Thane’s Player Killing Guide. Written by Thane0

~|-Contents-|~

-What is pking?

-How do I start?

-What’s the point?

-Mages

-Rangers

-Warriors

-Prayer Beasts

-The Pking Triangle

-Basics

-Where to train

-food

-armor

-weapons

-Misc.

-Picking a good place to patrol

-Wilderness map

-Developing your own strategy

-Some useful strategies

-Finding trustworthy team members

-How to escape if your team turns on you

-What is pking?

Pking? Player killing. Killing other players in the wilderness for their items, or, just for fun. Seems pretty evil, right? Well, it is. Just don’t try it in real life, okay?

-How do I start?

So you’ve decided to become one of those many blood-thirsty Player Killers out there? Good for you. Before you start Pking, you need to decide what kind of pker you want to be. Mage, Warrior, or Ranger. Each of these has their own strengths and weaknesses. Then, once you’ve decided, you should stock up on food. Food is the most important thing you can have with you in the wilderness.

-What’s the point?

Some people don’t pk. They ask "what’s the point? Why kill other people? Risking your life and armor in the wilderness is just plain stupid. You can’t control who’s out there. So why do it?" Well, they are absolutely right. There is no way to know who is out there. Pking is a gamble. You can never know what’s going to happen.

But there are several reasons why people take those risks. First of all, you can make a huge profit off your kills. Full mith, full addy, and occasionally full rune are prizes claimed by serious pkers. But it is true that you could go in and lose all of your armor also. You just have to be careful. Don’t ever bring anything you can’t afford to lose. Ever.

Another reason is that Pking is just plain fun. The thrill of chasing a retreating character is great. Especially when you are kicking his butt, and he has a skull above him and some nice items on his back. Its also very exciting when you finally suck the last of his HP away and he dies, leaving behind a packfull of mystery items you can take, all to yourself.

Another thing people say is, "It’s ruining someone’s day. It’s just not nice." Well, they are right. It’s no fun to be the victim. That’s why I only kill people with skulls above them. They are pkers too, they know the risks. Besides, they lose everything when they die. Now that’s cool.

Deciding which kind of Pker you want to be can be a tough choice. There are so many different options to choose from, each, again, having their own strengths and weaknesses.

-Mages

Ah, yes. The Mage. Mages have earned their title as the most despised of all Pkers. They can beat down warriors ten, sometimes fifteen levels higher than them, depending on their skills in magic. They usually take in a heavy profit. I once had a mage show off to me his winnings for the trip. Two sets of mith and one set of addy. Some people are just rolling in the dough.

Mages wear black mage or shade robes, which doesn’t help them much in battles, other than they can run faster because of their lighter clothing. They usually will attack from a distance with binding or heavy damaging spells. They count on a warrior’s "auto-retaliate" to be on, so that when they attack the warrior will run toward them automatically, giving the mage more time to attack before the warrior turns tail and runs.

If you decide to be a mage, you should pick up Runecrafting, so you can manufacture your own runes to use in the wilderness. Having runes can be a slight disadvantage, since they take up several slots in your pack, making less space for crucial food.

-Rangers

I don’t know much about rangers, since I’ve never been one, but I can offer some advice. Rangers are a mage’s enemy. Their sharp tipped arrows pierce easily through the mage’s soft and thin robes, doing heavy damage. Rangers will pk alone, and sometimes in very large numbers, making them deadly to both the mage and the warrior. However, a lone ranger can be defeated by a warrior.

Buy a nice bow and some good leather or dragonhide armor if you decide to pick up pk ranging. Also, have a hefty supply of arrows in your bank. Usually you will lose a lot of your arrows while pking, due to the fact that you may have to run in case of a warrior charging you, or a surprisingly strong mage on your tail.

There are a lot of good things about being a ranger. Hard leather armor isn’t super expensive, unless you decide to go with the dragon hide stuff. Arrows aren’t super expensive either, depending on which kind you wish to use. Also, attacking from a distance or behind a wall, inside a building can buy you extra time and extra hits on opponants.

-Warriors

Yep, this is me. I’m a warrior, and a mage’s favorite victim. Warrior armor conducts mage attacks very easily, doing very heavy damage. If you are a warrior and see a mage coming, just run away. Even weaker mages can kill you. ( I learned the hard way. Some mage ten levels lower than me kicked my butt… =hides face in embarrassment=). However, there are mages who are beatable. I’ve had my share of mage kills.

If you decide to be a warrior, its helpful to have some good smithing skills, so you can make yourself some iron armor. Iron or steel is very useful at first, until you get better at pking, since it provides the needed defense and is rather cheap. Bring an addy or rune weapon, and make sure your prayer is at least lvl 25 so you have "protect items’. That way you won’t lose your precious weapon once you get a skull.

-Prayer Beasts

Prayer Beasts don’t really do damage, but it’s a skill you might want to have with you. High level prayer beasts can use protective spells to save them from warrior attacks, ranger attacks, and magic attacks, taking away a considerable amount of damage from those attacks.

In order to get your prayer level up, you will, of course, need to burry bones. The bone yard in the wilderness is very useful for this. It has many big bones that you will have access to, but being in the wilderness, you will need to watch out for other pkers on the prowl.

-The Pking Triangle

Jagex has come up with something called the Pking triangle. In this triangle, everyone has a disadvantage against one type of pker, and an advantage against another type of pker.

