OSRS Zulrah Guide (2026): All 4 Rotations, Gear and Drops

Quick summary

• You only need Regicide (far enough to reach Port Tyras) to fight Zulrah. The OSRS Wiki recommends 75+ Magic, 80+ Ranged, 70+ Hitpoints and 45+ Prayer.
• Zulrah has four fixed rotations. Phase 2 tells you which one you're in, except Rotations 1 and 2, which split at phase 4.
• Pray Missiles on green, Magic on blue, and step two tiles away from red. Use magic on green and red, and ranged on blue.
• Fire spells get a 50% weakness bonus, but powered staves (Trident, Sanguinesti, Shadow) don't. Some guides get this wrong.
• Each kill gives two rolls at 1/256 on the unique table, so roughly 1/512 for a specific fang, visage or onyx. The pet is 1/4,000 and Jar of Swamp is 1/3,000 (OSRS Wiki).

This OSRS Zulrah guide covers the boss as it plays in 2026, including the 2024 fire weakness and the 2025 change that lets halberds reach it. Rotations, rates and drops come from the OSRS Wiki's Zulrah page and its strategy page. It applies to Old School RuneScape only.

Zulrah requirements and how to get there

Requirement	Detail
Quest	Regicide, to the point of reaching Port Tyras, plus offering yourself as the sacrifice to High Priestess Zul-Harcinqa. Regicide's 56 Agility requirement is the usual blocker; the OSRS Agility guide covers the fastest route
Magic	75+ recommended (Trident of the seas)
Ranged	80+ recommended
Hitpoints	70+
Prayer	45+ for Eagle Eye, Mystic Might and the protection prayers
Construction	82+ (boostable) for an Ornate rejuvenation pool in your POH, which cures venom and restores prayer and hitpoints

The Wiki lists these as recommended skills, not hard requirements. The only hard gate is Regicide.

Travel options (OSRS Wiki):

• Zul-andra teleport scroll. The easiest option. Zulrah drops them, and every kill leaves a teleport you can use to go back to the village.
• Fairy ring BJS, then the stepping stones. This needs 76 Agility, which you can boost.

You board the sacrificial boat at the Zul-Andra dock. The only ways out of the shrine are killing Zulrah, teleporting, logging out or dying.

Zulrah forms and prayers

Form	Zulrah attacks with	Your prayer	Attack it with	Key fact
Green (serpentine)	Ranged	Protect from Missiles	Magic	-45 magic defence, +50 ranged defence
Red (crimson/magma)	Tail slam on your tile	Any. Move two tiles away	Magic	20–30 damage and a stun if it hits you
Blue (tanzanite)	Mostly Magic, some Ranged	Protect from Magic	Ranged	+300 magic defence, +0 ranged defence
Green "Jad" phase	Alternates Ranged and Magic	Switch after every attack	Magic or nothing	Starts with Ranged in Rotations 1 and 2, Magic in 3 and 4

Damage to Zulrah is capped at 50 per hit. Its ranged and magic attacks envenom you even when your prayer blocks them, unless they miss. Snakelings spawn from white orbs and hit hard, and venom clouds cover a 3x3 area. Zulrah's attacks can still land after it dies, so keep your prayer up until the loot appears.

How to identify the Zulrah rotation

Every rotation starts with Zulrah green in the middle, spraying four venom clouds and not attacking. Then:

1. If phase 2 is blue (tanzanite) in the east, you're in Rotation 4.
2. If phase 2 is green in the east, you're in Rotation 3.
3. If phase 2 is red in the middle, you're in Rotation 1 or 2. Phase 3 is blue in the middle for both. At phase 4, green in the south means Rotation 1, and green in the west means Rotation 2.

The Wiki recommends learning one rotation at a time. You aren't in combat until phase 2, so you can hop worlds and try again if you don't get the one you're practicing. The Wiki calls Rotation 3 the best one to learn because Rotations 1 and 2 look the same for longer at the start.

All 4 Zulrah rotations, phase by phase

Positions use the OSRS Wiki's names, where south is the far end of the U-shaped island. "Attack with" is your weapon style. These tables follow the Wiki's Zulrah/Strategies page.

