Black demons are one of those monsters that can be dangerous at any level, nearly matching even the Abyssal Demon enemies. Even a player of maxed combat should not leave his screen for too long when fighting these guys in a multi-combat zone.
If you know what you are doing, these can be amazing exp per hour. While they have a very high combat of up to level 184, and a very strong melee attack, their defense is worthless. They also are very weak to demonbane weapons. If you want to fight them with magic, that would also be a great idea.
This monster definitely deserves to have a guide about it. It is one of my favorite monsters to grind on accounts that have decent stats. You can go AFK and the exp per hour isn’t half bad. In short, everything an OSRS player with a busy agenda needs.
Where can I find the Black demons in OSRS?
The Black demon has been part of the world of Gielinor for about 20 years now. These iconic monsters can be found far and wide. From deep in the wilderness to the dungeon under the sweet and wholesome town of Taverley. Let’s discuss where you can find them, and where you should actually go and kill them for the highest experience an hour.
Brimhaven Dungeon – If you like a tropical setting, head over to Karamja and go to the seaside city of Brimhaven. South-west of that place you will find Brimhaven Dungeon. Pretty deep into the dungeon, you will find Black Demons. There are only 4 spawns, so this isn’t the best spot if it is crowded.
Catacombs of Kourend – If you go to the new continent of Zeah you will have an accent to the catacombs after a short quest. There you can find 4 spawns. You can’t use your canon here. However, it is pretty easy to get there and great for AFK melee training due to the place being multi-combat. Use a prayer-boosting armor and bring prayer potions. This is where you also find Great Kourend.
Chasm of Fire – Another spot on Zeah where you can find Black Demons is in the Chasm of fire bottom level. You can use your cannon here, so do bring it for this nightmare zone. There are 17 Black demons of level 172 here. The cannon set up is not optimal, but it is pretty close to a bank and a great spot due to it not being so crowded.
Edgeville Dungeon – Do you enjoy living on the edge? Well, then head over to the Edgeville dungeon and kill Black demons in the early wilderness levels. Do watch out, because player killers lurk here in order to try and kill you. There are 3 black demons here. There really isn’t a reason to go here to kill them, except when you have them as a wilderness slayer task from the special slayer master.
Wilderness Slayer Cave – Talking about wilderness tasks, here is another awesome place where you can kill them if you have to go to the wilderness. This is a little deeper in the wild, meaning higher levels can attack you. There are 4 spawns here that you can kill.
Taverley Dungeon – The best spot there is to kill them in my opinion is Taverley Dungeon. There are 24 spawns here that you can kill here. It is a great place when you have a cannon to use. They are some of the best ranging exp in the game when you are on a slayer task and using a blowpipe, even after the nerf Jagex did.
What do Black Demons drop?
There are levels 172, 178, and 184 demons. They all have the same drop table. If you are planning on going to Black Demon spawns to make some serious cash, I have some very bad news for you. You will have a very hard time breaking even. Even more so if you are using prayer potions and a cannon to kill them. They don’t have any interesting drops and their average kill is worth about 1700 coins. That is not a lot. Looking at how many hit points these demons have, means you won’t be able to kill a lot of them.
If you are killing them on a slayer task, they are a little more profitable. Then you will average out at 2800 coins per kill. However, you can´t be on just any slayer task, you need to be on a Konar task to get access to the special drop table that makes your kills worth a bit more on average.
100% drops of the black demon
Malicious ashes – this is a completely new item in OSRS. For the longest time, the only kind of ashes that were dropped by monsters in OSRS was, well, ashes. Now this guaranteed drop is pretty cool. Regular ashes were only useful for niche potions. These give 65 prayers exp when you scatter them or 195 when you do so via the demonic offering spell.
Weapons and Armor
There are only 2 useful drops in this entire part of the drop table. You won’t be making much money if you pick up the black sword, battleaxe, or black axe. Neither if you pick up the mithril kite shield. You can alch them, but that might be a waste of time if you are already 99 magic.
