This minigame has been rated as Low Risk. See the minigames page for a definition of high and low risk.
This activity supports the Grouping System.
Introduction
Barbarian Assault is a safe minigame which is located at the Barbarian Outpost, south-west of Rellekka. It is a combat based minigame however only the attacker role is capable of dealing damage by conventional means. The game involves fighting through 10 waves of increasingly difficult monsters until you attract the attention of the Penance Queen in wave 10. Team work and communication are vital to the success of your team as well as ensuring you have the right people in the right roles. If a player dies at any point during a wave then the wave will be forfeit and the team will have to start the wave again.
Requirements
Start Location
Items
None
Quests
None
Skills
None
Recommended
Items
Good armour. See the Roles section for information on suggested items for each role.
Skills
60+
60+
To start this minigame for the first time you will need to speak to Captain Cain and go through the tutorial. After that you can go to the last wave you completed or start again at wave 1.
The quickest way to get to Barbarian Assault is via the games necklace.
Note: Prayers, curses and food cannot be used during Barbarian Assault.
Each team is comprised of 5 players filling one of the 4 roles meaning that two players will have to be the same role (usually attacker or healer). Each role, with the exception of the collector, is responsible for taking down at least one type of Penance creature which have different and alternating weaknesses which change during the wave. The snag is that each role does not know what their target creature is weak to until their team member in another role calls it out. It is possible to figure it out using trial and error. However, this will reduce the amount of Honour Points you will get if you guess incorrectly.
The Horn of Glory can be used to call out all what each role needs to do which can be useful if one of the players in the duplicated role uses it.
Role Profile
Attackers are responsible for killing Penance Rangers and Penance Fighters.
They tell Collectors which colour eggs to collect and Collectors tell them which combat stance to use.
Strategy
Attackers should be the most experience combat person on the team, usually the highest level. Penance creatures can only be harmed by particular combat stances at particular times, when required these can be selected in the Defence Abilities tab or moved onto the action bar for convenience.
Little strategy is required as an attacker however as it is the front line role it is important to monitor health and the required stance. Experienced teams should ideally have two players in the attacker role. Attackers should utilise their Sacrifice and Guthix Butterfly abilities so the healer can focus their efforts elsewhere.
Suggested Items
Attackers should use the best weapons and armour they have available to them.
Role Profile
Collectors are responsible for picking up the eggs from dead penance monsters and loading them into the egg launcher.
They tell attackers which combat stance to use and attackers tell them which eggs to collect.
Strategy
Collectors can be the lowest level on the team and is the easiest role for beginners to play to get the hang of the game.
Red eggs are the most useful as they can be used to damage penance creatures when fired from the egg launcher so it is advised that after every round of collecting red eggs they are loaded into the launcher. No more than one collector is required on a team.
Suggested Items
Collectors should wear the best armour they have available to them. In addition an anti-poison totem and enhanced excalibur are suggested to protect from poison and provide minor healing.
Role Profile
Defenders are responsible for luring Penance Runners onto traps to kill them. Defenders can also build barriers across penance entry points.
They tell Healers which food to use to kill Penance Healers and are told by Healers which bait to use to lure the Runners.
Strategy
The Defender role is widely regarded as the most challenging role in the minigame. Defenders need to obtain logs from the northern end of the cavern to repair the traps on the east and west side and obtain the bait from the dispensers. Once this is done a path of the Runner's preferred bait needs to be laid to the trap, however be aware that if their bait changes before they reach the trap the defender will need to lay the new bait to continue the lure. The traps only last two kills, after that they will need to be repaired again.
Suggested Items
Defenders should wear the best armour they have available to them. In addition an anti-poison totem and enhanced excalibur are suggested to protect from poison and provide minor healing. Defenders should aim to have enough logs on them from the start to ensure they do not need to go and acquire more during the wave.
Role Profile
Healers are responsible for killing Penance Healers and healing their team mates.
They tell Defenders which bait to use and Defenders tell them which poisoned food to use.
Strategy
Healers should be a relatively high combat level as they will be responsible for keeping their team alive. To heal other players healers are required to fill their vial with liquid from the pool near to the dispenser. They can heal themselves by drinking directly from the pool. Food to poison the Penance Healers is obtained from the dispenser.
Experienced Healers can usually take down the Penance Healers before they need to worry about healing their team mates which makes the role a lot easier. Teams with inexperienced or low levelled players may want to have two healers, one to take down the Penance and the other to heal the team.
