God Wars Dungeon

The God Wars Dungeon (or "GWD") is a dungeon where armies of various gods fight, left over from the God Wars.

The Dungeon was first released on 28 August 2007, 18 days after the 10 August 2007 archive of RuneScape that Old School is based on. Its quick return to the live game was enabled by the fact that most of its assets had already been made at the time of the archive and it thus took minimal development time to recreate. One of the first major content releases following the February 2013 server launch, it passed Old School Feature Poll #9 on 9 September 2013 with over 24,860 votes for the return, at an approval of 89%. GWD was then implemented on 17 October for Old School RuneScape servers.

To get slayer assignments related to God Wars Dungeon such as boss tasks, players must complete the Death Plateau quest.

How to get there
God Wars Dungeon is located north of Trollheim. Accessing it requires partial completion of Troll Stronghold, either 60 Strength or 60 Agility, as well as a rope the first time. Without 61 Magic and the completion of Eadgar's Ruse (to be able to use the Trollheim Teleport), climbing boots are also required. Before entering, make sure you have some items aligned to the gods equipped, as otherwise all the followers of those gods will be aggressive, which can quickly kill any player.


 * If you have completed Eadgar's Ruse and have level 61 Magic, you may use the Trollheim Teleport (or the equivalent teleport tablet) to land on top of the mountain east of the Troll Stronghold. From there, make your way down to the base of the mountain and go north. There are Agility shortcuts from level 41 to 47 along the mountain that can be used to shorten the walk. If Making Friends with My Arm has been completed, a stony basalt can also be used as it teleports you to the Troll Stronghold, but this is a longer run.
 * If you cannot use the Trollheim Teleport, teleport to Burthorpe (with a games necklace, for example). This route requires climbing boots, and a stamina potion or some super energies will make the trip faster. From there, follow the blue route either up past the wounded soldier and past Death Plateau, making sure to Protect from Range, or go south-west at the fork to Tenzing's house. Make your way north and follow the route through to where Dad is: either you will have to fight him, or he won't be there, depending on how far along the Troll Stronghold quest you are. From there, enter the cave to the north and follow the map route up to the north.

Go to the northern side of the mountain, where there are thrower trolls whose attacks are very accurate, so turning on Protect from Missiles is recommended when close to them. Go to the small alcove in the north, go past the boulder or crack in the wall, and run north to the entrance, which is the large hole in the ground. This area's chill effect drains your stats by 1 every few seconds, and will also drain all of your run and special energy (this effect can be completely negated if you have lit the fire pit found south-west of the dungeon entrance, which requires completion of Making Friends with My Arm). There are high-level ice wolves here, so using Protect from Melee is helpful. If it is your first time entering the dungeon, use a rope on the hole, and climb down.

Note: The Agility shortcuts (climb the rocky stoneholds) north-east of the entrance as well as to the east of Trollheim are one-way routes into level 22 and 31 Wilderness. Players cannot use the shortcut from the Wilderness to get to the GWD area.

The dying knight

 * West of the dungeon entrance, talk to the Dying knight and receive the Knight's notes. The knight asks you to bring the notes to Sir Tiffy Cashien in Falador Park. You can enter the dungeon without bringing the notes to Sir Tiffy. You don't even need the notes to enter—just speak to the knight before entering the first time. (If you bring the notes to Sir Tiffy, he will take them whether you have read them or not.)
 * After you grab the notes from the dying knight, he will succumb to his fatal wounds. If you did not bring the notes to Sir Tiffy (by destroying it), you can obtain another set of notes from his corpse.

