Kalphite Queen

The Kalphite Queen (Kalphiscarabeinae Pasha), also called the KQ, is the 15th highest level monster in all of RuneScape (14th highest level monster fought by conventional means), and is the sixth highest level monster that is neither quest or activity related.

The Kalphite Queen is famous for dropping the moderately valuable Dragon chainbody armour (having an Exchange price of coins), and is the only monster besides the Dust Devil to do so. The Dragon chainbody can also be received from a high-level Barbarian Assault gamble, but this is very rare with odds rumoured to be 1:10,000. Many players also hunt for the Kalphite Queen head for their trophy room.

The Kalphite Queen is one of the toughest monsters in RuneScape, and she can inflict incredible amounts of damage, sometimes constantly. It is recommended for players to only bring items into the hive they are willing to lose.

Nowadays, a combination of factors (such as the release of God Wars Dungeon bosses and the Corporeal Beast, as well as the devaluation of the Kalphite Queen's drops) have made hunting the Kalphite Queen a less appealing activity. However, it is still hunted by those on a Sumona's Slayer challenge or those just wishing for the experience of killing it.

The addition of various options to the Quick Chat menu has allowed players a convenient method of communicating when organising and undertaking a Kalphite Queen attack.

Location
The Kalphite Queen resides within the Kalphite Hive. There are several ways to get there.

Shantay Pass
One way involves the player finding their way through the Kharidian Desert. The easiest way to do this is from the Shantay Pass. The Shantay Pass is located south of Al Kharid. To go through the pass, the player will need either to buy a Shantay pass from the nearby Shantay for a small fee of 5 coins or to bribe the nearby guard into granting passage for 200 coins.

The hive's entrance is due west of the Shantay Pass and is really a short run. Players who are lucky and fast may get to the hive before being affected by the Desert heat. Players may instead sacrifice an inventory space and bring a Waterskin to beat the heat.

Dorgesh-Kaan
Another way requires players to have completed the Death to the Dorgeshuun quest, so that they can access Dorgesh-Kaan's southern agility course and thus the Dorgesh-Kaan South Dungeon below the course. In the dungeon a tunnel connects to the upper level of Kalphite Hive, in a cave with many Kalphite workers.

Players should take Light sources for the Dorgesh-Kaan South Dungeon or else they will constantly be attacked by stinging insects in the dark.

Fairy Rings
A third way requires partial completion of the Fairy Tale II - Cure a Queen quest, so that players can use the Fairy ring network. Ring code BIQ is quite close to the hive's entrance and is the fastest way to get there. Typically, players can run from the ring to the entrance without being in the desert long enough to be affected by desert heat. This method will take up an inventory spot to carry a Dramen staff or Lunar staff, unless Fairy Tale III - Orks Rift has been completed.

Do No Evil shortcut
While it is believed that one of the rewards from the Do No Evil quest allows access to Kalphite Queen through a hidden passage, this is not the case. The shortcut is a one way exit "from" the queen's lair, and no longer an entrance. Players attempting to reach the queen in this fashion will recieve the message,"The sides of this hole are too steep to climb up." In addition, the examine text of the passage on the end where Ayuni is fought during the quest states, "A cavernous hole. It looks like the passage within is too steep to climb back up."

Accessing the hive
Players entering the hive from the surface entrance will need two ropes, unless coming from the cave entrance, one to enter the upper level of the hive and another to enter the lower level where the queen is found. Both ropes will be used up in the process. Players entering the hive from the Dorgesh-Kaan South Dungeon only need one rope, to enter the lower level where the Queen resides. Players entering through the secret passage will not need any ropes.
 * Ropes are only needed for the first time. Subsequent trips will NOT need more ropes

The Kalphite Queen's abilities
The Kalphite Queen has two forms, each one having a high combat level of 333 and exactly 2,550 life points. Her first form resembles an immense scarab beetle, and her second form resembles a giant wasp. While each form has the same combat level and life points, the second form has proven itself to be much harder to defeat than the first one.

An excerpt from the Jagex Game Guide stated, "While the Queen does not pray to any gods, she is naturally immune to certain forms of attack. In her first form she is immune to Magic and Ranged attacks, and will happily eat any adventurer foolish enough to try."

Contrary to the popular, her prayers do not fully protect her from what she is protecting against. They just make those attacks much less accurate.

In her first form she uses protect from magic and protect from ranged, making ranged and magic attacks impractical against her first form. However, it is still possible to hit with these attack styles since her prayers do not offer 100% protection, rather it just grants her extraordinary defence against them. She uses all three combat styles, each with a max hit of 314.

