After the completion of Desert Treasure II – The Fallen Empire, players can fight a stronger variant of Duke Sucellus. An even stronger awakened variant can be fought by entering the asylum gates with an awakener’s orb in the player’s inventory and selecting “Yes” when prompted.
If the player dies while fighting Duke Sucellus, their grave will appear by the asylum gates. Players will have their reclamation fee reduced by 75% until they have five kills, after which the standard death cost will apply.
Requirements
- Completion of
Desert Treasure II – The Fallen Empire
Suggested skills
- 75+
- 75+
- 70+
- 80+
- 70+
- 70+
- 76+ for Resurrection spells
Getting there
The quickest methods of reaching Ghorrock Prison, where Duke Sucellus resides, are:
- Using the ring of shadows to teleport to the Ghorrock Dungeon. This requires having used the frozen tablet on it, which is an untradeable 1/25 drop from Duke Sucellus.
- Using an icy basalt (or Weiss Portal), squeezing through the broken fence to the east, then climbing downstairs to the dungeon past the Salt Mine.
Once in the Ghorrock Dungeon, head north-east to the heavy door to enter Ghorrock Prison, where players will reach the asylum entrance directly instead of traversing through the entire prison as they did during the quest.
Fight overview
Brewing poison
Upon entering the prison, Duke Sucellus is initially asleep and must be weakened with arder-musca poisons, made from resources found within the asylum – arder powder, musca powder, and salax salt. Making this poison requires six portions of each, and two poisons are required to wake the Duke up, so twelve of each will be needed in total. To the left and right of the asylum upon entering it, there is a pestle and mortar and iron pickaxe on the walls that players can take.
The salt piles are found in the centre of the asylum, surrounded by gas vents; three of these will release gas in a 3×3 AoE from the vent, draining 4 prayer points and dealing up to 12 damage that can be reduced with a slayer helmet or gas mask. Once a vent stops emitting gas, the next one will be one vent to the east, looping back to the opposite side if already on the eastern-most vent. Players are also recommended to bring the best pickaxe available, as this increases the rate of mining them. Having 80+ Mining also ensures that only two harvests need to be made.
Meanwhile, the mushrooms are found at the end of the opposing sides of the asylum, past the extremities. Up there, ice falls will randomly strike on a tile, freezing the player for 2 ticks (1.2 seconds) and dealing up to 18 damage. These occur specifically in the area right before the second staircase on both sides, and are indicated by a shadow looming over the tile they will strike on.
In addition, the extremities will periodically wake in succession and unleash their gaze in a cone radius; they will start from the middle, south, and then north in that order on both sides. Getting caught by their gaze will freeze the player for 5 ticks (3 seconds), drain 1/4th of their prayer points, and deal up to 70 damage. Players can ignore the extremities entirely by starting from one tile south of the southern extremity and running straight to the mushrooms, only having to watch out for ice falls. To do the same in reverse, start running from one tile north of the northern extremity.
In both of these corridors, there are only two safe spots in the actual area; the tile used to grab the mushrooms from, and the tile east from it for the arder mushrooms and the tile west for the musca mushrooms. These two tiles will never be targeted by ice falls and are safe from the nearby extremity.
Grinding arder and musca mushroom yields varying amounts of powder; at level 70 Herblore, each mushroom provides five powder, so three mushrooms of each type are needed. At 80+ Herblore, players will only need to grind two of each mushroom.
After acquiring twelve salax salt, arder powder, and musca powder, place them in both Fermentation Vats and let it ferment for several seconds before collecting two finished poisons. Any excess ingredients will be removed when the Duke awakens, meaning players cannot prepare poisons in advance for subsequent fights.
Advanced tips
Players looking to speed up the preparation process may opt to use tick manipulation by performing an action to delay the skilling timer (such as cutting a celastrus bark). By running towards the resource and performing the action before a specific tile, and then instantly clicking on the resource, players can gather double the resources.
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Once the player’s true tile (green) is on the marked yellow tile (or right before it), click the celastrus bark and the mushroom in quick succession to pick two mushrooms simultaneously.
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Once the player’s true tile (green) is on the marked yellow tile (or adjacent), click the celastrus bark and the salt pile in quick succession to obtain two sets of salax salt. Using this method will negate the need for a powerful pickaxe, and players can simply take the iron one found in the asylum.
Rather than making the Arder-musca poisons, the player can alternatively grind mushrooms to obtain 40 powder of its respective type, then feed it directly to Sucellus. While each powder only deals 5 damage, the player can rapidly feed him every half-tick or so, filling up the bar much faster. The advantage of this method is that it significantly reduces the amount of run energy expended, making stamina potions completely unnecessary with 70+ Agility. However, it is very click-intensive, and a misclick can drag the player into an active vent.
These two methods are highly beneficial for players seeking to complete Sucellus’ speed-based combat tasks due to the short time frame and the preparation phase being factored into the times.
Battle phase
Duke Sucellus has 440 health and attacks on a five-tick cycle (3.0s). It is highly recommended that players melee Sucellus, as he is weak to slash attacks.
