Wilderness Warbands

This is a dangerous Distraction and Diversion. If you die, you will lose your items and will need to reclaim them from Death or your grave.

This article has a strategy guide. All information on mechanics, setups, and strategy are on the subpage.

A warband of Armadylean bandits

Wilderness Warbands is a dangerous members Distraction & Diversion, composed of heavily defended storage camps guarded by the followers of the different Gods. These camps are founded to gain an advantage for the followers of a particular God once their God returns. They will set up camp in the Wilderness every 7 hours, one time at each of the three locations. Quercus, an ancient seer Ent, will send out adventurers to fight in the camps to balance the followers of the different Gods in Guthix's name. Quercus can be found just outside the Grand Exchange agility shortcut. Warband events are synchronised on each world.

The activity was released on 25 March 2013 and was first mentioned in Jagex's special Behind the Scenes post.

Time for the next warbands

The next warband begins in

-:--:--

(Doesn't seem right? Click here.)

As a new camp is set up every 7 hours, the time at which these camps takes place is repeated every week. You can find the times (UTC/Game Time) a camp is set up given the day of the week:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
02:00 UTC	06:00 UTC	03:00 UTC	00:00 UTC	04:00 UTC	01:00 UTC	05:00 UTC
09:00 UTC	13:00 UTC	10:00 UTC	07:00 UTC	11:00 UTC	08:00 UTC	12:00 UTC
16:00 UTC	20:00 UTC	17:00 UTC	14:00 UTC	18:00 UTC	15:00 UTC	19:00 UTC
23:00 UTC	N/A	N/A	21:00 UTC	N/A	22:00 UTC	N/A

Locations

Location	Wilderness level	Travel	Map
South of the Dark Warriors' Fortress (Call out is 'DWF')	10	Run from Edgeville Wicked hood to Chaos altar Chaos altar tablet
South of the Red Dragon Isle (Call out is 'RDI')	31	Canoe to the wilderness pond, then walk east. Games necklace to the Corporeal beast. Go outside the dungeon and walk east.
East of the Lava Maze (Call out is 'ELM')	41	Canoe to the wilderness pond. Wilderness sword 1 teleport to Wilderness herb patch. Lava titan teleport, then walk east. Use the Wilderness obelisks to teleport south of the Lava Maze and run northeast. Games necklace to the Corporeal beast. Go outside the dungeon and walk north-west.

Gameplay

Interrupting the magical beam before summoning reinforcements.

Players will be notified via a server-wide notice when a Wilderness camp appears. To find a camp after missing the notice, you can talk to Quercus in Edgeville, near the Grand Exchange shortcut. Quercus will also inform you when the next camp is if there is not one currently occurring. A wilderness sword 4 may be used to teleport directly to a Warband camp once per day.

Arriving at the camp

Players must then head to the camp and avoid any attention by the sentries posted around the camp. Most of the camp's followers always face towards the centre of the camp and are incapable of noticing the player: You must pay attention to the pair of followers sparring with each other, as one of them can spot you if you come too close to the camp's outer edge.

Interrupting the beam

Players can then interrupt the god's magic beam in the middle of the camp by finding a spot outside the camp, but close enough to the beam in a direct line of sight. The draining/siphoning is similar to the Runespan and a progress bar will show when the interruption is complete.

Summoning reinforcements

After successful interruption, players can then use the magic beam in the middle of the camp to summon reinforcement NPCs. Stay in a spot outside the camp, but close enough to the beam in a direct line of sight. The draining/siphoning is similar to the Runespan and a progress bar will show when the summoning is complete.

Succeeding in the sabotage will teleport in allied NPCs to attack the enemy warband, and grants five additional minutes to kill the warband and loot the tents before the camp collapses. Failing to stealthily sabotage the beam results in the whole camp turning hostile without any reinforcements to distract them from attacking players, and only five minutes to clear the camp and loot the tents.

