Nomad's Requiem

Walkthrough
Notes:
 * The temple under Soul Wars is very dangerous, even players with high Agility can exhaust their run energy if they try to run all the time. Players are advised to bring items that can restore energy and use the salt-water spring in Oo'glog if possible.
 * If you log out while in the temple, you will be in the Soul Wars entry area when you next log in. This can be used as a quick way to exit the temple when deep inside it.
 * If you do not log out or leave the dungeon, the spectral enemies will not respawn.

Starting off


To start the quest, speak with Zimberfizz at Soul Wars. After speaking with him, inspect Nomad's tent and climb down to see a cutscene of Nomad fighting an elite dark warrior, elite dark mage, and elite dark ranger in a ruined temple. Pay attention during this scene! It shows off some of Nomad's magical attacks, and what he does before casting them.

Talk to Zimberfizz again, and he will tell you to go down and talk to Nomad. Alternatively you can just talk to Nomad after his fight without going back to Zimberfizz. Nomad will tell you not to return again. Search the ex-adventurer's bag near the entrance to obtain a bronze pickaxe. (The other items in the pack are useless, although the cooked herring can be used as food if you wish.)

Return and talk to Zimberfizz, and he will tell you to return to Nomad's Temple and thwart whatever evil scheme Nomad is up to. Down there, you must find a way to enter the arcane doorway (the white gateway) in the main room. This is done by disabling the power source for both cables.

Moving statues



 * Go in the south-west room. Here, water must be directed to flow a certain way by moving pillars. However, water must first be sent to this room. (If you move the pillars before directing water to this room, the pillars reset when you leave the room.) Beware of the aggressive Spectral attendants in this room. The pattern found on the top of each pillar shows which water channels are opened.
 * Go up the ladder in the south-east part of the room. Pull both levers. Beware of the spectral attendants in this room.
 * Go up the ladder in the north-east part of the room and push both pillars so that they cover the drains. Again, beware of the spectral attendants in this room.
 * Go down to the middle floor and check that water is flowing to the south channel in the room. If it is not, work the levers until it is.
 * Go down to the bottom room. It is best to do this puzzle without the spectral attendants attacking you. An easy way to take them out is to run around the room, so you got attention from all five of them. Trap them behind a drain and they can be safe-spotted. Once the attendants are defeated, they will not respawn. Alternatively, it is possible to trap all of the spectral attendants on the north side of the room behind the device so you need not waste prayer and food fighting them.
 * However you choose to deal with the attendants you must push the pillars and arrange them so as to direct the flow of water into the three channels that run under the machine. There are multiple ways to do this. Again, note that the shapes on the top of each pillar shows the direction of the water flow beneath it. You may use this to determine which direction a given pillars will allow the water to flow. When you get the 'Yes, the device looks to be out of order now' message in the chatbox then you have disabled the device.

Elemental creatures under the waterfall


Go back to the middle (2nd) floor in the Moving Statues area. (the southwest rooms).

Mine the rubble next to the on the east channel. Pull the south lever once to change the water flow to the east channel. This will cause a waterfall to form in the southeast room -- it is no longer needed in the south-west room because the machine is broken.

Note: If there is only a trickle of water coming out of the ceiling in the south-east room, you have not worked the levers correctly.

Go to the southeast room and get several pieces of elemental fuel out of the fuel hopper. The Spectral tenders in this room are not aggressive, unlike the spectral attendants in the other rooms. If you do not have room, bank your food - it is not needed here.

Use the fuel ("place elemental fuel") to lure three elemental creatures out of the device in the room and onto the water flowing out of the ceiling. Only one creature can be lured at time. To lure a creature, place a piece of fuel on the floor near the machine. As it comes out and eats it, place another piece of fuel nearer the waterfall. You can easily space the food 4 squares apart - even diagonally. Continue luring the creature until you can place a piece of fuel right in the waterfall itself (right click the waterfall's square and choose 'Walk here' to get there) or simply place a piece of fuel on the other side of the waterfall. The water destroys the creature. If a creature eats a piece of fuel before you place the next piece, you have only 2–3 seconds to place the fuel before it gives up and returns to the device. In this case, you must begin again with another creature. Be aware that the creatures try to move in straight lines to the fuel, so obstacles like walls between the fuel and the creature will cause the creature to get stuck. Repeat this procedure until all three creatures are destroyed.

