Swamp tar
| |
| Release date | 9 September 2002 (Update) |
|---|---|
| Members? | Yes |
| Quest item? | No |
| Tradeable? | Yes |
| Equipable? | No |
| Stacks? | Yes |
| High Alch | 0 coins |
| Low Alch | 0 coins |
| Destroy | Drop |
| Store price | Not sold |
| Examine | A foul smelling thick tar like substance. |
| Weight | 0 kg |
This is about an item that makes swamp paste. For other uses, go to Tar (disambiguation).
Swamp tar can be found in Lumbridge Swamp and Mort Myre Swamp (just north of the swamp boat). It cannot be bought from Charter Ship employees, however you may purchase swamp paste. After starting the Lunar Diplomacy quest, you can also take swamp tar from barrels in the Lady Zay. There are four barrels on the first level down in the ship and three on the second level. A barrel contains one to twenty swamp tars. However, 2 pieces seems most common and anything above five is rare. Cave slimes, warped tortoises, and warped terrorbirds also drop swamp tar in reasonable amounts. Swamp tar can be a good money-making method for lower level players.
Dropping monsters
Monster Combat level Quantity Rarity Cave slime 23 1–6 Always Mummy 84,96,103,125 1–17 Common Warped terrorbird 81,143 10–52 Common Warped tortoise 96 1–32 Uncommon
Uses
Making money
Swamp tar can be an easy way to earn money fairly quickly. Since it stacks, you do not have to bother being close to a bank. Probably the easiest place to collect swamp tar is in the swamps outside of Lumbridge because there are many available, however you may want to move quickly if there are other players there. If you work in a circular pattern clicking the red dots on the minimap rather than waiting on respawn, you can easily collect 1k swamp tars in an hour and 40 minutes, maybe quicker if you use an explorer's ring or energy potion. They respawn every 45 seconds, and while waiting, you can collect more, as there are many more around the swamp.
It is best to kill cave slimes as they drop 1 - 6 swamp tar as a 100% drop, but they require level 17 slayer to kill, are poisonous (the poison hits 30s), and will always poison if you are within melee range (even if you kill the slime on the first attack), unless you use antipoison or equip an Anti-poison totem (they will not poison you if you safe-spot them). An alternative for higher levelled players would be to kill Warped tortoises and/or Warped terrorbirds, but this requires a crystal chime and a slayer level of 56, as well as having reached a certain point in the Path of Glouphrie quest. In addition, the tortoises have few feasible spawns and are frequently very crowded, while the terrorbirds are aggressive and use very accurate ranged attacks.
Swamp paste
When joined with flour and then heated on a fire or range, it becomes swamp paste, a sticky item used in the Shades of Mort'ton (minigame) and Fishing Trawler. It also plays a role in several quests. Note that swamp paste can be purchased far more cheaply from stores or the Grand Exchange.
Herb paste
Swamp tar is used in the Hunter skill as bait ingredient while catching salamanders. The bait ingredient requires herb paste which is made by using a pestle and mortar on a Guam, marrentill, tarromin or harralander. Using the herb paste with 15 swamp tars produces Guam tar (19 herblore, 30exp), Marrentill tar (31 herblore, 42.5exp), Tarromin tar (39 herblore, 55exp) or Harralander tar (44 herblore, 72.5exp). The herb tar making gives Herblore experience. Some make the tar to gain Herblore experience without spending any money, although there are faster, more expensive methods. These mixes of herbs and swamp tar are used as ammunition when a salamander is wielded as a weapon.
Lamp oil
Swamp tar can also be distilled into Lamp oil using either the still in the Rimmington Chemistry shop or the still at Miltog's lamp stall in the Dorgesh-Kaan marketplace. Note that a still will not load the Lamp oil into any container except an empty Oil lamp, Oil lantern, or Bullseye lantern.
Quests
Swamp tar is involved with several quests.