Clearing the camp

Players must kill all enemies, including the general, before looting. Players can intervene in the fight if they choose to, or let the NPC reinforcements clear the camp. Players should be careful when fighting the warbands, as they use abilities, and the general can execute powerful ultimate abilities, including a variant of Meteor Strike.

Looting

Saradominists have arrived to kill the Bandosians.

Participating in looting will skull you, and holding the looting supplies in your inventory will prevent you from teleporting. Players can be attacked whilst looting without any combat level restrictions.

Even after the general dies, any remaining enemy followers will need to be killed before you can loot the tents. The warband camp has five tents, but only three out of the five tents will be filled with supplies, corresponding to a random mix of three of the five skills: Farming, Construction, Herblore, Mining, and Smithing. Players will want to collect as many supplies as possible in order to earn the most rewards.

You can directly loot a total of 25 supplies per camp from tents before you have to go to Quercus to turn them in. There are only 1,000 pieces of loot in the camp, meaning that up to 40 players can take maximum loot.

You can loot from up to 3 camps and obtain up to 75 supplies every day, resetting at midnight UTC. The 3 camps looted must be on different worlds. Even if you are killed and lose supplies, your attempt will still count as one of the three. However you can return to the same camp to try again without penalty. This generally means that you can loot a maximum of 75 items per day, but only if you manage to get the maximum of 25 from every camp. However, hopping worlds or relogging counts as another try for looting if the player has already made a previous attempt during the event.

Supplies can also be looted from other players by killing them and taking the dropped supplies. The 25 supply limit per camp does not apply to supplies picked up from player drops, but does apply to the daily 75 supply maximum. Once you've hit the daily limit, attempting to pick up more supplies from the ground by player killing will result in the message "You have already looted all you can for today." The same limits apply for supplies dropped due to your own death; that is, picking up the same 25 supplies due to being killed, after obtaining 75 for the day will be given the message.

While looting supplies from the tents, players may randomly receive a wand of treachery. Looting a Wand of treachery will not count towards the 25 supply limit. If a wand of treachery has been looted, the game will announce to everybody in the vicinity that a wand has been found, and the player who has looted it will glow for 20 seconds, as well as have their Prayer points reduced to zero. Only one wand can be found per camp, though no looter is guaranteed to get it. If the player holding the wand is killed, the wand will be dropped for others to acquire. The next subsequent player to acquire the wand will not glow or have their Prayer points reduced to zero.

Logging out or disconnecting while inside the Wilderness will immediately remove all warbands supplies. Additionally, looting, then hopping to loot once more counts as another instance of Warbands against the daily three.

Once supplies are looted, players are tele-blocked and must walk/run back to Quercus to exchange them for rewards.

Leaving the Wilderness

The most common method of leaving the Wilderness is to simply run south from the Warband camps. As teleportation cannot be used, running to level 20 Wilderness and attempting to teleport out (or level 30 Wilderness with Amulet of Glory or Wilderness Sword) will not work. Additionally, the Wilderness Obelisks cannot be used. However, if running due south is not feasible, perhaps due to attacking players, there are alternate routes for leaving the Wilderness.

Remember that only leaving the Wilderness via the Wilderness wall can be done when in combat.

• Temporary safe zones: These are safe zones in the Wilderness and can be used to escape attackers, but are not practical for leaving the Wilderness as the only non-teleportation method out is to re-enter the Wilderness. However, Warband supplies are converted to the untradable variant within these zones. Thus, they can be used to hop worlds or to logout without losing Warband supplies.
  • Corporeal Beast Lair: found in level 33 Wilderness, east of the Lava Maze camp, and west of the Red Dragon Isle camp.
  • Death Plateau Beacon: found in level 13 Wilderness, west of the Dark Warriors Fortress camp. Prior to initial use, the ladder must first be repaired with 2 planks and 4 nails. This only has to be completed once. Players can only start the process of climbing the ladder when out of combat, but as the ladder is still in the Wilderness, and the climbing animation takes some time, players can still be attacked when climbing the ladder. Getting attacked after already climbing the ladder will not interrupt the process.
  • The Pit, from the Wilderness Agility Course: The Talent Scout will teleport players out of the Wilderness when holding Warband supplies. However, this requires completing several laps of the course, or requires wearing an Agility skillcape. This is not recommended as it requires 99 Agility and bringing a skillcape to be reliable, cannot be used in combat, and is next to a permanent exit from the Wilderness at Ghorrock.

