Amoxliatl Best in Slot Gear & Strategy Guide

Amoxliatl lives beyond a large door to the west within the Ruins of Tapoyauik in Varlamore. You must first complete The Heart of Darkness quest — she is its final boss — before you can fight her repeatably. After the quest, a lift platform appears in the central chamber that lets you ascend to the Tower of Ascension, unlocking a permanent shortcut for quick access.

To kill her you need level 48 Slayer. She belongs to the Lesser Nagua Slayer category and can be assigned by Chaeldar and Konar quo Maten. The two easiest ways to reach the ruins are the Pendant of Ates (teleports to the Twilight Temple statue once activated) and the Quetzal Transport System to the Salvager Overlook or Quetzacalli Gorge. The fight takes place in an instance, so you face her alone.

The Strategies page recommends the following combat stats: 60+ Attack, Strength, Defence and Hitpoints, plus 37 Prayer for Protect from Magic. A Hunter level of 85 (or 75 with an equipped butterfly net) lets you barehand moonlight moths just outside the chamber to restore Prayer between kills. You can train toward the combat requirements with our Attack, Strength and Prayer guides.

Amoxliatl is a melee fight. Although she has a 30% elemental weakness to fire, the Strategies page is explicit that melee is the better choice because her unstable ice blocks can only be damaged by melee sources — a ranged or magic setup leaves you unable to deal with that special.

She is weak to crush and has -2 flat armour, so the meta is a crush weapon that lands multiple hitsplats, such as the scythe of Vitur, dual macuahuitl, or her own glacial temotli drop. Because her Defence is relatively low, the Strategies page advises prioritising Strength bonus in the rest of your loadout. Slower crush weapons like Torag's hammers are not recommended — they perform worse than a dragon mace and dragon defender with equivalent gear. Bring thralls, since they too only matter as a melee-style damage source here.

We won't list exact best-in-slot pieces — the meta is high-tier melee with a strength focus and a crush option available. For a loadout matched to your bank and stats, use our Boss Gear Finder above, and read our melee gear progression guide if you're still building toward the top tiers.

Based on the Strategies page sample loadout, bring:

• A special-attack weapon (for example burning claws or dragon dagger).
• One divine super combat potion.
• Plenty of Prayer potions or super restores — Prayer can also be topped up by catching moonlight moths outside the chamber, more slowly but saving supplies.
• Food such as manta ray, monkfish or shark. All of Amoxliatl's damage is theoretically avoidable, so experienced players may carry only a few emergency food; lower-damage players should bring more, since a longer fight leaves less ice-free floor space. Cheap options like potato with cheese, or healing hunter meats such as cooked sunlight antelope or cooked pyre fox, also work.
• An Ectoplasmator for Prayer XP each kill.
• A Pendant of Ates for teleporting to the Twilight Temple, a Book of the dead for resurrection (Arceuus) spells, and a rune pouch with runes for Thrall spells and Death Charge.
• House teleport tablets (or construction/max cape) or a desert amulet 4 for banking.

Amoxliatl uses three attacks. After every 2-4 standard attacks she fires one of two special attacks; which one comes first is random, then she alternates between them.

Standard magic attack. She summons ice spikes on your current tile and around the arena. Protect from Magic blocks the initial hit, but the spikes additionally deal typeless damage that prayer cannot stop. An icy pool is then left on the tile you were standing on, dealing 6-10 damage per tick if you stand in it. Her standard max hit is 22.

Unstable Ice (special). Signalled by the cyan message “Amoxliatl forms some unstable ice blocks around you.”, 1-4 blocks of unstable ice spawn near you. If they aren't destroyed within 15 ticks (9 seconds), every remaining block shatters, spreading icy pools across a 3x3 around it and healing the boss 16-25 per block. The blocks can only be destroyed with melee; a melee hit on one is a guaranteed max hit at attack speed 1. After destroying a block you can eat one piece of food without the normal attack delay.

Icicle Crash (special). Flagged by the red message “Amoxliatl disables your prayers and launches an icicle attack!”. She first switches off all your active prayers, then launches an icicle for up to 34 damage. Re-activating Protect from Magic in time negates it, so the key is reacting fast to the prayer being turned off. A Lightbearer-style fast reaction is the whole point of this mechanic.

The core loop is to keep moving off the icy hazards while keeping Protect from Magic up. A good tip from the Strategies page: after Amoxliatl begins her standard attack, run two tiles from where you're standing to drag her forward, then attack her again so you end up on a fresh, non-icy tile. This keeps you out of the icy pools that build up over the fight.

When Unstable Ice appears, switch to destroying the blocks with melee before the 9-second timer — letting them shatter both heals the boss and floods the floor with more icy pools. If you run a scythe of Vitur you can sometimes hit Amoxliatl and an unstable ice block with the same swing, using the extra hits to damage the boss while clearing the ice. When Icicle Crash hits, immediately flick Protect from Magic back on to negate the icicle.

Between kills, refill Prayer on the moonlight moths just outside the chamber (with the Hunter level above) to cut down on prayer potions and banking trips.

The drop information below is taken from the Old School RuneScape Wiki's Amoxliatl page. Killing Amoxliatl gives two rolls on her drop table plus one roll for frozen tears per kill. The full rate table is shown above on this page; here are the marquee uniques:

• Moxi — her pet, the rarest drop at 1/3000.
• Glacial temotli — a crush weapon, dropped at 1/100, that is itself one of the recommended weapons for this fight.
• Pendant of ates (inert) — dropped at 1/25.
• Tooth half of key (moon key) — dropped at 1/125.

She also drops frozen tears, rune armour and weapons, runes, ores and a guaranteed elite clue scroll when killed for an elite-clue “kill a frost nagua” step.

• Standing in the icy pools. The pool left on your old tile deals 6-10 per tick — always step to a fresh, non-icy tile after each standard attack.
• Trying to range or mage her. The fire weakness tempts a magic setup, but unstable ice can only be damaged by melee, so a non-melee loadout cannot handle that special.
• Letting unstable ice shatter. Each shattered block heals Amoxliatl 16-25 and spreads more icy pools — clear them with melee inside the 9-second window.
• Being slow on Icicle Crash. She disables your prayers first; if you don't re-flick Protect from Magic you eat up to 34 damage.
• Bringing a slow crush weapon. Torag's hammers underperform a simple dragon mace and dragon defender here.