Nightmare Zone/Strategies

By utilising damage boosting prayers, such as Piety, you will gain a substantial increase in points and experience per hour. However, this will constantly drain prayer, so it will add cost and require more attentive gameplay. This setup uses a mix of strength and prayer bonus and is fairly AFK. Players can gain up to around 90,000 melee experience and 400,000 Nightmare Zone points per hour. Prayer regeneration potions are an expensive way but space efficient way to increase AFK time and total prayer points for a rumble. While strength equipment can be brought, you will use prayer points faster along with needing to bank more often. If the player would like to maximise points spent towards rewards, using Overhead prayers with prayer potions will bypass the need to use absorption potions, allowing points earned from normal rumbles to instead be used on rewards rather than additional absorption potions. Using Combat potions, especially divine super combat potions, will bypass the need to drink Overloads, further increasing points saved.

• A special attack weapon for Power Surge to increase damage output or replenish Prayer points
• 4-6 overloads or super combat potions
• Prayer potions or super restores
• Holy wrench (optional, if the number of prayer restore doses in your inventory is greater than 4 x prayer points restored in one dose, it is worth having instead of another potion)

Select customisable hard rumble and choose at least five from the bosses below. Choose more than five to increase points per hour. They use melee only, are attackable with melee, and have no special mechanics that can kill you. It is ordered by defence, ascending:

The bosses below can only attack with melee, but they should not be selected.

Activate Protect from Melee and boost. When using divine super combat potions, maintain Hitpoints by activating Rapid Heal.

Damage boosting prayers such as Piety or Ultimate Strength can be used to increase experience and points per hour, but it increases prayer drain, requiring more attention and prayer potions.

Do not activate Ultimate Force. Activate Zapper and Recurrent Damage to increase points per hour, this may slightly affect experience gained. Activate Power Surge, use your special attack weapon, it lasts 45 seconds.

Using normal customisable rumble with absorptions allows for 20 minutes of AFK melee training. After 20 minutes, the player will stop attacking and must manually start attacking again to reset the timer. Players can gain up to 100,000–105,000 experience per hour, and sustain for 3–6 hours per session depending on equipment and stats. This does net more points (250k/hr+) and is a good mix of points and experience, especially for Ironmen looking to imbue items, as you do not need prayer potions to prevent damage. Prayer potions for boost prayer are optional for extra points and experience per hour, but will drain faster than with prayer gear.

• Torva armour, Oathplate armour, and Bandos armour all provide excellent defence with offensive bonuses, making them ideal for reducing absorption potions needed. With higher end equipment, simply use the best available strength and defence equipment with your strongest mainhand weapon that can train your preferred style. Bring a special attack weapon for power surge.
• Dharok the Wretched's equipment becomes one of the best with a Hitpoints level of ~85 or higher. However, the Dharok's setup requires more user input and attentiveness to keep hitpoints low. It is one of the highest performing sets for its pricepoint. Dharok's set and axe cost 4,035,684
• Full Blood moon equipment with the dual macuahuitl is competitive damage output and easier to acquire for ironmen, while also not requiring high hitpoints to be effective. The Blood moon set and macuahuitl cost 17,818,144.
• Toktz-xil-ak along with full obsidian armour and berserker necklace offers the next best experience per hour and is a more affordable option, however it has much worse sustainability due to low defensive stats. The Obsidian set with weapon and necklace cost 5,905,390.
• Any of these sets can be replaced with your best strength equipment for varying lower results.

• 4-6 Boosting potions, like overloads, super combat potions, or super strength potions and super attack potions.
• Locator orb or dwarven rock cake
• Absorptions
• Prayer potions if using boosting prayers.

Select customisable normal rumble choosing bosses that attack with melee, are attackable with melee, and have no special mechanics. Count Draynor, Sand Snake, King Roald, The Kendal, and Me are the usual selection because they have lower defence but not extremely low Hitpoints. Replace The Kendal and Me with Headless Beast and Trapped soul if using Salve Amulet. Note that enemies that occupy multiple tiles, like the Kendal and Sand Snake, may block each other and prevent the player from auto-retaliating. While the Khazard Warlord deals more damage, he has very high Hitpoints for his level, which makes him a good option for better experience rates. Select more than five bosses to earn more points.

