Strategies for Rex Matriarchs

This article is a strategy guide for Rex Matriarchs. Information on mechanics, setups, and tactics is on this page.

The Rex matriarches are a trio of rexes found in Anachronia's dungeons, consisting of Orikalka, Rathis and Pthentraken.

Introduction

The Rex Matriarches are similar to their predecessors, the Dagannoth Kings, in which all three share the similar health pools and the same weaknesses. Therefore, the gear taken should be similar, but it is important to note that each matriarch also has unique mechanics of their own.

Each matriarch has a combat level of 888 with 190,000 health each, possessing level 140 combat stats they use with 6988 accuracy, making their hits extremely accurate regardless of what armour the player is using. They also possesses level 96 Defence with 2829 armour rating. Their affinities are 82 towards their weakness, 64 for anything else in that combat style, and 10 for the neutral/strong style against them. Even then, they will only take 10% of the normal damage if hit with a neutral/strong combat style. Because of their very high Defence and armour rating, it is recommended to follow their weaknesses for the maximum accuracy rates.

They are susceptible to poison, leech and reflect effects.

The matriarchs count as dinosaurs for the purpose of a Slayer task.

Mechanics

Orikalka is the melee-using matriarch of the trio. She is a red-coloured Bagrada rex.

Apart from using standard melee attack, Orikalka's first special mechanic is Frost Storm. She will spin around and generate a gusty ice tornado which applies a heavy magic hit (4000+ damage) and the Frostbite debuff onto all players within 15 spaces of her, which increases their global cooldown on abilities for 30 seconds and drains their run energy to 0%. Resonance can be used to heal from the magic hit.

To remove frostbite, Orikalka will perform Pyroclastic Shock: she will tail sweep and generate three fissures around her after using her magic attack. Standing on these will deal rapid melee hits of 3000+ damage but will also remove Frostbite and apply a buff that generates 10% adrenaline for the player every game tick (0.6 seconds) for six seconds. It is important to use the Deflect Melee curse before moving onto the fissures as it reduces the hits to 1 damage (even without the use of Devotion), otherwise they deal very heavy melee damage and can quickly kill a player. For subsequent fissures without the frostbite debuff applied to the player, they deal damage as normal and a defensive ability such as Devotion should be used if the player cannot move in time.

She will alternate between the fissures and a basic magic attack consisting of a small blue orb.

Similarly to Dagannoth Rex, she is not immune to stuns and binds. She is susceptible to the inquisitor staff.

Attack rotation:

• 3 auto-attacks
• Frost Storm
• 1 auto-attack
• Magic attack
• Pyroclastic Shock
• 3 auto-attacks
• Pyroclastic Shock
• 1 auto-attack
• Magic attack
• Loops from top

Attack rotation (alternative cycle):

• 3 auto-attacks
• Frost Storm
• 1 auto-attack
• Magic attack
• Pyroclastic Shock
• 3 auto-attacks
• Pyroclastic Shock
• Magic attack
• 2 auto-attacks
• Pyroclastic Shock
• 2 auto-attacks
• Magic attack
• Pyroclastic Shock
• 3 auto-attacks
• Pyroclastic Shock
• Magic attack
• Loops from top

Pthentraken is the magic-using matriarch of the trio. She is a magically imbued Pavosaurus rex.

Pthentraken's first special mechanic is Converging Lightning, in which she roars and up to 3-5 lightning lines prepares to converge onto her. One of these lines will always aim at her target's position at the start of this mechanic, while the remaining lines are placed at random. Getting caught in these lines will deal 5,000-5,500 magic damage every 2 game ticks (1.2 seconds), so it is important to move away from them. Alternatively, the damage from the Converging Lightning can be drastically reduced by wearing insulated boots with a message appearing in the (filtered) chat: Your insulated boots drastically reduce the incoming damage. Even then, this attack is still fairly easy to dodge. Although all lines will converge into the centre on the same tick, if any of the lines out of the arena boundaries, the lightning will appear on the first walkable tile, which causes them to reach her faster.

A single auto-attack after this attack, Pthentraken will spin around and launch a ranged projectile towards the player, dealing up to 3,500 damage if not protected against.

One attack after this, Pthentraken will drench her target, indicated with a bar appearing over their head, which causes the player's movement to be delayed for around two seconds. When this bar fills, it will unleash a torrent of lightning in a 3x3 radius where the target was. Getting hit by this torrent will apply the Overcharged buff, which causes the player's attacks (poison and familiar does not count) to deal an additional magic hit equal to 5% of the original, and reduces the global cooldown of Surge to 1 game tick (0.6 seconds), as if the player is under the effects of a powerburst of acceleration for 30 seconds. This effect can be renewed by getting hit by the torrent.

