The Hueycoatl/Strategies
The Hueycoatl is a group boss located atop the Darkfrost in Varlamore, requiring only completion of Children of the Sun and having spoken to Taala at the base camp to fight. Players can enter the public area via the chain to fight the Hueycoatl with up to 20 players at once, or create a private instance at the meeting flag next to the bank buffalo. Creating a private group/solo instance costs 50,000 coins (25,000 if the player is eligible to claim the hard Combat Achievement rewards).
If the player dies while fighting the Hueycoatl, their grave will appear at the base camp.
The Chat-channel "Huey Host" can be used to find small teams.
Recommendations
- Moderate melee combat stats
- Level
60 or higher - Level
60 or higher - Level
60 or higher - Level
70 or higher - Level
43 for protection prayers
- Level
- Completion of The Heart of Darkness to acquire a pendant of ates
Getting there
<mapframe group="pins" align="right" text="The location of the base camp" plane="0" width="250" y="3291" x="1528" height="250" zoom="2" mapID="0">
{"features":[{"type":"Feature","geometry":{"coordinates":[1528.5,3289.5],"type":"Point"},"properties":{"mapID":"0","providerID":0,"group":"pins","description":"
X/Y: 1528,3289
","plane":"0","icon":"greenPin"}}],"type":"FeatureCollection"}
</mapframe> The quickest methods of reaching the base camp are as follows:
- Using a pendant of ates to teleport to the Darkfrost, after activating the Statue of Ates just west of the base camp.
- Using the Quetzal Transport System to reach Quetzacalli Gorge, then running north-east through the gate and then north-west around the mountain.
Starting the Fight
Players can initiate the fight by climbing through the chains leading to the boss arena at any point they desire.
Entering the fight after phase 1 has been cleared will result in the player's contribution being significantly reduced.
The player can quick-peek the chain to see how many players are in the Hueycoatl's arena, along with the phase she is currently in:
- Fight not in progress: The Hueycoatl is preparing itself.
- Phase 1: The Hueycoatl's body can be seen on the mountainside.
- Phase 2: They have reached the summit.
- Phase 3: The Hueycoatl is defending itself with its tail.
- Phase 4: The Hueycoatl is making its final stand.
Fight overview
The Hueycoatl herself, her body, and her tail are all vulnerable to dragonbane weapons. Additionally, her stats do not scale with the quantity of players in the fight; thus, a fight consists of five body parts (with each having 250 health), the head itself (with 2,500 health), and the tail (with 400 health), requiring a total of 4,150 damage to clear the encounter.
The Hueycoatl will primarily use two attacks throughout the entire fight:
- Glowing symbols - these spawn around the ground near players. After 4 ticks, lightning will strike any player still standing on them for up to 16 damage.
- Rain Fire - the Hueycoatl will launch the feathers on her back on the team, and players must activate the corresponding protection prayer based on the colour of the incoming projectile. If correctly prayed against, the damage is reduced to 0-2; otherwise, the attacks deal up to 14 damage.
- The red melee projectile's tail end is smoking.
- The green ranged projectile moves toward the player without any noticeable animations.
- The blue magic projectile spins as it moves toward the player.
Phase one (body phase)
File:The Hueycoatl - avoiding symbols and flicking prayer.mp4 Upon starting the fight, the path to the Hueycoatl herself is blocked, with a segment of her tail restricting access to the summit. There are five parts of the Hueycoatl's body that can be attacked, all of which must be defeated before the tail is forced to clear the way. Each body segment has 250 Hitpoints; they do not attack players.
Despite the body's appearance, it has a hitbox of 1x1, and it can be somewhat troublesome to click on it. On the New Official Client, players can hold the shift key and right-click "Tag-All" to display the hitbox of the bodies (on RuneLite, this is done via the "NPC Indicators" plugin).
