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. Because of this, it is often called the best weapon, however its special attack is often ridiculed.

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

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 helmet bonus does not stack with the Salve amulet, therefore a Berserker Helm or Helm of Neitiznot would be a better choice.

It is common for players to lose this item on death, due to its relatively low (cheap) alchemy value compared to other high level equipment, such as the more expensive pieces of Dragon armour. Although some items, such as the Dragon plateskirt have a much lower market value, the whip has a lower alchemy value, which causes the Dragon plateskirt to be valued higher in respect to Items Kept on Death.

Training


It is impossible to use the Aggressive training option while using the Whip. Therefore, the only remaining way of training the Strength skill is through the Controlled method. Controlled also gives Defense and Attack experience, making it undesirable for some pures and player killers.

A common, albeit very expensive, replacement for the whip is the Saradomin Sword which offers similar bonuses (with an additional prayer and crush bonus), but has the option to train Strength. The Saradomin Sword is two-handed, so it cannot be equipped with a defender or shield. When combined with a Rune defender, the abyssal whip overall has significantly greater bonuses, and the Dragon scimitar has a somewhat lower Slash bonus.

Using a Obsidian Splitsword combined with a Berserker necklace is another option.

Whips are more expensive than most of the Barrows weapons. However, Barrows weapons are generally only desirable with a full set; a full Barrows set and its repairs most often exceed the price of a whip.

Trivia



 * This weapon is not recommended in Barbarian Assault because the fighter cannot choose all of the attack styles with it.
 * Originally, the special attack would only hit zero or the max hit. This was changed in an update and labeled as a bug.
 * When the Abyssal whip was released, it was priced for upwards of 20,000,000 coins. The price has slowly declined since. Players used to consider owning an Abyssal whip a feat of perseverance, due to its cost.
 * Before the release of the Grand Exchange, the price of the whip stabilised at 1.3m to 1.7m, with an occasional offer of 1.2m on the forums. After the release of the Grand Exchange, the price dipped about 400k, but is currently worth approximately 1.5m, due to the release of PvP worlds.
 * When walking with the whip equipped it sways back and forth, but when running with the whip equipped it becomes curled up in a spiral.
 * It is one of the few weapons that cannot directly train Strength.
 * The price of the whip has increased due to the lower drop rate from Abyssal demons, which has led to many complaints seeing that was a way people made money.