Prior to the release of Fortis Colosseum, which was part of the original update in which the continent of Zeah was expanded and Varlamore was made accessible to Old School RuneScape (OSRS) members, there was little doubt that the toughest solo-only PvM encounter in the game was the Inferno.
The Inferno was the de facto sequel to the Fight Caves, and it made the Fight Caves, in which the feared level 702 TzTok-Jad was once considered RuneScape’s greatest challenge itself, look like child’s play.
The Colosseum features only 12 waves as opposed to the Inferno’s 69, but the difficulty of the encounter from start to finish is widely considered to be on par with or possibly even higher than that of the signature Mor Ul Rek challenge.
Which is tougher, the Inferno or the Fortis Colosseum?
We looked at several key factors involved in each before making that determination.
Because the Inferno is longer, making a mistake in a later wave can be extremely demoralizing, especially if it comes on Wave 68, the triple Jad wave, or Wave 69 when fighting TzKal-Zuk himself. I've often joked that Mor Ul Rek should be called Ner Vous Rek, given how much nerves tend to come into play.
And chances are, you will fail both waves at least once before getting an Infernal Cape, which can eat up several hours of playtime. For many, that could translate to weeks.
On the flip side, the Colosseum is less punishing from a time standpoint. Even if you are a bit on the slower side (which is to be expected; not everyone is a world-class speedrunner), you still don’t spend nearly as much time getting to the later waves as you do getting to the late 60+ waves in the Inferno.
The Colosseum also gives you rewards for each wave you complete. Yes, the Inferno rewards you with Tokkul, but the Colosseum rewards are, for lack of a better word, actual rewards.
However, you need to decide whether you want to cash out and effectively abandon your run to receive them. Otherwise, you’ll need to beat Sol Heredit, as any death means you not only don’t collect the rewards, but you have to pay a gravestone fee to retrieve your own items.
Given the immense challenge this wave-based minigame presents, plus the fact that Colosseum runs are much quicker than Inferno runs, those fees can hit millions and millions relatively quickly. Deaths in the Inferno, while potentially more demoralizing, are considered safe deaths.
Journey to the final boss: The waves
As for the waves themselves, the Inferno has long been considered the toughest single piece of solo PvM content in the game due to the fact that it can’t be “brute forced”. In other words, you can’t show up with the best gear and tons of food and expect to simply push through it without practice.
Having said that, there are methods, namely by using Dinh’s Bulwark, that make it a lot more manageable. You can clear the Nibblers using the Bulwark’s special attack, and because of its high Ranged defense, you don’t need to start prayer switching or flicking or off-ticking or doing any of that fancy stuff as soon as the wave starts.
We’re not going to sugarcoat it; any successful Inferno run is going to require you to do at least some of that at some point in the buildup to the Jad and Zuk waves. But using the Bulwark gives you more time to pillar hop at the start of the waves, and that’s when survival is most crucial. Finding a safe pillar is the most important part of solving any wave.
In rare cases, you might get hit with multiple heavy damaging blows while you’re taking care of the nibblers and thus exposed to several monsters at once, but you should have more than enough food to counter it.
Even if that does happen, it probably won’t happen more than once or twice in a run, so using this method is a newcomer’s best bet to consistently getting to Wave 68 or 69 and having plenty of food leftover in doing so.
On the flip side, the Colosseum presents no opportunity to effectively utilize such a conservative method. The best use of the Bulwark is if you’re pillar hopping and you need to protect against a Ranger, but even then, you better hope you don’t have the Relentless handicap active, because the resulting defense reduction effectively means it doesn’t really matter.
Clearing the Fremennik Warband trio is also a lot more complicated than standing in the middle of the arena, relying on defensive bonuses to shield you from incoming attacks, and using the Bulwark’s special attack to decimate all three Nibblers at once.
Changing gear to kill each member of the Warband while trying to prayer switch against another attacker – or in the case of a double south spawn, attackers – can be absolute madness. Without pinpoint accurate prayer switches, you’re cooked.
There are really only four waves – 6, 8, 10, and 11 – that are truly challenging regardless of the spawn locations, and of course, there are certain spawns in each that can elevate that challenge, especially if paired with undesirable reinforcement spawns.
In the Inferno, pretty much every wave with a Mager and Ranger – so Wave 50+ – can present a significant challenge, but again, it’s nothing that can’t be largely mitigated using the Bulwark.
In the Colosseum, there is no getting around the fact that the only way to mitigate the toughest threats is knowing how to perfectly count ticks and executing that strategy while under attack – and under the inevitable self-imposed pressure and nerves.
And that becomes even more crucial if there’s a Manticore attacking you, especially if the Mantimayhem handicap – I, II, or III – is active.
