Troll Invasion

"TI" redirects here. For the island formerly used to teach new players about RuneScape, see Tutorial Island.

A player battling against trolls.

Troll Invasion is a single-player minigame released on 14 June 2011. Trolls are invading Burthorpe, overrunning the Imperial Guard. The trolls can be stopped through either combat or skilling.

Getting Started

The gatehouse from afar. (Click to enlarge)

Speak to Captain Jute outside the newly constructed gatehouse north of the Warriors' Guild. He will offer you the choice of fighting the trolls or keeping the gatehouse repaired. Confirm that you've picked the one you want to do and you will start the activity. You can start the game quickly by right-clicking and choosing either 'start-repairing' or 'start-fighting'. If you haven't yet done this activity since the 1st of the current month, he will ask you if you're sure you've picked the right one as it resets the 1st of every month 0:00 GMT.

• Fighting the invasion counts toward a troll slayer task and will still count as a kill even if the archers deal more than 50% of the damage.
• The dwarf multicannon cannot be used for this activity.
• Make sure your internet connection is good! When you lose connection and get logged out, you will only get the reward of the wave where you lost connection.

Enemy Trolls

Name and Image	Description	Attack style	Weakness
Mountain troll	Mountain trolls are the most common, but generally not much of a threat. They don't hit particularly hard, are easily trapped, and do not have an outstanding amount of hit points. During higher waves, when in numbers, their combined might can be threatening.	Melee	Magic
Troll ranger	Troll rangers attack by throwing rocks, and have a special attack where they throw a larger rock. For the special attack, the troll will perform an animation where it picks a large rock, then throws it, spending several seconds tipping off the player. The "big rock" will land where you were standing when it was thrown; it doesn't track you. As such the special can be dodged merely by moving, or the damage incurred can be halved with Protect from Missiles. If players move away from the troll after the animation is done, they still will be hit regardless of position. If using safe spots it might be worth it to pray against ranged so that you don't need to abandon your spot every time it uses its special. If the special is not blocked players can receive damage well into the 300's. Therefore these trolls should be given a high kill priority, it is advised to kill off the rangers right after wizards and summoners, especially in the more hectic waves where players can easily miss the special attack animation.Note: If you kill the ranger during its special, the rock will not fall, even if the animation has finished.	Ranged	Melee (stab)
Poorly Cooked Karambwan	This oddball troll is not-aggressive, but will retaliate via melee if attacked. It will lower your stats by two if you are next to him when it turns green. This troll wanders the battlefield, seemingly aimlessly, and often winds up out in the troll-guarded paths. Do not pursue it, in this way this troll can be a trap, following him into the paths will bring down the unblockable rangers attacks on you and deal severe damage. To deal with it, attack from afar or wait for him to wander back out again. These should be the last priority kill since they are the least harmful.	Melee, stat lowering disease	Melee
Troll general	Skilled melee trolls able to deal serious damage. They are the highest hitting of all trolls, with powerful melee attacks easily hitting into 400s. Protect from melee or Deflect melee is a must when in close quarters. These should be high on the players list of threats to deal with, either kill or trap them as soon as convenient, especially if praying against something else.	Melee (slash)	Magic
Wizard	Priority number two (after the Dynamite Trolls), kill these trolls immediately. They attack with magic, and have a variety of special attacks. Their standard magic attack is fairly inaccurate, usually hitting less than 150, but up to high 300s. The Wizard's first special teleports the player next to it and binds them in place for a few seconds, leaving the player wide open to attack from other trolls. Its second special summons a 3x3 patch of vines that rapidly damage you as long as you are in them. They should be killed first as, potentially, the teleport special can bring the player into the passage that is guarded by thrower trolls. Only Dynamite trolls should be higher priority to be deal with.	Magic	Ranged > Stab
Troll father	This middle priority troll attacks with simple ranged and brings three Troll Runts into battle with it. Will heal the Troll Runts if they drop below 50% lifepoints. Thus attacking the runts before him can be a total waste of time. Kill him quickly so that his children can be taken out. If any runts are killed before he is able to heal them, contrary to popular belief, more runts will NOT spawn. His animation for summoning runts seems to look like ice burst.	Ranged	Melee (stab)
Troll runt	Three runts always enter combat with a Troll father. They attack using melee, and will be healed by the Troll father if he is not killed first when they drop below 50% health. Despite their small size, they are one of the most dangerous enemies in this D&D. Although though they do not hit high they are very accurate. Since their small size makes trapping them difficult players will often be bothered by one or more of these at once. Trying to locate their father amongst the horde of trolls while getting piled by them could lead to a quick death, so protect from melee is highly recommended, if possible. They should be dispatched as soon as possible. It is possible though, with a powerful weapon or with high stats, to kill a runt even though the father is alive.	Melee	Stab > Ranged
Summoner	This troll attacks via standard magic, it seems to be very accurate but hits low. These trolls should be killed right after the wizards are dealt with. They summon familiars to help it in combat, including thorny snails, spirit scorpions, bunyips, and granite lobsters. Strangely, killing the summoner troll will NOT kill its familiar. Also, the summoned familiar(s) must be killed individually before the next wave will start.	Magic	Melee (stab)
Dynamite	Dynamite trolls must be killed immediately. As soon as they enter the field they simply walk towards the gatehouse. If they get to their target, they will destroy the supply table. The table will not regenerate for the rest of the activity if destroyed. Dynamite trolls are easy to deal with; attack them once and they explode (violently) a few seconds later in a splash attack that will damage the player for at least 200 LP, sometimes hitting up to the 400s. Binding spells are an easy way to deal with them. If the supply table has already been destroyed, they will instead follow the player, which is obviously hazardous to the players health. Given the nature of their abilities they should be killed immediately, followed by wizards.	Explosive	Ranged, Magic
Cliff	This troll attacks with the full combat triangle. Cliff's ranged attack is similar to the Troll Ranger's boulder attack, but with the added effect of shattering on impact, causing a scattering attack similar to the Spirit Beast's attacks. Just like the standard ranged trolls special, cliff's ranged attack can be dodged if the player moves after the attack is launched. Cliff's rarely used magic attack looks like an orange version of Earth Surge. The easiest way to deal with Cliff is to stand next to him, causing him to only use melee, while using protect from melee to nullify all damage. Occasionally Cliff will use the wizard's teleport special attack and drag the player away from him, at which point he will start pummeling at them with magic and ranged attacks.	Melee, Magic, Ranged	Stab
Name and Image	Description	Atack style	Weakness

