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RuneScoop.com  >  RuneScoop Monster Secrets       >  RuneScoop Monster Secrets - Mithril Dragon Guide

Mithril Dragon Guide - Challenges and Strategy Mithril Dragon Guide - Basic Melee Technique (Leaf-Bladed Sword)

Still with me? Hopefully that means you have decided to go for it and become a mith dragon hunter. Good for you! J Now I will start to get down to the nitty-gritty, showing you where the lair is located, and telling you about the two best ways of getting there. I will also show you the lair, tell you which of the seven mith dragons is best to fight, and where you should stand to avoid hassles while in combat.

Note that the recent addition of a fairy ring within the Ancient Cavern has made much of the information in this section rather moot—the fairy ring is easily the best way of getting to the dragons, and the one I recommend. I have retained much of the older information for general reference. There are also certain cases where you still may need to go into the cave the conventional way—for example, some players die in the cavern and forget to have a spare dramen staff or lunar staff in the bank, so they can’t use the fairy rings to return.

The mithril dragon lair is located in the Ancient Cavern, which is in the Barbarian training area near Otto Godblessed’s house. The cavern itself is actually under the lake in this region, accessed by a small whirlpool. Otto’s place can be found southwest of the Barbarian Outpost and the Barbarian Assault minigame building; it is due east of the Grand Tree of the gnomes and north of Baxtorian Falls.

First, getting to the area. There are two good ways to do this:

1. Games Necklace: Using a games necklace, teleport to Barbarian Outpost. Then just run south about 4 or 5 clicks to the pier at the lake. This is shown as the red path in Figure 18.
   
   
2. Grand Tree Shortcut: Bank at the Grand Tree. When ready, run down the ladder and out the front doors of the tree, then northeast to the rock climb Agility shortcut (level 37 required.) Scramble down, then run east to the pier (the blue path in Figure 18).
   

   Figure 18: Getting to the Ancient Cavern

   This map shows the two best ways of getting to the cavern. The red path starts from the games necklace teleport location and heads nearly due south to the end of the pier in Otto’s lake. The blue route begins at the Grand Tree bank; you go over to the stairs, down, out the door, across to the agility shortcut and then east to the pier. In both cases, you click on the whirlpool and the game will automatically run you down the pier and jump into it to access the cavern.

   
   

The first method is simpler and easier; you can bank anywhere, just teleport and run south. It is also slightly faster. The second method, though a bit more complicated and taking a bit longer to traverse, gives a notable advantage: an extra inventory space for food. Which you choose is up to you; I used to use a games necklace for the simpler methods and the Grand Tree for Veracs (though again, I now use the fairy ring).

The cavern is accessed by jumping into the whirlpool that is at the end of the pier at the northern edge of Otto’s lake. In order to jump in you must be standing somewhere on the pier. Click the whirlpool and your character will walk back to the start of the pier, then take a running leap into the pool (Figure 19). Everything will go dark and then the cavern will appear.

There’s a trick to getting into the cavern a bit more quickly that you may wish to use. Don’t click on the minimap to run to the end of the pier and then click the whirlpool; this wastes time as the character walks back to the start of the pier to run. Rotate your view so you are looking south, then click near the start of the pier; once there, click the whirlpool and you’ll run in more seamlessly.

Note that you cannot jump into the whirlpool if you have a familiar summoned (or a pet out, presumably; I’ve never tried). Again, if you want to enter the cavern with a familiar, use the fairy ring.

Once you appear in the cavern, you’ll be in a little “landing area” that Jagex was nice enough to provide. This gives you a place to prepare before you face the monsters that lie within. In this area I recommend drinking your antifire potion (if you didn’t before leaving the bank) and other stat-boosting potions such as ranged or super attack.

Go down the stairs to the east of the landing and you’ll be in the main part of the cavern. The stairs up to the mith dragon lair are about two minimap clicks to the southeast. You will run past some brutal green dragons and waterfiends, both of which have multiple distance attacks, so be prepared; the brutal green dragons are level 227 and nothing to be trifled with.

Again here, it’s faster to angle the camera down and be looking south so you can click the stairs up quickly. If you have low melee defence put on Protection from Melee / Deflect Melee before going up the stairs as you will be attacked immediately when you enter the mith dragon lair (unless someone is already fighting the one near the entrance.)

Late in 2009, Jagex put a new, convenient fairy ring right within the Ancient Cavern itself. It is handy not only because it makes getting to the monsters in the cavern much easier, but also because it means that for the first time you can take familiars into the cavern.

The fairy ring is located in the far southwest corner of the main floor of the cavern, in the second waterfiend area. It begins as a patch of “enchanted land”—you need five Bittercap mushrooms (called just “mushrooms” in game) and a spade to convert this land to a fairy ring. After that, it can be used like any other fairy ring in the game; its code is “BJQ”.

