Strategies for Telos, the Warden

This article is a strategy guide for Telos, the Warden. Information on mechanics, setups, and tactics is on this page.

Telos, the Warden is initially a level 2,000 combat monster who is fought in phases.

Gear

Any combat style can be used. However, on higher enrage levels, melee and ranged are not recommended due to their lack of stun abilities, in addition to having moderate/poor resistance against his melee attacks.

Magic

Magic offers high resistance against Telos's melee attacks, and has a good amount of AoE abilities to clear out minions.

Recommended equipment for Magic

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Achto Primeval Mask	Tectonic mask	Virtus mask	Superior seasinger's hood	N/A
	Reaper necklace	Amulet of souls	Arcane stream necklace	Saradomin's hiss	Dragon Rider amulet
	Completionist cape	TokHaar-Kal-Mej	God cape	Superior reefwalker's cape	Cape of Accomplishment
	Achto Primeval robe top	Tectonic robe top	Virtus robe top	Superior sea singer's robe top	N/A
	Achto Primeval robe legs	Tectonic robe bottom	Virtus robe bottom	Superior seasinger's robe bottom	N/A
	Seismic wand	Seasinger kiba	Attuned crystal wand	Wand of the Cywir elders	N/A
	Noxious staff	Staff of darkness / Camel staff	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Seismic singularity	Seasinger makigai	Attuned crystal orb	N/A	N/A
	Arcane spirit shield	Merciless kiteshield	Farseer kiteshield	Spectral spirit shield	N/A
	Achto Primeval Gloves	Spellcaster gloves	Celestial handwraps	Virtus gloves	Gloves of subjugation
	Achto Primeval Boots	Hailfire boots	Virtus boots	Ragefire boots	Boots of subjugation
	Asylum surgeon's ring (Ring of vigour as a switch)	Ring of death	Seers' ring (i)	Sixth-Age circuit	Superior leviathan ring
	Runic accuracy aura	Inspiration	Maniacal aura	Invigorate aura	Penance aura
	Superior scrimshaw of magic	Illuminated god book	N/A	Sign of life	N/A

Melee

Melee offers moderate resistance against Telos's melee attacks, can utilize the Scrimshaw of vampyrism to recover large amounts of health and has powerful AoE abilities to clear out minions.

Recommended equipment for Melee

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Achto Teralith Helmet	Malevolent helm	Torva full helm	Superior tetsu helm	N/A
	Reaper necklace	Amulet of souls	Brawler's knockout necklace	Dragon Rider amulet	Saradomin's whisper
	Completionist cape	Max cape	TokHaar-Kal	Superior reefwalker's cape	Skillcape
	Achto Teralith Cuirass	Malevolent cuirass	Torva platebody	Superior tetsu body	N/A
	Achto Teralith Leggings	Malevolent greaves	Torva platelegs	Superior tetsu platelegs	N/A
	Noxious scythe	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Divine spirit shield	Malevolent kiteshield	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Goliath gloves	Razorback gauntlets	Torva gloves	N/A	N/A
	Emberkeen boots	Torva boots	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Asylum surgeon's ring (Ring of vigour as a switch)	Ring of death	Warrior ring (i)	Sixth-Age circuit	Superior leviathan ring
	Brawler aura	Berserker aura	Inspiration aura	Invigorate aura	Penance aura
	Illuminated Book of War	Scrimshaw of vampyrism	Sign of death/life	N/A	N/A

Invention Perks

• Planted Feet
• Aftershock
• Biting
• Crackling
• Precise
• Impatient
• Lucky
• Devoted
• Absorbative
• Mobile

Inventory

• Dreadnips - can stun/bind Telos occasionally and also poison him.
• Debuff runes (optional); preferably Vulnerability and Enfeeble as Telos has rather high accuracy.
• Debuff weapons:
  • Guthix staff (magic) - only to use its special attack, as it is the only way for magic users to decrease a target's defence and affinity.
  • Statius's warhammer (melee) - only for its special attack. Quake can be used by 2h users instead, although Statius's warhammer can drain up to 30% of the target's defence compared to Quake's 5%.

Enrage

When Telos is fought for the first time, he will have 0% enrage and 400,000 life points (4 phases of 100,000 life points each). Unlike the fight with Araxxor and Araxxi, Telos's rage does not increase after each kill. Upon defeating Telos and spinning the reward wheel, the player has the option to either claim their reward immediately (which will reset his enrage if it is accumulated) or leave it. If they leave the reward, they must spin another wheel to determine how much Telos's enrage will increase in the next fight (between 5% and 25%).

