Player killing (commonly known as PKing, player vs. player, or PvP), is the act of two or more players engaging in combat against each other. Player killing differs from other forms of combat in that players do not fight against monsters whose actions are defined by RuneScape's game engine.
Combat types
Single combat
Single combat, also known as "singles" or "1v1", restricts players so that they may only fight one target at a time. However, if a player stops attacking their opponent for a certain amount of time (the amount of time it takes to eat three pieces of food), it is possible for other players to attack one or both fighters. This is also known as "PJ" (player jacking), and considered dishonourable in PKing.
Popular single-way combat areas are Edgeville and the White and Red portals in Clan Wars.
If a player runs from a multi-combat to a single combat zone, only one of the attackers can attack the player as long as they are in the single combat zone.
Multi combat
A sign indicating a multi-way combat area
Multi-combat areas are identified upon entering by two crossed swords appearing in the corner of your screen. The zones will also have markers made out of rocks, flags and banners near the edges. Multicombat areas are very dangerous, as multiple players can attack you at any given time.
These areas are beneficial to groups of players, as it allows them to pile a player and greatly decrease the opponent's chance of escape or allows a group of lower level players to fight a higher level player at the same time. Multi-combat zones are very common on the east side of the Wilderness, while there are sparse groups of multi-combat zones on the west side.
Skulling
If a player attacks an innocent player in the Wilderness (one that has not attacked them), a white skull will appear above their heads. This skulls the player for ten minutes. If the skulled player continues attacking other innocent players, the skull's timer will reset.
While skulled, players lose all items upon death. They can keep one or two extra items with the Protect Item prayer/curse and after eating a Fury shark.
If the player is attacked by another player, they can retaliate back safely without being skulled. Be careful though, as teams will often try to trick players into skulling themselves against their will.
Wilderness
A map of the Wilderness
The Wilderness is the largest and most popular Player versus Player zone in the Runescape world. It is divided into multiple single and multi zones and home to different activites, creatures and skilling spots.
A player killed while inside the Wilderness will by default keep their three most valuable items. This is reduced to zero items kept if the dying player has a skull above their head, and/or increased (up to a max of five items kept) by one each, if the player has:
- The Protect item prayer active/the Protect item curse active
- A Portent of item protection in their inventory
- A Sign of item protection equipped
- Recently eaten a Fury shark
A player who successfully kills another player in the Wilderness will immediately be able to pick up their dropped items, and gain a 10 second "grace" period in single-way areas. Items dropped intentionally onto the floor also become immediately visible to other players. This makes the Wilderness a popular location for player killing due to the potential to make money. Dying in the Wilderness will always cause the player to respawn in Edgeville. The Wilderness contains multiple levels, from 1-57. Players may only attack each other if the difference between their combat levels is less than or equal to the Wilderness level. This means that a player may be attacked by a greater range of combat levels the farther into Wilderness they travel. When a player has a Demonic Skull equipped (or carrying warband supplies/hellfire bow), they can be attacked by anyone, regardless of their combat level.
Minigames
Player killing is allowed in some minigames. In Clan Wars, it is the whole point of the minigame. While in some others, like Stealing Creation, it is mixed with skilling.
Deaths in PvP minigames are usually safe but not always. This makes minigames like Soul Wars, Deathmatch and White portal good practice grounds for PvP. You can use them to get comfortable with the basics without losing any gear.
General tips
If you're travelling to a teleport-restricted area, it is recommended to be well prepared. Here are a few tips that can help you to survive in the Wilderness:
- Always wear armour. While it may look tempting to go in naked (0 risk), it is actually not a smart thing to do. Wearing cheap armour like Royal dragonhide armour or Batwing robes will dramatically increase your chances of survival with little risk.
- Always bring a shield, even if you don't plan on fighting back. Using defensive abilities like Freedom, Anticipation, Reflect and Resonance are key to surviving an attack by another player. A popular choice is the Darkbow. The bow allows you to use both ranged and defensive abilities. This opens up combo's like Anticipation to avoid getting stunned, Binding Shot to bind your opponent and a diagonal Surge to put some distance between yourself and your attacker. Practice this rotation and you should be able to get away from nearly every encounter.
