God Wars Dungeon

This article is about the main God Wars Dungeon. For the God Wars Dungeon that is located in the Wilderness, see Wilderness God Wars Dungeon.

God Wars Dungeon
Released		17 October 2013 (Update)
Also called		Temple of Lost Ancients
Members		Yes
Floors		3
Location		Troll Country
Inhabitants		Varies
Music		Armageddon
Map

Location on World Map
Ice Plateau
↑
Ice Path	←	God Wars Dungeon	→	Forgotten Cemetery
↓
Trollheim

The God Wars Dungeon (often abbreviated as GWD), originally known as the Temple of Lost Ancients, is a dungeon where armies of various gods fight, left over from the God Wars.

The Dungeon was first released on 28 August 2007, 18 days after the 10 August 2007 archive of RuneScape that Old School is based on. Its quick return to the live game was enabled by the fact that most of its assets had already been made at the time of the archive and it thus took minimal development time to recreate. One of the first major content releases following the February 2013 server launch, it passed Old School Feature Poll #9 on 9 September 2013 with over 24,860 votes for the return, at an approval of 89%. GWD was then implemented on 17 October for Old School RuneScape servers.

To get Slayer assignments related to the God Wars Dungeon, such as boss tasks, players must complete the Death Plateau quest.

How to get there

The blue route denotes coming from Burthorpe. The red route is taken from the Trollheim Teleport. Green indicates the use of Protect from Missiles, and cyan is where Protect from Melee should be activated.

God Wars Dungeon is located north of Trollheim. Accessing it requires partial completion of Troll Stronghold or full completion of the Easy Combat Achievements (in order to use the teleport on Ghommal's hilt 1) and either 60 Strength or 60 Agility. A rope is also required the first time. Without 61 Magic and the completion of Eadgar's Ruse (to be able to use the Trollheim Teleport), climbing boots are required each time. Strength potions may be used to boost past the boulder blocking the entrance, but cannot be used to reach the Bandos area. Before entering, items aligned to the gods should be equipped; otherwise, all the followers of those gods will be aggressive, which can quickly kill any player.

• If you have completed Eadgar's Ruse and have level 61 Magic, you may use the Trollheim Teleport (or the equivalent teleport tablet) to land on top of the mountain east of the Troll Stronghold. From there, make your way down to the base of the mountain and go north. There are Agility shortcuts from level 41 to 47 along the mountain that can be used to shorten the walk. If Making Friends with My Arm has been completed, a stony basalt can also be used as it teleports you to the Troll Stronghold, but this is a slightly longer run.
  • Players can reach Trollheim without losing additional inventory slots for teleports. This requires using two scrolls of redirection on two house teletabs, creating two Trollheim teletabs. Once players use the first tablet, they can revert the second one back into a house teletab, thus negating the need to perform the drop trick.

• If you cannot use the Trollheim Teleport, teleport to Burthorpe (with a games necklace, for example). This route requires climbing boots, rope, the start of Troll Stronghold and a stamina potion or some super energies will make the trip faster. From there, follow the blue route either up past the wounded soldier and past Death Plateau, making sure to Protect from Range, or go south-west at the fork to Tenzing's house. Make your way north and follow the route through to where Dad is: either you will have to fight him, or he won't be there, depending on how far along the Troll Stronghold quest you are. From there, enter the cave to the north and follow the map route up to the north.

After arriving from either method, go to the northern side of the mountain, where there are thrower trolls, so turning on Protect from Missiles is recommended when close to them. Go to the small alcove in the north, go past the boulder or crack in the wall, and run north to the entrance, which is the large hole in the ground. This area's chill effect drains your stats by 1 every few seconds, and will also drain all of your run and special energy (this effect can be completely negated if you have lit the fire pit found south-west of the dungeon entrance, which requires completion of Making Friends with My Arm). There are high-level ice wolves here, so using Protect from Melee is helpful. If it is your first time entering the dungeon, use a rope on the hole, and climb down.

