Araxxor/Strategies

Araxxor is a large spider that can be found in the Araxyte Hive. Drops include parts of spider legs and Araxxi to create level 90 Noxious weaponry, 2-handed weapons.

Players cannot teleport out of the fight; the only way to leave is by victory, death or logging out.

Note this is a very tough boss that far surpasses any previous solo boss in terms of difficulty at any given time in Runescape's history (ie much harder than monsters like QBD and Nomad even when they weren't complete jokes pre-EoC). In fact this boss has more LP, hits harder, have more mechanics and is more difficult to kill than even team bosses like Nex or the Kalphite King. Araxxor is on similar level of difficulty compared to Vorago and the Rise of the Six despite being a solo boss and so should not be underestimated even if you are armed to the teeth with top level gear like Ascensions or Sirenic armour. Having maxed levels and the best equipment will aid you in defeating this boss. However, the willingness to learn, a genuine understanding of the EoC, perseverance despite of death and sharp reflexes are much more important.

Recommended Setups
Contrary to popular belief it is not necessarily less advantageous to use melee instead of range or magic. However, for first timers using range or magic will probably make it easier to familiarise oneself with Araxxor's mechanics and dodge some of his special attacks. Range is especially recommended over mage since the mage version of Araxxor is much weaker than the melee version provided the player has Overloads.

Inventory

 * Overload flask (highly recommended as otherwise using brews is impractical. The boss is still possible without Brews/Overloads as people have done it without food altogether but it will be much tougher)
 * Prayer renewal flask (not needed if Penance aura active)
 * Antipoison++ flask (drink sip at end of P3 or start of P4)
 * Adrenaline flask (drink sip at start of battle, and after using ultimate in P4)
 * 3 or 4 Super restore flask
 * Portent of death (or Sign of death, you want to be using a scrimshaw normally and only switch to the Sign of death during the last 25000 LP of the boss in phase 4)
 * Elite enhanced Excalibur
 * Phoenix necklace (for the last 25000 LP of the boss on phase 4)
 * A shield of some sort (not mandatory)
 * 9 Saradomin brew flasks (fill remainder with Rocktails or Rocktail soups)
 * Air runes (for spells if maging)

Your BoB should be carrying rocktails and brew flasks at ratio of about 2:1 (so for a yak about 20 rocktails,10 brews). It's preferable if you place a few brews (2-3) first then put them in the sequence '2 rocktails 1 brew' in your BoB rather than '20 rocktails then 10 brews' as you need the brews more for earlier phases but rocktails more for later phases but you always want some of both type of foods around around in case of emergencies. For phases 1-3 try to use brews only and save as many rocktails as possible for phase 4 in order to use the rocktail+brew combo healing method. Although this means you will need to save some brews for phase 4 as well. Only use rocktail+brew combo in phases 1-3 for emergency situations, never eat two rocktails in a row rather than rocktail+brew as it is a waste of adrenaline and takes longer.

Attacks
It should be important to note that the more success that players have in killing Araxxor daily, the angrier it gets which results in more accurate attacks and heavier damage. This anger resets daily on 00:00 UTC.

Standard Attacks
The primary combat style Araxxor uses is shown by the colour its legs are tipped in. A red tip indicates it only uses melee attacks, a green tip indicates ranged/melee attacks and a blue tip indicates magic/melee attacks.


 * Magic: Araxxor/Araxxi spits a large ball of acid towards the player. This attack can drain combat stats and run energy.
 * Melee: Araxxor/Araxxi lunges its legs at the player, dealing melee damage. This attack can cause extra bleed damage which is unclassified.
 * Ranged: Araxxor/Araxxi launches a ball of spider silk at the player. It can cause poison anywhere from 200-2000 damage. If the Poison Purge aura is used, it will heal the damage but will take off 1 minute of the aura.
 * This does not come with the "You have been poisoned!" message

Special Attacks
These special attacks can be used on any phase. It should be noted that Araxxor will never repeat its special attacks back-to-back except on phase 3; meaning if it uses its cocoon attack it will either use cleave or cobweb next. The "rage" meter will also affect the damage from spiders and cleave.


