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The Nightmare

This article is compiled from the videos of GnomonkeyRS. It records what Gnomonkey said, with sources, not verified game fact. See About.

The Nightmare

The Nightmare
Type Boss
Hitpoints 2000 per phase before the shield breaks1
Attack styles Magic, ranged, rarely melee2
Weakness Crush (extremely high defence against everything else)3
Gp/hr About 12m (2020, with an alt running supplies)4
Kill time About 20 minutes solo5
Tier Pet rated C6
Group size 1 to 5 for the best drop rate78
Videos 7 (first 2020-10-09, latest 2026-06-04)
Main source Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020

The Nightmare is a three-phase boss that Gnomonkey considered one of the best bosses in the game for money in 2020. He said an alt running supplies, higher-end gear and maxed combat can make about 12m gp/hr on average.4 Her regular drops are horrible but the rare drops are incredibly valuable, which he compares to scratch-off lottery tickets.4 She is pretty easy in a group, but a solo kill is a roughly 20-minute endurance match; he would not call her hard, but she is punishing if the player makes mistakes.9

By 2022 Phosani's Nightmare had basically replaced her as the content people work toward. He calls it a step up from other bosses but still fairly easy.10

Contents

Rewards and economics

At the time of the 2020 video the harmonised orb was worth over 1.5 billion gp, the Inquisitor's mace 950 million, and every Nightmare staff drop over 150 million.4 A rare drop takes about 100 kills on average, around 34 hours if done very fast, and costs about 10m in supplies, so a decent cash stack is recommended first.95 A death at the end of a solo costs about 300k in supplies on top of the 60k reclaim fee, plus 20 minutes.9

  • Solos are the most profitable way to kill her, because the rare drop chance is the same from one to five players. Each player after five adds a 1% roll at a second rare drop, and more than five is much less efficient.78
  • In a group, the player who did the most damage receives big bones, giving a 5% increased chance of a jar, clue scroll or Nightmare pet.7

Loot table changes

Jagex proposed dupe protection for the ink armour in April 2024: after one piece such as the legs, the next drop would be the helmet or chestplate, and after two pieces the remaining one. Gnomonkey was torn. Ink armour is a good item to trial it on because the pieces cost roughly the same, but it would not work for a drop like Graardor's, where players would leave once the next piece is Bandos boots. He does not see why the game should be balanced around cloggers and irons, though he likes drops being more common and does not think dupe protection would be bad.111112

In June 2026 a developer blog said the loot table feels bloated, with four pieces of Inquisitor, the nightmare staff and three separate orbs (eight unique rewards), many niche like the orbs.13 Ideas included moving the volatile and eldritch orbs off the table and dropping a generic orb charged with a unique essence from other NPCs. Gnomonkey does not hate this but says the essence would need to come from endgame content and nowhere fits right now, so it should be a long-term change as bosses arrive.1414 A further idea lets the harmonised orb absorb the weighting of the other orbs, making it about 1 in 533 up from 1 in 1,600, and raises the nightmare staff weighting from 3 to 4 and the chance of hitting the inquisitor/staff table by 10%.15 The blog says these changes are long-term and depend on future content.15

Preparation

Gear and inventory

She has extremely high defence against everything except crush, so Gnomonkey's main solo weapon is a bludgeon with Bandos and max melee gear.3 The solo inventory has a four-way mage switch, occult necklace, god cape, tormented bracelet and a Sanguinesti staff with an imbued heart.16 Dragon claws are good for killing parasites quickly but not necessary.17 For one kill he brings 10 brews, 3 super combats and 5 super restores; double kills likely need some brews swapped for super combats and restores.18 He brings no teleport to the boss, as it wastes space, and teleports to Clan Wars afterwards.18

A Dragon warhammer is usually not worth bringing solo. In a group one player taking a hammer is a very good idea, because her defence does not go below 120 and is restored each phase, so one spec per phase is enough.19