Roots and the Decaying Avatar


Return to the room with the arcane door and go through the door. In this new room, there is another arcane door to the north, again protected by two power cables that must be turned off. Beware of the aggressive Spectral worshippers in this area.

Go west and go through a door in the west wall. Go west down a corridor until you come to the first room. Beware of the aggressive Spectral cultivators in this area. A set of animated roots guard the power device, preventing you from getting to it. If you try to attack the roots, you discover that they are unassailable when bunched like this. You must find a way to unbunch them.

Continue west following the vines on the floor. Beware of the spectral cultivators. In four places, find and destroy the individual roots that stick up from the ground. You hear a loud roar when you destroy the fourth root.

Return to the room with the power device. A level 525 Decaying avatar has appeared there. Kill it. When fighting the avatar, it will try to heal using roots that grow from the floor during the battle. Destroy the root before it can eat it and it won't heal. If it eats a root, it heals to full health, prolonging the battle. (The first root appears when the avatar reaches 3/4 life points, the second at 1/2, and the third at 1/4.) Don't worry too much if the avatar does get to the roots; after the third root, no more appear. The roots appear in the following order: NW, SE and NE of the room. A good tip would be to position yourself in between the area the root will appear and the avatar when fighting him. This way you have a good chance to melee the root and destroy it before the avatar gets to it. When the avatar is killed, the waving roots disappear and the power device is automatically damaged. Another good tip would be to use the Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee prayer and use enchanted ruby bolts, since that can deal up to 2000 damage. Since the avatar does not hit through prayer, one only has to bring prayer potions and simple melee gear to defeat the avatar.

If you leave the fight before killing the avatar (for example, by teleporting out of the temple), you will have to start the fight from the beginning again, but you won't have to destroy the four roots to get the avatar to appear. However, if you log out of the game in the avatar arena, it resets and you have to destroy all the roots again to face the avatar.

Items to bring for the next section: Runes for a fire spell.

Return to the arcane door area and go east. At the doorway in the east wall, talk to the dying knight and then examine his body when he dies. You get a clue about being pious, which means the Piety prayer will help you in the next room, so high prayer boosting gear is recommended.

If you want to use Piety here, make sure your prayer book is set to normal. Now turn on Piety (optional but highly recommended) and enter the east room. Without Piety, every half a second the haze in the east room drains ten life points as well as prayer and other stats. A facemask does not protect you, but Piety prevents damage and stat drain.

Collect the slabs in the room and build a bridge across the central pool, at the point where two slabs are already in the pool. To build, go to the current edge of the bridge and select "Place slab".

The western part of the room contains several aggressive Corruption beasts, and Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee negates their attacks. You do not have to kill the beasts, but each time you kill one 'your spirits are lifted' and your prayer points are recharged.

When the bridge is built, cross to the eastern part of the room. No beasts are here, so turn off your protection prayer. Cast a Fire Wave or another fire spell on the explosive barrels to detonate them and destroy the machine. If you do not use Piety, you may need to bring restore potions with you to restore your magic level enough to cast Fire Wave. (you CAN use fire strike and other fire spells).

Return to the arcane door area. You can now enter the next arcane doorway and face Nomad. If you are not ready, go stock up first.

Fighting Nomad



 * Note: you cannot set up a Dwarf multicannon to fight Nomad.


