Cerberus/Strategies

A player takes on Cerberus in her lair.

Cerberus is a high level Slayer boss. A slayer level of 91 is required to inflict damage and a slayer task of Cerberus or hellhounds. Wild pies can be used to boost the player's Slayer level, but only if they have a minimum of 86 Slayer.

It is the only monster to drop primordial, eternal and pegasian crystals, which can be attached to the Dragon boots, Infinity boots and Ranger boots respectively, providing best-in-slot boots for Melee (the Primordial boots), Magic (the Eternal boots), and Ranged (Pegasian boots).

In addition, it is also able to drop a Smouldering stone, which when combined with a dragon axe, pickaxe or harpoon to turn them into their respective infernal counterparts; the infernal axe, pickaxe and harpoon.

How to get there

Cerberus' Lair can be found in Taverley Dungeon, at the hellhounds' area. There will be a small opening that players can crawl into to enter the lair.

Effective ways to get to Taverley Dungeon include teleporting to Falador and using the wall shortcut near the West bank, only a short run from the dungeon entrance, or moving one's Player-owned house to Taverley, exiting via the house portal and running south.

There are two ways of navigating the dungeon:

• Players can go around the long way to reach the hellhounds area. This will require a dusty key.
  • Alternatively, players can crawl through a pipe shortcut (70 Agility) or run through mysterious flooring (80 Agility). Regardless of the shortcut used, it negates the need of bringing a dusty key on every trip. Both obstacles can be boosted with a Summer pie, meaning that you only need 65/75 Agility to use the shortcuts with the assistance of the pie. Drinking an antipoison potion is useful in case the poison spiders nearby manage to poison.
• Use a Key master teleport, which teleports players straight into the lair. These can only be obtained from Cerberus herself (cannot be traded), in quantities of three and at a rate of 1/64.

General Strategy

While fighting Cerberus, it is recommended to activate Protect from Magic.

As a hellhound-type boss, Cerberus has high offensive stats (220) but has a low Defence level (100). She is weak to melee attacks, primarily crush-based ones. She is slightly resistant to stab attacks and resistant against slash, magic and ranged attacks.

Cerberus can use all three forms of combat against the player, all having a max hit of 23. Cerberus' magic attack is a transparent, almost smooth-looking ball; her ranged attack is also a transparent ball, but spiked. Cerberus' melee attack consists of a bite at the player.

Cerberus also has a unique attack mechanic, where she will attack the player with a magic attack, followed up quickly with a ranged and melee attack regardless of the player's distance from her. They are simply normal attacks, and can be easily blocked by quickly switching your overhead prayers to the corresponding attack. She will use this immediately during the start of the fight, and it has a 40-second cooldown, after which she will use it again.

In addition, a fire wall also blocks the way between Cerberus and the exit when the fight begins. This wall will persist until the player dies; if the player attempts to cross the fire wall when it is up, they will take 5 damage both ways. 

Upon spawning, Cerberus cannot be attacked; rather, she only has an examine option. Once a player is in the arena, she will become attackable after a very short period of time. If no players are present inside, she will return to the center of her chamber and her attack option will be removed, which will also restore all of her health if damaged.

Summoned souls

A player flicking the correct prayers against the Summoned Souls.

A summoned soul using magic

A summoned soul using melee

A summoned soul using ranged

If Cerberus is below 400 Hitpoints, she will occasionally howl Aaarrrooooooo, causing three Summoned souls to appear from behind the archaic skull.

Each one attacks using a different combat style:

• Blue is magic
• Red is melee
• Green is ranged

The order is random, but always goes from west to east. The souls cannot be attacked, and will only attack the player once in their respective combat style. Their attacks will always hit for 30 damage regardless of the player's armour bonuses if the player does not use the right protection prayer. You should have at least 65+ health whenever they appear as it is very easy to get comboed out by the spirits and Cerberus' attacks.

If the right protection prayer is used, 30 prayer points are drained instead. Since the spirits follow up very quickly, the player is most likely to run out of prayer points unless they have a Prayer level of 95+. Equipping a Spectral spirit shield when the spirits appear will reduce this prayer drain to 15 (50%) instead. You do not need to bring it, but it is helpful anyways as you're less likely to run out of prayer points if you pray through all three attacks.

