If you have advanced high enough in the Slayer Skill, you will be putting yourself in the crosshairs of some very difficult denizens of the abyss. One of them is the Abyssal Demon, and they are one of the strongest demons and also not a slouch in the boss fight department either. Despite this, these massive monsters also offer some of the best loot in the game, so it’s important to know how to fight them.
Abyssal demons have a moveset, attacks, and skills that can be overwhelming to inexperienced Slayers, but if you can defeat them in combat you will be rewarded. That’s what this guide is for, where we will break down the abyssal demon and its variants to give you the best chance at defeating them.
What Is An Abyssal Demon?
They are one of the strongest types of demons you can find in the abyss. They have average speed and a low max hit of 8 points, but their high accuracy and ability to teleport around the battlefield can easily wear a Slayer down. Plus, these strong demons can attack you in larger numbers as well.
Abyssal demons have a combat level of 124 and are 1×1 tiles in size. Their main move is to teleport both themselves and the player around the battlefield. They will teleport around you, and when they do trigger this move, you automatically stop attacking them. Then you will need to react to their positioning and start attacking them again.
You will need to deal with them in melee, as their teleporting abilities allow them to close any gaps between you and them and that makes safe spotting impossible. Auto-Realitate is also another great option to have to help counter the demon’s teleporting abilities. This mode allows you to automatically defend yourself from attackers rather than having to click on them yourself.
Greater Abyssal Demons
These rarer demons are greater versions of the abyssal demons, and they have more health and do more damage. If you are fighting regular abyssal demons and have unlocked the ‘bigger and badder’ reward they have a chance to spawn. Aside from having more health and damage, and dropping more loot when defeated, they are fought using the same tactics as the regular abyssal demons.
They also have a specially, 100% accurate, unblockable attack where they teleport around the player and make attacks four times. The blows hit for a guaranteed 20 damage for each hit, so if you don’t want that wittingly down your health, you can keep protect from melee active and weather the storm before fighting back.
Where Can I Find Abyssal Demons?
You will be able to find these demons in the Catacombs of Kourend and the Morytania Slayer Tower. The Catacombs are crawling with Abyssal demons and other monsters, so having a prayer-based setup works well here. Using items such as the Slayer Helmet, the fire cape, peaceful blessing, and a berserker ring are some items that will aid your survivability. Additionally, the Abyssal demons are vulnerable to demon bane weapons and are not immune to poison or venom. Finally, the arclight gives bonuses to battling abyssal demons, so make sure to bring that.
You also will need strength, prayer, and super attack potions, along with teleports to house and a herb sack. For prayers look for prayers that protect you against melee attacks and prayers that preserve you.
Once you are prepared, you can head to the Catacombs of Kourend by walking or by using the Kourend teleport. Head north into the catacombs, fighting or avoiding all the other monsters there. Once you head to the northernmost area, you will be swimming in Abyssal Demons. Turn quick prayers on, use your potions, and be mindful of their teleport.
Finding Abyssal Demons In Morytania Slayer Tower
The second location you can find these demons is the Mortyania Slayer Tower, easily accessible by using a Slayer Ring. You can slay the abyssal demons up on the top floor at any time, but the basement can only be accessed if you are on a slayer task. A Slayer helm is perfect for the top floor combat as the other floors are infested with aberrant specters and they can prove to be a challenge.
Same thing in the basement, where you will need to clash with some gargoyles and then head to the bottom floor to fight the demons. The equipment loadout for the tower isn’t that different from the catacombs, so if you can handle the abyssal demons in one location you can handle them in another. The same thing goes for the inventory, however, you might want to bring along Giuthan’s set which will allow you to carry more manta rays as food. More food equals more healing and more time in the tower.
What Do Abyssal Demons Drop?