Rotation 1 ("Crimson A")

Phase	Form and position	What Zulrah does	Your prayer	Attack with
1	Green, middle	4 venom cloud barrages	Missiles	Magic
2	Red, middle	2 tail slams	Any, move	Magic
3	Blue, middle	4 magic or ranged attacks	Magic	Ranged
4	Green, south	5 ranged, then snakelings and clouds	Missiles	Magic
5	Red, middle	2 tail slams	Any, move	Magic
6	Blue, west	5 magic or ranged attacks	Magic	Ranged
7	Green, south	3 cloud barrages, 4 snakeling orbs	Missiles	Magic
8	Blue, south	5 attacks, then snakelings and clouds	Magic	Ranged
9	Jad: green, west	10 alternating attacks, ranged first	Switch	Magic, or focus on prayer
10	Red, middle	2 tail slams	Any, move	Magic
11	Green, middle	5 ranged, 4 cloud barrages	Missiles	Magic

Rotation 2 ("Crimson B")

Phase	Form and position	What Zulrah does	Your prayer	Attack with
1	Green, middle	4 venom cloud barrages	Missiles	Magic
2	Red, middle	2 tail slams	Any, move	Magic
3	Blue, middle	4 attacks	Magic	Ranged
4	Green, west	3 cloud barrages, 4 snakeling orbs	Missiles	Magic
5	Blue, south	5 attacks, then snakelings and clouds	Magic	Ranged
6	Red, middle	2 tail slams	Any, move	Magic
7	Green, east	5 ranged	Missiles	Magic
8	Blue, south	5 attacks, then snakelings and clouds	Magic	Ranged
9	Jad: green, west	10 alternating attacks, ranged first	Switch	Magic, or focus on prayer
10	Red, middle	2 tail slams	Any, move	Magic
11	Green, middle	5 ranged, 4 cloud barrages	Missiles	Magic

Rotation 3 ("Serp")

Phase	Form and position	What Zulrah does	Your prayer	Attack with
1	Green, middle	4 venom cloud barrages	Missiles	Magic
2	Green, east	5 ranged, 3 snakeling orbs	Missiles	Magic
3	Red, middle	6 clouds and snakelings, then 2 tail slams	Any, move	Magic
4	Blue, west	5 attacks	Magic	Ranged
5	Green, south	5 ranged	Missiles	Magic
6	Blue, east	5 attacks	Magic	Ranged
7	Green, middle	3 cloud barrages, 3 snakeling orbs	Missiles	Magic
8	Green, west	5 ranged	Missiles	Magic
9	Blue, middle	5 attacks, 2 clouds, 3 snakeling orbs	Magic	Ranged
10	Jad: green, east	10 alternating attacks, magic first	Switch	Magic, or focus on prayer
11	Blue, middle	4 snakeling orbs	Magic	Ranged
12	Green, middle	5 ranged, 4 cloud barrages	Missiles	Magic

Rotation 4 ("Tanz")

Phase	Form and position	What Zulrah does	Your prayer	Attack with
1	Green, middle	4 venom cloud barrages	Missiles	Magic
2	Blue, east	4 snakeling orbs, then 6 attacks	Magic	Ranged
3	Green, south	4 ranged, 2 cloud barrages	Missiles	Magic
4	Blue, west	4 snakeling orbs, then 4 attacks	Magic	Ranged
5	Red, middle	2 tail slams, 2 cloud barrages	Any, move	Magic
6	Green, east	4 ranged	Missiles	Magic
7	Green, south	6 snakeling orbs, 3 cloud barrages	Missiles	Magic
8	Blue, west	5 attacks, 4 snakeling orbs	Magic	Ranged
9	Green, middle	4 ranged	Missiles	Magic
10	Blue, middle	4 attacks, 3 cloud barrages	Magic	Ranged
11	Jad: green, east	8 alternating attacks, magic first	Switch	Magic, or focus on prayer
12	Blue, middle	4 snakeling orbs	Magic	Ranged
13	Green, middle	5 ranged, 4 cloud barrages	Missiles	Magic

The Jad phase arrives at about two minutes. If the fight goes past three minutes, the Wiki says Zulrah's green form can start mixing ranged and magic unpredictably, so aim to kill it within the first rotation.

The Zulrah Jad phase

Switch your prayer right after each attack, following the start style for your rotation. Beginners can stop attacking and eating during this phase and just pray. Most early deaths happen here.

Example: You get green in the east at phase 2, so you're in Rotation 3. Your Jad phase will be in the east at phase 10 and start with magic, so turn on Protect from Magic before it surfaces.

