Something utterly horrible, an abomination beyond our wildest nightmares, is lurking in Varrock Sewers. It calls itself… Scurrius, the Rat King.
Got your attention? Then let’s learn a little more about this royal rodent!
This hulking behemoth of a beast is unlike any rat you’ve met before. Thanks to Scurrius’ mutated form, he’s capable of attacking with all three combat styles – perfect for mid-level players still getting to grips with Old School PvM.
Scurrius can be found east of the ladder in Varrock Sewers. If you’re struggling with your compass, just follow the rats – you can’t miss ‘em! Before entering the lair, you’ll be able to decide whether you’d like to go it alone or team up with friends. The boss is perfectly viable as a solo encounter, so your decision comes down to how confident you are with the mechanics!
This boss is aimed at level 60 players – so if you can wear Rune Armour, Mystic Robes, or Green Dragonhide, you’re more than ready to take Scurrius on. We recommend that would-be rat splatters also have protection Prayers to defend themselves against Scurrius’ mad combat skills.
Without giving too much away, this fight is intended to familiarise players with combat mechanics. While you should expect a challenge, you should still have plenty of time to take a deep breath, pick the right Prayer, and think about your strategy.
Rewards
So, aside from space to grow your combat skills, what else is in it for you? Primarily, Scurrius offers Experience, with a capital X…P… hmm.
The idea is that while you’re training your bossing skills, you’re also training your skills skills. Scurrius isn’t vulnerable to any particular combat style, so if you need to knuckle down and train Ranged, Magic, or Melee… this is the place to do it!
We expect training Scurrius to be one of the most effective ways to train Melee in particular, right up until the endgame. Our reasoning is that unlike traditional combat training methods like Nightmare Zone or Sand Crabs, Scurrius will require you to think on your feet and pay attention. Unlike Slayer, you’re not getting much out of the experience except for Combat XP – so it’s reasonable to boost those XP rates a little.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on things, and we’re ready to make adjustments if the community feels the rates are out of line.
We also have some more tangible loot on offer which will improve your combat capabilities against rats – including Scurrius himself!
If you’ve obtained an untradeable Rat Spine as a drop from this boss, you can turn it into a Rat Bone Bow (with a Yew Shortbow), Rat Bone Mace (with a Rune Mace), or Rat Bone Staff (with any Battlestaff and 1,000 Chaos Runes). You’ll need 35 Fletching for the Bow, 35 Smithing for the Mace, and 35 Crafting for the Staff – so we hope you haven’t neglected your non-combat skills! Alternatively, you can bring the raw materials and 50,000 GP to Historian Aldo just outside Scurrius’ lair!
When used in combat against rats (including Scurrius), Rat Bone weapons will increase your max hit by 10. Wield them against Scurrius himself, and you’ll be looking at a very efficient way to train combat – unless you’d prefer to whack crabs until the logout timer hits!
What if you’d like to flex your Rat Bone arsenal outside of the dark, dingy sewers? You can! Here’s how their stats shake out:
You’ll be able to trade excess Spines (gross!) to Historian Aldo outside Scurrius’ lair who will reward you with 5,000 XP in any Combat skill – except for Prayer, where you’ll receive 3,500 XP per Spine.
Other drops include appropriately mid-level supplies of food, Runes, Arrows, and Potions. You should receive enough back to offset the cost of fighting the boss and perhaps put away a little pocket money – but the main reward is XP. Don’t expect to leave the sewers as an overnight billionaire – you’ll have to get busy charging Air Orbs for that!
Now, there’s one last reward you should probably know about. Make room in your menagerie, because you may well have a funny feeling while fighting Scurrius… and we’re not talking about the smell…