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Ultimate Power Barrows Guide - Basic Single Run Per Trip Method Ultimate Power Barrows Guide - Nine Run Per Trip Methods (Verac in Tunnels)

If you feel that the single Barrows run per trip method involves too much monotonous running, but the nine-run methods are a bit too ambitious, then five runs per trip is a nice, happy medium. You spend a lot less time teleporting and banking, but don’t have to take with so many potions that you are constantly low on food. These methods are fast and efficient, and thus usually the ones I recommend. (For a full comparison of single run and multiple run methods, see the section “Deciding on a Number of Runs per Trip”.)

There are two basic variations on this method, one using Guthans and the other Veracs, which changes how you do the runs slightly. What they have in common is that they involve fighting Verac in his crypt, generally using melee. This contrasts to the single run method, where I prefer maging him for simplicity, and the nine run method where he is fought in the tunnels. There is also an advanced version that uses the Saradomin godsword, which I explain at the end.

Note that for this method you can get away with not having a house with an altar and portal to Canifis, though they are still strongly recommended.

Here’s a summary of the key information about this technique:

• Technique: Five Runs Per Trip Ultimate Power Barrows
  
  
• Risk Level: Moderate (Moderate to High for Saradomin godsword method). You will need to monitor your food and prayer, but should have more than enough to complete the runs safely.
  
  
• Risk Level Relative to Other Techniques: Moderate to High (High for Saradomin godsword method). This method is arguably less safe than the nine run methods; even though you carry more food, you have to deal with Verac “face to face”.
  
  
• Runs Per Trip: Usually 5; sometimes 4 or fewer if you have very bad luck.
  
  
• Runs Per Hour: Done the right way, this averages out to about 6.25 to 6.5 runs per hour. The speed of the method depends somewhat on the equipment used, but also a great deal on how lucky you get with door placement and hits from the brothers.
  
  
• Cost Per Run: Approximately 26k (regular versions) or 23k (Saradomin godsword variant).
  
  
• Approximate Net Profit Per Hour: About 410k (regular) or 425k (Saradomin godsword variant).

Note that the estimates above are based on using the recommended equipment, and skills of about the following levels: 90 Attack; 90 Strength; 90 Defence; 95 Hitpoints; 90 Mage; and 80 Prayer.

As mentioned above, there are two variations for this method: one uses Guthans for defence and healing, while the other uses Veracs for its armor-ignoring set effect and prayer bonuses. The Guthans method is a bit faster and safer; Veracs can cost less (since prayer lasts longer), and is obviously the better option if you don’t own Guthans. J

Here is my recommended gear for both choices, an example of which can be found in Figure 439 (see the combat equipment analysis for explanations of my equipment choices):

• Head: Guthans helm or Veracs helm, as appropriate.
  
  
• Cloak: Trimmed skill cape, untrimmed skill cape or obsidian cape.
  
  
• Neck: Amulet of fury.
  
  
• Quiver: Empty.
  
  
• Weapon: Slayer staff.
  
  
• Body: Guthans platebody or Veracs brassard.
  
  
• Shield: If you are using an abyssal whip, bring a rune defender here. If using a godsword or Verac’s flail, leave empty unless you are bringing a dragonfire shield, in which case you can put it here to save space.
  
  
• Legs: Guthans skirt or Veracs skirt.
  
  
• Gloves: “Barrows” gloves, or the best Recipe for Disaster gloves you can get.
  
  
• Feet: Dragon boots, or rune boots if you don’t have dragon ones.
  
  
• Ring: Ring of life.
  

  Figure 439: Equipment and Inventory Items for The Barrows Five Run Method

  This diagram shows one example of the equipment and inventory items for the five run method, in this case using Veracs and a dragonfire shield. Note how many more potions there are now compared to the single run inventory shown in Figure 437; there’s still plenty of room for food, however.

  
  

The supplies you bring with are pretty much the same whether using Guthans or Veracs. They are designed to provide enough Saradomin brews, super restores and super attack/strength potions to last the five targeted runs, while leaving plenty of space for food to use when needed.

Note that to conserve space, I do not normally bring with a teleport; I use the home teleport spell after my runs are complete. You can certainly bring with teleport tablets if that makes you feel more comfortable!

Here are the items I recommend (also shown in Figure 439):

• Spade
  
  
• Holy Wrench
  
  
• Primary Weapon: If using Veracs, this will be Veracs flail. If using Guthans, it should be either a whip or a godsword.
  