• Alternate Wilderness exits: These allow the player to leave the Wilderness and return to Quercus without re-entering the Wilderness. These routes are only recommended when escaping attackers or when no more looting is desired, as they take more time than simply running south from the camps, so it is unlikely that multiple camps can be looted if using one of these routes.
  • Daemonheim: The Wilderness entrance to Daemonheim is found in level 12 Wilderness on the easternmost side, so it is fairly close when running due south from the Red Dragon Isle camp. Supplies can be returned to Quercus without returning to the Wilderness by taking the boat to Taverley or Al Kharid, and running to Edgeville from Taverley, or taking the canoe from Lumbridge.
  • Ghorrock: The Wilderness entrance to Ghorrock is found in the Ice Plateau in level 50 Wilderness, in the far northwest corner, after The Temple at Senntisten, and with a heat globe on the pedastal. Players can only start the process of squeezing past the ice block when out of combat, but as the ice block is still in the Wilderness, and the animation takes some time, players can still be attacked when squeezing past the ice block. Getting attacked after the animation has started will not interrupt the process. There are several ways to return to Quercus from Ghorrock without returning to the Wilderness:
    • After The Tale of the Muspah, exit Ghorrock to the west and take the log canoe to the Rellekka Hunter area. With Fairy Tale III - Orks Rift, the Fairy ring can be used (after partially completing Fairy Tale II - Cure a Queen, the Fairy ring can be used, but requires a Dramen staff). Travel to Edgeville using DKR, located just south of Quercus. Alternatively, enter the cave to Keldagrim, travel with the Dwarven Boatman, and take the Mine cart to the Grand Exchange.
    • After Ritual of the Mahjarrat, exit Ghorrock to the south and enter the Glacor Cave. With Fairy Tale III - Orks Rift, the Fairy ring can be used. Travel to Edgeville using DKR, located just south of Quercus.
  • Chaos Tunnels: Any of the numerous rifts leading to the Chaos Tunnels can be used. Chaos Tunnels transporters are not blocked by holding Warband supplies. However, as all of the Chaos Tunnels entrances are in low-level Wilderness, it's generally easier to simply run south rather than navigate the Chaos Tunnels.

Enemies

Various enemies may be encountered while looting camps. Two of each type of follower is in a camp, and each camp has one general. Attacking them will cause the player to automatically switch to multi-combat (if in single-combat).

Note: All followers are level 120.

(Players of all levels can attack you while participating in this activity.)

Combat class	Weakness	Armadylean	Bandosian	Saradominist	Zamorakian
Magic	Arrows	Shaman	Wild mage	Thaumaturge	Occultist
Melee	Fire spells	Myrmidon	Reaver	Enforcer	Blackguard
Ranged	Slash	Skirmisher	Hunter	Scout	Bandit
Magic/Melee	Nothing	Archon	Warlord	Sergeant	Demon lord

Rewards

A ravaged warband camp...

Note: If you enter the lobby or try to hop worlds then your supplies are automatically destroyed.

Warbands grant experience in a number of skills during participation and additional rewards such as coins or experience are earned by trading in loot from the camp. Possible rewards include:

• Prayer xp is given for converting the beam.
• Summoning xp is given for summoning reinforcements.
• Slayer xp is given for participating in killing the camp leader.
• Farming, Construction, Herblore, Mining and/or Smithing supplies. Each camp will have 3 of these 5 possible skills.
• A Wand of treachery can be acquired once per camp. A wand is not guaranteed to be looted. It is worth 63,591.

