Barbarian Assault

This minigame has been rated as Low Risk. See the Minigames page for a definition of high and low risk.

Introduction

The barbarians of Barbarian Outpost, which is northeast of Tree Gnome Stronghold, have set up a challenge to redeem themselves for the sins of the people of RuneScape. You and four other adventurers can battle up to 10 waves of increasingly strong monsters. There are four types of monsters in all the waves, plus the "boss" Queen in the final (10th) wave. A win means killing all the monsters without losing a player. Winning teams earn honour points which can be used to buy rewards. There are no minimum requirements to play, but high defence and HP make the game much easier. This game does not grant experience for melee or ranging.

You can walk to the Barbarian Outpost, but the games necklace (enchanted sapphire necklace) now offers a teleport. All players will want to wear armour; only the attacker is required to bring anything else (a weapon). Use the deposit box in the minigame lobby to store your food, arrows, runes, and kitty cat (if you have a friendly little follower) which are not allowed. It is a very good idea to store your cape as well - it will be put in your pack when you enter the game, and if your pack is full you might lose it. Note that prayer cannot be used in this game.

Before playing the first time, you must complete the tutorial by speaking to Captain Cain in the lobby (if you break off the tutorial, right-click him to get back to it).

Joining a Team

After the tutorial, you can go down the ladder to the team assembly rooms. Proceed to the northwest corner (room 1) to find a team and begin the game. In any numbered room you will need a leader to take a scroll from the table and recruit a team of bold adventurers by using the scroll on each player and letting them pick a role. *Players must have 'Accept Aid' turned on (options menu) in order to enlist!* Players can change roles by exiting the room and re-entering. If things get too messed up, the recruiter can clear the scroll to reassign everybody in the team. Once the team of five is assembled, with one person in each role and a fifth person repeating one role (probably healer or defender), your leader can go down the ladder to begin the minigame.

The "pickup game" room is just northeast of the lobby ladder (room with large arrow on floor). In the pickup game room, simply choose your role (or "any") and wait to be assigned to the first available team.

You can leave the outpost and return any time you like, eligible to join a team for the same wave level you left. On the world select page, Jagex suggests certain Worlds to find other interested players. You cannot leave one wave level and enter a different one, not even a lower level. If your team lost players at a higher wave and couldn't find replacements, you can go to the pickup game room, where you will start at the highest wave completed by all of your assigned pickup teammates (which may be lower than your wave). If you wish, Captain Cain can reset you to wave 1.

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Basic Roles

Each player role is responsible for certain tasks. There are four distinct roles: collector, healer, attacker, and defender. This section will discuss the basic game play and each role; optional strategies are given at the end of each section.

When the team enters the minigame cavern, each player receives a horn for their role. The top right corner of the game window shows a pyramid, an ear, a mouth, and a horn. The action shown in white text is the action you must call out to your team mates it will change back to orange once you have made a call.

The pyramid tells you which wave you are on, the ear shows what your teammates have told you to do, the mouth shows you what to tell your teammates, and the horn tells you who is providing your instructions. The mouth will change about every 30 seconds and you must tell your teammates (and they must tell you) what to do. This is done by right clicking on your horn and selecting the choice that matches the mouth.

If you need healing, there is a "medic!" option on your horn. While awaiting your healer, it's recommended to either: (a) step up onto the launcher platforms to avoid melee attacks, (b) go to the healing pool and wait for the healer to return, or (c) hide at the horn of glory where the monsters don't seem to attack.

If your fellow teammate doesn't holler your new instructions, then your "ear" info will be blank. Attackers and collectors will take damage if they don't get updated instructions, so it's important for the two to take care of each other. Healers and Defenders cannot take out penance healers and runners if they don't know what to use, so again they need to take care of each other. Additionally, points are subtracted from the final score if the wrong approach is used by any player. In the picture above, the defender has told the healer to use poison tofu on the penance healers. In the picture below, the defender has NOT told the healer what poison to use. Despite this, the healer should use the horn to tell the defender to drop tofu.