- Teleportation gear is a must. You should always have an escape plan. Runes and interruptable items are NOT recommended. This is due to inventory space issues along with spell and teleport limits to level 20 Wilderness. Dragonstone equipment, such as the amulet of glory, allow teleportation from up to 30 Wilderness and are a good option. One of the most efficient escape options is the Saradominist token or Zamorakian token.
PvP basics
To be a successful PKer, you need to have a strong game knowledge and fast reflexes. You should know what abilities are available to you and your opponent at any given time in a fight. It is also crucial to visually recognise these abilities, and react in time with the counter to that ability. For example, if a warrior uses Slaughter on you, followed by Kick to move you and force the 2x damage bonus, you should recognise this combo and use Freedom to counter the bleed damage as fast as possible. Doing this fluently takes practice.
Furthermore, you also need to be able to stay calm and play your strengths correctly. If you mess up, you become vulnerable and this is deadly when facing good PKers.
Managing health
One of the core mechanics of a PvP fight is to stay alive, you do this by eating food and/or potions. In the past, eating food would result in losing Adrenaline, but this drawback is no longer present in the game.
When you decide to eat is entirely up to you. Some players prefer to let their health drop to low numbers (1-3k) to trick their opponent into trying to finish the fight. This is called 'risking' or 'baiting'. Other players prefer to stay safe and top up their health every time they get hit. This is called 'safing'.
In the past, safing was considered dishonourable by a large part of the PvP community. But in EoC, there are moments when you are forced to top of your health. For example when you have already used Freedom, Anticipation is on cooldown and you know your opponent has the Destroy/Assault combo up, which can easily deal 10k+ damage. Certain ultimate and threshold abilities have a very high damage output, which forces you to fully use your health pool to survive them.
A popular basic trick for eating is to layer a food tick together with a potion tick. You do this by clicking a piece of food, like a rocktail and a healing potion, like a Saradomin brew in quick succession. Doing so will heal you for both the amounts on the same tick.
Adrenaline
Adrenaline is gained by using basic abilities, and used by the stronger thresholds and ultimates. Every basic ability you use will give you +8% adrenaline. Every threshold will use 15% adrenaline. Every ultimate ability will use 100% adrenaline.
Adrenaline is a precious thing in a PvP fight. The player with the most adrenaline at any given point is at a big advantage. This makes abilities like Natural Instinct very strong.
Always keep an eye on the opponent's adrenaline bar. It can tell you what he is planning to do, or what ability might be coming next. If he has 50% adrenaline but keeps using basic abilities he is either going for an ultimate or setting up a combo attack. If he used an ultimate like Metamorphosis and is approaching 50% adrenaline, you should expect a Wild Magic to come out and prepare for that.
Defensive abilities
Defensive abilities are very important in PvP combat. They are the only tools you have to defend yourself against stuns. Therefore, it is advisable to always rotate Anticipation and Freedom to have as much stun invulnerability as possible.
The general tips mention to always bring a shield. This is because equipping the shield unlocks abilities like Resonance, Reflect and Barricade. While these abilities are crucial to tanking in multi-way combat zones, they are shunned by people in single-way combat. The reason for this is that a very experienced player with a shield, can negate almost all damage an opponent can inflict on him, dragging the fight out and making it boring for both players. This is called 'shielding' and is considered an un-fun mechanic.
Keybinds
Keybinds are what ties all the previous basics together. While you can be adequate at PvP by clicking all your abilities, food, potions and defensives, it is generally better to keybind these things and learn to use them from the Action bar.
This way, using the Rocktail/Saradomin Brew combo can be done with 2 simple keypresses or Freedom can be used to remove bleeds right when you spot them.
While keybinds make it a lot easier to activate most things, there are some exceptions. It's tricky to bind Protect Item to a key, because it opens up the danger of double-tapping it.
Combo attacks
PvP is the only combat encounter in Runescape where your opponent has access to unlimited healing. This calls for a different way of doing damage. Rather than a slow and steady damage output, you want to generate a explosive burst of damage.
