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<H1>Barbarian Assault</H1>
<P><b>Written By: Shadow7</b>
<P><b>Edited By: UNKNOWN</b>
<P><b>Graphics Edited By: UNKNOWN</b>
<P><b>Coded By: UNKNOWN</b>
<P><br><br>
<H2>What Is Barbarian Assault?</H2>
<P>Barbarian Assault is a minigame added to Runescape on January 4, 2007. The game is partially combat-oriented, but it is a safe game
(meaning you will not lose anything if you die). Higher combat levels are useful, and if your combat skills are too low it may prevent you from
advancing too far; however, combat levels are less important than in other combat-oriented minigames. Located at the Barbarian Outpost (the same place
where the barbarian agility course is), this game allows you to battle through 10 waves of monsters (known as the "Penance") which are killed using various
techniques, the final wave also including a boss monster known as the "Penance Queen".
<P>What makes this game unique is the enormous role that teams play in this game. There are four different roles, and each different role must be filled.
A team consist of five players, so you may have two of one role on your team. Each role on the team must perform their duty; if even one role does not,
then the whole team will almost definitely fail. It is not necessary to come to the arena knowing who your team is, but you will be required to have a team
before fighting the Penance. This minigame does give rewards. The rewards can be items (both new and old ones) or upgrading your character so that you can
play more strongly.
<P>This guide is meant to cover three "levels" of understanding of the game. The first level are the things you need to know to play. These are the kinds
of things that you could learn by reading the section in the Runescape Knowledge Base or listening to the tutorial. Thus, they are not hard to find somewhere
else, but they are absolutely essential to playing the game. The second level is the common knowledge. These are things that you won't find in the Runescape
Knowledge Base but that you would have picked up after playing the game enough times. The third level are the special tricks. These are things that will help you play effectively and make the games go smoothly. These
tricks are hard to find, and while this guide will be outlining as many as it can, it certainly will be missing some that you might find along the way.
<P><P><H2>What Should I Bring?</H2>
<P>Barbarian Assault does not require a lot of items. Basically, you just want to wear normal combat armor. However, do NOT bring a cape. The
mini-game gives you a cape to wear, so if you bring your own, it will just waste a space in your inventory. Note that if you do accidentally bring something
extra, there is a deposit box that will let you put them in your bank. The monsters in this game aren't particularly dangerous. However, there are a lot
of them and you can't bring food (there is a healer class that handles restoring your energy). As a result, even if the monsters aren't very strong,
don't be cocky and bring no armor; in the higher waves, you WILL die. Because you will be doing a lot of running, I recommend wearing Boots of Lightness in
your boot spot. If your combat level is pretty high (I'd say maybe 110+), you may consider wearing dragonhide armor so that your energy doesn't run out.
You won't be doing TOO much running, though, so this isn't that big of a deal. If there's any chance of being an attacker, you'll want to bring a
weapon/weapons that use all 4 attack styles: Accurate, Aggressive, Controlled, Defensive. Personally, I recommend a dragon scimitar and a whip. This will
be explained a little more in the Attacker description. Even if you're not going to play as an attacker, bring a good weapon so you can kill
Queen Spawn in the final wave. You'll also want to bring a Game Necklace to teleport to the outpost.
<P><br><br><H2>Starting Barbarian Assault / Upstairs</H2>
<P>In order to start Barbarian Assault, the first thing you will have to do is get there! Barbarian Assault is located in the Barbarian Outpost,
which is the same place where the barbarian agility course is. You can get there in one of two ways. The first way is to just walk there. The barbarian
outpost is located northwest of Seers Village (also north of McGrubbor's woods); this is not the recommended way to get there. The Game's Necklace (an
enchanted saphire necklace) allows you to teleport to Barbarian Assault. This is the simpler way to get there.
<P>When you get to the outpost, upstairs (i.e. outside) you will notice several useful things. First, there are five statues surrounding the area. These
are statues of the Penance Healer, Fighter, Ranger, Runner, and Spawn, which are all of the monsters in the game other than the queen. If you wish, you can
Inspect these statues in order to learn useful information about the monsters (though this guide will cover that information as well). You will also
find two NPC's outside: Captain Cain and Commander Connad.
<P>You must listen to the tutorial from Captain Cain before you can play. However, you'll have to talk to him briefly first. So, talk to Captain Cain then
have him give you the tutorial. The tutorial takes about 5 minutes, but pay attention to what he says; despite it's length, it's very useful for learning
how to play the game. You must listen to the tutorial once before you can play; however, after you've heard it, you never need to hear it again, though
you can if you want to. Cain will give you a book on killing the queen. He recommends holding onto it, but just drop it. The book wastes a space in your
inventory (and you do fill up your inventory in this game) and to be honest does very little. It would only be useful when you reach wave 10, and even then,
if someone there doesn't know the directions to kill the queen by memory, it's easily found in the Knowledge Base or this guide. The other NPC is Commander
Connad. Commander Connad is where you obtain your rewards. If you haven't been here before, just ignore him for now, as he's useless without having beaten
any waves. Note that you can also use Commander Connad to return to wave 1.
<P>Upstairs, there are two other useful objects. The first is the depsoit box. This allows you to store items in your bank without banking. However, be warned,
this is only one-way; that is, you can only deposit, not withdraw. If you teleported here with a Game Necklace, you should depsoit that using this now.
The second object is the ladder, which will take you down to where you choose your team.
If you're done exploring upstairs, then head down this ladder to play.
