Avid players of OSRS have done or will do a Barrows run sometime in their journey, and many would even choose to farm it regularly. This zone is a very lucrative grind spot where you can quickly gain tons of OSRS gold if you complete a whole run. Players will find the bosses in this area very challenging, so having a good guide to help can lend you a hand in finishing it quickly.
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OSRS Barrows Overview
The Barrows is generally a series of boss fights wherein you challenge five undead brothers buried in Morytania. Each has a distinctive fighting style, which you need to be aware of to defeat them. Here are all the bosses in the Barrows:
- Ahrim, the Blighted
- Dharok, the Wretched
- Guthan, the Infested
- Karil, the Tainted
- Torag, the Corrupted
- Verac, the Defiled
Torag, Dharok, Guthan, and Verac are melee users, while Ahrim and Karil are magic and range users. Upon killing them, you get access to a chest at the trail's end, containing tons of good loot. While you can easily navigate through most fights independently, bringing the right equipment is key, especially if you don’t want to be making any significant adjustments mid-battle. Here’s all that you need to do for the Barrows.
Minimum Requirements
- Finished the Priest in Peril
- Started the His Faithful Servants
- 50 Attack and Magic for Iban's Staff
- 43 Prayer
- 50 Ranged
- Decent amount of Strength and Melee investment
While only the first two are the actual requirements to enter the Barrows, the four other conditions ensure that you can complete your runs or even have a chance of succeeding. Your stats and gear will dictate how much food and consumables you should bring for the fights.
Best Items to Bring to the Barrows
Generally, the higher level you are, the less food and supplies you’ll need to use during the battles. You’ll also easily beat all six bosses if you bring your highest and most appropriate running gear. Here are the best items to use for the Barrows raid:
- Weapons: Any charged staff (BiS would be Iban's Staff, Warp Scepter, a Trident of the Seas, and Sanguinesti Staff)
- Armor: Any BiS Magic Armor (particularly Virtus and Bloodbath)
- Cape: Any BiS Magic Cape (Imbued God Cape would be the best option)
- Boots: Any BiS Magic Boots (the best one would be Eternal Boots)
- Gloves: Any BiS Magic Gloves (I would recommend Barrow Gloves or Mystic Gloves)
- Ring: Ring of the Gods
- Shield: Ghommal's Hilt
- Ammo Slot: Any Blessing (Holy Blessing would be the best)
- Necklace: Any BiS Necklace (Occult Necklace and Amulet of Glory would be the BiS)
- Bring a melee weapon
To explain this setup, Magic Sets give you the best survivability. You're mainly guarding against Ahrim and Verac because they’re the only ones who will pose a real danger. However, the ones we listed as the recommended or BiS would give you the most optimal run. A Charged Staff is the only thing you need for the weapon because none of the brothers have any magic resistance or strong negation, so you won't need any other type of weapon.
We want players to pay particular attention to Ghommal's Hilt and Ring of the Gods because these will save them a lot of Prayer Potions. The Barrows will continuously drain your Prayer meter inside the area, prompting you to pop consumables to recover them. However, Ghommal's Hilt will prevent you from losing this resource, while Ring of the Gods will help you recover it. You won't need to bring any Prayer Potions if you have these on hand.
While you don't need the melee weapon for boss fights, you want one in your inventory to use against the regular mobs in the crypt. Using other items on these monsters, such as ranged ones, should do the job. Otherwise, only use your Charged Staff against the bosses.
What Else Do You Need to Bring
Aside from your gear, we advise players to bring HP potions and a Rune Pouch. Most of the drops in the Barrows are Runes, so having this bag can help you store more loot for more profit. You can also bring Blood Spells, which can be used on mobs in the crypt to recover some of your lost HP. Make sure to get a lot of food for the fight and try to restock every run. Also be sure to get a shovel for the digging part.
How to Get to the Barrows
Players have several ways of gaining access to the Barrows. However, the best method is to setup up a House Teleport that links you directly to the area and use a Rejuvenation Pool to get there. The other alternative would be to use Barrows Teleport, which should be cheap compared to your total payout after finishing a run. You can also bring a Kharyrll TP to get you back to the bank and make it easier for you to leave. There are other methods to get into the Barrows, but these are the most efficient.
How to Beat Each Boss
For most brothers, you only need to ensure you’re using protection against melee or ranged attacks while fighting them. They’re extremely vulnerable to magic damage, so bringing your BiS Magic sets will help you take them down in a pinch. The most efficient way to clear the crypt is to work clockwise from the southwest mound. You only have to worry about Ahrim and Verac. The former has higher magic resistance than the others, but they all generally have low natural defense, so that shouldn't be much of a problem. However, Verac has an attack that bypasses Prayer, which you should be cautious of and respond accordingly.
When you enter a mound and a prompt asks if you want to join a tunnel, you should skip that crypt first and then proceed with the others. Once all the other brothers have been beaten, return to the one with a tunnel and enter it to fight the last remaining boss. This prompt is random for each run, and where the tunnel appears will dictate the final brother fight.
You can encounter the final brother anywhere within the tunnel. However, the best way to find him is to head straight for the chest within the catacombs and open it. This will automatically spawn the last boss in the room so you can finish them quickly. However, we want to emphasize that you should only open the chest and loot it once you defeat the final brother.
How to Maximize the Rewards
While doing your Barrows run, a UI will appear on the left side, showing which bosses you have defeated and how high your probability is for the loot. Each brother you beat will add a significant amount to the percentage, and killing mobs within the tunnel will also raise it bit by bit. You want to get up to 80% of the loot probability before you fight the last boss to maximize your profit.
Defeating each boss will add their specific drops to the loot pool of the chest at the end of each run. Ensure all the brothers are defeated to maximize your chances of getting good boss gear. Here are all the potential drops:
- Ahrim's Hood
- Ahrim's Robetop
- Ahrim's Robe Skirt
- Ahrim's Staff
- Dharok's Helm
- Dharok's Platebody
- Dharok's Platelegs
- Dharok's Greataxe
- Guthan's Helm
- Guthan's Platebody
- Guthan's Chainskirt
- Guthan's Warspear
- Karil's Coif
- Karil's Leathertop
- Karil's Leatherskirt
- Karil's Crossbow
- Torag's Helmet
- Torag's Platebody
- Torag's Platelegs
- Torag's Hammers
- Verac's Helm
- Verac's Brassard
- Verac's Plateskirt
- Verac's Flail
- Mind Runes
- Chaos Runes
- Death Runes
- Blood Runes
- Bolt Racks
- Loop Half of Key
- Tooth Half of Key
- Dragon Med Helm
- Coins
How to Achieve Barrows-related Combat Achievements
You can complete seven Combat Achievements that are based on the Barrows. They have specific completion conditions to ensure you get them, totaling 14 points. Here are all the accomplishments you can finish and how to do them:
- Defence? What Defence?: Kill any Barrow Brother with only magic damage
- Barrows Novice: Open the Barrows Chest x10
- Can't Touch Me: Defeat Dharok, Verac, Torag, and Guthan without letting them hit you with a melee
- Barrows Champion: Open the Barrows Chest x25
- Pray for Success: Complete a whole run without taking damage from any brother
- Just Like That: Kill Karil with only special attacks
- Faithless Crypt Run: Complete an entire run without having more than 0 prayers.
With all these in mind, you should make at least 800,000 GP per run, so you can quickly compensate for any expenses you made for a run and more.
