Wilderness

The Wilderness is an area which makes up the entirety of northeastern Gielinor, directly north of the kingdom of Asgarnia. It is the only place where non-members may engage in Player-versus-Player (PvP) combat.

The further north players go, the higher the danger level gets. At danger level 1, any player within one level of the player's combat level may engage that player in combat. At danger level 50, any player within 50 levels of you may attack you. So if you are level 70, a level 120 could attack you in the Wilderness!

Teleports will not work above level 20, except for the Amulet of Glory or Ring of Life which may be used up to level 30. However, the Tele Block spell may prevent teleports from working for 5 minutes.

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

The Graveyard of Shadows is also the only place in the Wilderness where you can't be attacked by other players; however, zombies will attack.

The Ditch


The Wilderness is protected by a ditch on its south edge, therefore requiring players to click on it to enter the Wilderness. This is to prevent players from wandering into the Wilderness and getting killed. After clicking the ditch, players are presented with a screen that asks whether they really want to enter the Wilderness. Players who click yes will then jump over the ditch. Above it, there are a few safe spaces. This has, however, reduced the level 1 Wilderness to 4 tiles.

Jagex has added the ditch functionality on the 18th April 2007. They also added the option not to receive this warning message every time on the 17th July 2007. Players can toggle this and other warning messages on and off via the Doomsayer in Lumbridge.

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

To Fight


Matching wits against other players is one of the most common reasons why some players choose to visit this lawless place. The Combat triangle comes into play when battling other players, and is briefly outlined as follows: There are also many different monsters in the Wilderness.
 * Mages are generally strong against Warriors, because metal armour is more vulnerable to magic. This advantage is balanced, as arrows can cut through through the light mage robes.
 * Warriors are strong against Rangers, but need to close in fast. Their metal armour does attract magic, though, creating even more damage.
 * Rangers are strong against Mages, as ranger-oriented armour such as leather and dragonhide, has the best protection against magic. Their arrows slice through mage robes. Again, though, an advantage to warriors is the rangers' leather armour, easy enough to cut through, warriors just have to get close enough to rangers to attack.

To Access the Abyss
Pay to play players can use the Abyss in the Wilderness to access the various altars throughout RuneScape to craft runes; the Zamorak mage that teleports players to the abyss is in level 5 wilderness. Many players will risk being pked to craft runes here as it is the fastest way available; normally only runes above cosmic are crafted here as any rune below this is not considered worth the risk.

A Shortcut
The Edgeville bank is closer to the mind altar than the Falador branch is. Although a shorter path, it crosses into level 4 Wilderness.

For Resources
There are many useful respawns in the Wilderness. Particularly, in the non-members' world, there are only two spawn points for the planks required in the Dragon Slayer quest: There are also many respawns for bones in the chaos temple.
 * 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 players should turn east, or return south on the way back.

To Mine Ores
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 players to shrug off most of the monsters that frequent the mines, the most common player attack is by a Mage, so ranged armour may be preferable, to increase defence against magic.

To Solve Clues
Pay to play players can obtain Clue Scrolls from monsters. The higher level Clue Scrolls often involve visits to the Wilderness, including to the parts with a very high danger level. Most of the time you will be incapable of teleporting so you would need to bring a lot of food, preferably lobsters or sharks.

To Train Agility
Pay to play players have an Agility training course in the deep Wilderness. It is one of the fastest Agility training areas.

To Kill Monsters
The Wilderness has monsters that can be interesting to kill for their drops or their experience e.g. Greater demons. In member worlds Green Dragons, the King Black Dragon and the Chaos Elemental are examples of monsters that attract players into the Wilderness.

To Unlock Music
Some players wish to unlock as much music as possible. Many music tracks are only available in the Wilderness.

To Make Money
Many players engage in player killing to obtain valuables. When they kill a player, the player they killed only keeps three items (None if they're skulled, 4 with the Protect Items prayer activated, or 1 if the player is skulled and has the Protect Items prayer activated). Then the player killer takes the dropped items and does whatever so they may wish to do with them. This includes using the High Alchemy or Low Alchemy spells on them or selling them for money.

To Sell Items
Many players have items that are of very little value to merchants and skill specialists. (All Wilderness merchants are very high-level as a matter of personal safety).

"Wildy Apothecaries"
Many players sell items such as Super strong weapon poison to player-killers at high prices. Poison-peddlers tend to stay out of multi-combat areas, as a full load of super-poison may attract a large number of PKers. Sometimes these people also sell poisoned weapons.

Features
All of the area above except the Red Dragon Island is available to Free-to-play users. A basic outline to some features is given below, for more in-depth click on the link.

Dark Knight Fortress
The Dark Knight Fortress, located in levels 14 and 15 of the Wilderness is one of the easiest places to train Magic due to 7 rune spawns. Earth, Water, Air and Fire runes. It also contains Chaos, Mind and Body runes. However, journeying there can be very dangerous as wilderness clans tend to gather around the multi combat fortress.

Hill Giants
Many Free-to-play clans gather and move towards the Hill Giants which are found at level 18 Wilderness. This is a good area to attack, because you can kill people around 20 levels higher or lower then your current combat. There is also a vantage point in this area, where upon you can stand without players being able to see you from lvl 14-15. This is especially helpful if you are planning to Death Dot or Dd at the Hill Giants

Features
This area is only available to Pay-to-play users. Note: The white line visible near the bottom is the fence separating the Free-to-play and Pay-to-play areas.

Mage Arena
This is where players with at least level 60 Magic can take Kolodion's challenge. Successful players receive the God Cape and the God Staff of their chosen God. For more information, see the Mage Arena article.

Wilderness Portals


There are six Wilderness Portals. Each portal will randomly teleport anyone standing on the central pad to any of the other 5 pads. They are the only teleportation method to work beyond level 30 Wilderness. To activate the portal, touch any of the pillars on the side. The portals are found in the following locations:

Wilderness part of Edgeville dungeon
Although most of the Wilderness is an open area, the north part of Edgeville dungeon is Wilderness too. It can be accessed by passing a members gate. The Wilderness level in the northernmost part is 5. Points of interest:
 * Several Chaos druids in the Wilderness section, well known for their high drop rate for herbs.
 * There are quite a few red spider's eggs respawns in this dungeon, making it easier to collect them for potions.
 * Several Black Demons live farther inside the dungeon, yet closer to a bank than most others.
 * There is a demon who resides in the dungeon named Chronozon. He's a critical part of the Family Crest quest and can only be killed after successfully casting all four of the elemental "blast" spells on him.
 * The Earth Obelisk is in the dungeon near Chronozon, and the Air Obelisk can be accessed through the dungeon as well, past the Black Demons.
 * The dungeon is the only location to house Earth Warriors. You need to 15 Agility to get to them.