Grotesque Guardians

DawnDusk
Grotesque Guardians
Released	26 October 2017 (Update)
Also called	GG/GGS
Type	Boss
Members	Yes
Location	Slayer Tower
League region	Morytania✓
Participants	1
Music	Tempest

This fight takes place in an instance with a deathbank.

On death, you can pay the Magical Chest

50,000 to retrieve lost items.
Any unsafe death will delete all items left inside the deathbank. Any items left on the ground will be lost.

This article has a strategy guide.

All information on mechanics and strategy will be on this page.

The Grotesque Guardians are a pair of gargoyles, Dusk and Dawn, found on the Slayer Tower's rooftop, whose entrance is found on the 2^nd floor^[UK]3^rd floor^[US]. In order to access the roof for the first time, players must obtain a brittle key from gargoyles while assigned them for a Slayer task (requiring 75 Slayer). Once you've unlocked the gate to the roof, you no longer need a brittle key and can no longer obtain them.

Similar to other Slayer bosses, such as Cerberus and the Abyssal Sire, the Grotesque Guardians can only be killed while the player is assigned gargoyles or the Guardians themselves as a Slayer task. Players attempting to use the stairs to the roof without the proper Slayer task (having unlocked the stairway gates with the brittle key prior) will be stopped via dialogue and not proceed.

Despite Dusk and Dawn being two different entities, killing both guardians only counts as one kill due to Dusk absorbing Dawn's essence. However, if the player has the Double Trouble perk unlocked, Dawn's death will also be included, although Dusk still needs to be killed and the full boss fight completed in order to receive experience and task progression.

Upon Dusk's death, 1,350 Slayer experience is awarded. Completing additional tiers of the Morytania Diary will reward the player with more xp, with an additonal 33.75 slayer xp after completing the easy tier, 67.5 slayer xp with the medium tier, 101.5 slayer xp with the hard tier, and 135 slayer xp with the elite tier. Slayer experience per kill is not affected by the Double Trouble perk.

The Grotesque Guardians are fought in a solo instance. Note that unlike other instances, players are kicked out of their instance after five minutes of inactivity; players are warned when there is one minute remaining, and another when thirty seconds remain. Players can reset this timer by ringing the Cloister Bell.

History

A Dorgeshuun goblin during the God Wars left a written record entitled The living statues detailing their account of how the Grotesque Guardians (as well as the gargoyles on the top floor) came to be animated.^[1]

The animated statues were created by the Bandosian general Snaarldor during the God Wars. Bandos sought to bolster his troops with more durable fighters than the goblins he'd been using, such as the Dorgeshuun. He sent Snaarldor and a group of goblins to the Slayer tower (Viggora's Folly) to achieve this.^[2] Creating an incantation circle with stakes made of Bandos's metal (the same metal used in Bandos armour), along with a large hunk of tourmaline, Snaarldor performed the ritual at high noon, instructing his soldiers to strike the bell once the tourmaline core began to sink into the floor.^[3]

When the bell was struck, a surge of black energy pulsed from the bell, causing the statues on the rooftop, as well as the lower floors, to come to life. Snaarldor proceeded to order the Guardians to fight for Bandos, attacking the forces of Armadyl, Saradomin and Zamorak.^[4] Upon the mention of the last name, the two gargoyles immediately tilted their heads, which Snaarldor believed to be having gained their loyalty. Snaarldor's assistant, a Dorgeshuun goblin, knew otherwise and tried to warn him of it, but the ourg threatened him.^[5] Before Snaarldor could finish his threat, he was immediately swept in a blur, as the two gargoyles began fighting him, swatting away his ork soldiers who tried to beat them off their general.^[6]

Exchanging strikes mid-air, Snaarldor managed to break one of Dusk's wings, but fell to the ground, while the Guardians returned to the top of the tower. After getting up from the fall, Snaarldor called for his soldiers to retreat.^[7]

Today, the Grotesque Guardians remain on the rooftop, the entrance to which is locked.

