Nex Best in Slot Gear & Strategy Guide

Nex lives in the Ancient Prison, sealed behind the frozen door in the southern part of the God Wars Dungeon, between Armadyl's Eyrie and Saradomin's Encampment. To open it you must complete the The Frozen Door miniquest, which involves assembling the frozen key by defeating the four God Wars generals (General Graardor, K'ril Tsutsaroth, Commander Zilyana, and Kree'arra). Once the key is used, the door stays permanently unlocked.

Reaching Nex requires a base level of 70 Hitpoints, 70 Ranged, 70 Strength, and 70 Agility (to pass through the four faction encampments). Of these, only Hitpoints can be boosted. Train them with our Ranged guide and the matching skill guides if you are short.

Inside the dungeon you must gather 40 essence from killing the Zarosian soldiers to reach the safe room (this can be bypassed with an ecumenical key, or lessened via Combat Achievements). Spiritual Warriors and Rangers give 2 essence each, Spiritual Mages give 5, and Blood Reavers give 3. Wearing Zaros-affiliated items makes these guards unaggressive and grants a chance at bonus essence per kill. Players who have completed the hard Combat Achievements can open a private instance for 100,000 coins that friends can join.

The strategy page suggests 90+ Ranged (higher for smaller teams), 90+ Hitpoints, 80+ Defence, and 76+ Magic for resurrection spells and magic defence. If you melee, bring 90+ Attack and Strength. For prayers you want 74+ Prayer for Rigour on a ranged setup, or 70+ Prayer for Piety on a melee setup — brush up with our Prayer guide.

Nex is weakest to stab (her lowest defensive bonus), but ranged is the recommended meta and is highly preferred for the Shadow and Zaros phases. The wiki's own words: "The easiest way to fight Nex is to prioritise a Ranged loadout with the best crossbow you can get your hands on." The two meta styles are a ranged setup (crossbow as the main weapon, plus a bow for minions and reavers) and a more advanced hybrid setup (a stab melee weapon plus Torva, generally only recommended for duos and trios). Key item families: a strong crossbow for damage on Nex, a fast bow or blowpipe for the bodyguards and Blood Reavers, a stab or crush weapon to free teammates from Ice Prison, and at least one Zaros-affiliated item kept on you at all times for protection in the encampment. For the exact best-in-slot pieces at your bank level, use our Boss Gear Finder above — pick your style with the ranged gear or melee gear hubs. Wearing five Zarosian items also makes the magic-defence-friendly Ancient dragonhide set worth considering for the essence-count bonus.

Nex is a long, supply-hungry fight. The standard ranged loadout leans heavily on Saradomin brews and Super restores, with a hard food such as Anglerfish for a bigger heal. Ironmen or budget players can swap a few brews for Anglerfish or Cooked karambwan, but the wiki warns that "without brews duo kills are not possible."

• Stab/crush weapon — at least two players (preferably everyone) should carry an Osmumten's fang, Zamorakian hasta, or Dragon warhammer to break Ice Prisons. A Black salamander can melt the prison without ammo and "will never fail."
• Thralls — highly encouraged for DPS because they ignore Nex's defensive bonuses and count toward your kill contribution. Greater thralls need blood, cosmic, and fire runes in a rune pouch.
• Run-energy management — in larger teams, drop a Saradomin brew for a Stamina potion or stackable Purple sweets (which can also tick-eat parts of the fight).
• Resurrection / Death Charge — brought for extra utility and DPS via the book and rune pouch.

Before entering, the strategy page recommends banking at least 80 or 120 essence count so the reserve lets you immediately re-enter the room after an altar teleport or a supply restock. The supply drops Nex herself gives back are generous — Sharks and Prayer potions come together, and Saradomin brews and Super restores come together — helping offset the heavy consumption over a long trip. Praying at the room's altar while wearing at least one Zarosian item restores Hitpoints, Prayer, Special attack, and Run energy, once every 10 minutes; with no Zarosian item it only restores Prayer.

Nex attacks with all three combat styles but is limited to two per phase. She has a standard melee attack (the infobox lists a melee max hit of 27, while the strategy page describes it hitting "up to 30") and the wiki notes she "will always follow up with two additional melee attacks if her target remains within melee distance." Her basic auto-attacks hit even harder at range — the infobox lists a Ranged max hit of 60 (her shadow-phase shots) and a Magic max hit of 33 — which is why the correct overhead prayer per phase matters so much. Using the correct protection prayer reduces melee damage by 80% (66% in the final phase) and magic damage by 50% (66% during the blood phase). Each phase ends when you drop her to a health threshold and kill the matching corner mage.

Smoke phase (begins with "Fill my soul with smoke!"): Nex uses Smoke Rush, which can poison; this is the only phase where her basic magic does not drain prayer. Stand in melee range (melee distancing) and the targeted player flicks Protect from Melee, then switches to Protect from Magic when she changes target. Specials: Choke (infects the furthest player with the least magic defence and spreads to adjacent players — have one ranger act as a choke tank with a gas mask, facemask, or slayer helmet), Drag (pulls a player in and disables their prayer; less likely if Protect from Magic is on), and Smoke Dash ("There is... NO ESCAPE!" — darts down an aisle for up to 50 damage; dodge the direction she faces). Kill Fumus at 80% health (2,720 HP) — weakest to stab.

