OSRS Barrows Guide – How to Defeat the Barrows Brothers Easily
The Barrows Brothers were a band of six legendary warriors who conquered Morytania during the God Wars, but most players know them for their epic armor sets. In RuneScape, they are located in six burial mounds right next to the Sanguinesti region of Morytania, in which players may raid the tombs and fight ghostly versions of the brothers. In this OSRS Barrows Guide, you will learn how to efficiently farm this minigame.
Table of Contents
Complete Barrows Guide for OSRS
Barrows brothers hit very hard and often, with Karil and Dharok being the most volatile. This is why prayer is used during nearly most of the fights, especially if you are low defense. Since prayer is drained rapidly within the tomb, you will probably need a few sips of prayer potions to prepare yourself for the hardest fights.
While it is quite a long walk from any bank, there is now a direct teleport from the Arceuus spellbook that makes bank runs extremely quick. If you lack the magic level, you can still use teleport tabs at a slightly higher price, which won’t severely cut into your profit margins.
OSRS Barrows Gear Setups
Since all three attack styles will be used, you will need to take a combination of magic, range and/or melee. The four melee brothers are extremely weak to attack damage, making accuracy less of an issue when considering your gear setup. Most people prefer to take damage spells that hit regardless of magic gear, like Iban’s blast or Trident of the Seas, but any magic spell you can afford will work.
Your inventory should primarily contain your spade, runes or Rune Pouch, teleport tablets, and your weapon switches. The rest of the inventory should be reserved for prayer potions, super restores, high-healing food (like sharks), and possibly a few Saradomin Brews if needed.
These are proven to be efficient:
Beginner Setup
- Helm of Neitiznot
- Proselyte hauberk
- Proselyte Cuisse
- Any God Cape/Fire Cape/Ava’s Device
- Dragon Boots
- Amulet of Glory
- Godbook/Dragon Defender
- Iban’s Staff
- Dragon Scimitar and Rune Crossbow + Broad Bolts on switch
Efficient Setup
- Serpentine Helmet/Helm of Neitiznot
- Barrows Tank Top
- Barrows Tank Bottom
- Karil’s Armor or Blessed Dragonhide on switch
- Imbued God Cape/Infernal Cape/Ava’s Device
- Averic/Dragon Defender or Elysian Spirit Shield
- Amulet of Fury/Occult Necklace
- Primordial Boots
- Imbued Seers/Archer/Berserker Ring
- Trident of the seas
- Toxic Blowpipe and Abyssal Tentacle on switch
Ancient Magicks Setup
- Ancestral Hat/Ahrim’s Hood
- Ancestral Robe/Ahrim’s Robetop
- Ancestral Robe/Ahrim’s Robeskirt
- Any God Cape
- Eternal Boots
- Imbued Seers Ring
- God Book/Arcane Spirit Shield
- Occult Necklace
- Staff of Light/Kodai Wand/Ancient Staff
- Toxic Blowpipe and Abyssal Tentacle on switch
OSRS Barrows Run Guide
Dharok
Since your prayer will drain rather quickly, you should dig right into the Dharok mound since he’s the most volatile brother. Depending on your DPS, you should be able to kill him without using any prayer potion sips or food. Be wary though, because once his health is lower he starts to benefit from the bonus effects of his armor. This means his max hit will increase as his health depletes, so make sure you kill him fast.
Karil
Taking advantage of any remaining prayer points, skip down to Karil’s mound at the bottom. His DPS is rather high so use prayer or be mindful of your hitpoints as you fight him. Surprisingly, magic is the most effective to kill him quickly, but you may also range or melee him down.
Ahrim, Guthan, Torag, and Verac
Once killed, you may then choose between Ahrim, Guthan, Torag or Verac as the order isn’t essential at this point. Keeping mind Verac’s prayer-ignoring hits, it would be wise to do him last when you are out of prayer since your will tank his hits anyway. If you use ice spells from the Ancient Magicks spellbook, you can freeze the melee brothers and use very little prayer points.
Barrows Tunnels Guide
One of the above brothers will instead be replaced by a tunnel entrance, meaning you will have to fight them on the way to finding the chest. This is where having prayer potion sips available is essential as you may end up in a room without a safe spot.
As you go through the tunnels, you will have to take note which doors are clickable and will eventually lead you to the path with the chest. As you interact with each door, there is a chance for the final brother to spawn and attack you. There are a few places with rocks or invisible tiles where they can be safe-spotted/flinched.
Once you reach the final door to the chest, you will have to solve a relatively easy puzzle. Since enemies will keep hitting you, there is only a short window of opportunity to solve it. Once you frequent this minigame, you will probably have the puzzles memorized.
After getting your drop, teleport to your house to use the restoration pool and/or altar. Teleport to the bank of your choice to deposit your drops and replenish supplies prior to using Barrows Teleport for a new run.
Best Barrows Kill Count in OSRS
While you can just run straight to the chest with very few kills, the chance of getting a good drop is quite slim. At the very least, you will need to kill all six brothers to have a decent chance at receiving a barrows piece.
As for killing secondary creatures to pad your kill count, it has bee confirmed by Jagex moderators that there is an optimum kill count to go for and more is not better. Exceeding 20 kills is entirely unnecessary, although it’s good to kill a variety of creatures to influence your rune drops.
How much money can I make from Barrows?
It is hard to calculate that figure since profit mostly depends on receiving the barrows armor as a rare drop, and there is a great variance between prices. If you can do it with a maxed character with relatively high-concentration, making over 1 million gold per hour is not out of the question.
You probably should at least have the Mortaynia Hard Diary completed as it gives increased rune drops by 50%, which makes a considerable amount of your profit. The Morytania legs 3 also give unlimited teleports to Burgh de Rott, which allows for faster banking and a free alternative to using Barrows tabs.
Final Thoughts
Even though Barrows is considered old content, the drops are still valuable and amongst the best items in the game. With new updates to gear and teleports, doing barrows runs have only become easier, which is why some pieces have lowered in price. With this OSRS Barrows Guide, hopefully, you can start grinding for some quick cash or to completing your Barrows armor collection.
