Drake Best in Slot Gear & Strategy Guide

You need level 84 Slayer to kill a drake — there is no quest gate beyond that. Drakes live only in the middle level of the Karuulm Slayer Dungeon inside Mount Karuulm, on the Kebos Lowlands.

The non-negotiable item is footwear. Because drakes are only found within the volcano, the dungeon floor radiates extreme heat that burns you on every tile. To stay safe you must wear one of the boots of stone, boots of brimstone, or granite boots. The one exception: if you have completed the elite Kourend & Kebos Diary, you are protected from the burn regardless of which boots you wear. Forgetting your heat boots is the single most common reason new players take chip damage walking to the drakes.

Drakes are assigned by Konar, Nieve, and Duradel. Killing them on a Konar task is worth it for the Brimstone key drops, so try to take the task from her when you can.

Drakes are a melee boss at heart. Their stab defence is extremely low (a defence of just 5 against stab, versus 60 against slash and crush), so a fast stabbing weapon is the meta. They also carry the dragon attribute, which makes them vulnerable to dragonbane weapons — the dragon hunter lance, dragon hunter crossbow, and dragon hunter wand all get a damage-and-accuracy bonus against them. The dragon hunter lance is a stab weapon, so it lines up perfectly with their weakness and is the standard pick.

For a full melee loadout built around Strength and accuracy, use our Boss Gear Finder above rather than copying a fixed list — it adapts to your bank and budget. If you prefer to stay at range, drakes have a heavy ranged defence of 0, so a ranged setup built around a heavy-ammo weapon — such as the dragon hunter crossbow, which doubles as a dragonbane weapon here — is a comfortable alternative, especially while you safespot. (Note a blowpipe fires darts, which are light ranged ammo and hit against the much higher light ranged defence of 100, so it does not benefit from the 0 heavy defence.) They are also 50% weak to water spells if you would rather train Magic on them. Whatever style you bring, the melee route with a dragonbane stab weapon is the fastest kills per hour.

Drakes are not a high-supply trip. Bring:

• Heat-protection boots (boots of stone, boots of brimstone, or granite boots) unless you have the elite Kourend & Kebos Diary.
• A way to neutralise the volcanic breath: a super antifire potion (or its extended version) lets you keep a defender or blowpipe equipped; alternatively an antifire potion paired with a dragonfire shield, dragonfire ward, or anti-dragon shield negates it.
• Food and a few prayer potions — drakes hit a maximum of 15 with their normal attacks, so you rarely need a heavy food stack.
• Prayer restores if you plan to flick Protect from Missiles on long trips.

Because their normal ranged hits cap at 15 and can be fully prayed against, a single inventory of food usually lasts a very long time.

Drakes attack with three styles: Ranged, Ranged melee, and Dragonfire, all on a 4-tick attack speed.

Normal ranged attacks (max 15): Their standard ranged hits can be fully blocked by Protect from Missiles. If you are attacking from a distance, keep this prayer on and the normal attacks do nothing.

Ranged melee (max 15): When you stand next to a drake it uses a close-range version of its attack. This is the bread-and-butter damage source in a melee trip and is handled with food rather than a prayer.

Volcanic breath (the one to respect): After every seven auto-attacks, a drake launches a volcanic breath at your current tile. If the projectile hits you it deals 6–8 damage for four hits (the 32 max-hit dragonfire figure). This breath is treated as dragonfire, so:

• Any form of dragonfire protection reduces it to 0–4 damage.
• A dragonfire shield, dragonfire ward, or anti-dragon shield plus an antifire potion negates it entirely.
• A super antifire potion (or extended) negates it on its own, freeing your shield slot for a defender or letting you use a blowpipe.
• Simplest of all: step one tile when the breath launches and you avoid it completely.

Crucially, drakes do not require dragonfire protection to be fought at all — the breath is the only fire damage, and you can sidestep it for free.

The clean rotation is: equip your heat boots, run to the middle level of the Karuulm Slayer Dungeon, and find a drake (they respawn every 20 ticks, so they are rarely scarce). Attack with your dragonbane stab weapon and rely on the low stab defence to land big, consistent hits. Eat through the ranged-melee chip as needed.

For the volcanic breath, pick one method and stick to it. The lowest-effort approach is a super antifire potion so the breath never matters and you keep your best offensive setup. If you would rather not drink potions, simply move one tile each time the breath fires — with practice you barely lose any DPS. If you are safespotting at range instead, leave Protect from Missiles on to ignore the normal attacks and pair it with dragonfire protection so you take no damage at all from a distance.

With no SSOT drop table loaded, here are the marquee uniques named straight from the wiki — the full rate table renders separately above. The two signature drops are the Drake's tooth and Drake's claw, each at 1/2560 off task and 1/512 while on a drake Slayer task. The drake is also one of the sources of the throwing weapons Dragon knife and Dragon thrownaxe (in stacks of 100–200), at 1/10000 off task and 1/2000 on task. Every drake drops Drake bones on death, and on a Konar task they also drop the Brimstone key. Note the on-task rates are five times better, which is the main reason to kill drakes as an actual Slayer assignment.

• Forgetting heat boots. Without boots of stone, boots of brimstone, granite boots, or the elite Kourend & Kebos Diary, the dungeon floor burns you on every tile.
• Over-preparing for dragonfire. Drakes do not require dragonfire protection to fight. The only fire damage is the volcanic breath, and you can step one tile to dodge it entirely.
• Bringing a slash or crush weapon. Their stab defence is far lower (5 vs 60), so a stabbing dragonbane weapon like the dragon hunter lance kills much faster.
• Ignoring the on-task multiplier. Off task, the unique rates are five times worse, so killing drakes off a Slayer assignment wastes most of the loot value.
• Standing still through the breath without protection. Eat-free trips break down if you let the 6–8 ×4 breath land repeatedly — sidestep or drink antifire.