How to Get the First Hit in Staking [PID]

It’s become common knowledge now amongst duellers, that when two opponents of equal combat stats and equipment are having a duel, the one who will be the first to hit the other will tend to win more often.

Getting the first hit was meant to be “random” to runescape players. However it is not …let me explain.

When you log in to Runescape, your character is assigned a personal identification number (or “PID”). This number can range anywhere from 1 to 2000. You can think of it as a “luck factor” or even a “priority number”. The lower that number is, the “luckier” and more prioritized you become.

So your PID, or “luck factor” as I like to call it, is implicated with many things. For instance, when clicking on a balloon in the party room at the same time as somebody else, the game engine will give priority to the player with the lowest PID. Another example would be when a player casts the telekenetic grab spell, say on wines of zammorack, in same time as another player. The player with the lowest PID will always get it – even if you see that the motion of casting the spell appears to be in same time. Your PID, or priority/luck factor level will tell the game engine to give you the wine. So whichever player is having the lowest PID WILL get the wine. This concept is applied in many areas of the game, including player-killing in the wilderness, dueling/staking and more.

When you start a duel and the screen displays the [3-2-1-go] before the fight, it will not matter how fast you will have spam clicked your opponent. Simply, the one with the lowest PID will get the first hit, and usually the overall highest hits as well.

So before a stake, If you know that your player identification number is lower than that of your opponent, you will get a guaranteed first hit and an improved chance to win the fight. In Runescape 2, unlike runescape classic, you cannot see the exact PID number (In RSC, you could look at Java source code).

So you can only know if your PID is higher or lower than your opponen'ts (but that's well enough to get a first hit anyway). So here are two tricks that are easy to do and that WORK.

Trick #1 Ask your opponent to follow you - tell him you're going to a place with less lag. Now as he follows you, observe the way he follows you. If he trails behind, the he's got a higher PID than you, and hence you should get the first hit. If he follows you up tight, he will be the one to get the first hit. Observe in the vid below;

 

 If he follows you up tight, you might want to have a small stake with him, since he will get the first hit. Once you've staked him once, you may ask him to switch to another world (Switching worlds will reset PIDS for both of you). As a trick, you can tell him for instance that you would like to go to a world with less lag... it's up to you.


Before heading towards the duel arena, you can test out your PID with a friend. If yours is too high, then log out and back in. If you then get a lower PID than your friend, have him log out and back in till he can beat you again. Repeat untill you feel you have a good enough PID.

Method #2 You can also simply duel with your friend for fun and have him log back and in and yourself aswell untill you feel you have a good PID. You may also verify this by doing telekenetic grab over an object with your friend and see who gets it first though the easiest method would be the first one. Just thought about giving you options.

Theories and observations;

Me and you are not the engineers who made the game engine but the best we can do is to support each other with theories and experiences to perfect ourselves. Please add your own observations in the comments section so we can better master this PID system. Here are two of mine;

#1 PID seems to change after about 30 minutes and 2 hours of being logged on
#2  When fighting against an opponent in a duel several times in a row, the first hit is sometimes alternated between one another. HOWEVER, I have felt that even if you have the higher PID and by a rare occasion you hit second, you still seem to get the stronger(luckier) hits and usually catch up really well.
#3 I have felt at times that after logging on, your PID will usually improve after a little time spent logged on and not go down. (Still a theory by all means).

If you have any observations or theories of your own, please leave them in the comments section. Now good luck on making money staking with your new trick. Some people already rely on this and gained millions with this trick. Please come here to report back your wins! Now that's it for today guys, I'm out!

Top 5 Staking Tips for Serious Stakers

Okay, so far it's been about 16-17 days that staking re-appeared. I've started this staking game with a total of 667k raw trout, around 1 million in cash, and 13k pie dishes along with other items. Ive started with ~15 million gold. During this short time-span, I've went from around 15 million worth to 19 million, then dropping to 16 million, then all the way down to 20k in items (almost broke) to completely broke. Then I've came back to 22 million before finally falling down completely to 700k in cash and items (my current money as of writing this).

