Barbarian Assault/Strategies
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This page gives an in-depth tutorial for each of the roles in Barbarian Assault. This page also gives extra information on obtaining maximum points and how to achieve faster queen kills. The article assumes very basic knowledge of the minigame; visit the gameplay section of the main article for a general overview.
Before starting a role, it's recommended to first read the universal strategies section below, and then read the explanation of the specific role. Players looking for additional strategies can see the advanced strategies article.
Equipment
General information
While playing Barbarian Assault, players will suffer melee, ranged or poison damage from the Penance monsters. As such, wearing melee armour with both high melee and ranged defence bonus is recommended. Roles other than the attacker do not need a weapon, although an Imcando hammer can be useful for a defender, as it removes the need to collect a hammer for repairing traps. Attackers should refer to the attacker section below.
Many players wear Penance armour for visual appeal or as a sign of experience in the minigame. Players struggling to get invited to teams may find it worthwhile to wear Penance armour in the lobby; note however that it has no additional effect on the monsters in-game.
During Wave 10, the Penance Queen will attack with a ranged attack when distant and a melee attack when in range. She can also use a strong group ranged attack at any time, even if players are not in her view, so using armour with high Ranged defence is recommended for the final wave. To help support healers, players can heal on the queen spawn with the Guthan's set effect, or the Saradomin Godsword or Toxic Blowpipe special attacks. Additionally, jars of Sunlight moths can be brought and released to heal 8 hitpoints for the player and up to 3 adjacent teammates.
Weapons for non-attackers
While non-attackers don't need weapons, they can still benefit from filling their weapon and shield slots. A Dinh's bulwark is recommended if the player has a high enough Agility level to regenerate run energy fast enough. For a much lighter alternative, any Rune or better shield (ideally a fully charged Dragonfire shield) can be used alongside a Zamorakian hasta to provide decent crush and ranged defence bonuses. If those are unavailable, players can opt for Excalibur, a Rune/Dragon longsword, or the Ivandis/Blisterwood flail to still gain a +2 crush defence bonus. Excalibur also has an additional benefit of providing a Defence-boosting special attack which can be used at the start of every wave.
Universal strategies
The following tips apply to players in all roles:
Lobbies and planning
- Having two collectors or defenders is almost never necessary. A standard team usually starts with two attackers, and can switch to two healers around wave 7-9.
- After defeating the Penance Queen once, consider completing the hard Kandarin Diary as you will get 10% more points if completed.
Main waves
- Calling fast is the most important part of Barbarian Assault. You can call by right-clicking the horn in your inventory and selecting the correct option. The information you need to call changes every 30 seconds.
- The ear icon in the top right corner shows you what to do, and the mouth icon shows what you need to call to your teammate(s).
- Never run down the centre lane at the start of the wave. Attackers and Collectors run west; Healers and Defenders run east. Always stay on these sides at the start of each wave to avoid drawing aggression and pulling Penance away from the players who need to kill them.
- Penance runners always have 5 Hitpoints, and thus die with any combination of shooting red/green eggs that adds up to at least 5.
- Killing penance runners will often cut down the times in games. If the defender is skilled enough to not need assistance, red and green eggs should be fired at the Penance healers instead. Fighters and rangers should be the final monsters killed with eggs, and only if the other monsters are all dead.
- Avoid using blue eggs, as penance are un-attackable and take no damage from poison or the egg launcher until no longer stunned, severely slowing down waves.
Fighting the queen
- Stand by the healing pool so that the healer does not have to run as much. Also, avoid standing on top of each other, so the healer does not have to right click to select a healing target.
- Remember the order for passing eggs: Collector -> Healer -> Attacker -> Defender -> Collector (commonly abbreviated as C.H.A.D.(C.)).
- It is recommended to have 2 healers for the fight with the queen, one to help with the omega egg, and one to heal others, as killing both the penance healers and constantly healing team members will take longer time than the other roles. Those with Defence levels of less than 80 should be wearing armour to avoid death.
Spamming omega eggs
The most basic method of killing the queen involves all players working together to create 8 or so omega eggs. After the eggs are created, the collector loads the eggs in the egg hopper and everybody fires the egg launcher. However, there is an often-used method to greatly reduce the amount of omega eggs needed, known as "spamming."
Before trying this method, the collector should make sure that some normal eggs are loaded into the hopper, so that the cannon interface is visible before the omega egg is loaded. Once 1-3 eggs are made, the defender will give one egg to the collector, to load, and will hold on to the other two. The following steps are then taken:
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Everybody runs towards the cannon together. |
| 2 | The collector uses one egg on the egg hopper. There should only be one finished egg in the collector's inventory at a time. |
| 3 | Everybody except the team leader (the one who created the team with the scroll) and the collector open the cannon interface. |
| 4 | Everybody except the team leader and the collector now begin spam clicking the omega egg. |
| 5 | The spam clicking will cause the game to register multiple hits to the queen. |
| 6 | While 1 egg is typically enough, mistakes can cause more eggs to be needed. Repeat steps 1-5 with the second and third egg as necessary. |
Note that loading multiple omega eggs at once does not mean the team has longer to click and fire. Because there is no delay when firing omega eggs, even a hopper full of 5 eggs will likely be depleted after a single tick of spam clicking.
