Troll Invasion

Troll Invasion is a single-player Distraction and Diversion released on 14 June 2011. Trolls are invading Burthorpe, overrunning the Imperial Guard. The trolls can be stopped through either combat or skilling.

Getting Started
Speak to Captain Jute outside the newly constructed gatehouse north of the Warriors' Guild. He will offer you the choice of fighting the trolls or keeping the gatehouse repaired. Confirm that you've picked the one you want to do and you will start the activity. You can start the game quickly by right-clicking and choosing either 'start-repairing' or 'start-fighting'.

Note: Fighting in the invasion counts toward a troll slayer task.

Enemy Trolls
Suggested priority: Dynamite > Wizard > Cliff > Summoner > Troll father > Troll ranger > Troll general > Mountain troll > Troll runt > Familiars > Poorly Cooked Karambwan

Combat
If combat is chosen, 20 waves of trolls will come at the player, getting progressively more difficult, similiar to that of the Tzhaar Fight Caves. These include mountain trolls, summoning trolls, dynamite trolls, and Cliff. There is also a 'hard' 7-wave version, but the 'normal' 20-wave version must be attempted once before the harder version becomes available. Once the 7-wave version is unlocked, the player is given a choice of facing the normal or hard version when starting the activity again.

Don't forget to bring good armour if fighting!. Bring good food (monkfish or sharks) to keep yourself alive. Bring 2-4 prayer potions as well. Do not be afraid to bring your best armour and weapons while fighting, because this is a safe activity; only consumed items you bring, like potions and food, will be lost.

The aim is to kill the trolls in each wave. In the final wave, the player fights Cliff, who uses melee, ranged, and magic. In the normal version, Cliff appears in Wave 20 by himself. In the hard version, Cliff appears in Wave 7 along with several other trolls, which also must be defeated. Cliff isn't too hard to defeat if you do the right thing. When fighting him, keep your melee protection prayer turned on. When a huge magical rock appears, turn on the magic protection prayer. The ranged attacks are harder to recognize, but as with the other attacks pray range as well.

Tips
When you are choosing the combat version make sure you DO NOT walk into the path to the north-west, otherwise you will be hit for rapid unblockable damage.


