Warning!
The Wilderness is the most dangerous and high risk area of RuneScape. If you have little or no experience of player-vs-player Wilderness, we strongly advise you to read this FAQ before venturing there.
The Wilderness is unlike the rest of RuneScape, as it hosts a number of features that make it a more hazardous and thrilling environment:
- The Wilderness is a player-vs-player environment, meaning that players can attack and kill you.
- In PvP areas of the Wilderness, you will not leave a gravestone behind when you die. Any items you drop will be visible to the player who did the most damage to you if you were player-killed. Only take items that you are prepared to risk!
- Manually drop items on the floor and they will appear immediately to all players.
- Attack another player without them attacking you recently, and you will become skulled. If you die while skulled, you will drop all of your items.
- Many areas of the Wilderness are multi-way, meaning that more than one opponent can attack you at any one time.
- What is the Wilderness?
- Where is the Wilderness? How can I get there?
- How dangerous is the Wilderness? What happens if I die there?
- How many items do I get to keep if I die in the Wilderness? What is being ‘skulled’?
- Who can I attack in the Wilderness? What does the Wilderness level mean?
- What is multi-way combat?
- What can I take into the Wilderness?
- Can I use Summoning in the Wilderness?
- How do I escape the Wilderness? What happens if I start losing a fight?
- How do I start player-killing in the Wilderness?
- Can I avoid going into the Wilderness? What game content requires that I go into the Wilderness?
1. What is the Wilderness?
The Wilderness is a barren area that dominates the north of RuneScape, and the majority of it is free to be explored by both members and F2P. It has often been considered the most dangerous area in RuneScape.
The Wilderness is the place to go if you wish to fight and kill players that you come across, in an activity known as ‘player-killing’ or ‘pking’. Player-killing is a thrilling and dangerous experience, as death can mean losing your items, but you can also win items from any opponents you manage to slay yourself!
2. Where is the Wilderness? How can I get there?
The Wilderness covers a huge space to the north of RuneScape. To get there from the surface, you will likely travel north from Varrock, Falador or Edgeville, crossing the Wilderness wall that warns players of the dangers ahead. If you accept these dangers, you will jump over the Wilderness wall and enter a small ‘safe haven’ area adjacent to it, where you cannot attack or be attacked by other players. Once past this area, you are in the Wilderness and ready to start player-killing! A skull icon appears on the side of your game screen to note that you are in the Wilderness, and you are given an indication of your Wilderness depth (but more on this later).
Many players cluster and prepare for battle in Edgeville before wandering into the Wilderness, so you may wish to join them here. You can enter the Wilderness from beneath, too: Edgeville Dungeon has a Wilderness gate that can be passed through (again, you will receive warnings before you may do so), taking you into PvP areas beneath the Wilderness.
3. How dangerous is the Wilderness? What happens if I die there?
Whatever your intention when you enter the Wilderness, you are in danger of being attacked and, potentially, killed by another player. As such, the Wilderness is very dangerous, and you should be prepared to lose any items you are carrying.
Dying and dropping items in the Wilderness is not the same as elsewhere in RuneScape. When you die outside of the Wilderness, you leave a gravestone behind, which protects your dropped items for an amount of time before the tradeable items become visible to all players.
In the Wilderness, no gravestones are left when you die. Although you still respawn as you would elsewhere in RuneScape, there is NO timer to pick up your items. Dropped tradeable items are immediately visible to the player who did the most damage to you before you died, and that player can pick up and keep your items as they see fit. If you drop items deliberately on the floor, they will immediately be visible to everyone else.
After one minute of being visible to the player who dealt the most damage, any remaining items then become visible to other players. Untradeable items will either disappear or appear in a tradeable form (cash, in an unenchanted form, in a degraded form, etc).
This means that killing another player in the Wilderness can give you an immediate reward. It also means that some or all of your items are likely to be lost if you are killed in the Wilderness. It is best to see the Wilderness as a thrilling and tempting risk, then, and one that you could potentially reap great rewards from. Try player-killing on a members’ world – you’ll find that the drops you receive are generally of a higher value than on any other world.
4. How many items do I get to keep if I die in the Wilderness? What is being ‘skulled’?
The number of items you retain when you die is dependent on whether you are ‘skulled’. It is also affected by whether you are using a Protect Item prayer or curse.
You can tell that you are ‘skulled’ if your character has a skull and crossbones icon above their head.
Death without a skull above your head: you retain the usual three items when you die. These three items are the ones with the highest alch value in your inventory and worn inventory. You can check which items you will keep by clicking the ‘Items Kept on Death’ button in your worn inventory.
Death with a skull above your head: you keep NONE of your items when you die. Instead, your tradeable items will drop and become immediately visible to the player who did the most damage to you (your PKer), and will become visible to all other players one minute later.
