Player killing

Player killing (commonly known as PKing, player vs. player, or PvP), is the act of two or more players partaking in combat against each other. Player killing differs from other forms of combat in that players do not fight against monsters whose actions are defined by RuneScape's game engine. There are various places throughout Old School RuneScape that players can participate in PvP activities, such as Castle Wars, Soul Wars, Bounty Hunter, and the TzHaar Fight Pit. On every world, the Wilderness is a PVP-enabled zone, allowing players in a similar combat bracket to fight with each other.

Players can also participate in player killing in dedicated "PvP worlds", worlds where players can attack other players in most places around Gielinor except for designated safe areas and banks. World 392 is permanently designated as a PvP world, with other PvP worlds being made active/inactive on a rotating schedule. The currently-active PvP worlds can always be found on the world list.

PvP is a popular activity throughout Old School RuneScape. Some accounts are even designed solely for PvP, which are colloquially referred to as "pures", who limit or entirely avoid training one or more combat skills, especially Defence, so their offensive stats will be much higher than their combat level suggests. Because of their history of success in the Wilderness, and the overall greater amount of experience pures must gain in their individual skills of choice, pures are more effective at player killing than standard accounts of the same level.

Player killing within the Wilderness and PvP worlds causes a 57-second timer to be set off, during which only the killer can loot the victim's gear. After the expiry of this timer, anyone can loot the victim's loot.

Gameplay

PVP is inherently emergent, meaning the strategies, mechanics, and ways players choose to engage with PVP can change drastically over time.

Honour Fights

Are an unwritten, but mutually agreed upon set of rules that players can engage in while fighting each other. This involves players fighting (commonly with melee), without the help of Protection prayers or Freezes until one player dies or they run out of food. This type of fight relies heavily on knocking out your opponent with high damage Special attacks, Vengeance or other recoiling effects, or combos to defeat an opponent faster than they can out-eat or teleport away. This style of PVP was popular north of Edgeville, but is now commonly facilitated through Bounty Hunter or PvP worlds.

No-Honour Fights (NH)

An 'anything goes' style of combat, where players use any and all advantages to defeat another player. This includes the use of freezes, Tele Block, and multiple Combat styles. These types of fights are often facilitated in popular Wilderness hotspots, where the likelihood of finding other players for a fight is high. Last Man Standing is a popular, safe alternative for players who wish to engage in No-Honour style fights.

"Player Killing"

In more specific terms, "Player killers" or "PKers" refers to those who target players skilling, PVMing, questing, or otherwise not engaging in PVP for loot or sport. This is primarily done in the Wilderness, where there are plenty of lucrative money makers, unique skilling methods, and bossing encounters that many players seek out. Player killers utilise Tele Block, Freezing spells, high damaging Special attacks, or a group of player killers to defeat other players and prevent their escape.

Anti-PKing

Some players participating in Wilderness activities choose to fight back against enemy player killers. This can either be an attempt to deter them or to outright defeat a player killer while bringing substantially less risk thanks to not having to Skull. Players can bring a ranged weapon to fight back from a distance, bring freeze spells to immobilise and escape from would-be player killers, or use high damaging Special attacks and Vengeance to catch player killers off guard.

Team Fights

When in multicombat areas, players can group together to attempt to attack players at the same time. Whether Player killing or fighting other teams, there is extra emphasis on coordinating ranged attacks and Barrage spells to quickly target and eliminate other players. Many mini-games facilitate safe team fights, such as Soul Wars, Castle Wars, and Clan Wars. Larger groups or clans can attempt to control large portions of the wilderness for profit or as a show of force.

Mechanics

Player versus player combat behaves similar to player versus monster combat, but some notable unique interactions and differences can be initially confusing or unintuitive.

Account Builds

One-defence pure

Berserker

Medium level

Main

Free-to-play builds

Other

Obsidian mauler, 13 Defence pure, Initiate pure, Proselyte pure, Void pure, etc.

Activity Hotspots

PvP worlds

Common PvP spots
Location	Comment	Popularity
Grand Exchange	Extremely varied. Pure, Dharok, zerker, Void, rushers as well as mains.	High
Lumbridge	Varied. Pure, zerker, Void and mains.	High
Edgeville	Common spot for "No honour" PKing, both pure and main.	Moderate
Rimmington house portal	Varied. Pure, Dharok and a lot of rushers.	Moderate
Camelot	Pure and Dharok.	Moderate
Castle Wars lobby	Common spot for "No honour" PKing, both pure and main.	Low

The Wilderness

The Wilderness is a large region in which PvP is enabled in almost all areas. Any player in the Wilderness can attack any other player near their combat level, with the bracket of attackable combat levels widening as a player moves deeper into the Wilderness. It is a dangerous place, as if a player is killed, they will lose all except their 3 most-valuable items to their killer (4 if they have the Protect Item prayer active when they die). Attacking another player will skull the attacker; if a skulled player is killed by another player, they will lose all of their items (or all but one with Protect Item active).

