Nex

This fight takes place in an instance with a deathbank.

On death, you can pay at a chest in the Ancient Prison's safe rooms 100,000 to retrieve lost items.
Any unsafe death will delete all items left inside the deathbank. Any items left on the ground will be lost.

This article has a strategy guide.

All information on mechanics and strategy will be on this page.

Nex
Released								5 January 2022 (Update)
Members								Yes
Combat level								1,001
Size								3x3
Examine								Even the gods fear her.
League region								Asgarnia✓
Combat info
XP bonus								+100%
Max hit								33 (Magic) 60 (Ranged) 30 (Melee) 50 (Smoke Dash) 50 (Shadow Smash) 80 (Blood Sacrifice) 60 (Containment) 75 (Ice Prison)
Aggressive								Yes
Poisonous								Yes (8)
Attack style								Magic, Ranged, Melee
Attack speed								4 ticks (2.4 seconds)
Combat stats
3,400				315				200				260				230				350
Aggressive stats
+200				+20				+100				+22				+150				+5
Melee defence
+40								+140								+60
Magic defence
+300												0% weakness
Ranged defence
+190								+190								+150
Immunities
Poison								Immune
Venom								Immune
Cannons								Immune
Thralls								Not immune
Open in DPS calculator
Advanced data
Monster ID								11278,11279,11280,11281,11282

Nex is one of Zaros' most powerful followers. She is imprisoned in the Ancient Prison, sealed away beneath the God Wars Dungeon. An immensely powerful entity and one of Zaros's most powerful weapons of war, Nex is a nihil from Freneskae and possesses physical traits of the icyene, demons, aviansie and vampyres.

Nex's Ancient Prison is locked behind the frozen door in the southern part of the God Wars Dungeon, and can only be opened by assembling the frozen key, whose pieces are dropped during The Frozen Door miniquest, by the generals and bodyguards of each of the warring factions in the dungeon: General Graardor, K'ril Tsutsaroth, Commander Zilyana, and Kree'arra. This in turn requires a base level of 70 Hitpoints, Ranged, Strength, and Agility in order to reach Nex, none of which can be boosted. Up to 60 players can fight Nex per encounter.

She is known for her assortment of Zarosian-affiliated drops, such as torva armour, zaryte vambraces, the ancient hilt and the nihil horn, which is used to create a zaryte crossbow.

Ironmen are eligible for drops from Nex when defeating it alongside other players.

History

Imprisonment

Following the Betrayal of Zaros in the Second Age, a group of Zarosians were working to secure the area around the Mahjarrat ritual site (found south-east of Weiss today) to gain the upper hand. The leader of these Zarosians was Nex. Gaining power whenever she battled, Nex was considered unstoppable.

Around the beginning of the Third Age, the forces of Saradomin, realising the threat Nex posed, eventually planned and successfully lured Nex, alongside her army, into a large icy cavern. Here, they enchanted them into a frozen sleep, albeit with massive casualties. Afterwards, the Saradominist forces built the Temple of Lost Ancients around it, known today as the God Wars Dungeon.

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

Escape and re-imprisonment

Much later, Saradominist priests, one of them being Ashuelot Reis, were approached by one of their own. The priest, knowing that his fellow priests grew weary from the endless wars, revealed to them that he had secretly converted to Guthixian teachings. Encouraging his fellow priests to join him, they abandoned the cause of Saradomin and became followers of Guthix.

The Zarosian army, sealed in the Ancient Prison.

Their new leader, the former Saradomin priest, taught them the druidic ways, including an ancient ritual that had the power to awaken Guthix himself, who they believed can end the God Wars. However, after the priests and their leader performed the ritual, it was discovered that the ritual actually woke Nex rather than Guthix, and that it also destroyed the enchantments that sealed the Ancient Prison, releasing Nex and her army in the process. Their leader, who had tricked the priests into freeing Nex, was revealed to be Sliske, a Zarosian Mahjarrat.

Due to the length of her enchanted sleep, Nex was not at full strength. Despite this, she quickly laid waste to vast numbers from all sides. Rapidly gaining power, the four factions fighting for the Godsword temporarily formed an alliance and managed to drive Nex and her forces back into their prison, but the magical protections that contained them could not be fully restored.

Official worlds

The following official worlds are assigned to Nex:

World	Location	Members	Activity
332	United States (west)	1	Nex FFA
481	United States (east)	1	Nex FFA
505	United Kingdom	1	Nex FFA
523	United Kingdom	1	Nex FFA

Fight overview

Main article: Nex/Strategies

An army of players fighting Nex.

