Barrows

OS

This article is about the minigame. For the set of armour and weapons, see Barrows equipment.

For its sequel, see Barrows: Rise of the Six.

This article has a strategy guide. All information on mechanics, setups, and strategy are on the subpage.

This article has a money making guide here. Please add tips to the subpage, rather than the article below.

This is a dangerous minigame. If you die, you will lose your items and will need to reclaim them from Death or your grave.

The official world for Barrows is world 15 (P2P).

Barrows

Release date	9 May 2005 (Update)
Members	Yes
Location	East of Burgh de Rott
Participants	1
Skills involved	Combat
Reward currency	None
In spotlight rotation	No
Hiscores	No
Tutorial	No
Custodians	Strange Old Man
Music unlocked	Dangerous Way
Developers	• Original: Graham B • Update: Tim C

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The Barrows is an area-based combat minigame. It involves defeating the six Barrows brothers, each with their own special strengths and weaknesses. A seventh, Akrisae the Doomed, is unlocked after completing Ritual of the Mahjarrat, and a sister, Linza the Disgraced, is unlocked after completing Kindred Spirits.

Obtaining all unique drops will unlock the Graverobber [Name] title.

Getting there

A map of the Barrows (click to view a larger version)

• Drakan's medallion - This is the fastest means of travel to the Barrows, having a teleport directly to their graves; no charges are consumed if the medallion is used from inside Morytania, such as from Canifis lodestone. Alos, can be used if it has 0 charges, but it only works inside the "free-teleport" zones.
• Max Guild PvM portal - This option is just as fast as Drakan's medallion; however, it requires level 99 in every skill.
• Games necklace - After gaining enough points from Temple Trekking, a games necklace can be used to teleport directly to Burgh de Rott, which is only a short walk from the Barrows.
• From Canifis - The slowest method is walking through the swamps from Canifis; however, there are several shortcuts for this route:
• The fairy ring in Mort Myre Swamp can be accessed by code BKR. It's only a short distance from the ring to the swamp boat.
  • A Swamp Boat in the middle of the swamp can be taken for free to land on the bridge to the Barrows.
  • In Search of the Myreque unlocks access to the area under the bar in Canifis, which provides a faster route to the swamp boat.

History

Main article: Morytania Campaign

The entrance to the Barrows

The Barrows brothers were ancient warriors of Saradomin who established a reputation of near invincibility while fighting in the God Wars. They launched a massive attack to liberate Morytania from the clutches of Lord Lowerniel Vergidiyad Drakan and his vampyres, after he had established complete control over the continent as of the Fall of Hallowvale. As the brothers departed, a mysterious stranger, the Zarosian Mahjarrat Sliske, granted them superhuman power to battle Drakan's forces. It succeeded, for the brothers, who were in the front line, seemed invincible. They had not anticipated, however, that Sliske had ulterior motives for helping them.

As the brothers and their accompanying army progressed further into enemy territory in Morytania, Sliske followed them until the brothers became weakened. The brothers were grievously wounded in battle near the Great Vyrewall, and thus the army set up camp just west of Meiyerditch. Soon, the brothers died of their infected wounds simultaneously in the army's camp. The army spent several days and nights holding off the attacking vampyres to construct burial mounds, the Barrows, to honour the fallen brothers. The army quickly retreated from Morytania, realizing they could never succeed without their former leaders' prowess.

Dare you traverse the maze?

As the army began its return, Sliske cast a magical spell on the crypts, corrupting the bodies of the brothers, turning them into his newest wights, and binding them to guard a very powerful artefact. Sliske's ally Azzanadra had requested for this icon to be guarded before the latter's imprisonment in Jaldraocht Pyramid, so that it could later be used to re-establish contact with the banished Zaros. Sliske, instead of directly taking the Barrows Brothers, decided it would be fun to have them almost succeed in their goal before claiming them, a typical characteristic of the Mahjarrat.

In 169 of the Fifth Age, Azzanadra was released, and, with the help of an adventurer who manages to steal the Barrows Icon from the brothers, re-established communication with Zaros in time for the Mahjarrat Ritual of Rejuvenation. Shortly after said ritual, which the adventurer attends with several Temple Knight allies, Sliske attempted to claim them in a similar way. However, the Saradominist priest Akrisae Kolluym intercepted the spell, sacrificing himself and turning him into Akrisae the Doomed - the seventh wight. Sliske was disappointed that he did not claim the player, but was content enough with a new wight.

In approximately Year 4 of the Sixth Age, Sliske lured the World Guardian into one of his twisted games, using Meg, Linza, Major Mary Rancour, and Brother Samwell as bait. He instructed the World Guardian to guide the Barrows Brothers through a series of torturous tests, designed to force them to admit to and atone for various misdeeds in their lives. In a fit of temper over the World Guardian snooping around in his private journals, Sliske reveals that the whole game was a setup, and that Linza had come to him for protection from the Dragonkin, from whom she'd stolen the secrets of smithing dragon metal, along with some dragon ore. He breaks his bargain with her, and turns her into his eighth wight, Linza the Disgraced.

