Gameplay and getting going

Well I learnt something today when I was getting 81 prayer, you can still get a random when offering bones.

First of all I got 81 Prayer.

I got yet another prayer level yesterday 81 now.

On one of the trips as I offered my bones I had a random, the zombie random, I didn't know you could get bone randoms offering bones this was the first I have had.

I was in my house so couldn't die, but I tried to run away to get rid of him but he wasn't budging so I came back and beat his skinny little body to the ground.

Beating up a zombie random with my mystic mud battlestaff

I used prayer because I had no armour and he hits often and hard and I was next to the altar so could top up easily after his death.

But what a surprise when he was dead he dropped 2 dragon bones and about 10 big and 10 normal bones, it broke up the day a bit and got me some more prayer xp, the only problem is my burners went out so had to go back to the bank for marentils.

Today I have gained another level I am now 80 prayer.

Another hour or 2 in my house at Yanille and another Prayer level, level 80 now a nice even number.

This level was gained using my guilded altar in my house situated at Yanille.

I started yesterday and offered some dragon bones to the gods and got part way there running backwards and forwards from the bank to my house.

Today I was doing the same and I had another player just following me forwards and backwards from my house, not sure why but he just did, I normally dont care about nubs wasting their time but for some reason I didnt want him following me, so with my next load of bones I popped a home tele tab, goodbye one nub, I did my bones and would you believe it he was waiting for me outside my house (Woot I have a stalker).
After using that tele tab I though hang on that was quick, so I had an idea, I grabbed my mystic mud battle staff and 40 air and law runes and teled home again, I offered my bones and ran back to the bank.

I have relatively high agility so can recharge energy quite quickly but still run out when boneing a lot, using the tele to home and walk back I lost 2 inventory spaces but it was so much quicker because I had run energy all the time that I leveled in no time.

I can see my next level coming a lot quicker, you can use home tele tabs and save a space for an extra dragon bone but I dont think the extra time making them is worth it, they should be used for more critical uses like KQ barrows and daggy kings.

I have been to the Pyramid Plunder Mini game again today and got another level I am now 93 Thieving, unfortunately I missed the piccy of my level as I was franticly looting the urns.

My next level according to the Runehq Calculator is in 49 games, each game takes 5 minutes so its almost 4 hours to my next level, that is not bad considering my level is quite high.

A Funny thing happened to me today and I am still wondering wtf was happening.

I went to do a farming run and started in Ardougne farming patch, a level 62 asked me if I had some potatoes, which to me is odd enough, I said I dont grow them but there is a farmer to the west that does, he then said its just that I have had a friend who was getting me 100K pure essence, he then went brb and disappeared as I was asking "are you paying him in potatoes then", I still don't know what potatoes have to do with pure ess but im sure its important.

You will all know by now that I do not accept what people say on Runescape and will always find out for myself, by doing this I have proved many of the popular theories wrong, the most popular theory proved wrong the one being that fly fishing at Shilo is the best fishing xp.

I know many people will not accept this but that is their lookout, you wont see me training there again.

I set a challenge and logged the xp gained when fishing for an hour in several popular spots, although not totally conclusive an hours fishing can give a good indication of where is best to fish.

The spots I tried are.

1/ Fly Fishing Shilo
2/ Fly Fishing Barbarian
3/ Sharks Guild
4/ Monks Fishing Colony

When I did this test I was level 80 fishing for lower level players it may well be different, I did have the exact xp figures and published on RuneHq but they have long since gone, I will just leave you with the summary.

1/ Fly Fishing at Shilo
I have lots of feathers but I decided to buy the feathers from the fishing shop as I went along, I would sell the fish caught and buy the feathers at the same time. this was to allow the calculation for fishing to include the collection of feathers as this should be included as a part of fishing xp.

The problem with Shilo is the distance between the fishing spots, I spent a lot of time finding the next spot and often had to run to the other side of the river to get one, the xp was good when I was fishing but too long running from river bank to river bank, you can also bank the fish as the bank is nearby but I wanted to give it the bast xp possible for the test.

2/ fly fishing at Barbarian Village, you have a few options here, drop the fish you catch, tele to edgy bank bank the fish and walk back or walk to edgy bank and walk back, I chose to tele to edgy and walk back, but I think dropping would have been quicker.

3/ Catching sharks at the guild and banking

4/ Monk fish, this involves doing a fairly easy for mid to high level players quest to get access to the fishing colony, catching monks and then banking.

My findings

The fishing monks was the leader but by only 2k xp, you also have the benefit of having some useful food for cooking xp and when fighting.

Second was Fly Fishing at Barbarian Village, the benefit of fishing here was the spots are close together so no chasing around finding spots.

Next was Fly fishing at Shilo, this could have been quicker if the spots were kept on the bank side of the river or it could have been worse if they changed more often.

Fishing sharks at the guild was way back on xp, this was not a surprise as they are very slow, I just added it because I fish sharks for food.

