Soul Wars

 
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Introduction

Soul wars is a twenty minute game much evocative of the age old minigame, Castle Wars. The game consists of a form of "King of the Hill", followed by the killing of a very high levelled monster. At the end of the twenty minutes, the team which has the most boss kills is declared victorious. Players may choose to aid the Avatar of Destruction (red) or the Avatar of Creation (blue), while those who enter the green portal will be sorted into either team in order to ensure that the teams are of equal size. Dozens of players may join each side, making this a conquest on large scales. Players may use explosives, place barricades, and heal their teammates with bandages. This is a very large battle; you can be attacked by several players at once, or conversely, your team can team up on one enemy! This is a safe minigame, so you will lose nothing but your pride should you die.

NOTE: After the Nomad's Requiem quest, Zimberfizz takes over Nomad's role in this minigame.

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Location and Recommendations

A portal to Soul Wars can be found easily in southern Edgeville west of the yew trees. There are many convenient teleports to Edgeville, such as the Edgeville lodestone.

Once in the Soul Wars area, players can use the chest in the area to collect their supplies and prepare for the battle. Capes are prohibited, along with food and non combat items. Bandages, explosive potions, and barricades can be found in your team's supply area. There are no absolute requirements for Soul Wars, but you will find the game much easier with a high slayer and combat level.

Nomad will, if asked, supply you with a manual and/or a tutorial to introduce you to the game. He is also the source of the rewards, seen below. Enter your chosen portal to choose which avatar you decide to serve. You will arrive in a "Waiting Room" to await the start of the next game.

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Layout

The layout of the game screen and the game area are outlined by Nomad in the tutorial, as well as below. The Avatar of Creation's base is located at the West Graveyard, and the Avatar of Destructions base at the East. In the middle, between the two, is located the Soul Obelisk, and the two graveyards. Jellies and Pyrefiends can be found roaming the battlefield.

Click on the thumbnail below to view a detailed map of the Soul Wars minigame.

Thumbnail Soul Wars Map

A base is split into three distinct sections. These consist of:

  • The Avatar (level 525), in its enclosure. It cannot leave, but is dangerous to players that dare attack it.
  • A Supply Area, which contains various useful items outlined above.
  • A graveyard, where you will respawn should you die.

A display will appear in the top right corner of your screen, outlining important information, such as who has control over the graveyards and the Soul Obelisk, as well as the current state of the Avatars, as well as how much time remains in the clash.

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The Monsters

Soul Wars monsters
Pic Monster name Level Description
Soulwars Pyrefiend Pyrefiend 43 This monster requires 30 Slayer to attack. It drops one Soul fragments, which can be used on the Soul obelisk to lower the other team's avatar's Slayer level.
Soulwars Jelly Jelly 78 This monster requires 52 Slayer to attack. It drops two Soul fragments, which can be used on the Soul Obelisk to lower the other team's avatar's Slayer level.
Avatar of Creation Avatar of Creation 525 This monster can only be damaged by members of the red team after using Soul fragments on the Soul Obelisk. It will drain some of your Prayer points if it attacks you. Killing this is the main objective of the red team.
Avatar of Destruction Avatar of Destruction 525 This monster can only be damaged by members of the blue team after using Soul fragments on the Soul Obelisk. It will drain some of your Prayer points if it attacks you. Killing this is the main objective of the blue team.
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Playing the Game

The object of the game is to kill your opponents' Avatar as many times as possible within the twenty minute time limit, while preventing them from killing yours as much as is possible. The Avatars start the game out with a level 100 slayer requirement, making them damage-proof to everyone. To lower their slayer requirement to be able to injure them, you must kill the other monsters (Jellies and Pyrefiends) on the battlefield, take their soul fragments, and use them with the Soul Obelisk, once you control it. The more soul fragments you offer, the lower your enemies Avatar's slayer level will fall. Your enemies, however, may bury the bones of their counterparts. Each time this is done, their team's Avatar has a chance of going up in Slayer requirement. This has to be done in a Graveyard controlled by their team, and doing so will also restore a large chunk of prayer. Once your enemy's Avatar is within your slayer requirement, it can be killed normally. Beware; Avatars are quite fearsome alone, but not all too deadly in a large group. The best way to fight them is to pray against melee, and watch out for enemy players attacking you unawares. The higher your slayer level, the earlier you'll be able to start killing them.

