This is a comprehensive guide to Barrows, which is a fun PVM activity available to low-to-mid-level players and a pretty decent moneymaker as well.

The only requirement for Barrows is completion of Priest in Peril.

Otherwise, as long as you have 50+ Ranged/Magic, 60+ Melee, and most importantly 43+ Prayer, your stats are more than enough to give Barrows a go.

You’ll also need some tanky armour (Rune is fine!) and a good staff, but more on that later.

Barrows, what is it?

While it’s one of the first bosses you’ll likely fight in OSRS, Barrows falls out of the boat a little bit.

Unlike many bosses, barrows is set up like a minigame.

It involves taking on all 6 Barrows brothers by digging into their crypts. One of the brothers’ crypts (random) will lead to a tunnel, where you will find the final brother, alongside a reward chest full of loot.

How to get to Barrows in OSRS

There are many different ways to get to Barrows in OSRS but if you’re playing on a main account, the only real answer is the Barrows Teleport tablet, which you can purchase from the Grand Exchange.

If you happen to be an Ironman, you can use Morytania Legs 3, or teleport via Fairy ring code B-I-P and run to the Barrows Cemetery.

Players with 83 Magic, can place a Barrows portal in their Portal chamber or Portal nexus and pair it with a Rejuvenation pool for quick runs.


How Barrows works

Barrows can be split into 2 phases:

  • Crypt-digging phase: this is where you dig into each crypt, and take on the brothers one-by-one
  • Tunnel phase: one random crypt will lead to a tunnel, which you should save for last

There are 6 total brothers: Dharok, Ahrim, Karil, Torag, Guthan & Verac. Each has their own combat style, and unique ability.

barrows brothers map

All barrows brothers can be prayed against to negate all damage. However, when inside the crypts, a prayer drain effect is active that drains your prayer by 10 points every 18 seconds you spend inside a crypt.

Equipping the Ghommal’s hilt 2, from the MEDIUM combat achievements, NEGATES all prayer drain in Barrows. It’s therefore a MUST to bring this item if you have it.

So depending on your prayer level, you’ll need a couple of prayer potions for each run.

Let’s go over the brothers and their unique abilities.

Barrows Brothers

Dharok

dharok is one of the brothers in barrows osrs
Attack Style:Melee
Max hit:57
Special:Hits higher the lower his HP gets
Prayer:Protect from Melee
Vulnerable against:Magic

Dharok is seen as the highest threat by most players, which is why he is often the first choice in the kill order.

You should always use protect from melee against Dharok.

Use Magic against him.

Ahrim

ahrim is one of the brothers in barrows osrs
Attack Style:Magic
Max hit:20
Special:20% chance to decrease strength level by 5
Prayer:Protect from Magic
Vulnerable against:Ranged/Melee

Ahrim can drain your combat stats even when you have protect from Magic active. Which is why it’s recommended to bring a restore potion.

You should always protect from Magic against Ahrim.

Use Magic against him.

Karil

karil is one of the brothers in barrows osrs
Attack Style:Ranged
Max hit:20
Special:25% chance to decrease agility level by 20%
Prayer:Protect from Ranged
Vulnerable against:Magic/Melee

Karil is very accurate in his hits, which is why you should always pray Ranged against Karil.

Use Magic OR melee against him.

Verac

verac is one of the brothers in barrows osrs
Attack Style:Melee
Max hit:23
Special:Hits through prayer and defense
Prayer:none
Vulnerable against:Magic

Verac hits through prayer. Luckily he’s not super accurate so as long as you have some food you’ll be fine.

Use Magic against him.

Torag

thorag is one of the brothers in barrows osrs
Attack Style:Melee
Max hit:24
Special:25% chance per successful hit to lower your energy by 20%
Prayer:Protect from Melee (optional)
Vulnerable against:Magic

Torag isn’t really a threat because his attack is very inaccurate. As such, using prayer against him is optional.

Use Magic against Torag.

Guthan

guthan is one of the brothers in barrows osrs
Attack Style:Melee
Max hit:24
Special:Heals himself
Prayer:Protect from Melee (optional)
Vulnerable against:Magic

Guthan isn’t very accurate, so using protect from melee is optional.

Use Magic against torag.

Barrows Tunnels

After defeating 5 of the 6 brothers, make your way to the brothers’ crypt that leads to the tunnel.

You’ll know which one leads to the tunnel because it prompts the following message:

a message will appear before you enter the barrows tunnels in osrs

This tunnel has a static layout, with a reward chest in the center.

how to navigate the tunnels underneath barrows in osrs

The only thing that will be different every time you go in, is the doors that open up. Some doors will open, but most of them won’t. You can discover which doors open up by right-clicking on them.

If you brought the Strange Old Lockpick, you can open any door you wish with it.

However, keep in mind that you’ll use 1 charge per door (around 2K per charge) which will eat into your profits.

The final door before the center will always spawn a puzzle. There are four different puzzle combinations, and here are the solutions:

barrows puzzle solutions

If you have the ‘Barrows Brothers’ plugin enabled for Runelite, it will highlight the correct puzzle answer.

The final brother may ambush you whilst you navigate the tunnel (so be ready!) or may wait for you at the reward chest in the center.

final boss fight barrows

After defeating the final brother, you’ll notice that your reward potential is at 66%.

bump your reward potential for better loot

You should bump this 80%+ by killing 2-3 monsters. This increases your loot for each trip.

After claiming your reward, teleport to the Ferox Enclave (dueling ring) to restore your stats, re-supply and go for your next run!

Barrows Strategy

Here’s my personal strategy for Barrows.