The fight

Like gargoyles, players must bring a rock hammer, rock thrownhammer, or granite hammer to finish them off.

To initiate the fight, players must ring the Cloister Bell in the north side of the roof. This will trigger a cutscene in which the Guardians will awaken, and the fight will begin. If players have killed the Guardians at least five times, the Cloister Bell will have a "Quick-start" option, which will skip the cutscene and start the fight directly. Attempting to ring the bell again before the fight is over will yield the message Concentrate on your fight! in the chatbox.

After being awoken, the Guardians will initiate combat with the player.

The fight consists of four phases, of which the first and third phases require the player to fight Dawn, and the second and final phases requiring the player to fight Dusk. Dawn is flying and cannot be targeted by non-halberd melee weapons, while Dusk is completely immune to magic and ranged damage. Despite their high combat level and health, the Guardians have near non-existent defence.

The second phase starts once Dawn's health reaches around 50%, after which she will fly up, leaving Dusk alone. Dusk will periodically launch an explosive wave that damages anyone next to him, while Dawn will drop rubble from above. The rubble has a 3x3 AoE; being caught directly in one will additionally stun the player.

The next phase starts when Dusk's health reaches around 50%, after which Dawn descends and the two Guardians will emit lightning across the arena.

After the lightning attacks, Dawn will send out three energy spheres that will grow larger over time, while Dusk covers himself again, so they should focus on Dawn. If players do not absorb these spheres in time, each will heal Dawn for 90 Hitpoints each. Players can optionally ignore the spheres if they can deal enough damage to Dawn and finish her off with the hammer before she absorbs the spheres.

After killing Dawn, Dusk will absorb her essence, increasing his stats (barring his health) and having the ability to use her ranged attacks alongside his melee ones, initiating the last phase of the fight. At the start of this phase and periodically afterwards, Dusk will grab the player to a random location and imprison them in a prison of flames, which they must escape or take heavy damage which heals him in the process.

The player is knocked back by Dusk's explosive attack.
The Grotesque Guardians perform their lightning special attack.
The player is damaged by the prison of purple flames, healing Dusk.

Money making

The following money making guide is available for Grotesque Guardians:

Method	Hourly profit	Skills
Killing the Grotesque Guardians	1,071,610	75 90+ 43+ ( 70+ and 70+ recommended to use Piety)

Drops

Drop rates are estimated based on 4,870,264 samples from the Drop Rate Project, unless otherwise cited.

In addition to the 100% drop of granite dust, the player will also have two rolls on the Grotesque Guardians' drop table, including unique items but not tertiary items. The drop rates in the drop table below reflect the chance of getting an item for every roll on the standard loot table, which means the effective drop rate is approximately double the listed numbers per kill. Unlike the Kalphite Queen, you are not guaranteed to get a food or potion drop each kill. The chance of getting any unique from the Grotesque Guardians is 1/48, although this includes the Granite Maul which also appears on the drop table of regular Gargoyles.

The average Grotesque Guardians kill is worth 68,589.93. The average Grotesque Guardians kill while on a Konar task is worth 70,951.7. The average high alch value of drops from the "Weapons and armour" table per kill is 10,738.00.

100%

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Granite dust	50–100	Always	Not sold	2,400–4,800

Unique

Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
Granite maul	1	2 × 1/250	152,459	30,000
Granite gloves	1	2 × 1/500^[8]	58,692	20,400
Granite ring	1	2 × 1/500^[8]	25,317	9,000
Granite hammer	1	2 × 1/750^[8]	3,296,117	38,400
Black tourmaline core	1	2 × 1/1,000^[8]	1,607,330	24,900

Weapons and armour

Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
Rune pickaxe	1	2 × 6/142	18,603	19,200
Rune full helm	1	2 × 5/142	20,546	21,120
Rune platelegs	1	2 × 5/142	37,792	38,400
Rune 2h sword	1	2 × 4/142	37,876	38,400
Rune battleaxe	1	2 × 3/142	24,490	24,960
Dragon longsword	1	2 × 1/142	59,156	60,000
Adamant boots	1	2 × 1/142	813	1,152
Dragon med helm	1	2 × 1/142	58,462	60,000

