A player takes on Cerberus in her lair.
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, pickaxe or harpoon to turn them into their respective infernal counterparts; the infernal axe, pickaxe and harpoon respectively.
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.
Effective ways to get to Taverley Dungeon include teleporting to Falador and using the wall shortcut near the West bank, only a short run from the dungeon entrance, or moving one's Player-owned house to Taverley, exiting via the house portal and running south.
There are two ways of navigating the dungeon:
- Players can go around the long way 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. Both obstacles can be boosted with a Summer pie, meaning that you only need 65/75 Agility to use the shortcuts with the assistance of the pie. Drinking an antipoison potion is useful in case the poison spiders nearby manage to poison.
- Use a Key master teleport, which teleports players straight into the lair. These can only be obtained from Cerberus herself (cannot be traded), in quantities of three and at a rate of 1/64.
General Strategy
While fighting Cerberus, it is recommended to activate Protect from Magic.
As a hellhound-type boss, Cerberus has high offensive stats (220) but has a low Defence level (100). She is weak to melee attacks, primarily crush-based ones. She is slightly resistant to stab attacks and resistant against slash, magic and ranged attacks.
Cerberus can use all three forms of combat against the player, all having a max hit of 23. Cerberus' magic attack is a transparent, almost smooth-looking ball; her ranged attack is also a transparent ball, but spiked. Cerberus' melee attack consists of a bite at the player.
Cerberus also has a unique attack mechanic, where she will attack the player with a magic attack, followed up quickly with a ranged and melee attack regardless of the player's distance from her. They are simply normal attacks, and can be easily blocked by quickly switching your overhead prayers to the corresponding attack. She will use this immediately during the start of the fight, and it has a 40-second cooldown, after which she will use it again.
In addition, a fire wall also blocks the way between Cerberus and the exit when the fight begins. This wall will persist until the player dies; if the player attempts to cross the fire wall when it is up, they will take 5 damage both ways.
Upon spawning, Cerberus cannot be attacked; rather, she only has an examine option. Once a player is in the arena, she will become attackable after a very short period of time. If no players are present inside, she will return to the center of her chamber and her attack option will be removed, which will also restore all of her health if damaged.
Summoned souls
A player flicking the correct prayers against the Summoned Souls.
A summoned soul using magic
A summoned soul using melee
A summoned soul using ranged
If Cerberus is below 400 Hitpoints, she will occasionally howl 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. Their attacks will always hit for 30 damage regardless of the player's armour bonuses if the player does not use the right protection prayer. You should have at least 65+ health whenever they appear as it is very easy to get comboed out by the spirits and Cerberus' 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 run out of prayer points unless they have a Prayer level of 95+. Equipping a Spectral spirit shield when the spirits appear will reduce this prayer drain to 15 (50%) instead. You do not need to bring it, but it is helpful anyways as you're less likely to run out of prayer points if you pray through all three attacks.
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: As of the patch notes of 16 March 2017, if Cerberus is killed when the spirits are summoned, they will despawn upon attempting to attack the player. Note that any spirits that attack just as she dies will still damage the player, so pray accordingly if this happens.
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.
10-15 damage is dealt from the marker if the player is on top of it. Seven damage is dealt if the player is next to a marker. After a short period of time, the markers will explode (dealing more damage if you get hit by them), after which it is safe to go to those tiles again.
Cerberus can, and often does, use the AoE attack in conjunction with the Summoned Souls. Quickly move under Cerberus, identify the spirits quickly and pray accordingly, as inexperienced players may get killed by the spirits as they try to avoid the markers.
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.
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| Optimal setup | ||||||
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Recommended skills:
- 85+
Attack
- 85+ Strength
- 85+ Defence
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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
- 6-9 Prayer potions or Super restores[3]
- Guthan's warspear (if bringing the full set for healing)
- Sharks for remaining inventory space
- References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Guthan's should only be brought if you plan to bring the whole set for its set effect. Guthan's is useful and can be used to heal during the fight.
- ↑ It is advised to use the dragon defender during the fight and only switch with the spectral spirit shield when Summoned souls are about to spawn.
- ↑ The amount of prayer/super restore potions depends if the player has a Spectral spirit shield or not.
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| Advanced Tank | ||||||
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Recommended skills:
- 75+ Ranged
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Inventory:
- Special attack weapon (e.g. Toxic blowpipe or Saradomin godsword)
- Spectral spirit shield
- House tablet or Desert amulet 4
- 1 Ranging potion
- 6-9 Prayer potions or Super restores[2]
- Sharks for remaining inventory spaces
- References
- ↑ Armadyl helmet is not recommended, since the bonuses from a Slayer helmet far outclass it.
- ↑ The amount of prayer/super restore potions depends if the player has a Spectral spirit shield or not.