Heart of Gielinor

Introduction

Unearthed in the desert, the Heart of Gielinor lays home to generals of gods old and new, representing a struggle between the gods of Seren, Zamorak, Zaros, and Sliske. It is here that you can fight these four generals, and ultimately, an even greater power housed in the centre of the Heart of Gielinor. Bountiful rewards await you, including several sets of unique weapons possessing tier 90 accuracy and tier 80 damage, and requiring level 85 in their respective skill to wield. There are also four different tier 80 anima core armour sets - in Melee, Ranged, Magic, and Hybrid styles - that can be upgraded further using rewards unlocked within the Heart.

Similar to the first God Wars Dungeon, you'll need to kill followers of the corresponding god to unlock access to their chambers. You will need 40 kills once again to buy an hour of time within their chamber, but note this is the only cost. There is no coin fee to enter the instance. As an added boon, this time around, there are a couple advantages conferred when seeking killcount. First, killcount persists between trips; that is, you can leave and return as you wish and it will not deplete. Secondly, there is a multiplier effect for stringing kills together. If you kill creatures quickly, the next kill counts for an extra 10%, up to a multiplier of three times! This helps to speed things up substantially. There is also a reward cutting required killcount in half, from 40 to 20.

The Heart of Gielinor can be reached by travelling through the desert, but travel time can be cut down significantly by using a Heart teleport to place you directly in the lobby. Note that completing the "Tales of the God Wars" miniquest is required to use this tablet.

This guide focuses on normal mode for the four generals of the Heart - Telos and challenge mode will be detailed in future pages.

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Heart of Gielinor Lobby

When entering or teleporting to the Heart of Gielinor, you will be placed in a lobby area. Although there is no bank here, it serves as a safe area as you cannot be attacked by any of the four factions' followers. Here, you can also check how much reputation you have with each of the factions, and talk to each of their representatives. These are:

• Gregorovic's Chosen: Representative for Sliske.
• Helwyr's Chosen: Representative for Seren.
• Vindicta's Chosen: Representative for Zaros.
• Furies' Chosen: Representative for Zamorak.

You can talk to the appropriate one to reclaim any past rewards you may have discarded. Also, Seals from defeated bosses can be handed in to a different faction through one of these representatives to gain reputation with that faction. You cannot hand in seals to the faction whose boss you just defeated (i.e., no giving Seal(s) of the Furies to Zamorak).

You will also see Feng, the Bounty Master here. If you talk to him and tell him which faction you fight for, he will give you a bounty. This is an assignment to kill 100 followers of a different faction. Alternatively, you can kill the boss of that faction, and each boss kill will count for 25 kills. When you have completed your assignment, you talk to him again to "turn it in" (though there is no physical item to hand in) and receive some reputation as a reward. Initially, you have 5 bounties, and these will be replenished at a rate of one per day at reset time. Should you change your mind about carrying out a certain bounty, you can cancel it and ask for a new one, at the cost of one of your current bounties.

Soothsayer Sibil is also in the area, and you can talk to her regarding a couple of options for Telos, i.e. resetting its enrage mechanic or collecting your loot. Below is a map of the area.

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Sliske's Necropolis

Requirements: 80 Prayer

Location: North-east corner

Sliske's Necropolis is home to Gregorovic, a nasty manifestation of Sliske's will. Of the four Heart of Gielinor generals, Gregorovic is arguably the most difficult to take on. His combat level varies throughout the fight, taking on random levels from 1-999, but this is purely a cosmetic change. In addition to his normal auto attacks (ranged, or melee if you stray to close), he has a number of special attacks. It is recommended to use a halberd-style weapon such as a Noxious scythe if opting to melee, since melee hits will add up to more significant damage. His attacks are outlined below:

Strategy: Gregorovic is generally regarded as the most difficult of the Heart generals to fight, especially solo. As mentioned above, set up with a halberd-style weapon if you plan to melee, or alternatively range him. Keep him near the northern part of the arena so only Spirits of Delirium materialize, as the others make kills more problematic if you fail to damage them. Also ensure you have either the venomblood invention perk on your equipment (which negates the poison damage), a supply of antipoison, or another way to negate it such as the Supreme poison purge aura. The poison inflicted by Gregorovic runs down the timers, so note you'll need a lot more time worth of poison than what it indicates on the tin (i.e., a dose of antipoison++ will likely not last you 12 minutes).