The buff is quite small and it is important to avoid the torrent area after it appears; similarly to The Sanctum Guardian's corruption patches, the damage increases over time, capping at around 3,600 hard typeless damage every two ticks and can easily kill a player. If attempting to receive the buff, allow the lightning to hit the player as it spawns, then move out of its area-of-effect.

She is susceptible to the hexhunter bow.

Attack rotation:

• 3 auto-attacks
• Converging Lightning
• 1 auto-attack
• Ranged attack
• Overcharge
• 3 auto-attacks
• Converging Lightning
• 1 auto-attack
• Ranged attack
• Loops from top

Rathis is the ranged-using matriarch of the trio. She is an extremely poisonous Corbicula rex. She uses fairly weak auto-attacks, but her ranged attack is very fast, as it will register damage before the projectiles even land on her target.

Rathis' first special attack is Poison Bombardment, in which she launches two poison orbs into the air; one at her target's position when the mechanic is initiated, and another around her. This ranged attack has a 5x5 AoE; getting hit by the subsequent splatter will always inflict up to 3,500 ranged damage. It is possible, albeit very hard to Resonance or Divert the attack, but it would be simply better to tank or move out of the way.

While standing on these poison patches, the player will take rapid soft poison damage of around 300-500 every few ticks. If the player is under the effects of antipoison or their equipment has the Venomblood perk, the damage is significantly reduced, dealing around 50-100 damage (Poison purge aura doesn't work). As the player absorbs the acid, they are applied a Corrosion debuff. Each stack causes the player to take 20% additional damage, capping at five stacks, and it lasts 10 seconds from the last poison absorbed; taking more poison resets the timer. The patch itself will become smaller as players absorb the acid, turning from 5x5 to 3x3 and finally two sizes of 1x1 - a 1x1 with an AoE of 2x2, and a normal 1x1 AoE. Note that the smallest poison patch will not have an examine text, although it will still linger on the arena as normal.

Rathis will occasionally perform a melee attack by swinging her head at her target. If said target is not within range to be hit by the melee attack, she will instead roar and charge towards the player's position, dealing up to 4,500 typeless damage to everyone in her path; this attack will also stun and disable overhead prayers.

It is important to fully absorb the patches as she will eventually roar and attempt to absorb any leftover poison, healing her based on the amount of acid left. Each patch heals up to 35,000 health if not touched.

She is susceptible to the terrasaur maul.

Attack rotation:

• 3 auto-attacks
• Poison Bombardment
• 1 auto-attack
• Melee attack
• 5 auto-attacks
• Melee attack
• 1 auto-attacks
• Poison absorption
• 3 auto-attacks
• Melee attack
• 5 auto-attacks
• Melee attack
• Loops from top

Strategy

For solo players, it is recommended to set an instance to Standard speed if facing all three matriarchs at a time. If facing two at a time, use the Faster speed. If facing only one matriarch, set to Fastest.

Orikalka is straightforward as her auto-attacks hit very little and Resonance can be used to receive a huge free heal from the magic Frostbite hit. It is therefore easy to Soul Split back any damage you would take from the fight and not use any food at all. It is recommended to use only one ability after Frostbite has been applied. Due to Frostbite delaying the global cooldown of abilities, the player's second ability will be ready after the melee attack. Devotion can optionally be used when running into a fissure to break free of Frostbite, but Soul Split should be enough to heal back from the hits. After Frostbite is cleared, you will gain an adrenaline boost. It is a good time to use Sunshine here to take advantage of it and fire off some threshold abilities. Alternatively, as Orikalka only uses her abilities when she attacks her target, it is possible to bind her and attack from afar to ignore all of her mechanics. She is not immune to stuns or binds, so the Entangle spell can immobilize her for 24 seconds, allowing the player to attack her without receiving any damage.

Similarly to Dagannoth Prime, her attacks are far more damaging compared to Orikalka and Rathis, so it is important to switch prayers according to the attacks to minimise damage taken. For the Lightning Convergence attack, the lines are determined with small, but visible dust on the ground. Due to how they are placed and their small AoE, it is very easy to dodge the attacks. For the torrent attack, simply move when the torrent is about to emerge to safely obtain Overcharge while taking little damage. It is important note that their AoEs are larger than they look, so make sure not to run back into the torrent area as it will quickly kill the player.

Rathis is somewhat a DPS check. Although her attacks don't deal that much damage (apart from the charge attack which only occurs if she cannot perform her melee attack), players who cannot out-DPS the healing should at least absorb one patch of poison and partially or fully absorb the other one to reduce the amount of health she may recover.