Cerberus/Strategies Guide – OSRS

Cerberus is a high level Slayer boss. A Slayer level of 91 is required to inflict damage and a slayer task of Cerberus or hellhounds. Wild pies can be used to boost the player’s Slayer level, but only if they have a minimum of 86 Slayer, and the boost must be maintained for the entire kill.

It is the only monster to drop the eternal, pegasian, and primordial crystals which are used to upgrade the infinity, ranger, and dragon boots to the best-in-slot eternal, pegasian, and primordial boots respectively.

In addition, it is also able to drop a Smouldering stone, which can be combined with a dragon axe, pickaxe, or harpoon to turn them into their respective infernal counterparts; the infernal axe, pickaxe, and harpoon.

How to get there

Cerberus’ Lair can be found in Taverley Dungeon, at the hellhounds’ area. There will be a small opening that players can crawl into to enter the lair.

Effective ways to get to Taverley Dungeon include teleporting to Falador and using the wall shortcut near the West bank, only a short run from the dungeon entrance, or moving one’s Player-owned house to Taverley, exiting via the house portal and running south.

Due to the huge distance from a bank to Cerberus’ lair, it is highly encouraged that players do not attempt the boss until they have 65 or higher Agility, as attempting to run from the entrance to her lair the normal way is extremely unfeasible. 70 Agility is required for the pipe shortcut, and 80 for the wall trap shortcut. Both can be boosted, meaning 65/75 Agility is the minimum needed to use the shortcuts. This avoids the use of a dusty key; if entering from pipe, have Protect from Magic active before going in to avoid potentially getting scorched by a blue dragon. If entering from the wall spikes, attack a skeleton and let it attack once before jumping, as the occasional poison spider can wander around the area.

The fastest method would involve key master teleports, but these are an uncommon, untradeable drop from Cerberus.

Mechanics

Attack Styles

Cerberus attacks with all three forms of combat:

• Melee – Cerberus bites the player. This attack will only be used if the player is standing within melee range.
• Ranged – Cerberus stands on her hind legs and kicks out with her front legs, firing a translucent spiky ball.
• Magic – Cerberus lowers her head and fires a smooth black ball.
  • All of these attacks have a max hit of 23.
  • Protection Prayers prevent all damage, but must be active as the attack is launched.

Triple Attack

• This attack is initiated as her first attack and is repeated after every ten attacks in sequence.
• She uses a magic, ranged and then melee attack 2 ticks after one another. This melee attack will be executed regardless of distance, and does not act as a projectile.
• As with her standard attacks, these can deal up to 23 damage and can be fully blocked by prayer.

Summoned souls

• This attack only starts when Cerberus falls below 400 health, and is used every seventh attack.
• This attack is indicated with her howling Aaarrrooooooo, causing three Summoned Souls to appear from behind the archaic skull. They cannot be harmed.
• Each one attacks using a different combat style:
  • Red is melee
  • Blue is magic
  • Green is ranged
• The souls appear in a randomized order, and attack once each in sequence from west to east.
  • If the attack is not protected against, it will deal 30 damage; an elysian spirit shield reduces this to 22 damage.
  • If the attack is protected against, it will drain 30 prayer points instead; a spectral spirit shield reduces this to 15 prayer points.
    • It is sufficient to have the correct prayer active when the attack is launched, even if this would drain the player’s prayer to 0. As a result, players need a minimum of about 65 prayer points (35 with a spectral spirit shield) when the attack starts to block all three attacks.
    • In order to block the attack, it must be prayed against before the spirit attacks.

If Cerberus is killed when the spirits are summoned, they will despawn upon attempting to attack the player. Note that any spirits that attack just as she dies will still damage the player, so pray accordingly if this happens.

• 

  A summoned soul using melee

• 

  A summoned soul using magic

• 

  A summoned soul using ranged

Lava pools

• This attack only occurs when Cerberus is below 200 health, is indicated by her howling Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr and is used every fifth attack.
• Three lava pools are deployed when this attack is initiated – one on the player’s location, and two at random parts of the area.
• The pools have a 3×3 AoE (1 tile from the centre).
  • Standing in its radius when it is spawned deals 10 damage.
  • Standing directly on a pool deals 15 damage every two ticks.
  • Standing adjacent to a pool deals 7 damage every two ticks.
  • Antifire Protection will reduce the prolonged damage taken if you stay within range of the pools, as demonstrated by the table below.^[1]
• If the player is outside of melee range, there is enough time to react to the animations of the pools forming to move out the way.
• If the player is in melee range, there is not enough time to dodge the pool unless the player is already running as the attack begins.
• After a few seconds, the lava pools will dissipate.

