Strategies for Rex Matriarchs

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

Recommended levels and equipment

Requirements

Anachronia

You need to unlock Anachronia to gain access to this boss.

Level recommendations

99+ combat

It is recommended to have at least level 99+ in your chosen combat style (Attack & Strength, Ranged or Magic).

99+ Defence

It is recommended to have at least level 99+ Defence.

71+ Prayer

At least 71 and ancient curses are recommended to protect against this boss' attacks.

96+ Herblore

Use the best combat potions that you have to increase your hit chance and damage. Overloads are recommended at level 96 .

86+ Invention

Augmented gear with basic perks is sufficient at 86 .

Gameplay

Ranged protection

If you deal low damage use protect from missiles or deflect missiles.

Soul Split

If you deal high damage, you can use soul split during the fight instead of protection prayers.

Equipment recommendations

Weak to stab

It is recommended to use stab weapons.

Ranged immune

This boss is almost fully immune to ranged damage, which means you have an extremely low hit chance using ranged weapons.

Magic immune

This boss is almost fully immune to magic damage, which means you have an extremely low hit chance using magic weapons.

Tier 80+ armour

Use Masterwork, or better (see more recommendations).

Tier 90+ weaponry

Use tier 90 weaponry or better
(see recommendations).

Poison protection required

Protection such as super antipoisons or elder overload salves is recommended to protect against this boss's poison attacks.

Necklace of Salamancy

Provides a 15% accuracy and damage buff as well as a 3% drop rarity boost.

Optional boosts

Familiar with a damage-boosting passive

This boss is almost fully immune to non-melee familiar damage. Use a familiar with a damage-boosting passive to increase your damage: Ripper demon, Kal'gerion demon, or Blood reaver.

Venomblood

It is recommended to add the venomblood perk to your armour to protect against this boss' heavy poison attacks.

Slayer helmet

This boss counts as a slayer task for 'Dinosaurs'. The slayer helmet provides additional damage and accuracy if you are on task.

Poisonable

This boss is poisonable, and cinderbane gloves and weapon poisons deal additional damage.

Terrasaur susceptibility

The terrasaur maul deals +12.5% ability damage and has a flat +10% hitchance when used against this boss.

Requirements

Anachronia

You need to unlock Anachronia to gain access to this boss.

Level recommendations

99+ combat

It is recommended to have at least level 99+ in your chosen combat style (Attack & Strength, Ranged or Magic).

99+ Defence

It is recommended to have at least level 99+ Defence.

71+ Prayer

At least 71 and ancient curses are recommended to protect against this boss' attacks.

96+ Herblore

Use the best combat potions that you have to increase your hit chance and damage. Overloads are recommended at level 96 .

86+ Invention

Augmented gear with basic perks is sufficient at 86 .

Gameplay

Melee protection

If you deal low damage use protect from melee or deflect melee.

Soul Split

If you deal high damage, you can use soul split during the fight instead of protection prayers.

Equipment recommendations

Weak to fire spells

It is recommended to use fire, blood spells or Exsanguinate.

Melee immune

This boss is almost fully immune to melee damage, which means you have an extremely low hit chance using melee weapons.

Ranged immune

This boss is almost fully immune to ranged damage, which means you have an extremely low hit chance using ranged weapons.

Tier 80+ armour

Use Virtus or Seren Anima or better (see more recommendations).

Tier 90+ weaponry

Use tier 90 weaponry or better
(see recommendations).

Necklace of Salamancy

Provides a 15% accuracy and damage buff as well as a 3% drop rarity boost.

Optional boosts

Familiar with a damage-boosting passive

This boss is almost fully immune to non-magic familiar damage. Use a familiar with a damage-boosting passive to increase your damage: Ripper demon, Kal'gerion demon, or Blood reaver.

Slayer helmet

This boss counts as a slayer task for 'Dinosaurs'. The slayer helmet provides additional damage and accuracy if you are on task.

Poisonable

This boss is poisonable, and cinderbane gloves and weapon poisons deal additional damage.

Inquisitor susceptibility

The inquisitor staff deals +12.5% ability damage and has a flat +10% hitchance when used against this boss.

Requirements

Anachronia

You need to unlock Anachronia to gain access to this boss.

Level recommendations

99+ combat

It is recommended to have at least level 99+ in your chosen combat style (Attack & Strength, Ranged or Magic).

99+ Defence

It is recommended to have at least level 99+ Defence.