Undead (choose if using Salve Amulet (e):

Using a customisable normal rumble with absorptions maximises AFK time and allows for 20 minutes of AFK ranged training. After 20 minutes the player will stop attacking and must interact with the client to start attacking again. Players can gain up to 145,000–150,000 experience per hour using a Venator bow combined with its passive effect, 90,000–95,000 experience with a toxic blowpipe, 70,000 experience with a magic shortbow (i), or 60,000–65,000 experience with a crossbow and broad bolts. It is possible to sustain 3–5 hours per session depending on equipment and stats. While this method does earn slightly more Nightmare Zone points than spent on absorptions, players looking to gain points are advised to use other setups. When using the Venator bow it is recommended to only use 2x2 or smaller sized foes to gain maximum efficiency with the bow's passive effect. It is possible to use this setup on customisable hard mode, but only recommended if not being as AFK. Bosses hit a lot harder in the hard mode, so it is much more important to flick Rapid Heal and use a locator orb or dwarven rock cake.

Recommended weapons are listed below, from best to worst.

• Venator bow with dragon, amethyst, or rune arrows
• Toxic blowpipe with amethyst darts
• Amethyst or adamant darts with the twisted buckler
• Bow of faerdhinen
• Mithril darts with the twisted buckler
• Magic shortbow (i) with amethyst or rune arrows
• Rune crossbow with runite or broad bolts

If using a one-handed weapon, such as darts, it is strongly recommended to use the twisted buckler for its high Ranged strength bonus.

Void Knight equipment is generally the best option for most players, as it is more accessible than the Masori armour and it offers better damage output than Armadyl or dragonhide armour. If using the toxic blowpipe or darts, the Masori armour offers slightly higher damage output than Void Knight equipment. The crystal armour can be used with the Bow of faerdhinen for slightly higher damage output, though this will use a lot of charges.

• 4–5 super ranging potions
• Locator orb or dwarven rock cake (optional but recommended)
• Absorptions

Select customisable normal rumble choosing bosses which are attackable with ranged and have no special mechanics. Count Draynor, Sand Snake, King Roald, The Kendal, and Me are the usual selection because they have lower defence but not extremely low Hitpoints. Viable bosses are listed below, select five with the lowest defence for more experience per hour or as many as you can for more points per hour.

Run to the middle. Drink absorptions until 951-1000 absorption points. Feel the locator orb or guzzle the dwarven rock cake to lower down to 1 Hitpoints (optional but recommended), and sip a super ranging potion. Repeat after 15–20 minutes or as necessary.

Bursting is not recommended here as there are far better ways to do so, this setup utilises standard spells. In general it is not recommended to train Magic at Nightmare Zone, however it is still possible. This equipment prioritises Magic damage boost, followed by magic accuracy and melee defensive bonuses.

• 4-5 super magic or battlemage potions
• Runes for highest fire-based standard spell or highest offensive spell (Runepouch optional)
• Locator orb or dwarven rock cake (optional but highly recommended)
• Absorptions

Select customisable normal rumble choosing bosses that are attackable with magic and have no special mechanics. *Count Draynor *Sand Snake *King Roald *The Kendal *Me *are the usual selection because they have lower defence but not extremely low Hitpoints. Viable bosses are listed below:

Run to the middle. Drink absorptions until 951-1000 absorption points, and optionally feel locator orb or guzzle a dwarven rock cake to 1 Hitpoints, and sip a Super magic potion or battlemage potion. Repeat after 15–20 minutes or as necessary.

Using a locator orb or a dwarven rock cake is optional but allows for longer sessions, minimizing the amount of absorption points used to tank damage (especially using void knight equipment).

Using Dharok the Wretched's equipment is optimal with 92+ Hitpoints, without that the best is a toktz-xil-ak, obsidian armour, and a Berserker necklace. Otherwise use the best available strength bonus gear or Void Knight equipment.

• 4 overloads
• 20 absorption potions
• Special attack weapon for Power Surge
• Dwarven rock cake or Locator orb
• Ice gloves for Fareed and Flambeed
• 1 Prayer potion for emergency

During the 25 second countdown before bosses start spawning, boost with an overload, consume 1000 points of absorption points, and feel the Locator orb or guzzle the dwarven rock cake down to 1 Hitpoints. Quickly flick Rapid Heal on and then off to reset the Hitpoints regeneration timer and do so every 50-60 seconds to maintain 1 Hitpoints. If your Hitpoints ever regen to 2, use the Locator orb or rock cake again to get back to 1 Hitpoint.

When your overload is about to run out, make sure you have 200+ points of Absorption remaining, and as soon as it runs out use another dose. Try to avoid being attacked as much as possible while the overload reduces you from 51 to 1 Hitpoints, to prevent wastage of Absorption points. Follow the boss kill priority list provided to maximise points gained.

Do not use Ultimate Force power-up unless there are too many bosses that cannot be killed easily. Always use the Power Surge power-up and use the special attack weapon constantly. Use Recurrent Damage and Zapper whenever for higher points per hour.

A prayer potion should be used after suffering prayer-draining attacks from Karamel to ensure you can still flick Rapid Heal or activate Protect from Melee when your overload expires. Protect from Magic can be used against Karamel to minimise her stat drains.

