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Giant Mole Exterminator’s Handbook - Challenges and Strategy Giant Mole Exterminator’s Handbook - Melee Technique Using Veracs

Location is another way that the giant mole differs from most high level monsters: it is not in some far-flung location or in a deep dungeon; in fact, it is surprisingly easy to get to, as we’ll see. Most of the challenge will be not from getting to the mole, but rather, getting the mole to yourself. Accordingly, most of this section will focus on issues of world selection and how best to deal with other players who wander into the lair while you are fighting.

The best way of getting to the giant mole is to start at either the east or west bank in Falador—I believe Fally East is a bit closer, but probably not by much. From either bank, it is a few clicks to get to Falador Park, which occupies the north-central part of the town. There you will see a bunch of mole hills; any of these can be used to access the mole’s lair.

You must have at least two pieces of equipment on you in order to enter the lair: a spade and a light source. You need the spade in order to dig the mole hill, and the light source is required to see the lair and prevent damage from biting insects (like in the Lumbridge swamps.) It used to be possible to enter the lair without a light source (after seeing a warning) but Jagex recently eliminated this because it was being used by scammers to take advantage of newer players, who probably never anticipated anything dangerous being right in the middle of Falador!

You will still receive a warning if you don’t have a tinderbox, suggesting that you bring one with you. You can turn off this warning by digging the mole hill, closing the warning box and repeating until the option to disable the warning appears. You don’t need a tinderbox, assuming that you follow this next piece of advice…

Always bring a high-quality covered light source, such as a bullseye lantern or a sapphire lantern. This will ensure that the mole cannot put your light out when it “splats” the screen. If you do this, you don’t need a tinderbox at all.

Once you have your equipment and inventory ready, click on your spade while standing on a mole hill to dig into it (Figure 385). You will see a message saying “You seem to have dropped down into a network of mole tunnels.” You are now in an alcove at the far northern extreme of the lair; the mole’s respawn point is in the center, and the exit is in another alcove all the way at the southern end. There you will find a rope you can climb up; doing so leaves you by the well near the southern gate of Falador. In practice, though, you will always teleport out of the lair to save run energy and time.

You can kill the giant mole on any world, but there is a distinct advantage to choosing one that has a lot of people in it: the mole will respawn faster after each kill. The difference can be as much as 30 seconds or even more, so it is worth taking into consideration.

Unfortunately, many other mole killers also know this, so it may be difficult to find a busy world where the mole is not already being fought by another player or group. It may be easier to find a world where the mole is free if you try ones that are less busy, even if it means slower respawns.

One other possible approach, applicable only during very slow times on RuneScape, is to switch back and forth between two worlds, hopping after each kill. If you are lucky and kill the mole fast this can be effective, letting you get kills even faster than the quickest figures I’ve put in my exterminator’s handbook. The problem is that often when you switch between worlds, you’ll find the mole has wandered far away from its respawn point. This trick also provides less time for your run energy to restore naturally. I used to do this but no longer recommend it.

What do you get when you have a well-known, unaggressive monster with a lair in a big town, in a multi-combat zone, that can be killed by lower level players if they have patience and perseverance? You get a lot of players wandering through the lair, that’s what. It is virtually impossible to kill the giant mole without ending up with other players showing up to talk to you, help you (whether you want help or not), or sometimes, be downright annoying or even worse. If you are looking for an activity where you will be sure to be left alone, this is definitely not it.

For starters, make sure that you yourself behave with courtesy. If you find another person or group fighting the mole, then either switch worlds, or if you want to help them out, join in after asking first. If you do, and you get the kill, be considerate and share the spoils with the other players, especially if you are much higher level. Of course, don’t offer to help another player if you want to just kill the mole yourself as fast as possible. In Figure 386 you can see a player that I happened upon when I entered the lair one time. He seemed to be having trouble so I offered to help but he wasn’t interested...

One more difficult issue is if you start to fight the mole and find it is already injured: it could either be that someone started to attack it and left in the middle, or someone could be actively fighting it and just off somewhere else in the lair trying to hunt it down. I have had occasions where I ended up inadvertantly taking someone else’s kill; when that happens I always offer up the drops back to the other person (see Figure 387 for an example).

