Fist of Guthix/Strategies

Before You Play
Make sure your computer is ready to go. You should test how reliable your connection and/or computer is before you enter the waiting area. If you lag out or have to reload Runescape due to technical issues, it will count as a forfeit.

Hunted
There are two strategies while being hunted, known as defending and running. Defenders stay at the centre, accumulating the fastest charges while tanking and praying according to their attackers combat style, and runners run around the arena hiding and using the houses to evade their hunter.

Generally, inexperienced runners have a high losing rate. However, an experienced runner is very difficult to beat. Running will take more time and the resulting token gain rates will be lower. Effective runners must utilize houses and hugging.

Defenders have the advantage of ending rounds quickly and in turn, guarantees stable token income. Defenders also have a higher rate of winning, because their tactics rely more on having high Constitution, Defence, and good armour; instead of their skill within the activity. Although effective defenders need to also be good with changing prayers and armour in order for maximum charge counts.

Several people will mix the two tactics. However, this may have varied effects both more and less effective than pure runners or defenders depending on skill within the activity and stats. The ideal for quick tokens and rating is a combination of defending most of the time, skillfully running when highly skilled opponents face them. This group of people are usually known as the "fog pros" and almost all the top of the FOG activity highscores employ this mixed strategy adapting to each situation.

Being Hunted
The most important things of being hunted are: use of prayer, prediction, and detection/stealth. It is a distinct disadvantage if the hunted's prayer level is less than 37, since the true way for defence is a protection prayer. A prayer level of 43 is recommended if using a protection prayer as it gives access to all 3 of the protection prayers.

Defending Strategy
You shouldn't run immediately into the centre if you start as the hunted first. You should grab the stone and run straight to the middle, or wait on the edge until your attacker becomes within attacking range and use your tele-orb. You should always pray melee to start with until you're being attacked with another combat style. This is because you can be dealt devestating blows with melee special attacks, abruptly ending your round.

If defending against magic trainers, use Protect from Magic. Against melee opponents, use Protect from Melee, and if against ranged opponents, use Protect from Missiles. When you are facing an experienced opponent they may switch combat styles every hit, so it's important to pay attention and switch prayers according to what style is coming next. You should note armour and weapon changes, whenever gear that boosts a particular attack style is suddenly being equipped you should change to the relating prayer. Beware of the staff of light, as it is a powerful mage and melee weapon.

Use your bandages as soon as your Life Points fall 150 below your maximum. You can use an Enhanced Excalibur special attack directly after taking damage to heal yourself slowly, or you may use a saradomin godsword special, although it uncommonly hits while being hunted because your stats are lowered.

While defending it may be worthwhile to occasionally fire a topaz bolt at your attacker, as it's special effect may hit and lower your opponents magic. A seercull may be preferred because it lowers your opponent's magic level and always hits. It will use the whole special bar, and weakens your opponent as many levels as you hit them for. This can be useful for maximizing charges as it causes lower spells to have to be casted if hit.

Running Strategy
''This strategy is much more difficult to use than the "defender" method. Quick reactions and guile are recommended to use this strategy to maximum efficiency.''

You should immediately pick up the stone and begin running along the outside of the arena so your hunter will not see you as they directly run to your spawn point. There are many variants as to what you may do while being a runner.

You have ten minutes to gather charges. Use them. If you have an opponent with a much higher combat level than you, you will need all the time you can get. Don't rush into the centre and let your opponent kill you just to end a round quickly.

Remember to keep track of the hunter's arrow and predict which way would he/she come. Stay as close to centre as possible until the hunter finds you, then run across the centre, hug something or go inside a house. If you are locked on, don't use tele-orb and go inside a house as soon as possible, as the spell Bind is very deadly against runners.

If you keep running roughly in the same direction and your hunter is still some distance away chasing you, you can prevent the hunter from attacking you until you stop running or change direction, since melee can only be used at close range. This tactic is effective for evading the hunter long enough to find somewhere safe, such as entering a house if you are far away from one.

Some hunters will head straight across centre to the hunted's spawning spot at the start. The hunted can circle around the teleport houses and sneak to the centre, or spawn spot of hunter (the spawn spots are opposite) to earn easy charges.

Camping Low Charge Areas

Run to the very west of the arena and wait there with the stone equipped. This works well against low-level players, as they tend to not think to look there. However, this spot only gives 3 charges per second, so one can only acquire about 1200 charges per game, if not found. When your opponent is on-screen, teleport from the edge to the centre. However, experienced hunters will know that this is a common place to hide, and will look there.

