Abyssal whip

The Abyssal whip is a powerful melee weapon in RuneScape. Due to its high accuracy, strength and speed, this is the weapon of choice for many players. Players must have 70 Attack to wield the whip.

Whips are dropped by level 124 Abyssal demons which require level 85 Slayer to kill. An Abyssal minion can give players a fake Abyssal whip which "turns to ash" when equipped, effectively destroying it.

The whip's special attack, Energy Drain, makes the attack more accurate and, if used against a player opponent, transfers 25% of the target's run energy to the attacking player. It uses 50% of the special attack bar. This special attack is frequently ridiculed because of its impracticality, despite the fact that it can be useful in some PvP Activities, such as Fist of Guthix, to stop the players from running away.

The Abyssal whip has the same attacking speed as any scimitar, which is one strike per 4 game ticks (about 2.4 seconds total), but has a higher accuracy and strength. The Abyssal whip is often called the best weapon because it has the best damage rate of all weapons against monsters with a low to medium defence and no unusually high resistance to slash attacks. With a Strength level of 99, an overload/extreme strength, Turmoil prayer at +32% strength, a slayer helmet on a slayer task, and with the right equipment (including a Ferocious ring) the whip can hit up to 610.

The whip is often criticized for its inability to train Strength on its own, as the whip offers a controlled style but not an aggressive style as well as only being able to use slashing. Despite this, the whip is the best, or at least one of the best, one handed weapons in the game.

It is common for players to lose this item on death due to its relatively low alchemy value compared to other high level equipment, such as the more expensive pieces of Dragon armour and Barrows armour.

An update to Barbarian Assault on 19 January 2010 allowed players to change the colour of their whip to either yellow, white, blue, or green. The cost of doing so is 50 points in any of the roles in Barbarian assault. After that update, whips became quite difficult to purchase from players or the Grand Exchange. On 25 January 2010 their supply caught up with their demand, and since then whips have been easier to acquire from the Grand Exchange.

History
Introduced to RuneScape with the Slayer skill update on 26 January 2005. The very first inventory icon was. The Abyssal whip's original special attack used 50% of the special attack bar and caused one to either hit the Abyssal whip's maximum hit for the user at the time or not hit at all.

Later, Jagex changed the special attack to drain 10% of run energy from targets, citing that the old special attack was an unwanted glitch. The special attack continued to use 50% of the bar.


 * On 12 May 2009, the inventory image of the Abyssal whip changed to Second-abyssal-whip.png so that it better resembled its appearance when wielded.
 * On 16 June 2009, the special attack effect was changed from transferring 10% to 25% run energy per special attack due to complaints. The 50% drain per special attack remained the same. And whilst running, the whip retracts into the players hand when equipped.
 * On 28 July 2009 the Abyssal whip's appearance and special attack animation were updated.
 * On 17 September 2009 the Abyssal whip was updated once again, the unused ring, or loop, of the whip below the players' hand were removed and the handle now points forwards instead of back as it did before the previous update. In addition, the whip's attack sound was changed along with the attack animation.
 * On 19 January 2010 it became possible to have the whip segments painted one of four colours: green, white, yellow, or blue. These colour changes are purely aesthetic; they have no effect on combat and become untradeable. This can be changed back by using a cleaning cloth on the painted whip.

Training


The Aggressive training method is not available while using the whip. Therefore, the only way of training the Strength skill is through the Controlled method. This method is one-third the strength-training speed as the aggressive option and also gives Defence and Attack experience, making it undesirable for most pures and players wishing to level up quickly. The whip is often criticised for having no option to directly train Strength.

A common, yet expensive, replacement for the whip is the Saradomin Sword which offers similar bonuses (with an additional Prayer and crush bonus), but has the option to train Strength. However, the Saradomin Sword is two-handed, so it cannot be equipped with a defender, shield or God Book. The Dragon Scimitar can be used as a cheap alternative for training Strength, along with a Rune Defender. Yet another relatively unknown method of training strength is to use the Obsidian sword in conjunction with the Berserker necklace which increases strength while using all Obsidian equipment.