 * Fighting Nomad is somewhat safe, for if you die, you respawn in Soul Wars close to your gravestone and can collect your items immediately. It is dangerous if your internet connection is unreliable, and you cannot log back in before the gravestone decays. Also, any items that don't appear at your grave are lost. If you have no Barrows items that you would lose upon death, or any items that wouldn't appear at your gravestone, and a reliable internet connection, there is no real need for concern because you'll be able to collect your items if you die.
 * Fighting Nomad can be expensive if you use Barrows equipment, as it will degrade to 0 upon your death. However, if you have run out of supplies, and know that you will otherwise die, run behind a pillar and safe spot. When Nomad heals to full HP he will no longer auto attack you. You can then safely walk out of the room without having to die and repair Barrows equipment.
 * The important thing to remember when fighting Nomad is that he has very high defences. So, you must maintain your attack method at its highest levels to penetrate Nomad's defences. If you are using range, and drink saradomin brews, it lowers your range - you will therefore hit him less (if at all). A fighter with all combat skills at 80 and a war tortoise can defeat nomad by drinking 2 brews and 1 super restore (repeating this over and over) while having prayer on the entire time and have a few potions left over. You must, of course, follow the other strategies in this article, but the same is true with melee. If your stats are low enough you will never hit him. Maintaining your stats will be more important than food (to a certain extent).
 * When fighting Nomad, it is recommended to use either ranged or melee:
 * For ranged, it is recommended to use a Rune crossbow with Ruby bolts (e) and have auto-retaliate turned on. Switch to Diamond bolts (e) when Nomad goes berserk.
 * For melee, it is recommended to use a high-hitting melee weapon, particularly one with a useful special attack, such as a Godsword or Statius's warhammer. A Bandos godsword is greatly suggested since it can lower the defence of Nomad and make the fight much easier. A Saradomin godsword can be used for its healing effect (although the effect is minimized by the large amounts of damage Nomad often inflicts). An Armadyl godsword can be used for its ability to inflict more damage. In place of a godsword, Darklight is a good alternative to lower Nomad's defence. The best way to lower Nomad's defence would be using the special attacks of Statius's warhammer, but that weapon is very expensive to use.
 * Fighting Nomad with magic is not recommended, because of his high magic defence.
 * Many of Nomad's attacks are magic, so wearing good magic-defence armour may be useful. Some players report, however, that armour seems to have little effect against Nomad.
 * Do not plan on using protection or deflection Prayers against Nomad, as, until he goes berserk, they seem to have little or no effect. Some players report that protection prayers have some effect (not full effect) once Nomad goes berserk.
 * Since protection prayers do not work, Soul Split is a great alternative for players with level 92 Prayer. Otherwise, stat-boosting or draining prayers are recommended, such as Piety, Chivalry, Leech Defence, etc.
 * It is recommended that you boost key stats before confronting Nomad. You can use the spring pools at Oo'glog if you have done As a First Resort... to boost your Prayer and life points. For prayer, the Altar of Zaros provides a slightly better Prayer boost, if you have done the Temple of Senntisten quest.

Equipment and Preparation
The suggested inventory is very simple but expensive: Each dose of a Saradomin brew adds life points equal to 15% of the player's normal maximum life points to the player's current life point total, and adds 25% of the player's normal maximum defence to the player's current defence total, but attack, strength, ranged, and magic levels are all reduced by 10% of their normal maximums. A dose of super restore potions restores all skill stats (but not life points) to their normal maximums. The strategy for fighting Nomad thus is to drink Saradomin brews to heal and boost defense and, when needed, super restores to counteract the negative effects of the brews.
 * 12 super restore potions (4 dose) (A cheaper alternative is to use regular Restore potions if you do not plan to use prayer much and bring 1 Prayer potion instead.)
 * 12 Saradomin brews (4 dose)

Having a beast-of-burden familiar carrying more Saradomin brews is also useful. (Example: A War tortoise filled with 18 Saradomin brews.) Set the Summoning control left-click option to Take BoB to enable 1-click withdrawals from the beast of burden. (If 1-click withdrawal is not enabled, Nomad's fast attacks will prevent most players from withdrawing any items from their familiars.) Whenever time permits during a fight, drop empty vials so that there is room in inventory to withdraw brews from the familiar.

