Welcome to Crewman6's Runescape Adventure Log! Monique (my wife!) and I have played Runescape together since 2004. We do the quests together, hunt penguins every Tuesday night, and help each other achieve our in-game goals. We play for fun, so our skill sets are a bit here-and-there. I thought it would be fun as we reach goals, and set new ones, to post tips, tricks, and thoughts as we go.
Hanging with the StykeWyrms on my beautiful island retreat
After all this time, working towards one major goal, then another...
First it was 99 Summoning so I could max my combat. Then, I had to get 99 Prayer, for the same goal. Once I got 138 combat, it was time to get 99 Construction. Got that, though I'm still saving up to max out the house. Can't believe it's 25 million just for one simple little demon throne!
Somewhere in there, the achievement diaries came out, then they became the Task System. I wanted the Elite level for all tasks. The armor, the teleports, the special rewards... the Taskmaster Emote! Killing Jad, which was part of the elite tasks for Karamja.
Now that I'm retired, I can relax and go fishing
I recently got the Taskmaster emote, and while there are plenty of things I want to do, for a change I don't have any obsessively driven things to do. Sure, I want to get all the new spells and rewards from Livid Farm. And I want to get at least 90 Agility. And 99 Slayer.
As an aside, I keep going to Kuradal (spelling?) hoping she'll assign Fight Caves. It's funny, how I hated Jad and the Fight Cave so much. But by the time I'd figured out a way I could beat Jad, I kind of enjoyed it. I don't want to go back for no reason, but I keep hoping I'll get him as a slayer boosted assignment.
I'm at 96 Fishing, and currently am relaxing at the Fishing Guild while I do a little one-handed Barbarian Shark Fishing. It's kind of fun to be able to do it, though I don't really see a huge speed increase. I think for normal fishing, I'll stick with Rocktails.
I've been Slaying for the last few days. Sometimes I'll go over to the Gnome Advanced Agility Course. I'll flip an hour or two at the Grand Exchange. Now maybe I can even explore Dungeoneering - finally!
In all honesty, it's kind of nice just doing what I want to. I've been driven to reach those difficult goals for so long now, Runescape's almost become like work. Finally, I'm relaxing. Whatever the mood is, that's how I play. I really enjoy combat, so Slayer's been getting a lot of my time. But I'm not obsessing over it.
Goals are good. It really gives you a sense of accomplishment to set a hard goal, and after lots of work, actually achieve it. But wow... just wandering aimlessly has a lot going for it. I drive hard when I'm going for a goal. Now, I'm enjoying Runescape. My biggest goal is to save up enough gold to finish my house. Let's see, 2 thrones, there's 50 million. A few dragons in the dungeon, at about 10 million each, that's probably another 50 million. Maxing the odds and ends of each room in the house, I'm guessing I'll need between 125 million and 150 million. I'm about a third of the way right now, but I don't want to spend all my seed money. I use maybe 50 million for trading when I'm flipping. It fluctuates a lot, based on what I'm trading at the moment, but usually it's commodities. Essence, Runes, Food, Wood... The stuff that's always in demand.
When I get close to enough money, I'll probably start obsessing like usual. But for now, I'm just the happy wanderer. Check out the pubs in Falador, Varrock, Brimhaven, etc... you'll probably find me knocking back a few beers with the local rednecks!
Jad Defeated at last - I finally won the Fire Cape at the Fight Cave!!
If you've read nearly any of my other posts, you know I've been hung up with beating the Fight Cave for a long time now. Really didn't want to take on Jad at all, but my goal of getting all the Elite Tasks meant I had to sooner or later.
I'd try, get tired of it, do something else. Then go again. It's been a couple of months this way, and I just couldn't get the hang of it. Yes, my hand-to-eye coordination is really bad. I'm a hard-learner.
But last weekend, I left work knowing in my heart this was going to be the weekend I did it. I've been working very hard at learning how, and what to do. I've learned a technique that simplifies killing Jad, and finally even someone like me can beat him!! And yes, I'm writing it up as a guide, should have it posted in the next few days, maybe this weekend. I know, there's tons of guides out there, but this is more for my sake- after finally finding a way that works for me, I just have to write about it! Most of the writing is done, but I need to go back for pictures. My computer's not fast enough to take video and play the game at the same time, but I'm at least going to provide my own pictures for the guide. I wasn't about to worry with pics for my real try, but I'll go back now that I've beat him, just to get the pictures.
But wow, when old TzTok-Jad finally roared and keeled over on his side, you wouldn't believe how excited I got. In 50 years, I've always been the quiet type. But I had so much adrenaline, it just had to come out. Threw back my head, and let out a wild rebel whoop that brought Monique on the run, half afraid I'd had a heart attack!
So, now I've got a Fire Cape. I may not have wanted to fight Jad for it, but since I have it now, I'm going to enjoy it. Best of all, now I'm clear to get the Karamja Elite Tasks reward. All I have to do is a few more slayer tasks, and I'll have it.
