General Graardor

General Graardor (called Bandos Boss in Quick chat) is currently the sixth strongest monster in RuneScape after K'ril Tsutsaroth, Nomad, TzTok-Jad, the Spirit Beast and the Corporeal Beast, and is therefore the fifth highest attackable creature. He is the boss of Bandos' Stronghold. To get access to his chamber players must kill 40 of Bandos' followers. The easiest method is killing 40 goblins. General Graardor is the most popular of the four God Wars bosses to kill. To enter his stronghold, players must have at least 70 Strength and a normal or Stealing Creation hammer.

History
Details regarding General Graardor's history are virtually impossible to find. The ourg race, of which Graardor is a part, was brought to Gielinor from Yu'biusk in the early Third Age along with ogres, goblins, and orks. However, it is likely that Graardor was born some time during the God Wars.

Graardor, during the late Third Age, was one of Bandos's most favoured soldiers. His strategic military tactics, as well as his simple physical strength, made him an ideal leader of Bandos's army. Graardor's physical strength was such that he eventually learned to fight both with weaponry and with his bare hands. Graardor's last task in Bandos's forces came in the late Third Age, when a hasty alliance between Bandos, Saradomin, and Armadyl fought against Zamorak in what is now called the God Wars Dungeon of Troll Country. The battle was evidently fought in an effort to claim the godsword, an extremely powerful weapon crafted by the icyene.

Although initially the battle was fought only between Zamorak and the alliance, distrust between the gods' armies quickly led to the conflict erupting into four-way chaos. Graardor, content with this, oversaw the construction of a rudimentary base of operations in an offshoot of the cave. This fortress, now known as "Bandos's Stronghold," served to house both Graardor and troops rotating out of combat in the main chamber. Graardor himself was placed under the protection of goblin Sargeants Strongsack, Steelwill, and Grimspike.

During the course of the fighting, a spell cast by an unknown army backfired upon the entire cavern, freezing the entire cave perfectly in place. Graardor was amongst those left imprisoned. Very shortly after this occurred, the god Guthix awoke and established the Edicts of Guthix, preventing the direct involvement of any deity in Gielinor. The departure of the world's gods and the subsequent end of the God Wars meant that the cavern was forgotten, and Graardor would remain imprisoned with its populace for more than 2,000 years to come.

In the recent Fifth Age, investigations by both the dwarven explorer Nestor Peregrine and the Asgarnian Temple Knights nearly resulted in the cave's (and Graardor's) rediscovery. In 169, tectonic movement in the neighboring Wilderness caused large portions of the cave to defrost, eventually leading to the release of most of the cavern's population. Unaware that the God Wars have ended, Graardor and the rest of the battle's leaders have resumed the battle for the godsword once again.

Bodyguards

 * Sergeant Strongstack (melee)
 * Sergeant Steelwill (magic)
 * Sergeant Grimspike (ranged)

Quotes
When in battle, General Graardor says many quotes to do with defeating the characters that dare to venture deep enough to kill him, these quotes are:


 * "Death to our enemies!"
 * "Brargh!"


 * "Break their bones!"
 * "For the glory of the Big High War God!
 * "Split their skulls!"
 * "We feast on the bones of our enemies tonight!"
 * "CHAAARGE!"
 * "Crush them underfoot!"


 * "All glory to Bandos!"
 * "GRAAAAAAAAAR!"

Team strategy
The General should never be underestimated. Not only does he have very high defence, he can hit up to 605 with melee, and uses a ranged attack that hits everyone in the room, which hits up to 355. A team of at least 3 people as well as a tank (i.e. a player with high defence and good armour to take Graardor's blows) is highly recommended. To make it easier for everyone the tank should have at least 80 defence and 80 Constitution (800+ Lifepoints). All players should use the Protect from Ranged Prayer, except for the player directly being attacked, who should use the Protect from Melee Prayer. The player being directly attacked should watch his or her health very carefully, as he/she can still be hit by Graardor's ranged attack. All players should be careful of Graardor's minions, as one uses melee, one uses ranged, and one uses magic. There is an altar there, but it can only be used every 10 minutes, so it is advised to bring prayer potions or super restores just in case. One good strategy much used before the trade limit update was to trade the tank more food or Saradomin brews if he/she was to run out. This can be used now after the update as well but you can only trade a certain amount of food/brews now. Some say he is the easiest of the bosses in the God Wars Dungeon, but don't take him too lightly.



