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OSRS Nightmare Zone Guide

By Michel Z2019-04-04

This Old School RuneScape Nightmare Zone guide shows you how to start, the fastest points, the fastest XP, and AFK methods. The Nightmare Zone is a combat-based minigame. In order to enter a dream, you need to have at lease 100K RS 2007 gold. Content for this article was inspired by Theoatrix OSRS's video.

 


The minigame is located north of Yanille, northwest of the bank. To be able to partake in this minigame, you need to have completed at least five of the quests that are listed in the table below.

Monkey madness 1

Shilo village

What lies below

Contact!

Fairytale 1 – growing pains

The grand tree

Haunted mine

Legends’s quest

Mountain daughter

Recipe for disaster

Tree gnome village

Witch’s house

Desert treasure

Family crest

The great brain robbery

Holy grail

Lost city

My arm’s big adventure

Roving elves

Troll romance

Vampire slayer

Dragon slayer

Fight arena

Grim tales

Horror from the deep

Lunar diplomacy

One small favour

Shadow of the storm

Troll stronghold

The depths of despair

Dream mentor

The fremennik isles

The corsair curse

In search of the myreque

 

Tale of the righteous

 


Once you’ve done any five, you’ll unlock the minigame teleport to the Nightmare zone which is the fastest way there. The minigame takes you into dreams where you’ll face against quest bosses that you’ve already killed in the real game. This is a completely safe minigame, you won’t lose any items. However, it costs you OSRS gold to start a dream.

 

 

Three Game Modes

There are three types of game mode: Practice, Endurance, and Rumble

 

You can play Practice which is free and you don’t get XP or points. Endurance will end once you kill all of the bosses you’ve unlocked. Rumble puts you up against random bosses you’ve unlocked, or you can even customize which bosses you want to fight. This one is endless and will only end once you die.

 

All of the three modes have two difficulties: Normal and hard. Normal gives a standard amount of points and the bosses are the same level as they were in the quest. Hard mode gives more points per kill and the bosses are far higher level with a lot more hitpoints.

 

You need to store OSRS gold in the coffer near by in order to enter a dream. I recommend to put in at lease 100K OSRS gold.

 

 

Dream Prices

Practice: Free

Endurance (Normal): 1K rsgp

Endurance (Hard): 5K rsgp

Rumble (Normal): 2K rsgp

Endurance (Hard): 6K rsgp

Custom Rumble (Normal): 22K rsgp

Custom Rumble (Hard): 26K rsgp

 

Normal (under 60 Combat)

Hard (70+ Combat)

Low points

Same level as quest

High points

More hitpoints

Costs more

 

Players with a quest cape will find that the prices of dreams in the Nightmare zone are reduced by 10K OSRS gold.

 

The most expensive dream is the customizable hard Rumble which is the only game mode that I really recommend playing. You should only ever choose easy rumble if you want to see what the Nightmare zone is like at a lower level. The points and XP are so much lower and not really worth your time.

 

In order to effectively play the Nightmare zone, it is recommended to have at least 70 Combat, so that’s around 70 Attack, Strength, and Defence. However, you can get away with slightly lower stats, but you’ll be a bit less efficient.

 

 

Starting Off

Your first goal when starting off the Nightmare zone is to gather enough reward points to afford absorptions (1000 points/dose) and overload potions(1500 points/dose), and you can buy these from the reward chest.

 

To start off, you need to use Prayer and Combat potions. You need to set a Customizable - hard rumble by right-clicking and starting a dream, and you need to select only the Melee bosses available.

 

There is quite a lot of Melee bosses in the Nightmare zone, so you should choose as many as you can from those you’ve unlocked.

 

 

Bosses That Use Melee

Count Draynor

Sand Snake

King Roald

Witch's experiment

The Kendal

Me

Slagilith

Nazastarool

Treus Dayth

Skeleton Hellhound

Tree spirit

Dad

Tanglefoot

Khazard warlord

Black Knight Titan

Bouncer

Black demon

 

Within the Nightmare zone, the points scale to how many bosses you have activated. So if you’ve done every quest in the game and have every quest boss activated, you’ll get the maximum amount of points each kill.

 

You’ll notice that as you playing, power-ups will spawn through out the game. There are four different power-ups, and these only spawn in rumble.

