Barbarian Assault

Barbarian Assault is a cooperative, team-based safe combat minigame located at the Barbarian Outpost. It was released on 4 January 2007, to members only. A team of 5 players must work together in order to defeat 10 waves of Penance monsters and, finally, their leader, the Penance Queen. After completing normal mode once after the rework on 26 August 2014, you may challenge hard mode and the Penance King, Cacus. Teamwork and coordination are vital in order to achieve success at this minigame.

Introduction
The barbarians at the Barbarian Outpost need your help to fight back the seemingly endless waves of Penance monsters. Captain Cain will brief you and your fellow adventurers on your tasks when you arrive. Without completing his tutorial, you will not be able to play. After gathering a party of five teammates, you will be allowed to head straight into the battle. After fighting back enough waves of Penance, you'll have enough Honour points to buy a variety of combat-based and cosmetic rewards.

While the Barbarian Assault arena is isolated within the RuneScape world, there are several methods by which it can be reached:


 * Games necklace teleport - The quickest way to reach the Barbarian Outpost. A games necklace can be made by casting Enchant Level 1 Jewellery on a Sapphire necklace.
 * Barbarian Teleport - This spell from the Lunar spellbook teleports the player to the Barbarian Outpost. Level 75 Magic, three fire runes, two astral runes, and two law runes are needed to cast it.
 * Agility shortcut - At level 37 Agility, players are able to scale the tree to the north east of the Tree Gnome Stronghold (The Grand Tree quest required).
 * Enchanted lyre - Teleport to Rellekka, then approach the Outpost via the Lighthouse.
 * If your P.O.H. (Player Owned House) is located at Rellekka, then house teleport and run from Rellekka following the same route as the Enchanted Lyre teleport method.
 * On foot - Players may journey to the Barbarian Outpost from the south, via the Baxtorian Falls.
 * Via Spirit Tree (After Completition of grand tree quest) teleport to Tree Gnome Stronghold and Use the shortcut to the north-east of the Grand Tree in the Gnome Stronghold (level 37 agility).

Gameplay
Barbarian Assault is a safe minigame and, as such, players will not lose any items upon death. As combat is the minigame's main component, high Defence and Constitution levels provide an advantage. Additionally, a high Agility level is beneficial as it allows players to run for longer periods of time, providing the opportunity to evade threats. A safespot used to be behind the horn of glory, which rendered all enemies unable to attack. However, this was removed with the update to the minigame. Note: If a teammate is killed, the entire group must restart the wave.

Basics
Details information regarding creating a team, brief role descriptions, and Penance monsters that will be faced.

Gameplay
Overview of basic gameplay technique. Includes information on the gameplay interface, battlefield layout and how to complete player roles.

Strategies
Contains information pertaining to more advanced, specific, and efficient gameplay techniques.

Rewards
Note: You must choose Honour points or Experience before each wave starts, or you will continue to receive the same reward type as the previous wave.

Wave Breakdown
This breaks down every wave and tells you the amount of monsters in the wave.

Honour Points
You can trade in Honour Points in return for role level upgrades, equipment and for gambling. You may also spend Honour points on changing the colour of an abyssal whip or dark bow to blue, green, white, or yellow for 50 points in any role. After beating the Penance King five times, you may purchase insignias that boost stats and have effects outside of Barbarian Assault

Experience reward
You can get Bonus experience in either Agility, Firemaking or Mining instead of Honour points. The amount of experience is determined by the number of the wave and the mode used. For example, having level 99 Agility yields 8,116.5 bonus experience from hard mode wave 1 and 12,175 bonus experience from hard mode wave 2.

All roles

 * The most important thing you need to do is call! Every 30 seconds the call will change and appear white. Make sure you call as soon as it changes every time. Even if your team-mate does not call, call for them to at least speed things up a bit. It can be useful to have a stopwatch that you can start at the beginning of every wave.
 * Teams do NOT lose honour points by using the egg launcher. Many players believed that in contrast to experiments and Jagex's statements. Players gain points based on TOTAL number of penance killed; as long as a penance is killed, the player will gain points, and whoever is assigned to that particular penance (Defender=Penance Runner; Healer=Penance Healer; etc. etc.) will still get the double points, even if it is not the usual way of killing them (Runners killed with traps; Healers killed with poison food).
 * Every team member will lose points when a runner makes it to the end, so a good technique is to use the egg launcher to help the defender kill runners south of the north egg launcher rock; everyone on the team will get full points for all runners killed regardless of how they are killed. A trick for the defender is placing some wrong bait at the exit. When a runner eats that bait (even if the then dropped bait later becomes the assigned bait) the runner shouts Blurghh and takes some steps backwards, preventing it from getting to the exit.
 * On wave 10 once all Penance creatures are dead, team members should gather near the Healing Pool. This is better for the Healers as they do not have to run far. An alternative for Waves 1 through 9 is for players to hide in one of the corners of the Egg Launcher "hills", where they can't be poisoned, ranged or meleed. This strategy does not work at Wave 10 due to the Penance Queen's ranged attack.
 * It is helpful to other players if a person takes a role that is already being used, most preferably collector, and use the Horn of Glory at the south-east section of the cave, as this can be used to tell everyone what they need to do. This way players can focus on their jobs. The horn cannot be used on wave 10 when the Queen arrives.
 * Players can see each others chat from anywhere in the room.

