Araxxor/Strategies Guide – OSRS

Araxxor is a Slayer boss (requiring 92 slayer) found in the Morytania Spider Cave. In order to fight him, completion of Priest in Peril to access Morytania is required, as well as having been assigned an Araxyte or spider Slayer task.

Recommendations

• High melee combat stats
  • Level  85 or higher
  • Level  85 or higher
  • Level  70 or higher
  • Level  85 or higher
  • Level  70 or higher for access to Piety
• A way to cure or protect from venom
• Completion of Sins of the Father for access to Darkmeyer

Getting there

The entrance to the cave

The quickest methods of reaching the cave entrance are as follows:

• Teleporting directly to the cave via use of a spider cave teleport
• Teleporting to Hallowed Sepulchre using a hallowed crystal shard, then exiting and using the wall shortcut just south east. Requires completion of Sins of the Father, level 63 Agility, and installing 2 long ropes.
  • Players can also use Drakan’s medallion to teleport to Darkmeyer, then bank at the Hallowed Sepulchre.
• Teleporting via ectophial or fairy ring code ALQ, then running south past the small bridge. Ectophial can be used for convenient banking at Port Phasmatys as well.

Fight overview

As with all araxytes, Araxxor’s attacks can inflict venom, and as with most spiders, is weak to crush. He has a Defence level of 135, with his lowest defence bonus being crush at +15. His Defence level can be only drained by up to 45 levels; as such, one elder maul special attack will suffice. Though Araxxor has an elemental weakness to fire spells, his high magical defences makes this trait mostly thematic, and the generally lower defences of magic robes will have the player take more damage overall.

Araxxor spawns in the middle of his chamber and attacks with melee; if out of his melee range, he will close the distance and attack with either magic or ranged – whichever of the player’s defences is lower. His melee and ranged attacks have a maximum hit of 38, the melee hit can be reduced to 5 with Protection from Melee, whilst the ranged attack can only be reduced to 18 with Protect from ranged active; notably, his ranged attacks will drain 9% of the player’s Defence level upon a successful hit. Meanwhile, his magic attack has a maximum hit of 21, and drains 9% of the player’s prayer points when hit. All of his attacks are also calculated upon launch, and late reactions will not mitigate damage. Lastly, wearing aranea boots will block his ranged attack once every 8 ticks (4.8 seconds), but not the magic ones.

Around Araxxor’s lair, there are nine eggs; three each of red, white, and green. The first egg hatches after three standard attacks from Araxxor, hatching clockwise starting from the south-easternmost egg, with subsequent eggs hatching after every six standard attacks.

The eggs will always follow one of three potential patterns, with the last two sets copying that of the first:

• Green > White > Red
• White > Red > Green
• Red > Green > White

Players can opt to destroy the eggs, which have 65 Hitpoints. If an egg has been fully destroyed, Araxxor will simply spawn an araxyte from the next egg in the rotation, skipping over the destroyed egg. Any damage dealt to an egg without destroying it will carry over to the hatched araxyte, however if an egg has taken more damage than the araxyte that would have hatched from it (58 Hitpoints), then the egg will simply despawn, and Araxxor will use another six standard attacks before the next egg in sequence hatches.

Players will always max hit when attacking the hatched araxytes with a crush or heavy Ranged weapon (such as a crossbow or ballista) if crush or ranged is their highest accuracy style respectively, or the noxious halberd. Attacking the unhatched eggs with anything else does not guarantee a max hit, and rolls damage normally. Both the eggs and the araxytes count as on-task monsters for the purposes of benefiting from the slayer helmet’s damage bonus, but will not reduce the player’s task kill count.

Every six standard attacks, Araxxor will use one of three special attacks, which can be quickly determined by identifying the south-easternmost egg. All of these attacks leave acid pools, which inflict venom and deal increasingly larger damage (starting from 4) the longer the player stays on them.

