Ironman Guide/PvMRush (2024)

Please note that this guide has not been updated to include the Tombs of Amascut. This page provides a guide for Ironmen interested in "rushing" PvM by engaging in late game bossing relatively early in their account progression. This allows players to jump into the action more quickly and gain access to the loot tables of late game bosses while minimizing less efficient mid game strategies. The downside is that bosses will be engaged with less powerful gear compared to the equipment offered by the normal Slayer route. Also, this particular route may be more difficult to follow for players with limited PvM experience.

The primary way this is accomplished is by leveraging Theatre of Blood and The Gauntlet in order to avoid the very significant Slayer grind that mid-game ironmen face before starting many late game PvM activities. While doing this long slayer grind is an efficient way to progress an account, some players may wish to jump into the action of PvM sooner.

It is important to keep in mind that this is just one option to rush PvM. The whole point of rushing is to pick specific grinds aligned to a player's individual goals. For example, one could go from Theatre of Blood straight to Chambers of Xeric while skipping Song of the Elves entirely. This would leave the player with a rune crossbow to engage raids with instead of something like a Bow of Faerdhinen. Alternatively one could complete Song of the Elves and then The Gauntlet before taking on Theatre of Blood to utilise the Blade of Saeldor. Or, one could go to Chambers of Xeric first in order to unlock Rigour before doing The Gauntlet. Finally, keep in mind that while the Slayer grind is long, there are good reasons for why it is considered the "meta." Slayer is the most efficient way to train combat stats in the mid-game and provides a large amount of loot and unlocks.

Early Theatre of Blood[edit | edit source]

Because this route includes doing The Gauntlet relatively early, completion of the Song of the Elves quest is the main goal. However, doing this is no easy task as Song of the Elves has very steep requirements. Given that this is a PvM rush guide it will be outlining a potential way to acquire some of these from the Theatre of Blood. If you can't or don't want to do Theatre of Blood with a budget setup, it is perfectly fine to utilise more traditional methods to complete Song of the Elves.

The reason we will be rushing Theatre of Blood is primarily for the normal herb, seed, ore, and alchable drops provided each raid, while also providing the opportunity to obtain the unique items very early in the account. Once these skilling resources have been gathered (most importantly 70 Herblore) the player should move on from the Theatre regardless of what unique items have been obtained. Additionally the Theatre of Blood will provide a surplus of Saradomin brews that will be useful for quest bosses, such as Song of the Elves, Monkey Madness II, and Dragon Slayer II. Duplicate unique items can be alched for a very good boost of cash, though players may prefer to drop them to an alternate account or simply keep them.

This guide will not outline how to get each item in the gear setup, but obtaining them will put you solidly in the mid game and ready to take the next step. This guide assumes you are already comfortable at Theatre of Blood. If you are new, then just skip this section or learn in entry mode. The most difficult part of this path is finding a team, as players generally avoid someone with such minimal gear. Being an experienced raider and the extra dps from thralls helps tremendously, but it can still be a struggle.

Example gear and recommended stats:

• 90 (80 minimum)
• 95 (85 minimum)
• 70
• 70 (Piety unlocked)
• 76

General notes[edit | edit source]

This setup aims to contribute as much as reasonably possible to the raid without any significant slayer requirements. At a minimum, have protection prayers and enough HP to tank the green ball. Alternatively if you don't want to be carried as hard then getting an abyssal whip, dragon boots, crystal halberd, and an amulet of fury (or even an amulet of torture) will vastly reduce the amount of burden you put on everyone else. This will make finding teams much easier, and allow for smoother completions. Keep in mind even with the upgraded gear, low stats still dramatically impacts your dps. A player in the dragon scimitar setup but the recommended stats (90 Attack/95 Strength) does the same dps as a player with a whip, fury, and dragon boots but the minimum stats (80 Attack/85 Strength).

All that said, if you use this setup then you should easily be able to get completions in 4 mans even without scythes on the team, assuming all raiders are experienced and everyone else has normal gear. Your team should not be too aggressive with the number of switches though, you are not going for speed runs here. You will be using melee for the entire raid as even with ruby bolts (e), melee does more damage per second than range at all bosses. This is because you have super attack, super strength and Piety vs no ranging potion and Eagle Eye. Also, the recommended stats are very high for this stage of account progression. This assumes you are ok with spending a significant amount of time doing AFK training activities like sand Crabs or Nightmare Zone (NMZ recommended over crabs) to rush higher stats. If you don't want to AFK train your stats a lot, then just go for the normal Slayer until whip option. Keep in mind that as soon as you finish Song of the Elves, you will be jumping into Gauntlet where your stats also matter.

Maiden[edit | edit source]

At The Maiden of Sugadinti you will always be DPS as you have no mage switch. Use your dragon dagger to spec down the crabs as they spawn, especially if you are not freezing all crabs.

Bloat[edit | edit source]

Complete Pestilent Bloat normally.

