Cockroach soldier

The Cockroach soldier is the fifth highest-levelled non-revenant, non-quest, non-random event, and non-dungeoneering monster in free-to-play, only beaten by Greater demons in the Wilderness Volcano and the Demonic Ruins, Ankous and level 85 Skeletons in the Stronghold of Security and the Wilderness Volcano, and Hellhounds also in the Wilderness Volcano.

This monster and all others in the Stronghold are non-aggressive to all players, making the Stronghold of Player Safety dungeon, which was released on 11 March 2008, safe to explore (which is likely the point).

Cockroach soldiers use a somewhat accurate melee attack hitting up to 96, and with an attack speed almost identical to that of a scimitar. They also use a range attack that can hit up to 113 if attacked by long-ranged magic or ranged weapons. They will not move toward you if you attack from a distance, similar to metal dragons. Cockroaches' ranged attacks are fairly inaccurate, but the max hit of the ranged attack is now higher than the max hit of the melee attack. It is important to note this as a perceived upgrade to the attack's strength and accuracy was made since its initial release, with just a maximum hit of 10 by its range attack at that time.

Compared to level 82 Lesser Demons, these monsters have higher life points and defence. Nonetheless, these cockroach soldiers have much better drops for free-to-play players, and as such it is advised that a player kill them with a clan and have lootshare/coinshare on to get the drops as many player will attack them because they are in a multi-combat zone. It is also advised for members for those with 69 or less attack to use the Dragon Longsword if possible.

Since it is popular for training on, the dungeon is sometimes crowded with high-levelled players so it may be difficult to get a drop. However, a few weeks after its release, the popularity of these monsters dropped probably due to the increased range attack of these monsters, which may be an attempt to prevent players from ranging these monsters with high-value drops. Also, some free-to-play players may find it difficult to solo these creatures unless they have an average combat level (85+).

For members, cockroach soldiers drop charms quite often. Killing them is a good method for obtaining charms, especially Crimson charms.

Killing Cockroach soldiers can be a fairly nice way to make money as they drop rune scimitars and rune square shields. For members, they also drop snapdragon seeds and ranarr seeds which sell for and  coins respectively. Also, they are a very good source of Law runes and mithril ore.

Advantages of its Location
The Stronghold of Player Safety is located south of Edgeville, and north of the Barbarian Village in a crack next to the jail. Going down the crack will get you to cockroach soldiers directly; taking the trapdoor by the house will take a while. There is a fishing spot nearby where powerfishers drop raw salmon and raw trout. Cooking these fish with the fire at Peksa's helmet shop offers a quick method to restoring health. Alternately, players can cross find a monastery on the other side of the cliff and ask monks to restore health, go to the first floor to restore prayer, and return to the Edgeville bank to restock on food. It is generally recommended to wear a Ring Of Wealth when fighting soldiers.

Combat strategies
Cockroach soldiers appear to be weak against crush and stab attacks, but strong against slash attacks. Players should therefore use crush weapons as listed below. It is possible to range them; however, due to non-members being restricted to weaker Ranged equipment, ranging is not recommended. High Defence and high Ranged levels are advised because Cockroach soldiers hit often and quite hard. They have extremely high magic defence, more than a blue dragon does; thus, Magic is not advised at all. Players should max out life points without wasting food between fights. Additionally, it is best to find a completely empty world for optimal charms/hour.

Free players (Melee) will find a rune weapon to be effective for melee fighting. Since they are weak to stab, a Rune sword or Rune longsword will, on average, do the best job. If a player prefers Crush weapons, then a Rune 2-handed sword or a Rune battleaxe is recommended. For the greatest kills/hour, it is recommended to use a gravite 2h, with a crush bonus of 87; this isn't used by many players however, as it takes a long time to achieve/repair. Some players will find that using a rune scimitar can still be very effective if the player has a high enough attack and strength levels. Free-to-play meleers are strongly advised to use Full Rune while meleeing cockroach soldiers, since they have a decent accuracy. Having a high defence is advised for free players.