Attacker

 * The first priority for an attacker at the beginning of the wave is to run west around the cannon. This way, you do not lure the Penance healers west with you, and it makes the healer's job much easier. Be sure you run west around the cannon during the start of a wave. Some teams may kick you if you fail to follow this general rule.
 * Runes cannot be brought into the minigame, so mages have to use the dispenser inside the game to get ammo.
 * The attacker role should always keep auto-retaliate off to prevent any penalties like injuries and loss of honour points due to having on the wrong attack style.
 * The attacker gets calls for aggressive, balanced or defensive stances. These are under the constitution abilities in the ability book, and will appear once you have entered the game. Put all three stances on the action bar.
 * In Legacy mode, using any weapon at whip/scimitar speed, exactly 7 attacks will lapse at the start before styles switch, and 10 attacks thereafter for every later switch, assuming your collector calls within 2 seconds of the switch. Counting the number of attacks greatly reduces the chance of using the wrong attack style at the moment the styles switch on a Penance.

Collector

 * The first priority for a collector at the beginning of the wave is to run west around the cannon. This way, you do not lure the Penance healers west with you, and it makes the healer's job much easier. Be sure you run west around the cannon during the start of a wave. Some teams may kick you if you fail to follow this general rule.
 * The Collector's primary responsibility aside from calling and picking up eggs is to load the cannon with (preferably the damaging Red) eggs as a backup in case the Defender requires support. Firing the cannon should generally be left to the team members who have already finished their roles to perform, not the Collector.

Defender

 * You can stand in front of the lure cave to block runners from passing by. (Note that a runner can get through if you are walked on by another player). However, this simply slows the team down.
 * The fastest possible way to Defend on certain waves (the waves where only one runner needs to be killed before the others arrive, such as waves 1 and 2) is to drop two correct baits next to the eastern trap and two wrong baits a few spaces north of the eastern cannon and within four spaces of the runners when they come out of the cave. The Defender must do this quickly, so it is very beneficial if the Defender is recruited either third or last. This way, the Defender will spawn near the machine at the start of the each game. After the bait is laid, the player should quickly run back to the trap and stand over the bait. If done correctly, only the first runner should have been killed (the second runner usually halts for a moment after the first runner eats a bait), and the Defender will not need to repair the trap when the rest of the runners follow.
 * On waves where two runners must be killed before the rest arrive, such as wave 3, a different strategy is needed. The player should lay these baits in order: two wrong baits just northwest of the eastern cannon, two wrong baits east of the hammer spawn and south of the eastern cave, a correct bait north of the eastern trap, two or more correct baits next to the eastern trap, a wrong bait on the hammer spawn (grabbing logs as well), and finally two correct baits within four spaces of the eastern cave. By this time the trap will be broken (because the initial two runners will have been killed), so the Defender can repair the trap and stack the rest of the runners. It is crucial that the first few baits are laid quickly, or the runners will get past.

Healer

 * Penance Healers only take poison damage from the most recent poison source. Many poor Healers make the mistake of spamming the poison pack on the Penance Healer in the hope that the stacking poison will kill them faster, but this merely restarts the same poison counter over and over again, making it counterproductive. Since Evolution of Combat the strategy of killing Penance Healers has been changed, see /Strategies/ for actual strategies.
 * Healers could heal each other when there is more than one on a team, as opposed to using the pool directly.
 * Solo healers are particularly at risk because they are generally unable to heal themselves at short notice. Thus, they should keep an eye on their life points, and if needed healing themselves at the healer pool.



Personalities

 * Commander Connad
 * Sergeant Sambur
 * Private Pierreb
 * Private Paldon
 * Private Pendron
 * Private Paldo

Music

 * Legion - Outside
 * Assault and Battery - Wave 1-10
 * Pirates of Penance - Wave 10 during the fight against the Penance Queen or King.

Trivia

 * Previously, the role icons were equipped in the cape slot, preventing players from wearing cape slot items. After the 26 August 2014 rework, they are now equipped in the pocket slot, allowing players to do so.
 * Cosmetic overrides are not allowed in the arena, and will be disabled at the start of a wave in order to allow players to display their role icons. However, the message that appears at the start of each wave incorrectly states that the area is PvP-enabled, when in actuality players cannot attack each other during a round.
 * A glitch may sometimes prevent the Barbarian Assault interface from appearing. This can be fixed by shouting through the Horn of Glory.
 * Players must defeat the Penance Queen after the 26 August 2014 rework to unlock hard mode. Any defeats before the update will not count.
 * Accordingly, if players have not yet killed the Queen since the rework, they receive the message "You cannot turn hard mode on or off while in this room as your hard mode wave is not equal to your normal wave. Your current hard mode wave is 0 and your normal wave is 1." upon attempting to switch to hard mode. The wording of the message is likely an oversight because players cannot reset their wave below 1.
 * Lots of locations can be seen from the basement using the orb of oculus. From the south-east, the Killerwatt Plane can be seen. From the south-west, one can see the H.A.M. meeting room from Death to the Dorgeshuun as well as the TzHaar obsidian mine. To the north-west, is the Easter Bunny's burrow, including the Easter bird.