Kalphite King/Strategies

A group of players against the Kalphite King and his marauders.

Attacks

Melee Attacks

This phase is signified by the Kalphite King's wings being yellow. It is weak to fire spells in this phase. The King does not dig during this phase.

• Quake: The Kalphite King will stomp the ground, emitting a visible shockwave that will hit all players around him (approximately up to 3 squares away) and lower their defence if it hits.
• Standard Attacks: There are four different types of standard attacks.
  • Slaughter: This attack does not hit high on regular damage, but upon moving can cause over 1000+, and recorded up to 4500+ without the right prayer.
  • Dismember: Does base damage, up to 620.
  • Shove: The King pushes players in front of him away, dealing minor melee damage.
  • Melee attack: The King rarely uses this attack, but he lunges into the player he is targeting. This attack can hit as high as 5200+. Before the patch notes of 19 June 2013, this attack counted as a melee attack, and hit up to 3500, but the patch notes made it hit much harder and the attack is considered classless. The King only uses this attack if the player is touching the edges of the room. This attack also only occurs during the melee/magic phases.

Ranged Attacks

This phase is signified by the Kalphite King's wings being coloured green. It is weak to stab attacks at this time. The King does not charge during this phase but digs. The Kalphite King's binds last for seven seconds.

• Standard Attack: The king will fire an attack that looks like the Kalphite Queen's ranged attack. This attack can cause a damage over time effect similar to the Fragmentation Shot, causing triple damage on players who move from the spot they were attacked in by this ability. Sometimes they will appear with stun darts, although at other times (like the start of this phase) the King will use this attack right after the darts.
• Stun Darts : The king will fire stun darts at a group of players, which will have a chance to stun them. As with the standard attack, it will be shot at random players. The stun from these darts is similar to that of ranged/magic stuns. Stuns last for seven seconds. When the ranged phase begins, this attack is always the first attack the King sends. This attack always follows behind Incendiary Shot.
• Incendiary Shot: The king fires an incendiary shot to three specific players. It will then explode and deal up to 5000 damage, but with prayers it only deals 1500-2000 damage. Without prayers it will usually deal around 3000 damage. The players targeted will be dealt with a minor hit, and three seconds later the effect takes place.
  • Note: Incendiary Shot is usually shot at the players that get stunned/fragmented.

Magic Attacks

This phase is signified by the Kalphite King's wings being coloured blue. It is weak to Range attacks, specifically arrows, at this time. During this phase, the Kalphite King will not use his instant kill attack.

AoE magic attack in effect.

• Blue Energy Orb: The king will shoot numerous blue energy orbs to everyone in range for up to 3500 damage. Players will be notified when they are stunned; although it is more noticeable when running away from the King. Resonance can be used on this attack, but Freedom/Anticipate should be used first so players do not get stunned afterwards. The attack can hit very high, up to 4000. 
• Yellow-Green Orb: The king will launch some greenish-yellow orbs at the players' squares that slowly levitate and explode. The circles will hit multiple players in range which can also stun them. The maximum damage of these circles are about 4000, even through the correct prayers, although this is extremely unlikely and usually hits at 2000. Getting hit by multiple of these orbs at once is almost instant death, so eat food if you get trapped in a cluster. The orbs have a 5x5 hit radius from the explosion, and occasionally the orb will cause the ability Combust if players if hit by it. It is suggested using the ability Freedom (if stunned) to evade the orbs.

The King starts the phase by throwing high-damage orbs and quickly following it with stun orbs. After the stun orbs, the King will move around for 20 ticks, throwing high-damage/combust orbs and then digs. After laying a few more high-damage/combust orbs, the King will charge, and then release stun orbs, and repeat. Sometimes, you may want to record the King's magic phase during the kill as there are mage phases where it will throw blue orbs before or after the charge.

Orbs are based on the number of people in the arena. Therefore, if 20 players are in the room, the King will summon many more orbs.

Other Attacks and Abilities

The Kalphite King's instant-killing attack.

The Kalphite King reappears after digging. Any player in the way will take heavy melee damage. As this picture shows however, this is its spawn point. Players under the King while it spawns will not take damage!

