OSRS Zalcano Guide
Zalcano is a new non-combat skilling boss that came with the Song of the Elves update, and it’s already being hailed as one of the best moneymakers in the game. It is a decent source of mining experience with some secondary smithing and Runecrafting experience. Following this OSRS Zalcano Guide, you should be able to take out the boss more efficiently, increasing both experience and drop rates in the process.
Table of Contents
What do I need to know about Zalcano
Zalcano is Skotizo’s sister and was captured by the elves during the God Wars. She sits under the city of Prifddinas and is contained within her chamber, in which players may freely enter to engage in a fight. Due to her curse, she is made of stone, and may only be killed by mining with a pickaxe after her defenses have been weakened by Tephra.
While everyone receives a drop from Zalcano, it should be noted that drops are based on player performance within the instance. The player with the most actions and damage dealt will receive an extra special drop that is worth much more than a regular drop. Also, the pet will only have a chance to drop for the winning player, on top of more valuable drops.
How do I fight Zalcano
Be wary when engaging Zalcano in a fight. While Zalcano may attack players with various attacks, you may not attack her with any form of combat. Instead, the idea is to obtain imbued Tephra to throw at her to bring down her primary defenses. This is obtained through a 3-step process involving mining, smithing, and finally runecrafting; and you must avoid taking damage while doing so!
First of all, you will need to run to one of the corners in the room where there’s a glowing rock formation. Proceed to mine it (you’ll only need to do so briefly), then run to the furnace to the east. After creating refined Tephra in the furnace, run to the western altar and make imbued Tephra with rune crafting.
Once you have imbued Tephra on-hand, you will then need to swiftly throw it at Zalcano along with your other party members to take down her shield. If a blue demonic partner is on the floor nearby, stand on it to increase the accuracy of your throw. You will then have a short window of opportunity to mine her using your pickaxe, bringing down her real health. This process needs to be repeated until her health is fully-depleted.
She may randomly summon a golem that will inch towards her in an attempt to heal her. To prevent this, your team will need to damage it using your imbued Tephra. Don’t be stingy since once you manage to do away with the golem, it will drop a large amount of Tephra, making up for what you had consumed.
For reference, her shield has 300 health and each imbued Tephra will deal 10 damage (or 15 when on a blue symbol). If you are in an organized group, it would be efficient to pre-determine how much Tephra each person needs to mine to speedrun the boss. If you are in a public group, make sure to mine extra Tephra just to be sure; you don’t know if someone in the group will procrastinate.
This is not a safe fight and several attacks must be dodged when running around to process Tephra:
- A ground stomp makes boulders fall from the ceiling so watch for boulder shadows to know which tiles to avoid
- Avoid walking on the orange ones when Zalcano summons demonic symbols on the ground to avoid taking damage
- She will throw a glowing red ball at the next available rock when the mining location changes
Note: If a player is standing near this rock, they will take a large amount of damage. This is why it isn’t advisable to stand nearby rocks until the coast is clear.
- Keep your hitpoints high because Zalcano will throw pebbles at players causing a low amount of unavoidable damage
What gear should I don when facing Zalcano
There are a few approaches to the type of gear you need for Zalcano. Since you don’t need armor or weapons for this boss, the focus should be in either preserving run energy or improving mining efficiency.
The most common loadout is to use full graceful to avoid the use of stamina potions. This, in combination with a Dragon or Crystal Pickaxe, a Falador Shield or a prayer book, is the safest route to go. A phoenix necklace may be considered for Hardcore Ironmen as it isn’t a safe mini-game and it will mitigate big hits.
If you don’t mind chugging stamina potions, opt for stuff that will improve your mining speed instead. This should include Varrock Armour, a Mining Cape, a Crystal Pickaxe and an Elven Signet. Prospector gear can also be used for a slight boost in mining experience.
Tick Manipulation at Zalcano
Since Zalcano is a performance-based boss in terms of drop chance, players have resorted to tick manipulation to get an edge over others in public boss groups. The way you should do tick manipulation is by using the 1.5-tick method with guam leaves and swamp tar. Initiate the tar animation while mining rocks, or processing the ore, to double the speed of each action. It takes some practice and is comparable to the tick manipulation method used to mine double pure essence at the essence mine.
Once you have practiced this feat, you may go into random worlds and dominate over other players attempting half-hearted attempts. Not only will you increase your earnings my millions, but you will also get much faster mining experience and a chance at the pet!
Final Thoughts
Many players have reported making between 1 to 5 million gold per hour with this boss—largely depending on your mining level, gear and playing efficiency. Considering that a nerf may come shortly, you should hurry up and do the Song of the Elves quest to take advantage of the current drop table. Using this handy OSRS Zalcano Guide, you too may run this boss and increase your gold per hour and hopefully hit upon one of her rare drops.
