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High Level Monster Killing

To make things easier I’ve split up high level monster killing into two ‘types’ – the consistent drops (such as Dragon Bones, Dragon hides) or the rare drops (such as Torva, Bandos or the Draconic Visage).  Personally I would aim to go for ‘rare drops’ as opposed to the consistent ones.

Consistent Drops or Rare Drops?

Rare drops.  Unfortunately unless you’re a very low combat level then the vast majority of the time it’s far better to be killing creatures which drop items worth several million gold rarely then dropping items worth a few thousand gold all the time.  Now I have written a good green dragons money making guide, and even at maximum combat level with good gear and doing everything right I couldn’t hope to earn anything near the kind of money if I were to go to Armadyl or in fact almost all high level boss monsters would make me far better money than trying to kill any type of Dragon.

Personally I think the reason some people who can do Rare Monster Killing yet choose consistent drops are doing so because they like to see consistent and gradual gain.  Personally though I think it’s more important to do whatever has the highest gold earning/hour ratio and that isn’t getting dragon bones.  Even if killing monsters such as Kree’arra (the Armadyl Boss) isn’t quite as satisfying as constantly picking up items, it still makes more money long term and that’s what you should be aiming for.

Rare Drops

Ok, finally we’re onto something that I feel is worth writing about.  If you still thinking that skilling is a good method of making money then go of this page!  I don’t even want you reading it, you are not worthy of the information you are about to receive.

I have compiled a list of the best monsters/bosses to hunt on Runescape, and some such as the King Black Dragon I’ve completely left out because they’re not worth the time spent killing them for the drops you receive.  You can receive better drops and kill easier creatures much more frequently such as Metal Dragons in the case of the KBD.

As a general rule of thumb you need to be 90 combat plus at least to be able to do some of these methods with a team.  If you’re combat level is too low, don’t look for something else to do just start training!  You’ll make much more gold, long term, if you invest your time in training up levels now so you can make more money later.  To do these methods really well, or even solo a lot of them you need a high combat level and a good 5-10 million gold to get reasonable gear and supplies.  However you can definitely perform around 50% of the methods with the starting cash of just a few million gold and quite low levels –just don’t expect it to be as effective as you wanted!

Below are the links to the introductory guides of each of the best bosses to kill, these are not full guides but are designed to allow you to skim read them and see if you meet the requirements and are right for your style of game play.

Consistent Drops

For me consistent drops are all about the various Green, Blue, Red, Metal, King Black Dragons that are out there.  Oh and don’t forget Frost Dragons.  Now I could write in real detail about this topic but the truth is that consistent drops are not great for earning gold.  On the other hand you can earn 750k-1million gold per hour by killing Green Dragons and 3-4 million gold per hour killing by Frost Dragons.  These are the only two I’m going to talk about for the time being because out of all the various monster killing activities consistent drops are similar to ‘skilling’, whereby they’re a ‘safe’ but ultimately rather low earning activity – (But still vastly superior to skilling).

If you’re tired, have a poor internet connection/slow computer or have some other reason which would make it either risky or unwanted to fight higher level monsters that drop better items (but which are inevitably more risky) than this is a good method to use for making cash.  I’ll stand by what I said about it being inferior to going for the rare drops, because it is.  Nevertheless if you don’t feel like having to concentrate then there’s nothing wrong at all with going to kill some green dragons.  If you’re efficient there’s no reason why you can’t make big money there whatsoever.  If you have a computer/internet connection issue then again this is a good option for you because the chances of dying are much less, and if you’re in the wilderness killing the green dragons for their hides and bones you can just take 4 expensive items and substitute the rest for cheaper but still reasonably effective alternatives.

Killing green dragons has been the standard way of making reasonable amounts of gold at a variety of levels for a long time, your combat level should be around 60 at least and you must have completed Dragon Slayer so you can wield an anti-dragon shield (formerly anti-fire shield) or a super anti-fire potion.  If you want more information about killing green dragons you should check out my Runescape green dragons money making guide (it’s over a thousand words of pure gold) to teach you how to make 750k-1 million gold per hour by combining 6 different techniques together for maximum efficiency.

The one main ‘consistent drops’ monster killing route I will talk about is that of butchering Frost Dragons.  The requirements for this are level 85 Dungeoneering and the Frost Dragons themselves are located within the highest level Resource Dungeon within the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon.  If you like playing it safe and doing the ‘skilling’ of the monster killing world go right ahead and visit my frost dragon guide for an in-depth analysis.