Suggested priority (hard version): Dynamite > Wizard > Cliff > Summoner > Troll father > Troll ranger > Troll general > Mountain troll > Troll runt > Familiars > Poorly Cooked Karambwan

Suggested priority (easy version): Dynamite > Wizard/Troll ranger > Troll general > Summoner > Mountain troll > Troll father > Troll runt > Familiars > Poorly Cooked Karambwan

Gameplay

Combat

The Troll Invasion arena. (Click to enlarge)

If the combat option is chosen, 20 waves of trolls will come at the player, getting progressively more difficult, similar to that of the Tzhaar Fight Caves. These include mountain trolls, summoning trolls, dynamite trolls, and the illustrious Cliff. There is also a "hard" 7-wave version, but this option is locked until players try the standard 20-wave version at least once. Once the 7-wave version is unlocked, the player is given a choice of facing the normal or hard version when starting the activity again.

This is a safe activity and players will lose nothing other than already used consumables. Nonetheless bring good food, monkfish or better, to keep yourself alive. Bring super restore or restore potions in the event that a Dynamite blows up your supplies. Also bring 2-4 prayer potions to maintain your protection prayers: lapses can be deadly.

The aim of the game is to kill all of the trolls in each progressive wave. In the final wave the player fights Cliff who uses the full combat triangle, attacking with melee, ranged, and magic, and a special attack or two thrown in as well. In the standard version Cliff appears in Wave 20, by himself. In the hard version, Cliff appears in Wave 7, along with several other trolls that must also be defeated. Cliff isn't extremely difficult to defeat, if the correct tactics are use. When fighting him, players are advised to keep their melee protection prayer turned on. When a huge magical rock appears, it is advised to switch to a magic protection prayer. The ranged attacks are harder to recognise, but target the area that the player was last standing in, and can be dodged by moving out of that area.

Players using Ice spells can help minimize damage taken by farcasting Cliff while keeping Protect from Magic on and dodging his ranged attacks. If he moves in to use a melee attack, the player is advised to run around until they are able to freeze him again.

Tips

Warning: -Make sure you do not walk into the path to the north-west, otherwise you will be rapidly hit for 30-100 points of unblockabledamage from unseen thrower trolls. -Also, Do NOT Bring a cannon, as it cannot be set up while in game and will fill up your inventory space which you could instead replace with food.

• Prayer, lifepoints, special attacks, and drained skills can always be restored at the supply table. This can be used 5 times per wave.

  File:Troll Invasion map.png

  The map for the Troll Invasion.