Equipment:
 * Ranged Void Knight equipment is something to consider. (It is unconfirmed, but several tests have been run where Nomad has hit just as often without armour as he has with, and sometimes even less without.)
 * Blessed D'Hide Coif / Archer helm / Armadyl helmet / Morrigan's coif
 * Amulet of fury / Amulet of glory
 * Black d'hide body / Karil's leathertop / Armadyl chestplate / Morrigan's leather body
 * Black d'hide chaps / Karil's leatherskirt / Armadyl plateskirt / Morrigan's leather chaps
 * Snakeskin boots
 * Barrows gloves / Black d'hide vambraces
 * Rune crossbow
 * Ruby bolts (e)
 * Archers' ring (if using ranged) or Warrior ring (if using a slash weapon). Do not use a Ring of life as it does not work.
 * Fire cape / Trimmed Skillcape / Ardounge cloak 3 / Ava's accumulator

Select these prayers in your quick prayers menu.
 * Level 44 Eagle Eye (if ranging) or
 * Level 70 Piety (if using melee)
 * Protect from Magic (Level 37) - Note that Nomad partially ignores prayer, the effects of Protect from Magic will only work for part of the time.

Or, use Leech Magic, Leech Defence, and Leech Ranged if The Temple at Senntisten is completed. With lower prayer, the use of Sap Warrior and Sap Mage together is also quite effective for the first part of the battle, switching to Sap Warrior and Deflect Melee when Nomad goes beserk.

When Nomad goes berserk, switch your Magic Protection to Protect from Melee. Alternatively some players have had much success with Sap and leech curses, the reason being that they drain Nomad's defence as well as his magic and melee attacks. Sap/leech melee and mage is therefore recommended. The chat window will show a message when the curses are working.

The Fight


Nomad is very powerful and uses several different types of attack, including some that kill you instantly if you are unable to get away in time or are not completely healed when the attack is commenced (e.g., If you have a Constitution level of 96 you normally have a maximum of 960 life points, and Nomad will hit you for 959 damage). Protection prayers have little if any effect. One attack spreads explosive mines on the floor that deal 400 damage and drop your energy to 0, so make sure not to step on them.

Trying to Safe Spot Nomad for long periods of time is futile. Other than trying to avoid his 750-damage attack, you only get a few seconds in a safe spot. He will then say "Face me!", and a few seconds afterwards (approximately 8) will teleport you back to the centre of the room and heal himself fully. You will however have enough time in a spot (such as behind a pillar) to sip some potions or eat some food. Just be sure to run out and let him attack you at least once every time he shouts "Face Me!".

His normal attacks are magic-based melee (attacking with his staff) as well as distanced magic attacks when not close enough to perform melee attacks. This means that high magic defence armour is best. Dragonhide armour is recommended, as using Barrow's high-magic-defence armour can be expensive due to your frequent deaths.

Nomad has an Ancient Magicks-like ice attack that doesn't do damage, but freezes you until after his LP -1 attack. When you are frozen, quickly heal to keep your life points at or above maximum (Rocktails or Saradomin brews are recommended due to their ability to grant extra life points above your usual maximum) and, if you are not already ranging Nomad, switch to a ranged weapon to continue damaging him.

If he says 'You can't hide from my wrath!', you actually can and should. Immediately, and carefully, click out of the circle of mines to dodge them and click on your minimap to hide behind a pillar. Be sure, however, that your LifePoints are at least 760 so that if you fail to evade the attack, it will not kill you.

Nomad will occasionally teleport. When he does, three illusions appear and also attack (but they only hit about 50 each). If you attack an illusion and hit it, it disappears. When you attack the real Nomad, all illusions disappear. A way to discover the real Nomad is that if you watch carefully, the real Nomad will attack just a fraction of a second after the rest. Alternatively, you can hide behind a pillar and wait until the clones disappear, thus allowing you to reorganize your inventory, heal up if needed, and collect from your BoB (note: He will NOT fully heal if all the clones are out, but once they all disappear, be sure to attack him right away to prevent him from healing).

When Nomad teleports and the 3 illusions appear you can simply hide behind the pillars for around 30 to 45 seconds and wait for the illusions to disappear saving food and/or potions. Once the illusions are gone reengage him in combat either before or when he shouts "Face Me!".


