Mithril dragon/Strategies

Mithril dragons are among the most difficult solo fights in RuneScape, and can quickly kill an unprepared player. Stat boosters and good food are necessary for anyone wishing to obtain more than a handful of kills. Players who have not invested any money into Summoning will find themselves at a huge disadvantage. Healing familiars will help players extend their trips. Most players choose not to use Saradomin brews, as there is little chance that the drops received on the trip will pay for the cost.

Ranged
Mithril dragons are immune to the effects of poison, and almost completely impervious to mithril-based weaponry. As a result, enchanted emerald bolts are ineffective. One approach to Mithril dragons is Ranging using enchanted ruby and diamond bolts. The ruby bolts special effect will remove a sizeable portion of their lifepoints (up to 508, if it's full hp) and diamond will decrease their Ranged defence. Ruby should only be used while the target is above half health, below half and the special effect will start to take away smaller portions that could be hit without the enchanted effect. Karils or Armadyl armour is a much better choice over Black dragonhide because of the increased magic defence. The Protect from Missiles prayer or Deflect Missiles curse is recommended when using Ranged, especially for players with lower defence who are not using a Dragonfire shield. The Sap Mage curse also works well, reducing the dragon's defence and magic, though you may have to compensate for the extra prayer with more potions and/or focusing more on prayer gear.

Alternatively a player using curse prayers can bring high range defence armour and use Deflect Magic and Leech Ranged, efficiently making you stronger and the dragon weaker.

Recommended stats


 * 80
 * 70
 * 80
 * 60

Suggested inventory


 * 3-5 Prayer potions
 * 1-2 Ranging potion
 * 1-2 Defence potion
 * 1-2 Antifire potion
 * 15-24 Sharks

Optional inventory


 * Games necklace
 * Familiar pouch
 * Familiar scrolls

Recommended equipment


 * Full slayer helmet with Mithril Dragons as task &gt; Armadyl helmet &gt; Archer Helm &gt; God coif


 * Armadyl chestplate &gt; Karil's top &gt; Black d'hide body
 * Armadyl chainskirt&gt; Karil's skirt &gt; Black d'hide chaps
 * Barrows gloves &gt; Black d'hide vamb
 * Ranger boots &gt; Snakeskin boots
 * Amulet of fury &gt; Amulet of Ranging &gt; Amulet of glory
 * Ava's alerter
 * Chaotic crossbow > Rune crossbow
 * Dragonfire shield>Anti-Dragon shield
 * Archer's ring (i) &gt; Onyx ring (i) &gt; Archers ring &gt; Ring of wealth
 * Ruby bolts (e) and Diamond bolts (e)

Melee
Bring the recommended equipment, overloads or extreme potions, prayer potions, and a holy wrench to increase your prayer restoration. If you have 88 Summoning, a Unicorn stallion and bunyip combination is recommended for fast healing. However, a bunyip on its own is still very useful for those who do not have access to the unicorn.

Upon arriving at the Mithril dragons, turn on protect from melee, drink your antifire, and boost up your stats using piety/superhuman strength/turmoil prayers. You should activate Protect from Melee as the dragon's melee attack is it's strongest, hitting up to 282 life points. Special attack items like Enhanced excalibur are very useful for their healing, offensively a Bandos or Saradomin Godsword is recommended; however, this requires a super antifire potion.

Mithril dragons are very resistant to crush and slash attacks, and weak to stab attacks. Common weapons used are Zamorakian Spear with a super antifire, or Dragonfire Shield along with a chaotic weapon (on stab). The best choice for high-level players would be the chaotic weapon because it is stronger and one handed. Slash weapons such as Godswords and the Abyssal whip are not recommended, even at 95+ Attack, due to the dragon's extremely high slash defence. Finally, another method would be to use Verac's set on the stab setting with super antifires as the stab bonus and set attack can allow you to hit right through the dragon's tough defences. While using the verac method, it is suggested for players to pray deflect magic and turmoil, or protect magic and piety.

Full Void (Melee) is also an effective way to kill Mithril Dragons. If you have 88 Summoning and 92 Prayer, you can use Soul Split and/or a unicorn for additional healing, though the former can be very dangerous due to the dragon's high max hit, which it will hit frequently even against high level armour. If you have 96 Summoning, the unicorn is not needed if you bring some food and a Pack yak, and are good at switching Soul Split and Deflect Melee, this way allows you to use the yak to bank bones and drops.

Recommended stats


 * 90
 * 90
 * 90
 * 90
 * 68
 * 70

Recommended equipment/without Super Anti-fires Recommended equipment/Super Anti-Fires 
 * Full slayer helmet with Mithril Dragons as a Slayer assignment &gt; Slayer helmet &gt; Black mask > Void Melee Helm (With Full Void) > Zamorak Halo (If using Turmoil) >Helm of Neitiznot
 * Elite Void Top > Karil's top &gt; Armadyl chestplate &gt; Black d'hide body
 * Elite Void Bottoms > Karil's skirt &gt; Armadyl chainskirt &gt; Black d'hide chaps
 * Void Gloves > Dragon Slayer Gloves &gt; RFD gloves
 * Dragon boots
 * Soul Wars Cape > Fire Cape > Ardougne Cloak 3 > Cape of accomplishment
 * Amulet of fury &gt; Amulet of glory
 * Chaotic Longsword (on lunge)/Rapier > Korasi's sword (on lunge) > Brackish blade > Leaf-bladed Sword > &gt;Staff of Light (On Accurate Stab) > Zamorakian spear (with Super antifire) > Abyssal Whip
 * Dragonfire shield &gt; Anti-dragon shield
 * Onyx ring (i)> Berserker ring &gt; Explorer's ring 3 or Ring of life
 * Reverence aura

''This setup is used for a good outcome with Super Anti-fires, a 2-Handed weapon with powerful stabbing option, prayer, and food, though Karil's Leathertop is not as effective with this setup. You will often be using extreme sets, super antifires, and high healing foods such as rocktails. Prayer potions may also be needed if praying against melee.''


