This page was last updated for (v1.0.1).

The guide is written with the goal of idling the dungeon. If you want to do it manually, the requirements are much more relaxed, although the more DR you have, the easier it is to do anyway.

Why clear Volcanic Cave?

On each clear, you get the Fire Cape that gives 2% DR.

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Volcanic Cave

is the place where you gear up in preparation for the

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Air God Dungeon

. According to the simulation, it takes 820 clears to get the full ancient set with 75% probability and 1350 clears to get it with 95% probability.

It is also a place to farm 10 Amulets of Fury for FEZ. Check the FEZ/Guide to see if it's the best option for you.

After you clear the Volcanic Cave 100 times, you will unlock Ancient Magicks -

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Slicing Winds

,

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Icicle Volley

, and

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Ignite

.

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Winds

are used when the hit chance of everything else is not high. They don't miss if you have more than 20k accuracy;

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Ignite

is used to one-shot;

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Volley

is used for everything else. Ancient Magicks are not affected by damage amplification in any way except the Combat Triangle. No curses, no debuffs, no gear buffs. However, it is much stronger than the basic magic at this stage. For instance, when basic magic could clear

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Volcanic Cave

8 times per hour, Ancient Magicks could do it 22 times.

Gear to idle

The main heavy-hitter of the

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Volcanic Cave

uses the

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Melee

style. Therefore, clearing it with pre-Volcanic

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Ranged

build is unfeasible due to the Combat Triangle penalties. It is assumed that you have

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Auto Eat - Tier III

. All calculations are done for the

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Hardcore

and Adventure game modes. For

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Standard, the restrictions are a bit more relaxed.


Melee

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Volcanic Cave

is usually done with

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Melee

because the dragon armor set requires only

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Level 99

to produce. It then can be trimmed to provide 30% DR. Below is the melee build that requires

820
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Hitpoints

to idle the dungeon on any game mode. However, pay attention that even slightly less DR or HP will mean death for this build because it hangs a hair breadth away from the max hit of Malcs. Check with Can I Idle or Combat Simulator to see if you can idle with your build. Also, the Sandstorm Ring is very important for your clear time.

Item DR
(G) Dragon Helmet 6%
(G) Dragon Platebody 6%
(G) Dragon Platelegs 6%
(G) Dragon Boots 6%
(G) Dragon Shield 6%
Paladin Gloves 4%
Knight's Cape 1%
Elite Amulet of Defence 2%
Sandstorm Ring 0%
Sunset Rapier 0%
Total 36%

Pre-Volcanic Magic

The other possible option is

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Magic

. Clearing the Volcano with Magic from the start is not recommended because its adjusted clear time is slower than the Rapier's. To idle the dungeon with the build below, you need

800
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Hitpoints

and

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Weakening III

active.

Item DR
Fire Expert Wizard Hat 5%
Fire Expert Wizard Robes 5%
Fire Expert Wizard Bottoms 5%
Fire Expert Wizard Boots 5%
(U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces 6%
Skull Cape 3%
Elite Amulet of Defence 2%
Silver Diamond Ring 1%
Any
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Magic
0%
Miolite Shield 2%
Total 34%


100-Volcanoes Magic

After clearing the

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Volcanic Cave

100 times, you will unlock Ancient Magicks. It's theoretically possible to farm the Volcanic Cave with the 20k-accuracy

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Slicing Winds

on the following build if you have

920
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HP

,

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Level 93

, and a

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Stone Skin

prayer active. To farm the dungeon with 34% DR and without the prayer or potions, you need

940
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HP

. Your biggest threat is Prat, the Protector of Secrets with the resulting damage of 375 and your minimum HP being 377. Check if you fulfill the accuracy quota with Combat Simulator. The 20k accuracy is important because after that number

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Slicing Winds

cannot miss, becoming a top-DPS spell against the dungeon at this point of progression.

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%
Silver Diamond Ring 1%
Magic Wand (Powerful) 0%
Miolite Shield 2%
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Stone Skin
or DR potion II
3%+
Total 37%

The Combat Simulator stats per hour are the following:

Prayer points 7182
Whales 394.2
Runes 17050
Dungeon clears 38.79

Weapon choice

The information in the table below was produced by using the Combat Simulator and the respective builds above.

Details
The clears per hour are counted for a Hardcore character with level 70 in everything except level 82
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HP
.
The
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Weakening III
is active with the pre-Volcano Magic.
The
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Stone Skin
is active with the 100-Volcano Magic. The prayer level is adjusted to allow this prayer.

The adjusted clear time is calculated with the notation and assumptions from the Dragons Den/Guide, but Whales are used as food instead of Crabs.

The Rune-related part of Pre-Volcanic Magic is approximated as [math]\displaystyle{ T_m + T_r = N * (9.75 + 1.72) / 16 * 1.3 + N * (9.75 + 1.72) * 2 / 16 = 37.851 * N / 16 }[/math] where
[math]\displaystyle{ N }[/math] is the number of Ancient runes spent,

[math]\displaystyle{ 9.75 }[/math] is for
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Fire Surge
,
[math]\displaystyle{ 1.72 }[/math] is for
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Weakening III
.

The Rune-related part of 100-Volcanoes Magic is approximated as [math]\displaystyle{ T_m + T_r + T_p = N_o * (2 + 1.3) / 16 + N_p * 3.6 / (3 * 4) = 3.3 * N_o / 16 + 0.3 * N_p }[/math] where
[math]\displaystyle{ N_o }[/math] is the overall number of runes spent,

[math]\displaystyle{ N_p }[/math] is the number of prayer points spent. The formula is the one of Alt.Magic/Blessed Offering. The gain rates of other ways are shown on the
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Prayer
page.
Item Raw clears per hour Adjusted clear time (s)
Dragon Sword 14.11 895
Ancient Sword 14.7 833
Dragon Claw 15.3 813
Sunset Rapier 16.5 742
Ancient Claw 17.5 799
Pre-Volcanic 9.28 2302
100-Volcanoes 38.79 440

It should be noted that the Melee clear times become tremendously worse without the Sandstorm Ring. Only Rapier and Ancient Claw are better than pre-Volcano in this case.

It is suggested to start using the 100-Volcanoes build as soon as you can because the Prat and Malcs significantly slow your clear time by high evasion. 20k Slicing Winds don't miss.

Gear options

Gloves
Item DR Requirements
Paladin Gloves 4% none
(U) Red D-hide Vambraces 4%
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Level 60
(U) Black D-hide Vambraces 5%
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Level 70
(U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces 6%
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Level 80

The Ancient vambraces drop from the

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Dragons Den

. You will very likely need them to idle the

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Air God Dungeon

, so might as well get them now.
The Red and Black vambraces can be either crafted with

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Crafting

or dropped from the

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Spider Forest

.

Or you might just farm some Paladins for their Gloves.


Cape
Item Upside Downside
Knight's Cape 1% DR
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Level 88
unique drop
Skull Cape 3% DR Screws up
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Melee
accuracy
Firemaking Skillcape XP boost
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Level 99
, no DR increase
Obsidian Cape Spend less food Rare drop, no DR increase
Fire Cape 2% DR You need to clear
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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%
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Level 60
(G) Rune Boots 5%
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Level 40


Ring
Item Benefit
Sandstorm Ring Insane clear speed buff for Melee
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
Gold Sapphire Ring 30 reflect to clear the dungeon a bit faster

Conclusion

The suggested order of actions is as follows:

  1.   Sunset Rapier,
  2.   Sandstorm Ring,
  3. 100 Volcanic clears as melee,
  4. The rest of Volcanic clears as Ancient Magick.