Desert strykewyrm

Desert strykewyrm

Release date	8 February 2010 (Update)
Members?	Yes
Combat level	130
Life points	1200
Experience for killing	480 (160 Constitution experience)
Slayer level	Level 77
Slayer XP	120
Assigned by	Sumona, Duradel or Lapalok, Kuradal
Aggressive?	No
Poisonous?	No
Immune to poison?	No
Attack style	Melee, Magical ranged
Attack speed	AverageInterval: 3.6 seconds
Max hit	120 (approx) (Melee), 300 (Special attack), 125 (Magical ranged)
Weakness	slash, rangedslash, rangedslash, rangedslash, rangedslash, rangedslash, rangedslash, [[]]slash, ranged[[]], rangedslash, rangedslash, rangedslash, rangedSlash, Ranged
Always drops	None
Examine text	I dread to think of how many of these are in the sand.

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Desert strykewyrms are slayer monsters located east of Al Kharid, through the east gate. They may only be killed if a player is assigned to kill them by a slayer master (level 77 Slayer required). You cannot use temporary boosts, as you need to be assigned these from your master. Desert strykewyrms are an excellent source of various noted items, and the occasional Focus sight, which is needed to create a Full slayer helmet.

A wyrm initially appears as a mound on the ground; the mound may be still or be moving about. Before battle can be initiated with the wyrm, a player must investigate the mound by clicking on it. This causes the player's character to perform the Stomp emote, after which the wyrm bursts out of the ground. When the wyrm appears, the player should immediately click on it to initiate combat as otherwise a small amount of time will be wasted before combat begins.

If the player is not currently assigned a desert strykewyrm task, investigating the mound still causes the player's character to perform the stomp emote, but the wyrm does not burst forth. Instead, the character will then perform the Think emote.

Attacks

File:Desert strykewyrm Range.png

The desert strykewyrm's magical range attack.

File:Desert strykewyrm map location.png

The location of desert strykewyrms.

The desert strykewyrm's standard attacks are melee and magical ranged. The wyrm will usually use melee and only occasionally use magical range when the player is not within melee range. This attack however, rarely hits and even if it hits, it usually does not hit over 100.

The desert strykewyrm also has a special attack which consists of it burrowing under the ground, moving toward the player fighting it, and then bursting out of the ground dealing 300 damage. Running over the strykewyrm right as it bursts out of the ground will hit the player twice with its special attack, dealing a total of 600 damage.

The special attack may be avoided by running 2-3 squares away from where the player was standing when the wyrm starts to burrow. Timing is important; hesitating a moment when the wyrm burrows could cause the wyrm's special attack to hit. Many players run directly away from the wyrm when it burrows, but depending on your reaction time, this might not be a good idea, so running to the sides is a good idea for those with laggy computers or if they are too slow to react to the attack.

Tips

As of the 1 November 2011 update, the desert strykewyrm area is no longer affected by the desert heat effect, so waterskins or an enchanted water tiara are not required. However, there is a small area around the edges of the plateau, marked by slightly lighter-coloured sand, where the desert effect still occurs.

When running away from the special attack, it is best to click on the ground itself instead of the minimap, as the player can react to the tactical situation in the area. A player should not click on another mound when trying to get away, as the player will run up to (not onto) the mound and stop, which might leave the player too close to the surfacing wyrm.

Desert strykewyrms have a high amount of health for their level, but have low defence, making it quite easy with powerful weapons to cause a large amount of damage. Soul split heals greatly when used on them.

The wyrm's special attack can be disabled by standing near any kind of obstacle. There are several cactuses and bushes around their area, but they are relatively spread out and few in number. If choosing to range them, wear armour with a high magical defence, because their ranged attack is Magical ranged. Alternatively, players could wear armour with a high prayer bonus and pray Protect from Missiles.

This special attack occurs on average once every 15-20 attacks. Depending upon how fast the player can kill a desert strykewyrm, the special attack may or may not occur with each wyrm battle, but one special attack per 2 or 3 wyrms is very likely. The special attack of the Enhanced Excalibur is very useful for healing in the occasional event that players are unable to dodge the special attack.

In a recent update, Jagex changed the special attacks of strykewyrms so that they only cause damage to the player attacking them. Previously, if any players ran across a strykewyrm in the middle of its burrowing attack, they would be damaged when the strykewyrm surfaced.

For players who have difficulty moving out of the way in time, it is advised to range Strykewyrms from a distance. Range them at the maximum distance of your crossbow/shortbow/longbow as they will slowly advance towards you occasionaly.