Nex spawns in her chamber shortly after a player or team of players pass through the ancient barrier within the Ancient Prison. She has very high hitpoints and deals relatively high damage even through protection prayers, so fighting her in a team is effectively a requirement.

The fight consists of five distinct phases based on the Ancient Magicks, with Nex using smoke, shadow, blood, and ice magic, before entering an empowered final state. She can also use melee and a number of special attacks. In order for the fight to progress, Nex's hitpoints need to be reduced to a threshold, after which the mage who empowers her magic must be killed, which will then lead to the next phase.

Like other God Wars Dungeon bosses, there is an altar to restore prayer in the back wall of the room with a cooldown of 10 minutes, though uniquely if a Zarosian item is equipped, it will also replenish health, run energy and special attack energy.

Bodyguards

• Fumus (Magic, Smoke) – Attackable at 2720 hitpoints
• Umbra (Magic, Shadow) – Attackable at 2040 hitpoints
• Cruor (Magic, Blood) – Attackable at 1360 hitpoints
• Glacies (Magic, Ice) – Attackable at 680 hitpoints

Drops

In order to obtain drops from Nex, the player must deal a set amount of minimum damage. Getting a drop from Nex is considered a kill in the log. Nex drops a large lump of items upon death, which is determined by team size, and the share players receive from it is based on the player's total damage to Nex, her minions, and any reavers during the encounter. Two common drops are guaranteed after each kill.

The MVP receives a 10% bonus to common loot quantities and a 10% boost to the chance of obtaining a unique item drop.

Drop rates estimated based on 158,203 samples from the Drop Rate Project, unless otherwise cited.

100%

Big bones are only dropped for the MVP, the player who dealt the most damage to Nex.

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Big bones	1	Always	336	0

Uniques

There is an effective 1 in 43 chance of rolling the unique drop table per kill. It is possible to receive multiple unique drops per kill with multiple players, which is calculated based on the number of players and their individual contributions towards the kill. Below lists the effective drop rates, which are for each kill, rather than for each player.

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Ancient hilt	1	1/516	34,090,780	300,000
	Nihil horn	1	1/258	303,872,321	90,000
	Torva full helm (damaged)	1	1/258	191,093,609	120,000
	Torva platebody (damaged)	1	1/258	333,270,569	360,000
	Torva platelegs (damaged)	1	1/258	250,499,700	240,000
	Zaryte vambraces	1	1/172	95,319,690	120,000

Runes & ammunition

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Air rune	123–1,365	Uncommon	615–6,825	246–2,730
	Fire rune	210–1,655	Uncommon	1,050–8,275	420–3,310
	Blood rune	84–325	Common	17,976–69,550	20,160–78,000
	Death rune	85–170	Common	13,600–27,200	9,180–18,360
	Water rune	193–1,599	Uncommon	965–7,995	386–3,198
	Soul rune	86–227	Common	14,878–39,271	15,480–40,860
Dragon bolts (unf).png: Nex drops Dragon bolts (unf) with rarity Common in quantity 12-90	Dragon bolts (unf)	12–90	Common	12,096–90,720	1,008–7,560
Onyx bolts (e).png: Nex drops Onyx bolts (e) with rarity Uncommon in quantity 11-29	Onyx bolts (e)	11–29	Uncommon	95,689–252,271	99,000–261,000
	Cannonball	42–298	Common	8,946–63,474	126–894

Resources

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Air orb	6–20 (noted)	Common	6,642–22,140	1,080–3,600
	Coal	23–95 (noted)	Uncommon	3,496–14,440	621–2,565
	Runite ore	2–30 (noted)	Uncommon	22,050–330,750	3,840–57,600
	Uncut ruby	3–26 (noted)	Common	2,964–25,688	180–1,560
	Uncut diamond	3–17 (noted)	Common	6,426–36,414	360–2,040
	Wine of zamorak	4–14 (noted)	Common	2,856–9,996	0

Consumables

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Shark	3	Common	2,625	306
	Prayer potion(4)	1	Common	10,061	114
Saradomin brew(4).png: Nex drops Saradomin brew(4) with rarity Common in quantity 2	Saradomin brew(4)	2	Common	24,490	240
Super restore(4).png: Nex drops Super restore(4) with rarity Common in quantity 1	Super restore(4)	1	Common	11,131	180

