OSRS Barbarian Assault - RuneScape Guide (2024)

None.

None.

Please note that you are not allowed to bring runes, arrows or a cape into the arena.

High combat levels.

Good armor and a weapon that uses all four combat stances (Accurate, Aggressive, Controlled, Defensive).

Travel to the Barbarian Outpost. Once there speak to Captain Cain to begin the games tutorial.

Table of Contents

  • Starting Off
  • Getting a Team
  • The Arena
  • The Roles
  • Team Pairs
  • The Monsters
  • The Dispensers
  • The Egg Launcher
  • The Horn of Glory
  • The Waves
  • Scoring Honour Points
  • Penance Queen
  • Rewards
  • Tactics/Suggestions
  • Combat levels of Penance Fighters and Rangers
  • Penance numbers per wave

Starting Off

Go just north-west of the Barbarian Outpost until you see the mini-game symbol. Talk to Captain Cain in the center of the room.

There is a long tutorial involved which will explain the different aspects of the game. You cannot skip this.

You may find it boring to read all that information - just skip through it all and come back to it later if needed - right click on Captain Cain and select Tutorial. At the end of the Tutorial, Captain Cain will offer you a Queen Tutorial Book. Accept it if you want, it simply reminds you of the order in which to prepare the Omega Egg used later in the game.

It is recommended that you bank all items apart from armor and weapons - runes and arrows are not allowed in, and it is wise to keep space for the items used in the game. There is a deposit box north of the ladder that leads down. It is also not allowed to take a cape into the arena since you will need that inventory slot for your role icon.

NOTE: Players can sell penance equipment back to the Barbarian Assault NPC for 80% of its original cost.

Once you are finished with the tutorial you can descend the ladder. In the basement, there are 11 rooms - ten of which are for specific waves, 1 through 10. The last one is one that anybody can go into. Please note, going in there will reset your wave count. All new players must start at Wave 1, in the northwest corner, and all other players will start back at the last wave room they left (You can find out this info in the blackboards, or by trying to enter a wave room. If you enter the incorrect one, then a message will appear telling you what wave room you may enter).

Getting a Team

In the wave rooms you can either choose to join a team someone is making, or set up your own. To start your own team take a recruitment scroll from the table. You can either add your role before adding other players or leave your role open, until you find out what role needs to be filled. Also, in order to recruit other players or have other players recruit you, 'Accept aid' must be turned on. In this way, if you are starting a team and don't want to be recruited, simply turn off 'Accept aid' and no other players will be able to try and recruit you. Each team must have 5 players;

  • An Attacker
  • A Defender
  • A Collector
  • A Healer
  • Another one of the above (Another healer is recommended).The roles of these positions are explained later.

Although it does not matter what the fifth person's role is, you will soon find that some roles are better off having an accomplice than others.

Once all the positions have been filled, the leader should descend the stairs. (There have been some problems with some of the teams - sometimes a player is repeatedly removed, this bug will hopefully be fixed soon).

The Arena

When you start the game your team will spawn by 4 dispensers - an attacker dispenser, a defender dispenser, a healer dispenser, and a collector dispenser. Each of the respective roles should stock up on supplies before going to battle. To the west of the dispensers is a pool for the healers, where they should fill their vials for healing their team mates. To the east of the dispensers is the Horn of Glory, which will be explained later. To the north of all this are two "Egg Hills" where the monsters cannot go, however the Penance Rangers can hit you. On each of these mounds is an Egg Launcher and an Egg Hopper. This will also be explained later. To the west and east of the arena are two buzz saw traps, for use by the Defender. This will be covered in "The Defender" section of the guide. Further north, are the Penance spawn points, where all the monsters will spew from. In the center of these are the hammer and log respawns for the Defender, however any other team member can pick up the items and drop them closer to the traps for the defender to use.