Supplies

Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
Mushroom potato	4–6	2 × 10/142	3,448–5,172	108–162
Saradomin brew(4)	2	2 × 8/142	16,408	240
Magic potion(2)	1	2 × 6/142^{[d 1]}	66	120
Ranging potion(2)	1	2 × 6/142^{[d 1]}	1,207	129
Super combat potion(2)	1	2 × 6/142^{[d 1]}	7,227	54
Prayer potion(4)	1–2	2 × 4/142	8,597–17,194	114–228

^ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 These three potions are always dropped together.

Resources

Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
Gold ore	40–50 (noted)	2 × 7/142	5,360–6,700	3,600–4,500
Adamantite bar	25–40 (noted)	2 × 6/142	49,425–79,080	9,600–15,360
Gold bar	35–50 (noted)	2 × 6/142	3,885–5,550	6,300–9,000
Mithril bar	35–45 (noted)	2 × 6/142	33,845–43,515	6,300–8,100
Coal	180–250 (noted)	2 × 5/142	28,620–39,750	4,860–6,750
Runite ore	3–6 (noted)	2 × 4/142	30,474–60,948	5,760–11,520
Runite bar	3–5 (noted)	2 × 3/142	36,669–61,115	9,000–15,000

Shark drop table

There is a 4/142 (2.8%) chance to roll the shark drop table.^[9]

Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
Raw shark	20 (noted)	2 × 1.5/142	12,140	2,040
Shark lure	40	2 × 1.5/142	10,360	240
Raw sea turtle	20 (noted)	2 × 1/142	13,580	2,400

Other

Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
Coins	10,000–20,000	2 × 10/142	10,000–20,000	10,000–20,000
Chaos rune	100–150	2 × 8/142	11,100–16,650	5,400–8,100
Coins	25,000	2 × 5/142	25,000	25,000
Crystal key	1	2 × 5/142	21,821	90
Death rune	90–130	2 × 5/142	16,650–24,050	9,720–14,040
Dragon dart tip	15–25	2 × 5/142	21,945–36,575	2,250–3,750
Diamond bolt tips	100–150	2 × 3/142	17,300–25,950	7,900–11,850
Dragonstone bolt tips	20–40	2 × 2/142	10,840–21,680	8,000–16,000
Onyx bolt tips	10–15	2 × 2/142	80,250–120,375	6,000–9,000
Dragon arrowtips	50–150	2 × 1/142	158,000–474,000	15,000–45,000
Soul rune	20–40	2 × 1/142	8,140–16,280	3,600–7,200

Tertiary

Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
Brimstone key	1	1/44^{[d 1]}	Not sold	N/A
Clue scroll (elite)	1	1/230^{[d 2]}^{[d 3]}^[10]	Not sold	12
Noon	1	1/3,000^{[d 4]}^[11]^[12]	Not sold	N/A
Jar of stone	1	1/5,000^[8]	1,590,942	1

^ Brimstone keys are only dropped if killed on a Slayer task given by Konar quo Maten.
^ The elite clue scroll drop rate increases to 1/218 after unlocking the elite Combat Achievements rewards tier.
^ Clue scrolls will drop as scroll boxes after the completion of X Marks the Spot.
^ The player will always receive Noon, but they can use the "Metamorphosis" option while being followed to switch between Noon and Midnight.

Combat Achievements

There are 15 Combat Achievement tasks (totalling 59 points) available for Grotesque Guardians.

