Desert strykewyrm

Beta

Desert strykewyrms are slayer monsters located east of Al Kharid, over a stile. They may only be killed if a player is assigned to kill them by a slayer master (level 77 Slayer required). You cannot use temporary boosts, as you need to be assigned these from your master. Desert strykewyrms are an excellent source of various noted items, and the occasional Focus sight, which is needed to create a Full slayer helmet.

A wyrm initially appears as a mound on the ground; the mound may be still or be moving about. Before battle can be initiated with the wyrm, a player must investigate the mound by clicking on it. This causes the player's character to perform the Stomp emote, after which the wyrm bursts out of the ground. When the wyrm appears, the player should immediately click on it to initiate combat as otherwise a small amount of time will be wasted before combat begins.

If the player is not currently assigned a desert strykewyrm task, investigating the mound still causes the player's character to perform the stomp emote, but the wyrm does not burst forth. Instead, the character will then perform the Think emote.

Attacks


The desert strykewyrm's standard attacks are melee and magical ranged. The wyrm will usually use melee and only occasionally use magical range when the player is not within melee range. This attack however, rarely hits and even if it hits, it usually does not hit over 100.

The desert strykewyrm also has a special attack which consists of it burrowing under the ground, moving toward the player fighting it, and then bursting out of the ground dealing 300 damage. Running over the strykewyrm right as it bursts out of the ground will hit the player twice with its special attack, dealing a total of 600 damage.

The special attack may be avoided by running 2-3 squares away from where the player was standing when the wyrm starts to burrow. Timing is important; hesitating a moment when the wyrm burrows could cause the wyrm's special attack to hit. Many players run directly away from the wyrm when it burrows, but depending on your reaction time, this might not be a good idea, so running to the sides is a good idea for those with laggy computers or if they are too slow to react to the attack.

Tips
''As of the 1 November 2011 update, the desert strykewyrm area is no longer affected by the desert heat effect, so waterskins or an enchanted water tiara are not required. However, there is a small area in the south-east corner of the plateau, marked by slightly different coloured sand, where the desert effect still occurs.''

When running away from the special attack, it is best to click on the ground itself instead of the minimap, as the player can react to the tactical situation in the area. (For example, if another wyrm is doing a special attack, do not click in its path. This cannot be seen on the mini-map.) A player should not click on another mound when trying to get away, as the player will run up to (not onto) the mound and stop, which might leave the player too close to the surfacing wyrm.

Desert strykewyrms have a high amount of health for their level, but have low defence, making it quite easy with powerful weapons to cause a large amount of damage. Soul split heals greatly when used on them.

The wyrm's special attack can be disabled by standing near any kind of obstacle. There are several cactuses and bushes around their area, but they are relatively spread out and few in number. If choosing to range them, wear armour with a high magical defence, because their ranged attack is Magical ranged. Alternatively, players could wear armour with a high prayer bonus and pray Protect from Missiles.

This special attack occurs on average once every 15-20 attacks. Depending upon how fast the player can kill a desert strykewyrm, the special attack may or may not occur with each wyrm battle, but one special attack per 2 or 3 wyrms is very likely. The special attack of the Enhanced Excalibur is very useful for healing in the occasional event that players are unable to dodge the special attack.

In a recent update, Jagex changed the special attacks of strykewyrms so that they only cause damage to the player attacking them. Previously, if any players ran across a strykewyrm in the middle of its burrowing attack, they would be damaged when the strykewyrm surfaced.

Runes and Talismans

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Weapons and armour

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Seeds

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Herbs
Note: All herbs are noted. Can also be dropped with other items.


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Other drops
Note: Can occasionally drop two drops at once.
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Trivia

 * Using the stomp emote to attract the Strykewyrm is possibly a reference to the sandworms from Frank Herbert's Dune novel series, which share some common characteristics.
 * As with all other strykewyrms, Desert Strykewyrms can attack diagonally with melee. This is not a glitch.
 * Desert Strykewyrms could be based off the monsters Graboids from the movie Tremors, in which gigantic worm-like beings travel underground in the Nevada desert in search of people to eat, or more likely, the sandworms from the classic sci-fi novel Dune.
 * The release of strykewyrms was hinted at by the Twitter hint, "Three strykes and they're out" and the Chaos Elemental hint in the Postbag From the Hedge a few weeks earlier.
 * Desert strykewyrms, along with the rest of the strykewyrms, were the first monsters in RuneScape that made use of Particle Effects.
 * If a Dragon dagger special is launched and only one hitsplat appears and the wyrm burrows underground, the second hitsplat will appear after the wyrm bursts out of the ground. The same happens with the Dragon claws special.
 * In October 2010, a graphical glitch caused Desert strykewyrms and other strykewyrms to get a stripy, wood-like texture on their armour. This was fixed as of 2 November 2010, although it had reappeared. The glitch was fully fixed on 26 July 2011.
 * In the lead up to the release of Strykewyrms, the encrypted message from the Chaos Elemental in Postbag from the Hedge contained the phrase 'from beneath you, it devours' - this possibly relates simultaneously to the burrowing nature of the Strykewyrms and also that they were slayer-related content. 'From beneath you, it devours' is a recurring phrase in season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
 * If a player runs behind an obstacle just as a strykewyrm burrows into the ground, the strykewyrm will disappear. Although it will seem to respawn normally, it will leave no drops. It is not known if this counts as a kill for the player. This glitch has not been fixed.

Desert strykewyrm Desert strykewyrm Desert Strykewyrm