Phase two (head phase)
Once the path to the summit opens, the Hueycoatl can be attacked directly. If the player has a thrall lingering from the previous phase, summon another one immediately regardless of its timer to position the thrall closer to the head, otherwise the original thrall will take some time to move up to the summit and engage the boss.
The seer will begin charging the three pillars located west of the head. Players can charge the blue, red, and green pillars by praying Protect from Magic, Protect from Melee, and Protect from Missiles respectively. The number of active prayers required to begin charging a pillar is based on the size of the team. To charge all 3 pillars, teams need to equally balance the number of players using each protection prayer. A team of 3 requires each player to use a unique protection prayer, while a team of 6 requires two players to use each prayer.
| Team Size | Active Prayers Required to Charge a Pillar |
|---|---|
| 1-5 | 1+ |
| 6-8 | 2+ |
| 9-11 | 3+ |
| 12-14 | 4+ |
| 15-17 | 5+ |
| 18-20 | 6+ |
Each time that the seer's yellow charge bar fills, the seer will check if the three pillars are full. At that time, if all three pillars are full (because the active protection prayers are correctly balanced for the team's size), then the three braziers on top of the pillars will be lit. While the braziers are lit, players are given a 30% damage buff. When the seer's yellow charge bar fills again, if the three pillars are still full, the braziers will stay lit and the damage buff will remain active. If at least one pillar is draining (because the active protection prayers are no longer balanced) when the seer's yellow charge bar fills again, then the braziers will be extinguished and all players will lose the damage buff. This damage buff can be gained and lost multiple times per fight. The pillars can safely be temporarily drained while the seer's yellow charge bar is filling and players will retain the damage buff as long as the pillars are refilled before the yellow charge bar is full.
When running up to the mountain summit between the first phase and the second phase, it is common for players in teams to call out in the chat which prayer they will be responsible for during the fight. Teams can have the damage buff for the remainder of the fight by having each player camp their selected overhead prayer and tank the damage taken from the rain fire projectiles. Players can choose to quickly switch prayers to reduce damage taken from the rain fire projectiles, but should only do so when the seer's yellow charge bar is not close to being filled. If the seer's yellow charge bar is close to being filled, players should keep their balanced protection prayers active and tank the damage to prevent losing the damage buff, as the Hueycoatl's damage is inconsequential to the extra damage from the pillars.
Teams with only one or two players can not meet the balanced active protection prayer requirement to charge all three pillars and therefore cannot earn the damage buff. In these circumstances, the seer, pillars, and braziers can be ignored. Instead, the player(s) should use their protection prayers to reduce damage from the rain fire projectiles.
The size of the team is based on all players within the arena, regardless their position or activity. Players who join or leave the arena mid-fight affect the team size instantly. This mechanic can be exploited by players who want the damage buff in a solo or duo by standing extra accounts near the entrance which can pray the other needed protection prayers. The accounts standing near the entrance will only be damaged by the rain fire attack, not the lightning and not the tail shockwave, in the last three phases and should be geared to tank the attack styles that they are not praying.
Upon reaching 50% or less health, the Hueycoatl will shield herself and become invulnerable to damage, and her tail will appear from the western cave entrance, starting the next phase.
Phase three (tail phase)
The Hueycoatl's tail has a shield that must be destroyed before she can be directly attacked again. The tail has only 400 hitpoints, but attacks made on the tail will have their damage reduced to 1-9 regardless of their equipment, which can significantly prolong the phase for small teams.
Once this phase begins, the player should keep their Hitpoints above 40 to avoid being combo'ed out by the tail shockwave and an auto-attack or lightning strike.
Upon starting this phase, it is best to immediately swap to a weapon that is able to hit multiple times per attack; ideally the blood moon armour set and dual macuahuitls will help speed this phase significantly, given that its set effect will proc numerous times during the kill. If the player does not have the set, the macuahuitls will suffice; if the player does not have them, then glacial temotlis are a reasonable alternative, as it is simply a weaker version of the macuahitls while possessing the same attack speed of 4 ticks. If none of these are available, then Torag's hammers will do, though they attack a tick slower. Otherwise, simply continue using your normal weapons. Thralls can also help in dealing extra damage, as do the special attacks of dragon/burning claws or the ursine chainmace, though these should not be used in trio and larger encounters as the phase is much shorter in groups, and the damage from special attacks would benefit more from increased pillar damage.
