How to survive a PK attack

The world of LoU is a dangerous place. Outside of town protected zones, you can be murdered in cold blood by any other character. After 5 murders, a character's name turns from blue to red. Red characters are career killers, and when one shows up, your day can be ruined. Luckily, there are strategies for defending yourself from a PK attack.

In Town
A red cannot attack you in town (protected zone) without guards being called on them to strike them down. However, if you attack them first, they are free to do as they please with no consequence. If you are being attacked near a town, your best bet is to run into town and say "guards." If they are foolish enough to follow you in, they will be guardwhacked.

At Your Home
(Celador map information- May not apply to Brittania map)

It's a common misconception that you are safe from PKs inside of your home. Spells like Earthquake can travel through the walls of your home and kill you from outside. The solution to this is to put up walls and a gate on your property around your home, giving a wide berth around your actual house. It is also advised to create a custom macro to say "I ban thee" so that if they make it inside your gates, you can ban them forever. Make sure to lock the gate around your house by right clicking on it!

In The Wild
You're minding your own business, mining/logging/taming out in the wild, and a red shows up looking for an easy kill. It's not great. But you needn't lay down and be taken to the netherworld- you CAN survive a PK attack or even fight back! Let's start with a checklist of things you should do before you head off into the world:


 * 1) Carry several pouches in your pack. Cast the Magic Trap spell on each of them. If the Paralyze spell is cast on you, double click one of these pouches and you will be freed, taking 1 damage.
 * 2) Cast the following defensive spells on yourself: Reactive Armor, Magic Reflect, Bless, Protection. Bless and Protection will need to be renewed regularly. This will give you crucial extra seconds when an attack begins.
 * 3) Keep offensive spells you will use to fight back on your hotbar if you're a mage- Paralyze, Energy Bolt, Poison, etc. If you're a dexxer, keep your weapons handy.
 * 4) Set an escape rune (home or town) as your default rune in your runebook (click the star next to the rune). Right click on your runebook, select Change Hotbar Action, then drag the runebook to your hotbar. You should now have a hotbar action to use a recall charge to your default rune. Make sure to have recall charges in the book!
 * 5) If you have access to potions, cure potions to cure poison can be the difference between life and death. Healing potions are also great. Refresh potions will refill your stamina while you're running if you run out.

Do as many of these as you're able and your survival chances increase dramatically.

Fight or Flight?
You must decide based on your build and how advanced your skills are whether or not you should fight or run like the wind. A crafter should probably just run for the hills. A mage or dexxer has a better fighting chance. Your approach may be a combination of both- get the PK hurting or paralyzed and distracted, then run as fast as you can toward town, until you're able to recall to safety or you reach town. The biggest mistake you can make is simply doing nothing- even a non-combat build can run away from a PK encounter with a cool enough head and a little luck.

Avoid Common Gathering Areas
PKs will search for a kill at common areas where people congregate. Favored mines or taming areas are absolute kill zones. If you can avoid these areas and gather/train/etc in less conspicuous places, you'll be less likely to run into trouble.