Wilderness (RuneScape)

The Wilderness is a stark and barren area, laid waste by the God Wars between RuneScape gods Zamorak and Saradomin in the Third Age of Gielinor history. Originally, the Wilderness was the only venue that allowed player versus player combat, known as player killing or PKing. Although limited player versus player combat is now enabled elsewhere in the RuneScape world, the Wilderness remains the most popular area for PKing.

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A map of the Wilderness for F2P players

Location

The Wilderness, most often referred to as "wildy" or "the wild", is located in the northern area of the central part of the RuneScape map, north of the Kingdom of Misthalin, east of White Wolf Mountain, and northwest of northern Morytania. The closest cities to the Wilderness are Varrock and Edgeville, both of which are located outside the Wilderness itself. The border of the Wilderness is marked with the common sign for danger, a white skull and crossbones on a field of black. Before crossing the border, players are warned that they are entering into a dangerous territory.

Wilderness level

On its southern border, the Wilderness is Level 1, as indicated on the bottom right of the player’s screen. As players travel further north, the Wilderness level rapidly increases. This is significant to players as they can only attack or be attacked by other players who are within the range of combat levels allowed for that Wilderness level. For example, a player with combat level of 67 travelling in the Level 1 Wilderness can attack and be attacked only by other players with combat levels of 66 through 68; however, in the Level 50 Wilderness, the same player can attack other players with combat levels as low as 17 and be attacked by players with combat levels as high as 117. The highest level of Wilderness on the free worlds is 48, where a fence spans the entire length of the Wilderness, preventing F2P players from proceeding any further. The fence has three gates that can be opened on members’ servers, allowing P2P players to travel north to the highest level of the Wilderness, Level 56.

The Skull

In the Wilderness, players who initiate battle (i.e. attack another player by landing the first blow) are punished with a skull shown fixed above their heads. Those players are said to be "skulled" and have "skulled on" the players they attacked. After twenty minutes of not attacking other players or after their own deaths, the skulls disappear. Logging off does not get rid of a skull, nor will time spent logged off count towards the twenty-minute penalty period.

Unskulled players who are killed drop every item they are carrying in their inventories or wielding except for their three most valuable items. Defeated skulled players, however, drop every item they have with them. Slain players, whether skulled or not, are respawned in either Lumbridge or Falador, depending on what quests they have completed and the respawn point they have selected. Dropped items are scattered, spoils for the victor, or anyone else who wanders by at the right moment, to grab. The prayer "Protect Item" allows players to protect one additional item when activated, allowing unskulled players to retain four items and skulled players to retain the single most valuable item currently in their possession. Most valuable is determined by the relative value of the items if sold to a store, so RuneScape's list of the most valuable items may not necessarily agree with the player's idea of value. It is important to note that items stored in the bank are not affected by the player's death.

Player Versus Player Combat

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A player observes the demonic ruins, a popular area for PvP combat.

Player versus player combat; PvP; player killing; PKing. This is the activity that gives the Wilderness its well-deserved reputation as a dangerous place for those players unprepared to defend themselves. It can bring financial devastation to the skulled player who loses that dragon chainbody recently purchased from another player for several million gp, or sudden wealth to the player who grabs it. It can also bring the feeling of satisfaction that comes with winning a hard-fought battle against a real person rather than a computer-controlled artificial intelligence.

Pures

For the wealth or for the glory, many PKers spend countless hours developing and training special characters specifically for PKing known as “pures". Most pures are pure rangers or pure mages, although pure melee fighters, known as warriors, are also used. The concept of a pure is to keep the character’s combat level relatively low while raising the level in the specialization skill to unexpectedly high levels, thereby allowing the pure to inflict large amounts of damage on his or her opponents very quickly. As the combat level is calculated from all seven of the combat skills (attack, strength, defence, hitpoints, prayer, ranged, and magic), some skills must be sacrificed to keep the combat level low. For example, a pure ranger might have a combat level of 40, with ranged of 60, prayer of 1, and defence of 1, sacrificing prayer and defence to keep the combat level low.

