Runescape: Hello, Frost Dragons!

A day or so ago, I posted about retro fun with Red Dragons.  It was enjoyable, relaxing, and easy.  Went to the Blue Dragons for a while, but as suspected, even the resource dungeon was crowded.  Thinking about dragons, and resource dungeons, reminded me of Frost Dragons.

Last time Frost Dragons came up on the radar was when Monique and I were going through all the resource dungeons for the Dungeoneering exp.  At that time, we couldn't get into the Frost Dragon dungeon, and it just hasn't come up again since then. I had read, before the bot-bomb, that it was overcrowded.  Before even researching how to fight them, a quick visit was in order.  Crowds?  Nope.  The place was half empty.  Cool.

Time to study.  Thank goodness for Google!  Found a few guides that got me started.  Following the layout that sounded best, I headed out to do battle.  I died.  Lucky me, saw it coming, and hit the House Teletab.  Death inside the player owned house is desirable, because you don't lose anything.  Relieved, happy, still have my stuff... but what went wrong?

Looking over my mistakes, the first was not bringing enough food.  As a newbie to the Frost Dragons, food should have been a bigger priority.  Would have bought some more time to get used to things.  Other big mistake was just not keeping the proper prayers on, not balancing all the details.  There's a lot to track.  I'm a klutz with combat anyway, but this is good practice.  I probably didn't react quickly enough to the spinning orb, either.  The final error was in not understanding how to use the Yak special, Winter Storage Scroll.  Odd, huh?  All this time with 99 Summoning, I've never bothered to use the Winter Storage Scroll before. 

Rebalancing the inventory, I went out to take my chances once more.  This time went much better.  It was frenetic, nerve-wracking, and crazy.  Kept track of Anti-fires, Overloads, Prayer potions, managed all the prayer switching reasonably well...  and kept my hit points decent the whole trip.  Even kept up with sending the bones to the bank.

Used Reverence Aura.  The Rune Arrows were Frost Dragon drops

 Just before the Yak timed out, the Frost Dragons got me multiple times for more damage than was comfortable.  Time to hit the panic button.  Leave the cannon behind, it's not worth it.  Arrived at my POH with 39 life points left.  Good enough.  Went to Varrock, checked the bank, and found exactly 100 Frost Dragon Bones.  Sold them for about 1 and 3/4 million gold pieces.  Which took about the lifespan of a Pack Yak.  Life is good.

Still need to play with the inventory, but this was the first GOOD one.

During my longer trip, it did get crowded a little.  Not enough to ruin things, just enough to have to wait for a dragon now and then.  When I got out, it was definitely time for a break.  But it was fun, and something worth going back for.  Paying for supplies will cut into the profit, but still, well worth the time.

Runescape Dungeoneering: I get distracted too easily

Night Spider - Had to stop and take a picture!

I am SOOO easily distracted.  Middle of a fight.. someone says "Look, there's a Night Spider!"... I'm all "Oh, where?  Gee, isn't that neat!"

Okay, not really.  But not so far off the mark.  Like I mentioned last time, I've finally settled down to do some Dungeoneering.  Trying to get a Chaotic weapon.  Probably rapier, but haven't decided for sure.  Not like I don't have PLENTY of time before I have to decide.
At 60,000 tokens currently, I need to go as fast as I can to finish before retirement age.  I've read what little is out there.  Most everything is geared to groups, which I don't do.  Many reasons.  Mainly, I like playing on my own, without trying to match up to someone else's schedule and needs.  There's very little info about dungeoneering solo.  Nearly everybody agrees that solo is much slower experience than team Dungeoneering, so maybe I'll reconsider the solo thing.  But for the moment, I'm not even soloing that well.
To begin with, my Dungeoneering is currently 85.  It got that way through Tears of Guthix for a long time.  When I began actually playing it, every random, every penguin point, every book of knowledge, all went to Dungeoneering.
Through it all, actual time in the Dungeons has been either solo, or teaming with Monique.  That's how my level got to 85, without me actually being very good at DG.

I took a few weeks away from leveling to get a Shadow Silk Hood.  It only took about 7 Night Spiders (if I remember correctly), but they were extremely rare for me.  I consider it pretty lucky to get one that quickly.  Other people report making it to level 90 and STILL not seeing one.  As a matter of fact, last night was my first Night Spider sighting in a couple of months.  He didn't drop a hood, but since I already have one, that was okay.  Actually, it seems like it would kind of hurt to get one, and not be able to use it!  I wish Runescape had an in-dungeon bank expressly to store dungeoneering items.  We could ask the trader to hold our stuff?  Oh well, that would be too easy, I guess.

