Maggot King/Strategies

After completion of The Blood Moon Rises, players can fight the Maggot King in its lair, in which the entrance is accessed via some darkwood trees in the forest between Sangvesti and the Ruined Village.

If the player dies while fighting the Maggot King, they will respawn in Vampyrium by the portal back to Gielinor, with their grave appearing outside of the boss lair entrance. Players will have their reclamation fee reduced by 75% until they have five kills, after which the standard death cost will apply.

Should players not wish to make the trek from the portal to the boss lair, the aranei scout near the portal can be paid with one of three items to move the gravestone near them:

Item		Quantity	GE Price
	Coins	50,000	50,000
	Vial of blood	1	7,638
	Stymphike feather	150	33,600

• Completion of The Blood Moon Rises for access to Vampyrium.

• 85+ (if using Ranged)
• 75+ (if using Magic)
• 80+
• 85+
• 74 Prayer and 70 Defence to unlock and use Rigour. Highly recommended.
• 70 Construction to build a bank chest in Sangvesti.
• 64 Agility for the bush shortcuts in the Sotfa Forest.

Use Drakan's medallion to get to Castle Drakan, enter Vampyrium, and then run east. Before fighting the boss, players should unlock a quick-travel method by rescuing an aranei scout south-east of Sangvesti.

This scout will initially be attacked by sanguidae; kill all three of them, then talk to the scout again, who will then be found south of the bank chest by the map icon and will take players just east of Sangvesti. Two agility shortcuts can be used to traverse the woods more quickly, both requiring level 64 Agility; It is recommended to only use the shortcut furthest away from the scout, as the closer shortcut is a longer path to the boss and the player is likely to be attacked by an Ancient feral vyre.

Lastly, to use the bank chest, it must first be built with level 70 Construction (boosts can be used) using a hammer and saw, 1 magic stone, 2 cupronickel bars, 2 adamantite bars, and 4 ironwood planks.

The Maggot King is initially fought at a distance, requiring players to attack with either ranged or magic attacks from their side of the arena; heavy ranged attacks and fire spells work best, with fire spells dealing an additional (stacking) 5 burn damage to the boss and reducing its magic defence by 20 per burn stack.

The Maggot King's basic attacks cover all three combat styles. Both the magic and ranged attacks can deal up to 46 damage, and are fully blocked by prayer. The melee attack is slightly stronger, dealing up to 55 damage, and prayer does not fully protect against these attacks, instead reducing them by ~40%.

• Ranged - Green spit is launched at the player, leaving poisonous bile behind on the tile the player stood on when the attack lands, as well as on two adjacent tiles. The attack will also poison the player starting at 8 damage.
  • Standing on the poisonous bile will deal minor damage, as well as drain poison immunity by 45 seconds. It will remain there until it is covered over with carrion or when stepped on.
  • Using both the serpentine helm and anti-venom+ will provide immunity to poisonous bile.
• Magic - Yellow spit is launched at the player, leaving sticky bile behind on the tile the player stood on when the attack lands, as well as on two adjacent tiles.
  • Standing on the sticky bile will deal minor damage, drain Attack, Strength, or Defence, and delay the player's next attack by one tick (0.6s). The amount drained is based on the damage dealt by the bile. It will remain there until it is covered over with carrion or when stepped on.
  • An inoculation bracelet will provide immunity to sticky bile.
• Melee - The Maggot King walks up close and slams its head in a 3x4 Area-of-Effect.

The Maggot King follows a rotation of attacks that it will use throughout the fight, with slight alterations at certain health thresholds.

When the fight begins, the Maggot King will always start with ranged attacks. It will use ranged/magic 4-8 times before using a screech attack, indicated by a white aura surrounding the boss. Players must turn off their protection prayer prior to this, otherwise they will take 15-25 damage per tick; players may take damage up to three times if it is not turned off at all, but deactivating it late will still reduce overall damage. Notably, during its screech attack, its Defence level is temporarily halved to 100, allowing special attacks such as the Zaryte crossbow to be far more likely to hit.

Alongside every screech, the Maggot King will throw piles of carrion into the arena. These target random tiles, after which they will splatter into smaller bits, wiping off any pools of bile that were previously occupying the tiles they landed on, making them safe to stand on again. Getting hit by the initial carrions will deal up to 25 damage, while getting hit by the smaller carrion will deal up to 10 damage. Additionally, the Maggot King’s attack speed will increase by 1 tick after the first screech.

