RuneScoop.com - Har'Lakk the Riftsplitter (Floors 18-29)

Another of the large demons that lend Daemonheim its name, Har’Lakk the Riftsplitter is a big, purple dude in a big, bad mood. While not strictly speaking a magician like some other bosses, he has a surprising number of tricks up his sleeve, including a variety of special attacks and defences. This is also a boss where a few minutes’ spent on preparation beforehand can be very much worthwhile, while rushing in foolishly can result in a frustrating death.

Har’Lakk the Riftsplitter is a large purple-colored demon. He has the same body shape as K’ril Tsutsaroth and To’Kash the Bloodchiller; if the latter is a “smurf version” of K’ril, then Har’Lakk might similarly bring to mind Barney the Dinosaur. ;) There is some speculation that there is a reason for the similarities among these three demons, beyond just saving the need to design a new monster model. :)

Har’Lakk has two primary attacks—magic and melee—but no fewer than three special attacks. He also has the ability to drain prayer. Like most demons, his defence is low, but he has a large amount of life points, and can dish out a lot of damage if you aren’t wearing the right gear and don’t take smart precautions beforehand. Protection prayers are largely pointless, and some of his special attacks are cumulative over time. Even if you are high level and have a lot of food, this is a boss you may not be able to “brute force” unless you get very lucky.

Table 100 lists all of the Har’Lakk bosses that I have encountered personally, or that have been documented by sources I consider reliable, showing the combat level, life points total and maximum damage of each.

**Table 100: Dungeoneering - Har’Lakk the Riftsplitter Boss Levels and Statistics**
Combat Level	Life Points	Maximum Hit (Melee Only)	Floor Encountered	Difficulty	Combat Levels of Players	Item Dropped
117	2,052	212	24	1:1	137
162	3,396	254	18 and 19	1:1	137
508	14,712	603	28	5:5	~134-138	Primal rapier

Har’Lakk the Riftsplitter, despite being a demon, is primarily a magic-using boss. His primary attack is a black magic “blob” that falls on your head, dealing considerable damage. If you try to use protection prayers (or deflect curses), then each time this attack occurs some of your prayer will be drained, making use of them fairly pointless.

The demon also has a melee attack, which is the typical monster “claw swipe”. It will attempt to close to melee range if you move away from it (at least as a solo player). The melee attack appears to be considerably less powerful than the magic attack.

But the real danger from Har’Lakk are the special attacks, of which there are three. All of these are wide effect attacks that appear in an area around a player, and look like colored balls “raining” down from the sky. All players who are in the spell area will be continually affected by its effects until they move. Har’Lakk will call out a different taunt for each of his specials, which can help you quickly identify and react to the threat.

Table 101 describes all three specials and provides some general recommendations for dealing with them.

**Table 101: Dungeoneering - Special Attacks of Har’Lakk the Riftsplitter**
Taunt	“Rain” Color	Attack Type	Description	Recommended Response
“Taste miasma!”	Purple	Cumulative poison	You will be poisoned immediately, and the strength of that poison will increase as long as you remain in the area of effect. Each time the poison strengthens, a message will appear in your chat box.	Eliminate this threat entirely by making and consuming a weak, regular or strong cure potion before entering the boss room. In this case you can completely ignore it, not even needing to move. Otherwise, move quickly out of the way and use a regular antipoison once the strength of the poison gets too high.
"A flame portal will flush you out!	"Red	Direct damage	You are rapidly hit with flame damage (at roughly throwing knife speed), each hitting up to 100 LP at a time.	There is no defence against this attack—move out of the area of effect as quickly as possible and heal.
"This will cut you down to size!	"Black/Grey	Stat Drain	Your combat stats will be drained rapidly as long as you are in the area of effect. A message will appear each time this happens: “You feel your strength being sapped from you.”	Move out of the area of effect as quickly as possible. Check your combat stats and use a weak, regular or strong stat restore pot when they get too low.

The miasma attack is potentially the most devastating, because it is cumulative; the longer you stay in its area of effect, the higher the damage is on each “splat”. It is also cumulative across miasma attacks, and can build up so high that you can be one-hit by a single poison hit. Don’t underestimate it.