Rune medium helm – we all remember killing lesser demons in Karamja free to play, hoping we would get this drop. The Black demon drops them too. You have a 1 in 128 chance of getting this drop. They are worth 11k. If you are going to kill a whole lot of Black Demons, make sure you have your alch runes with you so you get some money.
Rune chain body – Believe it or not, this is the best drop the black demons have. These level 184 level monsters have a 30k drop as their best loot. No joke. I think it is a shame Jagex did not give them a cool one in 5000 drops that is worth a nice few 100Ks, but they didn’t. The rune chain body is 29k, and it is a great item to alch. You won’t get a lot of them on your trip. Black Demons only drop them once every 128 on average. These are going to be your main profit maker here if you are not on a Konar slayer task.
Runes
The black demons also drop runes. Only three drops are kind of worth discussing when we are talking about these magical stones. The rest aren´t really interesting or worth it to lose your time over.
Chaos runes – they drop 10 of those at a time, and one in 18 on average will drop them as they fall to the ground when you have slain their mortal souls. Your loot to conquest this fearsome demon is 460 GP. Oh, well. They do add up after a while, so I suggest you pick them up.
Blood runes – Black demons also have blood runes on their drop table. These runes drop 7 at a time. They have a one in 32 chance to drop these on their death. The drop is worth around 3k depending on the rune prices at the time. The good thing about runes is that you can stack them in your inventory, and blood runes are always a nice thing to have a lot of. Try to pick these up as often as you can, you will a lot of the time walk away with 40 or more blood runes in a single task, which is a nice 10k.
Fire runes – They drop quite some fire runes. If you have the inventory space, you can pick them up. However, these should be your lowest priority, they are not worth it using an inventory spot over.
The herbs that Black demons drop
If you have reached the combat level that is required to kill these demons, you will probably know herbs you should pick up, and which are useless to pick up. I am going to order their herb drops from highest to lowest priority to pick up, and consider for your inventory management. They drop these herbs unnoted and just one at a time. They also drop them pretty often.
Grimy ranarr weed – If you have the inventory space, then picking up a grimy ranarr weed is a good idea. They are worth 7,5K a piece. If you are an IronMan, you know how valuable these can be. Prayer potions are some of the best options in the game, no matter what level you are.
Grimy cadantine – These are pretty mediocre herbs, if you have more than enough space in your inventory, you can pick them up.
Grimy avantoe – Just like the grimy cadantine, these are pretty mediocre herbs, if you have more than enough space in your inventory, you can pick them up. They are also worth a little less than the cadantine, so you should prioritize these above the avantoe.
Grimy kwuarm – Just like the grimy avantoe and cadantine, these are pretty mediocre herbs, if you have more than enough space in your inventory, you can pick them up. They are only worth one and a half thousand gold pieces.
Grimy lantadyme – Just like all the herbs above in this list, these are not worth picking up all that much if you have full inventory.
Other drops
There are a couple of more drops on the drop table that are worth picking up. Two of these are going to depend on the location you are planning to kill these monsters, and you won’t get those drops anywhere else. So keep that in mind.
Ensouled demon head – these are pretty decent for prayer exp if you do them on the altar. They fetch about 3 to 4k depending on the price at the time. They aren’t all that vital, so you can leave them if your inventory is full. They might be a bit more useful if you an IronMan. You can only get this drop in the catacombs of Kourend.
Clue Scroll – They drop hard clue scrolls. I like solving them as they give a nice change of pace to the game. It also helps that it is possible to get 3rd age items from them. That is something I really like.
The odds are very low, so you might never get them, but there is a chance and that makes it so much cooler to solve them then your average stable loot a lot of monsters give. If you want to get a hard clue scroll, make sure you check your bank if you don´t already have one in there. Since you can not get more than one – unless you do the drop trick – it is recommended you solve the one you already have first.
Totem pieces – If you are slaying them in the catacombs of Kourend, you will probably get a totem piece as a drop. There are three of these. The base, the middle, and the top of the totem. If you collect all three, you can put together the totem and use it on the altar in the middle of the Dungeon.
