Barbarian Assault/Gameplay

This is a safe activity in an instanced area.

If you die here, you will not lose any of your items; however, any items you drop manually on the ground will be lost.
Warning: All PvM activities are dangerous for Hardcore group iron players, including Pest Control, Nightmare Zone, Fight Caves, and Chambers of Xeric.

Gameplay interface

The key to this game is teamwork and co-operation. If one teammate does not do their job, then the whole team will gain fewer points (and possibly fail). Players do not lose any items when they die, but they do not keep anything related to their roles acquired through the minigame. The object of the game is to defeat all of the Penance. When all Penance are defeated, the current wave is won, and Honour points are given to the team while waiting for the next wave.

Note that the game will end when a teammate quits (by climbing up the ladder), logs out, or dies. The wave will not be complete, and any work done during the wave will have to be redone.

Horn

Everyone in the team will get a horn in their inventory to communicate what their teammates must do to complete their role. Calling should be everyone's top priority while playing the game. This is very important because if one person doesn't call for their team, other teammates will not be able to complete their roles, and thus, die or quit out of frustration. What is to be called changes every 30 seconds, so the player should always be quick to call for their teammate again.

Horn calling information can be seen at the top right of the screen in the same layout as the example below.

Icon	Action	Example
	The current assault wave.	Wave 1
	What you have been told to DO.	Use "Tofu" for bait.
	What to CALL through your horn.	Right click the horn, and select "Tell-meat".
	Your partner's role with whom you communicate.	Appears 'Healer' (if your role is Defender)

Reminder:

• DO what is next to the EAR icon.
• CALL out what is next to the MOUTH icon.

The right-click options for a Defender horn

Depending upon the player's role when right-clicked, the horn will give options for what to tell to their teammate:

• Collectors calling for Attackers - combat style to use when attacking:
  • Accurate
  • Aggressive
  • Controlled
  • Defensive
• Healers calling for Defenders - type of food to lure with:
  • Tofu
  • Crackers
  • Worms
• Attackers calling for Collectors - egg colours to pick up:
  • Red
  • Green
  • Blue
• Defenders calling for Healers - type of poisoned food to use on Healers:
  • Poisoned tofu
  • Poisoned meat
  • Poisoned worms

In the above example, the Attacker's Horn interface on the screen shows that the Attacker needs to TELL (MOUTH icon) their teammate (Collector) to collect "green eggs", by right-clicking the horn and selecting the "Tell-green" option. The EAR icon shows what the teammate (Collector) is telling the Attacker to DO: use an "Aggressive" attack style to kill Penance Rangers and Fighters.

What is to be called changes every 30 seconds; players will need to check the interface for changes, and tell (using the Horn) their teammate of any changes as well. The actions change for all players simultaneously. When the action changes, what your role needs to do is cleared and what you have to call changes to white and blinks. It is a good idea to use this as a warning sign that the action has changed and players need to call.

The interface shows what you need to call in white text, as opposed to yellow, if you have not yet called it out. This makes it easy to see if you haven't called or called incorrectly.

Note: If you need healing and you're not a healer, right-click the Horn, and choose "Medic" to notify the Healer. Do NOT manually type out "Medic!", as the healers WILL NOT be notified on their interface showing each team members' hitpoints.

Penalties

The player and the team will lose Honour points for every:

• Wrong Attack style -

Each wrong attack will subtract 1 honour point from everyone's final score, for a maximum penalty of 10. 11 or more wrong attacks have the same effect over team honour. If Attackers attack with the wrong style, they will suffer 2 recoil damage for each wrong hit.

• Runner that escaped -

Each runner escaped will subtract 3 honour points from everyone's final score, for maximum penalty of 10. 4 or more escapes have the same effect over team honour. A single runner may escape several times, until it is killed.