Best Zulrah gear by budget

You'll wear magic gear and bring a ranged switch for blue phases. The Twisted bow and Bow of Faerdhinen are strong enough to use on every phase if you want fewer switches (OSRS Wiki).

Magic gear (worn)

Slot	Max	Mid	Budget
Weapon	Tumeken's shadow / Eye of Ayak	Sanguinesti staff / Harmonised nightmare staff with fire spells	Trident of the swamp / Trident of the seas
Shield	Elidinis' ward (f) / Tome of fire (fire spells)	Arcane spirit shield	Malediction ward / Book of darkness
Head	Ancestral hat (Slayer helmet (i) on task)	Virtus mask	Serpentine helm / Ahrim's hood
Body	Ancestral robe top	Virtus robe top	Ahrim's robetop / Mystic
Legs	Ancestral robe bottom	Virtus robe bottom	Ahrim's robeskirt / Mystic
Neck	Occult necklace (not with fire spells)	Occult necklace	Amulet of fury
Cape	Imbued god cape	Imbued god cape	God cape
Gloves	Tormented bracelet	Barrows gloves	Barrows gloves
Boots	Eternal boots	Infinity boots	Wizard boots
Ring	Magus ring, switching to Ring of suffering for snakelings	Ring of suffering (ri)	Ring of recoil

Ranged switch (inventory)

Slot	Max	Mid	Budget
Weapon	Twisted bow	Bow of Faerdhinen with full crystal armour	Toxic blowpipe / Rune crossbow with ruby bolts (e)
Body	Masori body (f)	Crystal body	Blessed d'hide body
Legs	Masori chaps (f)	Crystal legs	Blessed d'hide chaps
Neck	Necklace of anguish	Necklace of anguish	Amulet of fury (keep worn)
Cape	Dizana's quiver	Ava's assembler	Ava's accumulator

Use fire spells properly

Zulrah has a 50% elemental weakness to fire spells, so they're 50% more accurate and deal 50% more damage. Powered staves don't get this bonus. That means a Trident, Sanguinesti staff or Tumeken's shadow just uses its normal stats. The fire setup the Wiki and ironman.guide point to is a Harmonised nightmare staff or Twinflame staff casting fire spells, with a Tome of fire and an Elemental amulet or Amulet of fire.

Zulrah inventory setup

Item	Budget trip	Mid or max trip
Ranged switch	Weapon, body, legs, cape (start with 2–3 pieces)	Full switch, 5–6 pieces
Anti-venom+	1 (skip with a Serpentine helm)	1 extended anti-venom+
Prayer potions	2	1–2
Combat boosts	Ranging potion, Magic potion	Divine ranging potion, Saturated heart
Zul-andra teleport	1	1
Bank teleport	Ring of dueling or Crafting cape	Same
Food	Fill with sharks or anglerfish plus karambwans	Fill

The OSRS Wiki suggests beginners bring fewer switches until they know the phases. Fewer switches leave more room for food. The Prayer drain is light because you only pray one overhead at a time, but the OSRS Prayer guide is worth a look if you still lack the 45 Prayer the wiki recommends.

Zulrah drops and drop rates

Drop	Rate	Note
Zulrah's scales	100–299, always	Also a separate 500-scale drop at 5/249 per roll
Tanzanite fang	1/1,024 per roll	Two rolls per kill
Magic fang	1/1,024 per roll
Serpentine visage	1/1,024 per roll
Uncut onyx	1/1,024 per roll	Not exclusive to Zulrah
Tanzanite or magma mutagen	~1/6,554 per kill for each	Cosmetic recolors
Jar of Swamp	1/3,000
Pet snakeling	1/4,000
Elite clue scroll	1/75	1/71 with the elite Combat Achievement rewards

The Wiki says the unique table is 1/256 per roll with two rolls per kill (from Mod Ash), so about 1/128 for any unique and about 1/512 for a specific one. The rest of the table includes noted runes, herbs, seeds, logs, ores and Zul-andra teleports.

Zulrah GP per hour

The OSRS Wiki's money-making pages list about 1.58M per hour for a standard setup (80+ Ranged, 85+ Magic, 45+ Prayer) and about 2.78M per hour at maximum efficiency (95 Ranged and Magic, 77 Prayer). Both depend on kill speed and current Grand Exchange prices, and most of the value is scales and the four uniques. The OSRS Vorkath guide covers the other common mid-game money boss, and the OSRS money-making guide puts both in context.