When starting a new kill (not killstreak), players can customise Telos's enrage, anywhere from 0 to whatever enrage they have reached. There are also intervals of 25, 50 and 100% enrage startups when the player has killed Telos on those enrage levels (25% for silver drop table, 50% for virus bleeds, 100% for phase 5 and gold table).

Every 1% of enrage will add 10 combat levels (to both Telos and his golems), increase his health by 1000 (to a cap of 600,000 at 200% and above) and increase damage slightly. Higher enrage levels will result in greater thresholds from his bind and font siphoning.

After 50% enrage, Telos adds black and red viruses into his attack rotations in phases 2 and 3; a debuff icon lasting for 30 seconds will appear. The viruses do rapid damage of 200-300 and can only be removed by standing in the corresponding stream. The virus is always the same colour as the streams in that phase. The virus is always preceded by 3 auto-attacks. On phases 2 and 3 it appears after the stun attack. If the phase 2's last special attack was black virus, the first special attack on phase 3 will be the uppercut attack. If the phase 3's last special attack was red virus, the first special attack on phase 4 will be the stun attack.

After 100% enrage, the "true" fight is unlocked; rather then the typical four phases, a fifth phase is unlocked. He will also utilize green viruses into his attack rotation. During this phase, every 1% of enrage increases Telos's health by 500 rather than the typical 1,000, capping at 200,000 hitpoints at 300% enrage.

After 150% enrage, Telos will be able to break free from binds and stuns, shown with a game message saying "Telos breaks free from its bindings."

After 1,000% enrage, the rockfall that appears on phase 5 will start appearing in phase 4. In phase 5, two piles of rocks fall at a time, and Telos's instant kill anima bomb will ignore the effects of Immortality.

The Fight

Regular means of teleporting are disabled during the fight.

Telos will primarily attack with melee during phases 1, 2 and 4. He can attack with magic on all phases; however, on phases 1, 2 and 4, he only uses it if the player is too far from him. In phase 2, he will also attack with magic when he starts his magical barrage. In phase 4, he can use both styles, although he will usually attempt to use melee when possible. He is bindable, stunnable and susceptible to poison, so dreadnips are recommended for all of these purposes. However, at 150%+ enrage kills he has the ability to break free from binds and stuns. Damage can also be reflected, so it is strongly recommended to use Deflect Melee or Deflect Magic, depending on what Telos is attacking you with.

At the start of the fight, Telos has access to the following special attacks. Note that he can only use "Your anima will return to the source!" attack on phase 1 and 2; he can use the other two abilities on any phase (except for phase 5). Telos always uses one full set of abilities before recycling it again.

• Your anima will return to the source! (grip) - Telos will snare you in vines that do over 200 typeless damage every tick (in addition to rapidly draining adrenaline by 5% at the same time) while healing Telos for up to 1,500 health each tick. To escape the vines, you must deal 3,000+ damage to Telos. If you take too long to deal enough damage, Telos will eventually let go after a while.
  • If you are using magic or ranged, Telos will bind you at the spot. If you are using melee and not within melee distance, he will drag you next to him.
  • Damage does not need to be done when the game prompts you to attack him; damage registers immediately once he starts the ability, meaning a well-timed threshold can prevent Telos from healing himself and damaging the player.
  • The amount Telos heals, the damage from the tendrils and the amount of damage needed to break his grip increase with his rage.
• Gielinor, give me strength! (uppercut) - Telos faces the player and prepares to charge. After a large delay, Telos will surge towards the player and uppercut the air, dealing a melee attack (which does typeless damage)
  • This attack can be blocked by Resonance (but not healed from), or by using Surge when Telos is about to uppercut the air. If you Surge too early, Telos will catch up to you and if you Surge while he uppercuts the air, you will take damage.
    • For best results when using Surge, try to use it in a direction Telos is not facing.
• Hold still, invader. (stun) - Before this, Telos pauses, leaning forward and turning to the right with tentacles flailing. Telos will say this and stun the player, while dealing around 3,300 damage. After doing this, he will leap in the air and land, dealing 4,000+ typeless damage reducing with distance. If you get caught under him, he will disable your protection prayers for several seconds.
  • Freedom immediately just before Telos stuns you, and run away. Players can use Anticipate instead, provided that they use it before he smashes them with his arm. If using Anticipate beforehand, equip a shield and quickly use Reflect, Devotion, or Resonance to reduce as much damage on higher enrages and/or heal from it.
  • On high enrage, the stun damage can deal a very large amount of damage; rather then tanking this damage (as it will eat up a lot of food if you attempt to), Resonance it instead to recover a large chunk of your hitpoints and save food for later phases.
    • If you plan to Resonance the stun hit, do it just before the stun damage goes through. Telos will always send one attack at the player which is most likely to snipe Resonance's effect and leave the player open to the stun damage instead.

