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
All 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. They will inform you that the TzHaar race is dying, because only Ga'al, which do not inherit the memories of their ancestors, are hatching from the eggs. Mej-Ak and Mej-Jeh wish you to take more Ga'al to the Elder Kiln to infuse them with the memories held in a dead TzHaar's TokKul, as you did before with Ga'al-Xox. Specifically, they wish you to resurrect some of the greatest champions in TzHaar history so that they can live again. While understanding your reluctance to do it in regards to Xox's torture, they will ask you to do it anyway, for the Ga'al are just abominations and the TzHaar is on the brink of extinction.

Mej-Ak suggests TzHaar-Mej-Gek, one of the wisest and most powerful magicians in TzHaar history, and Mej-Jeh suggests TzHaar-Ket-Teg and TzHaar-Xil-Kal, excellent guard and hunter and formidable in the Fight Pits. 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 wandering around the city and send them to the main plaza.

TokKul Artefacts
Mej-Gek's TokKul is found to the east, in the birth pools. As the you approach, a cutscene plays, of the birth of Ga'al-Jeh by TzHaar-Mej-Het. As it hatches, Het becomes angry that it failed again and sends the Ga'al to die in the Pits. Go to the north of the pool and speak to Mej-Het, who was paid Mej-Gek's TokKul in return for charging a human adventurer's staff earlier. Saying he needs to take care of the eggs, despite the fact that half of them die and the other produce only Ga'al, he gives you the TokKul.

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 fragments, 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.

Return all TokKul, then track down the Ga'al. 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. There are more Ga'al in other locations though, any will suffice. Send all three to the main plaza.

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 (pick the quest option at the cave entrance). You will meet with TokHaar-Hok. Jeh and Ak will request that the Ga'al be turned into TzHaar, but the TokHaar-Hok says they are too weak and that the TokKul will simply be "lost" in the sacred lava, to be reborn as TokHaar. Afraid of losing the TokKul, Ak asks you what to do. No matter what you choose, Ga'al-Xox will suddenly enter and slay Mej-Ak before anything can be done. Jeh rages at him for murdering a TzHaar on sacred grounds, but Xox simply explains he will not allow any more Ga'al to be tortured like he was, before fleeing with the champions' TokKul. Jeh sends you after him and you appear outside the kiln.

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-Ket 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
As the gate closes, the security system begins to summon monsters. This 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. As they are weak, anything can be used to kill them really. 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 ancient gate.

Room 2
Inside the next cave are two water-weak Tz-Kek, followed by another Tz-Kih and a slash-weak Tok-Xil (which appear after all Tz-Kek have died). Kill them - Jeh remarks that there is a bookcase with reading orbs at the other end of the cave. Read it to discover it is a very ancient site. In fact, the first TokHaar to escape the Kiln to become TzHaar created this tunnel system. As such, it is directly connected to the Elder Kiln. It also speaks of a ring of living fire, TzKot-Zo, which Jeh cannot remember from his previous lives. 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 - reading the bookcase reveals it is the TzKot-Zo. It is a special mechanism, connected to the Kiln on both ends. It filters and purifies the lava before passing it on to the Kiln. He remarks that it was constructed by neither the TzHaar nor the TokHaar. As soon as you pass through the hot vent door, some of the squares will start glowing and several TokHaar will appear, because, since the lava is sacred, it triggers TokHaar to appear. The squares first glow a dull orange for a few seconds, and then turn bright yellow. At this point, any player standing on one will take rapid hits for heavy damage - can walk in and die - until they stand on a safe square, and any TokHaar standing on it will rapidly heal. 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. Also, just like in The Elder Kiln, his melee attacks drain prayer.

Abilities that hit multiple enemies are useful when opponents are close together, especially on waves with several melee opponents. 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 champion drops an obsidian maul, which can be used on the scales to open the gate.

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.

It is a good idea to turn retaliate off; you do not want to be dragged onto a hot square by a Mej or Xil attacking you at distance. Wherever possible try to stay at the corner of any given safe square; the warning time before a square becomes damaging is so short that you may not have time to run from the centre before being hurt.

The combat triangle is rather heavily enforced here, so when picking weapons try to play on your enemies' weaknesses. Hurs and Kets are weak to water spells, Xils are weak to crush damage and Mejs are weak to bolts. It may be advisable to use bolts against Xils, as if they are standing on a hot tile they will happily range you from it out of melee range. The Greater runic staff is useful here, as you can charge it with your highest water spell saving 2 inventory spaces for food. The Chaotic maul or in absence of that the Saradomin sword or Verac's flail are good choices for crush damage, and for the Mejs use the highest damaging bolts that you can fire (unless of course that is Ruby bolts (e), as the special effect causes damage to the user as well).

