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RuneScoop.com  >  The RuneScoop Ultimate Skill Guide for RuneScape       >  The RuneScoop Ultimate Skill Guide - Dungeoneering            >  The RuneScoop Ultimate Skill Guide - Dungeoneering - Bosses

Rammernaut (Floors 18-29) Har'Lakk the Riftsplitter (Floors 18-29)

Stomp is either the coolest and most interesting challenge of all of the bosses in Daemonheim, or the most annoying and frustrating pain in the butt you can encounter in the dungeons—it all depends on your perspective. :) What everyone can agree on is that this is the most complicated of the boss fights, involving three phases of combat, puzzle elements, falling rocks and attacks that change as the boss loses health.

Because of this complexity, Stomp is a boss that rewards those who are prepared and who take the time to learn the strategies necessary for dealing with him. Stomp can be encountered on any of the “Furnished” theme floors, from levels 18 to 29, so you’re going to run into him pretty often, and it’s worth the long read necessary to figure him out.

When you fight Stomp you don’t fight all of him. He’s actually a behemoth, like the gluttonous behemoth and bulwark beast, but much bigger. So big, in fact, that only his head and front legs fit through the portal through which the behemoths enter Daemonheim from an alternate dimension. Your goal with this boss isn’t to kill it directly, but rather force the portal to close, which decapitates Stomp and kills him. Because of its size, Stomp is actually immobile, remaining fixed in place on the wall opposite the boss door in its distinctly-shaped room.

When you enter the room you’ll see a lodestone on either side of Stomp. These begin in an inactive state, but begin to glow blue after Stomp loses 1/3 of his health, green after he loses 2/3 of his health, and red when he is near death. Each time this occurs, two crystals of the matching color fall in random places on the ground in the room. A few seconds later, a bunch of large rocks fall all over the place. Your goal is to get the crystals and use them on the lodestones to charge them. Succeed, and combat moves to the next phase; fail, and Stomp is healed back about 1/3 of his health and the phase repeats.

The biggest problem with Stomp is the rocks, which act as barriers that cannot be moved around. Stomp’s boss room is pretty small, and it is very common to find that rocks are blocking you from reaching the crystals, or from reaching the lodestones once you have picked the crystals up. This can lead to the need to repeat combat several times before Stomp is defeated, and without the right techniques, some players become completely stuck and unable to finish the floor at all.

Stomp also changes as his health decreases. He starts out with a ranged and melee attack, neither of which are particularly potent, but adds to that a magic attack and then a deadly ranged attack as combat goes on. He is fairly weak defensively, except that he appears to have rather strong magic resistance.

Another aspect that makes Stomp difficult and/or frustrating is that there are a number of unresolved bugs associated with this fight. Examples include phases where fewer than two crystals fall down; instances of Stomp that are invisible; familiars that refuse to attack the boss; and arrows that fall behind the boss and cannot be retrieved.

• Name: Stomp.
  
  
• Examine Text: “The name isn’t just for show.”
  
  
• Daemonheim Theme (Zone): Furnished.
  
  
• Dungeon Floors: Levels 18 to 29.
  
  
• Primary Attack Styles: Ranged and Melee (always); Magic (once down 1/3 health).
  
  
• Secondary Attack Styles: None.
  
  
• Special Attacks: Slow-moving ranged attack; falling rocks.
  
  
• Special Defences: Lodestone puzzle; three-phased combat; healing.
  
  
• Special Immunities: None.
  
  
• Weak Against: Melee/Any, Ranged.
  
  
• Neutral: None.
  
  
• Strong Against: Magic.
  
  
• Recommended Attack Method: Melee/Any or Ranged.
  
  
• Recommended Defence Method: Ranged armor with Protection from Ranged (or Deflect Ranged); or Melee armor with Protection from Ranged and then Protection from Magic.
  
  
• Drop Category: Ranged coifs.

Table 99 lists all of the instances of Stomp 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, along with the items they dropped.

Stomp uses all three combat styles, and in fact more than one type in the case of ranged, but these change as combat progresses:

• “Blue Phase” (2/3 Health to Full Health): Stomp starts out using a fairly regular melee attack and ranged attack. Either of which can be stopped by the appropriate protection prayers or deflect curses, and neither is particularly potent.
  