<P><br><br><H2>The Team Room</H2>
<P>The Team Room is where you create your teams. Notice that there are 11 different smaller rooms in this area. One of them has an arrow on the floor,
and the others are numbered 1-10. The numbered rooms represent wave numbers. If you are playing Barbarian Asasult for the first time, then you'll be
on wave 1. That means that you enter the room numbered 1 to find a team. Whenever you beat a wave, you progress to the next wave. That is, after you beat
wave 1, you'll progress to wave 2. You can only enter the room of the wave you're currently on; you may not go higher or lower. When you beat wave 10,
you get sent back to wave 1, so it's a constant cycle. The arrow room is the only exception. No matter what your wave is, you may enter the room with the
arrow. This room does not let you pick your team. However, it does let you pick what class you want to be. The room will automatically make a team of 5
as soon as it can. The five players will play against a wave level equal to that of the person who was currently on the lowest wave. While this is good
for finding fast games sometimes, I highly discourage using this room. This room prevents you from progressing to higher level waves (which are where
the better points are found) and does not let you have any say in the team you pick.
<P>Enter the wave room room equal to the number you're currently on (as mentioned before, if you haven't played before, this will be room 1). In here, you
will need to join/create a team. A table of scrolls is found in the room. There are two ways to become part of a team: start your own team and get people
to join or accept being part of someone else's team. A complete team must have 5 players, and each of the 4 roles must be filled (therefore, 1 role will
have two people).
<P>If you are accepting being on a team, announce what role/roles you are willing to be. Someone who is forming a team will hopefully pass you a scroll.
A pop-up screen will appear with information of who is part of the team and what roles they are. Each team must have one of each class, and there are five
members per team; this means that you may not have a choice of being every role. Any role that cannot be selected will be grayed out. Choose one
of the remaining options and accept. Since they passed you the scroll, most likely they'll accept; once they do, you're part of the team.
Of course, you'll have to wait till the team gets five members to actually play.
<P>If you're forming the team, pick a scroll up from the table. Use it to someone who you think might be interested in joining your team
(look in particular for people
who are announcing that they're looking for a team). They will either decline or select a role and accept. You must also accept at this point to add
them to the scroll. Do not continue to pester someone if they decline your offer; simply try someone else.
Continue doing this until all 5 slots are filled (remember to write yourself on as well). Once your scroll is filled, go down the ladder and the game
will start.
<P>Once you finish your game, if you win, you'll be sent to the wave room of the next-higher level. A timer will start counting down from 60 seconds.
As long as no one in your team leaves the room or switches teams in that time, your same team will automatically be launched into the next wave. This is
very useful as it does not require you to keep signing people up over and over if you want to be part of the same team with the same positions. So, one way
to keep your team is for no one to do anything. However, if one person leaves the room, they will be removed from your scroll but everyone else will stay on
that scroll. Another
way to go to the next wave with the same team is to have the person with the scroll leave the room, walk back in, write their name on the scroll again, then
go down the ladder.
<P>This would also be a good point to mention the importance of a good team. Exactly what a good team should do will be explained later.
At the lower wave levels, the team's effectiveness isn't quite so important as the waves are easy to beat.
However, as you get higher, the waves will get harder, and eventually you'll face the
Penance Queen, who requires a lot of teamwork.
Thus, you should be spending your time trying to get together a good team. Remember that no team will be
perfect, but you'll need to find a good team as you work yourself up through the waves.
<P><br><br><H2>Playing the Game</H2>
<P><H3>Room Layout</H3>
<P>The room contains many important features. No matter what your role is, you will need to know some of these features. Your team will start in a V-formation
at the south side of the room. At the south-center of the room, you will find the <b>exit cave</b>.
In the south-east, you will find the <b>dispensers</b>. To the east of the dispensers, you will find the <b>Horn of Glory</b>.
In the south-west of the room, you will find the <b>healing pool</b> and <b>ladder</b>. At the
east and west sides of the room, you will find the <b>traps</b>. Next to the traps, you will find the <b>Egg-Launcher hills</b>. Near the center of the
north side, you will find a hammer and logs. Along the northern wall, you will find the <b>entrance caves</b>. Now that the features of the room have been
outlined, we'll go over their purpose one at a time. Don't be worried about how many features the room has; they become easy to figure out as you play the
game.
<P>The dispeners, located near the south-east of the room, are important to almost everyone. These dispensers dispense the supplies that almost all of the
roles will need to function (the exception being collectors, who don't use the dispensers). What each dispenser gives varies from role to role and will
be detailed in the description of each role. Another feature everyone may need is the ladder in the south-west. Climbing up the ladder will end the game.
If ANY one person dies or exits during the game, the game will end. Another feature is the horn of glory, which is located to the east of the dispensers.
The horn of glory can be used to see and shout the weaknesses of the Penance to players. However, the horn of glory is so out of the way that whoever is
using it essentially won't be able to do anything else. If you have to use the horn of glory to find out the weaknesses,
then one of the players on your team isn't doing their job and should probably be replaced.
<P>Along the northern wall are the entrance caves. These caves are where the various monsters will exit from. Each cave is dedicated to one monster. The cave
all the way to the west will release Penance Rangers. The center-west cave will release Penance Fighters. Thus, the two most western entrance caves are
the two monsters of interest to the attackers. The center-east cave will releaes Penance Runners, who are the target of the defenders. The eastern most
cave releases Penance Healers, which are what the healers are after.
<P>In the south-west of the room is the healing pool. The healing pool is primarily of interest to the healers. Healers can use the pool to heal themselves,
and they can also fill their vial with the liquid to use on other players to heal them. If you are a non-healer who is seeking to be healed and can't
find the healer, this may be a good place to go. However, non-healers cannot use the pool themself; the healer MUST use the liquid on the player.