For defence, it is best to select the one type of armour most effective against all of the attackers in a wave. For example, if a wave has rangers and mages, wearing ranged armour will protect greatly against the mages while offering moderate protection against the rangers. Any other armour will leave you fully exposed to one type of damage. For prayer, it is best to protect against the type of damage you are currently receiving most of (this will depend on the armour you choose and the number of attackers on each side of the combat triangle). The Vampyrism aura is very useful here.

The higher your individual combat levels, the better you will be able to perform. However, inventory space is at a premium so unless you have access to overloads it may be best to use individual skill-boosting potions and quickly bank at the mouth of the cave before entering the arena. Remember the final wave has a prayer-draining champion, so you will probably need a prayer potion with you containing a couple of doses.

Room 4
The fourth chamber contains four level 148 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. The correct weapon for each pedestal are as follows: Once complete, the door will open to the next room.
 * "Xil" - obsidian sword
 * "Mej" - obsidian staff
 * "Ket" - obsidian maul
 * "Ket" and "Hur" - obsidian mace
 * "Xil" and "Hur" - obsidian knife

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:
 * Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee is a must in this fight, as TokHaar-Hok is able to hit for over 7,000 damage with his melee attack. TokHaar-Hok's melee attacks will drain prayer, so bring several prayer potions and keep your prayer(s) on at all times.
 * TokHaar-Hok only attacks with melee.
 * If you are on the ancient curses, make use of the sap/leech defence curse.
 * Activate all the necessary prayers/curses before talking to TokHaar-Hok as he immediately attacks you when the conversation ends.
 * Familiars are not allowed into the fight. Proper shield abilities (Debilitate, Reflect, Resonance and Preparation) should be used instead to aid with tanking and healing.
 * As in previous fights in these chambers, sections of the floor will heat at regular intervals, causing heavy damage to players who stand on them. A trick is to stand on a corner where 4 tiles meet, requiring only one step to avoid damage.
 * The Penance aura is extremely useful for keeping prayer points up, as you WILL be taking lots of damage.
 * TokHaar-Hok has the ability to heal himself fully once he reaches half health. He will attempt to move into the lavafall on the north part of the room when this happens, and Ga'al-Xox will warn you to stop him. To do this, use a stunning ability (Bash, Barge, Kick, Backhand, Destroy, Binding Shot, Asphyxiate or Impact) on him (try using stunning abilities 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 and Kick etc.). To prevent him from healing himself, use one of the stunning abilities when he gets close to half health or as soon as the message "TokHaar-Hok is now able to heal." appears in your chatbox.  Use the other ability when the timer on the first ability is half way through. Use the first ability again when it recharges, and so on.  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 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; however it is a threshold ability, so keep an eye on your adrenaline level.
 * 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 autocast.
 * 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 if your stats are high, it has high defence and it deals a lot of damage, but the risk of death is much greater, particularly from the lava floor tiles.
 * The Guthan's set is an alternative to the Dharok's, trading damage output for increased healing. Just like the Dharok's strategy, this requires higher combats stats. The player is also sacrificing the Crush Weakness of the TokHaar-Tok-Xil for general melee.
 * Drinking a dose of each super/extreme potion before entering the cave can help greatly in speeding up the fight.
 * This, just like the previous combat, is safe.

TokHaar-Hok has no weakness, but players are advised to use melee and/or magic during this battle, as ranged armour is weak to his melee attacks as well as those of the TokHaar monsters he summons. Ice spells will keep him stunned through the fight however, so consider these. 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(s). 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. Consider a crush melee setup until the Xil is dead, then switch to an ice mage setup for the rest of the fight.

At the beginning of the fight, you will only have to deal with TokHaar-Hok. Ga'al-Xox will also fight, attacking TokHaar-Hok with ranged, but he will not deal very much damage throughout the fight. 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 a stunning ability, or TokHaar-Hok may heal himself.

