Nex

Nex (meaning "murder" or "death" in Latin) is the Zaros boss of the God Wars Dungeon with a combat level of 1001, making her currently the strongest monster in RuneScape fightable by conventional methods. She is the first monster to have a combat level of over 1000 (the only other monster is the level 9001 Ferret of Doom, which cannot be fought). She resides in the Ancient Prison - the Zaros stronghold of the God Wars Dungeon - which was released on 10 January 2011. It is highly recommended that one brings at least 3 players to fight her due to her siphon healing up to 3000 lifepoints at once in the blood phase, making it almost impossible for a single player to kill her using conventional methods.

Nex is an immensely powerful entity and one of Zaros's most powerful weapons of war. What race she really is has been long lost to time; however, she possesses physical traits of the Icyene, Demons, Aviantese and Vampyres. Her history 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. Afterwards, 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 itself. 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.

Habitat
Nex resides in the Ancient Prison. To reach her, players must first open the frozen door - the entrance to the prison. 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 which decreases based on your Smithing level, varying between about 50,000 - 100,000 coins.

After passing through the door, the player is in a small, monsterless room with a pit leading to a lower level. A rope is needed climb down the pit; if the player does not have one, one can be obtained by searching the corpse in the room.

After climbing down the pit, the player is in another small, monsterless room. The player should make any final preparation here (healing, drinking potions, etc.) before passing into the dangerous main room. A tunnel connects the small room to the main room. In this room, the monsters will be aggressive to the player unless the player has a high enough defence against them. After killing 40 of Zaros' followers in the main room, the player gains the ability to enter another safe room. There is a bank here, accessed via the nature spirit Ashuelot Reis. Note that players wearing a full set of ancient ceremonial robes don't need to reach a killcount - they 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.

Note that there is a limit on the number of players who can fight Nex at once.

Quotes
Nex will occasionally say various lines which are voiced.

Initial phase Smoke phase Shadow phase
 * AT LAST!
 * Fumus! Umbra! Cruor! Glacies!
 * Fill my soul with smoke!
 * Let the virus flow through you!
 * There is...NO ESCAPE!
 * Fumus, don't fail me!

Blood phase
 * Darken my shadow!
 * Fear the shadow!
 * Embrace darkness!
 * Umbra, don't fail me!

Ice phase
 * Flood my lungs with blood!
 * A siphon will solve this!
 * I demand a blood sacrifice!
 * Cruor, don't fail me!

Final phase
 * Infuse me with the power of ice!
 * Contain this!
 * Die now, in a prison of ice!
 * Glacies, don't fail me!


 * NOW, THE POWER OF ZAROS!
 * Taste my wrath!

Drops
It is important to note that Nex's drop mechanics differ from those of other bosses while LootShare is in effect. Rather than merely dropping all of a high-quantity item to a single player, the drops are instead divided up into one, two, three, four, or five parts, depending on what the drop can be divided into perfectly. For example, rather than one player receiving 375 onyx bolts(e), the drop will be split up into five sections of 75 bolts and then distributed out through LootShare. However, it is still possible for one player to receive all five 75 bolt drops, depending on his or her potential to receive loot.

100% drop

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Armour

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Weapons

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Herbs and seeds

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Other

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Trivia

 * 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 translated from the Latin means: "Life is short, and shortly it will end, Death comes quickly which respects no one, Death destroys everything and takes pity on no one." The inscription is taken from the lyrics to "Ad Mortem Festinamus", a medieval song which served as a memento mori, a reminder of the certainty of death.
 * After killing Nex, the Adventurer's Log will say, "I killed a devastating creature of Zaros, Nex." or, after killing Nex several times, it will say "I killed X devastating creatures of Zaros, all named Nex."
 * On 19 May 2011 there was a Quick Poll on which Runescape character you would like to follow on Twitter. Nex was the option with the second highest number of votes.
 * On 9 August 2011, there was an update which fixed a bug that rendered Nex unable to attack a player standing beneath her. Now, while standing under Nex for a certain amount of time, Attack, Strength, Defence, Magic and Ranged are lowered, up to 100 damage is dealt, and the Overload effect is shortened.
 * Nex is the second female in the God Wars Dungeon; the first being Commander Zilyana.
 * Nex currently has the second most life points out of all monsters, only behind Har-Aken with 50,000 and tied with Char.