TzHaar Fight Cave

The TzHaar Fight Cave is an advanced area in RuneScape introduced on 4 October 2005. It is a safe combat activity in TzHaar City, which means if you die, you will retain all of the items you do not use up in the fighting, such as food. Up until the release date, the Kalphite Queen had been the most powerful of all creatures within RuneScape. However, the introduction of the TzHaar Fight Cave created 2 monsters, the level 702 TzTok-Jad and the level 360 Ket-Zek, both of which are higher in level. However, the Kalphite Queen is widely regarded to be more difficult to defeat than the level 360 Ket-Zek, despite her lower combat level. More recently the Corporeal Beast has been added to the game which has overcome TzTok-Jad. Then there was the release of Nomad (level 699) which is currently the most difficult quest boss in the game, despite that its level is lower than TzTok-Jad.

Location
Deep under the ground of Karamja, a new species of creature has been discovered. This was introduced in early 4 October 2005. To find the entrance to this underground city, or TzHaar, players must go into the volcano dungeon on Karamja.You can take a boat from Ardougne (30gp), from Port Sarim (30gp), or teleport with the use of an Amulet of Glory. Once there, players will see a cave entrance, which leads to TzHaar.

Monsters
The residents here are much stronger than most places, which is to be expected from a race living inside a volcano, and have devised many tests of skill and strength. Some, like the TzHaar fight pit, are meant as tournaments between bold adventurers. However, the TzHaar Fight Cave pits adventurers against a succession of waves of monsters, each harder than the last. To get to the final boss, the immensely powerful Level 702 TzTok-Jad, players must battle past six other types of monsters ranging from level 22 up to level 360. Each of these monsters require a different tactic by the player, though, due to the structure of the mini-game, most of them are best fought from a distance.

They generally have high attack and strength, along with a special ability, but low Lifepoints and defence. Players are able to hit high and often on them.

The monsters are in order of appearance by wave number:

The goal of the Fight Cave is to reach and defeat the level 702 TzTok-Jad, this is however painstaking and very long to do, players will need to keep focus and not panic if they wish to succeed. Unlike the Kalphite Queen and other high-levelled monsters, players cannot team up against these monsters.

TzTok-Jad
TzTok-Jad (commonly referred to as "Jad") is the final monster encountered in the TzHaar Fight Cave activity. Examining the monster yields the discouraging message "This is going to hurt..." TzTok-Jad is also the 2nd highest level monster in all of RuneScape that players can fight with conventional methods (the highest level monster is the Corporeal beast). Those who are skilled enough to defeat it are in for a grand reward, namely the Fire cape, considered one of the best capes in the game (it is also the only animated cape in the game!). The Fire cape also gives the ability to obtain an Ice strykewyrm slayer task without using slayer reward points to purchase that ability, and doubles the damage of fire spells while slaying them. In addition, it adds 40 damage to all attacks against them. Ice strykewyrms are the only monster to drop the coveted Staff of light.

Tactical analysis
In order for one to reach TzTok-Jad, one must first endure 62 rounds of fighting progressively tougher monsters. The current round that the player is on is at the beginning of each round. TzTok-Jad himself is a level 702, huge, four-legged behemoth and uses Magic, Melee, & Ranged attacks - he will only melee you when you are adjacent to him; otherwise he alternates between using Magic and Range. Although somewhat slow, all of these can deal enough damage in a single blow to kill even the most powerful of players if not guarded against via using the correct protection prayer, as TzTok-Jad has a maximum hit of 970. When TzTok-Jad is down to half health, he will summon four Yt-HurKots (level 108 with 600 LP and tiny in comparison) which will heal him, effectively causing him to regenerate endlessly until you deal with them. In order to stop them from healing, you need to hit them once to draw their attention to you. The Yt-HurKots' melee attacks hit up to 140, so to repel these attacks, turn on the Steel Skin prayer, or kill them. Alternatively, when all of them are attacking you, simply run through TzTok-Jad and they will become trapped behind him (this is not advised unless you are experienced and know his actions). You can use a bow such as Karil's crossbow or the Crystal bow to attack.

