King Black Dragon/Strategies

Warning: While the King Black Dragon's lair is not considered to be a part of the Wilderness, you will need to cross a short distance in deep level 42-Wilderness that is commonly patrolled by Player killers. Do not bring any items into the Wilderness you are not willing to lose.

The King Black Dragon, commonly referred to as KBD, is a three-headed dragon located in his lair deep in the Wilderness. The King Black Dragon has a combat level of 276, which makes him one of the strongest dragons in Old School RuneScape. Players should always take an anti-dragon shield as his dragonfire breath is very deadly without protection. The King Black Dragon can also be killed as an alternative for a black dragon Slayer task, except those given by Krystilia.

There are no strict requirements to killing the King Black Dragon.

• High combat stats. Although not required, the skill levels below are advised:
  • If using Melee:
    • Level 80 or higher
    • Level 80 or higher
    • Level 70 or higher
    • Level 70 or higher for the Piety prayer
  • If using Ranged:
    • Level 80 or higher
    • Level 70 or higher
    • Level 74 or higher for the Rigour prayer
• Partial completion of Dragon Slayer I for access to anti-dragon shields.
• Completion of Slug Menace for access to proselyte armour.

The King Black Dragon resides in the King Black Dragon Lair, which is not in the Wilderness, so teleports can be used inside if needed. However, its lair can only be accessed by travelling through the Wilderness, so take precautions and don't bring any items you're not willing to lose. In the event that you are teleblocked, you cannot use the lever to escape.

Using any of the following methods, ordered from quickest to slowest, will lead players to the King Black Dragon Lair:

• Burning amulet
  1. Use a burning amulet to teleport to the Lava Maze.
  2. Run west and then north along the fence.
  3. Go through the gate and climb down the ladder.
• Player-owned house obelisk - Requires completion of the hard Wilderness Diary or better for effective use
  1. Select level 44 as the teleport destination of the obelisk in the superior garden.
  2. Right-click the Wilderness Obelisk and select teleport to destination.
  3. Run south-east, go through the gate and climb down the ladder.
• Ghorrock Teleport (tablet) (portal) - Requires completion of the Desert Treasure I quest.
  1. Use the Ghorrock Teleport (or tablet or portal) to teleport to the Frozen Waste Plateau, near the (level 44) Wilderness Obelisk west of the KBD lair.
  2. Run south-east, go through the gate and climb down the ladder.
• Games necklace and Wilderness Obelisk - Requires completion of the hard Wilderness Diary or better for effective use
  1. Use a games necklace to teleport to the Corporeal Beast's lair.
  2. Leave the cave and run south-east to the Wilderness Obelisk.
  3. Select level 44 as the teleport destination of the Wilderness Obelisk.
  4. Right-click the Wilderness Obelisk and select teleport to destination.
  5. Run south-east, go through the gate and climb down the ladder.
• Waka canoe - This requires a woodcutting axe as well as level 57 or better.
  1. Use the canoe station in Edgeville to travel to the Wilderness pond in level 35 Wilderness.
  2. Run west-north-west to and then north along the fence.
  3. Go through the gate and climb down the ladder.

Down the stairs, there is a lever players can pull to enter the King Black Dragon Lair.

The King Black Dragon attacks with Melee and dragonfire attacks. King Black Dragon will use a melee attack 1/3 of the time provided the target is in melee range. Otherwise, a dragonfire attack is used with a 50% chance of a special dragonfire attack. ^[1]All three special dragonfires (Toxic, Shocking, and Icy breath) are equally common, each with a 1/9 incidence in melee range or a 1/6 incidence outside of melee range.^[2]

• The Melee attack is only used when the player is standing in Melee distance and can hit up to 25.
  • The Protect from Melee prayer will negate all damage from this attack.
• The fiery breath attack can deal up to 65 damage. Antifire shields, antifire potions, and Protect from Magic, or a combination of these, will partially negate the damage from this attack.
• There are three different special dragonfire attacks. Each of these attacks can deal up to 50 damage and have a 50% chance upon a successful hit to inflict a unique effect^[3]. Antifire shields and Protect from Magic, or a combination of these, will partly negate the damage from this attack and reduce the effect chance to 1 in 8.^[4]
  • Toxic breath inflicts poison to the player, starting at 8 damage.
  • Shocking breath drains two levels off of all the player's stats.
  • Icy breath freezes the player for 10 ticks (6 seconds).

• The King Black Dragon's fiery breath attack.
• The King Black Dragon's toxic breath attack.
• The King Black Dragon's shocking breath attack.
• The King Black Dragon's icy breath attack.