So now, I'm trying to get the hang of solo rushing.  If I don't lose concentration, I get through a Small, C6 Dungeon in the 20's to 40's with about 20 minutes.  But it's so darn fun to play... I love the combat, and am a very thoughtful, plan-ahead type of player.  So I'm constantly stopping to fight something because it's there.  Don't need to kill it, can run right on by, or just leave it alone in an end room.  But nope, I've got to wade right in and kill them all.  I'm slowly breaking that habit, but it's very hard to stop attacking everything.

I'm also pack-ratting everything to the main room.  I just can't stop myself.  I'll pick up food, okay, that's cool.  Oh, and maybe some firewood, in case I have to cook some food.  And let's grab that bag of runes, because I might need more than I already made.  Herbs, seeds, junk that can be sold, it's all fodder for my stockpiles on the big rug.

Oh, and don't even get me started on mining and smithing.  Oops- too late.  I got my smithing to 99, and mining to 90, just for Dungeoneering.  I wanted to make my own Promethium gear, without having to ask for help.  Boy, did that Smithing take a long time!  But now that it's an option, I can't pass by any Promethium or Gorgonite (sometimes even Katagon) without stopping to mine it.  Being kind of a bull in a china shop, and since my only bound items are a Promethium 2H and the Shadow Silk Hood, making melee armor is just irresistible.

All that is kind of the long way around to my starting point.  I'm way too easy to distract.  Trying my best to learn how to speed through a dungeon, but just having too much fun to do it right.  While I really want that Chaotic, there's just something ... right... about having fun.  It's a game, if it was all just work and drudgery, there'd be no reason to play.

Runescape: Finally, a new goal

On the fast train to nowhere in particular

It's been a few days since the last post, thought I'd just do a quick update.  I've finally gotten past the "what do I do next" stage.  You know how it is, you finish a big project, take a deep breath, and suddenly don't know what to do next.  Getting baby Jad was a really big deal for me, and the let-down was equally big.  Just kind of wandered the Runescape lands without aim or purpose, looking for the next goal.

I did wind up making a few thousand house teletabs, sold some, kept some.  I'm thinking about making some Varrock tabs as well.  Never done so before, but that's pretty much my go-to spot in between all my running around.  It's a centralized hub for banking, buying/selling, close to my daily battle-staves, Keldagrim, Edgeville, and the Wilderness.  Plus the Spirit Tree for multiple destinations, including the Evil Trees.

So anyway, goals, wandering aimlessly, not sure what next...  Spent some time flipping items at the GE, most of my favorites have been botted to death.  There's no margin for profit any more.  So my best income is gone.  Fortunately, if you target more expensive items, it's still there.  I've had minor luck with a few things, still need to play with it.  Eventually I'll have a new list of profitable items to flip.  Of course, still doing the penguins every Tuesday, and the Trolls once a month.

As I mentioned in the last hub, Dungeoneering was a strong possible, and so was Tormented Demons, which I've never gone back to for fun and profit.  Being the 'study and plan' type, I looked up some guides for the TD's.  As it turns out, most of the guides recommend a Chaotic Rapier as the melee weapon of choice.  Sure, it's possible to do them with other weapons, but I like having the best possible options.  I'm currently 85 Dungeoneering.  Got there solo, plus using penguin and troll points, and Ancient Effigies.  Up till now, all my Dungeoneering tokens have been spent customizing my Ring of Kinship for better combat.  (And an Herbicide, for the free herblore experience while doing slayer tasks.)

The result is, only about 1/4 of the tokens needed for a Chaotic.  This is starting to come together.  To do Tormented Demons, I want a Chaotic weapon.  To get a Chaotic, more Dungeoneering is needed.  Both of my potential goals are hand in hand.  And the Chaotic weapon will be useable in many other situations.

In most cases, the next goal is usually something that helps me accomplish something else.  Kind of like getting Herblore to 96 for Overloads, so I can then use Overloads with Jad in the Fight Caves.  It's the same this time.  Only both goals go hand in hand.  Eventually, I'll make a run for 120 Dungeoneering, and this helps with that.  For now, I'm enjoying working on the skill, with the goal of doing Tormented Demons for fun and profit.

It's all good.

Runescape: Taking a break from Dungeoneering to get 99 Slayer

Surrounded!