Advanced teams will refer to the team leader as the scroller, and the rest of the team as shooters during this part of the minigame.
Stalling omega eggs
Spamming can be improved if the team leader uses what's known as an animation stall, or an action with a long animation. Because the minigame completes actions in sequence and bases its sequence around the team leader, if the leader does an action with a long animation during loading of the eggs, the omega egg will not be depleted from the cannon until the animation ends. As such, the longer the animation, the more hits to the queen. Note that only animations that can be used in combat will work for this purpose.
Here is a list of common stalls that are used:
| Stall | Extra ticks | Extra fire time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equipping a mind shield or elemental shield | 1 | 0.6 seconds | Can be spammed if you bring two shields. |
| Studying Nuff's certificate | 2 | 1.2 seconds | Must be studied, not read. |
| Drinking a shrink-me-quick potion | 3 | 1.8 seconds | Will not be consumed on use. |
Wave information
The first number shows the number of monsters that initially spawn, and the second shows the monsters held in reserve; for example, on Wave 2, two runners spawn initially, and once the first runner is killed, another (the third) will spawn.
Creatures can be killed in any order; the first ones to spawn do not need to be killed first to allow others to spawn.
| Wave | Fighters | Fighter HP | Rangers | Ranger HP | Healers | Healer HP | Runners | Runner HP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2+2 | 28 | 2+2 | 20 | 2+0 | 27 | 2+0 | 5 |
| 2 | 2+3 | 29 | 3+1 | 28 | 3+0 | 32 | 2+1 | 5 |
| 3 | 5+0 | 32 | 3+3 | 29 | 2+1 | 37 | 2+2 | 5 |
| 4 | 5+1 | 37 | 3+3 | 34 | 3+1 | 43 | 3+1 | 5 |
| 5 | 3+3 | 38 | 5+1 | 41 | 4+1 | 49 | 4+1 | 5 |
| 6 | 5+1 | 49 | 5+2 | 50 | 4+2 | 55 | 4+2 | 5 |
| 7 | 5+2 | 50 | 6+1 | 50 | 4+3 | 60 | 5+1 | 5 |
| 8 | 7+0 | 55 | 5+3 | 54 | 5+2 | 67 | 5+2 | 5 |
| 9 | 6+2 | 56 | 7+1 | 58 | 6+2 | 76 | 5+4 | 5 |
| 10 | 5+2 | 50 | 6+1 | 50 | 4+3 | 60 | 5+1 | 5 |
Team leader
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The team leader, also known as the scroller or main, is the player who creates the team using the scroll. During a game of Barbarian Assault, the team leader has a special function in addition to the function of their role. Team leaders can choose to play as any of the four roles.
The team leader can quick-start each wave by right-clicking the ladder. Furthermore, when the team leader is stalled (e.g. by an animation), this impacts seemingly unrelated aspects of the game; in advanced strategies, this can be used to speed up the wave, as elaborated upon below.
See team leader strategies for more information on tools the team leader can use, such as stalling and ordering the team for efficiency.
Attacker
Attacker overview
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The attacker (colour in-game: RED)'s job is to use combat to fight Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers. The attacker must use the style called by the collector in order to attack the Penance creatures, or else the attacker will take 2 damage, and deal no damage to the enemy monster. In addition, all players receive a penalty in the number of points received at the end of the wave, losing up to 20 points per wave for the attacker, and 10 points per wave for the other team members.
The style the attacker needs to use is displayed in the top-right corner of the screen when the collector uses their horn and calls the attack style. As the style call changes every 30 seconds, the collector must call out the new attack style every 30 seconds to keep the attacker capable of fighting. In addition, the attacker must also use their horn to call out the egg colour for the collector at the start of the wave, repeating the call every 30 seconds with the new egg colour.
| Attack style | Arrow type | Spell type |
|---|---|---|
| Controlled | File:Bullet arrow.pngBullet |  Wind
|
| Accurate | File:Field arrow.pngField |  Water
|
| Aggressive | File:Blunt arrow.pngBlunt |  Earth
|
| Defensive | File:Barbed arrow.pngBarbed |  Fire
|
Note: for players using Ranged, the arrow colours correspond to the spell type, which is often easier to check than to read the arrows' names.
Gear for attackers
In Barbarian Assault, Ranged is significantly more effective than attacking with melee, even if the player's Ranged level is lower than their Attack and Strength level; this is because of the high ranged strength bonus of the provided arrows. Magic is not recommended due to powered staves being unusable and the minigame only allowing runes for standard spellbook combat spells. The following table shows recommended setups:
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 | File:Bullet arrow.png | File:Field arrow.png | File:Blunt arrow.png |
| File:Barbed arrow.png | |||
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| File:Bullet arrow.png | File:Field arrow.png | File:Blunt arrow.png |
| File:Barbed arrow.png | |||
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- ^ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Only when using full Void Knight equipment.