Name	Description	Type	Tier	Comp%
Static Awareness	Kill the Grotesque Guardians without being hit by any lightning attacks.	Mechanical	Hard (3 pts)	26.4%
Don't Look at the Eclipse	Kill the Grotesque Guardians without taking damage from Dusk's blinding attack.	Mechanical	Hard (3 pts)	26.3%
Granite Footwork	Kill the Grotesque Guardians without taking damage from Dawn's rockfall attack.	Mechanical	Hard (3 pts)	26.6%
Prison Break	Kill the Grotesque Guardians without taking damage from Dusk's prison attack.	Mechanical	Hard (3 pts)	26.8%
Grotesque Guardians Adept	Kill the Grotesque Guardians 25 times.	Kill Count	Hard (3 pts)	23%
Heal No More	Kill the Grotesque Guardians without letting Dawn receive any healing from her orbs.	Mechanical	Hard (3 pts)	26.8%
Grotesque Guardians Speed-Trialist	Kill the Grotesque Guardians in less than 2 minutes.	Speed	Elite (4 pts)	17.8%
From Dusk...	Kill the Grotesque Guardians 10 times without leaving the instance.	Stamina	Elite (4 pts)	14.2%
Perfect Grotesque Guardians	Kill the Grotesque Guardians whilst completing the "Don't look at the eclipse", "Prison Break", "Granite Footwork", "Heal no more", "Static Awareness" and "Done before dusk" tasks.	Perfection	Elite (4 pts)	24.7%
Grotesque Guardians Veteran	Kill the Grotesque Guardians 50 times.	Kill Count	Elite (4 pts)	19.7%
Done before Dusk	Kill the Grotesque Guardians before Dusk uses his prison attack for a second time.	Mechanical	Elite (4 pts)	26.7%
Grotesque Guardians Speed-Chaser	Kill the Grotesque Guardians in less than 1:40 minutes.	Speed	Master (5 pts)	11.2%
... 'til Dawn	Kill the Grotesque Guardians 20 times without leaving the instance.	Stamina	Master (5 pts)	8.1%
Perfect Grotesque Guardians II	Kill the Grotesque Guardians 5 times in a row without leaving the instance, whilst completing the Perfect Grotesque Guardians task every time.	Perfection	Master (5 pts)	11.8%
Grotesque Guardians Speed-Runner	Kill the Grotesque Guardians in less than 1:20 minutes.	Speed	Grandmaster (6 pts)	5%

Changes

Date	Changes
27 August 2025 (Update)	The Grotesque Guardians are now vulnerable to golembane weapons.
25 June 2025 (Update)	Dusk now has a 40% elemental weakness to earth spells (despite being immune to Magic) and -1 flat armour. Dawn now has a 70% elemental weakness to earth spells, and can now be damaged with halberds. The Grotesque Guardians' rockfall attack will now only stun players if directly hit by it; players will still take damage if within its 3x3 area-of-effect as before. The Grotesque Guardians now drop 20 noted raw sharks, 40 shark lures, 20 noted raw sea turtles, and 20-40 soul runes. The amount of onyx bolt tips dropped was increased from 5-10 to 10-15. The amount of death runes dropped was increased from 60-100 to 90-130. The amount of gold ore dropped was reduced from 40-75 to 40-50. Coal drops more rarely, decreasing from 6/137 to 5/142. Dragon dart tips drop more commonly, increasing from 4/137 to 5/142.
14 July 2021 (Update \| poll)	Energy Spheres no longer deal damage when a player absorbs them. There will be indicators on where the rocks in the second phase of the fight would land.
23 July 2020 (Update)	An issue in which the damage done by the player during the fight's transition phases were miscalculated has been fixed.
9 July 2020 (Update \| poll)	Dusk and Dawn are no longer invulnerable during phase transitions. The lightning transition phase when Dawn flies away during the fight has been removed, and Dusk will become attackable as soon as Dawn begins to fly. The transition when she flies back will still occur. Dawn and Dusk will now reach their positions faster during the lightning phase transition.
12 July 2018 (Update \| poll)	Dusk and Dawn's hitpoints have been decreased from 600 to 450.
26 October 2017	Hotfix Grotesque Guardians can no longer be assigned as a boss task if players have not yet unlocked the roof entrance with the brittle key. Players who received this task prior to the hotfix can cancel the task for free.

