OSRS Kalphite Queen Guide: Strategy, Gear & Drop Rates

Since its release, Jagex has added a lot of content to OSRS to freshen up the game for those already familiar with its goings on. From neat new areas to newer, more complex boss fights, it works well in entertaining the older players, but we can’t forget that a ‘new’ player (a player with only a single highly active account) still has to go through the same hoops of learning about the older content and taking on some things from early on in OSRS’s release. As you know from reading the title, this guide will be going over the Kalphite queen (henceforth abbreviated ‘KQ’ in the body text), a boss encounter released about 20 years ago. It has a couple of unique drops, as well as playing a part in the Desert Diary.

Locating the Kalphite Queen

The Kalphite Queen will always be found in her lair, which is in itself pretty easy to get to, being located in a fairly innocuous part of the Kharidian Desert north-east of Bedabin Camp. You’ll just need a couple of ropes to reach the queen. Since the lair is exempt from desert heat, you won’t even have to worry too much about waterskins; just bring enough to reach the entrance of the lair if you’re coming directly from the desert. Once at the entrance, you’ll need to use your first rope to enter the lair. Once inside, try reaching the southernmost part of the dungeon and head east. There’s the entrance to where KQ is, and where you need to use your second rope. You can use an Amulet of Glory to teleport to Al Kharid and head south from there.

There are other, easier ways of getting to her, though. The absolute quickest way to get to the lair is to use a fairy ring and enter the code b*i*q. This will take you right outside the main entrance, and you’ll get in quickly without the need for any waterskins. Another way to avoid the sweltering heat of the Kharidian Desert is to use the code a*j*q to get into the Dorgesh-Kaan South Dungeon, then go west. These methods both make use of fairy rings, so it is recommended that you complete the quest Fairytale II - Cure a Queen before making your way to KQ.

🦟Note: If you’ve completed the Hard Desert Diary, then the ropes you place at the entrance to the lair and where KQ resides become permanent, allowing you to bring 2 more food items for all future KQ bossfights.

Stats and abilities of the Kalphite Queen

As KQ is an old boss, it can be considered especially simple; however, despite that, it comes with a trick — multiple phases. Despite the HP stat being tracked at 255, you will actually have to deal a total of 510 damage in order to kill KQ. This is because she will heal to full and begin a secondary phase when first reduced to 0 HP.

It doesn’t look like much has changed since the KQ's initial release, but there are some significant details to pinpoint, such as the defence bonuses. They change from primarily being against Ranged and Magic in the first phase to heavily warding off any kind of Melee attacks in the second phase.

🦟Note: The KQ can attack using all three attack styles, that being Melee, Ranged, and Magic, though Magic is the most common. Also, her Ranged and Magic attack styles are incredibly accurate and will always deal some damage.

First Phase

• HP: 255
• Attack: 300
• Strength: 300
• Defence: 300
• Magic: 150
• Ranged: 1
• Melee Defence: +50 Stabbing, +50 Slashing, +10 Crushing
• Magic Defence: +100, +40% weakness to fire
• Ranged Defence: +100 Light, +100 Standard, +100 Heavy

In her first phase, the Kalphite Queen will attack in her beetle form and use Protect from Magic and Protect from Ranged. Use your Melee weapon for this phase. Feel free to use Thralls as well.

Try to position yourself so that the two Kalphite Guardians in the room are behind the Kalphite Queen and unable to attack you. Since you're using Melee in this phase, you'll be using Protect from Magic, not Protect from Melee. Limit the damage you take as much as possible.

Second Phase

• HP: 255
• Attack: 300
• Strength: 300
• Defence: 300
• Magic: 150
• Ranged: 1
• Melee Defence: +100 Stabbing, +100 Slashing, +100 Crushing
• Magic Defence: +10, +40% weakness to fire
• Ranged Defence: +10 Light, +10 Standard, +10 Heavy

After defeating her first phase, the Khalphite Queen will collapse to the ground. She will then emerge from her beetle husk as a wasp, and the second phase will begin.

In her second phase, the Kalphite Queen uses Protect from Melee, so using Ranged or Magic is ideal. You can still kill her in this phase with Melee, provided you are strong enough and have the accuracy.

One important thing to note about her second phase: Don't take too long to kill her. She will revert to her beetle form if the second phase lasts too long. After depleting her HP to zero, she will enter her second phase again, and you'll need to do the second phase all over.

After she's dead, collect your loot and bank, or repeat until you need to retreat.

In preparation for the fight

Via the stats above, we can tell that despite the simplicity of the fight, it’s going to be no joke. We will need high stats with high-level equipment to stand a chance. More importantly, we will want to grab 2 separate loadouts, or at the very least items to swap to and from, so we can change our attack style accordingly when KQ changes phases. Therefore, this guide will showcase both a melee setup to handle the first phase and then some ranged equipment to swap into for the second.

Recommended stats

• HP: 80
• Attack: 80
• Defence: 80
• Ranged: 80
• Prayer: 74

🦟Note: While we only need 37 prayer to use Protect from Magic, a prayer level of 74 will help us significantly. It will give us access to both the Piety prayer to boost our prowess with Melee and the Rigour prayer to help us similarly with Ranged.

Regarding the equipment, we will have two items for every slot: the first will be the preferred, most effective option, and the second will be a viable but less effective alternative. So, for example, while an Inquisitor’s Brassard is preferred, there’s nothing wrong with rocking some Bandos. Two incredibly important things to mention, however, are that the Keris Partisan is the absolute best item you could use when it comes to dealing with the first phase in melee, granting you a 33% bonus to damage along with a solid stat-line. The second thing is that if you have an active slayer task for Kalphites, then using an Imbued Slayer Helm will help boost your damage by about 17%, making the Imbued Slayer Helm the best possible helmet to wear in that scenario.

Melee Loadouts

Ranged Swap

You probably noticed some overlap in the Melee and Ranged loadouts, like the Barrows Gloves being the second recommended choice for both. If that’s what you’re using, then it should be obvious that you don’t need to bring a swap for that equipment slot. Just bring some extra food for healing if that’s the case.

INVENTORY

• Dragon Warhammer (spec lowers defence)
• All 6 slots for ranged swap
• 2x Ropes (swap for 2 more manta rays if not needed)
• Divine Ranging Potions
• Divine Super Combat Potions
• Prayer Potion
• Superantipoison
• 3x Karambwan
• 12x Manta Rays

Although there are better healing options than a Manta Ray, the amount we’re able to bring with us makes more expensive options just a luxury. Karambwans are there for combo eating, in case you didn’t pay attention to your HP for a moment and require rapid healing. Superantipoison is also incredibly important, since poison can and will wear you down.

The last and most peculiar of these inventory slots might be the Dragon Warhammer. The concept is that the weapons we use for the main fight don’t have any fantastic special attacks, if any at all, so we need a way to utilize our energy. The dragon warhammer does a fine job, lowering the targets with its special attack Smash. That’s the only role it plays, so swap back to your standard weapon when you’ve lowered KQ’s Defence.

DROPS

The average Kalphite Queen kill is worth about 53 million coins.

🦟Note: The listed prices for the drop table are taken from the time of writing this guide; they are thus subject to change and variance over time. If you’ve come across this article far in the future, it is advisable to double-check the prices through another source.

100%/Consumables

Weapons and Armour

Runes and Ammunition

Herbs

Seeds

Resources

Other

Rare Drop Table

Tertiary