One of the pre-requisites for doing this effectively (aside from 85 Dungeoneering which is amust) is also to be able to summon a pack yak at level 96 Summoning.  The pack yak holds up to 30 extra items and is the more superior beast of burden in the entire game.  More importantly that it being able to hold 30 items is its special ability called ‘Winter Storage’ which allows you to teleport an item from your inventory back to your bank at the cost of some of the creatures special attack bar.

As you can imagine however, this isn’t for most people because the skill requirements are quite high.  But as I’ve said many times, if you want to make money there has to be sacrifice.  I probably wouldn’t sacrifice my time doing this however, seeing as there are better methods that take less time and earn more.  On the other hand, if you have a poor internet connection and do not like doing risky activities this is perfect for you.  There’s almost no risk, fighting ability is not really needed, and you can still make a lot of money and do it in a non-threatening and safe environment.

High Level Monster Killing General Requirements

Now of course this is only ever going to be a rough guide, which will vary with each player, fighting style, monster and so forth, but it goes over some of the important logistics of what you should have and should be doing.  I’m not going to dwell too long on this section, but I’ll go over a few of the important concepts.

Killing monsters is not about going to kill something which you can just about kill.  You should be able to comfortably kill a monster without having any serious chance of dying.  The only time you should dying killing high level monsters is when your internet disconnects or something out of your control happens.  If you keep ‘nearly’ dying then what you’re doing probably isn’t for you and you need to go something easier which isn’t going to kill you.  The point of killing these monsters is to earn gold, so don’t be self defeating and actually manage to lose gold.

When it comes to monster killing you should be taking the best gear and supplies that you can, and your prayers should be always activated to be giving you constant bonuses.  Taking rune and black dragonhides isn’t going to cut it anymore, especially when you consider that you’ll probably have competition.  Barrow’s armour is the worst you should be taking, and if you can’t afford any expensive weapons then you may want to consider doing Dungeoneering until you can purchase a Chaotic weapon.  You should always be taking the best potions you can and using the best prayers that you can (preferably curses).

Ok, as I said I’m not going to dwell on this topic because this is pretty obvious stuff, but it’s important to remember that a lot of the time you won’t just be competing with the monster you’ll be competing against other players to get the kill.  Another important aspect to remember is that many (if not most) teams have strict requirements for letting people join, and if you don’t meet the requirements you’ll find it hard to be able to join any teams.

Rare Boss Monsters

These are the introductory guides as promised and they’ll give you a feel as to whether you’re able to kill the monster, what you can gain from it loot-wise and what levels and requirements you need if you are willing to train up so you can kill the monster of your choice.

Runescape Nex Guide – Introduction (Difficulty – Maximum)

The Nex monster is the best monster to kill at the moment and when the time comes that it no longer is I’ll be sure to update this very sentence, in the mean time you should be doing whatever you can to reach the requirements needed in able to kill this monster is you want to earn big money.  This is a challenge to kill for the high combat level players that have chaotic weapons, turmoil and overloads.  Do not even attempt to do this unless you’re a very high level player, and have advanced fighting knowledge and ability.  The requirements listed below are the absolute minimum and as you can see they’re still very high.  You would find it very difficult to be able to find any sort of team to take you on without the high enough requirements, and if you did find a team it would be a poor one at best.

Requirements for Nex: 90+ Ranged, 90+ Defence, 70+ Prayer, 88+ Summoning

For collecting the frozen keys: Level 70 agility, constitution, strength, ranged

Team Size: Approximately 8-15 players

Main Potential Loot: Torva platebody (410m), Torva full helm (201m), Torva platelegs (400m).  Pernix body (534m), Pernix Chaps (289m), Pernix Cowl (107m).  Virtus robe top (166m), Virtus robe legs (127m), Virtus mask (50m).  Zaryte Bow(111m)

Potential Loot: 5 Magic Seeds (1.5m), 12 Torstol Seeds (2.2m)

Charm Drops: No Charms (36-46%), Gold Charms (6-12%), Green Charms (7-13%), Crimson Charms (10-18%), Blue Charms (23-33%).

I know this introductory guide is not going to interest many people because they will not have the requirements to get it.  However if you are interested in both making gold from monster killing, and wanting to make the most gold you can long term than this is what you must do.  Even if it takes you a month or more to train up your stats so you can do it, you’ll still be benefiting much more long term if you are able to kill the Nex because the amounts of money you will make are incredible.