• Trolls come from the troll path to the northwest, and some jump down from cliffs to the south, west and north. The first time a troll jumps down a cliff a short cutscene appears. The east is safe as the wall stands there.
• Try to lure the trolls to the wall, even if you are using melee. This way, they can be killed much faster as the archer yells "VOLLEY!" every 3 seconds (5 game ticks), dealing ranged damage to the trolls into the 200s very accurately. As this hits every troll within range simultaneously, it is extremely effective. After a couple volleys, the archers will stop hitting trolls that have their health below 20%. You are also much closer to the supply table this way, allowing you to restore all your stats easily. This also makes defending it from Dynamites a bit less tricky.
• Kill Dynamite trolls first, or they will destroy your supply table for the duration of the activity. A faster, safer and simpler way is to use binding spells on them, as they seem to explode a few seconds after you attack them anyway. However, simply hitting them once with melee and then running away also works, as once hit the troll stops moving and soon explodes.
• Kill Wizards second. Their ability to telekinetically jerk you back to them will thwart any rushed trips to the supply table. Wizards can also move you into the range of the paths thrower trolls and freeze you there, with no option but to eat until able to move. They can also use their vine attack next to the supply table, making replenishing stats dangerous. This is one of the disadvantages of fighting near the supply table.
• Look out for the Troll generals. They can hit hard, especially in the harder version, as three troll generals appear at once for the first time in wave 3, hitting a maximum of over 400 each. If they manage to attack you simultaneously while you do not have Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee on, they could 3-way 1-hit you. Armour with high melee damage soaking might help in case your prayer runs out without you noticing.
• Kill Troll Fathers before Troll Runts, as the Father heals his children very quickly.
• Lure the Poorly Cooked Karambwan to the supply table to kill him. This way when your stats inevitably begin to drain you have easy access to an easy full restore. Simply safe spotting them works well too. Remember, they are non-aggressive so they can be ignored until the trolls in the rest of the wave are killed.
• When you kill all of the trolls attacking you but the next wave mysteriously does not start, there is probably a Poorly Cooked Karambwan wandering about somewhere. Find and kill him, but don't go too far down the "troll passageway". Use ranged or magic to attack him while in the passageway, which will then draw him toward you out of the passageway.
• If you intend to range or mage, do it from the "corridor" between Captain Jute and the archer. It is narrow enough to trap larger trolls. When troll runts start appearing, allow them to follow you. A single troll runt can block all others without having to make an effort to block them. Also, when close to the wall, the archer frequently yells "VOLLEY!" and all trolls nearby are damaged by the arrows.

Troll Invasion concept art.

• Safespots are located along the walls of the battlefield as rocks. There is one on the west side of the gate, just below the troll passageway.
• Bring a powerful special attack weapon to quickly dispatch dangerous trolls, like Dynamites, Wizards, Summoners and Cliff. The special attack bar will be fully restored if you use the supply table. The usual lineup of weapons are popular for this purpose, including the dragon dagger, dragon claws, dark bow or Korasi's sword.
• Bring the most powerful summoning familiar you can summon to assist you in battle. A Beast of Burden is less useful than normal due to the presence of the supply table.
• When fighting Cliff, using Pray Melee will leave a player relatively unscathed, except for his mage attack. Watch for the orange-colored Earth Surge spell, and try to quickly swap to protecting from mage before it hits to avoid damage. The ranged attack targets the area where the player was standing at the start of the attack, so moving out of that area will prevent it from hitting.
• For players with a combat level of around 100 and a reasonable knowledge of the activity, there should be little need for food as long as you stop the Dynamites from blowing up the supply table. However, bring a few sharks or equivalent food anyway, just in case things go sour, or if a Wizard drags you away from the table and stuns you. Better to have the food than not, in case a Dynamite manages to get by.
• For a fairly balanced, medium-level player, Protect from Missiles or Deflect Missiles could be the best way to go, especially for the more crowded waves unless you are wearing heavy melee armour. If going this route, make sure to deal with the troll generals quickly. Since Wizards and Summoners generally hit for very minor damage, this is a fairly sound tactic when combined with trapping the Melee trolls. Praying against ranged negates the trouble of having to run around every time a troll ranger uses its special, allowing the player the luxury of not even having to look out for when they do it.
• Even if you are meleeing, carry a bow and equip some arrows to lure out the Poorly Cooked Karambwans from the narrows path without taking damage.
• Hybrids can do pretty well in this activity; Magic and ranged deal with the trolls fairly nicely. Use magic on melee trolls and kill the others with ranged. Sacred clay armour or Void Knight equipment are very good for medium levels. Higher levelled players might want to go for Elite Void Knight equipment instead, which gives a prayer bonus and increased summoning defence. The former is not useful unless the supply table has been blown up. The latter is slightly more useful against Summoners' minions.
• For higher levels with good defence, meleeing seems best as you can hit high and often on the trolls while taking minimal damage; Protect from Magic or Deflect Magic covers the weaker side. However, be careful when Troll generals approach. They can hit into the 400s accurately, and might take you by surprise. Keep your health high.
• The Trolls do count towards Troll slayer assignments, so bonuses from a Black Mask, Hexcrest, Focus Sight, or Full Slayer Helm may be useful if Trolls are your current slayer assignment.
• The bonecrusher reward from Dungeoneering can be used here to gain slight prayer experience. Players can also receive Long bones and Curved bones, but nothing else.
• You may also use halberds, 1st lure trolls near safespot and finish them safely. It works if there are no 1 sqare trolls, mage or ranger trolls.