''Note: Its highly recommended not to give up if the player runs out of prayer potions just before the last wave, because if the player brought a falador shield (1, 2 or 3) they can log out and come back the day after and restore prayer, which could potentially save the player resources and some time. However, you cannot log out during the last wave.''

'''Note: Its recommended to not kill healers, unless you think you are fast enough to kill Jad in 10 seconds after healers are dead. After 19.01.2010 update, healers will respawn in 10+ seconds after all healers are dead!'''

'''Note: It seems even if you distract all four healers, more WILL spawn after at least 10 seconds, so it may help to take them all (total of 7?) out. You will find yourself holding 5 or more if you do NOT kill them unless they are blocked in a safe spot away from TzTok-Jad. (Note: After the HP update if you draw the healers attention to you and then take down Jad's health to the halfway mark kill the healers and they won't respawn.)'''

Note: When attacking the healers with a bow/crossbow to turn their attention to you, it is advised to set the attack style to longrange first, otherwise you may walk too close to TzTok-Jad, and get hit by its melee attack.

Note: If you get hit hard by Jad, DO NOT power eat or panic, stay calm, relaxed, and focused. Heal once every time he attacks.

Survival depends on watching his movements; he warns the player before attacking with non-melee attacks. By listening for certain sounds and watching his forelegs prior to his attack, he/she can switch to the appropriate protection prayer and avoid severe damage. Between these attacks the player must switch as quickly as possible otherwise he/she could experience hits up to 970s. One way to do this a little quicker is to use the keys "f1" (inventory) and "f3" (prayer); if one wastes even less than a second, the results could be fatal. Using the f keys to switch between interfaces can be done on a Windows and some linux computers.

Reaching TzTok-Jad takes a considerable amount of time and resources, requiring usually 2–3 hours of continuous playing and a considerable number of potions. At 90+ range however, it can take as little as just over an hour to get to the final wave.

Actually defeating TzTok-Jad requires a huge amount of persistence and determination, as TzTok-Jad is rarely defeated in the first few tries by even the best RuneScape players.

Contrary to popular belief, a player's Ranged or Combat Level to a point do not considerably affect the player's performance in the Fight Caves, as the immense difficulty of dealing with the trials and the final battle with TzTok-Jad still remains. A higher defence level, however, DOES help the player to get to TzTok-Jad easier, as the player can equip better armour and will get hit less often.

For players who wish to save their high-healing foods for later fights may choose to find a safespot and wait until their life points heal. This is very time consuming, but casting a Lunar Dream spell, having a bracelet of regeneration equip or Rapid Heal/Rapid Renewal turned on or simply using Rest will speed up the healing process. An Enhanced excalibur is very helpful here, it can heal 200 life points and boosts your defence level every 5 minutes.

Slayer Task
Since the release of Kuradal, players may now receive Tzhaar beings as Slayer tasks. Upon receiving the assignment, Kuradal will offer a player the option to upgrade the task to "280 volcanic creatures of the Tzhaar Fight Caves." Defeating TzTok-Jad on this special assignment will give a bonus of 25,000 Slayer experience, the largest amount of experience to be gained from any monster. Additionally, going through the whole Fight Cave may yield up to 44,140 Slayer experience. This consists of all waves up to 63, including killing seven Yt-HurKots (that's one wave and three more of the creatures) and TzTok-Jad himself. It is highly advised to get a full slayer helmet before attempting this task with range.

Prayer
Fighting TzTok-Jad requires the use of prayer. As mentioned earlier, you can tell what type of attack he will use before it hits you. The following are the prayers to use to protect yourself: Note: It is also possible to use the Ancient Curses from The Temple at Senntisten to protect from his attacks. The Deflect Curses are very useful, as they work and drain the same way the normal protection prayers do, (the Curses can also be used against Yt-MejKot, Ket-Zek and Tok-Xil) and have a chance of dealing some helpful damage to the enemies attacking (up to 97 on TzTok-Jad, since its maximum hit is 970) It is widely believed that the Deflect Curses deal 10% of damage of what the enemy would have caused. The disadvantage is you need at least 68 prayer (if using range) or 71 (if using melee for TzTok-Jad.)
 * Ranged: He will raise his feet up, and then slam them down right away. Quickly turn on Protect from Missiles when he raises his feet.
 * Magic: He will tilt his head down (facing the floor) as a large asteroid like object forms, which he then he lunges towards you when he looks back up, which is similar to the sound of the Retribution Prayer. Quickly, turn on Protect from Magic.
 * Melee: He will only attack using melee if you are standing beside him.