Sliske, in his arrogance, failed to anticipate that the player's meddling greatly interrupted his control over the Barrows wights. With the exception of Akrisae, he deployed the original six to kill the player, but because of their actions, the brothers turned against Sliske. Sliske sent out Nomad, Gregorovic and Linza to kill the player, but they were all defeated by the player after a long fight. When Sliske "died", the brothers (and Linza) were freed of Sliske's control. Linza informed the player that they would be waiting in the crypts, eager to battle the player again to improve their skills.

A crumbling tome, obtained by searching the hut near the mounds or by talking to the Strange Old Man found digging the crypts, provides a detailed account of how the brothers came to be buried.

Graphical overhaul

After the release of the new website and interfaces on 22 November 2011, a screenshot was shown on the media page of a graphical update for the Barrows mini game. The January 2012 Behind the Scenes article confirmed that an update was coming to the minigame, which was introduced on the 4 January update.

The graphical update changed the looks of the area, added mist to the crypt, changed the Barrows brothers from purple ghosts to corporeal foes, and, for a week following the release, gave a 1 in 10 chance of doubling rewards. This extra reward chance ended on 11 January.

Objective

The objective of the Barrows mini game is to defeat the eight Barrows brothers: Ahrim the Blighted, Dharok the Wretched, Guthan the Infested, Karil the Tainted, Torag the Corrupted, Verac the Defiled. Akrisae the Doomed is only available after Ritual of the Mahjarrat, and Linza the Disgraced is only available after Kindred Spirits.

The Barrows brothers and sister are very strong, each with very high defence. Each brother and sister also has a different special ability, which is the same as the set effect of the corresponding armour set. Because of this, special consideration should be given to the methods with and order in which the brothers are eliminated.

After killing a Barrows brother, experience will not be awarded if exiting the tomb too quickly. However, the kill will count towards the "Brothers slain".

A similar effect may occur when killing a brother in the tunnels. If a player enters another room quickly after killing a brother (before receiving the exp drop), the brother may respawn in the next room. This will prevent the brother from being added to the "Brothers slain" counter and they must be killed again.

Strategy

Main article: Barrows/Strategies

Rewards

Opening the chest

The chest that has your rewards in it

If the brother whose tomb was used to enter the tunnel is not killed yet, he will appear when the chest is looted.

The standard monsters in the tunnels may be killed to increase the chances of receiving rare, non-Barrows items; e.g. dragon helms. The total number of combat levels of the standard monsters killed affect the reward up to 1,000 combat levels.

Letting $N$ be the number of brothers killed (excluding Linza the Disgraced), the number of reward rolls for the chest can be expressed with $min(N+1, 7)$. If Barrows items are rolled successfully, they are chosen only out of the killed wights' items. It is possible to obtain multiple pieces of Barrows equipment from a single chest.

First, if Linza the Disgraced was killed, there is a 1 in 192 chance to obtain one of her items. If this fails due to failing the roll or not killing her, another piece of Barrows equipment is rolled with the chance $1/max(450-58N, 73)$. All of the eligible Barrows items have equal odds of being rewarded. If the Barrows equipment roll is also failed, Barrows totems are rewarded with $1/(20-N)$ chance. If this fails, the corruption sigil is rolled with $1/(50(7-N))$ chance if one is eligible for one. Finally, if all of the above fails, a piece of loot from the standard reward table is rolled. In addition, wearing a ring of wealth or higher luck modification has a chance to add one extra reward to the chest.

Killing all six of the original brothers is required to increase the beast tab kill count and thus also required to reap a soul when on a Soul Reaper assignment.

Linza the Disgraced's equipment

This loot table is rolled first if Linza the Disgraced was killed. The chance of getting a roll to Linza's unique table is 1 in 192. If the roll is successful, there is a equal chance of getting any of the item, making it 1 in 960 for a specific item, and no further rewards are awarded.

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE price
	Linza's helm	1	Very rare (1/960)	2,194,829
	Linza's cuirass	1	Very rare (1/960)	3,636,985
	Linza's greaves	1	Very rare (1/960)	3,690,545
	Linza's hammer	1	Very rare (1/960)	4,211,278
	Linza's shield	1	Very rare (1/960)	2,287,962

Other Barrows equipment

This table is only rolled if the above table fails due to either failing the roll or not having killed Linza the Disgraced. Only the items of the brothers that were killed are available to be rewarded.

