OSRS King Black Dragon (KBD) Guide: Strategies & Gear Setups (2024)

One of Runescape's oldest bosses, the King Black Dragon, is a three-headed dragon popularly killed to make money and as a slayer task when assigned to kill black dragons. It is the strongest dragon in OSRS, and players should exercise caution when fighting it.

How to get to the King Black Dragon

The King Black Dragon is in his lair in the wilderness, as shown above. Although the King black dragon’s lair is not in the wilderness, you will have to go through the wilderness to get to it, so you have to watch out for Pkers,

Burning amulet: The fastest way to get to the King Black dragon’s lair is by using the burning amulet to teleport to the Lava Maze; from there, you can make your way to the lair just northwest of that area.

Ice Plateau or Ghorrock teleport: This is one of the fastest methods of getting to the lair. After using it, run southeast to get to the lair.

South of the Edgeville bank and northwest of the Ardougne castle, if a player pulls the lever there, it will teleport them to the deserted keep; after slashing the web north, you can make your way to the King Black Dragon lair, as shown above.

Arceuus spellbook’s cemetery teleport: this teleports you to the Forgotten Cemetery just south of the King Black Dragon’s lair, as shown above.

Waka canoe: Players can make a waka canoe using an axe at the canoe station and use it to get to the wilderness. As shown above, players can run to the Black Dragon’s lair from here.

Obelisk: Players must complete the hard wilderness diary to select a destination when using the Obelisks. There are two ways to use this method:

Firstly,if you have 80 construction, you can build an Obelisk in the superior garden in your house, use the Obelisk, and select level 44 as the teleport destination; after you have teleported, make your way to the lair.

Secondly, if you can’t use the Obelisk in your house, use the game necklace to teleport to the corporeal beast’s lair. Then, run southeast to the wilderness Obelisk, use it to teleport close to the destination, and make your way to the lair.

Requirements to fight the King Black Dragon

Partial completion of Dragon Slayer I to be able to use anti-dragon shields.

When using melee, you should have at least

80+ attack
80+ strength
80+ defence
44+ prayer,
70 prayer is highly recommended for piety.
70+ hitpoints

When using ranged, you should have at least

80 ranged,
70 hitpoints
44 prayer,
74 prayer is recommended to use rigour.

How to safely take your gear to the King Black Dragon’s lair

Since you would need to go through the wilderness to get to the King Black Dragon’s lair, it can be pretty risky to take the gear listed below there; however, here are two methods you can use to carry different gear to the lair:

Suicide method

You can only keep three valuable items if you die in the wilderness or four valuable items when the protect item is activated; however, you can follow this trick to carry more items into the King Black Dragon’s lair.

Fill the looting bag with food and potions, leaving only four spaces empty, then fill your inventory with the looting bag, burning amulet, 22 pieces of food, and four valuable pieces of gear you want to smuggle into the wilderness.
When in the wilderness, quickly activate the protect item prayer and run to the lever that leads to the King Dragon Lair; when you get next to the lever, put the four valuable gear into the looting and immediately pull the lever as you won’t be able to place items into your looting bag while the King Black Dragon lair since it’s not part of the wilderness.
Let the King Black Dragon kill you so that all items in your inventory and looting bag drop to the ground. These items will only remain there for 15 minutes. If not retrieved, the items will be transported automatically to the death lair, and a fee will be needed to get them. Do this until you smuggle as many items as you need.

The method works because items players put into the looting bag will not be kept on death. Therefore, they will be left on the floor if the player dies in the King Black Dragon Lair. However, this poses a risk as

there is a a very slight chance that a PKer will cast a teleblock on you when you put your valuable items in your looting bag just before you pull the lever to enter the King Black Dragon lair; this will cause you to lose all the items in the looting bag

Alt method

Instead of taking the risk involved in the method above, you can use ALT accounts to trade the gear you need when in the King Black Dragon’s lair.