If Cerberus is killed, the lava pools will stop dealing damage.

Protection used			Maximum damage
			Cerberus[a]
			Adjacent	Direct
Unprotected			7	15
			6	12
			7	15
			6	12
			7	15
			5	11
			6	12
			5	11
			6	12
			5	11
			6	12
			5	11

Legend

	Anti-dragon shield
	Protect from Magic
	Antifire potion(4)
	Super antifire potion(4)

Attack pattern

Cerberus has a special attack pattern that determines how she uses her attacks.

As mentioned in each attack section, Cerberus’ mechanics are initiated after the following, quickly summarized here:

• The triple attack is performed as the first attack, then after every ten normal attacks.
• The summoned souls attack is performed every seventh attack, but only after Cerberus has under 400 hitpoints.
• The lava pools are deployed every fifth attack, but only after Cerberus has under 200 hitpoints.

If the attacks end up overlapping with each other (e.g a triple attack and summoned souls on attack #21), Cerberus will instead prioritise the attacks in the following order:

• Triple attack > Summoned Souls > Lava pools

There is also a 10% chance that Cerberus will not use the summoned souls or lava pools special attacks when she is supposed to, and will use a regular attack instead.^[2]

Fire Wall

• This serves as a barrier to prevent the player from killing Cerberus from afar.
• It does not disappear unless the player dies fighting her.
• Moving over the fire wall deals 5 damage each time the player passes through it.

Auto-healing

• Cerberus is unattackable when she first spawns, only becoming so when she stands up.
• If no players are in her chamber, she will return to her idle stance, fully restoring all lost hitpoints.

General strategy

While fighting Cerberus, it is recommended to activate Protect from Magic.

For the most kills per hour, the player should be on the Arceuus spellbook for thralls and bring a book of the dead. If using melee, you can optionally bring soul and death runes for Death Charge for more frequent special attacks but less space for supplies. Runes to cast Ward of Arceuus can be considered as well, although beware the spell will not reduce damage inflicted by Summoned Souls or by standing in lava pools.^[3] Otherwise, no spells are needed and you do not need to bring any runes. Demonic Offering can also be used to restore prayer points, and can be useful when countering the souls attack, since there is no penalty for not having 30 prayer upon being hit. If you are suiciding supplies into the room for longer trips, bring alch runes.

As a hellhound-type boss, Cerberus has high offensive stats (220) but has a low Defence level (100). She is weak to melee attacks, primarily crush-based ones. She is slightly resistant to stab attacks and resistant against slash, magic and ranged attacks. As a demonic creature, she is also weak to Arclight and Emberlight, which should be set to stab if it is used. Despite her resistance to ranged, ranged weapons can still be extremely effective against her, in particular the twisted bow.

Upon spawning, Cerberus cannot be attacked; rather, she only has an examine option as she is sitting. Once she detects a player in the arena, she will stand up to confront the intruder and become attackable. If no players are present inside, she will return to the centre of her chamber and her attack option will be removed, which will also restore all of her health if damaged.

It is recommended to deal damage as quickly as possible while taking note of Cerberus’ attacks. The most common cause of death is the lava pool and soul combo, regardless of which one comes first. For example, during attacks 14 and 15, Cerberus will summon souls first, then follow up this attack with lava pools. The pools usually disorient players as they try to avoid them and eat up, forgetting about the souls who can deal heavy or fatal damage in the process. Simply count Cerberus’ attacks and deal with the spirits as highest priority. Ranged users usually have an advantage over melee users since the targeted pool is not applied on the same tick Cerberus initiates the mechanic, giving them more time to move away from the pool and granting their full attention to the incoming souls. Melee users will simply need to count the attacks and try to avoid running into any other pools in place.

The summoned souls are the most tedious part of the fight, as they cause heavy, unavoidable damage/drain; an unblocked hit deal 30 damage, while a blocked one drains 30 prayer instead, which can significantly cut into profits and supplies. Having a spectral spirit shield halves the drain to both prolong trips and increase overall profit. While very expensive and only particularly useful for melee users, an elysian spirit shield can reduce the damage taken from each soul attack from 30 to 22.

It is recommended to start each Cerberus kill standing underneath her and attacking her from there.

Cerberus attacks on a six-tick (3.6s) cycle, while a scythe attacks on a five-tick (3.0s) cycle. It is possible to hit Cerberus twice for every attack she makes due to this by going under her for a few ticks, then coming out to attack. This significantly increases the scythe’s damage and minimises the amount of attacks Cerberus can perform. With high hits and proper execution, this will remove a lot of the boss’ health, and in some cases, even kill her before she can summon souls.