These are my finding you can choose to accept or ignore, I still fish sharks although the xp is slower I have a use for sharks and always need them.

I am just hanging on in the top 1k for agility, about 780 if I remember correctly.

For some reason people don't like agility, it is quick and easy to train but can be a bit boring.

Brimhaven is close to being the best for xp, over all for playability it is without doubt the easiest, I would not be 86 agility if it wasn't for Brimhaven, In fact I would probably still be the same agility level as the people who say Brimhaven is crap.

To get the most out of Brimhaven you need to collect 1k tickets before you trade in click here for my Brimhaven guide.

Another option although an option I have never tried is to build clockwork mice, wind them up and release them, apparently you get 15 xp every time you wind them up and release, its probably a good idea to do it in a small room in your house so no one pinches them.

The next best route for agility as regards time is the Wildy course, there are many dangers here and there is a good chance of your training session being cut short this will slow your leveling down considerably.

Ape Atol is a longer route so will take longer than the wildy but there is no risk of death from pkers so you can stay as long as you like, there is even a fishing spot to catch food if your health drops.

The warewolf course is good xp but I haven't trained there much so I am unable to comment to any extent.

The agility pyramid is good xp but you need food and waterskins and there is no bank nearby so I never trained there for long.

The penguin course, this is a waste of space unless you are very low agility give it a miss too slow.

And now the best route by far, the new goblin course, sorry you need to be at least 70 agility to use it, I would suggest 75 plus is recommended, the xp here is tremendous about 3k per lap using the agility route.

So a Summary for the best agility training.

New underground agility course (Over 70 agility)
Brimhaven
Wildy
Ape Atol
Warewolf
Pyramid
penguin

If I was planning on my agility career again I would:-

1, 1 to 40 Gnome stronghold
2, 41 to 45 Barbarian outpost
3, 46 to 75 Brimhaven
4, 76 to 99 Underground Gnome course.

I would also use the other routes for a change but the above list would be the easiest and fastest.

I had a thieving level of 89 and I wanted to get level 91 so I could thieve and do everything thieving on Runescape, in the past I have thieved from gnomes these are very good xp but are not worth the time until you are at least level 85, in fact it took about 3 hours to get some of the levels above 85 which is quick for a relatively high level skill.

When pyramid plunder first came out I didn't like it you were a long way into the desert you needed lots of food and anti poison, you were running around getting poisoned by snakes attacked by high level monsters and clicking pots, I could only do a few runs before needing to tele to duel arena run to shanty top up with food and anti poison pots then walk or pay to carpet to Pollnivneach then Sophenam.

With the release of the Contact quest there is a bank next to the pyramid so it makes it a lot easier, contact is a fairly difficult quest and aimed at mid to high level players so it is not ideal for all players but it is not as difficult as Jagex make it out to be.

So lets assume you have access to the bank, if you do not have access to the bank you will need to tele to duel arena and come back when you are out of food but I will continue as if you can.

First of all you need to pick the lock of the pyramid to get in, at level 90 thieve I failed about 2% to get in, when you fail you let the mummy shut the door and try again, you have four doors to choose from and the door the guardian mummy is in will remain the same for some time so remember which it is, if you pick the wrong door there will be no yellow dot on the mini map so you just exit and try another door, when you exit you are always sent out of the door at the north of the pyramid.

When you find the door with the guardian mummy provided you have done the requirements to get in which if I remember correctly is just get instructions on how to do it right click him and select start game, he will send you to the first room

The principle here is the same for all levels, the best option is to get to the to the highest room you can get to, you first need to deactivate the spear trap to get into the room with the urns, click all the doors except for the white one, the white one sends you outside, all of the doors except one have a dead end when you open a door with a dead end just go onto the next door.

A little tip here the door to the next room is the same for all players so watch the others players as you check the doors, if another player clicks a different door and disappears either that is the door to the next room or their time is up, try that one next if it is the next room you will have saved some time for searching the earns on the last room you can reach.

Another tip to maximise your xp per run is when you get to a room click the chest in the centre before you move on to the next room, the chests have the best xp and best artifacts, this doesn't slow you down much and it is well worth it for the extra xp, the chest release a swarm of scarab beetles occasionally these are very annoying but just ignore them and head for the next room, another tip if there is already a swarm by a door click that door for the next room, the swarm will have followed the previous player to the door that takes them to the next room so if you are quick enough it will be the same door for you.

The scarab swarm are about 25 hp so if you get them on the last room you can reach it doesn't take long to kill them.

When you get to the last room you can reach search all the urns and last of all search the sarcophagus this my spring out a mummy (It is quite likely) and this mummy will attack someone in the room usually the person who opened it, the mummy can hit hard so be very careful, you should then exit, you may even be expelled by the guardian mummy if you have exceeded the 5 minutes allowed in the pyramid. .

The reason you only search the last room is because the xp for each urn is the highest, it is better to get the best xp exit and start again as opposed to get lower xp and hope you have enough time for the highest room.