Select customizable hard rumble. Make sure the following bosses are disabled:

• Corrupt Lizardman
• Elvarg
• Glod
• Chronozon
• Barrelchest

Additionally, make sure not to enable Dream Mentor while Desert Treasure I is disabled, as in that situation there is a mechanic that decreases your points by a factor of 6.

This is the kill priority of enabled bosses based on time-to-kill per points awarded using the best in slot items above.

Using the best Ranged equipment is optimal, but some bosses have very high Ranged defence, so it is recommended to bring a Magic switch. Elite Void Knight equipment or Void Knight equipment is not recommended, however they can be used if lacking Ranged equipment, especially for ironmen. 61 Magic is the minimum requirement to be able to cast Fire Wave with an overload potion.

• 4 overloads
• 20 absorption potions
• Special attack weapon for Power Surge
• Dwarven rock cake or Locator orb
• Ice gloves for Fareed and Flambeed
• 1 Prayer potion for emergency
• Optional: Magic switch for auto-casting spells

Boost with an overload, consume 1000 points of absorption points, and feel the Locator orb or guzzle the dwarven rock cake down to 1 Hitpoints. Quickly turn on and off Rapid Heal to reset Hitpoints regeneration and do so every 50-60 seconds to maintain 1 Hitpoints.

Follow the boss kill priority list provided to maximise points gained.

Target the following bosses with Magic if you brought a switch:

• Black Knight Titan
• Ice Troll King
• Chronozon - Attack with all four blast spells

Do not use Ultimate Force power-up unless there are too many bosses to deal with. Always use the Power Surge power-up and use the special attack weapon constantly. Use Recurrent Damage and Zapper whenever possible.

A Prayer potion should be used after suffering prayer-draining attacks from Karamel to ensure you can still flick rapid heal or activate protect from melee when your overload expires. Protect from Magic can be used against Karamel to minimise her stat drains.

Make sure the following bosses are disabled:

• Barrelchest
• Black Knight Titan
• Chronozon - Can be enabled if bringing a Magic switch
• Corrupt Lizardman
• Elvarg
• Glod
• Tanglefoot
• Ice Troll King - Can be enabled if bringing a Magic switch

Additionally, make sure not to enable Dream Mentor while Desert Treasure I is disabled, as in that situation there is a mechanic that decreases your points by a factor of 6.

This is the kill priority of enabled bosses based on time-to-kill per points awarded using the best in slot items above. Note that some larger bosses may not bounce the Venator bow's passive effect.

This method utilises disabling Dream Mentor and Desert Treasure I bosses due to a mechanic, where if Dream Mentor is enabled but Desert Treasure I is not, point rewards are reduced to one sixth of their original value. ^[1] To maximise AFK, disabling Desert Treasure I and Recipe for Disaster bosses is preferable due to the bosses either being click-intensive or requiring attention, and disable Dream Mentor to avoid the point penalty.

The gear recommended for this method in order of best to worst is on other parts of the strategy page: Dharok, Obsidian, highest strength gear, or mixed Strength bonus and Prayer gear.

Boost with an overload, consume 1000 points of absorption points, and feel the Locator orb or guzzle the dwarven rock cake down to 1 Hitpoints. Quickly turn Rapid Heal on and off to reset Hitpoints regeneration and do so every 50-60 seconds to maintain 1 Hitpoints. Make sure Auto Retaliate is on.

Follow the boss kill priority list provided to maximise points gained.

Never use Ultimate Force power-up. Always use the Power Surge power-up and use the special attack weapon constantly. Use Recurrent Damage and Zapper whenever for higher points per hour.

Make sure the following bosses are disabled:

• Recipe for Disaster and Desert Treasure I bosses (due to non-AFK mechanics)
  • Dream Mentor bosses (due to point penalty if Desert Treasure I is off)
• Corrupt Lizardman (deals poison through absorption potions)
• Elvarg (drains stats and prayer points)
• Chronozon (requires casting 4 different magic spells)
• Dagannoth mother (requires actively switching attack style)
• Barrelchest (drains prayer, attack, and defence)
• Glod (drains prayer)
• Witch's experiment (4-phase boss with low point reward)
• Nazastarool (3-phase boss)
• Slagilith (66% reduced damage for non-pickaxes)
• Tanglefoot (Requires secateurs to damage)

Optional disables that will make it more AFK, but less points per hour:

• Giant Roc (due to stun and knockback)
• Dad (due to stun and knockback)
• Essyllt (due to stat drain and a short stun)
• Treus Dayth (moves around after damage)
• Agrith-Naar (Teleports player into melee range)

This is the kill priority of enabled bosses based on time-to-kill per points awarded using the best in slot items.