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This article is a strategy guide for Mithril dragon. Information on mechanics, setups, and tactics is on this page.
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Mithril dragons are immune to the effects of poison, and have fairly high defence against melee and ranged attacks. However, the dragons are weak against earth spells and Bane ammunition.
Locations[]
| Location | Required skills/items | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ancient Cavern | Partial completion of Barbarian Training and access to the Ancient Cavern | There are 7 mithril dragons within the cavern and dwarf multicannons are not allowed here. |
| Brimhaven Dungeon resource dungeon | 875 coins to enter the Brimhaven Dungeon (unless the Hard Karamja Tasks are completed), and the Daemonheim aura 4 to access the mithril dragons in the resource dungeon | There are only 4 mithril dragons inside the dungeon but owing to the high requirements, it is still a viable hunting location. |
Strategy[]
When fighting a dragon outside its melee range, using protection/deflection prayers against ranged and magic is recommended, especially for players with low defence and who are not using a dragonfire shield. If using magic, Augury or Leech Magic can be very helpful; combined with a good attacking spell, these prayers will increase your damage output and make the dragon's attacks hit less often. Noxious scythe and deflect magic is very effective providing you have good range defence bonus.
Familiars can be used to extend the duration of a trip; bunyips, unicorn stallions and summoning titans can provide boosts to your defence and life points. Although beast of burdens cannot be taken through the whirlpool into the ancient cavern, there are a few ways to circumvent this:
- Using 5 bittercap mushrooms on the 'enchanted soil' in the western part of the ancient cavern, near the waterfiends, to create a fairy ring (bjq).
- Using any ferocious rings that are obtained by fighting the creatures in Kuradal's Dungeon.
- Using the Slayer cape ability to teleport to Kuradal's Dungeon.
Mithril dragons are immune to the effects of poison. As a result, enchanted emerald bolts are ineffective. One approach to mithril dragons is ranging using enchanted ruby and diamond bolts. The ruby bolts' special effect will remove a sizable portion of the opponent's life points (up to 508, if it's full) and diamond will decrease their ranged defence. Ruby should only be used while the target is above half health, below half and the special effect will start to take away smaller portions that could be hit without the enchanted effect.
Alternatively, after completion of Ritual of the Mahjarrat quest players may find dragonbane bolts or dragonbane arrows effective against mithril dragons, potentially outperforming even royal or Ascension bolts or Araxyte arrows.
Karil's, royal d'hide armour, or Armadyl armour is a much better choice over black dragonhide because of the increased defence bonuses. The Sap Mage curse also works well, reducing the dragon's defence and magic, though you may have to compensate for the extra prayer with more potions and/or focusing more on prayer-boosting gear. At least a level 70 weapon is required, otherwise you will not hit very often.
If prayer drain is not an issue, a player using curse prayers can use Deflect Magic and Leech Ranged, efficiently making you stronger and the dragon weaker.
Recommended stats
- 90+
- 80+
- 80+
- 74+
- 85+
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Suggested inventory
- 3-5 Prayer potions
- 1-2 Super ranging potions
- 1-2 Super defence
- 1-2 Super antifires
- 15-24 sharks, cavefish or rocktails
Optional inventory
Bring the recommended equipment, overloads or extreme potions, prayer potions, and a holy wrench to increase your prayer restoration. If you have 88 Summoning, a unicorn stallion is recommended for fast healing. However, a bunyip on its own is still very useful for those who do not have access to the unicorn.
Upon arriving at the mithril dragons, turn on Protect from Melee, drink your antifire, and boost up your stats using Piety/Superhuman Strength/Turmoil prayers. You should activate Protect from Melee as the dragon's melee attack is its strongest.
Mithril dragons have moderate defence against melee attacks, but at high attack and strength levels, they can still be killed effectively with melee, provided at least chaotic weaponry is used. At the very least, you will need a level 75 weapon to deal efficient damage with them - any lower and you might spend considerable time and waste food trying to kill one dragon.
Full void (melee) is also an effective way to kill mithril dragons, but dangerous due to low life point and armour bonuses. If you have 88 Summoning and 92 Prayer, you can use Soul Split and/or a unicorn for additional healing, though the former can be very dangerous on its own due to the dragon's high max hit, which it will hit frequently even against high level armour. If you have 96 Summoning, the unicorn is not needed if you bring some food and a pack yak, and are good at switching Soul Split and Deflect Melee, this way allows you to use the yak to bank bones and drops.
Players can completely avoid the dragon's melee attack by stepping 1 square away when it is the dragon's attack turn then walking back to attack the dragon and quickly walking away again for the dragon's attack turn. Being at a distance will mean the dragon will always use either its ranged or magic attack. Players can then use either Protect from Magic or Protect from Ranged to reduce damage from one of its attacks and heal after being hit with the other attack.