When you do so you will be INSTANTLY transported to another room where Skotizo will fight you. This is a pretty strong mid-level boss, so make sure you are prepared for a fight. If you are on a Black Demon slaying task, you can use your slayer, helm here, because he counts as a Black Demon.
The best way to kill black demons
These are the two best methods in my opinion. Of course, this is going to depend on your account build, the gear you can afford, and your goals. Another factor is your playing style.
If you are pretty poor or just want to train a bit away from the keyboard, fighting them with melee is going to fit your objectives a lot better than ranging them. Is your melee low, or do you want to get that slayer cape as soon as possible, then using a cannon is going to be the best move you can make.
Ranging with a cannon
I think the best way to kill them is by using a cannon and going to the Taverly dungeon. There are over 20 of them. If you combine that with a blowpipe, you are going to have a massive amount of exp per hour. They are worth most killing there when you are on a slayer task. The slayer helm gives you a 20% bonus on your ranging damage and which is massive. The amount of ranging experience you can get at the 95+ level and using a good prayer like Rigor can be up to 200k an hour.
The major downside of this is that it costs quite a lot of money. Your blowpipe will not just cost you darts and Zulrah scales, but has also been nerfed. That means the average cost per kill has gone up. The cannonballs are also going to add up over time. Black demons drop nothing of worth, so you are going to make a loss.
If you have the money, you can use a bow of faerdhinen. This is one of the strongest ranging weapons and is in essence a superior version of the crystal bow. If you are ranging, it is always advised to bring a ranging potion or two. This will increase your accuracy and the damage you do. Make sure you have a prayer pot with you too. You can use the prayer for 5 or 10% extra accuracy for quite a long while with a full prayer point, which adds to the speed you kill the Black Demons with.
Melee with prayer bonus
Using a melee with a good weapon like an Arclight or a rapier is going to be a very good alternative if you also use Piety and have 95+ melee skills. When I kill them I like to go to the catacombs of Kourend and go AFK for a bit. With a nice prayer bonus and auto retaliate on you can go AFK with little problems for 5 to 8 minutes.
The amount of melee exp you get per hour is about 130k. If you go and kill them in the Taverley dungeon, bring your cannon. It is a little less AFK but you get to kill them faster and train your ranging levels too.
You can use either prayer potions or super restore potions. Super restore potions are a little more expensive but give one prayer point more when you drink them. I do advise you to bring a weapon like the Saradomin Godsword and possibly even a fairy ring. The Saradomin Godsword gives you the ability to restore your prayer points with 25% of the damage you deal when you hit with its special attack.
Another advantage is that you get 50% of the damage you deal back in health. This way you can heal yourself a bit when you forgot to drink a prayer potion, or if you want to save some prayer points by turning off your protection from melee for a couple of seconds.
If you can not afford an SGS, then a dragon dagger is a good alternative. Even at the higher levels, the dragon dagger has a very high DPS when using the special attack.
If you are going to fight black demons with the prayer bonus method, you will need to bring super combat potions. While super strength and super attack potions work too, you will have to sacrifice an inventory space or two extra to carry them. Those could be used for prayer potions to prolong your trip.
Frequently asked questions about Black Demons
Question: I have a Black demon slayer task, can I kill greater demons instead?
Answer: No, you can not go kill greater demons instead. If you have a black demon task, you need to go kill Black Demons, Demonic Gorillas or Skotizo. This greater demon is a separate class of demon that has a lower combat and defense. Demonic Gorillas are locked behind the quest Monkey Madness II.
Skotizo is only reachable when you have a totem. If black demons are too strong for you at this point in time, you can also try and safe spot them. You can use a strong magic spell or a ranged weapon to kill them. The exp an hour is going to be slower than the two methods I described above.Â
Question: I have a black demon task, what monsters can I kill?Â
Answer: Well, obviously one of the monsters you are going to have to kill are black demons. But there are more than just those as your options. There are however other options. If you are looking for a weaker opponent than the regular Black Demon, I have bad news, these are the weakest variant you can kill on your task.