Abyssal demons are great moneymakers. While their common and uncommon drops are not worth all that much, they do drop the famous and iconic abyssal whip and the almost impossible to get Abyssal dagger. Killing an abyssal demon will net you, on average, just around 6k. Most of this amount is due to the abyssal whip drop.Â
If you are killing abyssal demons on a slayer task, and you have gotten this task from Konar, you will net a bit above 7k per kill. This is due to the fact that monsters that you kill on a slayer task given by slayer master Konar have a chance to drop the Brimstone key. A brimstone key opens the chest right behind the slayer master. The loot table of this chest is pretty good, and helps to increase the average value per kill by almost 20%.Â
100% drop of the abyssal demon
Abyssal Ashes – If you have been away from OSRS for a while, you will not be familiar with this item. It is a new 100% drop of the abyssal demon. If you scatter the ashes you will get 85 prayer experiences. If you offer them by the special spell in the Arceus spellbook, you get a very decent 255 exp.
This really adds up a lot, so I suggest picking them up if you are low on cash and need some prayer levels. If you want to collect them for cash, I wouldn’t advise it. They do not stack in your inventory and are only worth about 1.5 K depending on the market rate at the time.Â
Weapons and armor worth picking up
As you probably know by now, a lot of monsters drop tonnes of junk that just isn’t worth picking up. Even if you have your fire runes and nature rune with you to alch them, it still does not make it worth it. That is why I am going to skip those completely and just discuss the important ones straight away. Any that aren’t on this list, are not worth picking up.
Rune med helm – this is the worst of the best weapon and armor drops. A rune med helm is worth 11k. Why Jagex does not make abyssal demons drop full helms made out of runes is a mystery to me. Anyways, even if they are not worth all that much, they alch cost quite some money, and as you know, coins are stackable. This makes them more than worth it to pick up and alch. They drop this 1 one out of 128 times.
Rune chain body – Again, Jagex, make this a rune plate body. You need 85 slayers to kill these monsters, don´t give them these weird half baked rune drops. The rune chain body is another great item to alch. If you use high alchemy on it, you will net a bit over 29k. They drop these 1 once out of a 128 times on average which is the same as the rune medium helm.Â
Abyssal whip – This is the main weapon most people are aiming for when they are going out of their way to go kill abyssal demons. There is a 1 in 512 chance to have this weapon as a drop. When you get one, you won’t be rich right away, but they are worth a pretty decent amount. Depending on the market price you can get 1.8 million GP for them.
If you are an IronMan, this weapon is worth way more than the GP value. It is one of the best attack and defense training weapons you can get. You only need 70 attacks to wield it, so a lot of mid-level players buy this weapon as soon as they hit this level. It can be used all the way to 99 attacks and defense if you are strapped for cash. All in all, this is one of the most iconic weapons in OSRS and the one you should be eying for.Â
Abyssal dagger – This weapon is worth a little more than a whip, but the chances of you getting it are very slim. Unless you are extremely lucky or are planning to grind out abyssal demons for the next few weeks, you will probably never get this weapon as a drop. On average, the abyssal demon drops an abyssal dagger one time every 32 000 kills! That is a lot of kills, and not worth grinding for in my opinion as an IronMan.Â
Runes that are worth picking up
If you are planning on killing abyssal demons for runes, you won’t get very far. While they drop air runes fairly often, they definitely are not worth grinding for. You are better off just buying them in a rune store with the cash you make from fighting or grinding monsters that have a lot of alch drops.Â
They also drop 10 chaos runes pretty often, these add up after a while and are worth picking up if you have free inventory space for them. Since they drop them one out of 21 kills, one abyssal demon is worth half a chaos rune on average, which is okay.Â
Blood runes are almost always worth it to pick them up. However, they only drop 7 at a time, and at a chance of one out of 32 you won’t get very many per trip. If you get them straight at the start of your trip and don’t have the inventory space, you can just leave them on the floor. They do add up if you are able to sustain yourself with Guthans or a Saradomin Godsword.Â
Law runes are a very rare drop if you use the other runes as a reference. They drop 3 law runes, every 128 kills on average. This is not worth picking up if you are juggling your inventory. You can pick them up if you have to be on the spot where they are dropped and you have the inventory space, but I recommend you not to bother.Â
Herbs worth picking up
Going through this drop table, you will notice that the drops the abyssal demon has are pretty bad for a level with such a high requirement. The same goes for their herb drops.