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Team briefing
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The following steps can be taken by attackers so teams work more efficiently by communicating before starting a round:
- If there are two attackers, check with the other attacker and decide on an attacking plan. One player should focus on rangers and one on fighters, to prevent wasting hits on the same enemy.
- If working with new players, remind your collector to only collect eggs in the north-west corner, where you'll be fighting the Penance. This makes communication easier between the two of you, and also lets the collector take some of the damage from the attacking creatures, leading to a smaller chance of death for the attacker.
- Check with your healer if there's a plan for if your hitpoints are low. The best meeting point is the safespot behind the egg launcher on the western hill.
Waves 1-9 as attacker
The following is a list of steps for the first nine waves. Attackers should always run along the western way to reach the north-west corner of the arena when first leaving the starting area. This is where the fighters and rangers will spawn, and engaging them here will avoid luring monsters that are being fought by other teammates.
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Use the attacker horn to call the egg colour listed in the top-right corner of the screen. |
| 2 | If using Ranged or Magic, collect arrows or runes from the attacker item machine. |
| 3 | Drink potions if necessary. |
| 4 | Run along the western cannon to the northwest corner of the map, where the enemy creatures spawn. |
| 5 | Check the attack style listed in the top-right of the screen. |
| 6 | Attack the Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers. |
| 7 | Stop attacking when the call changes, every 30 seconds. |
| 8 | When the new attack style is called, continue killing the Penance creatures. |
| 9 | Once all the Penance Fighters and Rangers are dead, run to the east egg launcher. |
| 10 | If the collector has loaded eggs into the launcher, shoot red eggs at the Penance Runners (inexperienced teams) or Penance Healers (experienced teams), dealing 3 damage.
If there are no more red eggs, use green eggs instead to deal 1 damage. |
| 11 | If/when all runners/healers are dead, shoot the other penance that are still alive. |
| 12 | Get ready for the next round. |
- If there is no attack style listed in the assault interface, ask the collector to use their horn to call out the attack style. Never attack a creature unless the correct attack style is selected, or else you and your teammates will suffer significant point penalties.
- If your combat stats are low (under 80), consider killing all the Penance Rangers first, and then killing all the Penance Fighters after to minimise the damage received. If your combat stats are high, alternate between killing the Penance Fighters and Rangers to kill them more quickly.
- Blue eggs stun monsters and should generally not be used except on rare cases involving Penance Runners.
Surviving longer as attacker
Attackers struggling to survive may benefit from the following tips:
- It is a good idea for the collector to perform their role near the attacker, in order to reduce the amount of damage the attacker takes.
- Penance Rangers deal more damage than Penance Fighters, so killing all Rangers first will result in less damage being dealt, as well as less creatures being spawned at the same time.
- At low health, you can run onto the west egg launcher hill, where Penance Fighters won't attack you. When standing behind the launcher, Rangers cannot attack you either. However, this will not block the Penance Queen's range attacks, which can reach you anywhere in the arena.
- Always remember to communicate with your healer by right-clicking the horn and selecting the Medic option, and/or through chat.
Wave 10 as attacker
The initial strategy for this wave is the same as before, except you should stay even more west, and there is no point penalty for using the wrong style (although you still receive 2 damage per wrong attack, and no damage will be done if the wrong style is used). As there is no east egg launcher, eggs can only be launched from the west hill.
When all Penance are killed, however, attackers must now use spikes from the petrified mushrooms around the battlefield on the omega egg. The collection of spikes can be done early, before the queen spawns.
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Call, stock up on ammunitions, drink potions, and fight the Penance as normal. |
| 2 | Use any red or green eggs in the launcher to help teammates, if needed. |
| 3 | Wait for the queen to spawn. |
| 4 | Collect spikes from the petrified mushrooms as soon as the queen appears. |
| 5 | Return to near the healing pool and kill the spawns as they appear. |
| 6 | As soon as you receive the poisoned eggs from the healer, use the spikes on them. |
| 7 | Give the spiked/pois. eggs to the defender by using them on the player. |
| 8 | Once the eggs are loaded into the egg launcher, launch them at the Penance Queen to kill her. |
Other role information
Attacker points
Compared to the other 3 roles, the attacker can collect the most points per round. Without any bonuses or penalties, 370 points are earned across all 10 waves. At the same time, however, the attacker can easily rack up penalties; every attack using the wrong style will incur a 1 point penalty for the collectors, healers and defenders, and a 2 point penalty for the attackers, resulting in up to 10 (20 for the attacker) points lost per wave.
Attackers are allowed to make one free mistake per wave without penalty. This should not be taken as a sign to be careless, as a few seconds of inattention each wave with incorrect attacks can easily lead to a 10 or more point penalty every wave, significantly reducing the points earned.
Wave 10 provides a fixed reward of 80 points in the player's role and 5 points in the other 3 roles, and there are no penalties for incorrect attacks.