The Roles

The Attacker:

The Attacker plays a crucial part in this game as he/she has to kill the bulk of the monsters. It is strongly recommended that you are a high level if you want to be an Attacker in the later waves. It can be useful to have a second Attacker, especially if the first one is a low level, as to spread the monsters between you. Attackers are the only people that can attack Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers, but they cannot attack the other two types without use of the Egg Launcher. The majority of people playing this game will be an Attacker. Levelling up in the Attacker role result in bonus hits when you attack. (Starting off with +2 damage bonus)

The Collector:

Aside from the obvious fact that you need to shout instructions to the Attacker, he/she in turn instructs you on the type of egg to pick up from the monster drops. Each Penance drops 2 red, 2 blue and 2 green eggs when it dies, and you must be careful what type you pick up. Picking up the wrong type of egg makes it explode, resulting in 5 damage. In the earlier waves this is hardly something to worry about, but as you progress you will need to watch your health. When you start the game you will find a bag in your inventory for storing eggs. To begin with, it only holds 2 eggs, but will hold more as you level up. You can also hold eggs normally, they do not have to go in the bag. Once you have got as many eggs as you want, go to one of the Egg Hills and either use the eggs/bag on the Egg Hopper, or simply click on the Egg Hopper to load all the eggs it can carry. Another option for the eggs in your inventory, but not in the bag, is that you can put them in the Collector Dispenser and it will randomly convert the eggs to different type. If you choose to do this option, be warned that depending your Level, you will only have a certain percentage level of success. Levelling up in Collector will result in being able to store more eggs in your bag and having a higher percentage chance of converting eggs successfully.

The Defender:

This job is similar to deadfall traps in Hunter. You must take the foods from the dispenser and entice the Penance Runners into running onto the buzz saw traps by the Egg Hills. The Healer will tell you what kind of food must be used to bait the Runners. This can be a little tricky, considering that sometimes the Runners will simply run past the bait. If this happens, don't worry, just keep trying until you get it's attention. These traps are not invincible - after neatly slicing up two Runners it will break - when this happens simply go to the north of the arena and get a hammer and some logs (It may be useful to run and grab these at the start of the game to avoid much conflict.) Select repair on the traps to fix them. Another useful (but seldom used) job of the Defender is to barricade the Penance portals. To do this you simply need a hammer and some logs in your inventory. Simply select barricade on the portals to block them. Please note this is only temporary and will not last for long. It is not necessary to have a second Defender - one is plenty in this case. Levelling up in Defender will result in the improvement of your baiting skills, making Runners from further away "smelling" and following your trail.

The Healer:

Like the Defender, the Healer has two jobs to do in this game. First, you must heal any players who have been injured in combat or poisoned by the Penance Healers. Your second job is to dispose of the fourth Penance monster, the Penance Healer. Healing other players is done by getting vials from the dispenser and filling them in the pool to the south. If you yourself are injured you can simply drink from the pool to save time. The healing potion heals your team mates, restores some run energy and cures their poison. To kill the Penance Healers you must poison them. This is done by taking the food from the dispenser and using it on the Healers. This will poison them, however like all other poisons, this will reduce in strength over time. You must continue to feed them to kill them quickly. The Defender will tell you what kind of food must be used to kill the Healers. In my experience in the later waves it is far better to ignore the Healers to begin with and concentrate on healing your allies. Although it may seem better to have two Attackers to begin with, most people prefer to have two Healers instead in the later waves, as they can get incredibly hard, and the chance of a team mate dying is very high. Levelling up in Healer results in more health restored per potion.

Team Pairs

This game is impossible to win without co-operating with your team. There are two pairs amongst your team:

  • The Attacker and the Collector
  • The Defender and the Healer

These pairs must work together to help defeat the Penance. This is done by using your horn to tell each other what they must do. At the top right of your screen you will see 4 icons and phrases, they are:Wave number - This is not important to winning the game, however it is useful to know how hard the battle will be. Commanded tactics - This is the information sent to you from the other person in your pair. This is the attack/egg/bait/poison you must use, otherwise IT WILL NOT WORK!Commander tactics - This is the information you MUST send to the other person in your pair by right clicking on your horn and selecting the right type.Pair icon - This icon is simply to remind you who is the other person in your pair.

The Attacker and the Collector:

The Attacker has three different instructions that he/she can give to the Collector - red, green or blue egg. It is imperative that you tell the Collector the new egg color soon after it changes, otherwise he will be unable to do much aside from shouting at you to tell him the command.

