PvP worlds have arrived! Are you ready to pit your combat skills against other players in the halls of the White Knights’ Castle? Are you prepared to fight to the death in the fields of Lumbridge? Well, now is your chance.

To get started, load up the game like normal (click here to read about the changes to the log-in system we've also released today), and then choose 'World Select' on the title screen. Then pick a world which has a tick in the 'skull' column to choose a PvP world. To avoid nasty accidents, if you let the game choose a world for you automatically it will never select a PvP world. Also note that you require a Combat level of at least 20 (not including Summoning) to get into a PvP world.

Before you are logged in, you will be warned that you are entering a PvP world which is a dangerous place: you will lose your items on death and you will not get a gravestone. Upon entering the world for the first time, you’ll be teleported to Lumbridge and given a manual to explain the finer points of PvP worlds.

Here’s a quick run-down of the features:

• Fight players (within your level range) anywhere on the map, except in a few safe areas.
• Safe areas include banks, respawn points and some guilds.
• Level ranges are 10% of your Combat level, plus 5 levels. If you are fighting inside the Wilderness, the Wilderness level is added to this total. Your current attack range is shown on your screen at all times. (The 10% is measured from the higher of the two combatants’ levels.)
• Skulling is back – same rules apply. If you initiate combat, you are skulled and on death you will lose all items, with the Protect Item prayer saving one item as normal.
• Teleport Block is back in the normal spellbook.
• Some minigames are available to play, others are not – please see the Game Guide for more details.
• Death drops are back – new rules apply. Drops will be a mixture of items from the defeated opponent’s inventory and items from drop tables specific to PvP worlds. See below for details.

The quality of the drops you get when you PK someone depends on several different factors:

• To get a reward from a kill, you also have to risk some items yourself!
• To accumulate a possible reward, you have to risk a minimum of 75k of items on a members’ world, or a minimum of 25k of items on a free world.
• Note that your three most valuable items won’t count as being risked unless you’ve been skulled, as you wouldn’t lose them.
• The longer you spend on a PvP world (outside a safe area) with the required amount of items at risk, the better your possible rewards might become, to reward you for your risk.
• The possible reward increases even faster and goes to a higher maximum if you go into a ‘hot zone’.
• Note, however, that risking more than the minimum won’t improve your rewards faster, so it’s a good idea to take relatively cheap and useful items that won’t cost you too much to replace if you die.

When you get a successful kill, the exact reward you can claim depends on a number of other factors, including the level difference between you and the value of the items lost by the dying player. Any unclaimed loot is saved for the next kills, so you don't have to worry about it being lost if you kill a low level player.

Don't despair if you are dying a lot and losing a lot of items. The game will detect this and improve your chance of getting decent rewards when you do eventually get a good kill.

The above is a simplified description of how it all works. To prevent cheating there are various other factors taken into account. We've calculated the rewards and rates very carefully, so that a successful PKer should be able to get a good income, and PKers who get lucky might find themselves with a good drop. Higher level players may also get higher rewards to reflect their increased earning ability when not PKing, such that PKing is still worthwhile for them. The aim is to make PKing a fun alternative (albeit very high risk) way of earning money in the game.

Included in the PvP-specific drop tables is a wide range of new combat equipment and XP-boosting gloves. Members will get access to level 78 items for all three corners of the combat triangle, including armour as well as weapons, and a new set of Ancient Magick spells. Non-members will get access to corrupt dragon equipment. To find out more about these items, please visit the Game Guide.

Have fun PKing!