Nex Killing

Corporeal Beast – Introduction (Difficulty – Difficult/Maximum)

The Corporeal Beast is a very popular way of making gold, but my honest opinion is that there are better ways.  It has drops that are equal to 700 million gold (Divine Sigil) but nevertheless the reason it’s so expensive are because sigil drops from the Corporeal Beast are incredibly rare.  You’re also very likely to be in a team of 4-10 players and so that would significantly reduce the money earned from getting the drop.

On the other hand it does drop a lot of charms and noted items which all do stack up and hence it’s still one of the best methods for earning money in the game by Monster Killing.

Requirements for Corporeal Beast:

You must have completed Summer’s End quest

Having a high melee combat based account is a must, 90+ levels in Attack, Strength, Defence and Constitution are critical.

Team Size: By quickly switching between soul split and your prayers the Corporeal Beast can be soloed.  But this play definitely needs to be a maximum combat level account with high levels in everything combat related.  Most teams are around 6 characters, but there are ‘mass’ teams of ten or more players.  Again, like the other Monster Killing money making methods the team sizes varies on experience, levels and equipment and so on.

Main Potential Loot: Divine Sigil (700 million gold), Arcane Sigil (52 million gold), Elysian Sigil (447 million gold), Spectral Sigil (44.6 million gold).

Potential Loot: Onyx Bolts (e) (1.5m), Holy Elixer (1m).

Charm Drops: No Charms (3-4%), Gold Charms (20-23%), Green Charms (11-13%), Crimson Charms (20-23%), Blue Charms (40-43%).

Corporeal Beast Killing

Runescape Armadyl Guide (Kree-arra) – Introduction (Difficulty – Moderate/Difficult)

Killing Kree’arra in the Armadyl Dungeon Room used to be the most effective method of earning gold for a good few years because the Armadyl hilt that was dropped was around 350 million gold when first released.  It stayed at 100-165million gold for a long time, but nowadays it’s dropping below 44 million gold.  Nevertheless it’s still a good way of earning gold, especially if you don’t have the stats needed to kill the Nex Boss.  If you don’t have the requirements needed for Nex/Corporeal beast I would say this is the next best alternative.  Admittedly to get into the best teams you need Armadyl armour itself nowadays but if you go with a few friends with decent ranged and defence levels you can actually do this at quite low levels – and as soon as you get a few hilt shares then you’ll be instantly able to get much better gear and buy better levels.

Requirements for Armadyl: 75+ Ranged, 80+ Defence, 43+ Prayer, Summoning Recommended.

Required Stats: 60 strength or 60+ agility, 70+ Ranged (must have)

Team Size: Depending on the combat level, gear and skill of the players but it can be soloed by one player it completed in teams of up to eight for the lower end combat levels.  Teams of eight are definitely excessive and most professional teams are no larger than 3 – however if you have team members that have very low ranged, defence and summoning then you’ll need larger team sizes.

Main Potential Loot: Armadyl Chestplate (14m), Armadyl chainskirt (13m), Armadyl Helmet (2m) and the highly sought after Armadyl Hilt (41m).

Potential Loot: Negligible Value.

Charm Drops: No Charms (15-25%), Gold Charms (27-39%), Green Charms (15-25%), Crimson Charms (17-27%), Blue Charms (5-11%).

Although Armadyl has been pushed of its pedestal as being the number one high level monster to kill for earning loot I would still say that without a doubt it’s still one of the best.  When you take into consideration the fact that its level requirements are significantly lower than the Corporeal Beast/Nex it becomes a much more attractive option to the lower range spectrum of high to medium combat level players.

Kree-Arra Killing

Tormented Demons Introduction (Difficulty – Moderate/Difficult)

Killing Tormented Demons (TDs) is a good way of making cash primarily because of their main drop Dragon Claws, however they also drop Dragon armour plate segments.  To kill them you must have completed the quest While Guthix Sleeps (WGS) which is classed as a ‘Grandmaster’ question.  Although in my opinion you don’t have to have insanely high combat/skill levels to do it, nor do you have to have excessively high levels to kill the tormented demons.

Requirements for Tormented Demons: Level 80+ in your chosen attack styles (either attack, strength, magic, ranged) , although for the most effective hunting I’d be at least 90s for offensive related stats, defence is not as important.  70+ prayer is useful, but 43 could suffice although isn’t recommended – turmoil is of course the best.  68 or 79 summoning for either Bunyips or healing titans respectively.