Soul Wars Avatar

To take control of a graveyard or the soul obelisk, your team must have the majority in the area. Once your team has more people in the area, a bar will slowly start to fill. If your team still has more people in the area when the bar is full, that area is yours! Once the obelisk is captured, you may use it to offer soul fragments.

If you die while in Soul Wars, you will be teleported to your team's graveyard. You will appear as a ghost for several seconds, unable to interact with anything, but you will soon become tangible. The two graveyards near the centre of the battlefield can be captured. If the enemy captures both of these, you will be forced to spawn all the way back at your base, losing valuable time. Graveyards controlled by your team are the only places you can bury bones, which will greatly restore your prayer and has a change of boosting your avatar's slayer level. The final use of the graveyard is your avatar's life points are increased by 10% and the other team's avatar's life points are decreased by 10% for every graveyard you have under your control.

Soul Wars Graveyard
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Roles

There a lot of different roles you can play in soul wars. Usually it's best to switch between them throughout the game. Most of these roles will be discussed more in-depth in the Strategies section.

Rushing

Rushing means running to an area controlled by the other team to take over that area. At the start of the game, it's suggested to start with an obelisk rush or a rush of both graveyards at the same time. 95% of the time, the team who has the obelisk after approximately 3 minutes, will maintain the control and therefore win the game unless the other team has both graveyards. This is especially the case for larger games (70+ people on both sides). A lot of people also tend to play less seriously after they seem to be losing, by killing random people at unimportant places, or stop playing actively all together by reading the forums or something like that. This makes most games a matter of "which team has the most high levelled players".

Graveyard rushing will need a lot more people then obelisk rushing, as your opponents will come back to the battle almost immediately after they've respawned. To successfully complete a rush, it's important to kill the lower levelled enemies first. What's important is how many players a team has in the area, not how strong they are. Also make sure to target one enemy with as many team-mates as possible, to quickly lower their numbers. Another requirement for a successful rush is a lot of (high levelled) players who charge an area at the same time. Don't try to just randomly run to your opponents' areas alone, that's plain suicide and won't contribute anything. Setting up a mass rush can be extremely hard if you're not playing with a group of friends or clan who are cooperating together.

Soul Wars Obelisk

Defending an area

Defending means controlling an area to prevent the other team from taking control over it. This is extremely important to do for the obelisk. Continued control over the obelisk throughout the game will guarantee you an almost certain victory. To successfully retain control of an area, it's important to kill the lower levelled enemies first, because again it's about the amount of people, not their strength. Also make sure to target one enemy with as many team-mates as possible to quickly lower their numbers. It's also important to keep coming back after you've died (unless the area is captured). If the other team is trying a graveyard rush, remember to bury their bones if your avatar has a reduced slayer level. This will increase its slayer level. It also takes very little time, as you don't need to wait until the normal bone-burying animation has ended.

Attacking the avatar

This role requires high levelled players. Don't expect to hit it much without at least level 80 attack or ranged. Again, this should only be done with a team. Even if you're level 200 with 99 slayer, you can't do much alone as you'll immediately be piled by a lot of people. Typically, it's best to wait until the avatar has reached about 70 slayer, as a lot of people will start to attack it then.

Defending the avatar

Defending your avatar is a pretty straightforward job. You just wait near your avatar until the other teams arrive and then try to kill them. It's suggested to build up some defences with barricades, so the other team can't openly rush to the avatar. It's best to do this near the spawn room, so people who spawn will help you killing them. Try to kill the high levelled players first, as they will be able to attack the avatar earlier and will do a lot more damage then the lower levelled players.

Collecting soul fragments

This is the only role you can do on your own without help of the other team. You just kill the pyrefiends and jellies around the area, pick up their soul fragments and use them on the obelisk (when it's under your team's control). Be sure not to die with the soul fragments, otherwise you'll drop them and the other team can pick them up. If the opposite team has the obelisk, a possible tactic is to gather a lot of fragments anyway and use them on the obelisk as soon as it yours.

