Abyssal whip

The abyssal whip is a powerful and fast melee weapon in RuneScape. Due to its high accuracy, attack speed, and strength, this is the weapon of choice for many players. Players must have 70 Attack to wield the whip. Released in January 2005, the abyssal whip has long been one of the most powerful weapons in RuneScape, and is considered to be a staple that has set the standard for the weapons which have been released since. The whip has the same attacking speed as any scimitar, which is one strike per 4 game ticks (about 2.4 seconds total).

Whips are dropped by abyssal demons which require level 85 Slayer to kill. A fake abyssal whip can be obtained from an abyssal minion which will turn to ash when equipped.

The whip's special attack, energy drain, uses 50% of the player's special attack energy (or 45% while a ring of vigour is equipped) and drains 25% of the target's run energy in player-versus-player combat while being a more accurate hit. For this reason, the whip's special attack is infrequently used, despite the fact that it can be useful in some PvP minigames, such as Fist of Guthix, to stop the hunted from running away. The special attack drain will not work on monsters.

While slaying certain monsters in the Jadinko Lair, players may come across a whip vine which can be attached to the abyssal whip to create an abyssal vine whip. This adds +4 to slash attack and +2 to strength bonuses, a chance to poison your opponent, and a new special attack. It requires 85 Attack and 80 Slayer to wield. The whip vine is tradeable when unattached to the abyssal whip. It is untradeable once attached, however it can be removed from the abyssal whip to be sold again.

Dropping monsters

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Colours
After the Barbarian Assault improvements update of 19 January 2010, it is possible to recolour an abyssal whip by spending 50 points from the Barbarian Assault minigame (of any type; attacker, defender, healer or collector) and can be re-painted in a purchased colour as often as the owner wants. A player can choose to paint their whip white, blue, green, or yellow. A recoloured whip is untradeable and unlendable, and has no effect on its potency in combat. A recoloured whip can be returned to its original colour by using a cleaning cloth on it. A cleaning cloth can be made by using Karamja rum on a piece of silk, bought from Tamayu in Tai Bwo Wannai village after the Tai Bwo Wannai Trio quest, or from the Grand Exchange. An update has allowed you to recolor your whip for free once that colour is unlocked.

As with the normal whip, a whip vine can be attached to coloured whips to make their respective coloured abyssal vine whips.

History
The abyssal whip was introduced to RuneScape with the Slayer skill update on 26 January 2005. The original special attack used 50% of the special attack bar and the player would either hit for their maximum damage or miss.

Later, Jagex changed the special attack to drain 10% of run energy from targets, citing that the old special attack caused an unwanted glitch. The special attack continued to use 50% special energy.
 * On 14 July 2008, with the full release of RuneScape High Detail, the whip crumpled into a ball when the player ran.
 * On 12 May 2009, the inventory image of the abyssal whip changed to [[File:Second-abyssal-whip.png]].
 * On 16 June 2009, the special attack effect was changed to drain 25% of the target's run energy due to complaints.
 * On 28 July 2009, the abyssal whip received a graphical update, in which the animation was updated and the appearance was changed to [[File:Third-abyssal-whip.png]].
 * On 17 September 2009, an extra coil of the whip below the player's hand was removed and the handle was changed to point forward. The attack sound and animation were also changed.
 * On 19 January 2010, with the Barbarian Assault improvements update it became possible to "paint" the whip either green, white, yellow, or blue using a penance egg. This would result in making the whip untradeable and unlendable when painted; when un-painted it is still lendable.
 * On 12 July 2011 the Jadinko Lair allowed a whip vine to be attached to the abyssal whip, slightly improving its stats, special attack, and adding an ability to poison.

Training
The aggressive attack style is not available while using the whip. Therefore, the only way of training the Strength skill is through the controlled style. This method grants one-third the strength experience and also gives Defence and Attack experience, making it undesirable for most pures and players wishing to level up strength quickly using a whip. Therefore, it is advised to use the whip mainly for attack or defence training.

