OSRS King Black Dragon Guide (KBD Quick Guide)

This OSRS King Black Dragon Guide covers everything you need to know not just to kill the King Black Dragon once but also masters its mechanics so you can do so comfortably and without trouble.

King Black Dragon is a fun entry-level boss that will can be your gateway into bossing for real.

Fun fact: KBD was actually the first boss in Runescape and was originally released in Runescape Classic.

These days, KBD is commonly fought by pet-hunters as the pet is one of the nicest looking ones out there.

I mean, who wouldn’t want a tiny three-headed dragon walking behind them in game?

Let’s hop into the guide!

This article is part of our OSRS Bossing Guide.

🛑 King Black Dragon Requirements

There are no requirements to fight KBD.

Recommended Stats

	If you’re using ranged on him, 70 or higher ranged is recommended.
	If you’re going to melee him, 70+ Attack and Strength are recommended.

KBD Stats

🗺️ King Black Dragon Location

The KBD lair requires you to travel through the WILDERNESS. So make sure you have your skull trick prevention toggled on and player attack options is set to hidden. (can be toggled in your settings menu)

The King Black Dragon Lair is located in the Wilderness, just West of the Lava Maze.

The fastest way to get here is by either using a burning amulet or a Ghorrock Teleport tab (requires completion of Desert Treasure).

Both the Burning Amulet and the Ghorrock Teleport teleport you within a close distance of the King Black Dragon lair. However, the Ghorrock Teleport is preferred as it is less likely to be camped by PKers.

The illustration below shows you exactly which path you need to take to the KBD lair.

Once you enter the dungeon, you will be taken into a room full of poison spiders and a lever.

Pull that lever to be taken to the King Black Dragon lair.

The King Black Dragon lair itself is not in the wilderness, once you enter the lair, you can no longer be pked.

How to prevent getting PKed

Part of the difficulty of KBD is making your way safely into its lair.

For this reason, you should never bring any items you are willing to lose.

You should also make sure you have skull trick prevention toggled on and player attack options set to hidden. You can find these options in your settings.

One last thing you can do to prevent getting attacked is to quickly hop worlds when you spot a PKer, before they can attack you.

In order to do this, you will need to be on the Runelite client.

Inside your Runelite client, you should locate the ‘World Hopper’ plugin, this is automatically installed.

Once you’ve found the plugin, make sure it is toggled on and change the Quick-hop next shortcut to any key combination you prefer.

In the event that you run into a PKer, quickly hit the shortcut and it will automatically hop you to the next world.

This is the fastest way you can hop in the game and is much faster than logging out.

Now should you the attacker be faster than you, they will most likely tele-block you.

This will prevent you from teleporting away or entering the KBD lair.

Luckily, a tele-block only lasts 5 minutes.

The best thing you can do during this time is find a monster (e.g. one of the lesser demons), unequip your weapon and box them.

💭 KBD Strategy Guide

KBD Dragonfire Attacks

The KBD has a couple of different dragonfire attacks which are easily recognisable by their individual color.

	Dragonfire Attack	You get hit by regular dragonfire. This attack deals the most damage with a max hit of 65 to players with no dragonfire protection. All other attacks hit max 50.
	Prayer Bomb	You get hit by poisonous dragonfire. If hit, you will be poisoned and need to sip an anti poison.
	Stat Drain Attack	You get hit by stat draining dragonfire. If hit, your stats will be drained by 2 levels. A super restore potion can be sipped to negate this attack.
	Ice Attack	You get hit by icey dragonfire. If hit, you can frozen for 6 seconds.

Negating Dragonfire

While the KBD boasts a serious max hit of 65 with his regular dragonfire attack and 50 with his other attacks, you can easily protect against them with an anti-dragon shield, super antifires and magic protection prayers.

Below is a chart of how much damage you will take depending on your setup.

Anti Dragon shield	Super Antifire	Protect from Magic	Max hit w/ Dragonfire Attack	Max hit w/ Special Attacks
no	no	no	65	50
yes	no	no	15	10
yes	yes	yes	0	10

As you can see, the anti-dragon shield prevents the most amount of damage. So you should never come to KBD without it.

King Black Dragon Gear Setup

Keep in mind that the KBD lair requires you to travel through the WILDERNESS. So don’t bring any items you are NOT willing to lose to a PKer. TIP: make sure you have your skull trick prevention toggled on.

Melee Gear Setup

Considering that dragons are weak to stab, you are going to need to use a weapon that has a high stab bonus.

Don’t bring a whip to KBD, instead, break an Abyssal Dagger or preferably a Zamorakian Hasta if you are on a budget setup.

Maxed players should opt for a Dragon Hunter Lance for the fastest possible kills.

As for your armour, you should wear proselyte. This armour is cheap and will give you great prayer bonusses.

Neitiznot or berserker helms are cheap as well.

Bring an Ardougne cloak for its stab and prayer bonus. DON’T BRING YOUR FIRE CAPE, YOU WILL LOSE IT IF YOU DIE.

If you can afford it, use a dragonfireshield otherwise bring a regular anti dragon shield.

A torture necklace is best-in-slot but can be replaced by a fury or glory as well.

The imbued Treasonous ring offers the best stab bonus and should be used over a berserker ring.

Ranged Gear Setup

For your ranged gear, you’ll want to bring black d’hide as it is very cheap so you can lose it to potential pkers.

Other cheap items include: blessed coif and snakeskin boots.

Your neck slot, crossbow slot, ring slot and shield slot should be prioritised as your expensive items.

Only bring an accumulator you can afford to lose.

The best in slot weapon is the dragon hunter crossbow, followed by a dragon crossbow.

A dragonfire ward is best in slot but can also be replaced by a regular anti dragon shield.

You should bring an anguish and imbued archers ring if you have them.

Dragon diamond bolts (e) are best in slot. Budget set ups should used diamond (e) bolts instead.

KBD Inventory Setup

KBD Drop Table

The King Black Dragon always drops:

• Dragon bones
• 2 Black Dragonhide

This is worth about 8k together. Most players will bury the dragon bones on the spot and only keep the black d’hide.

KBD has one pre-roll drop which offers a 1/1500 chance of obtaining the Dragon Pickaxe, the second highest value drop KBD has at 3.5M gp.

Other good drops include:

• 1/128 chance of obtaining the KBD heads which can be mounted in your P-O-H
• 1/45 chance of obtaining an ELITE clue scroll (worth 230k average)
• 1/3000 chance of obtaining KBD pet
• 1/5000 chance of obtaining the Draconic Visage (main component to create the Dragonfire shield) worth 3.7m.

Is KBD Worth It?

If you are reading this guide, you are likely to be quite new to bossing.

Knowing this information, I can tell you that KBD is very worth it.

KBD is the first ‘boss’ that was introduced Runescape. Killing him, while not very hard, is still very satisfying.

And doing so is also a great introduction to bossing.

By killing KBD you get introduced to bosses with higher hitpoints, defence and mechanics than you might be used to.

So yes, the King Black Dragon is very much worth it.

Drop-wise the KBD doesn’t have that much to offer though. Many bosses are more profitable than KBD.

That being said, the pet drop, a mini version of the three-headed dragon, is amazing and widely considered to be one of the nicest pets out there.

📼 OSRS King Black Dragon Guide Video

This article is part of our OSRS Bossing Guide.

Wrap Up

Hopefully, this OSRS King Black Dragon guide gave you all the information you needed to start slaying King Black Dragon, whether you are doing it to get into bossing or because you are pet hunting.