Defeating Nomad and completing the Grandmaster quest Nomad's Requiem is an aspiration for many players. Because he is widely regarded as one of the most difficult quest bosses in the game, it is very common for players to ask for advice on fighting Nomad. This article will attempt to provide a complete, thorough understanding of Nomad's capabilities, as well as common strategies and tactics for defeating him. His combat level suggests that he is harder than he actually is, but if you've got level 90+ stats and decent equipment, it should be no problem to kill him with only a single inventory of food.
Nomad is much easier than he should be up to this point, other than the flame vortices, combat stats 75+ and a reasonable weapon shouldn't make Nomad tougher than an average quest boss.
Nomad's capabilities
Offence
Nomad is an extremely powerful warrior and battlemage who is able to cause massive amounts of damage. In addition to his basic Magic attack, he has a number of special attacks that he frequently uses during the fight. These attacks are used in the same order in which they are listed below.
- Nomad's basic attack is an at-range Magic attack that is capable of hitting in the 500s to mid 700s. It deals typeless damage, which means that Protect from Magic and Deflect Magic have no effect whatsoever on it. However, your Magic defence does affect the attack's accuracy; for this reason, armour with high Magic defence is strongly recommended when fighting him. Nomad begins using this attack immediately when the battle begins, and uses it in-between his special attacks.
- His first special attack is to lay a number of flame vortices in a pattern around you. Each vortex occupies one square. If you step on a flame vortex, it explodes, dealing damage for around 1000-1800 life points. After about a minute, or after Nomad finishes casting Soul Blast, they explode on their own. The pattern in which Nomad deploys the vortices leaves a gap to the south, but depending on where you are standing a pillar may block the path. You can safely get away from them by running through the gap or using the abilities Escape or Surge. If you are meleeing Nomad, you should turn off Auto Retaliate when he deploys the vortices so that you do not accidentally wander over one.
- Nomad's second special attack, Soul Blast, is a powerful Magic attack that deals 3000 damage. Before using Soul Blast, Nomad teleports to his throne (or to roughly the centre of the battle arena in the Dominion Tower) and announces "You cannot hide from my wrath" (which is a lie). Players should immediately hide behind a pillar in order to dodge this attack, although some players prefer to simply take the hit while continuing to attack Nomad.
- Mirror Image is Nomad's third special attack. He teleports to the centre of the arena and creates three copies of himself. These copies will attack you, along with the real Nomad. If you attack a copy, it disappears; if you attack the real Nomad, all of the copies disappear. You can easily tell which is the real Nomad by hovering your cursor over them to see their life bars. The clones will have full health (90,000 life points), while the real Nomad will have however many life points he had before summoning the clones. In addition, the actual Nomad will attack you slightly after the three copies attack you, also allowing you to distinguish between Nomad and the clones. If you hide behind a pillar and wait around a minute, the clones disappear on their own.
- Nomad's final and most powerful special attack is Disintegrate. He teleports you and himself to the centre of the arena, then hits you with an Ice Barrage-like attack that won't deal any damage, but freezes you in place (you can still attack him during this time though using Magic or Ranged). He then spends several seconds charging an immensely powerful Magic attack that deals an amount of damage equal to half your maximum life points minus one. For example, if your maximum life points is 7120, this attack deals 3559 damage. You have time to eat while he is charging the attack, and have a few moments to heal after he unleashes it.
- Note: Using the Barricade ultimate ability immediately before he unleashes his Disintegrate attack, which is signalled by Nomad bending forward, blocks all damage. While Resonance basic ability cannot be used to heal from the attack, it can be used to reduce the damage taken to 1, essentially completely blocking the attack. Also, Anticipation will reduce the damage from the attack.
- Note: There is currently a glitch during Disintegrate where, if players have a familiar summoned and either have no special move scrolls or are out of familiar special move points, they are still able to attack Nomad while he is charging the spell by setting their summoning button to cast special move and spam clicking it when Nomad freezes them. Players can also use the Freedom basic ability to become unfrozen, although this attack cannot be dodged by hiding behind a pillar.
Berserk
The first time Nomad is reduced to 25% of his maximum life points, he will heal himself to half of his health. The second time, however, Nomad will go berserk and switch to using a melee attack with his staff. Although he will not use any of his other attacks when he goes berserk, his melee attack will hit very rapidly (throwing knife speed), and it can deal 500+ damage. Protect from Melee and Deflect Melee appear to have some small effect against his melee attack. One way to reduce the damage is to use a hit and run strategy; hide behind a pillar, quickly run out and attack him, run back into hiding, and then repeat the process. This will prevent Nomad from attacking so rapidly.
