Stronghold of Player Safety

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The Stronghold of Player Safety is a dungeon under the Misthalin Training Centre of Excellence. You can find it exactly north of the Barbarian Village and exactly south of Edgeville. It was launched on 11 March 2008^[1]. Previously, a player needed to enter the basement of the building and read all of the cell doors. Then the players needed to complete the Player Safety test miniquest (by successfully answering all the questions on the test paper) before they could gain access. You had to talk Professor Henry to begin. Currently, that only applies if you are under 13 years of age.

A map of all the levels in the stronghold. The dots indicate monsters. Red dots are Muggers, blue dots Cockroach Drones, purple dots Cockroach Workers, and yellow dots Cockroach Soldiers.

At ground level, there are two doors and a crevice. The crevice is a shortcut into the dungeon, use it well (Can only be used once you have climbed the rope from inside the dungeon). The main door to the Training Centre is locked before doing the player safety exam. The second door (at the back of the building) is the Jail Entrance, which allows the player to access the jail, go there to enter the dungeon itself.

This is how the area with the guard looks.

This is the dungeon where you go from the tunnel. The north-east room has stairs that go up to an another level.

On the north room there is a lever that, when pulled, opens a door in the dungeon. Also, in this room, there is a rope that leads to a crevice on the surface. Go back down to previous level and you will see a magical door to the east in the same room your in. Go through it and you find yourself in the east room in this level:

Go to a small side tunnel in the middle of the map and there you will find a chest. When you open it you will receive 10,000 coins, 2 experience lamps and the safety gloves. If you take the time to look you will see that the gloves match the fighting boots you can get at the end of the last level of the stronghold of security!

This is the fourth, bottom floor of the dungeon. Several Cockroach drones, workers and 2 soldiers habit this area. Cockroach Soldiers are located in the North-east room divided from the rest of the Cockroaches by 2 passages 1 tile wide, so they can't get through since they take a 2 x 3 area.

[edit] The Process

The entrance to the Stronghold of Player Safety is found at a drain at the west side of the Misthalin Training Centre of Excellence, which is the small building.

Upon entering the drain, you will see a jail, with creatures locked inside the jail cells. You must go inside the poster dungeon.

The entrance to the Stronghold of Player Safety is in the tunnel hidden under the poster on the second jail block to the left (in perspective to the ladder going up to the west wall), which is mysteriously open and does not have a prisoner inside.

Eeek, a cockroach!

In the Stronghold, there are muggers, cockroach drones, cockroach workers (at the stairs below) and cockroach soldiers (also at the level below, and near the jail door on the east end of the main level).

[edit] Training

• Muggers: Muggers are not aggressive which may be beneficial to players because of their higher combat level and the fact that they are in a Multi-combat area. They commonly drop coins, rope and occasionally runes. They also have a 100% drop of bones which may be used to level prayer.

• Drones: The Cockroach drone is a good money maker for low level players, due to its decent drops like Gems, Coins and Runes. They are also a good source of crimson charm for players who can't attack Dagannoth. If you have a fair defence level, you don't have to bother with safe spots if you are maging or ranging them.

• Workers: Can drop good runes (such as chaos) that can be used or sold at the Grand Exchange. Cockroach workers are good non-member monsters to train on. It is advised to be level 55 plus to kill them. They can hit 5s and 6s very often if rune armour is not worn. If ranging, there are a couple of safe spots in the bottom-most floor of the stronghold. Usual drops are coins; they can drop a good amount of runes.

• Soldiers: The minimum combat level recommended to attempt to train on a Cockroach soldier is 75. Players below that level should bring a team. However, it is possible to easily kill a cockroach soldier at a level as low as 60, especially if one has attained a high Prayer level, at least 43, to activate Protect from Melee. The soldier has relatively high defence, hits infrequently and has a maximum melee hit of 8. If attacked from a distance, however, it will use a ranged attack that can hit up to 11. The use of protection prayers is possible, but really not needed when standing next to the soldiers, as they only use melee up close. The cockroach soldier is relatively strong against all 3 sides of the combat triangle. Nonetheless, it seems more vulnerable to crush, range and magic attacks, although if ranged or maged against it is capable of firing back at the attacker. A lot of people also attack them for the rune scimitars. These are by far the most popular training method in free to play worlds due to the high exp and valued items they can drop.

• The whole Stronghold of Player Safety is also a multi-combat area.

• All monsters in the Stronghold are non-aggressive, so it is safe for any level player to search for the 10,000 coins, 2 lamps, emote and safety gloves.

[edit] Music

Music unlocked:

• Exam Conditions - inside Misthalin Training Centre of Excellence
• Incarceration - enter Jail entrance
• Safety in Numbers

[edit] Chest Rewards

• 10,000 coins
• Safety gloves
• Full access to Cockroaches.

And: (awarded on completion of the exam)

• Safety first emote.
• Two experience lamps awarding 500exp each.

[edit] History

The Stronghold was originally a massive prison that housed some of Misthalin's worst criminals, such as the gang members of Varrock or criminals operating over the Wilderness border. It was built some time in the late Fourth or early Fifth Age.

The massive prison soon fell into disuse, its guards wandering off and tunnelling creatures causing problems. For years it remained abandoned, a strain of massive cockroaches making their home in the moist tunnels.

Recently a smaller prison was built in the tunnels above the ruins, and an educational centre built above it. The old prison has been rediscovered and opened to adventurers that look to explore its ancient ruins.

[edit] Trivia

• The second cell on the left is a direct reference to the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption with Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. The chess set chiselled from rocks with a rock hammer and the pin-up poster of Raquel Welch are both integral to the film's storyline. In the movie, "Andy Dufresne" used the tunnel he created behind his poster to access the prisons sewer outlet to escape, whereas the poster in this case is of a female gublinch.

• Professor Henry looks remarkably similar to Dr. Henry Jones Sr, from the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".

• There is a glitch on a part of the bottom level where it shows part of the top level.
• It has been suggested that a great free to play boss would be the addition of a Cockroach Queen with a high level combat. 

The "visible upper level" glitch.

[edit] References

1. ^ Game update of 2008-03-11, Stronghold of Player Safety

• RuneScape Game Guide
  • Stronghold of Player Safety