<P>The defender has three important features in the room: the exit cave, the traps, and the logs/hammer. The Penance Runners need to be killed by using
the traps on the far east and west sides of the room. If a Penance Runner eats bait that it likes that is on the trap, it will die. The trap will break
if two Penance Runners die on them. To fix them, the defender will need to hold a hammer and use up a log, both of which can be found on the northern side
of the room (the defender can also use these things to block the entrance cave for a short time). The whole time, the Penance Runners will try to
work their way to the exit cave on the south side of the room. If the Penance Runner enters the exit cave, the team will lose points and a new Penance
Runner will appear from the entrance cave.
<P>The last feature of the cave is the Egg-Launcher hills, located near the traps. These hills are of particular importance to the collector, though everyone
can use them somewhat. On the hill are two objects: the Egg Hopper and the Egg Launcher. Only the collector can pick up eggs and load them into the hopper.
Eggs that are loaded into the hopper can be launced from the Egg Launcher (sometimes called the cannon).
This can be done by any player. To launch the cannon, select "Shoot". It will
come up with a list of each monster and all three color eggs on that monster. If a certain color egg is not in the hopper, it will be black instead. If
you select a monster but none of that kind of monster is in range, it will tell you so and not shoot. The cannons have a range that can hit
a little over half of the room. Therefore, almost no matter where a monster is, you should be able to hit it with at least one of the cannons.
While you can select which TYPE of monster you shoot
at, you cannot select the specific monster. Generally, the cannon will target the closest monster of the type that you selected. The hopper can only hold
up to 5 of each egg color at a time. However, the two hoppers are really the same hopper. That is, if you load eggs into the eastern hopper, the cannon
on the west side can also use those eggs.
<P>On a final note, the room layout that was described is really only for waves 1-9. Wave 10 (the boss wave) is a little different. The same features appear
in the boss room except for a few exceptions. First, there is no eastern cannon in the room, so you can only shoot from the western side of the room. The boss
room also has a large platform in the center, which is where the queen will appear after a certain amount of time. You will also find poison pools, lava
pits, and mushrooms scattered around the room; these are necessary for creating the Omega eggs which will destroy the queen.
<P><H3>Basics of the Game</H3>
<P>Simply put, the object of the game is to kill all of the monsters. However, killing the Penance isn't like killing any other monsters. First, I will
describe how waves 1-9 are handled. There are four types of monsters in the game: Penance Ranger, Penance Fighter, Penance Runner, and Penance Healer. Each
monster has a "weakness" which will change after approximately 30 seconds. However, the person who needs to know that weakness doesn't have that information
displayed to them immediately. Instead, a team-member is given that information. Each player has a horn. If you right-click the horn, you will see an option
for every weakness. Everytime you see a new weakness appear, you need to right click the horn and select the weakness that has appeared.
<P>The important information appears in the top-right corner. The upper-most text tells you what wave you're on. The next spot down is the current weakness
of the monster you're fighting. The symbol next to this spot is an ear, representing this is what you're hearing. The ear spot will NOT automatically
be filled in. Instead, when your teammate shouts out the weakness using their horn, it will be filled in. Once the weakness changes, this will go blank
again until your teammate once again shouts out the weakness. The next spot down is the current weakness of the monster that you need to tell your teammate.
This has the mouth mark next to it, meaning that you need to shout that to your teammate. As noted before, to do this, right click the horn and select the
option that you see in this spot. For example, if you see "Green egg" in this spot, then you would want to right click your horn and select "Shout Green Egg".
Note that the horn will NOT discriminate between right and wrong shouts; that is, if you shout the wrong answer, your teammate
will see the incorrect information you gave them. Therefore, it is important that you do this correctly. The final spot is the teammate who you are shouting
to.
<P>The teammate who you shout to and who is shouting to you is fixed depending on what role you are playing and never changes.
The collector shouts weaknesses to the attacker, and the attacker shouts weaknesses
to the collector. The defender shouts weaknesses to the healer, and the healer shouts weaknesses to the defenders. Thus, you're basically a pair. The person
you are shouting weaknesses to is the same person who is shouting weaknesses to you. This is a VERY important thing to do. As you will find out, if you don't
know the current weaknesses, you are basically helpless to do anything. Therefore, you need to keep an eye on the top-right corner of the screen and look
for when the weaknesses change (your monster's weakness and your partner's monster's weakness will both change at the same time). Immediately right click
your horn and shout the weakness. It only takes a split second and is essential to functioning.
<P>Once each role knows their weakness, they can do their job. The attacker will be fighting the Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers. Fighting them is
fairly similar to fighting normal monsters but with one exception: these Penance are only vulnerable to a certain form of attack. This is the weakness
that the attacker needs to know. Most attackers simply melee, and the options are Accurate, Aggressive, Controlled, and Defensive. This is why it's important
to have weapons with each of these forms. If you are using magic or range, you will not be allowed to take arrows in. However, the attacker's dispenser will
give you runes and arrows. For mages, the weaknesses are wind, water, earth, and fire. For rangers, they are bronze arrows, iron arrows, steel arrows, and
mithril arrows. Whatever form you're using, set your weapon to the monsters weakness and attack them like any other monster. Keep an eye out for when the
weakness changes, however. Everytime you hit a monster using the wrong attack type, you'll take 2 damage and suffer penalty points. Penance Fighters and
Penancer Rangers have about 20-50 health, depending on the wave you are in.
