Penance Runner

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Penance Runner
Released	4 January 2007 (Update)
Members	Yes
Combat level	Non-combat
Size	1x1
Examine	He's making a run for it!
Combat info
Max hit	0
Aggressive	No
Poisonous	No
Attack style	None
Attack speed	Does not attack
Combat stats
Aggressive stats
Melee defence
Magic defence
? (edit)	No elemental weakness
Ranged defence
Immunities
Poison	Not immune
Venom	Not immune
	Open in DPS calculator
Advanced data
Monster ID	1669,5748
Link	MOID

Penance Runners are a type of Penance creature encountered during the Barbarian Assault minigame. The Runners cannot be attacked by conventional means such as melee or ranged attacks. Instead players must kill the Runners by luring it to the Runner trap with bait or by shooting eggs via the Egg Launcher. It is the job of the Defender to prevent Runners from running south and entering the lure cave, which results in 3 points being deducted from the group score for each escaping Runner.

Penance Healers may target the Penance Runners and heal them to full health.

A Penance Runner statue can be found in the Barbarian Outpost. The plaque on the statue can be read, detailing the strengths and weaknesses of Penance Runners.

Location

Location	Levels	Members	Spawns	Map	League region
Barbarian Assault	Non-combat		1	Show map	Kandarin✓

Drops

100%

Item	Quantity	Rarity	Price	High Alch
Blue egg	2	Always	Not sold	N/A
Green egg	2	Always	Not sold	N/A
Red egg	2	Always	Not sold	N/A

Mechanics

Penance runner actions are determined by a cycling 5-tick timer. This timer switches the runner back and forth between two states detailed below.

Random Walking State

In this state, a runner attempts to move up to 5 tiles in a straight line in one of three directions with varying probabilities:

4/6 chance to move South, towards the exit
1/6 chance to move West, towards the Western trap column
1/6 chance to move East, towards the Eastern trap column

If a runner is at the southern wall, it will attempt to move up to 5 tiles towards the lure cave exit instead of choosing a random direction.

Hunting State

In this state, a runner looks for food it has line-of-sight to. First, the runner checks for any food within a 4 tile radius around it. This is radius is increased to 5 tiles if the player has at least level 2 in the Defender role. What the runner does next depends on whether there is any food within this radius:

If there is no food within the radius, the runner will do nothing.

If there is food within the radius, the runner broadens its search to adjacent 8x8 tile zones relative to the zone where it is standing. The order of zones it searches is North-East > East > South-East > North > Self > South > North-West > West > South-West. The runner chooses the first food it sees by scanning in this order. If there are multiple foods in a zone, the runner chooses the food dropped most recently in that zone. After the runner has chosen a food, it attempts to path in any direction, including diagonally, to reach the food. It no longer moves in random directions while in the random walking state and instead prioritises moving to and eating the food. Runners can retarget a different food after 2 more cycles of its timer.

The specific tick that a runner actually chooses and begins moving toward a food is determined by a separate running 3-tick timer. This timer is desynchronized with the 5-tick state changing timer, meaning the timing of the hunt can vary on each cycle.

Food Interactions

Good food is any food dropped while it is the correct call. Conversely, bad food is any food dropped while it is the incorrect call. While on the floor, good food always stays good and bad food always stays bad even across call changes. A runner responds differently to eating good food or bad food:

When a runner eats a good food not at the trap, one of two things happen depending on when the food was eaten. If the runner is in its hunting state, it will cycle to the random walking state and move in a random direction. If the runner eats food in its random walking state, however, it simply stands still until it attempts to hunt for another food.

When a runner eats a bad food, it walks north (or south if the runner is far north) until interrupted by the random walking state. The following hunting state is skipped, meaning the runner will always walk in a random direction before it can hunt for food again.

If another runner eats the hunted food first or the defender picks it up, the runner will notice the food is gone. This has the same effect as eating good food, except that instead of idling, the runner only briefly pauses before walking towards where the food used to be until it stops to hunt again.

Dialogue

This article on an NPC has an associated dialogue page.
Click here for a transcript of possible conversations with this NPC.

Changes

Date	Changes
10 March 2016 (Update)	Penance creatures in Barbarian Assault are now immune to venom.
23 July 2015 (Update)	Levelling up in the Defender role now actually partially increases the lure range of the Penance Runners.

Trivia

Penance runners had a festive override wearing a santa hat during the 2017, 2018, and 2019 Christmas events.