Golbin Raid/Guide

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This article is about a guide for progressing through the Golbin Raid minigame. For the minigame its self, see Golbin Raid.

This guide aims to help players progress through the

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Golbin Raid

waves.

TL;DR

• Spam restart for bolts and/or a strong starter weapon.

• Get Damage Reduction % and lifesteal.

• Don't run out of food.

• Don't run out of runes or ammunition. If you do, your main weapon will be reset.

• Get Ocean Song or
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  Shockwave after wave 20.

• Consider Manually eating to survive red bosses every 10th wave.

• See image for best overall build.
  

  Best Overall Build

General Information

Setting Goals

• Rewards from Golbin Raid have no impact on the completion log, except the
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  Golden Golbin pet. However, the pet can be earned outside of Golbin Raid.
• The only exclusive rewards outside of the Golbin Raid itself are the two unique pets (
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  Preston and
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  Jerry), and a Yellow Party Hat which are unlisted in the completion log, but will be added if unlocked.
• All limited purchase upgrades will cost a total of 1,725,000. This amount can be gathered in a single run by reaching wave 380 on easy difficulty, 300 on normal, or 264 on hard.
• Infinite raid coins through skipping to a point where you earn more coins than you spend is possible. This can be achieved through the maximum Reduce Wave Skip Cost (at 50% reduction),
  • 17,077,500, and skipping past wave 825 on Easy
  • 4,131,000, and skipping past wave 405 on Normal
  • 1,842,750, and skipping past wave 270 on Hard

Shop Upgrades

The upgrades below are presented in rough order of importance, with the most important appearing first.

Upgrade	Notes	Buy Limit
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Reduce Wave Skip Cost	This is the most important upgrade to buy if you want to obtain an infinite number of raid coins.	50
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Unlock Combat Passive Slot	Has the most potential benefit for combat.	Once
Golbin Crate	Golbin Crates unlock unique items that can then be rolled in various item pools.	39
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Unlocking Prayer	A unique purchase which allows Prayers to be used.	Once
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Increase Prayer Level	Prayer can be used to kill late game boss Golbins more reliably. Purchasing beyond Error creating thumbnail: File missing Level 95 currently has no benefit.	98
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Increase Prayer Points gained per Wave Completion	Eventually will allow you to gain more Prayer Points than you spend per Wave.	Unlimited
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Increase Starting Prayer Points	Quite a bit worse than above upgrade, but still helpful for early waves.	Unlimited
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Rune Pouch Error creating thumbnail: File missing Ammo Gatherer	Has % scaling and will remain useful to the late game. Could be useful for Prayer Scrolls and Wizard's Scrolls.	Unlimited
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Food Bonus	Provides a solid boost to early game food, but has poor scaling so becomes less relevant later on.	Unlimited
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Preston the Platypus	Helps get best in slot armour faster after finding a top-tier weapon.	Once
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Jerry the Giraffe	Can reduce the restart spam due to removing reliance on luck in the first two waves.	Once
Yellow Party Hat	Is purely cosmetic, and has no use in Golbin Raid.	Unlimited

Broad Tactics

By far the most important aspect of succeeding in Golbin Raid is getting one of the few top-tier weapon special attacks that have either guaranteed hits or scaling damage.

• The special attacks of the one-handed T90 weapons Ocean Song,
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  Shockwave, and Tidal Edge fit this description, along with limited other weapons such as Stormsnap.

Damage reduction is crucial to avoiding deaths from worst case scenario luck.

• Players should aim to be unkillable through
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  Auto Eat - Tier II to normal golbins and unkillable from maximum health to boss golbins.

As raids can be very long (much longer than the offline timer) it is assumed that most of the non-boss golbins will be idled. The more players are willing to monitor their health, the more efficiency can be gained through reward choices.

If you do not manage to find a top-tier weapon for long enough that you can not maintain a decent amount of weapon rolls, it may be worth restarting the raid.

The way the game scales both player and Golbin stats, avoiding all death is typically possible through being close to the maximum damage reduction available. Maintaining sufficient resources such as food, runes, and ammunition is also necessary. Food consumption can be significantly reduced through lifesteal and special attack reliance.

Lifesteal is incredibly effective at keeping players above the auto-eat threshold with a top-tier special attack. It does not guarantee survival, though. With the same lifesteal%, flat damage special attacks will heal a smaller percentage of overall health at higher waves.