To deal with the spirits, put your overhead prayers to whatever the first spirit in the west is using; switch to the next protection prayer while the first spirit is in its attack animation. If you switch just as the first spirit's animation is over, the second one will deal damage onto you. If the spirits deal too much damage to you, go under Cerberus to heal up and restore prayer.

Note: As of the patch notes of 16 March 2017, if Cerberus is killed when the spirits are summoned, they will despawn upon attempting to attack the player. Note that any spirits that attack just as she dies will still damage the player, so pray accordingly if this happens.

Area of Effect attack

If Cerberus is below 200 Hitpoints she occasionally growls Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr, throwing out three exploding markers onto the ground: One under the player and two nearby.

10-15 damage is dealt from the marker if the player is on top of it. Seven damage is dealt if the player is next to a marker. After a short period of time, the markers will explode (dealing more damage if you get hit by them), after which it is safe to go to those tiles again.

Cerberus can, and often does, use the AoE attack in conjunction with the Summoned Souls. Quickly move under Cerberus, identify the spirits quickly and pray accordingly, as inexperienced players may get killed by the spirits as they try to avoid the markers.

Suggested skills

• 85+ Attack

• 70+ Strength (85+ Recommended)

• 85+ Defence

• 75+ Ranged

• 70+ Prayer (Piety, 74+ Rigour)

Equipment

• Melee
• Ranged

Recommended equipment for Melee

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Slayer helmet (i)	Black mask (i)	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Amulet of torture	Amulet of fury	Amulet of glory	Amulet of strength	N/A
	Infernal cape	Fire cape	Ardougne cloak 4	Ardougne cloak 3	N/A
	Bandos chestplate	Barrows body	Fighter torso	Proselyte hauberk	N/A
	Bandos tassets	Barrows legs	Obsidian platelegs	Dragon platelegs	N/A
	Scythe of vitur	Abyssal bludgeon	Ghrazi rapier	Zamorakian hasta	N/A
	Avernic defender	Dragon defender	Spectral spirit shield	Dragonfire shield	N/A
	Any blessing	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Barrows gloves	Dragon gloves	Rune gloves	Combat bracelet	N/A
	Primordial boots	Dragon boots	Rune boots	Bandos boots	N/A
	Berserker ring (i)	Ring of suffering (i)	Ring of the gods (i)	Ring of wealth (i)	N/A
	Dragon claws	Dragon dagger	Saradomin godsword	Crystal halberd (i)	N/A

Inventory

• Special attack weapon (e.g. Saradomin godsword or Dragon claws)
• Spectral spirit shield and a one-handed weapon alongside it
• House tablets (or Construct. cape/Max cape) or Desert amulet 4
• 1-2 Super combat potions
• 6-9 Prayer potions or Super restores
• Sharks for remaining inventory space

Notes

With Rigour, ranging is generally faster kills than melee, unless using Scythe of vitur. However, due to the cost associated with the scythe, using the Twisted bow with amethyst arrows gives the most profit, although still requiring a large capital on gear.

Recommended equipment for Ranged

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Slayer helmet (i)	Black mask (i)	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Necklace of anguish	Amulet of fury	Amulet of glory	Amulet of power	N/A
	Ava's assembler	Ranging cape or  Max cape	Ava's accumulator	Ava's attractor	N/A
	Armadyl chestplate	Blessed body	Karil's leathertop	Black d'hide body	N/A
	Armadyl chainskirt	Blessed chaps	Karil's leatherskirt	Black d'hide chaps	N/A
	Twisted bow	Toxic blowpipe	Rune knife	N/A	N/A
	Dragon arrow	Amethyst arrow	Rune arrow	Any blessing (only with blowpipe)	N/A
	Barrows gloves	Dragon gloves	Rune gloves	Combat bracelet	N/A
	Pegasian boots	Ranger boots	Blessed boots	Snakeskin boots	N/A
	Archers ring (i)	Ring of suffering (i)	Ring of the gods (i)	N/A	N/A
	Toxic blowpipe	Saradomin godsword	N/A	N/A	N/A

Inventory

• Special attack weapon (e.g. Toxic blowpipe or Saradomin godsword)
• Spectral spirit shield and a one-handed weapon alongside it
• House tablet (or Construct. cape/Max cape) or Desert amulet 4
• 1 Bastion potion, or 1 Ranging potion and Super defence
• 6-9 Prayer potions or Super restores
• Sharks for remaining inventory spaces

Notes