Mithril dragon/Strategies

Mithril dragons are among the most difficult solo dragon fights in RuneScape. With very high defence, immunity to mithril and standard poisions, long range firebreath and attacking with all three combat styles, these dragons can quickly kill an unprepared player. Stat boosters and good food are necessary for anyone wishing to obtain more than a handful of kills. Players should ALWAYS keep their prayer on; the dragon's range on finding a target is from 8-12 squares away from it. Players who have not invested any money into Summoning will find themselves at a huge disadvantage. Healing familiars or beasts of burden will help players extend their trips. Most players choose not to use Saradomin brews, as there is little chance that the drops received on the trip will pay for the cost.

Ranged
Mithril dragons are immune to the effects of poison, and almost completely impervious to mithril-based weaponry. As a result, enchanted emerald bolts are ineffective. One approach to Mithril dragons is Ranging using enchanted ruby and diamond bolts. The ruby bolts special effect will remove a sizeable portion of their lifepoints (up to 508, if it's full hp) and diamond will decrease their Ranged defence. Ruby should only be used while the target is above half health, below half and the special effect will start to take away smaller portions that could be hit without the enchanted effect.

Alternatively, after completion of Ritual of the Mahjarrat quest players will find Dragonbane bolts or Dragonbane arrows highly effective against Mithril dragons, capably outperforming even Runite bolts.

Karils or Armadyl armour is a much better choice over Black dragonhide because of the increased magic defence. The Protect from Missiles prayer or Deflect Missiles curse is recommended when using Ranged, especially for players with lower defence who are not using a Dragonfire shield. The Sap Mage curse also works well, reducing the dragon's defence and magic, though you may have to compensate for the extra prayer with more potions and/or focusing more on prayer gear.

If prayer drain is not an issue, a player using curse prayers can bring high range defence armour and use Deflect Magic and Leech Ranged, efficiently making you stronger and the dragon weaker.

Recommended stats


 * 80
 * 70
 * 80
 * 60

Suggested inventory


 * 3-5 Prayer potions
 * 1-2 Ranging potion
 * 1-2 Defence potion
 * 1-2 Antifire potion
 * 15-24 Sharks, Manta rays or Rocktails

Optional inventory


 * Games necklace
 * Familiar pouch
 * Familiar scrolls

Recommended equipment


 * Full slayer helmet (with Mithril Dragons as task) > Armadyl helmet > Archer Helm > God coif
 * Armadyl chestplate > Karil's top > Black d'hide body
 * Armadyl chainskirt > Karil's skirt > Black d'hide chaps
 * Barrows gloves > Black d'hide vamb
 * Glaiven Boots >Ranger boots > Snakeskin boots
 * Amulet of fury > Amulet of Ranging > Amulet of glory
 * Ava's alerter
 * Chaotic crossbow > > Rune crossbow
 * Dragonfire shield > Anti-dragon shield
 * Archer's ring (i) > Onyx ring (i) > Archers ring > Ring of wealth
 * Ruby bolts (e) and Diamond bolts (e) or Dragonbane Bolts

Melee
Bring the recommended equipment, overloads or extreme potions, prayer potions, and a holy wrench to increase your prayer restoration. If you have 88 Summoning, a Unicorn stallion and bunyip combination is recommended for fast healing. However, a bunyip on its own is still very useful for those who do not have access to the unicorn.

Upon arriving at the Mithril dragons, turn on protect from melee, drink your antifire, and boost up your stats using piety/superhuman strength/turmoil prayers. You should activate Protect from Melee as the dragon's melee attack is its strongest, hitting up to 282 life points. Special attack items like Enhanced excalibur are very useful for their healing, offensively a Bandos or Saradomin godsword is recommended; however, this requires a super antifire potion.

Mithril dragons are very resistant to crush and slash attacks, and weak to stab attacks. Common weapons used are a Zamorakian spear with a super antifire, or Dragonfire Shield along with a chaotic weapon (on stab). The best choice for high-level players would be the chaotic weapon because it is stronger and one handed. Slash weapons such as godswords and the abyssal whip are not recommended, even at 95+ Attack, due to the dragon's extremely high slash defence. Finally, another method would be to use Verac's set on the stab setting with super antifires as the stab bonus and set attack can allow you to hit right through the dragon's tough defences. While using the Verac method, it is suggested for players to pray deflect magic and turmoil, or protect magic and piety.

Full Void (Melee) is also an effective way to kill mithril dragons. If you have 88 Summoning and 92 Prayer, you can use Soul Split and/or a unicorn for additional healing, though the former can be very dangerous due to the dragon's high max hit, which it will hit frequently even against high level armour. If you have 96 Summoning, the unicorn is not needed if you bring some food and a Pack yak, and are good at switching Soul Split and Deflect Melee, this way allows you to use the yak to bank bones and drops.