Attacker levels
As a level 1 attacker, every attack using the correct style will deal 1 bonus damage, even if the attack fails the accuracy roll. This scales up to a 5 bonus damage at level 5. Therefore, using fast weapons such as Ranged weapons provide the greatest bonus damage.
| Level | Honour Points | File:Attacker icon.png Attacker bonus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | N/A | +1 bonus damage |
| 2 | 200 | +2 bonus damage |
| 3 | 300 | +3 bonus damage |
| 4 | 400 | +4 bonus damage |
| 5 | 500 | +5 bonus damage |
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Penance mechanics
Penance healers spawn in the north-east corner of the map and target players that are visible. As such, staying far to the west prevents the Penance healers from seeing you and means that they have a greater tendency to stay in the north-east corner. This reduces the amount of distance the healer role has to run. If the attacker and collector have decent combat stats, they should always start the wave standing to the west side of the second cave from the west, and to the west of first cave if possible.
As fighters and rangers retarget a new player several times per minutes, by staying to the west, they are less likely to wander away to the north-east and target the healer or defender, making it easier for the attacker to kill all the enemies. The only drawback to this method is that it comes at the cost of increased damage; attackers and collectors should plan accordingly.
Special attacks
The magic shortbow (i)'s special attack can be used to deal a bit of additional damage to the creatures. However, if available, Dinh's bulwark can be used when the attack style is Accurate to deal a large amount of damage to up to 10 creatures at a time.
Collector
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Collector overview
The collector (colour in-game: YELLOW)'s job is to gather eggs dropped by killed Penance creatures. The collector loads these eggs into the egg hopper, which then allows any teammate to fire the egg launcher and damage Penance. The collector is given a collection bag at the start of each round to store eggs in, but the eggs can also be stored in the inventory if the bag is filled up.
There are three different coloured eggs: Red, Blue, and Green. At any given time, only one colour of egg can be picked up; this colour will be called by the attacker every 30 seconds. Collectors must also call to the attacker, to communicate which attack style should be used. Note also that both cannons share the same ammo pool; loading one will load them both.
Eggs will explode and deal 5 damage if the player picks up the wrong-coloured egg. This will also reduce the total numbers of eggs collected by 1.
Gear for collectors
Collectors should run north-west with attackers to help stay away from Penance healers. Doing so will expose them to attack by Penance fighters and rangers; as such, collectors should be prepared to take some damage, and wear armour accordingly.
Waves 1-9 as collector
The following is a list of steps for the first nine waves.
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Use the collector horn to call the attack style listed in the top-right corner of the screen. |
| 2 | Run along the western cannon to the northwest corner of the map, where the enemy creatures spawn. |
| 3 | Check the egg colour listed in the top-right of the screen. |
| 4 | Wait for Penance Fighters or Penance Rangers to be killed. |
| 5 | Pick up the appropriate eggs as the dying Penance drop them. |
| 6 | Stop collecting when the call changes, every 30 seconds. |
| 7 | When the new egg colour is called, continue picking up eggs. |
| 8 | When you have a full inventory, run to the west egg launcher. |
| 9 | Load eggs into the egg hopper. |
| 10 | As needed, shoot red eggs at the Penance Runners (inexperienced teams) or Penance Healers (experienced teams), dealing 3 damage.
If there are no more red eggs, use green eggs instead to deal 1 damage. |
| 11 | If/when all runners/healers are dead, shoot the other penance that are still alive. |
| 12 | Get ready for the next round. |
- In downtime, grab as many correct eggs as you can, as more eggs collected means more points for you. If your inventory is full of eggs, either load them into the cannon or destroy them by shift-clicking, and carry on picking up more. Destroying eggs instead of loading will not penalise you.
Surviving longer as collector
Collectors struggling to survive may benefit from the following tips:
- Performing the collector role near the attacker will reduce the amount of damage taken by splitting aggression between the players.
- Run onto the west egg launcher hill at low health, as Penance Fighters are unable to reach the player on it. Note that this will not block the Penance Queen on Wave 10.
- Always remember to communicate with your healer through chat or by right-clicking the horn and selecting the Medic option.
Wave 10 as collector
Wave 10 starts the same as with previous waves, except you should stay even more west, and this time there is no east egg launcher and eggs can only be launched from the west hill.
After the queen has appeared, the Collector's role is relatively easy; during this wave, the collector must run around the field collecting the yellow eggs left by the Queen. They must then hand these to (use them on) the healer.
Unlike other roles, after the eggs have been handed off, collectors will receive them back from defenders as omega eggs, and must then load them into the hopper to be fired at the Penance queen. As many as eight completed omega eggs may be needed to kill the queen, but it can be done with just one by spam-clicking at once with one egg in the hopper.
Note: Since collectors must run near the Penance Queen to obtain the yellow eggs, the healer may have to leave the spring to heal them.
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Call, collect eggs, and launch eggs at the Penance as normal. |
| 2 | Make sure there's at least one red, green, or blue egg loaded that isn't fired at Penance. |
| 3 | Wait for the queen to spawn. |
| 4 | Collect yellow eggs from near the queen as soon as they appear. |
| 5 | Run to the healer and hand them (use on them) the yellow eggs. |
| 6 | As soon as you receive the omega eggs from the defender, run to the hill. |
| 7 | Load them into the hopper. |
| 8 | Once the eggs are loaded into the egg launcher, launch them at the Penance Queen to kill her. |
Proper loading for spam-clicking
Once players are comfortable trying the spam-clicking method (explained under #Fighting the queen), they should check their teammates are familiar with the way it works. When all your teammates are at the cannon ready to spam-click fire, click the omega eggs in your inventory and USE them individually on the hopper (DO NOT CLICK ON THE HOPPER TO LOAD ALL EGGS AT ONCE); this will add one single egg at a time, making spam clicking more effective.