Note: The Agility shortcuts (climb the rocky stoneholds) north-east of the entrance as well as to the east of Trollheim are one-way routes into level 22 and 31 Wilderness. Players cannot use the shortcut from the Wilderness to get to the GWD area.

The dying knight

“

...When the Temple Knights discovered rumours of the ruined temple, they immediately feared the return of some ancient evil and sent a contingent of their strongest warriors to investigate. The knight that lies dying amidst the crumbling masonry is all that remains of that doomed expedition...

”

• West of the dungeon entrance, talk to the Dying knight and receive the Knight's notes. The knight asks you to bring the notes to Sir Tiffy Cashien in Falador Park. You can enter the dungeon without bringing the notes to Sir Tiffy. You don't even need the notes to enter—just speak to the knight before entering the first time. (If you bring the notes to Sir Tiffy, he will take them whether you have read them or not.)
• After you grab the notes from the dying knight, he will succumb to his fatal wounds. If you did not bring the notes to Sir Tiffy (by destroying it), you can obtain another set of notes from his corpse.

God chambers

• At the edges of the main dungeon are special chambers belonging to each god, serving as a sort of "base" for each god's followers. Each chamber contains many minions of the chamber's god. Some Zamorak minions also appear in each of the other three chambers, where they usually fight the inhabitants of those chambers. This means a Zamorak item should be equipped in every god chamber, but Armadyl, Bandos, and Saradomin items only need to be equipped in their respective gods' chambers. This allows the player to swap out items like the Armadyl pendant for more powerful items.
• Gaining entry to these chambers requires the players to have certain levels and sometimes use of equipment. Level requirements cannot be boosted.
• At the end of each chamber are the most powerful generals of each god, with Combat levels from 580 to 650. There are also three bodyguards, each one using a single combat style in the combat triangle, and an altar for the player to use. This altar can only be used once every 10 minutes and only while the player isn't in combat. For each item affiliated with the appropriate god that the player is wearing, the altar will boost one prayer point above the player's maximum. In order to access this chamber, the player will need to kill 40 of the god's followers, which is decreased to 35, 30, 25 and 15 for completion of the Hard, Elite, Master and Grandmaster combat achievements respectively.
  • The player can also right-click the altar to teleport out of the boss' chamber, even during combat. This will place them just outside the door to the chamber.
• The Ecumenical key, obtained in the Wilderness God Wars Dungeon, allows players to skip killcount.
  • Spare keys are not needed in the event of death since dying inside one of the four God Wars Dungeon boss rooms will result in your grave appearing outside the boss room. Consumables, however, will remain inside.

Items

Recommended items

• Rope (to access the dungeon itself for the first time) - two more ropes will be needed if venturing into Saradomin's Encampment on the first visit.
• Ring of life (if solo'ing and/or first-timing)
• Several prayer potions or super restore potions
• High level armour and equipment, such as Barrows equipment
• Several Saradomin brews
• 15+ monkfish or better food
• One-click teleport (such as the ectophial, teleport crystal, teleport tablets, or teleport scrolls)
• Super combat potions or super sets (optional)
• Poison protection (only needed if planning to fight K'ril Tsutsaroth)
• Stat restore potion (for recovering from the icy area above the dungeon for the short haul)
• Bones to peaches tablets (if fighting bosses multiple times)

Additional items

The following items are needed to enter a particular god's lair.

• A crossbow and mith grapple (Armadyl's Eyrie)
• 2 ropes (Saradomin's Encampment; one-time only)
• A hammer (dropped by Goblin) or any warhammer (Bandos' Stronghold)

God-related protection

All monsters in the dungeon are aggressive to any player unless they have equipped at least one item that is devoted to their god. Aggression remains for a monster until the battle is over whether this be one of the combatants dying or leaving the area. As such, unequipping and re-equipping a piece of equipment will cause monsters in your vicinity to become aggressive but not re-tolerant.

Only one item devoted to a god is required to soothe all of their soldiers and having items devoted to a different god or gods will not cancel out the effect of any other piece of equipment. Appropriately, full tolerance from all monsters in the main dungeon only normally requires four total pieces of equipment: one attuned to each god. For example, equipping an Armadyl pendant, ancient mace, Zamorak platelegs, and Saradomin cloak will render every combatant unaggressive.