Waves List

Normal version		Hard version
Wave	Suggested Order	Wave	Suggested Order
1	Mountain troll	1	Troll ranger x3, mountain troll x4
2	Troll ranger
3	Troll ranger, mountain troll	2	Poorly Cooked Karambwan x3, troll ranger, mountain troll x2
4	Troll ranger, mountain troll x2
5	Poorly Cooked Karambwan
6	Mountain troll, Poorly Cooked Karambwan	3	Wizard, troll general x3, troll ranger x2, mountain troll
7	Troll ranger, Mountain troll, Poorly Cooked Karambwan
8	Troll general
9	Troll general, troll ranger, mountain troll	4	Wizard x2, troll general, troll father (and runts), Poorly Cooked Karambwan x2, troll ranger, mountain troll x2
10	Troll general x2, troll ranger
11	Wizard
12	Wizard, Mountain troll, Poorly Cooked Karambwan	5	Troll father (and runts) x2, Wizard, troll general, Poorly Cooked Karambwan x2, troll ranger, mountain troll x2
13	Wizard, Troll ranger, Mountain troll, Poorly Cooked Karambwan
14	Dynamite, Troll father (and runts)
15	Troll father (and runts), Troll general, Mountain troll, Poorly Cooked Karambwan	6	Summoner x2, Dynamite, troll father (and runts), Wizard, Poorly Cooked Karambwan, troll ranger, mountain troll
16	Wizard, Troll father (and runts), Troll ranger, Mountain troll, Poorly Cooked Karambwan
17	Dynamite, Summoner
18	Dynamite, Wizard, Summoner, Troll father (and runts), Troll ranger, Mountain troll, Poorly Cooked Karambwan	7	Cliff, Dynamite, troll father (and runts), Wizard, Poorly Cooked Karambwan, troll ranger, mountain troll
19	Dynamite, Wizard, troll father (and runts), Troll ranger, Mountain troll, Poorly Cooked Karambwan
20	Cliff

Repair

If skilling is chosen, the gatehouse must be maintained. The ballista must be tended to, the oil vats refilled, and the barricades repaired. These actions will increase the troops' morale, causing them to fight harder. If the trolls are stopped for ten minutes or if 1500 trolls are defeated, they will depart.

The interface showing the gatehouse's status in repair mode.

To keep the gatehouse in order, four things must be done. There is an interface on the top-left part of the screen, showing what needs attention, how many trolls have been killed, and how much time is left. With each action that is completed successfully, 10 trolls are killed.

• Oil drums - The oil drums inside the gatehouse must be kept filled

  

  Several walls that must be repaired.

  up. There is an oil well outside of the gatehouse, with a bucket next to it. The buckets must be filled up and poured into the drums.
• Ballista - The ammunition for the ballista must be kept alight. It must be repaired by left-clicking it. Requires a tinderbox to light and a hammer to repair. Repairing the ballista grants 10 Construction experience, and lighting the ammunition grants 10 Firemaking experience.
• Wall - Repair by left-clicking. Grants 10 Construction experience. Requires a hammer to repair.
• Barricades - Repair by left-clicking. Grants 10 Crafting experience. Requires a hammer to repair.

For every 10 trolls that the soldiers kill, 5 morale points are gained. These are used on boosts, which each cost 75 points and have a duration and cool-down time of 30 seconds.

Name	Effect
Second wind	Nothing in the gatehouse will break for 30 seconds
Double kill	The soldiers kill trolls twice as fast. So for each action completed, 20 trolls are killed rather than 10.
Caffeine boost	Things are fixed twice as fast, run energy is not affected by weight
Helping hands	Destroyed parts will not lower the gate's health for 30 seconds

Every once in a while, the trolls will do their own special attacks which will harm the gatehouse.