Free players (Ranged) should use a maple longbow (sighted) or a maple shortbow with full green dragonhide and a rune full helm or green d'hide coif as this is the fastest free-to-play ranged method to kill cockroach soldiers. 70 range and 65 defence is strongly recommended; players with low range levels should use sighted maple longbows for accuracy, while players with high range levels should use maples shortbows for speed.

Free players (Ranged Tank, Shortbow) If you are a tank with high level range and/or defense it is recommended that you use a maple shortbow, rune platelegs, rune full helm, and a green d'hide body. A crossbow is not recommended under any circumstances. Adamant arrows must be used with the shortbow in free to play. It is highly recommended that you bring food as it will take you a long time to kill the cockroach soldier if you are not in a team or if you are below a ranger level of 70.

Free players (Ranged Tank, Longbow) If you aren't doing damage often or taking damage too often with the previous suggestion, full rune with an amulet of power and a sighted maple longbow will give a higher ranged attack bonus of +105 along with runite protection. For comparison purposes, with a ranged level of just 65, 25-50 steel arrows are shot to kill one soldier, values around 35 are most common however.

Members often prefer to train in other places, such as the aviansies, Barrows or via Slayer. Players who have completed Regicide can use the Dragon Halberd to fight these Cockroach Soldiers, since they're classified as large monsters, so the dragon halberd's special will hit them twice. The best weapons used to fight against these monsters at a high level (though it is not recommended at a high level) are the Saradomin Sword, Abyssal Whip, Zamorakian spear, Barrelchest Anchor*, Godswords* and the Chaotic maul*. When training on these, it is recommended to bring lobsters or better food.

Using Full Guthans is an effective method of staying healed while fighting here. A player can stay there for a very long time and earn approximately 50 crimson charms an hour. The player needs to bring a strong weapon and only use the spear to heal.

Note: Using items marked with * are not recommended as they are slow.

Note: When having a familiar fighting along side you against these monsters, they will take more damage from the cockroach's attack than you will. The melee attack's max hit is 110 on players, while it is always a ranged attack with max hit 130 on familiars. A misprint from the summoning update resulted in the cockroach's melee attack on your familiar being 70, if you are using a bunyip.

Dwarf multi-cannons cannot be used in the Stronghold of Safety.

Weapons and armour

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Runes and Ores

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Uncut gems

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Seeds (members only)

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Other drops

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Trivia

 * Cockroach soldiers have the second highest life points of any non-revenant free-to-play monster not related to quests and the Dungeoneering skill, behind the Hellhounds found in the Wilderness Volcano, yet still exceeding that of the level 92 Greater Demons. It was beaten by the high level monsters in Random events, and is still beaten by some Revenants.
 * Cockroach soldiers have one of the highest maximum hits (80 with melee, 110 with ranged) of any free-to-play non-revenant monster that is neither quest nor Dungeoneering based. However, the random event monsters are currently obsolete.
 * Cockroach soldiers are one of only four free-to-play monsters outside of Daemonheim to attack with two combat styles (melee and range), the others being Elvarg and Melzar the Mad, and Dragith Nurn. Catablepons use the Weaken spell, but only use Melee to attack.
 * Cockroach soldiers originally had a very inaccurate and weak (only 10-20 life points) ranged attack, but Jagex changed this because rangers would have an enormous advantage over melee fighters.
 * They are non-aggressive to players, making them the strongest non-aggressive monster in free-to-play.
 * Cockroach soldiers used to drop level 3 Clue Scrolls, but now they only drop level 2 Clue Scrolls.
 * Cockroach soldiers have the best drop table for any F2P monster, as it drops rune scimitars and rune sq shields. It took this title from the greater demon, who drops a rune full helm and held the title for years.
 * Cockroach soldiers and kalphite workers give similar sound effects when they die.
 * It was long rumoured that they could drop a Dragon scimitar, but this has been confirmed to be untrue.
 * Cockroach soldiers had a previous max hit of only 80 but Jagex then changed it to 96 believing for a level 83 monster, it should be made a little higher.