• Wrong coloured-egg picked up -

The count of exploded eggs is subtracted from number of eggs collected and decreases maximum of collected eggs to 60 minus the number of exploded eggs. As the egg explodes, it causes the Collector to lose 5 Hitpoints. Collectors cannot provide negative honour to the team directly, only by calling wrong attack styles to Attacker.

• Wrong poison used on a Penance Healer -

Using wrong types of poison packs on Penance Healers will subtract honour points by the count of wrong poison packs used divided by 4, rounded down, for a maximum penalty of 10. 40 or more wrong poison packs used have the same effect over team honour.

Battlefield

Machines

The Barbarian Assault dispensers.

The dispensers located at the bottom of the battlefield (near where players appear) provide some necessities for each role.

• The yellow Collector Converter will convert coloured eggs to a different colour.
  • Green eggs convert to red
  • Red eggs convert to green
  • Blue eggs convert to green
• The green Healer dispenser will provide:
  • Healing vial (one per Healer)
  • Poisoned worms
  • Poisoned tofu
  • Poisoned meat
• The blue Defender dispenser will provide:
  • Worms
  • Tofu
  • Crackers
• The red Attacker dispenser will provide arrows and runes an Attacker may need.

Healer Spring

The Healer's spring.

The Healer spring is located at the south-west corner of the battlefield, just west of the machines. It can only be used by the Healers. Healers can fill their vials or directly drink from it to heal themselves.

Healer Spring Effect

Level	Hitpoints restored	Run energy restored
1	1+10%	20%
2	2+20%	~25%
3	3+30%	~30%
4	4+40%	~35%
5	5+50%	40%

The filled vials have four doses and can be used on any other teammates to heal them. Note that the amount of Hitpoints healed depends on the Healers' level. Directly drinking from the spring will heal the Healer. The healing liquid restores both Hitpoints and run energy, so it can be used to replenish the run energy of your teammates even if they are not badly hurt.

Horn of Glory

In addition to the individual horns each teammate has, there is also the Horn of Glory. This large horn is situated in the south-east corner of the battlefield, and can be used to contact everyone at once. If a player often forgets to "call", this horn can be used by ANYONE to tell ANY teammate what they have to do. However, it will be unusable when the Penance Queen appears in the 10th wave.

Egg Launcher

In regular waves, the Collector collects eggs and loads them into the Egg Hopper. Once this is done, the Egg Launcher can be used by any player on the team to damage Penance creatures (provided there are eggs in the Egg Hopper). Any coloured eggs can be used, but each colour has a specific function:

• Red eggs: Deals 3 damage to a Penance creature, and causes 0-1 splash damage to nearby monsters within 3 squares.
• Green eggs: Deals 1 damage to a Penance creature.
• Blue eggs: Stuns a Penance creature for 6 seconds.

In Wave 10, after the Penance Queen makes an appearance, the Egg Launcher must be used to kill the Queen. For this, the team makes Omega Eggs (using Yellow eggs), and the Collector loads these in the Egg Hopper. Similarly, any team member can use the Egg Launcher to fire the Omega Eggs to damage the Queen. As this is the only way to damage to Queen, the Egg Launcher plays an important role in the final wave.

Note: Players do not take any Honour point penalties if a team member uses the Egg Launcher.

Job summaries

Attacker

Colour: Red
Calls to: Collector

The Attacker's job is to kill the Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers. Runes and special arrows are available from the Attacker machine near the entrance; however, they must bring their own Melee weapon if they wish to use Melee.

The creatures can only be hurt by one type of attack at any given time. Using the wrong attack will cause the player to lose 2 Hitpoints and hit no damage. The Collector will tell the Attacker which attack the creatures are vulnerable to, with their horn. Having a high Combat level as an Attacker is a significant advantage. Despite its popularity and simplicity, Attacker is a somewhat challenging role as it requires a fair amount of attention.

On the Queen wave, the attacker's job is to take spikes from the petrified mushrooms around the arena. They will then use these spikes on the poisoned eggs, given by healers, and pass the poisoned spiked eggs to defender.