Teams

Many Pures travel the Wilderness alone; however, some players prefer to travel with a team that may include one or more of each type of combat Pure along with regular players. In some cases, teams include players at different combat levels. In this manner, the team can effectively PK, against virtually any other player they happen to meet. Many team members on member servers purchase and wear team capes, which cause other players on their team (i.e. wearing the same cape) to show up as blue dots, rather than the normal white dots, on the minimap. More importantly, team capes cause the default action not to be 'attack' if team members accidentally click on members of their own team in the middle of battle. However, this does not prevent players from attacking their own teammates if they choose to do so. The default action can be overridden by right-clicking on the teammate and selecting the 'attack' option.

Clans

Carrying the concept of teams to the next level, some players join large clans, which are basically armies of players who enter the Wilderness together on joint missions.

Clan wars

Most clans participate in large, well-planned battles, known as clan wars, which are sometimes scheduled far in advance or take place at a scheduled time every week. Many of these clans meet in Edgeville, largely due to its proximity to the Wilderness and the convenience of its bank, or at Varrock Church, before traipsing off into battle. Clan wars make extensive use of those areas of the Wilderness designated as "multi-combat zones", where players can attack and be attacked by multiple other players simultaneously.

RPK and ARPK

In addition to "clan wars" clans, there are two other types of clans in the wilderness. The first type prowls the wilderness like huge teams, looking for random players to attack. These clans are known as random player-killers (RPK). Other clans, known as anti-random player-killers (ARPK, also A-RPK or A-PK), exist solely to try to protect the "innocents" of the wilderness, i.e. those players who are in the wilderness for reasons other than PKing, such as training at the monsters, mining, or Treasure hunting. Normal RPK clans would attack them; however, ARPK clans generally will attack the RPK clan members rather than the random players.

Non Player Characters

The Wilderness, like the rest of RuneScape, contains a diverse and active population of Non Player Characters, or NPCs. In addition to the ever-present monsters, there are shopkeepers, travelling merchants, bankers, and other townspeople.

Townspeople

• The Mage Arena contains a bank and shops, which require bankers and shopkeepers to operate.
• In locations throughout the wild, twelve travelling merchants sell twelve different designs of team capes. Each design comes in five colours, for a total of sixty different team capes.

NPCs with specific tasks

• Kolodion can be found in the Mage Arena. He challenges players to defeat him in each of his four forms in order to earn the coveted God Capes and God Staffs, which give advanced mages the opportunity to earn the God spells.
• A Zamorak Mage can be found just north of Edgeville near the Skeleton Mine. He has discovered the entrance to the Abyss and will grant access to the player in exchange for a small favour.

Monsters

Monsters are any NPC that can be killed by a player, whether human, demi-human, animal, demon, elemental, or dragon. The forbidding atmosphere of the Wilderness is the perfect climate for monsters to live and grow strong; therefore, many of the most challenging creatures in RuneScape make it their home.

• The King Black Dragon is the highest level dragon in the game. The King Black Dragon holds a RuneScape record of being the overall highest level monster for a period of two years. Its reign ended only with the introduction of the Kalphite Queen in 2005. It is still one of the highest level monsters.
• The Chaos Elemental is the fourth-highest level monster in the game. Only two monsters drop the coveted dragon two handed sword; the Chaos Elemental is one of them.
• Fire giants
• Red and green dragons
• Lesser and greater demons
• Rogues
• Battle mages

Notable Locations

Signs of the ancient war that ravaged the land dominate the landscape in the Wilderness. The ruins of ancient civilization, blackened by fire and by time, abound. Lava pits and volcanos are the norm in the northeast, while an icy, foreboding plain challenges players in the northwest. Large forests of dead trees alternate with rivers of lava in the southern reaches.

