Outside wars and sieges every fight between players follows one system of name colors. This page explains what a white, a purple and a red name mean, when karma is given, what a chaotic character risks and how karma and the PK counter are worked off.
Attacking another player
A peaceful player cannot be hit by accident: you have to force the attack by holding Ctrl while you click the target or use a skill. Players whose names are already purple or red are attacked with a plain click. Towns and villages are peace zones, and no fight is possible inside them.
Three colors of a name
- White: a peaceful character. Killing him is a crime.
- Purple: a character in a fight. The name turns purple as soon as you attack another player, and also when you hit back someone who attacked you. Killing a purple name is not punished. A short time after the last blow the name turns white again.
- Red: a chaotic character, a player killer. The name turns red when you kill a white player: you receive karma, and the PK counter grows by one.
When karma is given
- You hit a white player and he survives: your name turns purple, no karma.
- You kill a white player, whatever your own color was: red name and karma.
- You hit or kill a purple player: your name turns purple for a while, no karma.
- You hit or kill a red player: your name stays white, no karma. A player killer is fair game for everyone.
- You are red and kill again: a white victim adds karma, a purple one does not.
What a chaotic character risks
- The guards of every town and village attack him on sight.
- Shops do not serve him.
- When he dies, he can drop items, equipped ones included, and the death costs him more than an ordinary one. The drop begins with the sixth murder: a chaotic character whose PK counter is five or less loses no items.
How to clear karma and the PK counter
Karma is worked off by hunting: every monster you kill takes some of it away, and each death takes away more. The name stays red until karma reaches zero, so a player killer usually hunts far from the towns and their guards.
The PK counter does not fade with time. It is lowered only by the quest Repent Your Sins, which is given by Black Judge and is described step by step on its page.
Combat Points
CP is a second bar of protection that works only against players. Damage dealt by another player, his pet or his servitor is taken from CP first, and HP starts to fall only when CP is gone. Monsters ignore CP and hit HP directly. CP restores by itself like HP, and its size depends on the class and the level.
Clan wars and sieges have rules of their own, without karma: see Clan wars and alliances: rules, penalties and commands and Castle siege: registration, rules and how a castle is taken.