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) 27 (Melee) 50 (Smoke Dash) 50 (Shadow Smash) 80 (Blood Sacrifice) 60 (Containment) 75 (Ice Prison)
Aggressive								Yes
Poisonous								Yes (8)
Attack style								Magic, Ranged, Crush
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												No elemental weakness
Ranged defence
+190								+190								+150
Immunities
Poison								100% resistance
Venom								100% resistance
Cannons								Immune
Thralls								Not immune
Open in DPS calculator
Advanced data
Monster ID								11278,11279,11280,11281,11282
Link								MOID

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 aside from the Hitpoints requirement. 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. Group ironman players will lose their prestige upon entering the encounter with a player outside of their group.

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.^[1] The leader of these Zarosians was Nex. Gaining power whenever she battled, Nex was considered unstoppable.^[2]

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.^[3] Here, they enchanted them into a frozen sleep, albeit with massive casualties.^[4] Afterwards, the Saradominist forces built the Temple of Lost Ancients around it, known today as the God Wars Dungeon.^[5]

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.^[6]

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.^[7] Encouraging his fellow priests to join him, they abandoned the cause of Saradomin and became followers of Guthix.^[8]

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 could end the God Wars.^[9] 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.^[10] Their leader, who had tricked the priests into freeing Nex, was revealed to be Sliske, a Zarosian Mahjarrat.^[11]

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.^[12]

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

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. Nex attacks with all three forms of combat, but is limited to two per phase; melee and magic for every phase other than shadow, which uses melee and ranged instead. Each phase makes use of different mechanics to keep challengers on their feet unless they wish to die a swift death.

After Nex has lost 20% of her maximum health, the mage responsible for empowering Nex can be attacked and must be killed in order to progress to the next phase. In the final phase, Nex will use the Ruinous Powers - Soul Split and Deflect Melee, before using no curses and alternating her overhead after every four attacks made. Upon reaching 0 health, Nex will activate Wrath in a last-ditch attempt to take down her opponents, which can be easily avoided by running away.

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. Uniquely, if the player is wearing an eligible Zarosian item, the altar will also restore health, run energy and special attack energy.

• 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

The following money making guides are available for Nex:

Method	Hourly profit	Skills
Killing Nex (Team)	6,675,244	90+ recommended 90+ recommended 85+ recommended for magic defence and summoning thralls 74+ recommended for Rigour
Killing Nex (Duo)	10,232,938	95+ , 95+ , 90+ , 90+ recommended 90+ recommended for magic defence and summoning thralls 74+ recommended for Rigour

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

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	246	0

There is an effective 1 in 43 chance of rolling the unique drop table per kill.^[13][14] 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.^[15] 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	37,780,627	300,000
	Nihil horn	1	1/258	335,378,824	1,200,000
	Torva full helm (damaged)	1	1/258	203,718,098	120,000
	Torva platebody (damaged)	1	1/258	156,505,344	360,000
	Torva platelegs (damaged)	1	1/258	97,334,640	240,000
	Zaryte vambraces	1	1/172	72,240,078	120,000

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Air rune	123–10,000	Uncommon	615–50,000	246–20,000
	Fire rune	1–10,000	Uncommon	5–50,000	2–20,000
	Blood rune	84–876	Common	31,416–327,624	20,160–210,240
	Death rune	85–986	Common	15,725–182,410	9,180–106,488
	Water rune	193–10,000	Uncommon	965–50,000	386–20,000
	Soul rune	86–592	Common	32,680–224,960	15,480–106,560
	Dragon bolts (unf)	12–283	Common	31,860–751,365	1,008–23,772
	Onyx bolts (e)	11–29	Uncommon	92,499–243,861	99,000–261,000
	Steel cannonball	42–2,252	Common	11,424–612,544	126–6,756

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Air orb	6–100 (noted)	Common	12,900–215,000	1,080–18,000
	Coal	23–2,354 (noted)	Uncommon	3,358–343,684	621–63,558
	Runite ore	2–30 (noted)	Uncommon	20,450–306,750	3,840–57,600
	Uncut ruby	3–80 (noted)	Common	3,261–86,960	180–4,800
	Uncut diamond	3–64 (noted)	Common	7,317–156,096	360–7,680
	Wine of zamorak	4–64 (noted)	Common	4,144–66,304	0

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Shark	10	Common[d 1]	10,530	1,020
	Prayer potion(4)	3	Common[d 1]	27,495	342
	Saradomin brew(4)	1–10	Common[d 2]	6,849–68,490	120–1,200
	Super restore(4)	1–5	Common[d 2]	9,975–49,875	180–900

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Blood essence	1–2	1/82[16]	79,763–159,526	60,000–120,000
	Coins	8,539–26,748	Uncommon	8,539–26,748	8,539–26,748
	Rune sword	1	1/209[17]	12,147	12,480
	Ecumenical key shard	6–39	Common	Not sold	4,320–28,080
	Nihil shard	80–85	5/82[18]	232,000–246,500	240,000–255,000
	Nihil shard	85–95	8/209[18]	246,500–275,500	255,000–285,000

	Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
	Clue scroll (elite)	1	1/48[d 1][d 2][19]	Not sold	12
	Nexling	1	1/500[20][21]	Not sold	N/A

There are 11 Combat Achievement tasks (totalling 56 points) available for Nex.

Name	Description	Type	Tier	Comp%
Nex Veteran	Kill Nex once.	Kill Count	Elite (4 pts)	16.6%
Nex Survivors	Kill Nex without anyone dying.	Restriction	Elite (4 pts)	15.6%
Nex Trio	Kill Nex with three or less players at the start of the fight.	Restriction	Master (5 pts)	5.6%
Shadows Move...	Kill Nex without anyone being hit by the Shadow Smash attack.	Mechanical	Master (5 pts)	15.6%
Contain this!	Kill Nex without anyone taking damage from any Ice special attack.	Mechanical	Master (5 pts)	15.6%
There is no escape!	Kill Nex without anyone being hit by the Smoke Dash special attack.	Mechanical	Master (5 pts)	15.8%
A siphon will solve this	Kill Nex without letting her heal from her Blood Siphon special attack.	Mechanical	Master (5 pts)	14.5%
Nex Master	Kill Nex 25 times.	Kill Count	Master (5 pts)	12.7%
I should see a doctor	Kill Nex whilst a player is coughing.	Restriction	Grandmaster (6 pts)	10.9%
Nex Duo	Kill Nex with two or less players at the start of the fight.	Restriction	Grandmaster (6 pts)	2.6%
Perfect Nex	Kill Nex whilst completing the requirements for "There is no escape", "Shadows move", "A siphon will solve this", and "Contain this!"	Perfection	Grandmaster (6 pts)	11.8%

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:^[22]

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

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..."

• "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,^[26] and the spell was re-enabled in the game update two weeks later.
• Nex's combat level of 1001 is the same as RuneScape 3's Nex.