Recommended Setups
There are generally two approaches to get through the caves. One is using Guthan's and ranged, the other is using ranged only. Magic is ineffective in the caves as a vast quantity of runes is needed, and all the monsters have high magic defence. Note that these setups are only a suggestion, and they can vary from player to player depending on skill levels.

Cheap, Successful Setup (recommended)
Many players use high-priced objects, such as Guthan's armour, blessed dragonhide, or even Armadyl armour. If you are a level around levels 80-90, you might want to use this setup for any of your attempts on doing and successfully completing the Fight Caves. Make sure that no monster melee you except the level 45s and the descendants of the level 45 which are two 22s. All other monsters are most likely to inflict high damage, and even the low-levelled Tz-Kih can heavily penalize you with a melee attack capable of draining several seconds worth of prayer points per hit.

This is a recommended minimalist equipment setup which is around 1.5-2M per trip: Here is a suggested inventory: Note: This is a ranged-only setup, since you will only be using a rune crossbow. Ava's accumulator is a highly recommended item to bring, as bolts will be rapidly used up, and you will want to use all the bolts you possibly can.
 * Verac's helm
 * Amulet of glory
 * Black d'hide body
 * Karil's leatherskirt
 * Rune crossbow
 * Book of balance
 * Ava's accumulator
 * Around 500 - 1000 Diamond bolts (e)
 * Black d'hide vambs
 * Dragon boots
 * 17 Super restore potions (4)
 * 9 Saradomin brews (4)

Guthan's Setup
Many players use Guthan's in the early waves as it helps conserve food, and it also has reasonable defence. Players would normally use Guthan's until the Yt-MejKots appear, in which the player would then switch to his/her ranged setup. However, they could still heal on monsters in later waves to replenish their health when needed. Ideal monsters to heal on are Tz-Kih, Tz-Kek, and Tok-Xil. Yt-MejKots are also ideal to heal on if you are using a safe spot: this is done by hiding in the safe spot, hitting Yt-Mejkot and running back to the safe spot. It should be noted that when you run back to your safe spot you should wait until its LP bar goes away so it will not attack you.

Here is a suggested equipment setup if you are using Guthan's:


 * Guthan's helm/Proselyte sallet/Armadyl Helm
 * Amulet of fury / God stole / Holy symbol / Unholy symbol / Amulet of glory
 * Guthan's platebody/Blessed dragonhide body/Karil's leathertop/Proselyte hauberk/Armadyl Chestplate
 * Guthan's chainskirt/Verac's plateskirt/Proselyte cuisse/Armadyl plateskirt
 * Guthan's warspear/Rune Crossbow/Crystal Bow/Karil's crossbow
 * Ava's accumulator / Ava's attractor / Fire Cape / Obsidian cape / Skillcape / Legends cape
 * Adamant bolts / Diamond bolts (e) / Bolt racks / Broad-tipped bolts / Nothing (if using crystal bow)
 * Regen Bracelet / Gloves (barrows) / Black spiky vambs
 * Ranger boots / Snakeskin boots / Dragon boots/Bandos boots
 * Archers ring / Explorer's ring (optional) / Berserker ring

And here is the suggested inventory to go with it:


 * Black d'hide body / Karil's leathertop / Armadyl chestplate
 * Guthan's helm (if using some other helm)
 * Black d'hide chaps / Karil's leatherskirt / Armadyl plateskirt / Verac's skirt (optional)
 * Rune crossbow / Karil's crossbow / 2 Crystal bows
 * Granite shield / Dragonfire shield / Elysian spirit shield (optional, and only if using Rune crossbow)
 * 1 Ranging potion (4)
 * 5-6 Saradomin brews (4)
 * 16-18 Super restore potions (4)

