King Black Dragon

The King Black Dragon (colloquially "the KBD") is the 22nd strongest monster in RuneScape, but was the strongest when released. Recently, the King Black Dragon has lost popularity since the loot it drops can be acquired from easier to kill monsters. He is still fought, however, by clans or individuals looking to pass time or just for the experience of killing it. Even though easier monsters drop the same loot, the KBD drops high price items very often so it is a good source of money.

The King Black Dragon was the highest level monster in the game until 7 September 2004 when it was replaced by the Kalphite Queen. Afterwards, he was the highest level monster in the Wilderness, but was soon replaced by the Chaos Elemental. Afterwards, it was the highest level Dragon, but was replaced by the Mithril Dragon. He is now the highest level chromatic dragon. The King Black Dragon is still the highest level monster in RuneScape Classic.

The King Black Dragon can also be killed for Slayer if a player's task is Black Dragons.

The King Black Dragon Lair
The King Black Dragon Lair is a multi-combat area, allowing groups of players to fight him simultaneously. The lair is a level 44 Wilderness dungeon near the Lava Maze. The dungeon may be accessed via a ladder in a fenced area on the west end of the Lava Maze containing four Lesser Demons. The ladder leads to an area with poison spiders, and a lever which will teleport the character to the King Black Dragon's lair. The lair itself isn't in the Wilderness, but players are in the Wilderness until they pull the lever. If a player gets teleblocked, they can't pull the lever unless they have a Forinthry bracelet. Players also may note they do not have to leave via ladder, you can use a teleport to exit if need be.



It is common to use the obelisks located throughout the Wilderness, which will teleport you randomly to other obelisks in various places within by activating them, one of them being in level 44 Wilderness at the Frozen Waste Plateau, and another one being found south of the Lava Maze, which are both right near the KBD lair. The only danger when using this method is players may be teleported to a multicombat area and be confronted by multiple revenants at once. This is especially notable at the obelisk near the Rogue's Castle, as 2 or more Revenant knights and Revenant orks have been known to patrol nearby together, and since it is in deep Wilderness, it is very likely players may get poisoned by them, as well as being teleblocked, preventing players from using the obelisks. Also, the Chaos Elemental CAN come close to the obelisk, so it is advisable to turn off auto-retaliate when using the obelisks.



Attacks
The King Black Dragon only uses melee when fighting, but he has very high defence, and also uses 4 different types of dragon breath attack that have fairly devastating effects, which makes him a well-rounded and difficult foe. His 4 dragonbreath attacks consist of the following:


 * Regular dragonfire.
 * Shock-like breath that can reduce your stats.
 * Ice breath that can stop players from moving or attacking
 * Poison breath that will deal 8 poison damage.

All of these breath attacks are long ranged, including the regular dragonfire. They can also cause severe damage to those without the proper protection. When a player is using both an Antifire potion and Anti-dragon shield, the King Black Dragon can hit up to 10 with his 3 unique breaths, though his normal breath will always hit 0. Killing him becomes easier if the group forms a circle around him as he cannot attack everyone at the same time, and needs to pause between attacks in order to choose a target.

Suggestions for Fighting
For those who have never been to fight the King Black Dragon and are planning on going on their first trip, here are a few suggestions. As players become more accustomed to fighting it, they will better know their personal abilities and can adjust accordingly, these suggestions are just for "first-timers" to the King Black Dragon's Lair.

