Cockroach soldier

The Cockroach soldier is the fifth highest-levelled non-revenant, non-quest and non-random event monster in free-to-play, only beaten by Greater demons in the Wilderness Volcano and the Demonic Ruins, Ankous and level 85 Skeletons in the Stronghold of Security and the Wilderness Volcano, and Hellhounds also in the Wilderness Volcano.

This monster is non-aggressive to all players, making the Stronghold of Player Safety dungeon, which was released on 11 March 2008, safe to explore (which is likely the point).

They use a somewhat accurate melee attack hitting up to 80, and with an attack speed almost identical to that of a scimitar. They also use a range attack that can hit up to 110 if attacked by long-ranged magic or ranged weapons. They will not move towards you if you attack from a distance, similar to metal dragons.

Cockroaches ranged attacks are fairly inaccurate, but the max hit of the ranged attack is now higher than the max hit of the melee attack. It is important to note this as a perceived upgrade to the attack's strength and accuracy was made since its initial release, with just a maximum hit of 10 by its range attack at that time.

Compared to level 82 Lesser Demons, these monsters have higher hitpoints and defence. Nonetheless, these cockroach soldiers have much better drops for free-to-play players, and as such it is advised that a player kill them with a clan and have lootshare/coinshare on to get the drops as many player will attack them because they are in a multi-combat zone. It is also advised for members for those with 69 or less attack to use the Dragon Longsword if possible.

Since it is popular for training on, the dungeon is sometimes crowded with somewhat high-levelled players so it may be difficult to get a drop. Also, some players may find it difficult to solo-fight them unless they have a fairly high combat level (85+). However, a few weeks after its release, the popularity of these monsters dropped probably due to the increased range attack of these monsters, which may be an attempt to prevent players from ranging these monsters with high-value drops.

For members, cockroach soldiers drop charms quite often. Killing them is a good method for obtaining charms, especially Crimson charms.

Killing Cockroach soldiers can be a fairly nice way to make money as they drop rune scimitars and rune square shields. For members, they also drop Snapdragon seeds and Ranarr seeds which sell for and  coins respectively.

Location and Advantages of its Location
They are south of Edgeville, and north of the Barbarian Village. There is a fishing spot nearby where powerfishers drop salmon and trout. Take these, and cook them with the fire in Peska's helmet shop if they weren't cooked when you picked them up. Or, you can just go to the monastery on the other side of the cliff, and ask a monk to heal you for free. They heal around a quarter of your life points at a time, and you can also climb up the ladder to refresh Prayer. The Edgeville Bank is also located nearby.

Combat strategies
Cockroach soldiers appear to be weak against crush and stab attacks, but strong against slash attacks. Players should therefore use crush weapons as listed below. It is possible to range them; however, due to nonmembers being restricted to weaker Ranged equipment, ranging is not recommended. High Defence and high Ranged levels are advised because Cockroach soldiers hit often and quite hard. They have extremely high magic defence, more than a blue dragon does; thus, Magic is not advised at all. Players should max out life points without wasting food between fights.

Free players will find a rune weapon to be effective for melee fighting. The most successful weapons for nonmembers are Rune warhammers*, Rune battleaxes*, Rune scimitars, Rune longswords. Rune 2h swords* are also good weapons against them as the crush attack style is the cockroach's weakness. Rune short swords also seem to be a very effective (but are seldomly used) way of killing them due to their speed and good stab attack bonus.

Members often prefer to train in other places, such as the aviansies, Barrows or via Slayer. Torag's Hammers and Dharok's Greataxe* are not good against Cockroach soldiers, as they have a very high defence. Players who have completed Regicide can use the Dragon Halberd to fight these Cockroach Soldiers, since they're classified as large monsters, so the dragon halberd's special will hit them twice. The best weapons used to fight against these monsters at a high level (though it is not recommended at a high level) are the Saradomin Sword, Abyssal Whip, Barrelchest Anchor*, and Godswords*. When training on these, it is recommended to bring lobsters or better food.