 * Prayer, lifepoints, special attacks, and other stats can always be restored at the supply table. Warning: Using the supply table will remove any stat boost from potions you used. This does not permanently disable the effect of an Overload.Troll_Invasion_map.png
 * Trolls come from the troll path to the northwest, and some jump down from cliffs to the south, west and north. The first time a troll jumps down a cliff a short cutscene appears. The east is safe as the wall stands there.
 * Try to lure the trolls to the wall, even if you are using melee. This way, they can be killed much faster as the archer yells "VOLLEY!" every few seconds, dealing ranged damage to the trolls into the 200s very accurately. As this hits every troll close enough AT ONCE, it is extremely effective. After a couple volleys the arrows will attack less trolls until they only attack one or none of them. You are also much closer to the supply table this way, allowing you to restore all your stats easily. This also makes defending it from Dynamites a bit less tricky.
 * Kill Dynamite trolls first, as they can destroy your supply table for the duration of the game. A faster, safer and simpler way is to use binding spells on them, as they seem to explode a few seconds after you attack them anyway. However, simply hitting them once with melee and then running away also works, as once hit the troll stops moving and soon explodes.
 * Kill Wizards second. Their ability to telekinetically jerk you back to them will thwart any rushed trips to the supply table. Wizards can move you in range of thrower trolls and freeze you there, with no option but to eat until able to move. They can also use their vine attack next to the supply table, making replenishing stats dangerous. This is one of the disadvantages of fighting near the supply table.
 * Look out for the Troll generals. They can hit fairly high, especially in the hard version, as three troll generals appear at once for the first time in wave 3, hitting a maximum of over 400 each. If they manage to attack you simultaneously while you do not have Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee on, there is a high chance that you will be defeated. Armour with high melee damage soaking might help in case your prayer runs out without you noticing.
 * Kill Troll Fathers BEFORE Troll Runts, as the Father heals his children very quickly.
 * Lure the Poorly Cooked Karambwan to the supply table, to kill him. This way, when your stats inevitably begin to drain, you have easy access to a full restore. Or simply safe spot them. They are non-aggressive, so they can be ignored until the trolls in the rest of the wave are killed.
 * When you kill all trolls attacking you but the next wave does not start, there is probably a Poorly Cooked Karambwan wandering about somewhere. Find and kill him, but don't go too far down the "troll passageway". Use ranged or magic to attack him while in the passageway, which will then draw him toward you out of the passageway.
 * If you intend to range or mage, do it from the "corridor" between Captain Jute and the archer. It is narrow enough to trap larger trolls. When troll runts start appearing, allow them to follow you. A single troll runt can block all others without having to make an effort to block them. Also, when close to the wall, the archer frequently yells "VOLLEY!" and all trolls nearby are damaged by the arrows.
 * Safespots are located along the walls of the battlefield as rocks. There is one on the west side of the gate, just below the troll passageway.
 * Bring a powerful special attack weapon to quickly dispatch dangerous monsters, like Dynamites, Wizards, Summoners and Cliff. The special attack bar will be fully restored if you use the supply table. A Dragon dagger, dragon claws, a dark bow or a Korasi's sword will work nicely.
 * Bring the most powerful summoning familiar you can summon to assist you in battle.
 * When fighting Cliff, using Pray Melee will leave a player relatively unscathed, but save for his mage attack. Watch for the orange-colored orb before quickly switching your prayer to avoid this damage.
 * For players with a combat level of around 100 and a reasonable knowledge of the D&D, there should be little need for food as long as you stop the Dynamites from blowing up the supply table. However, bring a few sharks or equivalent food just in case a Wizard drags you away from the table and stuns you. Better to have the food in case a Dynamite manages to get by.
 * For a fairly balanced, medium-level player, Protect from Missiles or Deflect Missiles could be the best way to go for more crowded waves unless you are wearing heavy melee armour, but make sure the troll generals are dealt with. Wizards and Summoners generally hit for very minor damage. Melee trolls can be trapped. Praying against ranged negates the trouble of having to run every time a troll ranger uses its special move. Sometimes you might not even see this.
 * Hybrids can do pretty well in this D&D. Magic and ranged deal with the trolls fairly nicely. Use magic on melee trolls and kill others with ranged. Sacred clay armour or Void Knight equipment are good for medium levels. Higher levelled players might go for Elite Void Knight equipment, which gives a prayer bonus and increased summoning defence. The former is not useful unless the supply table has been blown up. The latter is slightly more useful against Summoners' minions.
 * For higher levels with good defence, meleeing seems best as you can hit high and often on the trolls while taking minimal damage; Protect from Magic or Deflect Magic covers the weaker side. However, be careful when a Troll general approaches. They can hit into the 400s and are quite accurate, and might take you by surprise. Keep your health high.
 * Note: It is not possible to use the Dwarf Multicannon.

Repair
If skilling is chosen, the gatehouse must be maintained. The ballista must be tended to, the oil vats refilled, and the barricades repaired. These actions will increase the troops' morale, causing them to fight harder. If the trolls are stopped for ten minutes they will depart.

To keep the gatehouse in order, four things must be done. There is an interface on the top-left part of the screen, showing what needs attention, how many trolls have been killed, and how much time is left.
 * Oil drums - The oil drums inside the gatehouse must be kept filled up. There is an oil well outside of the gatehouse, with a bucket next to it. The buckets must be filled up and poured into the drums.
 * Ballista - The ammunition for the ballista must be kept alight. It must be repaired by left-clicking it. Requires a tinderbox to light and a hammer to repair.
 * Wall - Repair by left-clicking. Grants 10 Construction experience. Requires a hammer to repair.
 * Barricades - Repair by left-clicking. Grants 10 Crafting experience. Requires a hammer to repair.