Once the first form is defeated, the second form appears. This form uses protect from melee, but still uses the same attack styles with the same max hit. In this form she also start to summon level 28 Kalphite Workers. As supplies will have been consumed and as melee attacks become less effective, the second form will be more difficult to defeat than the first form.

Luckily her attacks are somewhat predictable: whenever she uses a ranged or magic attack she usually continues it for 3-4 hits. This makes a prayer switch partially effective, as there is a good chance she repeats the same attack style after a few hits before switching to another. Note that this is only for her ranged and magic attack.

WARNING: Her magic and ranged attacks have a 100% accuracy, meaning that she will always hit with these styles. Armour does not prevent this but prayers can block all damage as usual. Her melee attacks on the other hand are normal so armour can respond to it.

Her ranged and magic attacks also have the ability to bounce to other players, meaning that she can damage all players inside the room with one attack. These attacks cannot turn corners however. Her ranged attack also cannot go through herself.

She is immune to leech curses and will destroy dwarf multicannons set up in the room. If you use leech curses, your stats will still be boosted, and you will still get a message telling you that the enemy's stats have been drained.

Preparations and strategies
Players who wish to fight her should not take her lightly. She is very difficult to kill and can hit very high and rapidly. Recommended stats would be 80+ attack, 80+ strength,60+ defence and 75+ ranged. 37 prayer is a must, but 43 is recommended.

Take the best melee armour you can bring with the highest melee defence. The Kalphite Queen has a weakness against crush attacks, so a good crush weapon such as a Chaotic maul or Godsword would be very useful. The Dragon battleaxe and Dragon mace are effective low cost alternatives. Consider bringing some ranged equipment for the second form. A rune/chaotic crossbow with ruby bolts (e) and diamond bolts (e) is a very good choice. Be sure that you can switch combat styles as fast as possible. It is also useful to bring an extra weapon with a good damaging special attack to use at the beginning of the battle. See Kalphite Queen for a list of recommended weapons.

It is recommended to bring a summoning familiar with you. This can potentially be a fighting familiar (iron/steel titan) to aid you in the battle or a beast of burden (spirit terrorbird/war tortoise) to carry extra supplies. However a healing familiar will such as the Unicorn stallion is touted to be more useful.

Suggested items

 * Anti-poison potion or Super antipoison potion - Highly recommended as the guardians poison starting at 68. You also have soldiers that can poison you possibly on your way to the queen.
 * Two ropes to access the lair (Only for your first time, but redundant in future trips or if you came through the third room.)
 * Super/Extreme set or an Overload potion.
 * Prayer potions/Super prayers/Prayer renewals/Super restores
 * Shantay pass to access the desert (only if going to the Kalphite hive via the pass; other routes are possible)
 * One click teleport for emergency reasons (such as the Ectophial or Teleportation Tablet).
 * Food to heal yourself (generally the best available, such as rocktail, sharks, manta rays, or tuna potatoes. High levels can take some monkfish if they have a good team.)
 * A Black mask/Slayer helmet/Full slayer helmet for extra damage (ONLY if Kalphites is the player's Slayer task.)
 * Keris, for a chance to do triple damage on critical hits.

The Queen was commonly fought in teams of two. The tactic is to stand each player on opposite sides of the Queen; one in front of her and one behind her. This is done for two reasons: 1) She has to turn 180 degrees to damage either of you, so she will rapidly turn between you, and thus hitting you as little as possible, and 2) so her Ranged attack can no longer ricochet from one player to another. Her mage attack however will ricochet between each person. It is highly recommended to pray protect mage at all times.

One of the best armour sets for fighting the Kalphite Queen is considered to be a full set of Verac's armour, since the special effect of the Verac's set has a chance to ignore protection prayer and defence bonuses, and the flail has a good crush attack bonus. The set also provides good melee and ranged defence bonuses. This makes it also possible to use melee against the second form with much success. Higher levelled players have increasingly been able to solo the Queen, particually as more and more powerful items are being released.

If you have completed As a First Resort..., using the spa pool at Oo'glog before going to the hive can be very useful, as the spas boost both prayer and life points and give unlimited amount of run energy for a time. (The spas also give temporary immunity to poison, but this will wear off before the player is able to kill the Queen, so anti-poison protection will still be needed besides the spa.)

The battle
You might get poisoned by Kalphite soldiers or guardians while making your way through the lair. If so, just drink a dose of antipoison potion.

Once you enter the queen's room, you can prepare yourself for the battle. Such as drinking boosting potions, turn on your prayer or summoning the familiars you brought if you haven't done so already. The queen wanders around the other side of the room and can not reach you here.

