Waterfiend

Waterfiends are monsters best known for their crimson charm drops. They are found in the Ancient Caverns which can be accessed by completing part of the Barbarian Training, however they are accessible without completing all subsections. Whilst being the least harmful monster in the cavern, they attack with both magic and magical ranged attacks, which both hit up to 11. Waterfiends are also found in the Chaos Tunnels and within Ghorrock Fortress after completing The Temple at Senntisten. Waterfiends may be assigned as a slayer task by Duradel/Lapalok and Kuradal.

Waterfiends have a very high charm drop rate, especially for crimson charms. The drop rate for crimson charms appears to be roughly 80%. For this reason, they are targeted by many players who wish to level up summoning quickly.

Waterfiends have strong resistance to slashing and piercing attacks, but are weakest against crush attacks. Poison has no effect on Waterfiends; a possible reason could be that it is merely washed out of their watery bodies. Waterfiends are the elemental cousin of the Pyrefiend and the Icefiend.

Strategy
It is usually advised to kill waterfiends in the Ancient Caverns as the Chaos Tunnels are a multiway combat zone and therefore multiple waterfiends would attack at the same time; however, the Chaos Tunnels would allow the use of a combat familiar. Those who can use an iron or steel titan can kill waterfiends much more quickly in the Chaos Tunnels than in the Ancient Cavern, and it is possible to stay for half an hour or longer without banking. After completing The Temple at Senntisten, the Waterfiends at Ghorrock turn into level 115 like others but with some different drops. However they drop crimson charms less often than the waterfiends in the Ancient Caverns, but drop 2 charms at a time, and also have the advantage of being able to use a cannon against which is highly effective.

Wearing armour with very high magic defence is considered to be a necessity and most players also use the Protect from Missiles prayer to keep safe from the Waterfiends accurate Ranged attacks. Use of prayer is optional but not using it will greatly reduce the number of kills per trip. Good weapons include those with a crush and prayer bonus, such as a Godsword, Zamorakian spear, Saradomin sword, Verac's flail, Dragon mace or a Barrelchest anchor. Of these weapons, the Saradomin sword has the best damage rate (due to its special attack), and Verac's flail has the highest crush attack bonus. Barrelchest anchor has highest crush attack and strength bonus for a crush weapon while being not or as slow as a longsword or battleaxe.

Waterfiends drop large quantities of raw fish, it is sometimes recommended to take advantage of this either by cooking them on a fire in the cavern or using the Bunyip's scroll special to consume them raw. However, players may not need the extra hitpoints. It can also be noted that in order to consume them raw you need to have the required cooking level.

Recommended equipment
 * Slayer helmet - Black mask or Helm of neitiznot
 * Karil's leathertop &gt; Black d'hide body -armadyl platebody is not recommended as it lowers your attack bonus
 * Karil's leatherskirt &gt; Black d'hide chaps -armadyl plateskirt is not recommended as it lowers your attack bonus
 * RFD gloves or Regen bracelet &gt; Combat bracelet
 * Climbing boots or Dragon boots &gt; Rune boots
 * Amulet of fury &gt; Amulet of glory
 * Achievement cape(t) &gt; Ardougne cloak 3 &gt; God cloak or Fire cape
 * Saradomin sword &gt; Saradomin godsword &gt; Zamorakian spear &gt; Other Godsword &gt; Dragon mace
 * Onyx ring (i) or Explorer's ring 3 or Ring of life
 * Unicorn stallion or Bunyip or Tinderbox and Logs

Helpful Tips:

 * They tend to drop lots of raw fish, usually more than you can hold. A good way to keep this food is rotate dropping. This is constantly dropping and picking up the food so it won't disappear. For example, if you have a full inventory and they drop 6 raw lobsters, you would drop 6 of your food or potions and pick up the 6 raw fish. After 1-2 kills, you would then drop the 6 raw lobsters and pick up the 6 things you dropped. By keep doing this, it allows you to hold more. This can be very tedious but it will allow you stay alive longer without prayer pots. This can only be done with a Bunyip because of its ability to allow you to eat raw fish.


