OSRS King Black Dragon
Table of Contents
- Level Prerequisites
- Items Required
- Details
- Item Drops
- Boss Walkthrough
Level Prerequisites
- 80+ Melee Stats
- 90+ Ranged
- 37 Prayer
Items Required
- Dragonhunter Crossbow (or Rune at the minimum)
- Enchated Ruby Bolts
- Enchated Diamond Bolts
- A God Book or Dragonfire Shield
- Ava’s Accumulator
- Dragonhide set or Blessed Dragonhide
- Snakeskin Boots
- Rune Gloves or Black Vambraces
- Extended Super Antifire
- Antidote ++ or Super Anti-poison
- Ranging Potion or Bastion Potion
- Saradomin Brews (optional)
- Shark or better
- Super or regular restoration potion
Item Drops
- Dragon Bones
- 2 Black Dragon Hides
- Draconic Visage
- Prince Black Dragon pet
- Elite Clue Scroll
- Dragon Helm
- Dragon Pickaxe
- Rune Longsword
- Adamant Platebody
- Addy Kiteshield
- Rune Longsword
- Rune Bolts
- Air Runes
- Iron Arrows
- Law Rune
- Blood Rune
- Fire Rune
- Noted Yew Logs
- Noted Gold Ore
- Adamant Bar
- Runeite Bar
- Dragon Ammo Tips (arrows, darts, javelins)
- Runeite Limbs
- Sharks
- Amulet of Power
- KBD Heads
Details
- While it is required to venture into the Wilderness to find the KBD, his lair is not considered to be in the Wilderness and players cannot attack each other.
- This boss was introduced in Runescape Classic and has gone through multiple changes since then. While the drop table had retained some of the original drops, it had been re-worked to meet modern standards.
- Since the boss is in a multi-combat zone, you can kill it along with other team members. Other players may also crash your kills, so be aware of that.
- The king black dragon is very resistant to magic, unlike other dragons, and you probably would want to skip this method of killing him.
- The most common way of dying would be on the way to the KBD since you need to run through one of the hottest Pking zones in the game. It would be advisable not to bring valuable items.
- The KBD does not count as a Black Dragon task for Wilderness Slayer, so you won’t get experience in that regard.
- Before the introduction of Mithril Dragons, the KBD was the most powerful dragon in the game.
- He has the chance of dropping KBD heads, which can then be mounted in your POH in the rophy room. They can also be sacrificed at the Dark Altar for 2,500 prayer experience.
- The KBD respawns after 9 seconds, so you might as well stay on the same world to camp him.
Boss Walkthrough
The King Black Dragon is one of the lesser bosses in the game, but it still shouldn’t be taken lightly due to his strong hits and varied attacks. There is a reason why he used to be killed in large teams, you know.
If you have a super anti-poison potion ready, you might as well take a sip now since you will likely get poisoned by the spiders outside or during the early portion of the fight. This can help save a bit of food since you won’t tick down any damage from poison.
His base melee attack does a stab/slash combo and can hit a maximum of 26. While he can vary with other attacks, this will be his base attack if you are within melee range. It’s still recommended to pray against magic to mitigate is fire breath. Some players may bring a god book and depend on anti-fire potions, but this isn’t the best route to go as making a mistake may end up with up to 65 damage, on top of his other attacks.
If using melee, you should bring out your best stab weapon as that’s his primary weakness, just like other dragons. Preferably, you should take out a Dragonhunter Lance as it has additional damage and accuracy against dragons. An abyssal dagger or Zammy hasta would still be sufficient, with the former providing some needed defense bonus.
As a ranger, only one-handed options should be considered as you will want to have a shield on for the duration of the fight. This means crossbows are preferred, especially in combination with enchanted bolts. The Dragonhunter crossbow has the same bonus against him as the Dragonhunter lance, but at least Rune would be required.
While ranging him, you should start with Ruby Bolts as you can hit up to 48. Once he is passed around half health, switch to Diamon Bolts (e) since the effect of ruby bolts won’t be that strong. Another budget option would be to use Broad Bolts, although it would be rather slow in comparison since there is no special effect in place.
Unlike other dragons, his fire breath comes in multiple forms with their special (and annoying) properties. His regular dragon fire has the same animation as other dragons and hits relatively the same. His freezing Dragonfire is similar to Wyvern’s and snares a player in place, plus it can hit some damage through your anti-dragon shield and potion. The electrical Dragonfire hits through your protection and has a chance to slightly reduce your stats. The poison Dragonfire poisons the player if they are not wearing a Serpentine helmet, and the damage ticks down from 8.
It is recommended for most players to fight within melee distance, even if using ranged attacks so that he will attack with mostly melee rather than his special Dragonfire attacks. There is no safe spot within the lair, so you might as well tank the damage. You may change up classes if you come in a group, in which you may have melee players tank the dragon and rangers at a distance.
You will always need to sustain your hitpoints above 50 as his damage can combo pretty quickly if you are tanking all of the damage. Bringing a saradomin brew to combo eat with your sharks is probably a good idea in case of lag or emergencies.
Keep in mind that once you need to bank, you can teleport from the lair as if it were a regular area. Some new players may be mistaken and try to leave via the lever and run down below 30 wilderness. Having a 1-click teleport would be handy, like the Seed Pod, Desert amulet or house teleport tablets.
A major part of this method is how to safely get to the KBD while evading player killers and banking efficiently. Fortunately, the majority of the path to get to him is accessible via F2P, so the best way to mitigate losses is to travel there on a F2P world. This can be done via the Canoe to Moss Giants and then running up to the western end of the Lave Maze. If you have an alt account, you can scout a members’ world before switching with your main.
A more typical way of returning would be to teleport to your house to restore and then teleport to your bank of choice. You can then teleport to the Lava Maze using the Burning Amulet and run-up to the Lesser Demon cage and go down the ladder. Keep in mind that there are Pkers throughout this entire route considering it’s near the Revenant Cave. If you’re on Ancient Magicks, you may have a better time using the Ghorrock teleport and running down to the ladder.
It can be quite tricky if you get attacked by a player killer, but you don’t have to accept death so quickly. If you are attacked while within the cage, just go straight for the ladder with protecting from magic on, hoping to make the ladder and the poisoned spiders below will likely prevent yours from being attacked again. Otherwise, you may have to take damage and rune South, rune towards the Ice Plateau with Ice Warriors, or run to the Rune Rocks where you can evade them using the red spiders.
While many players return to this classic boss for the sake of nostalgia, it is decent to do your regular non-Wilderness Slayer tasks and for profit. Getting the rare dragon pickaxe is typically over 5 million in profit and is one of the easier means to obtain it for Ironmen. Getting lucky with his various resource drops can be profitable and quite useful for skilling as an Ironmen. Otherwise, there are more profitable dragons to kill outside a Slayer task, like Vorkath or Rune Dragons.
A looting bag may be brought with to extend trips if you plan on looting every bone and hide along the way. Since it can’t be used within the lair, you will have to pull the lever to use it in the Wilderness and come back for another fight. Keep in mind that players may be lurking outside with Teleport block ready, but it is still less risky than going up the ladder.
If you have trouble managing health, some players prefer to teleport between only a few kills to restore their health and special attack and come back. While it’s riskier, you can come into every fight dealing Dragon Warhammer specials and other special attacks to reduce his Defense.