Commander Zilyana


 * Commander Zilyana is a God Wars Dungeon boss and is called the 'Saradomin Boss' in RuneScape's Quick Chat feature.

Commander Zilyana is the leader of Saradomin's army in the God Wars Dungeon. She is an Icyene, an ancient race of winged beings, chosen by Saradomin to guard his hilt. Commander Zilyana uses a melee attack and a magic attack. She uses them randomly and both attacks are quite accurate. She attacks with her multi-target magic attack when her sword glows with a bright blue aura and she raises it in the air. If the attack hits a player, a small wall of lightning will appear around the player. If her magic attack fails, nothing happens (no 0 life points splat, no splash). She attacks with melee when she simply slashes at the player with her sword. Her melee attack is not multi-target. Both her magic and melee attacks only work at close range.

In addition, both her magic and melee attacks have a max of 315 life points and they are both very rapid (approximately the speed of throwing knives), so players should be careful fighting her. An interesting note is that her magic attack can only be used in melee range. This is possibly due to the fact that it is part of the special attack of a Saradomin Sword, which does not have the ability to farcast when used by players.

Commander Zilyana is located in the back room of Saradomin's Encampment. Players must have 70 Agility, two coils of rope, and 40 Saradominist kills to reach her. In addition, she has 3 guards: Growler (magic), Bree (ranged) and Starlight (melee).

Note: The two ropes needed to access her are only needed once, and can be used any time thereafter. The ropes cannot be recovered. you also can not reach her if you do not have 70 agility (you can not use summer pies nor agility potions to climb the ropes either.)

Commander Zilyana is extremely dangerous and should not be underestimated. She is the seventh strongest monster in RuneScape, after Nomad, General Graardor, K'ril Tsutsaroth, TzTok-Jad, the Spirit Beast and the Corporeal Beast. Thus, she is the sixth strongest attackable monster, as the Spirit Beast cannot be attacked.

Bodyguards

 * Starlight
 * Growler
 * Bree

Quotes
When in battle, the Commander shouts several battle cries while fighting the players that dare to venture into her domain:


 * "Death to the enemies of the light!"
 * "Slay the evil ones!"
 * "Saradomin lend me strength!"
 * "By the power of Saradomin!"
 * "May Saradomin be my sword."
 * "Good will always triumph!"
 * "Forward! Our allies are with us!"
 * "Saradomin is with us!"
 * "In the name of Saradomin!"
 * "Attack! Find the Godsword!"

Soloing Method
The soloing method involves a tactic known as Hit-and-Run, which is also used when fighting in a group. It involves attacking Zilyana and quickly moving out of range before she can retaliate. If you melee, you will take 1 or 2 hits. However, if you range, you can keep hitting and running, restoring energy with Purple Sweets or Tireless Run Scrolls. Running away from her is the preferred method, because she is easily capable of killing a player with her strong, accurate, and rapid attacks if players are not prepared. Rangers can stay for about 10 kills if using this method.

Players attempting to tank Zilyana should have a Slash defence bonus reaching over 400+ to ensure Zilyana's melee attacks wont hit often. Player's Defence level should so be 95+ along with the aid of a Saradomin Brew. Barrows armour and Dragonfire Shield is a minimum requirement to reach the bonuses. A Divine spirit shield is even more helpful, If players has the resources they may use Statius Armour* instead. Piety is also a must for the defence boost or if on Ancient curses Leech strength, attack, and defence would be necessary following Turmoil being the best. Players melee tanking MUST have protect/deflect from magic on.

Another method to tanking is by optimizing Magic defence and using Deflect/protect from melee. this option requires 150+ Magic Defence bonus along with 95+ Magic and Defence level. This method will require Karil's armour along with Dragonfire shield. Again, a divine spirit shield would be even better. A spectral spirit shield will help more than a dragonfire shield with its huge +30 magic defence boost. Players are advised to use Leech magic and Leech defence from the Ancient curses to increase the chance of survival. Similar to the melee set-up, if the player has the resources they may use Morrigan's armour instead. However, players using pvp equipment must be mindful of the armour degrading into nothing.

Most players can only kill up to 2 kills using tank method similar to the other god wars bosses.

In addition, If you need to eat or drink Saradomin Brews, do so while running from corner to corner until your health is full before fighting face to face again.

Zamorak Godswords are somewhat useful while soloing as the special attack freezes Zilyana for 20 seconds, giving you plenty of time to eat and prepare.

Ice barrage can also be used and will give far more freezing ability, however this is NOT recommended as Zilyana has a very high Magic defence. And since robes have little defence bonuses to endure her attacks this is extremely dangerous.

Currently its unsettled which melee attack style Zilyana is most vulnerable to. Some presume its Crush due to her Plate-Armour appearance but without the aid of extra effects (Verac's effect when crushing, or the Godsword's extreme accuracy when slashing), Stab attacks hit most accurately.

NOTE: Due to an update by Jagex in which they made the room smaller in size, the Hit-and-Run method has become considerably more difficult. Players will usually not get as many boss kills as they would have before this update.