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Strategies

This point can't be stressed enough: start with an obelisk rush or a rush of both graveyards! Controlling the obelisk the whole game guarantees a victory (or a tie, but that's rare). Controlling the obelisk after a few minutes will result in victory 95% of the time unless the other team has both graveyards.

Try to play with a coordinated group of friends or a clan and communicate with Clan Chat or other means of group communication. The only way to complete successful rushes is as a team. This can also be used to quickly gather a lot of players in an area if you're about to lose. It's hard to form a big, well communicating group with a bunch of random people who just happen to be on your team.

The rest of the strategies will be posted in a list, as most of them are very simple and don't need any explanation.

  • Familiars can aid extraordinarily in this game, attacking enemies (other than the Avatar) and roaming monsters.
  • Multi-target magic attacks can greatly aid your team, just like in Castle Wars.
  • Having teammates with high slayer or combat levels is very important.
  • If you're fighting near one of your own graveyards, use prayer as much as possible. Quickly grabbing two or three bones and burying them in the graveyard will restore almost all your prayer.
  • The bridges leading to the Soul Obelisk are arguably the best place for barricades. These can be used in conjunction with Ancient Magicks to deal large amounts of damage unhurt.
  • Show your Ava's accumulator, Ava's attractor, or Ava's alerter to Nomad so he can enchant your Soul Wars team cape. This allows your cape to return ammunition as though it was an Attractor, Accumulator, or Alerter. Once enchanted, you don’t need to have the Attractor, Accumulator, or Alerter with you for the effect to work in Soul Wars.
  • Make sure to have a way to restore prayer points as the opponent's avatar will absorb some of your prayer points if it attacks you.
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Rewards

Zeal points are the reward for playing Soul Wars. For a victory you will receive 3 points, while you will gain 2 points for a tie, with a single point as a reward for losing.

NOTE: if you enter a game more than half way through, you will receive no zeal for that game. This does not affect those who did not make it initially into the game but were in the waiting room from the start.

These can be traded to Nomad for one of three types of reward:

Gambling
Zeal Cost Possible Rewards
2 Zeal Points Wyvern bones(16), Babydragon bones(23), Wolf bones(22, 39, 49), Big bones(60), Ogre coffin keys(40, 42), Dragon bones(11, 18), Dagannoth bones(3), Bones(290), Larupia furs(9), Cactus spines(18), Kyatt furs(4), Snake hides(10), Red flowers(9), Carved evil turnips(7), Bagged plant 1(20), White berries(14), 20,000 Coins, Dagannoth hides(5), Unicorn horns(22), Vampyre dust(28), Potato cactus(16), Graahk furs(5), Marigolds(6).
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Hybrid Armour

Hybrid armour is a possible reward from playing 5 of the combat based mini-games. Each of the armours require level 85 in three of the following skills: Strength, Defence, Magic, and Ranged. There are three sets of this armour, which are called Battle-mage (Mage/Melee), Trickster (Range/Mage) and Vanguard (Melee/Range). Whilst in the normal game, these sets of armour are purely cosmetic. However, in Castle Wars, Fist of Guthix, Soul Wars and TzHaar Fight Pits, they cause you to deal additional damage to other players. The amount of increased damage is dependent on the Hybrid items you have.

Each of the games only give a certain piece of each of the three sets. By playing games of Soul Wars you have a random chance of gaining a set of legs of your choice from the sets. Hybrid armour is not tradeable.

Hybrid Armour Legs
Pic Name Stat Bonuses
Level Class Armour Bonus Lifepoints
Battle-mage Robe Legs Battle-mage robe legs 85 Hybrid 479 480
Trickster Robe Legs Trickster robe legs
Vanguard Legs Vanguard legs
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Credits

Original Guide by: tryto

Thanks to: bickers, blacksimon, bmnp, bored321, Chey, darkduellord, davi2188, El_Snubbe, Esper_Jones, Impressionist, Jaffy1, jessy87, Jwolfinstein, Kietaro1, lady_ninane, magzar, mario_sunny, Naive, Ollyc3, Smellysocks, TecMaster532, the49ronin, Vulxai, wachtwoord

Last Updated by: Arceus

Last updated: 15-Dec-2014


RuneScape 2007
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