Zalcano

Monster
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ArmouredWeakened
Zalcano
Released25 July 2019 (Update)
MembersYes
Combat level336
Size5x5
ExamineA former demon of Zamorak that has been turned to stone.
Combat info
Max hit53
AggressiveYes
PoisonousNo
Attack styleVarious
Attack speed5 ticks (3.0 seconds)
Respawn time37 ticks (22.2 seconds)
Combat stats
30011111
Aggressive stats
Monster attack bonusMonster strength bonusMonster magic strength bonusMonster ranged strength bonus
+0+0+0+0+0+0
Melee defence
+0+0+0
Magic defence
No elemental weakness
+0No elemental weakness
Ranged defence
LightStandardHeavy
+0+0+0
Immunities
Poison100% resistance
Venom100% resistance
Advanced data
Monster ID9049
LinkMOID

Zalcano is a demon imprisoned beneath Prifddinas that is fought using skilling rather than conventional combat. Being immune to traditional combat damage, players must use their Mining, Smithing, and Runecraft skills to create imbued tephra capable of destroying her stone armour. Once her armour has been destroyed, they must damage her by mining her with a pickaxe.

Zalcano's prison can be accessed from Prifddinas' Trahaearn district via a teleport plaform just west of the south-eastern bank. As Prifddinas requires completion of Song of the Elves to access, Zalcano requires a minimum of 70 Mining and Smithing to be fought, though higher levels in Mining, Smithing, and Runecraft will be advantageous, as well as higher Hitpoints to withstand her various attacks. All of Zalcano's attacks are typeless, meaning that protection prayers cannot be used to reduce their chance of taking damage or the damage itself.

Ironmen are eligible for rewards from Zalcano when defeating it alongside other players.

History

Zalcano is a demon and Skotizo's sister, who both held the rank of general in Zamorak's armies. During the God Wars, when Zamorak personally sent Skotizo and his squad to recover an artefact in the Karamjan Temple, Skotizo eagerly took the mission only to betray his squad and take the artefact for himself, escaping to a certain continent far west. Zamorak held Zalcano personally responsible for her brother's treachery, and cursed her to slowly turn to stone, which would only be lifted if she brought her brother back to him.

Believing that Skotizo had fled to the elven lands of Tirannwn, Zalcano made her way there. The elves initially believed she was the first of many demons to attack their city, but to their surprise, she was the only one and roamed the forests as if she was looking for something. Amlodd mystics soon learned a curse was slowly turning her to stone, and this prompted the Trahaearn Clan to capture her for study. The Ithell and Trahaearn Clans worked together to create a prison in the volcanic caverns to keep her in the city, and successfully captured her, albeit with many casualties.

Zalcano, imprisoned beneath the crystal city.

Following her capture, the curse accelerated, with an elf believing it to be the result of Zamorak already knowing she had failed her mission. With the help of Amlodd magic and Meilyr potions, the elves learned why she came to Tirannwn.

Though she had appeared to have slowly descended into madness, the elves dared not to release her as they had lost many of their brethren luring her inside and did not want her power to grow unchecked. The aforementioned elf returned many years later to personally see the demon they were studying, and was surprised when she talked, simply muttering the name "Skotizo".

Today, she remains in Prifddinas, and the Trahaearn elves who study her often require aid in keeping her in check.[1]

Official worlds

The following official worlds are assigned to Zalcano:

World Location Members Activity
375 Germany 1
Zalcano
378 United States (west) 1
Zalcano

Attacks

While the player is inside the prison, Zalcano has six different attacks that the player must watch out for as they attempt to take on the stone demon. Each of the attacks are performed at random intervals throughout the fight.

  • Zalcano will stomp on the ground, causing boulders to fall from the ceiling. These are easily avoided by stepping at least one tile away. Boulders can be easily spotted by watching out for the falling pebbles/dirt, which will be followed by the falling boulder. It is also easy to know which tile they are falling onto by the location of their shadow on the ground. When demonic symbols are summoned, they may obscure the shadow, making the attack more difficult to notice. Players who are hit by these can take 40+ damage.
Throwing imbued tephra while standing under a blue demonic symbol will increase the player's accuracy and damage.
Two players mine Zalcano after breaking her stone armour.
  • Zalcano will summon blue and orange demonic symbols. If a player is standing on a blue demonic symbol when attacking Zalcano with imbued tephra, it will increase the player's damage by 50%. The orange demonic symbols, however, should be avoided: These will damage the player as well as reduce their run energy if they pass through it or stand in it. After the first three ticks upon spawning, they deal increasing damage every tick (maxing in the low 20s) if a player stands within them and can very quickly kill players that are not paying attention.
  • Zalcano will summon a golem on the edge of the prison. If the golem reaches her, it will restore her armour's health based on the health of the golem. If the golem is at full health, it will restore 50 hitpoints towards her armour. It is possible for a player to hurt the golem with the imbued tephra. The golem will also drop 16-24 imbued tephra when killed.
  • Zalcano will fire a red ball of energy at the current glowing red rock formation to deactivate it, changing its location. If a player is standing within 1 tile of the rock formation when this happens, they will take 21+ damage. These can be avoided by walking away from the rock.
  • After Zalcano has fallen and players have caused her damage, she will rise again. If any players are standing next to her while this occurs, she will create a shock wave that pushes them back, causing the player small amounts of damage and briefly stunning them. Additionally, when she rises she will destroy all of the imbued tephra in the room.
  • Zalcano will randomly hit all players within the prison with a barrage of small pebbles. These are not avoidable, but players will only take a few hitpoints worth of damage.

