Nex Hunting Guide

[Winner5555]

Nex

 

Table of Contents

Introduction

Requirements

Frozen Key

Zaros KillCount

Bank Time

Setup

Inventory

Equipment

Boss Fight

Upon a Death

Final Thoughts

 

Introduction:

 

Nex, a minion of Zaros, is by far the most powerful being ever to be seen in all of RuneScape. At 1001 combat, she is not to be underestimated, as death is possible at any moment. Don't take these warnings lightly, this boss is not for everyone. With such risk comes massive rewards, however, with Nex dropping the ridiculously expensive and powerful Vitrus (mage), Pernix (ranged), Torva (melee) armour sets, along with many other unique drops. Nex resides in Zaros’ lair, located behind the Frozen Door in the GodWars Dungeon, right next to the Armadyl encampment.

 

Requirements:

70 Agility

70 Constitution

70 Strength

70 Ranged

Frozen Key

 

Extremely recommended:

95+ Prayer

90+ Ranged

90+ Constitution

90+ Defence,

95+ Attack and Strength (If meleeing)80+ Dungeoneering (chaotic items)

96+ Herblore

67+ Summoning, 96+ Preferred

A decently high mage level, the higher the better

Prior experience with boss hunting

A team of 10+ people. It can be done with less, but is not advisable for the less experienced boss hunters.

 

Frozen Key

 

To even be able to enter the Zaros encampment, you need to have obtained a Frozen Key. To get this key, you must go to the other four GWD boss encampments and kill the minions until you obtain a shard of a key. Note that killing the minions in the main chamber will not suffice; the kills need to be in the designated encampments. Once you have all 4 pieces, put the key together.

 

 

The key will last for 5 uses, then, unless you repair the key at an armor stand in a POH or at Bob in Lumbridge you must go kill the minions for another key. Because of the time it takes to gather the shards for another key, it is extremely recommended that you recharge it for 50k coins per use. It's also a good idea to keep close track of your charges-it can be very inconvenient to be rushing back to your gravestone only to discover that you can't open the frozen door.

 

Once you have the key, head south of the GWD entrance, a little bit east of the Armadyl encampment, and enter the Frozen Door. If this is your first time entering the Zaros lair, you’ll need a rope to go down the hole. If you didn’t already bring one, search the skeleton in the room, grab the rope, and climb down. You’ll land in a mini room just outside of the encampment, with an agility hole leading inside. Now’s the time to drink your potions, summon your familiar, and head on in.

 

Zaros KillCount

 

Now that the key’s been taken care of, it’s time to get the Zaros KillCount. The Zaros encampment is much like the other GWD bosses, they have the Ancient Warriors, Mages, and Rangers, and then a mage Bloodveld-esque creature called a Blood reaver. Also like the other GWD KillCounts, there are things that you can do to make the monsters not attack you (note on this in the final thoughts section).

-If you have 100+ mage defense, the Blood reavers won't attack

-If you have 240+ crush defense, the Ancient warriors won't attack

-If you have 200+ ranged defense, the Ancient Rangers won't attack

 

-If you have another god item on you, the monsters WILL attack, regardless if you already have these requirements fulfilled.

 

Note that potions, stat boosting prayers, and familiars will contribute towards the defense bonuses

 

If all of these are fulfilled, only the mages are left aggressive, and they can easily be picked off when they spawn.

KC Setup:

 

 

Notes:

 

-For most of the supplies in this picture, it's extreme overkill. In reality, you only use around 2 Brews, 1 Overload, and maybe 3-4 Prayer Potions. It's just that since you can bank between KC and boss, you might as well bring extras just in case something goes wrong. If preferred, a Yak, Unicorn, or some other familiar can be brought, Titan just speeds up the killing.

 

-The mages can poison you on occasion, so it's good to bring an Antipoison just to save a few Life Points

 

-As for the armor, you can swap out the weapon, shield, helmet, almost anything. The only necessities are some sort of barrows item, a good attack weapon, and some mage defence for when the Ancient mages attack.

 

The monsters in the encampment are all fairly high combat, all 140+.

There are two main ways to get kill count in this room, one slightly better than the other, but overall not a huge difference.

 

 

The easiest and preferred monsters to kill in the encampment are the Blood reavers, shown in red. They have low defense, spawn close together and have enough spawns for continuous combat. These can hit through prayer, but only 10-50 Life Points, so if only one is attacking at a time it doesn’t pose a huge threat, but if multiple are attacking, the damage can quickly add up.

