Fist of Guthix



Fist of Guthix is an activity that was released on 9 April 2008. The game employs tactics and strategy, and offers a substantial range of rewards to players. To begin playing Fist of Guthix, players must first speak to Fiara. Please note that this is a "Safe" activity. You will not lose any items if you die in the activity. Fist of Guthix happens to be one of the few activities which you can have a hiscore rank in. The current number rating needed to be on the activity high scores is 500, and there are about 621,600 players ranked. It is also a great way to train Magic because runes provided are free. However, due to the short span of a match, it is faster to train with your own runes, albeit more pricey.

Though the gap between Fist of Guthix and the beginning of the Wilderness is small, there are several level 2 Giant rats which may attack you. There also have been known Revenant attacks on the way. It is usually unlikely that a player will get attacked by a high level Revenant since Fist of Guthix is in relatively low level wilderness, but if the player's level is close enough to a high level Revenant then one should still be careful, because they deal a lot of damage quickly.

The current Member's Fist of Guthix worlds are: 92, 98, 110 and 140. There are also Free-to-Play worlds, including: 20, 25, 93, 107, 119, 128, 146 and 149. Although there are designated worlds, Fist of Guthix can be played on all worlds except Bounty Worlds and PvP Worlds. You will still be able to access the bank and talk to the NPCs in Fist of Guthix in Bounty and PvP Worlds, but it may be difficult to play the activity, due to the lack of players who go to a PvP World and play activities.

Location
The entrance to the Fist of Guthix lobby is a cave located in level 7 Wilderness, directly north of Varrock. If a player heads north from Varrock's East bank, they will reach the cave entrance. There is a very slim chance that the player may encounter Revenants on the way to the activity, as there is only a short distance between Fist of Guthix and Varrock. If players are worried about this, they may bank all of their items before heading out into the Wilderness, and simply pick them back up at the bank in the activity lobby, or, if they are members, they can use the Ring of Duelling to teleport straight into the cave as of 27 January 2009.

Lobby


After players enter the cave, they will be inside the main lobby. Here, the players can talk to Fiara to learn the rules of the game, access their bank, talk to Reggie who runs the shop, talk to some of the druids like Alran, Getorix and Pontimer to learn more about the history of this place and finally enter the waiting room for the activity. New players must talk to Fiara first before they are allowed to play the game.

There can only be 250 players in the activity at once. If the game is full, players in the lobby will not be able to access the waiting room until the game has cleared out a bit. Players can simply wait a few minutes until the waiting room is open, or they may wish to switch worlds if the current world is exceptionally busy.

Once inside the waiting room, players need only to wait until the game matches them with an opponent and they will then be teleported into the main Fist of Guthix arena, as long as there are enough players in the room.

Once the game starts, one player is a hunter and the other is the Hunted. You will read about this later.


 * Note: the combination of Hunted players and Hunters can be made up of players with combat levels that differ greatly.

At the corner of the waiting lobby, there is an entrance where players can see but cannot click on it.

The examine text is "I need an opponent first." Thus, this is probably a decoration but not a sign of future update. It may be that you are assigned an opponent and walk through the door into the arena, but this is not shown in-game.

Gameplay
The activity consists of two rounds and is 1 vs 1. In each round, one player is classified as the "hunted", and the other player is classified as the "hunter". In the first round, the roles are determined randomly. In the second round, the roles are swapped and all stats are restored. Therefore both players will have a chance to play each role; afterwards a winner is determined based upon number of charges you were able to collect during your turn as "hunted".

Any food, runes (including essence), skilling supplies that cannot be equipped (such as a tinderbox, food, etc.), all afros, holiday items (except for clothing), and potions CANNOT be brought in the game arena. There will be a warning if you attempt to bring an item that you cannot use.



The following items are supplied to each player when a player goes into the waiting area, and taken away if they leave it:

At the end of the game, most of the arrows on the ground will be returned to their original owners, so there is no need to pick them up while in the game (Similar to the Duel Arena).

