Waterfiend/Strategies

This article contains information for players seeking to kill waterfiends. Recommended equipment, levels, and strategy are all covered here.

Waterfiends' ranged attack is more powerful than their magic attack. Therefore, to take the least damage from them, a player should use Protect from Missiles along with armour with high magic defence (such as dragonhide or Karils). If a player has 95+ defence and magic levels they may be able to tank rather than pray, but they will still be hit fairly often.

However, if a player has access to a full Guthan's set they should NOT go that route. Waterfiends attack with magical ranged, not regular ranged, thus in order to tank the ranged attacks, you still need to wear magical defence armour (as in Ganodermic, Karil's, dragonhide or Void/Elite Void). Guthan's armour has negative magical defence bonuses, so wearing it will only cause you to receive more damage.

Weaponry and strategies
A high level ranger can have some success, using broad or enchanted diamond bolts, from the safe spot west of the waterfall entrance. In general, however, it is much faster to kill these with crushing weapons, where the waterfiends' defensive resistance is merely good. Popular crush weapons include the following: Of these weapons, the Goliath Gloves has the highest damage rate, and the Chaotic Maul has the second highest. One-handed weapons should be used in tandem with a Dragon defender for added strength and crush bonus. This being said, a Dragon Battle Axe combined with a Spectral Spirit Shield is very effective as the player will benefit from a good Crush bonus, as well as a very high magic defence. Depending on the players preference of Saradomin Sword or Zamorakian Spear, the Saradomin Sword is stronger but the Zamorakian Spear has a higher crush bonus and therefore the Zamorakian Spear hits more accurately but hits less.
 * Chaotic maul
 * Unarmed with Goliath Gloves
 * Zamorakian Spear
 * Saradomin sword
 * Any Godsword
 * Chaotic Rapier

Players who have the summoning level to use an Iron titan or Steel titan can kill waterfiends much more quickly in the Chaos Tunnels than in the Ancient Cavern, with consistent usage of the titan's scroll (load a slayer helm with scrolls for even faster kills). In conjunction with Soul Split, high level players can stay for a very long time (enough to make full usage of a Familiarisation triple-charm period). However those without the required stats and equipment, even at a high level, this area should NOT be used due to the large amount of Waterfiends attacking. Misdirecting portals can also kill a player and those with high stats to create Overloads and other extreme-level potions should use this place to rack up fast kills.

After completing The Temple at Senntisten, the waterfiends at Ghorrock become level 115 (the same as at the other locations), but their drops are different from the norm. The Waterfiends at Ghorrock have a lower charm drop rate, but drop two charms at a time; a cannon can also be used there. Note that if you are using a cannon, your accuracy is based on the accuracy that you are using to attack the waterfiends with your melee/ranged weapon. Therefore, it may be advantageous to use a godsword rather than a zamorakian spear if you can do more than half of your damage with the cannonballs. A Saradomin godsword and cannon can save food and prayer, and allow most of your cannonballs to hit.

Since waterfiends drop large quantities of raw fish, it is sometimes recommended to take advantage of this either by cooking them on a fire in the cavern or using the Bunyip's scroll special to consume them raw. The latter is much easier to do in combat, but players must be aware that in order to use this special move, the player needs to have the required cooking level to cook the raw fish. Bunyips' healing abilities will also be welcome in the face of the Waterfiends' accurate attacks. If you have repaired the fairy ring and can use it, it might be wiser to duck out and cook your food in Zanaris where there is no risk of attack.

Ranging waterfiends is also a much cheaper strategy that involves finding a spot where you are around 4 spaces away from a waterfiend. Their attack range is 4 squares from their target. As long as you remain 4 squares between you and a waterfiend they cannot hit you. The one spot most used and easily used is the nearest spot to the stairs where you enter the cave. Across the pond to the north and to kill the waterfiend that spawns across the little river section. Another location is west of that spot on the other side of the river. After the waterfiends stop becoming aggressive (around 10-14 kills), you can just range them at will. It is recommended however, to bring a melee weapon as well as a few prayer pots for the beginning while they are aggressive and in case you miss safe-spotting one.

With the release of Dominion Tower and goliath gloves, meleeing waterfiends now has another viable option. Essentially crush style equivalent of abyssal whips, the goliath gloves, when worn without any equipment in the weapon slot, delivers fast hits, high damage and acceptable accuracy—the last former only applies the chaotic maul, whose low speed and incompatibility with a shield, defender and unholy book proves to be a disadvantage. In short, goliath gloves acts as a high expendable and effective weapon when fighting waterfiends.

dreadnips could also be used, as they can deal huge damage or finish kill for faster xp and charms drops. Using chaotic rapier, ancient curses or piety along with dreadnips and extremes can easily grant players over 200 crimson charms per hour. Chaotic rapier has great stab bonus, with Attack level of 85+ and Strenght of 90+, using dreadnips and extreme potions, piety or ancient curses can be very effective against waterfiends.

At high Magic level (90+), maging waterfiends with a polypore staff becomes a feasible method. While waterfiends have a strong defence against Magic attacks, the staff's high hits (easily 500+ with boosts) somewhat make up for the decreased accuracy. Use of Leech Magic (with 78 Prayer) can help increase accuracy, as well as decreasing the accuracy and power of their Magic attacks. It is advised to wear Magic robes and use Deflect Missiles to block most of the damage from waterfiends' attacks. Players who have completed Ritual of the Mahjarrat will find Akrisae the Doomed's robes uniquely suited to the task, granting decent Magic attack and defence bonuses as well as a hefty Prayer bonus.