Market

 * On its release in early 2005, the Whip's price was at its highest ever (as high as 100 million coins; some whips were traded for Party hats), then began to fall as supply increased and excitement over the new item diminished.
 * In Summer of 2005 the Whip was about 5 million coins, then fell to around 4.3 million by Autumn. By late that year and early 2006 the whip had reached about 1.25-1.6 million coins.
 * From 2006 to early 2008, the Whip's price steadily increased from about 1.25 million to 3.5 million coins.


 * On January 2, 2008, Free Trade was removed and whips price slowly began to decline bottoming out at around 1.5m in late 2008.
 * On June 16, 2009, a PvP world update was introduced, removing the Abyssal whip from the PvP drop tables as well as making it more likely to lose a whip in PvP.
 * After July 20, 2009, due to inflation and possible price manipulation, the price spiked to over 3 million coins for the first time in years. The price then dropped sharply to around 2.3 million coins, but then began rising again, breaching the 3 million mark again in September 2009 and the 4 million mark in October.
 * The price crashed partially as a result of the anti-76k update on October 26 2009, and stabilized at about 3million.
 * On January 19, 2010, whips were bought out of the Grand Exchange due to speculation caused by the release of additional whip colours. This caused their price to peak at just over 4.2 million coins on January 24, 2010. After this date the price dropped back to 3.5 million coins as of January 28, 2010, the same as before the colouring update. As of February 28, 2010, the whip's minimum price has gone back under 3 million coins.
 * On March 3, 2010, The Abyssal whip dropped to a total of 2,852,851, because of the Bonus Xp Weekend. Many players would sell their whips to buy supplies for non-combat related skills. It has since started to rise again as more players have bought their training items already.

Colours
For the full pages, See Abyssal link paint (Green), Abyssal link paint (Yellow), Abyssal link paint (White) and Abyssal link paint (Blue)

From 19 January 2010 it is possible to change the colour of an Abyssal whip by spending 50 points from the Barbarian Assault Mini-game (of any type (Attacker, Defender, Healer or Collector). The whip's chain links can be white, blue, green, or yellow. A painted whip is untradeable, and has no effect on its potency in combat. An abyssal whip can be returned to its original colour by using a cleaning cloth on it. A cleaning cloth can be made by using Karamja rum on a piece of silk, or bought from Tamayu in Tai Bwo Wannai village after the Tai Bwo Wannai Trio quest.

Trivia

 * Whips were originally a possible drop from player-characters on PvP worlds, but on 16 June 2009, whips were removed from the PvP drop tables. It is still possible to obtain whips as a drop from players if the opponent loses his whip, although the chances of that aren't very high, unless that player is your target and depending on your ep; then the chances are increased of a player receiving the whip from a player losing his whip.
 * Before its graphical update on 28 July 2009, the clear sections of the whip would sometimes take on the same colour as other elements in the environment; for example, the colour of the ground. As the whip no longer has any clear segments, this glitch can no longer occur.
 * The Abyssal whip's updated look originally had the handle held backwards, with the character holding a section of the whip which is used to attack opponents. From a 17 September 2009 hidden update, the handle points forwards and the actual whip is no longer held in the hand, but still retains the same whipping animation.
 * If you perform the Special Attack underwater in Port Khazard, you cannot see the Special Attack, only the movement.
 * The abyssal whip has the second highest strength bonus of any non-degrading one handed weapon in the game, behind the Dragon Battleaxe.
 * Just as with the Flame gloves, wearing Lunar legs with the whip would cause them to be stretchy.
 * Before the update of coloured whips the update was posted on the page a few hours before the update but shortly after it was taken down.
 * On the old inventory image, the mid-sections used to be white, but when held, they were dark grey. Jagex has now fixed this.
 * Before the High Detail update, Abyssal Whips used to look like sausage links.
 * If you are running with the whip it appears to be wrapped up in your hand.
 * It is possible to slash webs using the Abyssal Whip.
 * If a player walks or runs while performing the special attack the player won't do the attack animation, only the special attack will be seen. However, while in battle the whole attack animation will be seen. This glitch has been in-game for some time and is yet to be fixed.
 * If the special attack is used for the last blow, only the attack animation will be seen, and not the special attack.