Grotesque Guardians Best in Slot Gear & Strategy Guide

The Grotesque Guardians, nicknamed GG or GGS, are two animated gargoyle statues that sit on the Slayer Tower rooftop. According to the in-game lore they were brought to life during the God Wars by the Bandosian general Snaarldor, and they have remained on the roof ever since.

Players fight them for three main reasons. First, the Slayer experience is excellent: 1,350 Slayer experience per kill, rising to as much as 1,485 with the elite Morytania Diary completed. Because their total health is low for the experience given, you typically earn more Slayer experience than Hitpoints experience per kill, which is why they are a favourite for untrimmed Slayer cape progress. Second, they drop several desirable uniques. Third, they are a manageable solo boss with very low Defence, so good gear translates directly into fast kills.

The combat levels are listed as 248 for Dusk and 228 for Dawn, with Dusk rising to 328 once he absorbs Dawn in the final phase. They are members-only and can only be fought on a Slayer or boss task.

You fight the Guardians on the roof of the Slayer Tower, whose rooftop entrance is on the second floor next to the gargoyle area. To reach them for the first time you must:

• Have level 75 Slayer and be assigned a gargoyle (or Grotesque Guardians) task.
• Complete the Priest in Peril quest to access Morytania.
• Obtain a brittle key from gargoyles while on a gargoyle Slayer task — the key drops at a rate of 1/150 — and use it to unlock the rooftop gate. Once unlocked, the gate stays open permanently and you can no longer obtain brittle keys.
• Bring a rock hammer, granite hammer or rock thrownhammer to deliver the finishing blow, exactly as with normal gargoyles.

Even with the gate unlocked, you cannot proceed up the stairs without an active gargoyle or Guardian task — the game stops you with dialogue. To get to the tower quickly, a slayer ring teleports to the main entrance, the fairy ring code CKS lands just south, and Salve Graveyard Teleport or Kharyrll Teleport drop you nearby. An eternal slayer ring is highly recommended for fast banking. The Strategies guide also notes that with 81 Agility you can use the Ivy shortcut outside the tower entrance to return to the roof quickly after a death, avoiding aberrant spectres on the way.

Recommended stats from the Wiki strategy are 75+ Attack, 75+ Strength, 70+ Defence, 75+ Ranged, 75+ Hitpoints, and 70+ Prayer for Piety (74+ for Rigour). The Guardians have abysmal Defence, so almost any setup of the right style works — better gear simply shortens kills.

This is fundamentally a hybrid fight, so plan around two damage types. Dawn is airborne and can only be hit with Ranged, Magic or a halberd, while Dusk must be hit with melee because he is immune to Magic and Ranged. Since the 25 June 2025 update, Dawn has a 70% elemental weakness to earth spells and Dusk a 40% earth weakness (though Dusk stays immune to Magic, so his earth weakness only matters for golembane-style hits, not magic), which makes Earth Surge a strong option against the airborne Dawn for players bringing Magic. The common meta is still Ranged-for-Dawn plus melee-for-Dusk, or a melee-only approach using a halberd that can reach Dawn.

• Ranged for Dawn: a fast, accurate ranged weapon family is ideal. The Wiki highlights bows with multi-target or fast hit profiles to stack damage on Dawn quickly. Pair with high-tier ranged armour and a slayer helmet.
• Melee for Dusk: any strong melee weapon works given his low Defence, with multi-hit weapons especially good because Dusk has -1 flat armour. A slayer helmet (i) plus your best strength gear is the core.
• Melee-only: requires a halberd fast enough to attack Dawn — the Wiki specifies that only the fastest halberds keep up, as other halberds hit too slow.

Rather than memorise an exact best-in-slot list, plug your levels and budget into our Boss Gear Finder above to get an exact loadout for both the melee and ranged halves of the fight. You can also compare ranged gear and melee gear tiers there.

Because both Guardians have incredibly low Defence, you heal very efficiently, so the Wiki recommends bringing a form of sustain over raw food where possible. Core inventory items the strategy lists include:

• Your ranged switches (for the Dawn phases) if not going melee-only.
• Super restores — the strategy suggests super restores over prayer potions so you can also drink Saradomin brews. A max-gear list runs around 9 super restores.
• Food or Saradomin brews — roughly 5 to 7 pieces depending on your gear.
• A Divine super combat potion and a Divine ranging potion to boost both styles.
• A rock hammer (unless you carry a granite hammer as your weapon) to finish each Guardian.
• A slayer ring for teleporting, and a divine rune pouch with runes for Death Charge and thralls — the Wiki notes four thralls per fight gives permanent uptime since Dawn is immune to melee and Dusk to Magic and Ranged.

A useful detail from the drop notes: Saradomin brews are not dropped together with the combat potions, so if you drink brews you will need to top your combat stats back up. The Prayer drain from constant overhead prayer switching is significant, which is why restores are emphasised.

The fight is started by ringing the Cloister Bell on the north side of the roof, which triggers an awakening cutscene. After five kills the bell gains a Quick-start option to skip the cutscene. The fight has four phases: phases 1 and 3 are against Dawn, phases 2 and 4 are against Dusk.

Standard attacks. During the first three phases, Dusk uses a slash melee attack that hits up to 15, reduced by about 80% under Protect from Melee. Dawn uses a ranged attack that lands as two separate hits, each with a max of 9, and if you stand in melee range she may kick for up to 15.

