Cerberus OSRS Guide: Taking on the three-headed hellhound

OSRS / By / / 17 minutes of reading
Table of Contents

Cerberus is an original Old School Runescape monster that you can’t find in the Runescape 3 version. It is a level 318 boss monster that you can only kill if you have a slayer level of 91. It is often killed as an alternative for killing the much weaker regular hellhounds.

For Ironmen, mastering this monster is crucial. It drops 3 crystals that are needed to make the best in slot items for the boot slot. Namely, the eternal boots, pegasian boots, and pirmordial boots. They also have the smoldering stone that is very useful to train certain skills like cooking.

Regular players like to kill this monster too. It is the only monster that drops the jar of souls and it has a unique pet you can only get here the hellpuppy pet. Killing Cerberus is also a great monster to kill if you want to make some money.

Being a boss monster intended for the higher levels, Cerberus does have quite a few mechanics that make it a challenging boss when you have no idea what to do. I will tell you some of the strategies I use, what drops to expect and the gear you should use here.

How to get to Cerberus´ Lair

You can find the lair at the Rivers of Souls. This place can be accessed from a cave entrance you can find in the Taverley Dungeon. The entrance is located where the very first Runescape hellhounds are, the northeast part of the dungeon.

There are a couple of ways to go to the dungeon. My favorite one is using the Taverley teleport tablet. This is going to be the fastest way of all. You can also use a Falador Teleport spell or a tablet to get there pretty quickly. If for some reason you do not have access to those two, you can use a Burthrope Games Room Grouping teleport to go to Burthrope and then go all the way south.

There are 3 iron gates there. You can use all three of them, it does not matter which one you are going to pick. You can only enter those gates when you have a hellhound slayer task. If you do not, the key master will stop you from fighting Cerberus.

Cerberus – all you need to know about her drops:

If you are going to fight a boss monster, you likely are doing this for the money. Cerberus is a high-level boss, and that means you will get some high-level loot. The average Cerberus kill is worth about 78k. This is quite a decent amount as you can kill him rather quickly. On average you can count on about 2.5 m to 4 man-hours. Which is amongst the best money an hour in the game.

Infernal ashes:

This is a new drop and replaces the worthless regular ashes drop. However, this is only worth 3k so either leave it on the ground or scatter it right away for some prayer exp.

Unique items only Cerberus drops

Primordial crystal:

This is the drop that everyone is going to look out for if they go and kill Cerberus. The primordial crystal is the essential component to make primordial boots. This is the best in slot boots for melee. The crystal is worth 21.6 million GP depending on the market price! However, it is quite rare to get. It only has a one in 512 chance per kill to get it as a drop.

Pegasian crystal:

The pegasian crystal is a fun drop to have, but quite disappointing at the end. It is worth only 54k and has the same drop rate as the primordial crystal. It is a useful drop to get. You can use it to turn your ranger boots into pegasian boots. These are the best boots in the slot for the training range.

Eternal crystal:

The eternal crystal is another very good drop. It has a chance to drop about once every 512 kills. When you get this crystal, your bank worth is going to get a nice 2.2 m GP boost. You can use the crystal to turn your infinity boots into eternal boots. These boots are the best boots you can have when casting magic.

Smouldering stone:

This stone is not used for boots, but to make infernal tools like the infernal axe, infernal pickaxe, and the infernal harpoon. They are the best tools to use to train your stats effectively. The stone is also pretty rare to get. You will have a one in 512 chance for it to drop and it is worth 4m on average, depending on the market prices.

Weapons and armor

Being a boss monster, you can expect a lot of rune armor drops and high-value items that can be alched. Since Cerberus is a boss you can kill over 20 times a trip when you get good at it, you should definitely consider bringing alch runes. The trip to the lair can be quite long, and staying for a much longer time due to you being able to clear out your inventory is going to save you a ton of time, and cost you no money at all.