The person with the repeated role can use the horn of glory, which is in the southeast corner of the room, and tell everyone what they should be doing. However, it is better for all five players to keep working and regularly shout to their teammates, allowing the fifth player to be of more service to the team.

Collector

The Collector can have the lowest combat of any of the teammates, and is a good learning role for first time players of any level. The collector automatically receives an egg bag when entering the game. His or her job is to pick up eggs and add them to the egg cannon (launcher) hopper so that the launcher can be fired at the penance monsters. One-click the hopper to load all eggs. In waves 1-9 there are two launchers, but both hoppers are connected, using the same egg supply. The hopper can hold up to five eggs of each colour. The collector will need to be told by the attacker which colour eggs to pick up. If the collector picks up the wrong coloured egg it will explode and hit for about 5 hp, and points are lost from the team's score. The collector is the only role not responsible for killing a specific enemy in waves 1-9, but plays a key role in killing the Penance Queen in wave 10.

As the person loading the egg cannon, it is important to know that red eggs are indeed the most useful, as they will deal the most damage to enemies. If possible, load eggs after you have gathered red eggs for others to use as needed. It is also important to note that Collectors can use the dispenser to change blue eggs to green eggs, and green eggs to red eggs. This requires level 2 Collector, and risks some eggs being destroyed (this risk is lower if your Collector level is higher).

The collector must tell the attacker which type of attack to use by right clicking his horn and selecting the appropriate fighting style.

Collector Items
Pic	Name	Use	Where to Find
	Collector horn	Call instructions to Attacker.	Appears in inventory at start of game.
	Collector bag	Holds eggs (fills automatically as eggs are picked up).	Appears in inventory at start of game.
	Blue Egg	Gather and load into launcher hopper.	Dropped by penance monsters
	Green Egg
	Red Egg

Optional Strategies: Turn auto-retaliate OFF, as you cannot fight any of the monsters and you don't need your character dragged towards them (especially the queen!) At the beginning of a round, there are no eggs, so stand on a launcher platform to avoid melee attackers. When a monster dies, start collecting eggs. Giving the attacker directions is actually more important than collecting eggs at the beginning. *After* the fighter finishes killing all penance fighters and rangers (messages will appear in the chat window), continue collecting eggs until the end of the round, as this adds more points to the entire team's score. Destroy previously collected eggs when your inventory gets full. If you try to collect eggs with a full inventory, they just explode. Since the blue eggs only stun, a blue instruction is a good time to fill the hopper - then just pick up and destroy the blues you get to save room for red eggs in your pack.

Attacker

The attacker will need to bring a weapon or two. Meleers will need to be able to use all attack styles: the scimitar is suggested (though some prefer an abyssal whip and dragon dagger). Rangers only need a bow, and mages only need a staff (elemental is best): free runes and arrows can be obtained from the red attacker dispenser (use again to get more supplies, or right click to get only the items you want). You receive 50 Elemental and 50 Catalytic Runes (which cover every type of rune, elemental doubling for earth, air, fire, and water and Catalytic doubling for everything else). In addition, you can receive 50 bronze, 50 iron, 50 steel, and 50 mithril arrows for rangers.

Maging during the game earns a small amount of experience based on the spell cast; no xp is rewarded for damage dealt. Since the gain is so small it is advisable that you choose your attack style based on what is most effective. Melee seems to be the most popular style to use.

The attacker's job is to kill penance fighters and penance rangers using the correct fighting style or arrow type or spell type. The melee types may be controlled, accurate, aggressive, or defensive. The arrow types may be bronze through mithril. The mage types change between the four basic elements. The attacker must change fighting styles each time the instructions change. If the wrong fighting style is used, the attacker will take damage and score points are lost.

A useful tip while fighting is to add the healer(s) to your friends list and have them do the same, so if you need healing you can find each other faster.

The collector calls out the fighting style for the attacker, and in return the attacker must use his horn to tell the collector which egg colour to collect.

Attacker
Pic	Name	Use	Where to Find	Enemies to kill
	Attacker horn	Call instructions to Collector.	Appears in inventory at start of game.	Penance Fighter	Penance Ranger
	Runes	Used by mage attacker. Get up to 50 Elemental and Catalytic runes.	Obtain from red attacker dispenser near the cavern entrance.
	Arrows	Used by ranged attacker. Get up to 50 bronze, iron, steel, and mithril arrows.