Name	Effect
Clobbering Time!	All parts of the gatehouse take damage
Armoured Trolls	Trolls are impenetrable for a short time.
Slow-mo	All run energy is lost
No Well	The oil well stops producing oil, making it impossible to fill up buckets
Oil Spill	Oil spills out of the vats, lowering the amount and making it impossible to run on the roof
Fire in the Hole!	The gatehouse gets bombarded with flaming projectiles, causing greater damage

Tips

The oil well.

The oil drums.

• Before starting, wear max weight reducing gear, then at start fill inventory with buckets and fill all buckets with oil. If you have access to the Surefooted Aura, this will help immensely as your run energy will not deplete. This does not affect run depletion in "oil spill".
• A tinderbox and hammer are provided, as well as several oil buckets. More oil buckets can be found by the well. Do not bring your own buckets, as these must be filled one by one (lots of clicking) while the buckets supplied in the game can be filled just by clicking once. Also, any buckets you bring into the game and then use for oil will not be returned to you when the game ends. Instead, they just disappear, whether they are full of oil or empty, like the buckets you get in the game.
• The stairs to the walltop can be found at the south end. The western wall has a climbable section just south of the ballista, leading to the north end barricades and damaged wall sections.
• Repair ballista - setting up the ballista is the first thing you should do. This is located at the north end of the walltop.
• Light arrows - light the ballista ammo whenever you go past the ballista.
• Fill oil drums - fill the oil buckets from the well behind the gatehouse and click on the walltop drums to fill them.
• Repair barricades - there are barricades either side of the gate. These must be kept repaired. Go down the stairs to reach the south end ones and climb the wall to reach the north end ones. Second priority
• Repair walls - the walls must be kept repaired. The tower walls can be damaged as well as the main walls. Try to fix the walls at the same time as you fix the barricades in that area. Highest priority
• Watch out for the oil spill at about 10 minutes. This will drain your run energy to 0 and slow you down.
• Most of the troll army's powers can be negated by either preparation or using one of your own powers. Such as your "caffeine boost" negating the trolls' "slow-mo" or "oil spill." However, there is no way to counter "armoured trolls" but to wait it out.
• A good strategy to use is to spend all of your morale points on Double Kill, since you can finish the repair section usually a minute early.

Rewards

The first time you play each month you can claim a reward book from Captain Jute. The book gives experience in any skill chosen by the player. As with Penguin Hide and Seek players must use the entire experience reward at once. Rewards can be claimed quickly by right-clicking the Captain and selecting 'Rewards'.

Players who choose to fight also receive normal combat experience while playing. Those who choose defence receive small amounts of experience in the skills they use to keep the gatehouse repaired (construction for repairing walls, crafting for repairing barricades, firemaking for lighting ammo).

Players get experience based on the level of the skill on which they choose to use the reward and based on the percentage of the activity completed. Both hard and normal versions give the same experience when receiving the book.

The amount of experience received from the reward book is

$xp=8\times {\frac {W_{reached}}{W_{max}}}(L^{2}-2L+100)$,

where $L$ is the level of the skill on which it is being used, $W_{reached}$ is the wave completed (or trolls killed in defending) and $W_{max}$ is the total number of waves (20 on easy, 7 on hard, 1500 in defend).

template = Troll Invasion calc
form = calcForm
result = calcResult
param = diff|Difficulty|Easy|select|Easy,Hard,Defend
param = wave|Wave reached (fight)/Trolls killed (defend)|20|int|1-1500
param = level|Skill Level|1|int|1-120

Experience
Calculator failed to load.
Result
Please submit the form

Squeal of Fortune spins

On 2 April 2012 the Squeal of Fortune gained an update allowing players to receive a Spin Ticket every month they do the Troll Invasion D&D.

Trivia

Concept art for the different trolls.

• The phrase "and came down from the mountain to drink milk and kick butt...and he's all outta milk." is a reference to "They Live", a 1988 movie, where the main character says "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all outta bubblegum.".
• Previously, if wearing a Ring of life in this game, you would be teleported out once you reach less than 10% of your health, wasting your chance at a better reward. This has been fixed.
• When Troll Invasion was first released, using the supply table would allow you to fully restore all stats including prayer, Jagex later changed this so only a portion of your prayer was restored, leaving the other stats restored normally.
• "Second wind" may refer to an action a player may perform in the tabletop role-playing game "Dungeons & Dragons".