Maniacal monkey/Strategies Guide – OSRS

Killing Maniacal monkeys is among the most efficient ways of training Ranged (using chinchompas) or Magic (using burst/barrage spells on Ancient Magicks). Given their very low defensive stats, the optimal strategy is to maximise max hits and Prayer bonus. As Maniacal monkeys frequently drop 1-dose Prayer potions, using Protect from Melee provides a low click-intensive form of training on par with the Nightmare Zone.

Requirements

• Partial completion of Monkey Madness II (reached Kruk’s Dungeon).
• 43  for Protect from Melee.
• 45  for chinchompas.
• 62  for ancient magicks multi-target spells.

Getting there

Maniacal monkeys are located in Kruk’s Dungeon on Ape Atoll. The dungeon entrance is in the north-western part of the island. There are a few different methods to get there:

• After the completion of Monkey Madness II, players can use any gnome gliders to Ape Atoll and then run south.
• Players who have not completed the quest will need to wear a greegree while getting there to avoid damage from aggressive monsters. Players can get there via the Ape Atoll Teleport on the standard spellbook and running west, or Ape Atoll Teleport on the Arceuus spellbook and running north.

To reach the best spot to kill maniacal monkeys, players should navigate through the second hole with vines (marked as 2 on the map) of Kruk’s Dungeon, then they will need to climb down and head south-east until they reach a large room. It is advised to check if there are any other players currently present by right-clicking the hole and selecting the “Look-in Hole” option. Sharing a world is not recommended as it will reduce experience rates for both players.

General information

Use Protect from Melee at all times. Use the 1-dose prayer potions dropped by the maniacal monkeys to replenish Prayer points. Alternatively, players who have the bonecrusher can equip the dragonbone necklace or the bonecrusher necklace to restore Prayer points whenever needed.

When the maniacal monkeys lose aggression towards the player after roughly 10 minutes, they should run west along the south passage to the yellow box indicated on the map above. Once the adjacent maniacal monkeys become agressive again, the aggression has been reset and the player may return to their training spot.

Players on a budget looking to recoup some of the money spent on runes or chinchompas can use Imp-in-a-box (level 71 Hunter) and bank 4-dose Prayer potions while dropping the leftover magic boxes. This assumes the bonecrusher necklace or the dragonbone necklace with a bonecrusher method is used, which removes the need for prayer potions. For example, a player ice bursting who leaves and returns after filling up on prayer potions after all the Imp-in-a-box have been used, can expect to be refunded about half the cost of the runes spent for that trip.

Even without the necklace, players may find it worth bringing a bonecrusher. Depending on the method used, a bonecrusher can provide as high as 40k Prayer experience per hour.

Solo methods

There are different methods to stack the maniacal monkeys for solo players. See the gallery below for the three most common methods. Higher click-intensity methods may provide higher experience rates as you will hit larger amounts of monkeys. While Ice Burst and Barrage hit a maximum of 9 targets, Chinchompas have a higher limit of 11 targets, making high-intensity methods more efficient and worthwhile when training Ranged compared to Magic.

• 

  Low-intensity. Simply use auto-retaliate for all attacks. Run north-east and then back to this spot every few minutes to clump the monkeys as needed.

• 

  Medium-intensity. After each attack, click on a 3×3 clump of maniacal monkeys.

• 

  High-intensity. Ideal for chinning. Click back and forth after every attack to stack the monkeys as seen in the animated image. Use auto-retaliate.

Using 2 dancing accounts

Maniacal monkeys can be stacked automatically by having 2 accounts follow each other in front of the player. This method allows the player to fully AFK without needing to run back and forth to stack the monkeys.

At first, the two accounts need to wait 10 minutes to lose the aggressiveness of the monkeys. After that, the second player should follow the first and then head to one of the stacking corners seen in the videos above. If the second player follows the first one at the right time, the characters will start moving around each other (‘dancing’). This finishes the preparation, and now the account that wishes to train can run to one of the corners near the two dancing players, and the monkeys will be stacked automatically (this dancing movement is basically an automatic shuffling machine which stacks the monkeys).