No Ghosts Strategy

A slower but less resource intensive strategy (particularly for ironmen who don’t have a spectral spirit shield or hardcore ironmen who want to avoid dealing with the lava pools and ghosts at once), the player can hit Cerberus to just above 400 hitpoints and wait until the 14th attack (~56 seconds) which ensures no ghosts will appear until the 28th attack. This will reduce prayer potion usage to about two doses per kill if prayer flicking is used while waiting for the 14th attack. It is recommended to put on defensive gear, such as a Dinh’s bulwark, and step away from Cerberus while waiting for the 14th attack to minimise damage taken while waiting. If you make a mistake and bring Cerberus’ health below 400 before attack #14, you can safely reset the fight by walking back over the entrance flames.

Here is a summary of Cerberus’ attacks leading up to Attack 28. You can practice this rotation by counting from the checkpoint special attacks (Combo, Lava, & Ghost attacks). For example, you want to keep Cerberus above 400 hitpoints until attack #14, so start counting 3 attacks after her second combo before resuming damage. Note that the soul and lava mechanics on attacks 25 and 28 are still conditional based on Cerberus’s hitpoints, but you will struggle to end the fight before souls if Cerberus still has over 200 HP at attack 25.

Dharok’s Armour ‘Red-Click’ Strategy

Another strategy that is less resource-intensive (particularly for ironmen who don’t have a spectral spirit shield) is to equip the Dharok’s armour set, and to flinch Cerberus and use the ‘red-click’ strategy to stall the boss. This is done by lowering the player’s Health to 1 (using a rock cake or locator orb) to maximize the damage from Dharok’s armour, attacking Cerberus, walking under the boss in the next game tick, and then performing a ‘red-click’ (also known colloquially as ‘red-x’) by clicking on the exit portcullis (which the player cannot reach while the boss is active, thus the character does not walk out from under the boss). When done successfully, this will cause Cerberus to not move while the player is standing under her. Then, upon waiting for Cerberus’ health bar to disappear, the player can repeat this pattern to attack Cerberus again without the boss retaliating. With reduced HP, maximum combat level, boosted stats, Piety, and proper equipment, the player can land a max hit of 104 on Cerberus. Despite this, the actual kill times are quite long, so players should consider whether the conserved resources are worth the time lost compared to using more standard setups.

This method can still prove quite effective with other flinching weapons if Dharok’s gear is not available, such as the purchasable Tzhaar-ket-om paired with Obsidian armour and a Berserker necklace is only a marginal loss of damage, but much safer as the player can remain at full health in case of mistakes.

If playing through a third-party game client, this method can be made more efficient using the Menu Entry Swapper plug-in, allowing the player to re-map their shift-click on Cerberus to walk under the boss, negating the need for the player to right-click and select “Walk here”.

When using this method, the player does not need to be concerned about the boss’ special attacks (ghosts or lava), as the boss never performs its initial attack. This means the only supplies consumed throughout the boss kills are boost potions, and potions to restore prayer from offensive prayers. This method is not recommended for Hardcore Ironmen, as a small mistake can lead to the boss attacking the player and likely killing them.

Suggested skills

•  85+ Attack
•  85+ Strength
•  85+ Defence
•  75+ Ranged
•  70+ Prayer (Piety, 74+ Rigour)
•  76 Magic and completion of A Kingdom Divided (if using thralls; 80 for Death Charge)

Equipment

Slot	Recommended equipment for Melee – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Slayer helmet (i)	Black mask (i)	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	Ardougne cloak 4	Ardougne cloak 3	Mythical cape
	Inquisitor’s hauberk[a]	Torva platebody[b]	Bandos chestplate	Justiciar chestguard / Fighter torso	Barrows body
	Inquisitor’s plateskirt[a]	Torva platelegs	Bandos tassets	Justiciar legguards	Barrows legs
	Scythe of vitur[c] > Emberlight[d]	Soulreaper axe[c] / Inquisitor’s mace	Osmumten’s fang	Arclight[d] / Abyssal bludgeon	Ghrazi rapier
	Avernic defender / Spectral spirit shield[e]	Dragon defender	Dragonfire shield	Rune defender	N/A
	Rada’s blessing 4	God blessing / Rada’s blessing 3/2	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Ferocious gloves[f]	Barrows gloves	Dragon gloves	Rune gloves	N/A
	Primordial boots	Echo boots	Guardian boots	Dragon boots	Rune boots
	Ultor ring	Berserker ring (i)	Brimstone ring	Lightbearer	Ring of suffering (i) / Ring of the gods (i)
	Dragon claws / Elder maul[g]	Burning claws[h][i]	Voidwaker	Dragon warhammer / Bandos godsword	Emberlight / Saradomin godsword / Dragon dagger

