OSRS Nex Guide: Strategy, Gear & Drop Rates

Nex is considered to be the toughest boss in OSRS, found deep within the God Wars dungeon. Her current combat stats mean that soloing her will be extremely difficult. Nex is designed to be fought with a team of 80 players. This article will provide a guide on how you can survive Nex while contributing good DPS against her.

Recommended Skill Levels

• Ranged: 90+
• Hitpoints: 90+
• Defense: 80+
• Attack: 90+ (for melee)
• Strength: 90+ (for melee)
• Prayer: 74+ (for casting Piety and Rigour)
• Magic: 76+

Best Gear Sets

The easiest DPS option for Nex is a full ranged build with the absolute best crossbow you can get. However, a hybrid melee/ranged build can be used to kite Nex and force her to delay her attacks. The hybrid gear set will also make certain boss mechanics more manageable since they require stab damage to clear. Here's all the gear that players should stock up on.

Note: Fill your inventory with Saradomin Brews, Super Restores, Sanfew Serum, Ranging Potions, and Stamina Potions. Two or more in your group should bring crushing weapons. Also, some can carry runes to summon thralls for added DPS. Depending on the group composition, some potions can be replaced with food such as Anglerfish for health recovery. Ranged players can also bring a Toxic Blowpipe and Dragon Arrows.

How to Start the Encounter

Players must have finished the Frozen Door miniquest and unlocked the titular door. Fortunately, unlike RuneScape, it won't re-lock itself and will stay permanently open. Reach the safe room where Ashuelot Reis provides banking services in preparation for the fight.

Since the area is within a God Wars dungeon, wearing god-affiliated equipment (specifically Saradomin or Zamorak and extra Zarosian) will render the mobs unaggressive. This is a crucial mechanic to help you reach the arena safely and gain 40 ancient essences and an 80-120 kill count for easy teleportation back. The former is to enter the mentioned safe room.

Teleporting out of the arena will put you in the area right before the encounter lobby. Because of that, the affiliated items are always a must to wear and bring. When dying during the encounter, grab your items from the chest found right after the frozen doors. It costs 100,000 gold to reclaim. Dying before getting them will make them irredeemable and lost for good.

The Arena

The arena is shaped like Zaros' symbol, a circular room with two bridges forming a cross. On each 'corner' (where the bridges connect to the outer rim) are four level 285 mages: Fumus, Umbra, Cruor, and Glacies. They represent each element Nex uses in the battle's first four (out of five) phases and will be called on to help her during the fight.

You can only enter this place if Nex is not engaged in a fight or when the door is purple. Entry is prohibited when the entrance is red. From the inside, if you need to restock on supplies, you can teleport using the altar in the area. As mentioned, you will be teleported outside the safe room, so always have your god-affiliated gear on hand.

The altar can also restore Prayer, HP, Special Attack, and Run energy if prayed at with a Zarosian item equipped. Otherwise, it will only restore Prayer. This can only be done every 10 minutes.

Nex Combat Guide

Nex will have 5 phases in her fight: Smoke, Shadow, Blood, Ice, and Zaros. Keep an eye out for these mechanics as each phase will primarily consist of two to four mechanics that you and your team can avoid.

Smoke Phase

At the start of the phase, Nex will shout, "Fill my soul with smoke!" For most of this phase, Nex will cast Smoke Rush, which can potentially poison players hit by it. The best way to mitigate it is by having every player go within melee range of her to force out her melee attacks instead. You will need to switch between Protect from Melee and Protect from Magic when she switches targets.

Keep watch for the following attacks:

• Choke
  • Nex will say “Let the virus flow through you” and inflict the player with the lowest magic defense stat with an affliction that drains prayer points and the highest attack stat. This can be identified by the *Cough* above their heads. To avoid this, have one player with the lowest magic defense stand far away from the group to isolate the debuff.

• Smoke Dash
  • Nex will look at one of the 4 paths and say “There is…NO ESCAPE.” Nex will then dash in that direction and damage all players within her path. When she says that line, all players within her target direction must run to any of the other 3 paths to avoid damage.

The phase ends with Nex calling out Fumus with "Fumus, don't fail me!", which makes him vulnerable to damage. Stab attacks are most effective against him, but ranged attacks are a safer option.

Shadow Phase

Nex will start this round by shouting "Darken my shadow!" and will begin shooting Ranged missiles that deal more damage the closer players are to her. Protect from Missile is good for this phase.

• Shadow Smash
  • Nex will say “Fear the shadow!”, which summons shadows under every player. Players have three ticks to move out of their way before they erupt and deal up to 50 damage.

• Embrace Darkness
  • Nex will telegraph this attack with “Embrace darkness!”, which darkens the room for players nearest to her. If they stay too close to Nex for too long during this mechanic, they will receive constant damage. To avoid this, move out of melee range from Nex and wait for the attack to end.

This time, the phase ends with Nex making Umbra vulnerable to damage by shouting, "Umbra, don't fail me!" Be careful about spacing with Umbra, as he will cast Shadow Barrage, which has splash damage.

Blood Phase

Nex will now shout "Flood my lungs with blood!" and start shooting blood projectiles that heal her for a percentage of the damage dealt and drain the target’s prayer. While this attack only focuses on one player, the projectile has splash damage with a 3-unit radius, so the team must spread out to avoid overlapping damage.

The following mechanics for this phase are:

• Blood Siphon
  • Nex will telegraph with “A siphon will solve this!” Nex will summon blood reavers and become immobilized. During this, any damage she takes will instead heal her. When this ends, all surviving reavers will die and heal Nex with their remaining health. Kill all the blood reavers before she drops her invulnerability.