Monique finally achieved her goals in Dungeoneering.  She got the Bonecrusher, the Herbicide, and I think she even got the Farming one that sometimes gives you seeds back when a tree dies.
This is good... and bad.  To the good, she reached her personal goals and accomplished something she worked hard to get.  Also to the good, I want to get the upcoming baby TzRek Jad, so now I'm free to focus directly on level 99 Slayer now.  But to the bad, it was a lot of fun dungeoneering with her.  I really enjoyed duoing the dungeons together.  It took a while, but our playstyles had evolved to where we partnered extremely well.  Since both of us liked taking our time in the dungeons and actually 'playing', there was no pressure to just rush all the floors.
Now that she's reached her goal, I don't think she'll be Dungeoneering that much any more.  :^(

Herbicide

Looking forward, though... like I said, I'm working on my 99 Slayer.  I enjoy Slayer, so that's cool.  It's generally fun and/or profitable.  I've gone through Hellhounds, Abyssals, dragons, Black Demons, and multiple assignments of Spiritual Mages and Mutated Jadinkos.  It's all okay, except for the Jadinkos.  Those guys are slow to kill, and I can't find any real guides online with step by step proven techniques.  They're easy enough to kill.  It's just that they seem to have good defense and high hit points.  So when I'm trying to blast through my assignments (I go to Kuradel), these guys bring me to a screeching halt.  I even switched to doing the babies.  Thought they'd be a lot faster, kind of like Kalphite assignments.  Instead, the babies are level 90, and yes, they're easier and faster to kill than the adults.  But still slow.  Darn.

Entering the Jadinko Lair

I've seriously considered taking Mutated Jadinkos off my list of tasks, but when I'm not trying to rush, I enjoy them.  And I don't want to waste 100 Slayer points knowing they'll be put back on my list later.  So for now, I'll just do the babies as fast as I can to zip through.

In the meantime, my current task is Black Demons.  I love slaying Black Demons.  They're fast to kill, easy risk-management if you Prayer flash.  Even easier if you bring an Enhanced Excalibur.  And very profitable.  They drop a decent amount of alchable items, and the ashes are very valuable for Prayer training.  Or just selling on the GE.

Business as usual in the Black Demon Cavern

This morning, I was settling down with my breakfast and coffee, just in time to see there were only 7 minutes left before System update.  Decided to use those 7 minutes.  Black Demons are excellent subjects for Prayer flashing, and I'm still getting the hang of it.  So during that time, there was plenty of chance to get a feel for when to click.  After the update, started Prayer flashing again, and the response time was greatly improved.  I don't know if that was deliberate to the update, or just me having a better-than-usual internet connection, but it was really nice.  Almost real-time.

I haven't seen anybody else mentioning it yet, so maybe it was just me.  But I'm looking forward to seeing how well the overall speed runs later tonight.  I hope it's consistent, reliable, and Runescape-wide.

My last kill this morning leveled up to 94.  Only 5 levels to go!!!

Runescape: Dungeoneering, Baby TzRek Jad, Slayer... so much to do, so little time!

In spite of the fact that Monique and I are still Dungeoneering extensively, I've not seen any Night Spiders since the beginning of the month.  That makes 7 Night Spiders to get my Shadow Silk Hood, then 2 more Night Spiders in the next couple of days, now I've seen none for nearly 2 weeks.  Wow.  I'm extremely glad I got my hood so early in the hunt.  

Since then, I've managed to get level 83 Dungeoneering, which makes 42 my deepest dungeon available.  Monique's gotten to floor 38, but for her, it's not about the Dungeoneering, it's about the tokens.  By now, she's gotten every reward she desires except for the crafting one.  She's already gotten Bonecrusher, and the Scroll of Life.  Once she gets that last reward, I think I'll have lost my Dungeoneering partner.  Oh well, I ran solo before she got interested, and I'll just go back to solo when she's done.  In the meantime, she still needs about 23,000 tokens, which means I don't have to worry about it for a while.

Besides, with Jagex releasing baby TzRek Jad sometime this month, I've got plenty of other things to work on.  His requirements are 99 Summoning, 99 Slayer, and 100 Zeal from Soul Wars.  I've got the summoning, which is the hardest/most expensive skill to max (in my opinion, anyway).  My Slayer is 93, but I like training Slayer, so it'll be fun to focus on getting that as my next 99.  It's the Soul Wars I'm really dreading.  Don't like team sports...  But I'll do it for baby Jad.  TzTok Jad was such a pain to beat, that in a strange way, I kind of like him.  It's going to be awesome to sport a baby TzRek Jad.

While Monique is still interested in Dungeoneering, I haven't put much effort into Slaying.  Maybe three tasks in the last several days.  I always go to Kuradel, and she gave me nearly 200 Nechryaels, then 186 Spiritual Mages, and now 150 Blue Dragons.  Blue Dragons!  Heck, yes, they're like a trip to Disney.  Fun, fast, easy, and reasonably private if you use Kuradel's Slayer Dungeon.  I'm about halfway through them, and have gotten 2 Dragon Eggs so far.  Nice, though I've got plenty in my player owned house.