 * Cocoon: Five small spiders rush at the player, trapping them in a cocoon. Players must break free, while Araxxor is reinforcing the cocoon which deals 175-200 damage rapidly. This attack is classified as a stun/bind, but players who use Freedom or Anticipate before the spiders rush at the player will only need to click anywhere on the screen twice before being freed.
 * Cleave: Araxxor/Araxxi bends its front four legs and then swipes the area in front of him, dealing massive damage and will deal up to 2000 damage on familiars. If the player is from a distance it will magically drag them to it. Using Freedom or Anticipate can avoid the magical drag.
 * This attack only does damage within melee distance in the area Araxxor/Araxxi swiped at. It also hurts its own spiders if they get caught by the swipe.
 * Araxxor healing.pngb: A large cobweb encases Araxxor/Araxxi, healing it 1000 lifepoints five times and during the duration the cobweb is on, damage against the spider will also reflect heavily back onto the attacker. Although damaging Araxxor stops its heal.
 * Utilizing a shield, player can use Resonance followed by a single strong attack. This allows heavy damage to still be dealt, while healing the player a large amount.
 * Using a damage over time attack like Fragmentation shot will stop Araxxor's heal while minimising the damage reflected back.
 * Autoheal: If Araxxor's health reaches 0 during phases one and two, the spiders above will "refuse to let him die" and heal him for 5000 lifepoints.
 * Egg drop: Araxxor's spiders drop two or three eggs onto the arena, while he will launch a fireball at the player. The player can either choose to destroy the eggs, which will increase Araxxor's rage but will not create spider reinforcements, and be dealt with 2100/1200/300 damage (each one being destroying one, two or three eggs respectively). If they choose not to, spiders will spawn while the player will take 3000 damage. Spiders next to the player will also take 3000 damage regardless if the eggs were destroyed or not.
 * Stomp: If the player is under Araxxor too long, they will suffer up to 2000 damage and be stunned for 2 seconds.

Rage Meter
During phases 2-4, Araxxor/Araxxi has a rage meter, which will affect their accuracy and damage output. The higher the "rage" goes, the more damage and accuracy inflicted on the player. The following can affect the rage meter:


 * Successfully dodging Araxxor's charge when on the bottom path.
 * Killing Araxxor's hatchlings. (4% rage if all three eggs are destroyed each time)
 * Letting Araxxor Cleave his minions (This seems be add 10% rage / minion, capped at 25%)
 * Increasing its acid level by luring Araxxor into the acid on Phase 2 (this rage is removed on phase 3)
 * Increasing its acid level by luring highly acidic spiders to Araxxor. (20% rage increase)
 * Enraging Araxxi once her health reaches 50,000 lifepoints.
 * Successfully killing Araxxi, which will enrage Araxxor in future kills (15% rage increase for every successful kill, so 2 kills in one day will result in the next kill having 30% base rage - there is however limit with 150% base rage. This meter resets at 00:00 UTC)
 * Annoying Araxxor at phase 1 by staying too long (2% rage)

How to start
In order to start, players must enter the Araxyte Hive, which is just south-east of Port Phasmatys. Players then navigate the small course until they reach a webbed entrance, where they can fight the non-instanced or instanced version of the boss.

Only one player or duo can fight the non-instanced version at a time, per world. If someone is already facing the non-instanced version, other players will not be able to enter. To get around this, players can pay 200000 coins for an instance which will last for one hour. After entering the arena, Araxxor will spawn and the fight truly begins.

Phases
Araxxor has four phases; however the final phase the boss is replaced with another large spider.

No matter what combat style you're using, you do not want Araxxor to have the style that is strong against you in the combat triangle as it would greatly decrease your accuracy in the fight. If you do not possess level 90 weaponry it is highly recommended to only fight Araxxor with the style that you are strong against in the combat triangle, so if you're using ranged with say level 80 weapons you want to fight the mage Araxxor but you do not want to fight the melee Araxxor. To ensure you always fight the style you want to fight, when you climb over the web entrance to start the boss fight, do not move and be ready to click the logout button. Once Araxxor spawns, you will be able to deduce what style he will be using from the colour of his legs and Araxxor will not notice or attack you in your current position. So you will have ample time to logout if Araxxor did not spawn with your desired style and try again until he does.

Phase 1
Araxxor will spawn in either his melee, magic or ranged form and will stay in this form for the rest of the fight. He will only use his cleave, cobweb and cocoon special attacks during this phase. To begin the next phase, burn one of the two webs blocking the tunnels. The web will take one minute to burn. You can only burn one web at a time, and you cannot change your mind once you have made your decision. Once the web has burned away, you can lure him to that tunnel to begin the next phase. Bear in mind that if you leave Araxxor with any amount of health during this phase or phase 2, there will be a penalty in phase 3 (explained further down). Therefore it is highly recommended to deplete Araxxor's health to below 5000 before moving onto phase 2 and as quickly as possible. However note you cannot proceed onto phase 2 if the web has not been burnt down regardless of how low Araxxor's LP is. Therefore it is recommended to burn the web near the start of the fight, preferably when Araxxor uses his cobweb healing attack if he uses it early in the fight.

