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Dark Beast Slaying Guide - Prayer-Based Combat Technique TruthScape Weighted Index of RuneScape Prices (TWIRP)

While many people will prefer the prayer-based method, some higher-level players may be interested in the alternative combat approach that I describe here. I spent many hours tweaking and perfecting this technique, specifically because so many people told me that the only way to fight dark beasts was with protection prayers constantly on. Since I am stubborn, nothing makes me want to do something more than being told that I can’t! J

The main benefit of this approach is that it allows you to fight dark beasts without spending so much on expensive supplies like prayer potions. The main drawbacks are greater risk and fewer monsters killed per trip. There are two basic variations on this scheme: one that uses mainly Saradomin brews for healing, and the other that relies on Bones to Peaches tablets. Both work particularly well if you have a Saradomin godsword, because of that weapon’s ability to heal and restory prayer points. In the interests of honesty, I should also point out that the techniques I describe here do use prayer somewhat, just a lot less than the prayer-based option. J

Here’s a summary of the method:

• Technique: Melee Using Armor and Healing
  
  
• Risk Level: Moderate. Since you will be fighting without prayer for much of the time, you need to carefully watch your hitpoints.
  
  
• Risk Level Relative to Other Techniques: Higher. This method is less safe than fighting constantly with prayer.
  
  
• Kills Per Trip: Approximately 60 to 90, depending on the specific method, supplies chosen, skill levels and equipment used.
  
  
• Kills Per Hour: Approximately 60 to 70.
  
  
• Cost Per Kill: Approximately 500 to 750, depending again on skill levels and the equipment used..

Note that the estimates above are based on my recommended skill levels and equipment. I should also point out that you really need pretty high Attack, Defence and Hitpoints levels for this to work well; if they aren’t at least 90 and preferably 95 in all of these skills, you should probably stick to fighting with prayer.

As with the prayer method, I’ll remind you that you won’t start your trip by wearing your combat equipment. In order to get to the dark beasts you must be wearing a full set of mourners’ gear, and nothing else except your ring. Thus even though I show recommended gear by equipment slot, most of those items will begin in your inventory.

Since you are fighting difficult monsters mostly without prayer, you need very high defence, and that will guide your equipment choices. You also want prayer bonuses where possible for when you do use prayer. Here are my recommendations:

• Head: Veracs helm. This is the best choice by far for its high defence and small prayer boost. If you are going to the beasts on an actual Slayer assignment and not staying after it’s done, wear your black mask instead; if staying later, bring the mask as an extra item.
  
  
• Cloak: Trimmed skill cape (+4 Prayer) or fire cape (+4 Strength and +2 Prayer).
  
  
• Neck: Amulet of Fury. Nothing else comes close.
  
  
• Quiver: Empty.
  
  
• Weapon: Abyssal whip or godsword.
  
  
• Body: Guthan, Torag or Dharok platebody. These provide excellent defence. I recommend against Verac’s brassard; the prayer bonus is nice but you give up a lot of defence compared to the other Barrows body items.
  
  
• Shield: This is only relevant if your weapon is a whip, in which case you can choose from a rune defender, dragonfire shield or unholy book. For the fastest kills the defender is the best choice; the shield may let you stay in combat longer, though.
  
  
• Legs: Verac’s plateskirt. The best combination of defence and prayer bonus.
  
  
• Gloves: “Barrows” gloves, or the best Recipe for Disaster gloves you can get.
  
  
• Feet: Dragon boots.
  
  
• Ring: Ring of wealth (if you believe in it) or an enhancing ring such as a warrior ring (+4 slash attack) or berserker (+4 Strength).

An example of a ready setup for armor-based combat is shown in Figure 472.

As mentioned above, you will begin with most of your combat equipment in your inventory, while you wear mourners’ equipment. The mourners gear consists of a face mask, cape, shirt, trousers, gloves and boots. You can also wear your ring. The other eight or nine pieces of your fighting gear will begin in your inventory.

If you are going to the dark beasts on an actual Slayer assignment and staying afterwards, bring with your black mask to use until you finish your task; it speeds things up. Switch back to the Veracs helm when done the assignment as it provides much better defence.

In addition to your combat gear you should take some alching runes (I recommend 10 natures and 50 fires), and then some potions and/or food. The exact choices you make will depend on whether you want to use Bones to Peaches or not; I recommend it if you want to stay as long as possible on a trip, especially if using a whip (as opposed to a godsword). If using B2P, bring the following:

• 2 Saradomin brew (4)
  
  
• 2 super restore (4)
  
  
• 2 super attack (4)
  
  
• 2 super strength (4)
  
  
• 10 Bones to Peaches tablets
  
  
• 3 full imp boxes
  
  
• 4 or more strawberry (5) baskets (however many you have room for).

I’ll explain later how best to use all of these items. The imp boxes are necessary to make room for you to collect bones.

If you don’t want to use Bones to Peaches, then bring the following:

• 7 Saradomin brew (4)
  
  
• 2 super restore (4)
  
  
• 2 super attack (4)
  
  
• 2 super strength (4)
  
  
• 4 or more strawberry (5) baskets (however many you have room for).

I don’t recommend bothering with imp boxes here, as you need the slots for potions, and you’ll make space for drops rather quickly as you drink them down and eat the strawberries.

See the last subsection of this topic for information on using wild pies to fight dark beasts when below Slayer level 90.

Prepare yourself for combat and get to the dungeon following the steps described in the section “Location, Preparation and Access”. Once you have gone past the mourners and your combat gear is equipped, you are ready to start fighting. Howver, the technique here is more complex than it is when you just fight with prayer, and requires a bit of extra planning.