Start off by luring Gregorovic far enough north so he's closest to the mask of delirium. If you have it unlocked, you can start off with Soul Split on to heal up from the last kill, if necessary. Count three auto-attacks and be prepared for the Trick Knife attack. Making sure to stay out of melee range (2 spaces away, or more if ranging), put on your shield and Resonance the first hit. You can Reflect the next two Trick Knife hits or switch immediately back to your weapon - it's up to personal preference. Put Soul Split back on and continue hitting Gregorovic. He will call his spirit after three more attacks. If it is the Spirit of Delirium you can ignore it, or try to swipe it with an area-of-effect or chain ability to get a little extra health off Soul Split.

More auto-attacks will follow; continue attacking until you see spots on the ground. This is his Glaive Throw attack. You want to avoid being under or close to any squares afflicted or you will suffer quite a bit of magic damage. Step away, and be careful not to spend channeled abilities right before this attack. Once Glaive Throw ends, the rotation restarts. Resonance should be off cooldown, allowing you to heal off another trick knife. From here, it's mostly rinse and repeat until the kill is finished.

Damage-boosting abilities are very useful and can speed up things substantially. If you are using melee, Quake will knock down his defense which can be useful if you aren't already 100% accuracy against him. Be aware, though, that Berserk can cause you to take heavy damage, and it is best to protect even against auto-attacks whilst under its influence. There are a couple breaks in the rotation (right before spirit summon and glaive throw) that you can sneak in Soul Split to soak up some health.

At 140,000 and 60,000 lp, Gregorovic will summon 2 and 3 shadow clones, respectively. He'll switch places with them frequently and can give you a harsh smack with melee if you get too close. It's advisable to use these spirits to your advantage and kill them to extend Devotion. Use area-of-effect or chain abilities to clear them away as quickly as possible.

IMPORTANT: There are some quirks with the game due to halberd weapons, shields, and 3-tick distance that one should watch out for. Swapping out a halberd for a shield at a distance of two squares will cause you to run straight in to attack. Therefore, to use Resonance on Trick Knife as intended, you should click the ground on a safe square as you swap your shield out. Separately, if you are 3 squares away and click on a target with run on, you will run 2 squares in one game tick...and straight into melee range. Click manually on the ground two squares away, then click separately on the target to avoid taking unnecessary damage. This is an issue with clones and switching of position.

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Seren's Encampment

Requirements: 80 Magic

Location: South-east corner

Seren's Encampment is home to Helwyr, where man quite literally transforms into beast before your eyes. Drawing power from his environment, he calls upon nature to produce toxic green clouds, summon wolves, and more to get in your way. Magic is often favored here to keep a distance from his melee attacks, but a Noxious scythe or other powerful melee weapon can provide another solid option for experienced players.

Strategy: Magic is technically the most advantageous setup against Helwyr due to the combat triangle, but experience players can also opt for a Noxious scythe instead. At any rate, killing Helwyr efficiently and without consumption of a significant amount of food requires key management of the arena space. The arena is divided into 25 blocks. Shortly after spawning, 3 of these will be infected with a green gas cloud from the mushrooms. The top priority should be staying out of these clouds at all costs. If a new batch catches you inside one, immediately use Anticipate and move out. If you are stunned without realizing, Freedom will also work, but is not ideal as it should be saved for later in the rotation to stem the loss of health from Helwyr's bleed attacks. Another option is to use Surge to quickly move out, but care should be taken that your destination is not mired in a different cloud.

Next up will be Helwyr's Rake attack. He will exclaim "YOU. WILL. BLEED!" and proceed to take a swipe at you. There are several ways to deal with this. One option is to absorb the full hit with Resonance to heal up. You will start to suffer minor bleed damage (50 apiece) but do not yet clear it with Freedom. Alternatively, you can attempt to dodge the swipe by running perpendicular to Helwyr, or straight through him. If successfully executed, you take no damage from the swipe and suffer no bleed damage from this attack either.

After 3 more attacks, Helwyr will shout "You cannot escape me!" and thrash around wildly. With practice, one can avoid taking any of these hits by moving out of melee range at the right time. Under some circumstances, Helwyr will skip this attack entirely, which can mess up your rotation, so don't get too carried away. If not, ensure that you are out of melee range, and then Freedom off to clear bleed damage. Ensure you do not step back into his melee range for the duration of Thrash or you will have to suffer bleed damage through the next rotation, and will lose your ability to Resonance off the next Rake attack because of it. Alternatively, you can tank the whole Thrash attack by praying against melee and using Devotion. This is all easier to execute when using magic or having another player there to tank.

