Bounty Hunter (historical)

Bounty Hunter is a minigame released on December 10, 2007, to replace pking for both P2P and F2P players on specific worlds. On other worlds, the area outside is available, including the bank, but the caves cannot be entered. Jagex has reduced the number of P2P Bounty Hunter worlds from 5 to 2.Thus making it very hard for people that go in with proper gear to PK/"BH"

Entrance
The main entrance is at the southeast corner of the large grey area in the wilderness, at approximately level 19, northeast of Edgeville and north-northwest of Varrock. The area beyond the steps is no longer wilderness and Revenants cannot persue a player into this area.

The Games necklace can be used to teleport here.

There is a bank, similar in appearance to the bank in the Zamorakian altar, where players may restock or deposit loot or prohibited items, as well as most other banking tasks.

Playing
To begin playing Bounty Hunter, the player first has to speak with Mandrith, who will explain how the minigame works. Players cannot take any of the following into the bounty hunter area:


 * Non-combat items. The player can take food, potions, etc. in, but cannot bring logs, spades or other items not related to combat.
 * More than one piece of armour per combat style per body part. For example, the player cannot take a Green dragonhide body and Black dragonhide body, however, the player could take Green dragonhide body and Black dragonhide chaps (since they are different body parts), or Green dragonhide body and a Rune platebody (since they are different fighting styles).
 * More than 4 wieldable weapons, or more than 1,000 of each type of stackable ammunition (runes, arrows, bolts, etc.).
 * Coins.

In addition, the player cannot deliberately drop any items or stacks of items worth more than 1,000 coins (based on the market value at the Grand Exchange) in the Bounty Hunter crater.

Upon entering, the player will become a special type of skulled as soon as he/she starts the minigame. The player will have a skull (in the colours of brown, grey, green, blue, or red) and pile of coins over the player's head, depending on the value of the items he/she carries at the time.

Players are given a bounty hunter to kill, and if they kill anyone else they get a "pick-up penalty" for a limited time, where they cannot use the Protect Item Prayer. In addition, if they pick up any items while under a pickup penalty, they get a "leave penalty", where on top of not being able to use Protect Item, they cannot leave the crater or even log out until the penalty expires, or until they kill their designated target.



Caves
Only combat related supplies may be taken in to the combat area, and you must be able to use any weapon or armour piece that you take with you. One set of Armour for each combat area is allowed, and you may only take four weapons with you into the game.

There are three cave entrances to the east of the steps, bank and scorecard area, from east to west they are: On entering, players are immune to attack for 6 seconds, while the entrance leads to a random doorway, which may put the player in a place on their own, or adjacent to a massive pile attack.
 * Level 3-55
 * Level 50-100
 * Level 95+

In battle
The player will receive their target, marked in the top right corner of the screen. This will also display any penalty that is in effect.

The player will also be a target, both for bounty hunters or rogues killing any player, despite the penalty. The area is multicombat, so the lone player is often subjected to pile attack.

If the target is within range, a red arrow on the minimap points in the general direction, changing to yellow when closer and to a hollow yellow overhead arrow on the main screen.

Enemy tactics
Piling is very common. Even in the lowest level area, expect to be attacked by rangers using adamant arrows (rune in P2P) and mages using blasts in F2P, or a God Spell/Ancient Magicks in P2P. The use of ranged combat seems to be very high, as it allows a quick engagement from a distance. Piles consisting of four rangers or three and a mage are quite common, and with four lots of damage coming in, there is little time to eat or select the protect item prayer.

Unfortunately, there are far more indiscriminate rogues than players hunting their assigned target, possibly because it is often rare to see the target before getting piled. Maybe this will become better as it quietens down, but any player not well skilled in handling a former wilderness multicombat hotspot would do well to make a sighting visit using disposable equipment.

Many players run away from their fights and leave the cave. Thus, many people use restraining spells (Such as bind), energy/agility draining weapons (Karil armour and bow or a whip special attack), and the prayer "Smite", as many people use protect item.

A vast amount of players will use a strategy known as "1 iteming". This entails bringing a single weapon, often a Dragon Dagger, and using the "Protect Item" prayer to prevent loss of the item.

Money making Tactics
In F2P worlds, low-level players use the tactic of picking up 'leftovers,' which is where low-level players dart back and forth inbetween the caves picking up as many mithril/adamant arrows as they can, but without taking in any items themselves - this tactic is popular mainly because of the vast amount of rangers, exits and arrows in caves. Incidentally, the adamant arrows sell for 100gp upwards in the Grand Exchange.

Equipment Value
While in the arena an icon will be visible above the player's head. The value of the equipment and inventory the player is carrying will determine the colour as shown in the following table:

The colours of all the equipment values are the same colours as the following metals: Bronze, Steel, Adamant, Rune and Dragon.

Leaving
The only way out is by the doorways at intervals in the walls. Teleporting out is not possible. If the player became a "Rogue" (by killing a person who was not assigned to you, a 180 second countdown will begin. You can see how much time is left in the count down on the top-right corner of your screen. It won't have any effect on you if don't pick up the dropped items, but if you do, you cannot leave for that period of time. You will find that logging out is also impossible. The only way to stop the countdown is to kill the player you were assigned to in the first place.

Reception
The minigame is generally criticised by the Runescape community, claiming that it is not an adequate replacement for PKing, as many people are instantly killed the second they enter the caves. This is not helped by the fact that many people were angry about other aspects of the 10th December update, and were rioting all over Runescape.

On the 18th December update, Jagex stated that they are making a single-combat player-killing area, much to the satisfaction of the many people who wanted single combat.

Dying
If you die in Bounty Hunter you will lose ALL your items! Make sure you are well prepared for clan attacks and only take items you are prepared to lose! The only way to not lose your items is with the Protect item prayer which saves your best item (note: if you have a pickup penalty then you with not be able to use this prayer). If you do happen to die during the game you will appear outside the caves and not in your normal respawn location.

Music
Music is unlocked when entering one of the 3 caves. Since a higher level player cannot enter a lower level cave, the music for that lower level will be unlocked when unlocking the music for the next higher level.
 * Bounty Hunter Level 1 (level 3-55)
 * Bounty Hunter Level 2 (level 50-100)
 * Bounty Hunter Level 3 (level 95*)