<P>The "partner" for the attacker is the collector. The collector's job is to gather eggs for the Egg Launcher. The collector is the only role that, if the
person did nothing, the team could still win. Despite this, the collector is still useful for helping the defender kill Penance Runners and is also
the most able to increase the team's points. The weakness for the collector is really the egg color they are supposed to pick up. Anytime any monster dies,
the monster will drop 2 eggs of each color. The collector can then pick up the correctly-colored eggs (they know which color because the attacker shouts
the color to them). If the collector picks up the wrong egg, it will explode and they will take damage and suffer penalty points.
The collector has a pouch which can hold a few eggs, but the collector can also hold eggs with their inventory space.
Once the eggs are loaded into the Egg Hopper, anyone can
use the Egg Cannon to shoot the monsters (this is described above). So, the collector is more of an assistance role than a major role. Each egg does something
different. Red eggs will do 3 damage to anything they hit and will do 1 damage to any Penance that is close; these are the most useful eggs.
Green eggs will do 1 damage and poison the monster for 1. Blue eggs stun the monster, just like you failed to pickpocket an NPC. The blue eggs are essentially
useless and should not be used. Stunning does little and will actually stop other players from hurting them. The cannon isn't particularly useful against
most monsters since the eggs generally do three damage at most. Since most monsters have 20 health even in the lowest waves,
it would take a lot of cannon shots to kill them.
However, the annoying Penance Runners only have 5 health, which makes the Egg Launcher a great aid in killing them.
<P>The defender arguably has the most complicated job of all. The defender's job is to lure the Penance Runners onto the traps on the east and west
sides of the room. While the defender is also able to block the entrance caves, doing so is fairly useless and is basically a waste of time as the walls
stay up for a very short amount of time. The defender can go to his dispenser in order to obtain three types of food: Tofu, Worms, and Crackers. The
Penance Runners have a weakness to a certain food. You want to lay a trail of this food to the traps, then place a few pieces of food on the traps.
If a Runner eats the food and likes it (the food it likes being its "weakness"), it will look around for more food. Doing this, you can lure the Runner
to the trap. If it eats food on a trap that it likes, the trap will kill it. If the Runner eats food it doesn't like, it will run far away and not eat
any other food for a short amount of time, which makes it hard to lure in. Also, if it eats food on the trap that it doesn't like, the trap will not work.
After the trap kills 2 Runners, it will break (there is a number next to the trap; when this number hits 0, it means it is broken). You can repair a 1 or 0
trap by clicking "Fix". For this to work, you need to be holding a hammer, and you will also need to use up one log. At the same time, the runners will
work their way towards the exit cave. If a runner goes through the cave, you will suffer a lot of penalty points. What makes the defender position so
difficult is that the Runners aren't completely predictable. While they do usually go after food if they are near it, you never know for sure what they'll do.
Also, it's hard to lay a trail of food to the trap if you don't know exactly where they'll be. Overall, it's kind of a guessing game that you get the hang
of if you do it a few times. Luckily, the runners can't hurt anyone, so other than penalty points, there's little rush to killing them. Another fortunate thing
is that the Runners only have 5 health, making them easy prey for the cannons.
<P>The final role is Healer. The healer's role isn't complicated to learn but tends to be more difficult than it sounds, mainly because the healers have
to do two things at the same time. The first thing that a healer can do is heal themself and others. This is the only way that your teammates can heal. For a
healer to heal themself, they must run to the healing pool and take a drink; only healers may drink from the pool.
Also fill your vial that you get from the dispenser
at the pool. The vial can then be used 4 times without being refilled. Use the vial on a player to heal them 10-35 points, depending on your healer level (levels
will be described later). Note that when healing yourself from the pool, you'll heal yourself for about 50% more than you would heal other players (so if
using a healing vial on another player would heal 10, drinking from the pool would heal yourself from 15).
In lower level waves, healing other players isn't a big deal since they shouldn't be taking much damage. However, on the higher
level waves, especially the boss wave, you will need to do a lot of healing. The second role of the healer is to kill the Penance Healers. Go to your
dispenser to get three types of food: Poison Tofu, Poison Worms, and Poison Meat (you will also get your vial if you don't have one). The Penance
Healers will always have a weakness to one of these foods; you obtain this weakness from the defender's shouts. Whatever food the healers are weak to,
use that food on them. They will take 4 damage and become poisoned for 4. Continue to use food on them to poison them more and more until they die. Remember
that the Penance Healers do get poisoned if you use the food on them, however, so they will slowly take damage for a short amount of time even if you stop
using food on them. If you use the wrong food on them, you will fail to poison them and you will get penalty points. Neither of these roles are particularly
complicated to understand, but in the higher waves, they require a lot of effort. For this reason, in the highest waves, it is usually recommended that you
use two healers.
<P>All four roles will be doing these things at once. As more monsters die, the tasks start to become easier because you have less monsters attacking you
at the same time. This applies completely for waves 1-9.
<P><H3>The Queen</H3>
Wave 10, the boss wave, is a little different. You start the wave the same way as you did with
all of the other waves, trying to kill the Penance. However, after about five minutes, the Penance Queen will appear in the center of the room. The Queen has
a long range attack that hits everyone for up to 8 or 9. At the same time, she will create Queen Spawn. The Queen Spawn can be killed be anyone like
any normal monster. They also hit up to 8 or 9 and will attack everyone. Basically, this means that when fighting the Penance Queen, you will constantly be
taking damage. Before you can kill the Penance Queen, you must kill all of the Penance monsters other than the Queen and the Spawn, just like any other wave.
For this reason, it is important to hurry as much as possible, as once the Queen appears, the tasks become harder to complete due to taking constant damage.
