Old School RuneScape’s Nightmare Zone is a good minigame to get combat experience, as well as for leveling Herblore with the Herb Boxes that can be bought in Dominic Onion’s Reward Shop. This minigame requires a bit of preparation with the right gear set, prayers, and potions to survive the Nightmare Zone and reap its many rewards. The NMZ method is ideal for training accounts without gaining unwanted defense levels, a staple technique when building maxed OSRS pure accounts profiles. This strategy guide will provide you with the best gear, items, and advice for tackling every boss in this activity.
Nightmare Zone Modes
This mini-game has three modes: Practice, Endurance, and Rumble, with each having a normal and hard difficulty. Each mode has its own cost: Practice (free), Endurance (1,000 coins for normal and 5,000 coins for hard), Rumble (2,000 coins for normal and 6,000 coins for hard), and then there are Customisable Rumbles (22,000 coins for normal and 26,000 coins for hard).
Practice Mode
In Practice mode, you get to choose a specific quest boss to fight. This lets you practice your strategy for that fight. No experience or points are given. You'll still get item drops, however.
Endurance Mode
In Endurance mode, you must fight each boss 1 on 1 until you either defeat all unlocked bosses or you die. You gain points for each boss you kill.
Rumble Mode
In Rumble mode, you can play solo or group up with friends. You will fight randomly selected bosses that all drop into the arena at once. When you kill one boss, another will spawn in its place. Rumble mode only ends when all players are dead. Once again, points are rewarded for each boss kill.
With customizable Rumble mode, you can pay more to choose which bosses spawn.
What about normal and hard mode?
- Normal: you fight monsters from quests at their original level
- Hard: the quest monsters have double HP, attack, strength, ranged, and magic stats. You get far more points per kill.
Things to Do Before You Start
Before jumping into the minigame, you’ll need to complete at least five of any of the following quests:
- Contact!
- The Corsair Curse
- Desert Treasure
- Dragon Slayer
- Dream Mentor
- Fairy Tale I - Growing Pains
- Family Crest
- Fight Arena
- The Fremennik Isles
- The Grand Tree
- The Great Brain Robbery
- Grim Tales
- Haunted Mine
- Holy Grail
- Horror from the Deep
- In Search of the Myreque
- Legends’ Quest
- Lost City
- Lunar Diplomacy
- Monkey Madness I
- Mountain Daughter
- My Arm’s Big Adventure
- One Small Favour
- Tale of the Righteous
- Recipe for Disaster
- Roving Elves
- Shadow of the Storm
- Shilo Village
- Tree Gnome Village
- Troll Romance
- Troll Stronghold
- What Lies Below
- Witch’s House
- Vampire Slayer
- The Depths of Despair
Recommended Skill Levels
- Prayer 70+
- Hitpoints 90+
- Attack 80+
- Strength 60+
- Defence 70+
- Ranged 75+
- Magic 86+
Recommended Gear
This gear set is an AFK build that maximizes your prayer points and provides good defensive stats for allowing you to stay in the Nightmare Zone for hours. The NMZ method is completely passive, but if you want it done with maximum speed, using fast combat powerleveling services will max out your stats in days.
- Neitiznot facegaurd
- Amulet of rancour
- Infernal cape
- Sunfire fanatic cuirass
- Sunfire fanatic chausses
- Soulreaper axe
- Avernic defender
- Rada’s blessing 4
- Ferocious gloves
- Primordial boots
- Ultor ring
- Dragon claws
For consumables, you’ll want to buy Absorption and Overload potions from the casks near the minigame zone, as drinking these will allow you to mitigate 50 damage taken. Bring prayer potions to top off your prayer points.
Best Bosses to Fight
All of the following bosses will only fight in melee and have no special mechanics that will hinder your farming session. The more bosses that are active during this minigame, the more points you’ll get per kill, so it’s ideal to activate as many as you feasibly can. This also includes the quest that you must complete in order to unlock them for the minigame:
| Boss / Monster | Quest | Special Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Trapped Soul | The Ascent of Arceuus | |
| Count Draynor | Vampyre Slayer | |
| Sand Snake | The Depths of Despair | |
| King Roald | What Lies Below | |
| The Kendal | Mountain Daughter | |
| Me | Lunar Diplomacy | |
| Skeleton Hellhound | In Search of the Myreque | |
| Tree Spirit | Lost City | |
| Dad | Troll Stronghold | |
| Khazard warlord | Tree Gnome Village | |
| Black Knight Titan | Holy Grail | |
| Ice Troll King | The Fremennik Isles | Only attacks in melee for hard mode |
| Bouncer | Fight Arena | |
| Black demon | The Grand Tree | |
| Jungle Demon | Monkey Madness I | Only attacks in melee for hard mode |
Bosses in the Nightmare Zone
Here's a list of all possible bosses for the Nightmare Zone.
