Black Dragon

“The oldest and meanest of the dragons that are not kings. Never face its breath without a shield or a potion.”

Fighting it

• It swings back once every 3 of your combat inputs, whether your attack hit or not.
• A kill is worth about 20,800 Melee or Ranged XP, or 28,600 Magic XP, plus about 6,942 Hitpoints XP. XP is paid per point of damage and shared out by your stance (a stance that sends half to Defence pays it at Defence's rate of 8). A finishing blow that overshoots adds a little more; poison and Vengeance damage pay nothing; XP bonuses from gear and food add on top.
• Its hits roll from 0 to 42 (half its Strength, plus one). The prayer Bladeguard blocks them completely.
• Heavily armoured: Magic cuts straight through; Melee and Ranged glance off. A crush weapon (a maul) lands where a blade glances.
• Breathes dragonfire on 25% of its attacks: up to 50 damage that skips the accuracy roll and that protection prayers don't stop. An anti-dragon shield or an antifire potion cuts it to a fifth; both together, or a super antifire potion, stop it completely.

Slayer

• Assigned as a task by Karst.
• On task, each kill gives 10,400 Slayer XP (4× its hitpoints).

Drops

Every row rolls on its own, so one kill can drop several things. Drops go straight to your bank (a pet goes straight onto you). Gear and potions that raise your rare find chance don't change these odds.

Item	Amount	Chance per kill
Gold	2,100–3,600	Always
Dragon Bones	2–3	Always
Black Dragonhide	1–2	Always
Black Dragon Scale	1–2	50%
Seeds	2–4	25%
Death Rune	3–8	8%
Rune Sword	1	6%
Rune Legs	1	6%
Rune Bar	1–2	6%
Blood Rune	2–6	6%
Rune Chestplate	1	5%
Fenreed	1–2	5%
Seed Pack	1	5%
Rune Shield	1	3%
Rare drop table	1 roll	1/128

1/128 of kills also reach into the rare drop table.

After a kill the next one appears 2.5 seconds later. Dying costs nothing but time: a 15-second wait before you can fight again. The Agility perks Hot Pursuit and Second Wind shorten both (see Combat).