When a player is skulled, it means that if they die, all of their items will be dropped on the floor, and this player won’t be able to protect their three most valuable items on death (like they normally would). However, if a player is skulled and using the protect item prayer, they can still keep one item on death – likely their most valuable item.
This term is referred to as “being skulled” because players will have a skull and crossbones icon located above their heads.
Once a player becomes skulled, they’ll remain in this state for 20 minutes (if they’re in a PvP situation), or they’ll be skulled for 10 minutes if it’s a result of accessing the Abyss.
Skulled players should be very careful in the Wilderness or in PvP worlds, since many other players will see you as a juicy target. Especially if you have valuable gear on.
How Do You Get Skulled?
There are a number of ways to become skulled, with the most common being through PvP combat.
When any player attacks another player totally unprovoked, they’ll automatically get skulled. And the defending player who retaliates will not become skulled.
Most players in fair risk fights will both skull so that the risk is equal.
Other common ways to get a skull are by wearing a Cape of Skulls, an Amulet of Avarice, or just by entering the Abyss. You can also get it by speaking to the emblem trader.
This might seem straightforward, but there are some tricky things about skulling in Old School RuneScape.
For example, one common technique is “Skull Tricking” where Pk’ers will attempt to trick players into skulling in the wilderness, just so they can kill them for their items. This is done in a number of ways, and the best way to avoid this is to hide your player attack options so that you don’t accidently mis-click anyone in the Wilderness.
If you want to remove your skull then the fastest way is to die to a player, monster, or environmental effect – but you’d want to do it in a “safe” way outside of the wilderness.
For example, many Pk’ers will eat a bunch of rock cakes, which deal 1HP damage each. Or they’ll pick nettles with no gloves in Edgeville, which deal 2HP damage each.
Other players might use Galvek in the Myths guild to quickly die and reset.
Either way, the idea is to die without needing to battle a player you don’t trust, while also making sure you aren’t holding anything good.
