Introduction
Taking on other players is a tricky business and in this Runescape Guide we will shed light on the approach that has proven most viable through the years. The information presented here has been derived from numerous interviews with some of the most prominent Player Killers or PKers in the game and it is without doubt a recipe for success. Bear in mind that this Runescape guide is only meant as a tool for beating players that are minded to beat you. Tricking other players into following you out in the wilderness and robbing them there with the help of this Runescape guide is an act of cowardice. We believe in honour among players.
A History of Violence
Runescape Player Killing or PKing has always been about beating your opponent with various tricks rather than relying on brute force and straight forward attacks. This is the way it was in old days of Runescape classic and it is even more so in Runescape2 – the Runescape we play today – which replaced the classic version in early 2004. Some things have changed since the old days though. In Runescape Classic you could not run so combat was almost always to the death and there was no auto-retaliation meaning that cheap shots would decide the outcome most of the time. The Runescape we play today offers easy escape routes via teleporting and running but on the other hand it also invites many new ways to ensnare your opponent. Most notably due to the new Combat level system. In the old Runescape you would raise your combat level continuously regardless of what skills you chose to practice, while the current Runescape is much more sophisticated in this respect and allows you to raise your skills a great deal before it is reflected in your Combat level. You can hide a lot of power due to this complex advance of combat level and that makes player vs player an elusive masquerade of skills. The builds that define this art are known as Pures.
The Pure Concept
Being pure is about dealing as much damage as possible relative to your Combat Level. The one thing that all pures have in common is Defense lvl of 1. Defense does not have any advantages in PKing and the same goes for Prayer with one possible exception which we will get to later. There are many PKers who equip Rune Armor and chant mighty prayers but they don’t even get half the kills of a true pure. Walking the path of Pures is all about specializing in attack skills and keeping Combat level relatively low. You can use this Skill simulator to see how much you can push your skills before your Combat level rises. The ideal Pure would have 99 Magic, 99 HP, 99 Strength, 60 Attack & 99 Ranged at an approximate Combat Level of 76. Nobody has managed to build this ideal Pure so far due to the enormous time it takes to get there but nevertheless it should be your goal.
Where to PK
The Duel Arena is pretty self explanatory so we will focus on the Wilderness here. The Wilderness level decides how big Combat level difference there can be between you and those you fight. In Level 1 Wilderness you can fight players that are 1 Combat level above or under you. In higher level Wilderness the possible combat level difference will increase accordingly but these areas should be avoided unless you are very high level with all skills properly trained. The most frequented places are lvl 1 Varrock, lvl 1 Edgeville or PK Castle & Dragons at lvl 14 just north of Edgeville. Most players are afraid of losing their items so they want an easy way out and that is why they hang around at such locations. Still these places are the best for PKing seeing as there are so many players around. So it all boils down to fighting players of similar Combat level and this is child’s play when you are pure.
General Strategy
Runescape PKing is a risky business and you must always be prepared to lose the items you carry. Don’t draw first blood and get a Player Killer Symbol above your head unless you are prepared to lose all your items. You will keep your 3 most expensive items – based on general store value – if you don’t have the symbol when you die. Your equipment costs should still be kept at a minimum due to all the other expenses in PKing such as potions, runes, arrows and food. Out-eating the opponent is the most basic strategy in the game and if you stumble upon someone loaded with food you should simply avoid him. Remember to always go for the fast kills if you are in it for the money. Nevertheless, you will need food to make it out there and it is sharks that give most bang for the bucks if you are a member, otherwise you should go for lobsters.
Free Play Pures
Free Play Training
Free play training – Ranged: Begin by killing rats in Varrock’s sewers with bronze arrows. When you hit 20 at around Combat lvl 10 you can move on to ranged guards in Edgeville. Hide Behind the walls to avoid their attacks. These guards will serve as target practise for the rest of the leveling. You should know that Magic and Melee is much better than Ranged for PKing at higher Combat levels but you will deal more total damage when you train Ranged skill meaning that Combat level will be kept at a minimum relative to the Hit Points. This makes Ranged training vital for a Pure.
Free play training – Melee: Training melee is really simple. You start out with low level monsters and move onto higher level ones as you grow stronger. Always use the best weapon you can equip. Rune scimitar is best because of its speed. The Giants in Edgeville dungeon are good for training once you are powerful enough to face them. Use accurate attacks until you reach Attack lvl 40 and then use aggressive attacks exclusively to increase your strength while keeping your attack level locked. You don’t want any more than 40 in attack so you must avoid the accurate attack entirely after that. This applies when fighting both monsters and players. Strength lvl 40 is enough for PKing but the higher the better. You must never use controlled attacks because they raise your defense level and you don’t want that.
