Fungal mage
| Release date | 28 November 2011 (Update) |
|---|---|
| Members? | Yes |
| Combat level | 120 |
| Life points | 1200 |
| Experience for killing | 480 (160 Constitution experience) |
| Slayer level | Level 1 |
| Slayer XP | 120 |
| Assigned by | Chaeldar, Sumona, Duradel or Lapalok, Kuradal |
| Aggressive? | No |
| Poisonous? | No (but the infestation) |
| Immune to poison? |
Yes |
| Attack style | Magic |
| Attack speed | AverageInterval: 3.6 seconds |
| Max hit | 114 |
| Weakness | Magic, Neem Oil |
| Always drops | Accursed ashes, Neem drupe |
| Examine text | A creature of animated earth, infested with fungus. / This fungal mage has been weakened slightly. (When affected by neem oil) |
The fungal mage is a monster found in the Polypore Dungeon.
If players come closer than one square away from it, it will infest them, dealing fast hits of 2 or 3 life points. However, this can be prevented by using neem oil on it. This infestation does not reduce your Prayer points, contrary to popular belief. It should be noted that they are weak for their level, with a moderately low max hit and accuracy. Players with fair magical defence could tank their attacks with ease. Players with a low Magic level and poor magic defensive bonuses however, should go near the fungal mage and allow it to infest them; it would be difficult to break even while using Protect from Magic/Deflect Magic, and the damage from infestation is much less than the attacks from the magic attacks themselves. It seems that even with good defence its normal magical attacks still cause more damage, but as the damage is small either way it is partially up to personal reference. If the player wish to go for the infection method, they must stay in melee range and not use neem oil (Players should note however that when neem oil is used on a fungal mage it stops attacking for a few seconds).
Melee and range attacks will be severely reduced to almost 1/10th of what the attack would have done, unless a dwarf multicannon is used, which is highly recommended due to the fact that it does a large amount of damage (maximum 300) and the mages seem to have an instant respawn rate.
Fungal mages can drop one unnoted Gorajian mushroom, which can extend trips. Depending on a player's magic level, they can kill 120-200 Fungal mages per hour.
Players can kill these without 50 Magic, but they will not get them as a Slayer task until they have the level. It should be noted that fungal magi are incredibly strong against melee and Ranged, as with all other creatures found in the Polypore dungeon. A good way of training on these if lacking coins is to use a salamander on magic attack mode. Another way is to use the spell Fire Bolt, as with chaos gauntlets and an arcane stream necklace, it can deal a nice amount of damage comparable to Fire Blast, and chaos runes are inexpensive.
Killing fungal magi can be quite profitable, due to their valuable drops such as fungal flakes, potato cactus, snape grass, pure essence, chaos runes and seeds.
Strategies

Inventory should include some food or other source of healing, runes for spells, an emergency teleport, and a cannon/cannonballs if applicable. You may also wish to take a Prayer urn for collecting the ashes.
An easy way to get a few safe hits in on the mage is to attack him once, then immediately sprinkle neem oil on the mage. This will give you about three safe hits before the mage starts to attack you.

Drops
100% drop
Item Quantity Rarity GE Market Price
Accursed ashes 1 Always 400
Neem drupe 1–3 Always Not sold
Charms
Essence and runes
Item Quantity Rarity GE Market Price
Chaos rune 15–40 Common 1,290–3,440
Pure essence 25 (noted) Common 2,675
Seeds
Item Quantity Rarity GE Market Price
Tarromin seed 1 Uncommon 7
Ranarr seed 1 Uncommon 2,935
Wildblood seed 1 Uncommon 2
Poison ivy seed 1 Uncommon 31
Spirit weed seed 1 Uncommon 3,869
Limpwurt seed 1 Uncommon 147
Cactus seed 1 Uncommon 20
Harralander seed 1 Uncommon 4
Whiteberry seed 1 Uncommon 24
Strawberry seed 1 Uncommon 92
Marrentill seed 1 Uncommon 3
Jangerberry seed 1 Uncommon 2
Bittercap mushroom spore 1 Uncommon 7
Belladonna seed 1 Uncommon 29
Irit seed 1 Uncommon 100
Kwuarm seed 1 Uncommon 1,042
Toadflax seed 1 Rare 989
Avantoe seed 1 Rare 1,306
Lantadyme seed 1 Rare 28,328
Snapdragon seed 1 Rare 26,078
Dwarf weed seed 1 Rare 43,732
Watermelon seed 1 Rare 1,861
Torstol seed 1 Rare 274,040
Cadantine seed 1 Rare 997
Other
Item Quantity Rarity GE Market Price
Potato cactus 1, 8 (noted) Common 999–7,992
Snape grass 4 (noted) Common 1,080
Limpwurt root 1–2 (noted) Common 844–1,688
Gorajian mushroom 1 Uncommon 61 Polypore spore Polypore spore 1–100 Uncommon 19–1,900 Fungal flake Fungal flake 1–90 Uncommon 234–21,060
Spin ticket 1 Rare Not sold
Starved ancient effigy 1 Very rare Not sold
Neem oil drops
Note: The herbicide from Daemonheim does work with these herb drops.
Item Quantity Rarity GE Market Price
Neem drupe 1–3 Common Not sold
Eye of newt 1–2 Common 9–18
Swamp tar 1–3 Common 36–108 Fungal flake Fungal flake 1–84 Uncommon 234–19,656 Ganodermic flake Ganodermic flake 1–2 Uncommon 353–706 Polypore spore Polypore spore 1–75 Uncommon 19–1,425
Vial of water 1–2 Uncommon 17–34
Grimy harralander 1–2 Uncommon 385–770
Grimy ranarr 1–2 Uncommon 3,508–7,016
Grimy marrentill 1–2 Rare 41–82
Grimy guam 1–2 Rare 521–1,042
Grimy tarromin 1–2 Rare 56–112
Grimy irit 1–2 Rare 1,496–2,992
Grimy cadantine 1–2 Rare 1,336–2,672
Grimy kwuarm 1–2 Rare 2,902–5,804
Grimy avantoe 1–2 Rare 2,877–5,754
Grimy lantadyme 1–2 Rare 6,002–12,004
Grimy dwarf weed 1–2 Rare 7,525–15,050
Snapdragon seed 1–2 Very rare 26,078–52,156
Trivia
- They may be related to earth warriors, as their examine option states "A creature of animated earth infested by fungus", and the only animated earth monsters in high amounts is the Earth Warrior.
- When the fungal mage is assigned for a Slayer task, the Slayer masters call them fungal magi (because the plural of "mage" is "magi" since the word has Latin origin).
- Fungal magi have a very fast respawn rate; as soon as they are killed, within 5 seconds they will respawn.
- Despite being the highest levelled monster to drop Fungal flakes, it rarely seems to drop them. This may be an oversight from Jagex.
- When the fungal mage is assigned as a Slayer task, when you block it you can also choose the option to block all monsters in the Polypore dungeon.
- When neem oil is scattered on them their back loses its bright green colour. When the effect has worn off they return back to their normal green colour.
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