The Black salamander is the strongest salamander that can be caught using the Hunter skill at level 67 Hunter, giving 319 exp per catch. They can be found north-east of the Chaos Temple. It requires level 70 Attack, Magic and Ranged to wield, and is a 2-handed weapon. Harralander tar is used as ammunition for the salamander.
A player attacks using a salamander.
The black salamander is a viable weapon substitute for the Barrows minigame. The ammunition is cheaper than a cast of Magic Dart. Magic bonus, ranged bonus and slash bonus do not affect its accuracy, so you will often find players using the magic style in full rune armour which has a similar effect as casting in full mystic robes.
It is sometimes seen used in PvP scenarios, as the wielder has access to all three combat styles without necessitating equipment switches, making it difficult for an opponent to tell which combat style is being used. It is effective for circumventing protection prayers and taking advantage of combat triangle weaknesses.
Salamanders can be used to train ranged, magic and strength.
Combat styles
|
Combat style | Type | Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scorch | Slash | Strength and Hitpoints | |
| Flare | Range | Ranged and Hitpoints | |
| Blaze | Magic | Magic and Hitpoints |
Combat data
Due to the nature of salamanders, combat experience is rewarded normally, only you will usually get less magic exp per attack because since you aren't using runes, there isn't a base exp amount per cast.
- When the salamander is set to Scorch. Players gain Strength experience at as exp.
- When the salamander is set to Flare. Players gain Ranged experience at as exp.
- When the salamander is set to Blaze. Players gain Magic experience at as exp.
Maximum hit
For ranged mode the ranged strength bonus of the tar is used to decide the maximum hit. The black salamander uses harralander tars which have a ranged strength bonus of 49 (same as rune arrows).
For melee mode the strength bonus of the salamander is used, which is 71 (same as dragon longsword).
The maximum hit for magic mode uses the "magic strength bonus" of the salamander. This bonus is not visible in the equipment stats, but is equal to 92 for the black salamander.
The max hit formula for salamanders is: floor(0.5 + Magic*(64 + Bonus)/640), where "Magic" is your visible magic level (the level shown in the stats tab) and "Bonus" is the "magic strength bonus" for the salamander, in this case 92.
This gives us the following formula for the black salamander, where "Magic" is your visible magic level:
Max hit = floor(0.5 + Magic*39/160)
Specific boosts can increase maximum hits. The table below shows maximum hits from level 70 to level 104.
 level
|
Maximum hit |
|---|---|
| 70-71 | 17 |
| 72-75 | 18 |
| 76-79 | 19 |
| 80-84 | 20 |
| 85-88 | 21 |
| 89-92 | 22 |
| 93-96 | 23 |
| 97-100 | 24 |
| 101-104 | 25 |
| 105-108 | 26 |
| 109 | 27 |
It offers high hits especially for magic, however it may not be as useful as using other weapons, such as a Trident of the seas, due to the lack of magic attack bonus and its attack distance of 1 square (although it can attack diagonally, unlike most melee weapons). This can be problematic at Barrows due to the brothers' powerful melee attacks.
Trivia
- The attack speed shown only applies to the Scorch (strength) and Blaze (magic) attack styles. The attack speed of the Black Salamander when using the Flare (ranged) attack style is 6, which is similar in concept to the Rapid style of most ranged weapons.
- It is possible to use this item to attack aviansies, including Kree'arra, using melee, which cannot be done using regular melee weapons.
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