Defence
Nomad has fairly high Defence against all forms of attack and has no weaknesses to any form of combat. Additionally, he is immune to damage from a number of sources, including Vengeance, poison, deflect curses, dragonfire damage from dragon bolts (e), chinchompas, and rings of recoil. Dwarf multicannons cannot be deployed in Nomad's arena. Prior to the EoC, damage from ruby bolts (e) was capped at 750.
While Nomad has a maximum of 90,000 life points, he will heal himself 22,500 life points the first time he is reduced to 22,500 life points. This effectively gives him 112,500 life points.
Face me!
In addition to his powerful offence and defence, Nomad will not tolerate cowardice. If you hide from him, such as standing behind a pillar such that he cannot attack you, he will say "Face me!" If you do not allow him to attack you within several seconds of this, he will shout "Coward!", teleport to the center of the room, and fully heal himself, effectively resetting the fight. However, once he does this, he also becomes unaggressive, allowing you to teleport out or leave if you wish. If you know that you can't win the battle, you can hide from him and then leave instead of being killed.
The exception to this rule is when Nomad uses Mirror Image to copy himself. You can hide behind a pillar and neither the clones nor Nomad himself will attack you; additionally, he will not shout "Face me!" or heal himself. The clones will last approximately sixty seconds, during which time you can heal, drop vials, manage your familiar, or just take a breather. Once the clones disappear, Nomad will run to attack you again, at which point he will shout "Face me!" if you continue to hide from him.
WARNING: When in Berserk Mode, Nomad can get stuck behind a summoning familiar and be unable to attack. During this time, even if you are attacking him, he will eventually shout "Coward!" and heal himself.
Recommendations
Skill levels
Players who wish to fight Nomad are encouraged to have the following skill levels. However, the higher these skills are, the better.
- At least 3001 life points to survive his Soul Blast
- 80+
and for resisting his basic attack - 70+ (if using Ranged)
- 70+ and (if using melee)
- 70+ if using standard prayers, or 80+ if using Ancient Curses
- 52+
- 80+ is optional but helpful, as the chaotic rapier, chaotic longsword, chaotic claw and chaotic crossbow (and their offhand variants) are all very effective against Nomad.
Equipment
Ranged
Ranged (with Void Knight equipment)
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The offensive bonuses from Void Knight equipment may be useful when fighting Nomad. A Void knight deflector is strongly recommended, however, in order to allow you to use a good body piece for extra offence and defence.
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Melee
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Melee (with Void Knight equipment)
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Magic
If using magic against Nomad, it is advisable to use the strongest spell available in tandem with a high level magic weapon. Nomad has no weakness, so magic fares just as well as any other attack style. Bloodfire Blitz or Bloodfire Barrage are highly useful due to their ability to restore life points. The Polypore staff and its built in Polypore Strike spell are also useful. Ice Barrage is not recommended, as it may cause Nomad to heal once he reaches his berserk phase.
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Inventory items
Note: If Nomad kills you, you will respawn in the Soul Wars lobby, very close to your gravestone. You will easily be able to retrieve your items. However, Barrows equipment will break if dropped, and if you had any items in your beast of burden, they will be lost.
When fighting Nomad, you must devote as much inventory space as possible to healing items, in order to endure his massively damaging attacks. For the majority of players, the most recommended method of healing is to use the best kind of food that heals corresponding to your Constitution level. Stat potions, like a super set, are recommended. An Overload can increase the chance of victory; however, many players attempting to fight Nomad won't have access to them.
Mid-level players (150 Combat) can bring stat-boosting potions, such as a super set or extreme potions, and use their highest-healing food. For those with the required Summoning and Prayer level, it is recommended to supplement the healing with a unicorn stallion and Soul Split (covered below).
Aside from healing items, you may need to bring:
- Summoning scrolls if you are using a familiar with a useful special attack
- Diamond bolts (e) if using ruby bolts (e)
- An extra Summoning pouch if you plan to switch familiars mid-fight
- Prayer potions if not using Saradomin brews
- If you have unlocked them from the Dominion Tower, you may wish to bring ascendancy mines, as each mine can deal up to 2,000 damage to Nomad. However, bear in mind that the mines are not stackable and do not appear under your gravestone.
- Any shield to enable use of Resonance/Barricade during the Desintegrate special attack. Take note Resonance will only block the attack with no healing received from it.
Ascendancy mines cannot be used when fighting Nomad within the Dominion Tower.
Familiars
There are three types of familiars that are useful when fighting Nomad. The first is a beast of burden, specifically a spirit terrorbird, war tortoise, or pack yak. Beasts of burden can hold additional healing supplies, increasing the amount of damage you can withstand.