Optional Strategies: Stand at bottom of egg launcher ramps. Stop attacking a bit before the style changes to avoid getting penalty points from wrong attack style. Take 2 steps up the ramp so the melee guys can't hit you. When it changes, call out to the collector right away. When the collector informs you of the next style, step down off the ramp and continue fighting. It is essential you turn auto-retaliate OFF as hitting the monsters with the wrong style does 2 damage to you and subtracts from your team's score. After killing all penance fighters and penance rangers, continue calling out changes to the collector until the end of the round, as this adds more points to the entire team's score. The other two useful occupations are firing the egg launcher (but easy to forget to call instructions if doing this), or standing in front of runners to block their path.

Defender

The defender's job is to lure the penance runners to the traps on the east and west sides of the cavern. They do this by leading the runners with the correct type of bait as called out by the healer; like a trail of crumbs. Bait is obtained from the blue defender dispenser, and dropped by simply clicking on it. A specific type of bait can be obtained by right-clicking. The defender also picks up a hammer and logs to repair traps and build barricades across the cavern entrances, which slows down the penances. If runners get past the defender and exit the cavern to the south, score points are lost. The defender must tell the healer which ingredient to use to kill penance healers. Most players consider defender to be the most challenging job.

Defender Items
Pic	Name	Use	Where to Find	Enemy to trap
	Defender horn	Call instructions to Healer.	Appears in inventory at start of game.	Penance Runner
	Hammer	Used to repair traps and build barriers over the penance entry points.	Spawns at north central area of cavern.
	Logs		Two spawns on north central edge of cavern, which respawn quickly.
	Worms	Used to lure penance runners to traps on east and west sides of the cavern.	Obtain from blue defender dispenser near the cavern entrance.
	Tofu
	Crackers

Optional Strategies: First get items quickly and run north. Runners come out the two east entrances, so focus your effort on that side. Lay bait there and lead the runners to eastern trap. After baiting the trap go grab hammer and planks, then get back to the runners. Bait dropped per the instructions stays good even after the instructions change. By the same token, other bait drops stay invalid even though they may match the new instructions. Collect logs whenever possible - it wastes time to run to the logs and then back to a broken trap. Putting the *wrong* bait a few squares in front of the southern exits may turn the runners back so you can try again. Other players can help by physically blocking runners at the entrance or to keep them from moving away from the trap. At the end of the round, with only runners and healers left, place a lot of the correct kind of food near the cannons, and let other people use eggs to kill them.

Another possible strategy is to lay a trail from the healing pool to the eastern trap at the start of the game like this:

The reason behind this every runner has to pass this trail at some point and therefore they will always be lured to the trap. Once you arrived at the trap, put a lot of the right bait around the trap. Next, pick up some logs and a hammer. The rest of the wave, make sure your trail stays intact, the trap isn't broken and there is enough bait around the trap. At the higher waves, this will be plenty to keep you busy.

Healer

Healers have the most tasks, but the role is not considered the hardest. The healer is responsible for making sure that no one on the team runs low of hit points and dies, and must also kill penance healers. Supplies are obtained from the green healer dispenser, and include a vial as well as poison food.

Healers should use the vial on the green healer spring just west of the dispenser. They can then use the vial on a teammate to heal their HP. Only one vial can be carried, and it holds four doses. A level 1 vial dose heals up to 10 hit points and poisoning. Healers should also keep their own health up - they can drink directly from the healer spring.

Healers get a display at the bottom of their screen showing the health of all four teammates so they can decide who to heal first. Critically low players will have a red cross next to their names. It is a good idea to turn off split-chat in order to avoid the chat obstructing the list of players' hitpoints. A useful tip to help you locate the attacker(s) faster is to add them to your friends list and have them add you, too.

Healing the person firing the egg launcher interrupts the cannon menu, so be judicious about this (especially in the final battle).