People will sometimes take Guthan with them for the final wave (or may just carry it with them through all waves). This will reduce your inventory space a little
and will increase your weight. However, the Queen Spawn are numerous and easy to hit, so bringing full Guthan with you will relieve some of the work of the
healers. Also, bear in mind that in this round, the points you get as a reward are fixed. Therefore, there is no reason to worry about penalties and no reason
to bother trying to increase the score. Simply focus on killing the monsters that you are responsible for killing.
<P>Once all of the Penance Fighters, Rangers, Runners, and Healers are gone, you can finish off the Queen. The Queen is level 209, but she isn't defeated by
only one player; instead, it will take the combined effort of all roles to create the Omega egg. While the Omega eggs are being created, everyone
should stay near the healer pool and kill any Queen Spawn that comes close. This lets the healers heal everyone more easily and allows the players
to have to deal with less Queen Spawn. No matter how good you are, though, you will definitely need the healers to be doing a lot of healing to keep
the team alive. Remember, if even one player dies, you all lose. The Omega egg, when launched from the Egg Launcher, will do
38 damage. It takes 7-8 eggs to kill her, but you should make 10 just to be safe. When the Queen appears, she starts dropping yellow eggs on the ground. The
collector should grab 10 of these eggs. Once the collector gets all 10 eggs, use them on one
of the healers (preferably the one who has a lower healing level) to hand them to the healer. Do NOT pass eggs until you have all the ones you need. If you
hand off one or two eggs at a time, the whole process will take longer and be more dangerous. The healer must take his eggs to one of the poison pools
sitting around and dip them in poison. The healer then gives the eggs to the attacker. The attacker must attack spikes to the eggs; these spikes are found on the
mushrooms scattered around the room (there are several mushrooms near the pool, and the attacker should gather these spikes while the collector is
getting the eggs). The attacker then hands these eggs to the defender, who dips them in the lava pools. Finally, the defender gives these eggs back to the
collector. The collector loads them into the Egg bin. Remember, anyone can launch the cannon. I recommend that all 5 players go to the cannon. The two healers
should keep healing the players as the eggs are being launched. One of the three other players should kill the Queen Spawn on the hill, as getting
hit by anything will knock you out of the Egg Launcher selection screen. The other two players should try to shoot the Egg Launcher. This may take several
tries as there are a lot of things hitting you that can knock you out of the egg selection screen. Select the Omega egg to fire one egg. As said before,
you'll do 38 damage, and 8 shots can kill her. As a reminder, the sequence to this is:
<P><OL>
<li>Collector- gather yellow eggs
<li>Healer- dip in poison
<li>Attacker- attach spikes
<li>Defender- dip in lava
<li>Collector- load into Egg Bin
</ol>
<P><br><br><H2>Points and Rewards</H2>
<P>If you're playing this game, there's a good chance that you want to earn some cool rewards. To obtain your rewards, speak to Commander Connad upstairs.
There are three types of rewards in this: level-ups,
items, and gambling. Level-ups require points in the role you want to level up. Items require points in all roles, a Queen Kill, and in one case coins.
Gambling requires points in any role and for the highest gamble requires a Queen Kill. Coins are simply what they sound like, standard Runescape gold coins.
A Queen Kill cost means that you must have killed the queen. Your Queen Kill is sort of like a token. When you kill the Queen, if you don't have a Queen Kill,
you get one. If you buy something that requires a Queen Kill, your "token" goes away, and you must kill the queen again to buy something else that requires
a Queen Kill cost. There's not much to this though; simply kill the Queen. Points, on the other hand, are a little more complicated, so let's describe
how to get those.
<P>Essentially, you get points by doing well against your waves. If you do things right, you will get more points; if you do things wrong, you will lose points.
Don't worry, however; the worst you can do is get zero points in a wave, so you will never have less points than when you started. There are four different
kind of honour points: attacker, defender, collector, and healer. You will always get points into the role you were playing as. So, you will never get
attacker points if you keep playing as a defender. Each role has ways of gaining and losing points for the team. The points that each role earns are
added together, but the points your role earned counts double for you. For that reason, different members on the team can earn different numbers of points.
For example, let's say the defender earned 5 points, the attacker earned 5 points, the collector earned 5 points, and the healer earned 7 points. At the
end of all of this, the attacker would earn 5+5+5+7+5 = 27 attacker points (the attacker has an extra 5 points because that's how many the attacker himself created
for the team). Regardless of which role created those points, however, the attacker would get them all as attacker honour points. On the other hand,
the healer would get 5+5+5+7+7 = 29 healer points (the healer has 7 extra points because that's how many the healer himself created for the team); but once
again, these points would all be healer honour points because they played as a healer. So, the idea is, the performance of your team affects your points,
and your performance affects the rest of the team's points; however, your own performance affects you more than it does anyone else on the team. Now let's
explain how each role gains/loses points. One thing you'll notice is that all positions (except collector) get points for the number of monsters that
were killed related to their position. For example, the defender's job is to kill Runners, so they get points based on the number of Runners killed. It does
NOT matter who killed the monster, only the number that were killed. So, the defender will get the same number of points from killing a Runner regardless of
whether it was killed by luring it onto a trap or by shooting it with the Egg Launcher.
<P>The attacker obtains points for the number of Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers they kill. You get a little less than 1 point for each one killed. There
are a fixed number of these things that have to be killed in any one wave, so this number is always the same for a given wave. The attacker takes penalty
points (i.e. loses points) for everytime they strike a Penance using the wrong form of attack. The attacker will take 1 penalty point for approximately
every 2 wrong attacks done. So, keep an eye out, because if you aren't paying attention, you can rack up a lot of penalty points quickly.