When considering what protection is required to bring, it should be noted that in the main dungeon, there will be no followers of the god diagonally across from that section in the vicinity; the one exception to this is followers of Zamorak, who are dispersed everywhere within the main dungeon. The Ancient Prison is a separate section of the dungeon and only contains Zarosian followers, who are not found anywhere else in the dungeon; likewise, Zamorak's followers have no holding in there.

God equipment

Area	Protection required
	Armadyl	Bandos	Saradomin	Zamorak	Ancient (Zaros)
Main dungeon
Armadyl's corner	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Bandos' corner	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Saradomin's corner	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Zamorak's corner	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Encampments
Armadyl's Eyrie	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Bandos' Stronghold	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Saradomin's Encampment	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Zamorak's Fortress	No	No	No	Yes	No
Ancient Prison	No	No	No	No	Yes

Remember that wielding respective equipment in the dungeon will make monsters following a respective god unaggressive. Without them, players will be subject to attack by that group of followers.

Slot	Saradomin	Zamorak	Bandos	Armadyl	Zaros
Weapon	Saradomin godsword Saradomin sword Saradomin scimitar Staff of light Saradomin's blessed sword Saradomin staff Saradomin crozier Saradomin mjolnir Hallowed hammer Holy scythe of vitur Holy ghrazi rapier Holy sanguinesti staff	Zamorak godsword Zamorakian spear Zamorakian hasta Zamorak staff Zamorak scimitar Zamorak crozier Zamorak mjolnir Staff of the dead Staff of light Staff of balance Toxic staff of the dead Dragon hunter lance Thammaron's sceptre (a) Thammaron's sceptre Accursed sceptre (a) Accursed sceptre Viggora's chainmace Ursine chainmace Inquisitor's mace	Ancient mace Bandos godsword Bandos crozier	Armadyl godsword Armadyl crossbow Armadyl crozier Craw's bow Webweaver bow	Ancient godsword Ancient staff Ancient sceptre Ancient crozier Venator bow Zaryte crossbow
Shield	Holy book Saradomin kiteshield Saradomin-painted heraldic kiteshields Saradomin d'hide shield Hallowed focus	Unholy book Zamorak kiteshield Zamorak-painted heraldic kiteshields Zamorak d'hide shield	Book of war Bandos kiteshield Bandos d'hide shield	Book of law Armadyl kiteshield Armadyl d'hide shield	Book of darkness Ancient kiteshield Ancient d'hide shield
Head	Saradomin coif Saradomin mitre Saradomin full helm Saradomin halo Saradomin max hood Imbued saradomin max hood Justiciar faceguard Saradomin-painted heraldic helmets	Zamorak coif Zamorak mitre Elder chaos hood Zamorak full helm Zamorak halo Zamorak max hood Imbued zamorak max hood Inquisitor's great helm Zamorak-painted heraldic helmets Dagon'hai hat	Bandos full helm Bandos coif Bandos mitre Bandos halo	Armadyl helmet Armadyl coif Armadyl full helm Armadyl mitre Armadyl halo	Ancient coif Ancient full helm Ancient mitre Ancient halo Ancient ceremonial mask Torva full helm Virtus mask Hood of darkness
Cape	Saradomin cape Saradomin cloak Saradomin max cape Imbued saradomin cape Imbued saradomin max cape	Zamorak cape Zamorak cloak Zamorak max cape Imbued zamorak cape Imbued zamorak max cape	Bandos cloak	Armadyl cloak	Ancient cloak
Body	Saradomin robe top Saradomin d'hide body Monk's robe top Saradomin platebody Justiciar chestguard	Zamorak robe top Zamorak monk top Elder chaos top Zamorak d'hide body Zamorak platebody Inquisitor's hauberk Dagon'hai robe top	Bandos chestplate Bandos platebody Bandos d'hide body Bandos robe top	Armadyl chestplate Armadyl platebody Armadyl d'hide body Armadyl robe top	Ancient platebody Ancient d'hide body Ancient robe top Torva platebody Virtus robe top Ancient ceremonial top Robe top of darkness
Legs	Saradomin robe legs Saradomin chaps Monk's robe Saradomin platelegs Saradomin plateskirt Justiciar legguards	Zamorak robe legs Zamorak monk bottom Elder chaos robe Zamorak chaps Zamorak platelegs Zamorak plateskirt Inquisitor's plateskirt Dagon'hai robe bottom	Bandos tassets Bandos platelegs Bandos chaps Bandos plateskirt Bandos robe legs	Armadyl chainskirt Armadyl platelegs Armadyl chaps Armadyl plateskirt Armadyl robe legs	Ancient platelegs Ancient chaps Ancient plateskirt Ancient robe legs Torva platelegs Virtus robe bottom Ancient ceremonial legs Robe bottom of darkness
Hands	Holy wraps Saradomin bracers	Zamorak bracers	Bandos bracers	Armadyl bracers	Ancient bracers Zaryte vambraces Ancient ceremonial gloves Gloves of darkness
Feet	Saradomin d'hide boots Holy sandals Devout boots	Zamorak d'hide boots	Bandos d'hide boots Bandos boots Guardian boots	Armadyl d'hide boots	Ancient d'hide boots Ancient ceremonial boots Boots of darkness
Ammunition	Holy blessing Hallowed grapple	Unholy blessing	War blessing	Honourable blessing	Ancient blessing
Neck	Holy symbol Saradomin stole Hallowed symbol	Unholy symbol Zamorak stole	Bandos stole	Armadyl pendant Armadyl stole	Ancient stole
Ring	Hallowed ring Ring of endurance	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Main Dungeon

