Grotesque Guardians

This fight takes place in an instance with a deathbank.

On death, you can pay the Magical Chest 50,000 to retrieve lost items.
Any unsafe death will delete all items left inside the deathbank. Any items left on the ground will be lost.

This article has a strategy guide.

All information on mechanics and strategy will be on this page.

This article has a Slayer task guide here.

Information comparing locations for Slayer tasks will be on this page

"Ggs" redirects here. For the Dorgeshuun Delicacy, see green gloop soup.

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 for the first time, 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 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.

Upon Dusk's death, 1350 Slayer experience is rewarded, scaling up to 1485 experience, according to the tier of the Morytania Diary completed. Slayer experience per kill is not affected by the Double Trouble perk.

The Grotesque Guardians are fought in a solo instance, although capped at eight instances per world.

History

A Dorgeshuun goblin during the God Wars left a written record entitled The living statues detailing their account of how the Grotesque Guardians (as well as the gargoyles on the top floor) came to be animated.

The animated statues were created by the Bandosian general Snaarldor during the God Wars. Bandos sought to bolster his troops with more durable fighters than the goblins he'd been using, such as the Dorgeshuun. He sent Snaarldor and a group of goblins to the Slayer tower (Viggora's Folly) to achieve this. 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 order the Guardians to fight for Bandos, attacking the forces of Armadyl, Saradomin and Zamorak. Upon the mention of the last name, the two gargoyles immediately tilted their heads, which Snaarldor believed to be having gained their loyalty. Snaarldor's assistant, a Dorgeshuun goblin, knew otherwise and tried to warn him of it, but the ourg threatened him. Before Snaarldor could finish his threat, he was immediately swept in a blur, as the two gargoyles began fighting him, swatting away his ork soldiers who tried to beat them off their general.

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.

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 up to 33 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 three energy spheres that will grow larger over time. If players do not absorb these spheres in time, each will heal Dawn for 90 Hitpoints.

After killing Dawn, Dusk will absorb her essence, increasing his stats (barring his health) and having the ability to use her ranged attacks alongside his melee ones, initiating the last phase of the fight. At the start of this phase and periodically afterwards, Dusk will grab the player to a random location and imprison them in a prison of flames, which they must escape or take heavy damage which heals him in the process.

• 
  The player is knocked back by Dusk's explosive attack.
• 
  The Grotesque Guardians perform their lightning special attack.
• 
  The player is damaged by the prison of purple flames, healing Dusk.

Drops

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

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.

 The average high alch value of drops from the "Weapons and armour" table per kill is 11,130.00.

100%

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Granite dust	50–100	Always	Not sold	N/A

Unique

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Granite maul	1	2 × 1/250	509,257	30,000
	Granite gloves	1	2 × 1/500	96,926	20,400
	Granite ring	1	2 × 1/500	26,975	9,000
	Granite hammer	1	2 × 1/750	333,516	38,400
	Black tourmaline core	1	2 × 1/1,000	7,166,309	24,900

Weapons and armour

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Rune pickaxe	1	2 × 6/137	18,661	19,200
	Rune full helm	1	2 × 5/137	20,533	21,120
	Rune platelegs	1	2 × 5/137	37,847	38,400
	Rune 2h sword	1	2 × 4/137	37,885	38,400
	Rune battleaxe	1	2 × 3/137	24,300	24,960
	Dragon longsword	1	2 × 1/137	59,175	60,000
	Adamant boots	1	2 × 1/137	1,104	1,152
	Dragon med helm	1	2 × 1/137	59,006	60,000

Supply Drop

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Mushroom potato	4–6	2 × 10/137	3,412–5,118	108–162
Saradomin brew(4).png: Grotesque Guardians drops Saradomin brew(4) with rarity 2 × 8/137 in quantity 2	Saradomin brew(4)	2	2 × 8/137	24,490	240
	Magic potion(2)	1	2 × 6/137	69	120
	Ranging potion(2)	1	2 × 6/137	1,129	129
	Super combat potion(2)	1	2 × 6/137	7,716	54
	Prayer potion(4)	1–2	2 × 4/137	10,061–20,122	114–228

Resources

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Gold ore	40–75 (noted)	2 × 7/137	6,280–11,775	3,600–6,750
	Adamantite bar	25–40 (noted)	2 × 6/137	48,025–76,840	9,600–15,360
	Coal	180–250 (noted)	2 × 6/137	27,360–38,000	4,860–6,750
	Gold bar	35–50 (noted)	2 × 6/137	4,060–5,800	6,300–9,000
	Mithril bar	35–45 (noted)	2 × 6/137	22,785–29,295	6,300–8,100
	Runite ore	3–6 (noted)	2 × 4/137	33,075–66,150	5,760–11,520
	Runite bar	3–5 (noted)	2 × 3/137	37,401–62,335	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	10,200–15,300	5,400–8,100
	Coins	25,000	2 × 5/137	25,000	25,000
	Crystal key	1	2 × 5/137	25,297	90
	Death rune	60–100	2 × 5/137	9,600–16,000	6,480–10,800
	Dragon dart tip	15–25	2 × 4/137	47,445–79,075	2,250–3,750
Diamond bolt tips.png: Grotesque Guardians drops Diamond bolt tips with rarity 2 × 3/137 in quantity 100-150	Diamond bolt tips	100–150	2 × 3/137	17,300–25,950	7,900–11,850
Dragonstone bolt tips.png: Grotesque Guardians drops Dragonstone bolt tips with rarity 2 × 2/137 in quantity 20-40	Dragonstone bolt tips	20–40	2 × 2/137	19,620–39,240	8,000–16,000
Onyx bolt tips.png: Grotesque Guardians drops Onyx bolt tips with rarity 2 × 2/137 in quantity 5-10	Onyx bolt tips	5–10	2 × 2/137	43,635–87,270	3,000–6,000
	Dragon arrowtips	50–150	2 × 1/137	89,500–268,500	15,000–45,000

Tertiary

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
Brimstone key.png: Grotesque Guardians drops Brimstone key with rarity 1/44 in quantity 1	Brimstone key	1	1/44	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	4,020,272	1

Combat Achievements

There are 0 Combat Achievement tasks (totalling 0 points) available for Grotesque Guardians.

Name	Description	Type	Tier	Comp%

Changes

Date	Changes
[[{{#explode:14 July 2021| |0}} {{#explode:14 July 2021| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:14 July 2021| |2}}]] (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.
[[{{#explode:23 July 2020| |0}} {{#explode:23 July 2020| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:23 July 2020| |2}}]] (update)	An issue in which the damage done by the player during the fight's transition phases were miscalculated has been fixed.
[[{{#explode:9 July 2020| |0}} {{#explode:9 July 2020| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:9 July 2020| |2}}]] (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.
[[{{#explode:12 July 2018| |0}} {{#explode:12 July 2018| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:12 July 2018| |2}}]] (update | poll)	Dusk and Dawn's hitpoints have been decreased from 600 to 450.
[[{{#explode:26 October 2017| |0}} {{#explode:26 October 2017| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:26 October 2017| |2}}]]	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

• 
  A piece of artwork depicting the Grotesque Guardians.
• 
• 

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.
• The "Cloister Bell" used to initiate the fight is a reference to the alarm sound of the same name from Doctor Who.