As you run to the queen she will start attacking you. Her ranged and magic attacks are the most dangerous so protect from magic is the most recommended prayer to use, since it covers the bad magic defence of your melee armour. While her magic attacks are nullified, your armour will help defend against her ranged and melee attacks. Still, even with very high ranged defence and damage soaking her projectiles will still hit high, so keep a close eye on your health when she starts to use it.

First use the special attack weapons you brought before switching to your main weapon. Keep an eye on your health and prayer points. During the battle you may be attacked by the Kalphite Guardians which wander around the room. If so, it is best to turn off your auto retaliate and ignore them. If you brought a beast of burden, replenish your supplies as you use them.

After the first form is defeated, you will have a small window of time to prepare yourself for the next form, such as switching attack styles and eating/drinking supplies. You can also switch your familiar during this time. If you managed to defeat the first form, but can't take on the second one, teleport away to restock and come back once you have a new supplies of food and potions. She will remain at the other side of the room and she remains at the form you took her into before you escaped.

In her second form she starts to summon a lot of Kalphite workers. They are weak, but come in great numbers. It is now necessary to turn off auto retaliate if you haven't done so already. She also uses protect from melee in this form, so many players switch to ranged or continues to use the Verac set.

Solo method
The Kalphite Queen is very difficult to solo, and should only be attempted by players highly experienced in boss fights. To effectively solo her in one trip, near-maxed stats are essential. Bring at least super potions (overload and extreme potions highly recommended), and piety/turmoil. Verac's set is very effective here as well, providing decent bonuses and hitting through the 2nd form's prayer quite often. A special attack weapon such as Dragon claws is highly recommended, but not required.

As always when attempting dangerous battles, bring a one-click teleport. House teletabs are recommended, as you may sometimes die upon arriving at your teletab destination if you wait until you are very low on health before clicking. A typical high-levelled player might bring the following equipment:


 * Verac's helm/Torva full helm/Helm of neitiznot


 * Completionist cape/Max cape > Fire cape/Soulwars cape


 * Amulet of Fury


 * Verac's flail/Chaotic maul/Barrelchest anchor (the anchor may seem like a strange choice, but it is very effective as it has high crush attack, a decent special attack, and is relatively easy/cheap to replace)


 * Verac's brassard/Torva platebody/Bandos chestplate


 * Verac's plateskirt/Torva platelegs/Bandos tassets


 * Barrows gloves


 * Steadfast boots > Dragon boots


 * Berserker ring (i) > Berserker ring

and an inventory with the following:


 * Special attack weapon: Dragon claws > Dragon halberd > Armadyl Godsword > Dragon mace


 * Super Prayer/Prayer potion/Prayer renewal


 * Overload


 * Teleport to House


 * Antipoison++


 * Rocktails, and pack your BoB with these too


 * Healing aura scrolls if you brought a Unicorn stallion.

Alternatively, the fish can be replaced with Saradomin brews and Super restores, but this is much more expensive and unlikely to increase the number of kills per trip enough to cover the cost.

Even with a Chaotic maul, 99 attack, Overload and Turmoil, you will be quite inaccurate on the second form. Hence it can be worth bringing ranged attacks if you can acquire sufficiently powerful equipment. Example gear:


 * Void ranged helmet


 * Ava's alerter


 * Amulet of fury


 * Pernix body > Armadyl chestplate


 * Void deflector


 * Void robe bottom


 * Void gloves


 * Chaotic crossbow > Rune crossbow


 * Glaiven boots > Ranger boots


 * Archer ring (i) > Onyx ring (i) > Archer ring


 * Diamond bolts (e)

Notable drops
The Kalphite Queen is quite a tough creature, but the drops are very rewarding.

Some of her more enviable drops include:
 * Dragon two-handed sword
 * Kalphite Queen head (see Construction to learn more about the Kalphite head)
 * Dragon Chainbody

Weapons

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Armour

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Ammunition

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Runes

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Gems

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Other

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Trivia

 * When the Kalphite Queen was first released, she only used two attack styles: magic and melee. Players with the protect from magic prayer and a halberd or ranged attack could kill her in both forms without taking any damage if the Guardians did not attack the player, making it possible to achieve many kills in one trip. Jagex has added the ranged attack since then.
 * Both of the Queen's forms are similar to the life cycle of the Cicada. She starts off as a beetle, then transforms into an airborne opponent.
 * It was revealed in the April 2011 BTS that the Kalphite Queen and the King Black Dragon are due to be married on 29 April 2011, to coincide with the wedding of Prince William Windsor and Catherine Middleton in the UK.
 * At RuneFest 2011, it was revealed that there would be a Kalphite King and a Queen Black Dragon in the future. How and whether this would affect the current marriage of the Kalphite Queen to the King Black Dragon is unknown.

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