XP is still just moderate.

This method, like the basic one, assumes the availability of ancient curses, making use of the curses Deflect Melee, Leech Ranged and Leech Defence. These combine to protect against the mithril dragons’ potent melee attacks, while making them more susceptible to crossbow attacks.

Ranging gear generally combines ranging attack and magic defence bonuses, which are what we are after here. We also need to keep prayer bonuses at least reasonably high. Table 183 and Figure 25 show my recommendations.

**Table 183: Equipment for the Mithril Dragon Advanced Ranged Technique**
Equipment Slot	Recommended Item	Alternatives	Notes
Head	Armadyl helmet	Robin hood hat; God coif; others	Looks silly, but provides good ranged attack and magic defence bonuses at a reasonable price. Also gives +1 to Prayer.
Cloak	Soul Wars cape	Ava’s accumulator	The accumulator is the usual recommended cloak item for serious ranging, as it provides a Ranged boost and picks up ammunition. However, the availability of the Soul Wars cape (if you’ve completed Nomad’s Requiem) makes the cloak slot an excellent place to boost up prayer bonuses (+12) while giving up very little in terms of ranged bonus.
Neck	Amulet of fury	Amulet of glory, God stole	The all-purpose winner for every method.
Quiver	Adamantite bolts	Runite bolts; Diamond (e) bolts	See the discussion “Ranging Ammunition” on the page covering challenges and strategy.
Weapon	Rune crossbow	--	There’s really no other viable choice.
Body	Karil’s top	Black dhide top	Karil’s provides much more mage defence. Be sure to check its repair status occasionally.
Shield	Unholy book	--	This is the only decent Ranged booster for the shield slot in the game.
Legs	Karil’s skirt	Black dhide legs	Again, choose Karil’s for its magic defence.
Hands	“Barrows” gloves	Black dhide vambraces	These are the best hand items.
Feet	Ranger boots	Snakeskin boots	Ranged boost.
Ring	Archer ring	Ring of wealth; ring of life	The archer ring will slightly speed up kills and is the preferred ring here. A ring of wealth will help increase the chance of getting some of the “standard” rare drops (like a dragon spear) but has no impact on getting a dragon full helm or other mith-specific special drops. The ring of life provides insurance against lagging.

As mentioned in my strategy discussion, the quantities of supplies you need depends on not just your levels, but also on the familiar you are using. A higher level beast of burden lets you hold more drops, so you can take longer trips; in turn, you need more healing and potions.

My recommended inventory items for straight meleeing can be found in Table 184 and Figure 25. These are based on the use of a pack yak, since I am able to summon one and so I based my testing on using its spacious 30 item capacity. If you are using a lower level familiar, scale back the amount of food and possibly the size of the potions to suit your needs.

**Table 184: Inventory Items for the Mithril Dragon Advanced Ranged Technique**
Category	Recommended Item(s)	Alternatives	Notes
Exit cavern, emergency teleport	Home teleport tablets	Other teleport tablets, Ectophial, Elf crystal	I strongly recommend you bring house tablets. They make it easier to recharge your prayer after a run and get back to a bank, and also let you escape fast if you fall behind on food or lag. They stack so bring several to save time between trips.
Access to cavern	Ring of slaying and lunar staff or dramen staff	--	Use the ring to get to the Rellekka fairy ring, then the staff to access Zanaris and the fairy ring in the Ancient Cavern. I usually use a dramen staff here, because I don’t want to deal with the hassle of replacing the lunar staff if I die (it will not appear in your gravestone). For more information, see the discussion of mith dragon lair location and access.
Prayer Potion Enhancement	Holy Wrench	--	This reward from the Rum Deal quest provides 1 or 2 extra prayer points for each prayer potion dose.
Firebreath protection	Super antifire potion (4)	--	You will usually need 3 doses, but I strongly recommend a 4-dose potion just in case you need the extra dose—without it, you are vulnerable to big firebreath hits.
Combat Boost	Extreme ranging (3) and extreme defence (3)	2-dose or 4-dose versions of these potions	The extreme defence potion reduces damage taken (and time needed to heal) while the extreme ranging potion speeds kills. You should be okay with 3-dose potions for this method, but can adjust the dosages to suit your needs.
Prayer restore	4 Prayer potion (4)	Combination of prayer (4) and prayer mix (2)	Your prayer will drain pretty fast with this method, but kills are faster than with the basic Ranged method, so you should need less prayer. Mixes are a good idea if you have them, but you might want to save them for more difficult fights.
Healing	15 Salmon, 5 monkfish and 5 strawberry baskets	(Many alternatives)	As with the other methods, the amount of food you need depends on your skill levels and equipment, and your comfort level with trying to save money using cheaper food. I like this mix of food as it provides options for moderate healing at low cost (salmon), higher quick healing (monkfish) and high LP but slow healing (strawberries).
Special Attack	Saradomin godsword	Bandos godsword; Enhanced Excalibur; others	Since the primary weapon has no special attack, bring with a secondary weapon with a special that will assist you in combat.
Special Attack Restoration	Recover special (4)	--	Optional: If you are using an SGS or other item with a useful special attack, you may want to bring with one or more recover special potions so you can use the special more frequently. Depending on the special, this can partially replace some of your prayer potions and/or food.

Use the ring of slaying to teleport to Rellekka. Equip your lunar or dramen staff and then click on the ring just to your west to go to Zanaris. Click the ring there, scroll down in the list and choose “BJQ”, then click to teleport to the Ancient Cavern. Re-equip your crossbow and make sure it is on “Rapid” (sometimes the setting changes when you equip a staff and then switch back). Take the first dose of each of your potions while standing in the ring, then put on Protection from Magic and run east towards the mith dragon stairs.

Go up the stairs, then immediately click the prayer interface button to enable your standard curses. Choose a dragon to fight, following the order of preference I described earlier, and simply melee it until it is dead. Be sure to stand within melee range so the dragon uses its melee attacks instead of ranging you—you’ll also get some nice rebound damage this way.

After you finish a kill, turn off your prayer while the dragon is dying, then pick up drops. Open the beast of burden, store drops and take out more food if needed. Check your prayer, and eat/pot as necessary.

You will generally leave the lair either when you are low on supplies or your inventory is getting full. If the latter, remember that if you need extra space you can always drop your partially charged ring of slaying; they are cheap to make. You could also choose to bury some of the dragon bones or leave some low-valued drops behind.

The amount of food and potions you need depends a lot on your luck. Be sure not to “push it” if you are low on supplies—running out of prayer half-way through a dragon is annoying, and with this method you’ll get hit hard if the dragon starts meleeing you. Remember that you can usually get back and finish off a dragon you are unable to kill off, but there’s a possibility another player might take your spot.

Use your home teleport tablet when done, recharge at the altar in your house, and then use a mounted amulet of glory or a portal to get to a bank. As an alternative, you can cast the level 0 Home Teleport spell (every 30 minutes) to save a tablet.

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