Advice

Assassins - Survival in a PK world

This article is not my own work. The article was written by Sir Shinobi Xiong Mao and is taken from his web site and reproduced here by kind permission. His web site no longer exists and I feel honoured to be allowed to host this excellent advice on my own humble site. His site was closed down after he became tired of people copying his hard won information. It is not my intention to repeat this crime which is why I have sought full permission first before reproducing his work here.

The only changes I have made are ones involving formatting the text for my site and some grammatical changes where they seemed desirable for my own preferred style. I hope this causes no offense.

So, you want to survive in the world of the playerkiller?

Generally you have to realise that being a newbie PK assassin, you will be the perfect target for PK thieves and warriors who want to have a quick kill. Never have a doubt about that. It's part of what makes this guild so difficult, usually we have the most PKs online, so looking for us as targets is quite natural. There are a few ways to reduce the danger of you being a victim, though.

General

Being a playerkiller might seem something to avoid at first. However, since you joined the Assassins' Guild, you will have to become a playerkiller eventually. So you might as well know what it is about.
Playerkilling does not mean you'll get killed every few minutes. It also does not mean that once you're PKed you will be looted. I know that's common practice on other online games, but it's certainly not common on the Disc. Older players frown upon such action and mostly will be glad to help you against those harassment characters.

Since you will become a playerkiller automatically once you have passed the run, there is no point in being afraid of it. Deal with it like everyone else does. Look at those "oldbies", everyone of them has been in the same situation as you, so obviously it's possible to get by. The crucial time for you will be between 10-30 days online age. That is when you're graduated and have earned enough money to buy worthy items that other players might be interested in. Follow the guidelines below and you can reduce theft and being killed immensely.

Theft

Don't carry around large amounts of money, expensive items or anything else that is hard to replace. I know you are proud of your warhammer, retribution etc. but if you don't want to lose some big bucks, wait until you know what you're doing.
Never idle around in public places. That means, don't just stand around on the street. If you want to idle go to one of the safe places on the disc, most towns and cities have several of those places.
If you absolutely have to idle on the street, e.g. because you're waiting for someone to teach you something, hide. Make it your habit to hide whenever you're not actually moving. It TMs a little and is proper roleplay :)
If you actually get stolen from, bear it with style. If it was a clean steal, acknowledge the thieves skills and leave him be. If it was an unclean steal, however, try to get the item back. Recent experience with thieves has shown me that the best tactic to retrieve your items from a thief is to retrieve them from his corpse and then inform his ghost why and what you got.
Never, ever, go to the thief and start insulting him. This is very important. Don't do that or he'll pick you again and again.
There are a few things you can actively do to avoid theft. Advance your ot.pe, a bonus around 250 should be enough to prevent low level thieves from stealing from you. If you think it's not enough, use the command watch, it increases your ot.pe lots. Conceal stuff you don't want to get stolen. Or, rather, conceal everything you feel you need in your inventory. Each tea bottle, crystal ball, throwing knife, whatever. Make an alias for it and use it frequently. Co.hi.ob (which is used for conceal) tms nicely and soon you will have a bonus that prevents others from seeing what you're carrying around. They'll see your items as "four somethings" or similar. Of course the thief might also have ot.pe advanced, which would enable him to see even things that you have concealed.

Playerkilling

The most important thing for newbie PKs is to stick their heads low for a while. Don't draw people's attention to you. That means don't talk on the Playerkillers' channel, don't go around telling everyone that you passed the run etc.
Change your behaviour. While you think you're cool, hip, trendy and the only smart person on the Disc, you're wrong. So using shorthand (or leetspeak or hax0rspeak), telling everyone how much better you are than them, yelling at everyone who said something you didn't like, is behaviour that gets you killed if someone feels like it.
Insulting people results in them getting angry! I know it's probably common sense, but there are lots of newbies on the talker whining how they were sooo maliciously killed. When asked what actually happened, they had to admit that they started yelling and insulted the PK. You will have to live with the consequences of your behaviour! So stop insulting people and stop yelling. If you can't control yourself then leave the computer for a few minutes to calm down.
Running away is not always the solution. While many on the talker say being an assassin means you're good at running away, I don't share that opinion. Actually I think those people are insolent stupid little newbies who should get thrown out of the guild, but this is not the place to rant about those morons. Anyway, there is a time to run away and a time to fight. If you're massively outnumbered or outskilled (i.e., the Huizingers or Lanfear attacking you), then I'd say running away is ok. But if you run away from a fight, just because you might die, you're just a weak little coward. So rather stay and fight like a man than run away like a little chicken. If you die, at least you die like a man with honour.

Conclusion

Basically, being a playerkiller boils down to experience and a sharp mind. Be aware of your surroundings, use the killers command frequently to see what PKs are on. You will start to memorize some names, which is important. When someone enters your room (and you're hiding, I hope), use killers here to check if he's PK. Try to always know if there is a PK around you. If you have PK friends then ask them to spar with you. Fighting a PK is lightyears away from fighting NPCs. And never underestimate your opponent, most of them have played this game for years and can easily outwit you.

A last hint would be to be creative. Try different weapons, see what they do, try not to rely on your melee and covert only, there are other ways to win fights. When you lose a fight, think about why he was able to kill you and if you can prevent it. Advance magic and faith, too, there are some useful PK tricks hidden in those branches, even for us assassins.

Good hunting!

Thus ends another installment of the wisdom of Sir Shinobi. I may not agree with everything he writes but this article was certainly the education that I based my early PK days on. Worth mentioning that the watch command now has various levels of alertness, so check out the help file on it for more info. I think it is also worth noting that hiding and sneaking can get you into trouble as well as saving you. I was once killed for sneaking in a public street. Some people see a sneaking assassin and conclude that they are about to be inhumed. They won't stop to check your level first. I believe that staying out of public places entirely is better than hiding in them until you get very good at hiding and combat.

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