Basilisk Knight Best in Slot Gear & Strategy Guide

Basilisk Knights are gated behind two hard requirements:

• Level 60 Slayer — required to deal any damage to them.
• Completion of the quest The Fremennik Exiles — required to access Jormungand's Prison on the Island of Stone.

They live in Jormungand's Prison, beneath the Island of Stone. To get there, travel to the north-western docks of Rellekka (Fremennik sea boots, an enchanted lyre, or a Waterbirth/Lunar route all work), then speak to Haskell on the most western dock to sail to the Island of Stone. Walk briefly north to the dungeon entrance, then head south-west to the old Jormungand boss room — it is now full of Basilisk Knights.

One critical rule: you must wear a mirror shield or V's shield. Without it you take heavy damage and your stats are drained, so the shield slot is locked for this fight no matter which combat style you use.

None of the following is strictly required, but the Wiki advises these levels for a comfortable trip. For melee, aim for 80+ Attack, Strength, Defence and Hitpoints, plus 70+ Prayer for Piety. For ranged, the recommendation is 75+ Ranged.

The fight rewards three viable styles, so pick by your account:

• Melee is generally the fastest, especially paired with a strong special-attack weapon — tank the melee hits and pray against their Magic. Use a crush-style setup where possible, since their crush Defence is weak (-15).
• Ranged is the safest because you can stand out of melee range behind the stalagmites and avoid all melee damage entirely. The Knights have low standard/light ranged Defence (20).
• Magic is strong too — they have a 40% elemental weakness to Earth spells, so an Earth-spell or Earth-weakness setup hits hard.

The shield slot is always a mirror shield or V's shield. For the exact best-in-slot loadout for your style and budget, use our Boss Gear Finder rather than copying a generic list — the meta here is a crush-melee setup, a low-defence-target ranged setup, or an Earth-weakness magic setup. You can also browse our melee gear and ranged gear tiers to see what fits your bank.

Whatever style you pick, the core supplies are similar:

• Prayer potions or Super restores — your one prayer runs the whole trip, so you go through a lot.
• High-healing food such as Sharks (melee) or divine potions plus a healing source (ranged/magic).
• A rune pouch with High Level Alchemy runes to alch noted gear drops on the spot. A Divine rune pouch can even hold alch runes plus teleports in a single slot.
• For melee, a super combat potion (or divine super combat); for ranged, divine ranging potions.

A great trip-extender: Basilisk Knights always drop Big bones, which you can turn into peaches using the Bones to Peaches spell or tablet. Each peach heals 8, so over a long trip this dramatically reduces how much food you need to bring. If you use divine potions, keep Rapid Heal on to offset their self-damage.

Basilisk Knights have 300 Hitpoints and a maximum hit of 20. Their behaviour changes depending on your distance:

• In melee range: they use standard melee (Slash) and Magic attacks, both capped at 20. Keep Protect from Magic on at all times and simply tank the melee hits with food.
• Out of melee range: they only retaliate with Magic — either whenever you attack them, or every 4 ticks if your weapon is faster. This is why Protect from Magic negates almost all damage when ranging or maging from a safespot.

One quirk to know: their attack speed matches your current weapon's attack speed while you are out of melee range, down to a floor of 4 ticks. If you prayer-flick, their damage lands on the tick after your attack roll, so that is when to flip Protect from Magic on. They are immune to the dwarf multicannon and cannot be hit by thralls in this dungeon, and (since a 2021 update) they no longer have any special attack.

Melee: stand in melee range, keep Protect from Magic on, and tank their melee hits with Sharks while you DPS them down. Because their crush Defence is the weakest, fast crush weapons perform very well here. This is usually the fastest method, especially with a good special-attack weapon.

Ranged (safespot): stand just outside the one-tile doorway to the old Jormungand room, or behind the stalagmites, so the Knights cannot reach you in melee. With Protect from Magic up you take almost no damage. Note the Knights will try to walk into melee range the moment you engage, so you must always attack from a true safespot they cannot path to. Stand at least two tiles away when shooting through the stalagmites, and bring Telekinetic Grab runes to pull drops while you still hold aggression.

On-task bonus: always kill them while on a basilisk Slayer task if you can. The basilisk jaw drop rate jumps from 1/5000 to 1/1000 on task — five times better — and a Slayer helmet (i) adds accuracy and damage on top.

The headline drop is the basilisk jaw (1/5000 off task, improving to 1/1000 on a basilisk Slayer task), which upgrades the Helm of Neitiznot into the powerful Neitiznot faceguard. Beyond that, the standout uniques are the Mystic hat (light) (1/256) and the basilisk head (1/1000), with hard clue scrolls and Brimstone keys (on a Konar task) rounding out the table. The bread-and-butter value comes from rune armour, high-tier rune/ammunition stacks, herbs and gems — most of which you can alch or bank during the trip.

• Fighting without the shield. Forgetting your mirror shield or V's shield means heavy damage and drained stats — the single biggest beginner error here.
• Praying the wrong protection. Use Protect from Magic, not Protect from Melee. When safespotting they only attack with Magic; in melee, their Magic is the part you can fully block.
• Attacking from a fake safespot. The Knights will path into melee range if they can reach you, so make sure your tile is genuinely unreachable when ranging or maging.
• Killing them off task. Off task, the basilisk jaw is five times rarer (1/5000 vs 1/1000). If you want the jaw, be on a basilisk task.
• Wasting Big bones. Not converting Big bones to peaches throws away a huge amount of free healing and shortens your trips.