Soul Wars

Soul Wars is a members-only minigame that was released on 10 February 2009. Similar to Castle Wars, it is a safe team-based minigame that lasts twenty minutes per game and can be played on any world. In Soul Wars, the two opposing teams compete against each other to gather soul fragments and offer them to the Soul Obelisk in order to defeat each others' Avatars, using a combination of combat and Slayer skills.



Introduction
Far to the west, upon an island long isolated from the rest of RuneScape, two great creatures vie for control of a powerful obelisk but without any clear victor. Recently, a curious man upon a strange pilgrimage found the island and, for his own obscure purposes, has opened the field of battle to any who wish to pit their mettle against the smaller creatures of the island, other adventurers, or even the mighty avatars themselves...

Location
To get to the Soul Wars minigame, one must enter the portal in Edgeville. It is located south-west of the bank and west of the abandoned mausoleum. The portal looks similar to the Pest Control portal. After going through the portal, the player will arrive at the Nomad's camp, where players can exchange zeal for rewards, learn how to play Soul Wars, or join a team to play Soul Wars.

How to Get There

 * Glory Amulet- Teleports you outside Edgeville bank.
 * Combat Bracelet- Teleports you to the Monastery near Edgeville.
 * Canoe- Canoe from Lumbridge,Champions' Guild or Barbarian Village.
 * Edgeville Home Teleport - The Home Teleport from the Ancients spellbook will take you just outside Edgeville bank.
 * Skull sceptre - Teleports you inside Barbarian Village, just south of Edgeville, via the "Invoke" option.
 * Fairy ring - Code DKR gets you on the other side of the river, it's 15 seconds walk from there.

Requirements
Soul Wars does not require any levels or quests in order to be played. Players should note the following things, however:


 * You will need to battle other people and monsters so high Combat levels are recommended.
 * Many parts of the minigame require high Slayer levels, so a decent slayer level is recommended.
 * Players will be under attack by other players and NPCs, a decent defense level allowing good armour to be worn is recommended.

Recommended Items
Note: Players are unable to take capes, food or non-combat items into any part of the mingame besides the central lobby.

Because this is a combat-based minigame, players should consider bringing the following:
 * The best armour that the a player has and can wear. Players may consider bringing multiple sets, one with a high melee defense, another with a high mage defense, ect.
 * The best weapon that the player has and can use. Players again may want to bring a selection of weapons, some melee, some ranged, ect.
 * Players should note that runes and ranged ammunition used during game by range and magic weapons will not be returned to the player at the end of the game.


 * A Summoning familiar, if the player has the ability to summon one that could assist him or her in combat.

Items available during the game
Players will be able to obtain the following items during the game:
 * Bandages
 * Barricades
 * Explosive potion

Fighting for Souls
When you first arrive on the island, you will encounter Nomad and his imp familiar. Nomad will offer you a tour of the field of battle along with a short explanation, or a book that explains fighting in the Soul Wars.

When you feel you are ready to battle, you can enter one of the portals to the south of Nomad. The blue portal will align you with the Avatar of Creation, the red portal will align you with the Avatar of Destruction, and the green portal will attach you to the team with the fewest players.

Only one game can be played at any one time per world, but in theory every single player on that world could be taking part. Games last twenty minutes, with a minimum three minute waiting period in between, so you may have to wait for the previous game to end before you can get in. If you're keen to join in, however, you can enter a portal, and once per minute new soldiers can be added to the battle provided the number of adventurers on each team remains equal.

The battlefield is divided up into three main areas: The Avatar of Creation's Base Players on the blue team will begin here. None of the locations in this area can be captured by the red team. The Avatar of Destruction's Base Players on the red team will begin here. None of the locations in this area can be captured by the blue team. The Main Battlefield There are a number of locations here, the most important of which are the Soul Obelisk and the two graveyards. These can be captured by having a greater number of your own team within their bounds for a short period of time. Jellies and pyrefiends can also be found wandering in the ruins around the battlefield.

Your base is composed of three main features: the avatar itself, a supply room and your team's graveyard. The avatar cannot leave its enclosure, but your enemies can enter it to attack the great beast (at their peril, it should be noted!). The supply room contains bandages, which you can use to heal yourself and your team-mates, barricades and explosives (more information in the 'Supply Areas' section below). The graveyard is the location you will be resurrected in when you die (see the section on graveyards below for more information about this).

The object of Soul Wars is to defeat your opponents' avatar as many times as you are able within the 20 minutes. The avatars begin each battle with a Slayer requirement of 100, making them impervious to everyone (because capes of accomplishment cannot be brought to the field of battle). In order to reduce their Slayer requirement, you will have to kill some of the smaller Slayer creatures to gather soul fragments and offer them to the Soul Obelisk, which can only be done if your team controls it.

Useful information: To help you keep track of all of the useful information, there is a display in the top-right corner of your screen.

The two grave symbols and the obelisk symbol indicate who (if anyone) has control over the graveyards and the Soul Obelisk.

