Grotesque Guardians

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This article has a Slayer task guide here.

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This fight takes place in an instanced area.

On death you can pay at a magical chest near the roof entrance to retrieve any lost items. You will be charged 50,000 for this service. Should you die an unsafe death a second time before retrieving all your items, they will be lost completely.

A player fights the Grotesque Guardians.

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, players must obtain a brittle key from gargoyles while assigned them for a Slayer task (requiring 75 Slayer).

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.

Despite Dusk and Dawn being two different entities, killing both guardians only counts as one kill due to the 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.

History

The Grotesque Guardians, as well as the gargoyles, were created by the Bandosian general Snaarldor during the God Wars. 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.

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 command the Grotesque Guardians to fight against the forces of Armadyl, Saradomin and Zamorak. However, with the tower's magic being of Zamorakian origin, they immediately attacked Snaarldor instead, who eventually fell from the rooftop.

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.

Today, the Grotesque Guardians remain on the rooftop, in which its entrance is locked and must be opened with a brittle key.

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 more than 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.

In the beginning of the fight, players must attack Dawn with Ranged attacks (as she cannot be harmed with Melee and is resistant to Magic), as Dusk cannot be harmed during this phase of the fight. Once her health has reached half, she will fly away, and players must attack Dusk.

During this phase of the fight, Dusk's wings may glow, and will perform an explosive attack. If players do not run away from him when he does so, the player will be dealt 30+ damage and be knocked back. In addition, debris may fall around the roof, which can deal up to 22 damage and stun players for a brief period of time. Once his health has reached half, Dawn will return and perform a lightning special attack with Dusk that has an AoE of 3x3, rapidly dealing up to 5-10 damage per tick.

After the lightning attacks, Dawn will send out two or three energy spheres that will grow larger over time. Players must absorb these spheres in time, as each sphere will heal Dawn for 90 Hitpoints.

After killing Dawn, Dusk will absorb her essence, and initiate the final phase of the fight. Here, he is stronger, can use melee and ranged attacks, and may drag players to a prison of purple flames. Players must escape the prison (by clicking anywhere outside it), or they will be dealt 60+ damage, which heals Dusk.

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  The player is knocked back by Dusk's explosive attack.

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  The Grotesque Guardians perform their lightning special attack.

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  The player is damaged by the prison of purple flames, healing Dusk.

Drops

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.

Drop rates estimated based on 35,446 kills from the Drop Rate Project, unless otherwise cited.

The average Grotesque Guardians kill is worth 56,787.32.

The average Grotesque Guardians kill while on a Konar task is worth 59,427.98.

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	83,108	30,000
	Granite gloves	1	2 × 1/500	24,420	20,400
	Granite ring	1	2 × 1/500	15,848	9,000
	Granite hammer	1	2 × 1/750	98,417	38,400
	Black tourmaline core	1	2 × 1/1,000	2,841,922	24,900

Weapons and armour

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Rune pickaxe	1	2 × 6/137	18,790	19,200
	Rune full helm	1	2 × 5/137	20,646	21,120
	Rune platelegs	1	2 × 5/137	37,919	38,400
	Rune 2h sword	1	2 × 4/137	37,891	38,400
	Rune battleaxe	1	2 × 3/137	24,518	24,960
	Dragon longsword	1	2 × 1/137	59,177	60,000
	Adamant boots	1	2 × 1/137	1,157	1,152
	Dragon med helm	1	2 × 1/137	59,086	60,000

Food and potions

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Mushroom potato	4–6	2 × 10/137	3,396–5,094	108–162
	Saradomin brew(4)	2	2 × 8/137	15,672	240
	Magic potion(2)	1	2 × 6/137	50	120
	Ranging potion(2)	1	2 × 6/137	295	129
	Super combat potion(2)	1	2 × 6/137	5,429	54
	Prayer potion(4)	1–2	2 × 4/137	12,224–24,448	114–228