Free play training – Magic: Go to the Jail at Port Sarim. Make sure you are equipped with Full Iron Armour and Green Dragonhide vambraces. This way you are unable to cast your spells so you can target the same monster again and again. The experience gain will be the same so it is very time saving. Start out with confuse at lvl 3 and when you hit lvl 11 it is time for Weaken; at lvl 19 you continue with Curse which should be used all the way up Magic lvl 59 which is your goal. Make sure you have plenty of Water runes, Earth runes and Body runes at your disposal.
Free Play Ranger Pure
Skills: Ranged 40
Concept & training: A pure Ranger is rather useless at higher levels so this is a low level build. Remember to simultaneously train your melee skills as high as you can without raising your combat level. Use the Skill simulator as guidance.
Equipment: Yew shortbow, Adamant arrows, Green Dragonhide vambraces & chaps, Leather body, Coif, Leather boots & Amulet of Accuracy.
Extras: Cooked Lobsters.
Strategy: -
Free Play Melee/Ranger Pure
Skills: Ranged 40; Attack 40; Strength 40
Concept & training: You start out as a pure Ranger but when you hit Ranged Lvl 40 it is time to get your Attack skill and Strength up to useful levels. When Attack is lvl 40 you must train strength exclusively. Make sure to simultaneously train Ranged skill but never push it high enough for gain in Combat Level. Use the Skill simulator as guidance.
Melee Equipment: Rune scimitar, Anti-Dragon shield, Amulet of Strength & Wizard’s robes.
Ranger Equipment: Yew shortbow, Adamant arrows, Green Dragonhide vambraces & chaps, Leather body, Coif, Leather boots & Amulet of Accuracy
Extras: Strength potions & cooked Lobsters
Strategy: Always start out with Ranged attack. If your opponent comes close you switch to Amulet of Strength, Rune Scimitar and Anti-Dragon Shield and take him out with agressive attacks. You might need the magic defense from Wizard’s robes if fighting a mage. Remember to boost your strength with potions and eat lobsters continuously.
Free play Mage/Melee/Ranger Pure
Skills:Ranged 40+; Attack 40; Strength 40+; Magic 59
Concept & training: This is the best and most all around build for free play. Basicly you just combine the builds outlined above. You begin as pure ranger, then you raise your melee skills to 40 attack & Strength and finally you train Magic. Remember to simultaneously train Strength and Ranged to ensure that they always are as high as possible relative to your combat level. Use the Skill simulator as guidance.
Mage Equipment: Staff of Air, Wizard’s robe, Wizard’s hat & Amulet of Magic.
Melee Equipment: Rune scimitar, Anti-Dragon shield & Amulet of Strength.
Ranger Equipment: Yew shortbow, Adamant arrows, Green Dragonhide vambraces & chaps Leather body, Coif, Leather boots & Amulet of Accuracy.
Extras: Strength potions, cooked Lobsters, Fire runes & Death runes.
Strategy:With this build you have the luxury of adapting your equipment to your opponent. Use magic/melee equipment against melee, ranger/meele equipment against rangers and mage/ranger equipment against mages. Always start out as Mage; cast Fire Blast on your opponent and if he gets too close you switch to Rune Scimitar, Anti-Dragon shield and Amulet of strength. Throw in ranged attacks if fighting a mage. Remember to boost your strength with potions and eat lobsters continuously.
Member Pures
Member Training
Member training – Ranged: Begin by killing rats in Varrock’s sewers with bronze arrows. When you hit 20 at around Combat lvl 10 you can move on to Rock Crabs north of Camelot and Seer’s Village. If you don’t mind paying a little extra you can start using Iron knifes at this point to speed up the training. You can go all the way to Ranged lvl 99 against these Crabs. You should know that Magic and Melee is much better than Ranged for PKing at higher Combat levels but you will deal more total damage when you train Ranged skill meaning that Combat level will be kept at a minimum relative to the Hit Points. This makes Ranged training vital for a pure.
Member training – Melee: Training melee is really simple. You start out with low level monsters and move onto higher level ones as you grow stronger. Always use the best weapon you can equip. Dragon scimitar is best because of its speed. The Rock Crabs north east of Camelot are just as great for training melee as ranged. Use accurate attacks until you reach Attack lvl 60 and then aggressive attacks exclusively to increase your Strength. You don’t want any more than attack lvl 60 so you must avoid the accurate attack entirely after reaching lvl 60. This applies when you fight both monsters and players. You must never use controlled attacks because they raise your defense level and you don’t want that either.
Member training – Magic: Go to the Jail at Port Sarim or the Zoo by the Clock Tower in Ardougne. Make sure you are equipped with Full Iron Armour and Green Dragonhide vambraces and you are good to go. This way you are unable to cast your spells so you can target the same monster again and again. The experience gain will be the same so it is very time saving. Start out with confuse at lvl 3 and when you hit lvl 11 it is time for Weaken and at lvl 19 you continue with Curse which should be used all the way up Magic lvl 45. Make sure you have plenty of Water, Earth and Body runes at your disposal for this. You can buy a Mystic Mud Staff for infinite supply of Earth and Water runes. You should use Camelot Teleport once you reach lvl 45. Buy a lot of law runes and you are good to go. When you reach lvl 55 it is time for High Level Alchemy which is the most efficient way to train Magic. Yew longbows are the best items to work with. Buy Yew logs, Flax, Nature runes and a Fire staff for all your Fire rune needs. If you don’t have the time and energy to do the fletching you can simply buy the Yew longbows strung and ready but this will be more expensive.