To access the fairy ring network, you need a lunar staff or dramen staff. The fastest way to get to the fairy rings is to use a ring of slaying to teleport to the Rellekka Slayer Cave; then you can use the fairy ring just to the west of there to get to the main one in Zanaris.

Many players don’t realize that if you use a fairy ring to teleport into a dangerous area, you have immunity from attack as long as you don’t move. This means that after dialing in “BJQ” you can stand on the fairy ring and “pot up” without being attacked by the waterfiends or brutal green dragons. Be sure to take advantage of this.

Once you are ready for action, you will need to run well to the east to get to the stairs that lead up to the mithril dragons. With this entry point you need to go past more of the brutal green dragons, which will happily take a pot shot or two at you along the way, just for fun (Figure 20). So make sure you take your antifire or super antifire before leaving the fairy ring.

In the past, mith dragons have had a habit of “kill stealing” players, by which I mean that one dragon can interrupt another during combat. This means you can get a dragon 90% dead and not be able to finish it off—very annoying. I am not sure if this still happens, as it has been quite a few years since I originally wrote this guide, and Jagex has had some combat code redesigns since then. But you can avoid the issue entirely by choosing the right dragon to kill and standing in the correct spot.

The mithril dragon lair is oddly shaped; it features one large area and four smaller ones connected by narrow passageways. You can see a full map of the dungeon in Figure 21, along with annotations to which I will refer later. The large area has three dragons and the smaller alcoves one each. Most of these areas are actually too small for the dragons to move around much, which can be very useful, as you will see.

The large area with three dragons is definitely to be avoided; with them in close proximity steals are far more likely. Also, as soon as you kill one another will attack you right away, giving you no time to heal or pick up drops. The dragons in the other four areas are easier to deal with, though some are better than others.

In the figure, I have numbered the dragons 1 through 7, ranked in order of which I prefer to kill. Here’s a quick analysis of each dragon:

• Mith #1: The advantage of this dragon is that you will be in combat with it as soon as you go up the stairs, so you don’t waste time running. It is also in a secluded area safe from interference by other dragons. I used to consider this the second-best choice, but it is now my preferred spot—for simplicity, and because this dragon will sometimes attack you if you go into the alcove to the north where #2 is located.
  
  This dragon does not have a total safe spot like Mith #1, but if you stand in the south-center of its area, it will usually take the dragon at least 20 seconds before it works out that it has to move to the north to attack you (and sometimes, even then it doesn’t figure it out). So it is a pretty good spot.
  
  
• Mith #2: This dragon is in its own area set apart from all of the others except Mith #1, and is close to the entrance. It has the advantage of a complete “safe spot” right in the very center of the alcove; if you stand there you cannot attack the dragon, but it cannot attack you either. This gives you a chance to breathe between kills, eat food, take potions and so forth; it is also helpful if you get in trouble or lag during a fight. Even if you aren’t in the exact center it often can’t get you. (In Figure 21 you can see “one of the me’s” standing in the safe spot right under the head of Mith #2.)
  
  This used to be my favorite spot, but during one of Jagex’s game engine redesigns, something changed with how the dragons behave. You are now very likely to get attacked by the dragon near the stairs while you are dealing with drops after killing this dragon, so I only fight it if someone else is battling Mith #1.
  
  
• Mith #3: If both Mith #1 and Mith #2 are taken, this dragon is the next best choice, as it is the only other one where you are safe from kill stealing. It’s far from ideal, though, for two reasons. First, you have to run past three other dragons to get to it, letting them take shots at you; and second, there’s a skeleton warlord in the northeast corner who will sometimes attack you when you try to pick up drops. Even so, I have used this dragon with success during busy times.
  
  Stand in the southwest corner of this dragon’s lair if you fight it, but in most cases world hopping and doing #1 or #2 is a better idea.
  
  
• Mith #4: This is the last of the dragons I might consider fighting. It is far from the entrance and only “mostly” safe from kill stealing; sometimes Mith #7 will interfere. If you try it, stand in the far southwest. I don’t bother.
  
  
• Mith #5, Mith #6 and Mith #7: Avoid unless you like a challenge or are a masochist. :) If you really must do one of these, range Mith #5 from the isthmus between Mith #1 and Mith #5.

You should log in to as full a world as possible to reduce respawn time, allowing you to fight the same dragon over and over. But if the good spots are all taken, consider just switching worlds. If you want to do this, first move into one of the safe spots, so you won’t be attacked as soon as you log back in. When I first wrote this guide, mithril dragons were much more popular than they are now, so chances are good you’ll pretty much always be able to do the first or second dragon.

Mithril Dragon Guide - Challenges and Strategy Mithril Dragon Guide - Basic Melee Technique (Leaf-Bladed Sword)