The four attack styles are:

• Style 1: Controlled/Bullet/Wind
• Style 2: Accurate/Field/Water
• Style 3: Aggressive/Blunt/Earth
• Style 4: Defensive/Barbed/Fire

Note: The attack styles are ordered as following: Melee/Ranged/Magic.

Tips:

• Super strength, attack and ranging potions can be used by attackers to speed up killing the Penance creatures, this includes divine potions.

• When using ranged, the easiest way to differentiate the arrows is by looking at the spell, as the arrows all correspond to the colour of the spells. Bullet arrows and wind spells are white, Field arrows and water spells are blue, Blunt arrows and earth spells are green and Barbed arrows and fire spells are red.

• It is recommended that the attackers and the collector both run west of the western cannon, this is so that the penance healers don't target the attackers and collector when they are running to the kill the penance pulling them west. This spreads out the healers and slows the healer down as they have more distance to cover to poison and re-poison healers. Using ranged is recommended, as attackers can kill Penance Rangers and Fighters whilst staying west outside of the lure range of the healers.

See Barbarian Assault/Strategies#Attacker for information on inventory and equipment.

Collector

Colour: Yellow
Calls to: Attacker

The Collector's job is to gather eggs dropped by killed Penance creatures. The Collector loads these eggs into the Egg Hopper, which then allows any teammate to fire the Egg Launcher.

There are three different coloured eggs: Red, Blue, and Green. At any given time, only one colour of egg can be picked up. Each colour of egg now has a different icon to distinguish them from the others. The egg will explode and hit for 5 Hitpoints if the player picks up the wrong-coloured egg, reducing the total numbers of eggs collected by 1. The Attacker will tell the Collector which colour to pick up using their horn. The Collector is also given an Egg Collector Bag to store some eggs in, but the eggs can also be stored in the inventory.

While on the final wave (Wave 10; after the Penance Queen makes an appearance), the Collector's role is relatively easy. During this wave, the collector must run around the field collecting the yellow eggs left by the Queen. They must then hand these (Use on) to the Healer. They will receive them back as omega eggs and must then load them into the hopper to be fired at the Penance queen. As many as eight completed Omega eggs may be needed to kill the Queen.

Note: Be wary, since collectors must run near the Penance queen to obtain the yellow eggs, the healer may have to leave the spring to heal them.

Defender

Colour: Blue
Calls to: Healer

The Defender's job is to prevent Penance Runners from reaching the south end of the playing field. This is done by laying bait on the ground leading towards traps, so that the Runners will follow the food trail and get caught and killed in those traps. Bait can be obtained from the Defender machine near the entrance. Keep in mind that shift-clicking does not drop food, it destroys it. You must left-click food as if you were 'using' it to drop it.

There are three types of bait: Worms, Tofu, and Crackers. Penance Runners will be attracted to all food types, no matter which one is called, so long as the food is within a certain range (4 tiles for level 1, 5 tiles for levels 2-5) of the runners. However, the Penance Runner must eat the correct food type at the trap in order to be killed. The whole team will lose three honour points for each Runner that manages to escape. Thus, it is the Defender's duties to make sure that this does not happen too often (or at all). The Defender typically has an easy job on the final wave. As there are no penalties on Wave 10, there is less pressure to stop Runners from escaping.

Strategy tip 1: It is recommended to scatter as much bait as possible in a trail from in front of the Runner exit to the east trap. The direction of dropping is important as the Runners will always go for the most recently dropped food in range. This will draw the Runners towards the trap. Scatter the remaining bait next to the trap; so the Runners will stay near the trap until they eat the correct bait. As long as no Runners reach the other side, the Defender (and the team) will get full points; it does not matter if the Runners are killed by team members through the egg cannons.

