The Forgotten Training Area

posted by on 30th July 2006, at 5:25pm

Da Bomb in a Barrel

Not everything in Runescape is popular enough to be well-known to all. Who can remember the fishing platform where the fisherman are controlled by the things they catch, or the Keep Le Faye, filled with knights ripe for the picking in which you must enter via candle crate? These places were mainly for quests, and any adventurous player would have passed them at least once while doing their quest, not realizing how effective such places can be in their training. One of these unknown and forgotten places is as follows; one I like to call: Barrel-Training. 

Anyone wearing the famed white cape of a legend will have been there before, but only for a short time as they focus mainly on the quest and not their surroundings. It’s a hidden clan event opportunity and a forgotten training area, a place where few recognize and fewer go. Perhaps a quick trip there in the sake of boredom can rejuvenate the existence of this mysterious room if a few players decide to pay it a visit. The room is located in the Kharazi jungle cave, past where Ungadulu is found and through the series of puzzles that lead to the great Dragon Cavern, as I refer it to, seeing as the map itself portrays the picture of a dragon when viewed by the correct angle. To gain access to this cavern, a player must bring:

  • A hatchet
  • A machete
  • A lock pick
  • A pickaxe
  • An uncharged orb and the runes to enchant it in any element
  • And the player must have fought the first Nezichened (the Legends Quest black demon).
Entering the cavern is easy, seeing as it has already been navigated in the Legends Quest. Simply proceed to go into the Kharazi Jungle, find the rocks on the northwestern end, squeeze through past the empty bookcase, picklock the great door, smash-to-bits a number of barricading boulders, shove open a steel gate, leap a wall, enter a magic door, and finally cast the enchant orb on the large door in the room with the seven lakes. Once the magical door pulls you in, you’ll have entered a cavern that houses a number of red-capped barrels. You’ll know by these that you have successfully made it into a place rarely visited by the rest of the Runescape community.
Clicking on and smashing the barrels themselves is only half the fun. Once a barrel is smashed, a number of things can happen. Unfortunately, some of these events include failing and losing some attack points (1 – 3), or the barrel exploding in your face, dealing heavy damage (10 – 15). But when this doesn’t happen, the barrels can spawn 2 things: 

  • An NPC, ranging from weak muggers and rats, to dark wizards and zombies, to black knights and skeletons, to moss giants and death wings (a type of ghost bat, level 80).
  • An item, which can be:
    • Something useless like rope, a tinderbox, logs, or rocks;
    • Something good like runes, pickaxes, darts, and knives (runite too!);
    • Really good things like potions (prayer potions too!) and food;
    • Jackpots, which include multiple noted goodies like shark, yew logs, gold bars, and extras, with at least 6 types at once all the time to choose from (includes a random message too – is this the Chaos Elemental’s storeroom?)
The truly fun part about barrel training is that everything appears at random, so the more you smash the barrels, the more something happens to you to deal with, which is why this area would be considered a fantastic clan event, since there’s so much that can be done here. The area is multi-combat, so this is also a good place for Zaros magic, dragon 2-handers, and runite throwing axes. There are even a number of creative games that one a group or a clan of players can play here. Some of my favorite made-up games include the following: 

  • How many NPCs can you spawn before the game starts to lag? (Karl 67 and I alone got around 50 in one area before we were forced to start killing them.)
  • NPC elimination – How this game works is players smash barrels to get NPCs and kill them. The level of the NPC killed is the number of points a player scores, which can be kept by themselves to be announced (play fair) when it’s needed, or by a clan leader (players do it one at a time). However, if a player gets a death wing or an exploding barrel, they lose and are out of the competition. This resumes until there’s either one player remaining in the game, or play is stopped and the points are tallied up.
  • I-time Attack (Item Attack – ‘Time’ as the same letters as ‘item’) – Choose a type of item (Runes, runite knives, prayer potion, etc.) and a number of them. First player to get them from the barrels wins, or it can be a group effort in which all players obtain the specified item and give it to the leader, who counts the items and times the event (Set a record and try to beat it!)
  • ‘It’s a Hit’ Endurance Test – Each player is only allowed a specific number of food and armor items (Same for each) and it’s all-out barrel training. Last player who is still able to do it with risking exploding barrels and death wings without prayer wins.
  • You can also smash certain barrels and try to make a formation with them when they spawn. You can also even make a wall of barrels, like so:
Barrel-training is relatively safe. If a player is low on health, the NPCs don’t spawn until a barrel is smashed, and the player can also use these barrels for cover, as nothing can walk through them. Mind you, if someone does die, they lose their items, which is why it’s always better to bring a friend or clan with you. Have fun barrel-training and don’t forget a teleport, as the return trip may be a little difficult.

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