Suggested Items
Healers should wear the best armour they have available to them. In addition an anti-poison totem and enhanced excalibur are suggested to protect from poison and provide minor healing.
In addition to these responsibilities in wave 10 of both normal and hard mode, each role is given an extra task in helping take down the Penance Queen or King.
There are a variety of Penance creatures in Barbarian Assault, most only able to be killed by a specific role or the egg launcher. The fighters, rangers, healers and runners appear on every wave and get progressively more difficult the higher the wave. The spawnlings, Queen and King only appear in the final wave of their respective modes and killing the latter two is less straightforward than the other creatures.
Combat Level
Responsibility
Normal: 69+ Hard: 90+
Attacker
Information
Penance fighters attack with melee and are arguably the least dangerous of the Penance due to the fact you can hide from them on the egg launcher platforms.
Hard Mode: In hard mode they gain the added difficulty of being to use the "massacre" ability when their adrenaline bar fills up to the top. This can be prevented by either stunning them or using anticipate. If you get hit by massacre, use freedom to escape.
Combat Level
Responsibility
Normal: 69+ Hard: 90+
Attacker
Information
Penance rangers attack with ranged and are the most dangerous of the Penance due to the fact they can hit you from afar and can attack players on the egg launcher platforms. Defensively they are weaker than the fighters.
Hard Mode: In hard mode they gain the added difficulty of being to use the "deadshot" ability when their adrenaline bar fills up to the top. This can be prevented by either stunning them or using anticipate. If you get hit by massacre, use freedom to escape.
Combat Level
Reponsibility
Normal: N/A Hard: N/A
Defender
Information
Penance runners are not aggressive towards players and cannot be attacked. To kill them the defender must lure them onto the traps they have built on the passage between the egg launchers and the walls by using bait.
Hard Mode: In hard mode defenders become more dangerous. Whilst they still cannot be attacked they can now do significant damage to players who are near them when they are killed or consume the wrong type of bait. Collectors are advised to stay away from traps in hard mode for this reason.
Combat Level
Responsibility
Normal: N/A Hard: N/A
Healer
Information
Healers, as their name suggests will try to heal their fellow Penance throughout the wave. In addition to this they will poison players for a small amount (this can be prevented by equipping an anti-poison totem. They can only be killed by healers feeding them poisoned food.
Hard Mode: In hard mode healers deal more damage with their poison and move faster.
Combat Level
Responsibility
Normal: 69 Hard: 69
All Roles
Information
Penance spawns are an annoyance more than anything else and killing them is considered a waste of time as the Queen/King will just spawn more. In normal mode the spawns do small amounts of damage fairly rapidly which can stack up if under fire from a group of them.
Hard Mode: In hard mode the spawns work their way around the map and will explode and do a large amount of damage if they get near a player or are killed. They have considerably less lifepoints than the spawns the Queen summons.
Combat Level
Responsibility
Normal: 96 Hard: N/A
All Roles
Information
The Penance Queen is the final boss of the normal difficulty setting of Barbarian Assault and she cannot be hurt by conventional means. The team must work together to create a number of omega eggs to be fired out of the egg launcher at her to damage her. The Queen's attacks can hit all players for moderate damage, however in decent gear it is easily managed.
Check out the Penance Queen section for more information on the fight with her.
Combat Level
Lifepoints
Normal: N/A Hard: 210
All Roles
Information
The Penance King is the final boss of the hard mode setting of Barbarian Assault and he cannot be hurt by conventional means. The team must work together to first create a flamethrower than is powerful enough to penetrate the King's hide and secondly recite an incantation in the correct order that is used to stun the King. Only then can the King be harmed by the flamethrower. The King only uses melee attacks, however they can deal up to 3,000 when he is on full lifepoints and as his lifepoints decrease his strength increases to the point at which he deals over 50% of your total lifepoints in one hit.
Check out the Penance King section for more information on the fight with him.
Note: Upon starting a game of Barbarian Assault it is a good idea to place your calls onto your ability bar for quick access if you have not done so already.
Calling is the most important part of Barbarian Assault, if players do not call or call incorrectly then there is a good chance they will fail the wave or at least score very poorly for it. As mentioned in the roles section each role is responsible for calling to another, telling them what they should be doing at any given moment. What you need to call and what your team mate has called for you to do is shown in the HUD at the top of the screen:
Icon
Information
Tells you which wave you are currently playing.
Tells you the role which you are calling for.
Tells you what you should currently be doing.
Tells you what you need to call for you team mate
The HUD is therefore stating that the player is on wave 6, has been told to use Balanced Stance and needs to tell the collector to collect red eggs.