 * The order of Nomad's attacks is as follows:


 * Talk/Attack.
 * Lays down mines all around the fight.
 * Charges the 750-damage attack and then launches it - this is evadable.
 * Teleports himself and creates 3 illusions - this is also evadable, and will NOT reset the battle if you evade the attack. (The illusions will disappear after a few minutes.)
 * Teleports you to the centre and freezes you - you cannot move but can eat food and use ranged if so equipped. This is followed by an attack which deals your max LP minus one. A player with a Constitution level of 85 would be dealt 849 damage. Note that this attack does not reduce your life points to one, it hits for your maximum life points minus one. This means that the only way to survive this attack is to have your maximum or higher life points.
 * Repeat from #2.


 * In between his special attacks (#2-5), Nomad will also make normal magic or magic-based melee attacks.

It is suggested that if you are using Saradomin brews you restore to max LP while Nomad is charging for either high hitting attack. Do NOT drink to restore until after he hits you with the attack as restoring beforehand is simply a waste of potions, seeing as you will have to brew back up again after his high hit. This is an effective way to save restore doses. You will need fewer restores in general, and you'll be able to take more brews.

A tactic that may help users finding it difficult to evade the 750 LP attack (for whatever reason) is to hug a pillar just inside the "safe spot" range: that way you only have a few spaces to move when you need to hide. This of course only works if you are ranging - mines can sometimes make this more difficult.

Another useful tactic when fighting Nomad is to bring a BoB (Beast of Burden) such as a war tortoise or pack yak stockpiled with food, and force dismissing it at the very beginning of the fight (right click dismiss and hit the second option). This will leave your rocktails or other high healing food on the ground, giving you a chance to pick it up as need be, while allowing you to summon another familiar such as a combat familiar or a unicorn stallion.

A third useful tactic for those players who have unlocked the ancient curses is to utilise the soul split prayer during the majority of the fight. This will heal players 1/5 of damage inflicted to Nomad, around 2500 LP through out the fight, (Until Nomad goes berserk, at which point melee protect is the best option.) Soul Split will heal you 1/5 of what you hit, and as Nomad is resistant to any protection prayer (until he goes berserk), this is the best option for those with 92+ prayer as it heals a huge amount. A Saradomin godsword is also a useful option.

A great tactic to use while fighting Nomad is that before he sets up the flame vortexes (the landmine that does 400 damage), get near a pillar and range Nomad from there. Preferably, use ruby bolts (e) as they can do a lot of damage to Nomad. When he charges his attack that does 750 damage (the special attack right after the landmines), get behind the pillar and it will block the 750 damage attack. While you are behind the pillar, you have some time to quickly drink some Saradomin brews if your health is low and drink super restore to counter the saradomin brew effects and restore prayer. You can also get rid of empty vials and restock from your beast of burden if you have one. This will save you a lot of Saradomin brews that are more useful later on.

One way to beat Nomad is to use the Spirit kyatt and Ambush scrolls to deal very fast damage (up to 300/ scroll), along with the damage from ranging or melee, but it is recommended to use a BoB (like a War tortoise or Pack Yak to hold rocktails) to hold some food, then at the start of the fight, instantly dismiss it, then summon the kyatt, and click the scrolls, making sure you take time to eat food. Some players have managed to beat Nomad on their first try when doing this.

Another tactic for those using Range is to use the pillars for safespotting as soon as the battle starts, if you do this, you can even out Nomad's attack speed, because for example, a Rune Crossbow's attack speed is lower that Nomad's Normal attack, meaning that Nomad's will get more hits on you then do you, but by using this, you can both launch attacks at the same time to shorten the damage, but whenever he says "Face Me!", quickly move and make sure he can attack you otherwise the battle will reset.

(Note : This is somewhat easier than normal to use, as if you are standing behind a pillar when he lays down mines, assuming you only ever move 2 squares to attack, then back to the original safespot, the flame vortexes do not affect you at all. Be careful when he goes berserk, however; if he cannot attack you for 10 seconds he will call you a coward and heal back to full health, but if you run straight into melee range you may accidentally set off one of the landmines. On another note, when he heals himself to half LP, he will stop attacking you, meaning that you should keep attacking him until he attacks you, (if you don't do this you may end up reseting the battle.)