Ranged-only Setup
The ranged-only setup involves using ranged all the way through to the end. Many players say this is harder than using Guthan's, as more food and/or potions is required, and you would take more damage. However, it isn't very difficult to make it to the end using only ranged, and it's a good alternative to people who can't afford Guthan's. As you'll be taking more damage, it is highly recommended to maximise your defence bonus (especially slash and ranged, to help defend against Tok-Xil and Yt-HurKot), as well as prayer and ranged attack. Falador Shield 3 gives 100% prayer point restore once per day and a +7 static prayer bonus, making it a good shield alternative to the Elysian shield and the Dragonfire shield. Falador shields 1 and 2 are not recommended as their statistics and prayer restore percentages are not very effective, although, with a good prayer level of 60+, the 50% prayer restore of shield 2 can be useful. Players may find using multiple hand cannons extremely useful getting through this activity (as there is a chance a hand cannon will break).

Here is the suggested equipment setup if you are using ranged only:


 * Full slayer helmet (only if the player's task is Tzhaar) / Verac's helm / Saradomin coif / Guthix coif / Zamorak coif / Helm of Neitiznot / Proselyte sallet Armadyl Helm
 * Amulet of fury / God stole / Holy symbol / Unholy symbol / Amulet of glory / Amulet of ranging
 * Black d'hide body / Armadyl chestplate / Karil's Leather Top


 * Bandos Tasset's / Verac's skirt / Armadyl plateskirt / Proselyte tasset / Proselyte cuisse / Karil's Leather Skirt / Black d'hide chaps
 * Rune crossbow / Karil's crossbow / Crystal bow / Hand cannon
 * Dragonfire shield / Granite shield / Elysian spirit shield / Falador Shield 3 / Any god book and they do not have to be full / Broodoo Shield
 * Ava's Accumulator / Ava's Attractor / Trimmed Skillcape (If not using Rune Crossbow) / Soul Wars cape / Ardougne cape 3
 * Adamant bolts / Diamond bolts (e) / Broad-tipped bolts / Rune bolts / Hand cannon shot for fighting Jad.
 * Regen Bracelet / Barrows gloves / Black d'hide vambraces / Other Gloves obtained from Recipe for Disaster
 * Ranger boots / Snakeskin boots / Dragon boots for melee defence bonuses / Bandos boots for melee defence bonuses and prayer.
 * Archer's ring (i) / Explorer's ring (optional) (prayer bonus)

And here is the suggested inventory to go with it:

Note: While using Crystal bows, players will find that they will reach Jad with their bow at 2/10. Most players using this method find it wise to bring two Crystal bows, or just one and Karils c'bow for Jad.
 * 1 Ranging potion (4)
 * 6-10 Saradomin brews (4)
 * Fill rest of slots with Super restore potions (4)
 * Purple Sweets (stackable food, heals 10-30 lp)

Note: If you have completed the Seer's Village Achievement Diary then you might want to bring the Enhanced Excalibur instead of a Saradomin brew. The enhanced Excalibur special takes the entire special attack bar but it heals you by 200 LP and boosts your defence by 15%.

Pure's Setup
This pure's setup is for those with a defence level of 20 or below, and who are willing to spend at least 500K-1M on a Fight Caves attempt. Achieving the Fire Cape on a low defence pure is a great achievement.

It is recommended to have at least these stats for a relatively easier fight caves trip:
 * 80 Ranged
 * 43 Prayer
 * 80 Constitution

Recommended inventory:

 * 10 Saradomin brew (4)
 * 200+ Purple sweets
 * 17 Super restore (4)

Recommended equipment:

 * Any Mitre (Zamorak, Guthix or Saradomin)
 * Monk's robe (top)
 * Black d'hide chaps
 * Climbing boots / Ranger boots
 * Rune crossbow
 * Amulet of fury / Amulet of glory
 * 1000-2000 Diamond bolts (e)
 * Ava's attractor / Ava's accumulator
 * Archer's ring or Archer's ring (i)
 * Regen bracelet

On a low Defence pure, the activity can be extremely challenging. Therefore it is recommended to study the caves and many guides before attempting. You will be hit very hard by the level 90's. When the healers appear in the last wave, it is recommended to use the Steel Skin prayer to aid your low Defence against them for a short period of time.

Alternative method
Higher levelled players may find that the Saradomin Godsword is a useful weapon to bring into the caves. This allows for regular boosts in prayer and life points. This eliminates the need for food up until Jad (in most circumstances), and cuts down on prayer restore potion usage.