As mentioned above, make sure there's at least one egg of any colour loaded into the hopper before firing the omega egg. This should be done before the queen spawns. Doing so is necessary to keep the cannon interface active for your teammates so that they can spam-click fire the omega eggs.
Other collector strategies
Collector points
The collector gets the lowest amount of base points per round of 10 waves: 278 points. However, every 4.35 eggs collected provides all collectors with 2 honour points, and other team mates with 1 honour point. Therefore, collect every correct egg you can until the wave ends, while still making sure to call and load the hopper as needed. Note: Collecting eggs while your inventory is full will decrease the amount of points earned.
If you have a full inventory but cannot deposit into the egg launcher due to it being full, shift-click the eggs in your inventory to destroy them. Eggs are destroyed from first to last position in your inventory, so it is recommended to repeatedly shift-click the last egg of the colour you wish to destroy. Eggs in the collection bag are not destroyed. During gameplay, it is important that the egg launcher is used to kill runners whenever possible, in order to prevent high penalties from runners that get away; this should be prioritized over points.
Points received for collector are "eggs picked up, minus eggs exploded." As such, any penalties incurred can be offset by collecting more eggs. Wave 10 provides a fixed reward of 80 points in the player's role and 5 points in the other 3 roles, and there are no bonuses or penalties for egg collection. However, make sure to always have at least 1 egg loaded in the egg launcher in order to spam omega eggs.
Collector levels
Levelling up the collector role allows the player to hold more eggs in their bag, as well as allowing the player to convert their eggs into different colours. At a high collector level, this can be used to convert blue and green eggs into into red eggs, getting red eggs into the cannon faster than a normal level 1 collector who has to wait for the cycle to give them red eggs organically. This conversion function can be very helpful if the defender is either away-from-keyboard or is inexperienced at their job. Red explosives can save a lot of points for your team when used on runners.
While the egg launcher is less effective against monsters other than runners (except, of course, omega eggs used to kill the Penance Queen) due to their high HP, if Penance are hit by a large amount of poison and/or explosive eggs, it does help. Hitting any penance with a red egg will also damage penance within a small radius around them, maximising damage per egg fired.
| Level | Honour Points |  Collector
|
|---|---|---|
| 1 | N/A | Bag holds 2 eggs
No conversion |
| 2 | 200 | Bag holds 4 eggs
Conversion chance ~20% |
| 3 | 300 | Bag holds 6 eggs
Conversion chance ~40% |
| 4 | 400 | Bag holds 7 eggs
Conversion chance ~60% |
| 5 | 500 | Bag holds 8 eggs
Conversion chance ~80% |
Defender
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Defender overview
The defender (colour in-game: BLUE)'s job is to prevent Penance runners from escaping through the tunnel on the south wall of the arena. This is done by laying bait on the ground that attracts runners, leading to traps that kill them. Each runner that successfully escapes will penalise the team by 3 points, for a capped maximum loss of 10 points per wave (doubled to 20 for the defender). Escaped runners will also respawn at the northern caves, meaning the team must deal with them to finish the wave rather than simply let them pass.
The bait the defender must use will be displayed in the top right corner of the defender's screen when the healer uses their horn to call. To use bait, the defender must left click (not shift click, or it will be destroyed) the bait in their inventory to drop it on the ground.
The bait that's currently called is known as "good" bait, and the other two baits are known as "bad" bait. When dropped, good bait will always be "good" and bad bait will always be "bad," even after the call changes.
| Name | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| "Good" bait | The bait that's currently called. | Worms  would mean that the worms are good bait, and will remain "good" after being dropped.
|
| "Bad" bait | Either bait that is not currently called. | Tofu would mean that the crackers and worms are bad bait, and will remain "bad" after being dropped.
|
See the baiting runners section below to further understand the role of "good" and "bad" bait.
Defender points
Unlike the other three roles, the bait used at any given time does not affect the points earned. There is no point bonus for dropping "good" bait, and there is no penalty for dropping "bad" bait; rather, both baits will affect the behaviour of the runners. The only function that explicitly requires "good" bait is activating the trap, as the runner must eat "good" bait at the trap to be killed.
Gear and inventory for defenders
Defenders should be using the east trap, and therefore be out of range from most fighters and rangers. However, it's still possible for them to make their way to the eastern side if not killed fast enough by the attacker. Additionally, melee armour with high ranged Defence is still recommended for surviving the queen's attacks on wave 10. Defenders should have no extra items filling up their inventory, so that the maximum number of inventory slots can be filled with bait.
The Imcando hammer is useful for defenders, as it allows them to skip grabbing a hammer each wave; players who don't have it can simply pick up a hammer, although this will make the following strategies slightly more time-sensitive.
