Video summary

Fortis Colosseum Without Protection Prayers

Main summary

Key takeaways

Gaming

Storyline / Context

This video covers completing Fortis Colosseum in RuneScape under a major restriction: no protection prayers. The run focuses on surviving lethal enemy mechanics—especially Manticores and the Soul Heritage boss—within the Colosseum’s strict time constraints.

Core Challenge: “Four Elements” to Solve

The creator frames the run as requiring multiple interlocking problem-solves:

  1. Enemy stacks How to manage wave enemy combinations, including Manticores.

  2. Reinforcements How to handle extra spawns during waves and isolate fights.

  3. Reliable east-pillar safe-spotting The hardest part: controlling NPC positioning/RNG so enemies can be kept behind the eastern pillar across many waves.

  4. Soul Heritage (final boss) Beating the boss mechanics without protection prayers.

Enemy Types & Key Mechanics

The waves include (at least) these major enemies:

  • Serpent Shaman

    • Appears early.
    • Smaller with shorter range, making it awkward to handle.

  • Javelin Colossus

    • Extremely frequent (appears on wave 2 and almost every wave after).
    • Key mechanic: every 5th attack throws a javelin at the player’s tile, which can be planned for.

  • Manticor

    • Mechanically complex and highly threatening.
    • Not flinchable.
    • Very high damage (stated max hit around 98).
    • Critical issue: its damage cannot be tick-healed (“tick regen”) like other NPC damage.

  • Shockwave Colossus

    • Mostly a “clone-function” compared to the Javelin Colossus (no special javelin mechanic).

Gameplay Highlights & Main Strategies

1) Tick Heal Instead of Protection / Tick Eating

With flinching and protection prayers unavailable or unhelpful:

  • Tick eating is largely disabled because purple sweets are disabled in the Colosseum.
  • The run uses tick healing:
    • Regen 1 HP every 100 ticks
    • Gear options to increase regen:
      • Region bracelet: heals as “heal two” (regen 2 HP instead of 1)
      • Hitpoints cape: adds extra regen timing efficiency

Goal: time damage/attacks so HP regen triggers at the right moments.

2) Surviving Manticors via Bees + Max-Hit “Trading”

A major roadblock is that Manticor tick-heal doesn’t work. The solution uses bees spawned through the run’s setup/modifiers:

  • Bees drift toward the player.
  • Hitting them guarantees max-hit damage.
  • When bees die, they respawn ~30 seconds later (effectively indefinitely).
  • Bees enable safer “trading” because:
    • attacks that max-hit bees can also trigger large self-healing via spec/weapon mechanics (e.g., SGS specs mentioned),
    • once at full HP, the player can survive an actual Manticor hit reliably and continue.

Relentless tiers:

  • Relentless 1: increases Manticor max hit slightly; still very survivable.
  • Relentless 2: risk increases but remains manageable with regen timing.
  • Relentless 3: described as roughly ~1% chance of dying (too risky) and generally avoided.

3) Stack Handling: Movement + Line-of-Sight + Turn Order

A repeated tactical pattern:

  • Use movement safe spots so not all enemies have line of sight at once.
  • Decide which NPC to keep alive temporarily.
  • Which NPC you kill first changes the next stack because NPCs choose/claim tiles based on NPC index turn priority, including despawn-timing effects.

Example approaches mentioned:

  • 3 enemies in a line with Manticor in back

    • Position so the front two don’t gain line-of-sight for a tick.
    • “Chip” Manticor using Vengeance repeatedly.

  • Triple / 2x2 variants

    • Often rely on delaying threats by 1 tick, killing the front/mid target first with Vengeance, or switching to alternate methods when Manticores threaten simultaneously.

4) Worst Case: 2x2 With Manticores on Both Sides

When Manticores are on opposite sides:

  • You may not be able to attack safely or rely on Vengeance-bombing due to simultaneous threats.

Fallback:

  • venadator / venad bow “bounces” to kill an entire NPC.
  • Downsides:
    • slow,
    • higher myopia reduces bounce reliability:
      • Myopia 2 makes it slower,
      • Myopia 3 essentially removes most bounce usefulness → should be avoided.

5) Reinforcements Wave Strategy (Northwest Pillar Spawns)

About ~40 seconds into waves, reinforcement NPCs spawn near the northwest pillar.

Handling method:

  • Aim for 1v1 by making sure the Serpent Shaman is safe-spotted behind the melee.
  • Then:
    • heal during safe phases (via SGS/spec mechanics),
    • use venadator bow to damage the shaman while safe-spotted,
    • time hits so the shaman is reduced before the melee dies.