Additionally, healers must kill penance healers by using the correct poison food on them (as called out by the defender). Penance healers restore the health of other penance monsters, so it's important to get rid of them. If the wrong poison is used, score points are lost. Right-click the dispenser to get more of a certain type of food. The healer must tell the defender which bait to use; this is also critical as penance runners really affect the team score.

Healer Items
Pic	Name	Use	Where to Find	Enemy to kill
	Healer horn	Call instructions to Defender.	Appears in inventory at start of game.	Penance Healer
	Healer Vial	Fill from the pool and use to heal teammates.	Obtain from green healer dispenser near the cavern entrance.
	Poisoned Worms	Use to poison Penance healers.
	Poisoned Tofu
	Poisoned Meat

Optional Strategies: When attacking penance healers, concentrate on killing one quickly rather than spreading damage among them, because they continue to heal the others if they live. It's suggested to use three poisoned food on each healer before moving to the next one. In the lower waves, this will kill the healers quickly. In the high waves, this will be just enough for a healer to die. For the first few minutes of most rounds, nobody will be taking much damage so you have time to kill healers (but remember to call out changes for the defender). When there are two healers on a team (definitely recommended for waves 7-10), it's faster to heal each other than to drink from the healer spring. Teams can get good points from healing, so try to heal as much as possible. High level teams may want to try wearing no armour to maximize healing points (up to 512 HP healed earns 28 honour points).

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Egg launcher

Anyone can man the egg launchers, though it's best to finish assignments first. The drawback is that the launcher interface distracts you from style changes, so you may forget to call out new instructions to your paired player(s). DON'T DO THIS!

The egg launchers are stocked by the collector. The hopper only holds up to 5 of each type of egg, so the ammunition runs out fast. Examine the hopper to see what ammunition it has.

The launcher interface is rather frustrating. You select a monster type to attack and the kind of attack: explosive, poison or stun (correspond to egg colours). If a certain colour is not available or the selected monster is not nearby, you get a new page saying so rather than something quick. The interface closes if you are attacked, being healed, or when the instructions change.

The launcher slowly shoots one of those eggs towards the nearest monster of that type. The egg launcher plays a key role in the tenth wave when fighting the queen. Omega eggs can only be made after the queen arrives, and can only be fired after the penance fighters, rangers, healers and runners are dead.

Optional Strategies: The best use of the egg launcher is on runners: trapping them takes a long time, and due to their low hit points they die easily from one or two red (explosive) eggs. They get out of range quickly, so getting them first is important. They also are worth the most score if prevented from passing. Most players like to use the red eggs first, and then the green (poison) ones on the normal fighters and rangers. Use the blue eggs to stun penance monsters for a few seconds. This keeps runners in the area for the defender, but stunned monsters cannot be attacked until it wears off.

Note: It has been confirmed by Jagex that using the cannon WILL NOT negatively affect your team's or your own score at the end of the wave.

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The Queen

The 10th wave is the final battle. This cavern is different - there is only one egg launcher, and there is a large wooden hatchway in the middle of the room. This makes the role of defender a whole lot easier, because the runners aren't blocked by the egg launcher platform. Game play is as usual until around three minutes have passed. Then the massive level 209 Queen appears. Her attacks hit can hit all over the cavern, and may hit all players at once. Two healers are universally recommended for this wave to keep the team alive; players will take damage continuously. Small penance spawn appear randomly with the Queen, but it doesn't matter if these are killed or not.

The Queen will not take damage from any combat style nor from the usual eggs. Eight omega eggs must be fired from the launcher to attack her. These cannot be fired until all of the usual four penance monster types (fighter, ranger, runner and healer) are dead. It takes eight to ten omega eggs to kill the Queen. Making omega eggs requires participation from each player role, in a specific order. The mnemonic Jagex provided is C.H.A.D.: collector, healer, attacker and defender. Reciting this in the heat of battle actually helps you remember which player should receive your egg! It is easiest if each person in the process of making omega eggs does all eight at once, and the attacker should start gathering spikes as soon as all the Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers are dead.

Below is the modified image of the Cannon Launch screen, adapted with the Omega Eggs for killing the Penance Queen.