Thralls are exceptional at bosses with extremely high defence that cannot be drained, such as the Nightmare and Callisto. They are a huge DPS increase through the whole fight, and the mage thrall deals double damage to the pillars.2021 In July 2021 he said thralls make the harmonised nightmare staff not worth using at the regular boss, as it is one or the other.21 In Phosani's Nightmare, which has much lower health per phase and more phases with pillars, the harmonised staff is just barely better, with kills a few seconds faster according to the Gear Discord, but thralls remain very useful given the cost barrier.21

Finding a world

A free world shows her slumped on the ground. Entered but not started, she floats with a slumped head. An active fight shows her floating with her head to the ceiling.22 The symbol under her shows the phase: the Oni mask is phase one, the Yin Yang phase two, and the spiked symbol with three teardrops the final phase. Gnomonkey looks for the spiked symbol while hopping and right-click inspects her to check for a solo, since solo players typically leave after one kill.22

Nobody can enter once a fight starts, so others cannot crash it. After entering there are 40 seconds before the fight begins, and a world can be spectated to see how close it is to finishing.2

The fight

Attacks and prayer

She uses all three styles: magic (arms flopping with a red glow, shooting a small red orb), ranged (cracks her bones three times then flings shards) and rarely melee (leans back with hands on the ground and scrapes forward).2 The player has about three ticks to react to ranged and magic and about two ticks for the faster melee. Once a projectile is thrown it is too late to switch, and correct protection reduces damage by about 75%.23 Ranged and magic max over 40, while melee, the most dangerous, maxes over 50, so most melee attacks must be caught for a kill to be possible. The attacks have obvious sound cues.23

In a solo the player takes the tank role, and Gnomonkey says the easiest approach is to swap back to Protect from Melee after each attack lands.24 In a group she picks a target based on defence bonuses, defence level and prayer in use: only the tank worries about melee while the others stand safely behind her. In a solo the player is always the target.25 With Piety giving enough defence to tank, it can be flicked on to bring her towards the player, then turned off when she gets close to avoid all melee.26 A safespot below the north pillars avoids all melee: stand just south of the pillar.27

Her prayer management is rated 4/5: the appropriate prayer is flicked each attack and shuffled with the special attacks, melee timing can be quite tight, and misses cause extremely high damage.1028

Structure

Each phase gives her 2000 HP before the shield breaks.1 After that she loses her shield and the player must switch to magic gear and damage the totem in each quarter. Her normal and special attacks continue, so evasion continues.29 During this phase boost prayers (including Augury) should be off, as they waste prayer, and the player should not heal fully so the Sanguinesti staff can heal as much as possible.29 All four totems can be hit from the centre tile, or from a safe quadrant with long-range casting.30

When all four are charged she takes one third of her health in damage, is teleported to the middle and spawns one sleepwalker per player (one in a solo). If the player fails to attack it before it reaches her she hits for 74; killing it first reduces this to five.31 Gnomonkey specs the sleepwalker with the Saradomin godsword for a massive heal, higher with a combat potion, full melee gear and Piety. Without an SGS he stays in mage gear and attacks it for longer.31 The fight repeats for three phases, and charging the third set of totems kills her.26

Gnomonkey calls the phases flower (one), parasite (two) and truck (three). Phase two is by far the hardest, phase one a close second and phase three by far the easiest.32 Each phase has two unique special attacks, and she typically uses a phase-specific attack every five regular attacks (including grasping claws), somewhat randomly.33

Grasping claws (any phase)

This special replaces her regular attacks. Black portals form around the arena and under her, and hands hit for up to 60 if the player stands on a portal or walks under her. A portal almost always spawns under the player with about three ticks to move, and the attack is active for only one tick.1 He recommends sidestepping immediately and continuing to attack to avoid wasting ticks.1

Flower phase

She spawns four vertical lines of flowers: two of rotten flowers with flies and two of regular flowers. Regular flowers mark a safe quadrant; leaving it towards rotten flowers deals 4 to 8 per tick and heals her for the damage taken.33 The easiest way to avoid it is to stand towards the outside centre of her and run to the nearest safe flowers if none spawn under the player. The player can stand on regular flowers. In a group the tank takes one set of flowers and the group the other.30