Getting assigned Blue Dragons is like a break.  When that's over, it'll be back to the usual assignments (I assume).  

The nice thing about Slayer, is you can go slow, medium, or fast, depending on your goals.  Slow, allows for bring a Pack Yak, and banking the drops for profit.  Medium, allows for banking the really exceptional drops, but mostly just killing.  And fast, is when I use all the boosts I can (Super Sets, Turmoil, etc.)  

I don't include overloads because I can't do the max, and it seems to me like the one I can do might be more effort than it's worth for an ongoing task.  I could see the value in getting past one specific boss monster, but not for a continuous ongoing goal.

But for now, we're Dungeoneering.  Lots of variety and fun.  We're not fast, and we don't rack up amazing experience.  We just play.  Monique by nature has gravitated toward being our keyer.  She loves to explore, and blaze new trails.  She manages the doors and makes sure we clear the floor before going after the bosses.  I combine skilling and fighting.  Making our armor, and our summoning beasts.  And fighting.  I enjoy fighting the monsters.  Even when we're trying to rush, I keep getting sidetracked fighting.  I guess it's not really a big deal.  We both enjoy it for one reason or another.

So, once Monique has reached her Dungeoneering tokens goal, I'm going to go guns blazing on Slayer and blast through it as fast as possible.  Goodbye, bank account.  But it'll be worth it...

Hello, baby TzRek Jad!

Runescape: 7 Night Spiders, 1 Shadow Silk Hood- great drop rate!

It's been about a week now since I finally got the Shadow Silk Hood, from my 7th Night Spider Kill.  At an average of 1 Night Spider every other day, you don't see very many of them.  Part of that was probably because I was soloing.  But still, I was deliberately spider hunting for speed, and no exp.  Floor 35, over and over.  

Since then, Monique and I have been playing mainly for fun, and we've seen 2 more Night Spiders, but no more Shadow Silk Hoods.  That's fine, though, because Monique doesn't want one.  She's firmly told me she'll be sticking with her Promethium 2-Hander and Chestplate.  

We've been going at the dungeon pretty intensely.  For me, it's purely fun, and I'm always ready to head underground.  For her, she has her eye on two of the rewards.  One she's already got, the Bonecrusher.  She's been training Prayer forever, and the cost is prohibitive.  So Monique sees the value in an item that buries any and all bones for you as you're fighting.  Of course, she still collects the best ones and uses at her player-owned-house altar.  But this is very useful to her in general combat.  

The other reward is the Scroll of life, which is very useful for farming.  She's actually been 99 Farming for years, but she still enjoys it.  With the cost of seeds, the Scroll of Life has a lot of appeal for her.

On my part, I simply enjoy Dungeoneering.  Sometimes I rush, sometimes just wander around having fun.  I can do a solo or duo C6 Medium Dungeon, in about 30 minutes, and get an average of 15k to 25k, depending on the floor.  I know, it's not fast, and it's not much.  But I have fun with it.  Got level 81 Dungeoneering last night.  It's going a get a lot slower from here on out.  Do I care?  Nope.

My goals are simpler than Moniques.  I'm not trying to reach one specific reward.  I want them all.  I want 120 Dungeoneering.  So all my tokens are first going to things that help me in the dungeon.  My ring is level 9 Berserker, level 5 Blazer, and I think I'm level 4 Gatherer.  My next goal is to get level 10 Berserker on the ring.  That's going to take a while, so I'm not worried about the next goal after that.

It's all been so much fun, my days of basking in Runescape's sun are nearly gone.  I sometimes head over to the Fishing Guild for a few shark.  Yes, slow exp, but I really like the barbarian fishing technique, and the graphic animation of catching sharks bare-handed.  Then there's the occasional trip to the new Jadinko Lair.  Having not yet gotten my whip vine, I still head down there now and then to try for it.  I still do Penguins once a week, and am looking forward to the Troll Invasion at the start of the month.

It's all good, or nearly all.  I've just been in the mood for the Dungeon.  That's the great thing about Runescape- there's so much to do, it never stops being fun!

Runescape Night Spider: Finally the Shadow Silk Hood!

Finally.

In reference to my post of nearly 2 weeks ago, I've been dungeoneering consistently since then.  Some of the time has been dedicated to Night Spider hunting.  Some time spent Duoing with Monique to have fun, raise our levels, earn tokens...

In all that time, I've seen a total of 7 Night Spiders.  At first there would be maybe one or two a day, or every other day.  Then a long dry spell.  My last one was a few days ago, and Monique actually found and killed it.  Up until tonight, no Shadow Silk Hood.  No wonder.  At this rate, it seems the Night Spiders are more rare than the Shadow Silk Hoods!