71+ Prayer

At least 71 and ancient curses are recommended to protect against this boss' attacks.

96+ Herblore

Use the best combat potions that you have to increase your hit chance and damage. Overloads are recommended at level 96 .

86+ Invention

Augmented gear with basic perks is sufficient at 86 .

Gameplay

Magic protection

If you deal low damage use protect from magic or deflect magic.

Soul Split

If you deal high damage, you can use soul split during the fight instead of protection prayers.

Equipment recommendations

Weak to arrows

It is recommended to use arrows.

Melee immune

This boss is almost fully immune to melee damage, which means you have an extremely low hit chance using melee weapons.

Magic immune

This boss is almost fully immune to magic damage, which means you have an extremely low hit chance using magic weapons.

Tier 90+ armour

Use Sirenic, or better
(see more recommendations).

Tier 90+ weaponry

Use tier 90 weaponry or better
(see recommendations).

Insulated boots

The insulated boots provide drastic reduction from the lightning damage of the 'Converging Lightning' attack, although it is not required if you avoid the attack.

Necklace of Salamancy

Provides a 15% accuracy and damage buff as well as a 3% drop rarity boost.

Optional boosts

Familiar with a damage-boosting passive

This boss is almost fully immune to non-ranged familiar damage. Use a familiar with a damage-boosting passive to increase your damage: Ripper demon, Kal'gerion demon, or Blood reaver.

Slayer helmet

This boss counts as a slayer task for 'Dinosaurs'. The slayer helmet provides additional damage and accuracy if you are on task.

Poisonable

This boss is poisonable, and cinderbane gloves and weapon poisons deal additional damage.

Hexhunter susceptibility

The hexhunter bow deals +12.5% ability damage and has a flat +10% hitchance when used against this boss.

Seren godbow susceptibility

The Seren godbow's special attack is very strong against this target with all combat styles as it is a 5x5+ target.

Strategy

Safe path to get to each matriarch, and safe spot to attack it without aggro'ing the others

The rex matriarchs are a trio of dinosaurs consisting of Orikalka, Rathis and Pthentraken. The rex matriarchs are similar to their lower levelled predecessors, the dagannoth Kings, in that they the are found within the same area and that each of them is weak to one of the three combat styles and immune to the other two.

Unlike the fight against dagannoth kings it is possible to fight against only one of the rex matriarchs at a time. It is strongly recommended that you fight only one matriarch at a time due to their high Defence and armour ratings making it necessary to use its specific weakness during the fight; the high amount of damage dealt if attacked by multiple matriarchs at once; and due to each boss having unique mechanics that the player must react to. Each boss has a set rotation of auto-attacks and special attacks which is repeated throughout the fight.

For solo players camping only one matriarch, set the instance to fastest. If killing all three, set to standard.

While the matriarchs have overworld spawns, this is not recommended for tribrid players as the matriarchs there spawn significantly faster than a standard speed instance and will likely throw off kill order.

Getting there

See Rex Matriarchs, Getting there.

Rathis

Style required: Melee

Prayer required: Soul Split/Deflect Melee

Rathis attacks using ranged auto-attacks that are fairly weak but which she uses frequently. The auto-attacks will register damage before the projectiles hit you.

Rathis also uses a melee auto-attack that is fairly weak, although it is less common.

The main special attack is Acid 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.

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 (the poison purge aura doesn't work). Additionally a Corrosion debuff is applied to the player. The debuff causes the player to take 20% additional damage, which can be stacked up to 5 times to a maximum of 100% additional damage. The debuff lasts for 10 seconds from the last time that the player was in contact with a poison patch; taking more poison damage restarts the timer. The patch itself becomes smaller as players absorb the poison, turning from 5x5 to 3x3 and finally two patches of 1x1, one 1x1 with an AoE of 2x2 and one with a normal 1x1 AoE.

Rathis will also use Poison Absorption where she will roar and attempt to absorb any leftover poison patches from the Acid Bombardment attack, healing her based on the amount of acid left. The amount of poison patches remaining determines how much health Rathis will recover; ranging from 1,666 at the minimum to 35,000 for an untouched patch.

It is possible, albeit very hard to Resonance or Divert the attack, but it is better to simply tank the hit or move off of the poison patches.

It is important to fully absorb the patches if the player's damage is lacking, as she will heal for more health than the player is able to damage, thus making kills last longer.