Players will also get damaged if they stand under Zalcano when she has fallen. Damage rate is much less than an orange symbol, dealing around 3-10 damage per tick, and the danger persists until Zalcano begins to rise again.

Max Hit Calculation

Attacking Zalcano

When attacking Zalcano by throwing imbued tephra at her shield, the max hit can be calculated by the following formula.[2]

Moreover, there is a chance to add an additional point to the maximum hit that increases as the player's average approaches the next threshold of seven levels.[3] The maximum hit will be increased 50% further if the player stands on a blue demonic sigil while throwing the tephra.[4]

Mining Zalcano

When attacking Zalcano with a pickaxe the max hit is calculated from the following table based on mining level plus where is the level requirement for the pickaxe being used.[5]

Mining Level Max Hit
95–99 33
85–94 32
75–84 31
1–74 30
Bonus damage from pickaxe
Pickaxe Mining Bonus
Rune pickaxe 41 +0
Dragon pickaxe 61 +1
Crystal pickaxe 71 +2

Regardless of the amount of damage done, the same amount of Mining experience is awarded per hit.

Zalcano
Level requiredMining 1
Mining XP[i 1]35.2 xp
Required toolAny pickaxe
Respawn timeN/A
  1. ^ Has no direct level requirement, but requires completion of Song of the Elves (Mining 70 ) to access.

Location

The location of the teleport platform to Zalcano's lair
Location Levels Members Spawns Map League region
Volcanic caverns beneath Prifddinas336Members1Show mapTirannwn Tirannwn✓

The fastest route to travel to Zalcano is by using a teleport crystal or its eternal counterpart. Other ways include using a spirit tree to Prifddinas or a teleport to house with your house location in Prifddinas or a scroll of redirection on a tablet.

Money making

The following money making guides are available for Zalcano:

MethodHourly profitSkills
Killing Zalcano2,307,260
Killing Zalcano (Experience)1,984,225
  • Mining 70+
  • All Song of the Elves' quest requirements
  • Drops

    Players must do at least 5 damage to Zalcano's shield to be eligible for drops, and 31 combined damage to be eligible for uniques and pet.

    Drops from the main table and from the tertiary table scale with the player's points from the kill. The points are calculated as shown in the formula below. For the tertiary table, the damage to hitpoints and shield are capped to a max of 400 and 300 respectively, for a maximum of 1,000 points.[6]

    Where is points towards main table, is points towards tertiary table, is damage to hitpoints and is damage to shield.

    The MVP, the player who deals the most damage to Zalcano, will also receive an additional 10% (rounded up) of their non-unique loot.

    Players can speak to Rhiannon to switch between receiving item drops or Mining experience. Experience scales with contribution to approximately and is affected by the experience bonus of the Prospector kit. This does not affect the guaranteed drops or the unique drop table, which is always rolled regardless of choosing items or experience.

    Drop rates are estimated based on 655,595 samples from the Drop Rate Project, unless otherwise cited.

    Remark: Because the crowd sourced data does not contain many solo kills, it may be possible to receive slightly larger quantities than displayed if soloing.

    The average Zalcano kill is worth 218,082.83.