In addition, in phases 1 and 4, Telos will perform the following special attack if his special bar fills completely:

• SO. MUCH. POWER! (anima bomb) - Telos sends an anima bomb flying at the player. This will deal 5,555+ damage (increasing with enrage), but can be reduced or blocked. Like his uppercut attack, Resonance can block but will not heal from it. This is preceded by 3 auto-attacks. After the attack the regular attack rotation resumes.
  • Like his "Hold still, invader." attack, Telos will send another attack at the player just before the bomb hits. Be careful if using Resonance as if done too early, the attack may snipe its effects and leave the player open to the bomb attack

In the first three phases, anima streams of a certain colour will appear. They each have different abilities that can benefit and harm you. Standing in a stream will block it from continuing in its direction. If Telos stands in the stream, his special bar increases faster. After a while, the stream will disappear and will eventually return, flowing in a different area. The streams in the first two phases will always aim for Telos, while the streams in the third phase spawn erratically near the anima-golems that appear on that phase. Telos's special bar resets during phase transition, so if he filled his bar on phase 1, it will be completely empty on the phase 2.

Phase 1

• Green stream - Standing in this stream will give you a rapid adrenaline increase (in intervals of 10%), but you will also lose prayer points at the same time. If Telos stands in the stream, his special bar fills quicker.

Telos starts the fight with four auto-attacks. After that he uses the attacks in the following rotation unless interrupted by the anima bomb special attack:

• 3 auto-attacks
• Grip
• 3 auto-attacks
• Uppercut
• 3 auto-attacks
• Stun
• Repeats

Just keep avoiding Telos's special attacks with Deflect Melee on while taking advantage of the streams by standing in them and attacking Telos. Keep an eye on your prayer points as the streams drain them.

After Telos loses 25% of his lifepoints, the next cycle will begin. Telos will slam the ground, breaking the platform (similar to Vorago); however, this does not deal any damage and the player automatically moves to the next platform.

Phase 2

• Black stream - Standing in this stream will cause you to take less damage, but deal less damage. If Telos stands in the stream, his special bar fills quicker.
• Magic barrage - Telos will discharge his special bar through a series of magic attacks that get progressively more powerful. This can be easily predicted; when Telos starts his magic barrage, he pauses for several seconds (and stays still). Telos will continue his magical barrage as long as his bar has energy left. He will start with his standard magic attacks, but, as time passes, this will eventually change into orange projectiles, and finally red projectiles if his bar is still filled. These magic attacks become increasingly powerful, being able to hit very high even through prayer if they go on for long enough. Telos will stop using magic attacks when the bar is depleted and resume with melee attacks. If the bar is near or completely filled, it is a must to stand on the black stream. Use Devotion, Debilitate, or Reflect only when orange or red projectiles appear while standing on the black stream to reduce as much damage as possible and prevent Telos from prolonging his barrage.

Telos's first attacks in this phase are determined how the phase 1 ended:

• If the last special attack in phase 1 was grip, the next special will be magic barrage after there have been a total of 3 auto-attacks between the two specials.
• If the last special attack in phase 1 was uppercut, the next special will be the stun attack after there have been a total of 3 auto-attacks between the two specials, except for if phase 1 ended after 1 auto-attack when there will be a total of 4 auto-attacks.
• If the last special attack in phase 1 was stun, the next special will be magic barrage after there have been a total of at least 2 auto-attacks between the two specials.

After the first special attack, Telos resumes the following rotation starting from the line after the first special attack:

• 3 auto-attacks
• Magic barrage
• 3 auto-attacks
• Stun
• 3 auto-attacks
• Black Virus (if over 50% enrage)
• 3 auto-attacks
• Uppercut
• 3 auto-attacks
• Grip
• Repeats

Like in phase 1, Telos will focus on using melee attacks and cycle through his three abilities. Lure Telos out from the black streams if he is in them; on higher enrages, you should stay on the black stream whenever he does his "Hold still, invader" attack if you are not planning to resonance the stun hit.

