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RuneScoop.com  >  RuneScoop Monster Secrets       >  RuneScoop Monster Secrets - Waterfiend Guide

Waterfiend Guide - Drops and Charms Waterfiend Guide - Location, Access and Positioning

Waterfiends are not difficult to fight, but it does take a considerable amount of time, effort and experimentation to figure out the best, most efficient ways of killing them. Over the last couple of years I have killed countless thousands of waterfiends, and in that time I have learned a great deal about what to do and what not to do in order to get lots of charms and other drops quickly and easily.

What I have discovered over time has formed the basis for the specific combat techniques that you’ll find later in this guide. In order not to weight those guides down with lengthy discussions of why I made various specific decisions, I have created this page. In it you’ll find explanations for my choices with regard to weapons, equipment, familiars, technique, trip length and much more.

Combat Style

There’s not really much to say here: melee is the fastest method—by far—and also the least expensive. I occasionally see people ranging down in the cavern, but not often. Definitely do not bother maging these, as you’ll be wasting your money.

There’s a lot more to say here. :)

I already mentioned in the introduction that waterfiends require a crushing weapon, but that of course leaves the question of which one to use. I have tried numerous crush weapons with waterfiends, and here are my subjective rankings from best to worst of the most common candidates (see Figure 31 for a picture of some of them):

• Saradomin Sword: This two-handed weapon has a very fast speed, good crush bonus and solid strength, in addition to providing +2 to prayer. Its special attack, despite apparently being magic-based, also works well on waterfiends despite their high magic resistance. I compared the Sara sword directly to the Zamorakian spear, and the former is better, not even counting its superior special.
  
  
• Zamorakian Spear: Not quite as good as the Saradomin sword, but a close second place. It is similar in that it is two-handed, has abyssal whip speed, and +2 prayer bonus. It also has the advantage of being much less expensive than the Sara sword. Its special attack is useless on waterfiends, though, so use another weapon for its special.
  
  
• Saradomin Godsword: This was originally my weapon of choice, because it has a good crush bonus and good strength, and well, it’s my weapon of choice for nearly everything—I like it. :) But as good as it is, it is simply too much slower than the Saradomin sword or the Zamorakian spear to be ideal as a primary weapon. It is close, but not as good as the weapons above. Its special is quite useful at waterfiends, but see the notes in the section below on special attack weapons.
  
  
• Other Godswords: These are as good as the Sara godsword for routine combat, but their specials are not nearly as useful.
  
  
• Verac’s Flail: This is a pretty good and inexpensive weapon for those on a budget. However, it is rather slow, and unlike a godsword, is not particularly strong. It also degrades and needs to be repaired.
  
  
• Barrelchest Anchor: This reward from the quest The Great Brain Robbery seems nearly ideally suited for waterfiends: it has a massive crush attack bonus of +92 and strength of +100. And it does hit well—but it is quite slow.
  
  
• Dharok’s Greataxe: Basically the same as the barrelchest anchor, but a bit stronger and a bit slower. See below for more on Dharok’s.
  
  
• Dragon 2H Sword: Same basic deal—hits hard but is quite slow.
  
  
  
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  Figure 31: A Selection of “Waterfiend-Worthy” Crush Weapons

  From left to right, top to bottom: Saradomin sword, Zamorakian spear; Saradomin godsword; Bandos godsword; Verac’s flail; Barrelchest anchor; Dharok’s greataxe; Dragon 2H sword.

  Yes, I own all of these. I have to keep an amazing assortment of stuff in my bank to do these guides. :)

  
  

As always, make sure you are on the crush setting for your weapon, especially after using the fairy rings; sometimes switching to a staff and then back to a regular weapon changes its mode.

Using a Secondary Weapon for its Special Attack

The two best weapons for fighting waterfiends have special attacks that are of marginal usefulness (the Saradomin sword) and none at all (Zamorakian spear). One way to deal with this is to bring with another weapon to use only for its special, swapping them every few minutes when your special bar recharges.

Here are a few worthy candidates, listed roughly according to my views of their value:

• Saradomin Godsword: If you have one, you already know what it can do: restore health and prayer every 2.5 minutes. Just beware that when the special is invoked, the attack appears to be made as a slash even when on the crush setting. This means you will get more zeroes doing this than you might expect.
  
  
• Armadyl Godsword: 25% more damage is always nice. :)
  
  
• Enhanced Excalibur: This enhanced reward, obtainable after completing the Seers’ Village achievement diary, boosts your defence and heals you 200 LP over 10 seconds.
  
  
• Ancient Mace: This reward from Another Slice of H.A.M. has a special that gives you a number of prayer points equal to how much damage is dealt. It’s a very weak weapon so there’s a good chance it will miss, but if you are pumped up with other boosting gear it’s worth a shot.
  
  
• Bandos Godsword: Its special boosts damage by 10%, but it is full bar, and the other effects are not of much use here.

The Saradomin sword and Barrelchest anchor both have specials that are useful, just not great (see Figure 32 below). If you are using them as primary weapons and don’t have anything better, by all means take advantage of those specs.

Note that in some cases you might even want to bring recover special potions to use in conjunction with some of these specials. If you’re using a Saradomin godsword, a recover special potion is in effective like a miniature healing and prayer restore pot...

The most common choice of head equipment for waterfiends is the helm of Neitiznot, which combines low cost with high defence bonuses, a +3 strength bonus and +3 prayer boost. However, there’s another item that is worthy of serious consideration: the dwarven helmet. This is yet another quest reward, this time from Grim Tales, and it is notable because it has a +6 crush attack bonus.

