OSRS Fractured Archive Guide: Boss-by-Boss Strategy

The Fractured Archive has been out for a day, and most teams are still working out how each room is meant to be played. This guide goes through a full five-boss clear, room by room, using the cues, prayers and specs that actually got the team through. Where a fight has more going on than our run showed, we say so.

The route covered here is Archive Guardian → Bork and the Smorks → Dreadnoth the Jellied → Xarth → Ocellus. The team started as a six and lost a player to a disconnect just before the final boss, so Ocellus was done as a five-man. The loot from the run came to about 3.6m.

If you haven't read up on how the raid works yet (requirements, scaling, wipes and the reward table), start with our Fractured Archive release guide.

Quick reference: the five rooms

Gear & Special Attacks

You don't need a perfect setup, but a few items make the whole run smoother:

• Lightbearer. Worth wearing in the early rooms so you can double spec with your ranged spec weapon (in our case the Tonalztics of Ralos) and have it back for the next room.
• A ranged spec weapon. Tonalztics of Ralos and the Zaryte crossbow both get a lot of use. A good habit is one Tonalztics spec per phase at Ocellus.
• A melee switch. You'll need it at Bork and when the Archive Guardian's shield drops. Bring a defence-reduction spec (Dragon warhammer or Elder maul) for Bork.
• A Twisted bow. It does the bulk of the damage on most bosses, including the whole first phase of Ocellus.
• AoE. Chinchompas and/or Ice Barrage for Dreadnoth's jellies, and a Toxic blowpipe for Xarth's corpses.
• A shield. Don't make the same mistake we did. If your switches are one-handed (Zaryte crossbow, Tonalztics), bring a shield like the Twisted buckler. Forgetting it just costs you free stats all raid.

1. The Archive Guardian

The Guardian is always the first room. It aggros the first player in the party, and that player tanks it for the opening phase.

• Prayer. The Guardian uses Ranged autos. Only the player it can see needs Protect from Missiles. Once you're out of its line of sight, you can drop the prayer and save points. Expect your tank to move around, which changes who it can see, so keep an eye on it.
• Mushrooms. You can pop the mushroom spores safely by walking next to one and then running away from it. You don't have to, but it keeps the room clear.
• Braziers. Some teams like to shoot them. In our experience it's more useful in smaller teams of 3 or 4. With a big team you have enough damage without them.
• Positioning. When you're not the target, stay behind the Guardian so it doesn't have line of sight on you. Once its shield bar is down and it crashes to the ground, switch to melee and hit it.

The final phase. When the Guardian moves into its next phase, switch to Protect from Magic. It locks onto one player with its laser, and everyone else should stack on that player. If you can, destroy a brazier during this phase, as it dealt about 500 damage to the Guardian on our run. That left only around 600 HP, which the team finished off standing in the open. Keep moving away from the mushrooms while you do it.

2. Bork and the Smorks

We picked Bork over Ezekiel. With good prayer switches this is a prayer-only room, so don't burn supplies here.

• The tank. The first player in tanks Bork. They should step away from him as soon as they enter so he doesn't land his opening hits on the group.
• Spec him down early. We used two defence-reduction specs on Bork to make sure his Defence was very low for the rest of the fight.
• Stay on the outskirts. If you're not the tank, stand at the edge of the room. The Smorks fire their incendiary attack at non-targets, so standing at the edge means the fire lands on the outskirts and not in the middle. Once the fire is down, move in behind the tank.
• Pray against the Smorks. The Smorks attack with Ranged and Magic, so switch between Protect from Missiles and Protect from Magic depending on what's coming.

The bomb is your damage window. Stand behind the tank with your mouse over your melee gear. As soon as you see the Smorks announce the bomb (the heavy cannonball), switch to melee, turn on your melee prayers and step away. When the cannonball lands on Bork he's stunned, and that's when you attack. Don't attack too early or you'll lose hits from the window.

Getting extra hits. If Bork is stunned right next to a wall and in a straight line behind you, you can fit in extra attacks. On a good one, you can get about four hits from two tiles away. If he's not lined up, take the safe option and just hit him normally. It's not worth getting caught.

Most teams Twisted bow this room outside of the stun windows. We tested the Scythe of Vitur and it was fine, but the bow is probably still better.

3. Dreadnoth the Jellied

We picked Dreadnoth over Moia. It's a slow, heavy-hitting boss whose real threat is the jellies he spawns.

• Setup. Use Rigour and open with your Tonalztics spec.
• Stack in one corner. This is the most important rule in the room. The whole team goes to the same corner, so when jellies spawn they all come to the same place. Then your Chinchompas or Ice Barrage hit all of them at once. When Dreadnoth gets too close, move away. He's slow, so you have plenty of time.
• The slam. When he slams the arena, that's a Melee attack and the ranged projectiles follow right after. Switch to Protect from Missiles after the slam. Each slam adds another hit to the pattern, so count them: one, two, three, then more jellies.
• Watch your prayer. The jellies drain prayer on every attack, even when you're praying correctly, much like the bats in the Fight Caves. Keep killing them, but keep a close eye on your prayer points.
• The jump. Below 25%, Dreadnoth jumps towards the player he's targeting, then fires off a ranged attack. Keep moving and keep your prayer up.
• The finish. When he dies, he releases a final wave of jellies. Chin them down. They still drain a lot of prayer. Once they're gone, drop your chins, since you won't need them again.

The Quartermaster: Resupply

After the third boss you'll reach the atrium and the quartermaster, who sells supplies for the credits you earned in the first three rooms. You have Xarth and Ocellus left, and Ocellus is where most supplies go.