• Instant kill: This is the most deadly ability the king uses. The target player will start to glow in green colour and will be killed after a few seconds. The player is stunned during the glow, and they will not be able to teleport. The cooldown of ALL ABILITIES will be reset to 0, even if you had just used that ability. The ONLY WAY to survive this attack is to have a teammate use the ability Provoke, in order to force the king's attention away. After using provoke, the teammate can use Resonance to heal instead of getting hit by the King's Insta-kill, Barricade to fully block the damage, Immortality to revive after dying from the attack with 30% lifepoints (note: the teammate will still remain the target of Kalphite King after they revive from Immortality effect), or finally switching to Protect/Reflect Melee and using Devotion. Note that when there are marauders spawned, it is strongly advised to NOT USE Resonance, but use Barricade or Immortality instead. Resonance will heal the first hit, which can be hit by a marauder, while Barricade will negate all damage for 10 seconds. Unlike most major boss monsters, the King is stunnable. Because of this, an unwary provoker can get killed from the instant kill attack because of the stun timer, which causes the Resonance/Barricade ability to expire. To counter this, do this when the King is about to hit you, as this also protects you and gives you a better chance of surviving the attack.
• Spawning Monsters: The king will spawn a group of Exiled kalphite marauders (level 155). If standing on top of the marauders when they spawn, you can take from 1000-2200 damage from each one, and is classified as a melee attack, which will reflect on the minion if the player uses Protect/Deflect Melee. Before the patch of 19 June 2013 they dealt less than 1000 damage. The minions will spawn when the Kalphite King's health reaches 75% and 25% of it's life points (195000 and 65000 respectively). This attack is signified when you are stunned for one tick, and if the King's life points reach below the number (by the use of stuns, or if it uses its instant-kill attack while near the life points mentioned above), the King will spawn them anyway. One group of five marauders spawn on the first time, and two groups of five marauders spawn on the second time. The King will always use this attack regardless of phase.
• Digging: The king will dig into the sand and re-appear under the player it is targeting. The targeted player must get away from the King otherwise they will be knocked back and be dealt with up to 5000 lifepoint's worth of damage. This attack will override any abilities used to heal/block it.
  • Note: If a player uses Destroy during the Ranged phase, there is a slight chance the King will dig twice in a row if this occurs.
• Phase changing: The king will change its phases randomly throughout the fight. The colours of its wings correspond to its main attacking style. If the wing is Yellow, it uses Melee attacks and does a lunging animation, and is weak to Fire spells. If the wing is Green, it will shoot stun darts and is weak to stab attacks. If the wing is blue it will shoot high-hitting orbs (not stun) and is weak to arrows. While changing auras, everything is restarted. If the King was about to use a instant-kill attack but changes into another form that uses it, it will not use the instant-kill until the specific time in that phase.
• Healing:
  • ​Auras:
    • Red: The king will sometimes be surrounded by a red aura, causing any attacks done by it to heal it by the amount it would have hit if no protection prayers or other damage reduction buffs were in effect.
    • Green: The king will surround itself with a green aura, making it heal instead of taking damage for the duration of the aura, like Nex's siphon. The King may also activate the green aura if Frenzy or Unload is used on it.
  • Note: If the Kalphite King is unable to attack anyone within 10 seconds (similar to players leaving their combat stance), it will heal for 24000 lifepoints. It will also change its combat style should this happen.
• Barricade: Using the ultimate ability Frenzy or Unload will cause the king to use the defensive ultimate ability "Barricade," negating all damage received for 10 seconds.
• Immortality: It is confirmed that the king can use another defensive ultimate ability, Immortality reviving the king with a certain percentage of LP remaining. The conditions under which Immortality is triggered are unknown, although it is possible that Unload triggers Immortality. To tell if the King is dead or not when he uses Immortality, the regular death animation is different from the Immortality version. The King's regular death looks as if it is screeching then collapses. The Immortality version is when it collapses without screeching.
• Charge: The King only uses this attack during his melee and magic phases. The hit is now classified as classless and hits much harder, up to 3600. Before the 19 June 2013 update, this attack classified as melee, and a skilled shield user could heal from the damage. This attack is now classless-based damage.
• Stomp: Players who are under the King for more then 5 seconds will be dealt rapid hits of 1000 until they move out from under him.
• Ability Override: The King can override defensive/damage-reducing abilities of the player when it uses its instant-kill attack, digs on a player who has used healing/damage reduction abilities or hits players while charging at them.

Strategy

There are many strategies. Here are a few of them, and what you should take when performing this strategy. Use the "Equipment" part to see which equipment you want to use.

Group

Grouping is the easiest way to kill the King as it results in 1-2 minute kills. However, there are strict requirements in doing so, such as using melee only, because the King's high-hitting orb attacks home in on/near a player's current location, and with people far away from the King, the meleers may not be able to survive the attack. Typically, players in groups will want Drygore or Chaotic weaponry, along with the use of high-level melee armours. Some groups also tribrid to use the Kalphite King's weaknesses, although this is quite rare in most groups.

Duo/Small team

As a duo, it is much harder since two players must be willing to take hits. Both must have a shield in case the main provoker dies, and to heal from and/or barricade hits. Adrenaline should be kept full as often as possible. If one partner dies, it is best to leave because it will be very likely the King will use his instant-kill attack while the other player is getting back to his grave. 

Small teams and duos should use the best equipment they can for maximum efficiency.

Mass

In a mass, there are many more people in here, so one should expect very fast kills. However, as there is a lack of experience in such teams, one should expect other players to die and stun very often. The quantity of the kalphite king's magic balls scale with the number of players as well. Masses do allow mages, though they prohibit them to being primarily a provoker since the meleers will do the most damage.

