DUO Yama Guide Max + Budget OSRS


Date	2025-05-14
Type	guide
Video	youtu.be/2Kjo3Y5Q_Pk

Summary

Day-one duo guide to Yama showing one kill in near-max gear and further kills in a budget setup. Gnomonkey explains the Soulflame horn, glyph handling, the enraged final phase and why a purging staff and Emberlight are the key items.

Outline

0:00 Introduction and setup
1:08 Using the Soulflame horn
3:23 Duo combat mechanics: tank selection, glyphs, judge
5:57 Managing the enraged phase
7:24 Budget setup guide
13:47 Second budget kill run
17:59 Final tips and conclusion: Mark of Darkness, purging staff, strength bonus

Topics covered

Yama

(0:31) Gnomonkey considers duo Yama good for kills per hour because the Soulflame horn is very strong and can only be used in a duo.
(2:00) In this video Gnomonkey notes Yama has 333 crush defence, so an Elder maul does not normally land on him.
(2:57) In a duo at Yama, Gnomonkey says you can use melee as your main style, whereas in a solo you mage because draining Yama is hard.
(2:57) Gnomonkey states melee is about 11% better than mage at Yama in this setup.
(4:00) Yama picks one player as the tank at the start of the fight; the tank can pray melee while in melee range, so the other player does not need to worry about that prayer.
(4:30) The Judge of Yama is a guaranteed hit and has a shared health pool; both players swap between mage and melee to damage it together before returning to the boss.
(5:37) Yama's phases occur at 33% and 66% health.
(6:40) Gnomonkey's first duo kill in near-max gear took about three minutes.
(14:44) Gnomonkey advises staying north of Yama and never south, towards where the waves start forming, because you do not have time to react to them.
(21:12) Gnomonkey calls Yama a hard boss with a killer enrage phase, but says it is more doable than expected and genuinely fun.
(21:12) Gnomonkey says that once you have the glyphs down, Yama rarely hits you except in the last 33% enraged push.
(21:20) Gnomonkey says that with two synapses (Emberlight and purging staff) you have almost the same DPS as everyone else, since basically all DPS is in those two weapons.

Soulflame horn

(1:02) As of this May 2025 video, the Soulflame horn costs only around 50 million gp and is a new spec weapon.
(1:02) The Soulflame horn costs 25% special attack and buffs a teammate; then both players' next melee hits are guaranteed to hit.
(1:28) Gnomonkey's duo DPS loop with Emberlight is swing, horn, swing, horn, which he calls the best DPS you can do in a spec.
(1:28) The horn lets an Elder maul land on Yama, and one horn basically puts Yama at the defence cap, so a single Elder maul spec from a teammate is all the defence drain needed.
(3:30) The players must be near each other for the Soulflame horn to work, so Gnomonkey pre-horns right before starting the fight next to the boss.
(6:43) The Soulflame horn does not work with any multi-splat hit, such as the scythe, and only works for single-splat hits like the Elder maul or bandos godsword.
(7:05) Gnomonkey says the Abyssal dagger works with the horn only because it calculates in a weird way.

Emberlight

(0:00) Per the video description, Emberlight is always best in slot over the scythe at Yama with Torva helm and Oathplate chest/legs.
(4:04) Gnomonkey says spamming Emberlight hits with the horn is very strong, and you should get an Emberlight for this boss.
(7:44) On a budget, Gnomonkey says the goal is to land three Emberlight specs on Yama at the start, then dump burning claw specs.
(8:54) In a duo budget run, one player acts as backup and only specs Emberlight if the partner's specs miss; you only need three Emberlight specs on the boss.
(18:20) Emberlight's damage comes almost entirely from your gear's strength bonus: Gnomonkey's melee strength was 19 and rose only to 32 on equipping it, since the weapon itself has 13 strength.
(20:16) Gnomonkey says each roughly 2 strength bonus adds about 1 max hit for Emberlight.
(20:50) Gnomonkey advises bringing the highest strength-bonus gear, for example Blood Moon and Blue Moon, to maximise Emberlight's max hit; dropping strength bonus loses many max hits.