Baiting runners
When no bait is in range, penance runners will walk 5 tiles in any direction except north, with a strong preference to the south. This is known as running. When any bait (good or bad) is within range (4 tiles for level 1, 5 tiles for level 2-5) after a runner stops running, it will search for a bait to eat. Runners find bait by searching surrounding chunks, with a preference for bait that is east and north. This is not necessarily the same bait as the one within range. If multiple bait is found in the same chunk, it will then choose the most recently dropped bait.
Using a line of bait, the runner can be lured to one of the traps on the east and west sides of the arena. Because runners spawn east and prefer bait to the east as well, it is considerably easier to only lure runners to the east trap.
"Good" and "bad" bait have different effects on runners when eaten:
- When a runner eats "good" bait it will stand still or run a few tiles, then search for more bait.
- When a runner eats "bad" bait it will run north several tiles unless it's already north of the trap, in which case it will run south. It will then run again, and only after that can search for more bait. There is no point penalty when a runner eats "bad" bait.
Players can use "good" bait to lead runners to traps, and "bad" bait to lure runners back north if they have gotten past the line of bait.
Using traps
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When a runner eats "good" bait on or surrounding a trap, the runner will be killed and one of the trap's charges will be depleted. Unused or repaired traps have two charges, meaning the traps can kill two runners before reaching zero and breaking. When the trap breaks it must be repaired to kill any more runners.
Traps can be repaired with the hammer and logs found in the arena. The logs re-spawn every 6 seconds, and can be found at the center-north end of the arena. A trap can also be repaired with either zero charges or with one charge remaining, but the latter action should only be done if the defender has extra logs or needs the trap to have 2 charges for a multi-kill.
The defender will need a differing number of logs on each wave for enough trap charges to kill the runners:
| Wave | Runners | Logs needed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 3 | 4 | 1 |
| 4 | 4 | 1 |
| 5 | 5 | 2 |
| 6 | 6 | 2 |
| 7 | 6 | 2 |
| 8 | 7 | 3 |
| 9 | 9 | 4 |
| 10 | 6 | 2 |
Barricades
The hammer and logs can also be used to build barricades in front of the northern caves. These barricades will block all Penance from coming through until they're destroyed. Building barricades is not recommended for practiced teams, since barricades dramatically slow down the wave. Low-combat and inexperienced teams may find them useful on later waves, especially for overwhelmed attackers.
Multi-killing
File:Penance Multi-kill.mp4 Multi-killing means less time is spent repairing, fewer logs may be needed for the wave, and the chance of runners eating each other's bait (causing them to run away) is significantly lower.
The easiest way to multi-kill requires the defender drop bait by the trap and stand on top of it. With a player is standing on top of it, runners can not pass through the player to eat the bait, and thus get stuck. The runner trap must be fully repaired with 2 charges for this method to work.
Once the runners have gathered around the bait, the defender should step one tile to the south and stand there. This will first let one runner eat at the trap and die, followed by the rest of the stack shortly after. Some runners in the stack may move away from the trap during the multi-kill and thus not die, but they can be dealt with by stepping back on the bait and setting up for another multi-kill (the runners will target the remaining bait in the pile).
Other players running through the defender will also cause the runners to pass through the defender. To continue blocking runners, the defender should step off of the bait and then step back on, so the runners can no longer pass through.
Waves 1-9 as defender
The following is a list of steps for the first nine waves. Dropping bait quickly on the tiles shown in the accompanying image is critical, or else the runners will wander away from the bait. It is safe to drop bad bait on the spots shown in the following picture; the runners will never eat that bait unless the good bait runs out. Note that all bait dropped in the following setup is intended to lure runners to the east trap, not the west one.
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Use the defender horn to call the poisoned food type listed in the top-right corner of the screen. |
| 2 | Use the defender item machine to fill your inventory with bait. |
| 3 | Drop one bad bait a few tiles south of the eastern trap. |
| 4 | Drop four good bait on the tile north of the trap. |
| 5 | Drop one bad bait between the three large spikes. |
| 6 | Drop four good bait on the tile west of the northern large spike. |
| 7 | Drop one bad bait by the logs. |
| 8 | Grab as many logs are needed for the wave. (Wait for them to respawn). |
| 9 | Grab a hammer unless you have the Imcando hammer equipped. |
| 10 | Run back to the trap. Call the poisoned food to the healer again when the call changes. |
| 11 | Wait for the trap to break. When it does, stand on top of the bait north of the trap to block more runners from eating. |
| 12 | Drop all the newly called good bait on the tile north of the trap. |
| 13 | Repair the trap to full. Wait for the rest of the spawning runners to gather around the bait. |
| 14 | When the runners have gathered, step 1 tile south onto the trap. Wait for the stack of runners to die. |
| 15 | Repeat fixing the trap, gathering, and killing runners in stacks until they are all dead. |
| 16 | If any Penance are alive, shoot them with red or green eggs from the egg launcher. |
- Note that runners that move away from the trap during a multi-kill may not die. Simply stand on top of the bait and wait to stack the runners again if this happens.