Players in the healer role have an additional aspect of their interface which tells them how many lifepoints their team mates have remaining, as seen below:
At the start of the wave, collectors and attackers should run forward to where the Penance spawn (collectors may want to hang back a bit until eggs have started to appear to avoid wasting lifepoints). Healers and defenders will want to obtain their supplies from the dispensers near the start before heading off, additionally defenders should run north and obtain their logs before all of the Penance spawn.
As the wave progresses it is likely that there will be less for players to do. The defender is likely to be the first role to finish and, if possible, should start using the egg launcher to help out the rest of the team. Contrary to popular belief, the egg launcher does not reduce the team's score and can be useful in speeding up a wave. Each colour of egg has its own use:
Blue eggs implode on contact with Penance creatures and will hamper a penance based on its type: fighter and rangers will have their stats reduced slightly, runners will have the next food they eat always count as 'tasty', and healers will have any poison currently inflicted on them extended.
The green egg will restore a player's run energy; and provide a boost depending on their role: attackers will get boost combat stats, defender will be given logs for repairing traps (up to a total of 4), and healers will have their vials filled.
Used in wave 10 or normal mode to harm the Queen. Other eggs have no effect on her and omega eggs cannot be fired at other Penance creatures.
The gameplay is the same throughout the first nine waves and also for the start of the tenth wave (although there is only one egg launcher for the final wave). The final wave starts in exactly the same way as the preceding nine waves, however during the wave the mighty Penance Queen will spawn.
Wave 10 is different to the 9 previous waves in that after approximately three minutes or when all the Penance creatures are dead the Penance Queen appears and must be defeated. The Queen's attacks can damage all players at once and due to the amount of running required it is advised that less experienced teams have two Healers for the final battle. Additionally the Queen summons Penance spawn which can be a minor irritation when fighting her however they need not be killed.
Like most Penance creatures, the Queen cannot be killed by conventional means, instead she must be killed by creating Omega eggs and firing them from the sole egg launcher in the arena. The creation of Omega eggs requires the participation of all 4 roles so knowing what you need to do at what moment is vital for a successful kill.
To create the Omega egg the following steps are required:
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.
Achievement
Points
Rangers killed
Total - 1
Fighters killed
Total - 1
Healers killed
Total * 0.7 (rounded down)
Runners killed
Total * 1.8 (rounded down)
Player LP replenished (Healer)
Total / 18
Eggs collected (Collector)
Total / 4.5 (rounded down)
Error
Points
Runners getting past (Defender)
3 * Total
Wrong poison packs used (Healer)
Total / 4 (rounded down)
Eggs exploded (wrong colour egg collected)
subtracted from eggs collected (down to 0)
Failed attacks (wrong attacker style)
0.9 * Total (rounded down)
The maximum penalty is 10.
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.
The first 9 waves of hard mode are the same as in normal mode however there are some notable changes:
Penance rangers and fighters have higher levels, hit harder and have significantly more hit points
Penance rangers and fighters have an adrenaline bar. When their bar is filled they will hit you with either Deadshot or Massacre which are damage over time abilities. You can use Freedom to escape them.
Penance creatures will target specific players.
There are a greater number of Penance creatures per wave
Collectors are given three of each egg colour at the start of each wave
Penance runners explode on death or cry out if fed the wrong food, damaging nearby players
Gameplay
The strategy for hard mode is much the same as it is for a standard game of Barbarian Assault however survival, particularly for players without high end equipment, is more difficult. Having two attackers is the most effective strategy as the volume and defences of the Penance creatures will slow the wave down considerably with only one attacker.
Role
Information
Attacker
Both attackers ideally should have access to Tier 90 equipment. It is recommended to have both attackers use different combat styles (range and melee being preferred). Attackers should attempt to be engaging the creatures in combat near the healing pool so the healer can easily access them.
Collector
Collectors should ideally be wearing Barrows or Tetsu armour for the defence and a shield. At the start of the wave the collector should try and manage their own health by taking refuge on the egg launcher platforms if they get swamped as this allows the sole Healer to focus on the penance healers and keeping the attackers alive.
Collectors should try and ensure there are always red eggs in the egg launchers, particularly if the team has two healers. Blue eggs can be changed to red eggs using the dispenser by the healing pool.
Defender
The defender role is virtually the same except for the fact that Runners explode on death which does damage to all nearby players, additionally they also deal damage if they consume the wrong food. Barrows or Tetsu armour along with a shield are suggested to provide a good defensive bonus.
