Last Man Standing Oldschool Runescape Guide

Last Man Standing (LMS) is a popular player-versus-player minigame in the world of Runescape. It is a battle royale style game, in which players must fight for survival against other players in order to become the last man standing. The game can be played in three different modes: Casual, Competitive, and High Stakes. In this guide, we will cover the basics of the game, such as how to join, the rewards, and more.

Joining the Game

Players can join the game by speaking to Lisa, located in Ferox Enclave. Upon speaking with her, players will be given the option to choose one of the three game modes: Casual, Competitive, or High Stakes. Casual mode is free-to-play and does not have rewards, but players can join with as few as four other players. Competitive mode, which is only playable on members' worlds, rewards players with points that can be exchanged for rewards. There must be 24 participants to begin a competitive game. High Stakes mode requires players to pay 500,000 coins to enter, and rewards the winner with 7,500,000 coins and the runner-up with 2,500,000 coins.

In order to participate in Competitive or High Stakes mode, players must have a minimum total level of 750 and 30 Quest points, or a minimum total level of 1,500 if they have less than 30 Quest points. Hardcore Group Ironman players are also able to participate in Last Man Standing, Soul Wars, and Castle Wars without being penalized.

Official Worlds

Unlike most minigames, Last Man Standing can only be played on certain worlds. There are no differences in gameplay between free-to-play and members, as the items used within the minigame cannot be brought outside. This makes the minigame the only place where free-to-play players can use Ancient Magicks. As with other PvP worlds, Last Man Standing worlds are often rotated to provide fairer lag associated with ping/server latency to players across the world.

Gameplay

At the start of the game, a map is chosen from the map pool at random. Currently there are two island maps available (Desert Island and Wild Varrock), with a 50% chance of either being chosen. Players can choose their preferred account build via a Settings button on the screen when in the lobby. Players can choose between Max/Med, Zerker, and 1 Def Pure builds. Upon arrival to the island, an account build is randomly chosen for all players, with a higher chance given to builds preferred by more players in the waiting area. All prayers (excluding Redemption, Smite, Preserve and Retribution and excluding Rigour, Augury, Piety and Chivalry for the zerker and 1 def pure builds) can be used, and the player's spellbook is switched to the Ancient Magicks, even if Desert Treasure I is not completed. In addition, players are given infinite run energy as well as infinite prayer.

Players are given a default preset of items based on the account build chosen that are provided upon arriving, which by includes Super restore, Super combat potion, Saradomin brew, Ranging potion, and, by default, a unique rune pouch that can cast Blood Blitz, Blood Barrage, Ice Blitz and Ice Barrage. The supply chest just east of Lisa allows players to arrange their inventory, equipment loadout, and spellbook to their personal preference. It should be noted that players cannot have more than eleven sharks and two cooked karambwans for their loadout, and cannot be picked up from a slain player's loot if they have that same amount of food. Players can choose between the Standard Spellbook, Ancient Magicks, and Lunar Spellbook in the supply chest, giving access to the Surge spells and Entangle, Ice and Blood Blitz and Barrage spells, and Vengeance and Cure Me respectively. The Lunar Spellbook cannot be activated for Pure builds.

To improve the chance of survival, players must loot chests throughout the island with bloody keys and bloodier keys. 

Fog

After a minute, the game will broadcast that lethal fog will soon fill the island. To avoid taking damage from the fog, players must travel to the safe zone, which is indicated by fog markers (glowing orbs) and a yellow arrow. Players who don’t make it to the safe zone within 9 minutes and 10 seconds will start taking damage at a rate of 1 damage per tick, which will steadily increase to 10 damage per tick.

Essentials of the Game

When you first start a PvP game, you will spawn on an island with 24 other players. You have seven seconds before the game begins to drink potions and turn on prayers. Prayer and run energy are unlimited, so you should make sure to use them to your advantage. Loot crates can appear randomly on the map, and you should try to open them to receive gear from the Offensive and Defensive tables. There is also a safe area that is announced at the beginning of the game where you can be protected from the lethal fog.

Upon Killing Another Player

When you kill another player, your special attack, stats, health, and consumable supplies are all restored. You will also receive a key that can be opened on a chest for gear. You will have a 20 second timer before you can enter combat again, and the lethal fog will close in, damaging any players that are caught in it. The safe zone will provide protection from the fog.

