Bull/Strategies

After completion of The Ides of Milk, players may fight Brutus as an instanced boss encounter within the Lumbridge cow field.

The easiest way to reach the Lumbridge cow field is by using the cowbell amulet, which teleports players there when charged with air runes. It additionally has a "Ring" option which will cause Brutus to respawn in 13 ticks (7.8s) after a chatbox message appears, rather than 36 ticks (21.6s). Note that ringing the cowbell amulet too late (ex. a few seconds before he's due to respawn) can result in a longer respawn time.

Brutus uses a basic melee attack with a max hit of 3, which can be negated through the use of the Protect from Melee prayer.

After four to five basic attacks, Brutus will use one of two special attacks; which one he chooses initially is random, but it will alternate between the two afterward. The damage of both special attacks scale with the player's Hitpoints level, with a max hit of upwards of 19. Low level players can expect to be hit for around 30-40% of their health by the special attacks. This damage ignores protection prayers, but may be avoided entirely by moving out of the way before Brutus moves.

• The player can avoid all damage from special attacks with either of the following methods:
  • Walk forward into Brutus to his tail end before the special attack.
  • Stand diagonally from Brutus when attacking and move diagonally away from him at the start of either of his special attack animations.

• Charge - Brutus will exclaim *growls*, then prepare to charge towards the player. There is a 3 tick (1.8s) window to move out of the way.
  • Brutus will not use this attack if charging would result in him hitting a wall. As such, standing east of his spawn point will cause him to never use the charge attack.
  • If sidestepping by one tile, a player can sneak in an attack as Brutus runs by the player minimising loss to DPS.
• Slam - Brutus will exclaim *snorts*, then prepare to slam the ground in front of it. There is a 4 tick (2.4s) window to move out of the way, and he will do this three times.
  • The tiles that Brutus chooses is based on the player's position relative to him, in either a 3x1 (if the player is adjacent to him) or an L shape (if the player is diagonal to him). Both slam attacks also deal damage on adjacent tiles beneath Brutus.
  • Timed properly, the player can sidestep by one tile then immediately move back to the tile they moved from while launching another attack allowing the player to treat this special attack as an opportunity for a free hit without taking damage.

• The player moves out of the way of Brutus' charge.
• Brutus can slam the ground in two possible ways depending on the player's position.

Attempting to set up a dwarf multicannon in the instance will result in the message It's far too muddy for you to set up a cannon here.

Brutus drops logs and oak logs quite often, as well as at least one guaranteed raw t-bone steak each kill. Bringing a tinderbox (with 15 Firemaking for oak logs) can be helpful to burn logs and cook steaks between kills, allowing for several back-to-back kills even if taking damage each kill. The altar in the Lumbridge church can be used to restore prayer as well.

Brutus cannot be flinched, but can be temporarily safespotted using nearby scenery, such as the plants and warning sign.

However, if the player is out of Brutus' attack range for 15 ticks (9s), he may use his charge attack to reach the player which can pass through obstacles, or he will exclaim *huff* and move around obstacles to reach the player. As such, lower levels may wish to utilise a set of safespots; with this method, players can avoid all attacks from Brutus. This method starts with tile 1 and as soon as Brutus moves, run to tile 2, etc.

It is possible to safespot Brutus with ranged, magic or a 2 tile reach melee weapon in the southernmost part of the pen. This method requires you to lure Brutus to the north side of the two Food troughs. Stepping in between them (out of reach for Brutus) makes him unable to use his charge attack, nor can he path towards you in any way. This allows you to safely kill him without having to worry about special attacks.

Melee is generally the strongest option at higher levels, especially if using prayer such as Ultimate Strength and Incredible Reflexes. At lower levels, it will likely be outperformed by magic. Plateskirts are 1kg lighter than Platelegs, while providing the same bonuses, making them ideal for managing Run Energy. (Except for Rune god armour, with both weighing the same) Chainbodies provide higher Crush defence bonus than Platebodies, while also being lighter. Leather Gloves provide the same Crush defence bonus as Green d'hide vambraces, but are lighter.