The dungeon consists of a large central shared chamber with four offshoots that lead to each general's base. This is where the majority of the fighting takes place, with a free-for-all between each god's forces. Apart from aviansies, all other monsters will not retaliate at the aggressor if they are in combat with another monster.

Accessing the bases requires 70 in their respective stat, which cannot be boosted. The Ancient Prison can be accessed by assembling a frozen key, obtained from defeating the four generals. Once used on the Frozen Door, the key disintegrates, but allows for permanent access to the Ancient Prison.

Armadyl's Eyrie

A player grappling to Armadyl's Eyrie.

• Location: South-west
• Requires: 70 Ranged and a crossbow with a mithril grapple
• Music: Armadyl Alliance

The pillar at the gap must be grappled using a crossbow and a mithril grapple. Just inside the Eyrie, there's a crate that can be searched for a spare mithril grapple, if the player wants to leave again; an infinite amount can be claimed as long as the player doesn't already have one.

The Eyrie contains Armadylean spiritual mages, rangers and warriors as well as regular aviantese.

Several minions of Zamorak: a bloodveld, two werewolves and two Zamorakian spiritual rangers, who regularly fight with the Armadyleans, are also found here.

Bandos' Stronghold

The big door, the entrance to Bandos' Stronghold.

• Location: North-west
• Requires: 70 Strength and a hammer (warhammers or the Imcando hammer will work)
• Music: Bandos Battalion

The gong on the big door must be hit with a hammer to enter the chamber. The player will automatically enter the Stronghold when the gong is hit.

To leave, simply walk up next to the door and it will open, or click on the door ('Bang on big door'). The door does not always open. If this happens, walk about 3-4 squares into the Stronghold and try again. (Simply staying next to the door and repeatedly clicking it does not cause it to open.)

Inside the Stronghold Bandos' higher-level forces can be found: Bandosian spiritual mages, rangers and warriors, orks, cyclopes and jogres.

Several minions of Zamorak: a bloodveld, hellhound, imp, werewolf and two vampyres are found lingering in the Stronghold, most of them regularly fighting the Bandosians.

Saradomin's Encampment

The first rock in which a rope is required.

• Location: South-east
• Requires: 70 Agility, 2 ropes for first-time entry only
• Music: Strength of Saradomin

To enter Saradomin's Encampment, a rope must be tied to a rock by the waterfall, and another rope must be attached to another rock inside the Encampment to allow full access. Once the ropes are attached they will remain permanently.