Facilities of the fighting area
The fighting area is composed of a large circular area, with teleport houses and ruins surrounding the centre. At the edges of the arena, there are stone dispensers for hunted players to grab a stone of power. The stone can be equipped and used to gather charges. The teleport houses near the centre, or Fist, of the arena, protect the hunted when entered. It makes the hunted invisible to everyone else and it disables any "locking on" effects but also drains the hunted's life points initially, decreasing by thirty every five seconds. There is also a portal in these houses, but it takes 20 charges to activate, and has about a 90% chance of teleporting you to another house. The other 10% of the time, a player will be teleported to the outside ground in between houses. Any player standing on the Fist of Guthix will have their run energy rapidly restored, and provides a good hiding place, as long as you stand atop other players. The stone of power can accumulate charges with a faster rate if it is brought closer to the centre.

Roles
For tactics and tips for playing, please see this page

Hunted
Being the hunted player is usually considered much more challenging, but it is also the only round in which the player can get charges (points). The basic objective is to gather as many charges from the "Fist of Guthix", a large energy well in the centre of the field, as possible before time runs out or the player dies.

To gather charges, the player must first pick up a stone of power from a stone dispenser, and then wield the stone to gather charges. Note that the stone is two-handed, and can only gather charges when it is wielded (not just in the inventory), meaning that the hunted player will be unable to fight back whilst wielding the Stone. Players can gather charges anywhere in the arena, although the closer to the centre (the "Fist of Guthix") they are, the faster they will gather charges. Players wielding the stone will gain charges in packets, having around a three second delay between packets. The hunted can attack the hunter, but no spells can be used and the hunted can only rely on melee or range, though they should be aware they no longer gather charges if fighting the hunter. If the hunted kills the hunter, the hunter respawns in a random location.

The maximum number of charges you can get is 5000 charges. To get 5000 charges you need to have good hiding tactics, otherwise 99 defence and constitution.

Note that the hunted player will have their abilities (Attack, Range and Defence) slightly reduced, meaning a high-level hunted player can still be extremely vulnerable to a low-levelled hunter. If the hunted moves toward the centre their abilities will be reduced even more, but they will get more charges. Hunted players will also be dealt damage occasionally, more damage dealt the closer they are to the centre, so a watchful eye should be kept on your remaining lifepoints even if your hunter is nowhere to be found.

Hunted players do have an advantage, however, in that they can use the teleport houses located around the centre. Hunters cannot access these houses, nor see players inside them. Automatic lock-on is also cancelled, so the hunted player is safe while inside them. There are portals inside to teleport the player to other houses circled around the centre. When the player teleports he/she will lose 20 charges. Note that the player will have some lifepoints drained when they enter a house, and often take 40-30 damage while they are in the house. Players cannot gather any charges while in the house. If a player has recently exited a teleport house, they will not be able to enter another house again for about 20 seconds. A hunted player with less than 20 charges cannot use the portals in the houses. When teleporting there is a chance that the teleport will fail, returning you near the house or at the centre of the arena.

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.

The components of full rune armour, used against melee and ranged pures, 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

The component of full Green Dragonhide armour, used against 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

A mix of Green Dragonhide armour and rune armour, used against balanced players:

A component of full combat magic armour, used against ranged or magic
 * 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


 * Combat hood
 * Combat robe top
 * Combat robe bottom
 * Cape or Team cape
 * Amulet of magic


 * The Rune Plateskirt is 1 kg lighter than the platelegs.


 * 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 30kg and a 80kg+ load can drain running energy very rapidly. You should bring a load less than 35kg if you do not have 43+ Prayer. Bring a load less than 15kg if you can use all the Protection prayers as they will cover for most of your defence.

And you are recommended to be patient, as gaining tokens is very time consuming, unless your rating is high, or if you are a very experienced player.

Hunter
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. For free-to-play magic users, the Combat robes obtained through Fist of Guthix give a good magic bonus.

The components used for a Combat pure 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.

Round End


A round will end under any of the following circumstances:
 * Time runs out
 * The hunted player gets killed
 * The hunted player gets the maximum number of charges (5,000)
 * Either player logs out or leaves the arena (If your opponent logs out and you have not had a turn to be the hunted yet, you will have 500 or 150 points and your opponent will have 0, resulting in a win for you)

When the first round ends, both players will swap roles, stat effects will be reset, and the second round will begin. After the second round, the player with the most energy charges (or the only player left in the event of a log out or forfeit) wins.