Other

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Blood essence	1–2	1/82	77,633–155,266	60,000–120,000
	Coins	8,539–26,748	Uncommon	8,539–26,748	8,539–26,748
	Rune sword	1	1/209	11,885	12,480
	Ecumenical key shard	6–39	Common	Not sold	N/A
	Nihil shard	80–85	5/82	418,720–444,890	24,000–25,500
	Nihil shard	85–95	8/209	444,890–497,230	25,500–28,500

Tertiary

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Clue scroll (elite)	1	1/48	Not sold	12
	Nexling	1	1/500	Not sold	N/A

Combat Achievements

There are 0 Combat Achievement tasks (totalling 0 points) available for Nex.

Name	Description	Type	Tier	Comp%

Historical

As a piece of content brought into Old School RuneScape via backporting, Nex was originally released in RuneScape on 10 January, 2011. However, the Nex of Old School RuneScape has several differences which aim to address the issues with Nex's RuneScape counterpart and better adapt her for Old School RuneScape.

• Originally, players obtained four pieces of a frozen key (dropped by NPCs of each faction inside their strongholds). In Old School RuneScape, players must complete a miniquest, The Frozen Door, to open the frozen door, requiring completion of Desert Treasure I and killing each of the God Wars generals or their bodyguards. The key is also a one-off use that grants permanent access to the Ancient Prison without having to bring and/or repair the key.
• In RuneScape, the killcount to reach Nex's chamber could be skipped by wearing ancient ceremonial robes; however, as ecumenical keys and reducing the needed kill count via Combat Achievements existed in Old School, the robes do not have the ability to skip killcount, though it gives the stats of monk robes rather than being purely cosmetic.
• New uniques were proposed (namely the zaryte crossbow, vambraces and ancient godsword) rather than what she originally offered in 2011. Torva was still kept, but Pernix and Virtus armour was not offered. In addition, all players who dealt some damage in a kill would obtain part of the total drops, whereas the original only the most damaging player would, barring LootShare. Most of Nex's common drops were also significantly higher of value in her 2011 incarnation.
• The mechanics of the boss fight received some modifications and balancing tweaks to fit Old School RuneScape, though the fight is still largely similar to how it was in 2011.
• Voice acting is not present for the fight.
• Nex's combat stats were modified:

Combat stats
2011	3,000	315	260	260	350	350
2022	3,400	315	200	260	230	350
Aggressive stats
2011	+200	+0	+90	+0	+180	+0
2022	+200	+20	+100	+22	+150	+5
Defensive stats
2011	+140	+140	+140	+600	+160
2022	+40	+140	+60	+300	+190

Pre-release teaser

On 20 October 2021, a teaser to Nex and the Ancient Prison was quietly added, much like the original teaser released on 20 December 2010 in RuneScape; the frozen doors by the entrance to Armadyl's Eyrie were given an open option, and attempting to open the doors results in a chatbox message stating "You try to open the door, but it doesn't seem to budge."

After attempting to open the doors, a Strange Voice will speak in the chatbox, speaking one of six phrases. However, unlike the original teaser in 2010, there is no voice acting present.

• "All those who oppose us will perish..."
• "Face me and know despair..."
• "Give me the power of shadow..."
• "Mortals, only death awaits you here..."
• "My revenge will be great..."
• "You cannot imprison me forever..."

Dialogue

This article on an NPC has an associated dialogue page. Click here for a transcript of possible conversations with this NPC.