Omega Egg Stages
Pic	Name	Who Makes It	How	Goes To
	Yellow Egg	Collector	Pick it up (dropped by Queen)	Healer
	Poisoned Egg	Healer	Use yellow egg on green bubbling pools (not healing pool)	Attacker
	Poisoned Spiked Egg	Attacker	Collect spikes from mushrooms and use on poisoned egg	Defender
	Omega Egg	Defender	Use poisoned spiked egg on orange lava bubbling pools	Collector
	Omega Egg	Collector	Receive hot poisoned spiked egg from defender	Egg Launcher Hopper

When the queen arrives, the horn of glory can no longer be used.

Optional Strategies: Due to the intensity of tenth wave combat, some teams like to arrange a healing location, such as the healer spring. Although the queen's distance attacks appears to be magical, players report wearing dragonhide armour does not seem to provide significant defence. Everyone should turn auto-retaliate OFF, or they will be continually drawn by the queen's attacks. There are *no score penalties* for this round, so except for losing hit points, mistakes don't matter.

When the queen arrives one healer should follow the defender, calling out bait and healing as needed. While the runners are alive, there is no point in interrupting the defender to finish making omega eggs, since the queen cannot yet be attacked. The attacker should simply gather spikes and then make poisoned spiked eggs for the defender to complete after the runners are dead. If some of the runners manage to run next to the southern wall, someone should help the defender lure them back by blocking their escape.

Anyone whose role is complete should huddle at the healer spring so the healer can heal them conveniently. It's possible to spin the queen by running underneath her.

An incentive for killing penance spawn is that their attacks disrupt people at their tasks, such as using the egg launcher. Any team member can kill spawn.

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Team Strategy

Since you are reading this guide, we at Tip.It believe you would want to maximize your score any way possible. Here are some tips that can lead to big scores:

• Call out your orders quickly! If you notice your order has gone blank, or if it has changed, then it is time for YOU to call out your teammate's order too.
  
  
• Make Runners top priority. These are the biggest threat to LOWERING your score from penalties. Help defenders by killing Runners with red eggs, and helping to block their path if they get too close to the exit! In early rounds it is helpful to have 2 defenders.
  
  
• Keep defence low when possible. Healers have the best potential to INCREASE your team's score. The more they heal, the more points you get, with seemingly no maximum. If you are high level, don't wear armour, and if you have fulfilled your role, let the monsters hit you down as long as it is safe! (Excluding wave 10, of course)
  
  
• Collect every egg! If you are the collector get every egg you can. Keep those eggs, especially red, going into that launcher to help kill Runners. Even if you are full, you can destroy eggs or convert eggs to open up inventory space, and start collecting more.
  
  
• Defenders, load up your area near the traps with proper food (remember it still works even after changes). Once you lure Runners to the trap, you won't have to worry as much about dropping more, and can focus on repairs. Try to only use 1 trap so that all Runners should go the same direction (East trap works best)

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Scoring

After successfully completing a wave, a screen showing your points for this wave and total points in this role appears. You can see the entire score breakdown by clicking in the lower right corner. Each team member gets points based on the entire team's performance, and then the points for their own specific role are added again.

There are points given for achievements and penalties for errors. The values shown are approximate, as analysis is not complete. This information is provided just to give a rough idea.

To save time from running back to the lobby to use your recently earned points, you can use the button on the message scroll to get your rewards from Commander Conrad immediately after the round is over, opposed to making your team wait on you.

Note: These are the only variables which affect your score. Using the cannon will not reduce points. All myths to the contrary are false.

Scoring for the tenth wave, the Queen battle, is different than the previous waves. There are no penalties! Victorious players earn a fixed 80 points for their role, and five points for each of the other three roles.

To reiterate, before it gets too dangerous, players can minimize their defence and let the Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers deal more damage for the Healers to gather team points. There is no penalty for speed, as long as runners do not escape, so give the Healer as many points to gain as safely possible.

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Rewards

From your end-wave message scroll, or back in the lobby, Commander Connad in the northeast corner will allow you to spend your honour points. You can upgrade your assault role skills, buy items or gamble for random rewards. Credit for a queen kill is only good until you spend it - to buy another item requiring it, you must kill the queen again.