 

 

Power ups

Ultimate force (White): Kills every boss in the room (no XP/PTS)

This should only be used if there is a boss you simply can’t kill.

 

Zapper (Purple): Extra damage every few seconds (points)

Using this damages nearby monsters every few seconds.

 

Recurrent Damage (Red): Extra damage per hit (points)

Using this power-up deals extra damage whenever you hit.

 

Power Surge (Yellow): Regenerates your spec for 45 seconds

Using this is extremely useful for fast XP because it generates you special attack constantly for 45 seconds.

 

Depending on your combat level, it should take you around 30 minutes to 1 hour to get enough points for absorption potions. You should aim to get at least 70K points using prayer potions and be sure to make good use of Zapper, Recurrent damage, and Power surge.

 

When you have got points for absorption and overloads, you can now aim for the maximum points per hour.

 

Drinking the potion causes the next 50 damage inflicted on the player to be absorbed, preventing the player from taking damage. Each dose will absorb 50 damage, which stacks with previous unused Absorption damage up to 1000 damage.

 

Rock cake: Recipe for disaster sub quest

Locator orb: Dragon slayer II

 

By using a Dwarven rock cake or a Locator orb, you can lower your hitpoints down to so that the monsters attacking you can only hit 1 on your absorption, making the damage lasts very long.

 

As I mentioned before, you’ll get the most points for having the most bosses activated. However, there are a few bosses you need to watch out for.

 

 

 

Even when you are trying to get the maximum points you, should deactivate the Corrupt lizardman which hits through absorption. They are all worth turning off for different reasons, but there are more bosses that you should keep on like the Recipe for disaster bosses or desert treasure bosses which still do have undesirable attacks but they give so many points per kill that they worth keeping on.

 

 

Bosses to Turn off

(Max Points)

Corrupt lizerdman: Hits through absorption

Elvarg: Stat drain

Slagilith: Pickaxes only

Dagannoth mother: Hard to damage

Agrith naar: Teleports you around

Tanglefoot: Magic secateurs

Glod: Drains your prayer

Chronozon: Blast spells

 

 

Bosses to Watch out for

(Max Points)

Gelatinnoth Mother: Same as the Dagannoth

Flambeed: Take your armour off

Karamel: Interrupts you in Combat

Barrelchest: Drains your Prayer points

Fareed: Takes off weapon unless Ice gloves

 

 

Gear

In terms of gear for the maximum points, I recommend taking full Dharok or alternatively your best damage per second gear. You can use Ranged like a Blowpipe or even Magic if you have the money.

 

Your inventory should consist of your special attack weapon, a Rock cake or a Locator orb, 4 overloads, 4-8 prayer potions, and the rest should be absorptions.

 

Upon entering, you’ll want to drink your overload potion and wait until it lowers you down. Proceed to Rock cake and Locator orb down to 1 hitpoint. Now you can drink a lot of Absorption Potions, and you are set to go. To stay at 1 hitpoint, you should be double clicking the Rapid Heal Prayer every 40 – 50 seconds.

 

Once the monsters spawn, you can activate Piety or Rigor or whatever stat boosting Prayers you have and target the monsters that give the most points per kill.

 

It is good to use Zapper and Recurrent damage again to speed up your kills, as well as Power surge with your Special attack weapon. If you see bosses like the Gelatinnoth mother or Fareed, you should use an Ultimate force power-up to clear them out. By following these methods, you can get +1M points per hour. Keep in mind that the number of bosses affects how many points you get. So, if you can, take a look at the list of Nightmare zone quests that is showed before and try to complete more bosses.

 

 

Fastest XP

There are four bosses in the game that give more XP per damage point.

Moss Giant: 107.5%

Dad (Troll): 110%

Ice Troll King: 112.5%

Arrg (Troll): 117.5%

 

Arrg gives a 17.5% XP boost when you damage him, and the other 3 on this list work their way down to 7.5%. On top of these bosses, you should add any easy Melee bosses like Count draynor, the Khazard warlord, or Bouncer. But, always try to have those four boosting bosses available.