Ensure that Telos is near the middle of the platform so that when he does his magical barrage, the player can block the black stream. If Telos is in a corner when he uses it, it is possible for the black stream to hit him from the same angle, which can be a problem for the inexperienced who are unable to move attack (moving while casting abilities).

Phase 3

• Red stream - Standing in this stream will cause you to take more damage while dealing more damage, in addition to moving Telos's bar to the left. If Telos stands in the stream, his special bar moves to the right and his attacks deal 30% more damage.
  • Unlike the previous two streams, the red stream appears around the locations of the anima-golem's spawn spot.
• Shockwave - If Telos's special bar reaches the red area on the right, Telos will unleash shockwaves dealing up to 2,000 damage. The damage increases with enrage and can be reduced. He can continue using shockwaves until he exits the red area of the bar on the right. The player should keep their health up, as it is very easy to get combo'ed out by the shockwaves and his normal attacks, especially at high enrages. On low enrage it might be the easiest to just keep focusing on Telos and ignore the prevention of the shockwave.
• Anima-golems - Three anima-golems will appear one at a time. They will simply collapse on the ground upon reaching 0 life points; after a while they will rise up again. When active, they move Telos's special bar to the right.
• Charge - If Telos's special bar reaches the red area on the left, he will start draining the player's adrenaline and prayer. Even though the chat message says that Telos charges himself, there seems to be no further effects.

The third phase starts 7 auto-attacks followed by the following special attack:

• If the last special attack was magic barrage, stun attack, or the black virus, the first one will be the uppercut attack.
• If the last special attack was the grip attack, the first one will be the stun attack.

After the first special attack Telos uses the following attack rotation, starting from the line after the special attack he used first:

• 3 magic auto-attacks
• Uppercut
• 3 magic auto-attacks
• Stun
• 3 magic auto-attacks
• Red Virus (if over 50% enrage)
• Repeats

This is the phase where you must do as much damage as possible quickly, since this phase can deplete a lot of food if it is done improperly. Switch to Protect from Magic or Deflect Magic as Telos will only use magic attacks during this phase. However, he is still able to use the "Hold still, invader" special attack, which deals melee damage. Move out of the stream if you are in it and switch to Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee immediately to reduce his damage.

The correct area of the red bar diminishes with enrage level.

The anima-golems can be ignored if one is active; just make sure to disable any more that appear, especially if you stun Telos. The chain and ricochet abilities can strike nearby anima-golems without the need to switch targets.

Phase 4

In this phase, there are three anima fonts scattered around the edges of the arena: Pure, Volcanic and Corrupt Anima Font. The phase starts with the player jumping next to the Pure Anima Font found at the north-western side of the arena, with Telos dropping down shortly afterwards. Telos uses a new special attack in his attack rotation during this phase:

• Let the anima consume you! (weak anima bomb) - Telos sends a weak anima bomb at the player, dealing up to 2,500 damage (increasing with enrage). This will also inflict a bleed that deals up to 275 damage (which also increases with enrage) and will drain overload timers by 15 seconds every time this bleed hits. Standing near a font cleanses this effect. Using Reflect near a font will negate all of the damage it will deal to the player.

The fourth phase starts with 3 auto-attacks followed by the following special attack:

• If the last special attack was the uppercut attack, the first one will be another uppercut attack.
• If the last special attack was the stun attack, the first one will be the weak anima bomb attack.
• If the last special attack was red virus, the first special attack on phase 4 will be the stun attack.

After the first special attack Telos uses the following attack rotation during this phase, starting from the line after the first special attack. This rotation can be interrupted by the anima bomb seen in phase 1, after which the rotation resumes. He uses melee unless you are far from him.

• 3 auto-attacks
• Uppercut
• 3 auto-attacks
• Weak anima bomb
• 3 auto-attacks
• Stun
• Repeats

In addition to this, Telos will use the following new special attack when he reaches 75%, 50% and 25% of phase 4's total life points:

• You dare to defy me!
  • Telos starts this special attack by spawning three minions: A pure, volcanic, and corrupt anima-golem. When this happens, Telos will stop attacking you and cannot be attacked until the instant kill anima bomb has exploded. All the golems attack with melee, and they can attack from a distance. The pure anima-golem's damage dealt increases with time. The volcanic anima-golem's attacks can occasionally stun the player for 2 seconds, so they should be killed first upon spawning. Anticipate should be used just before Telos spawns the golems so the volcanic anima-golem does not stun the player immediately (which could lead to the font killing them if their health is low). The corrupt anima-golem's attacks can occasionally send a "Armour Break" debuff which can stack. All of the golems have 8,000 life points which will increase with higher enrage.
  • Each font has 5,000+ life points (increasing with enrage) but they cannot be attacked directly. While standing next to a font when Telos drains it, the player will periodically get damaged by 20% of the font's life points (this can be reduced/blocked by regular means) while the font loses the same amount. When the font is destroyed, the player will automatically create a shield around it which will protect them from the instant kill anima bomb that Telos launches shortly after saying "You dare to defy me!", provided that they are in the shield area. Telos's font-draining special attack ends when the message "You survived the anima bomb!" appears. The font will be permanently changed into a variant that can only be used for cleansing the weak anima bomb attack's effects. Telos's regular attack rotation resumes from the point it was left in.
    • On higher enrages, it is best to use Reflect or Barricade as the font can deal a large amount of damage if they decide to completely tank it.
  • At 75% health Telos drains the Pure Anima Font at the north-western edge of the arena, at 50% the Volcanic Anima Font at the north-eastern edge and at 25% the Corrupt Anima Font at the southern edge. If you go to a wrong font, Telos charges a different one and the font you're at won't protect you from the instant kill anima bomb.

During this phase, Telos increases his special bar whenever he drains anima from the fonts. If the player moves quickly to each font, they should expect a high damage anima bomb to hit them after his second instant kill bomb. But if they are slow to move to the fonts, Telos can charge his special attack bar faster and they may have to deal with two or three anima bombs. Therefore, players should stay near the correct fonts before Telos reaches his health thresholds. If players are quick to move to each font, after the second bomb, players should stun him quickly to prevent him from casting the high damage bomb immediately, as each instant kill bomb resets the player's defensive abilities. On low enrages, this can be easily tanked as it will not deal as much damage, but on high enrages, Barricade is a must as it will either severely weaken or kill the player. It can also be cancelled through Resonance or Disruption Shield, but is not recommended if any golems are lingering around.

Once Telos reaches 0 life points and his enrage is 99% or lower, a cutscene will occur where he stumbles and falls into the pool. In encounters of 99% enrage or lower, it will end the kill. If his enrage is 100% or higher, he will fall into the pool but rise back up again, starting phase 5 of the fight (see below).

Phase 5

Telos will only use magic attacks during this phase. This phase will only occur on kills with 100% or more enrage. Telos will remain stationary in the middle of the arena. Telos starts off with 100,000 hitpoints, and higher enrages will increase this health, up to a cap of 200,000.

The three streams that appeared in the first three phases appear and have their same effects. The streams will occasionally change positions.

In this phase, Telos will discard all of his previous specials (stun/uppercut/weak anima bomb) for the following:

• You dare to use my power against me? - Telos summons a large amount (about 6) of pure, volcanic or corrupted anima-golems to attack the player; lure these golems to the respective anima font and kill them in its vicinity. These golems are slightly weaker then those encountered in phase 4; all of the golems that appear have 50% less health. For every anima-golem killed near the respective font, it will recharge the said font by 25%, so four of them should be killed to fill up the font. They should all be killed anyways.
  • On higher enrages, this may not be feasible as the golems will have a lot of health; in this case, try to make it so that one or two golems are attacking you at a time.
• Rockfall - Deals very high damage if it hits the player. Small rocks that deal no damage will fall in advance, signifying where the larger, damaging rocks will fall. Use this to move out of the way. This can be problematic on higher enrages where the volcanic anima-golems can stun the player and leave them open to heavy damage.

Once the font is fully recharged by the golems' deaths, run to the red stream, attacking Telos on the way. If you want, however, you stand on the green stream to use Metamorphosis and wait a few seconds on it to rapidly gain adrenaline, before running to the red beam to deal as much damage as possible onto him.

At some point after the summoning of the golems you will get inflicted by a random virus; cleanse this by standing in the corresponding stream. When Telos charges up the instant kill anima bomb (a message will appear), run back to the recharged font and use it. However, the player can use Immortality instead, as it will bypass the instant kill bomb's effects. However, on 1000%+ enrage, the bomb will bypass the effects of Immortality, so the player can run back to the fully charged font and use it on him. A blast of anima will then hit Telos, knocking him out for several seconds.

Once Telos reaches 0 life points he will fall back into the pool, ending the kill. Any remaining golems on the field will die after the beam appears.

Note: Make sure you have sufficient health when Telos dies, as a cutscene will not play. Golems can still attack and potentially kill you, making you lose the kill and your killstreak if this happens.