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Ultimate Power Barrows Guide - Special Combat Techniques Ultimate Power Barrows Guide - Basic Single Run Per Trip Method

In addition to the special combat methods described in the previous page, there are a number of more general tips and tricks that any frequent Barrower needs to know. These can help you avoid ending up lost in the maze, get the most from your prayer points, or deal with problems you may run into in the crypts or tunnels.

Read on for some more critical information you will want to save for your Barrows trips.

There’s a reason why the tunnels are sometimes called a “maze”: the rooms all look similar, and your minimap is blacked out, so it can be hard to tell where you are. Barrowers sometimes get so caught up in finding the chest door and getting their rewards that they forget which room they entered the tunnels into, and thus where their ladder is to leave.

Seems strange, but it happens to me sometimes, especially after I’ve done many runs quickly. I may even make a mental note of my start location but then get that confused with where a previous run started. To avoid this problem, I recommend quickly jotting down two pieces of information when entering the tunnels: the location of your ladder room (NW, NE, SW or SE) and the direction you traveled to go out the one door from that room (N, W, E or S). This will prevent you from wasting time going in the wrong direction when you try to find your way out in multi-run trips.

Of course, there’s one other issue, and that’s figuring out where your start room is. This is not hard to do once you open the door and start moving around the tunnels. Look especially for the long outer tunnels that connect the corner rooms, as they have a distinctive shape that will tell you where you are. For example, if your entrance room has a door heading east, and when you open it you find a tunnel curving around towards the north, then you started in the southeast room.

If your door opens into a short corridor instead, then the next door will be to a side room (potential chest door room.) In that case, you can figure out where you are from the types of monsters in that room.

Sometimes you can even figure out where you are without leaving your start room. Walk up to your door, or any of the three “false doors” that don’t open, then angle your camera view down and use the arrow keys to pan. You are likely to see a glimpse of other rooms or tunnels in the area, which can tell you where you are.

You can use a variation of the trick I mentioned just above—angling your camera down to see outside your current room—to figure out which of the four possible doors leads to your chest room. This doesn’t really change how long it takes to get there, of course, but can be helpful to you in figuring out how far away it is. For example, this could help you plan out your run energy so you save enough to get back to your ladder.

Go to one of the side rooms where there is a false door (i.e., this is not the one containing your door to the center room.) Now lower your camera view angle and use the arrows to pivot around while peeking into the center chest room. Look in the spots where the other doors are, carefully checking to see which one has an “Open Door” option, instead of just “Examine Door” (Figure 436). That’s the one that leads to the center room. You should be able to tell how to get to it from which way your camera is facing when you find it.

Normally, you try to use only the prayers you really need, in an effort to save precious prayer points and make them last as long as possible. These usual conservation rules don’t apply in the crypts and tunnels of The Barrows, though, because your prayer points are going to be drained away by the game even if they aren’t used. What this means is that in some cases you are better off using extra prayers while you can, rather than seeing your points go to waste.

This is easier to explain with an example. Suppose you have killed two brothers, your prayer level is 72 but is currently drained, and you’re about to melee Ahrim. You have a holy wrench, so when you take a prayer potion dose you get 26 prayer points. You enter his crypt and put on Protection from Magic and start fighting. You are watching your prayer and notice that it goes from 26 down to 22 before the Barrows drain “feature” kicks in and knocks it down 10 more points to 12.

Now, consider what is likely to happen from here. Over the next 15 seconds your prayer will drain from 12 down to 8 just from use, and then the Barrows is going to knock it all the way down to zero. Since that’s going to happen, why not make use of those 8 points before they are stolen from you? And the best way to do this is to put on enhancement prayers so you maybe kill Ahrim faster. The best choice is Piety, if you have it, but failing that I’d try Incredible Reflexes.

Of course, you do have to be careful when doing this that you don’t use up prayer that you might actually have needed. Turning on Piety too early, for example, might make you run out of points when you didn’t need to!

No matter how skilled you are in your play, there’s a chance you will get unlucky or make a mistake and find yourself at risk of dying at The Barrows. If this happens, try to remain calm and remember some of these tips for getting out of trouble:

• Eat: Sounds obvious, but sometimes people forget to use the food they brought with them!
  
  
• Drink Saradomin Brews: If you are out of food and prayer, don’t forget that Sara brews provide lots of healing. They will knock down your stats, though, making it hard to finish the battle; you should use them only in emergencies if you don’t have any super restore or regular restore potions left.
  
  
• Use Prayer: You may be trying to conserve prayer potions, but if you are having trouble, then just sip a prayer potion and slap on the appropriate protection prayer. If you have to end the trip having accomplished one less run than normal, so what?
  
  
• Go Up the Stairs: At any time that you are fighting in a crypt, clicking the stairs will take you out of the tomb and to safety. Yes, you’ll have to do that brother over from scratch, but it beats dying.
  
  
• Run Away: In the tunnels, if a fight with a brother is not going your way, then just run from him. Once you get a certain distance away, he’ll disappear, saying “We’ll finish this later…”.
  
  
• Teleport Out: If you have brought teleport tablets and feel you’re about to die, then use them! It will interrupt your run, but not as much as dying will! J You won’t “lose your place” by leaving the area: your kill count will remain, and any brothers you killed will also remain dead.

Overall, I would advise you to do your best not to “be cute”. By this I mean taking unnecessary chances in an effort to do things in the perfect, most optimized way. I can’t tell you how often I have died or come close to dying because I didn’t want to “waste” a prayer potion dose when I actually needed it, or chose to not eat because I was saving my food for later. Don’t make an expensive mistake.

Ultimate Power Barrows Guide - Special Combat Techniques Ultimate Power Barrows Guide - Basic Single Run Per Trip Method