Bounty Hunter (historical)

Bounty Hunter is a minigame released on December 10, 2007, to replace player killing for both P2P and F2P players on specific worlds. On other worlds, the area outside is available, including the bank, but the caves cannot be entered. Jagex has reduced the number of P2P Bounty Hunter worlds from 5 to 2, thus making the number of people Bounty Hunting to be more condensed, Later with the February 19 updates Jagex increased Bounty Hunter worlds for F2P and P2P. As of 19 February 2008, Bounty Hunter is restricted to a single player PvP combat zone, much like the Duel Arena.

Entrance
The main entrance is at the southeast corner of the large grey area in the wilderness, at approximately level 19, northeast of Edgeville and north-northwest of Varrock. The area beyond the steps is no longer wilderness and Revenants cannot pursue a player into this area.

The Games necklace can be used to teleport here.

There is a bank, similar in appearance to the bank in the Zamorakian altar, where players may restock or deposit loot or prohibited items, as well as most other banking tasks.

Playing
To begin playing Bounty Hunter, the player first must speak with Mandrith, who will explain how the minigame works. Players cannot take any of the following into the bounty hunter area:


 * Non-combat items. The player can take food, potions, etc. in, but cannot bring logs, spades or other items not related to combat.
 * More than one piece of armour per combat style per body part. For example, the player cannot take a Green dragonhide body and Black dragonhide body, however, the player could take Green dragonhide body and Black dragonhide chaps (since they are different body parts), or Green dragonhide body and a Rune platebody (since they are different fighting styles).
 * More than 4 wieldable weapons, or more than 1,000 of each type of stackable ammunition (runes, arrows, bolts, etc.).
 * Coins.
 * "Member item" - pay-to-play items in free-to-play worlds.

In addition, the player cannot deliberately drop any items or stacks of items worth more than 1,000 coins (based on the market value at the Grand Exchange) in the Bounty Hunter crater.

Upon entering, the player will become a special type of skulled as soon as he/she starts the minigame. The player will have a skull (in the colours of brown, grey, green, blue, or red) and pile of coins over the player's head, depending on the value of the items he/she carries at the time.

Players are given a bounty hunter to kill, and if they kill anyone else they get a "pick-up penalty" for a limited time, where they cannot use the Protect Item Prayer. In addition, if they pick up any items while under a pickup penalty, they get a "leave penalty", where on top of not being able to use Protect Item, they cannot leave the crater or even log out until the penalty expires, or until they kill their designated target.



Caves
Only combat related supplies may be taken in to the combat area, and you must be able to use any weapon or armour piece that you take with you. One set of Armour for each combat area is allowed, and you may only take four weapons with you into the game.

There are three cave entrances to the east of the steps, bank and scorecard area, from east to west they are: In free world: * Low Level Crater 3-55 * Medium Level crater 50-100 * High Level crater 95+ In member world: * Low Level Crater 3-67 * Medium Level Crater 50-112 * High Level Crater 95+ On entering, players find themselves at a random doorway and are immune to attack for 6 seconds. Any depleted player stats are replenished on entry and exit.

The orbs at the sides of the cave entrance can be used to view the action inside, from any of the 9 orb posts within. Only the cave or caves that the player has the level to enter can be viewed. The pan and tilt controls operate while viewing and the cursor can be used to get player name and level.

In battle
The player will receive their target, marked in the top right corner of the screen. This will also display any penalty that is in effect.

The player will also be a target, both for bounty hunters or rogues killing any player, despite the penalty. The area is single combat, nonetheless a lone player could be subjected to the wrath of rogue hunters or the bounty hunter that's after him.

If the target is within range, a red arrow on the minimap points in the general direction, changing to yellow when closer and to a hollow yellow overhead arrow on the main screen.

Enemy tactics
Piling is no longer effective as the Bounty Hunter has become a single player Player vs Player combat zone. As of 19 February 2008, the Bounty Locate Spell is available to Free Players and the Magic level required to cast it has been significantly lowered to 32. Therefore, while in the minigame, it is likely that the player who is supposed to hunt you down will teleport to find you much sooner than previously before.

