Barrows

This is a dangerous minigame. Only bring items you can adequately defend or items you are willing to lose.

This article has a strategy guide here. All information on mechanics and strategy will be on this page.

A player participating in the Barrows minigame.

The Barrows minigame is an area-based Combat minigame released in May 2005. It is popular due to the valuable rewards, the unique Barrows equipment. The objective is to defeat the six Barrows brothers: Ahrim the Blighted, Dharok the Wretched, Guthan the Infested, Karil the Tainted, Torag the Corrupted and Verac the Defiled. Each brother has his own burial mound and possesses a Combat level of 115, except Ahrim the Blighted and Karil the Tainted, who both have a Combat level of 98. To enter a mound, the player must stand on top of it and dig using a spade (Note: As of Content Poll #14, there will be a spade spawn near the Barrows area.) The Barrows brothers are very strong, each with very high Defence levels. Each brother also has a different special ability, which is the same as the set effect of the corresponding armour set. Because of this, special consideration should be given to the methods with and order in which the brothers are killed.

Getting there

Red is the longest and most tedious route. Sky blue is the moderate route if no recommended quests are completed. Green is the shortest route and makes use of the Myreque shortcut.

There are several different methods for travelling to Barrows and for banking. Some of which are:

• Using the Fairy Ring code CKS to travel to the fairy ring outside Mort Myre Swamp and heading south through the swamp and then through Mort'ton to Barrows. (Note: Fairy ring travel requires Fairytale II - Cure a Queen to be started, and Nature Spirit is required to be started for travel through Mort Myre Swamp.)
• With completion of In Search of the Myreque, players gain access to an alternative route to Mort'ton.
• After completion of Ghosts Ahoy, players can use the Ectophial and travel from there. (It also serves as a one-click teleport in case of emergencies.)
• Players can teleport to Varrock and head east (allows players to restore Prayer points at the temple on the way).
• Players can teleport directly to Canifis using the Kharyll Teleport spell, provided they have completed Desert Treasure.  This option can be made more convenient by adding a Kharyll portal in your player-owned house (50 Construction needed).  This makes it so you can teleport to Canifis while on your regular spellbook and can benefit greatly should you also have an altar to recharge Prayer in your house (also 50 Construction). This method is best used in conjunction with the Myreque's alternative route to Mort'ton.
• With the release of the minigame channels, players can quickly teleport to Mort'ton through the Shades of Mort'ton minigame channel (only if you have completed the quest 'Shades of Mort'ton').

Completion of In Aid of the Myreque up until the point in which the bank in Burgh de Rott is restored is useful for a convenient banking method for multiple trips.

Exploring the Barrows

The above-ground portion of Barrows consists of six grave mounds inside a fence. A Prayer-using player should prepare to fight the brother in the mound before entering as preparing after entering the mound will waste prayer points, which constantly drain away when inside the Barrows. To enter a mound, stand on top of a mound, and dig with a spade. The player should enter a crypt with a sarcophagus in the centre. Open the sarcophagus and pray if using Prayer. Every time but once, the brother who is buried there will appear and attack. Kill the brother, leave and proceed to the next one.

At one of the crypts, the brother will not appear. Instead, there will be an entrance to a maze-like lower level of tunnels. If the player has not killed all the other brothers in their crypts yet, it is not recommended to enter the tunnels at this time. Once all the others have been killed, the player should return to this crypt and enter the tunnels.

The tunnels contain nine rooms in a 3x3 grid, connected by short and long corridors. The player must find the way to the central room and the rewards chest there. Some of the doors will be locked, so the player must explore.

The room in which the player enters the tunnels has a ladder leading out. It will often not have any monsters in it the first time the player enters it (but will if entered subsequently). All other rooms and corridors always have some monsters in them (if only the sixth brother) when entered. When passing through a door, the sixth brother may appear and attack. If he does not appear before the chest is reached, he will definitely appear when the chest is opened. Kill the last brother when he appears. Once the chest is opened, the player can get the treasure by searching the chest.

If Guthan is the brother in your tunnel, there is a small possibility he will die, but you will get a message saying "We'll finish this later...", and he will not count towards your kill-count, or loot, but he may not be able to be killed in the tunnel until you do another rune after leaving.

