TruthScape.com - Giant Mole Exterminator’s Handbook - Introduction, Benefits, Risks and Prerequisites

It seems that he was trying to impress the other gardeners in Falador Park, and turned to “chemical enhancement” in his pursuit of horticultural excellence. Unfortunately, the potion he intended to help his plants thrive made a mole under Falador grow to gargantuan proportions (Figure 371). Now he is hoping that you can exterminate it for him, and he’s willing to pay you in useful items to do the job!

The giant mole is a bit of a paradox as high level monsters go. It’s very high level and can hit hard, but it’s not aggressive and relies more on defence than offense. It’s easy to get to and not hard to damage, yet hard to kill quickly in a consistent manner. It can be either fun to kill or really annoying, depending on your luck and skill. And it’s in a multi-combat area so groups can go after it, yet in many ways it is actually easier to kill it by yourself!

I’ve spent many hours killing the giant mole using dozens of methods and variations, and have identified three techniques that work well for the solo exterminator to try. I will show you how to do it so you can try it yourself. First, though, in this page, I will explain to you the benefits of killing the giant mole, briefly describe the risks, and also tell you what you need in the way of skill levels and general equipment to attempt this activity.

First, the mole has some good drops. It drops “regular” items that are quite decent, about what you’d expect from a level 230 monster; this includes a surprisingly large number of drops of 100 yew logs at a time (see Figure 372), among other useful goodies. In addition, each kill also gives you one mole claw and either one, two or three mole skins. These can be traded for nests that may contain a ring or seeds. The latter are usually allotment seeds (potato, onion and so forth up to watermelon) but some will be tree seeds. Killing the giant mole is in fact one of the best ways to get birds’ nests and allotment seeds in the game.

Second, it’s fun. It’s quite satisfying to kill the mole given the challenges it poses, and to refine your own personal technique based on experience.

You’ll notice I didn’t say anything about XP here.. the fact is that for the time it takes to kill, the giant mole isn’t a great source of XP, though obviously you will get some.

For a level 230 monster, the giant mole is actually quite tame. As I mentioned in my overview of this guide, the mole isn’t one of those monsters that’s challenging because it hits hard—it is challenging because of its defensive mechanisms and behavior.

Of course, it is still a level 230 monster, so it should not be taken for granted. In fact, that might be the greatest risk associated with the mole: underestimating it and not being properly prepared for it, or taking chances like letting your HP level get too low without putting on protection from melee. The mole can hit into the 20s, and I have seen lower-level players die in its lair many times. That said, if you follow the advice in this guide you should be just fine.

One very nice thing about the giant mole is that anyone can try it. You do not need to go to a special area, or go past dangerous monsters, or complete any quests. You just dig in Falador Park and you’re in its lair.

In theory, the giant mole can be killed by even a player with fairly middling combat skills. In practice, trying to do this by yourself if you have, say, combat skill levels in the 50s or 60s can be very frustrating. As we’ll see, the major challenge with the mole is its “digging”, which effectively makes it teleport around its very large lair after it is hit only a few times (once reduced below half health). You need relatively high skill levels to ensure you get some damage in on it quickly before it disappears, or you’ll spend all your time chasing after it.

The methods in this guide, like the other entries in the TruthScape Monster Secrets series, are designed for those who have fairly high skill levels that they can take advantage of for efficient kills. If you do not have high enough skill levels for these techniques, you have two options. You can try these methods anyway, perhaps substituting lesser equipment where necessary, recognizing that it will take you longer to get each kill. A better idea, however, is to get a group of friends together and kill the mole as a team.

For those who do want to solo the giant mole using my methods, Table 82 shows what I consider to be minimum and recommended combat skill levels.

**Table 82: Recommended Combat Skill Levels for Giant Mole Extermination**
Skill	Minimum Level	Recommended Level	Notes
Attack	70 (Melee only)	85 (Melee only)	If you are using either melee method you need at least 70 attack to wield a Barrows weapon. Really, though, this should be as high as possible, because of what I mentioned above: the mole teleports away after being hit a few times once it is half dead, so you need as much accuracy as possible for quick kills.
Defence	70 (Melee only)	80 (Melee only)	Defence is less important than attack, though it can help in terms of letting you fight longer without needing to put on protection from melee. Irrelevant if ranging.
Strength	60 (Melee only)	75 (Melee only)	The higher your strength, the more quickly you will kill the mole, but this is definitely secondary in importance to Attack level.
Hitpoints	60	75	Your hitpoints level doesn’t matter all that much because you will be using protection prayers when necessary and only taking damage when you choose to.
Ranged	75 (Ranging only)	85 (Ranging only)	If you are using the ranging method you obviously need a high Ranged level. You can try it at a level lower than 75, but it will start to get rather slow and expensive.
Prayer	50	70	You can actually kill the mole without using Prayer at all, if you use ranging and are careful about how you do it. Having prayer is necessary for meleeing and really helpful even if you are using Ranged. I recommend at least level 70 for Piety (and the King’s Ransom quest) if meleeing. Chivalry (level 60) is not as good as it gives less bonuses and has the same prayer drain rate.
Magic	--	--	Magic level doesn’t matter at all here, neither for offense or defence.

The only non-combat skill that is important for killing the giant mole is agility. You will be doing a lot of running around, and a higher agility level will let you recover your run energy more quickly. I’d recommend a level of at least 50, and as usual, higher is better.

If you are planning to melee the mole, you need either full Veracs or full Dharoks. Again, you can use lesser equipment but it will be much slower. For ranging, a full set of ranging gear is required in order to make the process efficient; this should include Ranged-boosting armor, a rune crossbow, and an Unholy book for your shield slot. You will need enchanted emerald bolts if ranging, and they may be useful even for meleeing, as we’ll discuss.

You will also need a covered light source—a bullseye lantern or sapphire lantern are strongly recommended—and a spade. I actually suggest getting a bunch of spades and banking them if you plan to go on multiple trips, as it is most efficient to drop the spade after entering the lair and then get another one for the next trip.