  
• DDS: For Ahrim.
  
  
• Guthans Warspear: Bring it with if using Guthans, so you can use it to heal if necessary.
  
  
• Dragonfire Shield: If you are bringing a whip, you will have a rune defender in your shield slot and so will have to put the dragonfire shield here in your inventory.
  
  
• Maging Runes: About 300 death runes and 1200 mind runes to be sure you won’t run out if you don’t get more from the chest.
  
  
• Stat Boosting and Prayer Restore Potions: 3x Saradomin brew (4), 1x Super restore (4), 3x Prayer potion (4), 1x Super attack (4) and 1x Super strength (4). This provides enough Saradomin brews for 3 doses to heal between runs, one super attack and strength for each of the second through fifth runs, and plenty of prayer boosting potions. (You almost certainly will not use all of the super restore and prayer potion doses.)
  
  
• Energy Restore: 3x Super energy (4). Again, you may not need all 12 doses but they are good to have.
  
  
• Food: You will probably have around 9 slots for food. I recommend one basket of strawberries (5) and the rest of the slots filled with either sharks, pineapple pizzas or some combination of the two.

You will also need an extra Saradomin brew, regular restore, super attack and super strength potion for use before leaving the bank, and some extra cheap food to heal up between runs, like trout, salmon or tuna.

First of all, be sure you have turned off “Accept Aid”, to prevent potential lurers/scammers from trying to teleport you during combat.

Be sure your prayer is recharged, then get to the bank at either Canifis or Burgh de Rott, depending on your choice of how to get to the Barrows. Once there, do the following to get ready for the trip:

1. Use cheap food (trout, salmon, etc.) to heal up completely.
   
   
2. Put on or check all your equipment to make sure it is correct.
   
   
3. Take out all of the inventory items except for the food.
   
   
4. Take out your extra Saradomin brew, regular restore, super attack and super strength potion. Take a sip of each in that order to boost your stats for the first run, then return those potions/vials to the bank.
   
   
5. Take out and drink super energy potions as needed to restore your run energy to close to maximum (doesn’t have to be 100%).
   
   
6. Take out all the food you are going to use.

Now run to The Barrows, walking up from Burgh de Rott or using the In Search of the Myreque shortcut if you are in Canifis. Take super energy doses as needed, and drop any rotten food if a ghast got to you.

This represents the start of a run. You will fight the brothers in this order, except the tunnel brother of course:

• Dharok: Ensure that you have Magic Dart selected, and equip your dragonfire shield if you brought one. Put on Protection from Melee and enter his crypt. Mage him until dead. Exit the crypt and turn off prayer.
  
  
• Verac: If you didn’t bring a dragonfire shield, then simply equip your primary weapon (Verac’s flail, whip or godsword), put on Protection from Melee, enter his crypt and attack him, eating if necessary. If using the dragonfire shield, keep the Slayer staff equipped, put on Protection from Melee, and when he appears, right click on the shield and Operate it. After the fireball shoots out and you get the extra Magic Dart attack right after, switch to your melee weapon. (Note that if your inventory is full you may have to temporarily drop something to equip a two-handed weapon, as shown in Figure 440, though the ghasts may take care of this problem for you!)
  
  If you have lots of prayer (such as on the first run of a trip) you might consider using Piety as well to speed up killing him and avoid taking damage.
  

  Figure 440: Freeing Space for the Fight

  In order to wield my flail I temporarily dropped a shark on the ground. As Verac has just died I will now switch back to my Slayer staff and shield to make an extra slot, and pick it back up. Watch out for food thieves! J

  
  

If you still have prayer left, you will use it to fight Ahrim. If you are out of prayer but still very high on health (close to or over your normal maximum hitpoints) then you can try to kill Ahrim quickly without prayer, but taking an extra prayer potion dose is a lot safer and easier. If you do this, though, you might want to first check to see if he is in fact in his crypt.

• Ahrim: Equip your DDS, click the special bar and enter the crypt. Put on Protection from Magic if you have any prayer left, and Piety if you have at least 15 prayer points. Click the special bar three more times as you fight to unload a total of four DDS specs on Ahrim. He should be mostly dead from the specs, but if not, finish him with your whip or godsword.
  
  
• Karil: Use any leftover prayer to turn on Protection from Ranged and fight Karil. If you have no prayer left, just tank him and eat as needed, unless you are very low on food, in which case you should use a prayer potion dose and put on ranged protection.
  