Purging staff

(0:31) Gnomonkey says the purging staff is effectively equal to the Shadow at Yama, with Shadow slightly better only on the last phase.
(2:28) Even if you own a Shadow, Gnomonkey still brings the purging staff for one-shotting the orbs.
(8:04) Gnomonkey says if you only have one synapse, make the purging staff, as it is very hard to replace and Emberlight alone is fairly good.
(19:12) With the purging staff equipped, Mark of Darkness lasts five minutes instead of one minute, covering basically the whole kill.
(19:12) Gnomonkey says Staff of the Dead or Sang are not alternatives, because Yama is effectively a super demon and the purging staff gets demonbane multipliers; his purging staff was hitting around 80.
(19:42) Gnomonkey says it is almost not worth coming to Yama without a purging staff and recommends sending Tormented Demons to get at least one synapse to make one.

Mark of Darkness

(1:40) Gnomonkey brings Ward of Arceus, Thralls, Death Charge and Mark of Darkness, which needs Aether runes; without them you need one extra rune slot.
(18:12) Mark of Darkness provides a tremendous amount of your DPS when maging Yama, so Gnomonkey says to always cast it when you equip the purging staff and start maging.
(19:12) With the purging staff equipped, Mark of Darkness lasts five minutes rather than one minute.

Ward of Arceuus

(18:12) Ward of Arceus reduces damage coming towards you from demons; Gnomonkey believes it takes about 10% off each Yama hit.
(18:39) Gnomonkey says Ward of Arceus only costs nature runes in addition to what you already bring, so it is worth a rune slot.

Yama glyphs

(4:00) When Yama begins a special attack and a glyph appears, tapping the glyph blocks the special so it does not hit you.
(4:33) Gnomonkey says you can null the orbs by touching the glyph as a backup, so you do not have to kill them; the void orb hit while the fire glyph did not because he touched the glyph.
(5:03) Gnomonkey says the non-tank player should hit the glyphs, so that only the tank gets the full special; in good gear it is always one or two specials.
(10:58) Gnomonkey says Yama always chooses the same glyph first at the start of the fight, and then specials follow the same order every time (clockwise or counterclockwise).
(14:58) A huge ring of fire and a giant meteorite are specials you handle by grabbing the glyph; if the glyph-grabber misses the giant meteorite it one-shots the tank.
(16:12) In a duo both players get the meteorites, but you cannot be hit by the other player's meteorites because it is client side.

Yama

(5:37) Gnomonkey says Yama's enraged phase is much harder than the earlier phases and is the hardest part of the whole fight.
(6:07) In the enraged phase, any time a player takes a melee hit it spawns an orb, so Gnomonkey uses the Shadow or purging staff and avoids tanking melee.
(6:07) During the enrage meteors, step perpendicular to them; Yama alternates attacks between mage and range, so swap prayer each time.
(12:24) Gnomonkey says to mage the entire enraged phase; meleeing there spawns many orbs and makes the fight much slower and harder.
(12:38) In the enraged phase the orbs can be one-shot even without giga max gear, and dropping a spec on them refunds the spec; run early away from the fire attacks.
(16:45) Gnomonkey says the orbs heal Yama and damage you tremendously if you do not kill them, so someone must deal with them.
(17:42) Keep your health high during the enrage, because if Yama hits at the same time as a prayer drop it can kill you; Gnomonkey says sitting at about 40 health is not the play.

Judge of Yama

(4:30) The Judge of Yama is a guaranteed hit; both players swap between mage and melee and share one health pool.
(10:28) Gnomonkey recommends being in mage for the Judge because you can hit it on the rocks on the way to it; the Judge phase needs one melee and one mage.
(14:42) The Judge's own attack can hurt itself: if you step under it while attacking, it hits itself with its skulls for extra damage.

Yama budget setup

(0:00) Per the description, Purging staff is pretty much equal to Shadow in max gear, and Arclight is 5% worse in Bandos than scythe in giga max.
(0:00) Per the description, use Ultor and surge potions work great at Yama; bow and ranged are useless.
(1:40) Gnomonkey says two restores are enough for the fight, bringing three to be safe, with lots of food.
(2:28) Gnomonkey says Oathplate is only about 1.3% better than Torva at Yama, per Hedron, so it is not necessary.
(7:44) Gnomonkey's mid-level budget setup includes Pharaoh's sceptre-era gear, a fire cape, Bandos, Torms, Blue Moon gear and Emberlight plus a purging staff as the two key weapons.
(8:40) Gnomonkey recommends the Party plugin so duo partners can see each other's spec landings without needing comms.
(13:54) Gnomonkey says the scepter is not worth talking about for Yama because you mage so little.