The latest update also allows Bounty Hunters to steal their bounty from combat, much like the Revenants. Therefore it is not common to see hunters waiting for players to weaken their bounty first before finishing them off.

As of the 22nd February 2008 update, players who are in combat or frozen (By standard spells such as Entangle or Ancient Magicks such as Ice Barrage) may not escape through teleporting (Bounty Locate) to escape from their opponents. This enables hunters to effectively trap their opponents, and prevent their opponent from escaping too easily.

Therefore, a new tactic has developed after this update which made Bounty Hunter a unique single-player PvP minigame. Firstly, hunters usually teleport to their target to find that their target is already in combat with another player. Despite being able to attack their target, the hunter usually waits until the fight is finishing or when his target attempts to escape. Then, the hunter may start attacking the victim or binding him, preventing escape, and finally killing him. Secondly, some players may have the same target. Thus they may team up against their victim, by ambush or employing the method above.

Many players run away from their fights and leave the cave. Thus, many people use restraining spells (such as Bind, Snare or Entangle), energy or Agility draining weapons (Karil special or the Abyssal whip's special attack), and the prayer Smite, as many people use the Protect Item prayer. Smite allows a chance of depleting a target's prayer, therefore making them unable to keep their item.

A vast amount of players will use a strategy which entails bringing a single weapon, often a poisoned Dragon Dagger, and using the "Protect Item" prayer to prevent loss of the item.

Money making Tactics
As of 19 February 2008, a Bounty reward is available to all hunters who have killed at least 10 players in the minigame. The rewards are categorised depending on which entrance did you enter to kill your bounty.
 * Low-level area: up to 40 000 gp value of reward
 * Mid-level area: up to 80 000 gp value of reward
 * High-level area: up to 120 000 gp value of reward

In F2P worlds, low-level players use the tactic of picking up 'leftovers,' which is where low-level players dart back and forth inbetween the caves picking up as many mithril/adamant arrows as they can, but without taking in any items themselves - this tactic is popular mainly because of the vast amount of rangers, exits and arrows in caves. Incidentally, the adamant arrows sell for 100gp upwards in the Grand Exchange.

Equipment Value
While in the arena an icon will be visible above the player's head. The value of the equipment and inventory the player is carrying will determine the colour as shown in the following table:

The colours of all the equipment values are the same colours as the following metals: Bronze, Steel, Adamant, Rune and Dragon.

Leaving
The only way out is by the doorways at intervals in the walls. Teleporting out is not possible. If the player became a "Rogue" (by killing a person who was not assigned to you), a countdown of 180 seconds (3 minutes) will begin. You can see how much time is left in the count down on the top-right corner of your screen. It won't have any effect on you if don't pick up the dropped items, but if you do, you cannot leave for that period of time. You will find that logging out is also impossible. The only way to stop the countdown is to kill the player you were assigned to kill in the first place.

Reception
The minigame is generally criticised by the Runescape community, claiming that it is not an adequate replacement for PKing, as many people are instantly killed the second they enter the caves. This is not helped by the fact that many people were angry about other aspects of the 10th December update, and were rioting all over Runescape.

On the 18th December update, Jagex stated that they are making a single-combat player-killing area, much to the satisfaction of the many people who wanted single combat.

On 19th February 2008, Jagex made the Bounty Hunter a single-combat player-killing area, receiving some support of the Runescape community. However, there are a few minority who argue that this eliminated the last source of player-killing clans. Lots of people are angry over the large range of combat levels in the arenas. Many of these lower players often bounty locate to players many levels higher than their own. Jagex has said they are making a multi combat mini-game for the clans.

Dying
If you die in Bounty Hunter you will lose ALL your items! Make sure you are well prepared for clan attacks and only take items you are prepared to lose! The only way to not lose your items is with the Protect item prayer which saves your best item (note: if you have a pickup penalty then you will not be able to use this prayer). If you do happen to die during the game you will appear outside the caves and not in your normal respawn location.