Barbarian Assault/Strategies Guide – OSRS

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. 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.

Players on the healer and defender roles should have empty inventories. All free slots are filled with food from the item dispensers, so fewer inventory slots may leave you having to restock at the machines multiple times.

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. While usually unnecessary, players of any role can heal on the queen spawn with the Guthan’s set effect, Amulet of blood fury, Sanguinesti staff, or the Saradomin Godsword, Ancient godsword, or Toxic Blowpipe special attacks. Additionally, jars of Snowy knights or Sunlight moths can be brought and released to heal 15 or 8 hitpoints respectively for the player and up to 3 nearby teammates.

Weapons for non-attackers

While non-attackers don’t need weapons, they can still benefit from filling their weapon and shield slots. Defenders can wear an imcando hammer to remove the need to collect a hammer for repairing traps. 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

Lobbies and planning

• A standard team starts with two attackers, and if needed switches to two healers after wave 7.
• With a single high ranged level attacker, it is usually faster to have two healers from the beginning.
• Having two collectors or defenders is almost never necessary. Penance runners are easily killed with red or green eggs.
• After defeating the Penance Queen once, consider completing the hard Kandarin Diary as you will get 10% more points if completed.

Main waves

The following tips apply to players in all roles:

• 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, indicated by the text flashing white.
• 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 around the west cannon hill; Healers and Defenders run east around the east cannon hill. 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.

• After completing your role’s job, you should head to one of the cannons and fire red or green eggs at the remaining penance creatures.
  • Red eggs deal 3 damage to the target and deal 0-1 splash damage to other enemies within 3 tiles. Green eggs deal 1 damage and poison the target, dealing 5 additional damage over time. Blue eggs stun the target, preventing them from moving or being attacked for 6 seconds.
  • Penance runners are usually the best choice to shoot. They always have 5 hitpoints, so they can be killed with only 2 red eggs. If the defender is skilled enough to not need assistance, 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. Stunning penance at 0 health is even worse, as you must wait for them to regenerate a hitpoint before they can be killed again.

Surviving longer

Players struggling to survive may benefit from the following tips:

• At low health, run onto the west egg launcher hill, where Penance Fighters can’t attack you. When standing behind the hopper, rangers can’t attack you either. However, this will not block the Penance Queen’s ranged attacks, which can reach you anywhere in the arena.
• Communicate with your healer by right-clicking the horn and selecting the Medic option. This will alert them that you need healing.
• Grouping near the fighters and rangers will spread damage out, reducing damage on a single player. Aside from the collector, this should only be done later in the wave, after the penance healers are dead.

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 in order to out-heal her damage. All players should wear armour with high ranged defence to minimise damage taken.

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, spam-clicking to fire the omega egg greatly reduces the amount of omega eggs needed, killing the queen in as few as 1 egg. The team leader is incapable of doing this strategy, and should not fire any omega eggs.

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 should give one egg to the collector and hold on to any others. Loading multiple omega eggs at once is never a good idea. There is no delay when firing omega eggs, so even a hopper full of 5 eggs will likely be depleted after a single tick of spam clicking. Selecting an omega egg and using it on the hopper allows the collector to load one at a time, which is highly recommended.

The steps required to spam omega eggs are as follows:

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.

Team leader

The team leader, also known as the scroller, is the player who creates the team using the scroll.

The team leader can quick-start each wave by right-clicking the ladder. Furthermore, many aspects of the minigame process through the team leader player. This allows for several advanced strategies to speed up the wave, as elaborated upon below.

Stalling omega eggs

Omega egg spamming can be improved if the team leader uses an animation stall; an action with an animation that prevents the player from doing anything else. Because cannon shots process through the team leader, the leader can spam short animation stalls during loading of the omega egg so it will not be depleted from the cannon until the animation ends. This gives the team more time to spam click the eggs, drastically improving the chances of killing the queen with one omega egg. The longer the animation, the more time the team has to shoot. 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:

Attacker

Attacker overview

The attacker’s job is to use combat to fight Penance Fighters and Penance Rangers. Every 30 seconds the attacker must change their attack style to match the new call from the collector. The attacker must also use their horn to call out the new egg colour for the collector. Attacking with the wrong style will deal 2 damage to the player, 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.

