Defender of Varrock OSRS Guide: Requirements and Red Mist

Overview

Defender of Varrock is the sixth quest in the Mahjarrat series and the first quest from after the 2007 archive to be backported into Old School. You follow a zombie trail from the Jolly Boar Inn to Zemouregal's hidden base, stoke the Sacred Forge in Camdozaal, then find the one Varrock family that can use the Shield of Arrav.

It is Experienced difficulty and Medium length. The two hard gates are 55 Smithing and 52 Hunter, and neither can be boosted. Combat is light: at least six level 82 armoured zombies in a multicombat dungeon, plus level 70 Chaos Golems if you still need a chaos core.

It is required for While Guthix Sleeps and The Curse of Arrav, so you need it for WGS, the rest of the Mahjarrat storyline and the quest cape.

Requirements and Prerequisites

Both skill levels are checked when you talk to Elias White, and the wiki marks both as unboostable. Hunter 52 is the one people forget, because Smithing is the level everyone associates with this quest.

Quests you need first, with their own prerequisites in brackets:

• Shield of Arrav
• Temple of Ikov
• Below Ice Mountain
• Family Crest
• Garden of Tranquillity (Creature of Fenkenstrain, Priest in Peril, The Restless Ghost)
• What Lies Below (Rune Mysteries)
• Romeo & Juliet
• Demon Slayer

Items to Bring

Bring three free inventory slots for the quest bottles, combat gear for undead, and a pickaxe if you do not already have a barronite deposit banked.

Required

• Chaos core (obtainable during the quest)
• Barronite deposit or a pickaxe to mine one

Recommended

• Combat 65
• Ring of the elements or Lumberyard teleport
• Mind Altar teleport or Lassar teleport
• Multiple Varrock Teleports
• 43 Prayer for Protect from Melee
• Salve Amulet
• Food and/or Prayer potions

For the base, a ring of the elements to the Earth Altar, a Lumberyard teleport or a digsite pendant all drop you close to the entrance. The Mind Altar and Lassar teleports cover the trip to Camdozaal under Ice Mountain.

Where to Start

Starting location: Talk to Elias White in the Jolly Boar Inn, north-east of Varrock.

A Lumberyard teleport leaves you a short walk from the inn. Keep Varrock teleports for the last stage, which sends you between the palace, the museum, Horvik's armour shop and Varrock Square.

Arrav once held off Zemouregal's undead with a magic shield before the Mahjarrat killed him and kept him as a servant. Now a drinker at the inn is raving about zombies organising in the Wilderness, and Elias thinks he is right.

Walkthrough, Stage by Stage

Three stages: the zombie trail and base, the Sacred Forge, then finding Arrav's descendant. Chat options are in brackets.

1. 1

   Organised Zombies?

   Speak with Elias White in the Jolly Boar Inn. (dialogue: Yes.)

2. 2

   Inspect the plant outside the inn.

3. 3

   Follow the trail west, and inspect the rocks.

4. 4

   Follow the southern trail, and inspect the plant.

5. 5

   Follow the eastern trail, and inspect the spiny bush to get a grubby key.

6. 6

   Follow the eastern trail through the gate, and inspect the green bush.

7. 7

   Follow the eastern trail, and inspect the small bush.

8. 8

   Follow the northern trail, and run past the end to find a trapdoor.

9. 9

   Upon entering the dungeon, finish the dialogue with Elias.

   (dialogue: Let's do it.)

10. 10

    Run north a little bit to the end, then look east over the balcony.

11. 11

    After the cutscene, run west and pick up three bottles.

12. 12

    Defeat three armoured zombies and use a bottle on the red mist they leave behind.

13. 13

    After getting three bottles of red mist, open the west door to find Arrav.

14. 14

    Once Arrav leaves, head further north through the corridor.

15. 15

    Defeat three more armoured zombies and bottle their red mist.

    Stop here if you want to farm zombies in the private quest instance, because the next balcony ends it and puts you in the shared base with other players.

16. 16

    Open the east door.

    Run further east a little bit to the end, then look south over the balcony.

17. 17

    After the cutscene, leave the dungeon.

18. 18

    The Sacred Forge.

    Speak to Elias at Varrock Palace and report your findings.

19. 19

    After finishing speaking to Captain Rovin, head to the Ruins of Camdozaal.

20. 20

    Speak to Ramarno at the Sacred Forge and ask him about a shield.