Things to take,
If you are a lower level player take some armour
If not wear boots of lightness and spottier cape if you can wear it and all should take a good weapon.
wear a ring of life just to be safe, the scarab swarm can hide your health bar when they attack.
Lots of food, anti poison is not required as the poison does not do too much damage but it is up to you you may prefer to not have green splodges every now and then.
take a quick tele if you are not that confident but shouldn't be required.

You get paid for the artifacts that you collect, I collect the gold ones that I have room for but let the rest fall on the floor as I search the urns, I do not pick any up because I am there for thieving xp.

Xp is very good for this game these figures are from memory but are fairly accurate just to demonstrate the xp given.

I want to get to 91 thieving from 90, using the Runehq Calculator it showed that I needed 40 games to get to 91 using the best route, all chest on all floors, then all urns on the last floor, not using lock picks or searching and charming snakes.

Thats 40 5 minute games to get 91 and 700 games to get to 99, when I got 91 I used the same calculator it was 50 games to 92 and 400 games to 99 just because I could get in the last room.

It takes a time to do this game but it does seem to fly by when you are doing it and the xp jumps are really nice per game.

Another tip I should have added, it always says that it is easier with a lock pick when opening doors, it is easier but you lose xp and it is not of any benefit to use one because you get enough time to search all if not most urns anyway.

After sitting in a 3 hour traffic jam returning from our easter break I started up Runescape and I did a level 1 clue that I had got before I went away.

I did the clue and had a hard leather body, blue gnome boots and an unblessed silver sickle, needle and sickle mould left over from the things needed for the quest, I was a bit bored I wanted an easy life so I went to the wildy agility course more than happy for someone to come and kill me.

I went the dangerous route directly past the mage arena bank and walked through a group of 15 pkers no of them attacked me which was a bit disappointing, I had nothing to lose and I started to go around the course, surprisingly as I was going around with another player one of my friends turned up and started to train.

So there was me a level 122, my friend a level 105 and the other player a level 123, we were all going around merrily and after a while a level 124 joined us again a good player just there for agility xp, I was staying there until I died and free tele back to Fally as my hp went low the other players offered me food which is pretty cool for players in the wildy.

A level 80 turned up and left in a hurry after all he didn't know us and would not know we would not attack him, as I went around a level 126 logged in and then logged out again, I warned my friend but carried on around as I was there to die anyway, after about 10 minutes the level 126 appeared again with some friends and started killing the other player, I would have helped the other player but I was on 10hp and no food and stood no chance so I carried on, as I caught up to the pkers I just carried on past and was killed with 2 range shots, im not sure what happened to the other players but my friend died to the pkers a bit later.

I understand that the widly is a dangerous place and death is quite likely but I was surprised that a level 126 felt so vulnerable that he needed to kill unarmed players who were only carrying food and a DDS at most, they got a sickle mold and a needle off of me, if they had asked I would have given it to them after all I can get them from my house free of charge.

I understand the 115 needing to attack unarmed players because he would normally not stand a chance of killing players over level 75.

I wanted to go back and kill the 126 and see if indeed pkers do drop feathers but there was a clan there and I could only take out 2 max.

I have been playing Runescape regularly since July 2005, I think I have come a long way in under 2 years, currently level 122 with 1936 total level, I like to do my own thing and train when and where I want.

I was at Pyramid plunder the other day where I got 91 thieving, woooot, you might notice I use the woot word quite a lot on this blog, thats simply because it is the most ridiculous word on Runescape and I feel it suits this blog, I was approached by the clan leader who asked me to join her clan we had a conversation as I was running around the pyramid frantically trying to get my levels.

I did eventually look into what the clan did, I am not a great fan of clans my experience of clans is a group of chickens wandering around the wildy looking for unarmed players to kill, I am still not sure if pkers drop feathers when killed, I was pleased to find out it is a skiller clan and pking was not high on their agenda.

After trying to sort out access to their chat channel. I was a computer engineer repairing servers for some of the major financial institutions in the UK and that chat gave me some grief, getting on was fine but setting things up got just a tad confusing, any way I got it working on one computer properly and usable on another so I could speak to their members and went to a team event, parading around in fancy dress is not my idea of fun but I went along because it is nice to support your clan as much as possible.

Anyway the clan name Aequabilis it has a select membership (I still got in thought) requirements to enter, 100+ level players, over 16 years of age so almost an adult only clan and a total level over 1500, I am not sure how it got its name but i am useless at remembering it, my friend asked what clan I was in and I said its some thing like (enter random letters here beginning with ae).

Anyway it is a great clan there are a lot of very friendly players on their (No noobs or newbs}, I have only been a member for 2 days and I already feel like part of the family, there is no strict requirement to attend the activities but in my eyes if you don't do the activities there is no point in being in the clan.

This has opened up a new chapter in my Runescape life and it is a very positive one, thank you to all the members for making me feel at home.