When handing in supplies to Quercus, the experience earned is determined by the formula:

$\text{xp}(s, x) = \frac{s}{2} \left(x^2 - 2x + 100 \right)$

where s is the number of supplies handed in and where x is your skill's level.

The Prayer and Summoning experience for the beam is the same as Master jack of trades aura, which means:

$2\left(x^2-2x+100\right)$

where x is the level of Prayer/Summoning.

Slayer experience from killing the camp leader is half of the Master jack of trades aura. This gives a formula of:

$\left(x^2-2x+100\right)$

The supplies can also be handed in to Quercus for 4,000 coins each, totaling up to 300,000 coins per day if the maximum of 75 supplies are collected.

template = Template:Wilderness Warbands calc
form = ppf
result = ppr
param = 1|Number of supplies|1|int|1-75
param = 2|Skill level|1|int|1-99

Wilderness Warbands Calculator
Calculator failed to load.
Result
49.5 experience

Gallery

Concept art of the Saradominist sergeant.

Concept art of the Armadylean myrmidon.

Concept art of a Saradominist bandit.

Concept art of a Bandosian bandit.

Concept art of a Armadylian bandit.

Concept art of two Armadylian bandits.

Concept art of several bandits.

Trivia

• Assuming players hand in 25 Skill supplies from each warband, it would take a player participation in 148 warbands (a minimum of 50 days) to go from level 1 to level 99 in a skill. It would take a player participation in 1685 warbands (a minimum of 562 days) to go from level 1 to 200 million experience in a skill. For both of the calculations, it's been assumed that players go to all 3 camps every day, which spawn every 7 hours, and manage loot and escape with 25 supplies for every camp.
• When reinforcements come in to fight a warband, they start off by attacking a follower who is weak to their combat style. For example, a Saradominist thaumaturge (magic user) will first attack a Bandosian reaver (melee user).
  • Each follower is weak to a specific attack style that another follower uses. The mages are weak to arrows, which are used by the rangers; the rangers are weak to slash weapons, which the warriors use; and the warriors are weak to fire spells, which the mages use.
  • When a general uses his magic attack on a player, ALL players within range will be hit.
  • Prior to a hidden update, warband followers did not use abilities when fighting each other, only when fighting players. This has since been fixed, and they now use abilities against each other.
• Warbands are one of few Distraction and Diversions that cannot be reset using a D&D token.
• Warbands were "tweaked" on 11 June 2013. The tweaks were:
  • Synchronized worlds, as before players could hop from world to world to gain massive amounts of XP (and possibly profit) per warband. Each one now occurs every 7 hours.
  • Attempting to log into another world while in the wilderness causes all of the looted supplies to disappear from your inventory.
  • There are only 1000 lootable supplies per camp. This is equal to 40 players with full loot, since 25 is the maximum amount of supplies per person per camp. 
  • Quercus will now exchange the supplies for XP on their respective skill, or turn them into 4000 coins per supply.
• Whenever a player entering the camp has been spotted by a Warband NPC, an exclamation mark can be seen over their heads. This is most likely a reference to the Metal Gear Solid game series.
• Strangely, while melee users for each faction of warbands have different weapons, range and magic users all use the same bow and staff respectively.
• If dropped supplies are left unclaimed after you or another player dies, it is possible to recover them if you can get to the spot where they / you died quickly enough. Picking up supplies from a dead player does not skull you (though obviously attacking a player will), and a small number of supplies may be saved if you manage to die without a skull. However, any supplies picked up from the ground will still count against the 75 daily supply cap.
• Several teleportation methods can still be used when holding Warband supplies:
  • Fairy rings
  • Spirit trees
  • Portal Chamber portals
  • Wilderness teleport lever found in Ardougne or Edgeville: note that the lever cannot be used to exit the Wilderness, so this is a one-way trip to level 50 Wilderness