Even if handicaps weren’t a part of this minigame, clearing the pre-final boss waves would probably be a greater challenge than clearing Waves 1 through 67 of the Inferno, simply because of the fact that the chance for lethal exposure on any given spawn is much greater, and unlike in the Inferno if you use the Bulwark, you absolutely do need to be able to react almost instantly.
The handicaps just take it to the next level, especially since you can never really plan on which handicaps you’ll be allowed to take. If you are forced to pick between three that are, for lack of a better word, terrible, you’re better off just sacrificing the run, claiming your rewards, and starting over. At least you get something out of it.
Like we mentioned earlier, these runs are generally much quicker than average Inferno runs, so don’t be afraid to do that. It can be a nice way to recoup some gravestone fees.
Up to the final boss, the Colosseum has the edge over the Inferno. But does that remain true through the encounters with TzKal-Zuk and Sol Heredit?
Final boss comparison: Inferno’s TzKal-Zuk vs. Fortis Colosseum’s Sol Heredit
Both final bosses have online simulators that you can use to practice, just to get a feel for the mechanics.
If for no other reason than to provide encouragement that you can do it too, I want to make clear that I am by no means some kind of generational talent in either encounter. Even with simulator experience, Zuk took me 14 tries to get an Infernal Cape, while Sol took me six to get a Dizana’s Quiver.
But even ignoring my death count, I would have to say that Zuk, even at level 1400 compared to Sol’s level 1563, is slightly harder just because of the length of the fight and the fact that there is less margin for error during pretty much every phase of it.
Whether it’s dealing with the Mager and Ranger sets without off-ticking them (don’t try this as a beginner anyway; you will be brutally flattened immediately), fighting the Jad, Toxic Blowpipe walking (“Woox walking”) the Healers, or firing off attacks during the high-speed enrage phase, all while staying behind the moving shield the entire time, there is always a ton going on at once, and if you are hit by a Jad attack or a Zuk ball, you are more likely to die instantly than not.
Timing is everything, too. Using OSRS Inferno Timer can save your run, primarily by saving you from having to deal with a set spawn during the Jad fight and by saving you from having to deal with a set spawn during the Healer phase. All you need is three clicks: one when the first set spawns, one when Zuk dips below 600 life points, and one when the Jad spawns under 480. That’s it.
There is a lot going on at Sol as well, in addition to whatever handicaps you might have taken that further restrict your ability, but there is no true instakill attack like there is on Wave 69 of the Inferno.
You can make up for one, sometimes even two, mistakes in a row and still stay in the fight. The fight itself is also much shorter, even though it is very demanding in terms of clicking, whether it be to avoid the four spear and shield attacks or to counter his special attacks.
The special attacks are both quite unique and fun to parry. Counting ticks when he starts the spear special attack adds a whole new element to the fight, since Protect from Melee will only work on a certain tick, and defending the proper piece of armor before he lunges at you also keeps you fully engaged.
If you protect the given armor piece on the last tick possible, you ensure your next hit is a max hit, another unique mechanic to a tough boss fight.
Continuing to dodge his regular attacks, and remembering where you are in the spear and shield attack rotation to consistently do so, gets even tougher as the fight progresses, when there are more light beams to avoid and more sand piles to work around. You cannot let your guard down at all and very rarely have any time to breathe.
Speaking of not having time to breathe, that’s where I’m going to kind of admit that the Zuk fight, even if just as intense from start to finish, can actually be a bit more manageable than the Sol fight overall.
Because of how the timer triggers work, you can effectively take as much time off as you need between getting Zuk under 600 life points and spawning the Jad at 480. During this part of the fight, the timer is stopped, and simply walking back and forth with the shield is all you really need to do to stay protected.
I say walking, not running, because this can be a nice way to regenerate run energy. If you usually bring two stamina potions, this can help you reduce it to one. And given the recent run energy restructure, those who usually bring one stamina potion might well be able to get away with zero, even if you aren’t particularly doing a ton of DPS.
The verdict: Inferno or Fortis Colosseum?
It’s a tough call. It really is. But I’m going to go with the Colosseum as being the tougher of these two immense solo PvM challenges.
Even if Zuk may be tougher than Sol overall, it only has a slight edge. But getting through the waves of the Colosseum is a bigger challenger than doing so in the Inferno, and the fact that Sol literally gives you no time to breathe and adjust, even if it is a quicker fight, gives you a lot less flexibility than the Zuk fight when it comes to altering your attack plan if something isn’t going right.
Just don’t forget if you took the Volatility handicap leading into the Sol fight. You do not want to kill Sol, forget you took it, and die because of the ensuing explosion you forgot you needed to avoid. Despite killing the boss, you would not receive the Quiver. Just ask NFL star Chig Okonkwo.