Infernal Stronghold/Guide

Why Clear Infernal Stronghold?

There three main reasons for completing the

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Infernal Stronghold

:

Clear it once after 100
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Volcanic Caves to get the Infernal Cape that has 4% DR.
Clear it 10 times to get 10 Infernal Cores to complete a township task, and to merge Dragon Claw and Ancient Claw into Infernal Claw.
Clear it 100+ times to complete more township tasks, or earn a lot of .

Manual-Eating Build

The guide assumes that you have completed

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Volcanic Cave

at least once, and have obtained the Ancient Claw. If not, then check out this Ancient Claw Guide for how to obtain this key item. Before attempting

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Infernal Stronghold

, it is strongly recommended that your

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Auto Eat

threshold is higher than all of Malcs moves when you are not stunned. This build can achieve that with 900 HP, although it is advised to check it with the Combat Simulator to be sure.

The boss in this dungeon is Malcs, the Leader of Dragons (Malcs), and the strongest attack is the combination of Sealing (Stun) + Penetrating Claws.

Slot	Item	DR%
	(G) Ancient Helmet	7%
	(G) Ancient Platebody	7%
	(G) Ancient Platelegs	7%
	(G) Dragon Boots	6%
	(U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces	6%
	Fire Cape	2%
	Elite Amulet of Defence	2%
	Sandstorm Ring	0%
	Ancient Claw	0%
	(G) Ancient Shield	7%
Total		44%

The Ancient Claw can be substituted for the Sunset Rapier at a push, but due to the boss stun attack being very powerful, the faster you can attack after stun, the better your overall chances.

Use prayers to increase your accuracy, as without your hit chance against Malcs will be very low e.g. ~25% without prayers, compared to ~40% with. Using Diamond Luck Potion (any level) will give you a significant advantage.

Equipping the Infernal Cape after the first clear as this will increase DR, and will make it easier to get the 10 Infernal Claw needed for upgrading.

The Dragonfire Shield (DFS) which can be obtained from the

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Volcanic Cave

is another good option, and can be paired with

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Icicle Volley

and

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Witch

. This combination is very effective against the Green Dragon. Similarly, with at least 20,000 Accuracy

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Slicing Winds

is another good option.

The DFS is one of the best defences against Malcs. However, for an extra increase in DR, consider equipping Silver Diamond Ring. Doing so will reduce your Dungeon clear time, but may increase your chances of survival. With DFS equipped as well as 990 HP it should be sufficient to clear this dungeon with ease.

Malcs Special Moves

Pay attention to the following special moves from Malcs:

Sealing + Penetrating Claws: do not underestimate this combo. The Spam Eating kicks in with a delay after you push a keyboard button, so it is important that you start before the Penetrating Claws hit you. This special move has two instances of damage separated by a short gap, so a good idea to use Spam Eating. The damage from Penetrating Claws is calculated as [math]\displaystyle{ 640 \times (1-\text{DR}) \times 1.3 \times 2 }[/math].

Sealing + Tail Whip: Heal to full HP before this hits, and if you have time, look what the max damage of the Tail Whip is when you are stunned. You may find that you can delay manual eating depending on whether your HP allows. The damage from this move can be calculated as [math]\displaystyle{ 690 \times (1-\text{DR}) \times 1.3 }[/math].

Sealing + Usual Attack: Occurs when Malcs uses two Sealing attacks in row. The approach given in Tail Whip works well here.

Sealing + Inferno: Not as strong as the other attacks, and one that you can normally rely on
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Auto Eat to survive.

AFK Options

For those with

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Level 90

who have completed their Dragonfire Shield, consumable resources can provide enough additional DR to push the build above into something that can survive purely by Auto-Eating, as long as none of them run out.

Requirements

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Level 80
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Level 90 with
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Level 50 Damage Reduction Potion
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Level 65 with Witch level 4 and Yak level 3.

Slot	Item	DR%
	(G) Ancient Helmet	7%
	(G) Ancient Platebody	7%
	(G) Ancient Platelegs	7%
	(G) Dragon Boots	6%
	(U) Ancient D-hide Vambraces	6%
	Fire Cape	2%
	Elite Amulet of Defence	2%
	Silver Diamond Ring	1%
	Ancient Claw	0%
	Dragonfire Shield	8%
	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Yak	0%
	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Witch	0%
Total		46%

Boost	Type	DR%
Equipment (Above)	Equipment	46%
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Safeguard	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Prayer	1%
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Stone Skin	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Prayer	3%
Damage Reduction Potion III	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Potions	6%
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Yak	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Familiar	1%
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Yak & Error creating thumbnail: File missing Witch	Error creating thumbnail: File missing Familiar Synergy	2% vs Error creating thumbnail: File missing Melee
Total		59%

Prayer Scrolls or Alchemist's Bags can be used to reduce total prayer point costs or number of potions needed to survive 10 Infernal Stronghold runs, respectively.

If one has cleared

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Air God Dungeon

a handful of times, Aeris God Gloves and Aeris God Boots can be used instead for an additional 2% DR each. Similarly, after your first clear of Infernal Stronghold, swapping to your newly acquired Infernal Cape will net another 2% DR. Combined with +1% DR from

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Lake Swim

that's enough to swap your helmet for a Chapeau Noir for a reoccuring 10% chance to need one less run.

Agility

Bonuses from Agility Obstacles can reduce the amount of DR required considerably by increasing your Maximum Hitpoints.

Requirements

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Level 20
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Level 70
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Level 20
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Level 20
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Level 60
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Level 60
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Level 80
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Level 80

Item	Slot	+HP
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Cliff Balance	Slot 5 Obstacle	+20
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Rocky Waters	Slot 6 Obstacle	+50
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Raft Building	Slot 8 Obstacle	+20
Error creating thumbnail: File missing Ice Jump	Slot 9 Obstacle	+20
Dragonfire Shield	Off-hand	+30
Total		+140

For instance, assuming the same

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Level 90

as before, after these HP bonuses, the DR required to AFK has dropped to only 54%. If you're lucky enough to have Finn, the Cat, hitting only

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Level 91

for a total of 1060 HP would let you drop as far as 53%, eliminating the need for either DR potions, or Prayers and Witch Summoning Tablets, or when combined with the equipment improvements mentioned above, both. Or used with everything above to lower minimum HP to

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Level 76

, though using

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Cliff Balance

and prayers together is costly.

After Water God Dungeon

With access to magic armor with late-game DRs, you can now take on this dungeon with proper Combat Triangle advantage, meaning no need for expendable resources besides food and runes, no need for agility boosts, and even still enough DR to spare some for item doubling.

Slot	Item	DR%
	Chapeau Noir	0%
	Glacia God Platebody	8%
	Glacia God Platelegs	8%
	Glacia God Boots	8%
	Glacia God Gloves	8%
	Skull Cape	3%
	Elite Amulet of Defence	2%
	Ring of Wealth	0%
	Fire Imbued Wand	0%
	Scaled Shield	8%
Total		45%

Instead of the Ring of Wealth, a Aorpheat's Signet Ring can be used; it will give you an additional 100k-150K GP per clear, but only a 5% chance to double Infernal Core drops, making it worse for those farming only Infernal Cores but better for those also farming GP. For those who have already acquired their Infernal Claw, thus exclusively interested in GP, please see the Combat section of the Money-Making Guide.