Ironman Guide/Melee

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 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.

Gemstone Crab in the Tlati Rainforest is currently the best option for early melee training. They have no defensive stats and effectively infinite Hitpoints, allowing for continuous combat without downtime. While players earn slightly less experience per hit (87.5% of the usual rate), the overall experience rates are higher than other crabs due to uninterrupted attacking and no wasted damage from overkill.

The only requirement to fight gemstone crabs is the completion of Children of the Sun to access Varlamore. The crab appears at one of three mines and remains stationary for exactly 10 minutes before relocating. Players can seamlessly follow it by entering any of the nearby caves, all of which lead to its new location. Up to 16 players can benefit from each cycle, making it ideal for group training.

Ammonite Crab on Fossil Island are still a strong alternative. They have high Hitpoints, low combat stats, and are aggressive for 10 minutes. They require little to no food and drop Numulite, but experience rates are slightly lower due to downtime and potential overkill.

Sand Crab in Hosidius are a no-requirement option, but they have lower Hitpoints and are often crowded, making them less efficient for training.

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.

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, however 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 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; 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.

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.

After completion of Sins of the Father, Vyrewatch Sentinel can be killed in Darkmeyer with the Blisterwood flail. They can be unlocked as a slayer task if desired, but offer an AFK method to train melee stats that rewards vampyre dust for Hallowed Sepulchre, Rune and Adamant equipment to alchemise, spare runes, and the rare chance at a blood shard which can be useful for difficult PVM activities, such as Raids and Fortis Colosseum. You can earn up to 54,000 combat XP per hour, 130,000 per hour from alchs, and a small amount of banked Prayer XP per hour, as each vampyre dust can be used for 100-200 Prayer XP if used in the Hallowed Sepulchre.

Prioritise 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 and Ranged.
• The dragon longsword is a decent alternative after completing Lost City but before completing Monkey Madness I.
• The dragon scimitar is one of the best melee weapons to use before 85 Slayer. Complete Monkey Madness I as soon as possible to unlock it.
• At 65 Attack and Strength, get a dragon defender from the Warriors' Guild. Later, it can be upgraded to an avernic defender.
• The leaf-bladed battleaxe is the strongest weapon that can harm turoths and kurasks.
• At 65 Attack and 70 Smithing, the zombie axe is a potential upgrade to the dragon scimitar against certain monsters, especially those weak to crush
• At 65 Attack, 70 Smithing and requiring completion of Troubled Tortugans (51 Slayer), Belle's folly is a stab alternative to the zombie axe
• At 70 Attack and 75 Strength, the dual macuahuitl is a potentially stronger option prior to a whip or Zamorakian hasta; especially if used with the Blood moon armour.
• 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 or dual macuahuitl remain choice weapons for that purpose.
• The Zamorakian hasta offers a stab and crush alternative to the abyssal whip, if killing K'ril Tsutsaroth is possible.
• The noxious halberd is the strongest melee weapon to use against the Corporeal Beast.
• The dragon hunter lance is the strongest melee weapon against most draconic monsters.
• Endgame melee weapons include the blade of Saeldor from The Gauntlet, the Ghrazi rapier and the Scythe of Vitur from the Theatre of Blood, the Inquisitor's mace from the Nightmare of Ashihama, Osmumten's Fang from the Tombs of Amascut, and the Soulreaper axe from The Forgotten Four.

• At 60 Attack, complete The Lost City to unlock the dragon dagger, which has a useful special attack for dealing damage.
• Arclight is the second strongest weapon against demonic creatures, and has a special attack that can reduce a monster's stats. 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 to drain their Defence. Ideally, complete the hard Kourend & Kebos Diary and unlock lizardman Slayer assignments before killing lizardman shamans.
• The Bandos godsword's damage lowers a monster's stats, starting with Defence.
• The Saradomin godsword's damage heals hitpoints and prayer points.
• Dragon claws, from the Chambers of Xeric, are a very strong late game special attack weapon.
• The burning claws from Tormented Demons are competitive with the dragon claws, generally being stronger against stab-weak or demonic monsters, but only slightly worse than the dragon claws otherwise.
• The voidwaker has the most consistent melee special attack, as it skips the accuracy check and hits hard, making it average out to the best option at many bosses.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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. The Blood moon chestplate is a decent alternative, but has less Melee and Ranged defensive bonus and no prayer bonus.
• A torva platebody must be fixed with 90 Smithing and bandosian components after the damaged version drops from Nex.
• Mixed hide top provides +2 str bonus

• 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.

• 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 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.

• 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.

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

• 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.

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

• 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.

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Ultimate Ironman guides	Item management Equipment Quests Minigames Money making Melee Ranged Magic Defence Prayer Hitpoints Crafting Mining Smithing Fishing Cooking Firemaking Woodcutting Runecraft Agility Herblore Thieving Fletching Slayer Farming Construction Hunter Sailing
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