The King Black Dragon uses several kinds of dragonfire attacks. Dragonfire is a fiery breath attack that can deal considerable damage to players. However, there are a few precautions players can take to negate most of this damage, being:

• Antifire potions: (extended) antifire potion and (extended) super antifire potion
• Anti-dragon shields: anti-dragon shield, dragonfire shield, dragonfire ward, and ancient wyvern shield
• Protection prayers: Protect from Magic

See the table below for an overview of the maximum damage with (combinations of) the above-mentioned precautions.

It is recommended to fight the King Black Dragon in Melee distance with the Protect from Melee prayer activated. This lowers the chance of the King Black Dragon using its unblockable special dragonfire attacks, while being able to negate all damage from its Melee attacks.

However, when a player is using a two-handed weapon, such as the twisted bow, the Protect from Magic prayer is necessary to partly negate the damage of the dragonfire attacks.

The King Black Dragon is considered to be a draconic creature, which means that it is weak against dragonbane weapons.

The King Black Dragon is a popular boss, therefore it may be hard to find an empty world. To combat this, players can create an instance for 50,000 coins. This money does not have to be in your inventory and will automatically be taken out of the player's bank.

Note that the instance will collapse if the player dies. This means that all unprotected items will be added to a gravestone outside the lever on death. Therefore an emergency teleport is highly recommended.

Since the Wilderness is used to reach the King Black Dragon Lair, only the player's three most valuable items (four with Protect Item activated, none if skulled) are kept on death if the player dies on their way to the King Black Dragon's lair. Therefore it is recommended to only bring items you are willing to lose. However, it is possible to 'smuggle' more than four valuable items into the public instance utilising gravestone mechanics, and additional supplies if a looting bag is brought too.

1. (Optionally) fill a looting bag with potions and food.
2. Fill the inventory with the looting bag, a burning amulet, desired supplies and the four valuable items you are 'smuggling' into the King Black Dragon Lair.
3. Activate the Protect Item prayer and head to King Black Dragon's lair.
4. Die to the King Black Dragon, so that all items in the inventory and looting bag drop onto the ground. These items will stay in your gravestone for exactly 15 minutes. If not retrieved in 15 minutes they will be transported to Death's office.
5. Die again to send additional items to your gravestone. This does not have to be a death to the King Black Dragon, so it may be easier to die to the Corporeal Beast, or any other high hitting and easy to reach monster.
6. Collect items from the gravestone within the public instance of the lair.

Warning: This method is not risk free, as there still is a chance of encountering player-killers before reaching the lair. It is strongly recommended to carry a means to restore prayer to keep Protect Item up continuously if carrying four items.

An alternative method of bringing many powerful but valuable items into the KBD lair is to use other players or alt accounts to trade with the main account once inside. This eliminates the gravestone reclamation fee but requires much more coordination. Due to the time and difficulty of this method, it is generally only done by pet hunters.

If using a twisted bow, dragon hunter crossbow, or Osmumten's fang, the player's attack speed is slower than that of the King Black Dragon: the fang and bows (on rapid) attack every 5 ticks, whereas the dragon attacks every 4 ticks. When walking under the King Black Dragon immediately after performing an attack, the player is able to hide from the King Black Dragon's attacks until they step out to perform another attack, thus effectively slowing down its attack speed. When utilising this method correctly, the King Black Dragon will only perform 1 attack for every attack the player performs, reducing the damage taken by 20%. Players need not walk under the KBD after each attack; they can keep the 1:1 ratio even when walking under after every second or third attack, so long as they wait 5 ticks after they walk under.

If using a twisted bow with this method, players could also choose to stand in Melee distance and pray Protect from Melee, and bring an anti-dragon shield to equip when the King Black Dragon attacks. This requires great focus and timing, as missing even once can allow the King Black Dragon to deal up to 50 damage with its fire breath.

To save on super restore potions, players could consider bringing a bonecrusher necklace. With this necklace equipped, players can bury the dragon bones to restore 4 prayer points.

In order to benefit from both an offensive necklace as well as the bonecrusher necklace's effect, players could wear their offensive necklace during the kill and then swap to the bonecrusher necklace once the final damage is dealt. Then re-equip the offensive necklace.

One thing to consider is that this method requires taking an additional valuable item (179,728 coins) through the Wilderness.

Warning: Bear in mind that, since the Wilderness is used to reach the King Black Dragon Lair, only the player's three most valuable items (four with Protect Item activated, none if skulled) are kept on death if the player dies on their way to the King Black Dragon's lair. Therefore it is recommended not to bring any items you're not willing to lose.