- If a runner has passed your line of bait and is headed to the exit, drop a line of "bad" bait from the exit to the eastern trap. This will lure the runner back, and any "bad" bait can be eaten to redirect the runner north without penalty.
- If the collector has loaded red or green eggs into the egg launcher, shooting escaping runners is highly effective and has no point penalty.
Wave 10 as defender
Because the arena is different and there are objects the runners often get stuck on, a different drop pattern is recommended for wave 10. Since there is no eastern cannon on this wave, defenders will not have any help from eggs, and must be able to kill the runners by themselves.
When given a spiked/pois. egg by an attacker, defenders must dunk it into a lava crater by clicking the crater, and then pass the now-finished omega egg back to the collector.
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Use the defender horn to call the poisoned food type listed in the top-right corner of the screen. |
| 2 | Use the defender item machine to fill your inventory with bait. |
| 3 | Drop one bad bait south of the large spike below the eastern trap |
| 4 | Drop four good bait on the tile west of the trap. |
| 5 | Drop four good bait east of the large spike between the runner and healer caves. |
| 6 | Drop one bad bait at the logs. |
| 7 | Grab two logs |
| 8 | Grab a hammer unless you have the imcando hammer. |
| 9 | Run back to the trap. Call the poisoned food to the healer again when the call changes. |
| 10 | Wait for the trap to break. When it does, stand on top of the bait west of the trap to block more runners from eating. |
| 11 | Drop all the newly called good bait on the tile west of the trap. |
| 12 | Repair the trap to full. Wait for the rest of the spawning runners to gather around the bait. |
| 13 | When the runners have gathered, step 1 tile south. Wait for the stack of runners to die. |
| 14 | Repeat fixing the trap, gathering, and killing runners in stacks until they are all dead. |
| 15 | Run to the egg launcher and fire red and green eggs at any remaining penance. |
| 16 | When the queen spawns, wait near the healing pool. |
| 17 | When the attacker passes spiked/pois. eggs to you, dunk them in a lava crater. |
| 18 | Pass the completed omega eggs back to the collector by using them on the player. |
| 19 | Once the eggs are loaded into the egg launcher, launch them at the Penance Queen to kill her. |
- If a runner is stuck on a mushroom, lava crater, or poison pool, dropping bait near it will get it unstuck.
Defender points
The defender collects a lot of base points per round. Without any bonuses or penalties, 357 points are earned across all 10 waves. At the same time, however, the defender can quickly lose points due to escaped runners - each escaped runner incurs a 6-point penalty for the defenders, and a 3-point penalty for the other 3 roles. Therefore, it is very important to follow a proper strategy to avoid massive penalties.
Wave 10 provides a fixed reward of 80 points in the player's role and 5 points in the other 3 roles, and there are no penalties for escaped runners.
Defender level
Increasing the defender level to 2 will increase the Penance runner's sight range to react when there is food within a 5-range radius instead of a 4-range radius. Further defender levels increase the lure range to a maximum of 10.
| Level | Honour Points | File:Defender icon.png Defender |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | N/A | +4 luring range spaces |
| 2 | 200 | +5 luring range spaces |
| 3 | 300 | +5 luring range spaces |
| 4 | 400 | +5 luring range spaces |
| 5 | 500 | +5 luring range spaces |
Healer
Note: in Barbarian assault, the term "healer" refers both to a player who holds the healer role and the Penance Healer monster. In this guide, "healer" or "healer role" will describe the role, and "Penance Healer" will describe the monster.
Healer overview
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The healer (colour in-game: GREEN)'s job is to use poisoned food (worms, meat or tofu) to kill the Penance Healers, as well as keep their teammates alive with the healing vial, a hitpoints-restoring item filled with water from the pool to the south. The type of poison that has to be used on the Penance Healers is called by the defender. Wrong food will not poison the Penance Healer, and will instead display a red message in the game chat saying That's the wrong type of poisoned food to use! Penalty!.
As with all other roles, the healer must also call, in this case to the defender.
Healing teammates
At the bottom of their screen, the healer has an interface showing the hitpoints of their teammates; this is known as the healer interface. At all times, and especially in later waves, the healer should pay close attention to this interface to see if any teammates are low health. A red flashing star means the teammate requested your assistance.
To heal teammates, the healer must first fill the vial received from the healer machine on the healer spring by either using the vial on the spring, or right-click the spring itself. Once filled, healers can use it on their teammates to restore their hitpoints, cure poison, and restore some run energy; the amount of health and run energy restored depends on the role level of the healer.[1]
Note that only the healer can heal other players, and only the healer can drink from the spring. To heal themselves, healers can simply left-click the spring to drink from it.
| Level | Hitpoints
restored |
Run energy
restored |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1+10% | 20% |
| 2 | 2+20% | ~25% |
| 3 | 3+30% | ~30% |
| 4 | 4+40% | ~35% |
| 5 | 5+50% | 40% |
| Level | Hitpoints
restored |
Run energy
restored |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | ? |
| 2 | 15 | 25% |
| 3 | 20 | ? |
| 4 | 25 | ? |
| 5 | 35 | ? |
When teammates are very low health, they are usually either found hiding on the hill of the west egg launcher or running towards the healer spring. Healers should check these places first, and make sure as always to keep calling with the horn, even when healing teammates.