My subjective feeling is that +6 to crush attack should be more useful here than +3 to strength, so I set out to test the two helmets “head to head” (ha!) Unfortunately, my test was rather inconclusive. In the end, the choice is up to you, of course. If you are using prayer, the helm of Neitiznot is likely the better option, and it is the only choice for multicombat fighting in the Chaos Tunnels. Otherwise, use whichever you like.

I’m a big fan of using Dharok’s to kill monsters, because it is usually at least 15% faster than any alternative method. Dharok’s greataxe has a crush setting, so it seemed like it would at least be a viable option with waterfiends, and I tested it fairly extensively.

Unfortunately, I do not think it works well here, and I can no longer recommend it. The main reason is that in my opinion, the difference in speed does not justify the much higher cost, risk and hassle that Dharok’s involves at the waterfiends.

Dharoking any monster with two attacks is already dangerous enough: you are going to need to use prayer and watch your health. But with waterfiends it is that much worse: due to their magic attack and magic-based ranged attack, you get pinged for damage constantly, no matter what you do.

I found that the only way to at least partially slow this damage down is to use an enhancing prayer like Piety or Turmoil, to both boost defence and increase kill speed; otherwise, you spend all your time eating, potting and/or running to the bank. But when I tried using those same prayers to enhance combat using traditional methods, I found that it sped them up even more.

In the end, the speed difference for Dharoking in my tests was only about 7%. In exchange for that, I had to watch my health constantly, almost died once, used twice as many prayer potions, and about four times as much food. And then I gave back part of the speed benefits by having to bank sooner.

Oh, and if all that weren’t enough, guess what happens if you accidentally get too close to the brutal green dragons and one of them breathes on you? Right: you’re toast. Extra crispy.

Try it if you want, but as for me, no thanks.

Most higher level players using proper gear will not need to use a protection prayer or curse for standard single combat with waterfiends. But if you do find you need it, protecting against the ranged attack seems to work better.

The level 70 prayer Piety gives +20% to Attack, +23% to Strength and +25% to Defence. The level 90 curse Turmoil gives values that depend on the Attack, Strength and Defence of the opponent. Since waterfiends use magic and ranged attacks, you only get the base Turmoil boosts of +15% to Attack and +23% to Strength, along with +29% to Defence.

Normally this would mean that Piety is better. However, Turmoil has the advantage of draining your prayer points 33% more slowly. For me, that’s worth the slight difference in Attack—and it also means I can keep the curses activated, which is what I usually use. Your choice.

The “traditional” familiar for fighting waterfiends is the bunyip. In fact, bunyips are so associated with killing waterfiends that many players work to get level 68 Summoning just to make fighting waterfiends easier. It seems like a match made in heaven: the bunyip heals 80 LP per minute, its special attack allows you to eat the raw fish that the waterfiends drop, and if you don’t need the healing you can feed the fish to the familiar to get water runes.

And it really is a good choice; I’ve used one there myself many times. But I now consider a beast of burden to be better. Part of this is because of the new fairy ring that allows you to now bring familiars directly into the Ancient Cavern, and to easily access a bank in just a few seconds, then return to combat. Using a beast of burden, I am able to bring more cost-effective food to the cavern, and leave with more drops. I also don’t have to deal with nearly as much “inventory juggling”.

Much of this comes down to your playing style. The bunyip still allows for a more relaxed fighting experience, with less to worry about in terms of the need to heal; it is better for those who care less about drops and more about focusing on getting charms. But if the only reason you’re using a bunyip is to save money on food, you’re better off with a beast of burden. Because without one, you’re going to waste more money leaving behind unnoted drops than you save on food.

Of course, your Summoning level matters as well. If you have level 96 for a pack yak, then using one is a no-brainer (Figure 32), but if your level is lower, the beasts of burden aren’t nearly as good. The level 68 for a bunyip also lets you use a war tortoise (level 67), but those pouches are so expensive that they eat up much of the value of the extra drops you keep. I do have the ability to use a pack yak, but I’d still probably use a spirit terrorbird instead of a bunyip at this point: I’d rather keep those sharks than feed them to a familiar.

Getting to the Ancient Cavern used to be a bit of a pain, and you couldn’t enter it with familiars summoned. so players worked to make their waterfiend trips as long as possible. This is no longer an issue, and therefore trip length really isn’t either. I don’t plan for trips of any particular duration—I just bring with a full set of extreme/super potions, some decent, cost-effective food, and stay as long as they last.

The only real advantage to longer trips is that each time you leave and return, the monsters get aggressive again. This is a real consideration for the multicombat method, but for most players doing standard single combat fighting of waterfiends, it’s just a minor annoyance.

Charms are untradeable, but they can be “bought” indirectly: by spending money to speed up your kills. One way to do this is to ensure you are using the best possible equipment, but another is to use enhancing prayers. The main difference between the two single combat waterfiend methods in this guide is that one uses prayer to speed up the kill rate, at the cost of requiring prayer potions.

This idea of “buying charms” reaches its culmination with the multicombat method that concludes this guide. Intended only for very high level players, it uses constant prayer to protect against the multiple attacks you are subjected to, and to increase kill rate. In so doing, it sacrifices the profit you’d normally make from them in favor of getting more charms per hour. It’s not expensive in terms of costing you money out of pocket, but it is in that most of what you earn in drops is going to be offset in potions consumed.

The multicombat method also requires very high skill levels, with maxed combat and 95 Prayer recommended. You really need a very high Summoning level to begin with for that method, because much of the benefit is in having a good combat familiar killing waterfiends alongside you. For this, an iron titan is ideal, both for its high combat ability and its powerful scroll.

Finally, the multicombat method can be dangerous—if you lose connection here, you could easily find yourself in Lumbridge (or wherever).

But if you want to get charms fast, this is the way to do it.

Waterfiend Guide - Drops and Charms Waterfiend Guide - Location, Access and Positioning