They do not drop snapdragons or torstols. The only herb worth it to pick up at the beginning of your trip when you have little inventory space is grimy ranarr weed. If you have the space and you are almost going to the bank, you can also fill your inventory with avantoe, kwuarm, candantine or lantadyme herbs. These are not worth it to pick up at the start of your trip.Â
Tertiary drops that you should pick up
Abyssal demons have very nice tertiary drops. If you are an IronMan, some of these are really worth grinding for too, beside the whip of course.Â
Ensouled Abyssal Head – While not worth a lot of money, they are a pretty decent way to train prayer. The abyssal demon drops them about one in 25 times on average.Â
Brimstone key – You only get these on a Konar task. The higher the combat level, the more chances you have to get this cool drop. As I said, it unlocks a chest right behind Konar that has some pretty decent items, both in value and utility. You have a one in 76 chance of getting this as a drop on a Konar slayer task.Â
Clue scrolls – The abyssal demon drops two clue scrolls. A Hard one and an elite one. They are one of the best monsters in the game to get the elite clue scroll. However, that isn’t worth much, since there are only a few that drop them and the odds still are one in 1200.
If you are aiming for a hard clue scroll, odds are pretty high you are going to get one if you are on a slayer task or trying to get the abyssal whip drop. They drop them once out 128 on average. Remember, you can only have one clue scroll of each. So if you enjoy doing clues and are hoping to get one as a drop, check your bank first.Â
Abyssal Head – This is a pretty cool drop to get, and pretty rare. It is a cosmetic item for your house. It is not really worth anything, so if you have one or two you don’t need a third one. They have a one in 6000 chance of being dropped by a slain demon, so you won’t see them all that often.Â
Ancient shards and Totem pieces – These are drops that you only get in the catacombs of kourend. These are definitely worth picking up – and another good reason to fight them in the catacombs – as the shards give you charges for the Arclight (more on that later) and the totem top, middle, and base are essential to get access to Skotizo.Â
How should you kill abyssal demons?Â
Killing them with melee
No matter if you kill them in the catacombs or the slayer tower, melee is a good option. If you are going to fight them in the slayer tower, be aware of the fact that this is a lot less AFK as you can’t attack a lot of them at once and just do something else for a couple of minutes.
You also won’t get the catacombs of kourend exclusive tertiary drops. For both these melee methods, you should bring super combat potions. If you are using prayer, bring prayer or super restores, and if you are using Guthans bring at least sharks.Â
Using prayerÂ
If you are fighting abyssal demons, you are going to make about 6k per kill. This means even if you use prayer potions and piety, you will make a profit.Â
Get your best prayer armor out of your bank, like the proselyte armor. You don´t need any defense bonuses as the abyssal demon only uses melee attacks, so pick the amulet of fury or torture for the attack stats. Get the best boots you can wear, I would suggest you get primordials if you can afford them, but dragon boots are fine too.