Poisoned food mechanics
To poison a Penance Healer, simply use the food called by the defender (worms, meat or tofu) on it. This will deal 4 damage, every time, as well as inflict poison, which will damage the Penance Healer over time. Every 30 seconds, the correct food changes, and the defender should call it out again; if no food is displayed in the assault interface, ask the defender to call.
The basic strategy is to always make sure all Penance Healers are poisoned at least once. Penance Healers that are not poisoned always have priority; after that, the Penance Healers with the lowest poison damage ticking down should be poisoned again. Poison damage from each food will be as follows:
| Immediate damage | First five poison hits | Second five hits | Third five hits | Final five hits | Total damage | Time (ticks) | Time (seconds) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 x1 | 4 x5 | 3 x5 | 2 x5 | 1 x5 | 54 | 100 | 60 |
Unlike traditional poison damage, poison on the Penance Healers hits every five game ticks. The following table shows how many food are needed for a single Penance Healer on each wave, assuming food is only directly used once, and all other damage from latent poison.
| Wave | Hitpoints | Food needed | List of hits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 | 1 | 4 (initial), 4-4-4-4-4-3 |
| 2 | 32 | 1 | 4, 4-4-4-4-4-3-3-2 |
| 3 | 37 | 1 | 4, 4-4-4-4-4-3-3-3-3-1 |
| 4 | 43 | 1 | 4, 4-4-4-4-4-3-3-3-3-3-2-2 |
| 5 | 49 | 1 | 4, 4-4-4-4-4-3-3-3-3-3-2-2-2-2-2 |
| 6 | 55 | 2 | Full cycle, 1 |
| 7 | 60 | 2 | Full cycle, 4, 2 |
| 8 | 67 | 2 | Full cycle, 4, 4-4-1 |
| 9 | 76 | 2 | Full cycle, 4, 4-4-4-4-2 |
| 10 | 60 | 2 | Full cycle, 4, 2 |
The healer often has to re-stock at the healer item machine multiple times during a wave. If necessary, drop food you have too much of, and/or right click the machine for specific food. Do not run through the defender if they stand near their trap, as doing so will mess up their multi-kill and severely slow down the wave. This is most prone to happen when all healers are swarming the defender, or when running south to re-stock. So be extra careful during these moments.
More advanced strategies might use several poison food on a single Penance healer to kill it quicker. See the advanced strategies for details.
Gear and inventory for healers
Despite not actively fighting in combat, healers run around a lot and have to run through high-hitting rangers and fighters to heal others. This is in addition to the poison damage from Penance healers. Due to the high potential for damage, healer gear should minimise weight and at the same time maximize Defence. A common setup is the complete graceful outfit combined with a Dinh's bulwark.
Healers should ideally have an empty inventory, in order to bring as much poisoned food as possible. However, if supplies such as Defence potions are necessary to bring in order to survive damage, feel free to include them as needed.
Waves 1-9 as healer
The following is a list of steps for the waves 1-9. Healers should always run east around the east egg launcher towards the north-east corner of the arena. This is where the healers will spawn.
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Right-click the healer horn to call the food type listed in the top-right corner of the screen (next to the mouth). |
| 2 | Use the healer item machine to fill your inventory with food. |
| 3 | Use the healing vial on the healer spring to fill it. (Can be skipped/postponed on earlier waves or with more experienced teams) |
| 4 | Use poison on each of the first 4 Penance Healers that spawn. |
| 5 | Every 30 seconds, use the horn again to call. |
| 6 | When necessary, heal your teammates with the healing vial. Re-fill it on the healer spring if it is empty. |
| 7 | Once all remaining Penance Healers are poisoned at least once, use remaining food on Penance Healers that have less than 4 damage being dealt to them. When the first Penance Healer dies, run to the Penance Healer spawn point to immediately poison the new Penance that emerge. |
| 8 | Repeat steps 5-7 until all Penance Healers are dead. |
| 9 | Keep making sure everybody has enough health. |
| 10 | Use the egg launcher to kill any remaining runners, fighters, or rangers. Do not shoot blue eggs. |
Wave 10 as healer
The start of the last wave is similar to the previous waves, except that no penalty is received when using the wrong food (even though the chat states otherwise), and the penance healers now spawn from a cave slightly more west.
When the queen spawns, the first priority of the healers is now to keep everyone alive. Healers should focus on always keeping everybody above 50 hitpoints if possible, such that everybody can safely sustain the many hits from both the queen and her spawns while manufacturing the omega eggs. Players struggling to heal their teammates should consider using two healers for this round, as a single healer is often only viable when they have level 4 or 5 in their role. Before everyone runs to the cannon, make sure all teammates have high hitpoints and that the vial is filled, and proceed to help spamming the omega egg.
When making the omega egg, the healer will receive yellow eggs from the collector, which have to be dipped in the poison crater and then passed to the attacker.
References
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