The other way of getting KillCount is killing the Ancient rangers, circled in blue. These take a little bit longer to kill than reavers, but can be fully prayed against. Keep in mind that they have a special that can drop protection prayers every once in a while, so even though it's fairly safe, you still must pay some attention when killing these.

 

Regardless of which spot you choose, there will still be an Ancient mage, marked by the brown dot, which will be able to attack you. There isn't any known way to avoid this. The best way to deal with the problem is just have everyone near it pile the mage, kill it, then go back to getting KC like normal.

 

Bank time

 

After you get 40 KC, you’re allowed to enter the prep room, where an NPC named Ashuelot Reis will allow you to bank and suit up for Nex. In this room you can view about half the boss room, and check how many people are currently in the room. Once you’re ready, it’s time to tackle the boss.

 

Nex

 

Nex is unlike any other monster in RuneScape. With 16 different attacks and the ability to run faster than players, this venture should not be taken lightly. When in the boss room, the protect from mage prayer should be used at almost all times. Only change it when Nex is in the shadow phase - in which case you should range protect - or when she's dead.

 

Setup:

 

Nex can be tackled multiples ways; be it ranged only, a combination of ranged and melee, or even melee only. All three methods will be discussed in the final thoughts section. However, in this guide, the methods involving ranged will be focused on, as they are the easiest and will fit the requirements of all but the most elite teams.

 

 

 

Inventory:

 

-Unfortunately for some people, Overloads are practically necessary. With Nex often draining stats, anything other than an Overload would be vastly inconvenient and a waste of Super Restore potions.

 

-The main types of bolts used here are either Diamond (e) or Ruby (e), though many teams prefer the use of Ruby (e) for the chance of the special (which has a max hit of 500 LP). Generally it’s good to bring both, using Ruby bolts for the bulk of the fight, and Diamonds on the reavers and minions, or when Nex is almost dead. If preferred, instead of Diamond (e) bolts a melee weapon can be brought. This can be useful when killing reavers, minions, and Nex at low LP.

 

-Since Overloads are being used, Prayer Potions/Super Restores/Super Prayer Potions are basically interchangeable, the only differences being the amount they restore, and that Super Prayer Potions can’t be put in a familiar.

 

-One of Nex’s first attacks has the ability to poison, so bringing a single Antipoison is advised to save LP throughout the fight.

 

-The Brew:Prayer Potion ratio is entirely dependant on your team. The more organized and experienced the team, the less damage you’ll take and longer you’ll last, so more Prayer Potions are needed. If going with a newer team or one where the boss-hunting experience of other members isn’t known, more brews will be needed.

 

-Different familiars can be useful up to a point, but overall the extra few damage isn't worth sacraficing 20/30 inventory spots. Tortoise/Yak should always be brought, then a different familiar may be summoned after the BoB's been depleted.

 

Equipment:

 

-Most of the items in the picture can be swapped out for lower valued or substitute items. If owned,a Chaotic Crossbow can be used as a step up from a Rune one, or a hand cannon may be used to spice things up .The Void Knight Range armour can be switched with Pernix (when it becomes more readily accessable), Armadyl, Karil’s, or Black D’hide. The amulet, helm, boots, shield, and gloves can be switched to something to meet a budget or to fit the void knight set. The ring slot is somewhat up for grabs. an Archers ring may be used for the extra range bonus, but if you’re just starting out, a Ring of Life can do wonders in giving peace of mind.

 

-If the ranged/melee combination is being used, most often the melee will involve the Verac Barrow’s set or a Chaotic weapon (maul being preferred). If a chaotic weapon is used, mirror the inventory of the picture. If Verac's is used, swap out 2 Brews and 1 Prayer Potion, with the helm being worn at all times. Keep in mind that if using void, it's a lot easier to switch the helm and weapon than it is to put on a full armour set.

 

-If the melee-only method is being used, it will also most likely involve Verac’s or Chaotic Maul. For this, take out all range related objects, and replace it with Prayer Potions and Brews. Note for this method, you will want your spec weapon to be a damage dealing one, such as Dragon claws or Halberd. Also note that as you will be closer to the boss at all times, it is likely more Brews will be used than when ranging, so the inventory must be adjusted to compensate.

 

Boss Fight:

 

Now that you’re finally all prepared, it’s time to tackle Nex. Nex has 5 different stages, each stage occupying 20% of Nex’s LP. During each stage, she attacks with different styles and focuses on a different weakness. Note that many of these attacks cannot be avoided, so unless there is a method listed, the only thing to do is to anticipate what will happen and try to stay alive.

