The Brink of Extinction

The Brink of Extinction is a Grandmaster level quest that concludes the TzHaar storyline. It is considered to be one of the most challenging quests in all of RuneScape, with extremely difficult combat and skill requirements matching the highest in the game.

Walkthrough
Some of the combat sequences of this quest are safe, so you will not lose your items if you die during them.

The Heroes of Yesterday
Speak to TzHaar-Mej-Ak or TzHaar-Mej-Jeh in the main plaza of TzHaar City. He will inform you that the TzHaar race is dying, because only Ga'al, which do not inherit the memories of their ancestors, are hatching in the nursery. Mej-Ak and Mej-Jeh wish you to take more Ga'al to the Kiln to infuse them with the memories held in a dead TzHaar's TokKul, as you did before. Specifically, they wish you to resurrect some of the greatest champions in TzHaar history.

Mej-Ak suggests TzHaar-Mej-Gek, and Mej-Jeh suggests TzHaar-Ket-Teg and TzHaar-Xil-Kal. They give you a communication orb to find the TokKul of the three named champions, and ask you to also round up three Ga'al and send them to the main plaza.

TokKul Artefacts
Mej-Gek's TokKul is found to the east, in the birth pools. As the player enters, a cutscene plays, of the birth of Ga'al-Jeh. Go to the north of the pool and speak to TzHaar-Mej-Het, who was paid Mej-Gek's TokKul in return for charging a human adventurer's staff.

Ket-Teg's fragment is to the north-east, close to the Fight Kiln entrance. This has to be mined from the statue of TzHaar-Ket-Teg. This gives five Fragment of TzHaar-Ket-Teg, which must be taken to the furnace in the south east corner of the main plaza in order to reform them into one piece, the TokKul of TzHaar-Ket-Teg.

Xil-Kal's fragment is to the south-west, near the surface entrance to the city, from the statue of TzHaar-Xil-Kal. Again, only fragments are obtained, which must be forged into ToKkul of TzHaar-Xil-Kal.

The first Ga'al is found to the north-west, at the cave-entrance to the library. The next is found by a sulphur pit just north of the Fight Pits entrance. The third is slightly south-east of the second, which is south of the main plaza. Send all three to the main plaza. Pick any of the options to do so.

The Chase
Return to Mej-Jeh and Mej-Ak. The three Ga'al will also be there. They will say they're heading out to the entrance to the Elder Kiln. Meet them there. You will meet with TokHaar-Hok. After a short cutscene you can choose what to do. No matter what you do, Ga'al-Xox will slay Mej-Ak before anything can be done, and flee with the champions' TokKul.

Ga'al-Xox will flee out of the Kiln and through the city, ending up in a cave to the far east end of the city. Activate the communication orb before the cave entrance and enter the cave.

This cave starts the combat portion of the quest; after clearing each room, progress is saved, meaning you can leave to restock if you wish or need to. There is a TzHaar-Zek banker just outside the cave. Followers cannot enter. You have to activate the communication orb to make the banker show up (and/or enter the cave and then exit it).

''This area is safe; if you die, you will not lose your items. You will simply respawn by the bank with all items and armour. If you run low on health or prayer and aren't prepared to deal with the next room, the fastest and cheapest way to restore your reserves is to purposely die, spawn at the cave entrance, resupply if needed, and then head back into the cave, at which point you will skip ahead to where you left off at the last indicated checkpoint.''

Room 1
The first room of this cave contains four Tz-Kih, which are weak to stab. However, it may be best to kill them with ice spells from the Ancient Magicks to prevent them from draining your Prayer points. At the far end of the cave are two scales and three weapons, an obsidian mace, sword and knife, one on the ground and two on the scales. Put the mace on the western pedestal and the sword on the eastern pedestal to unlock the door.

Room 2
Inside the next cave are two water-weak Tz-Kek, followed by another Tz-Kih and a slash-weak Tok-Xil. Solve the puzzle by moving the statues into the combat triangle; the TzHaar-Ket facing the TzHaar-Xil, who is facing the TzHaar-Mej, who in turn faces the TzHaar-Ket. Arrows on the ground will appear as you move the statues, to help you; these will turn purple as the statues are positioned properly. Try to make a small triangle, so that the statues face each other.