Rewards
Winning a match of the game will earn you:

'''Note: If two players tie, which is very unlikely, both players will lose a small amount of rating and receive one token, unless they forfeited recently. In that case, they will not receive a token.'''

Players receive one or two tokens for good effort, if they lose. Players who forfeit are flagged as a forfeiter and will receive less tokens from their next game.

List of Rewards
A list of Fist of Guthix Rewards.

Rewards


Shop
Inside the main lobby, Reggie owns a shop where you can spend the Fist of Guthix tokens you have earned. The items here consist of various types of gloves that can increase your experience while training certain skills, magical robes which may supply certain runes for you or increase the potency of certain spells, and special types of armour that can give you strength or ranging bonuses.

Note that all items listed here will degrade over time (with the exception of gloves and gauntlets - see below). The items will also be untradeable until the item has completely degraded.

To repair/recharge any degraded item, use the item with the shop-keeper Reggie, and he will recharge the item for you a specific cost of tokens.

To completely degrade an item, allowing you to trade it, simply use the item with Reggie and he will deplete the item for free.

Rather than degrading, gloves will simply crumble into dust after 1,000 uses.

There is no way to repair these gloves - A new pair must be bought from Reggie after you have lost the old pair. NOTE: Do not confuse with gauntlets (see below.)

Gauntlets bought at the Fist of Guthix do not degrade over time, but simply degrade completely when the player dies. This does not apply when the player dies while participating in a safe activity. NOTE: Do not confuse with gloves (see above.)You can restore the gauntlets power if you pay a small price. You can also sell your degraded gauntlets on the Grand Exchange.

Lag
Many players have complained about the massive amounts of lag in this activity, and being logged out of the game due to lag is quite common. Therefore, players are advised to not play this activity in RuneScape HD - This will help reduce lag and lower chances of being logged out. Sometimes, big amounts of lag will cause the arrow to stay in the position where the hunted player was before, but the hunted player wouldn't be there.

'Screen spamming'
On crowded worlds, if two players are paired together and the hunter is a lower level than the hunted, the hunted can abuse this by hiding amongst the crowds of players in the middle of the arena, the arrow will point to them but right clicking on them results in their name being "lost" under floods of "Trade", "Follow", "Req assist" and "Walk here". (known to some as a screen spam) This is because of the coding involved in the game where all higher levels need to be right clicked to be attacked.

"Death Dotting" (DDing)
A common technique among the "hunted" is to group together on a single spot in the centre of the stage. These players can often be seen shouting "Dd here!" or "dd!". The purpose of this is to prevent "hunters" from killing players so easily, as all the hunted players are grouped together on a single tile, the hunters will have to scroll through a huge list to find the player they need to attack, and sometimes are unable to find the player entirely. This has caused much strife throughout the official Jagex forums and from players in-game.

Logging Out
Players experienced a problem that logged them out instantly while playing the game. This happened usually when the Player went into a house. Many players had come to the conclusion that when there are too many players, a few of them will be logged out. This was confirmed to be a glitch, and has been fixed.

House Hugging
A method that causes a lot of complaints from hunters, is the practice of hiding in the houses until the hunter is out of sight, and then going outside until the hunter is near, and then repeating this until the round is over, or the hunter forfeits in frustration. A recent update to the houses prevents immediate re-entry after exiting a house, although it is still possible to house hug. House hugging also refers to running around a house so that Magers and Rangers will get stuck on the other side, which frustrates the other player.

Combat Level Difference
This has caused criticism among players with lower combat levels because players are paired randomly, regardless of combat skills, and can often put those players at a large disadvantage. For example, even if a level 80 player is waiting to play and there are many other players around their level, they could likely be paired with someone at a much higher level; even as high as level 138. Yet, unlike most other PvP activities, this gives higher-levelled players a large advantage of being able to more easily kill lower levelled players. A good way of reducing your chances of playing against a high level is to avoid less crowded worlds, as many high levels tend to play in these worlds.

This has sparked many suggestion threads in the "Suggestions" part of the Official Forums, saying that there should be a level difference cap, or that pairs should just be more equal in combat level.

Opponents Running
This common method has made many players frustrated and angry. The "hunted" runs around the game arena, hoping to not get attacked. They sometimes go to the Fist of Guthix to collect charges and recharge their run energy. Hunters in the first round may threaten to do the same in the next round, as a way to fight fire with fire, so to speak. However, seeing as this is the entire point of the game, many players consider it an immediate giveaway of the plaintiff's intelligence and maturity.