 

Fill my soul with smoke:

 

Let the virus flow through you: Nex has a smoke-like attack that will poison you, which unless combated with an Antipoison, will continue to deal damage throughout the whole fight.

 

Let the virus flow through you (2): Nex will send out a virus that works away at your LP and Prayer. This alone wouldn’t be so bad, except that anyone within two squares of the person with the plague (notated by a *cough*) will also catch the plague, and it will continually be passed on. The only way to get rid of this is to stay away from anyone else with the plague for about 10 seconds, until you receive a message saying it has dissipated.

 

 

There is no escape: An annoying attack which will pick you up and drag you across the room, dealing large amounts of damage and often shutting off protection prayers.

 

Fumus, don’t fail me: Once Nex hits 80% LP, she will call on Fumus, the first of the four minions you’re able to attack. Once she does this, your team should run to the northwest corner of the boss room and take out Fumus as quick as possible. Doing so will allow you to progress to the next phase of the fight.

 

Darken my shadow:

 

Fear my shadow: Every 20 or so seconds, Nex will call upon the shadow, and the whole screen will go near black. If you are close to Nex, she will steadily hit anywhere from 10-100 LP while the room is dark.

 

Embrace darkness, fear the shadow: A dark circle will appear under where many people are standing. This is critical, you must get off of this shadow as soon as possible, or it will hit you for 100-500 LP. This is one of the most common attacks for players to be killed from.

 

Umbra, don’t fail me: Once Nex gets to 60% LP, she calls on Umbra in the northeast corner. Dispose of Umbra like you did with Fumus and carry on.

 

Fill my soul with blood:

 

At this point, everyone in the boss room needs to pay full attention, and it’s also a good idea to have sounds on. During this stage, Nex will alternate between a “siphon” and a “blood sacrifice.” It’s important to know which one she’s on, or your team could potentially stay on this stage forever, never getting her down to 40% LP.

 

A siphon should solve this: Nex will spawn some Blood reavers, and also feed off of any damage you deal to her. This means that any amount of damage you hit her during this time, she will heal the corresponding amount of LP. What must be done for this is as soon as you see or hear the word “siphon,” click away from Nex, and start attacking the reavers. After around 2-3 seconds, the siphon will stop, and Nex is able to be damaged again.

 

 

I demand a blood sacrifice: Nex will target one person, and that person must run away from her as fast as possible or she will hit them for a small amount of LP, while draining the whole team for some prayer points. If it was brought, now is the time to switch to Melee and attack the boss. If an offensive spec weapon was brought, do as many specials as you can now, to make this stage as short as possible. Switch back after Cruor is dead.

 

Cruor, don’t fail me: At 40% LP, Nex will call on Cruor in the southeast corner, once again, dispose of him and continue on.

 

Infuse me with the power of ice:

 

Contain this: A box of icicles springs up around Nex, damaging and freezing one or two players caught in them, as well as disabling protection prayers.

 

 

Die now, in a prison of ice: Nex sends out a wave of snow, draining a percentage of prayer points and freezing a couple players in place. A good way to minimize the damage caused by this is to capitalize on the fact that the attack is based on a percentage; the less prayer points you have left, the less will be drained. Drinking a dose of Prayer Potion at 10-20 points left will keep your prayers up, while keeping the amount drained by the attack to a minimum.

Glacies, don’t fail me: The last minion standing will become vulnerable. Head to the southwest corner to finish him off, then move on to the last stage.

 

NOW, FOR THE POWER OF ZAROS:

 

Nex spends this whole portion running around the chamber, trying to be as much of a nuisance as possible. She will go around meleeing random people and using the virus attack, trying to hit as many people as she can. She will also use some prayers, alternating between Soul Split, Protect from Melee, and no prayer. A good strategy to make this stage end as quick as possible is to keep your team close together, all in one spot if possible. Nex will only move to where other players are, so if your entire team is in a small area, she will almost constantly be within attacking range. Finally, if Melee was brought, now is the time to use it.

 

Taste my wrath: Even though you’ve killed everything in the room, you aren’t in the clear yet. Right as Nex dies, she will turn on the Wrath prayer, in an attempt to kill of anyone who let their LP drop too low. When looking for it, this attack is quite easy to avoid, but for a newcomer could be an unpleasant surprise.

 

 

Congratulations, you have just killed the most difficult boss in Runescape!

 

Upon A Death:

 

Given the level of difficulty of this boss, deaths will happen, be it in the boss room or the encampment. When a death occurs, handle it calmly and you should be able to retrieve your items. If you die in the boss room, you just have to keep a level head. Almost always, a teammate will bless the grave within seconds, so all that must be done is to gear up for the KillCount, get out your frozen key (make sure that it still has at least 2 charges), and head to the encampment.