The Nylocas[edit | edit source]

You will always be melee role. You can optionally bring in a small range switch for the Nylocas Vasilias and rooms (magic shortbow (i) + rune arrows is good), but if possible it is better to just bring more food. The more food you bring in the longer you can survive if things get scuffed and it allows you to bring more brews out when things go well. The Nylo boss is where you place the most significant burden on your team, but an experienced group should do just fine regardless.

Sotetseg[edit | edit source]

Complete Sotetseg normally. Note that your lack of a defence spec weapon is most notable in this room, but in a 4 man the other players can cover enough.

You could opt to bring in Arclight but it is not required. If you do bring Arclight, spec after the dragon warhammers have been used.

Xarpus[edit | edit source]

Complete Xarpus normally. You will need to know how to melee him though.

Verzik[edit | edit source]

Complete Verzik Vitur normally, it is exactly the same as using a whip.

The only notable difference is that you have to use your dragon dagger to kill the Nylocas Athanatos. You do not need (p++), a normal (p) works fine.

The Corrupted Gauntlet[edit | edit source]

Once you have completed Song of the Elves (Saradomin brews from Theatre of Blood should make the Fragment of Seren fight pretty easy), it is time to settle in for the Gauntlet grind.

The Corrupted Gauntlet is the foundation for this whole route. It provides access to 2 late game tier weapons, the Bow of Faerdhinen and the Blade of Saeldor, plus a ton of normal drops that will set you up with a large stack of cash. All of this from an activity that does not require any high level gear to complete. However The Corrupted Gauntlet is a very challenging piece of content, even more so if you have lower stats. You do not need the prayers Rigour or Augury to get good completions however. This is not a Gauntlet guide, so refer to other resources, such as The Corrupted Gauntlet page itself.

You will do gauntlet until you receive an enhanced crystal weapon seed and 6 crystal armour seeds. It takes around 60—100 hours to get a weapon seed (1/400) so buckle up. Remember if you get burnt out or go dry, you can always do other activities.

Once you get the weapon, you open up a new world of possibilities. You can continue following this guide, or just branch out to your own direction.

Vorkath[edit | edit source]

If you have not already, complete Dragon Slayer II and kill Vorkath with your Bow of Faerdhinen to obtain the Ava's assembler. It is not really worth doing more kills here as you already have plenty of cash from The Gauntlet.

Zulrah[edit | edit source]

At this point you can now do range only Zulrah. This is very straightforward, you attack it with the Bow of Faerdhinen and full crystal armour. Small note, you can use Shayzien boots (5) as a ranged boot slot item.

You will have to use Cure Me until you get a serpentine helm, then it is up to you on which to use. You can choose to do demonic gorillas first for a ring of suffering (i) and/or necklace of anguish. If you have a whip/rapier/scythe, then it is probably worthwhile.

Kill Zulrah until you get a toxic blowpipe. Use your runite ore from Theatre of Blood to make darts (buy gold ore for smithing experience, you are rich now). Alternatively get 92 Mining for Amethyst, but that takes a lot longer.

You can also just skip Zulrah entirely if you want, while the blowpipe is a great item the Bow of Faerdhinen gets the job done on its own. It gets a bit awkward though if you don't have a good melee weapon yet.

Demonic gorillas[edit | edit source]

It is a good time to knock out an amulet of torture and necklace of anguish.

The tormented bracelet and ring of suffering (i) are more optional at this time, but would not be a bad idea to get done.

Dragon warhammer[edit | edit source]

At this point you probably want to get a dragon warhammer or a Bandos godsword.

This guide recommends you get a warhammer, but it is also viable to do range Bandos for the godsword. The main reason Bandos is not preferred at this point is that you do not yet have the herblore level to create your own Saradomin brews. Additionally, if you are not already 99 Ranged then lizardman shamans will likely finish that out in a pretty efficient way. Alternatively, you could just skip the dragon Warhammer all together if you would like.

Theatre of Blood (again)[edit | edit source]

At this point you can go back to Theatre of Blood. You are here for a Sanguinesti staff and a Ghrazi rapier. Scythe of Vitur works too but costs a lot to use. If you have a whip then you could use that in place of the rapier/scythe.

Your setup will look much more like a standard raider now with a Blade of Saeldor/whip and the blowpipe, but no magic switch until you receive a Sanguinesti staff (or just use Ice Barrage on Nylo boss). It is a good idea to get Elite Void Knight equipment and crystal halberd at this time, but not technically required.

You should be doing trios (or hard mode) to increase you chance at the items you want.

Free to move about the cabin[edit | edit source]

After this, you now have top tier weapons in each attack style (Bow of Faerdhinen/toxic blowpipe, Ghrazi rapier, and Sanguinesti staff).

The next step would be to prepare for your preferred Chambers of Xeric method (teams, solos, scales, etc.).

Overall the direction from this point is up to you, you could even train Slayer if you want.