The information on the right lets you know the current state of the avatars and how much time remains in the current battle.

Killing the Avatars
In order to kill your opponents' avatar, you must first weaken it to enable as many of your team-mates to fight it as possible. As noted above, this is done by killing the jellies and pyrefiends around the main battlefield and offering the resulting soul fragments to the Soul Obelisk. The more fragments you offer, the lower the Slayer requirement will be, as noted by the 'Avatar Level' entry in the top-right of your window.

You can attempt to restore your avatar's Slayer requirement by burying the bones of your defeated foes. Each time you do this, there is a chance that your avatar's Slayer requirement will rise back up 1 level.

As if this wasn't enough, both avatars have a Combat level of 525 and should not be underestimated.

Note that Summoning familiars are unable to harm the avatars, but are useful for killing off the smaller Slayer creatures and opposing players.

Death and Graveyards
When you are killed in Soul Wars (either by one of the creatures of the battlefield or another player), Nomad will protect you from the hunger of the Soul Obelisk and ensure that you are resurrected in the graveyard closest to where you died, provided that your team controls it. For a few moments, you will be a purely spectral form and unable to interact with anything, but you'll soon be restored to your usual state, along with any equipment you were carrying.

Because the two graveyards in the main battlefield can be captured, they are especially valuable resources for getting access to the smaller Slayer monsters, the Soul Obelisk and your opponents' base.

Supply Areas
Your base's supply area contains bandages, barricades and explosive potions, all of which are useful for ensuring the battle favours your side.

You cannot trade in Soul Wars, but you can use bandages on your team-mates to heal some of their lost Hitpoints. Equally, you can use them yourself for the same benefit. You can carry as many bandages as you have inventory space. They also restore run energy which helps to get around the battlefield.

Along with the bandages, you'll discover that your base also has a table full of barricades. You can only carry one barricade at a time, and your team can only have ten barricades set up at once. You can set up a barricade in many places to hinder your opponents by simply clicking it in your inventory. If you find a barricade blocking your path, you can attack it or use explosives to remove the obstacle.

Explosive potions can be used on your enemies' barricades to destroy them in a single blast. You can carry as many explosive potions as you have inventory space.

Winning the Game
Whichever team defeats their opponents' avatar the greatest number of times will be declared the victor, any other result will be declared a draw.



Rewards
You will receive a number of 'zeal points' based on your performance in Soul Wars, at the rate of 3 points for a victory, 2 for a draw, and 1 for a defeat. You can trade these in with the Nomad for a variety of rewards:

Experience
You can claim experience in Attack, Strength, Defence, Hitpoints, Ranged, Magic, Prayer or Slayer. One zeal point is worth a set amount of experience depending on your level in that skill.

Charms
Charms of any colour are available, the number you can claim depends on your combat skills' levels.

Charms cannot be obtained if under level 5 combat

Other
Most options here are new Slayer pets, resurrected from remains you bring along. If you bring a stuffed or unstuffed trophy of a crawling hand, cockatrice head, basilisk head, kurask head or abyssal demon head, Nomad will then supply you with a pet of that type. See Summoning pets for more information. The amount of points each summoning pet costs is equal to the slayer level required to kill the respective slayer creature (eg. abyssal demon costs 85 points)


 * Be careful upon removing the head of the slayer monster, it'll disappear, so that means having to get another one.

Leaving the game
Should you wish to leave the game you will not receive any Zeal points. Unlike Castle Wars, however, you will not be able to join a game until the current game has ended. This ensures that players on the losing team cannot swap team to receive more points.

Gamble
You can also purchase a 'gamble'. The gamble option will grant you a random reward - there are a wide range of possible rewards, but you'll never know just what you're going to get. Here are some that players had gotten. (If you decide to upload a item that is worth more than 1m, be sure to add a picture)
 * Baby dragon bones (23)
 * Wyvern bones (16)
 * Wolf Bones (39)
 * Dagannoth hide (5)
 * Big bones (60)
 * Marigolds (6)
 * Larupia fur (4-12)
 * Bones (209-290)
 * Dragon bones (11)
 * Coins (20,000-100,000)
 * Unicorn horn (22)
 * Kyatt fur (4-9)
 * Vampire dust (28)
 * Evil turnip (7)
 * Carved evil turnip (7)
 * Thin snail (20 raw and noted)
 * Proboscis 12
 * Desert goat horn (6 noted)
 * Dagannoth bones (3-5 noted)
 * Ogre coffin key (42 noted)
 * Flowers (9 noted)
 * Snake hide (10 noted)
 * Potato cactus (18-19 noted)
 * Bagged plant 1 ( 20 noted )
 * Graahk fur (5)
 * Saradomin sword

Trivia

 * Summoning is the only combat related skill in which players cannot receive experience as a reward in Soul Wars. However, you can exchange Zeal points for charms for use in summoning.
 * If you try to do an emote in the Graveyard, it will reply: "This is a Battlefield, not a Circus!"
 * Players have reported getting an amulet of fury from gambling, it is not confirmed if that this is true or not.