Ironman Guide/Melee

Ironman Guide

Melee training involves training Attack, Strength, Defence, and Hitpoints through combat. Ironman melee training is similar to the normal training methods, with a heavy emphasis on Slayer for resources.

Early training: Quests

See also: Quest experience rewards#Attack, Quest experience rewards#Strength and Quest experience rewards#Defence

Early levels can be skipped by completing quests granting Attack, Strength, or Defence experience. Notably, Waterfall Quest has no requirements and grants enough experience for 30 Strength and 30 Attack, going straight to 22 combat level.

Waterfall Quest, Death Plateau, Fight Arena, Vampyre Slayer, Witch's House, Tree Gnome Village and The Grand Tree involve no combat, or can be safespotted and easily defeated with Magic.

Hardcore ironmen are recommended to train Hitpoints before attempting the above quests. With at least fire strike and decent Hitpoints, complete Witch's House, then continue with the other quests.

Quest	Requirements	XP	XP	XP	Enemies
Waterfall Quest	None	13,750	13,750	N/A	Evadable
Death Plateau	None	3,000	N/A	N/A	None
Vampyre Slayer	None	4,825	N/A	N/A	Level 34
Tree Gnome Village	None	11,450	N/A	N/A	Level 112, safespottable
Fight Arena	None	12,175	N/A	N/A	Levels 44, 63, 137, safespottable
The Grand Tree	25	18,400	N/A	N/A	Level 172, safespottable
Holy Grail	Merlin's Crystal, 20	N/A	N/A	15,300	Level 127, flinchable
Haunted Mine	Priest in Peril, 35	N/A	22,000	N/A	Level 95
Dragon Slayer I	32	N/A	18,650	18,650	Levels 3, 19, 22, 24, 43, 82, 83
In Aid of the Myreque	In Search of the Myreque, 25 , 15 , 7	2,000	2,000	2,000	Levels 35, 54, 50s/75

Fastest experience

Ammonite/sand crabs

Ammonite crabs on Fossil Island are the best option for early melee training. They have relatively high Hitpoints and otherwise low stats. Little to no food is required and they also drop fossils. They are aggressive for 10 minutes, making it possible to stay in combat for long periods of time without any player input. Sand crabs in Hosidius are an alternative with no requirements, but they have lower Hitpoints and are usually more crowded.

The experience rates achieved here are similar to Nightmare Zone up to level 65, as long as aggression is reset without wasting much time.

Slayer

Main article: Ironman Guide/Slayer

With decent melee stats and equipment, most melee experience should be gained through Slayer. Powerful equipment is locked behind Slayer levels for ironmen, such as the abyssal whip, dragon boots, occult necklace, and trident of the seas.

Nightmare Zone

Main article: Nightmare Zone

With base 70 melee stats, melee can also be trained in the Nightmare Zone. Using normal customisable rumble and absorption potions offers a very straightforward and the most AFK-able way of training melee stats, allowing the player to stay in combat for 20 minutes without any player input. However, Nightmare Zone dreams require a coin fee to start and there are no valuable drops.

Using the boss list from the Nightmare Zone AFK absorption method, up to 85,000 experience per hour is possible. In terms of experience per hour, the best setups are, in order: obsidian equipment with avernic defender, bandos equipment with avernic defender and finally, obsidian equipment with dragonfire shield. However, most of that gear is not ironman-friendly; expect closer to 70,000 experience per hour using mid-game ironman gear (zombie axe, dragon defender, fighter torso, etc.). Using a dwarven rock cake or locator orb can help extend trips to 6 hours to maximise absorption point efficiency, while bringing overloads can improve xp/hr at the cost of being less afk.

