Fist of Guthix

Fist of Guthix is an activity that was released on 9 April 2008. The game employs tactics and strategy, and offers a substantial range of rewards to players. To begin playing Fist of Guthix, players must first speak to Fiara. Please note that this is a "Safe" activity. You will not lose any items if you die in the activity. Fist of Guthix happens to be one of the few activities which you can have a highscore rank in. It is also a great way to train Magic because runes provided are free. However, due to the short span of a match, it is faster to train with your own runes, although more costly.

The current Member's Fist of Guthix worlds are: 92, 98 and 110. There are also Free-to-Play worlds, including: 20, 25, 107, 119 and 149. Although there are designated worlds, Fist of Guthix can be played on all worlds, however it may be more difficult to play the activity due to the lack of players on Bounty and PvP worlds.

Location
The entrance to Fist of Guthix is located in the Gamers' grotto, north of Falador. Before 1 February 2011 the entrance was in level 7 wilderness north of Varrock.

Lobby
After players enter the cave, they will be inside the main lobby. Here, the players can talk to Fiara to learn the rules of the game, access their bank, talk to Reggie who runs the shop, talk to some of the druids like Getorix and Pontimer to learn more about the history of this place and finally enter the waiting room for the minigame. New players must talk to Fiara first before they are allowed to play the game.

There can only be 250 players in the minigame at once. If the game is full, players in the lobby will not be able to access the waiting room until the game has cleared out a bit. Players can simply wait a few minutes until the waiting room is open, or they may wish to switch worlds if the current world is exceptionally busy.

Once inside the waiting room, players need only to wait until the game matches them with an opponent and they will then be teleported into the main Fist of Guthix arena.(You also need enough people in the arena to get matched and start playing)



Note that the combination can be of different players of different combat levels.

At the corner of the waiting lobby, there is an entrance where players can see but cannot click on it. The examine text is "I should wait for my opponent first." . Thus, this is probably a decoration but not a sign of future update.

Gameplay
The minigame consists of two rounds and is 1 vs 1: In each round, one player is classified as the "hunted", and the other player is classified as the "hunter". In the first round, the roles are determined randomly. In the second round, the roles are swapped and all stats are restored. Therefore both players will have a chance to play each role; afterwards a winner is determined based upon number of charges you were able to collect during your turn as "hunted".

No food or runes are allowed in the arena, but the following items are supplied to each player at the beginning of the first round:


 * 5 Bandages - Heals a player's Hitpoints by 15, for a total of 75 Hitpoints.
 * 300 Catalytic runes - Work as a replacement for any non-elemental runes (mind, chaos, death, blood, nature, etc.)
 * 1,000 Elemental runes - Work as a replacement for any elemental runes. (earth, air, fire, water)
 * Tele-orb - Break this item to be instantly teleported to the centre of the arena.

At the end of the game, all arrows on the ground will be returned to their original owners, so there is no need to pick them up while in the game. (Similar to the Duel Arena)

Hunted
Being the hunted player is usually considered much more challenging, but it is also the only round in which the player can score points. The basic objective is to gather as many charges from the "Fist of Guthix", a large energy well in the centre of the field, as possible before time runs out or the player dies.

To gather charges, the player must first pick up an energy stone from the outer edge of the field. The player must then wield the stone to gather charges. Note that the stone is two-handed, and can only gather charges when it is wielded (not just in the inventory), meaning that the hunted player will be completely vulnerable to attack while they are gathering charges. Players are also unable to fight back whilst wielding the Stone. Players can gather charges anywhere in the arena, although the closer to the centre (the "Fist of Guthix") they are, the faster they will gather charges. Players wielding the stone will gain charges in packets, with about three seconds delay in the packets.

Note that the hunted player will have their stats greatly reduced, meaning a level 100+ hunted player can still be extremely vulnerable to a level 40- hunter. The closer to the centre the player is, the more weak and easier to kill they will become. Hunted players will also gather damage as they are absorbing charges ranging from 0 to 10, so a watchful eye should be kept on your remaining hitpoints, even if your hunter is nowhere to be found.

Hunted players do have an advantage, however, in that they can use the teleport houses located around the arena. Hunters cannot access, not see players inside these houses, so the hunted player is safe while inside them. There are warps inside to teleport the player to the other houses located around the field, however sometimes the warps will malfunction (NOT a glitch) and the player will appear outside of the teleport houses, also if the player teleports he will loose some charges. Note that the player will take some damage when they walk into a house and while inside a house, and they cannot gather any charges while in the house. If a player has recently exited a teleport house, they will not be able to enter another house again for a short period.