Strategy tip 2: Dropping the wrong bait for luring can be more useful than the right bait, particularly for low level Defenders. Runners that eat the wrong bait will walk a considerable distance north at no penalty, allowing for the right bait to be used solely around the trapping areas. When the wrong bait is placed in a diagonal line leading from the Defender machine to the trap, the runners position themselves vertically in line with the trap. This also buys time for the defender to refill on bait, gather resources, block the northern caves on higher waves, and keep runners in range of the egg cannons.

A hammer and two logs re-spawn at the north end of the battlefield. These are used to repair the traps (as each trap can only kill two Runners before it breaks), and build barricades at the entrances. Barricades stop the Penance creatures from appearing for over ten seconds. However, building barricades will delay the team (including the Defender), preventing effective role performance. The Defender is better off concentrating on laying bait.

Note: Whether a bait is considered "right" or "wrong" is determined when the bait is dropped. This means that even after the food type changes, bait that was correctly dropped will still be considered correct when the Penance Runner eats it regardless of the new correct food type. The same holds true for food that was incorrectly dropped. In other words, the defender does not need to pick up old drops and replace them in order to produce their desired effect.

Healer

"Healer" redirects here. For the healers in Fight Caves and Inferno, see Yt-HurKot and Jal-MejJak.

Colour: Green
Calls to: Defender

The Healer's job is to kill the penance healers by using poisoned food on them, and to heal their teammates by bringing them a vial filled with water from the healer spring if they get to low health. Poisoned food and a healing vial can be found in the Healer machine near the entrance.

To poison the Penance Healers, they must use the correct type of poisoned food on them. There are three types of poisoned food: poisoned worms, poisoned tofu, poisoned meat. The Healer should use the correct type of poisoned food as called out by the Defender, which will change as time goes on. This poisons them with damage starting at 4. If the wrong type of food is used, the food will be wasted and no damage will be dealt. On Waves 1-5, a single poisoned food is enough to kill a Penance Healer; on Waves 7-10, at least two will be required for each healer. However, due to the nature of poison, as it wears off the damage will become diminished, so it is advised to use more to speed up kills. Note that the Penance Healers can be repeatedly damaged by feeding them poisoned food over and over.

To heal teammates, the Healer must fill the vial at the spring (by either using the vial on it or using the right-click option on the spring), then use it on their teammates to restore their Hitpoints, cure poison, and restore some run energy. They can heal themselves in the same way by drinking from the spring. The Healer should pay close attention to players with low Defence and Hitpoints levels and/or have low-defence gear, especially on later waves.

To make the Healer's job a little easier, the Healer has an extra element in their interface at the bottom of the screen that displays the health of each teammate. If a teammate uses the "Medic" option on their horn, it will cause a green cross to flash next to their HP, which will continue to flash until that teammate is healed.

Strategy tip 1: Once a poison pack is applied, the poison effect is substantial and very little else needs to be done. Since Penance Healers also move around quite a lot, it is often more effective to poison as many Penance Healers as possible in the short term and then alternate to healing fellow players before returning to poison the Penance Healers again. This way, even if Penance Healers remain at the end of the round, they are more easily dispatched through the use of the egg cannon. Honour points are rewarded for healing teammates, and the damage done by Penance Healers is minimal, so this strategy ensures high scoring games at low risk to players, with ease of destroying Penance Healers at the end of each round; however, it will lengthen the time it takes to complete each wave.

Strategy tip 2: On later waves, reserve healers will spawn only after one of the Penance Healers has died. To maximise the effect of your food a good strategy to force out the reserve healers and killing the healers efficiently is to use 4/5 food on the first Penance Healer and 1 food on the other 3. Then you can use another poison on healers ticking 3 poison damage or less in-between healing your teammates.

If your teammates are mid-high levels you can wait to fill your vial until after the second call when you go to restock on food; this allows you to maximise the poison damage, by poisoning the healers sooner than if you were to fill the vial at the start of the round. It also allows you to better gauge whether they will need healing or not.