The second is a combat familiar. Players with access to them could use an iron titan or steel titan against Nomad, both of which are effective. Players without 95+ Summoning can summon a spirit kyatt at level 57 and use its special move, Ambush, to repeatedly attack Nomad. However, you must be rather close to Nomad for Ambush to target him, which can produce problems when using Ranged.
Finally, a healing familiar may be used. A bunyip's healing (146 life points per 15 seconds) is too low to be useful against Nomad; however, a fire titan, ice titan, or moss titan may be used, along with Titan's Constitution, to quickly restore up to 240 life points and boost Defence. Players with 88+ Summoning are encouraged to bring a unicorn stallion, which provides the best healing of any familiar at high Constitution levels.
One common strategy with regards to familiars is to bring a beast of burden filled with food. Once the beast of burden is empty, dismiss it and summon a combat or healing familiar.
Prayers
Although protection prayers cannot be used to block Nomad's attacks, other prayers can still be very useful. For those using standard prayers, Piety, Rigour, and Augury are very good prayers to use for their respective combat styles. All three can boost one's stats reasonably high, and will be very helpful against Nomad.
For players with 95+ Prayer, the Ancient Curses are arguably more useful versus Nomad than the standard prayers. Leech Defence drains Nomad's Defence by 25% when fully activated, which makes it significantly easier to hit him, as well as boosting your Defence by 10%. Sap Mage may be used as a substitute, which drains his Magic and Defence by 20% when fully activated, but does not boost your stats at all. Because Leech Ranged is not useful against Nomad, Ranged users may wish to stick with standard prayers. However, meleers will find use in Leech Attack and Leech Strength. Magic users can use Leech Magic alongside Leech Defence to lower Nomad's Magic and Defence, which will reduce his offence and significantly reduce his defence against Magic attacks.
With 92 Prayer, Soul Split is exceptionally helpful against Nomad, provided you can hit him consistently enough. At 95 Prayer, Turmoil, Anguish, and Torment will greatly increase the players strength, as well as greatly decreasing Nomad's stats. If you are using Saradomin brews and super restores to heal, note that the latter potion restores prayer points, so there is no need to bring prayer potions. Otherwise, you will need a few, and possibly a prayer renewal. However, using brews and Super restores are not recommended after the Evolution of Combat update, as at a higher Constitution level, a full inventory of rocktails heal more than a full supply of brews and restores.
The fight
Ranged
When the fight with Nomad begins, turn on whichever prayers you're using and run to the side of the room, to stand next to a pillar. Ideally, you want to stand next to a pillar's rear corner, as in the first image below. Begin to range Nomad, eating as needed, using your ruby bolts (e). The special effect of the ruby bolts can deal up to 750 damage to Nomad, although you will lose 10% of your life points. Keep your health reasonably high; 3500 life points or higher is safe enough.
If you find yourself in need of a few seconds to heal, drop vials, withdraw from your beast of burden, or just focus yourself, you can step behind the pillar as shown in the second image below. Remember that if you hide for too long, Nomad will teleport and heal, resetting the fight.
When Nomad deploys his flame vortices, take care not to step over them. When he teleports to use Soul Blast, duck behind the pillar in order to avoid it. Move back out afterward in order to continue attacking him.
When Nomad uses Mirror Image and copies himself, hide behind the pillar and wait for them to disappear. This gives you about a minute with which to manage your health, items and familiar. Right after you hide behind the pillar, use the regenerate ability to effectively use your remaining adrenaline to heal you, saving you some food. Once the clones vanish, step back out.
Eventually, Nomad will teleport and freeze you, then begin to charge up his Disintegrate attack. Heal until you can survive the attack. If you are using Saradomin brews, don't drink any super restore doses until after the attack hits, or you will have to drink a super restore twice. Keep on ranging him until Disintegrate hits you. If you have 100% adrenaline BEFORE Nomad uses DISINTEGRATE, activate Barricade, to completely nullify the damage; alternatevely, activate Resonance right before Disintegrate hits to negate the damage. Once Disintegrate hits, immediately heal, drink super restores if necessary, and run back to the pillar. Resume ranging him, and remember that at this point, his cycle of special attacks resets.
If you brought a spirit kyatt pouch, summon it once your beast of burden is empty. The kyatt's Ambush special attack is capable of dealing high damage to Nomad if used frequently. However, bear in mind that if you are too far away from Nomad, the kyatt will not attack him. This can present problems when avoiding his flame vortices. When necessary, focus on survival rather than offence.
