Player killing
Player Killing, PKing or PvP are common terms used for killing other player in the Wilderness, an area in northern RuneScape where players may kill each other for the ability to take their items.
When initiating combat with another player inside the Wilderness, players are marked with a skull. This causes players to lose all of their items when they die, or all but the most valuable if the player has the Protect items prayer enabled, instead of the normal 3 most valuable. Players can only enter combat with a player with an appropriate combat level depending on how deep they have ventured inside the Wilderness.
Player Killing is a distinct activity from duelling, a safer activity with more clearly defined rules.
History
[edit | edit source]Until the August 2001 addition of the Wilderness, player vs. player combat was possible in most of the game world (excluding Lumbridge and banks), and guards would attack players in their proximity who attacked another player. Players could switch between "Player Killer" (where they would have an "attack" option), and "Non-Player-Killer" character types a limited number of times.
The wilderness was introduced as an optional player vs. player area with high risk, high reward mechanics to attract all sorts of players. Some of the highest level and most important content in the game (e.g. runite rocks and greater demons, the sole source of some of the highest level equipment in the game) was placed here to attract all types of players who were willing to take the risk.
Melee
[edit | edit source]Melee combat can only be used while close to players. Due to being unable to use food or potions during melee combat, players must run away after the permitted three rounds in order to heal. The nature of the "three hit" system makes having a high Strength level very advantageous, although a player with suitably high Defense can easily outlast the three rounds if their opponent has low Attack.
It is quite common for high level melee users to switch between combat styles during combat in order to obtain a defense advantage when hit and an attack advantage when hitting.
Use of potions prior to entering combat is considered quite essential for melee.
Catching
[edit | edit source]There is a short timer after running away from melee combat where re-entering is impossible (possibly around two seconds, or around the time the Hits bar takes to disappear). The act of chasing the other player by walking until this timer is over, and then pressing Attack to re-engage in combat for another three rounds is referred to as catching by RuneScape Classic players. The ability to effectively catch someone is affected by Player ID.[1]
The furthest distance at which it is possible to catch someone and re-enter combat is 2 tiles, but the attacking player needs to have lower PID if the defending player is still running away.
Players distinguish between "righty" and "lefty" catching (right click and left click). The "attack" option for other players is on the left mouse button if they are the same level as the player character or up to 4 levels below.[1]
Players used to consider catching players who ran diagonally more difficult, as it was easy to go off-path and lose distance.[2]
Ranged
[edit | edit source]While one player can be attacked at a time with melee combat, multiple players can attack a single player with Ranged or Magic. For this reason, rangers are commonly sought after for player-killing teams, but are often very vulnerable when attacked due to the inability to use ranged weapons during melee combat, so rangers would often carry a secondary melee weapon and switch to it for at least three rounds when attacked. Players with low Prayer are particularly vulnerable to rangers due to an inability to use the Protect from missiles prayer (or inability to use it for long periods).
Since Ranged influences combat levels much less than the melee stats, and does not contribute towards the combat level at all if the player is a suitably high level warrior, many players interested in player killing in RuneScape Classic would train Ranged.
Magic
[edit | edit source]Magic can be used alongside melee to deal additional damage with spells such as Fire bolt, for utility spells such as Weaken, and independently (e.g. with God spells). Due to magic being usable in melee combat, mages would often try to chase players to enter melee combat to prevent them from healing. There are few ways to protect against Magic short of reducing an opponent's Magic level with Flames of zamorak or waiting for their spell to fail with a 20 second cool-down period.
Although expensive due to the cost of runes, Magic offers a high level of damage per second at lower levels, so often low-level mages could be found at the low levels of the Wilderness. Since it does not level with Hits, most of these pure mage accounts would be fairly vulnerable when attacked, despite dealing heavy damage.
Magic does not influence combat levels as much as the melee stats, but does continue add towards the total, regardless of whether the player is a high level warrior. A player without any Magic levels is considered a pure in RuneScape Classic, due to melee stats being the sole source of their combat level.
Honour code
[edit | edit source]In the early days of RuneScape Classic, many players would try to follow a self-enforced "honour code". This included rules like not using teleportation or weaken spells, not logging out in the Wilderness, not running with a full inventory of food, and keeping more than 3 valuable items.[3]
Death matches (DMs) were fights in the Wilderness with pre-arranged rules. Violation of these rules was considered a serious breach of honour codes.[3]
Locations
[edit | edit source]- North of Varrock in low level wilderness was a popular PKing location for the lowest level and most inexperienced players.[3]
- The Dark Warriors' Castle north of Edgeville in level 10-14 wilderness was a gathering spot for medium level PKers. At this wilderness level, catching skills became important.[3]
- The runite rocks in the level 46 Wilderness (north of the Lava Maze) were a gathering spot for the most skilled and high level PKers. Catching skills were extremely important here.[3]
- The Evil Altar was used for death matches due to easy ability to restore Prayer nearby.