Hide on the rims of the Arena. your hunter will be looking for you in the centre and you will be on the other side of the Arena. When your opponent finds you use the tele-orb to go directly to the centre. Your hunter will have to run to the centre (if he/she doesn't have an Orb) giving you time to charge your stone.

Housing

To drive a hunter away, a hunted can enter and leave the same house in quick succession, run across the centre and then around the houses, pretending to run away from the hunter at a distance and use tele-orb, then going opposite from hunter and so on.

If you run inside a house, most opponents will be tired of waiting and walk away, usually to the centre. If this happens, runners can wait for the opponent arrow to disappear, then run out of the house away from the opponent. This tactic is proven effective on most players, and in some cases, your opponent may just forfeit. Be aware that if you hide inside a house, you will not gain any charges and will be dealt damage, most likely 30 or 40 lifepoints. A high-levelled hunted can stay in teleport house for longer time and irritate the hunter. Limit the use of the portals inside the house. The more you use portals, the more likely it is that you fail and get teleported outside of them.

Here's another thing to watch out for when using the houses. When emerging from a house, your character will walk very slowly out and you will not be able to control him or her. This may only last for around half a second, but if your opponent appears on your minimap during that time, you will be left in a vulnerable position and might have trouble getting away. Try to take a last look before emerging from a house because a common tactic of hunters (usually those at the center) is to run out of the hunted's minimap range to coax the hunted out, then run back in range to catch the hunted exiting the house.

Hugging

There are several kinds of hugging. The first kind is to repeatedly enter and leave teleport houses without using the portal inside, the second is to hug houses and obstacles, the third is hug the house once and then enter it. The first method is hindered by the entering limit and large amount of damage inside the houses, the second one isn't useful except against players with very low magic level except once the second one is mastered, it is virtually unstoppable except by the best, while the third one is considered the best for those new to Fist of Guthix. Run to a house and keep on the opposite side of the house that your hunter is on, switching sides as your hunter moves. This will cause your hunter to become stuck on the opposite side of a house and deal less damage to the hunted. This tactic can also be used on the low walls and piles of rubble near the edges of the playing area, though fewer points will be gathered.

Tele-orb

You can hide on the edge for around 15 seconds then run into the centre, when your hunter comes back to the centre and sees you, run to the back to the edge drawing your hunter, then use your Tele-orb to get back to the centre.

Low Level Strategy

First, equip the stone of power. Then walk around the arena in the area where you get 10 charges (When in high detail, you can see the "charge rings" in the mini-map). When you reach the other side, start running. If your opponent does not find you when you reach the other side where you started, walk. Repeat until your opponent finds you. Then run to the centre or use the tele-orb. When you have 2 bandages left, run to a house. If your opponent guards the house, use the portal. If he runs away, exit the house and start running in the 10 charges area. When your running energy gets low, run to a house but do not go in. If your opponent finds you, go in. If your opponent guards the house, use the portal. If he runs away, exit the house. Repeat the process. Sometimes, this strategy may not work if your opponent is a higher level.

Defender Tips

 * It may be useful to know the attack speeds of different combat styles as it can help if prayer flashing. In free-to-play, ranged attack have an Attack speed of 7 (rapid style bow), magic attack a speed of 5 (autocast), and melee attack an attack speed 6 (scimitar) or 3 (two-handed sword). There is much greater variety in pay-to-play and it is recommended to consult the articles of the most common weapons.

Runner Tips

 * Be warned, inexperienced Fist of Guthix players may flame you, to avoid getting distracted by their trash-talk, turn off Public Chat.


 * Use the death-dot tactic to force the hunter to scroll down a huge list of players in play. In order to do so you must stand on a large pile of players or strategically run back and forth wherever there are many players. This does not work well anymore with the interfaces update though.


 * When running low on life points and recovery tools, a player with the Prayer Cape can run to the edge of the arena, use Redemption to heal, then use the Prayer Cape's effect to use Redemption repeatedly.


 * You should always turn Auto-Retaliate off when in the centre. If you get attacked while it's on, you will run toward your opponent, which is extremely bad for runners.


 * Turning private chat off or setting it to "friends" is helpful, as your opponent cannot add you and then search for a small green dot on his/her minimap. This way, he/she would then only possess the default flashing yellow arrow in which to locate you—and only when you are within range. This arrow is very effective (for you) if you go to the centre, considering the other players are at least adjacent, if not on the same square.


