Tormented Demon/Strategies
Tormented demons can be fought within the Ancient Guthixian Temple after completing the While Guthix Sleeps quest. As with their original version from RuneScape 2, multiple combat styles and protection prayers are needed to successfully fight these demons. They count as greater demons for the purposes of a Slayer task.
They drop the tormented synapse, which is used to create powerful demonbane weaponry, and the burning claw, which can be combined in a pair to make burning claws.
Requirements
- Completion of
While Guthix Sleeps for access to the Ancient Guthixian Temple.
Recommendations
- High combat stats in at least 2 combat styles.
- Level
75 or higher - Level
75 or higher - Level
70 or higher - Level
70 or higher - Level
75 or higher - Level
70 or higher (for Piety, 74 for Rigour, 77 for Augury) - Level
82 or higher (Dark Demonbane and magic defense)
- Level
- Completion of Shadow of the Storm for access to Arclight.
Getting there
The quickest way to reach the temple is by using a Guthixian temple teleport scroll, which are dropped by tormented demons at a rate of 1/12. Alternatively, players can use a games necklace to teleport to Tears of Guthix via either jewelry on the player or in a Jewellery box in the player's POH. From here, a lit sapphire lantern must be used to attract a light creature in order to descend into the chasm. Follow the chasm and climb the walls next to the center skull, and enter the skull above to enter the central chamber of the temple.
Fight overview
Tormented demons are perpetually surrounded by a fire shield, which reduces damage taken by 20% from any weapon that isn't a demonbane or abyssal weapon. They can also use protection prayers, attack using every combat style, along with ground-targeted fire bombs, and possess smart pathing, allowing them to move around objects and stack on top of each other. Additionally, they are also capable of attacking with melee if players stand underneath them, and will switch to a magic or ranged attack if they cannot reach the player and were previously using melee.
At 450-, 300- and 100 hitpoints, the demon will change its protection prayer to the last combat style it was damaged with, as well as stop attacking for 6 ticks (3.6s). Summoning a thrall with a third combat style can be used to occasionally exploit this. If applicable then the kill should always start with your strongest combat style, since the first style will have to deal 100 more damage than the secondary.
If attempting to safe spot them, they will change their attack style to magic or ranged and will swap between them at random, making it more difficult to negate the damage with prayers than when fighting them normally.
Multicombat
Tormented demons are spread out in groups throughout the temple, and players can fight up to three of them should they choose to do so, which results in varying attack behaviour.
With two demons attacking, one will always use melee, and the other using magic or ranged; they will not attack simultaneously as to allow players to prayer flick their attacks. If a third demon attacks, it will only use fire bombs, requiring the player to move frequently.
Fire bombs and shield
Roughly every 60 ticks (36s), the demon(s) will briefly bind the player in place, disable their run, then release two fire bombs - one targeting the tile the player stood on, and one in a 3x3 area centered on the player's location. Players have 2 ticks (1.2s) to move to a safe tile before they land and explode, or they will take 40+ damage. Players can use Ctrl-click to run if this is enabled in the in-game settings. File:Tormented Demon - triple axes.mp4 The demon will then change its combat style after this attack, and the player's run will be re-enabled. Players can determine the next attack style through the following observations:
- If it approaches the player, it will use melee.
- If it does not approach the player, it will use magic or ranged - whichever wasn't used before.
- If the demon previously used melee, you will have to guess and/or correct your protection prayer as it can be magic or ranged.
During the fire bomb attack, the fire shield will also disappear for one standard attack. Within this moment of vulnerability, attacking the demon using crush weapons, heavy ranged weapons (crossbows and ballistae), or casting a spell (not from a powered staff) increases all damage dealt by , where is the weapon's attack speed. As such, ranged weapons with a Rapid style should be set to Accurate instead. Additionally, the demon will start the fight with their shield up, but drop it after the first hit, before reactivating it with their next auto attack. This allows you to effectively use the aforementioned weapons as early as the second hit of combat, drastically increasing DPS. File:Tormented Demon - fight start shield down.mp4
If the player mistakenly uses a weapon matching the protection prayer of the monster while the shield is down, the attack speed damage bonus will still apply, but be divided by 3 and rounded down. For example, a 7 tick weapon (+33) will always hit 11 on prayer.
For the aforementioned weapons only, the attack speed for this one attack is set to 4 ticks (2.4s); if multiple demons are attacking, the attack speed decreases by one tick per additional demon that is fighting the player, allowing back-to-back powerful hits if timed correctly.
| Standard attack speed | Damage bonus | Speed vs 1 demon | Speed vs 2 demons | Speed vs 3 demons | Example Weapons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 (4.2s) | +33 | 4 (2.4s) | 3 (1.8s) | 2 (1.2s) |  Heavy ballista (Accurate),  Dharok's greataxe[a],  Dragon 2h sword[a]
|
| 6 (3.6s) | +20 | 4 (2.4s) | 3 (1.8s) | 2 (1.2s) |  Crossbows (Accurate),  Elder maul,  Godswords[a][b]
|
| 5 (3s) | +9 | 4 (2.4s) | 3 (1.8s) | 2 (1.2s) | Crossbows (Rapid),  Scythe of vitur[a],  Soulreaper axe[a]
|
| 4 or faster | +0 | 4 (2.4s) | 4 (2.4s) | 4 (2.4s) |  Inquisitor's mace[a],  Abyssal bludgeon.
|
Defencelessness
Roughly 30 ticks (18s) after the start of the fight, the demon will become defenceless, giving you 100% accuracy when attacking it; this is indicated by the flames on the demon's body being extinguished. This increased accuracy will last up until the first hit you do after their fire bomb attack, after which your accuracy will be normal until the already started timer runs out and the demon becomes defenseless once again. This means that every time you hit the demon when its shield is down, except at the start of the fight, you will have 100% accuracy on top of the bonus damage you'll be doing.