So, what makes you become skulled? You become ‘skulled’ when you initiate an attack on another player in the Wilderness AND that player has not previously attacked you recently. Once skulled, you become a tempting target for other player-killers, as other players know that you will drop all of your items when you die. You will remain skulled for 20 minutes.
You can also affect the number of items you drop by activating a ‘Protect Item’ prayer or curse. The prayer requires level 25 Prayer, while the curse requires level 50 Prayer. Once activated, the prayer and curse allow you to protect one additional item when you die; so, if you are skulled, you will retain one item on death, while you will retain four items if you die while not being skulled. On High-risk Wilderness Worlds, you cannot use the Protect Item prayer or curse in the Wilderness, making them an especially dangerous place to player-kill.
5. Who can I attack in the Wilderness? What does the Wilderness level mean?
There are limitations to who you can attack in the Wilderness. These limitations are designed to stop low-level players from immediately dying at the hands of high-level players waiting at the borders of the Wilderness.
There are three factors that determine who you can attack in the Wilderness: your combat level, your opponent’s combat level, and the depth of the Wilderness. You can view the depth of the Wilderness on your game display. The Wilderness stretches from a depth of level 1 to level 56, increasing as you move further north.
To determine whether you can attack someone in the Wilderness, or be attacked by that person, take your combat level and deduct the current Wilderness depth from that number. This number is the lowest combat level for a player that you can attack or be attacked by. If you have a combat level of 30 in a Wilderness depth of 5, you can only attack players who are level 25 or over, for example.
Now, take your combat level and add your current Wilderness depth to it. This is the highest combat level for a player that you can attack, or be attacked by. That level 30 player could attack or be attacked by players up to combat level 35.
This range of combat levels increases as you go deeper and deeper into the Wilderness. This means that the deepest levels of the Wilderness are the most dangerous, as more and more high-level players will be able to target you; on the flipside, there will be more opportunities to kill low-level players in these areas. Player-killing, then, is a fine balance, and soon becomes the art of picking players to attack and who to leave well alone!
6. What is multi-way combat?
The danger of the Wilderness is increased many times if you are in multi-way combat. Multi-way combat is limited to certain areas and dungeons of the Wilderness, and is denoted by a crossed-swords icon on your game screen. You will find pockets of multi-way combat throughout the Wilderness, with the Revenant Dungeon being a strong example. In these multi-way areas, you can be attacked by any number of players and creatures at one time, and you may attack opponents who are already in combat with other players. This makes multi-way areas particularly demanding, as the chance of dying and dropping items is greatly increased.
Multi-way combat also allows you to use your familiar in combat situations. Read here for more information on using familiars in PvP situations.
7. What can I take into the Wilderness?
It is possible to take all items into the Wilderness. Of course, it’s possible to lose all items in the Wilderness too! Tradeable and untradeable items are welcome in the Wilderness, although untradeable items will not drop on the ground for other players to see. In some cases, untradeable items will drop in a different, tradeable form – as a similar item to the one that was dropped, or as a cache of coins for the killer to collect.
Items cannot be lent in the Wilderness, lent items cannot be equipped in the Wilderness, and players who have lent items equipped will be informed that their item has been unequipped. Lent items cannot be used for non-combat purposes in the Wilderness either; for example, a dragon pickaxe cannot be used to mine runite in the Wilderness.
If you are under the effect of an extreme potion when you enter the Wilderness, it will be reduced to its ‘super’ potion equivalent. Extreme potions cannot be drunk in the Wilderness.
8. Can I use Summoning in the Wilderness?
Members can indeed use familiars in the Wilderness, and we highly recommend them – they can mean the difference between winning or losing! Whether taking a beast of burden into the Wilderness to act as food storage, or bringing a combat familiar to deal additional damage, a familiar can be of great benefit. Familiars can attack or be attacked in multi-way areas of the Wilderness (denoted by a crossed swords icon on your display). When outside of multi-way combat areas, your familiar cannot be right-clicked and attacked, nor can they target other players or creatures.
Familiars do not affect your combat level, in terms of deciding whether you can attack or be attacked by a player in a certain depth of the Wilderness. Instead, if a player is capable of summoning a familiar or has a familiar summoned while they are in a multi-way area, they will have a ‘+ X’ next to their combat level, where X is an addition to their combat level. This is for your reference, and informs you of what your opponent’s combat level would be with a familiar summoned and aiding them in battle.
9. How do I escape the Wilderness? What happens if I start losing a fight?
There will inevitably be battles that you start losing in the Wilderness. In these instances, you might want to escape and get away from your assailant. Be aware that this is the nature of the Wilderness: your death (and resulting items) will be a just reward for the player who manages to overcome you. With this in mind, it is prohibitively difficult to escape from a battle you are losing.