After the chest is looted, the tunnels start collapsing, which will cause damage. Some players teleport away after looting the chest, while others with adequate supplies retrace their route back to the room with the ladder. This is HIGHLY recommended as players can easily rebank at Burgh de Rott or Canifis if needed, and players can restart the Barrows trip all over again without having to teleport there.

It is not required to kill all the brothers before looting the chest, but the chance of getting Barrows equipment from the chest increases as more brothers are killed. It is possible to skip every brother but the one in the tunnels.

Kill Count

• The order in which you kill the brothers does not matter. However, it is still recommended that you kill five brothers before venturing into the tunnels to kill the sixth. (When inside the tunnel, if you find a low level enemy, rat or bloodworm, you can continuously enter and leave a doorway to enable them to respawn to get killcount faster (BEWARE, THIS CAN ALSO ENABLE THE SIXTH BROTHER TO SPAWN RANDOMLY).
• It was stated in the official RuneScape stream by Mod Mat K, that 11 killcount is optimal.

Entering The Chest Room

Once the player locates the operational door that leads to the chest, they will have to solve a simple puzzle in order to open the door. Due to the monster that spawns when you go into the room, some players prefer killing it, while others simply move back and forth to chase it off. This is useful in the Giant crypt rat room, as their large size can block enemies. If you get the puzzle wrong, the catacombs will move around, meaning that the ladder will be in a different room, and so will be the door to the chest room.

Rewards

Runes

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE market price
	Mind rune	1–2; 889	Common	3–2,667
	Chaos rune	1–885	Common	89–78,765
	Death rune	1–391	Common	203–79,373
	Blood rune	1–165	Uncommon	367–60,555

Barrows Equipment

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE market price
File:Ahrims hood.png	Ahrims hood	1	Rare	Error
File:Ahrims robe top.png	Ahrims robe top	1	Rare	Error
File:Ahrims robe skirt.png	Ahrims robe skirt	1	Rare	Error
File:Ahrims staff.png	Ahrims staff	1	Rare	Error
File:Dharoks helm.png	Dharoks helm	1	Rare	Error
File:Dharoks platebody.png	Dharoks platebody	1	Rare	Error
File:Dharoks platelegs.png	Dharoks platelegs	1	Rare	Error
File:Dharoks greataxe.png	Dharoks greataxe	1	Rare	Error
File:Guthans helm.png	Guthans helm	1	Rare	Error
File:Guthans platebody.png	Guthans platebody	1	Rare	Error
File:Guthans chainskirt.png	Guthans chainskirt	1	Rare	Error
File:Guthans warspear.png	Guthans warspear	1	Rare	Error
File:Karils coif.png	Karils coif	1	Rare	Error
File:Karils leathertop.png	Karils leathertop	1	Rare	Error
File:Karils leatherskirt.png	Karils leatherskirt	1	Rare	Error
File:Karils crossbow.png	Karils crossbow	1	Rare	Error
File:Torags helm.png	Torags helm	1	Rare	Error
File:Torags platebody.png	Torags platebody	1	Rare	Error
File:Torags platelegs.png	Torags platelegs	1	Rare	Error
File:Torags hammers.png	Torags hammers	1	Rare	Error
File:Veracs helm.png	Veracs helm	1	Rare	Error
File:Veracs brassard.png	Veracs brassard	1	Rare	Error
File:Veracs plateskirt.png	Veracs plateskirt	1	Rare	Error
File:Veracs flail.png	Veracs flail	1	Rare	Error

Miscellaneous

Notes:

• In order to receive a piece of Barrow's equipment the corresponding brother must be killed before the chest is looted.
• It is possible to receive up to 6 different Barrows item from a single chest, though this is extremely rare.
• Killing all of the brothers is not required to receive a loot, however not killing all brothers decreases your chance of receiving a barrows item, and you will not be able to receive the items from the brothers that you missed.

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE market price
	Coins	1–5,306	Common	Error
	Bolt rack	1–191	Uncommon	94–17,954
	Dragon med helm	1	Very rare	58,488
	Loop half of key	1	Very rare	10,307
	Tooth half of key	1	Very rare	10,840
	Clue scroll (elite)	1	Very rare	Error