For every 10 trolls that the soldiers kill, 5 morale points are gained. These are used on boosts, which each cost 75 points and have a duration and cool-down time of 30 seconds.

Every once in a while, the trolls will do their own special attacks which will harm the gatehouse.

Tips

 * Before starting, wear max weight reducing gear, then at start fill inventory with buckets and fill all buckets with oil.
 * A tinderbox and hammer are provided, as well as several oil buckets. More oil buckets can be found by the well.
 * The stairs to the walltop can be found at the south end. There is a climbable section of wall just south of the the ballista on the western wall, leading to the north end barricades and damaged wall sections.
 * Repair ballista - setting up the ballista is the first thing you should do. This is located at the north end of the walltop.
 * Light arrows - light the ballista ammo whenever you go past the ballista.
 * Fill oil drums - fill the oil buckets from the well behind the gatehouse and click on the walltop drums to fill them.
 * Repair barricades - there are barricades either side of the gate. These must be kept repaired. Go down the stairs to reach the south end ones and climb the wall to reach the north end ones. Second priority
 * Repair walls - the walls must be kept repaired. The tower walls can be damaged as well as the main walls. Try to fix the walls at the same time as you fix the barricades in that area. Highest priority
 * Watch out for the oil spill at about 10 minutes. This will drain your run energy to 0 and slow you down.
 * Most of the troll army's powers can be negated by either preparation or using one of your own powers. Such as your "caffeine boost" negating the trolls' "slow-mo" or "oil spill." However, there is no way to counter "armoured trolls" but to wait it out.

Rewards
The first time you play each month you can claim a reward book from Captain Jute. The book gives experience in any skill chosen by the player. As with Penguin Hide and Seek players must use the entire experience reward at once. Rewards can be claimed quickly by right-clicking the Captain and selecting 'Rewards'.

Players who choose to fight also receive normal combat experience while playing. Those who choose defence receive small amounts of experience in the skills they use to keep the gatehouse repaired (construction for repairing walls, crafting for repairing barricades, firemaking for lighting ammo).

Players get experience based on the level of the skill on which they choose to use the reward and based on the percentage of the activity completed. The expression for the xp for 100% completion (20 "normal" waves for combat or 1500 trolls killed for defence) is 8x²-16x+800, where x is the level of the chosen skill. The reward is prorated for lesser levels of completion. A level 99 skill results in a reward of 77,624 xp.

Glitches

 * If you enter Troll Invasion with a familiar and leave with one, the game will no longer recognize that you have a familiar and it will no longer appear, but your summoning points will continue to decrease and you still can view the familiar in the summoning interface window. To fix this: first click the dismiss button. You will immediately get a message saying your familiar is too large for the area (which is false) and then the dismiss box will come up. Click "No." Your familiar is now back. However, the familiar's timer no longer counts down. Trollinvasion_sumglitch.png

Trivia

 * Players may notice that they have visibly cleared their path, but the wave does not end. Sometimes, a Poorly Cooked Karambwan will have wandered back up the northwestern path, and is out of sight. Running to the edge of the path will not get his attention. Players may need to risk path-assaulting trolls to run up and attack, so ranged or mage is recommended. With a few air runes and the normal spellbook you can use wind rush to attack it with only one inventory space. You may take an air staff instead.
 * The phrase "and came down from the mountain to drink milk and kick butt...and he's all outta milk." is a reference to the John Carpenter movie "They Live" where Roddy Piper's character makes a similar statement.
 * Some trolls in this activity are references to some characters in the game Plants vs Zombies.
 * Golden Hammers will not work as an alternative to a hammer in this Distraction and Diversion.
 * The RuneScape knowledge base omitted the Dynamite that spawns in wave 14. It is not currently known whether this was intended as a "surprise" for everyone, or just an oversight by Jagex.
 * If you are wearing a Ring of life in this game, you will be teleported out once you reach less than 10% of your health, wasting your chance at a better reward. It is unknown if this will be fixed by Jagex.