In the past, "skull tricking" was a popular method PKers used to gain more loot, by tricking players into skulling, but it has decreased in popularity somewhat with the addition of PK Skull Prevention which prevents the player from performing actions that will skull them.

Common PvP spots
Location	Comment	Popularity
Revenant Caves	Located in 17-40 wilderness, players kill revenants as a lucrative money making method with little risk and requirements. The entire cave is singles-plus combat, meaning player combat is prioritised over combat with revenants. Players wishing to fight other players will often meet by the revenant dragons, while lower level accounts often meet by the southern revenant orks.	High
Wilderness bosses	The Wilderness bosses are popular for PvMers as they drop a lot of money with minimal risk and requirements. The stronger boss variants (Callisto, Venenatis, and Vet'ion) are located in multicombat areas in level 35-40 Wilderness and are targeted by groups of PKers. Solo PKers target the weaker boss variants (Artio, Spindel, and Calvar'ion) located in singles-plus areas in levels 21-29. The areas around the deeper multi caves is a hotspot for large scale clan fights.	High
Chaos Temple (hut)	Located in level 38 Wilderness west of the Lava Maze, the temples itself is multi-combat, while the outside is in single-way combat. The temple is commonly used by players training Prayer for the bone saving effect. This makes it a popular hotspot for player killing due to the expensive bones used and money brought to unnote bones, with many players engaging in 1v1 combat outside the hut with larger scale fights occasionally happening inside the hut.	High
Wilderness Slayer Cave	Located east of the Ferox Enclave and south of the Silk Chasm in levels 18-30 wilderness, players training Slayer in a multi-combat area often bring a dwarf multicannon and barrage spells while collecting valuable loot. This makes it a popular spot to attack players and can often lead to larger scale fights between PKers.	High
Chaos Temple (Wilderness)	Located in level 11 Wilderness in multi-combat, players hunt zombie pirates and elder Chaos druids for their lucrative drops, often with a dwarf multicannon. This, along with the druids' ability to Tele Block nearby players, makes this a popular area for groups of player killers.	Moderate
Black chinchompas	Located in level 32 Wilderness in singles combat, players hunting black chinchompas often bring no supplies and make easy prey. Other players choose to bring defensive gear to ensure they protect their caught chinchompas, as they are an excellent source of Hunter XP and can be sold for a good amount of coins.	Moderate
Lava Dragon Isle	Located in 36-42 wilderness in multicombat, players often kill lava dragons for their bones, scales, and other valuable loot. Due to their incredibly low magic level and ability to be safespotted, low level players can use this a lucrative money maker while making them an easy target for pkers.	Moderate
Wilderness Agility Course	The course is located in level 50-56 wilderness in singles-plus combat. The area is very popular for players training Agility as each lap awards bonus XP and coins as well as other loot. Players risking very little make for easy targets for players killers, while some bring defensive gear to escape with lots of valuables. The entrance/exit also leads to some combat encounters with groups of PKers.	Moderate
Rogues' Castle	Located in level 52–56 Wilderness. A very popular spot for player killers since the area is multi-combat, and they can prey on players looting the chests and hunting Chaos Elemental.	Moderate
Ferox Enclave	A safe hub located in low-level wilderness in single-way combat, players often look to fight other players outside of the western safe zone. Occasionally, players are targeted as they travel towards the Revenant Caves or nearby wilderness bosses.	Moderate
Green dragons	Located across the wilderness and in the Wilderness Slayer Cave, players/bots are targeted by pkers as they kill green dragons for their green dragonhide and dragon bones.	Moderate
Mage Arena	Located in deep level 54 wilderness, the Mage Arena and nearby bank are a common pit stop for players doing Mage Arena I, II, nearby bosses, and looting Larran's big chest. These and other surrounding activities make this a popular player-killing spot. The Mage Arena bank is a safe area, but the Mage Arena itself is not.	Moderate
Resource Area	East of the Deserted Keep in level 52–54 Wilderness in single-way combat. Players doing Treasure Trails, Achievement Diaries, catching dark crabs, or otherwise passing through this area on their way to Chaos Elemental or Scorpia can be targeted by PKers.	Low
Fountain of Rune	Located in level 47 Wilderness, this has become a hotbed for player killers since the area is multi-combat, and they can kill players who are charging amulets of glory.	Low
Wilderness God Wars Dungeon	Located within a cave east of the Forgotten Cemetery in the level 28 Wilderness, the whole area is multi-combat. A popular place for clans to lurk and ambush players killing aviansie or collecting ecumenical keys.	Low

Official worlds

The following official worlds are assigned to Wilderness PKing:

World	Location	Members	Activity
308	United Kingdom	0	Wilderness PK - Free
316	United Kingdom	0	Wilderness PK - Free
369	United States (east)	1	Wilderness PK - Members

Note that the Wilderness is always a PvP area even on worlds not officially marked for Wilderness PK.