    (dialogue: I need your help with a shield.) The option number changes with your previous quests. If he is not at the forge, he is by the big door just inside the ruins.

21. 21

    Use a chaos core on a barronite deposit.

22. 22

    Chaos cores are dropped by Chaos Golems in the south-eastern end of the ruins, at a rate of 2/15.

23. 23

    Barronite deposits have a 24% chance of being obtained while mining barronite rocks at the Camdozaal Mines, just west of the Sacred Forge. A bronze pickaxe can be taken from a nearby barrel.

24. 24

    Use the imbued barronite on the Sacred Forge.

25. 25

    The True Descendant.

    Head to the Varrock Palace.

26. 26

    Speak to Captain Rovin two flights up the north-western staircase to receive the Shield of Arrav.

27. 27

    Head to the Varrock Palace library and speak to Reldo.

28. 28

    Search the scrolls by the flipped table in the north-east corner to obtain the list of elders.

29. 29

    Read the List of elders and the Varrock Census west of the scrolls in the library.

30. 30

    Talk to the descendants until one mentions the Fitzharmon family, finishing each dialogue:

    Aeonisig Raispher (throne room), Sir Prysin (palace, south-west), Romeo (Varrock Square), Horvik (his armour shop) or Curator Haig Halen (Varrock Museum). King Roald is never the right one.

31. 31

    Head to south-east Varrock (the Rat Pits minigame teleport is close), go inside the gated area and speak to Dimintheis. (dialogue: I need your help with the zombie invasion.)

32. 32

    Watch the cutscene and finish the dialogue with Captain Rovin.

The broken zombie axe drops from the base zombies at 1/800, and the quest-instance zombies use the same drop table. Ironmen who want a quiet farm should do it before the second balcony.

Red Mist and the Zombie Trail Explained

There are no tile or logic puzzles in Defender of Varrock. The two parts that stall people are the tracking trail and the red mist gates inside the base.

The tracking trail

The trail runs in a fixed order: plant, rocks, plant, spiny bush (grubby key), green bush, small bush, then the trapdoor. The Inspect option only appears on an object once you have inspected everything before it, so a bush with no option means you skipped one. The grubby key opens the trapdoor into Zemouregal's Base, which sits in Silvarea near the Wilderness border.

What red mist is

Red mist is the cloud an armoured zombie leaves on the floor when it dies in Zemouregal's Base. Use one of the three quest bottles on it to get a bottle of mist. Each gate needs three bottles and there are two gates, so plan on six kills at minimum. The bottles will not fill until you have watched the first balcony cutscene.

After the quest the mist does nothing. You can still pick up empty bottles, but the game stops you filling them ("You don't need any more mist."), and the gates open without it. You also no longer need the grubby key to get in.

Fights and Monster Stats

You only have to kill two kinds of monster:

The zombies have low Defence, so a fast weapon like a whip or a dragon dagger special clears them quickly. With multi-target attacks the salve bonus only applies to the zombie you clicked. A dwarf multicannon cannot be set up anywhere in Zemouregal's Base.

Rewards and Unlocks

15,000 Smithing and 15,000 Hunter XP, plus the museum lamp:

What it opens up

Zemouregal's Base stays open after the quest with no key or mist needed, and it holds far more armoured zombies than during the quest. The packed multicombat spawns suit burst spells and the venator bow, and the broken zombie axe drops at 1/800.

Claim the 5 Kudos and the 5,000 XP lamp from Historian Minas in the Varrock Museum. The lamp works on any skill at level 30 or higher.

Common Mistakes and Warnings

• Turning up with 51 Hunter. Hunter 52 is checked at the start alongside 55 Smithing, and neither can be boosted.
• Trying to fill bottles before the first balcony cutscene. The mist will not collect until you have seen it.
• Taking the wrong fork on the trail. If the next object has no Inspect option, go back to the last one you inspected.
• Fighting with a full inventory. You need room for three bottles before the first zombie.
• Looking over the second balcony before you have finished farming zombies in the private instance.
• Mining barronite shards and thinking you have a deposit. Only a barronite deposit combines with the chaos core.

Ironman Notes

Smithing 55 and Hunter 52 are both unboostable, so get them before you start the trail.

A bronze pickaxe spawns in a barrel near the Camdozaal Mines, which saves a bank trip if you forgot yours.

If you want the broken zombie axe without competition, farm it in the quest instance before the second balcony. After that the base is a shared, popular multicombat spot.

FAQ

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