To optimally shuffle, stand in one of the stacking corners. Visualize a 2×2 tile square wherein the player who is bursting is in the top right. The two accounts should be shuffling on the other 3 tiles. This can be done by simply having 1 stand still on the bottom right tile, one stand on the bottom left following the account on the bottom right tile, and the bottom right tile following the bottom left player. If done correctly, this can increase experience rates by up to 20%. This can be especially helpful if the player often finds themselves running out of run energy while stacking.

Using the crystal halberd

Using the special attack of a Crystal halberd or dragon halberd when it is available, optionally with the death charge spell if training Ranged, provides about 50,000 experience per hour in Attack, Strength, or Defence while only slightly reducing magic or ranged experience and supplies used per hour – this can be efficient depending upon the player’s goals. If using this method, it is advisable to prefer melee strength over prayer bonus or magic/ranged accuracy in slots where gear would not increase the Magic or Ranged hit – for instance, using a Mixed hide cape or a Fire cape over Ava’s accumulator, or a Berserker ring (i) over a Ring of shadows. Bringing divine strength potions, switching to an offensive prayer and wearing the best strength-boosting gear while using the halberd’s special attacks is advised (or a Void melee helm if the player is using the void armour).

Only equipping the halberd when the player is able to get off at least 3 special attacks in a row minimise time spent switching. It is possible to achieve four consecutive halberd special attacks with the death charge spell off cooldown.

Using Ahrim’s set

For low-budget/mid-level players who do not have the Ancient sceptre and high level armour such as Ancestral or Virtus, using the Ahrim’s set with amulet of the damned can be a viable alternative. Not only does this provide the ability to autocast ancient magicks, the amulet of the damned also provides a 25% chance to do 30% more damage. Contrary to popular belief, barrows armour does not degrade based on the number of attacks. Rather, it degrades purely based on time in combat. This allows the player to pay an additional 12k/hr (Ahrim’s and AotD degradation costs) in exchange for the ability to achieve high rates for a fraction of the barrier-to-entry cost.

Detailed strategy by training method

Ice Burst

Maniacal monkeys have a Magic defence of 1 and so increasing magical accuracy will increase hit accuracy by no more than 1%. Therefore, the objective is to increase the max hit of the spell with the largest magic damage bonus. The base hit of Ice Burst is 22. The maximum hit with all magic damage bonuses is 33. Items to bring for Ice Bursting are prioritised as follows:

• Equipment that increases max hit
• Equipment that increases prayer bonus
• Equipment that increases magical accuracy

Players who have completed the Morytania Hard Diary also have the option of using a Bonecrusher necklace to completely remove the need to pick up prayer potions. This option is not fully AFK, however, as NPC aggro must be reset every 10 minutes. If you are on a budget, the order in which to buy the equipment is as follows:

Comparison

No Staff of the dead			Staff of the dead (no autocast)
Equipment	Increase	Max hit	Equipment	Increase	Max hit
Occult necklace	1	23	Occult necklace	1	23
Tormented bracelet OR Elite void mage	1	24	Tormented bracelet OR Elite void mage	1	24
Kodai wand OR Nightmare staff	3	27	Staff of the dead	3	27
Imbued god cape AND Elidinis’ ward	1	28	Imbued god cape AND Elidinis’ ward	1	28
Virtus mask	1	29	Virtus mask	1	29
Virtus robe bottom	1	30	Virtus robe bottom	1	30
Virtus robe top	1	31	Virtus robe top	1	31
Magus ring AND Elidinis’ ward (f)	1	32	Magus ring AND Elidinis’ ward (f)	1	32
Augury OR Eternal boots	1	33	Augury OR Eternal boots	1	33