Carrions can be avoided by spotting looming shadows on the target tiles, and the smaller bits will only target tiles adjacent to the initial target tiles. As piles of carrion tend to land next to each other, the secondary bits can overlap and target what would otherwise be "safe" tiles. For the highest chance to avoid damage it is best to look for the more isolated first shadows.

Shortly after the carrions land, the Maggot King will switch to magic attacks until it screeches again, after which it will switch back to ranged. Lastly, any drained Defence levels will be restored after a screech, though defence bonuses will remain. Therefore, the Eye of Ayak will be more beneficial than an accursed sceptre, as the former's special attack will also stack with the magic defence reduction from using fire spells.

When the boss reaches ~1,250 (~83%) health, it will launch an ur-maggot larvae towards the arena whenever it uses its screech. If the larvae is hit with standard ranged (bow and arrows) before it lands on the arena, they will be instantly killed; this bow attack can be fired off instantly after attacking the Maggot King but still incurs its normal attack cooldown, so using a faster bow is preferable.

If allowed to land onto the arena, the larvae will move back and forth horizontally over the row of tiles it landed on; if carrion are present on a tile they move to, they will eat it and heal the boss for 1 hitpoint. If they reach the player, they will stop moving and begin to chip at the player's health to heal the boss, starting at 3 damage and increasing by 1 every tick.

The first larvae will spawn on the west side of the arena, after which they will alternate back and forth (west > east > west > east) for the rest of the fight.

When the boss reaches ~299 (~19%) health, it will launch multiple larvae at once, with a maximum of four (for each row in the arena) if there are none present. A venator bow is useful for this part as the bounces allow easier control of larger groups.

When the boss reaches ~980 (~65%) health, it will begin using melee attacks as part of its attack rotation. After using a screech, it will walk up to the bone wall separating the arena and position itself to align its centre tile with your current tile, then slam the 3x4 area in front of it, dealing up to 55 damage (reduced to 35 with Protect from Melee) as well as launching three poisonous or sticky biles within two tiles in front of it. As such, players must avoid the slams by moving towards its easternmost or westernmost tiles when it is about to attack. Additionally, the boss's magic defence will be temporarily increased from +150 to +400.

If the player attacks the boss the same time as it slams down, they will automatically attack the boss without incurring an attack delay alongside increased accuracy (85% reduced defence roll if using crush) and a 50% damage boost for that attack. Multi-hit weapons will only have the bonus applied onto the first hit. As such, slow weapons such as an elder maul or godsword can be used to particularly strong effect if the player is able to properly time their attacks; the timing for this melee punish requires the player to click the Maggot King on the same tick that it extends its head.

To effectively melee the boss, the player can wait for the slam, step out to attack, and then attack again to do a regular attack alongside the melee punish. Both 4 and 5-tick weapons can effectively melee punish, but with different methods; 4-tick weapons require the player to utilise a stepback method to avoid losing ticks from the boss moving into position, while 5-tick weapons can simply move east or west accordingly without tick loss. The 5-tick method does require some careful positioning as players may walk into pools of bile if avoiding tick loss.

• A player performing the 4-tick melee punish attack cycle using a stepback.
• A player performing a 5-tick attack alongside the melee punish without losing ticks by clicking the boss again after the punish.
• Players willing to put in extra effort can replace the melee punish attack with a stronger, slower weapon, then switching back to their main weapon for the regular attack regardless of attack speed.

Upon screeching, it will retreat and resume attacking with either ranged or magic, depending on which style was used prior to it using melee. When the boss reaches ~299 (~19%) health, it will stop retreating and only attack with melee, allowing players to ignore the screech entirely since there isn't anything to pray against at this point in the fight.

Skilled players who wish to do the fastest kills may opt to use full Dharok's at very low hitpoints for both the melee punish and regular attack. This requires doing a 7-tick attack cycle that does not consistently align with The Maggot King's attack cycle, thus the player needs to alternate between dragging and stepping back towards the boss in order to align the attack cycles with the awkward 7-tick attack speed.

