The Nylocas room is a team assignment check before it becomes a boss fight. Kill the right colour with the right combat style, protect the pillars and handle aggressive spiders before they disrupt the group. After the waves, switch both prayer and weapon to match Nylocas Vasilias. A fast wrong-style hit can hurt the team more than a slightly slower correct one.
This is a Normal Theatre of Blood learner guide for the third encounter, after Bloat. It focuses on reliable wave coverage and the Vasilias transition, rather than a memorised speedrun wave script. Decide your role before the first spider appears.
Assign all three styles before starting
Team size | Common coverage | Learner check |
|---|---|---|
Three players | One melee, one ranger, one mage | Each player must reliably cover their colour |
Four players | Two melee, one ranger, one mage | Agree which melee player helps when their targets are clear |
Five players | Two melee, one ranger, two mages | Split coverage instead of both chasing the same target |
These are practical role arrangements, not a reason to leave a colour uncovered while someone changes gear. Tell the group if you are learning a role. A player who has only practised ranging cannot quietly become the sole mage when the room starts.
Use the supply chest after Bloat to fix your run and potion situation. Sip stamina and restore boosted combat stats before beginning if needed. A boss clear restores health, Prayer, run and special energy, but does not repair combat stats drained by brews. Coordinate any potion sharing; do not assume another player has brought the spell and supplies.
Colour is the instruction
Nylocas colour | Required damage style | Useful habit |
|---|---|---|
Grey: Ischyros | Melee | Select the correct target before committing to an attack |
Green: Toxobolos | Ranged | Use a fast ranged weapon to clear small targets |
Blue: Hagios | Magic | Keep the correct spell or powered staff ready |
During the waves, each Nylocas is immune to the other styles. A wrong-style attack also prevents that player from damaging that particular spider afterwards. This is more than a harmless zero: the mistake can leave a target for someone else to clean up. Slow down the click enough to identify the current colour.
Some spiders begin changing colour from wave 16. Read their present form instead of the colour they had when they entered. Do not spam a long sequence of attacks through a change. If a target becomes unavailable to your style, move to another useful target or make a deliberate switch.
Choose equipment for small targets
Small Nylocas have very low health and defence. Fast, reliable attacks and useful max hits matter more here than wearing the most expensive raid outfit. A Scythe is not automatically the right tool for every 1×1 spider: its multiple hits are better used when targets are lined up or against larger Nylocas.
Melee players can bring an appropriate fast or multi-hit alternative. Dual macuahuitl, glacial temotli or sulphur blades are examples of options discussed for small-target clearing; choose something you can use correctly with your setup. Do not add a difficult switch merely to imitate a specialist wave clear.
Rangers commonly use a toxic blowpipe. Chinchompas can help with clusters, but introduce targeting and supply considerations; agree on their use rather than throwing them at an isolated target. Mages should use a suitable fast magic weapon and keep area spells available if the role requires them. Check charges, darts, runes and autocast before the start, not halfway through a stalled wave.
What to kill first
Most spiders attack the pillars. Others stop short of them and target players; these aggressive Nylocas are a priority because their damage and movement can pull attention away from the room. Kill the aggressive targets in your style, then keep clearing threats to the pillars. Do not spend the whole wave following one distant spider while several nearby targets remain alive.
Large Nylocas split into two smaller spiders when killed, and the new ones can be different colours. The large spider dying does not mean that area is clear. Check the split and hand the new targets to the appropriate style rather than continuing to click with the old weapon.
Pillar health is a team resource. A collapsed pillar damages the group, and losing all four instantly kills the team. If one pillar is under pressure, say which side needs help and which colours remain. Calling only “help” forces teammates to look away from their own targets to work out the problem.
The room contains 31 waves. Waves can stall when too many Nylocas are alive: the active cap is 12 through the earlier waves and rises to 24 from wave 20. A stall is time to clear the backlog, not a break. Long-lived spiders eventually self-destruct, so allowing old targets to remain can cause damage as well as a slow room.
When your assigned colour is temporarily clear, help deliberately with another style if your role and equipment allow it. Keep watching for your own next targets. Support should fill an actual gap, not cause the sole ranger to miss the next green spiders while wearing melee gear.
Highlights help identification, not decision-making
An optional NPC highlight setup can make aggressive Nylocas easier to distinguish. Test any setup before using it in a live team and confirm what it highlights: an aggressive-target marker is different from a colour marker or a wave counter. None of these replaces checking the spider’s current combat form.
Use official RuneLite distribution and the built-in Plugin Hub for third-party plugins. Do not install a separate client or script because a guide promises automatic waves. This encounter still requires your own target selection and style switches. If the screen becomes cluttered, reduce highlights until the relevant target and pillar health are easy to read.
Transition: prepare before Vasilias lands
After the final waves are cleared, use the short pause to heal, restore stats and arrange the three styles you need. Vasilias always begins in melee form. Activate Protect from Melee before attacking, then follow the boss’s form changes.
The boss changes to another form every ten game ticks, or six seconds. Match protection prayer first, then the weapon and essential gear. Grey means melee, green ranged and blue magic. The boss stops your attack when it transforms, so deliberately reacquire it after the correct switch instead of assuming your character is still attacking.
Wrong-style attacks against Vasilias are especially costly: the boss heals for the damage you would have dealt, and that damage is reflected to you. If you are unsure which weapon is equipped, pause the attack and correct it. Reducing the number of gear switches is a better learner adjustment than forcing a large switch and firing late.
Correct protection fully blocks the melee form’s attack. Ranged and magic protection still leave chip damage, so remain healthy rather than assuming prayer makes every form harmless. A defence-draining opening special can be assigned to a teammate; it should not delay everyone else from putting the correct prayer on.
A useful review after the room
If the pillars suffered, review whether the issue was missing style coverage, aggressive targets, large-spider splits or wrong-style locks. If Vasilias healed, focus on weapon recognition and stopping attacks during a late switch. Those are different problems and need different practice.
Normal ToB is a dangerous raid, including for Hardcore accounts. Do not treat a successful Entry Mode room as proof that a low-health Normal attempt is safe. Finish by confirming everyone is ready for Sotetseg: food accessible, protection prayers easy to reach and a shared plan for the maze and large red ball.
For equipment functions, team assignments and raid-wide death rules, use our Normal ToB preparation guide alongside this encounter walkthrough.
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