The tail will change sides approximately every 20 seconds. Attacks made during the transition will not damage it. Every time it reappears, it will slam the ground and send out a shockwave that deals 20-25 damage. Avoid it by running "through" the shockwave at the correct time; running diagonally through the wave is also an effective way to avoid it.
The standard method to avoid the shockwaves during this phase requires use of precise timing to skip over them, as seen below:
-
The player times their movement to avoid the tail's shockwave attack. -
If the player makes a mistake for the standard method, they should stand on the tile as shown, moving to the one diagonal to them once the shockwave reaches it. This technique is used for the final phase as well.
Phase four (final phase)
Once the tail is broken, the head of the Hueycoatl can be attacked once again.
The Hueycoatl's attack speed will significantly increase for the duration of this phase, so players should be mindful of the increased lightning strikes around the arena. In addition to the increased attack speed, the Hueycoatl's tail will continually send out shockwaves at a rate of one every ~15 or so seconds, requiring players to continually move to avoid getting struck by it. As with before, running diagonally towards the shockwave as shown above will avoid taking damage from it. If a player is not confident about their timing with the shockwaves, the two farthest tiles on both sides in the row in front of Hueycoatl provide safespots.
File:The Hueycoatl - final phase gameplay.mp4
When the Hueycoatl is defeated, players can resupply at the bank buffalo if needed, by sliding down the slope to the east. Otherwise, she will "respawn" in 30 seconds. Any players at the summit when she fully recovers will be knocked back down to the starting point, so if staying for more kills, it is recommended to return to the start so players can immediately start attacking the Hueycoatl's body parts without delay.
Equipment
The Hueycoatl is vulnerable to the effects of dragonbane weapons and weakest to crush, so the dragon hunter lance outperforms all other crush weapons, barring a Scythe of Vitur (if the player does not mind the upkeep cost). As the boss' auto-attacks barely deal any damage and the special attacks can be easily avoided, it is recommended to bring Inquisitor's armour for its accuracy and damage bonus. If not, bring the best strength-boosting equipment possible.
Due to the damage cap on Hueycoatl's tail, weapons that hit multiple times per attack, such as the dual macuahuitl or glacial temotli are essentially mandatory for the fight, as they will help speed up the phase significantly.
The Hueycoatl has a Defence level of 125, and Defence-draining effects will only drain up to 5 levels. Due to this, it is recommended to not bring them to the fight, and to prioritise damaging special attacks instead.
With best-in-slot gear, a solo kill should take around 8 minutes and 20 seconds on average, though this is primarily dependent on the duration of phase 3. In trio sizes, teams with sufficient gear can subdue the boss within 5 minutes.
Inventory
 |  |  | |
 |  |  | |
 |  | | |
 | | | |
| | | |
 | | | |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
- Combat potions, such as a Super combat potion or Super attack and strength
- 1 Prayer regeneration potion
- Prayer potions
- Food, such as sharks
- A special attack weapon, such as dragon claws or burning claws. For the tail phase, use an ursine chainmace.
- A multi-hitting weapon for the tail, such as Dual macuahuitl (Further enhanced by Blood moon armour)
- Thralls and a Book of the dead if on Arceuus. Note: Death Charge on Arceuus only works if you get the last hit on the body or head. It does not work on the tail.
- Imbued or Saturated heart for Magic boost to increase thrall duration
| Slot | Item (most effective → least effective) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
 | Dual macuahuitl[f] |  Glacial temotli |  Torag's hammers |
| NPCs |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rewards |
| ||||
| Related | |||||