Follow this strategy until Nomad goes berserk. Remember that he will heal himself back to half health when he's reduced to a quarter of his maximum health; once you reduce him to a quarter of his health again, he goes berserk. When he goes berserk, switch to diamond bolts (e), turn on Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee, and, if necessary, move forward until he can attack you. Range him with the diamond bolts and duck behind the pillar if you need a moment to heal, but as always, heed his command of "Face me!" Consider activating Retribution or Wrath if Nomad is almost dead, because if he kills you and Retribution or Wrath deals enough damage to kill him, it will count as a victory on your part.
Melee
Fighting Nomad using melee is somewhat simpler than using Ranged, in terms of strategy. When the fight begins, activate your prayers and begin attacking him. Attack him with your stab weapon and keep yourself healed with your food or Saradomin brews; 3500 health is a safe limit.
Make sure you keep Auto Retaliate off! When Nomad deploys his flame vortexes, don't move quite yet. Continue fighting him standing in the middle of the flame vortexes, where you are safe from them. Take extreme care not to misclick and move on top of a flame vortex. After a short time Nomad will either teleport or stop attacking; either way, he is about to use Soul Blast. Move directly south until you are away from the vortexes, then hide behind a pillar. Heal yourself up to 3000 lifepoints beforehand, just in case you don't make it to the pillar in time. Once he uses Soul Blast and the vortexes begin to explode, run out and continue attacking him as normal, but stay away from the exploding vortexes.
When Nomad uses Mirror Image and summons his clones, you can either attack him to get rid of them (remember, he will attack a split second after the clones), or hide behind a pillar and use the time to heal, drop vials, manage your familiar, or just take a breather. After about a minute, the clones will disappear, and you must resume fighting him as normal.
If you don't bring a Ranged weapon, you won't be able to hurt Nomad when he freezes you and uses Disintegrate. You may wish to bring a crossbow and ammunition for this reason; remember that the special effect can activate regardless of your Ranged accuracy. Make sure you are at or above your maximum life points, and if you're using Saradomin brews, wait to drink super restores until after you've healed from Disintegrate. Once he hits you, heal up and continue to attack him. His cycle of special attacks will reset at this point.
Using a spirit kyatt is somewhat easier when meleeing, as you do not have to worry about Nomad being out of range of the kyatt's special attack.
Once Nomad goes berserk, turn on Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee and finish the fight. Remember that you can hide behind a pillar for a few seconds if you need to, but as always, heed his command of "Face me!" Consider activating Retribution or Wrath if Nomad is almost dead, because if he kills you and Retribution or Wrath deals enough damage to kill him, it will count as a victory on your part.
Dominion Tower
Once Nomad is defeated in his temple and Nomad's Requiem is completed, you can fight him again in the Dominion Tower. Although he will not appear in Climber mode, he may appear in Endurance. Additionally, one of the special fights, entitled "No More Nomad... No More!", involves fighting Nomad twice, one after the other and without a break between fights. However, Nomad can appear as low as the sixth floor in Endurance.
Defeating Nomad is one of the requirements for unlocking the Goliath gloves. Defeating him in Endurance will work, as well as completing the special double Nomad fight. However, defeating one Nomad during the special fight and losing to the second will not count. Once Nomad is defeated in Endurance, or the special fight is completed, Nomad is unlocked in Freestyle mode and can be fought at will.
Fighting Nomad in the Dominion Tower is nearly identical to fighting him during Nomad's Requiem. The key difference is the arena, which features four larger pillars instead of multiple smaller ones. These pillars can be used to hide from him much the same as the pillars in his throne room. Additionally, Retribution and Wrath cannot be used to damage Nomad; the Reflect ability can't be used either. Otherwise, all of the strategic information in this article applies. Furthermore, attempting to use the ability Surge or Escape to escape his vortices will result in the message "You are in an area which is preventing you from performing that ability."
While fighting Nomad in the Dominion Tower, you are able to use power-up items, such as Dominion swords, Dominion crossbows, and Help horns. For this reason, fighting Nomad in the Tower may be easier than fighting him during Nomad's Requiem. If you choose to use Dominion weapons during the "No More Nomad... No More!" special fight, be sure to bring at least 2, as one alone will not make it through the entire fight.
Unlike in the quest, it is not easy to run through the mines to a safe area. Standing still and hitting Nomad does work, as long as you don't move until after the mines explode.
Nomad's spec hits about 15 seconds after he freezes you. A slow count of 12 and then hitting Resonance or Barricade will keep a player alive, you can see when he is about to cast it when his hand starts shaking and he pulls it down.