Sulphur Naguas

Sulphur Naguas can be fought in Neypotzli after the Perilous Moons quest. They provide some of the highest melee experience per hour in the game (140,000 experience per hour when praying Piety, or 110,000 experience per hour if not), in addition to being AFK and requiring no supplies. This is comparable to Dharoking in NMZ, but is much more accessible for Ironmen since it doesn't require special gear. Additionally, they provide around 4,000 experience per hour in Runecrafting from sulphurous essence, ~1-1.3 hard clue scrolls per hour, and chaos/death rune drops. If carrying an ectoplasmator, they also provide ~6500 Prayer experience per hour.

The best weapon to use is the dual macuahuitl, closely followed by Glacial temotli, then sulphur blades; both these weapons have two hitsplats, taking advantage of sulphur nagua's -4 flat armour. You can kill frost naguas with your best melee gear until receiving the glacial temotli as a drop.

Since you will be praying protect from melee at all times, you can significantly increase AFK times at the cost of some experience per hour by bringing prayer-boosting gear such as proselyte, a stole, holy sandals, and an Ardougne cloak. Praying Piety will significantly decrease AFK times, but will increase experience per hour. If using the dual macuahuitl, wearing the full blood moon armour set will further increase experience per hour.

Moonlight potions should be used when killing sulphur naguas, as they both restore prayer and boost melee stats. Thus, you need no supplies for this method. The eastern spot is best, as it has 5 spawns in close proximity to each other, and is less likely to be interrupted by players doing Moons of Peril. Note that sharing this spot will reduce experience per hour, and it shouldn't be hard to find an empty world.

It's common to receive multiple hard clues from sulphur naguas in one trip. They should be picked up when they spawn and dropped again, after which they will stay on the ground for one hour. It's beneficial for Ironmen to do these hard clues for the chance of receiving rewards such as blessed d'hide armour, but those wanting to maximize experience per hour can ignore hard clues. You can use a calcified moth to quickly get back to Cam Torum to ferry all your hard clues. Note that you should turn in sulphurous essence before leaving Neypotzli, as they will disappear when you leave.

Other methods

Barbarian fishing

Main article: Barbarian Training § Barbarian Fishing

Barbarian Fishing gives small amounts of passive Strength experience in addition to Fishing and Agility experience. It is recommended to get passive Strength experience from Fishing before doing melee training, as the passive Strength experience has a much bigger benefit at lower than higher levels.

Weapons

Prioritize weapons with fast attack speed over stronger weapons with slower speeds.

• All swords up to and including rune are sold by various shops.
• The rune scimitar is the recommended weapon from level 40 to 60 Attack. It is dropped by fire giants and Zamorak warriors, both of which can be safespotted with Magic.
• The dragon longsword is a decent alternative after completing Lost City but before completing Monkey Madness I.
• The dragon scimitar is the best melee weapon to use before 85 Slayer. Complete Monkey Madness I as soon as possible to unlock it.
• At 65 Attack, the zombie axe offers a good alternative to the dragon scimitar (70 smithing needed to repair the axe).
• At 65 Attack and Strength, get a dragon defender from the Warriors' Guild. Later, upgrade it to an avernic defender.
• At 85 Slayer, kill abyssal demons for an abyssal whip. It can be upgraded to an abyssal tentacle at 87 Slayer, though it degrades and eventually destroys the whip, refunding only the tentacle. Because the whip cannot train Strength, the dragon scimitar remains a choice weapon for that purpose.
• Endgame melee weapons include the blade of Saeldor from The Gauntlet, the Ghrazi rapier from the Theatre of Blood, the inquisitor's mace from the Nightmare of Ashihama, and Osmumten's Fang from the Tombs of Amascut.