Minigames

TzHaar Fight Pit

The TzHaar Fight Pit is a safe minigame in which players fight against each other in a free-for-all arena. The last surviving player in the arena is crowned champion.

Last Man Standing

Last Man Standing, commonly referred to as LMS, is a player-versus-player battle royale minigame in which 4-24 players are transported onto an island where they must fight for survival, killing each other and looting any items they can to become the titular last man standing.

Bounty Hunter

Bounty Hunter was originally released in December 2007 as part of a highly controversial update that removed PvP from the Wilderness. Its first incarnation was confined to a single crater and was intended as a substitute for Wilderness player-killing. Although the August 2007 archive of RuneScape that Old School's servers were based on predated the Bounty Hunter update, both players and the development team expressed interest in bringing it back in a revised form. It was subsequently released in 2014 as a single-world activity that exists separately from and alongside traditional Wilderness PvP. Today there are 1-2 worlds where Bounty Hunter is active, depending on the PvP world rota.

Clan Wars

Clan Wars allows members of two opposing Clan Chats to engage in player-versus-player combat against one another.

Castle Wars

Castle Wars is a minigame released by Jagex in December 2004. It is similar to Capture the Flag, but with an Old School RuneScape twist. The official worlds for Castle Wars are 334 and 354 for P2P, and 383 for F2P, although Castle Wars games can be played on any world. On July 20 2017, it was made free-to-play, and can be accessed via a portal in the Ferox Enclave.

Soul Wars

Soul Wars is a minigame in which two opposing teams compete against each other to gather soul fragments and offer them to the Soul Obelisk in order to weaken, and ultimately defeat, each other's Avatars through combat.

Emir's Arena

The Emir's Arena, also known as the PvP Arena, is a PvP minigame that replaced the Duel Arena.

The minigame gives players an opportunity to fight each other in a controlled environment, where matches take place on an alternative save game world against players of a similar skill level. Players will be able to register their interest in finding a fight; while a match is being prepared, players can continue with whatever they were doing prior.

History

Originally, after the release of RuneScape Classic, players could select whether or not to play as player killer characters. Players could switch from player-killer mode to non-player-killer mode (in which the character could not attack or be attacked by other players) three times, after which they remained at their chosen setting forever.

PvP combat could take place at most locations in the RuneScape world. The rules of combat were the same as in modern RuneScape Classic Wilderness. Lumbridge was designated as a neutral area where players could not attack each other. This was done to prevent "spawn camping", the practice of immediately killing a player as soon as they respawned after a death. However, it was possible for a character to be attacked in the upper levels of Lumbridge Castle. In addition to this restriction, NPC Guards and White Knights patrolled the cities of Varrock and Falador, breaking up PvP battles by attacking the aggressor. These guard units were limited in number, however, and if all the units in a city were already in combat, PvP combat could go on freely.

At this time, the Bank of Runescape was limited to Varrock and Falador and could only store coins. As a result, players would have to carry their valuables with them, making PvP combat much riskier.

The player-killer/non-player-killer modes were removed from the game on 13 August 2001 when the Wilderness was added. Later, additional areas where PvP combat was allowed were added.

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Changes

Date	Changes
2 April 2020 (Update)	Brand-new players cannot log in to PvP worlds. These restrictions can be removed by logging over 20 hours of game time, earning 10 quest points, and reaching 100 total level. Alternatively, you can purchase membership to bypass these requirements.
27 February 2020 (Update)	To counter Bot accounts, Players in PvP Worlds can no longer use the Fountains in Lumbridge as water source.
22 January 2015 (Update)	Only players that have not logged out since items were dropped on the ground can see them. Also, only players that were logged in at the time the items were dropped will be able to see them.
6 November 2014 (Update)	In Combat, your opponent's attack option should now always appear on top.
25 September 2014 (Update)	More PvP kill taunts have been added and shall appear as normal when you successfully kill another player.
4 September 2014 (Update)	The attack options for players will no longer appear when in a safe zone in PvP Worlds.
8 May 2014 (Update)	Your opponent should now always appear on top during PvP.