OSRS Bounty Hunter Guide – Everything you need to know

On May 24th, 2023, OSRS re-installed the beloved PVP minigame known as Bounty Hunter. This article will tell you everything you need to know about the return of the minigame.

Images are from the original OSRS news post article covering Bounty Hunter.

What Changed?

The May 24th update finally brought Bounty Hunter back. Here’s a sum-up of everything that’s changed:

• Brand new area: Daimon’s Crator where bounty hunter is played
• 2 Official Bounty Hunter worlds: 318, 319
• Special Bounty Hunter Rules
• Ancient Warrior Equipment is back
• New point-system that rewards kill-streaks

Are you excited about the return of Bounty Hunter? Continue reading to find out everything you need to know.

What is Bounty Hunter?

Bounty Hunter is a PVP minigame that was first introduced in Runescape 2. The minigame functions similar to wilderness PKing with a twist: you are assigned a target within 5 levels of your own combat level. You are rewarded points for killing targets, these can be used to unlock rewards from the rewardshop. Most of these rewards include blighted supplies & PVP gear (Ancient Warriors Equipment) useable inside the minigame.

Aside from killing targets, you can also go rogue and attack anyone you want inside the Crator like you would inside the Wilderness.

Here’s the official launch trailer for Bounty Hunter.

How to play Bounty Hunter

Bounty Hunter has its own area known as ‘Daimon’s Crator’, just above the Wilderness Volcano. Daimon’s Crator can only be accessed while in Official Bounty Hunter worlds: 318 & 319.

The requirements for Bounty Hunter are:

• Lvl 32 Combat
• 48 hours of in-game playtime

How to get to Bounty Hunter

You can reach Bounty Hunter Island, or ‘Daimon’s Crator’ by going through the southeastern portal in the Ferox Enclave. You’ll need a dueling ring to teleport to the Ferox Enclave first.

(& maybe they will have a sailing port in the future)

Bounty Hunter Lobby

Once here, you’ll find yourself in the Bounty Hunter lobby, located in the center of Daimon’s Crator.

The lobby is a safe area.

Here’s what that looks like.

As you can see, the lobby contains a bank chest, Pools of Refreshments, loot chests & a coffer. Everything you need for the Bounty Hunter minigame! Also in the lobby is the Emblem Trader & a pair of Corrupted Warriors which will teach you everything you need to know about Bounty Hunter.

How does Bounty Hunter Work?

To play Bounty Hunter, you need to put down a deposit which you will lose if you die while unskilled (alongside the items you were risking). These deposits are dependent on your combat level:

You’ll need to deposit these funds in the coffer found in the lobby.

If you die while skulled, you will lose 10K GP, alongside whatever you were risking of course.

Money is automatically taken outside of your coffer when you die. You can deposit as much money in the coffer as you want.

Once you are ready to play, you can enter through any of the red barriers.

Bounty Hunter Rules

Bounty hunter has its own set of rules, which are different from the game rules:

• No overhead prayers
• No teleporting (except teleport to target from lobby)
• No freezing & binding spells (e.g. Ice Burst & Entangle are not useable)
• No experience rates inside Bounty Hunter (fake exp rates are displayed, to make pking easier)
• After initiating combat, you cannot leave the creator for 30 seconds (similar to how you can’t log out for 10 seconds after combat) your target will still be able to leave
• Untradeables (void, fire cape, torso, etc) will be broken upon death but not lost. These items have to be repaired at Perdu for a fee.
• The default matchmaking is within 5 combat levels of your own, which you can change by speaking with the Emblem trader
• Rogue players (those who attack outside of their target) can only attack players within 5 combat levels of their own
• Your target will always be able to attack you when you are in combat while you are going rogue

Starting Bounty Hunter

Once you enter the arena, you’ll be spawned in a random part of the arena, at which point you’ll be assigned an appropriate target.

The UI will reveal the following information of your target:

• Name
• Combat level
• Distance from you

If you find your target too scary after looking them up using Runelite you can choose to skip them by hitting the ‘fast forward’ button. Keep in mind that you will lose the target if you leave the crater for more than 2 minutes. So if you need to re-stock, know that you only have 2 minutes before you will automatically skip targets.

You cannot continuously skip targets. Skipping 3 targets in a 30-minute period will get you penalized:

• No emblem drop/upgrade on next kill & receive only 50% of the BH points
• Unable to receive another target for 30 minutes

Going Rogue

Going Rogue in Bounty Hunter means you attack players who aren’t assigned to you. When going Rogue you will not be receiving Emblems, Emblem Upgrades, or Bounty Hunter points, but you will still get any unprotected items that your opponent drops.

Bounty Hunter Points

Bounty Hunter’s Reward system is point-based, these are assigned as follows:

• For each target kill, you receive 2 BH Points
• Gain additional BH points for every 10th, 50th, 100th & 500th kill
• Gain BH points from Emblems based on their tier

Here are the additional points that can be earned:

Aside from the point system, there is also an emblem system that works with a tier system. Upon your first target kill, you get a tier-1 emblem which will level up with each subsequent target kill topping out a tier 10.

These emblems can be exchanged at an Emblem Trader.

If you die with the emblem, you obviously lose it.

Emblems can be exchanged at an Emblem Trader for the following rates:

You can also buy a tier-1 emblem from the Emblem Trader in exchange for 2 BH points if you don’t want to get a kill first.

P.s. Ironmen can also level up emblems but cannot pick them up as loot (neither can they pick up anything as loot). If an ironman wants to level up an emblem, they will have to buy one first for the aforementioned amount of BH points.

With the emblem-system PKers can earn more rewards for getting a decent kill streak. For example, if you get 5 kills in a row without dying, you can exchange your tier-5 emblem for 16 bounty hunter points, on top of the 10 points you would have gained naturally.

Now that we’ve covered how points are gained, let’s look at the exciting Bounty Hunter rewards!

Bounty Hunter Rewards

Trade with the Emblem Trader to access the Bounty Hunter Rewards Shop.

Bounty Hunter Rewards include all the beloved Ancient Warrior’s Armour & Weaponry: Vesta, Statius, Zuriel & Morrigans! This gear is available in the normal & corrupted variants.

Keep in mind that any of the Ancient Warrior’s gear needs to be charged with cash before they can be used inside Bounty Hunter. Here are the fees:

• Any Ancient Warrior weapon: 50M GP
• Any Ancient Warrior armour piece: 5M GP
• Any corrupt Ancient Warrior piece: 1.5M GP

Also part of the reward shop is blighted supplies (e.g. Blighted Saradomin Brew) allowing you to spend your BH points on supplies without having to spend a ton of money at the Grand Exchange. Blighted Supplies are only useable inside the Wilderness & Bounty Hunter.

Other rewards include Target Teleport Scrolls, Ornament kits & more.