Bosses are the red golbins at the end of every 10th wave. Like normal golbins, they may have a special effect that modifies their stats, potentially buffing their maximum hit. In the later waves, a boss with a style that the player is weak to and an increased maximum hit modifier could kill you in a single hit.

Preparing for Bosses (Every 10th Wave)

For difficult bosses, use your maximum damage spell,

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Surge II

, and spam eat (be careful holding enter over clicking as you may automatically swap weapons after killing the boss). Possibly delay eating if still above the maximum hit threshold to maximise damage.

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Prayer

is best used on difficult bosses. Around wave 240 the bosses become exceptionally tough. Turn on

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Stone Skin

before the boss. Have the protection prayer on for the style you are weak to (For example,

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Protect from Ranged

for magic users), but be ready to swap before the first boss attack if they are using a different style.

Ensure you have ample resources before a difficult boss wave, as a dangerous boss can drain lots of food and runes. This is especially the case with some Guardian Amulet setups as some bosses can attack faster than you.

Gear Availability

Waves	Available Equipment
1–9	Equipment requiring up to and including level 70
10–19	Equipment requiring up to and including level 84
20+	All equipment, except for the below exclusions

Note that the following items are never available: Wasteful Ring, Cape of Completion, Maximum Skillcape, Farming Skillcape, and Candy Cane.

Combat Triangle

Survival generally focuses on minimizing worst case scenarios, therefore we want to reduce the danger from golbins on the weak side of the player's attack style.

As maintaining near maximum damage reduction becomes essential to survive, the differences in the combat triangle multipliers significantly impacts weapon choices.

• While ranged has the most favourable worst cast damage reduction multiplier, magic weapons have access to
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  Weakening III which reduces enemy maximum hit by 15% (golbins do not have special attacks).
• Assuming the player's first attack is always before each golbin's first attack, and attacks are not delayed by eating enough for a golbin to attack between
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  Weakening III applications, magic will almost always take less damage than ranged.
• At maximum damage reduction from gear of 65%, range (65% x 0.95 = 61%) would take 390 damage from a 1000 damage attack. Magic (65% x 0.85 = 55%) would first reduce a 1000 damage maximum hit to 850 and take 382 from the hit.
• Only with maximum damage reduction from gear and extra damage reduction from effects such as
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  Stone Skin and
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  Safeguard prayer does ranged take less maximum damage to magic, however in typical scenarios magic will take less damage, and magic's lead increases the lower damage reduction the player has.

Warnings

• Ensure you have the required runes to cast the selected standard/ancient magic spell before choosing a magic weapon, and the required ammunition type before choosing a ranged weapon, otherwise your weapon will be set to default ( Bronze Scimitar or Adamant Scimitar).
• Ensure you have spirit runes before choosing Ring of Spirit Power with magic, otherwise your weapon will be set to default. ALT items may get the same special attack and cause the same issue. Also. ensure you have nature runes before casting
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  Nature's Call or
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  Nature's Wrath.
• Combination runes are currently unavailable. Do not enable use of combination runes when using magic or your weapon will be set to default.
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  Hardcore and Adventure mode combat triangle and health changes are present in Golbin Raid. This will impact strategy, mainly making melee significantly worse than it already is and making ranged lose its damage reduction benefit over magic.
• Don't hold Enter at the end of any fight. You will proceed to automatically select some item of equipment. If it is a new weapon, you will likely brick your run.

Notes

• (ALT) items have a completely random special attack. You cannot see what the special attack will be, and the special attack does not change unless you pick a different weapon.
• Sandstorm Ring can no longer turn into an ALT item in Golbin Raid. However, the combat style crafted rings, Ring of Spirit Power, Ring of Barrage, and Ring of Blade Echoes still can. Combat style special attacks will only be active when you are using (or switch to) the correct combat style. If you choose an ALT item and do not see a special attack appear, it may require a different combat style to activate.
• Special attacks on rings are now removed when the ring is changed, rather than overriding the weapon special attack. You can now have multiple special attacks, and if the overall special attack chance is greater than 100%, the special attack chances will be reduced proportionally to their original chance to add up to 100%.
• Obsidian Cape does not scale past level 99.
• Manually eating will reset your attack, and your following attack will not be a special attack.
• You can no longer eat during the channel of a channelled special attack without cancelling the attack.
• Prayer now works in Golbin Raid. As prayers can set specific dodge chances to 80%, this reduces the effectiveness of stacking evasion to the combat style weakness.
• You can not pause or save a raid.

