There are various gods inside of the OSRS universe, and one of them is the god of war, Bandos. This Big High War God is one of the toughest gods in the world and focuses on violence and loyalty in battle. Bringing with him an army of orcs, goblins, ogres, and ourgs, his forces are very tough and problems for any player.
The gods of Gielinor fought the God Wars, and while those wars have ended for everyone, there is one place where the eternal battle is fought. The God Wars Dungeon is where the various armies of the gods still clash, and the forces of Bandos are fighting there as well. They are led by General Graardor and are going to be a worthy battle for even the toughest Slayers. Here’s how to beat him.
Getting To The God Wars Dungeon
Actually getting into the God Wars Dungeon is a topic for another article, so we are going to focus on getting to the boss fight. You can find general Graardor inside of Bandos’ Stronghold, and in order to access it you need to have level 70 strength and a hammer. You also will need to have a kill count of 40 of his followers to enter the room.
Travel through the dungeon and fight your way through the various orcs, ogres, and goblins and you should be able to reach the kill count in no time. Once the 40th follower of Bandos is dead at your feet, you will be able to head towards the boss room. The boss room is in the north-western part of the God Wars Dungeon, and you will need to use your hammer to bang on the door. The door will open and the boss fight will begin.
How Does The General Fight?
General Graardor has three bodyguards that each have different tactics and skills, which you need to deal with as well as the general himself. They are:
- Sergeant Strongstack (Melee): He’s armed with a flail and moves around to each player in the room, attacking each player in quick succession with crush attacks worth 15 hp worth of damage.
- Sergeant Steelwill (Magic): He uses a magical ranged attack that does 16 hp worth of damage on a hit, but is weak to ranged blows himself.
- Sergeant Grimspike (Ranged): He uses a ranged axe attack that does 21 hp worth of damage on a hit.
They will need to be taken into consideration when battling the boss, and a strategy will need to be undertaken if you are fighting alongside other players. Now Graardor himself battles with melee and ranged attacks, having a â…” chance to use melee strikes with every attack and a â…“ chance to use a ranged attack.
For melee, he lashes out with a simple punch and does 60 damage on hit. The ranged attack is a slam attack that sends out a shockwave and knocks all the players back with 15 to 35 damage.
That’s it really. There aren’t any phrases to the fighting and the only two types of attacks, and the only hard part of the fight is the three bodyguards. Of course, it is much harder if you are soloing the boss, rather than working as a team to do so. We’ve got the strategies for both here!
Soloing The Boss
This is certainly the harder option, not only because of the general’s high health pool but also because of the bodyguards. You will certainly be taking some damage as the bodyguards swarm you, rather than taking on each player in turn. Still, Graardor is a fairly flexible boss and you can grab a lot of his high-quality loot for yourself.
When soloing the general, you need to bring both gear and weapons for both tank and DPS damage. You will be taking a lot of damage, but you also need to focus on dealing as much damage as you can. Additionally, you should bring healing items such as anglerfish and pre-made Saradomin brew, anything that can enhance your survivability. However, only use the brews to restore health on the road to the boss, as the process of taking the brew takes more time and causes more damage to be done to you.
Additionally, the battle with the minions means that you need to have high levels of defense in all three areas. High magic defense, ranged defense, and melee defense is essential for surviving the bodyguard’s attacks.
Now, your tactics should be twofold. First, you need to walk under his attacks and try to hit him as hard as you can while dodging his blows, and then also use your attacks to slay all the bodyguards as fast as you can. Using items such as rapiers and abyssal tentacles work for some fast DPS damage.
As long as you keep up the prayer ‘protect from melee’ then you are going to be able to weather the assault and take him down. It’s a tough fight, all things considered, but if you manage to take down the bodyguards early and then walk under Graardors’ hits, you should be fine.
Working With A Team
You should have a team of at least three people, including at least one tank. Now, while the bodyguards tend to move around and target each player, Graardor only attacks those who attack him. If you are the ranged player, then only attack the general whenever your tank has attacked him.
Hitting the general with everything you’ve got ranged-wise, while occasionally casting healing on the tank will allow you to take care of the fight with ease. Then you can focus on the bodyguards, and unlike solo combat, you can actually leave the bodyguards alive until the end of the fight. Other than that, the tactics are the same and the battle can be won fairly easily. Now, here’s some of the loot that you can get once the fighting ends.
Loot From The General
General Graardor and his bodyguards have some very interesting loot, making him a perfect target for groups of players or clans looking to raid. One of the rare drops of loot you can get is a part of the Bandos armor set. These can include the Bandos Boots, the Bandos Tassets, the Bandos Chestplate, and the Bandos hilt for the Godsword blade. Let’s go through each of these items:
The Bandos Armor set is noticeable for the massive defense bonuses it gives, and never degrades unlike the other armors in the game. This makes it perfect for long slayer tasks, melee training, and longer combat encounters that would otherwise take a toll on your equipment. You need 65 defence to wear each piece of armor and each piece provides a strength bonus along with their substantial defensive capabilities.
The Bandos boots do not give a strength bonus, but also increase your defensive bonuses by a large amount. They also have a high ranged defense bonus which makes them ideal for ranged tanks. Additionally, you can also combine these two boots with a black tourmaline core and the defensive bonuses will be increased even higher.
