Black demon

Black demons are large monsters that inhabit a few dungeons across RuneScape. They use melee attacks that can hit up to 167 on a player, or up to 200 on a familiar. They are much stronger than their Greater demon cousins and are often assigned by Sumona, Duradel/Lapalok and Kuradal as Slayer tasks. Black demons drop low amounts of coins extremely often with no substantial drops aside from Crimson charms and rarely, runite equipment, making killing them for any other reason than a slayer assignment not worth the time. However, they offer good amounts of experience per task, and some players training Summoning even kill Black demons for their charm drops. The recent addition of Infernal ashes as their 100% drop may change this behaviour, as they offer almost as much prayer experience as Dragon bones.

Locations
Black demons inhabit the following locations:
 * The deeper half of Taverley Dungeon (requires dusty key or level 70 Agility)
 * Underneath Edgeville, in the Wilderness section of the dungeon.
 * The Chaos Tunnels. These Black demons have a notably higher drop rate of charms.
 * Brimhaven Dungeon, right before the Iron and Steel dragons, and with the Bronze dragons.
 * Chaos Tunnels, Resource dungeon

In each location there is at least one safespot from which the demons can be fought safely with Ranged, Magic, or a halberd.

Edgeville Dungeon
This is often considered the best place because of its location to a bank, but it can be crowded at times. It is not recommended for players below 80 combat, since this place is in a PvP zone where player killers might attack. Some advise you to have a brass key, because a Varrock teleport is somewhat close to an entrance to the dungeon. Many players prefer the quicker alternative of using a Glory to teleport to Edgeville. Cannons can be used here, and, if the player can find an open world, can lead to an extremely fast Slayer experience gain. This is a great place to safe and train magic and ranged. This is one of the best locations for using a cannon. Beware of the poison spiders that are in the room to the south of the demons.

Don't forget to bring your Brass Key.

Brimhaven Dungeon
This location is also very good for fighting Black demons - getting in and out is no threat and fighting the Black demons is like usual. However, this area is fairly far from a bank and is full of aggressive Wild dogs, which may attack the player and prevent him or her from killing Black demons until it is killed. A cannon can be used to defeat these demons, but it will also fire at the Wild dogs and even Iron Dragons if you're in the wrong spot.

Taverley Dungeon
The nearest bank from this spot is in Falador, but it is very far, especially if the player has less than 70 or 80 Agility (which allow shortcuts to the Black demons). Also, this spot requires use of a Dusty Key if the player does not have the Agility level required to use the shortcuts. However, this spot can yield very good Slayer exp on tasks if approached with a cannon and ranging from one of several safe spots. One option for fairly quick banking is to teleport to Castle Wars bank chest and return using the balloon transport system.

Chaos Tunnels
This is the worst place to train for low levels because of the dangers involved in getting to the room, but may be the best for high levels who wish to raise Summoning as well as high levelled rangers because of the safespot located at the sack pile on the north wall. The Black Demons in the Chaos Tunnel also have a much higher drop rate for charms. Players should be advised of the dangers involved in navigating the Chaos Tunnels before fighting here, including traversing through several multi-combat zones with aggressive monsters. A downside to using the chaos tunnels is that a cannon cannot be used.

A player with 70 dungeoneering can use the Resource dungeon located in the Black Demon chamber which also offers multi-combat.

Note: A cannon cannot be taken into the chaos tunnels, therefore cannot be used.

Strategy
Despite their combat level, Black demons have fairly low defence. However, they are usually one of the most dangerous monsters in the dungeons they inhabit because of their accuracy and high max hit. The special of Enhanced Excalibur can assist on these tasks. Also in the Taverley Dungeon, around the corner that separates the Black demons from the baby blue dragons, they have an invisible barrier that they can't pass. Magers and rangers can use this to their advantage. Note that if you plan on training prayer also with the ashes that are dropped, it is advised to bring infernal urns as you will recieve more experience than if you just spread the ashes.

Melee
Meleeing Black demons is the fastest, most effective method of killing them and is the advised method for players who have the appropriate equipment and stats. Due to their accuracy and strength, many players choose to use protection prayers to avoid damage; this is more costly than simply using food but is a lot less risky. Meleeing Black demons without prayer is viable, but good armour and food are required with a defence level of 80+. A healing familiar and ring of life are optional although highly recommended.

Use of a Halberd is much slower than conventional melee weapons, but it is much cheaper. Taverley Dungeon is the recommended location for using halberds, but the Chaos Tunnels and Edgeville Dungeon can be used as well.