First of all, if you brought imp boxes and sent the mourners’ gear back to the bank, you should now have a lot of empty inventory slots. Empty out two of the strawberry baskets (and drop the empty baskets) so you have food ready to go. If you didn’t bring imp boxes, just take out a few strawberries.

You will use your potions to heal hitpoints, raise defence, give you a prayer boost and enhance your Attack and Strength skills. To do this properly, the correct sequence is to drink one or more Saradomin brew potions, then the super restore, then the super attack and super strength (the last two can be in either order.)

Since you start with full prayer and don’t want to waste the prayer boost from the super restore, begin combat by turning on Protection from Melee and attacking a dark beast; don’t take any potions yet. After killing two of them your prayer level should be below 2/3; now take one sip each of the Sara brew, super restore, super attack and super strength.

Now you will want to turn prayer off and fight using your armor and food, until you are hurt enough that you must turn prayer back on. You always want to fight with prayer off just after taking your potions, because that’s when your Defence is at its highest (from the Sara brews).Use the strawberries from your baskets to delay the time when you need to turn prayer on, and to make space for drops.

If you are using Bones to Peaches tablets, collect the bones from all dark beast kills, and only pick up other drops if they are good ones (worth at least 1k minimum, at least at the start.) Keep using your strawberries and collecting bones until your inventory can’t hold any more, then use a tablet and eat the peaches while collecting more bones. Continue doing this as you fight; eventually you’ll have less room for bones as you collect good drops like high herbs and runes, but you will also use up your strawberries and potions. After about every 8 to 10 minutes you should repeat the Sara brew / super restore / super attack / super strength sequence to restore your stats, then again fight without prayer for a while.

If you aren’t using Bones to Peaches you may find staying healthy is a bit of a challenge. You will need to let your health get down to about half-way so you can make use of the Saradomin brews. Once you are half-dead (so to speak) use Prayer points until those are 1/2 to 2/3 of maximum. Then take up to four Saradomin brew sips, one super restore, one super attack and one super strength. In my tests I had to do this about once every 6 or 7 minutes.

If you get shark drops, rejoice! You can now kill a couple of extra beasts before you have to leave. J

The Saradomin godsword, if you have one, will obviously let you extend your trip significantly. Be sure to use the specials when you are down at least 12 Prayer points and 25 hitpoints, and try to time the specials so you use them when your combat stats are near their potted maximums. Temporarily enable Piety to increase the chances of a hit and increase the amount of points you restore.

If you didn’t bring Bones to Peaches then you will be able to fight until you run out of potions, and then you’ll obviously have to leave. Be careful with your health and don’t take any unnecessary chances.

If you did use B2P, then you can stay longer, but here too you will eventually run out of prayer and/or healing. Remember that the bones only heal 8 and the beasts do much more damage than that. Once you see that you are almost done, stop collecting bones and use the inventory slots for drops to take back from the lair.

When you’re ready to leave, get away from the dark beasts and use the Home Teleport spell. If you came home to Lumbridge you can recharge prayer in the chapel right there, then return to Ardougne if you want to go on another run. If you were on Lunars or Ancients, there’s a prayer altar in Ardougne as well.

Here are a few additional notes and tips for success using this method:

• For efficiency, whenever possible try to eat and drink potions during the time when the beasts are in their “death throes” and you are waiting for their drop. If using a godsword, you can also usually “sneak in” food or a potion sip right after you swing without losing an attack.
  
  
• To get the most out of your Bones to Peaches tablets, temporarily free up inventory slots by dropping herbs or other cheaper drops from the dark beasts to pick up an extra set of bones or two, click the tablet, eat a couple of peaches and pick the drops back up.
  
  
• You can run out of the lair temporarily to use your B2P tablets, take potions and so forth.
  
  
• Never take more than four Sara brew doses before the super restore, or the restore won’t get your Attack and Defence back to normal. In fact, you usually can only take three doses; the fourth is possible only because your Attack and Defence were above normal from earlier super attack and super strength pots.
  
  
• Even if using Bones to Peaches, you can choose to replace a couple of the strawberry baskets with additional Sara brews for extra healing if you wish.
  
  
• If you are running low on inventory slots near the end of the trip, drop any remaining fire runes; they are cheap.
  
  
• You can use a dd(p++) to poison the dark beasts if you wish, though as I explained in my strategy discussion, I don’t generally bother.
  
  
• The best place to catch imps is just south of Ardougne, between the Monastery and the Tower of Life.

If you have a Slayer level of 87 to 89 you can effectively fight dark beasts by using wild pies to raise your Slayer level and heal. Simply replace some of the Sara brews with wild pies and use them as needed to heal and keep your Slayer level at 90 or above. Be sure to watch out for messages indicating that your Slayer boost has worn off and the beasts have become immune to your attacks.

You will have to experiment to find the right balance of potions and pies to let you go as long as possible on each trip. Overall, the higher your level above 85, the more you can emulate the basic technique for those who have hit level 90, with fewer pies for the number of potions. At level 87 I’d suggest starting with the supplies recommended for fighting without B2P but replacing 2 of the 7 Sara brews and all of the strawberry baskets with wild pies.

I don’t recommend fighting dark beasts below level 87, as you’ll waste a lot of pies and get few kills.

Dark Beast Slaying Guide - Prayer-Based Combat Technique TruthScape Weighted Index of RuneScape Prices (TWIRP)