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Primary Herb Droppers
Dozens of monsters in RuneScape include herbs among their drops. Of these, only a small number drop herbs in significant quantities, and of those, I’ve found just a handful that are a cut above the rest. These are the absolute best monsters in the game for herbs; I call them primary herb droppers because they are the ones that I personally go after when I need or want to collect herbs. They will likely be your mainstays if you collect your own herbs via combat.
In classifying herb droppers, I analyzed and playtested several dozen different monsters, recording the number of herbs I obtained and the time required, and also keeping track of other drops they provided.
These are the general criteria that a monster had to meet o be considered a primary herb dropper:
- High herb drop rate (100 or more herbs per hour).
- No bias towards low-level herbs.
- Good to excellent secondary drops (better drops
in other areas meant I was willing to accept fewer herbs).
- Proximity to a bank, to avoid wasting time traveling
or having to leave herbs behind to avoid travel.
- Ability to kill without using large amounts of
expensive supplies.
- No very high-level requirements to access or
kill.
- No particularly fancy equipment required for combat.
I started with a couple of monsters I already knew were in the upper echelons in terms of herb drops. Then, as I tested others, I added them to my short list if they were comparable in the areas I felt were most important.
When I completed my testing, I ended up with five monsters that were a step above the others in these regards. Some do better in certain areas and some in others, but they all meet the basic requirements. They all get a “yes” answer to this bottom line question: “Would I personally fight this monster to get herbs?”
Here’s a quick overview; you can find much more details on all of these monsters in the section devoted to how to fight them effectively.
These bearded fellows are well-known to most RuneScape players as being the “classic” example of the herb dropper. In my tests, I found that they live up to their reputation as being the single best herb dropper in the game: no other monster drops more herbs in a given amount of time. Their drawbacks are that their reputation means they are often crowded, and their other drops are unspectacular.
Spiked lizards that live in the Fremennik Slayer Cave and a couple of swampy dungeons, these poisonous, low-level Slayer monsters are often overlooked by herb seekers, but are an excellent choice. They drop lots of herbs, as well as a variety of Herblore seconds and also vials of water, allowing you to make potions “on the fly” to save inventory space. In addition to that they also drop runes, lots of allotment seeds (up to watermelon on occasion), and even Summoning charms. Let’s not forget, bronze boots! (Don’t laugh, check out their price on the GE.) J And best of all, they are never crowded.
They float around their room in the Canifis Slayer Tower, ready to give out lots of herbs and other goodies to would-be fighters. Banshees require a cheap piece of special equipment (earmuffs), and are easy to kill. They do not drop as many herbs as the other primary herb droppers, but make up for it with a fantastic additional drop: large quantities of noted pure essence. They also drop black mystic gloves, and now even provide Summoning charms.
Found on the second floor of the Stronghold of Security, these oversized insects have become very popular over the last year. They are easy to get to, easy to kill, and drop an eye-popping number of herbs as well as other items: large numbers of nature, fire, body and dust runes, gems and noted iron ore. They are also aggressive to all levels, making fighting them easier, and they drop ashes for making Serum 207.
Spectres are an oddball in the “group of five”, because they are only primary herb dropper that isn’t low-level. While they do have a reasonably high Slayer requirement and take longer to kill than other monsters, they make up for it by dropping herbs in large quantities. This includes frequent drops of two and even three herbs at a time! They are also one of the best monsters for high-level herb seeds in the game, as well as other goodies like rune full helms, lava battlestaves, black mystic robe bottoms and level 3 clues. They also drop a nice assortment of Summoning charms; Figure 171 shows a sample inventory after a trip to the aberrants.
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By definition, I don’t consider any of these monsters clearly superior to the others; if they weren’t all close in value, I wouldn’t have grouped them together. So, which is best for you really depends on both your skill levels and your priorities.
First, a few requirements issues to consider:
- If you aren’t reasonably high level (around
level 100 combat or above) with a Slayer level of 60, aberrant spectres
are out. You also should have an Agility level of 61, or at least close
to that, to use the spiked chain shortcut. Otherwise, banking becomes
a nuisance.
- You need a Slayer level of 10 for cave crawlers
and 15 for banshees.
- You must have fairy ring access for convenient
banking at cave crawlers.
- Chaos druids are much easier to fight if you have at least level 46 Thieving to access their area in Ardougne.
And now, some places where each monster excels:
- For the most herbs, overall, chaos druids are
best, if you can find a quiet spot to yourself.
- If you want to get herbs and also pure essence
to sell for cash or use for Runecrafting, choose banshees; they drop
the fewest herbs of the five, however.
- If you’re interested in getting herb seeds
to grow herbs in addition to the ones you collect, do aberrant spectres
if you meet the requirements. This will cost you some supplies, though.
- Flesh crawlers are the best monster for getting
rune and ore secondaries. It’s also common to get lots of extra
items that other players leave on the ground.
- Cave crawlers are the best of the five for also getting secondary ingredients, especially white berries. They also drop more Summoning charms than banshees.
Again, remember that these are all here because they are good; you can’t go wrong with any of them for herbs. Remember that variety is the spice of life, so mix things up a bit, rather than camping at one monster all the time.
Table 33 contains a summary of the key information for all five primary herb droppers. Note that I determined the number of herbs dropped per hour through tests using fairly standard melee gear, nothing fancy: abyssal whip and rune defender, granite platebody and dragon platelegs and so forth (except I used prayer gear for the spectres). While I do have 99 Attack and 99 Strength, I didn’t use enhancing prayers or potions, so someone lower level could reach these levels by using them, and someone with my levels could do even better.
Monster |
Locations |
Combat Level |
Slayer Level |
Hitpoints |
Approximate Number of Herbs Dropped per Hour |
Other Notable Drops |
Chaos Druid |
Taverley Dungeon, Edgeville Dungeon (Wilderness), Blood Rune Tower in Ardougne, Agility Dungeon |
13 |
-- |
20 |
200 |
Low-level runes, mithril bolts |
Cave Crawler |
Fremennik Slayer Dungeon, Lumbridge Swamp Caves, Dorgesh-Kaan South Dungeon |
23 |
10 |
22 |
140 |
Secondary ingredients, nature runes, allotment seeds, charms |
Banshee |
Canifis Slayer Tower, ground floor |
23 |
15 |
22 |
100 |
Pure essence, charms, black mystic gloves |
Flesh Crawler |
Stronghold of Security |
28 |
-- |
25 |
120 |
Fire, dust, body and nature runes, iron ore, gems |
Aberrant Spectre |
Canifis Slayer Tower, top floor |
96 |
60 |
90 |
160 |
Herb seeds, gems, charms, lava battlestaff, black mystic robe bottom |
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