Shade

The Shade is a monster located at the entrance to the last level of the Stronghold of Security. Shades are non-aggressive and have a maximum hit of 157. Prior to the Evolution of Combat, whilst attacking a shade, a player only received a quarter of the normal experience per hit and only 5% normal slayer experience.

Some time ago, a shade could appear and attack a player as a random event when the player was burying bones, but this random event was subsequently discontinued.

Shades may be assigned as a Slayer task by Vannaka. In addition to 'Shades' themselves, Loar Shades, Phrin Shades, Riyl Shade, Asyn shades, and Fiyr Shades, which can be found in Mort'ton or the nearby Shade Catacombs can also be slain to fulfill the task. As these other shades give regular combat and slayer experience, they are recommended for completing slayer tasks. Note: To access the shade catacombs, players must have completed the Shades of Mort'ton quest.

Additional damage can be done to shades through the use of Salve amulets or the Gadderhammer weapon.

Drops

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Random event (discontinued)
When a player buried bones, they had a possibility of angering an aggressive Shade appearing and attacking them. Shades were transparent in appearance and looked somewhat like a ghost. As with similar guardian random events, the combat level of a shade varied according to the combat level of the player unfortunate enough to run into one. When slain, the shade usually dropped nothing, but sometimes it would drop an assortment of bones, and on rare occasions, shade robes. Originally, shades were able to close or open a door without standing beside it, which was unique among all free monsters, but this feature was removed.

Trivia

 * Before Evolution of Combat, it was not be very wise to train on shades, because no matter how much damage you inflicted on them, you didn't get as much experience as you would when attacking other monsters.
 * These were the fourth highest level free-to-play monsters, being tied with Cockroach soldiers. However, after the Wilderness Crater was re-opened, Hellhounds were introduced to free worlds and so shades are now the fifth highest level monster.
 * Although Shades are transparent, Shade robes are not.
 * Shades have the old idle and walking animations that were used on players before RuneScape HD.
 * Shades' attack animation is that of slashing a sword, as is their blocking animation. However, they hold no sword.
 * The Shade's examination info is likely a reference to "Dead and Gone"

Shade (monster)