Many people seem to struggle with the new PvP system, and for that reason I chose to write a guide about it. I agree the current system is a bit sophisticated, but you can use it to your advantage if you know how to use it. Just a quick example to give you a taste of what to expect in this guide: when multiple people are attacking one of your friends and you start attacking all of them – with area spells like Ultimate Explosion – you will get a yellow skull on all of them, which means they can easily target you and kill you. Now you might ask how you can get the advantage in this situation, please continue reading.

Skull System
The skull system was introduced a long time ago. I will quickly explain the different type of skulls, the effect they have and the colored squares around people engaged in PvP combat.

Brown Square
When you see a player with a brown square around him that means he is engaged in PvP combat. You will not be able to support any of these players unless you also take part in this battle by attacking any of them, or if the player is a guild or party member.

Yellow Square
The yellow square means you are engaged in PvP combat with another player. This could be him attacking you or you attacking him.

Orange Square
This player engaged PvP combat with one of your guild or party members. Attacking this player will mark you with a yellow skull – which is only visible to him – so if he kills you that will be a justified kill. You can, however, still enter a protection zone even if you attack him.

White Skull
A player with a white skull has engaged PvP combat with someone. You can judge the situation by looking at the color of his Square. If his square is yellow he engaged PvP with you. If it is orange he engaged PvP with one of your guild or party members and if it is brown he is in PvP combat with someone that is neither you nor a guild or party member. If a player attacks you first you are allowed to fight back – even from Dove Mode – and still enter a protection zone. If the player is marked orange, you can attack him with White Hand Mode, which results in a yellow skull for you. You can still enter a protection zone though! If you want to attack a white skulled player with a brown square you need to take Yellow Hand Mode, resulting in a yellow skull and a protection zone lock upon blocking or attacking the white skulled player.

Yellow Skull
A yellow skull is only visible to a player that is currently skulled: be it orange, white, black or red. You will get this yellow skull upon attacking or blocking a player (the right mode has to be enabled) with a skull. A yellow skulled player can be killed and that kill would be justified. In most cases a yellow skull is locked from protection zones (more info in Combat Control).

Orange Skull
When you take an unjustified kill on a player you will be marked with an orange skull for one week. During this time the player you killed can take ‘revenge’. This allows him to attack you without having to take a white skull, he does however get protection zone locked if he decides to attack.

Red Skull
You have recently killed too many players. Upon death you will drop all your items, even if you are fully blessed. If you have a red skull and a player attacks you he will be marked with a  yellow skull, allowing you to kill him while still being able to enter a protection zone. A red skull will disappear after 30 days if you do not take any unjustified kills.

Black Skull
Players with a black skull have all the problems a red skull has plus a few more. You take 100 percent damage from players instead of 50. When you die and wake up in temple you have very little hit points and 0 mana. You cannot attack any player unless he attacks you first. A black skull disappears after 30 days, just like the red skull.

Combat Control
The new system has four ‘new’ features and the old feature: the fist. All of them have its upsides and downsides.

Dove Mode
Dove Mode is enabled by default. The only way to attack another player in Dove Mode is by enabling the Fist; please not that area spells do not work right away, you have to actually attack a player first before you can hit him with an area spell like Ultimate Explosion. Area spells will only hit the player you have just attacked and will ignore any other players on the screen. This is important to remember, because all other players will have to take a Yellow Skull on you, making any low levels vulnerable to your attacks (as killing them is justified from the moment they take yellow skull!).

Upsides
- You cannot hit fellow players in team hunts unless you activate Fist.
- Everyone can walk through you.

Downsides
- Need to activate Fist to attack a player.
- Everyone can walk through you.

White Hand Mode
White Hand Mode is almost the same as Dove Mode with the exception that you can attack anyone who has been aggressive to either a party or a guild member. Do note that when you attack a player you will be marked with a Yellow Skull, resulting in a justified kill on you, should you die. The upside of the White Hand Mode is that even though you take a Yellow Skull, you can still enter a Protection Zone.

