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Nomad's Requiem is a grandmaster quest featuring an investigation into the activities of Nomad, the creator of Soul Wars. At the time of its release, the final boss fight was considered to be the hardest of any quest in the game.

Official description[]

The dark underbelly of Soul Wars is visible to anyone who looks hard enough: souls are collected and filtered through a giant obelisk; avatars of both nature and destruction are called into being and then slaughtered; a single man benefits from the exploits of dozens of adventurers. Zimberfizz is aware of this, and has also noted a change in Nomad. He's been spending more and more time in his tent, and Zimberfizz wants you to investigate just what Nomad is up to.

Walkthrough[]

Start pointQuest map icon
Nomad's Requiem icon
Speak to Zimberfizz at Soul Wars
Member requirementP2P icon Members only
Official difficultyGrandmaster Grandmaster
Official lengthMedium
RequirementsSkill requirements are not boostable unless marked with a [B] for boostable.
Quest Quests:

Recommended:

  • 76 Constitution Constitution
  • High (75+) combat skills, unless you're particularly good at combat
Items requiredItems from the tool belt are not listed unless they do not work or are not automatically added.
Recommended
Enemies to defeat

Zimberfizz' suspicions[]

Zimberfizz chathead

To start the quest, speak with Zimberfizz at Soul Wars. He will comment that Nomad is being sneaky at night, coming out of his tent all sparkly. He suspects Nomad is up to some evil schemes. Agree to help. He will ask to investigate Nomad's tent, who will interrupt the conversation and then teleport away for "some business to attend". Afterwards, inspect Nomad's tent and you will discover a trapdoor. Climb down to see a cut-scene.

Nomad's temple[]

Elite Dark Mage chathead

In Nomad's temple, Nomad will approach an Elite Dark Mage, Warrior and Ranger, who are angry at him. Nomad comments on them, saying he had expected some stronger people. The warrior will approach Nomad and hit him, although he does no damage. Nomad laughs and kills the man with a strike of his staff. The mage is scared and wants to back out, although Nomad also prepares a spell to kill him. The mage starts to pray, but Nomad easily hits through the prayer.

The enraged ranger says that the "master" will not be happy with Nomad's treachery and tries to leave, although he is frozen by Nomad. The ranger fires a few arrows but before any damage can be done, Nomad unleashes a spell that hits almost 1000 damage on the ranger, who dies. Nomad comments on the easiness of the fight and begins to depart.

Talk to Nomad, who initially thinks you are an assassin. He will warn you not to return again and forget what you have seen, or you will not get out of the temple. He then teleports away.

The first doorway[]

Down there, you must find a way to enter the arcane doorway (the white gateway to the north) in the main room. This is done by disabling the power source for both cables.

Water channel rooms[]

Items recommended: Combat equipment and food
Water puzzle

The second pillar must be pushed to get the water flowing

Go in the south-west room. Here, water must be directed to flow a certain way by moving pillars. However, water must first be sent to this room. (If you move the pillars before directing water to this room, the pillars reset when you leave the room.) The pattern found on the top of each pillar shows which water channels are opened. Beware of the aggressive Spectral attendants in this room. Note that any defeated attendants will not respawn, but they will if the player logs off.

Go up the ladder in the south-east part of the room and pull both levers. Go up another ladder in the north-east part of the room and push both pillars so that they cover the drains. Go down to the middle floor and check that water is flowing to the southern channel in the room. If it is not, work the levers until it is.

Nomad's Requiem solution

This is one working combination, but it is not the only one

Return to the bottom room to begin the puzzle. The aim of the puzzle is to have all three streams at the northern end (flowing into the machine) activated. There may be other ways to solve the waterflow problem, but if you put all the "+" pillars in the three spots near the machine you will have an easier time solving the puzzle. A possible solution is as follows:

Centre, west statue - push east.
North, west statue - push south.
North, centre statue - push west.
North, east statue - push west.
Centre, east statue - push north.
South, east statue - push north.
South, centre statue - push east.
Centre, centre statue - push south.
North, centre statue - push south.
North, east statue - push west.
Centre, east statue - push north.
South, east statue - push north.
South, centre statue - push east.
South, west statue - push east.
Centre, west statue - push south.
North, west statue - push south.
North, centre statue - push west.
North, east statue - push west.
Centre, east statue - push north.
South, east statue - push north.

When you get the "Yes, the device looks to be out of order now" message in the chatbox, then you have disabled the device.

Go back up one floor and mine the rubble next to the eastern channel. Pull the southern lever until it changes the water flow to the east channel. This will cause a waterfall to form in the south-eastern room — it is no longer needed in the south-west room because the machine is broken.

