Ice strykewyrm

Ice strykewyrms have the third highest slayer requirement of slayer monsters outside of Daemonheim (after Ganodermic beasts and Legiones), requiring a Slayer level of 93 to kill. They were introduced into the game along with jungle and desert strykewyrms, and they are the only monster that drops the staff of light.

They can only be killed when assigned on a slayer task, with the exception of one kill needed to complete a Fremennik Elite Task, or if the player is participating in the Rush of Blood D&D. Players must complete The Tale of the Muspah quest before Slayer Masters may assign these creatures. The only Slayer masters who can assign Ice strykewyrms are Duradel/Lapalok, Kuradal and Morvran, with Kuradal assigning them more often than Duradel/Lapalok.

When ice strykewyrms were first released, there was also the restriction that they could only be assigned to players who own a fire cape. However, one month after their release, ice strykewyrms became available to slayers who wished to purchase the ability to fight them by using 2,000 Slayer reward points (level 93 slayer is still required, and temporary boosts can't be used). Despite this, purchasing the ability does not allow players to kill ice strykewyrms outside of a slayer task; it merely unlocks the ability to be assigned them and to kill them without owning and wearing a fire cape. Because of this, and the fact that most players who have level 93 Slayer will have high enough combat stats to get a fire cape quite easily, it is generally considered a waste of points to purchase this. Nevertheless, it is still an option for players who have particular difficulty in obtaining the fire cape. An update introduced the completionist cape, which can replace the fire cape as an item to kill ice strykewyrms. To obtain it, you will need to have obtained a fire cape at least once, and killed an ice strykewyrm at least once, plus other requirements. An update on 28 February 2012 included the ability to use a TokHaar-Kal to damage Ice Strykewyrms.

It's not possible to damage an ice strykewyrm unless the player is either wearing a fire cape or has paid the 2,000 slayer reward points. Otherwise a message will appear in chat "The strykewyrm numbs your hands and freezes your attack" and no damage will be dealt. This includes means such as Deflect Curses, Vengeance, rings of recoil, and poison. Players wearing a fire cape deal 2.0x damage to ice strykewyrms with fire-based spells. Additionally, players wearing a fire cape deal 200 extra damage with fire spells, 40 with other combat styles. For players not wearing a fire cape, the strykewyrm's maximum hit is slightly increased.

Killing one ice strykewyrm is one of the elite Fremennik Province Tasks. Players can make an ice strykewyrm surface even if they are not assigned them as a Slayer task, to complete this elite task. However, this cannot be done using a boosted slayer level. After killing an ice strykewyrm for the Fremennik Tasks, players will no longer be able to surface an ice strykewyrm without having them assigned as a current slayer task.

Like all strykewyrms, ice strykewyrms reside underground beneath mounds until provoked by a player with the necessary Slayer task. Slayer Masters claim that only those who have been assigned to hunt them may surface the strykewyrms due to the strykewyrm being able to smell the intent of the slayer. By investigating the mounds, the strykewyrm will surface and attack the player. However, the strykewyrm will not attack for about two to three seconds, so players may take advantage of this time to change their position or to get a few good hits in. Players without the necessary task to kill strykewyrms will not be able to surface the strykewyrm and will instead perform the think emote.

Getting there
The quickest way to get to the ice strykewyrms is to use fairy ring code, which is just south of the cave they're located in. Players can also use the Rellekka lodestone and run northeast.

Once inside the cave, the ice strykewyrms are behind the cave mouth to the east of the entrance. If there is water coming through the mouth, the player must block the eastern stream in the cave north of where you entered, where Jhallan was frozen during The Tale of the Muspah.

To block the stream, hop across the flat rocks just north of the entrance, enter the cave opening to the northwest, jump across the flat rocks to the east (ignore this ice mound), jump across the flat rocks to the northeast, and click on the ice mound beside you to block the stream. Then head back to the entrance cave, hop back across the flat rocks, and head east into the ice strykewyrm cave.

Blocking the other streams in the middle cave are not necessary, but can be used to remove all water streams in the entrance cave.

