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.

Gameplay
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. If the trolls can be held back, there is also a harder 7 wave version. 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 until wave 20 which is when you must fight the boss. The boss isn't too hard if you do the right thing. When fighting it, 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.

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.

An XP tome will be granted the first time the trolls are defeated each month, with smaller rewards for other defences. This Distraction and Diversion may also be repeated but experience will only be given the first time the player tries each month.

Fighting in the invasion does count toward a troll slayer task.

Combat Gameplay Waves List
Source

Tips for Combat Gameplay
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 ranged 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
 * Turn auto-retaliate OFF.
 * Trolls come from the troll path to the northwest, and some would jump down from cliffs to the south, west and north. The first time a troll jump down a cliff a short cutscene would show you this. 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 could be killed much faster as the archer would yell "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. 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.
 * Kill Wizards second. Their ability to telekinetically jerk you back to them will thwart any rushed trips to the supply table. Wizards can throw you in range of thrower trolls and freeze you there, with no option but to eat until able to move. They could 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 hit VERY hard! This is even more prominent on the hard version, as three troll generals appear at once for the first time in wave 3, and they hit a maximum of over 400 each. If they manage to attack you simutaneously while you do not have Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee on, there is a high chance that you would be defeated. Armour with high melee damage soaking might help just in case that your prayer run 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.
 * When you kill all trolls attacking you but the next wave would not start, there is probably a Poorly Cooked Karambwan hiding somewhere. Find and kill him, but don't go too far down the "troll 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 could block all others without having to make an effort blocking them. Also, when close to the wall, the archer would frequently yell "VOLLEY!" and all trolls nearby would be damaged by the arrows.
 * Safespots can be 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 would work nicely.
 * Bring the most powerful summoning familiar you can bring to assist you in battle.
 * When fighting Cliff, using Pray Melee will leave a player relatively unscathed, 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 could stop the Dynamites from blowing up the supply table, but bring a few sharks or equivalent food just in case a Wizard drag you away from the table and stun you. Better to have the food in case a dynamite manages to get by.
 * For a fairly balanced player 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 could be trapped. Praying against ranged neglects the trouble of having to run every time a troll ranger uses its special move. Sometimes you might not even see this.
 * Hybrids would do pretty well in this D&D. Magic and ranged would 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 got blown up. The latter is slightly more useful against Summoners' minions.
 * For higher levels with good defence, meleeing seems best as you could 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 is quite accurate, and might take you by surprise. Keep your health high.
 * Note: It is not possible to use the Dwarf Multicannon.

Tips for Defence Gameplay

 * 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, and there is a climbable section of wall by the ballista, 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.

Rewards
The first time you play each month you can claim a reward book from Captain Jute. This will give you experience in any skill that you choose. As with Penguin Hide and Seek you 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 will also receive normal combat experience while playing. Those who choose defence will receive small amounts of experience in the skills they use to keep the gatehouse repaired.

If you complete waves 1-20 without failing, you will get experience based on the level of the skill you choose to use the reward on. The formula for the xp is 8x²-16x+800, with x being the level of the chosen skill. A level 99 skill will result in a reward of 77624 xp. Note that this is only for the normal waves.

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 sum interface window. To fix this: 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
 * 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. Having a few air runes and on normal spellbook you can use wind rush to attack it with only taking 1 space. You can also take a air staff instead.
 * If you kill trolls close to the mountains, bones dropped may float on top of the tall grass.
 * Possible glitch: when wearing the Demon horn necklace with Bonecrusher, you will not regain prayer points while burying big bones.

Trivia

 * 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 British Sit Com The IT Crowd, "I came here to drink milk and kick ass, and i've just finished my milk." which is in turn 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 knowledgebase omitted the dynamite that spawns in wave 14.