This section is not ment for judges, immortals, Fellowship members,wimps, chickens, losers, birdbrains, ohh and also not for players who hate the idea of killing or getting killed by another player. But! If playerkilling sounds exciting to you, and you feel the rush might do you good, do read on. Because if you are not sure that *you* can kill players, I will do my best to make sure you'll learn everything you need to know.

Chapter 1: Attitude
Chapter 2: Tools of the Trade
Chapter 3: Macro's
Chapter 4: The master whispers

Chapter 1: Attitude

Do not be without fear, since this makes one careless. Use fear on your own side, an easy way of doing this is scaring your opponent. Let them believe you are, actually, *all that*. >:) Playerkilling sounds scary, but in practice no bad accidents happen. I myself are a strong believer in Out-Of-Arena fights, because this gives you freedom of movement and thus room to flee also. In an arena there is no room for this and you will soon lose. Remember this: The first knockout does *not* win the battle Yeah sure, it's nice to have the first, but remember that if you get ko'd first..you havent lost yet. I have fought on many occassions seeying this to be true, being the winner as well as loser. Another thing is this: Thieves do not automatically win a fight with their backstab. The reason i'm telling you this is because many feel only an MA-thief is good at PK and all others are sure losers. Ofcourse not! Look at me, I am not a thief and have been bloody (now chevalier(now citizen)) since level 40. I am proud to say I have won my share of battles. Well, anyone can do that. It's not the power of the backstab, it's the swiftness of the wielder. (note to all thieves: yesyes, i know you are strong...come get me then :P) Dont worry about loosing your equipment too much, there still exits something as a law, and looting rarely happens.

Chapter 2: Tools of the Trade

So, there, finally some facts you think :) You're right, We'll need some equipment. Hardcore playerkillers only carry a dagger, but they are almost, read: totally, extinct now. Let me just sum up a list of truly good pk-eq:

The dagger is obvious right ;) For you thieves out there, just settle for a thieves dirk, it good enough since you backstab is strong anyway and it is expandable. For other classes, try to get as good a dagger as possible, but dont spend too much time on it, as the dagger is not that important too you. The main strength of a non-thief must come in speed and creativeness.

The Ffats fo Peels is available in Mirror Midgaard by killing the Master Werewolf. The ffats fo peels is a staff that casts counter magic on any being in the room but you. A spell always gives you a 2 second delay before you can do anything, a staff or wand doesnt. This means that countering someone with the ffats gives you a 2 second head-start, and believe me, these 2 seconds consist the difference between life and death. The spell also never fails thisway. The ffats fo peels contains 3 charges.

The Golden Wand is exactly the same as a ffats fo peels, with one bonus: it has 10(!) charges. It also is more easy to find, but there are also only about ten available for repop.

Ahhhh, The Light Of Shiru No. It is no coincidence people pay millions to get this item. The shiru is the only item (well not anymore.. there's an orb in the questshop) that allows you to see hidden and sneaking people. You will see every player or mob entering and leaving a room and also see them hidden. The first time i got my hands of one of these babies i was surprised howmany mobs i hadn't discovered yet ;) The light also gives you a considerable amount of extra time, since you're able to spot your opponent before he sees you.

Hey, dont skip this part! A life-insurance scroll absolutely rocks! You'll want to be peaced before a fight right? Well, the scroll casts peace. Not only that, you'll also get a Dome of Power (saves). And...the same as with the counter wans, NO delay, NO fail. Melissa sells them (speedwalk on the paths page) for about 40k, but they are worth every penny.

Then you can buy a rotonda. A rotonda is perfect for wimps who hide in temples. It's something you hold, and it casts random teleport on the victim so you can teleport after them and ko them...or something else ;)

The last thing I'll discuss here for now are kiwi's. Kiwi lower you save against enchanment, or was it something else? ;) Anyway, eat enough kiwi's and have a Dome of Power on, and you cant be sleeped, blinded etc. >>:) Get them at Olympus.

Chapter 3: Macro-preparation

In this chapter I'll try to teach you some basic macro techniques needed to be able to be as fast as possible. Macro's are, as far as I know, possible to make in any good mud-client. For Windows, I recommend zMUD. The nice thing about zmud is, you can ask me for any help you'd need :). Anyway, a macro is a command or a set of commands assigned to a key or keycombination. Something like: get gold corpse,sac corpse could be under say, F1. So the next time you kill a mob, no need for a lot of typing. If we take this to playerkilling you can make some very nice macros.

