Zulrah

Zulrah is a level 725 snake boss that was released on 8 January 2015. It is a solo-only boss, meaning players cannot fight this boss in teams. It can only be attacked with Melee by use of a halberd for minimal damage, so players should instead attack with Ranged and/or Magic. Although completion of Regicide is not required to fight Zulrah, players must have completed the quest to the point of reaching Port Tyras (completion of Regicide is required for the teleport). There is also a fairy ring teleport, code, west of Zulrah that is unusable without completion of Regicide. However, several stepping stones must be crossed to reach Zulrah, requiring 76 Agility to use (can be boosted).

Before the player can fight Zulrah, they must speak with High Priestess Zul-Harcinqa first and offer themselves as the sacrifice in place of the gnome child, as Zul-Gwenwynig will prevent the player from boarding the boat until Zul-Harcinqa allows you to be the sacrifice.

Should a player die during their battle with Zulrah, they can retrieve their items by speaking to Priestess Zul-Gwenwynig. However, if you die anywhere a second time without retrieving your items, all items from your first death will be lost completely.

History
It is unknown when or how Zulrah arrived at the Poison Waste, but it is known to have adapted to the toxic waste surrounding it and eventually becoming the only creature able to live in the wastes. Zulrah's gender is also unclear; the High Priestess Zul-Harcinqa refers to it as a male, while the examine text of Zulrah's boss lair display refers to it as a female.

Sometime during the Fifth Age, Harcinqa's mother, Harcinqa, her daughter, and Rentos, her son, visited the Poison Waste. On 5th Bennath, group of men, Ohn, Mortarium, Onan, and several others, attempted to escape the elven clans by running south to the Poison Waste. With no food to eat, they attempted to fish for eels in the swamp, to no avail. With no luck on catching food, they decide to camp out with the gnomes.

Two days after, Zulrah appeared during the night and ate five of Ohn's men before the group could get to their senses. The next day after that, Harcinqa's mother attracted Zulrah's attention with a giant campfire, and held out her son, Rentos, which it devoured immediately. The gnome woman bargained a deal with Zulrah, promising to send it sacrifices in return for food and worshiping it as a god. Zulrah agreed to the terms, and the next day, began sending eels to the group to eat.

As a result, Zulrah is worshiped as a god and it is sent sacrifices daily, and in return, allows the village of Zul-andra to stand and sends eels daily to the villagers.

Habitat
Zulrah is located in his shrine east of Zul-Andra, which is accessed by boarding the sacrificial boat. The area is instanced, and the player goes alone, meaning that Zulrah cannot be killed in teams. Upon entering the shrine, Zulrah will appear. The only way to escape from the shrine is by either teleporting out, or killing/dying to Zulrah.

Players can spectate a fight using a telescope located on an island north of Zul-Andra, which is accessed by using the fairy ring code.

When a player defeats Zulrah, the drops will be received under the player, much like cave krakens. A Zul-andra teleport scroll will also be dropped around the player, which can be used to bring the player back to Zul-Andra.

Attacks
Zulrah uses venom, a stronger form of poison and starts off at 6 damage. Unlike poison which decreases over time, venom increases by 6 every minute. If not cured, the damage will continue to increase, eventually reaching a cap of 20. Venom can be cured instantly by drinking any anti-venom potion, or by two doses of any antipoison potion. Wearing a serpentine helm will prevent the player from becoming envenomed.

Zulrah has different attacks depending on the colour it is.

Zulrah changes his forms by diving into the swamp and then reappearing somewhere in the arena (either in the middle or just outside the middle area, in a certain order depending on the first spawn after the Ranged-Melee-Magic attacks).


 * When Zulrah is green, it attacks with Ranged, spreads toxic fumes over the area, and spawns snakelings
 * At the end of each pattern a green Zulrah will alternate between Magic and Ranged attacks. The style used first depends on which side of the arena Zulrah spawns at.


 * When Zulrah is turquoise, it attacks with Magic and Ranged, spreads toxic fumes, and spawns snakelings.