Phase 2
The way this phase plays out is dependent on the path the player(s) took. Regardless of the path chosen, Araxxor will have his egg-spawn ability available to use along with his previous abilities.

Top path
On the top path, many spiders are watching the fight. At the same time, a new mechanic will appear; spider assistance. This ability is shared with his others, in that it can happen after every 5 auto-attacks. For each player in the fight, this attack will spawn a limit of 20 spiders, although they will only come in packs of 5 at a time. Araxxor calls his spiders when you see the small spiders which cause the player to be trapped in a cocoon fly away from him rapidly. These spiders Araxxor calls are bladed spiders, spitting spiders, imbued spiders, mirrorback spiders and pulsing spiders. Occasionally the last two spiders may appear in the group of 5. These spiders can be hurt from Araxxor's cleave and fireball. It is highly recommended to stop attacking Araxxor and kill the minion spiders as soon as possible once they're spawned in the order Pulsing>Mirrorback>Bladed/Spitting/Imbued. The Pulsing spiders will continuously heal Araxxors for 5000 health unless killed, and the Mirrorback spiders will reflect any damage you do to Araxxor back onto you. The Bladed/Spitting/Imbued spiders are combat spiders with no special abilities that do melee/range/mage damage respectively. However, they do decent damage that can prove to be deadly in great numbers, especially when combined with Araxxor's own attacks. Therefore it is highly recommended to prioritise them over Araxxor once any Pulsing and Mirrorback spiders have been disposed of. Using the Devotion ability is highly recommended here as it would protect you from Araxxor's attacks and you can extend Devotion's timer by killing the minion spiders.

Middle path
On the middle path, Araxxor will be able to use the pools of poison to damage the player. He can do this up to a maximum of 10 times, each dealing between 250-1500 damage. It is advised to keep your health to as close as full as possible, as the damage can quickly prove fatal otherwise. It should be noted that Araxxor will not use the cocoon attack on this path. Also while he is in the acid pool, if he is not in his melee form, he will attempt to stand next to the player(s) and use melee too. Thus, it is most efficient to take this path when he is in his melee form.

Like the spider assistance ability for path 1, Araxxor will gain the Acidic spider spawn ability. Araxxor will slam his front two legs onto the ground (identical to his melee auto-attack animation) and spit a ball of web to a random location on the field (the web is identical to his ranged auto-attack projectile). Wherever the web hits a green splatter will appear on the ground and then soon after an Acidic spider will spawn. The spider can not be attacked and will slowly walk towards the player with a bar over its head. When the bar fills the spider will explode. '''If the spider touches the player before then, the player will die instantly. '''It is very important to watch out for the spider being spawned, as path 2 is a very narrow area, which may make avoiding the spider difficult when it spawns.

You must keep Araxxor in the acid pool until the bar is full (for a solo fight the bar will appear 50% full when complete, but hovering over the bar will show its percentage) and then drag him up to the top of the platform and the acid will corrode the platform. He must be specifically on the top of the platform, if he is too low down on the platform, acid will drain but not leak onto the platform. As such it is best to run to the top of the platform, so that you are directly trapped between Araxxor and the barrier, and then walk through him. His pathing, if done right, will cause him to be trapped between you and the barrier, making it easier to dodge attacks like his cleave.

Bottom path
Araxxor's spiders will darken the whole arena, and Araxxor himself will attack from the ceiling with both Magic and Ranged attacks regardless of form. Players need to go on the light area which hasn't been darkened out three times until Araxxor will come and attack. Until they reach the area, damage starts at 50 and increases by 50 per two ticks until it caps at 450, at which point it will continually do 450 damage. However this cap can be higher depending on how enraged Araxxor is.

The screen goes to the player's in-game view where four arrows, up, down, left and right will appear. Araxxor will also slowly show an attack and players need to dodge. If players fail to dodge they will be dealt with 5000 damage and the wall will not be dealt with any damage. If players somewhat manage to dodge it they will suffer 2500 damage while the wall will suffer 25% damage. A successful dodge results in no damage while the wall will take 50% damage, but will also enrage Araxxor at the same time.