Recommended Equipment
Inventory: Players who are not able to support this inventory can use another inventory setup; depending on your stats, this will get you at least 25-30 kills per trip:
 * Dramen staff or Lunar staff - Not necessary if Fairytale III - Battle at Orks Rift is completed.
 * Enchanted gem or Ring of slaying - Not necessary if wearing Combat bracelet.
 * Prayer potion - At least 4 recommended; optional if using Unicorn stallion/ Super restore, Excalibur (e) (also optional especially if you're using Saradomin Godsword)
 * Enhanced Excalibur
 * Extreme attack / Extreme Strength > Super attack / Super strength - Bring at least two of each if staying a long time.
 * Holy Wrench - only if bringing prayer potions or super restores (optional)
 * Good food, preferably Monkfish or better, is a must if you lack the level required to summon any of the suggested familiars, since you can only use one protection prayer at a time. Due to rising prices, Lobster might be a more appropriate choice of food as it has become quite cheap.
 * Recover special - if using Enhanced Excalibur (food replacement)
 * Dramen staff or Lunar staff - Not necessary if Fairytale III - Battle at Orks Rift is completed or if entering by whirlpool.
 * Enchanted gem or Ring of slaying - Absolutely not needed for those who cannot sustain killing more then a couple of Waterfiends or not on a Waterfiend task; best for almost finishing a task.
 * Prayer potion - at least 4 for those with high prayer, 5 for those with medium prayer levels, 6 for those with enough prayer for Protect from Ranged.
 * Good food, perferably Monkfish for better if you lack the level to summon any healing familiars. Due to prices, Lobsters may be a better choice but this will shorten trips drastically. At least 16 low-medium levelled food (low as in Tuna-Swordfish, medium as in Monkfish) will suffice enough.
 * One super attack (4) and super strength (4)
 * If players are worried about prayer bonuses, an Split dragontooth necklace can be used. Not needed though.


 * Notes
 * Using a full set of Void Knight Equipment with a Void Melee Helm is arguably the best armour to wear when you aren't on a slayer task, as it has good magic defence and it boosts your attack and strength by 10%. Elite Void Knight equipment also offers a Prayer bonus of +4 per piece, or +8 total.
 * One should note that the option of using Armadyl and Pernix armour should only be considered while ranging - both provide a negative melee attack bonus, and thus are not recommended for meleeing.
 * Using the Dragon battleaxe along with a dragon defender will provide a fairly high crush accuracy and strength bonus, making this a rather useful combination, comparable to the Saradomin sword or the Zamorakian spear. Although the crush attack bonus for a dragon battleaxe and dragon defender is higher than that of a Zamorakian spear, players will get more kills per hour with a Zamorakian spear because of its faster attack speed.
 * The Enhanced excalibur, held in the inventory, can be helpful at Waterfiends for its special attack, which raises defence by almost as much as a super defence potion and heals 200 life points; however, the special attack energy can be used in other ways, such as on Saradomin godsword specials.
 * It can be said that using a Bunyip and Swallow Whole scrolls is more effective than the other options, as it allows the player to make use of the raw lobster and shark drops. These can, however, come rarely at times, and can be a bit of a gamble (though the regular healing rate should be sufficient to sustain a player until such drops are received, especially if used in conjunction with Enhanced Excalibur.)


 * Tips
 * They tend to drop lots of raw fish — usually more than a player can hold. A good way to keep this food is "rotate dropping": this is constantly dropping and picking up the food so it won't disappear. For example, if a player has a full inventory and the Waterfiend drops 6 raw lobsters, the player could drop 6 food or potions and pick 6 raw fish. After 1-2 kills, the player would then drop the 6 raw lobsters and pick up the 6 things that were dropped. By doing this, a player is allowed to virtually hold more. This can be very tedious but it will allow a player stay alive longer without prayer potions. This is preferably done with a Bunyip because of its ability to allow players to eat raw fish with the swallow whole scroll.
 * It is also worth mentioning that while it may cost a certain amount to kill waterfiends through use of prayer potions, food or familiars etc., players can at least break even through picking up noted water orbs, noted snape grass, water talismans, ranarrs, lantadymes, items from the rare drop table, and even the reward from the level 3 clue scrolls they drop. Some High Level Alchemy spells can be brought to alch valuable drops such as Water battlestaves or armour pieces like the Rune med helm and Adamant platebodies. Due to lack of space, many people may not want to pick up all items and usually only pick up the stackable items such as water orbs, mithril arrows, and various runes.
 * For those fighting Waterfiends in the Ancient Cavern, using the Fairy Ring (Code BJQ) is a much quicker route to stock up on food/potions than walking all the way from the Barbarian Outpost. Note that the Fairy Ring is only accessible after completing much of Barbarian Training, at least up to Pyre ships. Before the ring can be used, bittercap mushrooms must be planted there. With a Spade and 5 mushrooms in inventory, use one of the mushrooms on the 'enchanted lands' spot near the centre of the ring.
 * Waterfiends usually drop 1 water rune, 1 charm (typically crimson), and 1 other item (2 grimy herbs as the other item). Sometimes the other item is 90 water runes. This means if a player examines the drop and sees only "charm" and "water rune", the odds are good that the player has received a charm and 91 water runes. If a player sees a charm, a water rune, and something else (like a shark), the water rune is 1 and not 91. Usually the 91 Water Runes will appear on top of the Crimson Charm.
 * It is recommended to use Piety instead of Turmoil on the waterfiends in the ancient cavern, because they do not attack with melee, so turmoil does not get its full bonusses. Don't worry about Soulsplit because a high levelled player will not take enough damage that a unicorn can't heal.
 * Provided a player uses full set of void equipment, turmoil, high combat stats, goliath gloves and a use of a dreadnip for every kill, it is possible to get up to 120+ crimson charms an hour in non-multi combat area.