Using full guthans is an effective method of staying healed while fighting here. A player can stay there for a very long time and earn approximately 50 crimson charms an hour. The player needs to bring a strong weapon and only use the spear to heal.

Note: Using items marked with * is not recommended as they are slow.

Note: When having a familiar fighting along side you against these monsters, they will take more damage from the cockroach's attack than you will. The melee attack's max hit is 120 on players, while it is always a ranged attack with max hit 130 on familiars, unless you are using a bunyip; in that case, the cockroach's melee attack on your familiar is 70? (A missprint from the summoning update)

Dwarf multi-cannons cannot be used in the Stronghold of Security.

Weapons and armour

 * Mithril med helm (rare)
 * 5 Rune Javelin (m)(rare)
 * Dragon spear (m)(Extremely rare)
 * Rune scimitar (rare)
 * Rune sq shield (rare)
 * Rune spearundefined(m)(very rare)

Runes

 * 1-20 Law runes (common)
 * 1-15 Death runes (common)
 * 1-60 Fire runes (rare)
 * 1-16 Blood runes (m)(rare)
 * 1-16 Chaos runes (rare)
 * 1-10 Nature runes (rare)
 * 2 Air runes (Fairly Common)

Ores

 * 3 noted Mithril ores (extremely common)
 * 1 noted Adamantite ore (common)

Uncut gems

 * 1 Sapphire (rare)
 * 1 Emerald (rare)
 * 1 Ruby (rare)
 * 1 Diamond (very rare)

Seeds (members only)

 * Avantoe Seed (rare)
 * Belladonna seed(rare)
 * Cactus seed (rare)
 * Cadantine seed (rare)
 * Dwarf weed seed (rare)
 * Irit seed (rare)
 * Jangerberry seed (rare)
 * Kwuarm seed (rare)
 * Lantadyme Seed (rare)
 * Limpwurt seed (rare)
 * Marrentill seed (rare)
 * Mushroom spore (rare)
 * Poison Ivy seed (rare)
 * Ranarr seed (very rare)
 * Snapdragon seed (extremely rare)
 * Strawberry seed (rare)
 * Tarromin seed (rare)
 * Toadflax Seed (rare)
 * Torstol seed (extremely rare)
 * Whiteberry seed (rare)
 * Watermelon seed (rare)
 * Wildblood seed (rare)
 * Harralander seed (srare)
 * Spirit weed seed(rare)

Other drops
Items marked with (m) are members only items.
 * 5, 100-400, coins (most common) 1k coins (Rare)
 * Level 2 Clue scroll (m)
 * 1-2 Mushroom (m)(rare)
 * Nature talisman (m)(rare)
 * Shield left half (m)(extremely rare)
 * Tooth half of a key (m)(very rare)
 * Loop half of a key (m)(very rare)
 * Nothing (rare)

Trivia

 * Cockroach soldiers have the second highest lifepoints of any free-to-play monster not related to random events and quests, behind the Hellhounds found in the Wilderness Volcano, yet still exceeding that of the level 92 Greater Demons. It was beaten by the high level monsters in Random events, and is still beaten by some Revenants.
 * Cockroach soldiers have one of the highest maximum hits (80 with melee, 110 with ranged) of any free-to-play non-revenant monster that is neither quest nor random event based. However, the random event monsters are currently obsolete.
 * Cockroach soldiers are one of only three free-to-play monsters to attack with two combat styles (melee and range) outside the wilderness, the others being Elvarg and Melzar the Mad. Catablepons use the Weaken spell, but only use Melee to attack.
 * Cockroach soldiers originally had a very inaccurate and weak (only 10-20 life points) ranged attack, but Jagex changed this because rangers would have an enormous advantage over melee fighters.
 * They are non-aggressive to players, making them the strongest non-aggressive monster in free-to-play.
 * Cockroach soldiers used to drop level 3 Clue Scrolls, now level 2 Clue Scrolls.
 * Cockroach soldiers and kalphite workers give the same sound affect when they die
 * The claim that any creature that drops gems drop a dragon sq. is not true. Cockroach Soldiers drop gems, but do not drop Dragon Sq. Shield parts.