  • Rune platebody: You are going to get this drop quite often. Cerberus has a one in 25 chance of dropping this platebody. It is worth about 38k apiece, and you can alch it on the spot to save inventory space.
  • Rune chainbody: The inferior version of the rune platebody, but still a pretty valuable drop to get. You have a one in 32 chance of getting a rune chainbody drop, and you are going to get 29k if you alch this drop. This is going to help you pay back your supplies.
  • Rune 2h Sword: You can get this drop quite often too. Just like the rune chainbody, it drops about once every 32 kills. They are worth around 37 600 gp and are a great alch.
  • Black d´hide body: This is another very common drop. This is a one in 42 chance of getting dropped by Cerberus. If you do not bring alch runes, you will have to let this item remain on the floor. If you have brought alch runes, you can alch it right away for 7k.
  • Rune axe: This is another one in 42 drops that Cerberus has on its drop table. Just like the previous drop, if you have not brought alch runes with you, you will have to let them on the ground. If you have alch runes, you can alch the axe and get 7k.
  • Rune pickaxe: You have a one in 42 chance of getting the rune pickaxe drop. This is kind of a toss-up, but even if you do not have alch runes, I would just pick them up. If you did bring your runes, then alch it right away and get 18k.
  • Battlestaff: This is a great drop to get as an ironman. They drop 6 noted battle staff at once. You can use these to increase your crafting level. Do not alch them, as they are worth much more if they can still be turned into fire or air battlestaffs. You have a one in 42 chance of getting this drop, and you will get 48k for them if you sell them on the GE.
  • Rune full helm: You have a one in 42 chance of getting a rune full helm drop from Cerberus. This is a decent drop, but nothing special. You should just alch it right away. You will get 20.5k if you do.
  • Lava battlestaff: This is another toss-up. If you did not bring alch runes, you will probably not be able to pick up this drop. If you did, pick up the lava battle staff and alch it. You will get 9k for doing so.
  • Rune halberd: Cerberus is one of the few monsters that drops a rune halberd. It is worth quite a bit. You can alch it for 37k. You have a one in 64 chance to get it as a drop, so you will likely see a couple of them every so often.
    Runes and ammunition
  • Soul runes: Due to Cerberus living near the river of souls he drops quite a nice amount of soul runes. You have a one in 21 chance of getting a drop of 100 runes.
  • Blood runes: Cerberus also drops blood runes quite often. You have a chance of one in 32 to get 60 blood runes from the monster. This is worth 25k so pick them up.
  • Cannonball: This is kind of a toss-up, she only drops 50 cannonballs at once and this is only worth 9.5k You have a chance of one in 32 of getting them. I would not pick them up, however, if you are an ironman, and you have trouble getting enough of them, you should pick them up.
  • Death rune: Cerberus also drops quite a lot of death runes, a 100 at once to be exact. You have a chance of one in 42 to get this drop. It is worth about 19k, so in my opinion well worth it to pick up.

Other decent drops

Cerberus has a ton of supply drops that will help ironman train skills and help regular players to make some extra money.

  • Coal: They drop 120 noted coal ore at once, and you have a pretty decent one in 20 chance to get this drop.
  • Super restore (4): They drop two of these, pick them up or juggle them, it will prolong your trip.
  • Summer pie: Another drop you should pick up and use right away to boost your HP.
  • Dragon bones: Cerberus drops 20 noted dragon bones at once. Great to help you train prayer or sell them for 36k.
  • Wine of zamorak: Cerberus also drops wine of zamorak about once every 25 kills. Use these to make ranging potions.
  • Fire orbs: You can use the fire orbs to make a fire battlestaff for crafting exp. They drop 20 at a time, and they are noted, so pick them up if you have the inventory space.
  • Torstol: They drop 6 noted torstols at once. You are going to need this herb if you want to make divine combat potions. These are worth 42k per drop. If you are not using runelite, keep your eyes open for this drop, as it is quite hard to see on the floor of the lair.
  • Runite ore: Cerberus has a one in 42 chance of getting the runite ore drop. She gives 5 noted runite ore at once. This drop is worth about 55k.
  • Key master teleport: This is a great drop to get. You can not sell the teleport, but you can use it to go straight to Cerberus without Cerberus having to do the long way there. You get 3 at once, so getting this will save you a lot of time. It has a one in 64 chance of dropping.
  • Torstol seed: This is one of their best drops. They drop 3 torstol seeds at once. This is worth 150k depending on your market prices. You have a 1 in 64 chance of getting this drop.
    Tertiary drops
  • Brimstone key: You can only get this drop on a Konar slayer task. It has a one in 56 chance of dropping which is one of the highest drop rates amongst all monsters. The key gives you the opportunity to open the chest you find right behind the slayer master Konar.
  • Clue scroll (elite): Doing a hellhound slayer trip at Cerberus is likely going to give you 1 to 3 elite clue scrolls. Those are amazing numbers. You have a one in 100 chance of it dropping, which is amongst the highest of all monsters.
  • Hellpuppy: Cerberus has a pet! If you want to get this pet, however, you will need to kill quite a lot of this boss. You only have a one in 3000 chance of getting this drop. Making it the rarest drop on the entire drop table.