Tonight that changed.  We had just finished duoing a couple of floors, then rushed  a few to get our floors evened out for prestige.  Monique took a break.  As she was walking out of the room, she saw me going back to the dungeon.  She asked if I was "Doing the floors she can't get to yet?"  I said "No, just Night Spider hunting."

Same dungeon.  Minutes later.  Went through a door and saw a Night Spider!  I quickly backed out in order to take a few screenshots of it.  Then the fight was on.  Easy kill, it's not like they're a boss or anything.  Just a little poison, which was easy to fix.  And when the dust settled... there, on the ground... on top of a huge pile of stuff... was the Hood I've been trying to get for the last two weeks!


By the way, that's a HUGE pile of junk.
Where do spiders carry all that?










So, 2 weeks, 7 Night Spiders later, I got my Hood.  When you think about it, 2 weeks isn't horrible.  I've gone longer than that trying to get an Abyssal Whip.  But only 7 Night Spiders?  On the one hand, that's phenomenal, to get a Shadow Silk Hood in 7 spiders.  On the other hand, 7 spiders in 2 weeks?  Holy cow.  That would take forever if my luck had been worse.

Shadow Silk Hood sitting on top of the pile behind me!

However you look at it, the search is over.  Now I get to play with it!
(Yes, that's Gorgonite and Katagon armor I'm wearing... I couldn't find any Promethium on that level, and I was too excited to keep looking - I wanted to get this blog posted!!

Dungeoneering Blunders- Learning to Duo Rush

 

I'm still dungeoneering.  Since I do obsessive so well, I'm pretty much exclusively dungeoneering right now.  (With one exception I'll get to in the next blog...)  Last night, I talked Monique into joining me for a prestige rush.  We blitzed through really fast, and I thought we were having fun, but after calling it a night, she confessed it wasn't as much fun when I kept grabbing all the keys.  I didn't mean to grab them all, I just thought we were trying to go as fast as possible, splitting up to gain speed.

To back up some, when we first tried Duoing dungeons, it was all new and I had to stop and research everything.  I'm obsessive that way.  And she got stuck waiting on me all the time.  It bored her, so she didn't care much for it.  Since then, I've been in the dungeons a lot, and her not at all.  So now that I'm much more experienced, we're trying a duo prestige run, only this time I'm the one going too fast.  I had a great time, and would like her to enjoy it also.  So we'll continue to modify our approach.  Right now, we're pretty much taking a standard rush approach, but with no assigned tasks.  When we try next time, we'll have her be the assigned keyer, and see how that goes.  

Part of her frustration is because I'm a more combat-focused character, and she's more of a skiller.  (Not so much that I'm good at it, just that my character's combat stats are maxed.)  So my character can blitz through and take more damage, while Monique has to be cautious.  Another part comes from our armor and weapons differences.  Since her last time there, I've raised my mining and smithing to the level where I can make anything Promethium that we'd like.  

Bearing that in mind, our first run we went to her deepest dungeon level, trying to find some Promethium to make her gear.  We did 2 mediums, which I usually find plenty of Promethium in.  For some reason, this time all I could find was Gorgonite, so for the moment, that's what I made her.

To make matters worse, while we were there, I got a Celestial Surgebox, and had to... yes... research it.  Had to make sure exactly how to set it up for the best spell, get it charged to it's fullest extent (after "Salt in the Wound", ammo charges are 225)  and do everything right before binding it.  Didn't want to bind it uncharged, only to have to re-charge it fresh every single floor!

This would have been fine, had I been on my own.  But with Monique there, and us trying to get her Promethium equipment, I worried she'd be bored.  Lucky for me, that wasn't an issue.  She was happy continuing to explore the dungeon, clear the rooms, and hunt for Promethium.  Which we still never found.

Finally, we both finished what we were doing, and did the boss room.  Don't remember what the boss was, but he dropped a Primal Warhammer into Monique's inventory!  Not knowing each and every weapon, I assumed Primal was always better than Promethium, and told her to bind it.  So she destroyed her Gorgonite 2-Hander, and bound the Primal Warhammer.  

...  and THEN, discovered she has to be 99 Strength to wield it!!  I could have used it, but she'd already bound it.  So her only option was to train Strength to 99, or destroy the Primal Warhammer.  In a way, it was actually a relief to discover the Promethium 2-Hander is considered better than the Primal Warhammer.  At least she could destroy it without regret.  

By this time, she was out of patience for hunting Promethium.  So we started our prestige run in floor 1, and Monique just bound one of the Katagon weapons that were laying on the tables.  Averaged about 3 minutes per floor, did about 15 floors, and called it a night.  We'll go back for her weapon and chestplate another day.

I think once we get on the same page at the same time, we'll enjoy duoing together.  I'm certainly looking forward to it!