What to wear
When you are the hunted, you want to have the best protection from attacks that you can. That's where what armour you are wearing comes in. This section explains the best armour to put on based on the attack style your opponent is using. This is meant for F2P players, as it would not be useful to members. There is nothing for the shield or weapon slots because you cannot carry those if you are holding the stone.

NOTE: This section shows the BEST free-to-play armour to wear and it is based on protection, regardless of weight, rarity or requirements.

If your hunter is using Melee or Ranged as their attack style, wear this armor:


 * Rune full helm


 * Fighting boots or fancy boots


 * Rune platebody


 * Rune platelegs


 * Rune gauntlets


 * Cape of any kind


 * Amulet of defence

If your hunter is using Magic as their attack style, wear this armor:


 * Green d'hide coif (100)


 * Green d'hide body


 * Green d'hide chaps


 * Green d'hide vamb

If your hunter is using magic,melee or ranged as a switch off, wear this armor:

This way you have decent magic and melee/ranged defence bonuses.
 * Rune full helmet
 * Green d'hide body
 * Green d'hide chaps
 * Rune gauntlets
 * Leather boots
 * Cape any kind
 * Amulet of defence

If you do not want to have too much weight on, wear this armour:

This way you do not have to have too much armour on, as this armour provides overall satisfactory stats, though the other armours for specific attack styles are better for that attack style than this armour.
 * Rune full helmet
 * Green d'hide body
 * Green d'hide chaps
 * Gloves of any kind
 * Leather boots
 * Cape of any kind
 * Amulet of defence

Tactics for the hunted

 * Very Effective* If the hunter is using melee attacks then go to the center of the arena and find one of the piles of rocks on the floor. The rocks occupy one square and are located a few squares from the center. Put on some melee armour, activate your defense prayer, then continuously rotate to the opposite side of the rocks that your opponent is on. They will get stuck on the debris every time you move, making them only able to hit you once before having to switch spots. This extends time and prolongs your health. Since this tactic is used near the center, you will still get a decent amount of charges.


 * Get to the ground near a crowded spot before your opponent gets there as well, so that new players coming will keep pushing your username down until it can no longer be seen. When your opponent comes, they will have no way of killing you, unless you move or other players standing in your spot do.


 * At the top right corner of the north-east portal house, you can get 21 charges instead of 15. This is not a glitch, the north-east portal house is just closer to the center of the arena.


 * Grabbing a stone and waiting until your opponent finds you and then using the tele-orb provided to you in the beginning of the game works well as the orb is widely believed to be useless as the hunter. If the hunter uses magic or ranged attacks its some harder. If they can attack you before you teleport, they will automatically walk to the center and attack you again, although if you trap the behind an obstacle before teleporting, they will have to teleport to the center or walk if they already used their orb to reach you. However, this is not the best tactic, as you will not get many charges waiting for your opponent and this wastes your teleorb.


 * If your hunter is attacking with mage, especially if he/she is autocasting the spell, taking a second to attack them with Topaz bolts (e) can be very effective as this can lower their magic level and will make them take some time to switch to a less powerful spell. The Seercull special attack along with Rune arrows can also be used.


 * Wearing light clothing and weight lowering gear works well to keep higher energy as your opponent usually will be weighted down with armour. Dragonhide armour is suggested for its attack and magic bonus.


 * Staying around the outside and running from your opponent when you see an arrow works well as long as your weight and agility are better than the opponents'.


 * House hugging is a tactic that works best in conjunction with another tactic as it works poorly on its own. House hugging is when you hide in a house and leave when your opponent can not attack you. This does not work very well because of the penalties for going in and remaining in the house. Only try this at the north-east portal house, because there you will get 21 charges instead of 15.


 * Another form of house hugging is waiting until your opponent sees you then diving in to the house, but instead of teleporting to a different house wait inside of that house while the hunter walks away to look to see which house he thinks you might have teleported to, then when he is gone wait outside of the house and repeat the process. Try to stay on the area of the house that is furthest from the fist, or in the north-east one. At the furthest teleport house your opponent cannot see you if they are standing in the fist or near it. At the north-east portal house they can see you, but there you get 21 charges instead of 15.


 * While running from the opponent going through the middle for faster charge rate can give you a few more points needed to win.


 * Stay in the center when possible, as run energy(around 5 times faster), and charges(8 times faster), are gained much faster there.