If the target is not within melee range, the melee attack is instead replaced with a charge, where she roars and charges towards her target's position, dealing up to 4,500 typeless damage to everyone in her path, stunning and binding them for 3.6 seconds.

Attack rotation:

• 3 auto-attacks
• Acid 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

Orikalka

Style required: Magic and preferably Fire spells (Orikalka is weak to fire spells)

Prayer required: Deflect Melee (to protect against damage from fissures)

Orikalka uses standard melee attacks and a basic magic attack, indicated by a small blue orb. She has two possible attack rotation cycles.

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. While the ancient spellbook provides greater DPS, Ice Barrage is significantly worse as it is a water spell, increasing the chances of splashing, requires the player to auto-attack for a guaranteed bind and only lasts for 9.6 seconds, being 2.5 times worse than Entangle. It is only particularly useful when on Legacy Mode while dual-wielding due to the greater auto-attack damage and faster attack speed.

Orikalka has a standard melee attack that is fairly weak which she uses frequently.

Orikalka has a standard magic attack that is fairly weak and is used less often.

Frost Storm is a special attack where she spins around to generate an ice tornado which deals a heavy magic hit (4000+ damage) and applies the Frostbite debuff to all players who are within 15 spaces of her. The debuff increases players' global cooldown on abilities for 30 seconds and drains their run energy to 0%. Resonance can be used to heal from the magic hit.

Resonance can be used to receive a huge free heal from the magic Frostbite hit. However, as Frostbite fully drains run energy and significantly delays the global cooldown of abilities, it is highly recommended to avoid this mechanic at all costs as it significantly impedes kill times, especially if she is killed after applying it as there will be no way to remove the debuff outside of natural decay.

Pyroclastic Shock is a special attack where she attacks with a tail sweep and generates three fissures around her. Standing on the fissures will deal rapid melee hits of 3000+ damage but will also remove the Frostbite debuff from the Frost Storm attack and instead 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 and the Devotion ability before moving onto the fissures to reduces the hits to 1 damage. Once Frostbite has been removed subsequent fissures will deal damage as normal. A defensive ability such as Devotion should be used if the player cannot move in time.

Attack rotation:

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

Attack rotation (alternative cycle):

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

Pthentraken

Style required: Ranged

Prayer required: Deflect Magic/Deflect Missiles

Pthentraken uses magic auto-attacks, ranged auto-attack, and two special attacks.

Pthentraken is weak to ranged attacks, specifically arrows. Using a weapon with arrows is recommended over other ranged weapons due to the matriarchs' low affinities.

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.

Pthentraken has a standard magic attack that is fairly weak and is used frequently.

Pthentraken's ranged attack attack hits very hard, and the ranged projectile deals up to 3,500 damage if not protected against.

Converging Lightning is a special attack in which she roars and summons 3-5 lightning bolts. Brown lines appear on the floor indicating the path that the lightning will take; it will converge towards Pthentraken. One of these lines will always aim at where her target was positioned at the start of this mechanic, while the remaining lines are placed at random. Getting caught in the path of the lightning 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, this damage can be drastically reduced by wearing insulated boots with a message appearing in the (filtered) chat: Your insulated boots drastically reduce the incoming damage. Although all lines will converge into the centre on the same tick, if any of the lines are out of the arena boundaries, the lightning will appear on the first walkable tile, which causes them to reach her faster.

Action required: The lines are determined with small, but visible dust on the ground. Simply walk away from the lines in order to avoid the massive lightning damage.

Soon after Converging Lightning, Pthentraken will attack her target with Storm Column; indicated by a bar appearing over their head, which causes the player's movement to be delayed for around two seconds. When the bar fills it will unleash a torrent of lightning in a 3x3 radius around the target's initial position. Getting hit by this torrent will apply the Overcharged buff: the player's attacks (poison and familiar does not count) deal an additional magic hit equal which deals 5% of the damage of the original hit and the global cooldown of Surge is reduced 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.

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 you. If attempting to receive the buff, allow the lightning to hit you as it spawns, then move out of its area-of-effect.

Action required: Simply move when the torrent is about to emerge to safely obtain Overcharged while taking little damage. It is important to 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.

Attack rotation:

• 3 auto-attacks
• Converging lightning
• 1 auto-attack
• Ranged attack
• Storm Column
• 3 auto-attacks
• Converging lightning
• 1 auto-attack
• Ranged attack
• Loops from top

High-level AFK strategy

The following are AFK guides. Food consumption might be needed occasionally. Picking up drops for profit is also recommended.

