Nex

Nex (Meaning "murder" or "death" in Latin) is the Zaros boss of the God Wars Dungeon and, with a combat level of 1001, currently the strongest monster in RuneScape. She resides in the "Ancient Prison" - the Zaros stronghold of the God Wars Dungeon - which was released on 10 January 2011.

Nex is an immensely powerful entity and one of Zaros' most powerful weapons of war. What she really is has been long lost to time; however, she possesses physical traits of the Icyene, Demons, Aviantese and Vampyres. Her histories and origin are equally mysterious, but whatever they are she has aligned herself with Zaros and was the leader of his last army. She has over fifteen unique combat moves, and is cited as being RuneScape's most powerful and intelligent boss to date.

History
Following Zaros's downfall in the Second Age, the Mahjarrat Azzanadra was defeated by the armies of Zamorak and Saradomin. He was imprisoned inside of the great pyramid of Jaldraocht. Before his imprisonment, Azzanadra was working at Senntisten to reestablish contact with Zaros. The other Zarosians were working to secure the area around the Mahjarrat ritual site to gain the upper hand. The leader of these Zarosians was Nex. Gaining even more power whenever she battled, Nex was considered unstoppable. The forces of Saradomin were eventually able to imprison the powerful Zarosian army around the beginning of the Third Age. After great effort and sacrifice, they managed to lead Nex and the Zarosian army into a large ice cavern and then enchant them into a frozen sleep. Afterward, the Saradomin forces built a temple around it.

Many years after that event, a flock of aviantese were ambushed by an army of demons while transporting a newly created Godsword through the mountains. Because of their small numbers, they were forced to retreat into the temple. Eventually, reinforcements arrived from each side and the battle grew. Thus the battle of the godsword began.

Much later, Saradomin priests, one of them being Ashuelot Reis, were approached by a mysterious figure who spoke of Guthix. He taught them that Guthix was the only god who could end the chaos and stop the war. The priests abandoned the cause of Saradomin and became followers of Guthix. Their new leader taught them the ways of druids, including an ancient ritual that had the power to awaken Guthix himself. The priests and their leader performed the ritual, but the result was unexpected and devastating. The priests accidentally reopened the prison, releasing Nex. Their leader, who had taught them the awakening ritual and the ways of Guthix revealed himself to be Sliske, a Zarosian Mahjarrat.

Due to the length of the enchanted sleep, Nex was not at full strength. Despite this, she quickly laid waste to vast numbers from all sides. She was rapidly gaining power and soon she would be at full strength once again. For the first and last time in history, all sides stood together and, after an intense battle, managed to seal Nex behind the massive frozen door.

When the God Wars Dungeon was reopened to the world in modern times, the number of adventurers that entered it seeking the godsword had an effect on the prison of ice. The tremors of battle, coupled with some seismic activity, caused the Ancient prison to once again be opened, and adventurers can now descend to the depths of the prison to do battle with Nex and her army.

Battle
NOTE: All damage done to Nex is capped at 500. Nex moves very quickly; she can jump across the room in 2 ticks. As she loses life, her four mages will become increasingly vulnerable and it is important to kill the mages when you can, to disable her attacks. At around half health, she will spawn several blood reavers which should be killed to avoid extra damage. Whenever these monsters are not being targeted, everyone should focus on Nex. If you have a group of 15-25 people with max combat stats and whose members know how to fight Nex well, they will kill Nex about every 10–15 minutes. Recently, a group of players has developed a strategy against Nex that, with optimal conditions, will kill her in around 3 minutes.

Nex has five phases: Smoke, Shadow, Blood, Ice and a final phase. All of her spells are based on the Ancient Magicks spellbook.

Smoke phase: During this phase, she will use Smoke spells. This is the most dangerous, on top of standard attack (which deals up to 250 damage through magic prayer), she can attack with poison that does 88 damage and disables your prayers simultaneously. she can drag players, stunning them in a similar manner to the magical drag attack used by Yk'Lagor the Thunderous (unlike Yk'Lagor, though, she will not heal). In this phase, she will cast a Virulent cloud on the players, which lowers combat stats drastically, can be transmitted from player to player and lowers players' prayer points at a rate of 2/second. After she reaches 4/5th of her life points and her mage Fumus is killed, she will go to the next phase. Warning: currently, there seems to be a glitch that allows Nex to perform the smoke-based special attack long after Fumus is dead.

