Warped tortoise

The Warped tortoise is found in the Poison Waste Slayer Dungeon during the The Path of Glouphrie quest and can be fought there during and after the quest. Players cannot receive assignments for warped tortoises unless they have started or completed the quest.

Characteristics
These creatures are naturally invincible, as in, in their normal state they cannot be harmed by any means. In order for players to damage and ultimately defeat a warped tortoise, they must posses the crystal chime in their inventory; this effect will be triggered automatically as the player attacks the creatures. To tell if the creature has become vulnerable, note that the shell of a "cleansed" (and therefore vulnerable) tortoise is a darker shade than that of an "uncleansed" one. Once "cleansed" by the effect of the crystal chime, these monsters become temporarily vulnerable to all types of attack. After about 45 seconds, the vulnerability wears off, and the creature must be cleansed again. These creatures are capable of hitting up to 120 lifepoints damage, and often, so good healing is advised. Being tortoises, these monsters are very weak to crush attacks, although slash is also effective at higher attack levels. The latter is often preferred due to the abundance of fast-hitting slash weapons such as the Abyssal whip and Chaotic longsword. These monsters also have relatively low range defence and can easily be safe-spotted, which makes ranged an effective method of dispatching them. They are slightly resistant to stabbing and magic attacks, but players with high enough bonuses could still effectively use these styles due to their low defence.

These creatures are an environmental hazard during the quest The Path of Glouphrie. After the quest, players may be assigned to kill these creatures as a slayer assignment. Although this may sound fairly intimidating to players with bad memories of this section of the quest, two tortoises with fast respawn times can be found at the entrance to the dungeon where players will not need to worry about interference from the large number of warped terrorbirds found deeper into the dungeon. However, this room can get fairly busy; as players kill these monsters both in order to complete their slayer tasks as well as drop hunters after either shells or cash from the fairly common drops of Rune pickaxes and Swamp tar. Much deeper into the area, the room directly before the large room where the boss fight and conclusion of the quest took place, also houses two tortoises, and is free of terrorbirds. Using this room could easily speed up a slayer task, but will be much more unwieldy as the player will have to navigate the entire sewer system and fend off attacks from the multitude of creatures in between these two rooms. Both rooms are multicombat.

Chime Update
An update in early March 2010 made the crystal chime's function automatic. Warped tortoises are now automatically chimed while being attacked. Originally players had to manually chime each creature before (and sometimes during) the battle. Manual chiming is no longer necessary unless using mass attack methods such as Ancient Magicks or the dwarf multi-cannon. This update was greatly appreciated by players, and is regarded as making these creatures considerably easier to deal with.

Drop tips
These creatures occasionally drop tortoise shells, the highly sought after tertiary ingredient used to create War Tortoise Pouches with the Summoning skill. These can be worth a good deal and make the Warped Tortoise a viable money making option. Note that the similar drop Perfect shell has no relation to summoning, and cannot be used interchangeably while summoning. Perfect shells are instead sold to the goblin Barlak in the city of Dorgesh-Kaan, for which he gives the player 500 Crafting experience and 600 coins. Other drops to look out for are Rune pickaxes, Rune warhammers, Starved ancient effigies, as well as Swamp tar and noted ores.

Bringing supplies for High alchemy is also lucrative, as these tortoises often drop Adamant hatchets, and Mithril warhammers and platebodies, which are all High alched for decent gp each, providing magic exp as well. These items will provide a considerable cash stack during each trip, and saves inventory space for better drops, extending the length and profitability of each trip.

Warped Tortoises commonly drop tangled toads' legs which heal 150 life points. In anticipation of this, players often limit the amount of food they bring or instead summon a healing familiar, preferably a Bunyip. This helps maximise the number of drops they can obtain per trip, but a fair amount of food is still advised due to the accurate attacks, particularly if using a Dwarf multicannon.

Fighting Tips

 * Multi-way combat area: The Poison Waste Slayer Dungeon, where this creature can be found, is a multi-combat area. If a player decides to use mass combat methods, such as a Dwarf multicannon, or the ancient magicks, only cleansed tortoises will receive damage. Hitting uncleansed tortoises via this method can be a nuisance, and in some cases can become fairly hazardous as invincible tortoises will begin attacking the player. Use these methods cautiously.


 * Note: Despite living in an apparently poisonous environment, warped tortoises can be poisoned and will continue to be harmed by poison even after it has reverted to its uncleansed state.


 * For Experienced Players: Players with a high Defence or access to the Bunyip summoning familiar should bring little to no food in order to maximize the number of item drops they can pick up. Enhanced Excalibur is highly recommended for usage here, for players with access to it. Players may also use Bones to Peaches in order to stay for extended periods of time. Higher levelled players can make extremely fast combat exp this way, while also making 100-500k gp/hr. In the Poisonous Waste dungeon, the 2 tortoises in the first room can be camped; the player continually kills each tortoise as it spawns - players with sufficient offence can kill these in quick succession, engaged in combat almost nonstop. Using the best teleportation methods available, you can potentially bank, recover summon/prayer pts, and return to the dungeon inside of 1 minute if you're quick - teleport tablets, and spirit trees allow for very quick travel to and from the dungeon.