Despite some of the lower levelled creatures having 100 or 200 lifepoints, players can still heal the equivalent to what they would have hit, should the given monster have had more life points. The saradomin godsword heals on a 1:2 ratio to lifepoints (and 1:40 for prayer), meaning that a hit of 400 life points will restore 200 lifepoints (as well as 10 prayer!).

The Saradomin Godsword is best used in conjunction with range (for details of equipment, see above). Using the two methods, rangers can afford to be a little more relaxed as to the damage they receive, due to the fact that they will find they are able to use one special attack per round from roughly round 20.

An effective method of using range and the godsword, is to use a Crystal bow (or alternative) as you otherwise would, and save a Tz-Kek for last, and healing on that to prepare for the next round. Sometimes even using a Dragon halberd on some of the monsters while they are stuck can save some bolts or crystal bow charges.

Recommended levels
To complete the fight caves, it is strongly recommended you have the following skill levels:


 * 70+ Attack minimum if using Guthan's 75+ attack if using the Saradomin Godsword to heal
 * 70+ Strength only if using Guthan's, and helps hit higher when using it
 * 70+ Defence minimum if using Guthan's, still highly recommended if pure Ranging
 * 70+ Ranged highly recommended, as ranged is the main fighting style throughout fight caves


 * 70+ Constitution highly recommended to be able to take lots of damage
 * 60+ Prayer recommended, though 40-43+ is the minimum for success. There is no particular prayer needed at level 60, it is simply a high and good prayer level

Rewards


If one is successful in completing all the waves and defeating TzTok-Jad, they receive 16,064 Tokkul and the much-coveted fire cape. This cape has an animated "lava" pattern. The animation shows lava flowing downwards continually.

The Fire Cape is widely considered the best cape in RuneScape. It provides more protection (+11 in all defence bonuses) than the Cape of Legends (+7), the skillcapes (+9) and the Obsidian cape (+9). It is, of course, non-tradeable. The only capes better in any area are the God capes which provide a higher magic offensive bonus only, Ava's attractor or accumulator in ranged attack bonus, and trimmed Capes of achievement as well as Vestment cloaks, Soul Wars cape, and the Ardougne cloak 2 and 3 which are only higher in prayer.

Defeating TzTok-Jad subsequently after obtaining the Fire Cape awards the player with another Fire Cape and 16,064 Tokkul, allowing you to have more than one fire cape at a time. Any spare fire capes can also be sold to TzHaar-Mej-Jal for 16,064 Tokkul per cape.

If a player dies in the fight caves, they will still get Tokkul, but not as much as they would if they defeated TzTok-Jad. The further a player gets, the more Tokkul and if one dies at TzTok-Jad then they will only receive 8,800 Tokkul-- about half the amount than if the player defeats TzTok-Jad.

As of 9 November 2009, defeating the Fight Cave and TzTok-Jad rewards the player with double Tokkul.



Map


The Italy Rock, named for its striking resemblance to the country of Italy, is on the east wall, just south of the entrance. This is an ideal area for safespot ranging. It is generally considered a safer tactic to stay to the north of the Italy Rock as most of the monsters spawn on the southern side, preventing them from hitting you unexpectedly.

A useful spot to range/mage the lvl180 Yt-MejKots is in the north-west "cave" standing against the east wall there. The lvl180 Yt-MejKots will almost always get trapped there so you can safely range/mage them. This is useful on waves like 30 and 61, where you get attacked by two Yt-MejKots at once.