Let’s assume that you do find a quiet world and start killing the mole. Eventually, one or more players will wander down into the lair and find you, and then you’ll have to decide what to do. I categorize these people into the following groups, listed roughly in order of least to most annoying:

• Other Exterminators: These are people like yourself who want to kill the mole, know how extermination works and are properly equipped and prepared. You won’t see too many of these, even though they are the only ones you might really want to team with; in most cases they will want to switch worlds to solo the mole, though not always. Sometimes these folks may ask to join you—if you want some companionship, then why not? Just be sure to share drops. If you’d rather continue soloing, be honest and the person will probably switch worlds.
  
  
• Lost Souls: They dug into the lair without realizing that the entrance is one-way only. Tell them to go all the way south to the rope at the exit.
  
  
• Tourists: These are players who wander down into the lair knowing absolutely nothing about the mole; they can usually be identified easily because they normally are not wearing combat gear, or if they are, it is not appropriate to trying to tackle the mole. They are mostly newer players who are just curious and will probably follow you around asking you tons of questions, and ooh-ing and aah-ing if you get nice hits on the mole.
  
  Be nice to these folks! You were a new player once too, after all. I usually am happy to let someone follow me around, I answer questions and sometimes will give part of a drop too, or let them take stuff I leave behind. Just ask them not to interfere with the kill. You might even be able to put them to good use, asking them to help you scout out the mole’s location when it digs, in exchange for some of the loot.
  
  On the other hand, some folks just find this annoying; if you want to be anti-social, you can simply change worlds after completing your current kill.
  
  
• Leeches: I use this term to refer to players who are nowhere close to being high enough level to solo the mole, but go down into the lair by themselves anyway, hoping to find a high level player they can “help”. Usually they are level 50 to 80, equipped for combat but not with gear good enough to really do much damage, and they will follow you around or search for the mole independently and attack it constantly. This can be very frustrating, because they will hardly dent the mole but will make it dig nearly every time they attack it. Then, to add insult to injury, once you finally track the mole down and kill it, they will start asking for “their share of the drops for helping”.
  
  There’s not much you can do about these sorts of inconsiderate players: either ask them politely to leave and hope that they do, or change worlds yourself. If I am in the middle of a kill then I will finish it, and if the other person has been reasonable and actually done some damage I may share the drops. If they’ve asked if I want help and ignored me when I said “no thank you”, or if they are clearly improperly equipped and just making more work for me, I will not.
  
  
• Pests and Drop Stealers: Somewhat like a tourist but with a worse attitude, this sort of player is only in the lair to annoy people who are trying to kill the mole. They will spam the chat box, follow you around asking stupid questions, and deliberately try to make the mole dig. Sometimes they do this hoping the mole will die far from you and they can maybe find the drop pile and steal it. (I once even had a level 44 guy who was following me around punching the mole with his bare fists. Geez.)
  
  If you find someone like this, put them on ignore, finish the kill and switch worlds. Make sure your private chat is off or set to friends only, so they cannot follow you to your new world.
  
  
• Lurers: The lowest of the low, I’ve only had this happen to me once. I was ranging the mole when this guy comes into the lair. He attacks the mole with melee causing it to be lured out of the spot it was stuck in. He then ran away, while my character kept ranging it—the mole then turned on me, but since it was in a different spot now, it was able to get into melee range and attack me. At first I thought it was an innocent mistake on his part, but realized that the guy was doing it deliberately after it happened one or two more times.
  
  If this happens, keep your cool. Finish the kill if possible and then switch worlds. Alternately, teleport and change to melee, then return. Incidentally, as annoying as this behavior is, I don’t believe it is reportable because in a multi-combat zone anyone has the right to attack a monster. (This is in some ways a poor scammer’s version of Dagannoth King luring.)

Giant Mole Exterminator’s Handbook - Challenges and Strategy Giant Mole Exterminator’s Handbook - Melee Technique Using Veracs