Old School RuneScape has today launched its January 5 update on all platforms, so here’s the full list of changes and fixes with this patch. Today’s the day, as Nex: The Fifth General has made her return into the Old School version of RuneScape. After her original release back in 2011 on the main version of RuneScape, those who prefer the old version of the game can finally take her on. She’s even received an array of changes based on community feedback, so she should hopefully feel better to take on than she did back then. Just be ready to get 79 others to help you tackle this challenge. Without further adieu, here’s everything new with the January 5 update for Old School RuneScape!
Old School RuneScape January 5 Update Patch Notes
The Ancient Prison
So, hypothetically speaking, how might one enter this ‘Ancient Prison’? The sharp-eyed among you will have noticed that we released a short miniquest, ‘The Frozen Door’, on December 16th.
Without spoiling anything, completing this will secure entry into the Prison, where you’ll meet with Ashuelot Reis, a follower of Guthix who has dedicated herself to the unenviable task of keeping Nex contained. She’ll give your group a brief overview of the Prison complex before asking you all to join her outside Nex’s chamber.
The Prison is filled with foes from Nex’s army: Spiritual Warriors, Mages and Rangers, and the delightful-sounding Blood Reavers.
The format here should be familiar to anyone who’s conquered the rest of the God Wars Dungeon – defeating Nex’s minions adds to your Ancient Essence count, and when it reaches 40, you’ll be able to enter the boss room. However, not all beasties are made equal, and some will give you more Essence than others!
If you’re feeling magnanimous, you can bypass all that senseless killing with an Ecumenical Key, which will let you march right into Nex’s chamber. You can also lower the Essence requirement by completing Combat Achievement tiers.
Your Essence count is shown on the Kill Count interface, but it will be hidden until you’ve unlocked the Frozen Door. Once you’ve reached (or bypassed) the required amount of Essence, you may pass through to the inner chamber.
We don’t want to reveal too much about the battle itself – but let’s just say it’s going to test you!
The Rewards
- Torva Armour
This melee set consists of a Full Helm, a Platebody, and a pair of rather stylish Platelegs. It offers better offensive and defensive capabilities than the Bandos set, but doesn’t have the defensive chops and tasty Prayer bonus offered by Justiciar.
You’ll notice that on drop, the pieces of the Torva set are broken and unequippable. That’s what happens when you leave your armour sitting around in a frozen prison for centuries! You’ll need to repair it using components salvaged from the Bandos set. A furnace in the Frozen Prison will let you break down your Bandos gear and get tradeable Bandosian Components in return. Combine those with the broken Torva pieces, and bam! There’s your new melee set.
There are no skilling requirements for breaking down the Bandos pieces, but you’ll need level 90 Smithing or greater to use them to repair the Torva set.
Here’s how many components you’ll get per piece:
- Bandos Chestplate: 3 Components
- Bandos Tassets: 2 Components
Note that the Bandos Boots cannot be broken down into components. We made this decision to preserve the potential Bandos Chestplate/Tassets item sink. Besides, have you ever tried attaching a pair of boots to a chestplate? You’d look ridiculous!
Anyway, here’s how many Bandosian Components you’ll need to repair the Torva pieces:
- Torva Helm: 1 Component
- Torva Chestplate: 2 Components
- Torva Platelegs: 2 Components
Bandosian Components and both broken and repaired Torva pieces are all tradeable.
You’ll need at least 80 Defence to wear the Torva set.
- Zaryte Vambraces
- Zaryte Crossbow
- Ancient Godsword
(See RuneScape website for stats on the above rewards)
- Anicent Ceremonial Robes
This set consists of a Mask, Top, Legs, Gloves and Boots. It has the same stats as Monk Robes and will be added to the Collection Log.
If you’re familiar with the Nex of old, please note that wearing items from this set will not allow you to bypass the Ancient Essence requirement to unlock the boss room.
Additional Information
- You’ll need a minimum Kill Count of 50 to show up on the Nex HiScores.
- Monster Examine is not currently powerful enough to examine Nex’s stats.
- Hardcore Group Iron players cannot face Nex alongside players from outside their group, and will be kicked out of the boss room if other people are in the arena at the start of the fight. This works exactly as it does for The Nightmare.
- Regular Group Iron players can take on the challenge with others, but will be given plenty of warnings as doing so loses their Group Prestige. Again, this works exactly as it does for The Nightmare.
- Ecumenical Key Shards are untradeable. 50 shards can be converted into one key. If you’re capped out on Ecumenical Keys, you won’t be able to forge a new one.
- Blood Essence is stackable, tradeable and can be activated – which makes it untradeable. A player can only have one active Blood Essence at a time. If you create a Blood Rune with an activated Blood Essence in your Backpack, you’ll get the chance to craft additional Blood Runes. One Essence has 1,000 additional Blood Runes/charges and the chance to trigger the effect is 50% per Rune.
- Nex has the chance to drop a pet! Take good care of it!
- Nex can be fought solo in a private instance. Instances are unlocked by completing the Hard Combat Achievements tier, after which you can purchase an instance for 150,000 GP per entry. Higher Combat Achievement tiers lower this cost.
Old School RuneScape and the January 5 update are available on PC, Android, and iOS. For more information regarding this patch, check out the official website.