 

For the best XP rates, you’ll want to use Prayer all of the time, as well as Absorptions and Overloads. I recommend Dharok’s or your best damage per second gear. Bandos or Obsidian works for a lower level with Melee, or Ranged through Chinning or using a Blowpipe is very effective.

 

Chinning, however, is a lot more expensive here compared to doing it at the Monkey madness caves, but it is a lot more AFK and completely safe. If you do choose to Range here, I recommend turning off the Ice Troll king because although you do get more XP, you will hit nothing with Ranged.

 

To get the maximum XP, you should not get the Zapper, Recurrent damage, or the Ultimate force power-up. The most XP comes out of the Power surge power-up, mixed with a fast attacking Special attack like the Dragon claws. You can use a Dragon dagger or a Granite maul at a lower level, then you can slowly aim for better weapons like the Crystal halberd or Dragon claws.

 

With Ranged, Dragon knives are now extremely OP in the Nightmare zone, as well as the Magic Shortbow special attack. Choosing the correct bosses and using Dragon claws, you can get over 150K Melee Combat XP per hour. With Ranged, you can reach similar XP rates with a Blowpipe and Chins. 

 

 

AFK Methods

Absorptions & Overloads: 5 mins

Absorptions & Super combat potions: 20 mins

Prayer & Prayer bonus gear: 10 mins

Guthans on Easy rumble: 20 mins

 

 

Absorptions & Overloads (5 mins)

The 5 minute AFK method is with Overloads and Absorptions, requiring you to come back to the computer and re-drink your Overload and go back down to 1 Hitpoint. Since you are healed 50 Hitpoints when the Overload runs out, you will get damaged a lot by the monsters around you since their max hit is no longer 1 or low.

 

Absorptions & Super Combat Potions (20 mins)

You can AFK far longer if you take Super combat potions instead of Overloads because you won’t get that 50 Hitpoint boost after 5 minutes. Although, over time, you’ll gain your hitpoints back, and you will still be able to AFK around 10 minutes before you should lower your health again and re-drink Super combat potions.

 

Prayer & Prayer Bonus Gear (10 mins)

With Prayer, you should get your best Prayer bonus gear, Overload potions, and a full inventory of Prayer potions. With a really good Prayer bonus, you can last up to 10 minutes with a Protection prayer on. However, the difference with this is that you can only select Bosses with 1 Combat style, like I mentioned before, you should try to focus only on bosses that use Melee.

 

Guthans on Easy Rumble (20 mins)

You can AFK for up to 20 minutes before stopping attacking with Guthans. You do not need any potions for this since the whole idea is that your Guthans will out-heal the damage you take. You should do this on Rumble Easy. On Rumble Hard, even with 99 Defence, you will get destroyed by most bosses.

 

If you are choosing to do Guthans, you are much better of going to Bandit camp with a Saradomin or Zamorak item for much cheaper and much more AFK training.

 

 

Rewards
The rewards for the Nightmare zone are contained in a chest near Dominic Onion, and the rewards are split into three categories: Resources, Upgrades, and Benefits. These rewards can be purchased using Reward points obtained inside the minigame. A maximum of 2,147,483,647 points may be stored in the chest at once.

 

Imbued Rings

The most important reward that comes out of the Nightmare zone is Imbueables. You can imbue every Fremennik and Wilderness Ring, and that doubles the stats of them.

 

Black Mask and Slayer Helmet

You can imbue the Black Mask and Slayer Helmet as well, which adds a 15% damage and accuracy boost for Magic and Ranged. That is so important for Slayer.

 

Crystal items

You can imbue Crystal items to keep their stats at maximum even as they are degrading.

 

Herb Boxes

If you have an over-supply of points in the Nightmare Zone, and you love it, you should consider spending the remainder of your points on Herb Boxes. By averaging the loot from each one, each box is worth 9.9K in Herbs. Each day, you can collect a maximum of 15 Herb boxes, costing 9.5K points each. That means that each day, you can profit almost 150K coins just by buying and opening the 15 Herb boxes.

 

 

That is a complete Nightmare zone guide. If you need more news and guides related to RuneScape gold, please open the RuneScape news page. There is a 1-99 Ranged guide for Old School RuneScape as well as a beginner’s flipping guide for RuneScape 3 players who want to make some RS3 gold with little effort.

 

 

 

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