<P>The defender obtains points for every Penance Runner killed. You get a little less than 2 points for each one killed. As with the attacker, the number
of Runners that has to be killed in a wave is fixed, so for any given wave, this number never changes. The defender takes penalty points anytime a Runner
goes into the exit cave (remember that they come right back from an entrance cave, so you still have to kill them). You lose 3 penalty points for every one
that enters the cave, so you can take a lot of penalty fast, making this a very complicated position if you want to keep your points.
<P>The collector takes points depending on the number of eggs they pick up; how many they load into the Bin or shoot is not important. Basically, the collector
has an egg counter. The counter goes up 1 everytime they pick up the right-colored egg. The counter goes down 1 everytime they pick up the wrong-colored
egg. The collector's points are equal to something around the counter divided by 4. This is the collector's main use, other than shooting runners. There
are an enormous amount of eggs on the battlefield, and unlike the attacker and defender, they collector can basically score as many points as they want
until all the eggs have been picked up (which I have never seen even come close to happening).
The collector can get over a dozen points in one game, drastically increasing the number of points for
both themself and the team. Remember, you don't have to do anything with the eggs, so you can even pick them up then destroy them.
<P>The healer gets points everytime they heal someone and the number of Penance Healers they kill. The number of Penance Healers you kill in a round is fixed
and not under your control. The healing points are based on the amount of health healed, NOT the number of times that they
heal someone. Like the collector, this means that the number of points that the healer can score are not fixed for a given wave. Despite this, the
collector still has a better scoring potential than the healer. Still, once all of the Penance Healers are gone, the healer should try to heal players
as much as possible, even if they don't need it, in an attempt to increase their score. The healer takes penalty points when they use the wrong food
on a Penance Healer. You will 1 point for approximately every 2 times you use the wrong food. The healer's penalty points generally aren't too high.
<P>A few other notes about these points. As you noticed, every role has ways to both gain points and lose points. However, the points lost can NEVER be more
than -10. This gives an advantage to higher waves. Generally, in higher waves, both the points you earn and the penalty points get higher because
there are more Penance on the field (and thus, more room for mistakes). However, once you hit -10 points, it doesn't matter how many errors you make. Of course,
your goal should be to make NO errors; this may not always happen, but it is very do-able in most situations. The collector is at a slight disadvantage here.
As you may have noticed, the collector technically has no "penalty" points, he just has a counter that can go up and down. It should also be mentioned that
all of these point bonuses only apply to waves 1-9. On wave 10, you always get 80 points into the role you were playing as and 5 into every other role.
This never changes, regardless of what you do in that wave, so don't bother trying to increase the points. On a final note, please bear in mind
that you cannot have more than 500 points in any specific role.
<P>Now to the rewards. The first set of rewards are the level-ups. Each role is able to level themself up if they get enough honour points in that specific
role. Everyone starts at level 1. You can become level 2 by spending 200 points, level 3 by spending 300 points, level 4 by spending 400 points, and the maximum
level 5 by spending 500 points. Leveling up your character increases how they perform in that role. An attacker's damage against Penance will be increased
by whatever their attacker level is. Since people can generaly hit over 20, this isn't too big of a deal, but it's still a nice boost. As the defender
levels up, the Penance Runners will be attracted to his food from farther and farther distances. Since the defender has to do a lot of luring, this is
a useful boost. As collectors level up, they can hold more eggs in their pouch. At level 1 they can hold 2 eggs, but at level 5 they can hold 8 eggs. However,
since you can only load 5 eggs into the Egg Launcher at a time, and since you can also use your inventory to hold eggs (which basically gives you another 25
or so spaces), this isn't very useful. As the healer levels up, when they heal another player, more damage is healed. At level 1, a healer will heal 10 health,
but at level 5, 35 health is healed. This is a HUGE difference and is almost certainly the most useful level-up bonus, by far.
<P>The second form of rewards is equipment. To purchase pieces of equipment requires points from each role and a Queen Kill (the exception
being the granite body, which requires 95,000 coins and a Queen Kill). There are various pieces of equipment that can be bought, so I won't go into
details of each one, except with a few exceptions. First, I'd like to mention that there is now a granite body, which is stronger than normal armor
when it comes to range defense. Second, there is the Fighter torso, which is weaker than rune plate in defense but also gives +4 strength. Whether or not
this is good is up to you, but since it's currently the only body armor in the game that boosts strength, it's worth mentioning. Finally, the Penance gloves
will reduce your weight by 4-5kg, which is also worth mentioning, especially since it's the only gloves in the game that reduce weight.
<P>The final set of rewards are the gambles. The gambles require points from any one role, and in the case of the level 3 gamble, a Queen Kill. A gamble will
give you a random item from a list of items. Currently, a list has not been compiled, but the level 3 gamble is even possible of giving a dragonite chain.
In general, the rewards from a gamble are by far not worth the effort it takes to get them, but if you're playing Barbarian Assault and racking up points
that you have nothing else to spend on, this could be a fun way to use them.
<P><br><br><H2>Wave Information</H2>
<P>Listed below is a table of example information relating to what happens in each wave (this was from one run-through of the game).
Wave 10's information is a little harder to find, but the amount of monsters
in that wave seems to be a little less than Wave 9 was (of course, you also have to deal with the Queen, however). Also note that this is NOT exactly what
you will get each time you play. There is some randomness in how many of each monster you see, but this is an example of what you can expect.