I divide the Barrows brothers into two categories:

  • Prayer Boys
  • Food Boys
i divide barrows brothers into two categories: prayer boys & food boys

I consider Dharok, Karil & Ahrims a threat because they are quite accurate. Meanwhile, Guthan, Torag & Verac are less of a threat which is why I only use food against them.

As such, I opt to kill the prayer boys first, followed by the food boys.

This makes my preferred order as follows:

  1. Dharok
  2. Ahrim
  3. Karil
  4. Guthan
  5. Torag
  6. Verac
my barrows kill order

It’s efficient to kill the prayer boys first, because they need to be prayed against. Especially if you are prone to the prayer drain effect at Barrows. Using this kill-order, it’s possible to do complete Barrows runs without every sipping on a prayer potions, which saves money for mains and conserves resources on ironman accounts!

I’d also like to note that personally, I bring the Ghommals’ hilt 2 to negate the prayer drain effect, and I use the ‘Barrows Door Highlighter’ Plugin from the Runelite Plugin Hub as this highlights correct doors for me, making the tunnels much easier to navigate!

The 'Barrows Door Highlighter' plugin highlights the correct doors for me in the tunnel
The ‘Barrows Door Highlighter’ plugin highlights the correct doors for me.

Before claiming the reward chest, I ensure that my reward potential is at around 80-86% (not higher) to get the best possible loot from the reward chest.

Runelite Plugins

There are two recommend Runelite plugins for Barrows:

  • Barrows Brothers (default plugin)
  • Barrows Doors Highlighter (plugin hub)

The barrows brothers plugin should be toggled on by default, but check anyway. This plugin gives you a handy overlay on the left-hand side that reveals which brothers are left, a handy map overlay, and answers the puzzles in the tunnels for you.

The barrows door highlighter plugin is not a default plugin and must be downloaded from the plugin hub if you wish to use it. This plugin highlights the correct doors for you which does speed up runs if you aren’t using the Strange old Lockpick.

Barrows Gear Setup

At Barrows, you’ll be using all three combat styles: Magic, Ranged & Melee. But primarily the first one: Magic.

Here’s a low-level gear example featuring rune & Warped Sceptre.

low lvl gear setup for barrows

And here’s a higher-level version with Torag as tank armor, occult necklace, and trident of the swamp.

high lvl gear setup for barrows

Magic Weapon

As Barrows mostly involves killing 5/6 brothers with Magic, you’ll need a good staff.

4 staffs you can use at barrows

From left to right:

  • Upgraded Iban’s staff (50 Magic)
  • Warped Sceptre (62 Magic)
  • Trident of the Seas (75 Magic)
  • Trident of the Swamp (78 Magic)

The Ibans staff is the best choice for ironmen. Main accounts will chose from the latter 3 depending on their magic level and available funds. TIP: the Trident of the seas only costs about 40k!

Off-hand

The best off-hand for Barrows is the Ghommals Hilt 2 as this negates the prayer drain effect. Otherwise bringing a god book is a good alternative for the prayer/Magic bonus.

Ranged Switch

Ahrims is weak against ranged so it’s efficient to bring a ranged switch. The Blowpipe is the best weapon to use, if you don’t have that, a magic shortbow and rune arrows works great.

Also bring a D’hide body & Ava’s device.

Melee switch

A melee weapon can be handy to save on expensive staff charges in the tunnel. Furthermore, players who have a whip might also find this works better on Karils than Magic.

Examples: dragon scimitar, zombie axe, abyssal whip

Ring Slot

The best ring to bring is the ring of dueling as this allows you to bank at the Ferox Enclave which has a restoration pool to restore your stats/health/prayer.

Amulet

The best amulet to bring is the occult necklace which has a 10%+ Magic Damage boost. Otherwise, bring a glory or fury.

Cape Slot

Wear an imbued god cape as your best-in-slot cape. Lower levels can bring an Ardougne cloak for the prayer bonus, or just wear their Ava’s device as their cape-slot.

Armour

You’ll need tanky armour to tank damage from the food boys (guthan/torag/verac). Wearing torag is recommended because it’s very cheap but requires 70 defence. Otherwise dragon armour (60 defence) or even rune armour (40 defence) works just fine!

For your boots, wear either rune or dragon boots.

What to bring (inventory)

In your inventory, bring the following things:

  • Spade (to dig the crypts)
  • Barrows tablet (to get there)
  • Ranged switch
  • Melee weapon (spec weapon optional)
  • Some prayer potions
  • Restore potion
  • Food
  • Stamina potion (optional)
  • Super pots (optional)
  • Strange Old Lockpick (optional)
inventory setup for barrows

Is barrows Profitable?

At Barrows, you have a 1/17 chance of obtaining a Barrows Piece. This could be something that’s relatively low value like the Torags Hammers (160K) but could be as good as the Ahrims top (3.5M). It’s all about your luck of course.

Aside from the item drops, the reward chest also contains other good loot such as cash and runes.

According to the wiki, the average reward chest is worth 50K. This number is bumped to 79K if you’ve completed the Morytania Hard Diary which rewards you with 50% more runes at Barrows.

It’s possible to do between 10-20 runes per hour depending on your stats & gear setup. Regardless, it’s a pretty good moneymaker!

Wrap Up

Barrows is a beginner-friendly PVM activity that is both fun and profitable which is why I recommend it to every player that meets the stat-requirements.

Doing just a couple hours of Barrows per week is enough to really setup your bank to further progress in the game.

If you enjoy PVMing or need to increase your combat stats for Barrows, I recommend you start training at Scurrius, the Rat King.