First let us prepare some basics. You wouldnt like to spend much time before each fight to change all aliases and macros for the next victim because this might get you in a tight spot if you are attacked unexpectedly, like what happened to me this day (day of typing). I, however, had prepared myself to change all macros instantly. Here's what you'll need to do. Make a variable called victim. This var is going to remember for us who the person is we are hunting, or fleeing from. Now, to set the variable, make an alias that sets the var with what you type following the alias. In zMUD this would be: Alias:PK Commands:#VAR victim %1. We are all set now, any time you want to attack someone or you are being attacked, use the alias. So, if  I would attack you, type: PK vincent.

Ok, make a macro for flee! I have mine under Keypad 5, I walk around with the keypad and pressing 5 gives the fastest flee i could hope for.

Next, make on for 'cast peace' or 'recite life' (the scrolls). A could place would be anywhere near the flee-macro, as you want to be peaced again fast after you fled. Mine is under Keypad 0

For anyone with disguise, make a nice short alias or macro to quickly disguise. I will add info on how to make random-disguise triggers in zMUD in the zmud section later.

This basically covers the defense part, I assume you have triggers to stand up after being bashed and such. Now, it all depends on your characters skill and your favourite strategy. I use this rule though: The best Defense is Offence.

If you have 'counter magic', make F5: cast 'counter magic' @victim If you have a Golden Wand: use wand, If you have a Ffats fo Peels: use ffats, If you dont have any of the above, you're screwed. You'll never be able to break 'Peace'.

If you have knockout, make F6: knockout @victim If you have sleep: cast sleep @victim
If you have none of these, you strategy will change dramatically. Your number 1 tactic must be to keep the victim busy. Do this by constantly attacking, he will also be very surprised if you do this, and get enough hits in by those single hits plus him fleeing and don't be surprised if the victim dies with yourself still on maximum hitpoints. I used this strategy on General Leera when I was still small but had the spell 'Fear'. If the victim is scared enough to keep fleeing instead of fighting he'll be in for a surprise. A good one then would be to perhaps even have 'cast fear' @victim under a key, but ONLY if you are really scared of him hitting you. Now to get to the point, if you are a Mage, make F6: cast 'atomic blast' @victim, bash If you are a Warrior: kill @victim, bash A cleric should choose what he feels best, maybe try and get a backstab through. (Again: this is if you do NOT have knockout)

F7 is easy. Thieves: backstab @victim (Doh) Warriors: depends on your weapon, defenitely do a backstab with a very good dagger and +dam eq. But dont underestimate the power of starting the fight with atomic blast or desintegrate. (depends on mana) Mages: cast 'desintegrate' @victim, no doubt about it. Clerics: I havent really looked into Clerics for this one yet, i think a good choice would be backstab, but if you are in the possession of Mage-skills, the same goes for clerics as for warriors.

Track @victim. Yay! quickly start hunting the bastard after he flees or to start the hunt!. You can either have Track close to the offensive keys or close to the defense. I have mine close to defense, Keypad 0, but F8 would also make an excellent choice.

Chapter 4: The master whispers

Just today, I managed to turn a fight in my favour with only 70hp left against a fully healed opponent while I was silenced and blinded. This got me started on this chapter, tips that will save your life.

Know your surroundings. If possible, pick a fight at a place you know your way around well. In any other case, or if someone else picks the fight.. run like you've never done before towards that place. This is your key to success if things get hot. Today, as i said earlier, I got knocked out, blinded, and silenced. After I got backstabbed and was nearly dead, i fled and ran like an assassin looking for his mommy towards the nearest room with a door i knew about. Here, I closed the door and disguised myself. You get the idea? If the door is closed, you cannot be tracked, so you are relatively safe. If you are not found within 3 ticks, you silence fades and you can heal yourself and get ready for the counterattack.

Avoid starting a fight with any spell if you have any reason to believe your victim is -not- going to flee. Casting gives you the wonderful spelldelay, and gives your opponent enough time to bash you, restore, or nasty tricks ranging from recall to a scroll of death. Remember, if this happens the other way around, you now know how to take advantage.

When all hope is lost, or you are really brave, throw a kick or two at your opponent. You might break his neck and be victorious with only 5 hitpoints left *nudge saerdna*.

Energy drain. Only thought this was useful to stay evil eh? Well guess again. How does standing towards a huge cleric with 900 mana sound? Cast energy drain on him and you -might- take him down to 450 mana. It doesnt always work as nicely as that, but any mana taken off is a blessing :)

Anti-trigger. Fighting someone who uses triggers? Har! If they have triggers to knockout you, keeping running in and out of the room. Your opponent will throw a lot of ko's until his counter rises to the point that most his knockouts will fail and you can safely walk in for the kill. He uses a wand to counter you? Then he will have to keep using it on you, keep running until it's empty.