  
• Guthan: Re-equip your Slayer staff, and dragonfire shield if you brought one, select the Slayer Dart spell and mage him until he drops. Eat if you need to.
  
  
• Torag: Mage him in the same way as Guthan, eating if necessary.

If you are wearing Veracs, then check your health, eat if you need to, then re-equip your flail. If you are wearing Guthans and your health is down more than about 20 points, equip your Guthans warspear; otherwise, wield your whip or godsword. (The warspear is very slow, so use it only if needed.) Go through the coffin into the tunnels, and find the door that leads out of your ladder room; jot down on a piece of paper which room you started in and which door leads out of it. (See “Finding Your Way Back to the Ladder” for tips.)

If your health is quite low and you are using Guthans, first try to heal up to at least 80% health using the monsters in the crypt. Be careful to watch out for brothers if you open doors to get “healing fodder”.

What you do next depends on your tunnel brother:

• Dharok: Try to get to a door between two safe spots and flush him out. Once he appears, trap him behind the safe spot and mage him until dead. If he won’t come out and too many monsters have spawned, go to a different flushing door. You can also kill some of the bloodworms and crypt rats that spawn to get your kill count up to 11, or to heal using Guthans, if appropriate.
  
  Only fight Dharok in a safe spot. If he spawns in a room without a safe spot, run away and fight him later.
  
  
• Verac: Same deal as Dharok. For the five run method, if Verac is your tunnel brother, I strongly recommend only fighting him in a safe spot—otherwise, you’ll waste a lot of time, potions and food. If you do have lots of potions and food though, you can fight him head to head (Protection from Melee and Piety recommended).
  
  
• Ahrim: Try to build your kill count up to 11 but avoid opening doors. If you can, while searching for your chest room door, pause at the side rooms where the rats or bloodworms are, and kill them there. Find your chest room door, open it, and then prepare to fight Ahrim at the chest. I recommend taking a prayer potion dose and then using your DDS to spec him as many times as possible until he’s dead. The exception to taking a p pot dose would be if you are on your first or second run and need to use up food before opening the chest because your inventory is full, or you’re on your last run and have spare food. Be careful because he can hit pretty hard if you fight him in metal armor without prayer (Figure 441).
  
  The process is the same if he pops up when you open a door, you just have to act fast. Take a prayer potion dose, then use your DDS. If he is near death but not quite finished you can use the “Poison in the Tunnels” trick, but watch out for twins.
  

  Figure 441: Ahrim Fireball

  If you’re fighting him without prayer, kill him fast, because he can hurt you pretty bad if you dawdle.

  
  
  
  
• Karil: Treat the same way as Ahrim, but he can much more easily be tanked without prayer.
  
  
• Guthan or Torag: These are the easiest tunnel brothers. Just go through the tunnels to find your chest room door, pausing to kill crypt rats and bloodworms to get your kill count up to 11 (and heal if using Guthans). If your brother shows up when you open a door, switch quickly to your Slayer staff and use Magic Dart to kill him. (If there’s a safe spot where he happened to spawn, then use it of course, but you don’t really need one.) If Guthan/Torag doesn’t come out, then kill him at the chest using Magic Dart.

To quickly figure out where your chest door entrance is, read “Quickly Locating Your Chest Door”.

If your tunnel brother spawned upon opening a door, then once you kill him you just make sure your kill count is at least 12, find your chest room door, solve the puzzle and go to the chest and open it. If your brother didn’t pop out from a door, then you’ll fight him at the chest before getting your rewards.

Search the chest to get your loot. Be sure to check carefully for any items that may have fallen on the ground if your inventory was full! If you are short on space, remember that you can put bolt racks in your quiver, you can eat a piece of food or two, or leave behind a low value drop like, say, 300 coins.

If this is the last run of the trip, go to a spot safe from monsters and use the home teleport spell (level 0) to go to your home base. (If you are interrupted by falling rocks, just start over.) If this is not the final run of the trip, then run back out of the tunnels as fast as possible and then get ready for the next run.

After emerging from the tunnels after completing a run, do the following to get ready for the next one:

• Walk back to Dharok’s barrow.
  
  
• Equip your Slayer staff, and dragonfire shield if you brought one, and select the Magic Dart spell for autocasting.
  