The Collector on the other hand, has four different instructions, Attack Style 1,2,3 and 4. Each of these styles have different styles of one melee, one range and one magic attack. For magic it is earth, air, fire and water attacks. For range it is bronze, iron, steel and mithril arrows. For melee it is controlled, accurate, aggressive and defensive attack styles. It is imperative that you tell the Attacker the right style quickly, as incorrect attacks not only don't do any damage, they also rebound upon the Attacker.

The Defender and the Healer:

The Defender has three different instructions to tell the Healer. These are the three different kinds of foods to give to the Penance Healers, which are poisoned tofu, poisoned worms, and poisoned meat. As with the Collector, it is important this information gets through as the wrong food is useless.

The Collector has the same number of instructions as the Defender. He/She can either tell the Defender to bait with Tofu, Crackers or Worms. The wrong kind of bait will not attract the Runners, meaning they don't fall for the trap.

The Monsters

Penance Fighter:

Combat level - raises as the waves progress (see table at the bottom of the guide). Along with the Ranger, these two monsters make up the bulk of the attack force. Fairly slow and low levelled to begin with, these are easy to dispose of on their own but as they grow in mass you will struggle to survive. They are easier than the Rangers in the way that you can run from them and hide and they won't range you from a distance.

Penance Ranger:

Combat level - raises as the waves progress (see table at the bottom of the guide). Although a low level than the Fighter, these are more deadly as they can range you whilst you are on the Egg Hills and by the Horn of Glory. It is recommended to focus on these first as they are a bigger threat to you and your team mates, particularly in the later waves.

Penance Runner:

Combat level - UnavailableAs they cannot be killed by traditional methods they have not been given a level. They seem to be the less intelligent of the inferior Penances. They try to make a break for the caves where you have to lure them out.

Penance Healer:

Combat level - UnavailableNot particularly hard in terms of hitpoints - a few poisoned goods will soon kill it. However, it is the monster to watch out for at the beginning as it hunts you down and breathes on you, poisoned you for 2* After you have been poisoned it moves on to another of your team, and once all have been infected it will simply wander around aimlessly.

Penance Queen:

Combat level - 209A giant of a monster, it is impervious to all manners of traditional attack. The only way to defeat it is to create the omega egg, as explained below.

The Dispensers

At the spawn point there are four dispensers: a yellow one for Collectors, a green one for Healers, a blue one for Defenders, and a red one for Attackers.

The Collector dispenser does not actually dispense eggs, but rather, it randomly converts eggs put into the dispenser from one type to another. To do this, just use pull the dispenser arm and all the eggs not in your pouch that is in your inventory will be converted to another type of egg, either red, green, or blue. A message may then appear saying that some of the eggs have not made it through the conversion processs. The higher your Collector level the greater chance of success you will have in the conversion process.

The Healer dispenser gives out one empty vial per pull for filling the health restoration potion with. It also gives the Healer the poisoned tofu, meat and worms for killing the Penance Healers.

The Defender dispenser gives out the tofu, crackers, and worms to bait the Penance Runners.

The Attacker dispenser dispenses runes and arrows for players to attack the Penance Rangers and Penance Fighters with. By selecting the mage one you receive 50 air, fire, water, earth, mind, chaos, death and blood runes. Selecting the range one will give you 50 bronze, iron, steel and mithril arrows.

Please note that only the player assigned to the role can operate the appropriate dispenser. (Only Healers can use the Healer dispenser, etc.)

The Egg Launcher

Although the Egg Launcher can only be loaded by the Collector, anyone can fire it. There can only be 5 of each type of egg loaded at any time. The number of eggs left in the hopper are displayed in the interface window where you choose which egg to fire. Each of the eggs have different effects:

  • Green Eggs - Poisonous. When hitting a monster it will poison him, hitting it for 1.
  • Red Eggs - Explosive. By far the best (and most fun) of the three, hitting the monster will result in 3 damage. Useful against Penance Runners which only have 5 hitpoints.
  • Blue Eggs - Stunning. Not particularly as offensive as the other two, as it doesn't do any damage, however it does stun the monster for a short time, stopping it in it's tracks and preventing it from attacking.