Two husks of 20 HP each also spawn, freezing the player and attacking with magic (skinny, blue projectiles) and ranged (fat, green projectiles) for 1 to 15 each. They are weak to melee but add up quickly.34 Gnomonkey prays Protect from Magic and attacks them at once, swapping prayers to match her attacks and back (ranged if only fat husks are out). It is better to protect against the husks and catch melee than to pray melee and take husk attacks at full force.34 Husks should not spawn while charging the fourth totem, because the player would be frozen when the sleepwalkers spawn and could kill them with magic but miss the SGS spec.35

If grasping claws is used while frozen by husks she usually does not place a portal under the player, though it happened twice anyway. He thinks only the guaranteed portal is skipped.35

Parasite phase

Flowers and husks are replaced by two new specials.36

  • Parasite: she coughs up a parasite that infects the player. It must be cured with a sand fuse dose or Relicym's balm (clicking the cure health orb drinks a cure automatically), or after three more attacks it bursts from the chest.36 A burst parasite heals her every four ticks for 10 to 80 health; if the disease was not cured, it bursts for about 70 and the parasite has 80 health instead of 40.37 The parasite is weak to crush, so a claw special almost always one-shots it; otherwise the bludgeon is used. Gnomonkey counts three attacks after infection and runs under her so it spawns under her, where it cannot heal her.38 He has not found a consistent way to block it, and grasping claws can hurt if standing under her. If it heals her five times, almost all damage dealt before it spawned is invalidated.39 A parasite that spawns when it cannot heal anything (totems charged, no totem damage, or the shield just broke) attacks with ranged and magic instead, which he considers better. Parasites have fairly high magic defence, so melee is used if they spawn during the totem phase.40
  • Curse: signalled by a pink glow. For five attacks protection prayers shift one to the right: mage becomes ranged, ranged becomes melee, melee becomes mage. The five attacks must be counted, and she can use it during totems.41 She almost always, but not always, uses grasping claws after the five curse attacks.42

Truck phase

In the final phase she can no longer curse or spawn parasites.43 Her truck special has her hop into the ground, teleport to a side of the arena, then blast forward and run over the player for over 50 if in the way. While waiting, Gnomonkey runs to where she will end up to waste less time not attacking.4344

Mushrooms spawn in a checkerboard pattern. Stepping within one tile pops them, preventing running for five of her attacks and reducing attack speed by one tick with all weapons, which basically costs one bludgeon hit. There are about two ticks to move away on spawn, and they do zero damage.45 She almost always uses a special at least once while they are active, so grasping claws should be watched for, and a late mushroom touch is risky because being unable to run can coincide with the truck. If unavoidable, take the mushrooms and keep attacking.46 In a group the effect spreads by walking next to another player, like the Ohm burn attack in the Theatre.7

Ratings and opinions

  • Inventory management 3/5 (tracking specials and supplies, switching to kill parasites, husks and totems), movement 2/5 (grasping claws, her melee and sleepwalkers) and prayer management 4/5.10
  • He does not like the Nightmare pet: it takes many hours and is hard to get but is nothing exceptional, so he gives it C tier.6
  • The Old School team pulled many mechanics for the Great Olm and the Nightmare from Nex's old design. The Nightmare is actually based on "Nex: Angel of Death", basically Nex 2 for RS3. Nex choosing a tank by range defence for heavy single-target melee hits is very similar.474849

Revision history

Date Video Change
2026-06-04 The New Summer Sweep Update is CRAZY (OSRS) Added June 2026 loot table bloat discussion and proposed orb and essence changes.
2024-04-18 JAGEX RUINING EARLY GAME PVM (OSRS) Added Jagex's ink armour dupe protection proposal and his opinion.
2022-05-11 Getting Into PVM in Old School Runescape (OSRS) Added difficulty ratings (3/5, 2/5, 4/5) and noted Phosani's Nightmare has replaced her as the target content.
2022-03-12 Pet Hunter Tier List (Bosses, Skilling, Etc) OSRS Added opinion: pet rated C tier.
2021-11-16 OSRS Nex Predictions from an RS2 Veteran Added the connection between the Nightmare and Nex's old design.
2021-07-13 Thralls Guide (Arceuus Spellbook) OSRS Added thrall advice and the thralls versus harmonised nightmare staff comparison.
2020-10-09 Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020 Page created: money rating, drops, solo and group mechanics, all three phases, specials and rewards.
## See also