Team strategy
Usually, teams consist of 3-6 players. The team strategy is similar to the solo strategy. Because Commander Zilyana's attacks are so dangerous, it is ineffective to "tank" her. However it is possible to tank her if you have the correct set-up and skill, but not recommended. Therefore, when in a team, a player should quickly run away (to avoid her attacks) when the Commander is going after that player, and attack Zilyana when she's chasing after or attacking another player. Commander Zilyana will switch to another target after unsuccessfully chasing her current target for 12 seconds. Although if a player wishes to keep Zilyana on them for longer they can run between two corners only which keeps her on them for as long as she is alive. A strategy for more experienced players is when she attacks you run away a few steps and the walk to the corners to save run energy. It's not advised that you use this strategy unless you are very experienced.

For big teams (masses), all players assemble in the centre and pile Zilyana. If she is attacking a player in such a team, that player really doesn't have to run away from her, as it usually takes a few seconds for the team to kill her. However, if the team fails to kill her fast enough, death is a very real possibility for the player under attack. Therefore, praying magic is highly recommended before Zilyana spawns.

Some tricks / techniques the average team uses: 


 * When she spawns, a ranger is usually the first to distract Commander Zilyana, as the ranger is able to attack from a distance.


 * A team member freezes Commander Zilyana with a Zamorak Godsword special attack so she cannot move. This makes the kill slightly smoother, as players can simply step away from the Commander's reach. This results in less running around for the team.


 * Commander Zilyana and her bodyguards are very dangerous, so teams usually bring healing familiars (such as Fruit Bats, Unicorns), Guthan's armour, or Bones to Peaches tablets in order to heal and stay longer.
 * Players may also like to use Titan familiars to heal although because they are attacking familiars Zilyana is more likely to turn on them.


 * Players usually stand at the south wall while waiting for her to spawn.


 * Teams can rest in between kills. The "rest" feature allows teams to recover run energy and life points more quickly.


 * Teams pray at the altar when they're low on prayer points. It is ill-advised to pray at the altar when a player has high prayer points because the altar will only restore the player's prayer points once every 10 minutes.


 * Players wear Saradomin objects because the altar gives one bonus prayer point per Saradomin object a player is wearing when he/she prays there. This may not seem like much, but it adds up, especially when trips last 5+ hours.

Recommended Equipment

 * Head: Verac's Helmet/Helmet of neitiznot/Torag's helmet/Berserker Helmet


 * Neck: Amulet of fury/Amulet of Glory/Saradomin Stole/Zamorak Stole


 * Torso:Verac's brassard/Bandos Chestplate/Saradomin d'hide/Zamorak d'hide


 * Legs: Verac's plateskirt/Bandos Tassets/Torag's platelegs/Dharok's platelegs


 * Boots: Dragon boots/Ranger boots/Snakeskin boots


 * Cape: Fire cape/Soul Wars cape/Skill Cape(t)/Ava's accumulator(only if ranging)/Ardougne Cloak 3 (for prayer bonus).


 * If using a crossbow, Ruby bolts (e) and Diamond bolts (e) (ruby for first half of health, then diamond for rest)


 * Rune Crossbow (WITH a shield)


 * Weapon: Verac's flail/Chaotic rapier/Godsword/Zamorakian spear/Abyssal Whip


 * Shield: Elysian spirit shield/Divine spirit shield/Dragonfire shield/Blessed spirit shield/Toktz-ket-xil/Granite shield/Dragon sq shield/Crystal shield


 * Gloves: Barrows gloves/Zamorak vambraces/Saradomin vambraces

Weapons and Ammunition



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Armour

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Potions, food, and herbs

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 * Saradomin brew (3) and Super restore (4) are always dropped together.
 * Magic potion (3) and Super defence (4) are always dropped together.

Other drops



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Trivia

 * The safe spot for Commander Zilyana was removed on 14 February 2008.
 * Although her weapon, the Saradomin Sword, is a two-handed weapon when equipped by a player, Commander Zilyana wields it in one hand.
 * Due to the update on 18 August 2009, involving combat familiars now being more aggressive, familiars such as the Titan, Terrorbird, and War Tortoise are now causing Commander Zilyana to target and attack players at a random rate. This happens because if a player's familiar attacks the Commander, she will automatically target the owner of that familiar, regardless of whether or not she has just chased them.
 * Commander Zilyana is the only boss in the God Wars Dungeon to make a direct reference of the Godsword.
 * The art for Commander Zilyana on the Runescape Cards shows her hair to actually be composed of feathers.
 * The Saradomin Sword which Commander Zilyana wields in the Runescape wallpaper is much shorter than the the one she wields in the game.
 * Like Graardor and Kril, Zilyana does not farcast her Magical attack, and only uses it if in melee range.
 * In the Saradomin Strikes Campaign on Armies of Gielinor, it is revealed that at some point during the God Wars Zilyana was captured by Zamorak, but then escaped.
 * In Zilyana's chamber, players can see an inaccessible watery area. This area is unique and not found anywhere ingame, however it has been confirmed that it will not be released.