Attack style	Arrow type	Spell type
Controlled	Bullet	Wind
Accurate	Field	Water
Aggressive	Blunt	Earth
Defensive	Barbed	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, as only standard spellbook spells are allowed to be used. The slow attack speed and damage of these spells paired with low defensive stats from magic equipment make it the worst of the three styles. The following table shows recommended setups:

Slot	Recommended equipment for Ranged (high level) – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Void ranger helm[1]	Masori mask (f) Masori mask	Armadyl helmet	Blessed coif	N/A
	Necklace of anguish	Amulet of fury	Amulet of glory	N/A	N/A
	Dizana’s quiver[2]	Ava’s assembler	Ava’s accumulator	N/A	N/A
	Elite void top[1] Void knight top[1]	Masori body (f) Masori body	Armadyl chestplate	Blessed body	Black d’hide body
	Elite void robe[1] Void knight robe[1]	Masori chaps (f) Masori chaps	Armadyl chainskirt	Blessed chaps	Black d’hide chaps
	Venator bow	3rd age bow	Magic shortbow (i)	Magic shortbow	N/A
	Void knight gloves[1]	Zaryte vambraces	Barrows gloves	Blessed vambraces Black d’hide vambraces	N/A
	Echo boots	Pegasian boots	Ranger boots	Blessed boots	Boots of brimstone
	Venator ring	Ring of suffering (ri)	Archers ring (i)	Ring of shadows	N/A
	Dinh’s bulwark[3]	Dragon claws	Magic shortbow (i)	Burning claws	Magic shortbow

Make sure to set the bow to the Rapid attack style. Bringing divine bastion potions, or divine ranging potions and divine super defence potions, or Ranging potions and super defence potions is highly recommended. The attacker horn is automatically added to the player’s inventory during a wave, and the 4 types of arrows are obtained by using the attacker item machine.

Slot	Recommended equipment for Ranged (mid level) – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Void ranger helm[1]	Robin hood hat	Archer helm Ranger hat Spined helm	Shayzien helm (5) Snakeskin bandana	Coif
	Amulet of fury	Amulet of glory	Amulet of power	Amulet of accuracy	Amulet of defence
	Ava’s accumulator	Ava’s attractor	Obsidian cape Ranging cape(t)	Black cape	N/A
	Void knight top[1]	Mixed hide top	Red d’hide body	Blue d’hide body	Spined body Green d’hide body
	Void knight robe[1]	Penance skirt	Mixed hide legs Red d’hide chaps	Blue d’hide chaps	Green d’hide chaps
	Magic shortbow (i)	Magic shortbow	Yew shortbow	Maple shortbow	N/A
	Void knight gloves[1]	Ranger gloves	Red d’hide vambraces	Blue d’hide vambraces	Green d’hide vambraces
	Ranger boots	Mixed hide boots	Shayzien boots (5)	Snakeskin boots	Frog-leather boots
	Archers ring (i)	Granite ring (i)	Ring of recoil	N/A	N/A
	Magic shortbow (i)	Magic shortbow	N/A	N/A	N/A

Make sure to set the bow to the Rapid attack style. Bringing divine bastion potions, or divine ranging potions and divine super defence potions, or Ranging potions and super defence potions is highly recommended. The attacker horn is automatically added to the player’s inventory during a wave, and the 4 types of arrows are obtained by using the attacker item machine.

Slot	Recommended equipment for Melee (high level) – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Torva full helm	Blood moon helm[1]	Neitiznot faceguard	Helm of neitiznot Berserker helm	Inquisitor’s great helm
	Amulet of rancour	Amulet of torture	Amulet of fury	Amulet of strength	Amulet of glory
	Infernal cape	Fire cape	Mythical cape Mixed hide cape	Cape of Accomplishment (t) Obsidian cape	N/A
	Torva platebody	Blood moon chestplate[1]	Bandos chestplate	Fighter torso	Inquisitor’s hauberk
	Torva platelegs	Blood moon tassets[1]	Bandos tassets	Obsidian platelegs	Inquisitor’s plateskirt
	Blade of saeldor Inquisitor’s mace (Acc/Agg/Def/Ctrl)	Dual macuahuitl[2] (Acc/Agg/Def/Ctrl)	Ghrazi rapier (Acc/Agg/Def) Abyssal tentacle (Ctrl)	Abyssal whip (Acc/Def/Ctrl) Abyssal bludgeon (Agg)	Sulphur blades[2] Dragon scimitar (Acc/Agg/Def/Ctrl)
	Avernic defender	Dragon defender	Dragonfire shield	N/A	N/A
	Ferocious gloves	Barrows gloves	Dragon gloves	Rune gloves	Regen bracelet
	Echo boots	Primordial boots	Dragon boots	Spiked manacles	Guardian boots
	Ultor ring	Berserker ring (i)	Ring of suffering (ri)	Bellator ring	Brimstone ring
	Dinh’s bulwark	Dragon claws	Burning claws	Dragon dagger(p++)	N/A

Bringing divine super combat potions, or super combat potions, or super attack potions, super strength potions and super defence potions is highly recommended.