 * It is better to run in the second round opposed to the first one because your opponent is more likely to be a runner if you scored many points as one.
 * It may help to use a watch, preferibly a digital one. The watch keeps track of the seconds passed since you last used a portal house, allowing you to time your next entry inside rather than wait outside as your opponent attacks you. When you emerge from a house, note the number in the seconds column and add 20 to it, since you have to wait 20 seconds before you can enter the houses again. For instance if you emerged from a house on the 30th second, you would be able to enter it again on the 50th second.

General Tips
Although the rest feature in the arena is disabled, you may recharge run energy quickly in the middle.
 * Look your opponents up on the hiscores or adventure log feature of the runescape website whenever you have a few seconds, just have it handy.
 * Lower combat leveled opponents do not necessarily mean they're are weaker, pures can do a lot of damage because of your reduced stats and use prayers for defence.
 * If you prefer not to be facing higher levels then you should always scan your waiting room for levels. If the levels seem out of your confidence range then leave until the next game starts and return while doing the same thing again. However, this will not always work so you should use the running strategy against high level opponents.
 * Mix up your strategies since other players will have different strategies.
 * You may use prayer flashing (see prayer) once you’ve been spotted by your hunter and you have used your tele-orb. Each time your opponent charges their magic attack, pulls back their arrow for a ranged attack, or draws back their weapon for a melee attack, you can click on the appropriate “Protect from” prayer, then click it again to disable it once you've taken the hit. This “flashing” method is a great way to conserve prayer points. It should be noted, however, that this can take a great deal of timing and some practice, and lagging can greatly increase ones chance of failure.

Hunter
The hunter's objective is quite simple: Kill the hunted player with any means necessary. The player cannot gather any charges while they are a hunter, rather their objective is to prevent the hunted player from gathering charges. The hunter does not have a stat decrease, does not have the 30 kg load of the stone and does not take damage from the energy charges, however they cannot chase hunted players into the teleport houses.

In general, people who start as the hunter have the advantage. This can be due to being able to get a general idea of how many charges your opponent has and being able to do what you want without fear of your opponent retaliating.

Tactics for the hunter
Use a Familiar to help you hunt. Considering the fact that most players do not think to use Protect from Summoning, and the fact that many familiars exceed level 100 combat, this can be devastating to your target.

Effective weapons, spells or effects include Ancient Magicks Freeze Spells which hold an opponent and can be devastating to an opponent's health if using a dragon dagger, dragon claws, dark bow, or zanik's crossbow's special attack. Inflicting the opponent with poison is good if a player is along the outside or house hugging, since anti-poison potion is not allowed. When using range, using a crossbow with Sapphire bolts (e) in conjunction with Smite is very effective as this will reduce the hunted's Prayer level very quickly. This is most effective if you have a weapon with a very powerful special attack that you do not want to have the hunted reduce the strength of with a protection prayer. The Dragon Longsword and Dragon Dagger special attacks are very damaging because of the opponent's reduced stats. The Dragon claws' special is very effective if the hunted is at low health since it can do a reasonably good amount of damage in a very short period of time before they can heal. The Dragon Scimitar is useful as its special attack will completely deactivate prayer for 5 seconds.


 * It is advised to have melee gear along with magic or ranged gear, whatever the players level is higher.
 * The special attack of the Ancient mace which is obtained after completing Another Slice of H.A.M. lowers a players prayer by amount of damage done and gives it to you, which will help drain the hunted's prayer. Combined with smite or Soul Split, you could possibly remove more than 40 prayer points from your opponent in one strike!
 * Using 2h swords is useful, as you can deal a lot of damage when you get the chance and it will be likely that your hunted is running.
 * You can use a light weapon to start of with (like a scimitar or dagger) to waste your hunted's bandages, then switch to a more powerful weapon (like a 2h sword) to kill him.
 * If your hunted runs into a barrier stand in the middle of the arena, this will allow you to see all of the barriers.