Recommended items

 * Rope (to access the dungeon itself for the first time) - Two more ropes will be needed if venturing into Saradomin's Encampment on the first visit.
 * Ring of life (if solo'ing and/or first-timing)
 * Several Prayer potions or Super restore potions
 * High level armour and equipment, such as Barrows equipment
 * Several Saradomin brews
 * 15+ monkfish or better food
 * One-click teleport (such as the Ectophial, teleport crystal, teleport tablets, or teleport scrolls)
 * Super combat potions or Super sets (optional)
 * Poison protection (only needed if planning to fight K'ril Tsutsaroth)
 * Stat restore potion (for recovering from the icy area above the dungeon for the short haul)
 * Bones to peaches tablets (If fighting bosses multiple times)

Additional items
The following items are needed to enter a particular god's lair.
 * A crossbow and mith grapple (Armadyl's Eyrie)
 * 2 ropes (Saradomin's Encampment; one-time only)
 * A hammer; a Dragon warhammer will also work (Bandos' Stronghold)

God-related protection
All monsters in the dungeon are aggressive to any player unless they have equipped at least one item that is devoted to their god. Aggression remains for a monster until the battle is over whether this be one of the combatants dying or leaving the area. As such, unequipping and re-equipping a piece of equipment will cause monsters in your vicinity to become aggressive but not re-tolerant.

Only one item devoted to a god is required to soothe all of their soldiers and having items devoted to a different god or gods will not cancel out the effect of any other piece of equipment. Appropriately, full tolerance from all monsters in the main dungeon only normally requires four (4) total pieces of equipment: one (1) attuned to each god. For example, equipping an Armadyl pendant, Ancient mace, Zamorak platelegs, and Saradomin cloak will render every combatant unaggressive.

When considering what protection is required to bring, it should be noted that in the main dungeon, there will be no followers of the god diagonally across from that section in the vicinity; the one exception to this is followers of Zamorak, who are dispersed everywhere within the dungeon. Within the god encampments, only protection for that god's followers and protection for Zamorak's followers are required. Each encampment only contains combatants of that god and a small, diffuse number of Zamorakians, except Zamorak's Fortress, which only contains Zamorakian followers.

God equipment
Remember that wielding respective equipment in the dungeon will make monsters following a respective god unaggressive. Without them, players will be subject to attack by that group of followers.

Teleport trick
Note: The player must have access to the Trollheim Teleport or Trollheim tablets.

Players can reach Trollheim without losing additional inventory slots for teleports. This requires using two scrolls of redirection on two teleport to house tablets, creating two trollheim teleport tablets. Once players use the first tablet, they can revert the second one back into a teleport to house tablet, thus negating the need to perform the drop trick.

Dungeon inhabitants
Followers:

Armadyl's general

 * Name: Kree'arra
 * Race: Aviansie
 * Level: 580
 * Attack style: Ranged, Magic, Melee (when not under attack)
 * Bodyguards: Wingman Skree, Flockleader Geerin, Flight Kilisa

Kree'arra cannot be attacked with any Melee attacks. He attacks with melee only when he is not under attack. His Ranged and Magic attacks hit all players in his chamber with a whirlwind attack that knocks players back and freezes them. His maximum hit is 71 with Ranged, 26 with Melee and 25 with Magic.

Bandos' general

 * Name: General Graardor
 * Race: Ourg
 * Level: 624
 * Attack style: Melee, Ranged
 * Bodyguards: Sergeant Strongstack, Sergeant Steelwill, Sergeant Grimspike

General Graardor is very large, brutal, and heavily armoured. Although he does not have a weapon, he still hits very hard and should not be underestimated. He uses Melee and Ranged attacks. His Melee attack can hit up to 60, whilst his Ranged attack has a max hit of 35 (and can hit everyone in the room). Therefore, Protect from Melee is recommended for tanks, whilst the rest Protect from Ranged.

Saradomin's commander

 * Name: Commander Zilyana
 * Race: Icyene
 * Level: 596
 * Attack style: Melee and Magic
 * Bodyguards: Starlight, Growler, Bree

Commander Zilyana is a female Icyene. She is described in the Game Guide as "delivering divine justice with a sharpened tip". Her max hit with Melee is 31 and Magic is 31; lower than the other bosses, albeit being very accurate, and are of the same speed as throwing knives.

