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).

They 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 103 if attacked by long-ranged magic or ranged weapons. They will not move towards 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 somewhat high-levelled players so it may be difficult to get a drop. Also, some players may find it difficult to solo-fight them unless they have a fairly high combat level (85+). 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.

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.

Location and Advantages of its Location
They are south of Edgeville, and north of the Barbarian Village in a crack next to the jail. If you get confused by where the hole is, it is not the crack in the ground, it is the trapdoor that is connected to the house. There is a fishing spot nearby where powerfishers drop raw salmon and raw trout. Take these, and cook them with the fire in Peksa's helmet shop if they weren't cooked when you picked them up. Or, you can just go to the monastery on the other side of the cliff, and ask a monk to heal you for free. They heal around a quarter of your life points at a time, and you can also climb up the ladder to refresh Prayer. The Edgeville bank is also located nearby. 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.

Free players (Melee) will find a rune weapon to be effective for melee fighting. Since they are weak to stab, a Rune shortsword or Rune longsword will average do the best job. If a player prefers Crush weapons, then a Rune 2-handed sword or a Rune battleaxe is recommended. If you want the most 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.

Free players (Ranged) if you are going to range it is highly suggested that you use a Maple longbow (sighted) or a maple shortbow with full green dragonhide with a rune full helm or green d'hide coif as this is the fastest free-to-play ranged method to kill cockroach soldiers. 65 range and 50 defence is strongly recommended.

Free players (Ranged Tank) if you are a tank with low level range it is recommended that you use a maple shortbow, rune platelegs, rune full helm,and a green d'hide or studded body. A crossbow is not recommended because of the time it takes to kill a single cockroach soldier. 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.

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, 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 * is 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

 * Mithril med helm (uncommon)
 * 5 Rune Javelin (m) (rare)
 * Dragon spear (m) (extremely rare)
 * Rune scimitar (rare)
 * Rune sq shield (rare)
 * Rune spear (m) (very rare)

Runes and Ores

 * 1-25 Law runes (common)
 * 1-15 Death runes (common)
 * 1-60 Fire runes (uncommon)
 * 1-16 Blood runes (m) (rare)
 * 3 noted Mithril ores (very common)
 * 1 noted Adamantite ore (common)

Uncut gems

 * Uncut sapphire (uncommon)
 * Uncut emerald (uncommon)
 * Uncut ruby (rare)
 * Uncut diamond (very rare)

Seeds (members only)
(All seeds are rare unless otherwise noted)
 * Avantoe Seed
 * Belladonna seed
 * Cactus seed
 * Cadantine seed
 * Dwarf weed seed
 * Irit seed
 * Jangerberry seed
 * Kwuarm seed
 * Lantadyme Seed
 * Limpwurt seed
 * Marrentill seed
 * Mushroom spore
 * Poison Ivy seed
 * Ranarr seed (very rare)
 * Snapdragon seed (extremely rare)
 * Strawberry seed
 * Tarromin seed
 * Toadflax Seed
 * Torstol seed (extremely rare)
 * Whiteberry seed
 * Watermelon seed
 * Wildblood seed
 * Harralander seed
 * Spirit weed seed

Other drops
Note: Items marked with (m) are members only items.
 * 100-400 coins (most common)
 * 1000 coins (rare)
 * Level 2 Clue scroll (m)
 * 1-2 Mushroom (m) (rare)
 * Nature talisman (m) (rare)
 * Shield left half (m) (extremely rare)
 * Tooth half of a key (m) (very rare)
 * Loop half of a key (m) (very rare)
 * Starved ancient effigy (m)
 * Nothing (uncommon)

Trivia

 * Cockroach soldiers have the second highest life points of any free-to-play monster not related to random events and quests, 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 random event based. However, the random event monsters are currently obsolete.
 * Cockroach soldiers are one of only four free-to-play monsters to attack with two combat styles (melee and range) outside the wilderness, 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, now 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 not true.