Guthans is useful when training on Black Demons in a single-combat area. Please note that the demons can damage you very fast and you may not be able to heal fast enough unless you have 80+ attack. A Godsword, Saradomin sword or Abyssal whip is strongly recommended when fighting these, as they have high and consistent hits. The godsword is very good for its prayer bonus and high offensive bonuses.

The Black demons in the Chaos Tunnels can be killed fairly quickly by a player with the right skill levels and equipment. The key is to utilise the fact that the demons are in a Multicombat area to inflict damage rapidly while avoiding damage, allowing for long stays and many kills. The player should wear Verac's set, which has good prayer bonus and can hit hard through the demon's defence. Other equipped items should be prayer-bonus items like White gloves, White boots, Ardougne cloak 3, and Amulet of fury. A Ring of wealth can be worn for better drops, a Warrior ring for better combat ability, or an Explorer's ring for prayer bonus. The player should bring at least one Spirit kyatt pouch, many Ambush scrolls, alchemy runes to alchemize drops, and several Prayer potions to recharge prayer. Stronger familiars such as the Iron titan can also be used. The player should have auto retaliate on. When in the demon's chamber, summon the kyatt and repeatedly use its Ambush special move. Between the Verac's special effect and the kyatt's special move, Black demons can be killed quickly.

Another effective, yet seldom used tactic, is using Dharok's set against them, with prayer boosting accessories, and stat boosting prayers such as piety. Level 90+ stats in strength and defence, and level 70+ prayer, are the recommended stats. An inventory of 16 prayer potions, 2 super strength and attack (or better) potions, and unidentified liquids or nitroclycerin to lower the character's life points which in turn inflicts more damage on the demons. With 99 strength, a player can deal 700-900 damage in a single blow with his/her life points lowered.

Dharok's Greataxe is a great slash weapon, making it accurate against black demons. Dharok's effect only amplifies the damage. With all the equipment in place, a player can gain amounts of experience that greatly rivals training at armoured zombies. However, due to the high risk of losing Dharok's helm upon death, it is not very popular to use this tactic.

Ranged
Ranging Black demons is nearly as effective as meleeing and is generally less risky. Although all areas that Black demons inhabit contain safespots, Taverley Dungeon is generally regarded as the best of the four. The Chaos Tunnels are also a safe place to range them; the Black demons there drop charms more often than those in other locations, so players wishing to train Summoning are recommended to range them in the Tunnels.

Cannoning
Cannons are fairly effective against Black demons, so they are a good option to all who can afford them. This is done in Taverley Dungeon. Even though it is a single combat area, the cannon still works there. If you use the safespot, you can attack them all at once, and only get attacked while reloading. You can also melee while cannoning for additional melee xp, although this limits you to fighting one demon at a time.

However, cannons are subject to hitting other monsters, such as Wild Dogs, in the Brimhaven Dungeon.

Magic
Black Demons are weak to magic, and there are a few safespots dotted around most places. While expensive, magic may be useful for getting through slayer tasks quickly. Stacking damage bonuses (Staff, Hexcrest/Full Slayer Helmet, Arcane necklaces, etc) capitalises on Black Demons' weakness.

100% drops

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Weapons

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Armour

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Herbs

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Runes

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Gems/Ores/Bars

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Ranging Items

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Other

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Trivia

 * Most Black demons were level 156 in RuneScape Classic. The boss of The Grand Tree quest was level 175. It was the strongest quest monster until the release of the Legends' Quest.
 * Black demons, along with the other demons, got a graphical update on 29 August 2006.
 * The spelling of the regular demon is Black demon with lowercase second word. However, for The Grand Tree quest, it used to be spelled Black Demon with 2 uppercase words. This has now been fixed.
 * Slayer Masters say that the Black demon is the strongest demon. This excludes exceptional demons such as; the Jungle Demon, Tormented demons, K'ril Tsutsaroth and Nezikchened that are all higher levelled and have higher max hits.
 * Some players have reported seeing a glitch where pinkish fog appear around the feet of a few of the Black Demons in the Taverley, Brimhaven, and Edgeville Dungeons. This has now been fixed.
 * The animation of demons when idle was updated 5 July 2010. Previously, they didn't move their wings as much, and moved their tail more.
 * There was a graphics error with the transparency of the wings where if you looked closely when the wings were lined up with the body of the demon, you could see right through the solid body of the demon, through the wings. They have now fixed this.

Black demon