Drops

Runes and Talismans

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Death rune	15	3 Uncommon	2,775
	Water rune	2–100	3 Uncommon	14–700
	Law rune	15	3 Uncommon	2,235
	Air talisman	1	3 Uncommon	81
	Earth talisman	1	3 Uncommon	826
	Body talisman	1	4 Rare	251
	Mind talisman	1	4 Rare	84
	Cosmic talisman	1	4 Rare	160
	Fire talisman	1	4 Rare	1,938

Weapons and armour

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Mithril battleaxe	1	3 Uncommon	854
	Rune hatchet	1	3 Uncommon	7,607
	Focus sight	1	5 Very rare <ref>Estimated at 1/484 using gathered Adventurer's Log data as of 18 September 2012.</ref>	151,032

Seeds

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Cadantine seed	1	2 Common	997
	Avantoe seed	1	3 Uncommon	1,306
	Kwuarm seed	1	3 Uncommon	1,042
	Toadflax seed	1	3 Uncommon	989
	Irit seed	1	3 Uncommon	100
	Watermelon seed	1	3 Uncommon	1,861
	Poison ivy seed	1	3 Uncommon	31
	Belladonna seed	1	3 Uncommon	29
	Cactus seed	1	3 Uncommon	20
	Lantadyme seed	1	3 Uncommon	28,328
	Dwarf weed seed	1	4 Rare	43,732
	Maple seed	1	5 Very rare	32,087
	Snapdragon seed	1	5 Very rare	26,078
	Torstol seed	1	5 Very rare	274,040

Herbs

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Grimy guam	1–4	2 Common	521–2,084
	Grimy marrentill	1–4	3 Uncommon	41–164
	Grimy lantadyme	1–4	3 Uncommon	6,002–24,008
	Grimy avantoe	1–4	3 Uncommon	2,877–11,508
	Grimy cadantine	1–4	3 Uncommon	1,336–5,344
	Grimy dwarf weed	1–4	3 Uncommon	7,525–30,100
	Grimy harralander	1–4	3 Uncommon	385–1,540
	Grimy toadflax	1–4	3 Uncommon	2,724–10,896
	Grimy irit	1–4	3 Uncommon	1,496–5,984
	Grimy kwuarm	1–4	3 Uncommon	2,902–11,608
	Grimy ranarr	1–4	3 Uncommon	3,508–14,032
	Grimy tarromin	1–4	3 Uncommon	56–224

Other drops

Note: Can occasionally drop two drops at once.

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE Market Price
	Coins	200, 240, 286, 346, 400, 440, 1201–4500	2 Common	Not sold
	Waterskin (4)	2	2 Common	450
	Super defence (2)	1	2 Common	51
	Potato cactus	5–10 (noted)	2 Common	4,995–9,990
	Yew logs	10 (noted)	2 Common	4,940
	Pure essence	120 (noted)	2 Common	12,840
	Swordfish	2	3 Uncommon	598
	Adamant bar	3 (noted)	3 Uncommon	6,525
	Anagogic ort	20	3 Uncommon <ref>Only with seeds or RDT drops.</ref>	Not sold
	Clue scroll (Hard)	1	4 Rare	Not sold
	Court summons	1	4 Rare	Not sold
	Spin ticket	1	4 Rare	Not sold
	Starved ancient effigy	1	5 Very rare	Not sold
	Clue scroll (elite)	1	5 Very rare	Not sold

<references/>

Rare drop table drops

This monster drops items from the rare drop table.
The ring of wealth improves the chances if equipped but is not required to access the table.