Usually, the player drags the boss by doing the exact same clicks as the 5-tick cycle and waiting to attack, but whenever your regular attack happens on the last tick before dodging the slam, you need to step back after the punish. This results in a cycle of drag-drag-stepback repeating every 3 slams. You can however enter the cycle in different parts at the start of the melee phase depending on your attack cooldown prior (due to shooting the ur-maggot larvae for example), resulting in drag-stepback-drag or stepback-drag-drag (which the player shouldn't really ever end up on).

Players using the Dharok method may wish to use low healing foods such as Guthix Rests, so that they maintain hp from 20-30 outside melee phases, and 1-15 during melee phases, having enough health to survive carrion falls during screeches. Camping high enough hp to survive a slam results in Dharok's being worse than other options for most players.

• Drag-drag-stepback cycle example
• Drag-stepback-drag cycle example
• stepback-drag-drag cycle example

The Maggot King is weakest to crush and heavy ranged attacks. Although it possesses a relatively high Magic level and defence (200 Magic and +150 magic defence), it also possesses an 80% susceptibility to fire spells, which can be feasible for maging players utilising a harmonised nightmare staff, tome of fire and confliction gauntlets. Furthermore, successful attacks with fire spells deal an additional (stacking) 5 burn damage to the boss. It is recommended to use fire spells with either the harmonised nightmare staff or the twinflame staff, as not only does the boss's magic defence get reduced by 20 per burn stack, but failed casts will also benefit from confliction gauntlets, whereas Tumeken's shadow gains none of these benefits. The harmonised nightmare and twinflame staffs also output fire hits at a higher rate than standard autocast staffs such as the Purging staff, ensuring the boss gets to full burn stacks more quickly and stays there more reliably.

Perfect kills will require minimal sustain, as the boss deals very little chip damage when walking onto acid/bile pools and being hit by small carrion bits. The boss frequently drops a dull ancient medal and 2-4 stymphike tartares, which help restore prayer, increase combat stats and heal a good amount of health, which often adds an extra kill into trips.

Fire spells are especially powerful, causing both a damage-over-time effect and lowering the boss's magic defence. Generally, fire surge with a tome of fire and sunfire runes or searing pages will outperform the Tumeken's shadow, but loses the ability to use Death Charge and summon thralls.

Recommended equipment for Mage

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Slayer helmet (i)[a] / Ancestral hat	Virtus mask	Blue moon helm[b] / Ahrim's hood	N/A
	Occult necklace	Amulet of fury	N/A	N/A
	Imbued god cape	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Ancestral robe top	Virtus robe top	Blue moon chestplate[b] / Ahrim's robetop	N/A
	Ancestral robe bottom	Virtus robe bottom	Blue moon tassets[b] / Ahrim's robeskirt	N/A
	Harmonised nightmare staff[c]	Tumeken's shadow	Twinflame staff[d]	Purging staff[c] / Kodai wand[c] / Toxic staff of the dead[c] / Volatile nightmare staff[c] / Eldritch nightmare staff[c]
	Tome of fire[e]	Elidinis' ward (f)	Elidinis' ward / Mage's book	N/A
	Rada's blessing 4	Rada's blessing 3	N/A	N/A
	Confliction gauntlets	Tormented bracelet	N/A	N/A
	Avernic treads (max)	Eternal boots	N/A	N/A
	Magus ring	Brimstone ring	N/A	N/A
	Eye of ayak	Accursed sceptre	N/A	N/A

1. ^ Only when on a Maggot King Slayer task.
2. ^ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Can reduce melee switches
3. ^ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5} Casting fire surge
4. ^ Casting fire wave
5. ^ It costs 1,741.60 coins to cast fire surge with sunfire runes and burnt pages. It costs 1,300.15 coins to cast with fire runes and searing pages. Use whichever is cheaper.

As heavy ranged options, which require bolts, are the most effective ranged weapons to use on the Maggot King, the player should bear in mind the necessity of also bringing a way to deal standard ranged damage to effectively deal with the ur-maggots. Dizana's quiver allows bringing both ammo types without using extra switches or inventory slots but caution is advised if the player brings a melee cape switch, as failing to switch back to quiver can result in failing to fire. A charged bow such as a bow of Faerdhinen (c), crystal bow or webweaver bow is a good way to get around this problem while also providing a nine to ten tile range to hit larvae. A venator bow is another option for killing larvae as the shots can bounce to the boss for extra damage, and also bounce to other larvae spawns to kill multiple in 1 click. It does have slightly less range than other bow options however so take care to not be dragged into hazards.