| Name | Combat Level (Hard Mode) | Hitpoints (Hard Mode) | Defense Level | Attack Style | Points Gained (Hard) | Quest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giant scarab | 191 (316) | 130 (255) | 169 | Melee, Ranged | 20,454 | Contact! |
| Dessous | 139 (217) | 200 (255) | 99 | Melee, Magic, Ranged | 9,710 | Desert Treasure |
| Damis | 103, 174 (200, 272) | 90, 200 (198, 255) | 90, 160 | Melee | 15,082 | Desert Treasure |
| Fareed | 227 (299) | 130 (255) | 135 | Melee, Magic | 18,388 | Desert Treasure |
| Kamil | 154 (273) | 130 (255) | 135 | Melee, Magic | 15,289 | Desert Treasure |
| Elvarg | 83 (214) | 80 (240) | 70 | Melee, Dragonfire | 3,601 | Dragon Slayer |
| The Untouchable | 274 (440) | 90 (180) | 434 | Melee | 39,876 | Dream Mentor |
| The Everlasting | 223 (365) | 230 (255) | 120 | Melee | 27,479 | Dream Mentor |
| The Inadequacy | 343 (600) | 180 (255) | 240 | Melee, Ranged | 74,380 | Dream Mentor |
| Tanglefoot | 111 (199) | 102 (204) | 91 | Melee | 8,057 | Fairytale I - Growing Pains |
| Chronozon | 170 (297) | 60 (120) | 173 | Melee | 18,181 | Family Crest |
| Bouncer | 137 (244) | 116 (232) | 120 | Melee | 12,190 | Fight Arena |
| Glod | 138 (276) | 160 (255) | 110 | Melee | 15,702 | Grim Tales |
| Treus Dayth | 101 (194) | 85 (240) | 100 | Melee | 7,644 | Haunted Mine |
| Black Knight Titan | 120 (210) | 141 (255) | 91 | Melee | 9,090 | Holy Grail |
| Dragannoth mother | 100 (201) | 100 (240) | 81 | Melee, Ranged | 8,264 | Horror from the Deep |
| Skeleton Hellhound | 97 (198) | 55 (132) | 100 | Melee | 8,057 | In Search of the Myreque |
| Nezikchened | 187 (295) | 150 (150) | 167 | Melee, Magic | 17,975 | Legends' Quest |
| Tree Spirit | 101 (199) | 85 (187) | 80 | Melee | 2,176 | Lost City |
| Me | 79 (201) | 45 (135) | 74 | Melee | 8,264 | Lunar Diplomacy |
| Jungle Demon | 195 (327) | 170 (255) | 170 | Melee, Magic | 21,900 | Monkey Madness I |
| The Kendal | 70 (210) | 50 (150) | 60 | Melee | 2253 | Mountain Daughter |
| Giant Roc | 172 (257) | 200 (255) | 100 | Melee, Ranged | 13,636 | My Arm's Big Adventure |
| Slagilith | 92 (202) | 60 (150) | 75 | Melee | 8,264 | One Small Favour |
| Agrith-Na-Na | 146 (235) | 200 (255) | 82 | Melee, Magic | 11,363 | Recipe for Disaster - Final battle |
| Flambeed | 149 (238) | 210 (255) | 75 | Melee, Magic | 11,570 | Recipe for Disaster - Final battle |
| Karamel | 136 (186) | 240 (255) | 100 | Melee, Magic | 7,024 | Recipe for Disaster - Final battle |
| Dessourt | 121 (217) | 140 (255) | 99 | Melee, Magic, Ranged | 9,710 | Recipe for Disaster - Final battle |
| Gelatinnoth Mother | 130 (201) | 240 (240) | 81 | Ranged, Magic | 8,264 | Recipe for Disaster - Final battle |
| Culinaromancer | 75 (209) | 140 (255) | 10 | Melee, Magic | 8,884 | Recipe for Disaster - Final battle |
| Evil Chicken | 159 (286) | 120 (240) | 126 | Magic | 16,735 | Recipe for Disaster - Sir Amik Varze |
| Moss Giant | 84 (182) | 120 (240) | 60 | Magic, Melee | 6,818 | Roving Elves |
| Agrith-Naar | 100 (196) | 100 (209) | 82 | Melee, Magic | 7,851 | Shadow of the Storm |
| Nazastarool | 91, 68, 93 (176, 153, 181) | 100, 75, 110 (154, 180, 176) | 80, 58, 80 | Melee | 6,611 | Shilo Village |
| Corrupt Lizardman | 46 (152) | 50 (150) | 38 | Melee, ranged | 4827 | Tale of the Righteous |
| Corsair Traitor | 35 (103) | 55 (160) | 20 | Magic | 845 | The Corsair Curse |
| Sand Snake | 36 (154) | 60 (180) | 20 | Melee | 1178 | The Depths of Despair |
| Ice Troll Kind | 122 (216) | 150 (255) | 80 | Melee, Ranged, Magic | 9,297 | The Fremennik Isles |
| Black Demon | 172 (292) | 165 (255) | 152 | Melee | 17,561 | The Grand Tree |
| Barrelchest | 210 (380) | 134 (255) | 140 | Melee, Ranged | 29,752 | The Great Brain Robbery |
| Khazard warlord | 112 (192) | 169 (256) | 80 | Melee | 2,003 | Tree Gnome Village |
| Arrg | 171 (210) | 150 (255) | 40 | Melee, Ranged | 9,090 | Troll Romance |
| Dad | 101 (201) | 120 (240) | 50 | Melee | 8,264 | Troll Stronghold |
| Count Draynor | 34 (177) | 40 (210) | 30 | Melee | 1588 | Vampire Slayer |
| King Roald | 47 (188) | 60 (150) | 30 | Melee | 1792 | What Lies Below |
| Witch's experiment | 19, 30, 42, 53 (47, 77, 90, 103) | 21, 31, 41, 51 (63, 93, 102, 113) | 19, 29, 39, 49 | Melee | 513 | Witch's House |
Rewards
All rewards given in the mini game are separated into three categories: Resources, Upgrades, and Benefits. These rewards can be purchased using the points earned from the mini game. Check out the full table of rewards below.