Monsters

Every wave, four species of penance enemy will spawn: Fighters, Rangers, Healers, and Runners. A greater number of every type of penance will spawn in subsequent waves, and the enemies that spawn in higher waves will be stronger, thus making the final waves more challenging than the first. However, Penance Runners always have 5 hitpoints in every wave.

Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers spawn in the north-west corner. Penance Runners and Penance Healers spawn in the north-east corner.

Penance Queen

Main article: Penance Queen

The Penance Queen

Note: There are no honour point penalties for runners that escape, wrong poison types, or wrong attack styles during Wave 10 and the fight with the Penance Queen.

On Wave 10, the Penance Queen will spawn. The Queen is impervious to normal attack, and can only be harmed with omega eggs, which the team members must work together to make.

The wave begins as any other wave, but players will notice that the battlefield is not the same as the battlefields in Waves 1 through 9. There is only one egg launcher instead of two and a large trapdoor in the middle. There are also poison springs, lava craters, and spiked mushrooms dotted around the edges of the battlefield.

The Penance Queen will appear from the trapdoor a few minutes into the fight. The Queen attacks with a long-distance Ranged attack that simultaneously hits all five team members, up to 13 damage, and a melee attack on players who happen to run close enough. She can also spawn level 63 Queen Spawns, which attack with melee and can be defeated by any team member with any attack style.

The Penance Fighters, Rangers, Healers, and Runners must all be defeated by the team before they can start launching omega eggs to damage the Penance Queen. So, it is best to defeat the Penance creatures as quickly as possible, preferably before the Queen appears.

Recommended member roles

Players can reorganise their roles before the start of each wave by leaving and re-entering the waiting room. The following arrangement is recommended:

• 1 Attacker (2 if the Healer is level 5 or is skilled)
• 1 Defender
• 2 Healers (1 if the Healer is level 5 or if all players have high Defence)
• 1 Collector

Attacking the Queen

Players shooting omega eggs at the Penance Queen.

The purple rings are lethal projectiles.

The Queen will spawn a yellow egg every six seconds. These are collected and used to make the omega eggs. Eight total hits from the omega eggs are needed to kill the Penance Queen.

Omega eggs are made according to the following sequence. This can be easily remembered with the word "CHAD":

Role	Action	Give to
Collector	Collect yellow eggs.	Healer
Healer	Dip eggs in poison springs.	Attacker
Attacker	Attach spikes from spiked mushrooms.	Defender
Defender	Dip eggs in lava craters.	Collector
Collector	Put eggs in Egg Hopper.	Launch and kill the Queen!

• The Collector gathers yellow eggs that the Queen drops. The eggs are passed ("Use" option) to the Healer.
• The Healer dunks the eggs in the poison springs. Once done, the eggs are given to the Attacker.
• The Attacker adds spikes to the eggs from the spiked mushrooms. The eggs are passed along to the Defender. It is recommended that the Attacker collects the spikes before the queen comes, as it will speed up the process of passing the eggs on, and ultimately improve chances of survival.
• The Defender dunks the eggs in the lava craters, and hands them back to the Collector.
• The Collector places them in the Egg Hopper, and the Egg Launcher is ready to be fired.

Once the Omega eggs are loaded and all other Penance monsters are defeated, any team member can use the Egg Launcher to launch the eggs at the Penance Queen. Each hit damages the Queen by about 30+ damage. Keep hitting with omega eggs until the Queen is killed.

Tips

• It is best for the team to stay near the healing pool, so they can be constantly healed by one of the healers.
• Patience is necessary, as killing the Penance Queen may take a while.
• As with all Barbarian Assault waves, prayer cannot be used.
• Level 5 Healers are VERY useful in this wave.
• Everyone except the team leader can spam click to shoot the omega egg to hit multiple times per egg. This allows for the queen to die in fewer than 8 omega eggs.
• If a player is being targeted by the penance queen, it is best to hide behind cover. Breaking line of sight with her will prevent her from attacking the player and the rest of the team until she chooses a new target.