The best method to kill Cerberus

Since this guide is for people who want to kill Cerberus for the first time or for people who want to kill it as fast and easy as possible, I am only going to discuss the ranging strategy. This is easier and safer to kill her as you won’t have to deal with the melee attacks then. I am going to tell you what is the best and worst items (that still work) to use here.

  • Head slot: Since Cerberus is a slayer task you should only wear your slayer helm (i) here, there are no alternatives to this item. If you don’t have one, get one.
  • Necklace slot: In this slot, you should use the Necklace of anguish. This gives you a nice amount of damage and accuracy boost. The worst item you can work here that still works is the amulet of Glory.
  • Cape slot: The best item here is Ava’s assembler. This should give you more accuracy and damage. The worst item to use here that still works is Ava’s attractor.
  • Chest slot: The Armadyl chestplate is going to be the best item by far to use. It gives decent defense and a ranging bonus. However, the black d´hide body can be useful here. It is a huge drop-off, however.
  • Legs slot: The Armadyl chain skirt is a great item in the leg slot. You are going to get more accuracy using it, and you will be protected from the Cerberus magic attacks. You can use the black d´hide chaps here, but the leather skirt is better and also very cheap.
  • Weapon slot: The best item here is going to be the twisted bow. This will make Cerberus very easy. However, this weapon costs 800 million coins, so if you can’t afford it, you can still use a blowpipe. If you are using one, use rune darts to make up for the damage difference.
  • Shield slot: You will not be using a shield, since the blowpipe and the twisted bow are two-handed weapons. If you are going to use a crossbow or something like that, you will have to use a twisted buckler or another strong-ranging shield that gives you a nice bonus.
  • Ranging slot: If you are using a twisted bow, you should use dragon arrows. Despite how strong they are, they are pretty inexpensive to use and deal a lot of damage. If you are using a blowpipe you can use Rada´s blessing (4) or a normal god blessing.
  • Gloves slot: Strangely enough, barrows gloves are still after all these years the best in the slot for ranging. If you do not have them, your best worst option is going to be the combat bracelet.
  • Boots slot: The best boots you can wear are pegasian boots. However, you can do quite okay with the snakeskin boots. These only cost 20 GP. I do advise you to try and find something in the middle. You can use blessed boots for the prayer bonus.
  • Ring slot: There are two good rings you can use here. Once is the Ring of suffering (i) and the other one is the Archer’s ring (i). I prefer to use the latter, but the former is just as good here.

Cerberus attack mechanisms

Cerberus has a couple of very interesting attacks that can make him very challenging if you have no idea what you should do.

  • Melee: During the normal melee attack Cerberus will just try to bite you. If you are ranging him, you can avoid this attack completely.
  • Ranged: Cerberus will stand on two hind legs and will fire off a spiky ball.
  • Magic: Cerberus will fire a black ball when lowering her head.
  • Summoned souls: Cerberus summons souls that will attack you. The red soul is going to use a melee, the blue one will use magic, and the green one is going to use range. You can protect yourself from the attacks by praying the right prayer when you get attacked and using an elysian spirit shield to reduce the damage or prayer drain they do.
  • Lava pools: If you manage to get Cerberus under 200 Hitpoints he will summon multiple lava pools. He will summon 2 on random locations and one right under you, so you better run away as soon as you can, because standing near or on them does damage to you.
  • Triple attack: Every 10 attacks, she will use a certain sequence of three attacks short after another. First magic, then range, and then melee. This happens very fast after one another buy you can use your protection prayers to negate the damage completely.

