OSRS Barbarian Assault Strategy Guide

The Barbarian assault is a combat minigame where a team of 5 players must work together, performing different roles, to defeat 10 waves of monsters, including the Penance Queen in the 10th wave. Understanding this minigame is essential for obtaining the Fighter torso. Also, completing one full game is required to complete the Kandarin hard diary, and the Elite diary requires players to reach level 5 in all four roles in the game. 

How to get to the Barbarian Assault

The Barbarian Assault is at the Barbarian outpost, north of Baxtorian Falls.

Here are the fastest methods to get there:

• Games necklace teleport: This is the fastest way to get to the Barbarian Outpost.
• Grouping teleport
• Barbarian teleport: players with 75 magic can teleport directly to the Barbarian Outpost, and it requires 3 fire runes, 2 astral runes, and 2 law runes
• Tree Gnome Stronghold agility shortcut: After completion of The Grand Tree quest, players with 37 agility can scale the tree northeast of the Tree Gnome Stronghold
• Enchanted lyre: players can use the lyre to teleport to Rellekka, and then go to the Outpost from the Lighthouse.
• POH: players with their house in Rellekka can go to Rellekka with house teleport and then go to the Outpost from there
• Fairy ring AIP: this teleports the player to a Lighthouse just north of the Outpost

Official worlds for Barbarian Assault

• W306 - United States (west)
• W310 - United Kingdom

Forming a team

To participate in the Barbarian assault, the player must either form a team or join one. Start in room 1, write in the chatbox, indicating the role you would like to be and that you are looking for a team or join the “arrow room” which automatically matches players together. You must have completed the tutorial once to enter this area. Ensure you have accept aid turned on to join a team. When a player wants to recruit you, choose the role and click accept. 

The player attempting to be a leader must obtain a recruitment scroll from the table, and use it on any four players they want to recruit. The player you want to recruit can select the role they want, and you as the leader can accept or decline the offer.

Barbarian Assault Roles

For any role you pick, always use the item machine at the beginning of every wave to obtain the items you need for the wave. Put your cursor on them to identify the one for your role.

• Attacker - colour:  Red
• Defender - colour: Blue
• Healer - colour: Green
• Collector - colour: Yellow

Attacker

First, attackers must obtain arrows or runes from the attacker item machine. The role of the attacker is to kill the Penance Fighters and Penance rangers using the arrows or runes. Attackers must use the style called by the collector to attack them, or they will take no damage and the attacker will take 2 damage instead. The style is usually displayed in the top right corner of the screen after the collector has used their horn to call the attack style. The style changes every 30 seconds, so the attacker should pay attention to the collector’s calls and switch attack styles accordingly. The attacker has to use their horn to call out the egg colour for the collector at the start of the wave and after every 30 seconds in a wave.

Controlled: Bullet arrows, Wind spells

Accurate: Field arrows, Water spells

Aggressive: Blunt arrows, Earth spells

Defensive: Barbed arrows, Fire spells

Players are only given the arrows and a bow is required to fire them. The Magic or Yew short bow are good bows to use. Wear good ranging gear as well, to improve offensive bonuses.

Strategy for Wave 1-9 as an Attacker

• Go to the western cannon to the northwest corner where the enemy creatures spawn
• Stop attacking when the call changes, switch attack styles accordingly and continue attacking the Penance creatures.
• After you kill all the Penance creatures, run east to the egg launcher. If the collector has loaded eggs into the launcher, shoot red eggs at the Penance Runners or Penance Healers, dealing 3 damage. Shoot other Penance that are alive when all runners/healers are dead.
• To reduce damage, kill the Penance rangers first, since they deal more damage.
• If your health is low, run to the West Egg launcher hill and stand behind the launcher. No creatures can attack you there. Communicate to the healer by clicking the horn to select the medic option, or calling their attention through chat.

Strategy for Wave 10 as an Attacker

• Do the regular roles as an attacker (call and attack Penance)
• Collect spikes from the petrified mushrooms as soon as the queen appears
• The healer will give the attacker poisoned eggs. They need to use the spikes on them and give the spiked poisoned eggs to the defender by using it on them.
• When the egg is loaded into the egg launcher, launch them at the Penance Queen to kill her.

Collector

The role of a collector is to gather eggs dropped by Penance creatures when killed and load them into the egg hopper. There are red, blue, and green coloured eggs. Only one colour of an egg called by the attacker can be picked at any time. Eggs will explode, dealing 5 damage if the player picks up the wrong-coloured egg. Also, the collector is supposed to use their horn to call the attack style the attacker should use.

Note that: the egg cannons share the same ammo, so loading one loads both..

Strategy for waves 1 to 9 as a Collector

• Go to the western cannon to the corner of the map. This is where you find the most eggs.
• Stop collecting when the call changes and continue when the new colour is displayed on the screen.
• When you have a full inventory, run to the west egg launcher and load the eggs into the egg hopper by using the eggs on it. 
• If no players are shooting the cannon, shoot the red eggs at the Penance runners or healers, dealing 3 damage.
• Standing next to the attacker will reduce the damage taken by splitting the aggression of the creatures between both players.
• If your health is low, run to the West Egg launcher hill and stand behind the launcher. No creatures can attack you there. Communicate to the healer by clicking the horn to select the medic option, or calling their attention through chat.