Specific Wave Strategies

Waves 1/2

• The primary goal when starting a run is to get a weapon that is strong until wave 20 in one roll. Any weapon of dragon tier or above will suffice.
• While melee has the worst combat triangle, this is much less relevant early game, so the lack of reliance on resources makes it attractive.
• If the player wants the option to use crossbows post wave 20, it is recommended to use wave 1 to roll for any bolts, and settle for a potentially worse weapon on wave 2. The Adamant Scimitar from the shop works well to save a roll.

Waves 3-19

• The rolls from these waves should be used to gain adequate damage reduction, evasion, and resources to maximise weapon rolls after wave 20 until a top-tier weapon is found.
• Maintaining enough food to reach the next wave is top priority, however choosing food should be done at the latest possible safe time. For the initial Shrimp, this is usually one to two waves after beginning to eat.
• Food value can be approximately judged by multiplying quantity by healing amount, however high healing food has the potential to be wasted by overhealing in the early game, and low healing food can make it harder to manually eat for bosses.
• Manually eating right after the player attacks will restore health without the 20% healing reduction from Auto Eat - Tier II for minimal damage loss. This is most easily utilised in the early preparation stage.
• Getting a few pieces of damage reduction gear is important to prevent worst case scenario deaths for many waves to come.
• High evasion gear that does not significantly reduce damage output will reduce resource usage, resulting in more weapon rolls later, and can reduce the chance to be killed by any rare dangerous golbins.
• Some BiS (best in slot) gear can be found before wave 20, see below for BiS lists. BiS gear and some high tier damage focused items will be worth sacrificing small amounts of damage reduction for.
• Rolling for passive very often results in an item that does essentially nothing. Skipping passive at wave 10 for one more roll can lead to better preparation and a faster top-tier weapon, however BiS passive items are often never obtained due to low frequency of rolls available.

Wave 20+

• Find a top-tier special attack as quickly as possible, which typically means finding a top-tier weapon. Possibly skip passive rolls for now.
• ALT weapons make it possible to get special attacks on weapons they are not normally on, which allows special attacks to be used on weapons of different combat styles and speeds. However, this becomes riskier the longer the raid as the detriment of getting a weak weapon increases with wave count.
• The ideal ALT weapon would be the fastest available speed to maximise special attack frequency, one handed to utilise offhand gear, and magic for the combat triangle style and access to curses and auroras.
• If a scaling rather than flat damage special is obtained on a magic weapon, rune usage may increase as spell damage may become a much bigger factor in overall damage.

Special Attacks

Top-tier special attacks include (roughly in order):

	Ocean Song	Ocean Song (35%)	Guaranteed hit, high damage, enemy attack speed decreased, enemy evasion reduction. Best special attack for realistic runs with no skipping.
Error creating thumbnail: File missing	Shockwave	Shockwave (15%)	Guaranteed hit, high scaling damage, 1 turn stun, enemy evasion reduction. Will overtake Ocean Song on damage eventually.
	Stormsnap	Stormsnap (15%)	Guaranteed hit, high scaling damage. Will overtake Ocean Song on damage eventually.
	Tidal Edge	Tidal Wave (25%)	Guaranteed hit, high damage, enemy attack speed decreased, enemy evasion reduction. Slightly worse version of Ocean Song.

Solid special attacks include (roughly in order):

	Cloudburst Staff	Magic Ray (100%)	Not guaranteed hit, high scaling damage, enemy attack speed decreased, channelled (can eat during). Very useful if found early to rush to a top-tier special attack.
	Ragnar Godsword	Infernum (15%)	Guaranteed hit, scaling damage. Possibly a good stepping stone special attack.
	Terran Godsword	Crushing Blow (15%)	Guaranteed hit, scaling damage. Possibly a good stepping stone special attack.

~Wave 50+

• After choosing a top-tier magic weapon, quickly roll runes to unlock Light → Havoc → Body → Ancient to take advantage of more runes when needing to roll +all.
• For standard magic, use fire spells to do more damage and balance rune usage. Check that the option to use Combination Runes is disabled, otherwise you will lose your magic weapon. Start with
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  Fire Strike, and transition to
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  Fire Surge when you can sustain the rune rolls without sacrificing searching for BiS armour.
• Optionally, unlock Blood, Death, or Chaos runes if you feel your rune usage is balanced somewhere between strike and surge spells.
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  Incinerate has guaranteed hits and scaling current health damage, which gives magic without a scaling special attack the potential to transition to scaling damage.
• * This point would likely be much later than the point at which
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  Shockwave overtakes Ocean Song on damage however.
• Also, remember that while using Ancient Magicks special attacks will not activate, nor can curses be used with these spells. Depending on your progression, rune balance, and amount of active vs idle play, use
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  Weakening III and alternate between
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  Fervor II and
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  Surge II.
• After choosing a top-tier ranged weapon, try to upgrade bolt tier when rolling for ammo, but this is not as high priority as beginning to gather BiS armour.
• At this point rolling for passive is always recommended. Due to the insanely low chance to get a top-tier passive, it may be best to settle on whichever you get first.

