After the completion of Desert Treasure II - The Fallen Empire, players can fight a stronger variant of Vardorvis. An even stronger awakened variant can be fought by climbing the rocks with an awakener's orb in the player's inventory and selecting "Yes" when prompted.
If the player dies while fighting Vardorvis, their grave will appear by the rocks leading to the Stranglewood Ritual Site. Players will have their reclamation fee reduced by 75% until they have five kills, after which the standard death cost will apply.
Contents
- 1 Getting there
- 2 Fight overview
- 2.1 Special attacks
- 3 Awakened mode
- 4 Equipment
- 5 Inventory
- 6 References
Getting there[edit | edit source]
The quickest methods of reaching the Stranglewood Ritual Site, where Vardorvis resides, are:
- Using the ring of shadows to teleport to the Stranglewood Temple entrance. This requires having used the strangled tablet on it, which is a 1/25 drop from Vardorvis.
- Using fairy ring code BLS and run west to the rowboat. From there, run all the way west to the entryway leading to the Ritual Site.
- Using Xeric's talisman to teleport to Xeric's Honour, running east to the Mountain Guide and travelling to the base of Mount Quidamortem, then running west to the rowboat.
Fight overview[edit | edit source]
Vardorvis uses a standard melee attack; Protect from Melee will reduce roughly 75% of the damage, while he will heal for 50% of the damage dealt from his auto-attacks. Alongside this, he also has several special attacks that are often used simultaneously as the fight progresses; because his attacks are usually more coordinated than other members of the Forgotten Four, he is the most likely of the four to combo players out.
In addition, Vardorvis' Strength and Defence levels scales linearly with his remaining hitpoints; as his health falls, his Defence level will lower, making him easier to hit, but his Strength level will increase, thus increasing his max hit (although still mostly negligible with prayers). This is roughly 1 Defence level lost and 1 Strength level gained for every 10 hitpoints lost. Defence-reducing weapons should not be used as they are significantly less effective due to Vardorvis' unique Defence mechanic.[1]
Upon reaching 33% of his health (~231 health), Vardorvis will enter an enrage phase. During enrage, Vardorvis' axes will spawn at a more frequent rate, with a new set of axes being thrown once the previous set is cleared, rather than the small delay before appearing as before. This will also cause his head to appear much more frequently, emphasizing the need to avoid the axes while quickly reacting to his head attacks.
Special attacks[edit | edit source]
Vardorvis uses the following special attacks at random. As the fight progresses, he will begin to use multiple simultaneously.
- Swinging Axes: The Strangler's tendrils will swing one or two axes within the arena (three once he reaches 50% health). Getting hit with this attack will deal up to 35 damage (reduced by ~50% with Protect from Melee) and additionally incurs a bleeding effect over the course of 14 ticks (8.4 seconds), which deals 15+ damage (3 bleed damage every 3 ticks, or every tick if the player moves while bleeding).
- The arena is divided into nine 3x3 quadrants, and the axes will follow either a straight or diagonal path, depending on where they spawn.
- To dodge the axes, players must run two tiles diagonally away from where the axe is headed. The player should mark at least three tiles as seen in the video demonstration below, as these will be the ones that will be mainly used for the entire fight.
- During the fight, the axes may swing in a combination that requires the player to perform the Axe Skip manoeuvre, which involves tick-precise movement to "skip" over the Swinging Axes. This manoeuvre must be performed if the axes are being swung from three quadrants horizontal to the player; the required movement depends on where they are swung from:
If the axes are being swung from the quadrants adjacent to the player, they must click on another marked tile one tick after the axe appears, then click back on the original tile one tick after.
See AlsoGreater demon/StrategiesIf the axes are being swung from the quadrants opposite to the player, they must click on another marked tile on the fourth tick after the axe is swung, then click back on the original tile one tick after.
- Darting Spikes: Vardorvis will dart around the player, causing cracks in the ground which will release tendrils after a few seconds, dealing up to 25 damage and healing him for half the damage dealt. One crack will always appear underneath the player.
- Standing by the edges of the arena will prevent Vardorvis from moving at all (that the player would be dragged out) and prevents said crack from appearing underneath the player.
- Head Gaze: Once below 80% health, the Strangler's tendrils will begin to use Vardorvis' Head to launch a single green projectile, indicated by the game message Vardorvis' head gazes upon you... which must be mitigated by using Protect from Missiles upon impact.