Players can completely avoid the dragon's melee attack by stepping 1 square away when it is the dragon's attack turn then walking back to attack the dragon and quickly walking away again for the dragon's attack turn. Being at a distance will mean the dragon will always use either its range or magic attack. Players can then use either protect magic or protect range to block one of its attacks and heal after bring hit with the other attack.

Recommended stats


 * 90
 * 90
 * 90
 * 68
 * 70

Recommended equipment/without Super Anti-fires Recommended equipment/Super Anti-Fires 
 * Full slayer helmet with (mithril dragons as a Slayer assignment) > Slayer helmet > Black mask > Zamorak Halo (if using Turmoil) > Helm of neitiznot
 * Karil's top > Armadyl chestplate >Black d'hide body
 * Karil's skirt > Armadyl chainskirt > Black d'hide chaps
 * Dragon slayer gloves > RFD gloves
 * Dragon boots > Rune boots
 * Soul Wars Cape > Fire Cape > Ardougne Cloak 3 > Cape of accomplishment
 * Amulet of fury > Amulet of glory
 * Chaotic Longsword (on lunge)/Rapier > Korasi's sword (on lunge) > Brackish blade > Leaf-bladed Sword > Staff of light (on accurate stab) > Zamorakian spear (with Super antifire) > Abyssal Whip
 * Dragonfire shield > Anti-dragon shield
 * Onyx ring (i)> Berserker ring > Explorer's ring 3 or Ring of life
 * Reverence aura
 * Note: When using Korasi's sword as a primary weapon, you do not have to use another weapon for a special attack as its special attack, Disrupt, is sufficient enough to do damage.

''This setup is used for a good outcome with Super Anti-fires, a 2-Handed weapon with powerful stabbing option, prayer, and food, though Karil's leathertop is not as effective with this setup. You will often be using extreme sets, super antifires, and high healing foods such as rocktails. Prayer potions may also be needed if praying against melee.''

High Level Setup
 * Full slayer helmet (with mithril dragons as task) > Helm of neitiznot/Verac's helm if using protect from magic.
 * Ganodermic Poncho > Karil's top if using protect from melee/Verac's Brassard if using protect from magic.
 * Ganodermic Leggings > Karil's skirt if using protect from melee/Verac's Plateskirt if using protect from magic.
 * Dragon Slayer Gloves > Barrows gloves if not on slayer
 * Dragon Boots
 * Soul Wars Cape > Ardougne Cloak 3 > Fire cape
 * Amulet of Fury > Amulet of glory
 * Chaotic Longsword/Rapier > Verac's flail > Korasi's Sword > Zamorakian spear >Chaotic maul >Brackish blade
 * Dragon Defender > Dragonfire shield

''This setup is useful for anyone with access to Elite Void and the Deflector. It focuses purely on using prayer and a unicorn to stay alive, eliminating the need to bring food. Note: This is a high level setup. You must have extremes, chaotics, turmoil, and 88 summoning to make full use of this setup. If done effectivly, one can last a full unicorn getting upwards of 60 kills a trip. You should bring Korasi's sword for spec, bonecrusher, Unicorn scrolls, and a teleport. 2 extreme attacks + strengths, 3 super anti-fires, 2-4 spec restore potions, and then nothing but prayer potions. Prayer renewals can be extremely useful here. You can substitute 3 prayer pots for 2 renewals and an extra spec restore''



The tactic used here is to start in Edgeville or the NW Grand Exchange booth. Have unicorn already summoned and use the fairy rings to get into the caves. (Note: Doing Fairy Tale III - Orks Rift allows you to save space by not having to take a staff to use the rings)

Once you've arrived, take a sip of antifire, pray mage and run up the stairs to the mithril dragons. Run to the centre area where there are 3 spawns. Take a dose of your extremes and a prayer renewal, activate Berserker, Deflect Melee and Turmoil. Unload your Korasi special, take a sip of spec restore, and spec again. The restore special potions are going to become your early inventory space so unload them quickly. Bonecrusher eliminates the need to bury the bones. You should re-pot when your stats hit around 119 (assuming 99 Attack/Strength). Attack the first dragon, click on Deploy Dreadnip, attack the dragon again, and then summon the dreadnip. Ensure the dreadnip can attack the dragon, this will significantly raise kills per hour.

When you get low on health, start to flash Soul Split, as your unicorn alone won't be able to keep up with healing, especially if your antifire drops or the dragon spams magic or ranged attack.