Conclusion: Cerberus is a fun boss and has great money!

Fighting Cerberus is going to be very hard in the beginning. The monster has a couple of very strong attacks that you will need to figure out and train for to get the hang of it. The hardest attack in my opinion is when she summons the three souls. If you don´t pay attention or mess up the prayers, you can end up being hit for 90 hit points in just a few seconds.

Once you master this boss, you can count on getting a lot of kills per trip. It isn´t uncommon to get over 30 on a trip. If you take a look at the drop table, you will see that Cerberus has a lot of drops that you can alc. Alching these are going to be crucial to make sure you don’t have to start leaving items on the ground and will increase the money you make per trip.

In conclusion, once you have learned how to fight Cerberus and you can predict and protect yourself from the attacks, you are going to make a whole lot of money! The average profit when using optimal gear here is about 4 mil an hour. That is an amazing amount of money and you will also get some decent slayer experience. It is definitely a great alternative to fighting hellhounds.

Frequently asked questions about Cerberus

Question: Is Cerberus worth killing in OSRS?

Answer: Yes! However, you need to be a little lucky when killing them. You are going to get a loot of 80k per kill on average. A lot of that is in the crystals you might get. You have a 1 in 128 chance of getting any crystal and a one in 512 chance of getting a specific one.
The primordial crystal is worth almost half of the value of the average kill value of Cerberus. The crystal is worth 22 million GP, but it has a drop rate of one in 512. So you will need to keep killing Cerberus to have the crystal and make a real decent profit here.
However, if you are not doing it for profit, and you are more interested in getting supplies for your ironman, you will get a lot of interesting drops here. You can get runite ore, interesting seeds, and even ores. So you can get materials for all the resource-heavy skills while killing him.
Moreover, if you are an ironman, you will need to kill Cerberus if you want the best in slot boots for ranging, melee, and magic. You will need the primordial crystal for primordial boots, pegasian crystal for pegasian boots, and the eternal crystal for the eternal boots.

Question: What should I pray against Cerberus?

Answer: Cerberus uses all three combat styles to attack you. So you will have to use the style that you are the weakest against. I would advise you to use range to kill Cerberus. This is for two reasons.
First, when you fight Cerberus with range, there is a nice distance between the two of you. Cerberus will not come closer and will only attack with range and magic. This means you do not have to take into account Cerberus her melee attacks anymore.
Second, using range is going to give you a massive boost against magic attacks due to the gear you are wearing. So your weak point will be Cerberus her ranging attacks.
In short, when using the range, you should pray for range protection against Cerberus.

Question: Can you only kill Cerberus on task?

Answer: Yes, there are two tasks where you might be able to kill Cerberus. The first task is the Like a boss slayer task. You need to unlock these with slayer points. You are going to have to get Cerberus as a specific task for you to be allowed to kill her.
Your second option is killing her when you get a hellhound task. As Cerberus is a hellhound, she is the boss alternative to these monsters.
The advantage of getting a hellhound task is that you are going to get a whole lot more kills to do. A normal hellhound task is often over 180 monsters to kill. The Like a Boss slayer task is about 35 monsters.

Question: How many kills can you do in a trip when fighting Cerberus?

Answer: This is going to depend on your skill, luck, and the gear you use. A beginning player might get 2 or 3 kills if he or she is lucky. When you are using the range, and you know exactly what to pray and when to pray, and you have optimal concentration and gear, you can get over 40 kills in a trip.
If you are new to Cerberus, you should set a goal of about 10 kills per trip. This will make it worth it to go out of your way to go to the Taverley Dungeon.

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