Brutal Black Dragons
Combat level 318 · 315 hitpoints
Catacombs of Kourend. The classic safespot-and-range money method. With the right combination you take almost no damage at all.
Requirements
- 77 Slayer
- Ranged 85+ recommended
- Prayer 37+
- Antifire mandatory
Pointers
- PROTECT FROM MAGIC + AN ANTIFIRE POTION TOGETHER MAKE YOU COMPLETELY IMMUNE to both their dragonfire and their magic attack. That combination is the entire method.
- With that up, safespot them and you can range for very long trips on minimal supplies.
- Their dragonfire hits up to 50; melee and magic cap at 29 each.
- They have a 50% weakness to WATER spells, so magic is a real alternative to ranged.
- Attack styles are slash, magic and dragonfire. There is no melee-only window.
- The Book of the Dead / Jewellery of Jubilation teleport gets you into the Catacombs fastest.
What the sim brings here
Every worn slot and every inventory row below is the combat simulation's own output, at the style it ranks fastest for each account tier. Each line carries the channel that chose it: sim means the model solved it, and inherited means the value came through from the hand-authored loadout the solver starts from. Riding through a generator does not make a value derived, so those are marked rather than presented as the model's answer. A line marked unattributed carries a channel the model's own vocabulary no longer declares, so no word is put on it at all rather than one being read off the channel's spelling. Where the model has not answered a row, its own refusal is printed instead; where it has answered a row it doubts, the answer is printed with the doubt attached rather than withheld.
max tier, ranged (Ranged and Melee are too close to call)
Worn gear: 11 of 11 slots chosen by the sim.
- Head: Masori mask (f) sim
- Cape: Blessed dizana's quiver sim
- Neck: Necklace of rupture sim
- Ammo: Seeking dragon arrow sim
- Weapon: Twisted bow sim
- Body: Masori body (f) sim
- Shield: nothing sim
- Legs: Masori chaps (f) sim
- Hands: Zaryte vambraces sim
- Feet: Avernic treads sim
- Ring: Venator ring sim
Inventory: 8 of 9 rows chosen by the sim, 1 carrying no channel at all.
- Air rune sim
- Ranging potion(4) x2 sim
- Bastion potion(4) sim
- Extended super antifire(4) sim
- Super restore(4) x5 sim
- Saradomin brew(4) x3 sim
- Cooked moonlight antelope x10 sim
- Rune pouch sim
- Max cape ruled
Spellbook: Standard, claimed by High Level Alchemy (a purpose the boss page names). Grants High Level Alchemy. Cannot cast Vengeance. Vengeance is on Lunar and High Level Alchemy (utility) has claimed Standard. One book per trip.
Open question, not a ruling: Shane: whether runes the page tells the player to carry (alching, telegrab, a mechanic closer) outrank a thrall or Vengeance the damage model ranked on value, when the two live on different books. Default (a) utility wins, chosen by the session-53 coordinator, 2026-09-14, pending Shane
Trip: about 29.3 kills in 15 minutes, limited by food.
max tier, melee (Ranged and Melee are too close to call)
Worn gear: 11 of 11 slots chosen by the sim.
- Head: Torva full helm sim
- Cape: Infernal cape sim
- Neck: Amulet of rancour sim
- Ammo: Ancient blessing sim
- Weapon: Dragon hunter lance sim
- Body: Torva platebody sim
- Shield: Avernic defender sim
- Legs: Torva platelegs sim
- Hands: Ferocious gloves sim
- Feet: Avernic treads (max) sim
- Ring: Ultor ring sim
The model doubts this gear (tied with an identical item, so enumeration order decided): the head, ammo, body slots each hold an item the model cannot tell apart from an alternative the search could equally have taken, re-scored identical in this row's own bag. Enumeration order decided it, so the sim had NO REASON; that is not the same as the pick being wrong. SOLVED_GEAR_TIES names them.
Inventory: 9 of 10 rows chosen by the sim, 1 carrying no channel at all.
- Air rune sim
- Dragon claws sim
- Super combat potion(4) x2 sim
- Extended super antifire(4) sim
- Saradomin brew(4) x6 sim
- Super restore(4) x7 sim
- Zamorak brew(4) x4 sim
- Cooked moonlight antelope sim
- Rune pouch sim
- Max cape ruled
Spellbook: Standard, claimed by High Level Alchemy (a purpose the boss page names). Grants High Level Alchemy. Cannot cast Vengeance. Vengeance is on Lunar and High Level Alchemy (utility) has claimed Standard. One book per trip.
Open question, not a ruling: Shane: whether runes the page tells the player to carry (alching, telegrab, a mechanic closer) outrank a thrall or Vengeance the damage model ranked on value, when the two live on different books. Default (a) utility wins, chosen by the session-53 coordinator, 2026-09-14, pending Shane
Trip: about 47.47 kills in 24 minutes, limited by prayer.
mid tier, melee (Melee is fastest)
Worn gear: 11 of 11 slots chosen by the sim.
- Head: Torva full helm sim
- Cape: Infernal cape sim
- Neck: Amulet of torture sim
- Ammo: Ancient blessing sim
- Weapon: Dragon hunter lance sim
- Body: Inquisitor's hauberk sim
- Shield: Avernic defender sim
- Legs: Torva platelegs sim
- Hands: Ferocious gloves sim
- Feet: Avernic treads (max) sim
- Ring: Ultor ring sim
The model doubts this gear (tied with an identical item, so enumeration order decided): the head, neck, ammo slots each hold an item the model cannot tell apart from an alternative the search could equally have taken, re-scored identical in this row's own bag. Enumeration order decided it, so the sim had NO REASON; that is not the same as the pick being wrong. SOLVED_GEAR_TIES names them.
