Araxxor/Strategies

Araxxor is a level 92 Slayer boss found in the Morytania Spider Cave. In order to fight him, completion of Priest in Peril to access Morytania is required, as well as having been assigned an Araxyte or spider Slayer task.

If the player dies while fighting Araxxor, their grave will be placed outside the entrance to his lair, which follows normal death rules.

• High melee combat stats
  • Level 85 or higher
  • Level 85 or higher
  • Level 70 or higher
  • Level 85 or higher
  • Level 70 or higher for access to Piety
• A way to cure or protect from venom
• Completion of Sins of the Father for access to Darkmeyer

The quickest methods of reaching the cave entrance are as follows:

• Teleporting directly to the cave via use of a spider cave teleport
• Teleporting to Hallowed Sepulchre using a hallowed crystal shard, then exiting and using the wall shortcut just south-east. Requires completion of Sins of the Father, level 63 Agility, and installing 2 long ropes.
• Teleporting via ectophial or to fairy ring code ALQ, then running south past the small bridge.

As with all araxytes, Araxxor's attacks can inflict venom, and as with most spiders, is weak to crush. He has a Defence level of 135, with his lowest defence bonus being crush at +15. His Defence level can be only drained by up to 45 levels, therefore one elder maul special attack will suffice. Alternatively, a dragon warhammer special attack is nearly as effective, draining 40 Defence levels. Though Araxxor has an elemental weakness to fire spells, his high magical defences makes this trait mostly thematic, and the generally lower defences of magic robes will have the player take more damage overall.

Araxxor spawns in the middle of his chamber and attacks with melee; if out of his melee range, he will close the distance and attack with either magic or ranged - whichever of the player's defensive rolls is lower. Araxxor is capable of attacking diagonally, in which case he will use melee. The melee attack can deal up to 38 damage, and using Protect from Melee will significantly reduce the damage up to a max of 5. The ranged attacks can deal up to 34 damage, with Protect from Missiles reduces the damage by ~45%, with a max hit of 18. A successful ranged attack will additionally drain 9% of the player's Defence level. The magic attacks deal up to 21 damage, with Protect from Magic reducing the damage by ~50%. A successful magic attack additionally drains 9% of the player's Prayer. These attacks are calculated upon start and late reactions will not mitigate damage.

As the attack style used is dependent on the player's defence rolls, prayers such as Rigour might change which style the boss uses. Aranea boots can be used to block Araxxor's ranged attack once every 8 ticks (4.8 seconds), but not his magic attacks. Players with high magic defence armour can take advantage of this negation effect by moving out of the melee range every second attack; forcing a ranged attack. The high magic defences are easiest to achieve whilst ranging and using high end ranged gear such as fortified masori.

Around Araxxor's lair, there are nine eggs; three each of red, white, and green. The first egg hatches after three standard attacks from Araxxor, hatching clockwise starting from the south-easternmost egg, with subsequent eggs hatching after every six standard attacks.

The eggs will always follow one of three potential patterns, with the last two sets copying that of the first:

• Green > White > Red
• White > Red > Green
• Red > Green > White

Players can opt to destroy the eggs, which have 65 Hitpoints. If an egg has been fully destroyed, Araxxor will simply spawn an araxyte from the next egg in the rotation, skipping over the destroyed egg. Any damage dealt to an egg without destroying it will carry over to the hatched araxyte, however if an egg has taken more damage than the araxyte that would have hatched from it (58 Hitpoints), then the egg will simply despawn, and Araxxor will use another six standard attacks before the next egg in sequence hatches.

Players will always max hit when attacking the hatched araxytes with a noxious halberd, crush weapons, or heavy Ranged weapon (such as a crossbow or ballista) if crush or ranged is their highest accuracy style respectively. Attacking the hatched eggs with anything else - or attacking the unhatched eggs - does not guarantee a max hit, and rolls damage normally. Both the eggs and the araxytes count as on-task monsters for the purposes of benefiting from the slayer helmet's damage bonus, but will not reduce the player's task kill count.

Every six standard attacks, Araxxor will use the same one of three possible special attacks for the remainder of the fight, which can be quickly determined by identifying the south-easternmost egg. All of these attacks leave acid pools, which inflict venom and deal increasingly larger damage (starting from 4) the longer the player stays on them.

