 |
This article is a strategy guide for Kalphite King. Information on mechanics, setups, and tactics is on this page.
|
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 5200+ 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.
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 and impale players during this phase. 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 double 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 twelve game ticks, or 7.2 seconds, but can be cleared using Freedom. 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.
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 4500 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. These orbs can deal very high damage, up to 4000 even through protection prayers. When the King launches them in pairs of two, being within the radius of one orb will result in both orbs hitting them for very high damage. When the King launches one orb per player, it will either cause Combust or do high damage.
The main attack rotation of the Kalphite King during the magic phase consists of 2 orb attacks, a short pause, 2 more orb attacks, followed by a dig, 2 more orb attacks, and finally by a charge. Stunning the kalphite king will cause him to skip the next attack. The order in which he uses the orb attacks is set, but the orb rotation is shorter than the attack rotation. The rotation in which he uses the bomb attacks is: regular high damage bomb, stun bomb, combust bomb, regular high damage bomb, double high damage bomb, repeat. Meaning that after the first attack rotation he will use different bomb attacks in the bomb attack slots in his rotation.
Stunning the king during this phase will cause him to skip the next attack in his attack rotation, including the dig and the charge attacks, but it will not cause him to skip an attack from the bomb rotation.
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.
- Beetlejuice: 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 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% life points (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 (see below), it is strongly advised to not use Resonance, but use Barricade or Immortality instead, unless you are very experienced at the boss. . Resonance will heal the first hit, which can be hit by a marauder, while Barricade will negate all damage for 10 seconds. An alternate way to survive this 1-hit attack is to bring Teleport to House tablets and press the Freedom ability while clicking your tablets. This will cause you to teleport at the last second and die inside your house, thus respawning with your items and familiar intact. An alternate method to Provoking with Devotion is to Provoke and pray Protect from Magic, use Devotion, and then use Resonance. This will cause the Marauders to hit nothing on you, while allowing you to safely Resonance the King's melee 1-hit.
- It should be noted that this attack is not classified as an "instant kill" such as the mechanic at Vorago where he pushes players off the edge in phase 5, or at Telos when he charges an anima bomb. The actual damage for the hit is calculated at 26,600 melee damage, which means that with the maximum attainable life points of 16,365, the hit is survivable. This amount of life points requires the player to use Fortitude, anticipation and eat a rocktail soup to boost over the maximum life points while bonfired, and it should be noted also that this only works for the Beetlejuice attack during the ranged phase, since the same attack on the melee phase is unaffected by the effects of armour and prayer damage reduction. Since the Beetlejuice attack will also clear most defensives applied to the target, reflect and debilitate can only be used by another person who provokes the Kalphite king and uses these abilities themselves.
- 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.
- Marauders: The king will spawn a group of Exiled kalphite marauders (level 107). If standing on top of the marauders when they spawn, you can take from 400-600 damage from each one, and is classified as a melee attack, which will reflect on the minion if the player uses Protect/Deflect Melee. The minions will spawn when the Kalphite King's health reaches 75% and 25% of it's life points (195 000 and 65 000 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. In addition, this ability will skip part of its attack pattern.
- 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 life point's worth of damage, or 7500 while Berserk is active. This attack will override any abilities used to heal/block it, except Barricade.
- Using any stun abilities greatly increases the chances of causing the King to dig depending on phase.
- 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.
- If the Kalphite King is unable to attack anyone within 10 seconds (similar to players leaving their combat stance), it will heal for 26000 life points. It will also change its combat style should this happen.
- Auras:
- 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: The king can use another defensive ultimate ability, Immortality reviving the king with 35000 life points 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 attack is classified as typeless and hits up to 3600.
- 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.
- 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+. The attack is considered typeless. 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.
- Rejuvenate: If the King is left out of combat, it will heal 26000 life points every game tick. He will also switch to a different attack style.
Kalphite King can also attack players that stand under him.
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 depending on the current phase.
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.
Solo
It is possible to solo the King, however, it is very challenging and is solely done just for the sake of a challenge.
The player must know the Kalphite King's attack rotation thoroughly, as you will need to know when to stun during the melee and ranged phases, or you will die. Recent changes to the King's phasing mechanics no longer makes it possible to force him out of his melee phase.
The current best method to soloing the King involves tanking the unskippable Beetlejuice attack during his Melee phase. With level 99 Constitution and life point boosting effects it is possible to survive Beetlejuice without interference from another player. First, the player has to keep his/her life points above 13.8k in anticipation for the attack and have a minimum of 90% adrenaline. With Achto Primeval equipment or Superior Seasinger's robes, Fortitude, and bonfire boost the player should be able to maintain his/her life points well above 14.5k. Second, the player should cast the Enfeeble curse right before or right after the King's charge attack during the Melee phase so that its damage reducing effect lasts long enough for Beetlejuice. Once the aforementioned conditions have been met the player can then, while stunned under Beetlejuice, equip a Staff of Light and activate the Power of Light special attack. With a Ring of Vigour the player needs only 90% adrenaline to activate the special attack.
This method is very challenging as the player is left with very few life points upon surviving Beetlejuice and runs the risk of getting killed by the various minions that the King can spawn.
Equipment
Suggested abilities
Melee - Attack
- Slice, Slaughter, Backhand*
Melee - Strength
- Berserk, Assault*, Fury, Dismember, Destroy, Kick*
Range
- Escape, and ranged abilities (only if you are using Ascension crossbows or the Noxious Longbow, 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 Blood Barrage
Defence
- Every player: Debilitate, Devotion, Freedom, Anticipate
- Vokers: Preparation, Resonance, Barricade, Immortality (only use as last resort)
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.
- After the King launches two yellow-green orbs on the team, after stun orbs.
- Four ranged attacks from the King during his ranged phase, as he will use his instant-kill attack afterwards.
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. Players may opt for a dual-wielding heal voker, which does more damage on the boss over time. They follow the same rules as normal heal vokers, except that they equip a shield and Resonance just before the instant-kill hit connects.
Other notes
Signs/portents of life/death are very useful at the boss, as inexperienced players are most likely to die, and masses usually result in plenty of deaths during the magic phase.
The Kalphite King is capable of running as fast as players, or even faster when he is charging.