Inventory: 8 of 9 rows chosen by the sim, 1 carrying no channel at all.
- Air rune sim
- Super combat potion(4) sim
- Extended super antifire(4) sim
- Saradomin brew(4) x6 sim
- Super restore(4) x5 sim
- Zamorak brew(4) x5 sim
- Cooked moonlight antelope x4 sim
- Rune pouch sim
- Teleport to house (tablet) ruled
Spellbook: Standard, claimed by High Level Alchemy (a purpose the boss page names). Grants High Level Alchemy. Cannot cast Vengeance. Vengeance is on Lunar and High Level Alchemy (utility) has claimed Standard. One book per trip.
Open question, not a ruling: Shane: whether runes the page tells the player to carry (alching, telegrab, a mechanic closer) outrank a thrall or Vengeance the damage model ranked on value, when the two live on different books. Default (a) utility wins, chosen by the session-53 coordinator, 2026-09-14, pending Shane
Trip: about 25.08 kills in 17 minutes, limited by food.
budget tier, ranged (Ranged is fastest)
Worn gear: 11 of 11 slots chosen by the sim.
- Head: Void ranger helm sim
- Cape: Guthix cloak sim
- Neck: Necklace of anguish sim
- Ammo: Diamond dragon bolts (e) sim
- Weapon: Dragon hunter crossbow sim
- Body: Elite void top sim
- Shield: Twisted buckler sim
- Legs: Elite void robe sim
- Hands: Void knight gloves sim
- Feet: Avernic treads sim
- Ring: Venator ring sim
The model doubts this gear (tied with an identical item, so enumeration order decided): the cape, neck, weapon slots each hold an item the model cannot tell apart from an alternative the search could equally have taken, re-scored identical in this row's own bag. Enumeration order decided it, so the sim had NO REASON; that is not the same as the pick being wrong. SOLVED_GEAR_TIES names them.
Inventory: 10 of 11 rows chosen by the sim, 1 carrying no channel at all.
- Air rune sim
- Achievement diary cape sim
- Halibut sim
- Ranging potion(4) x2 sim
- Extended super antifire(4) sim
- Saradomin brew(4) x2 sim
- Super restore(4) x3 sim
- Zamorak brew(4) sim
- Cooked moonlight antelope x11 sim
- Rune pouch sim
- Ring of dueling(8) ruled
Spellbook: Standard, claimed by High Level Alchemy (a purpose the boss page names). Grants High Level Alchemy. Cannot cast Vengeance. Vengeance is on Lunar and High Level Alchemy (utility) has claimed Standard. One book per trip.
Open question, not a ruling: Shane: whether runes the page tells the player to carry (alching, telegrab, a mechanic closer) outrank a thrall or Vengeance the damage model ranked on value, when the two live on different books. Default (a) utility wins, chosen by the session-53 coordinator, 2026-09-14, pending Shane
Trip: about 13.23 kills in 10 minutes, limited by prayer.
What each of those badges means
- derived:ascent (sim): an accepted coordinate-ascent move: betterThan() preferred this candidate over the incumbent under the row objective and band. The weapon+ammo+shield pairing and the crystal set arrive here too, because both are offered to the same acceptance test.
- derived:cheapestEqual (sim): cheapestOfEquals(): at budget, an exactly-tied cheaper item replaced the one in this slot. It changes the price and, by construction, not the score.
- derived:composed (sim): balanceInventory() sized this row from the derived supply menu. The menu enumerates CONSUMABLES and narrows by style, tier and price; it is not the authored bag.
- derived:empty (sim): the finished loadout leaves this slot EMPTY, and that is an ANSWER rather than a gap: a two-handed weapon forfeits the shield and a weapon that stores its own ammunition frees the ammo slot. Recorded so a null slot is never read as unprovenanced.
- derived:obtainable (sim): canonicaliseObtainable(): the finished loadout named a variant the model cannot state a route to, and this pass swapped it for the obtainable equal.
- derived:pouch (sim): derivePouchInto(): the rune pouch and its loose overflow, from the spell the build actually casts and the pouch slot criterion. Not from a pouch a human typed.
- derived:required (sim): requiredUtilities(): the fight was priced with and without the item and carrying it lowers damage taken. No per-boss table.
- derived:spec (sim): a carried special-attack weapon PROPOSED by `specPlan` (specchoice.js), which prices every SPEC_ATTACKS weapon that deals damage or drains defence on top of the bag solved without one, and KEPT by `judgeSpecArms` only where the composed bag with it beats the bag without it under `compareScores`. The row's `kpt.specWeapon` carries both arms.
- derived:travel (sim): travelPlan(): the way IN, ranked out of the derived transport graph against this account's own unlocks, rather than copied from whatever a human typed. The way OUT is a separate channel (`ruled:escape`) because it is a typed choice, not a ranking.
- derived:voidSeed (sim): the Void set offered assembled, because an all-or-nothing set effect pays nothing until four slots are right and every single step toward it is a strict loss. The pieces come from VOID_SET in combat.js, the same names its own predicate tests.
- ruled:escape (ruled): escapeLeg(): the way OUT, taken from the typed per-tier table ESCAPE_PLAN and judged against the account, with nothing substituted and no fallback ladder. The ACCOUNT CHECK is a derivation; the CHOICE of item is not, so this is not a `derived:` channel. ESCAPE_PLAN carries no attributedTo field (PROVENANCE_BACKLOG: silent-and-unattributed), so this channel does not claim one either.