  
• Use one or two Saradomin brew doses, if necessary, to get your hitpoints up to your normal maximum. Remember that if you are down only, say, 6 or 7 points, you can use a strawberry (if you brought some) instead of wasting a brew dose.
  
  
• Take an extra Saradomin brew dose to raise your hitpoints above maximum and raise defence. Then drink the following potions in order: super restore, prayer, super attack and super defence.

Don’t use more than three Saradomin brew doses before any given run.

Now you are ready to do another run (starting at “The Crypts”) above.

Experienced Barrowers who own a Saradomin godsword and dragonfire shield can exploit the powers of these excellent pieces of equipment to perform the five-run technique using about half the super restore / prayer potion doses of the normal methods, and usually less food as well. For an overview of why this weapon is so special at The Barrows, see “The Saradomin Godsword “Spec and Pray” Technique”.

First, for this method, make two changes to worn equipment: swap out the Guthans helm and Guthans skirt for Veracs helm and Veracs skirt. These changes increase melee defence and prayer bonus, and you don’t need full Guthans because you won’t be using the Guthans spec. (Don’t wear Veracs brassard as it has far worse defence than Guthans plate.)

Obviously, take the Saradomin godsword as your primary weapon, and make a few modifications to other inventory items:

• Leave behind the DDS or Guthans warspear.
  
  
• Bring 2x super restore (4) potions instead of 1x super restore (4) and 3x prayer (4) potions.
  
  
• Optional: bring 2x super energy (4) and 2x super energy mix (2) instead of 3x super energy (4) and one piece of food. The mix potions are useful as every two mix pots is equivalent to a 4-dose regular pot and 24 points of healing.
  
  
• For your food slots, take 3x monkfish, 4x shark and 4x pineapple pizza.

Start the trip as usual, but follow a different order of fighting at the crypts:

• Dharok: Use Protection from Melee and mage him as before. Watch your prayer level as it may run out here; if so, you’ll have to take another super restore dose.
  
  
• Karil: Go to Karil’s tomb, put on Protection from Ranged if you have prayer points (not Piety though) and kill him with your godsword. If prayer runs out you should be able to kill him quickly before he does much damage; eat if necessary.
  
  
• Verac: You will now be out of prayer. Re-equip your Slayer staff and dragonfire shield, and enter Verac’s crypt. Get ready, then click his coffin. If he’s in his crypt, quickly take a super restore dose and put on Protection from Melee. Right click on your shield and Operate it; then after the fireball shoots out and you get the extra Magic Dart attack after it, switch to your godsword and turn on Piety.
  
  With any luck you will finish him off quickly. If prayer wears off before he dies, or he gets some hits in through prayer, you may need to eat. If he is nearly dead and you can’t quite seem to finish him off, try re-equipping your Slayer staff and manually casting Magic Dart on him.
  
  
• Ahrim: If you have any prayer left after Verac, use it to turn on Protection from Magic and Piety and fight Ahrim with it. If Verac used up your prayer, then employ the “spec and pray” technique. The best way to do this is to click the special bar, then switch to the prayer page. Attack him, wait for the special to go off, and then quickly turn on Protection from Magic.
  
  Use the second spec if the first missed; if both miss you will have to either take a super restore dose or tank Ahrim using food. Otherwise, wait to see if you need it before using the second special. I don’t generally use it unless the first runs out and Ahrim gets me down at least 15 hp from my normal maximum, so that the healing from the second spec won’t go to waste, and I save the special power for when I truly need it.
  
  
• Guthan and Torag: Mage as usual.

The tunnels are pretty much the same as the versions that don’t use the Saradomin godsword, except mainly for Ahrim. Instead of using a prayer potion dose and DDS, you can generally use “spec and pray” to kill him pretty quickly.

Note that if Ahrim is your tunnel brother and you use both specs on him down there, the spec bar may not have recharged enough by the time you get back to the “next Ahrim” on the subsequent run.

Finally: if you have “spare” spec bar power, use it in the tunnels for general healing. By “spare” I mean, suppose you finished the crypts and Dharok is your brother, so you are trying to flush him out. You notice that your entire spec bar is full, and obviously you won’t be needing it until Ahrim on the next run. Might as well use it on a rat to heal up, if you are hurt.

Ultimate Power Barrows Guide - Basic Single Run Per Trip Method Ultimate Power Barrows Guide - Nine Run Per Trip Methods (Verac in Tunnels)