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Dark Beast Slaying Guide - Challenges and Strategy Dark Beast Slaying Guide - Prayer-Based Combat Technique

Now that we’ve learned about dark beasts and discussed some of the challenges related to killing them, let’s talk about some of the practical issues in getting to their dungeon and engaging them in combat in the most effective way possible. In this topic I’ll show you where the dark beasts are, how to prepare to fight them, and the best places to position yourself for combat.

As mentioned earlier in the guide, dark beasts are found in a dungeon at the start of the tunnels heading towards the Light Temple. You get to this area through a locked door in the basement of the mourners’ headquarters building in West Ardougne. This is an area that anyone who has even partially completed Mourning’s End Part II should already be familiar with.

There are no banks in West Ardougne, so you will need to fully prepare yourself for combat before heading over. The bank in the northern part of East Ardougne is the one closest to the mourners’ headquarters, so it is the best choice. Teleport to Ardougne, then run northwest to the bank. If you have left your mourners’ robes in the costume room of your bank, then use the House Teleport spell, retrieve the robes, and use the Ardougne portal in one of your portal rooms (you do have portal rooms, right? J)

Put on your chosen equipment to ensure you haven’t forgotten anything, then unequip it, wear your mourners’ gear and take out your supplies from the bank. Then go to the mourners HQ. Run west from the bank to the log balance that spans the river running through the middle of East Ardougne, and cross it (level 33 Agility required, which anyone who can fight dark beasts will have, and then some). Run southwest to the large double gate that allows access to West Ardougne, and click to enter. Once past the gate, run due north to the mourners HQ building. The whole journey is shown in Figure 468

Open the front door. If you are wearing any “contraband” items, the mourners will not let you enter. Assuming that they do, open the door to the northwest, and then the trapdoor, which will take you downstairs. Be sure not to click to attack any of the mourners by mistake... and that’s especially the case downstairs with the level 108 mourners around.

You now just need the “new key” to get into the dungeon. If your inventory is full, use the “new key” trick described at the end of the strategy discussion; otherwise, if you have a slot free, just take one from the head mourner’s desk in the southeast room of the basement. Then use the new key on the door to the west and enter the tunnels to the Light Temple.

You are safe from attack if you stay near the door, so this is the place to change gear, and if you brought imp boxes, to use them to send your mourners’ robes back to the bank (as shown in Figure 467). If you find you forgot something, you can go back through the door to the mourners’ HQ basement, but if you are wearing anything but official mourners’ robes you will be attacked.

There’s a common saying in the northern states: “-40º keeps out the riff-raff”. J Just as cold temperatures tend to drive off those who are unable to fend for themselves in the real world, the stringent requirements for accessing and fighting dark beasts means that this is one place you do not have to worry much about “noobs”.

There are about 15 dark beasts on each world, so this is one place you don’t have to worry about resource conflicts. The only time I can recall there ever being much of an issue involving competition with other players was right after the dark bow was released, when suddenly everyone who could fight the dark beasts all rushed to the area hoping to get rich quick. Since then I rarely ever see anyone in their lair, and in fact, throughout all my testing for this guide, I only encountered one other player.

Since there are so many of the monsters and so few players, world selection is not terribly important, despite the relatively slow respawn (around 30 seconds on a full world). You can pick your favorite world or any world at all and fight to your heart’s content.

The only case where world selection comes into play is if you have level 85 Mining and want to take advantage of the runite rock in the dark beast area. If so, then I recommend you find a world that is relatively full, as this dramatically speeds up the respawn rate of the runite rock. Some players may even wish to world hop for the runite, though this is difficult with the beasts around (and obviously will greatly slow down your fighting, too!)

The dark beasts are found in a set of rooms that are connected to each other through a tunnel. There are also a few that roam around within the tunnels themselves.The room closest to the door from the mourners’ HQ is actually a new one that was added to the lair when the dark bow was released; it contains seven beasts and is the one I prefer to use. My usual combat spot is shown in Figure 469.

I always fight right near the entrance for three reasons. First, by staying near the entrance, you can easily leave combat if you need to, in order to deal with a random event, heal up if badly damaged, or log out to deal with real world issues. Second, in that position, you cause all the dark beasts to “pile up” trying to get you (see Figure 470), and they will often block each other temporarily, giving you a chance to pick up drops without being hit. Finally, if you do pick up drops while in combat you can more easily continue with the monster you started, instead of being “tag teamed” by a different one.

If you fight in this position, I recommend rotating your camera view 180º so that south is up. This makes it easier to see what you are doing.

The main drawback of this location is that you can’t easily access the runite rock; this is no issue for me with my measly level 72 Mining, but higher-level miners will of course want to use that rock. In that situation I recommend fighting not deep in the runite rock area, but rather just near the entrance to the room that contains it. This lets you still check the rock periodically for the ore respawn, but allows you to escape from combat when needed. Of course, if you are keeping Prayer on all the time and find it more convenient to fight right near the rock, why not?

Dark Beast Slaying Guide - Challenges and Strategy Dark Beast Slaying Guide - Prayer-Based Combat Technique