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 118. Waterfiends are also found in the Chaos Tunnels and within the 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 (around 75%). 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
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 using it will greatly increase 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, Dragon battleaxe, or a Barrelchest anchor. Of these weapons, the Saradomin sword has the best damage rate (due to its special attack), and the Barrelchest anchor has the highest crush attack and strength bonus for a crush weapon (however, it has the speed of a battleaxe and Godsword). The Tzhaar-Ket-Em, combined with a berserker necklace, can also prove to be a very useful combination for slaying waterfiends, due to its high crush bonus (enhanced by the berserker necklace), and its ability to be held with one hand.

'''Those who can use an Iron titan 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 become level 115 like at the other locations, though with some different drops. The Waterfiends at Ghorrock have a lower charm drop rate, but drop two charms at a time; a cannon is also able to be used there for more rapid kills.'''

Since 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. 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 (If it is a slayer task) or Helm of neitiznot (for the Strength and Prayer bonuses) or Dwarven Helmet (for the Crush bonus)
 * Karil's leathertop > Armadyl chestplate > Black d'hide body
 * Karil's leatherskirt > Armadyl plateskirt > Black d'hide chaps
 * RFD gloves > Regen bracelet > Combat bracelet
 * Dragon boots > Silly jester boots > Rune boots
 * Amulet of fury > Amulet of glory
 * Soul Wars cape or Fire cape > Achievement capes(t) > Ardougne cloak 3 > God cloak
 * Zamorakian spear > Saradomin sword > Saradomin godsword > Other Godswords > Torag's hammers > Verac's Flail > Guthan's warspear > Barrelchest anchor > Dragon mace > Dragon Battleaxe
 * Berserker ring (i) > Berserker ring > Onyx ring (i) or Explorer's ring 3 or Ring of life
 * Unicorn stallion or Bunyip or Tinderbox and Logs
 * Dragonfire shield if using a one-handed weapon (not recommended)

Notes:
 * Using Armadyl armour is not recommended while using melee because the chestplate and plateskirt considerably lower crush accuracy and may affect your kill rate dramatically.
 * Using the Dragon battleaxe along with a rune defender will provide a fairly high crush accuracy and strength bonus along with some range defence, making this a rather useful combination, comparable and sometimes better than the Saradomin sword or the Zamorakian spear. Although the crush attack bonus for a dragon battleaxe and rune defender is higher than that of a Zamorakian spear, players will get more kills per hour with a Zamorakian spear because of its faster attack speed.
 * The Enhanced excalibur is recommended (in the player's inventory) at Waterfiends for its special attack, which raises defence by almost as much as a super defence potion and heals as much as a shark.

Helpful Tips

 * They tend to drop lots of raw fish — usually more than a player 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 a player has a full inventory and the Waterfiend drops 6 raw lobsters, the player could drop 6 food or potions and pick 6 raw fish. After 1-2 kills, the player would then drop the 6 raw lobsters and pick up the 6 things that were dropped. By keep doing this, it allows players to virtually hold more. This can be very tedious but it will allow a player stay alive longer without prayer pots. This is preferably done with a Bunyip because of its ability to allow players to eat raw fish with the swallow whole scroll.


 * 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, noted snape grass, water talismans, 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 and usually only pick up the stackable items such as water orbs, mithril arrows, and various runes.

''Note: the Fairy Ring is only accessible after completing much of Barbarian Training, at least up to Pyre ships. Before the ring can be used, bittercap mushrooms must be planted there. With a Spade and 5 Mushrooms in inventory, use one of the mushrooms on the 'Enchanted lands' spot near the centre of the ring.''
 * For those fighting Waterfiends in the Ancient Cavern, using the Fairy Ring (Code BJQ) is a much quicker route to stock up on food/potions than walking all the way from the Barbarian Outpost.


 * 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 a player examines the drop and sees only "charm" and "water rune", the odds are good that the player has received a charm and 91 water runes. If a player sees a charm, a water rune, and something else (like a shark), the water rune is 1 and not 91. Usually the 91 Water Runes will appear on top of the Crimson Charm.

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 can be found in:


 * The Ancient Caverns
 * Chaos Tunnels
 * Ghorrock fortress

100% drop

 * 1 Water rune

Runes

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

Seeds

 * Belladonna seed
 * Dwarf weed seed
 * Harralander seed
 * Irit Seed
 * Jangerberry seed
 * Kwuarm seed
 * Lantadyme seed
 * Limpwurt seed
 * Marrentill seed
 * Mushroom spore
 * Poison ivy seed
 * Ranarr seed
 * Snapdragon seed (Extremely rare)
 * Spirit weed seed
 * Strawberry seed
 * Tarromin seed
 * Toadflax seed
 * Torstol seed
 * 1-4 Watermelon seeds
 * Whiteberry seed
 * Wildblood seed

Weapons and armour

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

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)
 * 3-6 Coal (noted) (Ghorrock only)
 * 3-8 Gold ore (noted) (Ghorrock only)
 * 2 Mithril bars
 * 5-10 Water orb (noted)
 * 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, rare)
 * Saradomin brew (1) (Ghorrock Only)
 * Zamorak brew (1) (Ghorrock Only)
 * 1 Uncut diamond (noted) (Ghorrock Only)