Equipment

Slot	Recommended equipment for Magic – Ice Burst – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Virtus mask	Ancestral hat	Ahrim’s hood / Dagon’hai hat > Bloodbark helm	Void mage helm[a] / Mitre	Helm of neitiznot / Halo
	Occult necklace	Bonecrusher necklace	Dragonbone necklace	Stole	Unholy symbol / Holy symbol
	Imbued god cape	Soul cape	Ardougne cloak 4 (or best cloak variant)	Cape of Accomplishment (t)	Vestment cloak
	Virtus robe top	Ancestral robe top	Ahrim’s robetop / Dagon’hai robe top > Bloodbark body	Elite void top[a] / Proselyte hauberk / Vestment robe top	Monk’s robe top
	Virtus robe bottom	Ancestral robe bottom	Ahrim’s robeskirt / Dagon’hai robe bottom > Bloodbark legs	Elite void robe[a] / Proselyte cuisse / Vestment robe legs	Monk’s robe
	Kodai wand	Eldritch nightmare staff / Volatile nightmare staff / Nightmare staff	Staff of the dead (no autocast) / Ancient sceptre (autocast, less Magic damage)	Blue moon spear	Master wand
	Elidinis’ ward (f)	Arcane spirit shield > Elidinis’ ward	Ancient wyvern shield / Mage’s book / Malediction ward	Book of darkness	Broodoo shield / God book
	Rada’s blessing 4	God blessing / Rada’s blessing 3/2	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Tormented bracelet / Void knight gloves[a]	Holy wraps	White gloves	Barrows gloves	Infinity gloves
	Eternal boots / Devout boots	Echo boots / Holy sandals	Guardian boots	White boots / Infinity boots	Wizard boots
	Ring of the gods (i) / Magus ring	Ring of suffering (i)	Ring of shadows	Seers ring (i)	Explorer’s ring 4

Inventory

• Royal seed pod (or transportation to Ape Atoll and teleport out)
• Kandarin headgear (or any other light source, with tinderbox if necessary)
• Holy wrench (if you do not have a ring of the gods (i))
• Monkey greegree, if you have not completed Monkey Madness II
• Rune pouch optional – note that it can only hold 4,000 spell casts worth of runes
• 4 chaos runes per spell cast
• 2 death runes per spell cast
• 4 water runes per spell cast (not needed if you use a kodai wand)
• Optionally, a bonecrusher
• 4 prayer potion(4)

Experience rates are slightly variable by method used (see general information above). The following calculations are obtained from 6 hours of the low-intensity method. A reasonable number of casts/hr is 1085 as opposed to the theoretical maximum of 1200 given the time taken to loot prayer potions, position monkeys, as well as to leave and return to the area to restore aggro. Note that Prayer and Magic levels do not have a significant impact on experience rates.

• 1085 casts/hr
• Cost per hour using kodai wand: 647,419.50
• Cost per hour using master wand: 783,370

Exp/GP data table

Max hit	Experience/hour			Gp/xp
					+
33(def)	199300	117200	155900	3.25	2.05
32(def)	194600	113700	151200	3.33	2.10
31(def)	189800	110100	146400	3.41	2.16
30(def)	185100	106600	141700	3.50	2.22
29(def)	180400	103000	137000	3.59	2.28
28(def)	175700	99400	132300	3.69	2.35
25(def)	161500	88800	118100	4.85	3.13
24(def)	156800	85200	113400	5.00	3.24
22(def)	147300	78100	103900	5.32	3.47
33	277800		155900	2.33
32	270700		151200	2.39
31	263600		146400	2.46
30	256500		141700	2.52
29	249400		137000	2.60
28	242300		132300	2.67
25	221000		118100	3.54
24	213900		113400	3.66
22	199700		103900	3.92

Ice Barrage

Maniacal monkeys have a Magic defence of 1 and so increasing magical accuracy will increase hit accuracy by no more than 1%. Therefore, the objective is to increase the max hit of the spell with the largest magic damage bonus. The base hit of Ice Barrage is 30. The maximum hit with all magic damage bonuses is 46. Items to bring for Ice Barraging are prioritised as follows:

• Equipment that increases max hit
• Equipment that increases prayer bonus
• Equipment that increases magical accuracy

Players who have completed the Morytania Hard Diary also have the option of using a Bonecrusher necklace to completely remove the need to pick up prayer potions. This option is not fully AFK, however, as NPC aggro must be reset every 10 minutes. If you are on a budget, the order in which to buy the equipment is as follows:

Comparison

No Staff of the dead			Staff of the dead (no autocast)
Equipment	Increase	Max hit	Equipment	Increase	Max hit
Occult necklace	1	31	Occult necklace	1	31
Tormented bracelet OR Elite void mage	2	33	Staff of the dead	5	36
Kodai wand OR Nightmare staff AND Imbued god cape	5	38	Tormented bracelet OR Elite void mage AND Imbued god cape	2	38
Elidinis’ ward	1	39	Elidinis’ ward	1	39
Virtus mask	1	40	Virtus mask	1	40
Virtus robe bottom	2	42	Virtus robe bottom	2	42
Virtus robe top	1	43	Virtus robe top	1	43
Magus ring AND Elidinis’ ward (f)	1	44	Magus ring AND Elidinis’ ward (f)	1	44
Augury	1	45	Augury	1	45
Eternal boots	1	46	Eternal boots	1	46

Equipment

Slot	Recommended equipment for Magic – Ice Barrage – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Virtus mask	Ancestral hat	Ahrim’s hood / Dagon’hai hat > Bloodbark helm	Void mage helm[a] / Mitre	Helm of neitiznot / Halo
	Occult necklace	Bonecrusher necklace	Dragonbone necklace	Stole	Unholy symbol / Holy symbol
	Imbued god cape	Soul cape	Ardougne cloak 4 (or best cloak variant)	Cape of Accomplishment (t)	Vestment cloak
	Virtus robe top	Ancestral robe top	Ahrim’s robetop / Dagon’hai robe top > Bloodbark body	Elite void top[a] / Proselyte hauberk / Vestment robe top	Monk’s robe top
	Virtus robe bottom	Ancestral robe bottom	Ahrim’s robeskirt / Dagon’hai robe bottom > Bloodbark legs	Elite void robe[a] / Proselyte cuisse / Vestment robe legs	Monk’s robe
	Kodai wand	Eldritch nightmare staff / Volatile nightmare staff / Nightmare staff	Staff of the dead (no autocast) / Ancient sceptre (autocast, less Magic damage)	Blue moon spear	Master wand
	Elidinis’ ward (f)	Arcane spirit shield > Elidinis’ ward	Ancient wyvern shield / Mage’s book / Malediction ward	Book of darkness	Broodoo shield / God book
	Rada’s blessing 4	God blessing / Rada’s blessing 3/2	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Tormented bracelet / Void knight gloves[a]	Holy wraps	White gloves	Barrows gloves	Infinity gloves
	Eternal boots / Devout boots	Echo boots / Holy sandals	Guardian boots	White boots / Infinity boots	Wizard boots
	Ring of the gods (i) / Magus ring	Ring of suffering (i)	Ring of shadows	Seers ring (i)	Explorer’s ring 4

Inventory

• Royal seed pod (or transportation to Ape Atoll and teleport out)
• Kandarin headgear (or any other light source, with tinderbox if necessary)
• Holy wrench (if you do not have a ring of the gods (i))
• Monkey greegree, if you have not completed Monkey Madness II
• Rune pouch optional – note that it can only hold 4,000 spell casts worth of runes
• 2 blood runes per spell cast
• 4 death runes per spell cast
• 6 water runes per spell cast (not needed if you use a kodai wand)
• Optionally, a bonecrusher
• 4 prayer potion(4)

Experience rates are slightly variable by method used (see general information above). The following calculations are obtained from 6 hours of the low-intensity method. A reasonable number of casts/hr is 1085 as opposed to the theoretical maximum of 1200 given the time taken to loot prayer potions, position monkeys, as well as to leave and return to the area to restore aggro. Note that Prayer and Magic levels do not have a significant impact on experience rates, however having 77 prayer for augry makes the bonecrusher necklace comparable in DPS to the Occult necklace, without losing prayer points if AFK.