All hunters

 * When many players are on the same square in the middle, it is much easier to find your target by manually casting a spell, since when you have chosen a spell, it only shows the names of the people.
 * A good idea is when your target is in the middle and you are going to use melee, equip a staff and run into the middle then stand next to him. Equip your melee weapon then as he can't see you if its crowded and he'll use the wrong prayer. More than likely your opponent will run out the middle to find out what attack style you are using and then you can see his/her prayer/equipment. This trick works well if you equip a melee weapon then go into the middle next to him and use magic manually. Once he runs out the middle, he'll switch prayers.Once that's done, cast once or twice more then attack with melee. You'll run out and if done fast enough, your opponent won't suspect it. He'll then switch prayers and then you will cast without using your staff. If you are using normal spellbook, it is fine to use any combat spell but not the god spells. If using Ancients, its advised to use smoke spells only. If using a combat spell, it won't bring up a message at all in the chat box under "game". However, for Ancients this can happen. If using smoke though, it may come up with "You have been poisoned!" on your opponents chatbox which can make them believe you are using a dds.
 * The void mage helmet when combined with rest of the Void knight equipment increases magical accuracy by 30%. This can be very effective as you can wield a bow or sword while effectively attacking with magic, then suddenly attack with melee or ranged which they won't be protecting against.
 * It is quite effective to use curse spells (Confuse, Weaken, Curse, Bind, Snare, Vulnerability, Enfeeble, Entangle, Stun) to further reduce the stats of opponents or to stop opponents for running for a short period of time, although only Bind and Curse (and its successors) are recommended to use. (Italicised spells are for members)
 * If your opponent is hiding at the centre keep your public chat on so you see when your "victim" speaks. then look at the screen and find the words he said. He is always under the words.
 * Adding your opponent to your friends list will cause him to show up green on the minimap (providing he has his/her friends setting to "on")
 * Before you enter the arena it is extremely important to turn assist off. Having assist on will add another line per player, possibly causing the player to become invisible!
 * Players will get plenty of runes and should not hesitate to use spells. For F2P players the best missile spell for your level should be used as no magic-reducing attack is available for the hunter. (Overall, the best combat spell for F2P players is Fire Blast.
 * Take more than one weapon! The defender will almost certainly use "protect against ..." prayers if they are able, but by switching weapon rapidly between at least two, this can be negated. (Recommended, melee and ranged, as selecting a bow or melee weapon, then the player is faster than selecting a staff then spell, then the player)
 * If your target is hiding in a house, stand almost directly in the centre of the arena. If positioned correctly, you will be able to see all four houses, plus a little edge for all of them, so if your target decides to run, you will be able to see them. This works very well on less crowded world's when lag does not affect your visibility.
 * Try to cover two sections of the combat triangle (preferably melee and magic, since magic does not need a staff, although useful), by wielding a melee weapon (such as a whip or dragon dagger), and switching between melee and magic, which will cause the hunted to change protection prayers often, allowing you to hit through their prayer almost every time.
 * Some of the Ancient Curses will help you kill the hunted slightly faster, but you must complete The Temple at Senntisten to unlock them. The main advantage of the Ancient Curses is use of the Deflect prayers during the hunted phase.
 * You can block ads by clicking the STOP button on your browser after you log in, before the ad loads. Fist of Guthix can get laggy and the last thing you want is a high quality ad slowing down your computer as you are in pursuit of your opponent.
 * It is recommended to use melee weapons while in other type of armour, since melee weapons do not depend on the armour itself.
 * A common tactic among the hunted is to stay at the edge of the arena until the hunter finds them, then using the Tele-orb to teleport to the centre, making the hunter manually run to the centre. To avoid this, save your Tele-orb so you can use it to quickly teleport to the centre as well. It is best to save the Tele-orb until you are the hunter in the second round, as using it during the first round wastes it.

Against defenders
For free-to-play magic users, the Combat robes obtained through Fist of Guthix give a good magic bonus.
 * For a non-pure with all three kinds of combat style, attack the hunted by shooting a few arrows, Cast magic ONCE and run next to him. Attack the hunted by melee, ranged or magic. Manually casting spells is also needed to surprise the defender. If you are not very advanced in melee then stand near the edge of the circle (where most mages stand) and range them from there. If they put on a protection spell then switch to magic. Don't equip a staff to do this, they will see that you have a staff and switch to Protect from Magic. Just manually cast a spell. Wave, Surge, and Ancients spells are the most effective. They deal a great amount of damage in 1 spell cast.
 * A popular way of hunting is that a non-pure hunter will bring armour that gives a bonus in magic or ranged combat and bring a melee weapon as a side form of damage in case the defender uses protection spells from Prayer. A rune scimitar is a common weapon as it is fast and light.