Get a cape with an attack and strength boost, like the fire cape or the infernal cape if you have one. Gloves-wise, barrows or ferocious gloves are great, but the dragon and rune gloves are pretty decent too. If you haven’t done many quests you should bring the combat or regen bracelet.Â
For your weapon, you have a couple of choices. If you already have a whip and you do not have a lot of ancient shards, you can bring it, it will do just fine. Otherwise, I think the Arclight is going to do wonders here. Make sure you bring your best defender (avernic or dragon) so you hit as much and as high as possible. If you don´t think the Arclight is worth it, and you don’t have a whip, a dragon scimitar, or a rapier work very well too.Â
For your special attack weapon, there are a couple of options. If you are low budget, a great weapon here is the dragon scimitar. They do quite some DPS and are still one of the best weapons around on Old School. If you have the money, you can bring a Saradomin Godsword. If you hit an attack, it will restore your prayer with 25% of the damage you did. This will save you a couple of prayer points during your trip.Â
Using Guthans armor
If you don’t want to use prayer and want to fight them a bit more AFK, then you can wear Guthans armor instead of your prayer armor. The rest of your setup will remain the same. Prioritize your attack bonus above your defense bonus. Killing them faster is going to save you more hit points than adding some small defense bonuses.Â
As a weapon, I suggest you take 3 different weapons. Your primary weapon should have a high damage output. This can be the rapier, the whip, or – if you want to spend the shards – the Arclight. The Arclight is on pair with the rapier DPS-wise here, the whip is a little slower in killing them but still decent. A dragon scimmy will be slow if you aren’t going to use piety, but it’s better than nothing.Â
Your second weapon is going to be your special attack weapon. I think there are two good options here. Either you use your dragon dagger to hit them often with the special attack it has, or you use a Saradomin Godsword (also known as an SGS). As I said, the SGS restores your prayer with 25% of what it hits your enemy for, but it has a second effect that is even more useful if you are going to take hits. It heals you 50% of the amount you hit your enemy with. Since you have two special attacks per full bar, this is going to extend your trip quite a bit.Â
Your third weapon should be your Guthans spear. This has a one in four chance to heal you when you hit your enemy. Depending on how often you want to use it, you can stay almost indefinitely at the abyssal demons using one.Â
PS: if you are going to use a slayer helm (if you are on task) or another helm like the helm of Neitiznot, don’t forget to bring your Guthan’s helm in your inventory.
Killing them with magic
One of the best ways to kill them is using ancient magic. You attack five at once at the catacombs of Kourend. If you have average luck, you are going to break even. The cool thing about killing them with magic is that you don’t need to have any mage bonus! Just wear your mage damage boosting occult necklace and tormented bracelet and wear your prayer armor. It won’t matter inaccuracy as their mage defense bonus is so low.Â
There are only two small issues – besides the prohibitive cost – with this method. The first one is that there are a lot of people here doing the same or killing them with melee for the tertiary drops. Two, they keep teleporting and sometimes get stuck making this not so AFK as attacking them with melee.Â
The exp per hour for this method is great. If you have done these on a slayer task in the slayer tower, you know that the exp an hour isn’t all that good. Oftentimes it doesn’t get a lot above 25k when you are using melee and piety.Â
When you are using the magic method, and you pay attention, you can get up to 240k magic exp an hour and almost 70k slayer experience. These are pretty good numbers if you compare them to the exp yield melee gives you.Â
Using Abyssal Demons To Train
These demons give a lot of experience to players, and if you can find a way to slay them quickly and efficiently, then you can get a lot of XP and a ton of crimson charms per hour. You should use area of effect attacks and equipment for both melee and ranged weapons because it will help you survive should the demons swarm you with teleportation attacks. Demon Slayer equipment is the best option for protection for all the buffs and extra damage it gives against demons.
You can also use an attuned ectoplasmator and a demon horn necklace to get unlimited prayer points and remove the need for so many super restore points. A gem bag can also be useful as the demons tend to drop uncut rubies and uncut diamonds as common loot.
Taking On The Abyssal Sire
The abyssal demon does have a boss variant just like some of the other creatures, and that variant is the Abyssal Sire. You will need an abyssal demon or Abyssal Sire slayer task and will need to be slayer level 85. Now, you can find the Abyssal Sire inside the Abyssal Nexus. There are four chambers inside of which a Sire can be found, you just need to enter one and you are ready to go.
The boss fight has three phases, and it’s certainly not something you want to take on if you are unprepared. The 1st phase has four respiratory systems that continually heal the Sire, and you will need to disorient the Sire before destroying each of the four systems. Once that is done the Sire will enter the fray and attack you, also summoning spawns and creating poisonous pools to overcome the player’s mobility.
The spawns will need to be slain early, as they turn into upgraded Scions if left alone for 10 seconds. When you manage to whittle down the Sire down to 50% health, then he will retreat to the middle of the room and summon more misma pools. As you batter him down to 33% health, it will teleport the player next to him and launch a damaging AoE attack that you will need to avoid. He’ll also keep summoning spawns.
After the Sire is killed after this grueling battle, all the summons will vanish and you will have won. It’s a tough fight, but you can keep coming back to one of the four locations to grind and try to get some of the rare gear it can drop. The various unsired drops can be turned into rare items at the font of consumption.