 * Turn on prayer if one has a decent prayer level. Be aware of, and switch to adapt to what type of attack the hunter is using (often magic, as free runes are provided). Protection prayers used in conjunction with equipment that have high prayer bonuses can be very useful.


 * Turning private chat off or setting it to "friends" is useless as your opponent can only see you when you're within range whether you are viewed green or not; this is effective if you go to the centre where the players are adjacent if not on the same square. The green dot will be more accurate then the arrow in this situation.


 * Keep moving since the hunter is probably moving around as well.


 * At the beginning of the match, run around a quarter of the edges and wait until you get about 40 charges. The hunter will normally head the the centre but when he/she realises that you're not there, they set off around the outside. When you think they've left, quickly dash where they have spawned (opposite of where you spawned)then towards the fist or teleport to the middle.


 * Once at low health and out of bandages, run to the fist to gain as many last-second charges as possible.


 * Another way is to stay near the barriers (Do not go into them). Staying near them allows 15 charges when near it. If your target sees you, you could just easily run to the barrier.


 * Stay around the edges, and when your opponent finds you, quickly enter a barrier. Once they are out of sight, immediately return to the edges. 80 percent of the time your opponent will surrender in frustration.
 * Some Hunters might add you to their Friend's List to help them to hunt you. So, the best thing if the Hunter does do this, is if you turn off your private chat, so the Hunter can only rely on the arrow. (Doing this right before you enter the arena is good)


 * Turning Auto-Retaliate (off) is good because if you tele-orb to the center, you don't go running off to where your hunter attacked you last.


 * Mix up your strategies since other players will have different strategies.


 * Wherever you start in the game, your opponent is usually on the other side. (like if you start on the west side, your opponent is usually at the east end.) So change your location to another edge. And then if they spot you, teleport to the center to get free charges.


 * For every 18 seconds you hold the energy stone, you lose health (depending on how close you are to the center). Use Rapid Heal to remedy this.


 * A new tactic that has come out is hiding in the portal houses until you're hp has gone down to below 15 points of how much it normally is. This works with high levels, but come out when you feel your opponent is far off.


 * Also if you notice around the center are some rocks. These rocks can be used to "Hug"(Running to the opposite side of the rocks when your hunter attacks you). This is an extremely good strategy against melee hunters as you will rarely get hit, and you will still get charges. Mages and rangers are able to shoot over rocks, however, there are plenty of statues you can use; the teleport houses also work.


 * Don't use your bandages unless your health is 15 or lower.


 * You can go on the edge for around 15 seconds then run into the fist, when your hunter comes back to the fist and sees you, run to the back the the edge drawing your hunter too, then use your Tele-orb to get back to the fist, works very well if your a good hunter.

Hunter
The hunter's objective is quite simple: Kill the hunted player with any means necessary. The player cannot gather any points while they are a hunter, rather their objective is to prevent the hunted player from gathering points. The hunter does not have a stat decrease and does not take damage from the energy charges, however they cannot chase hunted players into the teleport houses.

Tactics for the hunter

 * Ancient magicks freeze spells work to hold an opponent and can be devastating to an opponent's health if using a dragon dagger or dark bow special attack.


 * Inflicting the opponent with poison is good if a player is along the outside or house hugging, since anti-poison potion is not allowed.


 * When many players are on the same square in the middle, it is much easier to find your target, since when you have chosen a spell, it only shows the names of the people.


 * For melee/magic hybrids: Be sure to have magic armour in your inventory in case of running targets.


 * It is quite effective to use curse spells (Confuse, Weaken, Curse, Bind, Snare, Vulnerability, Enfeeble, Entangle, Stun) to further reduce the stats of opponents or to stop opponents for running for a short period of time.


 * If you're a f2p player and want to use freezing spells like Ancient magicks, use the spell bind. Even though it doesn't damage like Ancient magicks, it is a great way to get keep house huggers still. Also the increase the rate for it to hit, get the Druidic mage robes set. They really do help.


 * It is also suggested to bring a staff with autocast option (battlestaves, staves, void knight mace etc.), as spells can still be cast if the opponent has run into the crowd in the center, or to the outside of the arena.


 * It is easier for the hunter to locate the hunted on the minimap by adding the hunted to the friends list, turning the dot green, instead of simply relying on the arrow (Note: This only works if said target has private chat on "On"); this is only effective if the hunted is within the Fist's area.


 * If an opponent is wall-hugging just stay in the middle and eventually the hunted will come to the centre. When this happens feel free to attack.