• To counter the mirrorback araxyte with melee, the player must cast Vengeance and attack it in quick succession right after Araxxor attacks. Otherwise, Vengeance may deflect Araxxor's attack instead, failing the counter.
• The player can lure Araxxor towards an egg and lure the ruptura araxyte to explode both him and the next egg. Though the egg has one Hitpoint remaining, it will fail to hatch, forcing Araxxor use another three standard attacks to hatch the next egg.

It is always best to lure the red araxytes so they explode underneath Araxxor for the extra damage; while optional, it is generally recommended to lure them to white eggs if the player does not wish to directly attack them to avoid wasting time preparing to kill the white araxytes.

If attacking the white araxytes directly, they can be one-hit with a crush weapon while under the effects of vengeance, and also with the same methods as all araxytes, listed below. Alternatively, a noxious halberd will one-hit them which saves a lot more time on average than having to weaken the eggs.

Recommended equipment for Araxyte weapon

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Noxious halberd[a][b]	Hunters' sunlight crossbow with [c] Karil's crossbow with [c] Heavy ballista with [c]	Rune crossbow with [d] Any melee weapon with Crush as your most accurate combat style[e] [f]

When Araxxor falls below 255 health, he will enter an enrage phase. This is signified with a distinct screeching sound, along with Araxxor coating his two front legs with venom. This will additionally increase his Defence level by 35, Magic by 28 and Ranged by 31; drained stats will carry over to enrage. Alongside the increased stats, Araxxor's attack speed is increased from 6 (3.6 seconds) to 4 (2.4 seconds).

For the remainder of the fight, Araxxor will replace his melee attack with a cleave attack that has an attack range of 2, although he will still try to close the gap. Magic or ranged attacks will be used if the player is more than two tiles away from him. The cleave attack targets a 1x3 area around the player's location, dealing melee damage and leaving acid pools on the ground. If the player is standing underneath or diagonally across from Araxxor, the positioning of the pools will be different. Standing underneath Araxxor as he uses the cleave attack will result in a single poison pool (although the AoE of the cleave is still maintained), while standing diagonally across Araxxor results in pools being left appropriately across him (e.g if attacking while facing southwest the pool will appear both north and east of the player).

The player can dodge the cleave attack by moving outside the targeted area immediately when Araxxor shouts Skree!. If the player fails to dodge the cleave attack. they can be hit for up to ~38 damage, with Protect from Melee reducing the damage by ~66%. Aranea boots can be worn to protect the player from the cleave attack up to once every 20 ticks (12 seconds) - as well as from Araxxor's ranged attack - although they will not negate the poison damage from the acid pools left behind.

A way to finish the enrage phase slightly quicker is to bait Araxxor into attacking the tiles he occupies, which results in him damaging himself for 8-12 damage. To perform this method:

1. When enrage phase starts, move two tiles into him.
2. When Araxxor shouts Skree!, click on him to attack. You will move two tiles away to attack.
3. For the rest of the kill, repeat the following: when Araxxor's cleave animation shows his front two legs stabbing forward, click to move to a tile without acid, then immediately click him to attack.
4. Optionally, stepping 1 tile back immediately after attacking allows the player to walk Araxxor and use a new tile each attack to avoid the acid pool damage - it is recommended to use a 4-tick weapon if doing this.
   • While one acid pool is visually left behind, the attack still has 1x3 AoE.

If players find themselves unable to perform the step-under technique, they can dodge by moving either two tiles to the side or one tile backwards when he shouts Skree!. Note that if moving backwards, wait an additional tick before attacking or you will be dragged onto the new acid tiles.

• The player moves two tiles away from where they stood.
• The player steps back right as Araxxor attacks.

Players who've decided to opt out of killing the acidic araxytes and who feel confident in always avoiding the enrage phase melee attack can instead change their overhead prayer to Protect from Missiles in order to completely negate the araxytes' ranged attacks for the remainder of the fight.

After the fight is finished, Araxxor will not respawn just yet, and players can use this time to recover. When ready, the player must either choose to harvest or destroy the boss' corpse. Harvesting will yield normal rewards, while destroying forfeits all rewards, except elite clue scrolls, for a doubled rate of the pet. The player will not be able to preview loot before destroying the corpse. Unless the player is killing Araxxor with the sole purpose of obtaining the pet, it is generally ill-advised to destroy the corpse as this may result in the loss of an araxyte fang or noxious halberd pieces, which are incredibly valuable and make up the majority of the boss' profit. Araxxor will respawn shortly after either decision is made.