Like the main area, all of Saradomin's forces can be found here: Knights, priests and spiritual mages, rangers and warriors.

Several minions of Zamorak: two werewolves, two vampyres, an icefiend and a gorak are in the encampment, fighting the forces of Saradomin.

Zamorak's Fortress

The broken ice bridge.

• Location: North-east
• Requires: 70 Hitpoints to cross the river
• Music: Zamorak Zoo

The player's prayer points are immediately drained to 0 upon crossing the river. In addition to that, the lighting is dimmed and cannot be illuminated by light sources, though it remains fairly easy to see. The light darkens as the player approaches the boss chamber. This darkness can be dispersed by consuming Saradomin's light, a drop from Commander Zilyana.

Inside the fortress many minions of Zamorak can be found: spiritual mages, rangers and warriors, imps, bloodveld, goraks and hellhounds.

The Fortress is the only one of the four gods' chambers that contains only the minions of its god. No minions of Saradomin, Armadyl, or Bandos spawn here.

Ancient Prison

The Frozen Door leading to the Ancient Prison.

• Location: South-centre of main chamber, through the frozen door
• Requires: 70 Agility, 70 Hitpoints, 70 Ranged, and 70 Strength
• Music: The Ancient Prison

The Ancient Prison requires the player to have used a frozen key on the door to unseal it and access the prison. Followers of the ancient god Zaros reside within, far stronger than the combatants in the rest of the dungeon.

There is an ancient forge inside the prison to break down Bandos armour into Bandosian components, and a "lobby" area between the main chamber and Nex's prison where players can resupply via Ashuelot Reis, and prepare to fight Nex herself. Should a player logout inside the "lobby" area, they will return to the lobby/banking room upon logging back in.

Generals

The generals reside at the end of their strongholds, requiring 40 essence in order to access. This can be lowered by completing tasks from the Combat Achievements system, and beginning from the hard tier rewards, the chambers can be instanced, requiring 150,000 coins and lowering by 25,000 for each tier above it. The generals and their bodyguards do count towards essence count, which can be used to extend trips within the dungeon indefinitely with the addition of the banking room in Nex's Ancient Prison.

In non-instanced chambers, if the general is damaged but no one is inside, they will despawn.

Armadyl's general

Main article: Kree'arra

A group of players fighting Kree'arra, the graceful avatar of Armadyl.

• Name: Kree'arra
• Race: Aviansie
• Level: 580
• Attack style: Ranged, Magic, Melee (when not under attack)
• Bodyguards: Wingman Skree, Flockleader Geerin, and Flight Kilisa

Kree'arra is a massive aviansie; like his fellow brethren, he cannot be attacked with any Melee attacks apart from that of a salamander. He attacks with melee only when he is not under attack. His Ranged and Magic attacks hit all players in his chamber with a whirlwind attack that knocks players back and freezes them. His maximum hit is 71 with Ranged, 26 with Melee and 25 with Magic.

Bandos's general

Main article: General Graardor

A group of players fighting General Graardor, a huge Bandosian war chief.

• Name: General Graardor
• Race: Ourg
• Level: 624
• Attack style: Melee, Ranged
• Bodyguards: Sergeant Strongstack, Sergeant Steelwill, and Sergeant Grimspike

General Graardor is a very large, brutal, and heavily armoured ourg. Although he does not have a weapon, he still hits very hard and should not be underestimated. He uses Melee and Ranged attacks. His Melee attack can hit up to 60, whilst his Ranged attack has a max hit of 35 (and can hit everyone in the room). Therefore, Protect from Melee is recommended for tanks, whilst the rest Protect from Ranged.

Saradomin's general

Main article: Commander Zilyana

A group of players fighting Zilyana, commander of Saradomin's forces.

• Name: Commander Zilyana
• Race: Icyene
• Level: 596
• Attack style: Melee and Magic
• Bodyguards: Starlight, Growler, and Bree

Commander Zilyana is a female Icyene. She is described in the Game Guide as "delivering divine justice with a sharpened tip". Her max hit with Melee is 31 and Magic is 31; lower than the other bosses, albeit being very accurate, and are of the same speed as throwing knives.