It is not impossible, however, particularly if your opponent is not paying full attention. Teleports will get you out of a combat situation; get hit by a Teleblock spell, however, and your escape attempt will be aborted. Be warned: teleport spells will not work beyond level 20 of the Wilderness, while teleportation jewellery will often not work beyond level 20 of the Wilderness. Only dragonstone jewellery is known to work up to level 30 of the Wilderness.
You might also fancy running away, but this is by no means a certain method of escape. Your opponent can move as fast as you can move, and they may have methods of restoring their run energy in an effort to chase you. To counteract this, it is recommended that you raise your Agility level and bring energy replenishing items to allow for quick getaways. There are other hazards too: wizards have freezing and binding spells that will paralyse you so they can catch up, while wizards and rangers can attack from afar.
Some areas in the Wilderness act as a safe haven, most notably the small area after the Wilderness wall and Daemonheim. Reach these locations and your opponent will not be able to attack. Some safe havens will require that you are out of combat for ten seconds, however, so be aware that you may not be allowed in until that time has elapsed.
10. How do I start player-killing in the Wilderness?
If you aim to start a player-killing career in the Wilderness, you may want to make sure that you have plenty of opponents to face, or players to fight with. Try the following to improve your PvP experience:
- Log into a world that specialises in PvP. You’ll find these on the Themed Worlds page of the Knowledge Base. In these worlds, you’ll find people clustered around the Wilderness areas and Edgeville, fixing for a fight.
- If you are feeling particularly adventurous, you might also want to try High-risk PvP Worlds, where Protect Item prayers and curses cannot be used in the Wilderness.
- Join a PvP clan. By joining likeminded player-killing enthusiasts in the Wilderness, you can organise mass Clan Wars battles, organised skirmishes in the Wilderness, and get tips from people who have player-killed for a long time.
- Visit the official PvP forums. Players discuss tactics here, as well organise events, so you may find something to your taste.
- Travel to Edgeville, west of Varrock. This is the home of PvP preparation, and many fighters gather here to discuss their plans.
- Look on the Forums and on the RuneScape front page for community events that are taking place in the Wilderness.
It is also worth preparing yourself for the battles ahead. Think about the following before you embark on a player-killing odyssey:
- What items are you risking? Are you going to risk items that are expensive or difficult to get back? If the answer to that question is no, do you feel that your equipment is of a high enough quality to threaten your opponents?
- Think about the level of the Wilderness that you will be spending your time in. The deeper you go, the greater the risk that you will be attacked by higher level players.
- Do you plan to fight in multi-way combat areas? If so, will you bring a summoning familiar? A familiar will generally give you an advantage in PvP combat.
- Do you have an escape route? You might want to think about bringing items that will aid you in getting away from a battle that is going badly: energy potions are a good choice, as are methods of teleportation.
- Always be aware of the combat triangle in the Wilderness. If an opponent is lower level than you, but has an advantage over you through the combat triangle (melee is strong against ranged, ranged is strong against mage, mage is strong against melee) then the fight may not be as one-sided as you imagine.
- You might benefit from practicing your player-killing in other – often safe – environments, like the Duel Arena and Clan Wars.
- It may seem obvious, but it is easy to overlook: think about the supplementary items you are bringing: armour, weapons, food, potions, and items that replenish your special attack, prayer and run energy. Manage your inventory and learn the best setup for your player-killing experience.
11. Can I avoid going into the Wilderness? What game content requires that I go into the Wilderness?
We acknowledge that the Wilderness is not to everyone’s taste, and many will not want to fight each other or risk losing their items. So, although the Wilderness contains a few activities, quests and skill locations – including the Dungeoneering halls of Daemonheim – these can generally be accessed without entering PvP areas.
Dungeoneering can be accessed from the west coast of Al Kharid via a free Fremennik ferry. You can also use your ring of kinship to get to the Daemonheim peninsula, once you have talked to the Dungeoneering Tutor to receive one.
Three popular activities – Stealing Creation, Clan Wars and Fist of Guthix – can be accessed via portals in the Gamers’ Grotto. This is an underground location to the north of Falador, and can be found on your World Map.
The few quests that ask you to travel into the Wilderness – Defender of Varrock, Curse of Arrav, Spirit of Summer, Summer’s End – each have safe methods of getting into the Wilderness, most often through the use of teleports, so you do not have to put yourself at risk at any point.
That’s not to say that the Wilderness is empty of content, however. A number of creatures, big monster battles and expensive resources can be found in the Wilderness: rewards for those willing to risk a venture into the Wilderness. Take them on if you dare!
Tags: Clan Wars, Falador, Protect Item, Varrock
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