Against runners

 * Make sure you are not running any unecessary programs, windows, tabs, etc. It is very difficult, if not, impossible, to catch a runner with a laggy computer.
 * When many players are on the same square in the middle, it is much easier to find your target by manually casting a spell, since when you have chosen a spell, it only shows the names of the people.
 * Use the spell bind against runners. You may obtain the Druidic mage robes set for increasing the success rate of the spell. You can even cast the spell in-between every two spells or so to keep your opponent bound for a very long time. However, this tactic won't work forever, although its more effective to use higher level bind spells to bind the hunted for longer.
 * It is easier for the hunter to locate the hunted on the minimap by adding the hunted to the friends list, turning the dot green, instead of simply relying on the arrow, this is only effective if the hunted is within the Fist's area and has private chat not set to "Off or Friends".
 * If an opponent is wall-hugging, return to the middle and the hunted will come to the centre. If he/she does not come, wait till your running energy has recovered a bit, prepare ranged or magic autocast and search near the centre.
 * Try to cover at least two sections of the combat triangle for a non-pure. For example, some players use Robes or Dragonhide to protect from the plentiful mage players, so having a melee weapon may prove useful.
 * Against an obviously weaker hunted (at least 30 levels lower than you), you can slowly patrol the centre and scare away the hunted, be warned this would frustrate the opponent very much.
 * During the beginning of each round, you will always be placed at the opposite edge of the arena. You can use the tele-orb and then run to the opposite edge quickly. This can be used to terrify the hunted, though in return you lack the orb for life-saving as a hunted, and many players will just teleport to the centre at the start of being hunted. Sometimes you are able to teleport to the centre before the game even begins. If this is the case, then you will have less distance to cover and get to your opponent before he even picks up the stone.
 * If your target is in the middle and you are going to autocast a spell, you can manually cast a spell by using the spell list then right click on his position as it'll shorten the list to help you find him.
 * For a non-pure with all three kinds of combat style, use magic to chase the hunted, then switch to ranged and shoot for a few hits. If the hunted runs to the centre, run next to him and autocast magic again, Prepare bind to lock him/her once he/she starts running and then attack. If he/she stays away from the centre, use bind and then manually cast spells in between melee or ranged attack. Cast bind between every 3 hits.
 * If it turns out that your opponent has been wall hugging most of the game, don't fret. Chances are he will have less charges than you think.
 * Although a cheap tactic, if your opponent has his private chat on, you can lie to him and tell him that you are only here to train or here for XP. This works best if you start as the hunter. Unequip any Fist of Guthix equipment to make your opponent have more trust in you. If your opponent takes the bait, he will run to the centre where you will kill him easily. When it is your turn to be the hunted, play as if the other person was a normal opponent. Don't let him kill you and gather as much charges as possible.

Hunted
When you are the hunted, you want to have the best protection and not too much weight from attacks that you can. That's where what armour you are wearing comes in. This section explains the best armour to put on based on the attack style your opponent is using. This is meant for F2P players, and it would not be useful to members. There is nothing for the shield or weapon slots because you cannot carry those if you are holding the stone.

Full rune armour vs. melee and ranged pures for range-2h hybrid hunters


 * Rune full helm
 * Rune platebody
 * Rune platelegs/Rune plateskirt*
 * Rune gauntlets
 * Fighting boots or Fancy boots
 * Cape or Team variation
 * Amulet of defence
 * Any Explorer's ring
 * Rune Plateskirt is 1 kg lighter than the platelegs.

Full Green Dragonhide armour vs. mage pures


 * Green d'hide coif (100)
 * Green d'hide body
 * Green d'hide chaps
 * Green d'hide vamb
 * Cape or Team variation
 * Amulet of defence
 * Any Explorer's ring

Mix of Green Dragonhide armour and rune armour vs. balanced players


 * Rune full helmet
 * Green d'hide body
 * Green d'hide chaps
 * Green d'hide vamb
 * Fighting boots or Fancy boots
 * Cape or Team variation
 * Amulet of defence/Holy Symbol
 * Any Explorer's ring

Full combat magic armour vs. ranged or magic


 * Combat hood
 * Combat robe top
 * Combat robe bottom
 * Cape or Team cape
 * Amulet of magic
 * Swanky Boots (+1 Magic attack bonus)

Keep in mind the maximized bonus only partially protects against hunter's attack, as you will still be hit very often unless the hunter has a very low combat level or very low attack bonus.

It is NOT recommended to make the load too heavy though, as the stone of power already weighs 30 kg and a 80 kg+ load can drain running energy very rapidly. You should bring a load less than 35 kg if you are using the runner method (under 43 prayer). Bring a load less than 15 kg if you can use all the Protection prayers as they will cover for most of your defence.

Armour for combat pures when hunting in F2P


 * Monk's robe (top)
 * Monk's robe (bottom)
 * Amulet of strength/Amulet of power
 * Explorer's ring
 * Rune 2h sword/Rune scimitar/Rune battleaxe
 * Team cape/Cape
 * Gauntlets

Note: This is mainly for a melee pure with level 1 defence. Different pieces of armour may be used in other pure types. Refer to the Combat pure article for more information on those specific types.