As a final note, I went on the Runescape forum and asked for advice on what to bind with the Celestial Surgebox.  I got some great answers, and some very in-depth analyses.  Maybe too much info for a single blog, but I'm not sure if there's enough info to write an actual guide.  But one way or the other, I'll get the info up soon.

 

Runescape Dungeoneering: Night Spider and Shadow Silk Hood Hunting

Searching for the Elusive Shadow Silk Hood

 After that last big mess, I'm not setting any hard and fast goals.  Just going to do whatever sounds fun, or maybe work toward something for a little while, then something else.  Currently working on Dungeoneering.  Putting some time into getting a Shadow Silk Hood, and alternating by doing prestige runs.  Right now my deepest dungeon level is 39, so I've got a long way to go.

Read a lot about the Shadow Silk Hood, and it seems like a pretty cool thing to have.  Especially now that I can mine Promethium and smith at level 99.  I've been hunting for about a week.  Seen 6 Night Spiders.  No hood.  Averaging 1 Night Spider a day.  No big deal.  If it gets too boring, I'll move on to something else.  But it would be nice to have one...

There's not much in the way of guides for finding Night Spiders, or getting Shadow Silk Hoods.  Apparently Night Spiders are fairly rare, extremely random, and just not that easy to predict.

Close-up of the Night Spider

Best general Night Spider hunting advice I've seen (at least to match my playstyle) is to Solo, or Duo with a good friend, on the Abandoned Floors (30-35, the deeper the better).  Set size to medium, complexity 6.  Guide Mode on.  Don't waste time eating, just buy the tool pack, and run through the dungeon as fast as you can.  Only fight when you have to for clearing a door.  Don't waste time on over-complex puzzle rooms.  When you' ve worked the dungeon as much as you can, exit without doing the boss, and go right back in at the same floor. 

Just to go into a little detail on Night Spider Hunting:

• - Solo or Duo.  I prefer to solo, but Monique Runescapes too, so I could see dragging her into my spider hunt.
• - Abandoned Floors (30-35).  These are known to be the most common floors Night Spiders appear on.  That's not to say you'll see very many... After a week, I've seen 6 total.  But your  best odds of seeing one will be f30-35.  I choose f35, and just keep going back to it.
• - Medium Size.  The larger the better.  Since I'm soloing, medium is my largest size dungeon.  It's not because you'll see more spiders per room, but that spiders appear most often in the offshoot, dead-end, side rooms.  You have more of those rooms in a bigger dungeon, so you get a better chance to see a Night Spider.
• - Complexity 6:  It's accepted common lore that you see more spiders on complexity 6 than on the easier ones.  It may be fact, or just rumor, but if it can improve my odds a bit, I'm there!
• - Guide Mode On:  Face it, you're not here for experience.  So turning on Guide Mode won't really hurt anything.  But it does offer an easier route to explore, making it that much faster to clear a floor and begin the next.
• - To begin with, buy the tool pack, make sure you've got a few Cosmic runes to teleport with, and go.  No food, no eating.  This is all about speed.  If you get killed, your group gatestone will be dropped where you died, and you'll be fresh and new in the starting room.  Dive through the portal, pick up your rock, and resume fighting.  This is faster than picking up and eating food, and renews your prayer too.
• - Don't fight unless you have to.  Only clear a room if you have to to open the guardian door.  Turn Auto Retaliate OFF, so you won't constantly be dragged into fights while you're opening doors.
• - Don't waste time.  If a puzzle room is too time consuming, skip it.  Once you're explored all the dungeon you can reasonably get to, exit the dungeon.  No boss fight, just leave.  Come right back to the same floor, and do it all again.

This technique is wasted time for exp.  You'll get nearly none.  I thought it was actually none, but last night as soon as I left the dungeon from my last trip, I leveled up.  Took me by surprise!

Some people claim a SSH drop is quick and easy if you follow the general hunting advice.  Others claim you can be over 100 Dungeoneering and still have never seen a Shadow Silk Hood drop.  I've seen people estimate a Hood drop of 1 for every 15 Night Spiders, and others say it's closer to 1 Hood for every 50 Night Spiders.  Even saw one person claiming it's based on your actual kill count, and you can't share a kill with someone else.

Truth is, it's just random.  If you're lucky, you'll get a Shadow Silk Hood reasonably quick and easy.  If not, it could be a long and frustrating trial.  You could get that "Banging my head on the wall" feeling pretty easily.

So, what the heck... I'll try for a while.  Maybe do some other things at times.  If I get really tired of it I'll give up for a while and just Dungeoneer with what I've got.  Either way, it's a game, and I'm having fun.  No more stupid 99 no-lifing.  Except maybe for my fishing... I'm 96, it wouldn't take much to finish it...

