Artio Best in Slot Gear & Strategy Guide

Artio is fought inside Hunter's End at roughly map coordinates 3116, 3677. To enter her lair you must have completed the hard Wilderness diary, or hold a Callisto boss Slayer task — note that a generic bear Slayer task does not bypass the diary requirement.

Getting there safely matters because the run is through the Wilderness. Common approaches are to teleport to Ferox Enclave with a ring of dueling and run north, teleport to Carrallanger with 84 Magic (or a teletab) and run west, or teleport to the Corporeal Beast with a games necklace and run west — but beware, the area directly outside the Corporeal Beast cave is multicombat.

Artio is weakest to Magic and Ranged, and melee combat is not advised because she can deal very high melee damage straight through prayer. The meta is to freeze her with Ice spells and then kill her from range or with magic. The suggested skills from the strategy page are 90+ Combat (95+ recommended), 60+ Hitpoints (90+ recommended), 70 Defence for Rigour/Augury, 44 Prayer (77+ recommended for Augury), 75+ Ranged (90+ recommended), and 92+ Magic (94+ recommended for Ice Barrage).

For a ranged setup, the strategy page calls the Webweaver the strongest weapon against Artio; the idea is to maximise ranged damage while keeping your Magic attack bonus at 0 or higher, so your freezes are guaranteed. Pieces like bloodbark boots, rune gloves, a god cape and a ring of shadows help keep that Magic bonus high without sacrificing much ranged DPS or adding risk. Magic defence is also useful for tanking PKers. A pure magic setup hits Artio harder but typically leaves you with weaker defences against player killers. Rather than list exact items here, plug your levels into our Boss Gear Finder above for a tailored loadout — and remember that everything you wear here is at risk to PKers.

The strategy page's inventory is built around survival in the Wilderness, not just the kill. Bring a looting bag, a stamina potion for running, a Divine ranging potion (or a Forgotten brew on a magic setup), some blighted super restores, and blighted ancient ice sacks or blighted entangle sacks to freeze Artio. Carry an anti-venom+ in case a PKer venoms you, and a royal seed pod to teleport from up to level 30 Wilderness.

Fill the rest with food — if you are 93 or higher Hitpoints, blighted anglerfish are superior, cheaper and more useful than manta rays. Leave 2–3 slots empty for picking up drops. If you want extra survivability you can swap a protected item for a Dinh's bulwark, and on a magic setup it is wise to bring black d'hide body and chaps to switch to if you need to escape PKers.

Artio attacks every 5 ticks with four things to manage:

• Melee swipe: her main attack, with AoE that can reach diagonally. It hits up to 35 (minimum 15). Protect from Melee only reduces it by roughly 50% because of that minimum hit — which is exactly why you freeze her instead of standing in melee.
• Ranged: if she cannot reach you with melee, she launches crescent-shaped projectiles at everyone in the den for up to 17 damage. This is far weaker than her melee, so keeping her frozen and out of melee range is the goal.
• Knockback orb: she occasionally throws a white orb at a target that flings them backwards. Switch on Protect from Magic when it is about to hit or you risk up to 50 damage. Damage scales with how far you are knocked into a wall or trap — 5 if pushed the full 3 tiles freely, up to 50 if you are right next to an object.
• Bear traps: at 66% and again at ~33% health she roars and scatters ghostly bear traps across the arena. Stepping on one deals up to 15 damage and briefly binds you. The roar also makes her glow red and break free of your freeze, so you must refreeze her afterwards.

All players who enter spawn to the north of the den; Artio spawns to the south, right in front of the exit. The kill loop is simple: freeze her with an Ice spell, then attack from range or magic while she is stuck. Ice spells land often even with minimal magic gear, and the first freeze is guaranteed to hit as long as your Magic attack bonus is 0 or higher and she is not already frozen. Watch for the white orb and flick Protect from Magic for it; at 66% and 33% expect the bear-trap roar, dodge the traps, and refreeze her since the roar breaks the bind.

One very low-effort alternative is the tank method: use Protect from Melee and heal with Bloodbark armour and Blood Barrage. Players with high Magic and Defence can heal more with Blood Barrage than Artio damages them through prayer, turning the kill into occasional eating and prayer restoration. Throughout, treat PKers as the real threat — scouting with a secondary account at the entrance, enabling PK skull prevention, and bringing only what you can lose are all strongly recommended.

Artio's value is on her unique table, which has a 1/103.12 chance to be rolled per kill. The headline drops are the voidwaker hilt at 1/912, the claws of callisto at 1/618, the tyrannical ring at 1/716, and the dragon pickaxe at 1/358. She also drops a Callisto cub pet as a tertiary. The full drop table, with every rate, is shown above this guide.

• Trying to melee her. Her melee hits up to 35 and has a 15 minimum that Protect from Melee can only partly block — freeze and range/mage her instead.
• Letting your freeze lapse. When she roars at 66% and 33% she breaks free; if you do not refreeze immediately she walks back into melee range.
• Ignoring the white orb. Failing to flick Protect from Magic for the knockback can cost up to 50 damage, especially with your back to a wall or a bear trap.
• Over-risking gear. This is the Wilderness in a singles-plus area — bringing untradeables without a trouver parchment, or anything you cannot afford to lose, is how kills turn into a PKer's payday.