Healer
Healers are much more in demand in hard mode due to the increase in damage dealt by the creatures. With two healers it is easy to manage everyone's health however it slows down the wave considerably and is not generally advised unless the team is really struggling to survive. As with the other roles, healers should aim to be wearing Barrows or Tetsu armour as well as have a shield equipped.
Good attackers should stay relatively close to the healing pool when they can to make it easier for the healer to heal them and take out their Penance equivalent.
Survival is key in hard mode and for the non-combat roles it is a case of managing your lifepoints using the egg launcher platforms and also defensive abilities. With a good team, survival of the first nine waves is fairly easy however one wrong move against the Penance King could spell the end of the wave.
The start of wave 10 of hard mode is the same as the previous nine waves however the arena is wider and the egg launchers have been moved to the south-east and south-west corners of the arena. To start the aim of the fight is to take out the penance creatures as quick as possible, for this reason it is strongly advised the team has two attackers, even if in previous rounds the team has had two healers.
After a while, regardless of wether the penance creatures have been defeated or not the formidable Penance King will spawn. At this point if there are still creatures remaining it is a good idea to take them down whilst avoiding the King as it makes the fight go much more smoothly.
Penance King
As with the Penance Queen, the Penance King cannot be killed by conventional means instead he needs to be stunned and then hit with a flamethrower powerful enough to penetrate his thick hide.
The Penance King is very dangerous in close quarters however he is slow and the arena is fairly large so staying out of his way is relatively easy. Should you find yourself within melee range of the King he can deal up to 3,000 damage on the first phase which increases the fewer lifepoints he has remaining.
Strategy
Note: A ranged weapon is advised for this fight as it allows you to hit the King to obtain the required scroll without entering melee range.
To start the fight the healer should hit the King with an attack to obtain a scroll and then lure the King towards the healing pool so that they can tank the damage dealt (whilst healing using the pool) which makes it easier for the rest of the team to obtain their scrolls. Picking up a scroll will give you a message telling you which word you need to say in the incantation. After each of the 5 team members has obtained their scrolls and knows the order in which the words need to be said they can focus on constructing the flamethrower.
To construct the flamethrower each team member needs to obtain 5 items from inside the King, in order to do this he needs to be poisoned so that he throws them up. Poisoned meat can be obtained from the dispenser and should be placed near to the King whenever he says he is "hungry". Once he consumes the bait he will vomit and each role will need to find an item in the vomit which is used in the construction of the weapon.
After obtaining the finished article you can then deposit the items in the deposit point. Each player must deposit 5 items for the team to be able to collect their flamethrowers.
Once each player has obtained their flamethrower and equipped it it is time to stun the King by reading out the incantation in the correct order. When he is successfully stunned every player should then attack him with the flamethrower and he will take massive amounts of damage. As soon as he begins to stir everyone should move away or they will get hit hard. Players will need to hit the King once again to obtain another scroll, as soon as all five scrolls have been obtained they should read the incantation again (there is no need to obtain another flamethrower) and torch him again. It takes at least three incantations to kill him off.
Congratulations! You have defeated the Penance King!
Barbarian Assault has a number of rewards, varying from a selection of armours and weapons, level ups for the different roles, insignias and more. You also have the opportunity to gamble your reward points for the chance of some rare items.
Role Rewards
Every player starts off at level 1 in every role, however as you gather more points from completing waves and beating the Queen and King it is possible to use those points to level up your role which improves your effectiveness (with the exception of the defender role).
Attacker
Collector
Defender
Healer
Cost
Level 2
+200 damage
70% chance of egg conversion
1 free log from being hit with green egg
Heal 25% maximum lifepoints
200 points
Level 3
+300 damage
80% chance of egg conversion
2 free logs from being hit with green egg
Heal 40% maximum lifepoints
300 points
Level 4
+400 damage
90% chance of egg conversion
3 free logs from being hit with green egg
Heal 45% maximum lifepoints
400 points
Level 5
+500 damage
100% chance of egg conversion
4 free logs from being hit with green egg
Heal 50% maximum lifepoints
500 points
Gambling
For players who have an excess of points or just fancy trying their luck it is possible to gamble some of your points for the chance to win prizes ranging from fire talismans right up to a dragon chainbody. Players have the option to gamble 20, 40 or 60 points which increases the amount of items they receive (except in the case of the dragon items). The possible prizes from gambling are:
Both the dragon helm and the dragon chainbody are very rare. Most players gambling their points in the hope of getting one will likely end up disappointed