A solid setup for the rest of the raid:

• Two full Ranging potions plus a third you pre-pot before Xarth
• One full Super combat potion for the Ocellus melee phases
• One Menaphite remedy
• Five full Super restores
• Saradomin brews in the rest of your inventory

4. Xarth

We picked Xarth over the Dagon'hai Trio. If your team plays it well, it should be a zero-supply room.

Phase 1: Pillars

• Prayer. Use Protect from Magic. If you have a Zaryte crossbow, you can double spec here, or save the specs for phase 2, which is often the better choice.
• Hiding behind pillars. When Xarth charges his big blast, hide behind a pillar. You have much more time to dodge than it looks, so don't panic and don't greed attacks. If the tiles behind the pillar are taken, click any of the other nearby tiles and then run back. You'll still make it in time.

Phase 2: Corpses

• Prayer. If you're the tank, use Protect from Missiles. On our run Xarth only attacked the player closest to him, so the rest of the team could focus on damage.
• Corpses. Corpses walk in from the edges and heal Xarth if they reach him. This is a lot like the Nightmare's adds. Have one player on Ice Barrage freezing them while everyone else blowpipes them down.
• Have one dedicated DPS player. If everyone swaps between Xarth and the corpses, the team loses attack ticks. It's better to have one player always hitting Xarth.
• Special attacks. This is where you dump your Zaryte crossbow specs to get through the phase quickly.

5. Ocellus

The final boss is a long, multi-phase fight. At this point the team was down to five, and it was still very doable. Ocellus is where your brews and restores go, so the better you play the earlier rooms, the more comfortable this fight will be.

Phase 1: Tendrils and the Move-Attack Rhythm

• Weapon. We used the Twisted bow for the whole phase and saved the Super combat potion for later. Drink your Menaphite remedy at the start.
• Prayer. Pray against the projectiles. Red/orange ones are Ranged, and the rest are Magic. When he's in the middle of the room, you can turn your prayers off.
• Tendrils. Step onto the tendrils (they look like vines) as they spawn. They spawn where Ocellus is facing, so you can see the next one coming.
• Yellow text. As soon as you see the yellow text, do one attack and then step back, whether or not you were going to attack. You have to make that movement.
• The rhythm. Don't attack off the second step. Use move, move, attack, with the attack landing as you step back. It's an instant attack that way and keeps you safe.

When the phase ends, the whole team heads to the same spot (we went south-west) and follows the orange tiles to the next section of the arena. Brew and restore here if you need to.

Phase 2: Melee, the Buzz Saw and Obliteration

In this part Ocellus comes after players in melee range, so put Protect from Melee on when he's targeting you. Save your Ranging potion until the phase starts, since any damage you take earlier means drinking brews and restores that would waste it. This is also where it's easiest to wipe, so slow down and listen for the cues.

• Melee attacks. When he's on you, it's one attack, two attacks, then dodge the third. Step away just before the third hit.
• The buzz saw is always Melee. You'll see a circle start to form, then hear the buzz saw go "ding ding". That ding is your cue for Protect from Melee. You can also watch the buzz saw take shape for a visual cue. Our caller kept Protect from Melee on, dropped it when the circle appeared and put it back up on the ding. Whichever way you do it, make sure it's on for the ding, or you'll take the hit. In the second phase he does the buzz saw twice, and in the third phase three times.
• Obliteration (the four glows). This is the easiest dodge in the fight once you know it. Pray Protect from Magic and watch the outline on the floor around Ocellus. It glows four times, and the fourth glow is the brightest. Right after the fourth glow, click out to the next part of the arena.
• Void vines. When a teammate gets rooted by vines, free them. Don't leave them to take the hit.
• Line-of-sight attacks. When Ocellus calls out his incineration attack, or does the attack where he looks at a player, get out of his line of sight. If you're not sure, stand in the middle of his line and step out as it comes.
• Keep the tank close. If the tank wanders off, the rest of the team takes damage, so try to keep the group together.
• Special attacks. Use your Tonalztics spec once per phase, but save two specs for the final phase.

Final Phase: Read the Projectiles

The last phase is all about reading Ocellus's attacks and keeping your damage up.

• Two-tick it. Once you're comfortable with the sounds, you can attack and move every tick. Keep listening for the cues and keep moving.
• Attack from the corners. Only attack from the corners of the arena, and collect the orb when it's maxed out. Ocellus steals some of your health, and grabbing the orb gives it back.
• This is the time for the Super combat potion and the specs you saved.

Ocellus tells you which prayer to use with the shape of each attack:

Once you have this down, the final phase is much easier than it looks.

Tips That Apply to Every Room

• Don't greed. Almost every death on our run came from staying in for one more attack. Every dodge in this raid gives you more time than it seems to.
• Save your supplies for Ocellus. Bork and Xarth can be done on prayer alone, and Dreadnoth costs mostly restores. Anything you save early helps in the last fight.
• Give everyone a job. One AoE player on the adds and one dedicated DPS on the boss makes a big difference at both Dreadnoth and Xarth.
• Practise your prayer switching. Ocellus asks for a lot of switches very quickly. Our prayer flicking guide is a good place to start.
• Spectate other teams. The strategy board in the lobby lets you watch other parties live. It's the fastest way to see the rooms we didn't pick, like Ezekiel, Moia and the Dagon'hai Trio.

The Fractured Archive is hard, but most of it comes down to a few clear cues: stay out of the Guardian's sight, hit Bork during the bomb, stack for Dreadnoth's jellies, keep the corpses off Xarth, and read Ocellus's projectiles. Take your time with each dodge, save your supplies for the final boss, and the clears will come.

Want to skip the learning curve? → Get the Fractured Archive and other raids done with our OSRS raid services. → Still need While Guthix Sleeps? Our OSRS questing services can finish it for you. → Get your gear and stats ready with our PvM services.