Zamorak's general

 * Name: K'ril Tsutsaroth
 * Race: Demon
 * Level: 650
 * Attack style: Melee and Magic
 * Bodyguards: Balfrug Kreeyath, Tstanon Karlak, Zakl'n Gritch

His Magic attacks are relatively weak compared to his Melee attacks. His magical attacks hit a maximum of 30, but are commonly used. His Melee attacks, however, can hit up to 49 (41 even with Protect from Melee). He can drain Prayer and can sometimes hit through protection prayers. K'ril Tsutsaroth can also inflict poison damage which starts at 16, so it is advisable to bring protection against poison.

God chambers

 * At the edges of the main dungeon are special chambers belonging to each god, serving as a sort of "base" for each god's followers. Each chamber contains many minions of the chamber's god. Some Zamorak minions also appear in each of the other three chambers, where they usually fight the inhabitants of those chambers. This means a Zamorak item should be equipped in every god chamber, but Armadyl, Bandos, and Saradomin items only need to be equipped in their respective gods' chambers. This allows the player to swap out items like the Armadyl pendant for more powerful items.
 * Gaining entry to these chambers requires the players to have certain levels and sometimes use of some equipment.
 * At the end of each chamber are the most powerful generals of each god, with Combat levels from 580 to 650. There are also three bodyguards and an altar for the player to use. This altar can only be used once every 10 minutes and only while the player isn't in combat.
 * The Ecumenical key, obtained in the Wilderness God Wars Dungeon, allows players to skip killcount.
 * Spare keys are useful in the event of death.
 * If no players are in the general's chambers and the boss has been slightly damaged, it will despawn after a short period of time, before respawning again at the normal spawn rate.

Armadyl's Eyrie

 * Location: South-west
 * Requires: 70 Ranged (cannot use boosts), a crossbow with a Mithril grapple
 * General: Kree'arra
 * Music: Armadyl Alliance

None of the Aviansie within the chamber can be attacked with Melee. There are a few Zamorak followers roaming the Eyrie (goraks, bloodvelds, werewolves, spiritual rangers), so it is a good idea to keep a Zamorak item equipped (the unholy book or Zamorak vambraces is a good choice for rangers). The Armadyl and Zamorak minions rarely fight one another. No Saradomin or Bandos minions appear in the Eyrie.

Bandos' Stronghold

 * Location: North-west
 * Requires: 70 Strength (cannot use boosts) and a hammer or warhammers
 * General: General Graardor
 * Music: Bandos Battalion

The gong on the big door must be hit with a hammer to enter the chamber. The player will automatically enter the Stronghold when the gong is hit. Strength potions have no effect for the 70 Strength requirement for entry to the Stronghold.

To leave, simply walk up next to the door and it will open, or click on the door ('Bang on big door'). The door does not always open. If this happens, walk about 3-4 squares into the Stronghold and try again. (Simply staying next to the door and repeatedly clicking it does not cause it to open.)

A few minions of Zamorak (a bloodveld, hellhound, imp, werewolf and a few vampires) are found lingering in the Stronghold. Only the werewolf, vampire and hellhound fight the followers of Bandos. The imp is rarely, if ever, attacked.

Saradomin's Encampment

 * Location: South-east
 * Requires: 70 Agility (cannot use boosts), 2 ropes if it is your first time
 * General: Commander Zilyana
 * Music: Strength of Saradomin

Agility boosters cannot be used to enter the Encampment. A few minions of Zamorak (werewolves, vampires, an icefiend, and one gorak) are in the encampment, fighting the minions of Saradomin. Bandos and Armadyl minions do not appear in the Encampment. In the Encampment's boss chamber, players can see an inaccessible watery area. This was originally thought to be a future expansion to the God Wars Dungeon; however, it was later revealed that it is an abandoned area that was originally intended for an underwater passage to Zamorak's Fortress which was replaced by the current jump across the river due to time constraints.

