Dust devil

The dust devil is a monster for Slayers of level 65 and up. A face mask, masked earmuffs, or Slayer helmet is always required to slay them, whether in the Smoke Dungeon or Chaos Tunnels, because of their effects on players without protection. Many players choose to train on dust devils for the coveted dragon chainbody although it is a very rare drop.

Locations

 * Smoke Dungeon
 * Chaos Tunnels

Strengths and weaknesses


If you don't wear a facemask, slayer helmet, full slayer helmet, or masked earmuffs, you will not be able to damage dust devils. Along with this effect, your prayer and summoning points will be rapidly drained to zero, whilst the dust devil hits constant 145's on you. Dust devils are vulnerable to Ranged and Stab attacks. They attack with melee at close range. Their dusty, gritty attack, even if it causes no damage to lifepoints, has the special effect of greatly reducing an unprotected player's combat skill levels. A single attack can reduce attack, strength, ranged, and magic to 0 whilst halving a player's prayer points. However, a facemask, Slayer helmet, full slayer helmet or masked earmuffs can completely neutralize the Dust Devil's deadly special effect.

Players need at least level 65 Slayer to fight these creatures. The protective headgear is also required just to survive in the Smoke Dungeon, one of the dust devil's habitats. In the Chaos Tunnels, their other habitat, the protective equipment is only required when fighting the devils themselves.

The Smoke Dungeon has many safe spots where players can use Ranged, Magic or halberds to defeat them. Melee is also effective; a good strategy is to use the spell Bones to Peaches to maximise one's stay. It is possible to use Guthans armour to heal, although players must be careful switching the helm with the face mask or the dungeon will hit them for 200 life points every 12 seconds or so, only allowing 3-4 hits in before having to switch back to the face mask.

Players should note that they can use Guthan's armour to heal only on nearby Fire elementals, Pyrefiends, or Fire giants, as attacking a Dust devil without a face mask causes attack, strength, defence, range, and magic stats to be drained to 0, and deals 150 life points every few seconds. If the player chooses to use the Chaos Tunnels instead, he/she will still need the facemask to kill the Dust devils themselves, but since there is no environmental smoke, Guthan's can be used to heal on the Giant crypt rats in the next cave to the east.

Another method is to use the special attack of the Saradomin godsword or Enhanced excalibur, which will keep a high level character at a fairly good amount of hitpoints. This, along with Protect from Melee at full prayer points, can keep the player there for a long amount of time. Players should also bring super sets if they are on a slayer task and want to finish it quickly. Alternatively, players with 68 Summoning can use a Bunyip familiar to stay for long periods of time. It generally takes two pouches to complete a task. Most players will need to bring along supplemental food, however those with high Defence and good defensive armour may not require any, especially due to the occasional 1-2 Ugthanki kebab drop.

100% drop

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Weapons and armour

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Runes

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Herbs

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Other

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Trivia

 * The "dust devil" is a model of a vacuum cleaner, hence the examine text; "The vacuumed face of evil".
 * They also have a resemblance to the stress release toy Popping Martian (Martian Popper, Bug Out Bob).
 * Although they drop bones, Dust devils do not appear to have bones, as they are supposedly filled with air.
 * Dust devils have similar drops to fire giants, albeit slightly worse. They drop better charms with greater frequency though, and are arguably better for training due to a lower max hit and stats.
 * Many of their drops are the colour of dragon metal (crimson charm, red d'hide vambraces, uncut ruby). This often misleads players, making them think that they have received a Dragon chainbody drop, this is more likely done by Jagex as a joke to tease players.
 * Smoke devils are the summoning counterpart of the Dust devil.
 * When asking a slayer master for tips about Dust devils, the Slayer Master states "... good luck on retrieving a Dragon chainbody from their dusty remains." However, Dust Devils do not drop dust (like vampires) and instead drop bones. This does not necessarily mean that the remains, in this case bones, are not dusty, though.
 * In the USA dust devils are a miniature whirlwind strong enough to whip dust and leaves into the air.
 * When attacked, a dust devil will bounce off the ground, swell up with air, attack you then deflate.
 * When attacking a Summoning familiar from afar, Dust devils fight from a distance rather than up close. They still use the same attacking animation as they would in close-range.

Staubteufel Dust Devil