Solo strategy
General Graardor can be soloed with ranged or melee at a very high level.

If you wish to kill General Graardor and get a couple of kills, you should have 85+ defence, 80+ magic (for defence against Steelwill), and 85+ in your offensive stat (either ranged or attack). However, it is possible to do it at 80 defence, 80 attack, and 80 strength, although at these levels you will be just about getting one kill per trip, sometimes none.

When soloing Graardor it is advised that you do not risk what you are not willing to lose, because even the most experienced Graardor soloers can find themselves taken to an unsafe amount of lifepoints in a relatively short period of time.

You can choose to Range or Melee the boss, but Magic is not recommended at all. Magic armour gives weak defence, and is especially weak to Ranged attacks, with which Graardor will hit high and often. Furthermore, he has a rather high magic defence.

One of the best armour sets, if you have it, is a Bandos Chestplate or Tassets. This saves an inventory slot since you will not need to bring a Granite Mace. If you choose not to use those, Torag's Armour is a good second best for its ranged defence. If not those, rune is decent enough to risk. A good helmet would be a Helm of Neitiznot for its strength and prayer bonus. It is highly recommended to have one of these, as they are relatively cheap for a good strong set of stats. Climbing Boots or Dragon Boots are preferred among most solo'ers. Barrows Gloves are a huge help, as is a Rune Defender if you can equip them with your weapon of choice. It is a good idea to bring a Zamorak item for Kill Count. You can replace the gloves with Zamorak Vambraces or the Shield with a Zamorak Book.

A full set of Verac's armour is effective against General Graardor, as its set effect can hit high (usually over 300 life points) on him. However, there is the risk of losing Verac's Helmet should the player die without Protect Item being on, or should another item keep over the helmet.

Most people who are not willing to risk too much but still want a good chance of hitting will bring an Abyssal whip as it is a fast one-handed weapon and fits room for a sidearm. Occasionally there are those who wish to risk or use a borrowed Saradomin, Bandos or Armadyl Godsword as it has a very good chance of dealing critical hits to the boss. The only problem is that it is very slow. A secondary weapon is important to keep. If you chose a whip, a dragon dagger would be a good idea to bring. (It does not matter if it is poisoned or not, since Graardor is immune to poison like all the other generals.) Dragon claws are a very risky choice of sidearm as it has a high price for the same abilities of a dragon dagger, even though it is quicker. The dragon dagger has an advantage over the dragon claws in that it is easily replaced if lost. If you chose a Godsword, you may not want to choose a sidearm, as your sword does all the heavy hitting in its special attack.

With Normal Magic, the Glory Trick, A.K.A. Trollheim Teleport Trick can be used. This is done by teleporting to the Trollheim, dropping 2 food slots, teleporting to Edgeville or Draynor to restock on food, and teleporting back to the Trollheim, and picking up the 2 food. Those who cannot use the Glory Trick can just use a Burthrope games necklace with equipped climbing boots to get there.

A Teleport Tablet, or any form of One-Click-Teleport, is highly recommended! Lumbridge, Falador, Camelot or even Ardoungne are the best ones to buy since they all have a nearby bank. DO NOT waste inventory space on runes!

A Granite Mace, if you choose not to bring Bandos Armour, will allow you to get extra time to prepare for the boss, and see if anyone else is in the room already making a solo attempt. This comes in handy since Bandos followers will not attack you willist you wield it. If you choose not to use it, you need to dash through the room with magic protection on. If you need to see in the room, but do not have a granite mace, you need to head far north in the bandos area, specifically where the four hobgoblins are. This can give you at least some footing on who is in there.

Bringing a ring of life is highly recommended, because Graardor hits up to 350 with ranged and 600 with melee, so there is a reasonable chance that your hitpoints will be dangerously low and a ring of life becomes your only chance of survival. Also, it is rather common for him to 'spam' his ranged attack, which can be difficult to deal with, especially if you get unlucky. If you need to eat, run to the other side of the chamber, this should give you enough time to eat 2 or 3 sharks or other high-healing food, before attacking him again.

