Strykewyrms

The humungous and deathly strykewyrms are happy to harmlessly tunnel about RuneScape, but they have trained senses that can smell a slayer from a mile off. Those who are assigned a strykewyrm task will find that they lure strykewyrms from the ground, but they may wish they hadn't; once roused, a strykewyrm will do their very best to take them down!

Three breeds of strykewyrm are known to the Slayer masters of Runescape: jungle strykewyrms (level 73 Slayer) can be found near the coast north-west of Oo'glog; desert strykewyrms (level 77 Slayer) stir the sand east of Al Kharid (over the stile by the palace); and ice strykewyrms (level 93 Slayer) churn up the ice in a cave near to where you find the Muspah (but only after you've completed the Tale of the Muspah). Ice strykewyrm assignments are unique to Kuradal . You will need to own a TzHaar fire cape to be assigned them, and you will need to wear a fire cape to inflict any damage.

As with other Slayer creatures, each strykewyrm has a rare drop, which should prove to be very useful for slayers, mages and rangers. The jungle and desert strykewyrms, respectively, drop the hexcrest and the focus sight , which give combat and Slayer bonuses for Magic and Ranged (much like the black mask already does for melee). Indeed, anyone with a slayer helmet, focus sight and hexcrest can combine them all into a full slayer helmet, which incorporates all of these items' bonuses into one slayertastic piece of headgear.

The ice strykewyrms' unique drop, the staff of light , can be used as a slayer staff, has stats roughly equivalent to a dragon weapon, causes +15% Magic damage, has a special attack that reduces any melee damage that is received by 50% for one minute AND has a 1/8 chance of not using up runes each time a damage-dealing spell is cast with it!

The rune-saving effect can be combined with a full set of combat robes (improving the chance to 1/5) or battle robes (for an impressive 1/2 chance of saving runes). Also, any time the staff does not save your runes, the robes themselves will still have their usual chance of saving you any mind, chaos, death or blood runes used by the combat spell you are casting. These robe sets can both be earned as rewards from the Fist of Guthix minigame.