Room 3
The third room contains a grid floor over lava. As soon as you pass through the hot vent door, some of the squares will start glowing and several TokHaar will appear. You must defeat the TokHaar while avoiding standing on the glowing squares. During the fight, it is advisable not to leave a monster alone for too long, as it may fully heal. The first wave of TokHaar use melee and are weak to water. The second use mage and ranged and are weak to bolts and crush respectively. Finally there is a single TokHaar champion, with zero weaknesses, and he has a high defence against all combat styles. The champion drops an obsidian maul, which will open the door. Be careful with long combo abilities in these lava rooms as the square you are on might start glowing, time them so that you only use them when the squares have recently changed.

The glowing floor will also rapidly heal the TokHaar monsters. Note that if you have access to Soul Split and Turmoil, they may be reason enough to stick with Ancient Curses for the quest, as they can save a few precious inventory spaces for any other necessary items. The prayers above were listed in the event that you do not have access to both.

Room 4
The fourth chamber contains four small Tz-Kils (lava monsters), which use magic and are weak to bolts. Kill them, go to the other end of the room, and pick up the obsidian weapons on the floor. There are four scales, each with a statue behind it. On each scale, place the obsidian weapon that is wielded by the statue behind it. (The obsidian mace goes on the northeastern pedestal, the obsidian throwing ring on the southeastern pedestal, the obsidian staff on the southwestern pedestal, and the obsidian sword on the northwestern pedestal.) This will open the door.

Room 5
The fifth chamber contains three Tz-Kih, then two Tz-Kil and one Yt-MejKot which will heal when within melee range. If you are taking a lot of damage try luring the Mejkot over to the pedestals and trapping him on the south side while you safely attack from the north side. Alternatively, you can use the corner of the south entrance to block the Yt-MejKot while ranging the Tz-Kils. After killing all of the enemies within the area head north and touch one of the pedestals to start the puzzle. In this puzzle, you must click the pedestals in the order in which they light up. This must be done eight times, but the sequence is always the same each time. However, initially only one pedestal will need to be clicked, then two, then three, and so on to the full sequence of eight pedestals. If you ever mess up, you must start again from the beginning.

The order you touch the pedestals are different for every player, but a common sequence has been: southeast, northwest, southwest, northwest, northeast, southeast, northeast, and southwest.

Room 6
Once you have opened the door head into the next room where there will be another door to the north and another grid arena to the east, similar to room 3. Here you will have to fight first four TokHaar-Hur, then two TokHaar-Mej and a TokHaar-Ket, then two TokHaar-Xil and a TokHaar-Mej, and finally two TokHaar Champions while avoiding standing on the floor that starts glowing throughout the fight. Once the fight is done pick up the Obsidian maul and place it on the scales to unlock the door.

As before, the glowing floor heals the TokHaar. This is where the fights get a little bit tricky, seeing as waves 2 and 3 exploit the opposing ends of the combat triangle. For instance, the idea to kill the Mej involves ranged combat; however, the melee-geared Ket is there to smack you down for tons of damage unless you can tank it well. Sap prayers also take defence along with the spell they were geared to, thus proving at the least decently effective in these situations. Leech defence is optimal for its buff, though.

Room 7
From this point onwards, the orb will fail to function as it is out of range of the city, and you will not be able to read the manuscripts on the bookshelves (as you do not know how to translate the Tzhaar language) or ask for advice on the puzzles.

You will be attacked by 3 Tz-Kek upon entering. You can use the pedestals up ahead to block them or just have them block each other while firing magic at them.

When that's over with, go over to the pedestals and pick up the weapons lying around, plus a stone tablet. Written on it is a way to link the types of weapons found on the ground to the types of TzHaar written on the pedestals. The correct sequence varies from player to player. Place the obsidian sword on the pedestal marked "Xil". Place the obsidian staff on the pedestal marked "Mej". Place the obsidian mace on the one marked "Ket" and "Hur". Place the obsidian maul on the one marked "Ket". Place the obsidian knife on the pedestal marked "Xil" and "Hur". Once complete, the door will open to the next room.

