Zalcano/Strategies

Zalcano is a demon underneath Prifddinas. Players must use their gathering (Mining) and crafting (Smithing, Runecrafting) skills to defeat her.

She is a source of Crystal shards and Crystal tool seeds, among a range of skilling resources. She is the only source of the rare Third age upgrade kit which is required to craft third age tools.

Requirements

Any pickaxe (toolbelt works)

Recommended: Decent Hitpoints level to survive a hit from the red circles

Getting there

Use the Portal nexus located north of spawn. Under Bosses (Early-game) find Zalcano.
Travel fee: None.

Mechanics

The Zalcano fight is split into shield phases and mining phases, determined by her remaining HP:

• 100%: Shield
• 80%: Mining
• 65%: Shield
• 45%: Mining
• 30%: Shield
• 10%: Mining

Shield Phase

The only way to damage Zalcano in this phase is to use Imbued tephra. Making it is a three step process.

Perks that buff Gathering and Crafting do work and are very useful here. Mined tephra may be instantly refined with processing perks, skipping step 2.

1. Mine Tephra from a Rock formation. One formation will be Glowing, which has a much better rate of gathering
2. Smelt Tephra into Refined tephra at the Furnace (coloured red)
3. Imbue Refined tephra into Imbued tephra at the Altar (coloured blue)

Zalcano has abilities that will either help or hinder you during this phase.

• Uses Magic to attack the currently glowing rock formation, which will damage players next to it.
• Uses Magic to summon a Golem. The golem will run towards Zalcano and heal her for their current HP.
  • Golems can be damaged with Imbued tephra to reduce the amount they heal.
  • Throwing just one Imbued tephra at a Golem will cause it to drop large amounts of Imbued tephra even if it reaches Zalcano.
  • You should always prioritise attacking a golem if you lack enough Imbued tephra to complete the phase.
• Summons large glowing circles in a random formation across the arena.
  • Red circles will do significant damage if you remain on them. You have a short time to react before they become active.
  • Blue circles will buff your Imbued tephra damage significantly, speeding up the phase and requiring less tephra for a down.

Mining Phase

Zalcano kneels down and may be damaged by players using a pickaxe. She will not use any abilities for the duration of the mining phase.

The phase will only end when her HP reaches the next threshold, making it an afk process.

All tephra on the ground and in your inventory will disappear at the end of this phase.

Tips & Tricks

• Don't throw all of your tephra, always keep one for a golem spawn.
• Teleporting out, dying or otherwise leaving no players in the arena will reset the entire kill.

Equipment

Bring the best pickaxe you have, on your toolbelt.

Bring a skilling outfit of your choice. A basic setup would be the full Prospector set and Smith's Gloves.

You may bring some emergency food but perfect play will mean zero damage. Leave enough room for tephra.