Player killing

Player killing (PKing), or player vs. player (PvP), is the act of two or more players in combat, instead of a player and a monster or NPCs. At present, there are only six places in RuneScape where player killing can occur: the Wilderness, the Castle Wars minigame, the Duel Arena, your house, if you have a combat ring, the TzHaar Fight Pit and a Player's Dungeon. However, there was a time in the game's history that the entire map was open for player killing.

Combat Areas
There are two forms of combat area found throughout the land of RuneScape - single and multicombat areas.


 * Single combat restricts players such that they can only fight one-on-one. In a multicombat zone, multiple players can attack multiple targets.


 * Multi-combat areas are identified upon entering by two crossed swords appearing in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. Anywhere else is classed as a single combat area. Multicombat areas are especially dangerous in the Wilderness, as more than one player can attack you at one time. This could be beneficial to a player, because by attacking as a team you will decrease your chances of dying and will increase your chances of defeating stronger players.

The Wilderness
Main article: Wilderness

The Wilderness is the riskiest area to engage in PvP combat. Anything you take into the Wilderness could be lost if you have a skull and crossbones over your head, which can be obtained if you attack a player first. The wilderness covers all of the Northern area in the free world section of the map.

Castle Wars
Main article: Castle Wars

Killing other players in Castle Wars is technically only a secondary objective to getting the enemy flag; however, many players fight amongst themselves with no regard to the team objective.

Duelling and the Duel Arena
Main article: Duel Arena

This is a place where players can fight in a controlled environment and choose rules to their fight. They can also place a wager on their fight. The duel arena has inspired a new type of character called a staker. These characters are created to make money by winning duels.

In RuneScape Classic, there is still a third option available when right-clicking on a player in normal areas. The option, "Duel-with", allows the player to send a duel request as if in the Duel Arena of the modern RuneScape game. There is also even the option to stake items, and to set specific rules in the duel, though this is very limited compared to the modern Duel Arena's rules. Such options include "No Retreating", "No Magic", "No Prayer", an "No Weapons". Once the rules are set and the stakes are agreed on, the players then proceed to fight under the condition of the given rules, if any.

The key difference between wilderness player killing and this form of duelling is that players cannot obtain the skull and crossbones effect upon attacking another player in a duel, and will not lose any of their items if they should happen to die. They will still, however, respawn in Lumbridge, making it a good way to return to the free area of RuneScape should a player not have a high enough Magic level to cast the appropriate teleport spell.

TzHaar Fight Pit
Main article: TzHaar Fight Pit

Death Matches
Death Matches (or DMS) are common forms of PKing. This form of PKing involves two people fighting in a low wilderness area (Edgeville is the most common place).

The three combat styles
Idly wandering around the Wilderness will identify fellow players as three, often overlapping, stereotypes: melee fighters, rangers and mages, all of which form the corners of the combat triangle. Each corner has a distinct advantage over one other, but is heavily disadvantaged against the other.

Melee Fighters

 * Advantages - For those who want to get up close and homicidal, melee is the preferred option. This involves, generally, bulkier weapons and armour than the light and flimsy range and mage options. Not only does this make you look more impressive, it gives the adventurer a strong advantage over Ranged attacks. Arrows and bolts will have a hard time piercing armour, allowing the melee fighter to get close enough to do serious damage.


 * Disadvantages- The 'but' comes when encountering mages. Well-constructed melee armour does a good job of deflecting blades and bolts, but also manages to strongly conduct Magic attacks, increasing the effects and damage caused by an opportunist magician. An experienced spellcaster can also paralyse a melee combatant with a 'holding' spell and then attack from afar. Mages are melee fighters' arch enemies, and so should be avoided.

Mages

 * Advantages - The mage may look like an easy target, wearing what could be described as a glorified flannel, but beneath their soft and stabbable exterior lies a dangerous opponent. A combination of 'holding' spells and Magic's conductivity through armour makes the mage strongly anti-melee, often keeping a hand-to-hand combatant incapacitated and highly vulnerable.


 * Disadvantages - Soft-to-the-touch cloaks and robes make the mage a tempting target for passing rangers. With little Ranged Defence, this often makes the mage a walking pin-cushion - and 'holding' spells will only encourage rangers to shoot from afar.

Rangers

 * Advantages - With light, articulated armour for optimum ranging, the ranger is able to substitute what his or her armour lacks in physical Defence with magical resistance. This makes the ranger a strong adversary for the mage, who will find a foe that is well defended against magical attacks while also being able to attack from long distances.


 * Disadvantages - To keep nimble, the ranger has sacrificed a large element of his or her armour's melee Defence. A hand-to-hand combatant will be able to aim attacks at the joints and other unprotected areas with relative ease, as long as they can get close enough to do so.

Anti- Player Killing
Anti-Player Killing (Anti-PKing) is the act of killing a Pker. Anti-Pking has been around as long as PKing has. An Anti-PKer is someone who oly ever attacks PKer's (i.e. Only attacking people with skulls, asking the person if he is a PKer and if he says yes attacking him, attacking someone who he sees attacking another player) and never attacks anyone else. Some RuneScape clans are "Anti-PKing clans" and only ever kill PKers. Anti-Pkers get more of a profet a lot of the time too, because most the people they attack are skulled.

History
Originally, after the release of RuneScape Classic, players could select whether or not to play as player killer characters. Players could switch from player-killer mode to non-player-killer mode (in which the character could not attack or be attacked by other players) three times, after which they remained at their chosen setting forever. PvP combat could take place at most locations in the RuneScape world. The rules of combat were the same as in the modern Wilderness. Lumbridge was designated as a neutral area in which players could not attack each other; this was done to prevent a practice called "spawn camping", in which recently killed players were immediately killed again as soon as they re spawned. In addition to this restriction, NPC Guards and White Knights patrolled the cities of Varrock and Falador, breaking up PvP battles by attacking the aggressor. These guard units were limited in number, however, and if all the units in a city were already in combat, PvP combat could go on freely. On August 13th, 2001, this system was replaced by the Wilderness, partly due to complaints from many players who were unable to leave Lumbridge without being attacked by hordes of hostile player killers. Later, additional areas where PvP combat is allowed were added.