Grotesque Guardians/Strategies

The Grotesque Guardians are gargoyle slayer bosses that reside at the top of the Slayer Tower.

A player fights the Grotesque Guardians on the Slayer Tower's roof.

In order to access and fight them, the player must be assigned gargoyles as a Slayer task or be assigned a Grotesque Guardians boss task. Prior to this, the player must also obtain a brittle key; a 1/150 drop from regular gargoyles and marble gargoyles, which can only be obtained while assigned gargoyles as a slayer task.

Like gargoyles, players must bring a rock hammer, granite hammer, or rock thrownhammer to finish them off.

Attacks

Dusk is immune to magic and ranged attacks; only melee attacks will harm him. In addition, if players stand under Dusk, they will be trampled and receive 30-40 damage during the phases he is fought alone. Dusk only uses melee attacks, until the final phase of the fight wherein he will begin to also use ranged attacks.

Dawn uses ranged and melee attacks. Her ranged attack deals two hits in rapid succession, but deals far less damage individually. She has a special attack in which a grey ball is flung towards the player, and temporarily binds them by encasing them in stone (similar to the marble gargoyle's special attack).

Like most Slayer bosses, protection prayers only block part of the damage, not all of it.

Special attacks that they perform are detailed in the Strategy section.

Recommended equipment

During the fight, players will need both a ranged weapon and a melee weapon, plus a rock hammer, granite hammer, or rock thrownhammer to deal the final blow

Head: Slayer helmet (i) / Black mask (i) > Slayer helmet / Black mask

Chest: Blessed d'hide > Black d'hide > Karil's leathertop

Legs: Bandos tassets > Verac's plateskirt > Obsidian platelegs > Dragon platelegs/skirt

Feet: Primordial boots > Dragon boots

Hands: Barrows gloves

Cape: Ava's assembler > Ranging cape(t) > Ava's accumulator, Infernal cape > Fire cape

Neck: Amulet of torture, Necklace of anguish > Amulet of fury > Amulet of glory

Ring: Berserker ring (i)

Ranged Weapon: Toxic blowpipe

Melee Weapon: Abyssal tentacle > Abyssal whip > Dragon scimitar

Off-hand: Dragon defender > Rune defender

Ranged slot: Any god blessing

Special weapon: Dragon Claws > Toxic blowpipe > Saradomin godsword > Dragon dagger > Crystal halberd > Dragon halberd

Strategy

Note: Ranged/Magic and Melee are required for this fight, along with a rock hammer! If players die, they can reclaim lost items from the nearby magical chest for a fee of 50,000 coins. Note: If you die while items are in the magical chest, they will be lost forever!

Short version if you're using a toxic blowpipe and melee:

Phase 1:

Protect from ranged. Lure Dusk in a corner and distance yourself three squares from the both of the nearest walls. This will trap Dusk in route-finding mode and prohibit him from attacking. Attack Dawn with your blowpipe and dodge her magic attacks. Dusk can be lured again when his route finding is successful.

Phase 2:

Turn prayer off. Dodge the magic attacks and equip your melee gear.

Phase 3 (Dusk only):

Protect from melee. Watch for Dusk's special attack animation and move away quickly. Dodge the falling debris.

Phase 4:

Protect from ranged. Trap Dusk in a corner. Dawn spawns orbs that need to be absorbed by the player as soon as possible, failure to do this will cause Dawn to heal significantly. Kill Dawn.

Phase 5:

Protect from ranged. Dusk does a special attack where players will be placed in a magic killbox. Run out of the box to avoid damage. Kill Dusk.

Long version:

Phase 1

The lightning AoE attack at the end of phases 1 and 2.

Upon ringing the bell, a cutscene ensues where the guardians awaken and face the player. Dusk will be unattackable as he uses his wing to defend himself from all sources of combat, so the player must attack Dawn first. Dawn is airborne, so the player must attack her with ranged or magic, as melee cannot reach her. As she is more resistant to magic, ranging her is recommended.

When Dawn reaches 55% of her life points, the two Guardians will stand on the eastern and western sides, and will perform a lightning special attack that has an AoE of 3x3, rapidly dealing up to 5-10 damage per tick. After this attack is over, Dawn flies up, and Dusk will begin to attack the player.

To minimise damage, players should use ranged armour while using Protect from Melee, standing next to Dawn. This will cause her to occasionally attack with melee.

Phase 2

The player fails to evade Dusk's explosive attack, and gets knocked back.

Upon attacking Dusk, immediately run away from him once his wing glows, as his first attack is an explosive attack. If players do not run away from him when he does so, the player will be dealt 30+ damage and be knocked back. The frame in which you get hit by this attack is relatively short; when Dusk's wings cover his face, it is safe to return back and attack him; if you run back to him just as he expands his wings, you will be hit by the attack. Throughout this phase, Dawn will send debris down into the arena (roughly 8-10 once in a while, at three different speeds). These debris have a 3x3 AoE, and getting hit by them results in up to 22 damage, while stunning the player for several seconds. Shadows will indicate where these rocks will fall.

If players stand under Dusk, they will be trampled and receive 30-40 damage.

Reduce Dusk's health to 55%, and Dawn will return to perform the lightning special attack once more.

Phase 3

The two guardians descend to attack the player together. Like in phase 1, Dusk uses his wing to protect him from attacks, so you must focus on Dawn. Occasionally, she will throw out three energy spheres. These spheres don't have much energy, but the longer they linger on the field, the larger they grow. There are four stages to this; low, medium, high (warning) and very high (explodes). Absorbing the sphere when its energy is low deals 2 damage; at medium, it deals 10, and at high, 20. If not absorbed at all, they explode for higher damage, and will also heal Dawn for 90 life points per sphere, prolonging the fight.

Once Dawn reaches 0 health, use the rock hammer on her (unless you have unlocked the Gargoyle smasher ability using slayer reward points). Dusk will absorb her essence, and initiate the final phase of the fight.

Like in phase 1, stand next to Dawn and use Protect from Melee.

Phase 4

The special attack that the empowered Dusk performs. Note here that the player has failed to avoid the attack, and Dusk heals himself from that mistake.

Dusk will become empowered from Dawn's essence, though he will still be at half health due to phase 2. Here, he will gain Dawn's attacks, although he will not use his explosive attack, nor will debris resume falling on the roof. Magic and Ranged attacks will have no effect on Dusk, as his armour will protect him from those attacks.

Dusk uses a new special attack, where he drags the player somewhere in the arena and traps them in a barrier of blue flames. One of the flames are missing, so use that to escape immediately after he drags you. If you fail to get out of the enclosed area in time, the fires will deal up to 60+ damage, and Dusk will heal himself for the same damage he dealt to you. Dusk will also use ranged attacks. Dusk is more likely to repeat the same style of attack, so you can reduce the damage taken by switching to the protection prayer of the attack he just used. When Dusk reaches 0 health, use the rock hammer on him to finish him off (unless you have unlocked the Gargoyle smasher ability using slayer reward points).

Like phase 2, Dusk's passive stomp effect returns into action.

WARNING: Sometimes, Dusk may drag the player to the edges, then create a barrier where the exit cannot be used because there is no space to escape. Quickly run into the exit of the barrier to avoid damage or eat up to tank the incoming damage or simply teleport out of the arena. Note that the first time Dusk performs this attack, he is in an invulnerable state; after this first time, he can be attacked when he performs this attack. Be sure not to attack him until the special attack is over, or you may run back into the enclosed area.