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 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.

They use a somewhat accurate melee attack hitting up to 8, and with an attack speed almost identical to that of a scimitar. They also use a range attack that can hit up to 11 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 1 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 Scimitar if possible.

Since it is popular for training on, the dungeon is sometimes crowded with high-levelled players so it may be difficult to get a drop. Also, some players may find it difficult to solo-fight 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.

Cockroach Soldiers are also a fairly nice way to make money as compared to other conventional methods for members and free players, as cutting for Yew Logs, or mining rune essence, as they drop rune scimitars and rune square shields. For members, they also drop Snapdragon seeds and Ranarr seeds which go for and  coins respectively.

Combat Strategies
Cockroach soldiers appear to be weak against crush 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. For melee players, it is not recommended to eat during battle unless you are near death. Players should max out Hitpoints without wasting food between fights.

Free players should preferably use a rune weapon 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 seldom used) way of killing them due to their speed and good stab attack bonus.

Members should preferably use a Dragon dagger(p++) (on stab), Dragon scimitar (if you have completed Monkey Madness), Dragon longsword, Dragon battleaxe*, Dragon two-handed sword*, Saradomin sword, Zamorakian Spear, an Abyssal whip, or any one of the Godswords* for melee fighting. 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. When training on these, bring lobsters or better food.

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

Note: When having a familiar fight along side you against these monsters, they will take more damage from the cockroach's melee attack than you will. The melee attack's max hit is 8 on players while it is 12 on familiars, unless you are using a bunyip; in that case, the cockroach's melee attack on your familiar is 6.

Weapons and armour

 * Mithril med helm (common)
 * 5 Rune Javelin(m) (rare)
 * Dragon spear(m) (very rare)
 * Rune scimitar (uncommon)
 * Rune sq shield (uncommon)
 * Rune spear(m) (very rare)
 * Battlestaff(m) (rare)
 * Rune 2h sword (very rare)
 * mithril platebody (rare)

Runes

 * 1-20 Law runes (common)
 * 1-15 Death runes (common)
 * 1-75 Fire runes (common)
 * 1-16 Blood runes (m) (uncommon)

Ores

 * 3 noted Mithril ore (common)
 * 1 noted Adamantite ore (common; Less common than Mithril)

Uncut Gems

 * 1 Sapphire (common)
 * 1 Emerald (common)
 * 1 Ruby (uncommon)
 * 1 Diamond (rare)

Charms (members only)

 * 1 Crimson charm (most common)
 * 1 Gold charm (common)
 * 1 Green charm (uncommon)
 * 1 Blue charm (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 (uncommon)
 * Kwuarm seed (rare)
 * Lantadyme Seed (semi-rare)
 * Limpwurt seed (uncommon)
 * Marrentill seed (uncommon)
 * Mushroom spore (rare)
 * Poison Ivy seed (rare)
 * Ranarr seed (uncommon)
 * Snapdragon seed (very rare)
 * Strawberry seed (uncommon)
 * Tarromin seed (rare)
 * Toadflax Seed (confirmed)
 * Torstol seed (uncommon)
 * Whiteberry seed (rare)
 * Watermelon seed (uncommon)
 * Wildblood seed (rare)
 * Harralander seed (rare)
 * Spirit weed seed(rare)

Other drops

 * 1-5,530 Coins (common)(most common 200-400 coins)
 * Level 2 Clue scroll(m) (rare)
 * 1-2 Mushroom(m) (common)
 * Nature talisman(m) (rare)
 * Half of a key(m) (rare)
 * Shield left half(m) (rare)
 * Nothing (uncommon)

Trivia

 * Cockroach soldiers have the second highest hitpoints 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, and Elvarg, although Elvarg can only be fought once.
 * Cockroach soldiers have one of the highest maximum hits (8 with melee, 11 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 2 types of 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 1-2 damage) 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 F2P.
 * Cockroach soldiers used to drop Level 3 Clue Scrolls, however, this has been changed.