Select the right egg you want to use on the right monster by simply clicking on it. The Egg Launcher will automatically fire the correct egg at the nearest monster of that type. If there are no more monsters of that type or they are all out of range, it will take you to the interface to shoot again. Eggs shown in gray like the poisoned one cannot be used as there are none of that type in the hopper. Omega eggs can only be fired in Wave 10 as they can only be made in that wave.

The Horn Of Glory

Tucked away from the brutal conflict in the middle, this is for anyone to help the rest of the team out. To blow the horn simply click on it. By blowing on it you have the option to instruct the all of your team mates what to do. Look at the correct instruction on the left and choose it from the lists on the right. This is helpful if you are playing with players who are new to this game and have not yet grasped the concept of blowing on their own horn. In the later levels I found that it is actually a very good place to hide if you are low on health, as the rangers don't tend to go to that area and if you go to the far east they find it hard to hit you. Other than that it is not particularly helpful.

The Waves

As mentioned before, there are 10 Waves in this mini-game, each increasingly harder than the last. Wave 1 is extremely easy, with the monsters few and far between. You should not find it hard to win with competent team mates. However, as you get to Wave 7,8 and 9, you will find that you are getting hit often and hit hard. This is when Healers come into their stride, and must heal the team. Remember, if one member of your team dies, the WHOLE team loses out, having to start the wave again.

When you complete a wave you have around 60 seconds to quit the team before automatically entering the next wave. This is done by either logging out or leaving the room. This countdown can be skipped though. If the recruiter leaves the room and enters again there will be no countdown and he can walk down the ladder and start the game. However if another team member leaves the room or logs out; the countdown is aborted. No worries though, if he/she is planning to come back the recruiter can walk down the ladder and start the game if the whole team is in the room. If he/she isn't planning to come back the recruiter will need to find a replacement for the lost team member. However, if the leader of a team leaves and is not planning to return, then the team is disbanded, and you will need to find a new team. The first 9 waves are exactly the same except the number and the levels of monsters. The 10th Wave, on the other hand, is slightly different...

Scoring Honour Points

Although when you first start playing the mini-game you may think that the amount of points you're scoring is a far cry from what you need to get the new Penance clothing or raise your levels, you will soon discover that as the waves progress and get harder, you will earn a lot more points than in previous rounds. The amount of points may seem random, but it isn't.

Click on Advanced Breakdown on the bottom right of the reward screen. If you look at the Advanced Breakdown you will notice that sometimes you will get points added and sometimes subtracted. Luckily you will not be able to lose more then 10 points. Also you will notice the part for the Individual Honour Points and the Team Honour Points. The Team Honour Points are all the points your team earned on the different parts. The Individual Honour Points are the points you got by yourself. More about that is said in the next part. This simply just means you gain or lose double points for your actions.

Attackers - High level Attackers will find they have more points than others, as the more Penance Fighters and Rangers you kill, the more points you can earn. However, if your Collector is not communicating well with you, you will find you're not getting as many points as you could - attacking monsters with the wrong style doesn't affect the creature but it will lower your honour points.

Collectors - Collectors gain their points by picking up the correct egg that the Attacker tells them. This also means that if the Collector selects the wrong egg, he will take some damage and lose some points. The amount of eggs that you see on the Advanced Breakdown are the eggs picked up minus the eggs you exploded. The eggs do not need to be put in the hopper to be counted for points.

Defenders - Defenders earn Honour Points by killing the Penance Runners and lose points by letting the Runners escape into the cave to the south. Defenders will lose points for the team (so double for themself) if they do not start setting up the bait quickly enough to entice the Runners away from the caves.

Healers - Healers are slightly different from the other three groups as they cannot lose points in the same way as they gain them. They gain points from healing their team mates or killing Penance Healers, but they lose points by using the incorrect poisoned food on the Penance Healers. The Defender and Healer need to co-operate and communicate just as well as the Attacker and Defender for the team to be sucessful

Egg Launcher - Killing monsters with the egg canon will not affect your Individual Honour Points but they will get added on the Team Honour Points.

As you can see it is very important to call your horn on time. The other players really need the information on time, or else they might do the wrong instruction, losing everyone points.

