OSRS: Is It Worth Doing Barrows Guide

Old School RuneScape (OSRS) features many quests that players can participate in. One of those quests is the series of Barrows ("The Barrows") miniquests. In this article, we'll look at the general overview of The Barrows and see if it's worth doing.

What is The Barrows Miniquest?

The Barrows refers to the six Barrows brothers who were buried and entombed in the east of Mort'ton: Ahrim the Blighted, Dharok the Wretched, Guthan the Infested, Karil the Tainted, Torag the Corrupted, and Verac the Defiled. The burial mounds of the brothers serve as the marker that will trigger the quest. Players complete the quests by killing the brothers and receiving rewards. These rewards range from valuable OSRS items including the Barrows outfit worn by each of the brothers to OSRS gold.

How to Get to The Barrows

To access The Barrows miniquest, players must have finished the "Priest in Peril" quest and have started the "Nature Spirit" quest. Finishing "Priest in Peril" gives access to Morytania, which makes the areas below it accessible-including Mort'ton.

The easiest way to get to The Barrows is through a portal that can be casted (player must have 83 Magic using the Arceuus Spellbook, and have 2x Law Runes, 2 Soul Runes, 1 Blood Rune, and a Dark Essence block to cast the spell; or with a Barrows teleportation tablet that can be purchased from the Grand Exchange). These methods will transport the player near the entrance of the Barrows burial mounds.

Doing the Quest

The Barrows quest requires some preparation and strategy, particularly being familiar with the attack style of each of the brothers. Players should be aware that Dharok, Guthan, Torag, and Verac attack using melee combat and are weak against Magic attacks; while Karil uses ranged attacks and is weak against Magic and melee, and Ahrim uses Magic attacks and is weak against ranged and melee. The following section is an overview of what each of the Barrows does.

Combat

Each of the Barrows brothers is aggressive in play, so they do not have to be provoked to fight back. This means that entering the brothers' respective burial mounds can activate combat. With that out of the way, let us look at each of the brothers' play styles.

Ahrim the Blighted

Ahrim the Blighted, whose burial mound is located at the center of the Barrows area, is the only Magic user of the brothers. As such, it is essential to equip the "Protect from Magic" prayer since his attacks are accurate and do high damage. His skills include Confuse, Weaken, and Curse, which can reduce the player's Attack, Strength, and Defense stats.

His set effect is Blighted Aura which gives a 20% chance of lowering the player's Strength by 5 for each successful attack.

Dharok the Wretched

Dharok the Wretched lies north-east of the Barrows area. He uses melee gear, which means the player must equip the "Protect from Melee" prayer. His set effect is Wretched Strength which gives him a 1% max hit for each Hitpoint (HP) damage done to him. For example, he deals high dama  (57 - 64) when left at 1 HP. The "Protect from Melee" prayer is helpful here as it can lower the damage dealt by Dharok through his Wretched Strength effect.

Guthan the Infested

Guthan the Infested is located at the south-east corner of the Barrows area. Another melee user, Guthan is weak against Magic. His set effect is Infestation, which gives him a 25% chance per successful hit to self-heal the equivalent damage dealt to the player. His attacks, however, are inaccurate, making him an easy target for the player. But if he does manage to land a hit, he'll deal a ton of damage. Equipping "Protect from Melee" is advisable for characters with a low defense stat. This also prevents Guthan's effect from activating.

Karil the Tainted

Karil the Tainted's burial mound is located at the south of the Barrows area. As a ranged user, he is weak against Melee. He is also weak against Magic, making him and Ahrim the Blighted the brothers with two weaknesses. His set effect is Tainted Shot which gives him a 25% chance to reduce the player's Agility stat by 20%. Players with low Agility stat may find this a challenging task to complete due to this effect. It is recommended to equip the "Protect from Missiles" prayer. However, while it offers mitigation, this does not entirely prevent the effect from activating.

Torag the Corrupted

Torag the Corrupted's burial mound is in the south-west of the Barrows area. He uses Melee and is weak against Magic. His set effect is Corruption which gives him a 25% chance to reduce the player's current energy by 20%. If the player has 50% energy, the drain caps at 10%. Like Guthan, his attacks are inaccurate but can deal high damage. Equipping "Protect from Melee" for low Defense players is advisable. Be wary that it does not prevent the activation of Torag's effect.

Verac the Defiled

Verac the Defiled's burial mound is located in the north-west section of the Barrows area. The last Melee user of the brothers, he is weak against Magic. His set effect is Defiler, which grants him a 25% chance per attack to ignore Defense and armor bonuses. It is also a unique effect because it penetrates through protection prayers like Protect from Melee. However, it is still advisable to use the protection prayer as it gives a 75% attack negation and a damage reduction when the effect activates. Since he deals damage even with Protection from Melee activated, it is recommended to stock on food to regain HP.

Is The Barrows Worth Doing?

Considering the rewards, including the set equipment of each of the brothers, the miniquest is worth doing in OSRS. As such, these can be helpful to get Cape or even the additional rewards, which include cheap OSRS gold and rare runes, which add more value to the miniquest.