• 1085 casts/hr
• Cost per hour using kodai wand: 994,185.50
• Cost per hour using master wand: 1,202,180

In order to provide reference experience rates and costs, the experience per hour here is calculated by extrapolating from Ice Bursting data (scaling based on damage). However, this data is representative.

Exp/GP data table

Items	Max hit	Experience/hour			Gp/xp
						+
(def)	46	273700	163400	217300	3.63	2.27
(def)	45	269000	159800	212600	3.70	2.32
(def)	44	264300	156300	207900	3.76	2.36
(def)	41	250100	145600	193700	3.97	2.51
(def)	40	245400	142100	189000	4.05	2.57
(def)	39	240700	138500	184200	4.13	2.62
(def)	35	221800	124300	165300	5.42	3.47
(def)	34	217000	120800	160600	5.54	3.56
(def)	33	212300	117200	155900	5.66	3.65
(def)	30	198100	106600	141700	6.07	3.95
	46	383200		217300	2.59
	45	376100		212600	2.64
	44	369000		207900	2.69
	41	347700		193700	2.86
	40	340600		189000	2.92
	39	333500		184200	2.98
	35	305000		165300	3.94
	34	297900		160600	4.04
	33	290800		155900	4.13
	30	269500		141700	4.46

Prayer bonus vs Ranged attack bonus

Maniacal monkeys have a Defence level of 10. Because of this, equipping best-in-slot ranged accuracy gear versus no items at a Ranged level of 80/99 will only increase accuracy by 0.75%/0.60%. In the worst case scenario, this translates to a negligible 14 missed hits per hour.

Because of this, prioritising prayer bonus over ranged accuracy results in 23-42 fewer prayer potions doses per hour or less time spent without a necklace of anguish equipped if using the bonecrusher method. If you instead use max ranged bonus gear and are able to pick up prayer potions and continue throwing chinchompas without losing any ticks or unstacking the monkeys significantly, you would gain no more than an extra 5,000 experience per hour. It is much more likely that players will spend more time picking up and consuming prayer potions than the minimal extra damage output of ranged accuracy gear. For this reason prayer bonus gear is considered superior to having higher ranged accuracy, and it also makes training less intense.

The lone exception to this may occur at certain ranged levels and with certain setups (DPS calculation required) when the player does not gain a max hit from wearing the necklace of anguish. In this specific case, wearing the bonecrusher necklace with a preference for high ranged accuracy equipment over prayer bonus (ex: pegasian boots, archers ring (i)) becomes slightly better, as your prayer will remain almost full the entire time due to the effects of the bonecrusher necklace.

Equipment

Slot	Recommended equipment for Ranged – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Void ranger helm[1]	Masori mask (f)	Mitre	Halos	Blessed coif/Armadyl helmet
	Necklace of anguish	Bonecrusher necklace / Dragonbone necklace	Stole	Unholy symbol / Holy symbol	Amulet of fury
	Ava’s assembler	Soul cape	Ardougne cloak 4 (or best cloak variant)	Cape of Accomplishment (t)	Vestment cloak
	Elite void top[1]	Masori body (f)	Void knight top[1]	Vestment robe top/Monk’s robe top	Blessed body/Armadyl chestplate
	Elite void robe[1]	Masori chaps (f)	Void knight robe[1]	Vestment robe legs/Monk’s robe	Blessed chaps/Armadyl chainskirt
	Black chinchompa	Red chinchompa	Chinchompa	N/A	N/A
	Twisted buckler	Dragonfire ward	Odium ward	Book of law	Unholy book
	Rada’s blessing 4	God blessing / Rada’s blessing 3/2	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Void knight gloves[1]	Zaryte vambraces	Blessed bracers	N/A	N/A
	Devout boots	Holy sandals	Blessed boots	Pegasian boots	Ranger boots
	Ring of the gods (i)	Ring of suffering (i)	Ring of shadows	Explorer’s ring 4	Archers ring (i)

