Phoenix

A Phoenix is a level 235 monster that can be fought in the Phoenix Lair. She was voted by players in the Guaranteed Content Poll on 28 April 2008. She was mentioned in November 2008's Behind the Scenes as a future update, and in the January 2009's Behind the Scenes, and was released later in the month.

Fighting


Note: A Slayer stat boost will work to get inside the Phoenix Lair.

Once players have completed In Pyre Need and have 51 Slayer, they may attempt to fight their way through the Phoenix Lair and defeat the Phoenix herself. This can be done once per day.

Players will require a minimum of tinderbox, secateurs and a knife to enter the lair. Note: Also take into account that you will need 5 twigs, thus 5 inventory spaces. (A clever solution may be to drop the knife and/or secateurs when they aren't needed any more saving at least one inventory space.)

Since the Guardians on the way to the Phoenix will block or corner the player, it is recommended to bring a Spirit wolf pouch and some Howl scrolls to scare them off. Otherwise, players might find that they have to kill the guardians to proceed further. Note: Familiars may fail to follow players through from one cave to the next. If this happens, players should press the Call Familiar button to make their familiars appear next to them.

The Phoenix herself has a combat level of 235 and has high defence. A Zamorakian Spear works particularly well against her. She attacks purely with magic and has been said to hit up to 290. It is advisable for players to use the Protect from Magic prayer and melee her, drinking a dose of super strength potion if possible. As the whole cavern is multicombat, players may bring familiars to aid them. Those who have a high prayer level and access to Ancient Curses should use Deflect Magic and Leech Defense which has proven very effective.

She may use a "Dust Attack" (it has been recorded when she does not use this attack during a fight) which will drain some of a player's stats even if they have Protect from Magic on. Affected stats are Attack, Magic and Ranged. Boosted stats are affected as if unboosted, so stat boosting potions are a waste. Drained stats will return to their normal (unboosted) levels after a few seconds. This makes using Magic against the Phoenix somewhat difficult, although she appears to be weak to water spells.

When the phoenix is mortally wounded, use a tinderbox on the pyre base to light it, then the phoenix will burn and turn to ashes, and a new phoenix will be reborn, talk to her, the player will be rewarded with 5 phoenix quills and 5000 Slayer experience. From every kill thereafter, the player will only receive 500 Slayer experience (Similar to when a player kills Bork in the Chaos Tunnels.) In addition, for each visit the player will also receive 7500 Firemaking experience, 3000 Fletching experience, and 1000 Crafting experience as a reward for defeating her, as well as the chance to get a phoenix eggling.

Trivia

 * The examine text refers to a 1957 song, Great Balls of Fire.
 * The brother Phoenix, Si'morgh, may be a reference to the Simurgh, a massive winged bird-like creature of Persian mythology.
 * If you use the tinderbox on the Wounded Phoenix instead of the pyre she will say "Light the pyre, not me!"
 * The disc that both her adult and child version is born from appears similar to ones used to lure the Spirit Beast with various familiars in the quests Spirit of Summer and Summer's End.
 * The Adventurer's Log will pluralize phoenix to "phoenicies" if you kill more than one in a row without doing anything else that shows up in the Adventurer's Log.
 * The phoenix's lair can be teleported to with a Phoenix lair teleport possible reward from treasure trails of all levels.

Phoenix