Please note that you cannot earn more points by having another person doing the same role as you - two Healers might have a total of 27 Team Honour Points, however Healer A may have scored 22 and Healer B 5 - in terms of Individual Honour Points A would receive 22 points but B would only score 5.Also note that it doesn't matter how good you do in wave 10. After this wave you will always get 80 honour points in your style and 5 points in the other styles. Therefore there is no advanced breakdown in the reward screen.

You can keep track of the number of points you have in each role by clicking on the blackboard in the centre of the room on surface level, by Captain Connad.

Penance Queen

When you finally battle your way through the 9th Wave, you will emerge in a slightly different arena from the ones you previously fought in. I would recommend to have two level 3+ healers. She can hit consistent 12's. It will still have all the components of the last arena - Dispensers, Egg Hills, Buzz Saws etc., but it will also have:

  • Poison pools
  • Spiked Mushrooms
  • Lava Pools

These are used to construct an Omega Egg, used below. There will also be a large wooden trapdoor in the middle of the arena where the Penance Queen will emerge from.

At the beginning of the wave enemies will pour out as before - it is required that you kill all of these before tackling the final obstacle, the Penance Queen. When she pops out, everyone should run to the spring to get healed by healers. If anyone is leaving the spring, a healer should follow him/her. She is impervious to all manners of normal attack - Using range, melee, and magic on her is completely pointless. The only weapon that will kill her is the Omega Egg, first made by a great warrior called Chad many years ago. This weapon is produced from her own offspring - a yellow egg she will lay periodically. The Collector must pick up this egg and give it to the Healer by using it on him/her. The Healer then must go to one of the Poison Pools and use the egg on it. This will poison the egg giving you a poisoned egg. You will notice that the egg has developed green veins around the shell. The Healer must now use it on the Attacker to continue the weapon. The Attacker must then add spikes to the egg by using it on one of the Spiked Mushrooms or picking the spikes off then adding to the egg. It will now have a number of brown spikes as well. The Attacker should then pass it on to the Defender, who must dip it in a Lava Pool (by using the egg on it) to heat it up enough to harm the queen. The Defender must now give it back to the Collector who will load it into the hopper, and fire it at the queen. This must be repeated until the queen dies, where you will have finished the game. The average Omega Egg count it takes to kill her is 8-10 eggs. Congratulations!

Rewards

For each successful wave you complete, you will earn some points. These points can be redeemed back on the surface, north of the ladder. Talk to Commander Connad to claim your rewards. There are three different types of rewards - level raisers, item rewards and gambles.

Note: you can not save more than 500 points in any one role.

If you want to go back into the arena it might be a good idea to raise the type of role you use. (Attacker, Collector etc) It costs 200 points to raise your level, however it is worth it.

Skill Raisers:

The amount of points required for levelling up a skill works out at 100 times the next level. For instance, to progress to Level 2 you need 200 points and another 300 for Level 3 etc.

Attacker Rewards:

  • Level 1 +1 damage on Penance
  • Level 2 +2 damage on Penance
  • Level 3 +3 damage on Penance
  • Level 4 +4 damage on Penance
  • Level 5 +5 damage on Penance

Collector Rewards:

  • Level 1 Pouch holds 2 eggs
  • Level 2 Pouch holds 4 eggs
  • Level 3 Pouch holds 6 eggs
  • Level 4 Pouch holds 7 eggs
  • Level 5 Pouch holds 8 eggs

Defender Rewards:

  • Level 1 Increase range that Penance runners search for food (Level 1 Lure range of 4)
  • Level 2 Increase range that Penance runners search for food (Level 2 Lure range of 5)
  • Level 3 Increase range that Penance runners search for food (Level 3 Lure range of 6)
  • Level 4 Increase range that Penance runners search for food (Level 4 Lure range of 8)
  • Level 5 Increase range that Penance runners search for food (Level 5 Lure range of 10)

Healer Rewards:

  • Level 1 Able to heal 10 Hitpoints per dose
  • Level 2 Able to heal 15 Hitpoints per dose
  • Level 3 Able to heal 20 Hitpoints per dose
  • Level 4 Able to heal 25 Hitpoints per dose
  • Level 5 Able to heal 35 Hitpoints per dose

To get to level 5 of a role you need 1400 of points (of that certain role). You also need to killed the Penance Queen at least once and have 95k (95000 coins) to buy the Granite platebody.