• North Varrock Entrance - A player exploring the streets of Varrock will eventually turn up the main thoroughfare to the north, pass the museum and the church, and venture outside the city walls. Just past the gate to the north, he or she will usually find PKers hovering just inside the Wilderness, waiting for unsuspecting prey. Some PKers are not content to wait, but instead go in search of new players, known as “newbies” or “noobs”, who they will lure to this location with promises of easy wealth or glory. The newcomers quickly learn that the only glory they will get is the infamy of respawning in Lumbridge, minus their equipment and supplies.
• Bone Yard - Also called the 'Death Gorge', this is a slight depression in the middle of the wilderness, towards the eastern edge. There are many bone respawns here, including a few "big bones", making it useful for players who want to raise their prayer levels without having to kill hundreds of monsters. There are several level 22 skeletons here as well.
• Steel Mine - Just north of Edgeville, this mine contains two iron ore rocks and three coal rocks, but is usually considered too dangerous to use as a mining area. It is, however, home to the Zaromak mage who has discovered the entrance to the Abyss.
• Abyss – While the Abyss is an alternate universe and, therefore, not actually located in the Wilderness, the entrance to it is. Inside is the quickest way for a runecrafter to reach any of the runecrafting altars, which can greatly speed up the runecrafting process. However, reaching the altars is a challenge fraught with danger. The path to the entrance is usually populated by many PKers who find this to be the best spot to wait for other players to attack. After running the gauntlet of the PKers and getting inside the outer ring of the Abyss, players are immediately drained of all their prayer points and skulled. They are then assaulted by dozens of high-level abyssal creatures hell-bent on killing them in this multi-combat zone. Getting to the safer inner ring involves negotiating narrow passages that require various skills to get past. After reaching the inner ring, runecrafters can finally use the portals that lead to each of the runecrafting altars.
• Dark Knight Fortress - This castle, located in the level 15 wilderness, many spots where runes respawn.
• Rogue’s Hideout - The Rogue's Hideout is a decrepit castle in the P2P wild where rogue NPCs congregate. This area used to be the only area to acquire lockpicks, which allow players to open locked doors. Since less dangerous methods of getting lockpicks have been introduced, the area fell out of popularity and is often empty.
• Chaos Altar - The term "Chaos Altar" has two meanings in the Wilderness.
  • To PKers, teams, and clans seeking to refill their prayer, it is an altar located inside the Chaos Temple on a small peninsula of land surrounded by lava. Players can pray at the altar or take advantage of the several piles of bones nearby to train their prayer.
  • To runecrafters, it refers to the mysterious ruins north of Edgeville where they can craft rune essence into chaos runes.
• Mage Arena - At the Mage Arena, players complete a mini-quest to learn the three god spells. The area is very popular for serious PKers as well.
• Red Dragon Isle - In addition to training against the red dragons, players can harvest white berries, used in the herblore skill here.

Access

Access to the Wilderness is not difficult, although it can be an arduous journey for players on the far reaches of the RuneScape map.

F2P players

The Wilderness can be reached by F2P players in only one way:

• Walking north from Varrock, Edgeville, the Black Knight Fortress, the Mind Altar, or the forest area west of the Goblin Village. This is the only method of access.

P2P players

P2P players have a little more flexibility and can reach the Wilderness by:

• Walking north into the wild in the same manner as F2P players.
• Pulling the lever inside a small house in East Ardougne, which teleports them into the level 52-57 wilderness near the Mage Arena.
• Using the four teleport spells of the Ancient Magicks, earned by completing the Desert Treasure quest, which teleport them to four locations deep inside the Wilderness.
• Using an agility shortcut near the Troll Stronghold, which leads directly into the mid-level Wilderness.
• Crafting a Waka canoe and then using it to travel to the Level 35 Wilderness.
• Entering the portal inside the Dramen Tree cave on Entrana, which teleports them into very deep wilderness.