Appearance		Description	Araxxor’s special attack
		Acidic Araxytes attack with ranged that can deal up to 7 damage. If killed, it will explode, splattering acid on random squares within a 7×7 AoE surrounding it. The araxyte will always attack off-tick from Araxxor if it is not prompted to move.	Acid Ball – Araxxor launches a projectile that flies in a straight line from his direction towards the player. Being in the ball’s trajectory (which has a 3×3 Area-of-Effect despite its 1×1 appearance) will deal approximately 18 venom damage; the pools that it leaves behind is the centre tile of the ball. These will explode upon hitting a wall, splattering acid in a 7×7 AoE from impact. Try to have Araxxor face a wall so the ragged tiles are less impactful. The splatter will damage before the pool forms.
		Mirrorback Araxytes will redirect 20% of the damage dealt to Araxxor towards themselves, and further recoil 50% of that damage to the player, effectively resulting in players taking damage equal to 10% of the damage they dealt to Araxxor. Attacking the spider directly with a melee weapon will result in the player taking 50% of the damage they deal to it as recoil.Attacking it with ranged, magic, or with a halberd (while one tile away) will ignore their deflection. Furthermore, if the player has Vengeance currently active, attacking it will result in no damage taken and the mirrorback will instead receive the damage that would have been dealt to the player.	Acid Splatter – Araxxor launches venom blobs in a wide arc around the player that hit for low venom damage, leaving acid pools behind. As with the acid missile, the splatters will damage before the pool forms.
		Ruptura Araxytes do not directly attack the player, but will move towards them and explode once they are in melee range. The amount of damage dealt is proportional to its health; at full health, an up-close explosion will deal up to 80 damage, while being at least 3 tiles away from it deals a minimum of 7 damage.This explosion attack can be used against Araxxor and his minions (whether as an egg or hatched), with the damage dealt based on its health at the time of explosion. If it explodes at full health and the target’s hitboxes are underneath it, it will deal 80 damage; targets next to it will take 64, and the minimum damage incurred is 33.	Acid Drip – Araxxor launches a single venom blob onto the player, leaving them dripping in venom and leaving pools behind as they move for 6 ticks.

• To counter the mirrorback araxyte with melee, the player must cast Vengeance and attack it in quick succession right after Araxxor attacks. Otherwise, Vengeance may deflect Araxxor’s attack instead, failing the counter.

• The player can lure Araxxor towards an egg and lure the ruptura araxyte to explode both him and the next egg. Though the egg has one Hitpoint remaining, it will fail to hatch, forcing Araxxor use another three standard attacks to hatch the next egg.

It is always best to lure the red araxytes so they explode underneath Araxxor for the extra damage; while optional, it is generally recommended to lure them to white eggs if the player does not wish to directly attack them, especially when the starting egg is red or green, as this will help remove a lot of unnecessary reflect damage. Make sure to move in a way that Araxxor will only use melee.

If this is unavailable, the white araxytes can be one-hit with a crush weapon while under the effects of vengeance, the noxious halberd, and both can be one-hit using a heavy ballista with dragon javelins or two-hit by a hunters’ sunlight crossbow with moonlight bolts or a Karil’s crossbow with bolt racks (though this requires a high Ranged level and a ranged boost). Alternatively, with a high enough max hit, bringing the white mirrorbacks down to single-digit Hitpoints is often sufficient, as it reduces recoil to the player down to a minimum and allows directing the second hit to the boss instead without incurring much damage.

Slot	Recommended equipment for Araxyte weapon – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Noxious halberd[a][b]	Hunters’ sunlight crossbow with  [c] Karil’s crossbow with  [c] Heavy ballista with  [c]	Rune crossbow with  [d] Any melee weapon with Crush as your most accurate combat style[e] [f]

Enrage phase

Upon reaching 25% of his health, Araxxor will enter an enrage phase, coating his two front legs with venom, increasing his Defence level by 35, Magic level by 28, Ranged level by 31 and attack speed from 6 to 4 ticks (2.4s); prior Defence levels drained will carry over.

For the remainder of the fight, Araxxor will replace his melee attack with a cleave attack, but will still use magic and ranged attacks at a distance, as before. The cleave attack targets a 1×3 area around the player’s location, dealing melee damage and leaving acid pools on the ground. However, if the player is standing under Araxxor when targeted, the cleave will only leave one acid tile in the centre. The area Araxxor targets when stepped under should be stepped away from by 2 tiles cardinally, or 1 tile diagonally, as it can be unpredictable which direction the line of attacked tiles is facing.

The player can dodge the cleave attack by moving outside the targeted area immediately when Araxxor shouts Skree!. If the player fails to dodge the cleave attack, Protect from Melee will still reduce its damage by ~50%. Aranea boots can be worn to protect the player from the cleave attack up to once every 8 ticks (4.8 seconds) – as well as from Araxxor’s ranged attack – although they will not negate the poison damage from the acid pools left behind.

A way to finish the enrage phase slightly quicker is to bait Araxxor into attacking the tiles he occupies, which results in him damaging himself for 8-12 damage. To perform this method:

1. When enrage phase starts, move two tiles into him.
2. When Araxxor shouts Skree!, click on him to attack. You will move two tiles away to attack.
3. For the rest of the kill, repeat the following: when Araxxor’s cleave animation shows his front two legs stabbing forward, click to move to a tile without acid, then immediately click him to attack.
4. Optionally, stepping 1 tile back immediately after attacking allows the player to walk Araxxor and use a new tile each attack to avoid the acid pool damage – it is recommended to use a 4-tick weapon if doing this.
   • While one acid pool is visually left behind, the attack still has 1×3 AoE.