For this fight, you want to bring your best gear. A Slayer Helmet, Necklace of Anguish, Armadyl chestplate, Barrows Gloves, and lots of prayer potions, demon bane weapons, and runes. Additionally, focus on melee, as ranged is only used during the first phase of the boss fight to damage the respiratory systems. Other than that, melee damage is going to be the key to your survival.
Abyssal Demon FAQs
Question: Do I Need Slayer Tasks To Kill Abyssal Demons?
Answer: In order to access certain locations, you will need a Slayer task. For example, being able to hunt down the demons in Kuradal’s Dungeon requires you to have a task from Kuradal, Morvran, or Laniakia. Then you can go into the dungeon and fight the 10 abyssal demons there. Inside the Slayer tower, you can kill the abyssal demons on the top floor at any time, but the basement will be locked behind a Slayer Task.
Question: Should I Kill Them In The Wilderness?
Answer: Along with being in dungeons and the abyss, you can also find a group of Abyssal Demons in the Graveyard of Shadows in the level 17-19 wilderness. You can gain extra experience for killing abyssal demons here if you use a demonic skull and have accepted the special slayer contract from Erskine. That’s 40% extra experience for every demon you kill, which is nothing at all to sneeze at.
Keep in mind though, that the wilderness abyssal demons will have access to the wilderness loot table, and will share that with their own loot table. You probably don’t want to farm abyssal demons in the wilderness if you are hunting for those rare drops. Still, the extra XP can make hunting the wilderness demons lucrative, especially if you are grinding for those last few levels.
Question: Should I Farm The Sire?
Answer: The Abyssal Sire boss not only spawns in four rooms in the abyssal dungeon, but it also respawns once it is slain. If you are prepared to handle the tough and multiphase boss fight several times over, it is possible to farm the Abyssal Sire for experience points and the Unsired items, which can be turned into better gear and weapons. These items can include parts of the abyssal bludgeon and even the very rare abyssal orphan.
Keep in mind that you will need to endure the boss fight, and also have an active abyssal demon or Abyssal Sire task to kill the Sire in the first place.
Question: What are abyssal demons weak to?
Answer: There are two things the abyssal demon is weak to. The first is demon bane weapons. These are weapons like the Silverlight, the Darklight, and of course the Arclight. Weapon-wise the Arclight has the highest damage per second of any melee weapon. They do consume the pretty rare ancient shards that are more useful when fighting Skotizo or the Zamorak boss in God Wars Dungeon.Â
The second thing they are weak to is magic. They have no magic defense, so you can just fight them in full armor and still hit them accurately with magical spells.Â
Question: Can you kill a lot of abyssal demons in an hour?Â
Answer: In Old School Runescape killing abyssal demons goes a lot slower than in Runescape 3. In OSRS you will kill about 60 of them an hour if you are using melee, if you are using magic, you can likely get up to 200 kills or more. To get to this number, you will have to pay a lot of attention and use ice barrage.Â
In Runescape 3 you can kill up to 1200 abyssal demons in an hour with maxed-out stats and gear.Â
Question: Where should I kill Abyssal demons?
Answer: I always kill them in the Catacomb of Kourend. I think the tertiary drops, and the fact that you can attack multiple at once, so you can go AFK, make it more than worth it. If you are killing them with melee, and aren’t planning on getting totems or shards, the basement of the slayer tower is also a good idea. If you have done the elite diary you get an extra 10% slayer exp per kill if you are on task if you kill them in the slayer tower.Â
Conclusion: Abyssal demons, don’t skip this slayer task!Â
I love abyssal demons. If you have them on a slayer task don´t skip them. You are going to make a decent amount of money if you kill them with melee, and you can get awesome clue scrolls and the very useful ancient shards in a decent amount.Â
If you think these monsters are way too slow to kill, try to kill them with magic in the catacombs. While this is a lot more expensive, you will likely break even in the long run. The experience you will get in an hour is amazing. This makes it one of the best tasks to get exp an hour-wise if you are shooting for 99 slayers.
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