Recommended equipment for Range

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Slayer helmet (i)[a] Masori mask (f) / Masori mask	Void ranger helm	Eclipse moon helm[b]	N/A
	Necklace of rupture	Necklace of anguish	Amulet of fury	N/A
	Dizana's quiver	Dizana's quiver (uncharged)	Ava's assembler	N/A
	Masori body (f) / Masori body	Elite void top	Eclipse moon chestplate[b]	Void knight top
	Masori chaps (f) / Masori chaps	Elite void robe	Eclipse moon tassets[b]	Void knight robe
	Zaryte crossbow	Armadyl crossbow / Dragon hunter crossbow / Dragon crossbow	Twisted bow	Rune crossbow
	Twisted buckler	Dragonfire ward	Odium ward	Antler guard[b] / Aquanite hopper
	Ruby dragon bolts (e)	Ruby bolts (e)	Seeking dragon arrow	N/A
	Zaryte vambraces	Barrows gloves	Void knight gloves	N/A
	Avernic treads (max)	Avernic treads	Aranea boots	N/A
	Venator ring	Brimstone ring	N/A	N/A
	Zaryte crossbow	N/A	N/A	N/A

1. ^ Only when on a Maggot King Slayer task.
2. ^ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Can reduce melee switches

Recommended equipment for Melee

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Slayer helmet (i)[a] / Inquisitor's great helm	Torva full helm / Dharok's helm[b]	Neitiznot faceguard / Serpentine helm / Zombie helmet	Blood moon helm	Void melee helm
	Amulet of rancour / Amulet of blood fury	Amulet of torture	Amulet of fury	N/A	N/A
	Infernal cape	Fire cape / Mythical cape[c]	Mixed hide cape	N/A	N/A
	Inquisitor's hauberk	Torva platebody / Dharok's platebody[b]	Bandos chestplate / Blood moon chestplate / Fighter torso	Elite void top	N/A
	Inquisitor's plateskirt	Torva platelegs / Dharok's platelegs[b]	Bandos tassets / Blood moon tassets	Elite void robe	N/A
	Inquisitor's mace[d]	Scythe of vitur[e] > Soulreaper axe[f][g]	Abyssal bludgeon / Elder maul[h]	Zombie axe[g] / Sarachnis cudgel / Dharok's greataxe[b][g]	N/A
	Avernic defender	Dragon defender	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Rada's blessing 4	Rada's blessing 3	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Ferocious gloves	Barrows gloves	Void knight gloves	N/A	N/A
	Avernic treads (max)	Primordial boots	Aranea boots > Dragon boots	N/A	N/A
	Ultor ring	Berserker ring (i)	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Crimson kisten	Elder maul	Dragon warhammer	N/A	N/A

Melee punishes are not affected by a weapon's attack speed. Slow, higher hitting weapons are preferred, ideally alongside a faster weapon to create more opportunities to punish for extra damage. Weapons set to the crush style receive significant accuracy boost alongside the normal 50% increased damage. If not switching weapons specifically for the punish, it is often better to only use the punish weapon and to maximise the amount of punishes.

Recommended equipment for Melee (Punish)

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Dharok's greataxe[b][g]	Soulreaper axe[f][g] > Elder maul	Colossal blade[g]	Scythe of vitur[g] / Godsword[g]	Zombie axe[g] / Barrelchest anchor

1. ^ Only when on a Maggot King Slayer task.
2. ^ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} With full Dharok's set and staying under 50 hp
3. ^ Can have same max as firecape, and will provide more accuracy
4. ^ BIS only if using a 4-tick punish cycle, otherwise Scythe/SRA is better.
5. ^ Set to crush only with Inquisitor's or if using for the punish
6. ^ ^{6.0 6.1} Above 3 stacks
7. ^ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8} Set to crush
8. ^ Significantly worse if not using a 6t method

• Better NPC Highlight
  • For true tile highlighting the boss, add Maggot King to "True Tile" -> "True Tile Names".
  • For ur-maggot larvae, add Ur-maggot* to "Clickbox" -> "Clickbox Names".
• Custom Menu Swaps
  • To have ur-maggot larvae attack options appear on top of anything else, add Attack,Ur-maggot* to "Custom Swaps"
• Maggot King
  • Hides carrion and trees for visibility.
  • Can also be used to highlight the boss and larvae instead of Better NPC Highlight.