Desert Treasure is one of RuneScape's most well-known and popular quests, and is commonly completed by player killers for its reward of the Ice Barrage spell. Due to the difficulty of the quest's bosses, players are highly advised to read through each section before facing them, in order to properly understand the fight. Each boss has unique fight mechanics that heavily favour certain combat styles, including immunity to specific spells. Pures wishing to avoid gaining Hitpoints experience should note that each boss may be defeated with the help of a cannon, but should be prepared to use 500 or more cannonballs due to the high amount of combat throughout the quest.

At any point in the quest, if you're carrying one or more of the diamonds, you may be attacked by a level 95 Stranger who appears next to you and carries a poisoned dragon dagger. This is random and does not happen to everyone, but to be safe, carry a teleport and antipoison when moving the diamonds, and have some prayer points remaining until you finish the quest. Players can simply flee from him when he appears if they do not wish to fight him, and simply banking the diamonds will prevent him from appearing further, although he can appear the second you get a diamond.