Main Potential Loot:  Dragon claws (15.2 million gold), Ruined dragon armour slice/lump/shard (3.4m/750k/3.2m respectively).

Potential Loot: Negligible Value.

Charm Drop: No Charms (12-15%), Gold Charms (13-17%), Green Charms (8-11%), Crimson Charms (15-20%), Blue Charms (43-48%).

Team Size: Solo or with a small team but no more than three people.

Personally I think killing tormented demons is one of the better ways of earning gold from monster killing.  But I think it’s especially useful for camping the area when you’re solo or if you don’t like working in a team because you only have to rely on yourself and not depend on others.  I would say this is the kind of boss you can kill of your internet connection or computer is not up to a good standard because it’s much less demanding than many other high level bosses – and the loot is still very good.

Tormented Demons Killing

Runescape Saradomin Guide (Commander Zilyana) – Introduction (Difficult – Moderate/Difficult)

Saradomin is not as popular as Bandos or Armadyl for the lower levels because the loot is less frequent and not worth much more it also only has one main piece of loot which is dropped – the Saradomin Hilt.  It’s also more difficult and much more demanding than the other two boss monsters which are much easier to deal with.

Requirements for Saradomin: 80+ Ranged, 75+ defence, 52 prayer (70 recommended), 52 summoning (67 recommended)

You also need 70 agility or you cannot enter the Saradomin Encampment.

Team Size: Again this varies dramatically on the combat level, but like Armadyl and Bandos it can be soloed at the highest of levels or in teams that increased in size as the player combat levels decrease.

Main Potential Loot: Saradomin Hilt (26m) and Saradomin Sword (4.9m).

Potential Loot: Negligible.

Charm Drops: No Charms.

Saradomin is less profitable than some of its counterparts; Nex, Armadyl and the Corporeal Beast.  On the other hand whereas these God Wars Dungeons are usually filled up with high to very high levels this is a good place to start High Level Monster killing because you can still receive impressive drop amounts, but it’s far less risky that the Corporeal Beast/Nex and it’s also far more likely that starts will be able to start or find a team that will allow them to kill Commander Zilyana effectively.

Commander Zilyana Killing

Dagannoth Kings Guide Introduction (Dagannoth Rex/Supreme/Prime) (Difficulty – Moderate)

Dagannoth Kings are a great way of making money because the Dragon Hatchet and Berserker Ring drops are reasonably common.  It also drops a variety of other reasonably expensive items, and although these (admittedly) are nowhere near the value of some God Wars items they are dropped much more frequently.  It takes less skill, lower requirements and most people can comfortably solo it without being too challenged.

Requirements for Dagannoth Kings:

For players using Magic: 75-80(+) Defence, 80+ Magic, 70+ Prayer

For those using Hybrid: 80+ Defence, 80+ Ranged, Combined Attack and Strength levels totaling 170 at least, 70+ prayer.

Team Size: Like most of the others this is really up to you, you can either choose to solo it or work in a team of 2-4.

Main Potential Loot: All of the three Dagannoth Kings drop the Dragon Hatchet (1.1m).  The Dagannoth Rex drops the Berserker Ring (3.4m) and the Warrior Ring (260k).  The Dagannoth Supreme drops the Archer’s Ring (1.4m).  The Dagannoth Prime drops the Seer’s Ring (400k).

Potential Loot: All of the three Kings drop the Dagannoth Bones (7212gp) and Dagannoth Hide (4995gp).  This is obviously only a very small amount but if you have a pack yak you can teleport all of these back to your bank.  If you don’t have a pack yak you can still collect them and by the end of the trip earn around 200k profit.

Charm Drops: None.

Dagannoth Kings Killing

Runescape Bandos Guide (General Graardor) – Introduction (Difficulty – Moderate/Difficult)

Bandos was once one of the more difficult Boss creatures to kill, but nowadays it pales in comparison to the Corporeal Beast and the Nex.  I personally used to solo Bandos a lot and received my first Bandos hilt when it was 40 million gold when I was level 114 combat (with only a bull ant as beast of burden!).  At this moment in time Bandos is in decline because of the price of the Bandos Hilt which has dropped dramatically in the last 6 months.

Requirements for Bandos: 80+ attack/strength/defence, 70+ Prayer, Summoning recommended.