Recommended equipment for Melee (free-to-play)

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Rune full helm	Adamant full helm	Mithril full helm	Steel full helm
	Amulet of strength	Amulet of power	Amulet of accuracy	N/A
	Red cape	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Rune chainbody	Adamant chainbody	Mithril chainbody	Steel chainbody
	Rune plateskirt	Adamant plateskirt	Mithril plateskirt	Steel plateskirt
	Rune scimitar > Barronite mace	Adamant scimitar	Mithril scimitar	Steel scimitar
	Mooleta > Rune kiteshield	Adamant kiteshield	Mithril kiteshield	Steel kiteshield
	Gilded d'hide vambraces	Leather gloves	Leather vambraces	N/A
	Decorative boots (gold)	Decorative boots (white)	Decorative boots (red)	Fancy boots / Fighting boots / Fancier boots

Inventory

• Cowbell amulet
• Food
• Strength potion or cooked t-bone steak to boost Strength level
• Tinderbox to light logs for cooking raw t-bone steaks mid-trip (optional)

While not as strong as melee or magic, ranged has the advantage of being able to use temporary safespots, as outlined above. It is also cheaper than magic, making it useful for lower levels that do not have good melee stats or the money to spend on runes. Gilded will only provide extra defence bonuses.

Recommended equipment for Ranged (free-to-play)

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Coif	Leather cowl	N/A	N/A
	Amulet of power	Amulet of accuracy	N/A	N/A
	Red cape	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Green d'hide body	Studded body	Hardleather body	Leather body
	Green d'hide chaps	Studded chaps	Leather chaps	N/A
	Maple shortbow	Willow shortbow	Oak shortbow	N/A
	Adamant arrow	Mithril arrow	Steel arrow	N/A
	Green d'hide vambraces	Leather vambraces	N/A	N/A
	Leather boots	N/A	N/A	N/A

Inventory

• Cowbell amulet
• Food
• Tinderbox to light logs for cooking raw t-bone steaks mid-trip (optional)

Brutus has a 25% elemental weakness to earth spells, which means that they have 25% increased accuracy and damage than normal, making them the best option at low levels. Magic can also use temporary safespots like ranged can. However, the rune cost for higher level spells like Earth Blast won't be covered by Brutus' drops.

Recommended equipment for Magic (free-to-play)

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Blue wizard hat / Wizard hat	N/A	N/A
	Amulet of magic	Amulet of power	Amulet of accuracy
	Red cape	N/A	N/A
	Blue wizard robe / Black robe	Zamorak monk top	N/A
	Zamorak monk bottom	N/A	N/A
	Staff of earth / Staff of air	N/A	N/A
	Leather gloves / Leather vambraces	N/A	N/A
	Leather boots	N/A	N/A

Inventory

• Cowbell amulet
• Food
• Runes to cast earth spells
• Tinderbox to light logs for cooking raw t-bone steaks mid-trip (optional)

Recommended equipment for Melee (high level)

Slot	Item (most effective → least effective)
	Torva full helm / Dharok's helm[a]	Neitiznot faceguard / Oathplate helm	Void melee helm[b]	Blood Moon helm > Helm of Neitiznot
	Amulet of rancour	Amulet of torture > Amulet of strength	Amulet of fury / Bonecrusher necklace	Amulet of glory
	Infernal cape	Fire cape	N/A	N/A
	Torva platebody / Dharok's platebody[a]	Bandos chestplate (or: )	Elite void top[b]	Obsidian platebody
	Torva platelegs / Dharok's platelegs[a]	Bandos tassets (or: )	Elite void robe[b]	Obsidian platelegs
	Scythe of Vitur > Dharok's greataxe[a]	Soulreaper axe > Inquisitor's mace[c]	Blade of Saeldor / Ghrazi rapier / Dual macuahuitl[d]	Noxious halberd / Abyssal tentacle > Abyssal whip
	Avernic defender	Dragonfire shield / Dragon defender	Rune defender / Antler guard / Toktz-ket-xil	N/A
	Rada's blessing 4	God blessing / Rada's blessing 3 / Rada's blessing 2	N/A	N/A
	Ferocious gloves	Barrows gloves	Rune gloves / Void knight gloves[b]	Regen bracelet > Combat bracelet
	Avernic treads (max)	Primordial boots	Dragon boots (or: )	Guardian boots / Granite boots
	Ultor ring	Berserker ring (i)	N/A	N/A
	Crystal halberd / Dragon claws / Burning claws	Dragon dagger	N/A	N/A

1. ^ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Only when using full Dharok's equipment.
2. ^ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Only when using full Void Knight equipment.
3. ^ When using full Inquisitor's armour.
4. ^ With full blood moon equipment.

Inventory

• Cowbell amulet
• 4 divine super combat potions
• Locator orb or dwarven rock cake if using Dharok's
• 11-14 prayer potions
• Rest cheap food, such as monkfish