Changes

Date	Changes
[[{{#explode:10 July 2024| |0}} {{#explode:10 July 2024| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:10 July 2024| |2}}]] (update)	Fixed a bug where Nex's minions could take burn damage whilst invulnerable.
[[{{#explode:29 May 2024| |0}} {{#explode:29 May 2024| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:29 May 2024| |2}}]] (update)	Nex has had her Ranged - Heavy defence reduced to 150. Previously, her overall Ranged defence bonus was 190.
[[{{#explode:21 June 2023| |0}} {{#explode:21 June 2023| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:21 June 2023| |2}}]] (update)	Wearing either a gas mask, facemask, or slayer helmet will now prevent players from becoming infected by a player infected from Nex's choke attack.
[[{{#explode:24 May 2023| |0}} {{#explode:24 May 2023| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:24 May 2023| |2}}]] (update)	Nex now provides 100% bonus experience instead of 152.5% due to a balance change affecting NPCs with high hitpoints.
[[{{#explode:18 April 2023| |0}} {{#explode:18 April 2023| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:18 April 2023| |2}}]] (update)	Nex's overheads for Soul Split and Deflect Melee have been updated to use the Ruinous Powers colour scheme.
[[{{#explode:12 April 2023| |0}} {{#explode:12 April 2023| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:12 April 2023| |2}}]] (update)	Nex's overhead for Wrath has been updated to use the Ruinous Powers colour scheme.
[[{{#explode:20 July 2022| |0}} {{#explode:20 July 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:20 July 2022| |2}}]] (update)	The player who dealt the most damage to Nex is now broadcast at the end of the encounter.
[[{{#explode:13 April 2022| |0}} {{#explode:13 April 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:13 April 2022| |2}}]] (update)	Nex will now consistently spawn a Blood Reaver when fought with two players.
[[{{#explode:30 March 2022| |0}} {{#explode:30 March 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:30 March 2022| |2}}]] (update)	The chance of Nex rolling the unique drop table was reverted to 1/43.
[[{{#explode:23 February 2022| |0}} {{#explode:23 February 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:23 February 2022| |2}}]] (update)	Combat Achievements were added for Nex.
19 January — 26 January 2022	Hotfix An issue with players being able to unintentionally receive two unique drops from Nex has been fixed. An issue preventing players from receiving any unique drops has been fixed.
[[{{#explode:19 January 2022| |0}} {{#explode:19 January 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:19 January 2022| |2}}]] (update)	Players can now cast Monster Examine on Nex.
[[{{#explode:12 January 2022| |0}} {{#explode:12 January 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:12 January 2022| |2}}]] (update)	Nex has received some changes in the final phase of the fight: Soul Split healing has been combined into one hitsplat during her final phase. Melee attacks are now used more frequently, providing that Nex's target is within melee distance. Behaviour in regards to changing targets has been made more predictable. Nex's loot table has been re-adjusted. Mainly, the chance of Nex rolling the unique drop table was decreased from 1/43 to 1/53. Nex can now be selected when setting up activities for clan events. An issue has been fixed in which players did not receive loot when joining instances at the same moment the fight began.
[[{{#explode:11 January 2022| |0}} {{#explode:11 January 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:11 January 2022| |2}}]] (update)	Hotfix Nex will now flip to another part of the chamber if she doesn't attack for a period of time, even if she's in the centre of the chamber.
[[{{#explode:7 January 2022| |0}} {{#explode:7 January 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:7 January 2022| |2}}]] (update)	Hotfix Players who have completed the hard Combat Achievements can now have friends join their private instance when fighting Nex.
[[{{#explode:6 January 2022| |0}} {{#explode:6 January 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:6 January 2022| |2}}]] (update)	Hotfix A warning has been added to the safe room before the main area of the prison to inform players that they have items that have not yet been reclaimed after death. Supply drop quantities have been decreased in encounters with higher amounts of players. The maximum number of players allowed in an encounter has been reduced from 80 to 60. Nex's standard attacks will now hit more players. The order of special attacks performed by Nex in each phase are now randomised. Nex will now activate Soul Split upon beginning the final phase of the fight.
[[{{#explode:5 January 2022| |0}} {{#explode:5 January 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:5 January 2022| |2}}]] (update)	Hotfix An issue with Nex being immune to damage after certain phases has been fixed. All items awarded to a player from Nex (aside from her bones) will now drop at the players' feet. Wearing either a gas mask, facemask, or slayer helmet will now reduce duration of the cough effect as part of her smoke mechanic slightly.
[[{{#explode:5 January 2022| |0}} {{#explode:5 January 2022| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:5 January 2022| |2}}]] (update | poll)	Nex and the Ancient Prison are now fully accessible.
[[{{#explode:16 December 2021| |0}} {{#explode:16 December 2021| |1}}]] [[{{#explode:16 December 2021| |2}}]] (update)	Nex was added to the game, but could not be reached or fought.

Trivia

The login screen upon the release of Nex.

• "Nex" translates to "murder" or "death" in Latin.
• After Nex's release, the main menu was changed to an artistic depiction of the Frozen Door. The flames of the pillars depict the symbol of Zaros instead of runes. In addition, The Ancient Prison is played.
• Upon release, players could not cast Monster Examine on Nex. If players attempted to do so, a message appeared in the game chat stating You can't find out their stats. This was confirmed by Mod Kieren to be intentional in order to add an element of mystery to bosses on release, and the spell was re-enabled in the game update two weeks later.