Common Zulrah myths, corrected

Claim you might see	What the OSRS Wiki says
"Tumeken's shadow benefits from the fire weakness"	Powered staves don't benefit. Only standard spellbook fire spells do
A rotation list where phase 2 is the same for Rotations 1 and 2 but phase 3 differs	Rotations 1 and 2 both go green, red, blue. They split at phase 4 (south or west)
"Red form uses melee you can pray against"	It's a typeless tail slam on your tile. Move two tiles away
"Blue only uses magic"	Blue uses both, mostly magic. Pray Magic anyway

What happens if you die at Zulrah

The Priestess Zul-Gwenwynig at the Zul-Andra dock holds your lost items. Reclaiming them is free for your first 50 kills and costs 100,000 coins per death after that (Ultimate Ironmen reclaim for free). If you die unsafely somewhere else before collecting them, they're gone for good (OSRS Wiki). The elite Western Provinces Diary gives you one free daily resurrection in the fight. Killing Zulrah is also a task for the hard Western Provinces Diary, which you need for Elite Void.

Zulrah Combat Achievements

Zulrah has 9 Combat Achievement tasks worth 40 points (OSRS Wiki): one Hard task (Zulrah Adept, your first kill), four Elite tasks including Zulrah Veteran and Zulrah Speed-Trialist, three Master tasks including Zulrah Master and Perfect Zulrah, and one Grandmaster task, Zulrah Speed-Runner. The kill-count tasks come with normal farming. Leave Perfect Zulrah and the speed tasks until the rotations are automatic.

Slayer: Zulrah is a boss task from Konar, Nieve and Duradel. It gives 500 Slayer XP per kill and needs no Slayer level; the OSRS Slayer guide covers how to unlock boss tasks.

Plan your path as a returning, ironman or boosted account

• Returning players: The 50% fire weakness was added after Zulrah's launch, and newer gear like the Eye of Ayak now appears in the Wiki's best setups. Recheck your old Trident and blowpipe plan.
• Ironmen: Start from the budget tier, and wear a Serpentine helm once you have a visage so you can skip anti-venom while you learn.
• Boosted or new mains: Get Regicide done, then learn Rotation 3 by hopping worlds before you try all four. If you have never done a prayer-switching fight, the Fire Cape guide is good practice for the Jad phase. Once Zulrah is routine, the OSRS Maggot King guide covers a newer boss that tests the same switching habits.

The Old School RuneScape hub collects the rest of the game's guides and service categories.

Want a hand with this?

If you would rather not grind this part yourself, OSRS boss services are listed on FullBoosts. Read Jagex's Rules of Old School RuneScape before you buy any service from anyone, FullBoosts included — a marketplace listing isn't publisher permission.

Frequently asked questions

What are the requirements for Zulrah in OSRS? You need to complete Regicide to the point of reaching Port Tyras. The OSRS Wiki also recommends 75+ Magic, 80+ Ranged, 70+ Hitpoints and 45+ Prayer.

How do you tell which Zulrah rotation you're on? Look at phase 2. Blue in the east is Rotation 4, green in the east is Rotation 3, and red in the middle is Rotation 1 or 2. For those two, green in the south at phase 4 means Rotation 1, and green in the west means Rotation 2.

What prayer do you use for each Zulrah form? Use Protect from Missiles on green and Protect from Magic on blue. On red, move two tiles away from your current tile. During the green Jad phase, switch between Missiles and Magic after every attack.

Is Zulrah weak to fire spells? Yes, Zulrah has a 50% weakness to fire spells (added in May 2024). Powered staves like the Trident, Sanguinesti staff and Tumeken's shadow don't get the bonus; you need standard spellbook fire spells, ideally from a Harmonised nightmare staff or Twinflame staff with a Tome of fire.

Is Zulrah worth it for money? For mid-game accounts, usually. The OSRS Wiki lists about 1.58M per hour with a standard setup and about 2.78M at maximum efficiency, with the uniques making up much of the value.

Can you use melee on Zulrah? Only with a halberd, since a May 2025 update. The OSRS Wiki says the Noxious halberd is strong enough for every phase, and the Crystal halberd's special attack is useful for last hits.

Related guides

• OSRS Vorkath guide
• OSRS Maggot King guide
• OSRS Fire Cape guide
• OSRS Slayer guide
• OSRS money-making guide
• OSRS Barrows guide