Shadow phase: During this phase, she will use Shadow spells. Nex has also two special abilities in this phase; she will lay "shadow traps" on the floor (these deal up to 650 damage (if not avoided in time) and she can also darken the room, making it as dark as K'ril Tsutsaroth's chamber. If you stand close to Nex and she says "Embrace the darkness" you will get a warning message and will be dealt constant damage so melee attacks are advised against in this stage of the fight. After she reaches 3/5th of her life points and her mage Umbra is killed, she will go to the next phase.

Blood phase: During this phase, she will use Blood spells which will heal her. She will also have two special abilities; for the first one, she will crouch, cover herself with a Siphon and summon various Blood reavers. Any damage that was supposed to be dealt to her will heal her instead. She will also demand a "Blood sacrifice" which causes a player to turn red. The player will be damaged and everyone's Prayer points will be halved, if the targeted player remains in the same spot. After she reaches 2/5th of her life points and her mage Cruor is killed, she will go to the next phase.

Ice phase: During this phase, she will use Ice spells which will target all the players, freeze them and lower Prayer points; however, the damaging effect of the spell can be somewhat mitigated if Protect from/Deflect magic is active. Her special attack will lock a player in an ice prison, composed of ice stalagmites surrounding the player. Any other players that are standing in the area where the stalagmites form will be dealt damage. After she reaches 1/5th of her life points and her mage Glacies is killed, she will go to the last phase.

Final phase: During this phase, she will activate Turmoil and Soul Split. She will also alternate between Deflect melee and Soul split. She will have increased Attack, Strength and Defence during this stage. Her magic attack will also hit as much as it did during the beginning of the battle. However, she will not have any special attacks. After Nex is killed, she will activate Wrath. Her wrath has a bigger radius than the curse available to players.

The Four Mages
There are four level 285 mages in each corner of Nex's chamber which represent the smoke, shadow, blood, and ice spells of the Ancient Magicks spellbook. Nex draws power from them to use their spells. You will be able to kill one of the mages in the aforementioned order each time you deplete one fifth of Nex's life points. She is not able to use the effect of any mage that you kill. The four mages and their powers are listed below:

Fumus (Smoke): Fumus attacks with the spell Smoke Barrage. When Nex uses Fumus' attribute, she will occasionally create smoke clouds, causing poisonous magic damage to players nearby. A Facemask/Slayer helmet will not protect you from the smoke clouds.

Umbra (Shadow): Umbra attacks with the spell Shadow Barrage. When Nex uses Umbra's attribute, her chamber will start getting darker. When it gets pitch-black, players will be hit for a great deal of damage if they are stationary for over 1.5 seconds.

Cruor (Blood): Cruor attacks with the spell Blood Barrage. When Nex uses Cruor's attribute, she will attack players with blood spells and drain their life points, healing herself in the process.

Glacies (Ice): Glacies attacks with the spell Ice Barrage. When Nex uses Glacies' attribute, she freezes players, preventing them from moving for a preset period of time.

Every time she takes enough damage, Nex will say, "(Mage name), don't fail me!" This can be useful for finding out when the mages can be killed and estimating how many lifepoints Nex has left.

Attacks
In addition to her regular Magic, Melee, and Ranged attacks, Nex has the following special attacks:


 * "There is... NO ESCAPE!" - Nex will teleport and fly through one of the paths of the central symbol, disabling protection prayers, if a player is still on the targeted path when the attack commences, they will not be able to escape.
 * "Let the virus flow through you" - Nex will create a cloud which reduces your stats, spreads to players 1 space away from you and deals some damage. Can be nullified by standing away from other players.
 * Smoke barrage - Poisonous. And blinds you.
 * Dragging a player - Draws a player to the centre of the room, disabling prayer and stunning for a short time.
 * "Embrace darkness!" - Turns the boss area darker.
 * "Fear the shadow!" - If you're standing on the same place for around 1.5 seconds, you will get hit by a shadow barrage and lose 400-700 LP.
 * "I demand a blood sacrifice!" - Nex will target a player and the player will glow red. If the player does not move far enough away from Nex in time, Nex will use blood barrage on everyone, halving every fighter's prayer points and healing.
 * "A siphon will solve this!" - Nex will summon blood reavers, while doing so she will kneel down for about 5 seconds. During this, all damage she receives instead heals her, shown by purple hit splats, any blood reavers from the previous siphon will also die and all their health goes to her.
 * "Die now, in a prison of ice!" - Nex freezes a targeted player using an Ice Barrage attack, rendering them immobile. When the ice recedes, the trapped player will be hit for heavy damage (usually 600 life points or more). Therefore, it is recommended to keep one's lifepoints near their max if trapped.
 * "Contain this!" - Nex creates a barrier of ice around her. Getting caught in this can result in up to 850 LP worth of damage.
 * "NOW, THE POWER OF ZAROS!" - Nex will activate Turmoil, Leech Defence and switch between Soul Split and Deflect Melee, she will also heal herself for 6,000 Lifepoints.
 * "Taste my wrath!" - Upon death, Nex will activate Wrath (with a larger radius than that of players' curse), dealing damage to everyone around her.

Getting there and preparations
To reach her, players must first open the frozen door. It can be unlocked by assembling a frozen key. To get a key, one must access all of the other gods' strongholds (Armadyl, Bandos, Saradomin and Zamorak) and defeat followers until they receive a key part. Accessing the boss rooms is not necessary. To get in the other strongholds, the player will need 70 Ranged, Strength, Agility and Constitution (note that some skills may be boosted). When assembled, the parts make a frozen key with five charges to open the frozen door. The key can be repaired for a cost of 50,000 coins per charge. With an update on 21 February 2011 players no longer need to reach a kill count of 40 Zaros followers. Instead players wearing a full set of ancient ceremonial robes will be able to go straight to the bank area just before Nex. Players should be careful when equipping the ancient ceremonial robes in the Nex room of Zaros followers as the robes have no stats and will not prevent the followers from attacking the player.

Unlike in the other strongholds of the God Wars Dungeon, there is a bank in the Ancient Prison, accessed via the nature spirit Ashuelot Reis. It is located between the main room and the boss room of the stronghold. It functions like a safe area where players can't be attacked and can refill on supplies before fighting Nex. However, there is no altar within the boss chamber, and the only way out of the chamber is to teleport or be slain.

Equipment
This is only an unsequenced list of suggested equipment, and will be divided into melee/ranged equipment and listed in order of preference as soon as someone bothers to do so.
 * Head: Torva full helm / Verac's helm/Helm of Neitiznot / Karil's coif
 * Amulet: Amulet of Fury / Amulet of Glory
 * Ring: Ring of wealth / Fremennik rings
 * Cape: Ava's alerter / Ava's accumulator / Fire cape / Soul wars cape / Skillcape (t)
 * Body: Torva platebody / Pernix body / Armadyl Chestplate / Karil's leathertop / Elite void top
 * Legs: Torva platelegs / Pernix chaps / Armadyl chainskirt / Karil's leatherskirt / Elite void robe
 * Boots: Ranger Boots / Infinity Boots / Dragon Boots / Bandos boots
 * Melee weapon: Chaotic rapier/longsword / Any godsword / Staff of light / Korasi's sword
 * Ranged Weapon: Chaotic crossbow / Rune crossbow / Zaryte bow
 * Ammo slot: Diamond bolts (e) / Ruby bolts (e)
 * Shield: Divine Spirit Shield / Elysian Spirit Shield / Spectral Spirit Shield / Eagle-eye kiteshield / Dragonfire Shield
 * Special attack weapon: Dragon claws / Dragon halberd / Dragon hatchet / Statius warhammer
 * Summoning: Pack Yak / War tortoise / Unicorn stallion / Spirit Terrorbird

NOTE: Elite Void Knight equipment requires careful consideration as it gives excellent overall bonuses, but will almost certainly be lost on death as even bronze equipment protects over it.
 * Antipoison++ potion
 * Overload potions
 * Teleport to house tablet (or any teleport item)
 * Saradomin brews
 * Super restore potions
 * Super prayer potions
 * Recover special potions
 * Super strength potions
 * Super attack potions
 * Super defence potions

Killing Tactics
Smoke phase: Before she spawns, stand beneath her spawn area and have one player stand several spaces away from her and tank the damage from the Smoke Barrage attacks, drinking antipoison as necessary. If you do this, Nex will only use Smoke Barrage against the player that stands the furthest away, and she will use her virus attack against everyone else. Use all of your weapon's special attacks on Nex.