Inventory

16000

16000

16000

16000

• Special attack weapon (e.g. Elder maul or Dragon claws)
• Spectral spirit shield
• If you are using the Scythe of vitur or Abyssal bludgeon, bring a one-handed weapon such as Arclight to use during the summoned souls attack
• Book of the dead for casting resurrection spells on the Arceuus spellbook.
• Rune pouch with runes for Resurrect Greater Skeleton or either of the other Thrall spells. It does not matter which style of thrall is used.
• Death runes and Soul runes for Death Charge to allow for more special attacks per trip. These inventory slots can be substituted for more food or prayer potions.
• House tablets (or Construct. cape/Max cape) or Desert amulet 4
• 1-2 Divine super combat potions
• 6-9 Prayer potions or Super restores^[j]
• Sharks or higher tier food for remaining inventory space

Notes

1. ^ ^{Jump up to:1.0 1.1} If using a crush weapon
2. ^ Only better than Inquisitor’s top with an Amulet of torture
3. ^ ^{Jump up to:3.0 3.1} Use on Crush. If bringing a Spectral spirit shield, bring an additional 1-handed weapon to continue attacking the boss.
4. ^ ^{Jump up to:4.0 4.1} Use on Stab
5. ^ Only when summoned spirits are attacking
6. ^ Players might want to extend their cerberus tasks by using or switching to a Bracelet of slaughter when the boss is almost dead.
7. ^ Elder maul is most efficient if using a scythe of vitur without Inquisitor’s armour.
8. ^ Use on stab.
9. ^ Cerberus has an immunity to burn but still benefits from the demonbane bonus.
10. ^ The amount of prayer/super restore potions depends if the player has a Spectral spirit shield or not.

As she possesses a Magic level of 220, the Twisted bow can be used on her with devastating effect. Cerberus does not move in to attack players with melee, meaning that players are only subjected to magic and ranged attacks outside of the triple attack mechanic. Ranging also allows players to quickly avoid the lava marker attack since it does not appear instantly when launched at a distance. The Bow of Faerdhinen is also effective, but slightly worse than the Toxic blowpipe if using rune darts or better. Crystal armour should be worn if using the Bow of Faerdhinen.

Slot	Recommended equipment for Ranged – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Slayer helmet (i)	Black mask (i)	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Necklace of anguish	Amulet of fury	Amulet of glory	Amulet of power	N/A
	Dizana’s quiver	Ava’s assembler	Ranging cape or Max cape	Ava’s accumulator	N/A
	Masori body (f)	Armadyl chestplate	Crystal body	Blessed body	Karil’s leathertop
	Masori chaps (f)	Armadyl chainskirt	Crystal legs	Blessed chaps	Karil’s leatherskirt
	Twisted bow	Scorching bow / Toxic blowpipe[a]	Bow of faerdhinen	Zaryte crossbow[b]	N/A
	Dragon arrow	Amethyst arrow	Rune arrow	Ruby dragon bolts & Diamond dragon bolts	Rada’s blessing 4 (only with blowpipe)
	Zaryte vambraces	Barrows gloves	Blessed vambraces	Dragon gloves	Combat bracelet
	Pegasian boots	Ranger boots	Blessed boots	Shayzien boots (5)	Snakeskin boots
	Ring of suffering (ri)	Venator ring	Lightbearer	Archers ring (i)	Ring of the gods (i)
	Zaryte crossbow	Toxic blowpipe / Tonalztics of ralos	Saradomin godsword	N/A	N/A

		500

16000

16000

16000

16000

Inventory

• Special attack weapon (e.g. Toxic blowpipe or Saradomin godsword)
• Spectral spirit shield and a one-handed weapon alongside it
• Book of the dead for casting resurrection spells on the Arceuus spellbook.
• Rune pouch with runes for Resurrect Greater Skeleton or either of the other Thrall spells. It does not matter which style of thrall is used.
• House tablets (or Construct. cape/Max cape) or Desert amulet 4
• 1 Divine bastion potion or 1 Divine ranging potion
• 6-9 Prayer potions or Super restores^[c]
• Sharks for remaining inventory spaces

Notes

1. ^ Toxic blowpipe has marginally better DPS than Scorching bow if the user has (completely) max gear and doesn’t miss ticks while attacking, but comes at the cost of reduced range. The blowpipe becomes increasingly stronger if Cerberus’ defence has been reduced.
2. ^ When using a two-handed weapon, it is advisable to bring a one-handed weapon if using the spectral spirit shield as it cannot be worn with a two-handed weapon. This is to deal extra damage when the Summoned Souls are present.
3. ^ The amount of prayer/super restore potions depends if the player has a Spectral spirit shield or not.