Guide to Wilderness Warbands

Wilderness Warbands were released on the 25th of March, 2013. Their primary goal was to bring more players into the wilderness, specifically skillers.  Every eight hours on each world a public chat announcement declares that a Warband is operational and gives its location within the wilderness,  (east of lava maze, south of dark warriors fortress, and red dragon island). At each camp there are 4 NPCs that must be defeated before any other progress can be made. These NPCs are very powerful and are unique, each NPC uses the Evolution of Combat attack style increasing the difficulty in killing them. However, if players stay hidden from the NPCs they can summon other NPCs to come and kill the enemies for them.  Once all the NPCs have been dealt with players can then begin the looting process. At each Warband there are 5 tents, 3 of which can be looted for supplies. Once 25 supplies have been looted the player must run back to Quercus at the north-west edge of the Grand Exchange (with supplies held in inventory players cannot teleport). Players have the possibility to receiving massive experience in the following skills: Mining, Smithing, Herblore, Farming, and Construction. In addition to receiving juicy xp rewards, players have the chance of receiving the Wand of Treachery, a level 70 wand. Players who carefully take part in this Distraction and Diversion can save themselves millions of gold spent on skilling as well as hours and hours of grinding. However, a player needs to understand the D&D fully and be able to think quick and have the ability, if need be, to ruthlessly backstab to receive full rewards.

Now, a few months after the update, many Friends Chats have opened up to allow players to find and partake in the D&D. However, hundreds of players each day now partake in the Wilderness Warbands and many seemingly complicated rules exist to ensure safer Warbanding. I am surprised at how many players on Runescape (low level to high level) do not understand or even know of Wilderness Warbands, with this guide players will be able to fully understand and partake in the Wilderness Warbands with minimal loss and maximum rewards.

 

Getting Started

Warbanding now is almost impossible to do without joining a Friends Chat. Players who partake in Warbands and yet are not part of a Friends Chat are almost immediately assumed to be a pker and are thus killed.  At the moment there are about 4 operational Friends Chats, all running together. It started out as just one ‘warband pk’ and soon that FC was overflowing so they were forced to make 3 other sister FCs to keep up with the demand. The current operational FC’s are as follows:

Warband PK

PK Warband

Warbanding

WWBanding 

These FCs require the following rules to partake in their service: (please note these rules could change over time, for the most up-to-date rules please check their website listed below)

1. All players must be wearing armor in the following spots: Head, Chest, Legs. Players who are in the FC and yet do not wear armor in these locations are allowed to be killed. (Recommended gear: Royal dragon hide armor or above, Batwing armor or above)’
2. You must be wielding a two-handed weapon (or bow) which has a dealing damage stat of 1200 or above, if you are not, you can be killed.
3. If there is a Split World players must be wearing the designated team cape indicated on the website, if not, and yet still in a FC you are allowed to be killed.
4. Backstabbing while in the FC is not tolerated (killing other chat members) if anyone sees you doing so you can be reported and kicked from the FC, as well as put on the Kill On Sight list.
5. Once arrived at the Warband anyone who interrupts the summoning beam (allowing an NPC to spot you, thus giving up the chance to summon reinforcements to do the killing for you) will be killed.
6. Anyone who receives the Wand of Treachery, whether in an FC or not, is allowed to be PKed.

Once geared up with the appropriate layout, and are in a FC you can then beginning the Warbands. The 4 FCs are very popular and have their own website, on their website you can find the up-to-date rules, what is the current team cape number, and also have access to a Warband tracker which shows which Warband is active in which world. Below is their information:

Website: warbandpk.webs.com

Warband Tracker: warbandtracker.com

Check the tracker to see the next world which your FC is partaking in and world change to that destination. Around 5 minutes before the Warband starts the FC will start to join the world near Quercus.

Below is a screen shot of the tracker, I have broken it down into parts so those who are unfamiliar with it can better understand.

Green: This tells which world the Warband will be taking place in. Notice how one world has red text while the other does not. If a world number has a red text that means it is unique and players should take caution, in this instance it is telling that a world has a 1.5k total level restriction. Hover your mouse over the world number to see the restriction, it could be level restrictions or the fact its a high risk wilderness world.

Black: This tells when the Warband is going to take place, give or take 30 seconds.

Red: This tells which FC will be using that world. NOTE: If you must go to the worlds which your FC is using. If your in WWbanding and go to partake in a PK Warband world you must change FCs.

Blue: Hard to tell, but its an image of a team cape. This just tells whether or not it is a split world. Another way to tell would be under the ‘Chat’ column it would say ‘Shared’.

If a world is announced as ‘split’ that means multiply FCs will be taking part on that world. To keep players from killing each other players will wear a team cape, showing that they are part of a Warbanding FC. The team cape changes around once a week so players should  check often which cape is currently active. Warband members usually sell the team cape for about 5k on the Grand Exchange, I usually buy a couple in case I am killed.

Warbanding

When a Warband is formed a chat announcement will show up in the public chat  (if your chat is set to ‘filtered’ it will not show up). Along with the announcement it will tell you the spawn location. Immediately enter the wilderness and begin the trek to the Warband. Once there stay behind the tents and click on the beam in the center. Your player will begin to summon the other NPCs to fight the enemies. If the beam fails (interrupted by a player being spotted by a NPC) players will have to fight the enemies themselves, and the tents will only be active for 5 minutes. If the beam is successful, NPCs will teleport directly into the camp and deal with the enemies themselves, the tents will last for 10 minutes as well.