Altogether, each piece of armor will give you 186 stab defense, 174 slash defense, 190 crush defense, and 241 ranged defense. They are very rare drops from both the general and his bodyguards, but if you can get the entire set you will have some extreme defensive bonuses. Additionally, wearing even one piece of this armor will render the followers of Bandos non-hostile for the encounter
The Bandos Hilt
The last major piece of gear dropped by the general is the Bandos Hilt, which can be attached to a completed Godsword. Once you have smithed the three parts of the Godsword together, then you can attach one of the four hits that you find from the various bosses at the God Wars Dungeon. If you have both the Godsword and the Bandos hilt, you can combine the two at an anvil to create the Bandos Godsword.
The Bandos Godsword has a special attack, warstrike, that doubles your accuracy. It also inflicts 21% more damage and drains your enemy’s combat stats in this order: Defence, Strength, Prayer, Attack, Magic, Ranged. The special attack is very useful during PvP combat and also during boss fights, especially since it removes defense first. This makes your next attacks much more likely to hit.
The Pet General
Finally, one of the extremely rare drops that can happen is the ‘Pet General Graardor’ drop. This is a miniature version of the fearsome general that follows you around like a pet. It’s pretty cute and can appear as the player’s follower if they don’t have another creature as their follower. Otherwise, it will appear in their inventory.
Bandos FAQ
Question: Should I Render Enemies Non-Hostile For New Visits To The General?
Answer: While you will need to battle your way through the various enemies of the dungeon, they are also servants to the various gods still fighting in the God Wars. If you wear apparel based on one god, then their followers will not attack you. In this case, if you manage to find Bandos armor and wear them, then the goblins and orcs will not attack you.
This can make subsequent runs into the dungeon easier, especially if you are farming for gear or loot, or just want to raid Graardor and don’t want to waste time and resources carving your way through his minions. Thankfully, you only need one piece of Bandos-focused armor to make his followers non-hostile, and the other pieces of armor from the other gods do not cancel out.
So you can wear several pieces of armor, with each one focusing on a different god of the dungeon, and effectively render the entire dungeon non-hostile to you. If you are simply focusing on raiding the boss and only fighting him, wearing Bandos gear will help make the journey easier. However, if you want to get XP as well as the joy of watching monsters fall beneath your blade, then you can keep the enemies hostile to you.
Question: Do Players Ever See Bandos In-Game?
Answer: Although he did play a major role in the God Wars and brought several races, including orcs and goblins, to Gielinor to the world to be in his army, we do not see him in-game. He was banished by Guthix from the world along with all but one of the gods, but the descendants of his original army still live and still worship him.
Players do interact with his armies during various quests and we even encounter the ‘Chosen Commander’ who is an ancient Bandosian legendary commander. However, aside from this, we do not encounter Bandos or any of the other lost gods in the game.
Question: Should I Solo Or Team General Graardor?
Answer: This is a tough question. Admittedly, teaming with friends or with a clan to take on the general is much easier than going solo. This is because of the presence of his bodyguards who will focus all of their damage and attacks on you rather than spreading the damage around and attacking everyone present. However, once you slay the general, all of his loot goes to you.
Team efforts can make the battle bearable, especially if you have a solid strategy with some players being the tank and others hitting the boss with ranged DPS. However, the largest problem with being a team is spittling the loot, because there are some rare drops that can be very hard to part with.
Still, the answer is up to your playstyle. If you are more of the lone wolf type and have effective strategies to counter all the damage, then you can solo him. If you play the game for a cooperative experience, then you can beat him as part of a team. Additionally, your views on loot and your need for the Bandos armor might impact what you do as well.
Question: Should I Render Enemies Non-Hostile For New Visits To The General?
Answer: While you will need to battle your way through the various enemies of the dungeon, they are also servants to the various gods still fighting in the God Wars. If you wear apparel based on one god, then their followers will not attack you. In this case, if you manage to find Bandos armor and wear them, then the goblins and orcs will not attack you.
This can make subsequent runs into the dungeon easier, especially if you are farming for gear or loot, or just want to raid Graardor and don’t want to waste time and resources carving your way through his minions. Thankfully, you only need one piece of Bandos-focused armor to make his followers non-hostile, and the other pieces of armor from the other gods do not cancel out.
So you can wear several pieces of armor, with each one focusing on a different god of the dungeon, and effectively render the entire dungeon non-hostile to you. If you are simply focusing on raiding the boss and only fighting him, wearing Bandos gear will help make the journey easier. However, if you want to get XP as well as the joy of watching monsters fall beneath your blade, then you can keep the enemies hostile to you.
Question: Do Players Ever See Bandos In-Game?
Answer: Although he did play a major role in the God Wars and brought several races, including orcs and goblins, to Gielinor to the world to be in his army, we do not see him in-game. He was banished by Guthix from the world along with all but one of the gods, but the descendants of his original army still live and still worship him.
Players do interact with his armies during various quests and we even encounter the ‘Chosen Commander’ who is an ancient Bandosian legendary commander. However, aside from this, we do not encounter Bandos or any of the other lost gods in the game.
Question: Should I Solo Or Team General Graardor?
Answer: This is a tough question. Admittedly, teaming with friends or with a clan to take on the general is much easier than going solo. This is because of the presence of his bodyguards who will focus all of their damage and attacks on you rather than spreading the damage around and attacking everyone present. However, once you slay the general, all of his loot goes to you.
Team efforts can make the battle bearable, especially if you have a solid strategy with some players being the tank and others hitting the boss with ranged DPS. However, the largest problem with being a team is spittling the loot, because there are some rare drops that can be very hard to part with.
Still, the answer is up to your playstyle. If you are more of the lone wolf type and have effective strategies to counter all the damage, then you can solo him. If you play the game for a cooperative experience, then you can beat him as part of a team. Additionally, your views on loot and your need for the Bandos armor might impact what you do as well.
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