Mechanics

Keys

When you kill players, you will receive either a Bloody or a Bloodier key. A Bloody key will give you one item from the Offensive and Defensive tables, while a Bloodier key will give you an additional four items from the Offensive table. Mithril seeds are also possible loot from keys.

Loot Crates

Looting a crate will give you one random item from the key table, including the upgraded table. They spawn randomly during the game, and in a random position in a random area.

Strategy

Gear

You should strive to get the best gear possible to increase your chances of winning fights. When looting crates, you should be able to quickly determine what loot to keep, replace, and drop.

Keybinding

Set up your keybinds to quickly access Inventory, your Spellbook, Prayer, and Combat options for special attack. This will allow you to use the function keys F1 to F12 on your keyboard to open up different tabs.

Potions

You should drink the following potions when you start a game and after every kill: Brew -> Super restore -> Ranging potion -> Super combat potion. You should also drink Ranging and Super combat potions when your stats get two levels lower than the max boost.

Praying

You should have prayer on at all times since it is unlimited. Note that the protection only applies if the prayer is on the tick before your opponent performs the attack animation. Protection prayers do not increase your defence, they only reduce the damage by 40%.

Eating

Find the balance between eating and protecting from your opponent's attacks. If your health is below 20, your number one priority should be to eat food. If your health is around 40, you should focus on getting protection prayers on in time before the hit or risk it and keep fighting. You can also use Saradomin brew -> Shark > Karambwan to quickly heal; however, the brew requires repoting again.

Switching

Switching gear is a difficult part of PvP and requires a lot of practice and a good mouse. You should switch gear to increase your damage output and/or increase your defence against your opponent's attacks.

Running

Running can be a great distraction for your opponent, especially when they are trying to mage you. You should also be aware of attack distances, as magic spells can reach 10 squares while the rune crossbow can only reach 7 squares on rapid and 9 on longrange.

Tree hugging and Standing underneath

These strategies involve freezing your opponent and then going behind an obstacle so they can't attack you. You should use range gear and spam click them to get a hit on them. If your opponent does this trick often to you, it's a good idea to keep your distance and keep them frozen as much as possible.

Faking

Sometimes you're fighting a really good pker and they are always protecting from you when you do switches. You can use the fake strategy by switching to one style and then back to your old one or a different one quickly.

Miscellaneous Tips

Drop good unwanted gear in places where others won't find it. If you have a ballista and get another one, keep the javelins so the ballista is useless to other players.

Rewards

There are two types of rewards you can earn while playing Last Man Standing: casual rewards and competitive rewards.

Casual Rewards

Playing a casual game yields no rewards.

Competitive Rewards

In competitive games, players are given a certain amount of points based on their performance in a game. Players in first place will receive 5 points, players in second place will receive 4 points, players in third or fourth place will receive 3 points, players in fifth to ninth place will receive 2 points, and players in tenth to nineteenth place will receive 1 point. Additionally, players can earn bonus points (which do not stack with each other) by killing three players (1 point) or five players (2 points).

These points can be exchanged for reward items at Justine’s reward shop. Each point is worth up to 54,242 coins for members and 46,239 coins for free-to-play.

High Stakes Rewards

For high stakes games, the sole survivor of the match will win 7,500,000 coins and the runner-up is awarded 2,500,000 coins. Players in third to fifth place will have their next high stakes game free of charge. With a minimum of 24 players in a match, 12,000,000 coins are put into the match. 10,000,000 of that is redistributed to the last two players, and three players get free access to their next game. This means that Last Man Standing acts as a OSRS GP sink with a minimum of 500,000 coins leaving the game per high stakes match.

Ranking

Players have a rank that starts at 500, and can decrease, increase, or stay the same depending on their performance each game. The ranking system is as follows:

Novice (0-599)

Veteran (600-749)

Master (750-999)

Legend (1000+)

Conclusion

With this guide, you should now have a better understanding of the different strategies and mechanics of Runescape PvP. As well as the rules and gameplay surrounding the Last Man Standing minigame. You should practice and experiment with different strategies to find the ones that work best for you. Good luck and have fun!