 * When Zulrah is crimson, it spreads toxic fumes over the area and attacks at the player's recent spot. If they are caught by the Melee attack, they will also be stunned.

Once Zulrah is defeated, a scroll is dropped on the ground near a players loot - upon reading the scroll, the player is teleported back to Zul-Andra. Players cannot pick up this scroll. To fight Zulrah again after defeating it, a player must leave the shrine and return via the boat.

Strategies
'''When fighting Zulrah's green form, it is recommended to activate Protect from Missiles. When fighting Zulrah's blue form, you should activate Protect from Magic. However, there is one green form that will switch between Magic and Ranged attacks towards the end of each attack pattern, so for this one, you must flick each attack, or you may be hit 40+ damage. Be aware in this stage, you may also be attacked by the snakelings and can easily be combo'd out.'''

The fight begins with the player in front of Zulrah in his green form. Zulrah will not envenom the player until the third form (turquoise). They should immediately drink a dose of anti-venom+ potion when the third form appears. Avoid the toxic fumes that he creates as he fires them around the area. After a short time, he will immediately switch to a different form and begin using abilities and attacks from that form.

During the turquoise form, he can use both toxic fumes and white orbs, which will summon a Snakeling. Although snakelings have 1 Hitpoint, they can hit very hard against the player, so a ring of recoil is recommended to kill them off if needed. The areas that Zulrah launches white orbs will not have any toxic fumes during that phase, so stand in those areas when needed. When Zulrah is crimson, he will stare at the player before attacking that area. If they are not two spaces away from him, they will take Melee damage and also be stunned, which can leave the player in a dangerous state if their Hitpoints are low and there are nearby fumes. During his light green form, prayer flicking can be helpful, and eat when needed, as both Magic and Ranged attacks will be used against the player.

It is recommended to use long-ranged attacks to avoid the venom clouds if Zulrah is in the way of them.

Player death
Upon death at Zulrah, your items will be held by the priestess who you talked to at the boat. Some specific anomalies occur with some specific items. This information may be useful to ultimate ironmen.

The following items are destroyed forever and cannot be retrieved The following items are kept, but not in the state they were lost The following items are kept, along with their contents
 * Bolt pouch (including all contents)
 * Flamtaer bag
 * Lunar staff
 * Looting bag (contents inside are handed back)
 * Herb sack (sack is kept, but all contents are destroyed)
 * Barrows equipment within looting bag are handed back broken
 * Seed box
 * Rune pouch

Drops
In addition to the 100% drop, the player will also have two rolls on Zulrah's drop table.

100% drops

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Unique drop table
''There is a 1 in 256 chance of hitting the unique drop table per roll, meaning there's 1 in 128 chance per kill to receive any item from this table, as Zulrah gives two rolls per kill. Below lists the effective drop rates per kill of any specific item, which takes into account the fact that there are 4 different items in this drop table.''


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Armour & Weapons

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Runes

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Herbs

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Materials

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Seeds

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Other

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Trivia

 * Prior to Zulrah's release, a poll was held to decide the name of the solo snake boss. The other entries, in order of popularity, were Ka'nes, Baloki, Attor, Dyzurah, and Duserpes.
 * Zulrah's drop table originally had more items in greater quantities, such as torstol seeds, black dragonhide, Zulrah's scales, etc. Due to player complaints about the overall profitability and falling prices of certain items, the drop table was revised in an update two weeks after release.
 * Zulrah formerly uncommonly dropped two noted crystal keys as part of his drop table. This was replaced by access to the rare drop table instead.
 * The drop table once was again revised in an update on 25 May 2017, decreasing the profitability of Zulrah by roughly 30%.
 * Upon release, Zulrah's green form had a high magic defence and the same ranged defence as the other forms, making magic an unviable method of defeating it. This was changed in an update two weeks later so that it is more resistant to ranged attacks, and less resistant to magical attacks.
 * The same update brought two new rotations to Zulrah's encounter, as only two existed at the time.
 * Zulrah's history is similar to that of Loarnab in RuneScape 3 (in Dimension of Disaster's world); both are worshipped as gods (although Zulrah is not a god itself) and are given sacrifices to please them.