Room 8
This room leads with three Tz-Kil, followed by two Tz-Kek and the loud arrival of a Ket-Zek. Range the Tz-Kil while edging your way around the northwest wall ahead, so that when you kill the last Tz-Kil, you won't have the Ket-Zek spawn on top of you. From there, switch to magic gear and try to get the attention of the Tz-Kek from behind the wall while keeping exposure to the Ket-Zek to a minimum until you remove the Tz-Kek. Use the Protect from Magic prayer when in view of the Ket-Zek to avoid taking more damage than you have to. Alternatively, you can try to have the Tz-Kek stand behind the Ket-Zek while you take it down, but there may not be enough room in the immediate area to stand far back enough to avoid the Ket-Zek's melee attacks.

Up ahead, a giant scrambled Tzhaar symbol lies on the ground. Turn the tiles to form a large circle like the others you have seen around the city and the tunnel to unlock the way forward to the last battle.

The Final Battle
In the final room you will finally catch up to Ga'al-Xox in another grid chamber, this one with a pair of valves and what appears to be a giant faucet in the shape of a TokHaar's head looming above the area. Ga'al-Xox will reveal the reason for the TzHaars' troubles: The TokHaar have shut off the flow of sacred lava from this chamber, which has cooled the TzHaar City and prevented the eggs from hatching properly. Help Ga'al-Xox turn the valves simultaneously and reopen the flow of lava, which will pour from the large TokHaar head down into the river of lava below.

At this point, TokHaar-Hok will appear, express disappointment in "his" Ga-al-Xox, and challenge you to a battle.

Strategy
The key information to know about this battle:

The deathtouched dart works on TokHaar-Hok.
 * Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee is a must in this fight, as TokHaar-Hok is able to hit around 5,000 damage with his melee attack. He attacks immediately after the initial dialogue ends, so have your prayer on before talking to him. Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee will negate most of this damage, reducing his maximum hit to something much more manageable. TokHaar-Hok's melee attacks will drain prayer, so bring several prayer potions and keep your prayer(s) on at all times.
 * Familiars are not allowed into the fight. As you will not have a beast of burden, a healing familiar, or Soul Split (Deflect Melee should be used instead, see above), healing may be a problem. Proper shield abilities (Debilitate, Reflect, Resonance and Preparation) should be used to aid with tanking and healing.
 * As in previous fights in these chambers, sections of the floor will glow at regular intervals, causing heavy damage to players who stand on them. Keep an eye on the floor and move when necessary.
 * TokHaar-Hok has the ability to heal himself fully once he reaches half health. To stop this, use one of the stunning abilities (Bash, Kick, Backhand, Binding Shot, or Impact) on him (try using a stunning ability which corresponds with your equipped armour, as it will be more effective than any other stun ability, so if you attack with melee, use Backhand or Kick etc.). Use the ability when it will say a message in your chatbox: TokHaar-Hok is now able to heal. to prevent him from healing himself. In spite of the descriptions of these abilities, stunning TokHaar-Hok will keep him from healing for roughly the duration of the ability's cooldown (15 seconds). The Asphyxiate ability will also work here, and is a good option to use if you are using magic, as it will both stop TokHaar-Hok from healing as well as deal some damage on him, and if done properly, you can use it again as soon as the cooldown period is over to prevent him from healing.
 * Theoretically, keeping TokHaar-Hok at a distance with Ice spells or Entangle will prevent him from healing. Ice spells do currently stun him, but it is unknown if it is a glitch or not. There are factors which will stop the freeze from working if you change action bars and the spell is not on your new action bar or is no longer being autocasted.
 * If you have access to dreadnips from the Dominion Tower these can be used to help in the battle against TokHaar-Hok.
 * The Dharok's set works very well against TokHaar-Hok, it has high defence and it deals a lot of damage, but the risk of death is much greater.
 * This is a safe area, meaning you will keep your items if you die, and you will be returned outside of the cave. If TokHaar-Hok heals in the lava and you think you won't be able to beat him as a result, you can intentionally have him kill you to conserve your remaining supplies.