    100%

    Infernal ashes are only dropped for the MVP. Players eligible for a drop will receive one crystal shard, players eligible for unique drops or pet will receive two shards and the MVP will receive three shards.[7]

    Item Quantity Rarity Price High Alch
    Crystal shard.png: Zalcano drops Crystal shard with rarity Always in quantity 1-3Crystal shard1–3AlwaysNot soldN/A
    Infernal ashes.png: Zalcano drops Infernal ashes with rarity Always in quantity 1Infernal ashes1Always3,3221

    Runes

    Item Quantity Rarity Price High Alch
    Blood rune.png: Zalcano drops Blood rune with rarity 1/36 in quantity 64-480Blood rune64–4801/3623,936–179,52015,360–115,200
    Cosmic rune.png: Zalcano drops Cosmic rune with rarity 1/36 in quantity 295-926Cosmic rune295–9261/3636,580–114,8248,850–27,780
    Death rune.png: Zalcano drops Death rune with rarity 1/36 in quantity 201-832Death rune201–8321/3637,185–153,92021,708–89,856
    Law rune.png: Zalcano drops Law rune with rarity 1/36 in quantity 166-790Law rune166–7901/3620,418–97,17023,904–113,760
    Soul rune.png: Zalcano drops Soul rune with rarity 1/36 in quantity 47-392Soul rune47–3921/3617,860–148,9608,460–70,560
    Nature rune.png: Zalcano drops Nature rune with rarity 1/36 in quantity 1-937Nature rune1–9371/36171–160,227108–101,196

    Materials

    Item Quantity Rarity Price High Alch
    Silver ore.png: Zalcano drops Silver ore with rarity 3/36 in quantity 86-800 (noted)Silver ore86–800 (noted)3/365,332–49,6003,870–36,000
    Coal.png: Zalcano drops Coal with rarity 1/36 in quantity 169-938 (noted)Coal169–938 (noted)1/3624,674–136,9484,563–25,326
    Mithril ore.png: Zalcano drops Mithril ore with rarity 2/36 in quantity 56-469 (noted)Mithril ore56–469 (noted)2/368,456–70,8195,432–45,493
    Adamantite ore.png: Zalcano drops Adamantite ore with rarity 2/36 in quantity 51-343 (noted)Adamantite ore51–343 (noted)2/3627,540–185,22012,240–82,320
    Runite ore.png: Zalcano drops Runite ore with rarity 2/36 in quantity 3-31 (noted)Runite ore3–31 (noted)2/3630,675–316,9755,760–59,520
    Gold ore.png: Zalcano drops Gold ore with rarity 3/36 in quantity 86-756 (noted)Gold ore86–756 (noted)3/3612,384–108,8647,740–68,040
    Steel bar.png: Zalcano drops Steel bar with rarity 3/36 in quantity 16-699 (noted)Steel bar16–699 (noted)3/368,944–390,741960–41,940
    Mithril bar.png: Zalcano drops Mithril bar with rarity 3/36 in quantity 53-501 (noted)Mithril bar53–501 (noted)3/3650,827–480,4599,540–90,180
    Adamantite bar.png: Zalcano drops Adamantite bar with rarity 2/36 in quantity 13-111 (noted)Adamantite bar13–111 (noted)2/3624,063–205,4614,992–42,624
    Runite bar.png: Zalcano drops Runite bar with rarity 2/36 in quantity 3-27 (noted)Runite bar3–27 (noted)2/3636,795–331,1559,000–81,000
    Uncut diamond.png: Zalcano drops Uncut diamond with rarity 2/36 in quantity 2-21 (noted)Uncut diamond2–21 (noted)2/364,878–51,219240–2,520
    Uncut dragonstone.png: Zalcano drops Uncut dragonstone with rarity 2/36 in quantity 1-12 (noted)Uncut dragonstone1–12 (noted)2/3614,976–179,712600–7,200
    Onyx bolt tips.png: Zalcano drops Onyx bolt tips with rarity 2/36 in quantity 1-45Onyx bolt tips1–452/368,078–363,510600–27,000
    Pure essence.png: Zalcano drops Pure essence with rarity 1/36 in quantity 784-5500 (noted)Pure essence784–5,500 (noted)1/361,568–11,0001,568–11,000

    Tertiary

    Every Zalcano kill always has a 1/200 chance of rolling the crystal tool seed table,[8] which includes a 1/40 chance for uncut onyx. If no onyx is dropped, a tool seed will be dropped.[9] Of the players participating in the kill, the players with more points have a higher chance of receiving the drop. The Zalcano shard and Smolcano are rolled independently per player. The chance of rolling Smolcano is unaffected by performance.

    Item Quantity Rarity Price High Alch
    Crystal tool seed.png: Zalcano drops Crystal tool seed with rarity 39/8,000 in quantity 1Crystal tool seed139/8,00020,582,252300,000
    Zalcano shard.png: Zalcano drops Zalcano shard with rarity 1/750 in quantity 1Zalcano shard11/750–1/1,500[10]90,190960
    Smolcano.png: Zalcano drops Smolcano with rarity 1/2,250 in quantity 1Smolcano11/2,250[11]Not soldN/A
    Uncut onyx.png: Zalcano drops Uncut onyx with rarity 1/8,000 in quantity 1Uncut onyx11/8,0002,696,977120,000

    Combat Achievements

    There are 4 Combat Achievement tasks (totalling 16 points) available for Zalcano.

