Cerberus/Strategies

Cerberus is high level Slayer boss. A slayer level of 91 is required to inflict damage and a slayer task of Cerberus or hellhounds. Wild pies can be used to boost the player's Slayer level, but only if they have a minimum of 86 Slayer.

It is the only monster to drop primordial, eternal and pegasian crystals, which can be attached to the Dragon boots, Infinity boots and Ranger boots respectively, providing best-in-slot boots for melee (the Primordial boots), magic (the Eternal boots), and ranged (Pegasian boots).

In addition, it is also able to drop a Smouldering stone, which when combined with a dragon axe or pickaxe, can add a "heat element" to the tools, allowing the dragon axe to become an infernal axe and the dragon pickaxe to become an infernal pickaxe.

How to get There
Cerberus' lair can be found in Taverley Dungeon, at the hellhounds area. There will be a small opening that players can crawl into to enter the lair.

There are two ways of getting there:


 * Players can go through Taverley Dungeon to reach the hellhounds area. This will require a dusty key.
 * Alternatively, players can crawl through a pipe shortcut (70 Agility) or run through mysterious flooring (80 Agility). Regardless of the shortcut used, it negates the need of bringing a dusty key on every trip.
 * Use a Key master teleport, which teleports players straight into the lair. These can only be obtained from Cerberus itself (cannot be traded), in quantities of 3 and at a rate of 1/64.

General Strategy
While fighting Cerberus, it is recommended to activate Protect from Magic.

The first attack Cerberus makes is always one attack of each combat style (Magic, Ranged and Melee) to any regardless of attack distance. This attack can be negated with the use of protection prayers by timing correct prayer to attack animation.

The order of this attack is always the same: Magic, ranged, then melee. This attack can hit up to 23 per hit without any protection prayers. Cerberus will use this again every 40 seconds.

Summoned souls


If Cerberus is below 400 hitpoints she occasionally rears up howling Aaarrrooooooo, causing three Summoned souls to appear from behind the archaic skull.

Each one attacks using a different combat style:
 *  Blue is magic 
 *  Red is melee 
 *  Green is ranged 

The order is random, but always goes from west to east. The souls cannot be attacked, and will only attack the player once in their respective combat style. The souls will deal 30 damage each if they attack and the player is not using the right protection prayer, which can lead to them getting combo'ed out by them and the boss' high attacks.

If the right protection prayer is used, 30 prayer points are drained instead. Since the spirits follow up very quickly, the player is most likely to be smited unless their prayer levels are extremely high. Equipping a Spectral spirit shield when the spirits appear will reduce this prayer drain to 15 (50%) instead. This is not needed but will allow the player to focus on eating and restoring prayer points without having to reset their prayers again.

To deal with the spirits, put your overhead prayers to whatever the first spirit in the west is using; switch to the next protection prayer while the first spirit is in its attack animation. If you switch just as the first spirit's animation is over, the second one will deal damage onto you. If the spirits deal too much damage to you, go under Cerberus to heal up and restore prayer.

Note: If Cerberus dies when she calls the spirits, they will continue to attack.

Area of Effect attack
If Cerberus is below 200 hitpoints she occasionally growls Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr, throwing out three exploding markers onto the ground: One under the player and two nearby.

Ten damage is dealt from the spawn beneath the player and it constantly deals damage while the spot is occupied. Seven damage is dealt if the player is next to a marker or next to the location where a marker previously spawned, although there is no indication it was there, for several seconds after the attack.

Move immediately after Cerberus growls to avoid potentially lethal damage, while remembering the marker locations to prevent walking back onto them.

Cerberus can, and often does, its Area of Effect attack very soon after summoning the souls. Be prepared to deal with both!

Setup
As Cerberus is a Slayer monster, a black mask (i) or slayer helmet (i) is essential for its accuracy and damage bonuses against the boss.

Cerberus is also weak against crush attacks and slightly stronger against stab attacks, albeit still weak against it.

Melee =

Recommended skills:

(for Piety)

Inventory:
 * Special attack weapon (e.g. saradomin godsword or crystal halberd (i))
 * Spectral spirit shield (switch between a dragon defender during the fight)
 * House tablet or desert amulet 4
 * 1-2 Super combat potions
 * 6-8 Prayer potions or super restores
 * Guthan's warspear (if bringing the full set for healing)
 * Sharks for remaining inventory space


 * References