If the cutscene occurs when Araxxor used its egg attack, players will not take any damage from the fireball, but the spiders will spawn.


 * When Araxxor swipes from the right, click right
 * When Araxxor swipes from the left, click left
 * When Araxxor's front legs are low to the ground and wide from each other, click up
 * When Araxxor's front legs are pointing down and close to each other, click down

For the remaining phases, Araxxor and Araxxi have the ability to turn the area temporary dark; they stop this when damage is reached at 350. Again this can be higher depending on how enraged Araxxor is.

Phase 3
This phase combines the special abilities of Araxxor that can be encountered on the two paths 'open' (blocked by webs during phase 1 rather than rocks) that rotation. For example, if the top and middle paths are open, then Araxxor will inherit abilities from the top and middle paths, so in this case Araxxor will use have access to his spider assistance (assuming there are still some to back him up) and acidic spider spawn attacks.

With the top path open, Araxxor will have a chance to do the bomb+egg drop special attack. Also, any of the 20 spiders left unspawned or not killed during phase 2 will carry over to this phase. So if you did not go through the top path but it was open, then Araxxor will spawn the 20 spiders in this phase instead.

With the middle path open, Araxxor will have a chance to spawn the kamikaze, 1 hit kill acidic spider that must be avoided. Also, Araxxor will make use of any acid which he has not drained during phase 2. He does this by launching his fangs into the ground and a game box will appear, saying "A highly acidic spider has spawned nearby!". The highly acidic spider is not the same as the kamikaze acidic spider. They are unaggressive, cannot attack and wanders around aimlessly until lured onto Araxxor. Each highly acidic spider contains up to 25% acidity level and their total acidity levels adds up to however much acidity is left undrained from phase 2. So if you did not go through path 2, Araxxor will have 100% acidity undrained and so will spawn 4 highly acidic spiders each with 25% acidity. Although it is not necessary to lure the spiders, doing so will prevent Araxxi from absorbing the spiders herself on phase 4 to increase the accuracy and damage of her autoattacks as well as increase the damage done from the cleaves, cocoon and putrid acid wave special attacks. However, luring the highly acidic spiders onto Araxxor will heal him by 5000 LP and similarly strengthen his attacks so it is highly recommended to lure them one by one when Araxxor is almost dead to minimise the time Araxxor is buffed by the spiders and prevent Araxxi from absorbing the spiders to buff herself.

If the bottom path is open, Araxxor can turn the area temporary dark. The light is always in the third phase's area regardless of where the player is.

During this phase, spiders from above will heal Araxxor for an amount equal to 80% of remaining health in the first 2 phases. For example, if you were to move on during phase 1, leaving Araxxor with 10,000 lp, the spiders in phase 3 would heal him for 8,000 lp during the start of the 3rd phase. The amount healed is the combined health remaining from his 1st and 2nd phase. If the bottom path is taken, then only the health from the 1st phase will be used to heal him. Once his health reaches zero, his spiders will not prevent his death as with previous phases and will proceed to the final phase.

Phase 4
Once Araxxor's health has be depleted in phase 3, a cutscene will play where Araxxor and the player is seen moving towards the platform for the final fight. However, another large spider, Araxxi, drops down from above, kills Araxxor and takes over the boss fight. This cutscene is long enough to start draining your adrenaline if you have any left. A way to exit this cutscene and prevent your adrenaline being drained is to spam click an ability not on your action bar and one you can use out of combat, like Surge. Araxxi uses the same attacks as Araxxor, but will use all forms of combat rather than the ones Araxxor was limited to, as well as gaining his "rage". She will always stay in the center of the arena though, so if you stay a distance from her, she will only attack with ranged and magic. In terms of special attacks, she will only use the cleave and cocoon special attacks as well as the shadow attack if path 3 was open. If the top path is open and and not all the minion spiders were killed, Araxxi will spawn the remaining amount of minions onto the arena. Likewise if the highly acidic spiders were lured to Araxxor during the last phase, or not lured at all, Araxxi will absorb the remaining acidic spiders and boost her own acidity levels. Araxxi will gain Araxxor's rage values as well.

Araxxi's autoattacks are much faster and stronger than Araxxor's so it is highly recommended to use protection prayers or deflect curses against her. However, if you do so she will switch attack styles after 2 attacks so you will have to switch prayers accordingly like in the TzTok Jad fight. It is recommended to put your protection prayers or deflect curses on your action bar to make the switching easier. When healing, try using brews whenever possible as that doesn't drain adrenaline but if you are getting damaged too much, the rocktail+brew combo is much preferable over eating two rocktails in a row due to faster healing speed and less adrenaline drained. Do not refrain from 'safing' provided you don't lose too much adrenaline as a slight error can result an instant death from a cleave if your health is low.