In addition, unlike other demonic monsters, Duke Sucellus only has a 70% vulnerability to demonbane weapons; Arclight gives a 49% boost to accuracy and damage as opposed to the usual 70%. The Ward of Arceuus spell can be used to reduce the damage of Sucellus’ regular attacks (though the 10% damage reduction from the spell does not reduce damage of normal icicle attacks when using protect from melee as it is capped at 5), and the benefit does not apply to peripheral forms of damage like those inflicted by gas flares or extremities.[1]
When in melee range (including diagonally across), Sucellus will raise his arms, causing icicles to spike up from the ground. These icicles have a 3×3 AoE and will deal up to 11 damage if Protect from Melee is not active, or 5 with. This is a standard attack and can occasionally miss, though Sucellus’ high stats means this is very unlikely. Shortly afterwards, he will slam his arms back down, shattering the icicles in a 1×1 AoE on them. Getting caught in this slam will deal up to 56 damage without prayer, or 41 with, and will always hit regardless of the player’s bonuses.
If outside of melee range, Sucellus will instead launch a blue projectile, which deals up to 48 damage if not protected against, and deals slightly less damage with Protect from Magic, though will generally deal significant damage. The damage only applies upon impact. However, getting hit by this attack, even if protected against, will disqualify the player from a “perfect” kill.
Duke Sucellus has two special attacks:
- Freezing Gaze – Every fifth standard attack, he will open the eye within his body, indicated by the game message Duke Sucellus turns his gaze upon you… If the player is not standing directly behind a pillar 5 ticks (3 seconds) after the attack is initiated, the player will take up to 101 damage. This is almost assured to kill the player, so avoiding it is essential. This attack takes 6 ticks in total.
- Players can quickly get one more hit off shortly after the first game message appears, or resume attacking the instant the game message You manage to avoid Duke Sucellus’ gaze. appears.
- Gas Flare – He will launch gas towards the vent closest to the player, leaving dangerous gas there for a few seconds. The gas deals up to 12 damage, which can be reduced with a slayer helmet or gas mask. Avoid them by moving to the opposite pillar.
- The Gas Flare attack will always be launched three standard attacks after the first Freezing Gaze. If above 75% health, Sucellus will use this attack after every five standard attacks, four above 25%, and three below 25%. However, Sucellus will never use this attack immediately after a Freezing Gaze, in which case it will do an extra standard attack. Once the 75% threshold is crossed (and 25% for enraged phase), the change in frequency of the Gas Flare attack will apply after the next gas flares are launched. If above 50% of his health (220 hitpoints), he will spit out one Gas Flare, and two otherwise.
Enrage phase
Upon reaching 25% of his health (110 hitpoints), Sucellus will enter an enrage phase, attacking one tick faster to start on a 2.4 second (4 tick) cycle.
If using a five-tick weapon, you will only be able to safely attack Sucellus every two attacks, as the third attack will result in the player getting hit by his slamming attack when they do so. Should the player wish to, they may switch to a four-tick weapon such as Arclight or Emberlight to match his attack speed, however it is not necessary in normal mode.
After each kill, run towards one of the mushroom spawns to immediately prepare picking for mushrooms if doing multiple kills, as he will “respawn” shortly before one of them is reached.
When picking up drops, be mindful of mist rune and chaos rune drops if using the Arceuus spellbook, as these will cause other spells to become available, such as Vile Vigour and medium-tier thralls. These should be left on the ground until the trip concludes.
Awakened mode
In Awakened mode, Duke Sucellus has the following changes:
- The boss’ health increases from 440 to 1,540.
- The boss is immune to stat drains.
- Slayer tasks no longer apply to the Awakened version of the boss
- The boss’ poison tolerance meter increases from 200 to 370, requiring three poisons to wake him up.
- Upon reaching less than ~75% of his health, he will launch four Gas Flares in a row; above that, only once. The gas’ damage is also increased to ~26 or 27 if hit without proper face covering.
- Around 32% health, a black orb will move from side to side in front of him that deals up to 27 damage and drains all stats by 8 if hit by it.
- Periodically, Duke Sucellus will cover the player in bile, resulting in the player leaking poison for 15 ticks. If standing in a poison pool, the player will take 9-12 poison damage every tick and be poisoned starting at 2 damage if no poison immunity is present.
Before starting the fight, drop supplies on the pillars closest to Duke Sucellus, enough so that the mushrooms, salt, and poison can be picked without juggling. The damage dealt from ice falls and extremities are the same as in normal mode, though much more care is recommended to avoid unnecessarily draining supplies before even fighting the boss. Drink potions and heal up as needed before using the final poison on him to begin the fight. As with normal mode, players must always force the Duke to use melee, as his magic attacks can hit very hard; up to 36 through prayer, and 71 without. The melee chips are still the same as in normal mode, though the melee attack does hit significantly harder, up to 81 without prayer and around 60 with.