Inventory

• Transportation to Ape Atoll and teleport out such as royal seed pod
• Light source such as Kandarin headgear, Firemaking cape or bullseye lantern
• Monkey greegree if you have not completed Monkey Madness II
• Bonecrusher necklace switch for restoring Prayer points (recommended)
• Stamina potion (4) and divine ranging potion (4)
  • If not using dancing accounts, bring approximately a 2:1 ratio of stamina and divine ranging potions (e.g. 14 staminas and 7 divine ranging potions), assuming you re-pot every 5 minutes. Anticipate approximately 5 minutes per stamina potion dose. As of the Update:Run Energy Changes update, fewer stamina potions may be needed, with potentially none needed at high enough Agility levels.
  • If using dancing accounts to stack the monkeys, only bring 1 stamina potion to get to the area and the rest divine ranging potions. At higher Agility levels, the stamina potion may not be needed.
• 1-2 prayer potion (4)
• Holy wrench (only if picking up prayer potions and you do not have a ring of the gods (i))
• Players can throw around 1,900 chinchompas per hour on Medium fuse (Rapid), so 11,400 chinchompas would be needed for a 6 hour chinning trip.

In order to reach maximum experience rates, you should actively stack the maniacal monkeys so that each attack hits the maximum number of targets. This can be automatically done by using 2 dancing accounts.

• 1866 chinchompas/hr (with Medium Fuse, equivalent to Rapid)
• Cost/hour using chinchompas: 1,311,798
• Cost/hour using red chinchompas 2,130,972
• Cost/hour using black chinchompas 6,213,780

In order to provide reference experience rates and costs, the experience per hour here is calculated by extrapolating from red chinchompa data at Ranged levels 80-90, a Prayer level of 99, while using Ranged potions every 6 levels, with Protect from Melee, Preserve and Eagle Eye activated, with the best-in-slot prayer and ranged gear as described above. Experience rates for low levels may be slightly higher due to fewer monkey overkills, and conversely experience rates for high levels may be slightly lower due to overkills. These experience rates assume using the high-intensity training method described above.

• Having no necklace of anguish reduces experience rates and increases costs by about 10%.
• Using Rigour instead of Eagle Eye should increase experience rates and reduce costs by about 7%, assuming no additional time is spent gathering prayer potions. Realistically, costs should be reduced by about 7% but the experience rate would be increased by less than 7%.
• Using long-ranged for defensive chinning, the gp/xp for Ranged+Defence combined should be the same, but expect 37.5% the experience rate for Ranged as well as Defence each (e.g. 600,000 experience per hour on rapid would translate to 225,000 experience per hour for Ranged as well as Defence while on long-range)
• Using the method with dragonbone necklace and bonecrusher mentioned above will give almost the same experience rates as in the table below.

Weapon	lvl	Xp/hr	Xp/hr	Xp/chin	Gp/xp
	45	269100	89700	144.2	4.87
	45	N/A
	45	N/A
	55	340100	113400	182.3	3.86
	55	411600	137200	220.6	5.18
	55	N/A
	65	376800	125600	202	3.48
	65	483100	161000	258.9	4.41
	65	553400	184500	296.6	11.23
	75	447700	149200	239.9	2.93
	75	554500	184800	297.2	3.84
	75	625100	208400	335	9.94
	85	484200	161400	259.5	2.71
	85	591300	197100	316.9	3.60
	85	731800	243900	392.2	8.49
	95	555500	185200	297.7	2.36
	95	663000	221000	355.3	3.21
	95	803800	267900	430.8	7.73
	99	556000	185300	297.9	2.36
	99	698400	232800	374.3	3.05
	99	839400	279800	449.8	7.40