Concept art

A piece of artwork depicting the Grotesque Guardians.

Trivia

Due to the large amount of slayer xp rewarded from each kill (1350-1485 based on Morytania Diary tier) and the HP total of 950, unless you have a very low DPS, you make more slayer xp than HP xp per kill, leading to people killing the Grotesque Guardians for extra progress towards an untrimmed slayer cape.
As a result of the update that decreased the Grotesque Guardians' hitpoints, Dusk's combat level fell from 285 to 246, while Dawn's fell from 266 to 228; when Dawn was killed, Dusk's combat level increased to 324 (previously, this was 366).
- During the cutscene when the Guardians awaken however, they still retain their original combat levels.
Originally players used a portal to access the Guardians. This was changed into a staircase in an update to make it thematically appropriate.
On their death, the examine text for Dusk or Dawn will be "The crack of Dusk" or "The crack of Dawn".
The Grotesque Guardians fight starts by ringing a bell and takes place on a rooftop, which is similar to the Bell Gargoyles boss fight from the game Dark Souls.
The Cloister Bell used to initiate the fight is a reference to the alarm sound of the same name from Doctor Who.
Although the Grotesque Guardians occupy 5x5 tiles, during the lightning phase, their collision size is increased to 6x6. This additionally extends to Dusk in the final phase, who becomes a 6x6 monster despite visually occupying 5x5 tiles. Due to this, Dusk will visually adjust himself (though his occupied tiles do not change), turning accordingly to the direction the player is facing.

References

^ "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "As I ran down the stairs through the lower floors, I saw that the many hideous statues we passed had also come to life."
^ "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "The Big High Idiot wanted the war to go on for eternity, but all the goblins, including me, were too squishy for his needs. He wanted some new foot soldiers that could take a harder beating and deliver it as well. He could probably have created these soldiers himself, but he was too busy throwing punches with Armadyl, so he decided to appoint some lackeys for the job. Unfortunately, that included me."
^ "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "Snaarldor carried a large hunk of tourmaline with him, shaped like a heart. [...] I wasn't sure what it was for, but apparently it had some kind of reaction when it came into contact with the metal that the Big High Idiot created. We were supposed to use it to create some kind of device and perform a ritual around it."
^ "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "Ecstatic with his creation, Snaarldor gave a big speech about the glory of the Big High War God and the such, as if he expected some lumps of carved rock to understand a single thing. After that, Snaarldor gave commands to fight against the forces of Armadyl, Saradomin, and Zamorak."
^ "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "The guardians turned their head at the lattermost name. Snaarldor thought this meant that he had gained their loyalty. However, I knew better than to think that. Viggora was a follower of Zamorak, and I knew the tower would be filled with his magic. I wanted to tell Snaarldor this, but once again he threatened me with a long list of what he would do to me."
^ "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "Before he could finish his threat, he vanished from my line of sight in a blur, and the next second I was blown away from behind. I was sent tumbling until I was stopped by the wall. Once my head stopped spinning, I witnessed the statues attacking Snaarldor. The orks tried to beat them off their general, but they were simply swatted away by the stone wings."
^ "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "I looked up and saw the hulking bodies of Snaarldor and one of the statues exchanging strikes in mid air. Snaarldor landed a chop that broke off a wing, and they both fell. The statue landed back on top of the tower while Snaarldor made contact with the nearby swamp. After getting up from the fall, Snaarldor immediately called for his remaining forces to retreat."
^ ^8.0 ^8.1 ^8.2 ^8.3 ^8.4 Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 11 January 2018. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Mod Ash: "You get 2 rolls on the loot list, each with 1 / 1k for the core, 1/750 for the hammer, 1/500 for the ring and 1/500 for the gloves. You get a single roll of 1 / 5k for the jar."
^ "Summer Sweep-Up: Combat & Loot". Old School RuneScape News. Jagex. 30 May 2025. Archived from the original. "Check out this handy spreadsheet featuring nerfs, buffs or more complex 'adjustments' to a variety of runes, herbs, seeds, gems and fish."
^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 11 January 2018. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Mod Ash: "1 / 230"
^ Ron Plays Games. "Millionaire Monday Ep. 19 - Mod Kieren" (in 00:25:12). Twitch video. 13 November 2017.
^ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 23 January 2018. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Mod Ash: "[So 1 roll of 1/3k for pet?] Yup."