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE price
	Ahrim's hood	1	Rare	779,566
	Ahrim's robe top	1	Rare	2,534,956
	Ahrim's robe skirt	1	Rare	1,401,853
	Ahrim's staff	1	Rare	4,984,576
	Ahrim's wand	1	Rare	941,047
	Ahrim's book of magic	1	Rare	1,311,616
	Dharok's helm	1	Rare	427,343
	Dharok's platebody	1	Rare	1,816,430
	Dharok's platelegs	1	Rare	900,061
	Dharok's greataxe	1	Rare	533,975
	Torag's helm	1	Rare	379,723
	Torag's platebody	1	Rare	1,596,186
	Torag's platelegs	1	Rare	826,450
	Torag's hammer	1	Rare	402,105
	Verac's helm	1	Rare	372,869
	Verac's brassard	1	Rare	1,548,077
	Verac's plateskirt	1	Rare	808,201
	Verac's flail	1	Rare	395,825
	Guthan's helm	1	Rare	386,305
	Guthan's platebody	1	Rare	1,740,040
	Guthan's chainskirt	1	Rare	1,036,649
	Guthan's warspear	1	Rare	1,971,958
	Karil's coif	1	Rare	471,880
	Karil's top	1	Rare	2,557,831
	Karil's skirt	1	Rare	1,499,085
	Karil's crossbow	1	Rare	3,954,941
	Karil's pistol crossbow	1	Rare	638,454
	Karil's off-hand pistol crossbow	1	Rare	975,482
	Akrisae's hood	1	Rare	396,525
	Akrisae's robe top	1	Rare	1,096,334
	Akrisae's robe skirt	1	Rare	649,040
	Akrisae's war mace	1	Rare	387,083

Standard items

This table is only rolled if the above rolls failed. If both Barrows totem and corruption sigil rolls fail, the drop is affected by the killed standard monsters in the crypt: A random number between 0 and $min(L, 1000)+2N$ is rolled where $L$ is the total level of monsters killed.

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE price
	Coins	1–4,000	Common	1–4,000
	Corruption sigil	1–3	Rare	Not sold
	Loop half of a key	1	Rare	11,053
	Tooth half of a key	1	Rare	11,538
	Bolt rack	35–280	Common	4,620–36,960
	Barrows totem	1–14	Uncommon	1,628–22,792
	Dragon helm	1	Rare	58,601
	Blood rune	35–630	Common	23,730–427,140
	Chaos rune	115–1,890	Common	17,480–287,280
	Death rune	70–1,190	Common	16,240–276,080
	Mind rune	250–4,900	Common	4,750–93,100

Lucky drops

This drop table is accessed by having a luck modification from ring of wealth or above, and is rolled as an extra reward in respect to the above. There is a 1/10 chance to not obtain a reward even if the table is rolled.

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE price
	Shark	4	Common (1/10)	7,732
	Prayer potion (2)	1	Common (3/10)	1,395
	Restore potion (2)	1	Common (3/10)	220
	Super defence (2)	1	Common (3/10)	4,780
	Death rune	15	Common (1/10)	3,480
	Mind rune	60	Common (1/10)	1,140

Other items

This drop table is seemingly not affected by the above drop tables.

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	GE price
	Barrows icon	1	Always	Not sold
	Sealed clue scroll (elite)	1	Rare	Not sold
	Amulet of the forsaken	1	Very rare	7,526,215
	Crystal triskelion fragment 1	1–2	Very rare	Not sold
	Crystal triskelion fragment 2	1	Very rare	Not sold
	Crystal triskelion fragment 3	1	Very rare	Not sold

Feats

• Brothers in Arms ( 20) - Defeat each of the Barrows Brothers, dealing the killing blow with their own weapon.
• Barrowed Time ( 0) - Obtained a collection of unique drops from the Barrows Brothers.
• Something Barrowed ( 5) - Defeat the six Barrows Brothers and loot their chest several times depending on the tier.

Rise of the Six

Main article: Barrows: Rise of the Six

Barrows: Rise of the Six is a hard mode variant of Barrows, with players fighting the newly empowered Barrows Brothers. In return for a harder fight (up to four players may battle them), players will find themselves greatly rewarded upon defeating them.

Music unlocked

The following music tracks are unlocked here:

• Dance of the Undead - In the mound area
• Dangerous Way - In the crypts and tunnels

Trivia

• During the graphical update in January 2012, it was possible to get a draconic visage from the barrows chest, which only lasted a week.
• Barrows is another word for a tumulus, which is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave, called a crypt in the minigame, or graves, which is probably where the name of the minigame comes from. Tumulus is Latin for "mound" or "small hill".
• From 00:00 UTC 12 November 2011 to 23:59 UTC 14 November 2011, there was an event where players could gain double loot from several dungeons, including the Barrows minigame. This was part of Jagex's bot-busting celebration.
• It is possible for a brother to spawn again when you kill the first one, then rush quickly to a door nearby. Killing the brother that popped up again however, will cause it to count as a creature instead.
• If you attempt to enter with a familiar, you will be forced out with a message saying "You cannot enter this area with a familiar. You must leave this area and dismiss your familiar if you wish to enter."
  • If you use Surge or Escape to get into the mounds with a familiar, a message will say "You cannot enter this area with a familiar. You must leave this area and dismiss your familiar if you wish to enter. Your familiar is forced to leave as it cannot remain here." The familiar will be automatically dismissed, dropping everything it is carrying.
• Follower pets (e.g boss pets) cannot be summoned inside the Barrows area. However, they can be brought inside if summoned outside first.
• As of 1 February 2018, the highest kill count for this boss was 12,595 kills.
  • This had not increased by 6 May 2018..
• It is possible to receive two of the same pieces of armour from one chest. It is currently unknown if this is a glitch.