 

Oddly enough, a death in the encampment can potentially be more risky. Depending on if you were killing alone or alongside your team, there may or may not be people to bless your grave. If nobody is alongside you, it’s a sticky situation, as it is possible for someone banking to come out and bless, but they may be hesitant; especially if you lost your Frozen Key.

 

If you had your Frozen Key on you when you died (as you most likely will, unless you used a yak scroll or some other method to bank it), matters become a lot more complicated. Don’t give up, because there’s still a chance you could get your items back, but you must act quickly. You don’t have time to gear up individually for each encampment, they must all be done in one trip. Put on gear for killing all different kinds of minions, this means ranged, melee, a protection from each god, a hammer, a mithril grapple, food, and potions. Head to GodWars, go into the encampments, and kill minions as rapidly as possible. Unfortunately, a lot of this relies on luck, so although you shouldn’t lose hope, don’t rely on always getting your items back.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts:

 

Although bringing only melee to Nex would save money on bolts and do more damage, it’s avoided in this guide for a reason. For one thing, Nex spends a lot of time running around the map. With ranged this isn’t terrible, but unless your team was well organized with melee (using a tactic similar to what was done on the last phase), more time would be spent running around than attacking the boss. Another reason is that because Nex has many powerful close range attacks (namely the ice stage), the risk factor goes up significantly when meleeing. Finally, with range it’s fairly easy to spread out to kill off the plague, but when everyone is right up next to the boss, it’s likely that the plague will continue to eat at everyone for the entire fight.

 

 

Many people fight Nex primarily with ranged, while having melee gear in their inventory. This provides the distance when needed, and also the high hits for when the boss stays in one spot. This method quickens the kill while not adding that much risk, but takes up extra inventory space, adds more of a loss upon a death, and requires a team with some amount of organization.

 

Although the pictures show the curse prayers, normal prayers are actually more effective, as the curses' deflecting ability doesn't work against Nex, and the range boosting prayers will be to your advantage.

 

The items used for protection during the KillCount are incredibly confusing. I’ve double and triple checked my information, trying to figure out what protects from what, but there still may be some outside influences that I haven’t figured out, or I’ve only got the requirements partially right. I can tell you that with my setup, I’m protected from everything but the Ancient mages, but if there’s any dispute as to what protects from what, please tell me and I’ll work to get it figured out.

 

Lastly, if you have any suggestions on how to shorten up the guide or make it more interesting, tell me! I've tried to narrow it down to aspects of most importance, but it still ended up being kind of longwinded :rolleyes: Any advice is appreciated

 

Happy boss hunting!

[K4ylan]

This won't necessarily shorten the guide, but hide tags would be good. And a section for rewards.

 

Other than that, great guide.

[Gandalf14141]

It look like a very thought out guide. This has given me a lot of information that people were still unclear on. If I ever get the stats to fight her, I will definitely look up this guide again.

[n_odie]

Lovely Guide!

[Quyneax]

Points in no particular order:

 

I'm fairly sure agressiveness is only governed by max defence roll (e.g. potted levels, defence bonus, prayers, steel titan/wolper defence boosts).

 

Dragon boots with a ranged setup are not a great idea (at least use bandos for more defence & prayer, or snakeskin, or ranger's). I would recommend you get a picture of the void setup and, if you can find a person, one setup picture with a divine and/or Pernix.

 

Melee works great on reavers and mages (e.g. karil's top, void deflector & switch helmets, for example) but Verac's is not great (chaotic maul beats it & allows much easier swiching with void). I don't think ranged-only will actually suffice for all but the most elite teams, I think people should try to be those elite teams.

 

I'd add defence and magic levels to the recommended levels, as well as dungeoneering and melee levels with notes about which chaotics.

 

I have heard that the Statius warhammer/Bandos godsword are not very effective, but dragon claws can be if used to shorten the blood stage.

 

Otherwise it's a good guide, don't worry about the length, it's a complicated boss after all :).

[Winner5555]

Points in no particular order:

 

I'm fairly sure agressiveness is only governed by max defence roll (e.g. potted levels, defence bonus, prayers, steel titan/wolper defence boosts).

 

Dragon boots with a ranged setup are not a great idea (at least use bandos for more defence & prayer, or snakeskin, or ranger's). I would recommend you get a picture of the void setup and, if you can find a person, one setup picture with a divine and/or Pernix.