First of all, it's VERY important to bring an Anti-dragon shield from the Dragon Slayer quest which also can be replaced by a Dragonfire shield. This will protect you from most of the damage done from his fire-breath attack. You can also protect magic if you do not use the Anti-dragon shield, which reduces max hits of 3 breaths to 15, and fire to 20. An antifire potion reduces the fire max hit to 5 if using protect magic, or to nothing if you are wearing the shields. NOTE: Protect from magic does nothing if you are wearing one of the two protection shields mentioned before. It's suggested to have a prayer level of 43 to use Protect from melee, as this is what the dragon hits hardest with. It's recommended to use melee, at least on the first trip, so bring a good one-handed melee weapon as well as Prayer items to allow prayer to last longer. A very well known debate among players is if Dragonhide armour or Karil's set, or other good magical defence helps protect from the firebreath attacks. It's currently unknown if it does help, but its common to wear good Armour/Best Magic Defence instead of prayer gear, it's up to you. Also, bring about 3-5 Prayer potions, 1-2 Antipoison potions, stat restore potions, 1-2 antifire potions, super sets, and lots of food (20+ healing one bite foods are recommended: sharks, sea turtles, manta rays, rocktail, cavefish, tuna potatoes, etc.) A replacement for food could be stat restore potions and saradomin brews. It is also recommended to bring a single-click teleport such as an ectophial or teletab (for emergencies). The KBD is generally killed in groups, however many higher level players are able to solo it. Another option is to use Ruby bolts (e). They eliminate 20% of his hitpoints, while depleting 10% of you own. The person using this style should have a huge stock of food, the rapid heal prayer on, and a Dragonfire shield. There preferably should be at least 2 of these people in your group, if you have a group. It is not recommended that you use this strategy if soloing the dragon, as your hitpoints cannot be spared during the battle. '''Beware! Don't forget that without any protection from his fire-breath attack, the King Black Dragon is able to hit well over 61 on a player! '''

100% Drop

 * Dragon bones
 * Black dragonhide

Weapons

 * Rune spear
 * Dragon spear
 * Rune longsword (common)
 * Adamant 2h sword
 * Adamant axe
 * Rune battleaxe
 * Mithril battleaxe
 * Mithril 2h

Arrows and Runes

 * 15 Blood runes
 * 7 -45 Death runes
 * 105 Air runes
 * 105 Fire runes
 * 105 Earth runes
 * 15, 45 Law runes
 * 45 Rune arrows
 * 690 Iron arrows (common)
 * 150 Steel arrows (rare)
 * 1-12 Rune bolts
 * 57-67 Nature rune (uncommon)

Armour

 * Dragon medium helmet (rare)
 * Rune kiteshield
 * Rune square shield
 * Adamant platebody(common)
 * Shield Left Half (very rare)
 * Amulet of Strength

Other

 * Coins
 * 100 Coal
 * 100 Iron ore
 * Dragonstone (uncommon)
 * 100 Yew logs (common)
 * 4 Sharks (unnoted)
 * Uncut Gems
 * Adamantite bar
 * Runite bar
 * 4 Gold Charms
 * 4 Green Charms
 * 4 Crimson Charms (most common)
 * 4 Blue Charms (least common)
 * Oyster
 * Half key
 * King Black Dragon Heads (rare)
 * Clue Scroll (level 3)
 * Runite limbs
 * Draconic Visage (very rare) (about 1/2000)
 * Black dragon tail-bone (1/15 kills)

Trivia

 * The King Black Dragon can talk, as seen in A Tail of Two Cats. During the final cutscene he is visited by Bob. During the chat between the King and Bob, a player attempts to solo the King, but fails horribly and dies. (He had no fire protection.)
 * The Three Headed Dragon from Learning the Ropes is very similar in appearance to the King Black Dragon, other than the green scales.
 * All of the fighters on the right art picture have no protection shown except for the warrior, which is being eaten by the right head. (It is hard to tell but you can see the picture of an anti-fire shield.) However it's worth noting that they could be using Anti fire potions, instead of a shield. A thing to notice is that according to the picture, the king is somewhat far from the fighters, and the shield is still bigger than the warrior himself. The warrior is using dragon armour and a dragon scimitar. The ranger is using a magic longbow.
 * The King Black Dragon makes an appearance as a playable monster in the Funorb game Armies Of Gielinor.
 * The different forms of dragon breath the King Black Dragon is similar to the boss Gleeok from the Zelda series which each head would shoot out different kinds of balls, Fire, Ice and sometimes close combat.