These bursts can be achieved by using a certain combination of abilities in sequence. Each combat class has a few possible combo's:
- Asphyxiate -> Wild Magic: 716.2% average damage over 10 game ticks.
- Snap shot -> Tight Bindings -> Shadow Tendrils: 659.7% average damage over 9 game ticks (with a stun).
- Berserk -> Hurricane: 530% average damage over 3 game ticks.
If these combo attacks were used with a Noxious weapon of their style, they would hit around 14402, 13252 and 10568 respectively.
Combat classes
Each combat style has it's own character with certain advantages and drawbacks. You should pick your class based on your strongest levels, but also on the opponent you'll be fighting or the activity you'll be doing.
As a rule of thumb, the Combat triangle makes sure that each class has a strong and a weak matchup. But besides that basic advantage, each class also has unique abilities and gear that distinguish them from eachother.
Melee
- Melee has access to strong bleed abilities such as Slaughter and Blood Tendrils. These abilities can be stacked to put a lot of pressure on opponents. This forces them to use Freedom to remove the DoT. Once Freedom is on cooldown, they are vulnerable to stuns like Destroy or Kick.
- Has a lot of reach with Surge and Barge not sharing a cooldown.
- Has access to Berserk. This ultimate ability can be used in combination with strong thresholds like Hurricane to one-shot opponents from almost full health. The drawback is that it leaves the melee player vulnerable due to the increased damage taken.
- Requires no ammunition as opposed to Ranged or Magic.
- Rather vulnerable to attacks from long range due to the lack of range most melee weapons have.
Mages
- Magic has access to a strong threshold combination with Wild Magic and Asphyxiate. This sequence of abilities are so strong they are known as a 'KO combo'. If used by a high level mage with high level gear, they can easily take out an opponent from near full health.
- Dragon Breath is a very strong basic ability. It disables protection prayers/curses, which is essential in PvP. It does more damage than Havoc/Smash (melee abilities prayer disable), while it does not take as long to charge compared to Snipe (ranged ability prayer disable). However, the only drawback of Dragon Breath is that it has AoE properties which can unintentionally skull you in multi-combat areas.
- Magic also has strong ultimates with Sunshine and Metamorphosis, but Sunshine is weaker due to it being bound to one location and Metamorphosis offers a lower damage boost than Berserk. Still, a Wild Magic used while under the effect of Metamorphosis can be deadly and should be feared.
Rangers
- Ranged is very popular for it's cheap gear. Royal dragonhide armour, Death Lotus darts and Ava's accumulator are all very strong pieces of gear that have a very low replace cost.
- Same with Magic, Ranged also has strong killing potential. This is done through Shadow Tendrils, requiring completion of The Dig Site. Shadow Tendrils does a lot of damage, though the primary drawback is that you take damage regardless if it hits or not.
- Unlike Magic and Melee, Ranged doesn't have a mobile ultimate. Their only option is Death's Swiftness, which can be easily avoided by running away. Their other options Deadshot and Incendiary Shot offer lackluster damage output compared to the Ranged thresholds and are often not used at all.
- Another drawback to ranged is the fact that their prayer disabling ability Snipe has a long cast time (2.4s). Players can avoid the effects of Snipe by getting far away from the user or hiding behind an obstacle such as a tree. If using Snipe often, bringing nightmare gauntlets will allow the user to move while casting Snipe and avoid this drawback.
Dangerous mechanics
Rushing
Rushing is the act of killing a player without giving him or her the opportunity to attack back. Many consider rushing to be dishonourable, but despite this, it is the most effective PvP strategy by far.
Due to player complaints by people being rushed after killing an opponent in a single-way zone, an anti-rushing mechanic was implemented. Upon killing another player in a single-way zone, there is a 10 second "grace" period for the victor to obtain their spoils.
Some players will attempt to rush with no gear and only a weapon equipped. They are known as "1 itemers". Their aim is to quickly burst you down before you can react while risking nothing via use of Protect Item.