[pots-9] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 These three potions are always dropped together.

[11] Brimstone keys are only dropped if killed on a Slayer task given by Konar quo Maten.

[13] The elite clue scroll drop rate increases to 1/218 after unlocking the elite Combat Achievements rewards tier.

[box-14] Clue scrolls will drop as scroll boxes after the completion of X Marks the Spot.

[15] The player will always receive Noon, but they can use the "Metamorphosis" option while being followed to switch between Noon and Midnight.

[1] "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "As I ran down the stairs through the lower floors, I saw that the many hideous statues we passed had also come to life."

[2] "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "The Big High Idiot wanted the war to go on for eternity, but all the goblins, including me, were too squishy for his needs. He wanted some new foot soldiers that could take a harder beating and deliver it as well. He could probably have created these soldiers himself, but he was too busy throwing punches with Armadyl, so he decided to appoint some lackeys for the job. Unfortunately, that included me."

[3] "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "Snaarldor carried a large hunk of tourmaline with him, shaped like a heart. [...] I wasn't sure what it was for, but apparently it had some kind of reaction when it came into contact with the metal that the Big High Idiot created. We were supposed to use it to create some kind of device and perform a ritual around it."

[4] "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "Ecstatic with his creation, Snaarldor gave a big speech about the glory of the Big High War God and the such, as if he expected some lumps of carved rock to understand a single thing. After that, Snaarldor gave commands to fight against the forces of Armadyl, Saradomin, and Zamorak."

[5] "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "The guardians turned their head at the lattermost name. Snaarldor thought this meant that he had gained their loyalty. However, I knew better than to think that. Viggora was a follower of Zamorak, and I knew the tower would be filled with his magic. I wanted to tell Snaarldor this, but once again he threatened me with a long list of what he would do to me."

[6] "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "Before he could finish his threat, he vanished from my line of sight in a blur, and the next second I was blown away from behind. I was sent tumbling until I was stopped by the wall. Once my head stopped spinning, I witnessed the statues attacking Snaarldor. The orks tried to beat them off their general, but they were simply swatted away by the stone wings."

[7] "The living statues". Old School RuneScape. "I looked up and saw the hulking bodies of Snaarldor and one of the statues exchanging strikes in mid air. Snaarldor landed a chop that broke off a wing, and they both fell. The statue landed back on top of the tower while Snaarldor made contact with the nearby swamp. After getting up from the fall, Snaarldor immediately called for his remaining forces to retreat."

[GG_uniques-8] 8.0 ^8.1 ^8.2 ^8.3 ^8.4 Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 11 January 2018. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Mod Ash: "You get 2 rolls on the loot list, each with 1 / 1k for the core, 1/750 for the hammer, 1/500 for the ring and 1/500 for the gloves. You get a single roll of 1 / 5k for the jar."

[sweepup-10] "Summer Sweep-Up: Combat & Loot". Old School RuneScape News. Jagex. 30 May 2025. Archived from the original. "Check out this handy spreadsheet featuring nerfs, buffs or more complex 'adjustments' to a variety of runes, herbs, seeds, gems and fish."

[GG_clue-12] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 11 January 2018. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Mod Ash: "1 / 230"

[16] Ron Plays Games. "Millionaire Monday Ep. 19 - Mod Kieren" (in 00:25:12). Twitch video. 13 November 2017.

[GG_pet-17] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 23 January 2018. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Mod Ash: "[So 1 roll of 1/3k for pet?] Yup."

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