	Show/hide rare drop table
Item Quantity Rarity GE Market Price Coins 250; 381; 450; 3,000; 9,000; 12,000 2 Common Not sold Uncut sapphire 1 2 Common 810 Uncut emerald 1 2 Common 1,295 Uncut ruby 1 2 Common 2,613 Loop half of a key 1 3 Uncommon 9,402 Tooth half of a key 1 3 Uncommon 12,758 Uncut diamond 1 3 Uncommon 9,520 Uncut dragonstone 1 4 Rare 13,572 Dragonstone 1 4 Rare 10,393 Dragon dagger 1 2 Common 17,356 Rune javelin 5 4 Rare 1,285 Adamant javelin 20 5 Very rare 800 Rune spear 1 5 Very rare 12,130 Dragon spear 1 5 Very rare 40,021 Dragon dagger 50 (noted) 5 Very rare 867,800 Rune kiteshield 1 5 Very rare 34,977 Shield left half 1 5 Very rare 65,553 Dragon helm 1 5 Very rare 60,107 Adamant bolts 200 3 Uncommon 31,600 Rune arrow 150–200, 500 4 Rare 28,500–95,000 Onyx bolts 150 4 Rare 1,315,350 Battlestaff 200 (noted) 4 Rare 1,612,200 Air orb 1000 (noted) 4 Rare 1,216,000 Fire orb 1000 (noted) 4 Rare 1,406,000 Vecna skull 1 5 Very rare 457,724 Water talisman 1 3 Uncommon 4,485 Earth talisman 25–35 (noted) 3 Uncommon 20,650–28,910 Fire talisman 25–35 (noted) 3 Uncommon 48,450–67,830 Chaos talisman 1 3 Uncommon 137 Nature talisman 1 3 Uncommon 165 Pure essence 500–15000 (noted) 3 Uncommon 53,500–1,605,000 Template:ExchangeItemNat Nature rune 47–77 4 Rare – Soul rune 20 4 Rare 6,360 Death rune 50, 121 4 Rare 9,250–22,385 Blood rune 50 4 Rare 9,750 Raw swordfish 125 – 250, 1000 (noted) 3 Uncommon 37,875–303,000 Raw shark 250–500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 129,750–259,500 Big bones 150 – 500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 52,650–175,500 Coal 150–7500 (noted) 3 Uncommon 39,450–1,972,500 Adamantite ore 150–800 (noted) 3 Uncommon 248,250–1,324,000 Silver ore 100 (noted) 4 Rare 9,200 Adamant bar 1000–7000 (noted) 4 Rare 2,175,000–15,225,000 Runite ore 100 (noted) 4 Rare 1,067,100 Rune bar 1,50,150 (noted) 4 Rare 13,029–1,954,350 Clean ranarr 33 (noted) 3 Uncommon 115,665 Clean toadflax 25–250 (noted) 3 Uncommon 69,100–691,000 Clean snapdragon 30–120 (noted) 3 Uncommon 168,210–672,840 Clean torstol 10–100 (noted) 3 Uncommon 277,960–2,779,600 Saradomin brew (4) 250 (noted) 5 Very rare 854,750 Watermelon seed 3 3 Uncommon 5,583 Yew seed 1–50 4 Rare 84,903–4,245,150 Magic seed 1–6 4 Rare 294,483–1,766,898 Palm tree seed 10 4 Rare 1,219,220 Snapdragon seed 1 4 Rare 26,078 Torstol seed 1–31 4 Rare 274,040–8,495,240 Fellstalk seed 2 4 Rare 2,052 Yew logs 100–20000 (noted) 4 Rare 49,400–9,880,000

Trivia

• Using the stomp emote to attract the Strykewyrm is possibly a reference to the sandworms (Shai'Hulud) from Frank Herbert's Dune novel series, which share some common characteristics.
• As with all other strykewyrms, Desert Strykewyrms can attack diagonally with melee. This is not a glitch.
• Desert Strykewyrms could be based off the monsters Graboids from the movie Tremors, in which gigantic worm-like beings travel underground in the Nevada desert in search of people to eat, or more likely, the sandworms from the classic sci-fi novel Dune.
• The release of strykewyrms was hinted at by the Twitter hint, "Three strykes and they're out" and the Chaos Elemental hint in the Postbag From the Hedge a few weeks earlier.
• Desert strykewyrms, along with the rest of the strykewyrms, were the first monsters in RuneScape that made use of Particle Effects.
• If a Dragon dagger special is launched and only one hitsplat appears and the wyrm burrows underground, the second hitsplat will appear after the wyrm bursts out of the ground. The same happens with the Dragon claws special.
• In October 2010, a graphical glitch caused Desert strykewyrms and other strykewyrms to get a stripy, wood-like texture on their armour. This was fixed as of 2 November 2010, although it had reappeared. The glitch was fully fixed on 26 July 2011.
• In the lead up to the release of Strykewyrms, the encrypted message from the Chaos Elemental in Postbag from the Hedge contained the phrase 'from beneath you, it devours' - this possibly relates simultaneously to the burrowing nature of the Strykewyrms and also that they were slayer-related content. 'From beneath you, it devours' is a recurring phrase in season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• If a player runs behind an obstacle just as a strykewyrm burrows into the ground, the strykewyrm will disappear. Although it will seem to respawn normally, it will leave no drops. This will not count towards a kill, and it has not been fixed yet.
• Standing next or on your own Dwarf Multicannon prevents wyrms from using their special attack. This is probably a glitch.