Runescape Dungeoneering- 99 Smithing, 90 Mining... Promethium Chestplate, here I come!

Mining gold ore at the Living Rock cavern

About a month ago, I was enjoying some Dungeoneering.  At that time, it had cost me something near 2 million gold to get someone to smith a Promethium 2-Hander and a Promethium Chestplate.  While I liked them very  much, in a way paying so much for them kind of locked me in.  At that price, it's not a good idea to keep trying new stuff.  If I bound anything else, that money's down the drain.  Also, any money paid for the newer gear would be a further loss.

Lava Mines- No ore, but easy exp.

Maybe I've already got the best stuff I currently can.  That's not the point.  The point is that I'm afraid to bind anything else.  There's no going back.  The solution seemed obvious.  Get 90 Mining, and 99 Smithing.  Simple, right?

Turning ore to bars at the Edgeville Smithy

Superheating at the bank

Well... don't know why, but I decided just as a side project, I'd  bang out those levels and then always be able to make anything needed.  It sounded like a simple plan, and besides, it ought to be fun.  It shouldn't divert me from my Dungeoneering that much, right?  Little did I know.

Going from 82 Mining up to 90 was no big deal.  It took about 4 days, and that was fine.  Spent some time in the Lava Mine.  Some for the experience, which is easy, but not as fast as possible.  Stayed there until I got my gold mining armor.  The rest of the time was spent mining gold ore in the Living Rock Cavern.  That's probably the fastest way to raise mining levels, with the ability to mine many ores from a single rock before it runs out.

The hard part... going from 90 Smithing to 99?  That was insanity.  I KNEW it would take about 125,000 gold ore being turned into bars.  I just somehow thought it would go much faster.  I mean, you take a whole inventory to the furnace in Edgeville... wear gold-smithing gloves... Have my Varrock 4 armor for the occasional extra bar smelted.  It's automated- you click to start, and then sit back while it does the whole backpack.
I somehow forgot that each bar smelted comes with full graphics animation and the 'hissss' noise.  No shortcuts, no speed-ups.  Full wait for every single gold ore to be converted to gold bar.

At some point, I read that smelting in Edgeville can give about 60k exp per hour.  That was pretty much my experience, so I give them credit for accuracy.  The same place said that Superheating can give up to 100k per hour.  At that point, I still had about 60,000 gold ore left, so I bought 60,000 Nature Runes, grabbed a staff out of the bank, and started Superheating.  They were right, it was far faster.  It also took a lot more attention and effort.  After a while I started alternating.  Some at the Edgeville furnace, some superheating.



So... slightly over three weeks of my time spent on nothing but smithing... and last night I finally got my 99 Smithing!  Wow.  That was intense.  Would have finished over the weekend, but Monique, my son, and my daughter-in-law, pooled their resources to give me a brand new (birthday) computer this weekend, and I spent the whole weekend playing around  with it.

Now I can get back to Dungeoneering!

 Late last night, did the final few thousand with Superheat.  This morning, my mouse finger was cramped... :^)  But I'm done!!!

Mining the Promethium

Now I can relax, Dungeoneer, make my own Prometheus gear.

I can even wear the cape and do the 99 Smithing emote, which I hadn't thought of until Monique asked about it! 

But no more no-lifing to 99.  It's not worth it.  With my obsessive nature, I get too absorbed.  Told Monique if I ever get a notion like that again, just hit me.  Hard.  With a big stick.

Runescape: I Am NOT The Babysitter!

Does not play well with others... but I skill great!

Recently I embarked on a side goal of getting my mining to 90, and my smithing to 99.  Mainly to make dungeoneering more fun.  During my time in the Living Rock Caverns, and world 84 in general, I've noticed a rather frightening trend.  While many of us have been upset at Jagex for allowing the 'bots to become such a major problem, I never realized how it was shaping the entire Runescape community. 

I'm a loner by nature, and enjoy quietly skilling, or roaming the world of Geilinor, without being bothered by anybody.  Most of my time is spent on world 160, where talking is restricted, and I'm more likely to be left in peace.

So it came as a shock to be on world 84, (for mining gold in the Living Rock Cavern) and see how things have changed.  Now, you're guilty of botting unless you respond to all the children clamoring for attention.  People call me by name, begging, borrowing, chasing, wanting my time and attention. 

If you don't respond, … then you're automatically a bot.  When in the world did THAT happen?  Because I like to play in solitude, I've been called names, insulted, followed incessantly, and talked about between players as if I'm not there. 

