Volcanic Cave/Guide
| This page was last updated for (v1.2.2). |
The Volcanic Cave is the dungeon that unlocks all of the Legendary dungeons. The guide covers gives recommendations on gear needed to idle this dungeon. Idling has a significantly higher skill and equipment requirements than manual clears.
Why Clear Volcanic Cave?
- Clear 1 time:
- To unlock Error creating thumbnail: File missingAir God Dungeon andError creating thumbnail: File missingInfernal Stronghold
- To get the
Fire Cape which grants 2% DR - To get the
Elite Chest
- To unlock
- Clear 50 times:
- For a Township Task that gives
Dragon Bones, 
and 
- To start obtaining
ancient armour in preparation for the Error creating thumbnail: File missingAir God Dungeon
- For a Township Task that gives
- Clear 100 times:
- To unlock Ancient Magicks which gives you powerful spells such as Error creating thumbnail: File missingSlicing Winds,Error creating thumbnail: File missingIcicle Volley, andError creating thumbnail: File missingIgnite.
- To unlock Ancient Magicks which gives you powerful spells such as
- Clear 100+ times:
- To farm for the full
ancient armour set and Error creating thumbnail: File missingAncient Crossbow - To farm for the 10
Amulets of Fury needed for the 
Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs (FEZ). Check the FEZ/Guide for more details.
- To farm for the full
According to simulations, to get the full ancient armour set it will likely take:
- 640 clears with a 50% chance
- 817 clears with a 75% chance
- 1377 clears with a 95% chance
When to Clear Volcanic Cave?
There are no downsides to attempting Volcanic Cave early as you will obtain powerful gear if you manage to complete it. However, it will be a significant challenge if you attempt this dungeon under-levelled.
In general, you will want at least
and you should be able to complete
relatively easily before attempting this dungeon. Ideally, you will want sufficient
to survive the dungeon without resorting to manual eating.
Ancient Magicks
After you clear the Volcanic Cave 100 times you gain access to Ancient Magicks which are a more powerful form of magic. When you have a Ancient Magicks spell equipped, there are no curses available, but you can still use Auroras.
In general, the spells you receive are very powerful:
- Error creating thumbnail: File missingWinds is best used when your chance to hit is relatively low because you are guaranteed not to miss if your accuracy is 20,000+.
- Error creating thumbnail: File missingIgnite is a more powerful spell and has a good chance of killing monsters in one-shot.
- Error creating thumbnail: File missingIcicle Volley is a good all rounder, and can be used in all other cases.
Ancient Magick spells do not scale in the same way as standard magic (i.e. with equipment buffs and debuffs), but they are still impacted by the Combat Triangle in the normal way. Typically, when you first obtain Ancient Magicks it is more powerful than the regular magic and so should used in preference. However, late-game these spells will not scale with gear and so will become less useful.
Gear To Idle
The boss of
uses the
style and so it is not recommended that you attempt to idle this dungeon with
due to the Combat Triangle penalties. This guide assumes that you have
equipped which greatly reduces the DR requirements. The calculations in this guide are against the
/
Adventure modes, and so should work for most play styles, however if you have lower HP or DR than the guide recommends then check out Can I Idle or the Combat Simulator to see if you build will survive.
Melee
is often idled with
because the 
dragon armor set can be obtained with
, further, the armour can be upgraded to provide 30% DR. This
build requires
820 to idle the dungeon. However, this should be seen as a minimum DR + HP, as any less will be below the max hit of 
Malcs.The 
Sandstorm Ring can be omitted, but at the expense of clear time.
Lower tiers of armor may be used if HP or DR is increased through other sources such as
,
, or more
levels, etc.
| Slot | Item | DR% |
|---|---|---|
 |  (G) Dragon Helmet | 6% |
 |  (G) Dragon Platebody | 6% |
 |  (G) Dragon Platelegs | 6% |
 |  (G) Dragon Boots | 6% |
 |  Paladin Gloves | 4% |
 |  Knight's Cape | 1% |
 |  Elite Amulet of Defence | 2% |
 |  Sandstorm Ring | 0% |
 |  Sunset Rapier | 0% |
 |  (G) Dragon Shield | 6% |
| Total | 37% | |
Pre-Volcanic Magic
Idling with
is only recommended once you have stronger equipment because it will often end up with a slower clear time, or a more complicated setup. To idle the dungeon with the build below, you need
780and
active.
| Slot | Item | DR% |
|---|---|---|
|  Air Expert Wizard Hat | 5% |
|  Air Expert Wizard Robes | 5% |
|  Air Expert Wizard Bottoms | 5% |
|  Air Expert Wizard Boots | 5% |
|  (U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces | 6% |
|  Skull Cape | 3% |
|  Elite Amulet of Magic | 2% |
|  Aorpheat's Signet Ring | 0% |
| Any Error creating thumbnail: File missing Magic weapon | 0% |
| (G) Dragon Shield | 6% |
| Total | 37% | |
Fire Robes have the exact same stats as 
Air Robes. The secondary effect of robes (+20 minimum hit for matching spells) outweighs the damage increase of higher level spells, therefore, use the highest level spell and robe combination available to you. If available to you, use the 
Ring of Spirit Power instead of the 
Aorpheat's Signet Ring
| Slot | Item (most effective → least effective) | |
|---|---|---|
 | Air Expert Wizard Hat |  Fire Expert Wizard Hat |
 | Air Expert Wizard Robes |  Fire Expert Wizard Robes |
 | Air Expert Wizard Bottoms |  Fire Expert Wizard Bottoms |
 |  Ring of Spirit Power | Aorpheat's Signet Ring |
100+ Volcanoes Magic
After clearing the
100 times you will unlock Ancient Magicks which require a minimum of
. It is recommended that you have 20,000+ accuracy when using the
as this means that the spell will never miss. This is important because you will want to keep a high DPS to make idling worthwhile. You can improve your Accuracy with:
Magic Assistance Potions- Error creating thumbnail: File missingAstrology
- Error creating thumbnail: File missingPrayer
- Error creating thumbnail: File missingAgility
- Or, if you Error creating thumbnail: File missingLevel 93 or higher
For a magic build 
Prat, the Protector of Secrets will be the biggest hitter, and with this build it will be very close to your Auto-Eat threshhold, so if you need to deviate, then check your setup with the Combat Simulator.