Change the triange? Yep, you can do that. But it’s more like bending its sides. You can wear different armor, such as: a warrior wears leather armor, to deflect mage attacks. Or a mage wears metal amor, to deflect archer’s arrows.

Wondering how you should start off training? Well, here are some helpful tips.

-Basics

The basics of training? Well, we all know how to kill monsters, right? Bring food, your best armor, and possibly a higher level friend than you in case you get into trouble.

--Tip for those warriors out there—TRAIN YOUR STRENGTH AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE!!! Just imagine what the lvl 50 guy would think when he attacks your lvl 45 with full confidence, and you turn around and start dealing out 12 to 14 damage! MWAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!

-Where to train

Great places to train:

The top of the wizard’s tower-Up here is a caged lesser demon that’s just waiting to die from some mage’s attacks. This is my favorite place to train magic. It’s a multi-combat zone, so more than one person can beat the poor thing up. Rangers can also train here, but I don’t recommend it since you can’t get your arrows back.

Karamja island-My personal favorite. I go there, fish some lobsters, cook ‘em up, and head to the lesser demons under the volcano. This place is great to train for Warriors, Archers, and Mages. There is a stalagmite that rangers and mages can hide behind while killing lessers, and not get hit if they are positioned right. Also, if you are lucky, one of the lessers might drop a rune medium helm, or a mithril square shield.

of guards there should keep you busy, and they give decent experience.

When you set out on your Pking adventure, there are several things that are crucial to your survival.

-food

Yes, of course! It’s common sense to bring food out there with you. Bring as much as you can hold, and the best you can get a hold of. Get your fishing skill up. It’s very important for your pking career.

-armor

Only bring armor that you can afford to lose. I bring steel that I smith myself, so it’s not a horrible loss when I die. Never ever bring anything valuable that you cannot replace. That’s just asking to lose it. Just don’t do it, okay?

-weapons

Have a good weapon that you can take with you. If your prayer is not lvl 25, then only bring something you can afford to lose. If your prayer is lvl 25 or more, you will have the "protect items" prayer. Just switch this on in case you start dyin’. That way, you won’t lose your precious addy or rune 2h or whatever you use. Keep in mind, though, that the prayer recognizes not the most valuable item you have, but the item that requires the highest smithing level to create.

-Misc.

Other items you could take along…well…Strength potions are very useful for warriors. One beaker-full is quite enough for one pking trip, since it contains four separate doses. To make a strength potion, get limpwurt root, and red spider’s eggs. Take them to the apothecary in varrock to be made into a strength potion for a small fee.

Runes are a must for mages, of course. Bring enough for the trip, but not a ton. If you die, you will lose them all.

If you are a warrior that has expensive armor, again, you may bring some runes to teleport out (if you are in lvl 20 or lower wilderness) if your magic level is high enough.

Get frustrated because you go pking and never run into any suitable victims? Well, happens all the time. But there are several spots in the wilderness that have a considerable amount more people going through them then others.

-Picking a good place to patrol

The best thing I can say about selecting a place to pk is for you to just wander around, trying different spots. Sometimes you will find better kills at the giants north of Varrock then you will in the Dark Knight’s Fortress. It depends on who’s playing.

-Wilderness map

-Developing your own strategy

Having a good strategy when pking is very important to making a kill. While developing your own unique strategy to fool victims, practice different ideas with your friends. In this way, you can test whether they work or not. Once you develop your strategy, don’t share it with others. Keep it to yourself, so that no one else can steal your ideas. For this reason, I am not going to reveal my pking strategy to you.

-Some useful strategies

Here are some useful tips on developing your own team pking strategy:

Have a team made up of several archers, mages, and warriors. Having only one or two of these types isn’t as effective as having all three on your side.

Tell your archer friends to position themselves south of victims, so when they begin to run, the archers can get more hits on them.

-Finding trustworthy team members

It is difficult to find people you can trust. Get to know your team members before you go into the wilderness with them. They could well turn on you and kill you suddenly and unexpectedly. Remember that. I have been betrayed by people I trust many times. Also remember, that people with a lower level than you can also defeat you. The weak can most certainly defeat the strong. Say you are level 50. You go pking with two lvl 45 people. They could beat you if they teamed up on you. Their level added together would be 90! Can a level 50 beat a level 90? I don’t think so. Just be careful who you trust, okay? And, one more thing. Don’t become one of those traitors out there. If you say you aren’t going to kill someone, just don’t do it! Stick to your word, or soon no one will trust you!

-How to escape if your team turns on you

Always, again, be aware that your team can turn on you at any time. Especially when your hp is low from fighting. Even if you have gone pking with them several times, they can still turn on you. If they do, always be ready to run. Running diagonally is much faster (for some reason) than running straight. Also, running through trees can help you get seperated from your attackers.

Q: What is the wilderness level indicator at the bottom of my screen mean?

A: This indicates how deep you are. Also, it tells what level players you can attack. Ex: If you are in level 20 wilderness, you can only attack others 20 levels higher or 20 levels lower than you are

Q: What does that icon mean at the bottom right of my screen? The one with two swords crossing?

A: If one of these is at the bottom of your screen, it means that it is a multi-combat zone. That means that more than one person can attack one person at once. So, here, you and your entire team can wreak havoc on a lone person. Just make sure he doesn’t have some friends there to back him up. =)