Equipment

• Helm: Full Slayer Helm with Kalphite slayer task > Malevolent helm > Tetsu helm* > Torva helm > Ganodermic visor > Bandos helm/Barrows helm > Void melee helm
• Body: Malevolent Cuirass > Tetsu body* > Torva platebody > Bandos chestplate > Void knight top
• Legs: Malevolent Greaves > Tetsu legs* > Torva platelegs > Bandos tassets > Void knight bottom
• Cape: Completionist capes > Max cape > Capes of Accomplishment > Ardougne cloak 4 > TokHaar-Kal > Fire cape
• Amulet: Amulet of fury > Saradomin's whisper > Desert amulet 4 > Amulet of glory
• Ring: Onyx-Ring (i) > Sixth-Age circuit > Warrior's ring (i) > Warrior's ring
• Gloves: Pneumatic gloves > Goliath gloves > Culinaromancer's gloves 10 > Torva gloves > Void knight gloves > Bandos gloves
• Shield**: Divine spirit shield/Elysian Spirit Shield/Arcane spirit shield > Chaotic Kiteshield/Farseer Kiteshield/Eagle-eye kiteshield > Spectral spirit shield > Blessed Spirit Shield > Bandos warshield
• Boots: Steadfast boots/Ragefire Boots/Glaiven Boots > Torva boots > Bandos boots > Dragon boots
• Weapon: Drygore rapier/ Keris > Drygore mace/Drygore longsword > Chaotic rapier > Chaotic longsword > Vesta's spear > Chaotic maul > Zamorakian spear***
• Off-hand weapon: Off-hand drygore rapier > Off-hand drygore mace/Off-hand drygore longsword > Offhand chaotic rapier > Off-hand chaotic longsword
• Aura: Penance (Aura)/Vampyrism aura/Reverence aura/Master knock-out/Supreme invigorate
• Scrimshaw: Superior scrimshaw of vampyrism/Superior scrimshaw of strength > Scrimshaw of vampyrism/Scrimshaw of strength

Note*: Using Malevolent/Torva can increase your overall damage slightly as it is power armour, however the tank armour Tetsu provides a lot more of a lifepoint boost. Malevolent has a higher armour rating than the buyable version of Tetsu. Tanks and Provokers should use (Superior) Tetsu, but whether the DPSers wish to use Tetsu, Torva or Malevolent is up to them.

Note**: Shields are only taken by main and back-up provokers to help with the kill. Players could still carry a shield anyway as it helps you last longer in the room without restocking.

Note***: The Zamorakian spear is not recommended as the stab-based weapon unless you do not have any other weapon. Usually, using incorrect weaknesses causes the accuracy to slightly decrease. The spear is also inferior to the King, as accuracy is also based on the Attack level of the weapon compared to the Defence level of the attacked monster. As the spear has 75 Attack and the Kalphite King has 85 Defence, you will find yourself rarely hitting the boss. Upgrading to a higher-tiered weapon as soon as possible is strongly recommended.

Suggested Abilities

Melee - Attack

• Slice, Slaughter, Balancing Strike (only use it if you really need to, and if your health is critically low to the boss'), Backhand*

Melee - Strength

• Berserk, Assault, Fury, Dismember, Destroy, Kick*

Range

• Escape, and ranged abilities (only if you are using Ascension crossbows, other weapons have trouble hitting the boss)

Magic

• Impact*, Wrack, Combust, Wild Magic, Asphyxiate*, Metamorphosis, Sonic Wave (2-handed staff) or Concentrated Blast (dual-wielding), Surge
• Spell: Fire Surge or Bloodfire Barrage

Defence

• Every player: Debilitate (this ability is very helpful for everyone), Freedom, Anticipate.
• Vokers: Preparation, Immortality (only use as last resort), Resonance, Barricade

Note: Do not use stuns for more than ten seconds, as this causes the King to heal unless the stuns are stopped. Stuns should only be used when:

• There is no current provoker in the team.
• The King is in his Mage phase.

Note: When voking, there are two types of vokers: basic vokers and heal vokers. In a small group, you will want a heal voker to constantly heal you through the battle to last longer. Directions for vokers are below:

• Simple voker: Use Provoke on the King, and then Resonance, or Immortality/Barricade if there are minions around to avoid being killed by them.
• Heal voker: Use Provoke on the King, then rapidly use Heal Other spell to heal any injured teammates. Quickly use Resonance to heal it up. If the King dies and there are wounded teammates, quickly use Barricade and then Heal Other, as no damage is taken. Players may opt for a dual-wielding heal voker, which the voker will use dual weapons and switch to a shield as soon as the King uses its instant-kill attack.

Other Notes

It is possible to solo the Kalphite King, but this is very hard to pull off. If the King is stunned, it will skip its next move and continue to fight. For example, if a player stuns the King right before the instant-kill attack, the King will skip that attack and attack normally. It is very important that players know when to stun, as if the player stuns at the wrong time during the ranged/magic phase, the King will dig at that point, then pop up for a few ticks before digging again.

The Sign of Life is extremely helpful in case you get targeted by the instant-kill or die from spawning marauders. 

The Kalphite King is capable of running as fast as players, or even faster when he is charging.