<P><table border = 1>
<tr><th>Wave #</th><th>1</th><th>2</th><th>3</th><th>4</th><th>5</th><th>6</th><th>7</th><th>8</th><th>9</th></tr>
<tr><th># of Rangers</th><td>4</td><td>4</td><td>6</td><td>6</td><td>6</td><td>7</td><td>7</td><td>8</td><td>8</td></tr>
<tr><th>Points from Rangers</th><td>3</td><td>3</td><td>5</td><td>5</td><td>5</td><td>6</td><td>6</td><td>7</td><td>7</td></tr>
<tr><th># of Fighters</th><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>5</td><td>6</td><td>6</td><td>6</td><td>7</td><td>7</td><td>8</td></tr>
<tr><th>Points from Fighters</th><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>5</td><td>5</td><td>6</td><td>6</td><td>7</td></tr>
<tr><th># of Healers</th><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>6</td><td>7</td><td>7</td><td>8</td></tr>
<tr><th>Points from Healers</th><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>4</td><td>4</td><td>5</td></tr>
<tr><th># of Runners</th><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>6</td><td>6</td><td>7</td><td>9</td></tr>
<tr><th>Points from Runners</th><td>3</td><td>5</td><td>7</td><td>7</td><td>9</td><td>10</td><td>10</td><td>12</td><td>16</td></tr>
<tr><th>Total # of Monsters</th><td>12</td><td>14</td><td>18</td><td>20</td><td>22</td><td>25</td><td>27</td><td>29</td><td>33</td></tr>
</table>
<P><br><br><H2>You and Your Team</H2>
<P>As you should have noticed by now, your team is absolutely essential to winning. For the most part, no one can do another person's job, so if one role isn't
doing what they need to do, you won't win; the only exception is that the collector is capable of attacking any monster, but even then, he's really only
effective against the Penance Runners. Furthermore, a person who is doing a poor job will make the game much harder for everyone else, as the different
role's tasks are often intertwined. For example, a poor attacker takes longer to kill the Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers. As a result, people take
more damage faster, which makes the Healer's job harder.
<P>One of the tasks of a team member is SO important that I want to stress it very much. That is, you MUST blow your horn everytime the weaknesses change,
and you MUST blow it fast. This is so incredibly important that I will say it again: you MUST blow your horn everytime the weaknesses change,
and you MUST blow it fast. I sometimes hear people say, "I'm too busy to blow the horn." If you get someone like that on your team, dump them immediately.
Especially if, when you ask them to blow it, they still take their time as you follow them around continuing asking them to blow it (this sounds extreme,
but I have seen this happen). Now, remember, your partners are only human. They will occasionally blow the horn late. But continuously not blowing your horn
completely wrecks your team. If you do not blow your horn, your partner will not know the weakness; and if they don't know the weakness, they can't do anything.
You may think, "Well, I'm only waiting five seconds, it's not that big of a deal." But remember, 5 seconds where your partner doesn't know their weakness
is 5 seconds where they can do basically NOTHING. The horn only takes a half second to blow, so take the half second to blow it. You may think I'm going overboard
in explaining such a simple task in such great detail, but it really is THAT important.
<P>Another thing you need to look for on your team is someone who knows their role. This is also rather simple, and you'll notice it rather quickly. For example,
if someone doesn't know how to lure monsters onto a trap, they're useless as a defender. They may be a nice person, and they may know how to play the game,
but they're useless in a role they don't know how to play. Now, if the person knows how to play the game, you can try walking them through the role; with the
exception of defender, they're rather easy to learn, and even defender can be taught in a few minutes. A second option is to replace them with someone else
who does know the role. A third option is to switch them into a role they do know and have someone else on your team take their old role. Also, if someone
is trying to learn a role, you can put two people in that position so that, even if they do end up failing in their duties while trying to learn it, there
will be someone else who can learn it. Of course, if the person either can't figure out the position or simply refuses to listen as to what the do, they'll
end up wasting time and costing your team points, so you may want to get rid of them. Unfortunately, you don't have many options here. This isn't a game
where people can cover for you if you don't know what you're doing. So above all, make sure that both you and your team-mates know how to play the game
before jumping in. Not doing so will ruin the game for the entire team.
<P>Another factor on the team is combat levels. Combat levels aren't as important in this game as they are in other games; however, they are still a factor.
In particular, you either want one attacker with a high combat level or two attackers with low combat levels, since they'll have to be killing a lot of
monsters. The other positions can all manage with lower combat levels. Even a team with everyone 85+ should be able to beat the queen, as long as the
attacker is 100+. You can manage with people even in the 50's; however, you can probably only handle one person on your team this low. Anyone whose combat
level is under 60 will require constant healing in the higher waves. This can be handled by a half-decent healer. However, a team completely made of
people 60 or under will be too much for the healers to handle. If your combat level is this low, you may want to go up to something like wave 7 then talk
to Commander Connad to restart if you are having trouble living through waves.
<P>Of course, the skill with which players play is also important. You'll probably notice how good players are by how fast they can kill off the monsters.
Usually, attackers are the fastest and defenders are the slowest, though that isn't always the case. However, if any one person is taking 15 minutes to do
their job, they probably aren't very skilled. This will cause problems in the Queen wave as that means they'll be fighting lots of their monsters with the
Queen attacking them, which makes the job much more difficult. Keep in mind that, with practice, people will become better at their position, but in the
end, you still need people who can do their job satisfactorily, at worst. One final note about this. Sometimes people do bad because their partner is not
giving them the weakness by blowing their horn. Bear this in mind when judging someone.
