TzHaar Fight Cave/Strategies

The TzHaar Fight Cave is one of the more challenging minigames in RuneScape. To complete it, players must have good combat skills and equipment, as well as the skill to survive against the boss TzTok-Jad.

If the player tries to log out in the cave, the game will log them out at the end of the ongoing wave. Attempting to log out a second time will log the player immediately, but the player will have to repeat the interrupted wave.

Recommended skills
There are no enforced skill requirements for the Fight Cave. However, players are recommended to have at least 70 in all combat skills, as they are otherwise very likely to run out of food.

40 Prayer is a practical necessity as Protect from Magic and Protect from Missiles are essential against TzTok-Jad. 52 Defence for the Rejuvenate ability is very useful. Lastly, a high Constitution level will increase the healing you gain from Rejuvenate and Regenerate.

Summoning familiars cannot be taken into the cave, so your Summoning level does not matter.

Equipment
Unless you have a high-level weapon and skills in one combat class, you will want to bring all of melee, magic, and ranged, so as to obey the TzHaar monsters' weaknesses. You have the choice of either bringing armour switches or wearing hybrid armour. Hybrid armour has lower defence, but it will save you many inventory slots for brew. Whichever setup you choose, stick to hybrid gloves and boots to maximize inventory space -- or, with 75 Defence, very affordable pairs of ganodermic gloves and ganodermic boots.

Obsidian armour can be smithed after The Brink of Extinction and reduces damage from TzHaar monsters by 45%, or 55% including the kiteshield, and it increases your accuracy against them by 10% according to the worn helm. The full set requires 85 Smithing and can be assisted.

If you are on a TzHaar Slayer task, the full slayer helmet's bonuses will apply in the cave. The slayer bonuses also apply to obsidian helms from the obsidian armour set.

Ice spells from the Ancient Magicks will bind foes in the cave, negating much damage from those only using melee attacks, and can potentially save a lot of brew. The scrimshaw of vampyrism can also save you brew by restoring life points with melee attacks, but it requires 80 Attack.

A sign of life revives the player if they receive a killing blow, and as such it is invaluable against TzTok-Jad. A sign is consumed on activation and has a cooldown of one hour.

Inventory
Fill your remaining inventory space with Saradomin brew and super restore flasks. The number you can carry depends on the amount of gear you bring. You can also bring a few rocktails for emergency healing against TzTok-Jad.

Because Saradomin brew drains your combat skills, you must drink it with your super restore potion. Wait until you have lost 3000 life points (and preferably some prayer points), then drink three doses of brew followed by one dose of restore.

If owned, Enhanced Excalibur should be taken as a source of unlimited, though restricted, healing.

Players with Soul Split and high-level weapons will need little brew if not none at all, so they should replace most of their brew flasks with prayer flasks.

Strategy
Stand in the south-west at the start of each wave, under the crook of the projecting west wall. Any monsters that do not spawn to the south will be lured onto the rock where they cannot attack you, keeping you from being piled. Ice spells will bind foes in the open, greatly lessening the damage you take from Tz-Kihs, Tz-Keks, and Yt-MejKots, as well as prevent the Tz-Kihs' prayer drain and the Yt-MejKots' healing.

Without Soul Split, you will likely not have enough brew to last till TzTok-Jad, even if you use protection prayers against Tok-Xils and Ket-Zeks. The Rejuvenate and Regenerate abilities are key. Guthix's Blessing or Ice Asylum can be used over Rejuvenate if unlocked, as neither requires a shield.

If you lure a Yt-MejKot so you can attack it from afar, you can target it and farm adrenaline for healing by using defensive abilities (or perhaps basic abilities with a weak auto-cast). Ideally with a combination of ice spells and healing abilities, you will not need to drink any brew until you face the Ket-Zeks. The balance between drinking brew and sacrificing your adrenaline for healing will vary according to your armour and levels.

TzTok-Jad
TzTok-Jad is the final monster encountered in the Fight Cave and has a combat level of 702. Examining it yields the discouraging message "This is going to hurt..." Defeating TzTok-Jad requires a huge amount of persistence and determination, as TzTok-Jad is rarely defeated in the first try by even the best RuneScape players.