Skull tricking
Skull tricking involves using less known game mechanics, bugs or deceptions to skull a player against their will. You should always be aware of your surroundings when inside the Wilderness and be vigilant at all times.
A few common mechanics used to skull trick are:
- Having multiple players near you. One person will attack the victim while multiple other players will follow or stand under that player while the victim is fighting them in a multi-way area. When the victim uses an AoE ability, they will skull themselves because the AoE ability will hit the other players that the victim did not hit.
- Attacking you with fun weapons, like a Candy floss maul, while equipping a piece of equipment with the Committed perk. This might make you think that they skulled on you, but attacking them will still result in you being skulled.
Macing
Macing refers to a group of players or team using the Superior ancient mace special attack to rapidly drain your prayer points and disable your Protect Item. The success of the tactic depends almost entirely on the coordination of the team. If they are experienced and well prepared for their attack, it is almost impossible for the target to get away. Macing happens in frequented areas of the Wilderness, such as the Chaos Elemental, Revenants and lava strykewyrms.
It's often hard to predict a macing attack, because the team is hidden from view. Two players of the team will head to the desired spot, look for any potential victims, and attempt to skull trick them. Once the victim falls for the skull trick, the rest of the team appears and maces the victim to remove any prayers they may use.
If you find yourself surrounded by a large amount of players (who are most likely carrying ancient maces), keep your prayer points as high as possible at all times. Do not attempt to eat (unless you are sure you can get away), as by eating, you allow the PKers to deal more damage, which in turn results in you losing unnecessary prayer points. Be aware that PKers may attempt to use Calorie bombs to forcibly restore your health to drain more prayer points with their attacks.
If possible, try to run to a single-way area. This forces only one person to attack you at a time, which can be easier to deal with than multiple people attacking you.
Carrying one or more Fury sharks helps counter macing teams, as upon eating the Fury shark, you are given the effects of Protect Item for one minute. Try to remember when you eat the fury shark so you can reapply its item protecting effects if you find yourself still alive after one minute.
Backstabbing
Backstabbing, also known as BSing or Luring, is the act of killing someone who has mistakenly placed their trust in the back-stabber or killing a player who is in the back-stabber's clan. For example, one joins a clan, a player takes him or her into the Wilderness then kills him or her. Players may also backstab a person already in the player's clan. Backstabbing is almost always effective if one reaches the high-level Wilderness.
Event exploitation
Occasionally, events in the Wilderness attract large amounts of players, many of whom are not prepared to combat serious threats. Penguin Hide and Seek, in particular, seems to be a popular target on weeks where penguins wander about the Wilderness. This is considered to lean towards griefing, since the players who go to the Wilderness to spot penguins generally risk very little or nothing at all.
However, the WildyWyrm is one of the more popular and active events in the Wilderness. Randomly spawning with a Server-wide Announcement, it is a group boss and has very lucrative rewards upon its death. This attracts large groups of players, including other PKers who may arrive to kill players after the WildyWyrm has died.
Anti-Player Killing
Anti-player killing is where players will fight to defend themselves (or other innocent players) from the attacks of another PKer. Anti-player killing is relatively safe if the player is just defending themselves, so they typically take more valuable items since they will not skull themselves. One should still be wary of their surroundings though, as PKers will typically attempt to exploit skull tricking and macing to make the player lose most if not all of the items.
XP
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This section or article is incomplete. |
Prior to the Evolution of Combat, players were able to get combat experience from attacking other players. For a very long time after the Evolution of Combat, player killing did not yield any combat experience. This has since been changed, albeit with slight changes. XP is now given only after either the attacker or victim dies, and is based on damage dealt. Any "damage overkill" is also taken into account, so say if the victim had 100 more LP left and the attack would've done 4,000 damage, that also ends up into the XP calculation. Constitution XP is slightly below 1/3 of total XP gained as well.
For those who do not wish to gain experience while Player Killing for whatever reason, it can be disabled at the Combat Settings tab under the "XP Selection" area.
