Seasonal Deadman Mode Guide

Seasonal Deadman Mode (SDM) is a variation game style for Runescape introduced in March 2016. Unlike it's popular predecessor, Deadman Mode (DMM), all player stats and items are reset every three months at which point the top 2000 players on the highscores list are invited into a Seasonal Deadman Tournament. There are several differences between traditional Oldschool Runescape and SDM (and DMM), outlined below: More information on skulls, death penalty, and other rules are outlined in their respective sections below.
 * All skill-training experience rates are multiplied by 5
 * All areas in Runescape are treated like Wilderness, where players can attack any other player at any level
 * If a player attacks another unskulled player, they receive a skull
 * If a player attacks another skulled player, they do not receive a skull
 * Players with skulls will lose their skull after 30 minutes without engaging combat and remaining active, or upon death
 * Upon death you will lose 25% of your total experience in all unprotected skills if unskulled, and 50% if skulled
 * If a skulled player enters a protected area (Diagram 1), they will be attacked by level 1337 Guards and perpetually rooted until death
 * Most forms of teleportation and logging-out require a 10 second countdown before activation

Safe Zones
There are several safe areas, marked with green highlight in Diagram 1 below, which are protected by level 1337 Guard. If a skulled player enters these areas, or a player receives a skull by attacking another player within this area, they will be Ice Barraged and attacked by the Guards until death. Additionally, areas marked with red highlight in Diagram 1 are multi-combat zones, where any number of players may attack the same target.

Skulls
When a player attacks any other player that does not have a skull emblem, that player will receive a skull and a countdown timer starting at 30 minutes. Once a player receives a skull they may not enter protected safe zones for at least 30 minutes. If a player remains still or inside their Player Owned Home (POH) their skull countdown timer will not decrease. After their countdown timer reaches 0, or upon death, that player will lose their skull and will be able to enter safe zones once again. Additionally, other players who attack a player with a skull emblem will not receive a skull themselves. This means that skulled players are likely to be highly targeted players as there is no consequence for engaging combat with these players other than risking your own death.

There are six types of skulls, each relating to the number of kills (0-5+) that player has attained during the lifetime of their skull emblem.

Death Penalty
All deaths in SDM result experience and/or item loss penalties. If a skulled player dies, they will lose 50% of their total experience in all unprotected skills along with the 28 most valuable stacks of items from their bank.

Protected Skills
Info on protected skills..

Starting Out
Seasonal Deadman Mode is very competitive, so it is important to be prepared and start the game at the very beginning of the season. Since there are no PvP combat level restrictions, it is highly advantageous to start training early to have a competitive combat level. The remaining sections under Strategy will help give you ideas on the kind of things you should work towards to get the most out of your SDM experience.

Starting right from Tutorial Island, speak to Skippy to skip the tutorial and jump right into the game. Depending on your plan you can teleport to Lumbridge, Ardougne etc or etc. One of the first things you will want to do is receive your 10k gp reward from the Stronghold of Security for a nice early game boost. You can also collect Steel Platelegs or Steel Platebodies from the deep wilderness for starting gold. You can also take advantage of cheap powerful food: kebabs in Al Karid or Jugs of Wine in Draynor village. While you're in Draynor buy a rope from Ned; you will need it if you want to do the Waterfall Quest, which is the easiest way to get starting combat levels and even more starting gold.