 * When using range, using a Crossbow (weapon type) with Sapphire bolts (e) in conjunction with Smite is very effective as this will reduce the hunted's Prayer level very quickly.


 * Try to cover at least two sections of the combat triangle. For example, some players use Robes or Dragonhide to protect from the plentiful mage players, so having a melee weapon may prove useful.


 * The dragon longsword and dragon dagger special attacks are very damaging because of the opponent's reduced stats.


 * If your target goes into a house, go to the Fist and align the minimap so that you'll be able to tell when they leave, regardless of if they teleport (the only possible problem is if the teleport malfunctions and they appear outside of range).


 * When using magic, use a staff, it will repeatedly attack instead of having to scroll down a list to find your opponent's name each time you cast a spell.


 * One particularly annoying tactic is just to ignore them and try to make them suffer the remaining time. Half of the time, they will forfeit and you will earn five tokens. This is only recommended when you know for sure you are going to lose anyway.


 * During the beginning of each round, you will always be placed at the opposite edge of the arena. You can use the tele-orb and then run to the opposite edge quickly. This often saves time from running around the edge to find your opponent.

Round End
A round will end under any of the following circumstances:
 * Time runs out
 * The hunted player gets killed
 * The hunted player gets the maximum number of charges (5,000)
 * Either player logs out or leaves the arena (If your opponent logs out and you have not had a turn to be the hunted yet, you will have 500 points and your opponent will have 0, resulting in a win for you)

When the first round ends, both players will swap roles, stat effects will be reset, and the second round will begin. After the second round, the player with the most energy charges (or the only player left in the event of a log out or forfeit) wins.

Rewards
Winning a match of the game will earn you:

Note: If two players tie, which is possible, both players will lose and receive one token.

Players will always receive at least one token for good effort, even if they lose. Players who forfeit will receive less tokens from their next game.

The current number rating needed to be on the mini-game high scores is 500

Shop
Inside the main lobby, Reggie owns a shop where you can spend the Fist of Guthix tokens you have earned. The items here consist of various types of gloves that can increase your experience while training certain skills, magical robes which may supply certain runes for you or increase the potency of certain spells, and special types of armour that can give you strength or ranging bonuses.

Note that all items listed here will degrade over time (with the exception of gloves and gauntlets - see below). The items will also be untradable until the item has completely degraded.

To repair/recharge any degraded item, use the item with the shop-keeper Reggie, and he will recharge the item for you a specific cost of tokens.

To completely degrade an item, allowing you to trade it, simply use the item with Reggie and he will deplete the item for free.

Rather than degrading, gloves will simply crumble into dust after 1,000 uses. There is no way to repair these gloves - A new pair must be bought from Reggie after you have lost the old pair. NOTE: Do not confuse with gauntlets (see below.)

Gauntlets bought at the Fist of Guthix do not degrade over time, but simply degrade completely when the player dies. This does not apply when the player dies while participating in a safe minigame. NOTE: Do not confuse with gloves (see above.)You can restore the gauntlets power if you pay a small price. You can also sell your degraded gauntlets for some gp.

Lag
Many players have complained about the massive amounts of lag in this minigame, and being logged out of the game due to lag is quite common. Therefore, players are advised to not play this minigame in RuneScape HD - This will help reduce lag and lower chances of being logged out.

"Death Dotting" (DDing)
A common technique among the "hunted" is to group together on a single spot in the centre of the stage. These players can often be seen shouting "Dd here!" or "dd!". The purpose of this is to prevent "hunters" from killing players so easily, as all the hunted players are grouped together on a single tile, the hunters will have to scroll through a huge list to find the player they need to attack. This has caused much strife throughout the official Jagex forums and from players in-game. However, hunted players who shout "dd here!", "dd!", or anything similar can be reported for spamming.

Logging Out
Players experienced a problem that logged them out instantly while playing the game. This happened usually when the Player went into a house. Many players had come to the conclusion that when there are too many players, a few of them will be logged out. This was confirmed to be a glitch, and has been fixed.

House Hugging
A method that causes a lot of complaints from hunters, is the practice of hiding in the houses until the hunter is out of sight, and then going outside until the hunter is near, and then repeating this until the round is over, or the hunter forfeits in frustration. A recent update to the houses is to not allow immediate re-entry, although it is still possible to house hug.

Combat Level Difference
This has caused critism among players with lower combat levels because players are paired randomly, regardless of combat skills, and can sometimes put those players at a large disadvantage. Yet, unlike most other PvP activities, this gives higher-levelled players their fair advantage of being able to more easily kill lower levelled players.