    NameDescriptionTypeTierComp%
    Team PlayerReceive imbued tephra from a golem.Mechanical Elite (4 pts)16.9%
    The Spurned HeroKill Zalcano as the player who has dealt the most damage to her.Mechanical Elite (4 pts)19.2%
    Perfect ZalcanoKill Zalcano 5 times in a row without leaving or getting hit by the following: Falling rocks, rock explosions, Zalcano powering up, or standing in a red symbol.Perfection Elite (4 pts)11.9%
    Zalcano VeteranKill Zalcano 25 times.Kill Count Elite (4 pts)18.8%

    Changes

    Date Changes
    23 May 2024
    (Update)
    Hotfix
    • The minimum contribution required for loot eligibility at Zalcano has been increased.
    • All players must now deal some ‘armour’ damage to Zalcano to be eligible for drops.
    8 May 2024
    (Update)
    • Players can talk to Rhiannon to toggle between resource and experience rewards.
      • Toggling resource rewards off still rolls for unique and pet rewards.
    • The forced amount of downs has been removed from Zalcano.
    • Players can no longer boost another player's unique drop rates by leaving the fight early.
    23 June 2021
    (Update | poll)

    Zalcano now drops infernal ashes in place of regular ashes.

    21 May 2020
    (Update)

    Smolcano now has a static 1/2,250 drop rate for any eligible players instead of 1/1,500 to 1/2,775 that scaled to player performance.

    27 February 2020
    (Update)

    Damage dealt with imbued tephra now scales to the player's Smithing and Runecraft levels.

    20 February 2020
    (Update)
    • The Zalcano drop table has been updated again. The chance of landing on the crystal tool seed table is now 1/200 with a 1/8000 chance of getting an uncut onyx. The Zalcano shard has been removed from this table and will now be rolled as a tertiary drop (like pets). The amount of mithril, gold and silver ore received as drops has also been reduced.
    13 February 2020
    (Update)
    • The MVP now no longer receives a second roll on the standard loot table, but instead gets 10% extra non-unique loot.
    • Every kill will now trigger a 1/500 roll which, if it passes, will add a unique to the drop table. A separate roll will then be made to decide which unique that will be. Finally, the unique is given to an eligible player, the likelihood of which is determined upon each player's participation. This does not apply to Smolcano, the pet drop.
    • The non-unique drop table for Zalcano has been rebalanced to include less valuable items.
    8 August 2019
    (Update)
    • Zalcano's symbols now take slightly longer before dealing damage.
    • The damage taken when standing beneath Zalcano after she's been knocked down has been reduced.
    • The quick-pass option on Zalcano's prison barrier has been removed, as it served a limited purpose.
    • The falling rocks during the Zalcano encounter now deal damage when hitting the floor rather than the player to be consistent with other similar mechanics.
    • Zalcano now takes a consistent amount of time to destroy the glowing rock.
    • Zalcano's death animation has been extended to prevent her from reappearing for a brief moment.
    • The drops from the golem will now only be given to the player who deals the most damage.
    1 August 2019
    (Update)
    • Players who contribute a fair amount now receive a drop on Zalcano's better loot table, with the quantities of items being received scaling based on individual contribution.
    • Everybody above a certain threshold of contributing will have a chance of receiving any of the unique drops, including the pet, with the chance scaling based on individual contribution.
    • The MVP still receives Zalcano's additional drop, but from a "lesser" drop table
    • Tick manipulation can no longer be used to mine the tephra and Zalcano much faster.

    Trivia

    • In Leagues, it is possible to fight Zalcano without the Mining or Smithing requirement, because Song of the Elves is automatically completed.

    References

    1. ^ "The spurned demon". Old School RuneScape.
    2. ^
    3. ^
    4. ^
    5. ^
    6. ^
    7. ^
    8. ^
    9. ^ Jagex. Mod Lykos on Discord. 7 March 2025. Archived from the original on 7 March 2026. Mod Lykos: "there is a 1/200 chance that a unique item will be dropped, then that's 39/40 a seed and 1/40 an onyx"
    10. ^
    11. ^ "Vanguard Improvements". Old School RuneScape News. Jagex. 21 May 2020. Archived from the original. "Players who have contributed enough to the Zalcano fight will now have a static 1/2,250 chance at the Smolcano pet."

    Source

    Content from the Old School RuneScape Wiki (operated by Weird Gloop), licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

    Source siteOld School RuneScape Wiki
    Canonical sourceZalcano
    Content licenseCC BY-NC-SA 3.0
    License statusdeclared
    PictureZalcano · file details

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