 * Safe spotting: Players with a low Defence can safely attack these creatures using Ranged, Magic, or a Halberd just south of the gap in the very first room. The two eastern corners are safe spots as well. Safe spotting is a good tactic to consider based on current player needs and circumstances, but is often considerably slower than face-to-face combat.


 * Prayer Flashing: Players can "flash" their prayers/curses on and off in proper rhythm, to benefit from the effects without being activated long enough to begin the prayer drain. This can be a very, very effective way to maintain a constant combat boost, using Piety, Turmoil, or any combat boosting prayers available, as well as an incredibly beneficial healing method, if the player has Soul Split. One great method if you have 95 prayer is to set Soul Split/Turmoil to quick curses, and flash both during every fight; this will give boosted combat stats, which complement the damage of Soul Split's healing. (Another alternative is to just flash Turmoil all the time, and flash Soul Split whenever you drop down a bit of lp).
 * Prayer Restore: The Dungeoneering reward Bonecrusher, combined with any of the prayer-restoring necklaces (Split Dragontooth, Demon horn necklaces, etc.) will allow for quick prayer restoration, with pts. being healed with every kill. Tortoises can easily be killed in 2-4 hits, and the Big bones they drop will provide 20 prayer pts. per kill. This consistent prayer recovery allows the player to use protect/deflect prayers and curses, in addition to healing or combat boosting spells, for long periods of time with little to no prayer drain, in order to improve your kill rate / length of trip, leading to increased exp and loot per hour. Using available teleports, one can bank, restore prayer, and be back into the dungeon within 1 minute.
 * Prayer: Prayer is surprisingly easy to use sustainably against these creatures, and are useful in the obvious ways. Prayers and Curses such as Piety or Turmoil, and Deflect or Protect from Melee can be used without a need for prayer potions. This can be done by using the ability of any version of the Ardougne cloak, which is received from completing any difficulty of the Ardougne Tasks, to teleport directly to the Kandarin Monastery. Players can recharge their Prayer here, which is only a short run to the Spirit Tree located at Khazard Battlefield, which can be used to quickly return to the Poison Waste Dungeon and continue fighting. Banking could be done via a dueling ring or using Mobilising armies teleport, where a spirit tree is close as well. The entire process should take under a minute, including running back to the dungeon entrance. With a high rate of kill and a split dragontooth necklace or demon horn necklace, a player might be able to sustain prayer much longer.


 * Most players overlook the fact that Guthan's warspear has a crush option, and an equal crush bonus to stab and slash, +75. Guthan's set can be extremely effective against these creatures, minimising if not eliminating the need for food.


 * Location and Transit: Using any Spirit Tree to reach the dungeon is very easy, simply teleport to the Mountains East of the Poisonous Waste, and you're a 5 second run from the dungeon entrance. To quickly bank between trips, simply teleport out to any preferred bank, and to return simply access the nearest Spirit Tree. A good idea would be to Teleport to House (if you have altar and/or obelisk) to quickly restore prayer and summon pts., and Teleport to Mobilising Armies to bank and quickly reach the Spirit Tree to return to the dungeon. Recent updates allow a player to have an active follower while entering the Grand Exchange - the familiar's timer will be paused, and the follower itself will vanish until you leave the area - this is a great improvement, as it allows players to keep their followers out, and not be obligated to dismiss them in order to access the GE.


 * Entrance Room: It should be noted that in the entrance room where there are two Warped Tortoises, players might not be willing to share the space, despite the fast spawn rate of the Tortoises. A high level player can legitimately kill both of the tortoises fast enough that they still have to wait for a respawn, especially if they are using a bonecrusher and a chaotic rapier or Goliath gloves. Because of this and the fact that the area is multicombat, players that may attempt to steal your kill. One suggestion is to world hop in attempt to find a world with nobody in this spot. This will give you the freedom to kill both as you please, uninterrupted; this will not always last for long, as someone often shows up - if they do, try to kill some of the monsters to show them it's your spot. If you can proficiently kill a few in a row, they might feel they're outmatched, and keep hopping.

Habitat

 * Poison Waste Slayer Dungeon

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Armour and Weapons

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Ore and Gems

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Trivia

 * At one time it was possible to heal using Guthan's set even when the tortoises were not made vulnerable by the crystal chimes. This was because at one point Guthan's set counted potential damage inflicted on foes even when actual damage was not possible due to prayer or other invulnerability. An update on 9 June 2009 fixed this bug.
 * When examining a warped tortoise, the message says, "You don't think you can harm this creature." However, if you examine a Warped Terrorbird, the message says, "You don't think you can harm this terrorbird," referring specifically to the terrorbird.
 * These tortoises have six legs, possibly as a result of the poisonous environment affecting them.