The addition of bounty hunter and the removal of the wilderness was a huge disappointment to almost every Runescape player. I used to feel the same but after many trips to the new wilderness, I have figured out a way to make it more profitable than pking in the old wilderness!
What you will need
- A good pk-ing account, preferably a pure account.
- A lot of food - swordfish or lobsters are preferable but salmon or tuna is acceptable if you are a low level in fishing or cannot afford lobsters.
- Armor/weapons, runes or arrows, depending on whether you are mage, meleer, prayer beast or ranger.
The following sections tells you what to wear and carry to the crater depending on what type of rs account you have. Every account should carry 5 binds for reasons explained later.
Mage (1 defence, 40+ ranged recommended so that you can wear Green Dragonhide for added protection) - Green Dragonhide chaps and vambraces, wizard robe and hat, runes for highest spell you can cast and magic amulet.
Melee (between 1 31 prayer and strength pure with 1 defence. 40+ range is recommended with Green Dragonhide) Iron full helm + Platebody, Green Dragonhide vambraces and chaps, antidragon shield, Rune scimitar and strength amulet.
Ranger (1 defence) - Green Dragonhide chaps and vambraces, wizard robe and hat, 125 adamant arrows, power amulet and maple shortbow.
Prayer Beast (43 prayer, 1 defence and either attack/strength or ranged) The following is for attack/strength: Full monk’s robes, Iron full helm, rune scimitar, antidragon shield and strength amulet.
Actual Tips and Tricks
Finding a Clan
In the bounty hunter crater it is almost impossible to get a good kill without help from a clan, hence, the first thing you need to do is to find a good clan. A good clan is one that does not bs (backstab, i.e. one that does not have a leader who allows people to attack members of the same party). Finding one of these may be hard since most people wait until a person gets a kill and then attack them when they can’t leave. These types of people are to be avoided like the pleague. Some leaders are also known for backstabbing their own clan members.
Tips about Clans
When you find a good clan, always listen to the leader. The leader is usually an experienced pker and will always try to be fair (assuming you followed my rules about finding a clan). Leaders may seem a bit unfair sometimes when they ask that you don’t scout (i.e. walk ahead of the clan in order to attack people first) but this is so that pking in the bounty hunt will be fair and allow everyone to get an opportunity for getting kills.
One scenario that happens a lot is that some idiot who doesn’t understand the reason for a clan sticking together will bind the leader. If this happens, Don’t attack the leader! Back off and try to find the bser. Once you find him, attack and type his name quickly. Good clan members will usually rush to your help.
A golden rule for saving your own life is to never go into a death dot (dd). A dd is where all members of the clan stand on one spot in order to kill people not in that spot. DDs inevitably lead to bsing. When you find yourself in a dd, just run for the nearest exit. If you have a penalty, run away from the dd and don’t fight back if someone attacks you. Chances are they will give up following you and head back to the dd where they will try to bs someone else (or even better; die!).
How to Stop People from Chasing and Killing You
This is where binds come in. When a mage/meleer/ranger is running behind you and attacking you non-stop, take three seconds to bind them. This will stop them from pursuing you, allowing you to reach an exit, find your clan or at the very least lose them. If you are a mage/ranger and they are melee, you can bind them, run away for a while and then attack them from distance so that they can’t fight back.
How to actually Get a Kill
Now re’re getting down to business. You know how to defend yourselve and you have found a good clan. You also have the required inventory and armor as explained earlier. Note that from experience I have learnt that you have to spend money to gain money. No pain, no gain. Entering the crater with iron arrows will give you very few kills unless you are range level 80+. Steels, miths and addies are the only types of arrows you should be pking with. If you make your own clan, the first time you enter should be with iron arrows until you manage to weed out the bsers. Now it’s time outline how you can use all these tips and tricks to your advantage.
Always be on the lookout and keep your eyes peeled for persons who may be walking around without their clans. Chances are that once you have trained to sufficient levels, the first person to get a hit in will get the kill. Once you see a suitable target, attack them quickly and your clan will do the same. Once they die, loot the items they drop quickly and continue to follow your leader.
Never backstab just because someone has a green/grey/red skull. Chances are that even if you get the kill, you are going to die once you started it.
When you kill someone within your clan with a grey skull and you get the kill, there’s almost a 100% chance that you will die simply because when you take the stuff that they had, your skull is going to turn grey and since the seed of bsing has already been planted no one will think twice about attacking you also.
Use your binds
You can also have binds in your inventory for more than defending yourself. Once you have caused sufficient damage to an opponent, binding him will lead to your clan finishing him off for you. You will get the kill if you inflicted enough damage. Clan members will respect you for helping them even if you don’t get the kill and there’s always next time. For this reason, don’t always wait until you hit enough to bind them. If there a rival clan, bind any worthy opponents so that your clan will have the advantage of killing them off, eventually leading to you owning of the crater.