TokHaar-Hok has no weakness, but players are advised to use melee or magic during this battle, as ranged armour is weak to his melee attacks as well as those of the TokHaar monsters he summons. The Dharok's set works very well against TokHaar-Hok, it has high defence and it deals a lot of damage, but carries a considerably higher risk of death as you are unable to use a shield to heal with unless you switch to one. A melee weapon, particularly a crush weapon like the saradomin sword or chaotic maul, is best for defeating the TokHaar-Tok-Xil that spawns, which is able to deal rapid damage with its ranged attacks.

With regards to equipment, bring the best you have available for your combat style. Very high-level players may prefer using a two-handed weapon, such as a godsword or staff, over a shield, but a shield will help players who have difficulty surviving the battle.

At the beginning of the fight, you will only have to deal with TokHaar-Hok, who uses only melee. Ga'al-Xox will also fight, attacking TokHaar-Hok with ranged, but he will not deal very much damage over the course of the fight. Turn on Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee and keep it active at all times during the battle, or TokHaar-Hok will deal extremely heavy damage. Attack TokHaar-Hok with your stunning ability of choice, then attack him normally. Once the stunning ability's cooldown has expired, use it again. Keep an eye on the floor to ensure that you don't stand on a section that is heating up, and be careful not to accidentally attack any other monsters with the stunning ability, or TokHaar-Hok may heal himself.

Before long, TokHaar-Hok will summon a TokHaar-Tok-Xil, which will attack you with Ranged. This monster should be defeated quickly, as its accurate hits can easily stack up over a short time. If the first TokHaar-Tok-Xil is left alive,TokHarr-Hok will summon more of them (up to four, depending how long you leave them alive), resulting in a very heavy drain on food and extraordinary difficulty in finishing the battle. A crush melee weapon is best, though any melee weapon will do. TokKaar-Hok will eventually begin summoning TokHaar-Ket Champion as well, but these should be ignored, as their melee attacks are weakened by your prayer.

TokHaar-Hok will actively begin attempting to heal himself once he reaches half health; if he succeeds, he will fully restore his life points. Pay attention to the cooldown timer of your stunning ability and ensure that he is always under its effect. Avoid using channeled abilities such as Asphyxiate, Rapid Fire, and Assault, as you may need to interrupt them to stun TokHaar-Hok or move out of the way of the burning floor.

Keep your Prayer points and life points up, avoid the hot parts of the floor, and ensure that TokHaar-Hok does not heal himself, and the boss will fall before long.

The Hero of Tzhaar
After defeating TokHaar-Hok, talk to Ga'al-Xox once more and then head to the Main Plaza to meet with TzHaar-Mej-Jeh. Return to the Elder Kiln, and after a short conversation with the vanquished TokHaar-Hok, Ga'al-Xox will be fused with TzHaar-Mej-Ak's memories, and he will become one with the lava. You will be made an honorary TzHaar.

Rewards

 * 3 Quest points
 * 100,000 Experience
 * A lamp giving 275,000 experience in a choice of, , , or  (Skill must be level 80+)
 * Access to the Fight Cauldron
 * Ability to smith obsidian armour and donate 30,000 TokKul to a booth next to the Fight Cauldron to improve your obsidian armour defensive abilities during the minigame. The armour can be smithed from obsidian shards dropped by the TokHaar in the Fight Cauldron after the quest.
 * The 'TzHaar-' title
 * 2 extra spins on the Squeal of Fortune
 * Tokkul-Zo ring gains a teleport to the Fight Cauldron.

Cultural references

 * The examine text of the Valves in the room where you fight Tokhaar-Hok reference the video game company Valve, which are known for constantly delaying their games, and running on "Valve time."

Trivia

 * Although Jagex labelled the rewards as one of the greatest portions of combat experience, the reward is 275,000 combat experience while the master quest Blood Runs Deep had a reward of total 450,000 combat experience.
 * However, it could be interpreted as the largest amount used on one skill, as Blood Runs Deep was 3x150k experience.