Elemental creature room[]

Items needed: At least three empty inventory spaces
Elemental lure locations

The suggested spots to drop the elemental fuel

Elemental creature

A player luring an elemental creature under the waterfall

Leave the water channel rooms and head to the south-eastern room. Get several pieces of elemental fuel out of the fuel hopper. If you do not have room, bank your food - it is not needed here.

Use the fuel ("place elemental fuel") to lure three elemental creatures out of the device in the room and onto the water flowing out of the ceiling. Only one creature can be lured at time. To lure a creature, place a piece of fuel on the floor near the machine. As it comes out and eats it, place another piece of fuel nearer the waterfall. You can easily space the food 4 squares apart - even diagonally.

Continue luring the creature until you can place a piece of fuel right in the waterfall itself, which destroys the creature. If a creature eats a piece of fuel before you place the next piece, you have only 2–3 seconds to place the fuel before it gives up and returns to the device. In this case, you must begin again with another creature.

Be aware that the creatures try to move in straight lines to the fuel, so obstacles like walls between the fuel and the creature will cause the creature to get stuck. Repeat this procedure until all three creatures are destroyed.

The second doorway[]

Exit the elemental creature room and go north through the arcane door. In this new room, there is a second arcane door to the north, again protected by two power cables that must be turned off. Beware of the aggressive spectral worshippers in this area.

Sentient vine room[]

Items recommended: Combat equipment and food
Roots (Nomad's Requiem)

One of the four roots that must be destroyed

Fighting the Decaying Avatar

The decaying avatar attacks

Go west and go through a door in the west wall. Go west down a corridor until you come to the first room. A set of animated roots guard the power device, preventing you from getting to it. If you try to attack the roots, you discover that they are unassailable when bunched like this. You must find a way to unbunch them.

Continue west following the vines on the floor. Beware of the aggressive spectral cultivators. In four places, find and destroy the individual roots that stick up from the ground. You hear a loud roar when you destroy the fourth root.

Return to the room with the power device, where a level 98 Decaying avatar will have spawned. When fighting the avatar, it will try to heal using roots that grow from the floor during the battle. Destroy the root before it can eat it; if it eats a root, it heals to full health, prolonging the battle. A root appears when the avatar has 75%, 50%, and 25% of its health left, in the following order: NW, SE, and NE of the room. Don't worry too much if the avatar does get to the roots, as after the third root, no more appear.

Try to position yourself in between the area the root will appear and the avatar when fighting him. This way you have a good chance to melee the root and destroy it before the avatar gets to it. When the avatar is killed, the waving roots disappear and the power device is automatically damaged. Players with higher combat levels shouldn't have too much trouble with the avatar, although it's advised to still come prepared.

If you leave the fight before killing the avatar (for example, by teleporting out of the temple), you will have to start the fight from the beginning again, but you won't have to destroy the four roots to get the avatar to appear. However, if you log out of the game in the avatar arena, it resets and you have to destroy all the roots again to face the avatar.

Corruption beast room[]

Items needed: Five empty inventory spaces, air runes and fire runes for a fire spell, and a Magic weapon
Items recommended: Combat equipment, food and standard Prayer book
Making a bridge of slabs

Making a bridge out of stone slabs

Igniting the barrels

Using a fire spell on a barrel, causing an explosion which destroys the machine

Return to the arcane door area and go east. At the doorway in the east wall, talk to the dying knight and then search his body when he dies. He will explain that he set up some explosives to help you destroy the machine. You get a clue about being pious, which means the Piety prayer will help you in the next room, so high prayer boosting gear is recommended.

Make sure you are on the standard Prayer book. Turn on Piety and enter the east room. Without Piety activated, the haze in the east room drains ten life points, as well as prayer and other stats every half-second. You may want to change your graphics settings to low detail, as it can be difficult to see in high detail.

The western part of the room contains several aggressive Corruption beasts, and Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee will help reduce the damage from their attacks. If you run low on Prayer points, killing a Corruption beast "uplifts your spirit" and fully recharges your Prayer points.

Collect the five stone slabs from piles of rock scattered throughout the room and build a bridge across the central pool, at the point where two slabs are already in the pool. Jump to the furthest slab, then left-click ("Place slab") on the slabs in your inventory.

When the bridge is built, cross to the eastern part of the room. Equip your magic weapon and ignite the explosive barrels to detonate them and destroy the machine. You must have runes for a fire spell in order to ignite the barrels; some of the spirits surrounding the main chamber drop runes for the spell, should you forget to bring your own.

Return to the arcane door area. You can now enter the next arcane doorway and face Nomad. If you are not ready, go stock up first.

The ultimate showdown![]

Items recommended: Combat equipment, food, potions, and a Summoning familiar
Nomad chathead
Nomad strikes

A new challenge

The Battle with Nomad

The battle with Nomad, the scourge of souls

Nomad's Defeat

Nomad is finally defeated

Enter the doorway. You will approach Nomad, who is sitting on an immense throne. He will be surprised that you have come. He explains that his throne channels the soul power from the soul fragments put into the obelisk into himself, in order to give him enough power to defeat his former master, whose identity Nomad will not reveal. He tells you that now you know this, you must die, and he attacks you. The following battle is safe; if you die, you respawn next to Zimberfizz at the entrance to Soul Wars with all your items.