  
• “Green Phase” (1/3 Health to 2/3 Health): In this phase, Stomp maintains his prior attacks and adds a magic attack that is very accurate against typical players using melee armor.
  
  
• “Red Phase” (Near Death to 1/3 Health): In the last part of combat, Stomp adds his worst attack, a rock that he hurls towards a player. This moves very slowly, and it can be dodged to avoid damage. If the player does not move, though, it will hit for over 200 LP of damage every time, or about half that if Protection from Ranged or Deflect Ranged are used.

Stomp’s normal ranged attack has one special characteristic associated with it: whenever he uses it, some of the rocks that remain on the ground from the prior combat phase will be destroyed, opening up the floor for movement. I’ll explain more about why this is important in the strategy section below.

The rocks that fall from the sky after every 1/3 of Stomp’s health is removed are primarily part of the lodestone puzzle, but can also damage players who are hit by them (usually around 230 LP). Players sometimes deliberately move under the rocks to keep important squares clear of rock, though that usually is not necessary.

Stomp is fairly weak defensively overall, and can be readily hit using any melee style or ranged. He is strong to magic attacks, however.

He has no special defences except for the ability to heal back 1/3 of his health if you don’t get the crystals into the lodestones on time (which admittedly is a pretty nice ability!)

Note that during the period of time when the lodestones are glowing and you’re supposed to collect the crystals and charge them, Stomp is invulnerable. However, familiars can sometimes still do damage.

Due to how Stomp works, there are really two different aspects to fighting him: the combat itself, and the lodestone/crystal/rock puzzle at the end of each phase of combat. While these are obviously related, I’ll describe them separately to keep things a little more clear.

A beast of burden is useful when fighting Stomp, for a few reasons. First, you will probably want to use some inventory slots for Create Gatestone runes (see below). Second, the fight can really drag out if you are unlucky. And third, since you’ll often be using gatestones within the boss room, you can’t employ the usual precaution of dropping one outside it if you get into trouble. However...

If you are having really bad luck with your fight and start to run out of food, it is possible to leave the fight during one of the crystal/rock phases when Stomp stops fighting. Just use Dungeon Home Teleport, or simply walk out the door. You can restock with food and/or restore prayer and everything will be just as you left it when you get back.

Stomp can be meleed or ranged, and there are pros and cons to each; maging is not recommended.

Ranging from a distance is the safest and perhaps “smartest” way to kill this boss, because it affords you the best chance to avoid damage and negate some of his attacks entirely. Since he can’t move, ranging removes his melee attack completely. During the “blue phase”, you only need to deal with his ranged attack, which you can block with Protection from Ranged or Deflect Ranged. When he adds his magic attack during the “green phase” you’ll take some damage from this, but your leather armor will help stop some of it. Finally, during the “red phase”, when he adds the hard-hitting slow ranged attack, being at a distance gives you more time to react and move out of its way.

Standing at a distance also helps with the puzzle aspect. He will range more, so he’ll clear the rocks faster, and you’ll be in the middle of the room so you have more of a chance of being near the colored crystals when they fall.

The problem with ranging? It’s pretty slow, because arrows are underpowered in Daemonheim. Also, in some cases you really need to stand in melee range (to be near the lodestones) so some of the benefits of being at a distance are negated.

Meleeing has the opposite advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, it’s much faster than ranging, especially if you use Piety or Turmoil to speed things up. It also means you are right next to the lodestones so you can charge them quickly if you already have a crystal. On the down side, you’re subject to the melee attack in all three phases, you must protect against the magic attack if using metal armor, and you have little time to react to the slow ranged attack.

I recommend using ranged (leather) armor for this boss, combined with Protection from Ranged or Deflect Ranged. This eliminates much of the damage from his ranged and magic attacks, which are the two strongest. If you wear melee armor, protect against ranged for the first third of the fight, then magic for the second third, and whichever you feel works best for the last third.

As soon as you get Stomp down another third of his health and the game moves into the puzzle phase of the fight, be sure to temporarily disable prayers/curses to save prayer points.

Craft at least 10 law, cosmic, air and earth runes and put these in your inventory, plus reserve a fifth empty inventory space. These allow you to cast Create Gatestone and Gatestone Teleport (with level 32 Magic), which can be very useful as we’ll see in a moment.