If harvesting the boss, players should be mindful of supply drops, as Araxxor can potentially drop up to six items at once; an araxyte venom sac or a 1-dose super combat potion, one or two 3-dose prayer potions or a 4-dose prayer potion, along with 2-3 sharks or wild pies. If the player's inventory is full due to having no space after looting, excess rewards will be dropped to the floor. These last for three hours like player-dropped items do.

While a scythe can provide faster kills, each swing costs 826.26 coins. If the player is concerned about costs, they can opt for other crush weapons such as a soulreaper axe or inquisitor's mace, though kills will be slightly slower as a result.

Recommended equipment for Melee

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Slayer helmet (i)	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Amulet of rancour	Amulet of torture	Amulet of blood fury	Amulet of fury
	Infernal cape	Fire cape[a]	Mythical cape[a]	N/A
	Inquisitor's hauberk	Torva platebody	Bandos chestplate (or: )	Barrows body
	Inquisitor's plateskirt	Torva platelegs	Bandos tassets (or: )	Barrows legs
	Scythe of vitur[b]	Inquisitor's mace / Soulreaper axe[c]	Abyssal bludgeon > Ursine chainmace (u) > Zamorakian hasta[c]	Sarachnis cudgel > Dual macuahuitl > Zombie axe[c]
	Avernic defender	Dragon defender	N/A	N/A
	Rada's blessing 4	Rada's blessing 3 / Rada's blessing 2 / God blessing	Ammo for killing araxyte spawns	N/A
	Ferocious gloves	Barrows gloves	N/A	N/A
	Avernic treads (max)	Primordial boots	Dragon boots / Aranea boots	N/A
	Ultor ring	Berserker ring (i)	N/A	N/A
	Elder maul[d] + Crimson kisten	Dragon warhammer[d] + Burning claws[e]	Dragon claws > Bandos godsword	Voidwaker

1. ^ ^{1.0 1.1} Mythical cape is better than fire cape if fire cape does not guarantee a max hit over mythical (with all prayers and potions active), due to high crush bonus. Worth checking with low accuracy gear such as Barrows.
2. ^ Set to slash if wearing oathplate armour, and crush otherwise.
3. ^ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Set to crush.
4. ^ ^{4.0 4.1} Due to the Defence reduction cap, only one successful reduction should be applied per kill.
5. ^ Set to slash.

Inventory

• A special attack weapon, such as an elder maul or dragon claws
• A weapon to safely kill araxytes; a noxious halberd is recommended, even when using a mace (the mace is still able to one hit acidics)
• Extended anti-venom+ potions
• Prayer potions or super restore potions
• Super combat potions
• High healing food
• Combo food such as karambwans or halibut (optional, if struggling to heal fast enough - seek to replace with higher healing food when more skilled at the boss)
• Runes for Vengeance if on the Lunar spellbook, thralls and Death Charge if on Arceuus, or additional runes for Spellbook Swap if using both. If using both, a ring of shadows can be brought and uncharged to provide the needed blood, soul, death, and law runes.

The twisted bow with Masori offers DPS better than the abyssal bludgeon and lower tier melee weapons, but is significantly outclassed by the scythe of Vitur.

Recommended equipment for Ranged

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Slayer helmet (i)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Necklace of rupture	Necklace of anguish	Amulet of fury	N/A	N/A
	Dizana's quiver	Ava's assembler (Best Ava's device)	Max cape / Ranging cape(t)	N/A	N/A
	Masori body (f)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Masori chaps (f)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Twisted bow	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Seeking dragon arrow	Dragon arrow	Amethyst arrow	N/A	N/A
	Zaryte vambraces	Barrows gloves	Blessed vambraces	N/A	N/A
	Avernic treads (max)	Pegasian boots	Aranea boots[a]	Ranger boots / Devout boots	Blessed boots
	Lightbearer	Ring of the gods (i) / Archers ring (i)	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Elder maul[b]	Dragon warhammer[b]	Zaryte crossbow	N/A	N/A

1. ^ Slightly less damage than pegasian boots, but greatly reduces damage taken if ensuring every other attack taken is a ranged attack, as it will completely evade the attack.
2. ^ ^{2.0 2.1} Special attack is very accurate even without any gear switches.

Inventory

• A special attack weapon, such as an elder maul for defence reduction or a Zaryte crossbow with ruby bolts (e) for damage.
• A heavy ballista to kill the mirrorback araxytes in one shot.
• Extended anti-venom+ potions
• Prayer potions
• Divine ranging potion
• High healing food
• Combo food such as karambwans or halibut (optional, if struggling to heal fast enough - seek to replace with higher healing food when more skilled at the boss)
• Runes for thralls and Death Charge