Attack styles
Ice strykewyrms have four types of attacks: melee, magic, freezing spell and burrow. If the player is within one square of a strykewyrm, it will use any of the four attack types. At a distance, the strykewyrm mostly uses its magic attack but will occasionally use its freezing spell (which looks like Ice Barrage), which renders the player unable to move for around three seconds and cancels the player's next attack. Simply clicking the strykewyrm will resume attacking immediately.

The ice strykewyrm's strongest attack is when it burrows underground during battle and then pops back up, dealing up to 2000+ life points to the person it is fighting. There was an update to prevent other players from getting hit by someone else's ice strykewyrm, but it does show an animation of that getting thrown out of the way, but not losing life points. The strykewyrm becomes invulnerable during this time, so attempting to attack it while it is burrowed is futile. This attack can be easily avoided by quickly moving two steps away in any direction. The further away the player is from the strykewyrm when it burrows (such as when maging from a distance), the easier it is to avoid this attack. It can also use the burrow attack if a player walks into its square and stays there for a couple of seconds, so it is recommended not to do this. The strykewyrm will not use the burrow attack if the player is standing next to an obstacle, such as the cave wall or a stalagmite. Some players believe moving away from the burrow is easier than trying to stand by an obstacle, while other players believe it is easier to use obstacles.

Strategies
Despite requiring level 93 Slayer, these creatures have low defence and may be killed effectively by several different methods. Ice strykewyrms are weak against fire. Wearing a fire cape increases all damage dealt to a wyrm by 40, 200 if using fire spells. Furthermore, all fire spells hit for 1.5x damage, 2x damage if the player is wearing a fire cape or TokHaar-Kal. Because they are non-aggressive, there is always opportunity after a kill to use the regenerate ability to heal, the drawback being the extra time that requires. A combination of regeneration, shark drops, Excalibur in the off-hand, the Soul Split prayer or a healing familiar can eliminate the need to bring any food.

In some circumstances, a single magic spell cast may appear as two hit markers simultaneously. This seems to be a side effect of using abilities that score bonus damage. Items that raise the chances of critical hits will make this more common.

Casting ice spells from the Ancient Magicks spellbook will heal the ice strykewyrms instead of damaging them.

A prayer-costlier though safer method is to use Protect from Magic or Deflect Magic, as they stop most damage from the strykewyrm's magic and freezing attacks, although the freezing attack still immobilises the player. When using prayer, players should consider wearing armour with good prayer bonus, such as the dagon'hai robes set.

Weapons

 * }

Runes and talismans

 * }

Herbs
All herb drops are noted.


 * }

Seeds

 * }

Other

 * }

Trivia

 * Ice strykewyrms, along with the other strykewyrms, were the first monsters to incorporate particle effects.
 * If a player runs behind an obstacle just as a strykewyrm burrows into the ground, the strykewyrm will disappear. Although it will seem to respawn normally, it will leave no drops. This does not count as a kill for the player. This glitch has not been fixed.
 * When attacking an Ice strykewyrm for the Fremennik Province Tasks, the goliath gloves' special effect is able to deal damage to it, making it possible to slay it at level 65 (the minimal requirement to obtain the gloves).
 * When frozen by their magic attack, a block of ice will appear, similar to that of Ice barrage. Fortunately, the freeze does not last long.
 * When the TokHaar-Kal was given the ability to count as a fire cape when fighting Ice strykewyrms, it did not give the bonus damage effect, and simply allowed players to deal normal damage the same way as the slayer reward. This was later fixed.
 * When using a steel titan, using scrolls may cause the ice strykewyrm to target your steel titan. This may not be noticeable, and then when it burrows to attack, it seems to disappear. This seems to only happen when using scrolls.
 * This is the only strykewyrm other than the wildywyrm to not drop any of the components for the full slayer helmet. Jungle strykewyrms drop the hexcrest and the desert strykewyrms drop focus sights.
 * The increased damage when wearing the fire cape was apparently implemented on 3 March 2010.

Ice strykewyrm Ice Strykewyrm Ice strykewyrm Ice strykewyrm