A beast of burden, such as a Spirit Terrorbird, War tortoise or Pack Yak is a great help in solo tasks. The higher level familiar, the better chance of a longer stay are. If you do not bring a familiar of any kind, expect a short stay. Before you make your trip, it is recommended double check your inventory and a beast of burden should consist of 3 Saradomin Brews, 1 Super Restore Potion, 1-2 Prayer Potions, 1 Super Attack and 1 Super Strength. All of these potions need to be in 4 doses for a better chance of success. If you have an Overload Potion, bring that instead of a super set, don't bring Saradomin Brews and fill the spares with food and an extra Super Restore potion or Prayer Potion. Don't forget a teleport tablet, hammer, and a sidearm. Bring a Granite Mace if you think you may need it. The rest of your inventory and beast of burden slots filled with Sharks or better. Make sure you are not in a lootshare world, that is one of the most important things to check!

If you brought a Zamorakian item, the best chance of fast Kill Counts is where the Zamorak and Bandos forces meet. You can fight alongside the Gorak and Vampires to kill the Goblins and the Ogre. Ater those monsters are dead, you can switch to the area where the Werewolves and Vampires attack the Hobgoblins, and occasional Ork. Repeat this Process until you have 40 Kills.

If you did not bring a Zamorak item but have a Bandos item, you still have a chance of some good paced Kill Count. There is an area where four Hobgoblins camp out, that is directly south of the Bandos General's room. You can get kills here as well as some decent loots from the Hobgoblins.

Before you enter, drink 3 doses of Saradomin Brew, and 1 dose of Super Restore, then use your super set or if you brought the overload, drink it and eat some food! When you finally are about to enter set your quick prayers to Piety, Protect Item, and Protect from Melee and keep all of those on, no matter what. Graardor can hit high with his melee attack, and you don't want to give him the chance to use it. Piety will give you a boost in attack. Hit him once to see how much health he has left. If he is at 100% health, use your special attack. If not, then finish the first kill and use the special on the second kill. It is highly recommended that you keep your hitpoints above 700, as most likely the Ranger and Mage will hit 200's or higher, and Graardor can hit 350's with his ranged attack. Always keep one eye on your prayer meter, if you run out of prayer use the one click teleport as soon as you can!

You want to attack the General first, obviously. After he is dealt with, attack Grimspike as he can add up damage fast. After that, kill Steelwill. Keep Protect from Melee on, and kill Strongstack last. This prevents you being caught without melee protection on if you are too slow to kill the sergeants when Graardor respawns. There are situations where 2 or more soloers are competing for loot from the boss, or better known as Free For All. This can help or hurt you in the longrun. Keep Melee Protection on if he respawns, and if he chooses not to attack you, put ranged protection on. If he re-focuses onto you, run and turn on Melee Protection, then deal with him. If you are being melee attacked, do the same thing you normally do for most solo runs. If you do not get loot from Graardor, you still have a chance of getting loot from the other three sergeants.



Recommended Equipment

 * Head: Verac's Helmet/Helmet of neitiznot/Berserker Helmet/Saradomin coif/Zamorak coif/Torag's helmet
 * Neck: Amulet of fury/Saradomin Stole/Zamorak Stole/Amulet of Glory/Amulet of Strength


 * Torso: Bandos Chestplate/Torag's platebody/Karil's leathertop/Saradomin d'hide/Zamorak d'hide


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


 * Boots: Dragon boots/Bandos boots/Rune boots/Climbing boots/Snakeskin boots


 * Cape: Fire cape/Soul wars cape (for prayer bonus)/Skill Cape(trimmed, if possible)/Saradomin cloak/Zamorak cloak/Obsidian cape/Cape of Legends/Saradomin cape/Zamorak cape/Ava's accumulator(only if ranging).


 * Arrows: If using a bow, Rune arrows or Dragon arrows; If using a crossbow, Ruby bolts (e) and Diamond bolts (e) (ruby for first half of health, then diamond for rest), Dragon bolts (e) (very effective special attack) or Onyx bolts (e) can do the trick.