Passive Slot

Top-tier passive slot effects include (roughly in order):

	Elder Crown	10% global lifesteal, -0.05s attack interval. Realistically the overall best. Only source of very valuable lifesteal if playing ranged. Don't have to sacrifice a damage reduction helmet.
	Warlock Amulet	10% magic lifesteal. Close second if playing magic and not swapping.
	Guardian Amulet	5% damage reduction, +10% attack interval, both doubled under 50% hitpoints. Only way to reach maximum damage reduction, allowing a FEZ in the amulet slot. Safe option if you already have lifesteal, but will cause long raids to take even longer.

Solid passive slot effects include (roughly in order):

	Shield of Magic Power	Strong magic damage increase and enemy damage reduction debuff.
	Shield of Ranged Power	Strong ranged damage increase and enemy damage reduction debuff. Scales Shockwave special attack damage.
	Deadeye Amulet	25% chance for 150% ranged damage. Strong ranged damage increase, however it is probably more suited to the amulet slot for ranged.
	Ring of Power	Decent damage increase and enemy damage reduction debuff.
	Shield of Melee Power	Decent melee damage increase and enemy damage reduction debuff.
	Sand Treaders	-0.05s attack interval. Good synergy with strong special attacks.
	Silver Sapphire Necklace	Small amount of valuable lifesteal.
	Recoil Shield	25% damage reflect. Small damage increase.
	Poison Virulence Ring	Small poison damage increase.
	Scaled Shield	Small poison damage increase.
	Dragonfire Shield	30 maximum hitpoints. Minor survivability increase.
	Priest Hat	-1 prayer point cost. Better than nothing, although prayer points do not scale well enough for proper use outside of bosses.

~Wave 60+

From now on, most rolls will be for armour.

Best in Slot (BiS) Equipment

Magic Armour

• With lifesteal, which Magic will usually have at least 10% of, the stat priority should be (approximately) damage reduction > accuracy > damage > evasion to combat style weakness > overall evasion.
• This results in full Glacia God Armour coming out on top, primarily due to the kill speed increase. Terran God Armour and Aeris God Armor pieces have significantly higher ranged/overall defence, at the cost of varying damage losses.
• Upgrades from God Gloves are directly superior to the items they upgrade from, however they do not overtake items higher on the list.

Slot	Equipment (better first, worse last)
Helmet	Glacia God				Terran God				Aeris God				(G) Ancient				Ragnar God
Chest	Glacia God				Terran God				Aeris God				(G) Ancient				Ragnar God
Legs	Glacia God				Aeris God				Terran God				(G) Ancient				Ragnar God
Gloves	Burning Madness > Glacia God					Spiked Shell > Terran God					Poison Viruelence > Aeris God					Relentless Fury > Ragnar God
Boots	Glacia God					Terran God					Aeris God					Ragnar God

Ranged Armour

• The damage of the best ranged weapon, Shockwave, scales with maximum hit. Therefore all of its damage and lifesteal scales with ranged strength, and the normal damage with ranged accuracy. However, ranged has no lifesteal without Elder Crown.
• This results in full Aeris God Armor coming out on top with Elder Crown passive, although without lifesteal stacking melee/overall defence by instead using Terran God Helmet, Platebody, Platelegs, and Boots could be viable. Elder Crown helmet with Aeris God Armour may work with high damage reduction.
• Upgrades from God Gloves are directly superior to the items they upgrade from, however they do not overtake items higher on the list.

Slot	Equipment (better first, worse last)
Helmet	Aeris God										Elder Crown										Terran God										Glacia God										(G) Ancient										Ragnar God
Chest	Aeris God												Terran God												Glacia God												Ragnar God												(G) Ancient
Legs	Aeris God												Terran God												Glacia God												(G) Ancient												Ragnar God
Gloves	Poison Virulence > Aeris God															Burning Madness > Glacia God															Spiked Shell > Terran God															Relentless Fury > Ragnar God
Boots	Aeris God															Terran God															Glacia God															Ragnar God

Offhands

• Non-god armour gear slots will have very similar BiS items for each combat style.
• The Offhand slot contains shields which provide so much damage reduction with a one handed weapon that it is difficult to find value in offensive items.