Before starting farming
:
- At 880 Error creating thumbnail: File missingHP you will need to equip theError creating thumbnail: File missingStone Skin prayer to provide extra DR.
- At 910 Error creating thumbnail: File missingHP you can farm the dungeon with 33% DR and without the prayer or potions.
Once you have sufficient accuracy rating, the 
Miolite Shield cam be swapped out for a ranged or melee shield with more DR such as 
(G) Dragon Shield to lower other HP/DR requirements.
| Slot | Item | DR% |
|---|---|---|
|  Ancient Wizard Hat | 5% |
|  Ancient Wizard Robes | 5% |
|  Ancient Wizard Bottoms | 5% |
|  Ancient Wizard Boots | 5% |
| (U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces | 6% |
| Skull Cape | 3% |
| Elite Amulet of Magic | 2% |
| Aorpheat's Signet Ring | 0% |
|  Magic Wand (Powerful) | 0% |
|  Miolite Shield | 2% |
| Total | 33% | |
Weapon Choice
This table plots some Combat Simulator results adjusted by the time it takes to produce all of the required consumables with some assumptions made about the exact bonuses available for each skill.
You can view the spreadsheet here. Make a copy to tailor the resource values to match your own, there is also a column on each table that allows you to input your own Sim results. (link)
| Weapon | Adjusted Chests per Hour | Potential Chests per Hour | Buff compared to previous |
|---|---|---|---|
 Pre-Volcanic
|
3.8 | 20+ | 0% |
 Dragon Sword
|
7.6 | 24+ | 20% |
 Dragon Claw
|
8 | 26.3+ | 9% |
 Ancient Sword
|
8.16 | 26.2+ | 0% |
 Sunset Rapier
|
9.6 | 31.4+ | 19% |
 Ancient Claw
|
10 | 34.7+ | 10% |
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Slicing Winds
|
23.5 | 25.8 | 0% |
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Icicle Volley
|
18.1 | 28.3+ | 0% |
Magic builds using Ancient Magicks are generally better than their Melee counterparts when not using all buffs available to the player. Due to the large amount of runes required to cast, and the non-scaling nature of Ancient Magicks, eventually they fall behind Melee builds for adjusted clear times.
The usual food expenditure is approximately
200,000to
250,000per hour.
Gear Options
Gloves
| Item | DR | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
 Paladin Gloves
|
4% | none |
 (U) Red D-hide Vambraces
|
4% | Error creating thumbnail: File missing Level 60
|
 (U) Black D-hide Vambraces
|
5% | Error creating thumbnail: File missing Level 70
|
 (U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces
|
6% | Error creating thumbnail: File missing Level 80
|
The Ancient vambraces drop from the
. You will very likely need them to idle the
, so might as well get them now.
The Red and Black vambraces can be either crafted with
or dropped from the
.
Or you might just farm some 
Paladins for their Gloves.
Cape
| Item | Upside | Downside |
|---|---|---|
 Knight's Cape
|
1% DR | Error creating thumbnail: File missing Level 66 area unique drop
|
 Skull Cape
|
3% DR | Screws up Error creating thumbnail: File missing Melee accuracy
|
 Firemaking Skillcape
|
XP boost | Error creating thumbnail: File missing Level 99, no DR increase
|
 Obsidian Cape
|
Spend less food | Rare drop, no DR increase |
| Fire Cape
|
2% DR | You need to clear Error creating thumbnail: File missing Volcanic Cave once
|
Boots
The choice of boots is small because we don't want to drop in DR too much.
| Item | DR% | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
 (G) Dragon Boots
|
6% | Error creating thumbnail: File missing Level 60
|
 (G) Rune Boots
|
5% | Error creating thumbnail: File missing Level 40
|
Ring
| Item | Benefit |
|---|---|
| Sandstorm Ring
|
Solid DPS increase for Melee, falls off in power if using enough buffs from other skills. |
 Silver Diamond Ring
|
1% DR |
| Aorpheat's Signet Ring
|
5% chance to double Elite Chest and 100% more money.
|
 Ring of Wealth
|
7% chance to double Elite Chest.
|
 Ring of Blade Echoes
|
Powerful melee dps increase, costs more prayer/potions per hit. |
| Ring of Spirit Power
|
Powerful magic dps increase, does not affect Ancient Magicks. |
TL/DR
In summary, the suggested order of equipment is:
- Obtain the Sunset Rapier and the Sandstorm Ring
- Perform 100 Error creating thumbnail: File missingVolcanic Cave clears as Melee to unclockError creating thumbnail: File missingSlicing Winds
- Do the remainder of Error creating thumbnail: File missingVolcanic Cave clears withError creating thumbnail: File missingSlicing Winds with the Surge aurora.
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| Melvor Idle version v1.3 (Released: 13th June 2024) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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