Once the enemies have been killed you can choose your tent to loot (or loot from several), clicking once on a tent will make your player begin to loot (you do not have to click for each new supplies, this happens automatically). With each Warband you can only take out 25 supplies, which is good for it gives you room to store food without loosing xp. During the looting process a public chat announcement will appear saying which player has received the Wand of Treachery.

WARNING: The player who receives the wand will have its prayer instantly drained to 0 and all players regardless of combat level will be able to kill you. It is thus recommended to bring a prayer potion so you can quickly restore your prayer and turn on protect item before you die, thus keeping the wand which is worth millions.

Once you have looted your 25 supplies you must begin the long trek back to Quercus. Players cannot teleport while holding supplies in their inventory so the travel must be done by foot. Once you have reached Quercus simply turn in your supplies which will be removed from your inventory and you will be reimbursed with xp in the skill tents which you looted from. It should be noted that players can only loot 3 Warbands a day, for a total of 75 supplies.

Abbreviations Which You Should Know

bser-backstabber

bsed-back stabbed

elm-east of lava maze

dwf-dark warriors fortress

rdi-red dragon island

loc-location

kos-kill on sight

Tips To Keep You Alive

When you are waiting for the Warband to spawn at Quercus many times a ‘taxi’ will form. A ranked player from the FC will announce that he is the taxi most of the players will follow him, if there is a taxi you should join it. There will be about 30-50 players following, which will scare away any possible pkers, if there are pkers who begin to attack the players the taxi will quickly deal with them. With the taxi you can sit back and allow yourself to be lead to the Warband without worrying about finding it. Sometimes a taxi will form to bring players back to Quercus, I do not recommend waiting for a taxi to form on the way back. Every second you stay at that Warband the possibility of being pked increases dramatically.

If a taxi does not form, make sure you build your canoe its just south down the river of Quercus. This is only possible if you have 57 woodcutting, as that is the level requirement to make the only canoe which can travel into the wilderness. The canoe can get you just south of the east of lava maze Warband location and just north-west of the red dragon island location.

Once you have looted a camp I highly recommend you world hop, if you don’t, you will have to travel through many levels of Wilderness. During and after the formation of a Warband pkers will camp for players south of the Warband or in its general location. Hopping to a low population world nearly always guarantees a safe trip back.

Since players can only loot 25 supply crates per camp that saves 3 spots to fill with food. Some players bring a full or half full inventory of food and just drop the food they don’t use while they loot. You can do this if you want, but its a waste of money and if you start to get attacked a couple extra rocktails most likely wont save you. My personal set up is seen in the photos below:

I save myself some money by not filling my inventory with food to just later drop. I also take along a prayer potion in that rare case in which I receive the Wand, I can quickly restore my prayer and flick on my protection prayer before I’m killed.

Of course there are many different ways to set up your ability bar but this is my main way. I might add a few defensive abilities too, I would add Freedom to my bar too (not pictured) so I can break out of any stuns if I have a chance of escaping a pker. My quick prayer is set to the extra item kept on death.

Split worlds are great if you can’t get into a FC because you actually don’t have to be in one, you just need to be wearing the correct team cape. I find, though, that there are more pkers in split worlds. Pkers can hide themselves as a looter very easily because they just need to be wearing the team cape. If you a desperate to get a Warband done, split worlds are great, but otherwise I tend to avoid them.

Extra Notes

Warbands may seem complicated at first with all the rules that the FCs come up with, however they are quite easy to master and very fun. Starting at level 1 a player can reach 99 in the provided skills in just 52 days. A free 99 in, Mining, Herblore, Smithing, Construction, and Farming, some of the most time consuming and expensive skills in the game.

At peak times all 4 FCs can be full, thats about 400 players doing Warbands… wow. If this is the case it can be hard to get into the FC there is really no tip into forcing your way into the FC, I usually try as much as I can until I get in. Sometimes it takes up to 10 minutes to get into the FC, so make sure you join the next active world well in advance before the Warband goes live. After a few moments of trying to force yourself into the FC the following might show up in your chat “you’ve been temporarily been blocked from joining channels”. Don’t worry your not blocked from the channel, but to avoid this try alternating which chat your trying to enter that way you wont be blocked for a few moments.

If you are rich and are sick of trying to get into a full FC you can buy a rank. The prices varies for different services, but to get a rank costs about 20m for one month. The rank lets you get into the FC even when its full this is handy if your going for a 99 in a skill and don’t want to waste time.

I usually have stocked about 5 Warbanding outfits in my bank, so if I die and want to run back to the camp to get more loot before it is over I don’t have to buy all my gear back.

If you die while holding any amount of supplies (lets just say 10) those count towards your 75 supplies. So you have to be careful with a full inventory of supplies because if you die you waste 25 out of 75 supplies.

 

Thats pretty much everything you need to know to get started with Warbanding, if you have any questions or suggestions for this guide please leave them in the comments below. Warbanding is very profitable and I recommend doing them often. I find that they are very exciting, frustrating, and fun. Overtime information in this guide could change, if anything does I will try and come back and add that new information.

Last updated: 6/4/2013