If RNG ruins the permutation:

  • Use positioning tricks to force shaman behind the pillar.
  • If that fails, use “Gthics Rust” (two copies) as a last resort to survive until shaman dies.
  • Minotaur healing nearby in later waves is flagged as dangerous if shaman positioning fails.

The Major Breakthrough: Reliable East-Pillar Safe Spotting Without Protection

The creator explains that relying purely on luck (spawns behind the pillar) was too unlikely.

Pillar Lure Concept

  • Use a repeatable wave-luring sequence.
  • Move between pillars (east/west) to manipulate spawns consistently.

Initial obstacle:

  • A Phoenix necklace stall/damage-clear approach failed because of Manticor unique damage scripts (damage clear didn’t work for those scripts).

New Idea: Use Phoenix to Clear Death Script Instead of Damage

Instead of clearing “damage,” the adaptation focuses on clearing the death script:

  • Let HP drop to zero from Q damage
  • Death isn’t immediate: the death script is delayed by 1 tick
  • Then clear the death script rather than the damage.

Requirements:

  • heal into the 1–19 HP window (Phoenix activation range)
  • take the right lethal/non-clearable damage timing.

Timing / Execution Tools Mentioned

To make lure + survival possible, the video references very specific tools/mechanics:

  • Soul Reaper axe used with a 20-tick timer stack system (refunds 8 HP)
  • Venom sacks and locator orb for managing HP thresholds/timing
  • Rock cake for healing/proc interactions (but awkward with gloves/stalls)
  • Telekinetic grab to bypass glove requirement/stall when retrieving rock cake on the east side
  • Multiple spec/gear swaps (including Phoenix necklace, SGS/specing, “altar-like brew,” and spellbook swapping)

Soul Heritage (Final Boss) Without Protection Prayers

Key points:

  • The only major “protection prayer-like” behavior is a triple spear attack; it can be mitigated via Staff of the Dead (out-heal viable).
  • Bees during Soul help with:
    • spec uptime,
    • surviving DPS race moments, but they also interrupt DPS since they must be dealt with—especially under myopia constraints.

Strategy to make Soul manageable:

  • Soul is:
    • weak to slash
    • defensive vs non-melee styles
  • Use repeated ROS special attacks to drain Soul’s defense down to zero.
  • In the early HP phase (first ~10%):
    • Soul doesn’t do specials,
    • so the run repeatedly specs until defense reaches zero,
    • then fights more normally while avoiding mechanics.

Notable risk:

  • If hit by Soul without the staff protection active, the protection can be cleared—making spear phases punishing.

Modifiers Tier Priorities (What to Avoid / Want)

The video includes a tier discussion; the gist:

  • Top tier (“hard required”)

    • Bees 1 and Bees 2 for the core strat.

  • Bees 3

    • helpful but annoying.

  • Myopia 1 and certain “Blasphemy” line

    • generally low downside, but introduces other myopia tiers.

  • Relentless 2

    • survivable but affects timing/gameplay.

  • Relentless 3

    • too risky.

  • Myopia 2

    • reduces bounce reliability.

  • Myopia 3

    • can remove most venadator bounce utility → dangerous in worst-case 10/11 wave stacks.

Later/negative HP or re-entry modifiers:

  • increasingly dangerous overall,
  • possibly only acceptable for final-wave clutches.

Resources / Setup and Run Logistics

The lure approach is resource-heavy:

Items mentioned (example list):

  • venom sacks, locator orb, Soul Reaper axe, rock cake
  • cannon barrels (for accurate red-X positioning)
  • Phoenix necklaces (stated as 24)
  • rune stacks/potions/gear swaps

Operational details:

  • A looting bag is used to efficiently drop/enchant/deliver necklaces.
  • On death, you must retrieve:
    • cake
    • reward token
    • SGS kits
    • cannon barrels (lost on death)

Attempt Progress & Real-World Challenges

The creator describes significant grind and friction:

  • Hours of resetting just to reach early waves sometimes.
  • More RNG later (especially waves 4–6 with shaman spawn variance).
  • Cannot pause/log out due to:
    • Soul Reaper lure constraints,
    • Colosseum continuing to run.
  • Disconnections and server issues occurred.
  • Psychological pain from dying to mechanics the creator had “planned for,” but forgot about.

Key Gamers / Sources Featured (as Mentioned)

  • Rich Concentrate (critic/commentator view challenged by the creator)
  • Superalooa (creator of Colossim, credited for improvements and spawn simulation help)
  • Chris (friend referenced for ground object/model suggestions for precise “red X” placement)

Original video