- While this attack deals no damage, failing to protect against it will disable the player's protection prayers for three ticks, as well as drain 10 prayer points. The head will always attack off-sync with the body, allowing players to quickly react to block both attacks. If the head's attack is not blocked, the body will be given a chance to deal high damage.
- Strangle: Once below 80% health, Vardorvis will begin using this attack in which he strikes his arm into the ground and entangle the player in tendrils. Several spores will appear at the centre of the game screen, and the player must destroy them all within five seconds, otherwise the tendrils will tighten and deal high damage.
- Players can right-click Vardorvis as he begins the attack, and click "Attack" once the spores appear. This allows players to get a single hit in while destroying the spores.
Awakened mode[edit | edit source]
In Awakened mode, Vardorvis has the following changes:
- The boss' health increases from 700 to 1,400.
- The boss now absorbs stat drains.
- An extra Swinging Axe is added to the fight, so three axes are swung until 50% of his health, after which four axes are swung instead.
- Swinging Axes inflict damage upon spawning. Axes that spawn in the middle locations have a hitbox extending one tile in front of them.
- Swinging Axes spawn on par with normal mode enrage for the entire fight.
- Bleed damage is increased from 3 to 5.
- The spores from his Strangle attack have less time to be destroyed before the tendrils tighten.
- Vardorvis' Head can now also use a magic attack (resembling a blue crescent wave) to disable protection prayers, starting at ~50% health.
- If the player stands next to the tendrils surrounding the arena for more than 4 ticks, they will hit for over 30 typeless damage.
Due to the increased frequency and number of the axes, players are highly recommended to learn axe dodging as this will mitigate a lot of damage during the fight, as some four axe formations will be very difficult to dodge. Unlike normal mode, the player will need to stand away from the edges due to anti-edge arena mechanics and axes damaging upon appearing rather than being launched. Using the corners of the arena is still recommended, as the axes that spawn in the middle edges have a larger hitbox making it impossible to avoid. Dodging the axes takes highest priority over auto-attacking, as an unprotected axe hit will deal up to 96 damage, often resulting in instant death due to Vardorvis' strong auto-attacks and the rapid bleed incurred when moving.
Vardorvis' head will begin launching magic attacks upon reaching 50% health, and these head attacks will begin to be launched in pairs at this point, making it important to block the attacks. The head attacks are still off-sync with the body's attacks.
The infection attack trick is helpful to deal extra damage to the boss.
During the enrage phase, the heads will spawn at a significantly increased rate, generally appearing twice (four times in total) within one axe cycle. If there is a lull in the heads, it means that the infection event is coming, which can provide a brief lull for players.
Equipment[edit | edit source]
Vardorvis is weak to melee attacks from slash weapons. Weapons with a high slash bonus such as soulreaper axe, scythe of vitur, blade of saeldor, and the abyssal tentacle or whip are suitable weapons.
- ^ Only while on a Slayer task.
- ^ Inquisitor's mace slightly surpasses Abyssal tentacle when wearing full Inquisitor's
- ^ Stat-boosting rings are recommended at higher damage output thresholds. With damage output of Blade of saeldor or below, use a Ring of suffering (ri) to reflect chip damage.
- ^ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Due to Vardorvis having higher defence at the start, use when Vardorvis has low health.
- ^ Since Voidwaker ignores defence, it's best used at the start of kills when Vardorvis's defence is maximized. Voidwaker's special attack will always hit a 0 when used to initiate the fight, so wait until the second hit to use it.
Inventory[edit | edit source]
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 16000 |  16000 |  16000 |  16000 |
- Special attack weapon (e.g. Dragon claws or Crystal halberd)
- 1 Divine super combat potion
- 2 Super restores or Prayer potions
- Anglerfish for pre-eating.
- Cooked moonlight antelope or other 3 tick food for eating after the virus attack. (Can eat before attacking after the special attack).
- Cooked karambwans — a 2 tick food for eating during the fight when necessary.
- Book of the dead for casting resurrection spells on the Arceuus spellbook.
- (Divine) Rune pouch and runes for Thrall spells and Death Charge. It does not matter which style of thrall is used.
- Ring of shadows for quick teleportation to the Stranglewood temple if the Strangled tablet has been obtained.
- House tablets (or Construct. cape/Max cape) or Desert amulet 4
References[edit | edit source]
- ^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 31 July 2023. Mod Ash: "[Can you tell us if the BGS/DWH effects Vardorvis??] Yes, though the stat won't go all the way down to zero through repeated uses."