 * Side/spec weapon: Dragon halberd/Dragon Mace/Dragon dagger/Dragon claws


 * Bow: If ranging, Dark Bow, Rune Crossbow (highly recommended), or Magic Shortbow


 * Weapon: Godsword (Bandos, Saradomin, or Armadyl recommended) /Abyssal Whip/Zamorakian spear


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


 * Gloves: Barrows gloves/Dragon gloves/Rune gloves /Dragon Gauntlets (huge range defence, slight strength bonus)


 * Ring: Berserker ring/Warrior ring/Explorer's ring 3/Ring of life/Ring of Wealth (only when soloing)

100% drop

 * Ourg bones

Runes

 * 40-70 Nature runes
 * 40-45 Death runes
 * 41-45 Law runes
 * 100 or so Mind runes

Charms
Please add your charm drop rates to the next template: 

Weapons

 * Rune battleaxe
 * Rune pickaxe (Common)
 * Rune two-handed sword (Common)
 * Rune longsword
 * Rune sword
 * Rune spear (rare)
 * Dragon spear (rare)
 * 12-20 Adamant javelins (uncommon)
 * 5-9 Rune javelins (uncommon)
 * 145-155 Steel arrows (uncommon)

Armour

 * Bandos chestplate(rare)
 * Bandos tassets (rare)
 * Bandos boots (rare)
 * Dragon med helm (very rare)
 * Shield left half (very rare)
 * Rune platebody (common)
 * Rune kiteshield (rare)
 * Rune square shield (rare)

Other drops

 * Bandos hilt (Rare)
 * God Sword Shard 1
 * God Sword Shard 2
 * God Sword Shard 3
 * Coins (19,000-21,000) (Common)
 * 16-20 Adamantite ore (Common)
 * 115-120 Coal (noted) (Common)
 * Chaos talisman (very rare)
 * Uncut sapphire
 * Uncut emerald
 * Uncut ruby
 * Uncut diamond
 * Dragonstone
 * Half key
 * 39-42 Rune arrows (uncommon)
 * 16-20 Magic logs
 * 3 Super restore potions
 * 3 Grimy snapdragons
 * Snapdragon seed (Common)
 * 100 Silver ore (rare)
 * Clue scroll (level-3)
 * Curved bone (uncommon)
 * Long bone (uncommon)
 * Femur bone (for Fur 'n' Seek extra wishlist, common but not 100%)
 * Nothing (rare)

Trivia



 * General Graardor makes brief cameo appearances throughout both RuneScape media and the game itself.
 * General Graardor makes an appearance on the main menu as a picture for the French servers release. He can be also seen on the Members' benefit page, and is included in Postbag from the Hedge Issue 39's top ten most powerful monsters.
 * Graardor is one of several in-game characters to feature on a set of downloadable RuneScape Duel Cards.
 * In the FunOrb game Armies of Gielinor, in the Bandos army side, it shows an "Ourg" with the image of General Graardor, which was the first time he was referred to as a member of the race. This was confirmed in the 39th edition of Postbag from the Hedge.
 * During the 2009 Easter Event and 2010 Easter event, while sorting the defected nuts, players could also find various other objects. One of these was a Graardor plush toy; in the 2010 event the squirrel Big Ben mentions that they arrived as part of a shipping error.
 * A poster depicting General Graardor can be purchased from the Jagex Store. Shortly before the release of The Chosen Commander, a t-shirt depicting the face of Bandos was also made available; however, its appearance was nearly identical to that of Graardor. He also appears on 12-month RuneScape membership cards.
 * A computer wallpaper depicting Graardor can found on the Official RuneScape Website.
 * Graardor features in various Armies of Gielinor adverts sometimes seen on the Funorb website. In it, he is shown punching towards the viewer before the game's logo appears.
 * In December 2009, the Jagex Store was temporarily taken down while parts of the site were re-worked. When visiting the website, the only accessible page featured a picture of General Graardor, along with the message "Coming This December."
 * Prior to the release of The Chosen Commander quest, Graardor referred to Bandos as the "Big High War God." He now refers to him by name, in keeping with the idea that "Big High War God" is a term used only by the goblin race.
 * Prior to 6 May 2009, General Graardor dropped Big bones instead of Ourg bones when killed.
 * When entering the Bandos section of the God Wars dungeon, a Stealing Creation hammer will also work.
 * Due to a summoning update, tanking at Bandos has been found quite difficult. When a player's familiar attacks General Graardor, he will switch to the player and back again several times, making him a dangerous opponent. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a glitch, simply a side effect of the summoning update of the '18 August 2009 - Menagerie, Familiar Controls and Butlers' update.
 * Mod Emilee has confirmed that no changes have been made to the Bandos Godwars Dungeon, and that they will be monitoring the dungeon. See summoning side effect above.
 * Although he drops the Bandos armour, the armour itself is much smaller than his. Also, General Graardor is wearing a type of leopard printed Tassets, while when on a player, it is a basic cream colour.

General Graardor