<P>As you go through the waves, you'll want to find a good team. In the earlier waves, a good team isn't quite as important, as long as the people
have at least some idea how to do their roles and are blowing their horns enough. But you should take the earlier waves as a chance to try to get a good
team together. Remember, the team you have in wave 1 doesn't have to be the same team you have in wave 10. By the time you reach wave 10, you'll want to
have a strong team together, preferably one with people who can each play multiple (if not all) of the positions well.
<P>Another question I hear a lot is which role should have two people in it. As has been mentioned before, there are 4 roles to fill but 5 people, so one
role will have two people in it. Which one you pick is up to you. In waves 1-5, it pretty much doesn't matter as they're so easy to beat. In these waves,
the role that has two people in it is generally based off of what kind of honour points people want. However, as the waves get higher, you may need to get
more serious. In the 6-9 range, it's common to have two attackers. This is because most of the damage you sustain comes from the Penance Fighters and
Penance Rangers (Penance Runners do no damage and Penance Healers only do slight damage). If the attackers can kill these things fast, it makes it easier
for everyone. Also, a lot of people tend to want to play as an attacker, which is another reason for having two. It's also common to have two healers. In the
higher waves, people take damage a lot faster because the monsters are stronger and there are more of them. Having two healers helps to keep people alive,
since one healer can't be everywhere at once. In wave 10, you pretty much NEED to have two healers unless you want an extremely difficult queen fight. I rarely
see two defenders, but this is mainly because not many people like this position. If you have two defenders, it's mainly to try to stop too many runners
from getting to the exit cave. If you have two defenders, you'll probably want to dedicate one defender solely to baiting the eastern trap. The other defender
should block off the Penance Runner entrance cave (the center-east cave on the northern side) since this will slow down the rate at which new Runners
enter the room, making the task easier. He should also try to keep the traps repaired. If he has extra time, he may want to bait the western trap, though
this isn't very important since Runners don't come there often. Of course, the two defenders may switch what their roles are in the middle of the game
depending on the supplies each person has with them. As for the collector, having two of this position is basically useless and should only be done if
the team is looking to rack up the points very high by having them collect a lot of eggs.
<P><br><br><H2>The Monsters</H2>
<P>The monsters in this game are fairly simple, and by knowing your position you will also know what the monsters related to your position do. Regardless,
I'm still including a small section that lists some information about each monster.
<P><b>Penance Ranger</b>: Penance Rangers appear from the entrance cave farthest to the west. These monsters are a little weaker than the Penance Fighters,
but they also attack at a range. The main problem with Rangers is that, if someone has very low health, they can't really hide from them. If they try
to out-run the Rangers, the Rangers will follow them shooting. If they try to hide on the Egg Launcher hill (where monsters can't follow), they'll still
walk up to the hill and fire at them. The Rangers can be killed by an attacker who is using the correct combat style.
<P><b>Penance Fighter</b>: Penance Fighters appear in the center-west entrance cave. Fighters are basically brute-force meleeing monsters. They will
follow you around attacking you with melee style. They are stronger than the Rangers, but if you run away or hide on the Egg Launcher hill, they won't
be able to attack you. Like the Rangers, the Fighters are killed by an attacker who is using the correct combat style.
<P><b>Penance Runner</b>: Penance Runners are the only monsters who don't attack at all. They appear from the center-east entrance cave.
They are killed by a defender who lures them onto a trap. The Runners
are attracted to food they see on the ground. If they like the food (i.e. it is the "weakness" food that the defender has been told), then they will
not move much for a few seconds and will search out new food. If they don't like the food, they'll run away and avoid eating food for a while. The Runners
are the least predictable Penance. They'll move around randomly and won't always go after nearby food as you would expect. Overall, they will try to
run southward towards the exit cave, though they're so random that they'll even go north sometimes, as well. While Runners can't attack you, they can
hurt you in another way: points. If one gets through the exit cave, you will lose a lot of points. Luckily, the defender can get some help. Unlike the other
Penance, Runners only have
5 health, no matter what wave you're on. That means that two red eggs or one red egg and two greens shot from the Egg Launcher are enough to kill a Runner.
<P><b>Penance Healer</b>: Penance Healers appear from the easter-most entrance cave. They are killed by having healers use their weakness food on them. Feeding
them their weakness food will do 4 damage and poison them for 4. They have about the same health as Penance Rangers and Fighters. While Healers can hurt
players, they're a lot less dangerous than the Rangers and Fighters. A Penance Healer can poison a player for 2 (this is more annoying than dangerous). However,
Penance Healers also have the ability to go around healing other monsters on the field, which can also get annoying from time to time.
<P><b>Queen Spawn</b>: Queen Spawn only appear once the Queen appears. The Spawn are level 63 and are a little weaker than the Penance Fighters and Rangers.
They do not poison and can only melee. However, there are a lot of them, and the Queen continuously makes more, so they do get annoying over time. Luckily,
Spawn can be killed by any role using any attack style, so they're a lot easier to kill than the Rangers and Fighters. You do not need to kill the Spawn in
order to defeat the Queen. However, it is recommended that you kill any Spawn that get close to your group, because if you don't, they will cause you damage
from their attacks.
<P><b>Penance Queen</b>: There was already an entire section dedicated to the Queen, so I won't go into much detail here. The Queen is level 209 and will
damage you in two ways. First, she uses a range attack that hits everyone. Second, she sends level 63 Queen Spawn after you. She is rather dangerous, but
with two diligent healers and moderate combat levels, you should be fine. Killing the Queen requires 7 or 8 Omega Eggs. The eggs are made by having the
collector pick up yellow eggs, the healer dipping them in poison, the attacker attaching spines, and the defender dipping them in poison.
I was planning on writing one myself, but work for school got in between 
Maybe a few other RVers on my list will tag along.