Note that while attacks are centered on specific players, they will affect all nearby players as well, and also players who were outside the area but run into it.

While very potent offensively, Har’Lakk the Riftsplitter has little in the way of defences. He is weak to all three melee types and ranged. I haven’t tried magic yet, but suspect that he will have at least mild resistance to it, because of his nature.

Har’Lakk’s one special defensive move is the ability to quickly drain prayer points if protection prayers are used against him.

Oddly, and somewhat amusingly given that he is potentially the most poisonous of all creatures in RuneScape, Har’Lakk himself is not immune to poison.

As mentioned earlier, this is one boss where a little bit of forethought can pay dividends. I strongly recommend doing at least these three things:

The addition of herb seeds to the smuggler on advanced complexity levels makes getting the herbs needed for these potions much less of an ordeal than before. And conveniently enough, cure and stat restore pots use the same herbs: aloe for weak, featherfoil for regular, and buckthorn for strong. Consult the Farming and Herblore skill pages for level requirements and further information.

The alternative to preventing the miasma attack is to tank it (very dangerous), use regular antipoisons periodically, or use the Cure Me spell. Both regular antis and the lunar spell only cure current poison, they don’t prevent it, and both take up slots that could be used to carry food.

While Har’Lakk can be ranged, I recommend meleeing, using Piety or Turmoil to boost damage. This prayer/curse will not cause his prayer draining effect to kick in, and makes meleeing much faster than ranging, assuming you have a good weapon.

Don’t use a protection prayer here. Some may recommend it, but there’s really no point since you won’t be able to use it for long, and you don’t need it if properly equipped.

Since Har’Lakk is not immune to poison, a super-poisoned spear is advantageous here. He’s also quite weak to stab, that weapon’s primary attack style. Similarly, poisoned arrows can be useful if ranging.

With potions in hand and a decent magic defence level, Har’Lakk is quite manageable. First, drink the cure potion to get poison immunity. Go into the boss room, slap on Piety/Turmoil and have at him. Ignore the miasma attack, and if hit by either of the others, just move out of range and attack him from a different direction. In fact, I recommend specifically not moving when he does the miasma attack, as that will give you more time before he does the next one.

Check your stats regularly if he decides he’s in the mood for lots of black rain. I recommend using your stat restore potion only when your stats have been knocked down significantly, so you aren’t stuck at the end with low stats, poking away at him in vain.

So far I have only tested a ranged familiar here, a tier 9 deathslinger (ranged). It was surprisingly ineffective.

If you want to try to “brute force” him by not making the relevant potions or armor, bring a ton of food and drop a gatestone in the starting room just in case.

The fight is basically the same for a team, except Har’Lakk gets a boost in strength, and you have to be sure not to step on each others’ toes. When avoiding an attack directed at yourself, be sure not to inadvertently run into a different “rain shower” that was sprayed at a teammate.

Getting poison immunity for every teammate is strongly recommended. This not only makes the fight safer, but since you don’t have to move when hit with the miasma attack, there’s less chance of players interfering with each other.

In a large group, it may be advantageous to have one or two players hang back and pepper Har’Lakk with ranged attacks. I am not sure if he will target them with his specials; it’s possible that they won’t. They will also be out of melee range and will only need to deal with his magic attack, which their ranged armor will help against.

This boss can be very tough if you get a super-high-level one. I did a 5:5 floor with a group where we got a level 508 boss. He simply used up our supplies, and about three quarters of the way through, we had to leave and fish to get more food, and restore drained pots. We got the job done, but it was tough. I took a 592 LP hit in that fight...

WARNING: When Har’Lakk the Riftsplitter is killed, all of the current “rain” attack areas are supposed to disappear, and any poison he has dealt should be cured. I have read reports, however, of a bug causing these effects to persist even after he dies. This can lead to a disappointing death after the boss is defeated, which still costs you the same XP penalty as if he killed you directly.

Har’Lakk does the usual agonized-demon-dropping-to-his-knees routine when he dies. His drop category is rapiers, tier 1 (novite) to tier 11 (primal). Some players like the primal rapier because of its high stats and quick attack speed.

The demon may also leave behind part of the “mysterious chronicle” journal (Chronicles of Bilrach). Look for the pages on the platform near where you exit the level.

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