To check your point balance and current role levels, look at the chalkboards in the lobby or scattered around the assembly area. It shows the points you have in each role, and also your next possible level purchase rewards and costs (to upgrade your role).

Barbarian Assault Role Levels

The following table shows the advantages each class of player gains by purchasing increased role levels with honour points earned in that specific role. A queen kill is not required.

Note: Level upgrade costs are separate for each level, so to reach level 5 in a role you will spend a total of 1400 points in that role.

Items

The following table shows the items that can be purchased. Note that most of them require a queen kill. Penance items are not tradeable; only the granite body is. Penance gloves (gloves of lightness) have a bonus feature: they decrease weight by 7kg. Beware: Penance items have a destroy option. Unlike nearly every other item in the game with a destroy option, you cannot retrieve this item for free; you will have to spend points to buy another.

Barbarian Assault Items
Item	Image	Defence Level to wear	Queen Kill required	Cost
Runner Boots		40	No	100 points earned in each class
Penance Gloves		40	No	150 points earned in each class
Granite Body		50	Yes	95,000 gp
Fighter Hat		45	Yes	275 points earned in each class
Ranger Hat		45	Yes	275 points earned in each class
Runner Hat		45	Yes	275 points earned in each class
Healer Hat		45	Yes	275 points earned in each class
Penance Torso		40	Yes	375 points earned in each class
Penance Skirt		40	Yes	375 points earned in each class

Wearing the full Penance set (boots, gloves, skirt, torso, and one of the hats) will restore a player's prayer points at a rate of 3 points per minute.

Weapons

The Penance trident and Penance master trident can reduce the amount of runes it takes to cast a spell. The coloured whips have no other bonus and are just for vanity's sake. The colouring can be removed by using a Poison Cleaning Cloth on the coloured whip.

Miscellaneous Rewards

Players who have killed the penance queen can gamble honour points for an unknown reward. Random low, medium or high level items can be won by spending 10, 20 or 30 points (the highest bet also requires a queen kill). Jagex states that it's possible to win a dragon chainbody from the high level bet, but evidently the odds of this happening are extremely low. Most players are not thrilled with the rewards, which could be something like steel arrows. It may be best to spend your points buying specific levels and items before risking them on a wager.

In addition, players can obtain for free the Penance Horn by talking to Commander Connad. The horn can be charged by playing the minigame. To charge the Penance Horn, simply turn the statue in any waiting room to the "XP" option, noting that you will not receive honour points while "XP" is selected. Instead you will receive charges into your Penance Horn. You can then equip the Penance Horn outside of the minigame and use it while training Agility, Mining, or Firemaking to double the experience you gain in those skills. Note that later waves grant a greater charge than earlier waves. To receive honour points instead of Penance Horn charges, simply deselect the "XP" option on the statue. When your charges run out, you will need to recharge your horn.

The Master Penance Horn is a better-quality horn than the original. The charges in the Master Horn last longer than the charges in a normal Penance Horn. In addition, since Mastery in at least one role is required to buy it, you also receive an emote corresponding to the role you have mastered. If you have mastered multiple roles, each role will be displayed on the right-click menu of the Master Penance Horn.

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Credits

Original guide by: pokemama

Special thanks to: abomb67, Antaeus, bambino, Mirrorforced, pompey_spud, vlad_the_old, wizard111111

Thanks to: Adamskii, baron8000, BloodAngel, brunokiller, Cowman_133, eyehawk78, hellbellz, Headnazgul, huloo5678, inferno_char, j1j2j3, Juhniz, Justaplaya, Kaphias, Kama, killjoyfuly, killre3, Lady_Shahdie, Lemurian, mEb, metoo1000, misplacedme, Not2Day1024, oddfaery2, Orccu, Paw_Claw, Rien_Adelric, SaidinWoT, Sk8erfreak, Sorator, souldragon0, Speedyshel, SportsGuy, The 1 U Luv, The Tallest1, tzone92, Watchwoord, Zaaps1, zuomimiez

Last updated by: Speedyshel

Last updated: 02-Feb-2010