Rathis

With the following gear, Rathis can be killed with a revolution bar while semi-AFK.

Equipment:

• Any tier-90+ melee weapon such as Noxious scythe, Zaros godsword, Terrasaur maul, or Masterwork Spear of Annihilation
• Tier-90 Masterwork equipment lasts forever once augmented and does not degrade (it still requires divine charges), and is thus recommended for camping this boss.
• Tier-92 Trimmed masterwork equipment can be used, but it has a higher upkeep cost (you'll need a full repair every ~100 hours).
• A Reaper necklace or Essence of Finality amulet to improve accuracy as the boss has a high defence rating.
• Since this boss can be poisoned, it is best to use the Cinderbane gloves along with Weapon poison+++ to deal extra damage.

Inventory:

• Magic notepaper to note the dozens of un-noted bones and scales
• The highest level overloads that you have, Enhanced Excalibur and Weapon poison+++.

Familiar:

• Pack yak full of Sharks or Ripper Demon (familiar).

Action bar:

• Pulverise reduces the damages that Rathis deals by 25% for 30 seconds.
• Berserk is recommended if you can keep your health up using Soul Split.

Offensive bar for 40 kills per hour:

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Defensive bar for 35 kills per hour or less:

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Orikalka

With the following gear, Orikalka can be killed with a revolution bar while semi-AFK.

Equipment:

• Any tier-90+ magic weapon such as Noxious staff or Inquisitor staff
• Tier-80 Virtus equipment or Tier-92 Elite tectonic equipment is thus recommended for camping this boss.
• A Reaper necklace or Essence of Finality amulet to improve accuracy as the boss has a high defence rating.
• Since this boss can be poisoned, it is best to use the Cinderbane gloves along with Weapon poison+++ to deal extra damage.

Inventory:

• Magic notepaper to note the dozens of un-noted bones and scales
• The highest level overloads that you have, Enhanced Excalibur and Weapon poison+++.

Familiar:

• Pack yak full of Sharks or Ripper Demon (familiar).

Spell:

• Blood Barrage or Fire Surge

Action bar:

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Pthentraken

With the following gear, Pthentraken can be killed with a revolution bar while semi-AFK.

Equipment:

• Any tier-90+ ranged weapon such as Noxious longbow, Seren godbow, Hexhunter bow, or Ascension crossbows
• Tier-90 Sirenic armour is recommended for camping this boss.
• A Reaper necklace or Essence of Finality amulet to improve accuracy as the boss has a high defence rating.
• Since this boss can be poisoned, it is best to use the Cinderbane gloves along with Weapon poison+++ to deal extra damage.

Inventory:

• Magic notepaper to note the dozens of un-noted bones and scales
• The highest level overloads that you have, Enhanced Excalibur and Weapon poison+++.

Familiar:

• Blood reaver (familiar) used alongside Weapon poison+++ and Cinderbane gloves

Action bar with greater ricochet:

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Action bar with greater ricochet and cape-upgraded Dead shot:

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Note: if you do not have enough adrenaline buffs and adrenaline becomes an issue with the bar above, you can freely switch greater ricochet with dead shot and fragmentation shot with salt the wound. This will make adrenaline more consistent at the cost of some damage.

Action bar without greater ricochet:

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Requirements:

Location to stand after a kill ends in order to area loot drops and be in melee range of Pthentraken when she spawns.

Most if not all of the following conditions must be met:

• You are using one of the below action bars. Copying these bars exactly is very important so that Escape is used at the correct time.
• You are melee distance to Pthentraken when she spawns. See image at the right for an ideal location.
• You must let auto-retaliate initiate combat, otherwise the timing of escape will be incorrect.
• You are using Weapon poison+++.
• You are using Cinderbane gloves.
• You are using a Blood reaver (familiar).
• You have the Persistent rage relic or charged Adrenaline Urn in order to not lose adrenaline between kills.
• You must start each kill with more than 35-57 adrenaline (depending upon your adrenaline-modifying boosts such as Impatient and Fury of the small)
• You have a weapon that can get close to 100% hit chance. A bow is best, but crossbows on a dinosaur slayer task could work too.
• You must be wearing Insulated boots to reduce the damage taken from the lightning mechanic.

For even less food usage, the following are required:

• Greater ricochet
• Caroming 4 perk
• Either Onyx bakriminel bolts (e) or Vampyrism aura