 * Void Melee Helm
 * Elite Void Top
 * Elite Void Bottom
 * Barrows Gloves or Void knight gloves
 * Steadfast Boots > Dragon boots
 * Completionist Cape > Max Cape > Ardougne Cloak 3 > Fire Cape > Soul Wars Cape
 * Amulet of Fury
 * Chaotic Longsword /Chaotic Rapier
 * Void Deflector or Dragon Defender
 * Knock out aura /Reverence
 * Onyx ring (i) > Berserker ring (i) > Dragonstone ring (i) > Diamond ring (i) > Ring of life



Magic
The spell Claws of Guthix has shown to be very effective against mithril dragons, with its ability to remove a sizable portion of their defence. It's recommended to use the Charge spell to significantly decrease the time and food needed to kill one. The spell Flames of Zamorak can also be effective as reducing Magic level also reduces their offensive and defensive effectiveness. If not using God spells, then high level FIRE spells will suffice. Fire Surge or Fire Wave are extremely effective as well.This comes at the cost of the player's own defence as magic armour has significantly less defensive value than Ranged or Melee. Hence, praying ranged protection is recommended. Also, because of the negative effect of Saradomin brew being less disruptive to magic than ranging and melee, it may also be used as food source to significantly lengthen the trip. Blood Blitz is also a very good spell to use against mithril dragons as the spell only uses two types of runes (Blood rune and Death rune giving you extra inventory space), and the healing effect almost eliminates the need for food. The Polypore staff is highly effective and cheap and it requires no runes so more inventory space is available for food or potions.

The curse prayers Sap Mage or Leech Mage and Leech Defence will be immensely helpful when using magic since the benefit goes both ways.

Recommended stats


 * 80
 * 70
 * 60

Recommended equipment

Some players advocate carrying the antidragon shield instead of a dragonfire shield for magic since the dragonfire shield reduces magical offence. Players with access to super antifire potions are recommended to use a void knight deflector (if using void), arcane spirit shield, mages' book or unholy book if using ancient magic or Claws Of Guthix, and a celestial surgebox if using Fire Surge for its inventory saving and 25% damage boost properties.
 * Full slayer helmet with Mithril Dragons as task > Third age mage hat > Ganodermic Visor > healer hat > Ahrim's hood > Void mage helm
 * Arcane stream necklace > Amulet of fury > Third age amulet > Amulet of glory
 * Ganodermic top > Ahrim's top > Third age robe top > Elite void knight top > Void knight top
 * Ganodermic Leggings > Ahrim's robe > Third age robe bottom > Elite void knight robe > Void knight robe
 * Barrows gloves > Void knight gloves > Mystic gloves
 * Ragefire boots > Infinity boots > Wizard boots
 * Dragonfire shield > Anti-dragon shield
 * God cape > Ardougne cloak 3/4 > Soul Wars cape
 * Seers' ring (i) > Onyx ring (i) > Dragonstone ring (i) > Seers ring > any other Mobilising Armies ring
 * Armadyl battlestaff > Polypore staff >God staves or Staff of light

One of the more effective methods is to use full void magic but replace the body with Ahrim's top, but this requires a void knight deflector be worn (which excludes the celestial surgebox and all players below 85 Herblore). Otherwise, full void magic's effect alone results in less magical accuracy than full Ahrim.

Familiars
Familiars will significantly extend the number of kills per trip, the most popular being the Bunyip and Fruit bat for their ability to heal a player's lifepoints. The elemental titans are a step up from the Bunyip and Fruit bat, negating the need to bring down a Super defence potion with its active scroll ability boosting the Summoner's defence and LP. Finally, the Unicorn Stallion can help the player get up to 60 kills per trip, assuming the player receives some shark drops.

Familiars cannot be taken through the whirlpool, however a beast of burden can still be used to carry extra supplies. This technique entails dismissing your familiar on the dock, going through the whirlpool, dropping an amount of supplies equal to what your familiar was carrying, then using a Games Necklace to teleport to the Barbarian Outpost, retrieving the supplies dropped by your familiar, going through the whirlpool, then summoning the same beast of burden and retrieving the supplies you dropped on the other side of the whirlpool. The problem however, is that if you cannot get the items in time, they can either disappear or another player using the waterfalls can take those items.

By taking 5 bittercap mushrooms and a spade to a spot of Enchanted Soil near the waterfiends in the western part of the Ancient Cavern, you can create a fairy ring to Zanaris (after Fairy Tale II - Cure a Queen). You can bring a familiar through the fairy ring, which allows beasts of burden full of food to be brought to the Mithril Dragons, increasing your output of dragons killed per trip.

Another method of bringing a beast of burden into the Ancient Caverns with a full supply of food is using the Ferocious Ring, which is obtained randomly when fighting creatures in Kuradal's Dungeon. The Ferocious Ring allows for teleportation close to the Dragonforge which is located on the other side of the Ancient Cavern.

< Mithril dragon