Upsides
- Can attack someone that did not attack you and you can still enter a protection zone.
- All benefits from the Dove Mode.
- You cannot get protection zone locked unless you activate Fist.

Downsides
- When you enable White Hand Mode and attack someone whom attacked a party or guild member, or that players tries to walk through you, you will be yellow skulled.
- It is not advisable to ever leave keyboard with this mode on.

Yellow Hand Mode
As the name of the mode already suggests, this mode will give you a yellow skull when any white skulled player that is not in direct PvP combat with you walks through you or when you attack him. This means you will be a justified kill, should you die.

Upsides
- You can attack white skulls without the fear of getting a white skull yourself.
- You can block a player that is skulled even though you did not attack him yet (including red, black and orange skulls).

Downsides
- You will get protection zone locked as soon as the skulled player tries to walk through you or when you attack him.
- You will be a justified kill, should you engage in combat with a skulled player.
- It is not advisable to ever leave keyboard with this mode on.

Red Hand Mode

With red hand mode you will be aggressive to everyone on the screen. When any player walks into you or a field rune you fired, this will give you a white skull. Do note that a player you blocked will count as an assist, not an unjustified kill. Field runes like energy field will obviously make it count as a kill.

Upsides
- If you want to kill one lone player its very convenient to use red hand mode and switch back to dove after that.
- You can block any player, which will only give you an assist.

Downsides
- If you use this in town you will be skulled in no time.
- If you want to kill one player that is with other players it is always better to use the Fist.
- There are loads of skullbashers that will not hesitate to kill you.

Toggling the Fist
Toggling the Fist is mostly used in dove mode. Why? Because you can quickly attack one player and use your Ultimate Explosion without hitting anyone else on the screen. So why not use red hand instead? Because with red hand mode you will hit everyone on the screen. Those players can now kill you without having to take yellow skull, or worse, they can make themselves die to creatures and you will get unjustified kills for all of them (and possibly get red skull)!

Tips & Trics
My tip to any player, especially new players, is to always use dove mode. Swap to yellow hand mode when you want to kill a skulled player and preferably use the Fist to take white skull. Do not forget to deactivate the fist after you attacked this player.

When someone that is close to your level killed you and received the orange skull, take advantage of it. Attack him when he is hunting, he might die to creatures. You can annoy him for a whole week and there is nothing he can really do about it except call his friends to take white skulls on you. If he is hunting and you kill him with Ultimate Explosion or any other spell that kills him right away, he will lose his full blessings.

When a white skull player enters a one square meter area there is still a way to kill him.
1a. Get a (high level) mage to summon a fire elemental, rope the elemental up there.
1b. In case there is no stair, get a ton of people so that the summoned fire elemental will go up the stair when summoned.
2. Get a low level character, take skull on the mage that summoned the elemental.
3. Go upstairs with both, now take yellow hand mode on the mage and attack the low level character. When the fire elemental shoots a fire field he will hit everyone there and this will take you into combat with the white skull, making it possible to attack him.

One of the newest tricks is actually caused by a bug. It is a known 'red skull trap'. Here is how it is executed.
1. A player lures you into a trap by taking skull and hoping you chase him.
2. Another player, with red hand mode enabled, chases you and together they trap you.
3. Three low level characters show up and take skull on you. Killing them is justified.
4. Youl will probably try to kill these players, because killing them will be justified, right?
5. The three players you have just killed walk back there from temple and stack inside one of the players that still traps you.
6. You use an area spell (exori, UE, beams, anything) and you will get skulled (even when in dove mode!) on these three characters, note that this is a bug and is therefore not intended.
7. The two other players that have you trapped will kill the low levels, you get three unjustified kills and therefore a red skull.
8. They call friends, or just kill you on the spot and you lose everything.

If you can identify the situation then this trick is easily countered, but since it is a fairly new trick many people still fall for it. Counter it by:
A. Not killing the three players at all.
B. Kill them but not using area spells when they return.
C. Call for friends, but still be careful to not fall for the area spell trick, because even though you might not get red skulled, they can get you white skulled with this bug and kill you.
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