Screaming Banshee

“A keening spirit whose scream saps the strength from your limbs, wail by wail. Stop your ears with Waxen Earplugs before it drains the fight clean out of you.”

Fighting it

• It swings back once every 3 of your combat inputs, whether your attack hit or not.
• A kill is worth about 15,120 Melee or Ranged XP, or 20,790 Magic XP, plus about 5,046 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 22 (half its Strength, plus one). The prayer Bladeguard blocks them completely.
• Thick hide: shrugs off Magic; Melee and Ranged hit normally.
• With the Mounted Banshee Head built in your Holding it hits you 10% softer.

Slayer

• You need Slayer level 10 to attack it at all.
• Each kill gives 75,600 Slayer XP, whether or not you are still on task.

What you need

• Waxen Earplugs (utility slot). Without it, every swing drains your combat stats hard (30 levels per swing of yours, 3 per swing of its own), until they hit rock bottom within a few swings. Super Restore can't keep up.
• Waxen Earplugs (utility slot). Without it, it hits up to 5× as hard.

Slayer Goggles count as every one of these utility items at once.

A superior

The superior form of the Banshee. With the Slayer unlock Bigger and Badder, every on-task kill of one has a 1/200 chance that the next to appear is this instead. It fights the same way, a good deal tougher. A kill counts once toward your task and gives 75,600 Slayer XP. It rolls its normal drops 3 times, plus a 1/167 chance at one of these:

• Imbued Heart (12.5% of those)
• Dust Battlestaff (43.8% of those)
• Mist Battlestaff (43.8% of those)

It vanishes if you change target, die or log out before it appears. Its kills are counted separately from the Banshee's.

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 roll (3 rolls a kill)
Gold	90–230	Always
Rune Essence	8–20	35%
Unidentified Herb	1	25%
Air Rune	5–12	20%
Mind Rune	3–8	15%
Eye of Newt	1–2	15%
Seeds	1–2	12%
Seed Pack	1	2.4%
Uncut Gem	1	1.5%
Rare drop table	1 roll	1/128
Mystic Hat	1	1/4,000
Banshee Head	1	1/13,000

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).