Ice strykewyrm

Ice strykewyrms are slayer monsters that require a Slayer level of 93 to kill. Famous for being the only monster to drop the Staff of light, Ice strykewyrms are located near the Muspah cave.

Like other Strykewyrms, Ice strykewyrms can only be killed by players who are assigned Ice strykewyrms as their current Slayer tasks. Players must complete The Tale of the Muspah quest before they can be assigned Ice strykewyrms. The only Slayer masters who can assign Ice strykewyrms are Duradel/Lapalok and Kuradal. Kuradal has a greater chance of assigning Ice strykewyrms than Duradel/Lapalok.

By default, Ice strykewyrms are assigned only to players who own a Fire cape. Players without Fire capes will not be assigned them, unless they first spend 2,000 Slayer reward points to unlock the task from a Slayer master. (Unlocking the ability does not allow players to kill Ice strykewyrms off-task, it merely allows for them to be assigned as a task without the player owning a Fire cape.)

Like other Strykewyrms, Ice strykewyrms initially are underground, so only a mound can be seen on the floor of the cave. The mound cannot be attacked directly, but clicking on it will cause the player to investigate it, whereupon the Strykewyrm will burst out of the ground. The Strykewyrm will not attack the player for two-three seconds, so the player has time to attack first or move to another place (such as next to an obstacle). If Ice strykewyrms are not the player's slayer assignment, investigating the mounds will not cause the Strykewyrms to come to the surface. As part of the elite task of the Fremennik Province Diary it is possible to surface a Strykewyrm without having them set as an assignment, but requires a Fire cape or Ice Strykewyrm killing ability in order to kill it.

Getting there
The Ice strykewyrms are located in a cave to the east of room just before the cave in which the Muspah was frozen during The Tale of the Muspah.

The quickest way to get to the Ice strykewyrms is to use Fairy ring DKS, which is just south of the cave. The entrance to the Ice strykewyrms is the waterfall to the east; If there is water coming through, blocking the way, the player must use a Spade to dam the eastern river in cave where the Muspah was frozen. This will stop the water from coming through and allowing the player to use the entrance.

Attack styles
Ice strykewyrms have four types of attacks: melee, magic, freezing spell and burrow. If the player is within one square of a wyrm, it will use any of the four attack types. At a distance, the wyrm mostly uses its magic attack but will occasionally uses the freezing spell (which looks like Ice Barrage), which renders the player unable to move for around three seconds and cancels the player's next attack. Simply clicking the wyrm will resume attacking immediately.

The Ice strykewyrm's strongest attack is when it burrows underground during battle and then pops back up, dealing 300 life points to anyone around it. The wyrm becomes invulnerable during this time, so attempting to attack it while it is burrowed is futile. This attack can be easily avoided by quickly moving two steps away in any direction. The further away the player is from the wyrm when it burrows (such as when maging from a distance) the easier it is to avoid this attack. It can also use the burrow attack if a player walks into its square and stays there for a couple of seconds, so it is recommended not to do this. The wyrm will not use the burrow attack at all if the player is standing next to an obstacle, such as the cave wall or a stalagmite. Some players believe moving away from the burrow is easier than trying to stand by an obstacle. However, other players believe it is easy to use obstacles. Ranged and magic users can simply move to the nearest obstacle that is out of melee range when the wyrm surfaces. Melee users have to take a little more care, ensuring that when they investigate the mound there will be a obstacle they can stand next to and yet still can melee the wyrm. There are plenty of obstacles in the cave, so this is not very difficult to arrange.

Strategies


Despite requiring level 93 slayer, these creatures have remarkably low defence and may therefore be killed effectively by many different methods. Using an Abyssal whip seems to be more effective than using a Godsword, as both weapons frequently hit high but the whip is significantly faster. However, using magic or ranged is safer than using melee. Some players report that the wyrms can deal damage at a faster rate than a player wearing a full Guthan's set and praying against magic is able to heal.

Ice strykewyrms are weak against fire. Wearing a Fire cape increases all damage dealt to a wyrm by +40. Furthermore, all fire spells hit for 1.5x damage (2x damage if the player is wearing a Fire cape). Fire Surge is apparently the most effective way to kill these creatures, but this spell requires level 95 magic. Players with lower magic levels can use Fire Blast or Fire Wave instead as these spells also deal a fair amount of damage.

Casting ice spells from the Ancient Magicks spellbook will heal the Ice strykewyrms instead of damaging them. .

It is recommend that players use Protection or Deflection Prayers when fighting the wyrms, as they can deal a lot of damage quickly. Protect from Magic and Deflect Magic stops all damage from the wyrm's magic and freezing attacks (although the freezing attack still immobilises the player). When using prayer, players should consider wearing armour with good prayer bonus, such as Proselyte armour, to prolong their prayer points. If Protect from Magic or Deflect Magic is used and the player is standing at least one square away from the wyrm beside a wall or stalactite, no damage will be taken.

Players with 92 prayer or above can also use Soul Split to utilise the heavy damage dealt by wearing a fire cape and/or attacking with fire spells. Since a player can hit well over 1000 in one hit, they will recover over 200 life points. The player should beware when using this method, in case the Strykewyrm gets a string of lucky hits and the player gets a string of unlucky hits. The shark drops come in quite handy in this situation.

Weapons

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* Based off one slayer's 8434 kills and 18 staves of light, the drop rate of the Staff of Light is 1/468.6 or 0.2999% (95% Confidence Interval: 1/320.5 to 1/869.0006). As quoted by Jagex on the official update faq, the Staff of light's drop rate is the same as that of the Abyssal whip. During Runefest's big question sessions, the drop rate of the Abyssal whip was revealed to be 1/512. Therefore the drop rate of the Staff of light must also be 1/512.

Armour

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Runes/Talismans

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Ranging Gear

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Gems/Ores/Bars

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Herbs

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Seeds

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Other

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Trivia

 * Ice strykewyrms, along with the other Strykewyrms, are the first monsters to incorporate particle effects.
 * Jagex has proposed that players who are unable to get the Fire cape are given the option to purchase the ability to kill Ice strykewyrms from a Slayer master with their Slayer points, while the Fire cape makes players more effective at fighting Ice strykewyrms. This has been put into effect along with the Shattered Heart update in 3 March 2010.
 * As of 3 March 2010, players wearing a Fire cape while fighting ice strykewyrms deal 2.0x damage with fire-based spells. Additionally, players wearing a Fire cape deal 40 extra damage with any combat style.
 * It is unknown whether the Flames of Zamorak Spell or the Dragonfire shield's special causes extra damage.