This encourages bringing extra gear such as the toxic blowpipe and elite void range.
Equipment
Like demonic gorillas, players will have to use multiple combat styles to be able to attack the demons off prayer. Unlike demonic gorillas, tormented demons remain on one style for 150 hitpoints instead of 50, meaning players will have to switch less often and can bring more gear switches if they prefer. However, the player will continue attacking when the demon changes prayers. Switches can be reduced when not much damage is gained to save inventory space.
The demons' unique accuracy mechanic encourages bringing different ranged weapons for the high and low accuracy phases, such as the toxic blowpipe and bow of Faerdhinen respectively. There is usually little benefit into switching into armour that only provides accuracy bonuses during the high accuracy phase, for example this can make the toxic blowpipe viable in full melee strength boosting gear reducing switches. The shield mechanic promotes bringing a strong, slow Crush (melee) or Heavy (ranged) weapon for when the shield is down. Ranged weapons brought for this purpose should be set to Accurate to increase their maximum hit and damage scaling, as the decrease in weapon speed is ignored.
Note: All weapons that are not classified as abyssal or demonbane deal 20% reduced damage against Tormented Demons.
With no additional gear switches, the heavy ballista (on accurate) and Dharok's greataxe (on crush) are the strongest weapons for hits when the shield is down. Dharok's greataxe becomes even more powerful when used with the full Dharok's armour set, which multiplies damage after it is rolled (and after the 33 bonus damage is added) based on the number of hitpoints the player is missing. Similarly, using a Tzhaar-ket-om with a berserker necklace multiplies damage by 1.2 after the bonus damage has been added, making it more effective than a Dharok's greataxe on its own. The Saradomin godsword and the Eldritch nightmare staff are solid options to extend trips for players who find themselves taking a lot of damage, or as a safety net for recovering from mistakes. The Saradomin godsword can also be used on crush when the shield is down as a slightly weaker alternative to Dharok's greataxe. These weapons pair well with Death Charge while still allowing the player to bring Thralls. A Lightbearer can be brought in addition should the player still struggle with supplies, though this is not recommended if the player is using Arclight or Emberlight as they benefit greatly from strength bonus.
Melee is the strongest style against the demons, especially considering the accessibility of Arclight for most accounts. Due to non-reduced damage and 100% accuracy for a large portion of the fight, Abyssal weaponry, even the Abyssal whip, outperform weapons like the Inquisitor's mace and Osmumten's fang.
The Scorching and Twisted bow are the best ranged options. Ranged typically performs worse than melee or magic setups, but require less switches and is cheaper to use than magic. The Toxic blowpipe does considerable damage to the 100% accuracy phase. Elite void ranged will outperform Masori armour when off-task in most setups. Notably, the Toxic blowpipe benefits more from the accuracy and damage from Masori compared to Void and the Twisted bow performs marginally worse in Void.
Demonbane spells with a Purging staff are the 2nd most powerful setup behind the Emberlight. Without a Scorching or Twisted bow, Demonbane spells can outperform similar range setups but have additional rune cost and require constantly applying Mark of Darkness.
Inventory Setups
Max Melee/Mage
 |  |  |  |
Equipment
- Torva and Ancestral for the highest damage output.
- Emberlight and Purging staff for increased damage output against demon-type monsters.
- Dharok's greataxe or Heavy ballista for the off-shield hit.
Inventory
- Mage switches
- Divine potions for stat boosting.
- Super restore potions for restoring prayer points.
- Burning claws for special attacks.
- Guthixian temple teleport for quick access.
- Divine rune pouch and Book of the dead with runes for Mark of Darkness, Dark Demonbane, and Thralls.
Max Melee/Range
| | |
Equipment
- Torva and Elite void for the highest damage output.
- Emberlight and Scorching bow for increased damage output against demon-type monsters.
- Dharok's greataxe and Heavy ballista for the off-shield hit. (Javelins in inventory or equipped in the ammunition slot of Dizana's quiver along with dragon arrows).
Inventory
- Ranged switches
- Divine potions for stat boosting.
- Super restore potions for restoring prayer points.
- Burning claws for special attacks.
- Guthixian temple teleport for quick access.
- Divine rune pouch and Book of the dead with runes for Thralls
Budget Melee/Mage
           |
| | |
Equipment
- Blue moon armour for a hybrid melee/mage setup.
- Arclight for increased damage output against demon-type monsters.
- Blue moon spear to autocast Demonbane spells.
Inventory
- Item switches for a Magic attack style.
- Potions for stat boosting.
- Dragon dagger for special attacks.
- Dragon 2h sword for hits off-shield.
- Guthixian temple teleport for quick access.
- Super restore potions for restoring prayer points.
- Rune pouch and Book of the dead with runes for Mark of Darkness, Dark Demonbane, and Thralls.
Budget Melee/Range
| | |
Equipment
- Arclight for increased damage output against demon-type monsters.
- Hunters' sunlight crossbow
Inventory
- Potions for stat boosting.
- Dragon dagger for special attacks.
- Dragon 2h sword for hits off-shield.
- Guthixian temple teleport for quick access.
- Super restore potions for restoring prayer points.
- Rune pouch and Book of the dead with runes for Thralls.
| Signature drops |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other | |||||||
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}