Zamorak's Fortress

 * Location: North-east
 * Requires: at least 70 Hitpoints to cross the river (You will not take any damage - you cannot use boosts)
 * Note: The only way to leave the Fortress without teleports or dying is to cross the river again. You also must have at least 70 Hitpoints to do this to survive the icy water.
 * General: K'ril Tsutsaroth
 * Music: Zamorak Zoo

The player's prayer points are immediately drained to 0 upon entering. In addition to that, the lighting is dimmed and cannot be magnified by any light source. Despite the dim light, it is still fairly easy to see. The light darkens as the player walks towards the boss chamber. This darkness can be dispersed by consuming Saradomin's light, a drop from Commander Zilyana.

If the player's destination is the Fortress, players who are going there for Spiritual warrior or Spiritual mage task should save their Super restore potion (only if they have an equal Slayer level to the monster) before entering. This is usually not needed though as you will recover the lost level fast. As with Super restore potions, Prayer potions should be saved until the player crosses the icy bridge.

The Fortress is the only one of the four gods' chambers that contains only the minions of its god. No minions of Saradomin, Armadyl, or Bandos spawn here.

The changes to GWD
The first original version of GWD was released on 28 August 2007, less than a month after the source code of Old School RuneScape (10 August 2007). On the first official release, Jagex encountered many issues with bugs that arose in the following weeks (28 August 2007) after launch. These issues were fixed before the God Wars Dungeon was implemented into Old School RuneScape.

These fixes included the following:

Server load - Inefficient combat code running on certain monsters caused the servers to struggle.

Safe spotting in boss rooms - Angled walls and doorways were edited to a rectangular form without angled corners which could be used to safe-spot bosses in relative safety.

Monster settings  - Monsters are now able to walk through one another and players without causing them to be stuck. Certain monsters AI flaws were corrected (some monsters used weaponry and combat styles without code to specify how they would do this).

Excessive adamant bar drops  - Originally, Aviansies had a chance of over a 19.5% drop rate of Adamantite bars in bank-note form. The developers did not want bots re-appearing in Old School RuneScape, so to avoid aviansie bots, they only promised to release the GWD if the adamant bars the aviansies dropped were not noted. This has been remedied by having them drop the bars in noted form only when the hard Fremennik Diary has been completed. In addition, aviansies in the Wilderness God Wars Dungeon drop noted bars as well, but players can attack aviansie hunters there.

Minor general bugs
 * Slayer experience is awarded if another monster deals the killing blow (assuming the player deals damage).
 * A section of the Wilderness near the GWD entrance had incorrect map blocking causing players to be stuck.
 * The familiar check at the GWD entrance was removed due to it not working correctly.
 * Killcount is more reliable (resetting to 0 after re-entering).
 * The snow overlay didn't always vanish correctly on leaving the area.

Changes that passed the feature poll include:
 * The four bosses and their bodyguards broadcast messages to all players in their rooms to state what items have been dropped, and to whom.
 * The boss room doors are entrances only, and the altars have a 'Teleport' option to let you exit.
 * When the four bosses drop stacks of herbs, they now do so in banknote form.
 * A new magic weapon similar in behaviour to the is dropped by K'ril Tsutsaroth.

Music
The following music tracks are unlocked in the God Wars Dungeon:
 * Armadyl Alliance
 * Armageddon
 * Bandos Battalion
 * Strength of Saradomin
 * Zamorak Zoo

Trivia

 * Along with the Ourania Altar, the God Wars Dungeon is one a small handful of new updates that recreated content from the original RuneScape 2 using archived assets.
 * There is a mysterious frozen door located south of the rope and slightly east of the entrance to Armadyl's Eyrie. It is used as an entrance to the in RuneScape 3, though has no use in Old School RuneScape and cannot be opened by any means.
 * On release, generals did not despawn if no players were in their chambers. This was added with an update on 29 March 2018 to accommodate for ironmen players.
 * An underwater section of the dungeon in Zamorak's Fortress was originally planned, but scrapped later on in development. Parts of the area can be seen from the entrance to Commander Zilyana's room via the use of an oculus orb.