Opponents Running
This common method has made many players frustrated and angry. The "hunted" runs around the game arena, hoping to not get attacked. They sometimes go to the Fist of Guthix to collect charges and recharge their energy. In the end, the player who runs is often called a "runner noob" or "running noob"

Glitches

 * There appears to be a glitch, in which when you enter the cave to access the Fist of Guthix minigame, the Wilderness level will switch rapidly to 260 for a split second, despite the fact that the Fist of Guthix lobby isn't in the Wilderness. It is unexplained why this happens but appears right after you enter the cave. This has now been fixed.
 * Another glitch may occur when the arrow indicating your opponent is on the miniscreen, giving you the idea that they are there, and frantically searching for them, but they are actually somewhere completely different. The best way to combat this is to run away so the arrow is off the miniscreen, and run back. Contrary to the popular theory, this has nothing to do with using a slow computer.
 * There is a glitch when you level up, but the message that you get when you level up won't show. This seems to happen only during the times when the game is lagging. If you are in the waiting room and get picked for the game with the emote screen open, your interface will appear empty with nothing highlighted on the outside to signify that it is active.
 * There is also a glitch that occurs if there is lag at the precise moment the game ends. It may have other causes, though. This glitch also makes the win (or loss) text not appear, you just appear in the lobby.
 * There is another glitch that happens, probably because of lagging at the moment the game begins, which makes your opponent's name not appear, it just says the word Name.
 * If you die at the right moment of attacking someone after you die when the game is over you may still have the attack option outside of the fist of guthix area. This has also happened in Castle Wars.

Trivia

 * When you ask Reggie to uncharge your items he will say "In that case hand me the item over what you want recharged." This typo has still not been fixed by Jagex. (This may be an example of vernacular English and not a typo.)


 * In some rare cases the hunted will decide to wield a weapon and kill the hunter. This results in the hunter respawning a few seconds later.


 * It is impossible to trade while in-game, cast alchemy spells, drop anything, do bones to bananas, superheat item, or make teleports. A screen saying "You are not here to do this" would appear.


 * The music was originally "Guthixs' Hunter". This was later changed to "Guthix's Hunter".


 * On the second day after the release a group of people found out that if the hunted leaves he will only lose 8 ratings while the hunter would receive 21 rating and 12 tokens. They decided to tell a lot of the high levels online about it (Mostly those in a few Australian clans) and formed a group of 50 or so on a empty p2p world. With this they created a system where losing only cost 8 ratings and winning gained 21 ratings and 12 tokens. Within 4 hours there was 300+ people doing it. At one point (around 2 hours in) Jagex had an update to fix a bug in a quest, they however didn't remove this (It scared everyone online because they assumed it would be removed). By time it had reached about 4 hours suddenly it was reduced to if the hunted left they lost over 40 rating and the hunter only gained 12 rating and 3 tokens. With this a few hundred people sky rocketed up in the ratings and tokens (Some people going over 5k rating and having 3k tokens and beyond letting these people have full access to the battle robes and other rewards).


 * In the instance that the hunted logs out or forfeits a few seconds into the game without even picking up the stone, the hunter will be credited with 40 charges, as well as 10 rating points and two tokens.


 * If a player forfeits after being the hunted, any charges accumulated go to the other player. However, the charges still cannot go over 5000 (which is the maximum amount of charges that can be stored).


 * Contrary to in-game rumours, two players both scoring 5000 Charges does not award you each 40 Tokens. The exact response is "You have lost 2 rating and been awarded 3 Fist of Guthix Tokens for good effort".


 * Many people play this minigame as an easy way to raise their Magic levels, as you get free runes upon entering the minigame.


 * Near the Forfeit Caves players can see Saradomin Symbols, the origin of these symbols are still unknown.


 * The markings on the Fist of Guthix look eerily similar to the markings on the Stone of Jas, although there is no official connection between the two.


 * The following minigame is often cited as a relatively good place for free-to-play mage training, especially for low levelled characters.


 * Any experience earned while fighting in Fist of Guthix will be halved, whether the player is attacking with melee, ranged, or magic. Because of this, Fist of Guthix might not be ideal magic training for higher-level mages, for which training with High Level Alchemy or Superheat Item might prove more beneficial.


 * Strangely, while Fist of Guthix provides free runes, it does not provide free arrows. This requires a player to bring his/her own supply of arrows if they wish to fight with Ranged. However, while inside the arena, any arrows that would otherwise be dropped on the floor after firing are return to your inventory after the game.