History
Originally, after the release of RuneScape Classic, players could select whether or not to play as player killer characters. Players could switch from player-killer mode to non-player-killer mode (in which the character could not attack or be attacked by other players) three times, after which they remained at their chosen setting "forever". The player-killer/non-player-killer modes were, however, removed from the game on 13 August 2001 when the Wilderness was added.
PvP combat could take place at most locations in the RuneScape world. The rules of combat were the same as in modern RuneScape Classic Wilderness. Lumbridge was designated as a neutral area in which players could not attack each other; this was done to prevent a practice called "spawn camping", in which recently killed players were immediately killed again as soon as they respawned. However, it was possible for a character to be attacked in the upper levels of Lumbridge Castle. In addition to this restriction, NPC guards and White Knights patrolled the cities of Varrock and Falador, breaking up PvP battles by attacking the aggressor. These guards were limited in number, however, and if all them in a city were already in combat, PvP combat could go on freely. At this time, the Bank of RuneScape was limited to Varrock and Falador and could only store gold coins. As a result, players would carry their valuables with them.
On 13 August 2001, this system was replaced by the Wilderness, partly due to complaints from many players who were unable to leave Lumbridge without being attacked by hordes of hostile player killers. Later, additional areas where PvP combat is allowed were added.
On 10 December 2007, Jagex made a highly controversial update that made PKing in the Wilderness only possible at the Bounty Hunter, which is unsafe, and Clan Wars, a safe activity. Fist of Guthix, also safe, was not added until about four months after these updates. RuneScape lost a sizeable percentage[1] of its paying players within the following month, although more long-term statistics have never been released. No amount of lost free players is known, however it is possible it was more than the number of quitting members. The exact numerical makeup of quitters (bots versus legitimate players) is uncertain. Many of the quitters were PKers, while others were the leaving accounts of autoers. According to Jagex, almost all of the lost players since the 10 December update have been replaced by new subscribers. Riots started amongst many players after this update.
On 15 October 2008, Jagex reinstated map-wide PKing on designated PvP worlds. PKers could kill other players in those worlds; on other worlds, Revenants wandered the Wilderness as the game's substitute for PKers on those worlds. Essentially in those worlds, the Wilderness was rather safe, as revenants were unable to pick up drops from players they killed, meaning that if the player was fast enough, they could reclaim their items.
On 1 February 2011, the Wilderness and Free Trade update was implemented. This reverted the Wilderness back into its original state. The revenants, who patrolled the Wilderness when PKers could only do so in PvP worlds, were banished to the Forinthry Dungeon.
When entering the Wilderness or other PvP based areas, warning signs will display the dangers of proceeding into the dangerous area.
PvP worlds (historical)
PVP worlds, or Player-Vs-Player worlds, were entire designated worlds that were almost entirely Player-Vs-Player combat enabled. Only select areas (such as banks, respawn points, Entrana, and some guilds) were disabled to combat, and were marked by a skull with a cross over it. These worlds were sculpted after the original wilderness; much of the same rules apply, such as level restraints to attack and "skulls", You were "skulled" upon logging in to a PVP world and the Protect Item prayer were disabled. If you died whilst skulled, you would lose all of your items. To begin, one would have simply chosen a world that was marked as a PVP world when logging in. You were warned of the dangers. The first time you entered a PVP world, you were transported to Lumbridge and a manual was given to you explaining much of the concept (you could get a new one from the Doomsayer in Lumbridge should you have lost it). You would have a short immunity period before you could be attacked. After the first time, you had to be standing in a 'PVP Safe Zone' or you would not be able to login. In PVP worlds, you could lose your items, but at the same time, there were great rewards to be had!
While they existed, players had to had a minimum combat level of 20 to enter a PvP world. Their Summoning level did not count towards this requirement.
As of 1 February 2011, PvP worlds no longer exist.
Bounty Hunter worlds
Bounty Hunter worlds were released on the 6th of May 2009. These worlds only allowed players to fight each other in the wilderness and travel throughout Edgeville and the Grand Exchange. These worlds were removed with the re-addition of the wilderness.
On 14 November 2016, an updated version of Bounty Hunter was released along with 2 new Bounty Hunter Worlds, one using the Evolution of Combat and the other using Legacy Mode.