Zamorak's general

Main article: K'ril Tsutsaroth

A group of players fighting K'ril Tsutsaroth, a servant of the god Zamorak.

• Name: K'ril Tsutsaroth
• Race: Demon
• Level: 650
• Attack style: Melee and Magic
• Bodyguards: Balfrug Kreeyath, Tstanon Karlak, and Zakl'n Gritch

A massive demon that leads Zamorak's forces, K'ril's Magic attacks are relatively weak compared to his Melee attacks. His magical attacks hit a maximum of 30, but are commonly used. His Melee attacks, however, can hit up to 49 (41 even with Protect from Melee). He can drain Prayer and can sometimes hit through protection prayers. K'ril Tsutsaroth can also inflict poison damage which starts at 16, so it is advisable to bring protection against poison.

Zaros' general

Main article: Nex

A group of players fighting Nex, one of Zaros' most powerful generals.

• Name: Nex
• Race: Nihil
• Level: 1001
• Attack style: Melee and Magic
• Bodyguards: Fumus, Umbra, Cruor, and Glacies

A formidable and exceedingly powerful nihil known as the Angel of Death and the fifth general, Nex is an extremely powerful general of Zaros that forced the other four generals to work together to seal her and her armies behind their ancient prison. Unlike the other generals, Nex possesses multiple phases during her fight. She uses Ancient Curses that are not accessible to players.

Combatants

Armadyl

• 

  Aviansie (69-148) - ranged

• 

  Spiritual warrior (122) - ranged

• 

  Spiritual mage (123) - magic

• 

  Spiritual ranger (127) - ranged

Bandos

• 

  Goblin (12-17) - melee

• 

  Hobgoblin (41-47) - melee

• 

  Ogre (58) - melee

• 

  Jogre (58) - melee

• 

  Cyclops (81) - melee

• 

  Ork (107) - melee

• 

  Spiritual ranger (115) - ranged

• 

  Spiritual mage (121) - mage

• 

  Spiritual warrior (134) - melee

Saradomin

• 

  Knight of Saradomin (101-103) - melee

• 

  Saradomin priest (113) - magic

• 

  Spiritual mage (120) magic

• 

  Spiritual ranger (122) - ranged

• 

  Spiritual warrior (125) - melee

Zamorak

• 

  Imp (7) - melee

• 

  Icefiend (18) - magical melee

• 

  Pyrefiend (48) - magical melee

• 

  Feral Vampyre (77) - melee

• 

  Bloodveld (81) - magical melee

• 

  Werewolf (93) - melee

• 

  Spiritual warrior (115) - melee

• 

  Spiritual ranger (118) - ranged

• 

  Spiritual mage (121) - magic

• 

  Hellhound (127) - melee

• 

  Gorak (149) - typeless melee

Zaros

• 

  Spiritual warrior (158) - melee

• 

  Spiritual ranger (158) - ranged

• 

  Blood Reaver (174) - magic

• 

  Spiritual mage (182) - magic

Historical

The original version of GWD was released on 28 August 2007, less than a month after the source code of Old School RuneScape (10 August 2007). On the first official release, Jagex encountered many issues with bugs that arose in the following weeks (28 August 2007) after launch. These issues were fixed before the God Wars Dungeon was implemented into Old School RuneScape.

These fixes included the following:

Server load - Inefficient combat code running on certain monsters caused the servers to struggle.

Safespotting in boss rooms - Angled walls and doorways were edited to a rectangular form without angled corners which could be used to safespot bosses in relative safety.

Commander Zilyana's angled room before being edited.

Monster settings - Monsters are now able to walk through one another and players without causing them to be stuck. Certain monsters AI flaws were corrected (some monsters used weaponry and combat styles without code to specify how they would do this).