Before long, TokHaar-Hok will summon a level 184 TokHaar-Tok-Xil, which will attack you with Ranged. This monster should be defeated quickly, as its consistent hits of 1000 or more damage 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. If you have no choice but to use mage, stand directly beside it, which will force it to use melee attacks too, thus lowering his damage dealt to you. Do not attempt to change to the protect from range/deflect range curse as TokHaar-Hok will consistently hit 6,000 to 7,000 or higher. After you've killed the TokHaar-Tok-Xil, TokKaar-Hok will eventually begin summoning level 180 TokHaar-Ket Champions as well, but these should be ignored, as their melee attacks are weakened by your prayer. They can, however, drain your prayer, so keep an eye on your prayer points and restore them as necessary.

Essential Objectives for Surviving this Battle:

 * 1) Keep yourself above half health. The enemies in this battle can deal very high damage, so check your health frequently.
 * 2) Keep Protect from Melee/Deflect Melee on at all times. TokHaar-Hok can land hits of over 7,000 damage to you otherwise.
 * 3) It would be wise to set the Protect from melee/Deflect melee as your quick prayers in the case where your prayer points run out and you're able to quickly enable your prayer again.
 * 4) Keep a close eye on your prayer points. Having your protection prayer drop is almost certain death due to TokHaar-Hok's damage output.
 * 5) Always avoid glowing floor tiles. If you stand on them when they are heated up, you will take damage equal to 20% of your maximum health each game tick. This is especially important if using Dharok's set.
 * 6) Kill the TokHaar-Tok-Xil as quickly as possible. If you do not kill it right away, TokHaar-Hok will summon up to 3 more, and their attacks can easily kill you in a matter of seconds.
 * 7) Keep TokHaar-Hok under the stun effect, while continuing to damage him. As soon as your stun ability recharges, use it again.
 * 8) When you are dealt heavy damage from either the glowing floor tiles or from TokHaar-Hok, do not panic. Move to the closest non-glowing floor tile when you are dealt damage from the glowing tile. Do not spam click as you may accidently misclick and walk back again, resulting in certain death. Take a sip of prayer potion before eating when your prayer runs out as Tokhaar-Hok is able deal heavy damage as said in point 2.

If you find the boss fight against TokHaar-Hok too difficult, you can deliberately have him kill you. As mentioned before, the battle is safe, which in turn means you will not lose any items in the event of dying. You will spawn outside of the cave entrance, next to the TzHaar-Ket banker, allowing you to restock, rethink, and re-engage.

Dharok's equipment strategy (High combat levels advised)
Dharok the Wretched's equipment can give you an advantage in this fight due to the large amounts of damage you will be taking, by vastly augmenting your own damage potential in return. However, the damage boost does not stack with abilities. Also, since you will be keeping yourself closer to death to achieve higher damage, this method can be risky, as one ill-timed click could cost you the fight and force you to start over. You will need to be extremely careful of the burning floors if you use this method. If your health is low and you start taking damage from a burning floor tile, you will very likely be killed.

Minimising the time spent on anything but stunning TokHaar-Hok, avoiding the lava floor tiles, and keeping your health and prayer at sufficient levels is essential. The idea is avoid as many distractions as possible. Before starting the fight remember to have your melee protection prayer on as TokHaar-Hok attacks immediately after the starting dialogue ends, and he can hit as high as 7,000 (possibly higher) otherwise, and will likely kill you in two hits. The idea behind the fight is to focus entirely on TokHaar-Hok and ignore the minions he summons (aside from the TokHaar-Tok-Xil at the beginning). Have a good selection of melee abilities, including either Backhand or Kick to stun TokHaar-Hok. Keep a good balance of auto-attacks and abilities, while frequently stunning TokHaar-Hok and being extra careful not to stand on a floor tile when it starts burning, and he should go down fairly quickly. If your lifepoints fall below 2000, eat some food, and try to keep your prayer points above 500.

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

 * After the quest, TokHaar-Hok explains the TokHaar's motives for shutting the lava conduit down - they only wanted to "save their brethren from extinction" by convincing them to return to the Elder Kiln, as the TzHaar get weaker with every generation through the memory loss. Also, the TokHaar are immortal but finite in numbers, hence the TzHaar would boost their ranks and learn from the TokHaar in wisdom and battle prowess.
 * Another dialogue includes the explanation of why you cannot access all of TzHaar City. The guards reveal that even if you're a TzHaar born in a human's body, you will be roasted, as the streets of the inner city are flooded with lava.
 * Jagex labelled the rewards as one of the greatest portions of combat experience, the reward is 275,000 combat experience.  Only the master quest, Blood Runs Deep, has greater reward of 450,000 combat experience.
 * However, it could be interpreted as the largest amount used on one skill, as Blood Runs Deep is 3x150k experience.