Slot	Recommended equipment for Melee (mid level) – Item (most effective → least effective)
	Helm of neitiznot Berserker helm	Obsidian helmet Void melee helm[1]	Dragon med helm Granite helm	Warrior helm	Rune full helm
	Amulet of fury	Amulet of glory	Amulet of strength	Amulet of power	Amulet of defence
	Fire cape	Mixed hide cape	Cape of Accomplishment (t) Obsidian cape	Cape of legends	Black cape
	Fighter torso	Obsidian platebody Void knight top[1]	Mixed hide top	Dragon chainbody Granite body	Rune platebody
	Obsidian platelegs	Void knight robe[1]	Dragon platelegs	Granite legs	Rune platelegs
	Zombie axe (Acc/Agg/Def) Sarachnis cudgel (Ctrl)	Dragon scimitar Sulphur blades[2] (Acc/Agg/Def/Ctrl)	Granite hammer (Acc/Agg/Def) Dragon longsword (Ctrl)	Brine sabre (Acc/Agg/Def/Ctrl)	Rune scimitar (Acc/Agg/Def/Ctrl)
	Dragon defender	Rune defender	Toktz-ket-xil	Book of war	Rune kiteshield
	Regen bracelet Granite gloves	Void knight gloves[1]	Combat bracelet	Mithril gloves	Shayzien gloves (5)
	Dragon boots	Spiked manacles	Granite boots	Rune boots	Climbing boots / Mixed hide boots
	Berserker ring (i)	Brimstone ring	Granite ring (i)	Ring of recoil	N/A
	Dragon dagger(p++)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Bringing divine super combat potions, or super combat potions, or super attack potions, super strength potions and super defence potions is highly recommended.

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. If there are two attackers, one should focus on rangers and one on fighters to prevent wasting hits on the same enemy.

• 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.
• As a solo attacker, if your combat stats are low (under 80), consider killing all the Penance Rangers first. Rangers have higher max hits and can even attack you on the cannon hills. If your combat stats are high, alternate between killing the Penance Fighters and Rangers to kill them more quickly.
• With a venator bow, it’s best to stand next to the ranger spawn and attack fighters to drag them over for bouncing arrows.

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.

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 hit 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 shortbows or weapons with multiple hits such as the venator bow provide the greatest bonus damage.

Level	Honour Points	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

Collector

Collector overview

The collector’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. Note that both cannons share the same ammo pool; loading one will load them both. 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.

Eggs will explode and deal 5 damage if the player picks up the wrong-coloured egg, or picks up an egg with a full inventory. This also reduces the total number of eggs collected by 1, lowering points gained.

Waves 1-9 as collector

The following is a list of steps for the first nine waves.

• 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.

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.

When the queen arrives, the collector must pick up yellow eggs that appear by the Queen. Yellow eggs can be picked up regardless of the current colour of egg called. The eggs must be used on the healer to hand them over. The defender will pass the completed omega eggs back to the collector, at which point the collector must load them into the hopper to be fired at the queen.

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.

Proper loading for spam-clicking

If the team is attempting the omega egg spam-clicking method (explained under #Fighting the queen), the collector should stand a couple tiles south of the egg hopper waiting to load. When all your teammates except the team leader are at the cannon ready to spam-click fire, click the omega eggs in your inventory and use them individually on the hopper. This will add one single egg at a time, maximising the number of hits per omega egg.

Make sure there’s at least one egg of any colour loaded into the hopper before loading the omega egg. This can be done before the queen spawns. Doing so is necessary to keep the cannon interface active for your teammates so they can spam-click fire the omega eggs.

Other role information

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 prioritised over points.

Points received for collector are the number of 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.

Collector levels

Leveling 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. Converting eggs to shoot runners before they escape is a great strategy to save your team from losing points.