Once Araxxi's health is depleted to 50,000 lifepoints, it will begin to attack much harder and faster, but will lose all of Araxxor's unique attacks. Once Araxxi's health is depleted to 25,000 lifepoints, she will unleash a highly acidic wave which bounces around the room five times before trying to hit the player. The player's adrenaline will also be drained 50% once the acidic wave spawns, so it is highly recommended to drink a sip of Adrenaline potion to restore some of the lost adrenaline. The acid wave bounces around 5 times, getting closer to the player each time before attempting to hit the player. If the acidic wave hits you, move off the spot you are in immediately or you will take more damage. The wave will then bounce around the arena 5 more times before attempting to hit the player. Therefore a simple and effective way to deal with the acidic wave is simply to stand still, wait until it hits you for the first time and tank that one hit, then immediately move away 1 square and repeat. If Araxxor did not absorb all the highly acidic spiders during phase 3, the damage dealt from the acidic wave will be increased considerably.

This phase is notoriously difficult because of the sheer number of things a player has to do. A player will have to continuously switch prayers, use abilities, heal and watch for Araxxi's special attacks or the acidic wave to have a realistic chance of killing her. For those struggling to juggle all the necessary tasks to get through this phase, a recommended strategy is to use revolution either by using it right from the start when fighting Araxxor or switching to revolution at the start of phase 4 (only possible if you've skipped the phase 4 cutscene and therefore be out of combat for a while). This will drastically cut down on the things you have to focus on in this phase and makes the fight much easier for some players. Some players also struggle to deal enough damage during Araxxi's last 25000 LP before being overwhelmed and run out of food, in which case it's recommended to use a sign of death which deals 10000 damage to Araxxi and revives the player if their health drops to 0. This makes Araxxi's last 25000 LP 'mini phase' a 15000 LP one. Although note however sign of death has an hour in-game time cooldown. Phoenix necklaces also help greatly and are highly recommended for the last 25000 LP.

A common tactic for rangers to use once Araxxi's health is around 40,000-45,000 lifepoints is to immediately use Death's Swiftness and then sip an adrenaline potion to assist in building adrenaline back up to 100% quickly. Once you have 100% adrenaline and Araxxi is close to 25,000 lifepoints, use the Unload ability. If this does not kill her, a few basic abilities afterwards should finish her off. Be sure to use Unload before 25,000 lifepoints, or else she will drain your adrenaline and this tactic will not work. With this tactic you should also be able to almost completely ignore the acid, as she dies quickly enough that the acid does not have time to get to you. For mages an analogous tactic using Sunshine can be employed.

A rather unknown but effective strategy is to use melee on the last phase (as well as phases 1 to 3). Melee's ability rotation has much better dps than the range or mage ones due to the abundance of strong basics and thresholds. Especially when abilities which play heavily into range and mage's dps like fragmentation shot and combust cannot be utilised to their full potential since Araxxi does not move. The Vampyrism scrimshaw (and its superior counterpart) is also highly effective when coupled with melee's high dps, making survivability on this phase (as well as on earlier phases) much easier and arguably making up for melee's distance disadvantage at Araxxor/Araxxi. Superior Tetsu and Malevolent armour has strong defence which do well against Araxxi's range and melee attacks. So the idea is to use protect from magic or deflect magic, use Drygores and wear the best defence melee armour (Superior Tetsu or Malevolent), with Vampyrism scrimshaw (or better still its superior counterpart) and simply do as much damage as possible to Araxxi without needing to bother with prayer switching. It is not recommended to use berserk due to its heavy backlash but using Massacre and simply chaining melee's long list of strong thresholds and basics with 188% damage (namely Assault, Destroy, Blood Tendrils, Decimate, Sever, Dismember and even Cleave and Hurricane if you have a Noxious scythe switch in addition to your Drygores), is more than enough to finish Araxxi off. Note if you are planning to use melee, it is highly recommended to get Araxxor to drain all the acid (to 100%) on path 2 phase 2, or lure all the highly acidic spiders in phase 3 or fight Araxxor when path 2 is blocked as otherwise Araxxi will have greatly increased accuracy, which makes melee tanking more difficult.