Loosing 15 million is not a big deal though. I'm gratefull for the staking experience gained. Here are my top 5 best staking tips that any wealth-aspiring staker should put these in application;

1. Get good stats; There's no denial that carefully planned stats make you win. Your character's levels are permanent, and you can't go back once you've got one. Make sure to keep 1 prayer if possible, as 95% of people stake with prayer turned off. Having level 1 prayer truly saves you from gaining unecessary combat levels (and put you to an advantage against those who do got more than 1, but check 'off' this option from the staking screen - which is most often the case). Other levels to be warry of include excessive attack or defence (arguably). When planning out your stats, make sure to use your favorite combat calculator. If you don't know what are good stats to have or not, make sure to ask in the comments and I'll give you some feedback wether I think they'd be good or not ;). I've been in pvp for 7-8 years so I know what I'm doing.

2. Learn to negotiate your stakes and say NO; Negotiating your bets and be able to say NO to risky conditions or risky opponents is an important ability that will directly impact your cash stack. To give you an example, I've been loosing significant money while almost being maxed out for my combat level (81 range 80 str, 80 magic 76 hp, 1 prayer 1 defence) with 58 combat [1 constitution level and 1 strenght and magic level away from maxed].  This was due in part because I was staking others who had very similar stats as myself, or even slightly higher and offered no real advantage in battling against. The cause was of frustration of finding no one to stake.


3. Stake only if you have an advantage (stat-wise); With some luck, you can make some quick gp staking people that have the same levels and stats as you, but on the long run, staking small to medium amounts of gp against people weaker than you (even slightly weaker) is what will make you win in the long-run (and keep  you from going broke). You need to have the power upon yourself to systematically refuse staking people that are higher combat, even if you have been looking for an opponent for ages without luck.

4. Do not stake if frustrated, or feel for revenge; As said earlier, runescape can be a frustrating game. If you loose your cool, do not stake! Take some time off and head to the wilderness, or better yet - do some personal projects, homework, or other real-life related tasks until you feel fresher. Exercising is also good for tension-relief.

5. Stake a little more when you have been assigned luck (often are the first one to hit);

Update : Learn how to get the first hit in a stake (and have luck). Just updated this. First hits are associated with "having luck" and winning more often.

In runescape, 'real luck' does not really exist. If you've noticed, "luck" is rather assigned ranging from various degrees from high to low - let's say 0 to 100. I've noticed that when you are in a duel and you do the first hit, you will get higher hits throughout the duel than you'd normally do, and more often. I also remember reading somewhere that in runescape classic, the luck factor was displayed on the page source code, but that in runescape2/hd, it is completely hidden.

You can verify your luck by seeing who gets items first (despite clicking in same time) using telekenetic grab with friends, or just have some 'fun duels' with different people no matter their combat level, just to see who hits first. If you've duelled for fun with several players and have been able to hit first on most or a big portion of them, then it means that you've been assigned considerable luck.

Furthermore, I highly suspect that the more time you are logged in the game, your luck tends to get trickled up (but not always). This is from what I recall in my zammorack wine telegrabbing experience; the telegrabbers who used to stay logged in longer in a world used to be the ones who were able to get the wine first. I am 100% sure that there is a luck factor involved. I recount even when I used to systematically loose in stakes against the same one opponent who won around 10 million from me; two days later I was not only beating him systematically, but doing so with big margins ex.easily winning. And as a matter of fact, I had cleaned this guy his 17 million - giving him back 1 so he could start somewhere.

If you think that you've been assigned luck, you can increase your stakes slightly. From my own experience, good luck is worth up to 2-3 extra combat levels (from my point of view, and I am level 58 combat). So remember that a good idea before fighting an opponent for a large sum of money, would be to estimate your luck (and his!). You may duel him a smaller amount first for instance, to see who has been assigned more luck.

So that's about it for now. I will add more tips when I can find. But what are your own staking tips? Right now, I'm sure I've missed a good couple, please let us know so we can discuss it or if you want me to add them on the list. With some more, I will make a full guide. Cheers !