Style	Equipment (better first, worse last)
Magic	ELS								Magic P.								Ranged P.								Melee P.								DFS								Scaled								(G) Ancient								Recoil Shield								Book of Eli
Ranged	ELS									Ranged P.									Magic P.									Melee P.									DFS									Scaled									(G) Ancient									(U) Ancient

Book of Eli is viable for certain lifesteal/boss skipping strategies seen below.

Rings

• Damage rings may be BiS for certain lifesteal/boss skipping strategies seen below.

Class	Equipment (better first, worse last)
Magic	Guardian Ring				Silver Diamond Ring				Warlock Ring
Ranged	Guardian Ring			Silver Diamond Ring			Deadeye Ring			Poison Virulence Ring

Amulets

• Lots of choice for amulets. BiS really depends on playstyle, current gear, and goals. Guardian Amulet will give the best chance at surviving late game bosses, but whether slowly pushing deep is worth it is debatable. Deadeye Amulet scales Shockwave damage, its main strength.
• Getting an initial 10% lifesteal is extremely efficient. Mage has lifesteal through auroras, and can utilise Guardian Amulet more easily. For ranged it has to be done through passive/helmet, therefore it limits other choices.

Class	Equipment (better first, worse last)
Magic	Warlock	Guardian	FEZ	E-Mag	E-Def	E-Ran	Wreath	Silver Sapphire	Fury
Ranged	Deadeye	Guardian	FEZ	E-Def	E-Mag	E-Ran	Wreath	Fury

Warlock is really good because of the

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+10% magic life steal.

Deadeye is great for ranged if you have lifesteal already.

Capes

• Skull Cape gives 20% rune preservation.

Class	Equipment (better first, worse last)
Magic	Infernal									Skull									Fire									Knight									Obby									Defence									Magic
Ranged	Infernal							Skull							Fire							Knight							Prat							Obby							Defence							Ranged							R. Preservation

Depending on damage reduction and strategy, Skull Cape could be avoided for ranged, or be more efficient for magic.

Ammunition

• Ammunition depends on combat style and weapon type

Type	Ammo (better first, worse last)
Bolts	Jadestone			Diamond			Emerald			Ruby			Sapphire			Topaz
Arrows	Ancient		Dragon		Rune		Ice		Adamant		Mithril		Steel		Iron		Bronze

Mage Ammunition: Prayer Scroll = Wizard's Scroll. Highly dependent on shop upgrades whether these would be worth rolling for over runes, or at all.

Meta

• The meta playstyle is for completing everything completable in Golbin Raid. This includes unlocking all the unique shop purchases and going infinite for unlimited raid coins through skipping.
• Magic with
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  Shockwave special attack likely has the ability to go the furthest without skipping, through scaling damage and increased efficiency. However, this is probably not the most efficient way to go infinite.
• A singular, ultra deep ranged run is likely to die to bad luck eventually without boss skip preparation. Multiple fast magic raids probably have the most coin value per time spent.
• High damage, high lifesteal builds that sacrifice small amounts of damage reduction, and definitely Guardian Amulet/ Spiked Shell Ring, for efficiency are meta if the player has a small stockpile of raid coins to skip boss waves late game (around wave 240).
• Focus on the guide's recommendations, learn the game, unlock some initial upgrades, and keep a few coins.
• If you can reach around wave 280 the first time you see an Ocean Song, you can buy out the unique purchases and will likely have some coins left over from other runs.
• Use your upgrades, coin stockpile, and experience to push three runs to around wave 360, possibly skipping to 495 on your last run, and you will then have enough to skip all the way from wave 0 back to wave 495 and then beyond.

Resources

• Magic/Ranged BiS List Screenshot
  • See Image
    

    Golbin Raid BiS
• Wave Skip Spreadsheet
  • Google Sheets link
  • Discord link
• New items: (link). New specials: (link)

Old Guides

First Discord Guide: https://discord.com/channels/625838709203271680/744752345233227776/818393165777207296

Second Discord Guide: https://discord.com/channels/625838709203271680/744752345233227776/906227966386794556

Melvor Idle version v1.3.1 (Released: 30th October 2024)
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