If players find themselves unable to perform the step-under technique, they can dodge by moving either two tiles to the side or one tile backwards when he shouts Skree!. Note that if moving backwards, wait for a second before attacking or you will be dragged onto the new acid tiles.

• The player moves two tiles away from where they stood.

• The player steps back right as Araxxor attacks.

After the fight is finished, the player must either choose to harvest or destroy the boss’ corpse. Harvesting will yield normal rewards, while destroying forfeits all rewards, except elite clue scrolls, for a doubled rate of the pet. The player will not be able to preview loot before destroying the corpse; unless the player is killing Araxxor with the sole purpose of obtaining the pet, it is generally ill-advised to do this as this may result in the loss of an araxyte fang or noxious halberd pieces, which provide the majority of profit. Araxxor will respawn shortly regardless of the decision made.

If harvesting the boss, players should be mindful of supply drops, as Araxxor can potentially drop up to six items at once; an araxyte venom sack or a 1-dose super combat potion, one or two 3-dose prayer potions or a 4-dose prayer potion, along with 2-3 sharks or wild pies. If the player’s inventory is full due to having no space after looting, excess rewards will be dropped to the floor and follow the normal despawn timer, despite the instance providing up to three hours for player-dropped items, and it is important not to lose these supplies as they can help extend trips.

While a scythe can provide faster kills, each swing costs 596.08 coins per attack. If the player is concerned about costs, they can opt for other crush weapons such as a soulreaper axe or inquisitor’s mace, though kills will be slightly slower as a result.

Slot	Recommended equipment for Melee – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Slayer helmet (i)	Serpentine helm	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Amulet of rancour	Amulet of torture	Amulet of blood fury	Amulet of fury	Amulet of glory
	Infernal cape	Fire cape	Mythical cape	Ardougne cloak	N/A
	Inquisitor’s hauberk	Torva platebody	Bandos chestplate	Blood moon chestplate / Fighter torso	Barrows equipment
	Inquisitor’s plateskirt	Torva platelegs	Bandos tassets	Blood moon tassets	Barrows equipment
	Scythe of vitur[a]	Soulreaper axe[a] > Inquisitor’s mace	Abyssal bludgeon > Ursine chainmace (u)	Saradomin’s blessed sword[a][b] > Zamorakian hasta[c] > Sarachnis cudgel	Dual macuahuitl > Saradomin sword[c] > Zombie axe[c]
	Avernic defender	Dragon defender	Rune defender / Toktz-ket-xil	N/A	N/A
	Rada’s blessing 4	Rada’s blessing 3 / Rada’s blessing 2 / God blessing	Dragon javelin[d]	Moonlight antler bolts[e]	Broad bolts[f]
	Ferocious gloves	Barrows gloves	Dragon gloves	Rune gloves	N/A
	Primordial boots	Dragon boots / Aranea boots	Echo boots / Guardian boots	Rune boots / Mixed hide boots	N/A
	Ultor ring	Berserker ring (i)	Ring of suffering (ri)	Lightbearer[g]	N/A
	Elder maul + Dragon claws	Dragon warhammer + Burning claws	Voidwaker	Bandos godsword	Saradomin godsword / Ancient godsword / Ancient mace

Inventory

• A special attack weapon, such as an elder maul or dragon claws
• A weapon to safely kill the Mirrorback Araxyte, (such as a noxious halberd or heavy ballista), if not bringing Vengeance.
• Extended anti-venom+ potions
• Prayer potions
• Super combat potions
• High healing food
• Runes for Vengeance if on Lunars, Thralls and Death Charge if on Arceuus, or additional runes for Spellbook Swap if using both.

The Twisted Bow with Masori offers DPS better than the Abyssal Bludgeon and lower tier melee weapons, but is significantly outclassed by the Scythe of vitur.

Slot	Recommended equipment for Ranged – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Slayer helmet (i)	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Necklace of anguish	Amulet of fury	N/A	N/A
	Dizana’s quiver	Ava’s assembler (Best Ava’s device)	Max cape / Ranging cape(t)	N/A
	Masori body (f)	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Masori chaps (f)	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Twisted bow	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Dragon arrow	Amethyst arrow	N/A	N/A
	Zaryte vambraces	Barrows gloves	Blessed vambraces	N/A
	Aranea boots[a]	Pegasian boots	Ranger boots / Devout boots	Blessed boots
	Lightbearer	Ring of the gods (i) / Archers ring (i)	N/A	N/A
	Elder maul[b]	Dragon warhammer[b]	Zaryte crossbow	N/A

Inventory

• A special attack weapon, such as an elder maul for defence reduction or a Zaryte crossbow with ruby bolts (e) for damage.
• A heavy ballista to kill the Mirrorback Araxytes in one shot.
• Extended anti-venom+ potions
• Prayer potions
• Divine ranging potion
• High healing food
• Runes for Thralls