Bounty Hunter (historical)

Bounty Hunter (known as BH) is a player-killing minigame 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. It was released on 10 December 2007.

Jagex has reduced the number of Bounty Hunter worlds since the release of this minigame, thus making the number of people Bounty Hunting to be more condensed. As of 19 February 2008, Bounty Hunter is restricted to a 'special' single (you can be attacked by more than one player at a time) player PvP combat zone.

There is currently only one free-to-play world and one pay-to-play world where you can play this minigame. There are no Bounty Hunter worlds in the German version, or the French version of RuneScape.

As of 27 February, players are unable to play Bounty Hunter. Jagex is fixing some bugs among other things, as stated on the forums and in the front news post.

Entrance
The main entrance is at the south-east corner of the large grey area in the wilderness, at approximately level 19. It is north-east of Edgeville, west of Clan Wars and Graveyard of Shadows, and north-north-west 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 and the bank at Fist of Guthix, where players may restock or deposit loot or prohibited items, as well as most other banking tasks. The banker's name is Maximillian Sackville.

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, undead chickens, 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 d'hide 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. Any amount of armour from the 3 combat areas are 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 south to north they are:


 * Low Level Crater 3-55
 * Medium Level crater 50-100.
 * High Level crater 95+

The level requirements listed do not include summoning. 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. Note that if a player is above the level for a lower arena, they can still look into the lower-level orb and unlock the area's music. 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 from 85 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.

The latest update also allows Bounty Hunters to steal players from combat, much like the Revenants. Therefore it is not uncommon to see players waiting to attack weakened players.

A vast amount of players use a strategy which entails bringing a single weapon, often a poisoned Dragon Dagger or granite maul(as both of these weapons provide potentialy high, multiple hitting special attacks), and using the "Protect Item" prayer to prevent loss of the item.

F2P Tactics

 * Most F2P players bring some sort of finisher weapon, since they do not have access to special attacks. The vast majority of players use two-handed swords for this purpose. The player starts combat with a fast weapon such as a scimitar or a Maple shortbow with adamant arrows, but switches to the 2-Handed Sword to deal the finishing blow.


 * The Bounty Locate spell can be used to get away from dangerous situations, as long as the player is not in combat at the time. A good example would be when a large mass of white dots is visible at the edge of the minimap.


 * If you use Bounty Locate while in battle, you can't teleport and the spell will still consume your runes.


 * Many low level F2p players use ranging, as they can get 70 ranged, 1 defense, while remaining at 49 combat. Using adamant arrows, they can quickly hit up to 13, with prayer. Some people also like to use a rune 2h as a finisher.


 * Standing next to a cave entrance and killing your hunter when he comes, is another tactic as you can leave at any time. This is good for experience rather then money making, also it stops the risk of losing item.


 * In F2P, it is hard to get kills while the players are wearing armours such as rune since F2P weapons are not as accurate and do not hit as hard. Therefore, in the mid and high level crater, players often ask each other to take off their armours and fight. This will make getting kills more likely. However, this means that you also have a great danger of being killed.

P2P Tactics

 * Many people use high-levelled weapons such as Dragon, Barrows, Ancients, etc. It is recommended to use them, however these high-level weapons require an attack level anywhere from 60 to 75.


 * High-levelled food is highly required, because the intense damage that players do. Swordfish or higher are strongly recommended. Sharks are favoured due to their restoration of 20 health points and relative cost.


 * For armour, bring: Rune, Dragonhide, Barrows, obsidian shield, etc.


 * As same as the F2P tactic, most people bring a finisher weapon, but this time, its with a dragon dagger, granite maul, or dark bow special attack or whatever weapon that have a strength bonus of 80+ or range bonus of 90+.


 * A good tactic is to bring 2 types of attack (E.G Magic Shortbow and a Dragon Dagger(p++)) When you start off, use the Magic Shortbow, and when the player is low on health, pull out a Dragon Dagger(p++).

Money-making tactics
As of 19 February 2008, a Bounty reward is available to all hunters who have killed at least 10 assigned players in the minigame. The rewards are categorised depending on which entrance you entered to kill your bounty.
 * Low-level area: up to 40,000 coins value of reward
 * Mid-level area: up to 80,000 coins value of reward
 * High-level area: up to 120,000 coins 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 in between 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 upwards of 100 coins on 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 you don't pick up the dropped items, but if you do, you cannot leave for another 3 minutes which resets itself every time you pick up items, including bones, potions and even a pile of arrows (small amount of arrows won't reset it but a large one will). You will find that logging out is also impossible. The only way to cancel the countdown is to kill the player you were assigned to kill in the first place.

Death
If you die in Bounty Hunter, you will lose all of your items. You can not be attacked by a group of people, although it is still possible to die from part of a group if one of them has you as their bounty. The only way to not lose your items is with the Protect Item prayer, which saves your most expensive 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 rather than your normal respawn location. After you die and get teleported to outside of the caves, you will not be able to enter a cave again for 2 minutes. If you leave the cave through a door you will not be allowed to enter again for 30 seconds.