 * It is also worth mentioning, that while it may cost a certain amount to kill waterfiends, through use of prayer potions, food or familiars etc, players can at least break even through picking up noted water orbs, snape grass, and ranarrs. Water battlestaves can also be high alched for 9,300 coins. Due to lack of space, many people may not want to pick up all items; the main drop you should concentrate on is Water Orbs.


 * Waterfiends usually drop 1 water rune, 1 charm (typically crimson), and 1 other item (2 grimy herbs as the other item). Sometimes the other item is 90 water runes. This means if you examine the drop and see only a charm and water rune, the odds are good you have received a charm and 91 water runes. If you see a charm, a water rune, and something else (like a shark), the water rune is 1 and not 91.

Note: Waterfiends have very high magic defence; however, the Saradomin Sword's special attack deals magic damage as usual. Zamorakian Spear is a better weapon as it gives defence bonus and is very accurate. The dwarven helm from Grim Tales is the best non slayer option as it gives crush attack bonus.

Waterfiends had an unannounced graphical update on 5 June 2008 - with this some of their drops changed. Then, later that day, a system update after Smoking Kills was updated to remove the drop change, only to be changed once again to fix some bugs and change some of the drops that were mentioned on the forums.

Locations
Waterfiends may be found in:


 * The Ancient Caverns
 * Chaos Tunnels
 * Ghorrock fortress

100% Drop(s)

 * 1 Water rune

Runes

 * 9-19 Death runes
 * 4-12 Blood runes
 * 90 Water runes (in addition to the one always dropped)
 * 3-9 Mud runes
 * 3-10 Steam runes
 * 3-10 Mist runes
 * 45 Nature runes (extremely rare)

Seeds

 * 1-4 Watermelon seeds
 * Mushroom spore
 * Poison ivy seed
 * Jangerberry seed
 * Strawberry seed
 * Spirit weed seed
 * Tarromin seed
 * Marrentill seed
 * Harralander seed
 * Toadflax seed
 * Ranarr seed
 * Kwuarm seed
 * Snapdragon seed
 * Dwarf weed seed
 * Whiteberry seed
 * Wildblood seed

Weapons and Armour

 * Rune medium helmet
 * 5 Rune javelins
 * Mith Grapple
 * Adamant chainbody
 * Mithril warhammer
 * Mithril full helmet
 * 90 Mithril arrows
 * 15 Sapphire bolts (Semi Rare)
 * Blue d'hide vamb
 * Water battlestaff
 * Staff of Water
 * Rune spear (Rare)
 * Dragon spear (Very Rare)

Herbs

 * 2 Grimy herbs (1-3 at Ghorrock)
 * 20 Snape grass (noted)
 * 1 Grimy dwarf weed (1-2 at Ghorrock)
 * 1 Grimy Ranarr (1-2 at Ghorrock)

Other drops

 * 97-691 Coins
 * 3 Steel bars (noted)
 * 1-5 Mithril ore (noted)
 * 3 Coal (noted) (Ghorrock only)
 * 3-8 Gold ore (noted) (Ghorrock only)
 * 2 Mithril bars
 * 5-10 Water orb (noted) (Ghorrock common)
 * 5-10 Vials of water (noted)
 * Half of a key
 * Shield left half
 * Level 3 Clue scroll
 * Nature talisman
 * Water talisman
 * 5-12 Raw lobsters
 * 3-6 Raw sharks
 * Shark
 * 10-29 Seaweed (noted)
 * Oyster
 * Fishbowl
 * 2-4 Uncut sapphire (noted)
 * 1 Uncut gem
 * 11-27 Cannonballs (Ghorrock Only)
 * Saradomin brew (1) (Ghorrock Only)
 * Zamorak brew (1) (Ghorrock Only)
 * 1 Uncut diamond (noted) (Ghorrock Only)

Charms
Please note that in Ghorrock fortress, 2 charms are dropped at once, but the charm drop rate is significantly lower.