Excessive adamant bar drops - Originally, Aviantese had a chance of over a 19.5% drop rate of Adamantite bars in bank-note form. The developers did not want bots re-appearing in Old School RuneScape, so to avoid aviansie bots, they only promised to release the GWD if the adamant bars the aviansies dropped were not noted. This has been remedied by having them drop the bars in noted form only when the hard Fremennik Diary has been completed. In addition, aviansies in the Wilderness God Wars Dungeon drop noted bars as well, but players can attack aviansie hunters there.

Minor general bugs

• Slayer experience is awarded if another monster deals the killing blow (assuming the player deals damage).
• A section of the Wilderness near the GWD entrance had incorrect map blocking causing players to be stuck.
• The familiar check at the GWD entrance was removed due to it not working correctly.
• Killcount is more reliable (resetting to 0 after re-entering).
• The snow overlay didn't always vanish correctly on leaving the area.

Changes that passed the feature poll include:

• The four bosses and their bodyguards broadcast messages to all players in their rooms to state what items have been dropped, and to whom.
• The boss room doors are entrances only, and the altars have a 'Teleport' option to let you exit.
• When the four bosses drop stacks of herbs, they now do so in banknote form.
• A new magic weapon similar in behaviour to the Staff of light is dropped by K'ril Tsutsaroth.

On 20 October 2021, the Frozen Door could be interacted with, revealing a threatening voice which many players assumed to be that of Nex due to a similar approach like RuneScape. The general was quickly revealed to be Nex, who would be arriving into the game soon. However, as Old School RuneScape lacks overworld overloads, Summoning, and the Ancient Curses that were prevalent during Nex's release in RuneScape, accessing and fighting Nex would be far different compared to that of RuneScape. Nex and the entirety of the prison became available on 5 January 2022, although the frozen key and the first chamber in the prison were made accessible on 16 December 2021.

• The frozen key in RuneScape was a charged item that would loses charges each time it was used on the door in return for access to the prison. Eventually an option was added to permanently access the Ancient Prison by giving a key and 10,000,000 coins to Ashuelot Reis. The key in Old School RuneScape is a one-time item that permanently grants access to the prison.
• Rather than living members of Zarosian followers (ancient warriors, rangers and mages), they are present in Old School RuneScape as spiritual variants, thus requiring a Slayer level in order to harm; otherwise, they're identically similar. Blood Reavers are still present as part of the Zarosian mobs. There are also more enemies present compared to the RuneScape variant, notably the mages.
  • Unlike in RuneScape, where the Zarosian faction could only be made tolerant with the Shard of Zaros, a post-quest reward item during Fate of the Gods, the Zarosian faction in Old School RuneScape shares the same aggression and tolerance mechanics as the other factions. The Zarosian faction's essence count is also counted immediately upon entry, whereas in RuneScape it only appears inside the Ancient Prison.
• The ancient ceremonial set is in Old School RuneScape, but does not bypass the kill count requirement needed to access Nex's chambers; this is already serviced by ecumenical keys and reduced kill count from Combat Achievement task sets. Instead of being purely cosmetic, they share the same stats as monk robes and are dropped by all enemies apart from Nex.
• An altar is present in Nex's chamber, which also restores health (and other statuses), special attack and run energy if a Zarosian item is worn and is also a way to leave the room outside of teleporting or dying.
• The frozen door leading to the second safe room can be entered and exited at will, although re-entering the safe area consumes essence as normal.
• All of the Zarosian enemies give more essence than just one, with the occasional chance to get an additional essence from each kill.
• Nex's rewards in RuneScape consisted of Torva, Virtus and Pernix armour (helm, body and legs) along with the zaryte bow. Rather than recopying the entire drop table, Nex in Old School RuneScape drops the following:
  • Virtus was initially the main reward, but player concerns about it devaluing ancestral robes caused them to be scrapped for Torva armour; these were eventually implemented in-game as a reward from The Forgotten Four, a group of four bosses available after completion of Desert Treasure II - The Fallen Empire. Unlike Torva equipment in RuneScape, Torva equipment dropped in Old School RuneScape does not boost the player's hitpoints, nor does it degrade. However, it is dropped in a broken state, requiring the player to break down Bandos chestplates and Bandos tassets by the Ancient Forge in the prison for Bandosian components before requiring 90 Smithing to make them usable.
  • As with all the other generals, Nex drops her own god hilt, used to create the ancient godsword.
  • The Zaryte bow was removed in favour of a crossbow variant, requiring an Armadyl crossbow.
  • Nex also drops Zaryte vambraces, a pair of vambraces exclusive to Old School RuneScape.
• A few new items were added, such as nihil shards (used to create the Zaryte crossbow and ancient brews when ground up), blood essence (which gives a chance to craft an extra blood rune per Runecraft essence used), and ancient brews (which boosts Magic level higher than a magic potion).