Tactics/Suggestions

  • Use your fifth player wisely. Collectors and Defenders can survive with just one person. Attackers and Healers, on the other hand, could do with some help. Particularly in the later waves, you decision of the person's role could be the difference between success and failure.
  • If you are recruiting, use your intuition. Think what is more important - healing other team mates or killing the monsters.
  • Consider your level when you select a role. As said before, only high levels should attempt to be an Attacker in the later waves. If you are low, choose a different role which involves less combat - you will still get points for being a Collector or a Defender.
  • If you want to have a good team, grab a few friends before going into the game. The more you know each other, the better you will be able to co-operate. This game is about teamwork!
  • Spend your points wisely! It may seem tempting to try and save up for a high gamble, but think about your level. The higher it is, the easier it will be to earn more points.
  • Be patient! If a member of your team is new to the game, take time to help him/her. If you are reading this guide you are probably new yourself, and wouldn't appreciate someone screaming at you to do something.
  • Stock up, but be quick. At the start it's best to grab some supplies instead of just rushing in there. Mages and rangers in particular should take time to arm up. A mage myself I like to get around 100-150 runes before attacking the enemy.
  • Although when using one type of mage attacked it is better to use a fire staff, water staff etc, you will be using all four elements, meaning you will run out or airs before you do the others. This means you should bring an air staff to avoid running back to the dispensers too many times.
  • As Penance Healers only attack you when you are poisoned, it might be worth curing one person to be "bait". The Healer will come to that person where the your Healer can attack him, to save your team mate running all over the map.
  • As mentioned before, bring two Healers in the later waves to avoid dying and having to start the wave again!
  • Runescape recommends bringing the Queen Tutorial Book received after the tutorial, however it's not much help. Only bring it if you have a very bad memory.
  • This is a safe mini-game, so bring your best armor. There's no reason to play without some protection.
  • If you have two Attackers, it is a good idea to have one warrior and one ranger/mage. This means that the warrior can run out at the start and hold the enemies whilst the other one stocks up.
  • Although at the start you may not get a lot of points, as the waves get harder you will find that your rewards are much greater. So, be patient, keeping playing and you will soon find that you can get that cool new armor!
  • The Defender has one of the hardest roles and the only time-critical one. You must kill the Runners before they exit through the cave or you lose points, and it doesn't matter if the Defender kills them, so the Egg Launcher should only be used on Runners (use the explosive eggs only, or stun if that's all you have) first. After that, target the Penance Healers with poison eggs mainly.
  • The Attacker should try and kill the Rangers first as they are the most dangerous to other members of the team, and they can prevent operation of the Egg Launcher.
  • The Attacker should be busy killing enemies and shouldn't have time to use the Egg Launcher until all of them are dead. The Collector should be getting eggs and shouldn't waste time using the Egg Launcher. The Healer should be busy healing and poisoning Penance Healers and shouldn't waste time using the Egg Launcher. The Defender must kill Runners quickly and using the trap is not required, so he should use the Egg Launcher if there are no Runners near the trap.
  • The only way to make maximum points is to communicate the orders to your teammates. They change every 20 seconds, so if you know it's about to change, Attacker should not start a new fight, Collector should hold off picking up that last egg, and Healer should heal someone instead of trying to poison.

I hope that you found this guide useful and will have many hours of happy Penance-slaying. Enjoy!

Combat levels of Penance Fighters and Rangers

Wave # Penance Fighter Combat Level Penance Ranger Combat Level
1 30 21
2 32 25
3 37 33
4 42 38
5 47 43
6 56 51
7 61 57
8 64 68
9 72 77
10 61 57

Numbers of Penance per Wave

Wave ## of Penance Rangers# of Penance Fighters # of Penance Healers# of Penance Runners
14422
24533
36534
46644
56655
67666
77776
88777
98889
OSRS Barbarian Assault - RuneScape Guide (2024)
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