If you have the totems, you can also kill Skotizo. The kills are pretty slow, but the drops are very good. Make sure you are prepared for a pretty hard battle, so you must look out that you don’t die.Â
My favorite to kill is the Demonic gorilla. They are pretty profitable and fun to kill once you have the hang of it. You will need to practice a bit before you can kill them effectively. If you are lucky you can walk away with over 10m a trip. If you haven’t killed them before and finished monkey madness II, I strongly suggest you give it a try.Â
Question: Where do I fight back demons?Â
Answer: Here is my ranking on where you should kill them for maximum experience an hour.Â
Taverley Dungeon – This is the best place of all, there are 24 Black demon spawns, and you can use a cannon and safespot them.Â
Brimhaven Dungeon – a great second if all other worlds are crowded in Taverley Dungeon, but a little far from the bank.Â
Catacombs of Kourend – the best place to afk, and close to a bank. Go here if you are going to melee. Â
Taverley dungeon is the best spot of all if you are going to go for a maximum amount of experience. There are 24 spawns, and you can place a cannon. That makes for some of the best slayer and ranged experience you can get.Â
The catacombs do have another major advantage when you take into account the tertiary drops that they have. There are two that really matter, besides the ensouled demon heads you get there.Â
Totem pieces – There are three totem pieces you need to collect before you get a complete one. The base, the middle, and the top. All three pieces are pretty rare, and you have to get them in order. Once you complete the totem, you can use it on the altar of Kourend in the middle of the dungeon. This will transport you to Skotizo, which is kind of the boss of this dungeon and counts as a black demon on a slayer task!Â
Ancient shards – These shards are pretty useful. You can use three of them to give your Arclight a thousand charges. A charge gives you one swing with the sword. The Arclight is one of the best weapons to use against demons. The weapon is very useful against Skotizo and the Zamorak General in God wars. It is a good idea to save them for those two and use a different weapon against Black demons.Â
Question: Are Black Demons weak to magic
Answer: Yes, they are weak to magic, however this does not mean you should use magic. There isn’t a single spot in Old School Runescape where you can burst more than 5 at once. The size of the creature makes it hard to kill a lot at once.Â
Using ancient magic is going to be pretty fast, but it is going to cost you a lot of hard-earned GP. Even more so if you are going to use ice barrages. If you are going to use a single target spell like fire wave, it is still going to cost quite a bit, but it will be very slow to kill them. There are way better methods to kill black demons than using magic. So, even though they are weak to magic, I would advise you to use range or melee to kill them faster and in most cases cheaper.Â
Conclusion: Good experience but horrible drops
Black demons aren´t a good monster to train on. There are way better choices that can get you some decent profit next to a good experience, like the Slayer Tower. I would never go out of my way to go and kill them just for the heck of it. While they have a lot of hitpoints, their defensive stats are still pretty high compared to for example the much lower level Bloodvelds. The drops these Black Demons have are also horrible. The best drop they have is the rune chain body. This is only worth 29k, so killing these to make a good amount of money is a waste of time.
I do like them as a slayer task. They are found in multi combat zones, and their low defense and high hitpoints make them great to kill with a cannon. If you have the slayer helm, you are going to see some very nice exp drops and a massive amount of average experience an hour in both range and slayer.
If you want to kill them afk I suggest you to go to the catacombs of Kourend. There are pretty close to the bank if you use the right teleports. Get your prayer-boosting armor out of the bank, some prayer potions, and super potions to boost your melee and go and kill them. You can be AFK for up to 8 minutes and get over 120k of exp an hour.
Recommended Reading:
This article was updated on 11/03/2022 by the Rune Fanatics editorial team. Our goal at Rune Fanatics is to provide the most up-to-date relevant quest information, walkthroughs, and tips. We updated some of the article text to give you better, more relevant information.
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