Shadow phase ("Darken my shadow!"): her shots are now Ranged, so pray Protect from Missiles to halve the damage. Damage rises the closer you are, so stand at maximum distance and attack from afar. Specials: Shadow Smash ("Fear the shadow!" — shadows under each player erupt for up to 50; move within three ticks) and Embrace Darkness ("Embrace darkness!" — standing next to Nex deals constant damage; back off until it clears). Use shadow resetting — stand under Nex to force her back to centre — and do not attack while resetting. Kill Umbra at 60% (2,040 HP) — weakest to ranged.

Blood phase ("Flood my lungs with blood!"): Blood Barrage heals Nex and drains prayer; pray Protect from Magic. Stand spread out in melee distance to avoid the 3x3 AoE splash. Specials: Blood Siphon ("A siphon will solve this!" — she summons up to eight Blood Reavers and kneels; all damage to her heals her, so stop hitting her and farm the reavers, which heal you for 50% of damage dealt to them) and Blood Sacrifice ("I demand a blood sacrifice!" — a marked player must move at least seven tiles away within ~4 seconds; the strategy page lists "up to 50 damage through Protect from Magic" that heals Nex and drains 33% prayer, while the infobox lists a Blood Sacrifice max hit of 80). Kill Cruor at 40% (1,360 HP) — weakest to slash.

Ice phase ("Infuse me with the power of ice!"): Ice Barrage freezes you for 15 ticks if you are not praying Protect from Magic and drains prayer. Specials: Containment ("Contain this!" — a 5x5 icicle burst for up to 60 damage that disables prayer; pray Protect from Missiles if trapped) and Ice Prison ("Die now, in a prison of ice!" — a 3x3 stalagmite cage that shatters after ~4 seconds for up to 75 damage unless a stalagmite is destroyed; free trapped players with stab or crush attacks, or a salamander). Kill Glacies at 20% (680 HP) — weakest to crush, but still range it.

After Glacies dies, Nex enters her final Zaros phase ("NOW, THE POWER OF ZAROS!"), healing herself for 500 hitpoints and using only melee and non-attuned magic. As in the Smoke and Ice phases, the team stacks in melee distance to minimise magic damage; players with the lowest crush defence are targeted more often. Her magic here drains 5 prayer points on a hit, and has a quirk: Protect from Magic active before the attack reduces damage by 50%, but flicking it on after only reduces it by 25%.

She also wields the Ruinous Powers: Turmoil (permanent — her attacks become far more accurate and powerful and drain your combat stats), Soul Split (heals her on every hit she lands), and Deflect Melee (reflects your melee damage — switch to ranged while it is up). Her curse rotation is predictable: she always opens with Soul Split, switches to Deflect Melee after four auto-attacks, drops all curses after four more, then re-activates Soul Split after another four and repeats. On death she casts Wrath ("Taste my wrath!"), a stronger Retribution dealing up to 50 damage in a 5x5 radius — you have about three seconds to run clear.

Two stalling tactics keep team damage down: follow-stalling and the more efficient 5-tick stalling, both of which step under Nex to slow her 4-tick attack cycle and align it to 5-tick weapons. The wiki notes 5-tick stalling "is more effective than follow-stalling once mastered" and that follow-stalling "results in a large dps loss." Advanced players may also use Melee P2 (meleeing the shadow phase) and Mage-Skip, but both are recommended only once you are very familiar with the boss.

Two things govern who gets the loot. Your share of the drop is based on your total damage to Nex, her minions, and any reavers during the encounter — and crucially, the wiki warns that "if any of the team members teleport out or die, their contribution is not redistributed to the other members," diminishing everyone's drop chance. That is why reducing team damage matters as much as your own DPS: a dead teammate is lost contribution. For her standard attack Nex targets the nearest player, breaking ties on whoever has the lowest defensive bonus against her current style, so positioning and gear both feed into who she hits.

Two common supply drops are guaranteed after every kill, and the MVP (the player who dealt the most damage) gets a 10% bonus to common loot and a 10% better chance at a unique. There is an effective 1/43 chance of rolling the unique table per kill, divided by contribution — so multiple players can receive uniques on the same kill.

The marquee Zarosian uniques are Torva armour (the damaged full helm, platebody, and platelegs, each at 1/258), the Zaryte vambraces at 1/172, the Nihil horn at 1/258 (used to build a Zaryte crossbow), and the Ancient hilt at 1/516. The boss pet, the Nexling, drops at 1/500, rolled independently. The MVP also always receives Big bones. The full rate table is drawn above this guide.

• Soloing or under-manning. Nex deals heavy damage through prayer and is effectively a team boss; the wiki calls soloing "unfeasible."
• Spreading the Choke virus. Standing clustered in the Smoke phase before a choke tank takes the infection spreads coughs across the team. One player should tank it with gas protection and stay apart.
• Meleeing during Shadow phase. Damage rises the closer you are to Nex, so meleeing the shadow phase is risky unless the team "knows what they're doing" — stand at max distance and range her.
• Hitting Nex during Blood Siphon. While she kneels, all damage dealt to her heals her instead — switch to the Blood Reavers.
• Ignoring Ice Prison. A cage left intact shatters for up to 75 damage; keep a stab/crush weapon or salamander ready to free teammates.
• Dying on the way back. The altar teleports you to the dangerous encampment, so keep a Zarosian item equipped; "dying without reclaiming items in the chest will cause them to be lost for good."
• Standing in Wrath on the kill. Run away the moment she dies — you have about three seconds.