Strategy for wave 10 as a Collector

• At the start of the round, do the regular roles of a collector

• Collect yellow eggs from near the queen as soon as they appear and hand them to the healer by using it on them
• Immediately, you receive the omega eggs from the defender, run to the hill, and load them into the hopper. Finally, launch them at the Penance queen to kill her.

Defender

The Defender is the most complicated out of all 4 roles. The role of a defender is to prevent Penance runners from escaping through the tunnel on the south wall of the arena. They can do this by laying bait on the ground that attracts the runners, leading to the traps that kill them. Each runner that successfully escapes will penalize the team by 3 points, to a maximum loss of 10 points per wave. Use the bait the healer calls, displayed in the top right corner of the screen. These are known as good bait, while the rest are bad bait. When dropped, good bait will always stay good, and bad ones will remain bad even if the call has changed.

First, use the defender item machine to fill your inventory with bait. With a line of bait, runners can be lured to one of the traps on the east and west sides of the arena. Players can use good bait to lead runners to traps, and bad bait to lure runners back north if they have gotten past the line of good bait. If a runner eats a good bait around a trap, the runner will be killed and one of the trap’s charges will be depleted. Unused or repaired traps have 2 charges. Players can repair traps using a hammer and logs found in the arena. 

Recommendations for Defender

RuneLite

Turn on the ground marker plugin on RuneLite to mark and label tiles with the correct amount of food as shown.

Imcando hammer

Players can equip this hammer, saving inventory space. It can be obtained from mining barronite rocks for barronite shards and deposits. When a player smashes a mined barronite deposit on the Barronite Crusher, they get a chance to receive a broken Imcando hammer, which players can use on Ramarno, who will repair it for 1,250 Barronite shards.

Strategy for waves 1 to 9 as a defender

• Drop bait based on the image below, the red highlights mean bad bait while green means good bait. The number indicates the amount of the type of bait you should drop. Always Left-click to drop food, as shift+click will destroy the food instead in Barbarian assault.

• Get as many logs as needed for the wave and a hammer. Wait for traps to break then stand on top of the bait on the north tile of the trap to block more runners from eating, and repair the trap to full charge. Always fully repair the traps so they can perform a multi-kill. Drop all newly called good bait on the tile north of the trap while waiting for more runners to pile up. When runners have gathered, stand 1 tile south of the trap and wait for the stack of runners to die. Continue the process till the end of the wave.
• If any Penance creatures are still alive, shoot them with red or green eggs from the egg launcher.

Here are the number of logs needed for each wave

• For wave 1, no logs are needed.
• For wave 2, 1 log is needed.
• For wave 3, 1 log is needed.
• For wave 4, 1 log is needed.
• For wave 5, 2 logs are needed.
• For wave 6, 2 logs are needed.
• For wave 7, 3 logs are needed.
• For wave 8, 3 logs are needed.
• For wave 9, 4 logs are needed.
• For wave 10, 2 logs are needed.

Strategy for wave 10 as a defender

• Do all defender roles as shown above
• Get a hammer and 2 logs
• When the attacker gives you the spiked poisoned eggs, dunk them in a lava crater at the southwestern part of the room to form completed omega eggs.
• Give the completed omega eggs back to the collector by using it on them and when the eggs are loaded into the egg launcher, launch them at the Penance Queen to kill her.

Healer

The role of a healer is to use poisoned food (worms, meat, or tofu) called by the defender, to kill the Penance Healers by using it on them, dealing 4 damage and inflicting poison on them. The healer is also meant to keep their teammates alive by using the healing vial on them after filling it with water from the pool to the south. Also, The healer is supposed to use their horn to call for the defender. The food to call is displayed in the top-right corner of the screen.

First, fill your inventory with food from the healer item machine. The health of all teammates is displayed on the screen of the healer. Pay attention to their health at all times and heal them as needed. A red flashing star means the teammate requested your healing. 

Strategy for waves 1 to 9 as a healer

• At the start of a wave, use the healing vial on the healer spring to fill it.
• Use the poisoned food on the first 4 Penance Healers that spawn. When poisoned, use the remaining food on the Penance healers that have less than 4 damage being dealt to them by the poison. 
• Ensure everyone has enough health.
• Do not shoot eggs, but occasionally use the egg launcher to kill any remaining runners, fighters, or rangers.

Strategy for wave 10 as a healer

• When the queen spawns, the healer should pay more attention to the health of all teammates, as they would receive more damage. It’s best to keep everyone’s hitpoint above 50.
• The healer will receive the yellow eggs from the collector, which should be dipped in the poison crater at the southwestern part of the room and passed to the attacker.

Strategy for the Queen for all roles

Stay near the healing pool to minimize the distance the healer needs to cover. Spread out and avoid stacking on top of each other to make it easier for the healer to click and heal.

• Follow the egg-passing order: Collector -> Healer -> Attacker -> Defender -> Collector (often shortened to C.H.A.D.(C.)).
• It's best to have two healers during the queen fight—one to handle the omega egg and another to heal teammates. This setup is efficient, as managing both the Penance Healers and keeping the team alive can take longer for a single healer. Players with Defence levels below 80 should wear armor to reduce the risk of dying.