While not necessary, a Menaphite remedy can be helpful in restoring drained stats every 15 seconds. The player’s primary form of healing pre-enrage should be solely Saradomin brews, as damage during this time should only be from the chip damage caused from icicles. Solids are much more helpful in the enrage phase when some recoverable mistakes are made.
Flick Duke Sucellus as required; it is highly important that the player does not get caught by his Freezing Gaze, as it has a significantly higher max hit and can potentially kill in one hit. Once Duke Sucellus starts spitting out multiple Gas Flares (around 75% of his health), run south to the middle row of vents and wait for the last spit to appear before moving back in, as it is important not to let the row in front of him be immersed in dangerous gas, especially with poison and enrage. Around 65% of his health, Sucellus will perform Gas Spits one auto-attack after Freezing Gaze.
When Duke Sucellus splatters the player in bile, the player will be notified with the message “Duke Sucellus covers you in bile. It slowly drips off your body and onto the floor.”, resulting the player leaking poison for 15 tiles if walking (or one tick running). This attack will begin to be used upon reaching 65% of his health, and will always occur after Gas Flares, though it is not guaranteed each time. If the bile does appear, use the walking method with the tiles indicated on the picture to the right; pre-enrage, the player must walk four tiles and then be next to Sucellus on the fifth tile to avoid getting hit by magic, while post-enrage, the player must walk three tiles and be next to Sucellus on the fourth tile.
Upon reaching ~32% of his health, an Orb of Darkness will begin to appear in the row in front of Sucellus from either side of the first set of pillars, which deals up to 27 damage and drains all stats by 8 if hit. These orbs will continually spawn until the encounter ends, and will appear every ~10 or so seconds regardless if the player is hit by it or not. These should be avoided whenever possible; though if there is no other choice, it is recommended to tank the orb, as it is much less dangerous than trying to tank one of Sucellus’ auto-attacks.
Once the enrage phase begins, it is important to sync with Sucellus’ attacks so that the player will not make mistakes as the chances of dying significantly increase, as it is possible to get biled twice in a single attack rotation. If the second bile occurs, players will always take damage at some point from the pools, due to the Freezing Gaze attack being lined up one auto-attack after the second Gas Flare. Therefore, minimise time spent in the phase by dumping special attacks to reduce the boss’ health.
Equipment
Duke Sucellus is weak to slash, so slashing weapons are preferred for the fight.
The scythe of vitur will hit three times due to Sucellus’ large size, but is costly to use. An emberlight, if available, should be used for cost-conscious players as it performs slightly worse but with no upkeep, while being a 4 tick weapon which can allow for additional hits at some points in the fight. The soulreaper axe is another alternative as a five-tick weapon, however it will not be able to maintain soul stacks.
Players should use a bandos godsword to help lower Sucellus’ Defence, as he has a very high Defence level. Due to this, a bellator ring performs better than an ultor ring in most cases.
| Slot | Recommended equipment for Melee – Item (most effective → least effective) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 Slayer helmet (i)[a] /  Serpentine helm[b] /  Oathplate helm |
 Torva full helm /  Neitiznot faceguard |
 Void melee helm[c] |
 Blood moon helm |
 Helm of neitiznot |
 |
 Amulet of rancour |
 Amulet of torture |
 Amulet of blood fury |
 Amulet of fury |
 Amulet of glory |
 |
 Infernal cape |
 Fire cape |
 Soul cape / Mythical cape |
 Ardougne cloak 4 |
N/A |
 |
 Oathplate chest |
 Torva platebody |
 Bandos chestplate (or   ) |
 Elite void top[c]/ Void knight top[c] |
 Obsidian platebody |
 |
 Oathplate legs |
 Torva platelegs |
 Bandos tassets (or  ) |
 Elite void robe[c]/ Void knight robe[c] |
 Obsidian platelegs |
 |
 Scythe of vitur |
 Emberlight[d] /  Soulreaper axe |
 Noxious halberd /  Arclight[d] |
 Zombie axe |
 Blade of saeldor |
 |
 Avernic defender[e] |
 Dragon defender[e] |
 Dragonfire shield[e] |
N/A | N/A |
 |
 Rada’s blessing 4 / Ghommal’s lucky penny[f] |
 God blessing / Rada’s blessing 3/2 |
N/A | N/A | N/A |
 |
 Ferocious gloves |
 Barrows gloves /  Void knight gloves[c] |
 Rune gloves/ Regen bracelet |
N/A | N/A |
 |
 Primordial boots |
 Echo boots [g] |
 Guardian boots [g] |
 Dragon boots |
 Climbing boots |
 |
 Bellator ring /  Lightbearer[h] |
 Ultor ring |
 Berserker ring (i) /  Warrior ring (i) |
 Ring of suffering (ri) |
 Ring of shadows |
 |
 Bandos godsword |
 Voidwaker |
 Dragon claws /  Burning claws |
 Crystal halberd / Saradomin godsword |
 Abyssal dagger (p++) / Dragon dagger(p++) |
