Wilderness

The Wilderness is an unforgiving, desolate area, the only place where non-members may engage in PvP combat.

The further north you go, the higher the Wilderness Level gets. At Wilderness L1, any player within one level of your combat level may attack you. At Wilderness L50, any player within 50 levels of you may attack you.

Some areas are multi combat, so that a single player may be attacked by more than one, or a clan versus clan battle can be held. These areas are even more dangerous

Why enter the wilderness
Why indeed, would anyone choose to enter this dangerous place?

To fight
Pitting your wits against other players may be precisely why you choose to visit this lawless place, just so long as you end up on the advantageous point of the "combat triangle". You can also find different monsters in the wilderness.
 * Mage is strong against Warrior, because metal armour is more vulnerable to magic.
 * Warrior is strong against Ranger, but needs to close in fast.
 * Ranger is strong against Mage, as leather armour has the best protection against magic.

A shortcut
The Edgeville bank to Mind altar shortcut is a well travelled route, passing through wilderness up to level 4. There is a risk of ambush by a player close to your level, but you would expect to be able to run to safety before taking too much damage, though bind spells increase the threat. Leather armour may be better than metal, as this route can be traversed without meeting any monsters, while the risk of a Mage ambush seems to be greatest.

For resources
There are many useful respawns, and particularly, the planks required for the Dragon Slayer quest are only found at two places in the wilderness:
 * 1) In what is often called "Varrock wilderness", north of the Varrock lumber yard at level 18. This is multi combat and the narrow path through dense woods looks like an ideal spot for an ambush.
 * 2) In the Graveyard of shadows, level 22 wilderness. This is not multi combat, but the area south of it is, so the best approach is due north from Edgeville, where the ghosts around the Battle plain mark the position where you should turn east, or return south on the way back.

To mine
The risk factor and the aggressive monsters mean these mines are rarely mined-out, unlike the Mining guild at busy times.

While the best metal armour enables you to shrug off most of the monsters that frequent the mines, the most common player attack is by a Mage, so leather, hard leather or studded leather (level 20 range required) may be preferable, to increase defence against magic.

It's another couple of items to risk losing, but wielding a magic staff (for +10 magic defence) and wearing an amulet of defence (+7 to all defence) may be worthwhile.

Noob immunity
Low level players venturing into high level wilderness, will often find that most other players venturing that far are outside their combat level, though finding one that isn't could mean a rapid end. This is why high level clans or high level miners often find it useful to have a low level scout, since the scout will usually only need to evade the monsters.