Resources

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Gold ore	40–75 (noted)	2 × 7/137	9,200–17,250	3,600–6,750
	Adamantite bar	25–40 (noted)	2 × 6/137	50,150–80,240	9,600–15,360
	Coal	180–250 (noted)	2 × 6/137	26,100–36,250	4,860–6,750
	Gold bar	35–50 (noted)	2 × 6/137	2,940–4,200	6,300–9,000
	Mithril bar	35–45 (noted)	2 × 6/137	26,460–34,020	6,300–8,100
	Runite ore	3–6 (noted)	2 × 4/137	33,504–67,008	5,760–11,520
	Runite bar	3–5 (noted)	2 × 3/137	37,416–62,360	9,000–15,000

Other

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Coins	10,000–20,000	2 × 10/137	10,000–20,000	10,000–20,000
	Chaos rune	100–150	2 × 8/137	7,600–11,400	5,400–8,100
	Coins	25,000	2 × 5/137	25,000	25,000
	Crystal key	1	2 × 5/137	21,365	90
	Death rune	60–100	2 × 5/137	10,920–18,200	6,480–10,800
	Dragon dart tip	15–25	2 × 4/137	38,955–64,925	2,250–3,750
	Diamond bolt tips	100–150	2 × 3/137	17,700–26,550	7,900–11,850
	Dragonstone bolt tips	20–40	2 × 2/137	6,020–12,040	8,000–16,000
	Onyx bolt tips	5–10	2 × 2/137	40,995–81,990	3,000–6,000
	Dragon arrowtips	50–150	2 × 1/137	97,450–292,350	15,000–45,000

Tertiary

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Brimstone key	1	1/43	Not sold	N/A
	Clue scroll (elite)	1	1/230	Not sold	12
	Noon	1	1/3,000	Not sold	N/A
	Jar of stone	1	1/5,000	1,270,628	0

Combat Achievements

The following Combat Achievement tasks involve the Grotesque Guardians.

Name	Description	Difficulty	Category
Grotesque Guardians Adept	Kill the Grotesque Guardians 25 times.	Hard	Kill count
Don't Look at the Eclipse	Kill the Grotesque Guardians without taking damage from Dusk's blinding attack.	Hard	Mechanical
Prison Break	Kill the Grotesque Guardians without taking damage from Dusk's prison attack.	Hard	Mechanical
Granite Footwork	Kill the Grotesque Guardians without taking damage from Dawn's rockfall attack.	Hard	Mechanical
Heal No More	Kill the Grotesque Guardians without letting Dawn receive any healing from her orbs.	Hard	Mechanical
Static Awareness	Kill the Grotesque Guardians without being hit by any lightning attacks.	Hard	Mechanical
Grotesque Guardians Veteran	Kill the Grotesque Guardians 50 times.	Elite	Kill count
Done before Dusk	Kill the Grotesque Guardians before Dusk uses his prison attack for a second time.	Elite	Mechanical
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.	Elite	Perfection
Grotesque Guardians Speed-Trialist	Kill the Grotesque Guardians in less than 2 minutes.	Elite	Speed
From Dusk...	Kill the Grotesque Guardians 10 times without leaving the instance.	Elite	Stamina
Perfect Grotesque Guardians II	Kill the Grotesque Guardians 5 times in a row whilst completing the Perfect Grotesque Guardians task every time.	Master	Perfection
Grotesque Guardians Speed-Chaser	Kill the Grotesque Guardians in less than 1:40 minutes.	Master	Speed
... 'til Dawn	Kill the Grotesque Guardians 20 times without leaving the instance.	Master	Stamina
Grotesque Guardians Speed-Runner	Kill the Grotesque Guardians in less than 1:20 minutes.	Grandmaster	Speed

Changes

Date	Changes
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

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  A piece of artwork depicting the Grotesque Guardians.

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Trivia

• 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." respectively.
• The Grotesque Guardians fight starts by ringing a bell and takes place on a rooftop, the same as the Bell Gargoyles boss fight from the game Dark Souls.