General Graardor is one of the most popular of the five God Wars Dungeon bosses to kill, as he is arguably one of the easiest, but players should not take him too lightly. To enter Bandos's Stronghold, players must have at least 70 Strength and a hammer (toolbelt works). To get to the boss room, players must kill 40 minions of Bandos in Bandos's Stronghold or the main God Wars Dungeon area.
Getting the Kill Count
Locations of goblins on the main floor
In the past, goblins were very low level and therefore frequently used to make up the Bandos killcount very quickly. These have since been buffed considerably, and are now more in line with any other of the Bandos minions. The best monsters to build killcount on now are the spiritual rangers in Bandos's Stronghold, providing you have the required 63 Slayer. If you do not have the required slayer level to combat Spiritual rangers, it is recommended that you fight Bandosians in the northwest corner of the main room, as these are generally lower level than the minions within the stronghold. It is best to kill goblins when possible, compared to hobgoblins or jogres because of their higher life points. Orks can be killed if the player wishes, due to having the same amount of life points as goblins and are very close to each other.
Popularity
Because Graardor is one of the easiest of the five bosses, he is commonly killed. It can be difficult to find a world in which he is not being killed, especially at peak times. Once players get 40 killcount, they will then be able to kill General Graardor for a chance to get his famed helm, chestplate, tassets, gloves, boots and shield. He also drops excellent common drops, dropping more moderate levelled resources compared to K'ril or Kree'arra, who tend to drop high level materials less often.
The best way is to go north of the big door to the chamber room, and hop there so a misclick won't make you lose your 40 killcount. A Zamorak/Nex item is optional.
Attacks
Here are General Graardor's basic attacks:
- Melee attack: He thrusts his right arm for a bone-crushing blow. This can deal extremely high damage, up to 3000 but doesn't tend to hit over 1800 (900 with Melee prayers)
- Ranged attack: Graardor only uses this when he is attacking a player outside of melee range. He smashes his hand into the ground creating shockwaves. This is not as accurate now, but can still deal over 600 life points of damage occasionally. This attack hits everyone in the room.
Strategies
Whenever players decide to fight General Graardor and his minions, Sergeant Steelwill, Sergeant Strongstack, and Sergeant Grimspike, everyone will attack Graardor first. When Graardor dies, some players attack Steelwill first, while others attack Grimspike because of his higher damage rate. Strongstack is usually left for the tank (if they can use Soul Split) because of his relatively low defence against players.
After the Evolution of Combat update, Graardor has no weaknesses to any point of the combat triangle. This allows for players to range, mage and melee him at their own accord. A player with 80+ combat stats and a reasonable prayer level (60+) can expect to prevail against Graardor at least once before having to bank.
Graardor strangely has very high ranged defence despite not having any weaknesses, so range setups are not recommended.
Solo
As of late, Soloing for high level players is very common. It requires high stats for effectiveness.
Abilities:
- Attack: Slice, Sever, Smash, Hurricane, Overpower, Slaughter, Massacre, Berserk, Backhand
- Strength: Dismember, Cleave, Fury, Quake, Assault
- Defence: Anticipation(no shield or adrenaline required)
- Health: Regenerate
- Adrenaline keep: Anticipation, Escape, Freedom, Devotion
Familiar: War tortoise/Pack yak
- (non prayer method): 6-8 prayer potions
- Rest of familiar is food (sharks or better)
- all food if using prayer method
Duo/Trio teams
Duo and trio teams tend to be common. These teams require medium to high stats, such as maxed or near-maxed melee, as well as the Prayer and Herblore level requirements to use Turmoil and Overloads.
- Does not work with LootShare enabled.
Abilities:
- Attack: Slaughter, Massacre, Slice, Berserk, Backhand, Sever
- Strength: Fury, Dismember, Assault
- Health: Regeneration
Maging
Since the Evolution of Combat, General Graardor no longer has any weakness. This opens up the ability to mage him. This has proven to be very effective if opting for a barrage spell. Because of the multi-hitting nature of the barrage spells, the sergeants can be killed more than once per boss kill. This typically results in 7 killcount per boss kill, instead of the usual 4. This means more chance at loot, which is very desirable.
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- Inventory:
- 1-2 super magic flasks/potions
- 2-3 prayer renewal flasks/potions (4 dose potions work fine and are less expensive than flasks, and you can recharge prayer every 10 minutes at the altar in the room)
- God wars teleport
- Suggested to bring a BoB familiar to bring more supplies
- 1-2 extra familiar pouches
- Bones To Peaches tablets (this is optional, but will provide extra food on each round. Peaches heal 400 LP each)
- Runes
- Rest of inventory (and if using BoB familiar), fill with sharks or better
- Super Restore potion to restore Summoning Points (only one is typically needed, as Super Restore potions are a relatively common drop.)
- Auras (Vampyrism, Penance, Supreme Reverance, and Supreme Runic Accuracy are highly recommended, as they will allow you to save some resources and you will be able to cycle through them indefinitely. You can also destroy them after they have been used, freeing up an inventory space. You will be able to reclaim these for free from Xuan.)
Tips and Tricks
- Killcount is slightly harder now. When grabbing the killcount, you should do it in Bandos's Stronghold because it is full of Bandosians and a few Zamorakians. If you grab the killcount outside, avoid using your multi-hitting attacks. The spiritual rangers inside die very fast. If you run low on health, avoid eating your rocktails and instead use the Regenerate ability when your health runs low.
- Avoid killing Spiritual mages for the killcount unless you are ranging, as they are now more resilient to melee attacks but weaker to range attacks, unless you want to make profit from your killcount.
- When killing Graardor by yourself, you certainly want to reduce the damage since without any sort of healing (minus food) during a kill, it can be dangerous if you cannot kill him fast enough. Stay at the top right corner of the room so when Graardor spawns, you should only have Grimspike and him starting to attack you, and during the kill the other two will eventually come to his aid. You can save much food doing this.
- Since Graardor will not hit often (melee armour is strong against respective melee and ranged attacks), the use of Saradomin brews and super restores are usually pointless when killing him. A set of Prayer flasks and rocktails is good enough to last for over 20 kills if you are lucky with food drops.
- The Bandos altar is useful for recharging prayer. It will recharge your Prayer points completely, and also +10 (1) Prayer points for every Bandos item you have. After recharging your Prayer, you must wait 10 minutes to do so again. Remember you cannot use this while in combat!
- The tank should stay near Graardor's spawn point.
The altar dedicated to Bandos in General Graardor's chamber.
- While waiting for the boss to respawn, stay on the altar corners. When Graardor spawns, only he and Sergeant Grimspike will attempt to attack you. The other two Sergeants will not attack you unless you get too close to them or you manage to hurt Graardor enough. This is useful as Sergeant Steelwill's attack is short-ranged, and will save a lot of food.
- Organise drops carefully. Unless you have a pack yak to deposit all Graardor's drops or magic notepaper, it is not recommended to pick the bones up unless you bury them.
- Using the ability Debilitate may be useful against Graardor, as it can allow a safe use of Soul Split. Berserk is not recommended unless the player is not tanking or has a sip of Adrenaline potion in their inventory.
- Prayer potions are not usually needed in quantities more than 1-3 as the altar can recharge your prayer points every 10 minutes and because of the frequent super restore drops, along with an ease of killing the boss.