If you’re playing an ironman in OSRS, then you know exactly how tough it is to make money and gear up, most especially at the lower levels. And in a game like Runescape where lower-level gaming can stretch out to be hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay, it’s important to do everything you possibly can.
Accordingly, there’s a minigame you should consider playing, Soul Wars. In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about Soul Wars as a low-level ironman and why it’s the best way to get gear and gold as a low-level ironman in OSRS.
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What Is Soul Wars, and Why Should You Care?
Soul Wars is a minigame in OSRS, and you can access the minigame via the portal in Edgeville or the Soul Wars minigame teleport. To play, you’ll need a combat level of at least 40 and a total level of at least 500. You’ll also need to have completed the Soul Wars tutorial at least once, which you can complete by speaking to Nomad once you’ve gotten to Soul Wars.
What’s the minigame like? If you haven’t played before, there’s not too much to take in. You’re split up into two teams, and the goal is for each team to kill the other team’s avatar, a large monster located at each team’s base. You do this by fighting it, of course, but also by sacrificing soul fragments (dropped during the minigame) at the obelisk at the center of the map each team will try to control by fielding more players around it than the other team.
You can increase your team’s avatar’s strength by burying bones in graveyards your team controls, and you can also set up barricades to stop other players. Within the minigame, you’ll have access to potions to beef up your combat stats as well as healing items that fully restore your run energy, among other things.
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And why should you care? Well, by sacrificing fragments, burying bones, capturing areas, and killing players, you’ll earn zeal tokens, and zeal tokens can be exchanged for a number of different rewards. You can get XP, which is always useful for ironmen, especially if you’re looking to spend less time as a low-level ironman, as well as a variety of other rewards.
However, the most important reward comes down to spoils of war. These chests can be purchased for 30 zeal tokens each, and you’ll earn up to 40 tokens in a game you lose and up to 60 in a game you win, and inside they’ve got a huge amount of super useful rewards.
First up, you have a small chance of getting dragon items, like a dragon med helm, a dragon scimitar, a dragon mace, a dragon dagger, or a dragon longsword. You’ll also have a much greater chance of getting 20k to 60k in gold, per spoil of war. Then, you have a shot at getting a ton of other useful items, too. (You only get three drops per spoil of war, though.)
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You’ll be able to get 4k to 6k of pure essence; 30 to 60 raw lobsters, swordfish, or sharks; blood runes, death runes, nature runes, and soul runes in packs of 150 to 300 as well as packs of 500 to 600 soul runes; gems; arrows; ores; and even rune full helms, platebodies, and platelegs.
You also have a shot at getting a cool, but very rare, pet, too. All from spoils of war, among other possible rewards as well. Of course, basically all of this stuff is a huge win for low-level ironmen accounts, especially gold, rune armor, and runes.
Strategies for Ironmen in Soul Wars
The number one thing to keep in mind when playing Soul Wars as a low-level ironman is this: Do not try to PvP. It’s mostly a PvP gamemode, sure, but you won’t be PvPing. If you try, you’ll die, over and over. Of course, it’s safe to die in Soul Wars, but you won’t accomplish anything.
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What you want to do is focus on burying bones and sacrificing fragments. You can capture areas, sure, but you generally won’t get that opportunity often outside of capturing the first graveyard at the beginning of the game or pushing for an obelisk capture right after capturing the first graveyard of the game.
Sacrificing fragments, too, can be hit or miss, as if the other team has the obelisk or you aren’t coordinating with your team to push (which rarely happens), you won’t have many opportunities to sacrifice fragments. Generally, you’ll want to focus on burying bones.
Look for bones dropped by other players that die during PvP, as well as any soul fragments that drop from players, as your number one target. Make sure to hoover up all that you see and bury bones and sacrifice fragments whenever you have an opportunity.
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Wearing gear that’ll protect you from magic or ranged attacks is a good idea, and making sure you’re always mobile, full up on run energy, and staying out of the thick of the fight whenever possible is also a key path to success. PvPing only makes the game last longer, and shorter games mean more zeal for everybody playing.
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