The Best gear setups for Fighting the King Black Dragon

Best Melee gear setup for KBD

Head slot: Helm of Neitiznot

Neck slot: Amulet of torture

Cape slot: Infernal cape

Body slot: Mixed hide top

Leg slot: Mixed hide legs

Weapon slot: Dragon hunter Lance

Shield slot: Dragonfire shield

Ammo slot: Rada blessing 4

Gloves slot: Barrows gloves

Boot slot: Dragon boots

Ring slot: Ultor ring

Mid-level melee gear setup for KBD

Head slot: Berserker helm

Best ranged setup for KBD

Head slot: Zamorak coif

Neck slot: necklace of anguish

Cape slot: Dizana’s quiver

Body slot: Black d’hide body

Leg slot: Black d’hide chaps

Weapon slot: Dragon hunter crossbow

Shield slot: Dragonfire ward

Ammo slot: Diamond dragon bolts (e)

Gloves slot: Barrows gloves

Boot slot: Zamorak d’hide boots

Ring slot: Ring of shadows

Mid-level ranged gear for KBD

Head slot: Archer helm

Neck slot: Amulet of Fury

Cape slot: Ava’s assembler

Body slot: Red d’hide body

Leg slot: Red d’hide chaps

Weapon slot: Dragon crossbow

Shield slot: anti-dragon shield

Ammo slot: Diamond bolts (e)

Gloves slot:Black d’hide vambraces

Boot slot: Mixed hide boots

Ring slot: Explorer’s ring 4

Inventory Setup for fighting the King Black Dragon

Bring at least 4 super restore potions, 1 antidote ++(4), 1 super combat or divine ranging potion, 1 extended antifire potion, 1 teleport to house, and then fill the rest of your inventory with suitable food.

How to fight the King Black Dragon

To be able to fight and successfully kill the King Black Dragon, you need to know his attacks and how to avoid them; these attacks include:

Dragonfire attacks

The King Black Dragon’s dragonfire attacks are stronger than those of other dragons; they can hit up to 65 if the anti-dragon shield, Dragonfire shield, or anti-fire potion is not used. Using an anti-fire potion and any of those shields provides 100% protection against these attacks.

Melee attacks

If you are in melee range, the King Black Dragon will use a melee attack 1/3 of the time. This attack can hit players with up to 25 damage, but players can nullify its effects by using Protect from Melee.

Special Breath attacks

The King Black Dragon has three unblockable special breath attacks: Poison, Shock, and freeze. They occur once in 9 attacks in the melee range and once in three attacks when outside the melee range.

Poison attack will poison players and can be easily overcome by using an anti-poison like antidote++(4);

Shock attack is a shocking breath that drains two levels off all of the player’s stats; players should use stat-restoring potions like super restore(4) to nullify the effects of this attack.

Freeze attack is an icy breath that freezes the player for 6 seconds or 10 ticks.

These attacks can deal up to 50 damage without any prayer, antifire potion, or any of the Dragonfire shields; if protect from magic is used, this will provide some protection as the maximum damage will only be 20. The recommended way players can defend themselves against these attacks is by using both the antifire potion and any of the Dragonfire shields; the player will take only a maximum of 10 damage when using them; using protect from magic with these would not add any more protection.

The Fight

Before entering the wilderness, make sure you set player attack to "hidden" in settings to avoid getting skull tricked. When you make your way to the lair, you must find an empty world; this might be challenging since many players commonly kill the King Black Dragon. To tackle this problem, players can create an instance to fight the King Black Dragon, which will cost 50,000 coins. This fee can be automatically taken from the player’s bank when in the lair, first, drink an antidote++ and super restore potion, then follow any of these methods:

Melee range method

Wear your best combat gear, including a dragonfire shield, and stand at a melee distance, regardless of your combat style, while attacking the King Black Dragon. You should also use protect from melee, as it will provide protection against his melee attacks and reduce the chances of the dragon using the special unblockable attacks.

If you can’t equip the Dragonfire shield because you want to use a two-handed weapon, you can’t use the “Melee range” method as you would take too much damage. Instead, you should keep your distance and protect use from magic when fighting the King Black Dragon to reduce damage from his dragonfire attacks.

Walk-under method

The King Black Dragon has a relatively fast attack. To slow this down, players can walk under him immediately after an attack and then step out to perform another attack. If this method is done correctly, you can slow down the King Black Dragon’s attack to the point where he will perform only one attack for every attack you do. Players should only use this method if their weapon is significantly slower than the King Black Dragon’s attack.