Pures
Fist of Guthix is a popular activity for Magic pures, since the activity offers free Magic runes that you can use only during Fist of Guthix and decent rewards for the tokens. This is especially effective for Magic training, as there is no cost to casting combat spells because of the free runes. However, the downside to this is that very little experience points are gained.

Tricks for the hunted

 * The Fist's Edge- A good trick for the hunted player, this can be done by waiting on the edge of the arena, then teleporting when your enemy appears on-screen. This is easiest to do from the far east side of the arena because of the outcropping that sticks out. Immediately teleport to the centre and run to a house. This works best when you have high life points, as you need to wait until your enemy is off-screen. Get out when your opponent is off the screen, and run for a stone dispenser a distance away from the exit, as your opponent will most likely leave out of frustration. If you want to get lots of charges, stay on the south-most edge of your house. Your enemy will be looking elsewhere for you, and will eventually leave. This trick works best when you are a hunted on the first round.


 * Teleporter- When your opponent is on-screen, teleport from the edge to the centre, and go directly to a house and wait for your opponent to fly in and out of your minimap, then use the teleporter, and hope that you end up in a new house away from your enemy. Wait outside your house, and you can gain thousands of Charges.
 * If you prefer to use prayer during a battle than rely on armour, then using a holy symbol may be beneficial rather than using an amulet of defence. This is very helpful if you use prayers such as protect from magic, melee, or range.


 * Ground Swap- When the match begins, immediately grab the Stone of Power and run along the edge of the arena until you reach the spawn-point that is opposite of yours. At this point, you can usually experiment to find the spots that give you the most charges without being in the center. Then, once the hunter appears on your mini-map, simply teleport to the center. This strategy works very well because the hunter usually doesn’t return to his/her spawn-point unless they’ve already searched every other area on the map. Also, when running along the edge of the arena, it is wise to avoid the eastern section of the map known as the “Noob-Cave”, because this is a very popular hiding spot and is likely one of the first places an experienced hunter will check.


 * Prayer Flashing (see article “Prayer”)- This trick is used once you’ve been spotted by your hunter and you have used your Tele-Orb (requires Prayer level 37 or higher): 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 lagging can greatly increase ones chance of failure.

Magic Training
Xp gained in this activity is simply reduced to half (Wearing Sacred Clay Armour does not increase xp received during the activity at all).

Because the Fist of Guthix provides free runes, it is a popular place to train magic. The trainers should go to a world with few players (not a Fist of Guthix World). There are several ways to train magic in the Fist of Guthix:


 * 1) The hunter wears whatever provides the lowest possible magic attack bonus. The hunted should wear whatever provides the highest magic defence bonus. The hunter won't receive the xp from the damage done, therefore this should be used by higher mages where the xp received from damage doesn't matter as much because a high Base XP is already given. This technique is good for people who want to do other things while playing. The hunted should stay near the edge, and the hunter should stay near the middle as possible.
 * 2) The hunter wears whatever provides the highest possible magic attack bonus. The hunted wears whatever provides the lowest possible magic defence bonus. This should generally be used by lower level mages, where the xp from the damage matters more, because a low Base XP is given. This technique requires the trainers to pay more attention, and there is always the chance of being paired with someone else in the waiting room. The hunter should stay near the edge, and the hunted should stay near the middle as possible, and be carrying the stone of power.
 * 3) Somewhere in between these two techniques.
 * 4) It's a good idea to turn on rapid heal prayer.