Every time you get Stomp down another third of his total health, these things will happen in sequence:

1. Stomp stops fighting and you stop being able to attack him.
   
   
2. The lodestones on either side of Stomp begin to glow blue, green or red.
   
   
3. You see shadows form on the floor; these indicate where the rocks will fall in a few seconds.
   
   
4. Colored crystals matching the color of the lodestone materialize and fall from the ceiling in two locations.
   
   
5. Rocks appear and fall from the ceiling in the spaces that had previously been shadowed.

Where the crystals and rocks land is entirely random, and that results in several possibilities for how each puzzle phase turns out.

In the ideal case, you’ll run out and grab the crystals as soon as they appear, and after the rocks fall, you’ll have a clear path to both lodestones. In that case you just go to each lodestone, left-click it to charge it, and wait. The lodestones will go dark and Stomp will resume fighting; you’ve just ended one of the phases of combat. (By the way, once you do successfully beat the “blue” or “green” phases, you never have to do them again.) Be sure not to click the lodestones until you are sure both are accessible!

In the second-best case, you’ll be able to grab both of the crystals but your path to one of the lodestones will be blocked. If this occurs, do not charge the lodestone you are able to reach! Charging one lodestone does nothing, and just means you’ll need to get another crystal the next time. Instead, go right in front of the open lodestone, cast Create Gatestone and drop the gatestone on that square. Next, move away and prepare to fight Stomp some more. As soon as the space in front of the second lodestone is clear, go stand there. Knock Stomp’s health down until the lodestones glow again and the crystals fall and so forth; this time, though, you can ignore them because you already have two crystals. Simply charge the lodestone you are standing in front of, then cast Gatestone Teleport. This will drop you right in front of the other lodestone, and it will even work if another rock is about to fall there, as long as you click the teleport before the rock lands. Click the second lodestone and the phase is complete.

The third-best case is when you are able to grab both crystals but both lodestones are blocked. If this happens, then just wait until combat resumes and one lodestone opens up. Drop a gatestone in front of it, then move in front of the other lodestone and proceed as above.

The worst case is when you are not able to get both crystals, or even one crystal. When this occurs you’ll have to do the phase over and try again to get both crystals. Once you have both, then either finish the phase immediately, if possible, or wait and use the gatestone trick.

Incidentally, if you are meleeing, be sure not to hit Stomp too hard, too quick; it is actually his ranged attack that clears any rocks that have fallen from the prior lodestone attempt. If you get him back down another third of his health when the rocks are still blocking the lodestones, you’ve accomplished nothing, because you’ll have to repeat the phase again anyway when you’re unable to reach the lodestones that are blocked.

Finally, if you want to give yourself a bit of “insurance”, drop a gatestone in front of the lodestones as soon as you enter Stomp’s room. This gives you a chance of saving one redo of the blue phase in the event that a rock happens to block off that lodestone while you’re collecting the blue crystals.

Stomp is one of the bosses that is easier in a team. While the boss himself gets a combat boost, you have more players and still only two lodestones. You can thus take a “divide and conquer” approach, splitting responsibility for the lodestones among the players. In this case using gatestones may not even be necessary.

Having team members spread out while waiting for the crystals to drop can also increase the chances of someone being able to grab them and get back to the lodestone before the rocks fall.

One strategy that can also be used to good effect by teams is to use their own bodies to block rocks from key positions. If a rock falls on a player, the player takes damage but the rock doesn’t block that square. A large team can have players stand in front of the lodestones while other players grab the crystals, increasing the chance of a clear path to the lodestone. Sometimes even a team of two can be better off just ensuring the lodestones stay clear using their own bodies and then getting the crystals after the rocks fall.

After you charge the lodestones with the red crystals at the end of the last puzzle phase, the portal through which Stomp is emerging will close. He’ll be killed, in what the behemoth notes describe as a "horrifying, albeit amusing manner", with his lopped off head and legs stumbling around before falling. He leaves behind a ranged leather coif, from tier 1 (protoleather) to tier 11 (Sagittarian). Few players keep these because of item binding limits.

The monster may also leave behind part of the “mysterious chronicle” journal (Chronicles of Bilrach), as well as the aforementioned behemoth notes.

Rammernaut (Floors 18-29) Har'Lakk the Riftsplitter (Floors 18-29)