General information
In order for one to reach TzTok-Jad, one must first fight 62 progressively tougher waves of monsters, with TzTok-Jad on the 63rd wave. The current wave that the player is on is shown at the beginning of each wave. TzTok-Jad himself is a huge, four-legged behemoth and uses all three sides of the combat triangle - Magic, Ranged and melee. TzTok-Jad will not attack with melee unless the player is adjacent to him. When the player is in melee range, TzTok-Jad will use Magic and Ranged attacks as well. If the player attacks from a distance - which is strongly recommended - TzTok-Jad will alternate between Magic and Ranged attacks. During the fight, the player should focus on switching to the correct protection prayer in time. Even when the Yt-HurKots appear or the player gets hit, switching prayers is always the most important thing to do.

It is also possible to use the Ancient Curses after completing The Temple at Senntisten to protect from his attacks. The Deflect Curses are very useful, as they work and drain the same way the normal protection prayers do, and can also be used against Yt-MejKot, Ket-Zek and Tok-Xil. They also have a chance of dealing some helpful damage to the enemies attacking. It is widely believed that the Deflect Curses deal 10% of damage of what the enemy would have caused. The disadvantage is you need at least 68 prayer (if using range) or 71 (if using melee for TzTok-Jad). Note that it is no longer possible to kill TzTok-Jad using only deflect curses.

Abilities that are very useful if you have a shield are Resonance and Reflect. When Resonance is used you can purposely "miss" a prayer switch and heal whatever TzTok-Jad hits you for, though timing is crucial with this ability, and his attack might not hit you. Reflect is also useful as it reduces any damage by 50% and reflects 50% back to TzTok-Jad, though it is highly not advised unless you want to take damage from his attacks, or use it in conjunction with Resonance.

TzTok-Jad randomly spawns in any one of the spawn points in the arena, just like the other monsters.

Attacks
Survival depends on watching TzTok-Jad's movements - an animation precedes the attack, telling the player which prayer to use.
 * Melee: TzTok-Jad slashes the player with his right claw. This is the fastest attack, and TzTok-Jad gives no warning of it. If the player stays at a distance, however, they should not encounter it.
 * Magic: TzTok-Jad will dip his head down and then rear up, standing up straight and will begin to breath fire after about half a second. You can hear him inhale/growl loudly while rearing up and before he actually attacks, so listen for it. Protect from magic needs to be activated while he's rearing up, as after he begins to breath fire it will be too late, and you will be hit. This attack looks almost identical to his original magic attack, and veteran players should be able to identify it easily.
 * Ranged: TzTok-Jad slams his front legs onto the ground, and large cracks appear in the floor at his feet - the player must turn on their prayer now. Next, a boulder will fall down on the player. TzTok-Jad usually opens the fight with a Ranged attack, so pray against missiles as soon as you defeat the second Ket-Zek in the wave before Jad. Note that sometimes TzTok-Jad will still start with a Magic attack; in this case, change prayers when you see the Magic attack animation. An easy way to remember if it is a ranged attack is that TzTok-Jad will always at one point slam his front legs down during it.

Although somewhat slow, all of these attacks can deal enough damage in a single blow to kill even the most powerful of players if not guarded by use of the correct protection prayer. TzTok-Jad has a maximum hit of at least 8000 and hits fairly accurately. However, if you do accidentally activate the wrong prayer, you might still have time to switch to the correct one.

Healers
When TzTok-Jad is down to half health, he will summon four Yt-HurKots which will heal him, effectively causing him to regenerate endlessly until they are dealt with. In order to stop them from healing, they need to be hit once so they turn their attention to the player. The Yt-HurKots' melee attacks hit up to 250, so the player could kill them, but if one has a decent Defence level and good equipment, they should not be extremely dangerous - one should always watch their health, though. Alternatively, when all of the Yt-HurKots are attacking the player, run through TzTok-Jad and they will become trapped behind him, but Jad may attack with melee. This is not advised unless the player is experienced. If they healed TzTok-Jad back to full health and are then killed, they will respawn; otherwise not.

After each is hit, lure them to a safe spot (pillar provides many safe squares) and keep them a distance from Jad, as long as you don't see the swirling healing effect on Jad, you can safely kill the healers and carry on with Jad.

Notes:
 * Ice Barrage is very efficient for dealing with multiple healers once lured by a ranged weapon or a non-freezing spell, as the healers are weak to Water Spells. Players might even hit Jad at the same time. Higher levels should be able to kill them in fewer than four hits.
 * If the player gets hit by TzTok-Jad, they should not panic or consume a large amount of food or potions in one go. Stay calm and focused. Heal once every time he attacks while prioritising praying first.