| Location on World Map | ||||
| Al Kharid Mine | ← | Duel Arena | → | Abandoned Mine |
The Al-Kharid Duel Arena is a place where member players can go to engage in one on-one-combat, either for fun or for a prize. Duelling for prizes is referred to as staking.
Origins
The Duel Arena was brought into RuneScape shortly after the end of the RS2 Beta. It was partially due to Jagex wanting to do something about players abusing the "Duel anywhere" option back in RuneScape Classic in order to get a free teleport to Lumbridge.
Location
Teleporting to the Duel Arena via the Ring of Dueling.
Map of Duel Arena.
The arena is located northeast of Al-Kharid. It is fenced off from the rest of the area.
Players can also rub a Ring of Dueling to teleport directly to the arena entrance. This saves on having to walk from far away, although using an Amulet of Glory to teleport to the palace is another viable option along with the Lumbridge Home Teleport as it is close to the Duel Arena.
Picking a Fight
To fight another player, players must right-click their intended opponent and select the "Challenge" option. This will tell that player that someone wishes to duel with them, and they accept by challenging that player in return.
Combat
To fight another player, players must right-click their intended opponent and select the "Challenge" option. The player must then select whether it is a fun or staked duel. This will tell that player that someone wishes to duel with them, and they accept by challenging that player in return.
The duelling options screen.
This will open the duelling options screen, which defines the parameters for the battle. The screen shows the name and combat level of the opponent, as well as what each player is offering up for a "bet", or a "stake". Players can only bet up to 3000 coins or items worth up to 3000 coins. Finally, there are 11 different options that can be turned on or off and are adjustable by either player. These are detailed as follows:
- No Ranged: No ranging weaponry can be equipped during the battle.
- No Melee: Players cannot engage in hand-to-hand combat, including bare fists/feet.
- No Magic: No magical attack spells can be cast.
- No Special Attacks: Special attacks cannot be used.
- Fun Weapons: The only allowed Weapons are the Rubber chicken, Fixed Device, Flowers and rubber mouse toy. Bare fists are not allowed.
- No Forfeit: Players cannot escape the arena; the fight lasts until one player dies.
- No Drinks: Players cannot drink anything that boosts stats, such as Potions. All stats that are boosted prior to the fight are reset to their default values once the fight begins.
- No Food: Eating food to heal is not allowed.
- No Prayer: Using the Prayer skill is not allowed.
- No Movement: Players can't walk or run during the battle.
- Obstacles: The arena becomes like a mini-maze during the fight.
Some of the options can't be combined; for instance, having no ranged, melee, or magic makes it impossible to fight.
It is also possible to take equipped items off on this screen, rangers should be careful not to check off shield if they intend to use a bow.
One the battle begins, players are teleported into the arena itself with a 3-second countdown before the fighting actually begins. If "No Forfeit" was not checked off, players who are losing (or simply wish to end the duel early) can retreat through one of the trapdoors, ending the battle immediately. Anything staked is awarded to the other player.
During the fight
After reciting 3-2-1-Fight, the players run towards each other, ready to attack. A skull, similar to the one marking the wilderness level, is shown in the bottom of the screen. This skull mean that you are engaging in Player killing. There is a chance of rotten tomatoes being thrown at you by anyone in the audience. This will, however, cause no damage to either person dueling. When in the duel, you can only fight players with a yellow arrow above them, signaling they are your opponents. You can still click the "Fight" option for other players, but you are not allowed to fight them. It is customary say Gf or Good Fight at the conclusion of your duel.
Outcome
One player defeating another in Duel Arena.
The scoreboard.
After the battle ends, players are teleported back to the building beside the arena and healed (poison and stat-reducing effects are negated as well). Any ranged weapons that fell to the ground are automatically returned to the owner. If there was a stake, the victor claims the prize(s). When you die you only lose the items you staked.
Near the gate is a scoreboard where players can view the last 50 battles on that server. This includes the combat levels of the combatants and who won the round. The scoreboard automatically updates every five minutes.
Tournaments
On November 20th, 2007, Jagex added a new way of participating in the duel arena by adding a tournament mode. Up to 64 players can compete and the entry fee is based on the number of participants; up to 1 million coins for a 64 player tournament. Tournaments are similar to the Duel Arena, except players can choose whether it is possible to automatically heal between rounds or not.
Tournaments are only held on worlds 54, 83 and 114.
NPCs
The following NPCs are found at the Duel Arena.
- A'abla
- Captain Daerkin
- Dalal
- Fadli
- Hamid
- Ima
- Jadid
- Jaraah
- Jeed
- Mubariz
- Sabeil
- Sabreen
- Surgeon General Tafani
- Zahwa
2007 update controversy
On November 20th, 2007, during the tournament update, Jagex set a limit of 3,000 GP (or items value thereof) per stake, per every 15 minutes, claiming that this would make real-world trading difficult. This move was heavily criticized by players, citing that this does very little to stop real-world trading and that it only hurts legitimate players. Jagex also did this to put an end to super-fast, unfair moneymaking through staking.
It is believed that this update also affected the prices of certian rare items, such as Santa hats and party hats.
In response, some players have organized mass riots, and many claim that they will no longer continue their membership. Other players have suggest alternative ways to "stake," such as doing deathmatches or "trust stakes," in which two opponents agree on a stake, give their stakes to a middleman, and fight, and finally claim the spoils from the middleman (despite the risk of being scammed).
Trivia
- The Duel Arena's bank is commonly used by crafters Runecrafting Fire runes.
- Setting ranged on, arrows off and movement off, the game was fooled and players stood facing each other unable to attack, making the duel neverending. This is no longer possible.
- Some higher leveled players take advantage of lower levels and challenge them. If they do not accept the duel, the other player may call them a Noob and further insult them. It's best to ignore them; they're just trying to pressure players into dueling them.
See also
- Duel Arena Riot
External links
- RuneScape Knowledge Base - The Duel Arena including Tournament information