Team Size: Varies based on combat level, experience and gear.  Lower levels, around 100 combat will need 7-8 team members.  High levels, 115-125 need 4-6 team members.  Maxed Combat level accounts (not necessarily 99 summoning, but maximum melee levels) can either solo the Bandos boss, or work in very small teams.

Main Potential Loot: Bandos Hilt (4.1m), Bandos Chestplate (16.8m), Bandos Tassets (16.8m).

Potential Loot: Negligible.

Charm Drops: No Charms (19-27%), Gold Charms (27-36%), Green Charms (14-22%), Crimson Charms (9-16%), Blue Charms (13-20%).

I think similar to Saradomin, Bandos is quite a good boss to start out on for lower levels.  You can solo this boss at around level 110 combat F2P and you can expect to get about one kill.  This isn’t a lot, but with a small team and considering that most of the high level players are killing the Nex or Corporeal beast it’s much less crowded than it used to be.  Nevertheless if you are still a very low combat level you’ll want to go at times of the day when it’s less crowded.

General Graardor Killing

Barrows Brothers Introduction (Difficulty – Low/Moderate)

There was a time when killing the Barrow Brothers was the main way of earn gold on Runescape for the high combat level players.  Nowadays this isn’t the case, and it’s mainly within the domain of the medium level players (such as level 90 to 115).  The loot is reasonable, but nowhere near the value of the loot from the likes of the God Wars Dungeon Gods, Corporeal Beast, Dagannoth Kings or Tormented Demons.  Nevertheless it is still definitely popular within a certain domain of level ranges (lower ones) and is definitely worth writing about.

Requirements for Barrows Brothers

90+ combat is definitely recommending.  Summoning doesn’t help you here at all because you cannot take the creatures into the catacombs below.  You must have a melee based account with reasonable gear (worth 2-4 million gold – veracs, whip and so on).  To do this as effectively as possible you need to have higher melee combat levels.  I’d recommend chaotic weapons, but if this is beyond your capabilities I’d say that Verac’s armour is a good place to start at because it’s relatively cheap and effective.

Team Size: Solo!  This is pretty good because you’re not relying on other people who ultimately can just let you down such as in God Wars where a good team is critical for success

Main Potential Loot: Potential loot is every single piece of the Barrow’s Brother items.  We’re talking Dharok’s, Verac’s, Ahrim’s, Karil’s, Torag’s and Guthan’s.  Many of the complete sets have individual items that are worth quite a lot.  I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to put down prices because Barrow’s armour has a tendency to fluctuate, but Dharok’s helm, Ahrim’s robetob and robeskirt and Karil’s leathertop are to name just a few of the higher earning pieces of equipment.  The helmets and the weapons especially tend to be much lower in value.  There are also too many to list, check out the Grand Exchange for the most up-to-date information.

Note: When a player as completed the Ritual of Mahjarrat quest they can receive the Akrisae’s loot from the chest.  Akrisae’s hood (1.3m), Akrisae’s Robe Top (5.2m), Akrisae’s Robe Skirt (2.5) and Akrisae’s War Mace (1.3m).  These are however very recent prices so expect some to rise and some to drop as time goes on.

Potential Loot: Pretty much negligible; Runes and Bolt racks.

I think Barrow’s is pretty fun, it’s quite relaxing and chilled out because there’s not a massive chance of dying unless you’re just not paying attention at all.  But due to the puzzle complex within the catacomb it’s interesting and can keep your attention much better than other monster killing activities which are more stressful.

Barrow's Brothers Killing

Kalphite Queen Introduction (Difficulty – Moderate)

Most people consider killing the kalphite queen redundant and although I’d agree with them in most cases it does have some updated drops which make it much more profitable than people think.  This is not a monster to kill purely for a Dragon Chainbody or Dragon 2h Sword.

Requirements for Killing the Kalphite Queen: 70+ in your offensive melee stats are recommended, 43 prayer is a must to defend yourself against its high hitting boss attacks.

Main Potential Loot: The most famous loot is of course the Dragon chainbody (4m) and Dragon 2hand (1m).

Potential Loot: Negligible.

Charm Drops: None.

Team Size: At near maximum combat level with good gear this can be soloed, apart from the most skilled players with the highest stats most people will need a group of 4-6 people in order to be able to effectively kill it.

The Kalphite Queen is an outdated creature to kill and for most people it won’t be worth it, however for lower levels this is a good place to start!

Kalphite Queen Killing