After the barrier is gone, kill Fumus in the northwest corner. If you do this fast enough she will not use Smoke Barrage again.

Warning: currently, there seems to be a glitch that allows Nex to perform the smoke-based special attack long after Fumus is dead.

Shadow phase: Turn Protect from/Deflect Missiles on for this phase and spread out at the north area and north bridge only. Watch out for the shadow attacks because they are able to hit above 500 lifepoints. You can avoid the attack by stepping aside.

After the barrier has disappeared, kill Umbra in the northeast corner.

Blood phase: Protect from/Deflect magic back on, and run immediately south and stay on the south bridge. Do not attack her when she shows the purple healing splats - any attack that is directed towards her at this point will be absorbed. She will also heal herself if she is hit. She generally spawns 1 or 2 sets of Blood reavers during this stage. Sometimes Nex will not spawn any at all, but this is a rare occurrence and may be a glitch. Killing the blood reavers is necessary, because when she summons a new set, the old blood reavers will die and she'll heal from them, you must also avoid attacking her while she is healing. When she says "I demand a blood sacrifice!", she will randomly pick out a player and whoever she picks will turn red. If she selects you, don't stand still or she will use Blood Barrage on all of the players and heal herself.

After the barrier is down, kill Cruor in the southeast corner.

Ice phase: Stay south and attack her. While attacking her, make sure you are slowly moving southwest so you can get to Glacies quickly (if you are far away, you will probably get frozen). When she says "Contain this!", she will use an ice attack which imprisons all players standing in a four-by-four ice wall around her. This attack deals up to 350 damage and deactivates your prayer. This attack can be evaded by moving away from Nex. When she says, "Die now, in a prison of ice!" she will imprison a single player in a three-by-three ice wall, which can be attacked by a teammate. Once a stalagmite is destroyed, the player should move out of the box immediately, or be hit for 700-850 lifepoints.

Once the barrier is gone, kill Glacies in the southwest corner.

Final phase: Stand in Glacies' spawn spot and attack Nex. Because Nex sometimes uses Deflect Melee during this phase, Ranged attacks are recommended for this final phase. She will switch between Deflect Melee and Soul Split throughout this stage.It is recommended to turn off protection/deflect prayers at this point as this will cause her to heal for the amount she would have hit if no prayer was active. Upon death, she will use Wrath.

Drops
Note that this table is NOT complete as of yet. An update on the 21st of February, 2011 changed Nex's drops quite dramatically.

100% drop

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Armour

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Weapons

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Herbs and seeds

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Gems

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Other

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Trivia

 * "Nex" is Latin for "murder" or "death".
 * All of Nex's guards have Latin names related to the kind of Ancient Magicks spell they use. Umbra means 'shade' or 'shadow', Glacies means 'ice', 'frost', or 'cold', Cruor means 'bloodshed', 'gore', or 'blood', and Fumus means 'smoke' or 'fumes'.
 * The plaque memorial in the safe and banking area reads: Vita brevis breviter in brevi finietur, Mors venit velociter quae neminem veretur, Omnia mors perimit et nulli miseretur, which literally translated from the Latin means: "A brief life will briefly be finished in short, Death, who fears no-one, comes quickly, Death will kill all and pity no-one." This phrase is strongly connected to the phrase "memento mori", which means "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or "Remember [that] you will die " (translated literally as "[In the future,] remember to die").
 * This may be adapted from the student hymn 'Gaudeamus Igitur', including lines such as 'vita nostra brevis est, brevi finietur' and 'venit mors velocitor rapit nos atrociter'.
 * After killing Nex, the Adventurer's Log will say, "I killed a devastating creature of Zaros, Nex." or, after killing several, it will say "I killed X devastating creatures of Zaros, all named Nex."
 * Nex is currently the only NPC in Runescape that is above the combat level of 1000.
 * Nex is the only NPC to use curses instead of prayers.