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Giant Mole Exterminator’s Handbook - Melee Technique Using Dharoks TruthScape Monster Secrets - Ultimate Power Barrows for Experts

Meleeing using Veracs or Dharoks is really the most efficient way of killing the giant mole. Some folks, though, might not have one of these Barrows sets, or might have relatively low melee combat skills, but a high Ranged level. In this case, ranging is a viable alternative, provided that you have reasonable ranging gear and use the right strategy.

The main benefit of ranging the giant mole is that you can trap it against a wall and kill it without taking damage or using protection prayers, so it is safer. The primary drawbacks are the cost of the bolts/arrows, and the fact that this method is slower than meleeing. As with the melee techniques, stat boosting prayers are a must: using Eagle Eye greatly increases your chances of getting a hit and also somewhat raises the damage you deal as a result.

Here’s a summary of the key information about this technique:

• Technique: Ranging
  
  
• Risk Level: Low. You will mostly be attacking from safe spots, and as long as you don’t do anything stupid, you won’t die.
  
  
• Risk Level Relative to Other Techniques: Low. This is the safest method.
  
  
• Kills Per Trip: 5 or 6.
  
  
• Kills Per Hour: Approximately 11 to 13.
  
  
• Cost Per Kill: Approximately 3.5k.

Note that the estimates above are based on using the recommended equipment and skills of about the following levels: 90 Ranged and 80 Prayer (no other levels really matter for this technique.)

Your goal with equipment here is simple: maximize your Ranged attack bonus. A secondary goal is to boost prayer, but that is less important here than with the meleeing techniques. See Table 89 for my recommended gear, which is also shown in Figure 394.

Table 90 contains my recommended inventory items for this method, which are also illustrated in Figure 394. Note that you will have many empty inventory spaces.

You will also need some cheap food to heal up between runs. There is no need to use Sara brews with this method.

There are a couple of possibilities for optional equipment as well. First, if you want to speed up kills a bit more, you can bring better bolts such as enchanted diamond bolts. Of course, diamond bolts are very expensive, and I don’t like swapping bolts all the time, so I don’t bother. Note that I don’t recommend enchanted ruby bolts for the mole, because by the time you get the mole poisoned, its hitpoints level will have dropped too low to be worth using them; at 150 hitpoints their spec is worth 30 and I can hit almost that with emerald bolts (see Figure 395).

Another alternative is the dark bow; for details, see “The Dark Bow and Other Weapons with Multiple Attacks” on the page discussing general strategy. If you want to bring it, be sure to remember some rune arrows (or dragon arrows if you are rich!) The drawback of the dark bow, aside from its cost, is that it takes up two inventory spots you could use for drops.

Do the following to get yourself ready for the first trip or between trips:

1. Use cheap food (trout, salmon, cakes, etc.) to heal up completely.
   
   
2. Put on or check all your equipment to make sure it is correct.
   
   
3. Take out more teleport tablets from the bank if necessary. (You should only need to do this after several trips.)
   
   
4. Take out everything in your inventory list.

To explain all the details more easily, I’ve broken the kill down into four phases: starting and poisoning; the first half of the kill; the second half of the kill; and completing the kill.

If you’ve just arrived at the lair, or if you’ve killed the mole twice since your last took your combat potions, take one sip of your ranging potion.

The first stage of the kill will be to poison the mole. Turn on Eagle Eye (unless you are out of prayer), and start attacking. When I am in the central chamber starting a kill, I usually use a safe spot near the wall at the southern edge of that area, on the left of the stalagmites; it is shown in Figure 395. Incidentally, if you stand here and lower your camera angle you can spot the mole as it respawns and attack it quickly before it wanders away. (Move your camera around and you can actually watch for the mole by looking “through” the wall behind you.)

You will very quickly see the “poison cloud” that indicates that the mole is poisoned, often on the first hit. It can even activate on a zero.

If you are just using emerald bolts, then just continue attacking the mole. If you are using better bolts like enchanted diamond, you can switch to them now.

If you are low on prayer and want to conserve it for use when the mole is digging or for a later kill, then turn off Eagle Eye during this early part of combat. As soon as the mole gets near 50% health I recommend turning Eagle Eye back on.