Music unlocked

Name	Unlock details	Music track
Armageddon	Unlocked upon entering the God Wars Dungeon
Armadyl Alliance	Unlocked upon entering Armadyl's Eyrie
Bandos Battalion	Unlocked upon entering Bandos' Stronghold
Strength of Saradomin	Unlocked upon entering Saradomin's Encampment
Zamorak Zoo	Unlocked upon entering Zamorak's Fortress
The Ancient Prison	Unlocked upon entering the Ancient Prison
Zaros Zeitgeist	Unlocked during the fight with Nex
The Angel's Fury	Unlocked during the fight with Nex

Changes

Date	Changes
18 January 2023 (update)	Group Ironman players will now be placed in the same instance when fighting the God Wars Dungeon Generals.
5 January 2022 (update)	The Ancient Prison became accessible.
16 December 2021 (update)	Added the Ancient Prison to the dungeon, containing the forces of Zaros. Removed the undeveloped underwater section of Zamorak's fortress.
20 October 2021 (update)	The NPC Killcount overlay was updated, having been renamed to Essence.
14 July 2021 (update | poll)	More bloodvelds have been added to the dungeon.
3 March 2021 (update)	Loot broadcasts for pet drops will now appear correctly in the GWD boss rooms.
16 July 2020 (update)	Raised the priority of various attack animations in the God Wars Dungeon to stop them being interrupted by defend animations.
8 October 2015 (update)	Added blocking to a pillar in the God Wars Dungeon.
24 September 2015 (update)	Adamant bar drops from Aviansies in the God Wars Dungeon are now noted for players that have completed the hard Fremennik achievement diary.
3 September 2015 (update | poll)	when consumed, Saradomin's light permanently removes the darkness from the Zamorakian section of the God Wars Dungeon.
25 June 2015 (update | poll)	Added a 'peek' option to the entrance of each of the boss rooms, allowing players to see the number of other players currently in the room.
3 April 2014 (update)	Killing Bloodveld within the God Wars Dungeon now applies the correct killcount.
30 January 2014 (update | poll)	Altars within the God Wars Dungeon now tell you how long before you may use them.
17 December 2013 (update)	Some of the bodyguards in the God Wars Dungeon have been adjusted to help them reach players hiding at the sides of their rooms.
7 November 2013 (update)	Leaving the God Wars Dungeon will now reset the players kill-counts.
24 October 2013 (update)	Monsters in the God Wars dungeon that previously dropped medium-level clues have been upgraded to drop hard clues.

Trivia

• Along with the Ourania Altar, the God Wars Dungeon is one of a small handful of new updates that recreated content from the original RuneScape 2 using archived assets.
• On release, generals did not despawn if no players were in their chambers. This was added with an update on 29 March 2018 to accommodate for Ironman players.
• An underwater section of the dungeon in Zamorak's Fortress was originally planned, but scrapped later on in development. Parts of the area could be seen from the entrance to Commander Zilyana's room via the use of an oculus orb before its removal in an update.
• Prior to the release of Combat Achievements, access to the God Wars Dungeon was only possible with partial completion of Troll Stronghold. This means that players with limited builds (such as the obby mauler) with level 1 Attack can now enter the God Wars Dungeon using Ghommal's hilt, without having to accept the 3000 Attack XP reward from Death Plateau.

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  The inaccessible area seen from Commander Zilyana's boss room

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  An undeveloped section of Zamorak's Fortress, originally meant to be underwater.

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