Member Training – Prayer: Get yourself a large amount of Dragon bones and you are good to go. It is costly but well worth it.
Member Ranger Pure
Skills: Ranged 70
Concept & training: You can start PKing at lvl 40 just like with free play ranger but 70 should be the goal. Remember to simultaneously train your melee skills as high as you can without raising your combat level. Use the Skill simulator as guidance.
Equipment: Magic shortbow, Rune Arrows, Black Dragonhide vambraces & chaps, Leather body, Coif, Leather boots, God cape or Obsidian cape, Amulet of Glory & Ring of Recoil.
Extras: Ranging potions & cooked Sharks.
Strategy: -
Member Melee/Ranger Pure
Skills: Ranged 70; Attack 60; Strength 60
Concept & training: You start out as a pure Ranger but when you hit Ranged Lvl 70 it is time to get your Attack skill and Strength up to useful levels. When Attack is lvl 60 you must train strength exclusively. Make sure to simultaneously train Ranged skill but never push it high enough for gain in Combat Level. Use the Skill simulator as guidance.
Melee Equipment: Dragon scimitar, Dragon dagger (s), Wizard’s robe, Wizard’s hat, Unholy book of Zamorak, God cape or Obsidian cape, Amulet of Strength & Ring of Recoil.
Ranger Equipment: Magic shortbow, Rune Arrows, Black Dragonhide vambraces & chaps, Leather body, Coif, Leather boots & Amulet of Glory.
Extras: Super Strength potions, Ranging potions & cooked Sharks.
Strategy: Start out with Ranged attacks and try to get your enemy close to you. When he is close enough you switch to your poisoned Dragon dagger and pull off the special attack. Then finish the job with Dragon scimitar. Wizard’s robes might be necessary protection against mages. Remember to drink your potions and eat your food.
Member Mage/Melee/Ranger Pure
Skills: Ranged 70+; Attack 60; Strength 60+; Magic 85+
Concept & Training: This is the complete Pure. Build the Melee/Ranger outlined above and then add Magic training to that. Make sure to train Strength and Ranged skill simultaneously but never let them raise your combat level. Use the Skill simulator as guidance.
Mage Equipment: Zamorak staff, Wizard’s robe, Wizard’s hat, Unholy book of Zamorak, God cape or Obsidian cape, Ring of life & Amulet of Glory.
Melee Equipment: Dragon scimitar, Dragon dagger (s), Amulet of Strength & Ring of Recoil.
Ranger Equipment: Magic shortbow, Rune Arrows, Black Dragonhide vambraces & chaps, Leather body, Coif, & Leather boots.
Extras: Super Strength potions, Magic potions, Ranging potions, cooked Sharks, Blood runes, Fire runes, Water runes, Earth runes, Air runes, Law runes, Chaos runes & Death runes.
Strategy: Start out with your Mage setup. First cast Teleblock on your opponent so he can’t teleport away from you and then Entangle so that he becomes frozen on the spot for 15 seconds. Now you cast Charge to enhance your attack spell Flames of Zamorak which easily should hit your entangled foe. When your opponent breaks free you cast entangle again but be careful because he will become immune to it after a while. When the opponent’s life is down to about 50% it is time to bring out your melee weaponry. Run up to him when he is entangled and pull off the special attack with the poisoned Dragon dagger. Finish the job with Dragon scimitar aggressive attacks.
Member Whip Pure
Skills: Attack 70; Strength 65+; Prayer 52
Concept & Training: Prayer is a very useful skill but it raises your Combat level sky high which is why you need to keep the other skills at a minimum. Get Attack to 70 and then put everything into strength. It is an expensive build but very hard to kill due to the Prayers and maintainance cost is low compared to other builds.
Whip Equipment: Abyssal Whip, Monk robes, Unholy book of Zamorak, God cape or Obsidian cape, Climbing boots, Amulet of Glory & Ring of Recoil.
Extras: Super Strength potions, Prayer potions & cooked Sharks.
Strategy: At Prayer lvl 52 you have all protection prayers and Smite which will subtract from opponent’s Prayer in case he uses any. Use the appropriate Prayers and take on the opponent with the whip. Vary between the special and aggressive attack. There is not much you can do against teleporting but all other opponents should be possible to take out. Remember to drink the appropriate potion prior to using the skill in question and eat food when HP goes down.
Thnaks for your reading,hope these tips and guides can do you a favvor in PVP world!