If using melee, it is highly advised to target the three dragons in the middle as this prevents running from one area to another and is effective at finishing a task quickly if you manage to pull off a string of lucky hits on the dragon. It also saves running energy if you are low on supplies to finish the task off. However, it can be dangerous as all three dragons in the area will be attacking at once, and withstanding their hits can be difficult.
Recommended stats
- 85+
- 85+
- 85+
- 68+
- 70+ (95+ if using curses)
High level earth spells are one of the most effective options for maging mithril dragons, with Earth Surge and Shadow Barrage being optimal while Earth Wave and Shadow Blitz will still suffice. This comes at the cost of the player's own defence as magic armour is most effective against melee users, which will not be of any use at a distance. Hence, praying Protect from Ranged is recommended. Also, because of the negative effect of Saradomin brews being less disruptive to mages than to rangers and meleers, it may also be used as food source to significantly lengthen the trip, though it can disrupt the use of higher levelled abilities. Blood Blitz is also a very good spell to use against mithril dragons as the healing effect almost eliminates the need for food, at the cost of slightly less accuracy due to being a fire spell and not an earth spell. The polypore staff is highly effective and cheap and it requires no runes so more inventory space is available for food or potions, but the Polypore Strike spell is an air spell rather than an earth spell, so this comes at a slight accuracy cost. Using this method in conjunction with 88 Summoning (for the unicorn stallion familiar), it's not uncommon to exceed 50 kills per trip.
The curses Sap Mage or Leech Mage and Leech Defence will be immensely helpful when using magic since the benefit goes both ways, though if reducing the amount of damage taken isn't an issue then the normal prayers are recommended giving considerably higher magic accuracy.
Recommended stats
- 80+
- 85+
- 45+ (80+ if using curses)
Storm of Armadyl[]
The Storm of Armadyl spell can be very effective against mithril dragons. While the Armadyl runes used to cast the spell can be expensive, for wealthy players the increased kill speed may be worth the cost. If on a Slayer task, using the hexcrest/full slayer helmet, wearing the arcane stream necklace, and using magic focus scrolls, extreme magic potions/overload potions the spell can hit very hard if using the Armadyl battlestaff. The Armadyl battlestaff is recommended over other staves because it increases the auto-attacks of the spell by 10%.
Recommended stats
- 90 Magic
- 92 Prayer (for the Soul split curse)/77 Prayer (For the augury prayer)
- 85+ Defence (for ganodermic armour)
Inventory
- Armadyl runes (a task of about 20 dragons will consume 200-350 runes, depending on your magic level and damage boosts)
- Super antifire potions (or antifire potions if using anti-dragon shield)
- Magic focus scrolls and a wolpertinger pouch, overload potions, or extreme magic potions
- 8-10 prayer potions
- Emergency food
- Enhanced Excalibur
- A teleportation method (e.g. Teleport tab)
- Enchanted gem/Slayer ring (To check kills remaining)
Strategy The tactic used here is to start in Edgeville or the NW Grand Exchange booth. Have unicorn already summoned and use the fairy rings to get into the caves. (Note: Doing Fairy Tale III - Orks Rift allows you to save space by not having to take a staff to use the rings)
Once you've arrived, take a sip of anti-fire, pray Protect from Magic and run up the stairs to the mithril dragons. Run to the centre area where there are 3 spawns. Take a dose of your extremes/overload and a prayer renewal, activate Berserker, Deflect Melee and Turmoil. The bonecrusher eliminates the need to bury the bones. You should re-pot when your stats hit around 110 (assuming 99 Attack/Strength). Attack the first dragon, click on Deploy Dreadnip, attack the dragon again, and then summon the dreadnip. Ensure the dreadnip can attack the dragon; this will significantly raise kills per hour.
When you get low on health, start to flash Soul Split, as your unicorn alone won't be able to keep up with healing, especially if your antifire drops or the dragon spams magic or ranged attack.
If using Ancient Curses with 92+ Prayer and ganodermic armour, it is recommended that you stand away from the dragons' melee range and pray Deflect Missiles, and to use Soul Split curse when low on health. If using wolpertinger + magic focus scrolls, use the wolpertinger's special attack at the start of every kill. Bring a few pieces of food for tough situations. If using overloads and Virtus, Saradomin brews can be used to fit a lot of life points into one inventory slot.High Level Setup[]
Players with access to Superior Elite Void Knight equipment may choose to use it instead. Doing so focuses purely on using prayer and a unicorn to stay alive, eliminating the need to bring food. Note: This is a high level setup; you must have extremes/overloads, powerful melee weaponry, Turmoil, and 88 Summoning to make full use of this method. If done correctly, one can last a full unicorn getting upwards of 60 kills a trip. You should bring a bonecrusher, Unicorn scrolls, and a teleport. 2 extreme attacks + strengths/overloads, 3 super anti-fires, 2-4 adrenaline potions, and then nothing but prayer potions. Prayer renewals can be extremely useful here. You can substitute 3 prayer potions for 2 renewals and an extra adrenaline potion. Use of a demon horn necklace is also advised.