Abyssal whip

The Abyssal whip is a powerful and fast melee weapon in RuneScape. Due to its high accuracy, attack speed, and strength, this is the weapon of choice for many players. Players must have 70 Attack to wield the whip. Released in January 2005, the Abyssal whip has long been one of the most powerful weapons in RuneScape, and is considered to be a staple that has set the standard for the weapons which have been released since.

Whips are dropped by Abyssal demons which requires level 85 Slayer to kill. A fake Abyssal whip can be obtained from an Abyssal minion which will turn to ash when equipped.

The whip's special attack, Energy drain, uses 50% of the player's energy and drains 25% of the target's run energy in PvP combat while being a more accurate hit. For this reason, the whip's special attack is infrequently used, despite the fact that it can be useful in some PvP activities, such as Fist of Guthix, to stop the hunted from running away.

The Abyssal whip has the same attacking speed as any scimitar, which is one strike per 4 game ticks (about 2.4 seconds total).

Dropping monsters

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Colours
After the Barbarian Assault Improvements update of 19 January 2010, it is possible to recolour an Abyssal whip by spending 50 points from the Barbarian Assault activity (of any type: Attacker, Defender, Healer or Collector) and can be re-painted in a purchased colour as often as the owner wants. A player can choose to paint their whip white, blue, green, or yellow. A recoloured whip is untradeable and unlendable, and has no effect on its potency in combat. A recoloured whip can be returned to its original colour by using a cleaning cloth on it. A cleaning cloth can be made by using Karamja rum on a piece of silk, bought from Tamayu in Tai Bwo Wannai village after the Tai Bwo Wannai Trio quest, or from the Grand Exchange.

History
The Abyssal whip was introduced to RuneScape with the Slayer skill update on 26 January 2005. The original special attack used 50% of the special attack bar and the player would either hit for their maximum damage or miss. The Abyssal whip looked like.

Later, Jagex changed the special attack to drain 10% of run energy from targets, citing that the old special attack caused an unwanted glitch. The special attack continued to use 50% special energy.
 * On 14 July 2008, with the full release of RuneScape High Detail, the whip crumpled into a ball when the player ran.
 * On 12 May 2009, the inventory image of the Abyssal whip changed to [[File:Second-abyssal-whip.png]].
 * On 16 June 2009, the special attack effect was changed to drain 25% of the target's run energy due to complaints.
 * On 28 July 2009, the Abyssal whip received a graphical update, in which the animation was updated and the appearance was changed to [[File:Third-abyssal-whip.png]].
 * On 17 September 2009, an extra coil of the whip below the player's hand was removed and the handle was changed to point forward. The attack sound and animation were also changed.
 * On 19 January 2010, with the Barbarian Assault Improvements update it became possible to "paint" the whip either green, white, yellow, or blue using a penance egg. This would result in making the whip untradeable and unlendable when painted; when un-painted it is still lendable.

Training
The Aggressive training method is not available while using the whip. Therefore, the only way of training the Strength skill is through the Controlled method. This method grants one-third the strength-training experience and also gives Defence and Attack experience, making it undesirable for most pures and players wishing to level up strength quickly using a whip.

A common replacement for the whip is the Saradomin sword which offers the same attack and strength bonuses along with an additional Prayer and crush bonus, but has the option to train Strength. However, the Saradomin Sword is two-handed, so it cannot be equipped with a defender, God book, or shield, and is usually fairly more costly than the whip. The Dragon scimitar, or Korasi's sword if The Void Stares Back is completed, can be used as a cheap alternative for training Strength, along with a Dragon defender.

Another relatively unknown method of training strength is to use the Obsidian sword in conjunction with the Berserker necklace which increases strength while using all Obsidian equipment, but has severe negative defensive bonuses.

Many think the xp/hour of the whip may be equal (depending on shield weapon) or even greater to that of a godsword. The defence bonus of the NPC is another factor to take into consideration.

Market

 * On its release in late January, 2005, the price of a whip was at its highest ever (as high as 100 million coins; some whips were traded for Partyhats). It then began to fall as supply increased and excitement over the new item diminished.
 * In the summer of 2005 the whip was about 5 million coins, then fell to around 4.3 million by autumn of that year, by mid 2006 it was 2.6 million coins. The price continued to fall until early 2007 where it became relatively stable, it was traded for about 1.4 million to 1.6 million coins.
 * From 2007 to early 2008, the whip's price steadily increased from about 1.25 million to 3.5 million coins.
 * On January 2, 2008, the trade limit was introduced and whips price slowly began to decline, bottoming out at around 1.5m in late 2008.
 * On June 16, 2009, a PvP world update was introduced, removing the Abyssal whip from the PvP drop tables as well as making it more likely to lose a whip in PvP.
 * After July 20, 2009, due to inflation and possible price manipulation, the price spiked to over 3 million coins for the first time in years. The price then dropped sharply to around 2.3 million coins, but then began rising again, breaching the 3 million mark again in September 2009 and the 4 million mark in October.
 * The price crashed partially as a result of the anti-76k update on October 26 2009, and stabilized at about 3 million.
 * On January 19, 2010, whips were bought out of the Grand Exchange due to speculation caused by the release of additional whip colours. This caused their price to peak at just over 4.2 million coins on January 24, 2010. After this date the price dropped back to 3.5 million coins as of January 28, 2010, the same as before the colouring update.
 * On 3 March 2010, The Abyssal whip dropped to a total of 2,852,851, because of the Bonus Xp Weekend. Many players would sell their whips to buy supplies for non-combat related skills. It has since rebounded back to around 3,600,000 coins.
 * On 6 October, 2010, price of the Abyssal Whip dropped slightly (about 300,000) due to the release of the grandmaster quest The Void Stares Back and Korasi's Sword (weapon weaker than the whip, but stronger than the Dragon Scimitar, and with a powerful special attack).
 * During the recent return of Free Trade and the Wilderness, whips, along with a lot of weapons have quickly declined in price and are crashing. The introduction of Infernal ashes at about the same likely has contributed to the price drop, as more players began killing Abyssal demons, to get their ashes (to sell or to train prayer) and thus more whips would be dropped.
 * As of April 2011, the whip's price has been steadily declining, costing as low as 1,100,000 coins.

Trivia

 * Whips were originally a possible drop from player-characters on PvP worlds, but on 16 June 2009, whips were removed from the PvP drop tables.
 * The abyssal whip is featured in the emote for the Max cape when the player latches the whip around the monsters neck and pulls it to the ground for the killing blow.