Abyssal whip



The Abyssal whip is commonly considered to be one of the best melee weapons in RuneScape, along with the Godsword, due to its high accuracy, strength, and speed. It has the same attacking speed as scimitars, but has higher accuracy and strength. Whips are more expensive than some of the barrows weapons, but without the barrows set effects (full set needed) the whip is better.

Using the Whip it is impossible to use the Aggressive training option. Therefore the only remaining way of training the Strength skill is through the Controlled method. Using controlled, Attack, Strength, and Defence gain experience at only one third of the speed they would gain using a specific style. The formula for the Controlled attack style is 1.33 x the damage done.

Whips are dropped by Level 124 Abyssal demons which require Level 85 Slayer to kill. You need 70 Attack to wield the Abyssal Whip.

The whip has a Special Attack called Energy Drain, which makes the attack more accurate and, if used against a player opponent, transfers 10% of their run energy to the attacking player. It uses up 50% of the special attack bar.

Many Whip users find that their Strength levels begin to fall behind that of their Attack and Defence, weapons which Whip users turn to for a boost in Strength are a Dragon Scimitar and Rune Defender combination, or some other dragon weapon. A less common replacement for the whip is the Saradomin Sword which offers identical bonuses, but has an option to train Strength. However, the cost is approximately 6 times that of the whip, and that is something which a lot of players remain unprepared to pay for a weapon which is identical in bonuses to the whip, with no shield or defender option (Although the Saradomin Sword does arguably have a much better Special Attack).


 * This weapon is not recommended in Barbarian Assault because the fighter can not choose all of the attack types with this weapon.



Trivia

 * Originally, the special attack would only hit zero or the max hit. This was changed in an update and labeled as a bug fix.


 * When the Abyssal Whip was originally released, some players purchased it for upwards of 20,000,000 coins. The price has slowly declined since. People used to consider owning an Abyssal Whip a feat of perseverance due to its cost.


 * The Abyssal Whip has a max hit of 25 with no additional equipment or strength bonuses. With the right equipment, potions, prayer, and special bonuses (including a salve amulet (e) used on an undead creature), the whip can hit up to 55 damage (the Black Mask or Slayer Helm bonus does not stack with the Salve Amulet, therefore a Beserker Helm or Helm of Neitiznot would be a better choice).
 * Oddly, when the whip appears in a player's inventory, it has black and red stripes, but when it is held, sections of it are clear. Requests have been made on the forums to change this sometimes.
 * On RuneScape HD when walking with the whip equipped it sways back and forth, when running with the whip equipped it becomes curled up in a ball like when it's in your inventory.