A common replacement for the whip is the Saradomin sword which offers the same attack and strength bonuses along with an additional prayer and crush bonus, but has the option to train Strength. However, the Saradomin sword is two-handed, so it cannot be equipped with a defender, god book, or shield, and is usually more expensive than the whip. The dragon scimitar (after Monkey Madness), or Korasi's sword (after The Void Stares Back), can be used as a cheap alternative for training Strength.

Another relatively uncommon method of training strength is to use the toktz-xil-ak in with the berserker necklace which gives a strength bonus to all obsidian equipment, but has severe negative defensive bonuses.

Many have argued whether the experience per hour of the whip is greater than the godswords or not. Due to the whip's fast attack rate and fairly high offensive bonuses, it is able to generate more experience per hour than a Godsword on most monsters. Monsters with a high defence level however, will require the higher accuracy provided by the godsword, which make the godsword a better weapon to gain experience with. If one were looking for high experience rates, however, he or she would probably choose a monster with relatively low defence, therefore making the whip the more suitable option.

Market history

 * On its release on 26 January 2005, the price of a whip was at its highest ever (as high as 100 million coins; some whips were traded for Partyhats). It then began to fall as supply increased and excitement over the new item diminished.
 * In the summer of 2005 the whip was about 9 million coins, then fell to around 7 million by autumn of that year, by mid 2006 it was 5 million coins. The price continued to fall until early 2007 where it became relatively stable, it was traded for about 1.6 million to 2 million.
 * On 2 January 2008, the trade limit was introduced and whips price slowly began to decline, bottoming out at around 1.5 million in late 2008.
 * On 16 June 2009, a player-versus-player world update was introduced, removing the abyssal whip from the player-versus-player drop tables, as well as making it more likely to lose a whip in player-versus-player combat.
 * The price crashed partially as a result of the anti-'76k'ing update on 26 October 2009, and stabilized at about 3 million.
 * On 1 January 2010, whips were bought out of the Grand Exchange due to speculation caused by the release of additional whip colours. This caused their price to peak at just over 4.2 million coins on 24 January 2010. After this date the price dropped back to 3.5 million coins as of 28 January 2010, the same as before the colouring update.
 * The return of free trade and the wilderness caused whips, along with a lot of weapons, to quickly decline in price. The introduction of infernal ashes around the same time may have contributed to the price drop, as more players began killing abyssal demons to get their ashes (to sell or to train prayer), therefore more whips were obtained.
 * In the Behind the Scenes - July news post for 2011, there was mention that the whip would receive an update, which increased demand, which saw the price of the whip rise from roughly 1 million coins to over 2 million.
 * On 12 July 2011, the whip vine was officially released, causing people to attempt to make a profit by selling off any accumulated whips obtained during the speculative street-trading during the days before its announcement; unfortunately, players had expected more of the update, and the whip's price crashed.
 * As of 1 October 2011, the abyssal whip has reached a new low of 410,000 coins. The abyssal whip has never before reached this low, and continues to hover around this price.
 * On 19 October 2011 the abyssal whip reached an all time low of 360k.
 * On 22 October 2011 the abyssal whip could not be instantly bought even at 600k. With "Bot Nuking Day" coming soon the price of the whip has dramatically changed. The Grand Exchange price fluxuates around 500k, however players on the street are selling whips in the range of 800k-1m GP.

Trivia

 * Whips were originally a possible drop from player-characters on PvP worlds, but on 16 June 2009, whips were removed from the PvP drop tables. The release of the new wilderness and free trade in 2011 meant that players in PvP worlds would now drop them.
 * The abyssal whip is featured in the emote for the max cape when the player latches the whip around the monsters neck and pulls it to the ground for the killing blow.
 * When a player's aura is activated while wielding the whip, it seems like the upper part of the whip is coloured in a lightning colour sort of way. This does not matter if the whip is coloured or not.
 * Mod Mark described the Abyssal whip as the spine of an Abyssal demon.