• Blood Sacrifice
  • Nex shouts, “I demand a blood sacrifice!” She will target one player, and they will glow red. The marked player has 4 seconds to run away, or they will take 50 damage, bypassing Protection from Magic. This damage heals her and drains the target’s prayer points.

Like the previous phases, Nex will summon Cruor by shouting "Cruor, don't fail me!" and make him vulnerable, with ranged attacks being the safest option to kill him with.

Ice Phase

This phase starts with Nex shouting, "Infuse me with the power of ice!" She will then cast Ice Barrage, which will freeze players if they do not use Protect from Magic. Just like the Smoke phase, staying within melee range of Nex will force her to melee more often and reduce the frequency of her spellcasting.

• Containment
  • Next, she will say “Contain this!” and summon icicles out of the ground in a 5x5 area next to her. This deals 60 damage and disables prayers. When she announces this attack, move away from her until the icicles disappear.

• Ice Prison
  • Nex will target a random player and say, “Die now, in a prison of ice!” The targeted player will be trapped by a 3x3 stalagmite prison. After 4 seconds, the stalagmites will explode for 75 damage to anyone inside the prison. Players outside the prison must use a stab or crush-type weapon to break the stalagmites and free anyone inside.

Once you drop her health low enough, she will call for Glacies with "Glacies, don't fail me!" and make him vulnerable. He can also cast Ice Barrage, so make sure to keep him away from Nex to prevent overlapping attacks.

Zaros Phase

This is the final and simplest phase of Nex’s fight. She will now fight with melee, and her magic attacks will drain prayer and all attack stats. The only mechanic to watch out for is Wrath, where she will explode within 5 units and deal 50 damage once she dies.

At the beginning of the phase, Nex shouts, "NOW, THE POWER OF ZAROS!" Invoking the god's powers, she recovers 500 HP. She uses her usual magic and melee attacks and drains 5 Prayer Points with every hit. She also uses several Zarosian prayers, namely:

• Turmoil
  • Nex's magic and melee attacks gain an increase in accuracy and strength. Each hit will hit harder, even through protections. This lets her drain melee stats from those who get hit by her attacks, taking them as her own.
• Soul Split (overhead)
  • Nex heals a small percentage of health for every attack that hits up to three players. As soon as the phase begins, she uses this.
• Deflect Melee (overhead)
  • Activates a Protect from Melee variant that deflects that type of damage onto her attackers.
• Wrath (overhead)
  • An overhead prayer where Nex shouts, "Taste my wrath!" A more potent version of Retribution. Players have three seconds upon her death to move away (at least 6 tiles) to avoid this attack.

Nex cycles through the overhead prayers, switching from one to another every 5 attacks.

She also has the Deflect Melee prayer, which is an enhanced Protect from Melee prayer that reflects damage back to the player if they hit her with melee. Use ranged weapons for the remainder of this to avoid this mechanic.

OSRS Nex Strategies

General

Spirit Shields can mitigate her Prayer-draining effects. That makes Prayer management easier to keep up. This applies to phases two to five or to any applicable attack.

Note: Most of her abilities can be protected against with Prayers. Still, there is one exception: the phase three Blood Sacrifice attack penetrates it.

Smoke Phase

You'll want the group to stay within melee range because her attacks of that type only target one player. In contrast, her magic targets multiple players, dealing more total damage.

To counter Choke, have someone change into a low-magic defense armor and stay away from the group. The ability will target them, but won't spread the infection because nobody is nearby. This is the only attack to be countered.

Nex will look at the aisle she'll use Smoke Dash on. As mentioned, it's enough warning to get out of her way.

Note: Fumus is weak to stab attacks.

Shadow Phase

Since players take more damage from her shadow shots the closer they are, it's recommended to keep away. Be sure to top up your HP because Nex is prone to jumping close to a cluster of players to attack.

In this phase, it's better to lure Nex away from Umbra, so you can be ready to attack the mage near the end.

Note: Umbra has a weakness against ranged attacks.

Blood Phase

Players targeted by the Blood Barrage should move away from others to minimize the damage and healing Nex can do. Similarly, those marked for Blood Sacrifice should do the same. Go for the Blood Reavers when they appear. Do everything you can to keep Nex from healing as much as possible.

Note: Slash attacks are the most effective against Cruor.

Ice Phase

Take care that you don't go too near Glacies during this phase. The mage can freeze you, giving you no time to avoid Nex's Containment attack. If this happens, Protect from Missiles can mitigate the damage. As for the Ice Prison, use crushing attacks to make breaking the stalagmites easier. Have a few in your group bring some mauls or other crushing weapons.

Note: Like ice, Glacies is weak to crushing blows.

Zaros Phase

Like some other phases, stay in her melee range to reduce overall damage. Watch out for her overhead prayers and act accordingly, such as don't use melee when her Deflect prayer is active. Move away when Wrath is active, etc.

Drops

To be eligible for loot from Nex, you’ll need to deal a minimum amount of damage during the fight. Any successful drop counts as a logged kill. Nex drops a large pile of items on death, with the total amount scaled to the team size. Your share is based on how much damage you did to Nex, her minions, and any reavers during the fight.

Note: After each kill, two common drops are guaranteed. If you’re the MVP, you’ll get a 10% bonus to the quantity of common loot and a 10% increased chance of receiving a unique item.

100%

This drop is only available to the player who dealt the most damage against Nex.

Uniques

There’s an effective 1 in 43 chance to roll on Nex’s unique drop table per kill. With multiple players, it’s possible for more than one unique item to drop—this is based on the number of players and how much each one contributed to the fight. The drop rates listed below reflect the chance per kill, not per player.

Runes and Ammunition

Resources

Consumables

Sharks and Prayer potions are dropped together while Saradomin brews, and Super restores are dropped together

Other

Tertiary