References

  1. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 8:35 ↩↩↩↩

  2. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 6:43 ↩↩↩

  3. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 1:07 ↩↩

  4. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 0:00 ↩↩↩↩

  5. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 18:52 ↩↩

  6. Pet Hunter Tier List (Bosses, Skilling, Etc) OSRS, 2022-03-12. ▶ 1:30 ↩↩

  7. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 17:51 ↩↩↩↩

  8. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 18:23 ↩↩

  9. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 0:32 ↩↩↩

  10. Getting Into PVM in Old School Runescape (OSRS), 2022-05-11. ▶ 8:02 ↩↩↩

  11. JAGEX RUINING EARLY GAME PVM (OSRS), 2024-04-18. ▶ 8:21 ↩↩

  12. JAGEX RUINING EARLY GAME PVM (OSRS), 2024-04-18. ▶ 9:15 ↩

  13. The New Summer Sweep Update is CRAZY (OSRS), 2026-06-04. ▶ 48:24 ↩

  14. The New Summer Sweep Update is CRAZY (OSRS), 2026-06-04. ▶ 48:56 ↩↩

  15. The New Summer Sweep Update is CRAZY (OSRS), 2026-06-04. ▶ 49:28 ↩↩

  16. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 2:59 ↩

  17. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 3:55 ↩

  18. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 4:27 ↩↩

  19. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 2:22 ↩

  20. Thralls Guide (Arceuus Spellbook) OSRS, 2021-07-13. ▶ 6:26 ↩

  21. Thralls Guide (Arceuus Spellbook) OSRS, 2021-07-13. ▶ 6:57 ↩↩↩

  22. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 6:34 ↩↩

  23. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 7:01 ↩↩

  24. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 7:33 ↩

  25. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 8:04 ↩

  26. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 10:13 ↩↩

  27. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 10:42 ↩

  28. Getting Into PVM in Old School Runescape (OSRS), 2022-05-11. ▶ 8:34 ↩

  29. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 9:06 ↩↩

  30. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 11:35 ↩↩

  31. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 9:39 ↩↩

  32. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 10:49 ↩

  33. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 11:09 ↩↩

  34. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 12:08 ↩↩

  35. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 13:08 ↩↩

  36. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 13:33 ↩↩

  37. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 13:43 ↩

  38. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 14:15 ↩

  39. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 14:45 ↩

  40. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 15:14 ↩

  41. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 15:47 ↩

  42. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 16:17 ↩

  43. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 16:25 ↩↩

  44. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 16:50 ↩

  45. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 16:52 ↩

  46. Nightmare Solo Guide 12m GP/HR (And Groups!) OSRS 2020, 2020-10-09. ▶ 17:18 ↩

  47. OSRS Nex Predictions from an RS2 Veteran, 2021-11-16. ▶ 2:08 ↩

  48. OSRS Nex Predictions from an RS2 Veteran, 2021-11-16. ▶ 2:41 ↩

  49. OSRS Nex Predictions from an RS2 Veteran, 2021-11-16. ▶ 5:13 ↩

Bosses

Nex • The Wardens • Akkha • Doom of Mokhaiotl • Yama • TzKal-Zuk • Kephri • Zebak • Ba-Ba • Alchemical Hydra • Great Olm • Zulrah • Sol Heredit • General Graardor • The Nightmare • Vorkath • Araxxor • Corrupted Hunllef • Verzik Vitur • TzTok-Jad • Tormented Demon • Phosani's Nightmare • JalTok-Jad • Shellbane Gryphon • Vanguards • The Hueycoatl • Kree'arra • Tekton • Maggot King • Vasa Nistirio • Kalphite Queen • Maiden of Sugadinti • Muttadile • Ice Demon • Vespula • Sotetseg • Grotesque Guardians • Xarpus • Corporeal Beast • Smoke devil

Category: Bosses