 * Full slayer helmet with Mithril Dragons as task/ Helm of neitiznot/Verac's helm if using protect from magic.
 * Karil's top if using protect from melee/ Verac's Brassard if using protect from magic.
 * Karil's skirt if using protect from melee/ Verac's Plateskirt if using protect from magic.
 * Dragon slayer gloves > Barrows gloves if not on slayer
 * Dragon Boots
 * Soul wars cape > Ardougne Cloak 3 &gt; Fire cape
 * Amulet of fury > Amulet of glory
 * Chaotic Longsword/Rapier &gt; Verac's flail > Korasi's Sword > Zamorakian spear > Brackish blade
 * Dragon Defender > Dragonfire shield

Magic
The spell Claws of Guthix has shown to be very effective against Mithril dragons, with its ability to remove a sizable portion of their defence. Its recommended to use the Charge spell to significantly decrease the time and food needed to kill one, the spell Flames of Zamorak can also be effective as reducing Magic level also reduce their attack and defensive effectiveness, also note that this spell is cheaper than Claws of Guthix. If not using God spells, then high level FIRE spells will suffice. Fire surge or Fire wave are extremely effective as well.This comes at the cost of the player's own defence as magic armour has significantly less defensive value than Ranged or Melee. Hence, praying ranged protection is recommended. Also, because of the negative effect of Saradomin brew being less disruptive to magic than ranging and melee, it may also be used as food source to significantly lengthen the trip. Blood Blitz is also a very good spell to use against Mithril dragons as the spell only uses two types of runes (Blood rune and Death rune giving you extra inventory space), and the healing effect almost eliminates the need for food.

The curse prayers Sap Mage or Leech Mage and Leech Defence will be immensely helpful when using magic since the benefit goes both ways.

Recommended stats


 * 80
 * 70
 * 80
 * 60

Recommended equipment

Some players advocate carrying the antidragon shield instead of a dragonfire shield for magic since the dragonfire shield reduces magical offence. Players with access to super antifire potions are recommended to use a void knight deflector (if using void), arcane spirit shield, mages' book or unholy book if using ancient magic or Claws Of Guthix, and a celestial surgebox if using Fire Surge for its inventory saving and 25% damage boost properties.
 * Full slayer helmet with Mithril Dragons as task &gt; Third age mage hat &gt; Ahrim's hood &gt; Void mage helm
 * Arcane stream necklace &gt; Amulet of fury &gt; Third age amulet &gt; Amulet of glory
 * Ahrim's top &gt; Third age robe top &gt; Elite void knight top > Void knight top
 * Ahrim's robe &gt; Third age robe bottom &gt; Elite void knight robe > Void knight robe
 * Barrows gloves &gt; Void knight gloves
 * Infinity boots &gt; Wizard boots
 * Dragonfire shield > Anti-dragon shield
 * God cape &gt; Soul Wars cape
 * Seer's ring (i) &gt; Onyx ring (i) &gt; Dragonstone ring (i) &gt; Seers ring &gt; any other Mobilising Armies ring
 * God staves or Staff of light

One of the more effective methods is to use full void magic but replace the body with Ahrim's top, but this requires a void knight deflector be worn (which excludes the celestial surgebox and all players below 85 Herblore). Otherwise, full void magic's effect alone results in less magical accuracy than full Ahrim.

Familiars
Familiars will significantly extend the number of kills per trip, the most popular being the Bunyip and Fruit bat for their ability to heal a player's lifepoints. The elemental titans are a step up from the Bunyip and Fruit bat, negating the need to bring down a Defence booster with its active scroll ability boosting the Summoner's defence and LP. Finally, the Unicorn Stallion can help the player get up to 60 kills per trip, assuming the player receives some shark drops.

Familiars cannot be taken through the whirlpool, however a Beast of Burden can still be used to carry extra supplies using a technique which was formerly adapted until a recent update to fighting Commander Zilyana in the God Wars Dungeon. This technique entails dismissing your familiar on the dock, going through the whirlpool, dropping an amount of supplies equal to what your familiar was carrying, then using a Games Necklace to teleport to the Barbarian Outpost, retrieving the supplies dropped by your familiar, going through the whirlpool, then summoning the same Beast of Burden and retrieving the supplies you dropped on the other side of the whirlpool.

By taking 5 Bittercap mushrooms and a spade to a spot of Enchanted Soil near the Waterfiends in the western part of the Ancient Cavern, you can create a Fairy Ring to Zanaris (after A Fairy Tale Part 2). You can bring a familiar through the Fairy Ring, which allows Beasts of Burden full of food to be brought to the Mithril Dragons.

Another method of bringing a Beast of Burden in to the Ancient Caverns with a full supply of food is using the recently added Ferocious Ring which is obtained randomly when fighting creatures in Kuradal's Dungeon. The Ferocious Ring allows for teleportation close to the Dragonforge which is located on the other side of the Ancient Cavern.