Helwyr's final special occurs when he summons 2 Cywir alphas. They do not deal a significant amount of damage, but you can use them to extend Devotion, use Sacrifice for health, etc. Make sure you kill them off by the time Helwyr executes his next Rake attack if you plan to heal off it via Resonance. This strategy can be continued for the duration of the fight. If using Sunshine, make sure to plant it after Nature's Aid to yield the most guaranteed time with it. If you are placing it at a different time, spread it over several different blocks to maximize your odds of being able to stay within the shroud after the next Nature's Aid attack.

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Zaros's Bastion

Zaros' Bastion plays host to the dragon rider Vindicta and her dragon Gorvek. While this encounter does not feature a great number and variety of special attacks, you can soon be in trouble if you don't avoid dragonfire and carefully time your protection prayers.

Requirements: 80 Attack

Location: South-west corner

Strategy: The combat style of your choice can be utilized here, though Magic is often preferred for its range. The fight is split into two parts: from 200,000 LP down to 100,000 (part 1) and then from 100,000 LP down to 0 (part 2). Part 1 is a fairly vanilla fight. Vindicta will execute her rotation, hitting you with melee attacks under most circumstances, and occasionally firing off the ability Hurricane. Soul Split can be used, flicking for attacks as necessary. The only real threat here is Gorvek's dragonfire. When Vindicta raises her swords, be prepared to run a few steps away to maneuver out of the stream of dragonfire. Otherwise, you will take constant, unblockable magic hits.

Once part 1 is done, Vindicta mounts Gorvek and begins a new attack pattern. You will be hit with a melee attack, a 100% accuracy ranged attack, another melee attack. Then the pair will take off, a new line of dragonfire will appear, and they'll chase you down to begin it all again. The melee hits can be tanked or flicked with Soul Split, but the ranged attack needs to be protected. To mitigate the damage most effectively, use Resonance and Devotion whenever available, and otherwise protect from missiles to halve the damage.

Part 2 is more involved, so if possible, save your damage-boosting ultimates for this part of the phase. Use them right before phase 2 begins, timing it so you are set to start using thresholds as Vindicta mounts Gorvek. Take care not to use a channeled ability as she does though, as Gorvek moves around wildly during the process and this will cancel any channeled abilities you are trying to execute. Also beware that after the dragonfire attack, if you stay out of Vindicta and Gorvek's range for too long, the pair will skip the first melee attack and go straight to the 100% accuracy ranged attack.

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Zamorak's Rampart

Requirements: 80 Ranged

Location: North-west corner

Zamorak's Rampart is home to the twin sisters Avaryss and Nymora. When these two sisters aren't chasing you around the arena with their special attacks, Avaryss will melee you whilst Nymora pelts you with ranged attacks. Despite possessing several very different specials, though, the Twin Furies are generally regarded as the least difficult of the four generals in the Heart, and kills should be pretty straightforward once some experience is attained.

Strategy: Usually, fighting one boss is challenging enough. But with the Twin Furies, the fun doubles as you take on both of them and their bag of tricks at once! However, this can actually be used to your advantage, as Nymora and Avaryss have a shared health pool. This means area-of-effect attacks can swipe off damage from both sisters and be more effective than at the other Generals in the Heart. For this reason, halberd weaponry is highly recommended here. As you might expect though, the sisters don't stay together in one place much of the time, so usage of these abilities should be timed carefully to have the maximum effect.

Shortly after starting the kill, Avaryss will speed along the arena in each of the four directions (first North, then West, South, and East). If she hits you, you will be slammed into the opposite wall, take damage, and suffer a short stun. Commit the order of these charges (starting north, then moving counterclockwise) to memory - dodging them should be your first priority, tagging attacks on Nymora in the interrim as possible. If you do get hit, you need to move quickly to avoid the next one, as the stun takes away part of your reaction time. On connections with a higher latency, this attack can be much harder to avoid.

You'll have a short window to hit both sisters, and should Cleave/Quake/Hurricane as time and adrenaline allows, before Nymora initiates the next special attack. Run or Surge to Nymora to avoid sustaining repeated ranged damage, and continue attacking Avaryss, who will follow you over. Once this ends, you'll want to head back toward the centre to be prepared for the Burn phase.

Nymora and Avaryss will join each other in the centre and begin charging a channeled bomb attack. The outer part of the arena will be covered in flames and deal significant damage, so if you are not already near the centre of the arena, you should move there as soon as possible. You will still take periodic damage even in the centre, but it will be greatly reduced and can generally be mitigated via Soul Split, Vampyrism aura, or other means. During this phase, they will be more vulnerable, and your attacks will have much more potency. To take maximal advantage of this, queue Berserk after Rain Death winds down and build adrenaline. Empty thresholds as soon as the sisters are in the centre, making sure to hit both of them with Cleave/Hurricane/Quake as well. When the bars over their heads are almost empty, either Surge out of the way or use Resonance to block the hit. (It won't heal you, but it will zero out.)