Nomad's basic attack is an at-range Magic attack that is capable of hitting over 2500. It deals typeless damage, which means that Protect from Magic and Deflect Magic have no effect whatsoever on it. However, your Magic defence does affect the attack's accuracy; for this reason, armour with high Magic defence is strongly recommended when fighting him. For a more in-depth guide, see Nomad's strategies page. Be careful not to remain hidden from Nomad for too long. A few seconds after he says "face me!" he will call you a coward, teleport to his throne and heal back to full health. The boss fight may also reset entirely.

  • His first special attack is to lay a number of flame vortices in a pattern around you. Each vortex occupies one square. If you step on a flame vortex, it explodes, dealing 4000 life points' worth of damage. After about a minute, or after Nomad finishes casting Soul Blast, they explode on their own. If you are meleeing Nomad, you should turn off Auto Retaliate when he deploys the vortices so that you do not accidentally wander over one.
  • Nomad's second special attack, Soul Blast, is a powerful Magic attack that deals 7500 damage. Before using Soul Blast, Nomad teleports to his throne and announces "You cannot hide from my wrath" (which is a lie). Players should immediately hide behind a pillar in order to dodge this attack, although some players prefer to simply take the hit while continuing to attack Nomad.
  • Mirror image is Nomad's third special attack. He teleports to the centre of the arena and creates three copies of himself, each as powerful as the original. These copies will attack you, along with the real Nomad. If you attack a copy, it disappears; if you attack the real Nomad, all of the copies disappear. The actual Nomad will attack you slightly after the three copies attack you, allowing you to distinguish between Nomad and the clones.
  • Nomad's final and most powerful special attack is Disintegrate. He teleports you and himself to the centre of the arena, then hits you with an Ice Barrage-like attack that won't deal any damage, but freezes you in place. He then spends several seconds charging an immensely powerful Magic attack that deals an amount of damage equal to your maximum life points minus one. You have time to eat while he is charging the attack, and have a few moments to heal after he unleashes it. All abilities will have their cooldowns reset until he unleashes this attack.

The first time Nomad is reduced to 25% of his maximum life points, he will heal himself back to half health. The second time, however, Nomad will go berserk and switch to a melee attack with his staff. Although he will not use any of his other attacks when he goes berserk, his melee attack will hit very rapidly (throwing knife speed), and it can deal 500+ damage. Protect from Melee and Deflect Melee appear to have some effect against his melee attack.

Kill Nomad, who says you have doomed the world upon his death, and leave the temple. If you happen to die at the same time as Nomad, it will still count as a success. You will appear outside Nomad's tent. Talk to Zimberfizz and tell him Nomad is dead. He will not believe it and follow you to his body. You will even kick the head to make sure he is dead. Zimberfizz is content, puts on a new outfit and the two of you leave. However, as you walk out, Nomad stands up and teleports away.

Rewards[]

Nomad's Requiem reward
Music unlocked

Required for completing[]

Transcript[]

Sequel[]

Mod Mark had originally stated that Nomad's Requiem would not have a sequel and the purpose of the quest was purely to have a very hard boss fight.[source needed] However, Nomad's story was continued in the Sixth Age quest Dishonour Among Thieves that had him teaming up with the player, Zamorak, and a number of other devout Zamorakians to attempt to steal the Stone of Jas from Sliske. Nomad's Requiem received a direct sequel on 15 February 2016 with Nomad's Elegy, which again features Nomad planning to siphon souls, albeit on a larger scale.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Audio options icon
Unlisted music track
The unlisted music track that plays when Nomad dispatches the Elite Dark troops.

  • After completing the quest, the "Quest complete" text in the Adventurer's Log reads: I foiled Nomad's secret plans behind Soul Wars, leaving the battleground in the hands of Zimberfizz.
  • The floors of temple dungeon are shaped in the characters G, O and D, spelling 'god'. Mod Osborne has said that this is related to what Nomad's overall motive for building the Soul Obelisk was.[source needed] It is later revealed in Nomad's Elegy that he was using it to harvest souls in order to build a construct of a god from them.
  • It was once possible to avoid Nomad's most powerful attack (Disintegrate). After Nomad's clones had disappeared and he resumed normal attacks, the player could run south towards the exit door. As Nomad was launching his sixth attack after the clones had disappeared, attempting to exit through the door would result in the message, "And where do you think you are going?" The player would then be teleported back to the centre of the arena. If this were done correctly, Nomad would say, "Face me!" before launching more regular attacks (restarting the cycle).
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