It is rare to kill the mole without it digging using a crossbow, though I did it once. Usually it will dig away sometime after it falls below 50% health.

As soon as the mole digs away, turn off your prayers. Pick up any bolts that are on the ground and return them to your quiver.

WARNING: Usually the mole become unaggressive after it digs, but on rare occasions it will attack unprovoked when you come near it even after it digs away. When using ranging gear your melee defence is low, so be careful near the mole. (This is part of why I bring a bit of food.)

Find the mole using the method described in the section “Searching for the Mole Efficiently” in the topic on challenges and strategy. Once you track it down, assuming it is poisoned, check its health bar; if it is nearly dead, proceed to “Completing the Kill”.

If the mole is not near death, turn on Eagle Eye and attack the mole from a distance. If it digs, look for it again; if it comes after you, then find a safe spot and keep attacking until it digs or dies. Turn off your prayer and repeat.

Try to watch your run energy and sip energy pot doses while running around the lair to keep it above 50%.

If you brought with your dark bow, now is the time to use it. Equip the bow and your arrows, turn on Eagle Eye and enable the special attack. Then attack the mole, as shown in Figure 396; with luck, it won’t dig after the first hit, and you’ll do at least 10 damage (rune arrows) or 16 damage (dragon arrows), hopefully killing it.

If you do not have a dark bow and the mole is “red-barred”, then ust wait a few seconds and it will die from the poison (as in Figure 390). If the poison has worn off then try to poison it again using your emerald bolts.

Eventually you will kill the mole; it lifts its front left claw in the air and then falls down and fades out (as shown in Figure 397), leaving its drops behind. Once you kill the mole or find its drop pile, do the following to prepare for the next kill:

• If you switched bolts or changed to a dark bow, re-equip your rune crossbow, unholy book and emerald bolts.
  
  
• Drop any empty vials or other items you don’t need, to make room for drops.
  
  
• Take a sip of prayer potion if necessary.
  
  
• If you are down more than 25% of your hitpoints and have food, heal.
  
  
• Pick up the mole’s drops. If you cannot carry them all, just leave the bones behind, or consider topping up with more food or energy pots.
  
  
• Switch from run to walk and go back to the center of the lair, where the mole’s respawn is. Then switch back to run.

You are now ready for the next kill.

This method should take you from 24 to 30 minutes to get six kills, though if you are unlucky you might get only five. If you find yourself out of prayer points you can continue fighting without Eagle Eye, but it will be slower. If you are out of energy pots I recommend restocking.

Leave the lair using your teleport tablets or other form of teleportation, or using the level 0 home teleport spell (every 30 minutes). Assuming you are on regular spells, you will land in Lumbridge, where you can recharge prayer in the chapel nearby, use the bank in Lumbridge to store drops, teleport to Falador, and prepare for the next trip in one of the banks there.

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

• If you switch from emerald bolts to some other bolts near the start of a kill, the poison may wear off too fast to really do much to the mole near the end of the kill. Re-poison by switching back to the emerald bolts.
  
  
• You can either trade your claws and skins for nests each time you come back to Falador for a fresh trip, or save them up and trade them all in 28 at a time, which is somewhat more efficient.
  
  
• Mole claws and skins are tradeable, though it is rare to see any for sale. Nests with seeds or rings in them are not tradeable.
  
  
• Sometimes you may have trouble finding a safe spot. If so, and if you have lots of prayer points, just slap on Protection from Melee while fighting; you will only have it on for a few seconds before the mole digs again or dies anyway. If you feel daring, and if you are near maximum health and close to the end of a trip, you can just take damage from the mole for a few seconds and then use your food to heal up, or carry on a little below full health. This is of course somewhat riskier than using a safe spot! You can see the results of me doing this in Figure 398.
  
  
• If you don’t have room to pick up all your drops but you have extra food or energy pots left over, drop them and take the mole drops. Teleport out and bank quickly, and there’s a good chance the food and pots will still be on the ground when you get back to the lair.
  

  Figure 398: Taking Chances When Ranging

  It’s dangerous to fight the mole head on when ranging, but sometimes taking a bit of damage and then healing is easier than trying to find a safe spot.

  
  

Giant Mole Exterminator’s Handbook - Melee Technique Using Dharoks TruthScape Monster Secrets - Ultimate Power Barrows for Experts