Phase 1 (Dawn). Dusk is immune to all damage, so attack Dawn with Ranged, Magic or a halberd. Pray Protect from Missiles against her ranged attacks. She may launch a Stone Ball with a 3x3 area of effect that encases you in stone, acting as a 10-tick (6-second) stun and dealing up to 15 damage — move out of its shadow. Dawn flies up at around 55% health, starting phase 2.

Phase 2 (Dusk). Dusk becomes attackable and must be meleed (his armour blocks Magic and Ranged, and burn damage does nothing to him). After attacking once he charges a blinding attack, shown by his missing wing glowing — step one tile away to dodge it or take damage in the high 20s and get knocked back. Meanwhile Dawn rains a rockfall of 9-10 debris pieces with 3x3 AoE: edges hit up to 22, and a direct hit knocks you out, stunning you for 10 ticks. Never stand directly under Dusk, as he can trample you for up to 40 damage. Dusk reaching about 55% health begins phase 3.

Phase 3 (lightning, then Dawn). The pair charge a lightning attack that deals 5-10 damage per tick to anyone on or next to the vortices, one of which always targets your current tile — there is a one-second warning, so move to a clear spot. Afterward Dawn becomes attackable and launches three energy spheres that grow in charge stages; if she absorbs a fully-charged sphere it heals her 90 Hitpoints each, so absorb them yourself (which is penalty-free) unless your DPS is high enough to finish her first. Use the rock hammer once she drops below 10 health.

Phase 4 (empowered Dusk). Dusk absorbs Dawn's essence: his Attack rises to 300, his Strength, Magic and Ranged to 250, Defence to 150, and he gains one flat armour and grows to a 6x6 monster. He immediately uses a prison attack, dragging you somewhere in the arena and trapping you in a 3x3 cell of blue flames with one tile missing as the safe exit — fail to escape within 5 ticks and take up to 65 damage that also heals Dusk. He now uses both melee (up to 26) and a twin-hit ranged attack (up to 15 per orb, ~30 total). Prayer cuts his melee by about 80% and ranged by about 55%. The Wiki's simplest rule is to pray against the style of his previous attack, since his switches are otherwise hard to predict. Smash him with the hammer below 10 health to finish the kill.

A clean kill follows the four phases in order with disciplined prayer switching. Start the fight from the left-most tile next to the bell, which off-ticks the Guardians and minimises incoming damage.

• Phase 1: begin on Protect from Missiles, then switch to Protect from Melee when Dawn's attack animation starts and back to Missiles right after Dusk's animation starts. A simpler low-effort line is to stay on Protect from Melee next to Dawn so she favours her kick. Burn Dawn to ~55% to push her up.
• Phase 2: melee Dusk, attacking a few times with a 4- or 5-tick weapon, then back off one tile before his blinding attack lands and return once his wings cover his face. Keep moving out of Dawn's rockfall shadows and never stand under Dusk. Drive Dusk to ~55%.
• Phase 3: dodge the lightning vortices, then decide on the orbs. Players with 90+ Ranged or 90+ melee can "orb skip" — kill Dawn before she absorbs any spheres. The Wiki notes a fast ranged weapon gives roughly a 75-85% orb-skip chance depending on the bow used; otherwise absorb the spheres yourself and pray correctly while finishing her, standing one tile west of the eastern wall to pray against both her styles.
• Phase 4: escape the prison to the missing fire tile, then trade with Dusk while praying against his last-used style. If he prisons you against a wall with no exit, simply run onto the missing fire tile to avoid the damage. Hammer him below 10 health.

A crystal halberd or Dragon claws special attack is excellent for ending the Dawn phases quickly and helping skip orbs. With strong gear, two-minute kills are achievable, and the strategy notes you can downgrade several BiS pieces and still hit that pace.

Every kill drops granite dust as a guaranteed reward, and you roll the standard loot table twice per kill, so effective rates are roughly double the per-roll numbers. The marquee uniques are:

• Black tourmaline core — the headline unique, used to make the ring of suffering recoil-and-restore upgrade; drops at 1/1000 per roll.
• Granite hammer — a fast, hard-hitting one-handed melee weapon with a special attack; drops at 1/750 per roll.
• Granite ring — a melee ring that boosts crush bonuses, with an in-combat "clench" effect; drops at 1/500 per roll.
• Noon — the boss pet (the counterpart to Midnight); a single roll of 1/3000.
• Jar of stone — the collector's jar, a single roll at 1/5000.

The full drop table, including supply and resource drops, is shown above. You can check live prices for any of these on our GE price tracker.

• Attacking the wrong target. Dusk is immune to Magic and Ranged and Dawn is immune to non-halberd melee — hitting the immune Guardian wastes the whole phase. Match your style to the active target.
• Standing under Dusk. This lets him trample you for up to 40 damage in phases 2 and 4, and also exposes you to his blinding knockback. Keep a tile of space.
• Ignoring rockfall and Stone Ball shadows. Both have a 3x3 AoE; a direct hit stuns you for 6 seconds and edges still hit hard. Always move out of the looming shadow.
• Letting Dawn absorb energy spheres. Each fully-charged sphere heals her 90 Hitpoints, dragging out phase 3. Absorb them yourself unless you can out-DPS and orb skip.
• Mistiming the blinding attack. Running back to Dusk just as he expands his wings gets you hit; wait until his wings cover his face before returning.
• Forgetting the hammer. You cannot finish either Guardian without a rock hammer, granite hammer or rock thrownhammer — leaving it in the bank ends the trip.