Special attack weapons

• At 60 Attack, complete The Lost City to unlock the dragon dagger, which has a useful special attack.
• Arclight is the second strongest weapon against demonic creatures. Complete Shadow of the Storm for Darklight, then kill monsters in the Catacombs of Kourend for ancient shards.
• The dragon warhammer is highly sought after by ironmen for its special attack, which is used when fighting many boss monsters. Ideally, complete the hard Kourend & Kebos Diary and unlock lizardman Slayer assignments before killing lizardman shamans.
• The Bandos and Saradomin godswords are the most useful godswords.
• The leaf-bladed battleaxe is the strongest weapon that can harm turoths and kurasks.
• Dragon claws, from the Chambers of Xeric, are a very strong late game special attack weapon.
• The burning claws from Tormented Demons are a step below the dragon claws but are a good mid-late game option.
• The Zamorakian spear is the strongest spear to use against Corporeal Beast.
• The dragon hunter lance is the most powerful melee weapon against all draconic monsters.

Armour

• All armour pieces up to and including rune can be purchased from various shops.
• Completion of Dragon Slayer I is required to use the rune platebody.
• Maximise strength bonus for efficient training when fighting monsters with low defence.
  • For monsters with high defence and bossing, you will have to balance accuracy and strength bonus. Searching up a DPS calculator will allow you to determine, for example, whether an amulet of strength or glory is better for fighting a specific monster with your current stats.

Helmets

• The helm of Neitiznot is a reward from The Fremennik Isles.
• It upgrades to a Neitiznot faceguard with a basilisk jaw after The Fremennik Exiles.
• For Slayer training, obtain a black mask from cave horrors at 58 Slayer.
• Upgrade it to a slayer helm when possible, then imbue it.

Torso

• The fighter torso from Barbarian Assault minigame provides the best, earliest strength bonus.
• The obsidian platebody is a slightly weaker alternative, but requires either beating the TzHaar Fight Cave or killing many TzHaar-Ket.
• The Bandos chestplate has the same strength bonus as fighter torso, but considerably higher defensive bonus.
• A torva platebody must be fixed with 90 Smithing and bandosian components after the damaged version drops from Nex.

Legs

• With few options for Strength bonus, use the best defensive gear possible.
• Obsidian platelegs have low defence, but do give Strength bonus.
• Bandos tassets have better defence and more Strength bonus.
• Torva platelegs also require Smithing and bandosian components after getting the damaged version from Nex.

Neck

• An amulet of strength is the most efficient option early on.
• Complete the Haunted Mine quest and the Lair of Tarn Razorlor miniquest to unlock the salve amulet (e).
• After leveling Crafting, use an amulet of glory and amulet of fury.
• The the amulet of torture, crafted from zenyte shards dropped by demonic gorillas have better Strength bonus.
• The best neck slot item for melee is the amulet of rancour, upgraded variant of the amulet of torture crafted from Araxyte fang dropped by Araxxor.

Ring

• Dagannoth Rex drops berserker ring, which can be upgraded with points from Nightmare Zone, a Scroll of imbuing from Emir's Arena or Zeal Tokens from Soul Wars.
• The Ultor Ring is an upgraded version of the berserker ring, created using components dropped by Vardorvis.

Gloves

• Complete Recipe for Disaster subquests for Culinaromancer's gloves and the entire quest for Barrows gloves.

Boots

• Climbing boots are obtainable early on, after completing Death Plateau. Later, kill spiritual mages ( 83 ) for dragon boots, then kill Cerberus ( 91 ) for a primordial crystal to upgrade them into primordial boots.

Cape

• Fire cape from TzHaar Fight Cave.
• Eventually an infernal cape from the Inferno.

Other

• Barrows equipment:
  • Dharok's can be used for certain training in Nightmare Zone.
  • Torag's, Verac's and Dharok's equipment all have very high defensive bonuses, so they can be used to tank damage when fighting monsters that are too dangerous or costly to fight in Strength gear.
• Complete Slug Menace to unlock proselyte armour, which provides the highest Prayer bonus for the body and leg slots until you can take on the Fortis Colosseum for Sunfire Fanatic armour.
• Endgame armour includes Bandos armour from General Graardor, justiciar armour from the Theatre of Blood, inquisitor's armour from the Nightmare of Ashihama, and Torva armour from Nex.