After the channeled bomb, you'll have another short window in which to hit the two sisters with more area-of-effect attacks before the rotation begins again from the start. Note: Although Onslaught could be used during the Channeled Bomb attack, but since hits are already boosted greatly, it is mostly a waste of adrenaline and food to do so.

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Centre: Telos

In the heart of the Heart of Gielinor lays a foreboding chamber home to a powerful sleeping giant - Telos. Not just anyone can fight him, however. You must first defeat the four generals within the Heart, being either the top damage-dealing player in a group or completing the kills solo (see the drops section for further details) to obtain the four sigil pieces. Once you have them, they can easily be assembled into an Ancient Sigil, which can be used on the door in the centre to access the boss.

Players should be advised that Telos is significantly harder and more difficult than the four generals in the Heart, who can for the most part be farmed for hours on end solo or in a small group with solid knowledge on the mechanics. Further details on Telos' attacks and strategy will be explained elsewhere. Magic is the preferred style, as the combat triangle favors it most.

Enrage Mechanic

Telos features an enrage mechanic, as well as several drop tables based on his enrage when defeated. After a successful kill, if the player chooses to defer collecting loot, Telos can be faced at a slightly higher enrage, with the exact amount being chosen randomly. Many kills can be strung together for a higher chance of the rarest rewards, unique pieces for crafting two-handed, level 92 weapons. Should a player die whilst on a streak, a portion of the loot (dependent on how many kills long the streak was) can be retained. When starting a streak, you can select any enrage between 0% and the highest you have defeated. If at any time you want to end your streak and collect your loot, you may do so as well. The maximum possible enrage is 4000%.

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Inventory and Gear Setups

A good inventory setup can allow you to last much longer at the Heart of Gielinor bosses. Experienced players can stay nearly indefinitely with the right combination potions and aura rotation. In terms of necessities, the only main item needed is a stock of antipoisons for Gregorovic, or the Venomblood perk on your equipment. A list of generally useful (but not absolutely necessary) items follows, sorted roughly in descending importance.

• Enhanced excalibur (adds up to a whopping amount of health over the course of hours)
• Luck of the dwarves (increased chance of uniques/better rare drop table loot)
• Saradomin brew can help especially for beginners to heal more health per inventory space
• Dreadnip (inflict more damage especially combined with damage; more tricky to use on Twin Furies)
• Ring of vigour (preserves adrenaline after ultimates)
• Asylum surgeon's ring (solid all-class ring, preserves adrenaline occasionally on thresholds)
• Vengeful kiteshield or other kiteshield (matter of personal preference - ability to use Resonance can be useful especially with lower armour)

General gear setups are provided here for varying budgets. It is recommended to have very high stats (90+) along with a Pack yak or Steel titan along with an Overload variant, in conjunction with at least the "Mid-level" gear listed below if one wishes to attempt soloing with efficiency. That being said, skilled players may be able to make more of less - use the setups below as suggestions, not rules. The most beneficial combat styles vary by individual bosses and are described in greater depth in their respective sections above.

Ranged

Melee

Magic

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Rewards

Drops

The four generals in the Heart of Gielinor drop a variety of items, from the components to make anima core armor and tier 85 weaponry to an abundance of resource drops. Seals are always dropped in addition to the main drop, and in a group, all players who do at least a minimal amount of damage will receive seals. In addition, there are 6 boss pets to collect. As usual, only the player dealing the greatest amount of damage has a roll for the pet. The drops are listed in full in the table below.

Reputation Rewards

The chance of receiving certain rare rewards from the bosses (pet drops excluded) can be boosted by gaining reputation with that faction. Handing in seals from another faction's defeated general (5 reputation each), along with completing bounties (150 reputation each), and some one off-feats garner reputation, which automatically unlock boons as listed below. In addition to increasing drop chances, other cosmetic rewards and items to shield you from a faction's aggression are also unlockable. All reputation listed below is cumulative and is not spent when rewards are reached.

Your current reputation with a faction can be checked by talking to their representative in the lobby section of the Heart of Gielinor (i.e., Seren's Chosen for Helwyr). See the table below for the full list of rewards.

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Credits

Original Guide by: Arceus

Special thanks to: Howlin1

Thanks to: Cryptic Rs

Last updated by: Arceus

Last updated on: 05-Jul-2018