Glitches

 * When in Fist of Guthix arena opening items kept on death it will show as if the activity was unsafe although it is safe.
 * There used to be a glitch, in which when you enter the cave to access the Fist of Guthix activity, the Wilderness level will switch rapidly to 260 for a split second, despite the fact that the Fist of Guthix lobby isn't in the Wilderness.
 * There used to be a glitch where if you brought a law rune into the arena, the screen that said not to bring any runes did not appear, and the Law rune could be brought into the game.
 * The arrow indicating your opponent's location often does not show up, especially in situations where a player is lagging a lot.
 * There is a glitch when you level up, but the message that you get when you level up won't show. This seems to happen only during the times when the game is lagging.
 * There is also a glitch that occurs if there is lag at the precise moment the game ends. It may have other causes, though. This glitch also makes the win (or loss) text not appear - the player just appears in the lobby.
 * There is another glitch that happens, probably because of lagging at the moment the game begins, which makes your opponent's name not appear, it just says the word Name.
 * If you die at the right moment of attacking someone after you die when the game is over you may still have the attack option outside of the Fist of Guthix area. This has also happened in Castle Wars.
 * There is a glitch where if you are 10 life points and use a bandage to heal as you get hit with 10 damage, you die with 150 life points
 * There is a glitch in the game lobby where the player can step on the same square as Fiara.
 * There is a glitch where when you are in the waiting room and use a spell on another player, when starting the game, the spells in the spell book will not light up but can be used.
 * There is a glitch where, if the hunter and hunted kill each other at the same time they both respawn in the same role, giving the Hunted an extra Lp bar.
 * There is a glitch where if the hunter preaches using a prayerbook at the same time the hunted dies the game treats that match as a tie with both players having zero charges, even if the match only lasted one round.
 * There is a glitch when the round ends and you click quickly, you can run towards that square while you are counting down when starting round 2.
 * There is a glitch which may cause an arrow to appear on a open square instead of your opponent. It will fix itself once you see your opponent

Trivia



 * When first released, when asked if he could recharge an item, Reggie would reply, "In that case hand me the item over what you want recharged." Jagex cleaned up the awkwardly worded statement to "Just hand me the item you want recharged and go away!"
 * Shortly after the release items could totally disappear when they degraded.


 * It is impossible to trade while in-game, drop items or cast alchemy spells, Bones to Bananas, Superheat Item, or any Teleportation spells. A screen saying "You are not here to do this" will appear if a player tries to perform such actions.


 * The music was originally named "Guthixs' Hunter". This has since been changed "Guthix's Hunter".


 * On the second day after the release of the game, a group of people found out that if the hunted left the battle he would only lose 8 ratings while the hunter would receive 21 rating and 12 tokens. This lead to abuse, so Jagex changed the mechanics so that if the hunted left, they lost over 40 rating and the hunter only gained 12 rating and 3 tokens.


 * Near the Forfeit Caves players can see symbols similar to Saradomin Symbols, the origin of these symbols once being unknown. However, a Postbag from the Hedge has cleared this up and states that the symbols were caused by Saradominists attempting to make the place their temple. Fiara forced them to flee, and they carved the symbols there before leaving.


 * It was possible for a player to do an emote while in the waiting room and they would not enter the arena and could continuously skip rounds. Give Thanks, Around the World in Eggty Days and Skillcape emotes were most popular because the emote duration for each is very long. However Jagex has now disabled emoticons in the lobby.


 * When the house portals fail, the player will sometimes walk through the walls of the house.


 * A lot of people that escape from their hunters decide to teleport to the centre because their run energy recharges more quickly here. The downside is that you are very weakened in the centre.


 * The Charge Centre in the middle of Fist of Guthix looks like the imprint of where the Stone of Jas used to be. This is likely to be true, since the Stone of Jas' other name is 'Fist of Guthix'.


 * Strangely, the clocks on the scoreboards have their minute hand moving, but the hour hand stays at about 4-o-clock.


 * If you run to the south-west corner of the waiting room, you will see a seemingly useless "Entrance" which can be examined but not used in any way. This is most likely the entrance to the game itself.
 * Some Mages use this game to level Magic as the game supplies 1300 free runes to use in one game.
 * On the 3rd of December 2009, the tokens to recharge the items were reduced.
 * The FunOrb game Armies of Gielinor, has a unit called "druid" and resembles the druids in the lobby.
 * In the forfeit cave, there seems to be a Fremmenik farseer helm on a crate.
 * The symbol on the centre of the area resembles the Stone of Jas, suggesting that the are might once be where the Stone of Jas was stored, and probably the charges players needed to collect during the activity is the energy emitted from the Stone of Jas that radiated into the place where it was held.
 * When Entering the Cave in the Wilderness, you are going in a Northward direction, but the stairs going down to the lobby are going in an east direction, meaning a right turn was made on the stairs.