 

Melee works great on reavers and mages (e.g. karil's top, void deflector & switch helmets, for example) but Verac's is not great (chaotic maul beats it & allows much easier swiching with void). I don't think ranged-only will actually suffice for all but the most elite teams, I think people should try to be those elite teams.

 

I'd add defence and magic levels to the recommended levels, as well as dungeoneering and melee levels with notes about which chaotics.

 

I have heard that the Statius warhammer/Bandos godsword are not very effective, but dragon claws can be if used to shorten the blood stage.

 

Otherwise it's a good guide, don't worry about the length, it's a complicated boss after all :).

 

 

Thanks for the advice! just a few notes on what I changed

 

Added in the defence, dungeoneering, attack/strength preferred requirements. Mage was harder to do, as there isn't a specific spell that helps out yet (possibly vengeance, but still working on that), I think what I've added works all right though :wink:

 

Mentioned the spec weapon in the blood section

 

Added in notes about chaotic maul+void knight

 

Will add in a picture with void once I get the chance

 

For the agressiveness, are you saying that for the warriors it should be another defence requirement and not a barrow's item, or am i misreading it? I don't doubt that you're right, my brain's just a little slow at the moment :P Planning on doing some more testing and asking around later today, but any more details you can give would be awesome

[Quyneax]

Well I don't know if I'm right, but what we know is the following:

 

1. It's possible to make monsters unagressive.
   
2. Turning turmoil on or off affects agressiveness.
   

What I extrapolate but do not have direct proof of:

1. Potions affect this like prayers.
   
2. Max defence roll determines agressiveness.
   

Max defence roll is similar to max hit and max accuracy rolls. Basically, when you attack, you roll an attack roll and your opponent rolls a defence roll. This roll takes into account (boosted) levels, prayers, attack/defence bonusus, darklight weaknesses, special attack bonusus etcetera. When attack > defence, you hit (I don't know what happens when it's equal off the top of my head). Then you get a damage roll but that's not important here.

[SirHartlar]

According to Rs Wiki you need +240 crush defence to stop aggressiveness of Ancient Warriors and not just a Barrows item. I think this is true cos I went down there with <240 crush defence but wearing Barrows and got piled by them.

[jettrider]

This guide works for masses but unfortunately it does not work as well in smaller teams (for more efficient kills). You missed a lot of the subtleties about the different forms and did not mention bringing dragon claws to speed up the most dangerous forms. That inventory is very suspect: it's doubtful you can last 4 overloads and 2 yaks in the boss room unless your team is gigantic; 2 overloads is a much more reasonable amount. Also, you missed bringing a unicorn + scrolls in the yak which makes a difference on the last few kills.

 

Not a bad guide but should have be farther along 4 days after it was posted now that some pretty good tactics are known.

[Winner5555]

This guide works for masses but unfortunately it does not work as well in smaller teams (for more efficient kills). You missed a lot of the subtleties about the different forms and did not mention bringing dragon claws to speed up the most dangerous forms. That inventory is very suspect: it's doubtful you can last 4 overloads and 2 yaks in the boss room unless your team is gigantic; 2 overloads is a much more reasonable amount. Also, you missed bringing a unicorn + scrolls in the yak which makes a difference on the last few kills.

 

Not a bad guide but should have be farther along 4 days after it was posted now that some pretty good tactics are known.

 

Yeah, fell a little behind, with my laptop LCD breaking and moving back to college i've been a little busy, but hopefully i'll be more on top of it in the next few days :pray:

 

very briefly mentioned the offensive spec wep and bringing another familiar, but if they make a huge difference i'll rearrange it so that it isn't lost in a wall of text

 

And yeah, i'll admit i haven't really gone with smaller teams. i spent most of my time going with bigger teams so i could figure out what was going on and ask other people what methods they used. since most of my friends don't boss hunt, i couldn't really assemble my own team and try the new ways myself

[PereGrin]

Well I don't know if I'm right, but what we know is the following:

 

1. It's possible to make monsters unagressive.
   
2. Turning turmoil on or off affects agressiveness.
   

What I extrapolate but do not have direct proof of:

1. Potions affect this like prayers.
   
2. Max defence roll determines agressiveness.
   

Max defence roll is similar to max hit and max accuracy rolls. Basically, when you attack, you roll an attack roll and your opponent rolls a defence roll. This roll takes into account (boosted) levels, prayers, attack/defence bonusus, darklight weaknesses, special attack bonusus etcetera. When attack > defence, you hit (I don't know what happens when it's equal off the top of my head). Then you get a damage roll but that's not important here.

I can confirm that Reavers are agressive to me until I overload.