Level	Honour Points	Collector bonus
1	N/A	Bag holds 2 eggsNo conversion
2	200	Bag holds 4 eggsConversion chance ~20%
3	300	Bag holds 6 eggsConversion chance ~40%
4	400	Bag holds 7 eggsConversion chance ~60%
5	500	Bag holds 8 eggsConversion chance ~80%

Defender

Defender overview

The defender’s job is to prevent Penance runners from escaping through the tunnel on the south wall of the arena. This is done by dropping 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 Every 30 seconds. The defender must also call which poisoned food the healer must use.

Trapping runners

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. Bait dropped while it is what’s currently called is known as “good food”, while the other two baits are “bad food”. When dropped, good food will always stay good and bad food will always stay bad, even after the call changes.

Name	Description	Example
Good food	Bait dropped while it was the correct call.	Worms  would mean that the worms are good food, and will always remain good after being dropped.
Bad food	Bait dropped while it was not the correct call.	Tofu  would mean that the crackers and worms are bad food, and will always remain “bad” after being dropped.

Every time a penance runner stops, it looks for food within range (4 tiles for level 1, 5 tiles for level 2-5). If it does not find food, it will randomly walk in any direction except north, with a strong preference to the south. If it does find food, it broadens its search range to find the best food surrounding it up to 15 tiles away. Runners prefer food that is to the east of them the most, which is why only the east trap is recommended to be used. Whether or not the food is good or bad does not matter to the runner. It will simply eat the most recently dropped food in the area it likes best.

When a runner eats good food, it will say “chomp, chomp.” then look for a new food shortly after. When a runner eats bad food, it will say “blughhhh.” then run straight north for several seconds, walk again, and only then look for a new food. Only good food can be used to kill runners at the traps. Bad food may be used to lure runners north that have walked south past the defender’s trap.

When a runner eats good food 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:

Multi-killing

Multi-killing is a strategy for killing multiple runners on a single trap charge. This 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. When 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.

• 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.
• 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.

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.

• If a runner is stuck on a mushroom, lava crater, or poison pool, dropping bait near it will get it unstuck.

Other role information

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.

Unlike the other roles, using the incorrect food does not incur a point penalty.

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 have no effect, but level 5 is still required for the Elite Kandarin Diary.

Level	Honour Points	Defender bonus
1	N/A	4 tile lure range
2	200	5 tile lure range
3	300	5 tile lure range
4	400	5 tile lure range
5	500	5 tile lure range

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

The healer’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 from the pool to the south. The type of poisoned food 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

Near the bottom of their screen, the healer has an interface showing the hitpoints of their teammates. At all times, but especially after wave 7, the healer should pay close attention 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 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 healers can drink directly from the spring by left clicking on it to heal themselves.

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.

Efficient use of food

To poison a penance healer, simply use the food called by the defender (worms, meat or tofu) on it. This will deal 4 damage directly as well as inflict poison, which will damage the penance healer over time. The damage from poison will decrease every 5 natural poison hits, but using another poisoned food on the penance healer will reset the damage back to 4.

The basic strategy is to always make sure all penance healers are poisoned at least once. Stand next to the penance healer spawn (north-east cave) and use one poisoned food on each penance healer as they spawn every 6 seconds. Once healers stop spawning, start using poisoned food on whichever penance healers are taking less than 4 poison damage. If all penance healers are taking 4 damage, spam use food on a single penance healer to spawn reserve penance healers as soon as possible.

After the second call you will have to restock at the healer item machine. Shift-click to destroy all of the remaining food in your inventory, then click the machine to fully restock your inventory. 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 poisoning penance healers near the trap, or when running south to re-stock, so be extra careful during these moments.

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.

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. 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.

Other role information

Healer points

The healer gets the second lowest amount of base points per round of 10 waves. However, every 18 hitpoints healed provides an extra honour point, with a cap of 28 per wave. Using wrong poison packs will decrease honour points gained by 1 for every 4 wrong poisons.

Even if your team is not in danger of dying, it is beneficial to try healing them up to full health before the end of each wave for the extra points. Some teams may find it worthwhile to choose not to wear defensive armour to increase the amount of health the healer can replenish. Additionally, Divine potions may be brought to lower health by 10 per dose, which may then be healed for points. Araxyte venom sacks may also be used, but will only be allowed to be eaten near the spawn tiles.