It may seem rude, for me not to respond.  To me, it's rude to intrude on my time.  When I play, I'm focused on my goal.  Unless I'm specifically hanging out with my wife, or real-world friends, in which case we usually get together to work on a skill together, or hunt penguins.  I don't generally strike up random aquaintances with strangers whose faces and names (and locations) are total mysteries.  When someone tries to take away my time, they're stealing from me.

Yesterday someone persistently continued to ask if I could loan them a godsword.  I wasn't holding one.  Wasn't standing there, yelling "Godsword for loan or sale!"  I gave them no reason to assume I'd be glad of their attention.  And if harrassing me in the bank wasn't enough, then he chased me from Edgeville, to the Varrock shortcut, before giving up.  At that point, he got quite vulgar and called me a bot, among other things.  I never responded once, not even to retaliate.  Never gave him any reason to think he deserved anything from me, yet he acted like I was the one who had done wrong.

This whole attitude, that I 'owe' another player my attention merely because they demand it, bothers me.  I play because it's fun.  Don't need anybody telling me how to play.  If, occasionally, I choose to interact with someone, it's because they were polite, or caught my interest.  Not because they have the right to demand it. 

I sure hope there are other players out there who agree.  I'd hate to think I'm offending the majority of Runescapers here :^)

But still, for the unsupervised children roaming the internet…I am not your mommy nor your daddy, and do not owe you anything.  If you must intrude on my fun, please do so courteously, don't demand, and I might actually be nice.  Either way, I'm not a bot… surly, grouchy old guy, yes.  Bot, no.

Skilling to make Dungeoneering more fun

Recently, I've gotten into dungeoneering.  Having never really tried it before, I was pretty intimidated by the massive learning curve.  My level was mid-60's due to Tears of Guthix.  (Funny how much exp a solid year of Tears will give you!)

Monique tried it with me, and we had mixed results.  She likes to dive in and try things.  I like to research, plan, and prepare.  So for her, it was very boring... waiting for me.  For me, it was a wonderful new world within Runescape.  Dungeoneering harks back, for me, to the early days of home computers.  Bard's tale, Pool of Radiance, all those games that were mainly about gaining levels and crawling dungeons.  I kind of miss those days.

As I've learned, and improved, I think maybe I can take Monique back into the dungeons and not slow her down now.  So with luck, she might be willing to duo a few floors with me.  Otherwise, I enjoy solo dungeoneering.  Even if the exp is far slower than with team play.

A couple of weeks ago, I found someone to make a couple of items for me to bind.  Promethium 2-Handed Sword and Chestplate.  Love them both, but I would really enjoy trying other things out.  I'm also looking to find a Shadow Silk Hood, and will have to give up one of the binds if I do.  But I can't afford to lose the time, or money, constantly paying someone to make new gear, so I'm hesitant to experiment, and don't want to give anything up for the hood (not that I've found one yet!).

It got me thinking how fun it would be, to make my own gear.  I'm a skiller at heart, and most of  my skills are decent or better.  So I looked up how much I'd need to mine and smith promethium.  To do it all, I'd need 90 mining, and 99 smithing.  I thought, heck, I've got 82 mining, and 91 Smithing.  Let's do this! 

The Liquid Gold Nymph sorta liked me...

It's a week later now.  I have the fancy golden mining armor from the Liquid Gold Nymph.  It took 14 real-time hours down in the Lava Flow Mine to get it all, and to have my pick guilded.  Also bought a Dragon Pick Axe for best mining.  Figured I can always sell it back later.  And at 14 million, trust me, it's going back just as soon as I'm done with it! 

She gave me this cool Gold Mining Armor

For the last week, all my game-time has been spent in the Living Rock Cavern, mining gold.  My mining went from level 82, up to 88 by Thursday.   89 by Friday, and got 90 this morning.

I'll be glad to leave this chaos behind!

Started all this last Sunday, and today is Saturday.  Now that mining is at 90, I've switched to smithing.  It'll take 125,000 gold ore turned into bars, using the goldsmith gauntlets and my Varrock 4 armor.  I banked about 17,000 gold ore while mining.  (Spent some of my time Lava Mining, which doesn't give ores.)  It cost around 24 million to buy the rest of the ore, which will become gold bars.  Then craft, probably into plain gold rings.  They resell at a loss, but not a complete loss.  With any luck, by the time I've gotten to 99 smithing, it won't be a big money pit.   Or maybe I'll forget profit, and just make gold amulets for the better experience.

Monique and me making gold bars

I know this'll take a lot of time.  But worth it, when I head back into the dungeons and can make my own armor and weapons instead of relying on someone else.  To me,  dungeoneering is all about the fun.  If I was serious about getting exp and levels, I'd team dungeon.

The good part, when it's all done, I'll be a tiny bit closer to the max skills cape.  So it's all good.