Wave breakdown
One way to remember this is that in each wave with 2 of the same level monster when those monster are the highest level monster of that wave, the next wave will have 1 of the next higher level monster instead of the 2, and if all the monsters have different levels, an extra Tz-Kih appears.
 * 22
 * 22, 22
 * 45
 * 45, 22
 * 45, 22, 22
 * 45, 45
 * 90
 * 90, 22
 * 90, 22, 22
 * 90, 45
 * 90, 45, 22
 * 90, 45, 22, 22
 * 90, 45, 45
 * 90, 90
 * 180
 * 180, 22
 * 180, 22, 22
 * 180, 45
 * 180, 45, 22
 * 180, 45, 22, 22
 * 180, 45, 45
 * 180, 90
 * 180, 90, 22
 * 180, 90, 22, 22
 * 180, 90, 45
 * 180, 90, 45, 22
 * 180, 90, 45, 22, 22
 * 180, 90, 45, 45
 * 180, 90, 90
 * 180, 180
 * 360
 * 360, 22
 * 360, 22, 22
 * 360, 45
 * 360, 45, 22
 * 360, 45, 22, 22
 * 360, 45, 45
 * 360, 90
 * 360, 90, 22
 * 360, 90, 22, 22
 * 360, 90, 45
 * 360, 90, 45, 22
 * 360, 90, 45, 22, 22
 * 360, 90, 45, 45
 * 360, 90, 90
 * 360, 180
 * 360, 180, 22
 * 360, 180, 22, 22
 * 360, 180, 45
 * 360, 180, 45, 22
 * 360, 180, 45, 22, 22
 * 360, 180, 45, 45
 * 360, 180, 90
 * 360, 180, 90, 22
 * 360, 180, 90, 22, 22
 * 360, 180, 90, 45
 * 360, 180, 90, 45, 22
 * 360, 180, 90, 45, 22, 22
 * 360, 180, 90, 45, 45
 * 360, 180, 90, 90
 * 360, 180, 180
 * 360, 360
 * 1) 702 TzTok-Jad, four Level 108 healers when TzTok-Jad is at half health.

The toughest rounds are: 58, 60 and 63 (Jad).

Trivia

 * When the mini-game originally came out, players could use the Dwarf multicannon in the Caves. This was remedied shortly thereafter.
 * TzTok-Jad originally only used Range and Melee; however, Jagex later added Magic to his attacks so players couldn't kill TzTok-Jad as easily.
 * When the mini-game was first released, you could not log out during the fight caves without giving up all of your progress. It is now possible to logout during the fight caves and pick up where you left off. When the logout button is clicked, the player will receive an option to logout immediately or at the end of the current wave. If they chose to logout immediately, the player will be required to re-do the wave they were on when trying to log out. Additionally, if a player clicks the logout button while fighting a monster, the player will appear to log out, but the "Connection Lost" screen will appear, and the player will find themselves back for the next level.
 * When summoning was released, scrolls could be brought to the caves and familiars summoned. This was probably fixed with the release of TokTz-Ket-Dill Quest.


 * Before the random event update it was possible to receive Genie, Evil Chicken, and Jekyll and Hyde Random Events inside the fight caves. This was to combat a problem with botting inside the caves for training purposes. These events were removed with the update, and random events do not occur in the Fight Cave anymore (However, it still occurs if a player logs out and log back in after finished a wave).


 * The fight caves can also be used as a place to recover for players killing Tzhaar monsters when their Prayer or Lifepoints are low. This is effective because it is faster to die in the caves than to go find a prayer altar.
 * Players that have completed the quest As a First Resort... may find the sulphur, salt-water, and thermal spas to be very useful.
 * If you are low on potions, food or the like when there is only one or two monsters left to kill, trapping them on the other side of the Italy rock can allow you to rest and regenerate health without using supplies.


 * The monsters' levels double as the waves increase. The first monster is level 22: 22+22 is 44, which is rounded up to 45. This makes the next monster level 45. 45+45 is 90, making the next monster level 90. 90+90 is 180, making the next monster level 180. 180+180 is 360, making the next monster level 360. Finally, 360+360 is 720, which was rounded down to make TzTok-Jad at level 702.
 * It is possible to get around 45-50k Ranged experience by using the range only method while completing the Fight Caves. Note that this depends on how much the Jad heals and how much damage is dealt to the healers.
 * Jagex has recently hinted at the possibility of a higher-levelled boss being added, along with several more waves. This would of course bring the requirements for the fire cape in to question, and there is speculation that its requirements would stay, while a new reward would be given for killing the new boss, perhaps an upgrade to the existing cape.
 * There is even more speculation that the new item would be possibly be a dragon bow, as a fire bow would seem awkward. Since ranged is the primary method of choice for defeating the fight caves, it would be logical to introduce a ranged reward.