The first time Nomad is reduced to 1/4 life points (having taken 7,500 damage), he heals himself back to half life points (5,000), giving him a total of 12,500 LP. When Nomad is reduced to 1/4 life points for a second time, he goes berserk, hitting as fast as Commander Zilyana but much less accurately than usual and only within melee range. Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee seems to reduce the number of times he hits at this time.

Note: When he goes berserk, this is the best time to use the hit and run method. Get him stuck on a pillar and you'll have enough time to fire 2 shots from a crossbow or cast 2 high level mage spells before he shouts "Face Me!". At this point you will have to reengage him and let him attack you. After he attacks once or twice repeat the hit and run tactic. This method will possibly give you 2 attacks to his 1 advantage.(Warning: If useing ranged Nomad can easily get stuck on pillars at this point, unless he hits you he will teleport after 8 seconds and heal.)

Note: If you happen to defeat Nomad just as he kills you, Nomad will be counted as defeated, unlike most boss fights.

The Aftermath
After you defeat Nomad, you will appear outside Nomad's tent. Talk to Zimberfizz and watch the ending cutscene. Quest complete!

Reward



 * 3 Quest points
 * 70 Zeal points
 * Soul Wars cape
 * Ability to set your respawn point to Soul Wars

Music
Music tracks unlocked:
 * Battle of Souls
 * Desolate Ruins

Trivia

 * At first, the spoilers were not hidden in the RuneScape Game Guide. This was intentional.
 * This is the second Grandmaster quest released, after While Guthix Sleeps.
 * On the quest's forum thread, Mod Rathe's avatar resembled Nomad.
 * Nomad is revealed to be level 699 during this quest, making him the strongest attackable quest monster, taking the title from the Balance Elemental.
 * During and after the quest, Zimberfizz takes the role of Nomad for Soul Wars.
 * After completing the quest, the 'Quest complete' text in the Adventurer's Log reads: I foiled Nomad's secret plans behind Soul Wars, leaving the battleground in the hands of Zimberfizz.
 * This is one of the few quests that do not give experience as a reward, although you can exchange the zeal earned by completing this quest for experience.
 * A bug existed that allowed Nomad to be killed without retaliating or using any of his special attacks by using a Spirit Kyatt. This allowed many low levels that would not have been able to defeat Nomad normally to complete the quest. This has been fixed.
 * After the quest, Zimberfizz's examine text changes to: 'Minion no more!'
 * "Only the pious will survive." is possibly a play on the phrase, "only the strongest will survive."
 * This quest was foretold by the Chaos Elemental in the Letter 13 Briefcase.
 * On the first day of release, a Ring of life was able to teleport the player away at the normal time. Since you spawn at Soul Wars along with your grave, it serves little purpose, and the ability for them to work was removed.
 * It is possible to see a memory of Nomad after the quest if you speak to Zimberfizz and ask him for a tutorial of Soul Wars.
 * There was a glitch where the quest does not show up in quest help and only shows that there are only 161 quests. This has since been fixed.
 * People have speculated that Nomad is a Mahjarrat (due to the look of his character and the fact that in the final fight of Nomad's Requiem he uses what appears to be an Ice Barrage like attack, part of the ancient magicks that the Mahjarrat originally used) and as such will turn up in a future Mahjarrat quest- however, Mod Paul confirmed that the While Guthix Sleeps and Nomad storylines are not related.
 * The herring and other items in the explorer's bag, is most like a reference to the idiom, "a red herring".
 * Nomad could actually be the protagonist character as he was defeating followers of Zamorak, hinting that he might be Zarosian or even a Saradomist. This is unknown and yet to be confirmed.
 * The name of the quest may be based on the song "Soul Nomad - Requiem of Nemedi".
 * The armour that Nomad is wearing looks very similar to the Heavy Training Gear, an optional clothing style that the main character can wear, in the video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
 * Another glitch had occurred where a player who had fought Nomad, but not defeated him, could find a soul wars cape in their cape rack. This glitch has been fixed.
 * A rare glitch causes your familer to disapear during the cutscene before you fight Nomad the following familiar you summon would have all of the items you lost. For example if you had 18 brews in your war tortise and lost it, summoning a Terror bird would have 18 brews even though it only holds 12.