Okay, these guys weren't so much fun
My tasks have been pretty fun so far... mostly. Wasn't too thrilled with the Skeletal Wyverns. Loved getting the Abyssal Demons. Got two Abyssal Whips during that task, about 2 minutes apart! Then there was the Nechryaels, which go by quickly at least. So far, 2 Dark Beast assignments, those are fun. I knew they dropped the Dark Bow, and assorted mildly interesting items. But the big surprise was the 1,000 noted Raw Swordfish! That was pretty neat.
In case you didn't know, Raw Swordfish currently sells for 278 gold. So 1,000 noted swordfish is worth 278,000 gold! Add that to the nearly 1/2 million gold a Dark Bow is worth, and it was a profitable trip!
I especially like the Dark Beasts because they're so easy, if you've got a little strategy going. Dress for Prayer, use Ancient Curses. Set for Deflect Melee, and Leech Attack. When you're out of prayer, use Ardougne Tasks cape to teleport to the Kandarin Monastery, recharge prayer.
Use an Elf Crystal with a Temple teleport to get back to the Dark Beasts. When you need a quick bank trip, use the Ring of Kinship for infinite free teleports to a bank. I usually kill 6 or 7 per prayer recharge. Dark Beasts never quit being aggressive, no matter how long you've been there. So it's very easy to get there, set up, and then just monitor it now and then to make sure you're not out of prayer.
In the meantime, I can do something else... like write this blog! I'm fortunate enough to have a desktop computer, and a netbook. While Runescape's playing on the top monitor, I'm typing away at this guide. And taking pictures for the blog in real-time as I type...
I know the description of how I fight Dark Beasts is very abbreviated. If you're interested in more detail, leave me a comment. If there's any interest, I'll post a blog with a better step by step to the method. But I kept it short, because I kind of figured if you have the things I mentioned, you'll know what I mean. And if you don't have them, or know what I'm talking about, chances are, the guide wouldn't do you any good for a long time.
Always on the run!
As of this moment, I've got about 111 more Dark Beasts, then one more assignment berfore I can get the Elite Karamja Gloves!
I have so far avoided addressing this issue. But now that the vote is over, and it looks like a sure thing, I suppose expressing an opinion is just about mandatory. Apparently an overwhelming majority voted to bring it back. If people want to go out into the wilderness and kill each other for a chance at quick riches, I support their right to enjoy Runescape however they see fit. What I do not support is their right to drag others into their game. From my first day over 6 years ago, to now, I have very much enjoyed the monster slaying, skilling, quests, and diversions. My wife and I hunt the penguins every week. If Jagex wants to make the wilderness pvp again, that's fine. But don't drag me into it. It's not how I play, and I want no part of it.
Here's where I usually hear someone say "Then stay out of the wilderness!"
Well, that's fine, and I would, except that in their infinite wisdom, Jagex has sided with the player killers, and put content in the wilderness that has nothing to do to player killing. They've left the penguins out in the wilderness. Who does that benefit, except the killers? You take a wide variety of gamers who enjoy tracking down penguins and getting that experience bonus, throw them into the wilderness, and it's going to be a pure slaughter. Runescape will destroy our pleasure for the avaricious greediness of the other group.
Same thing with the abyss. I can remember trying to get to the abyss through a standing ring of 10 or 20 pk'ers. I don't care how powerful you are, that situation is unbeatable. You either don't go, or you get killed for your glory. Never mind the loss of your essence pouches, which take a lot of time to get.
I wouldn't mind a fairer situation, one where maybe I stand a chance of turning the tables. But they play a numbers game.
Okay, that's not true. I said I wouldn't mind a fair chance. Truth is, I don't want anything to do with player killing. I have moral issues with the implications. We're training our children that it's okay to hurt someone else to get what we want. Disagree with me? That's fine, it's your right. But by forcing me to play into that system, Runescape is robbing me of my right to choose. If I had a choice, if I could achieve my runescape goals entirely without entering the wilderness, I would. Instead, they've taken away that choice. Now my choice is to give up parts of the game that gave me great pleasure, or participate in the pker's worldview.
So why does it have to be one or the other? For years, Runescape favored the pker at the expense of the rest. Then, because of real-world trading, they swung totally the other way and took away the pker's way of playing. Now, they're swinging completely back the other way in favor of pkers again.
All I'm asking is for consideration for both groups. Why not keep a few worlds running in non-pker mode?
If you answer is "Because then nobody but pker's will be in the pker's world", then I say you're right, but so what? If that's truly an issue, then you're not playing as a pker looking for an honest win, you're playing as a bottom-feeding scavenger looking to take advantage of those who can't fight back, and I have no respect for that kind of player.
But apparently, Runescape does respect that kind of player, because the game is about to turn in their favor. I probably won't quit because of it. I've loved Runescape too much for too long. I've invested way to much time building up my character to give it up. But they've ripped out a huge chunk of what I loved about the game. I do empathize with pker's, I think if they wanted a dangerous wildy with the old rules, they should have it. I just don't think they should have it at my expense, over my protests. Runescape is a huge world, with many servers. If they truly wanted to make ALL of their players happy, they could.
Now, if you're a pker, you're either gloating over my situation because you won and I lost... or you understand my pain, because for several years now the shoe was on the other foot. By the way, that was my position back then... I felt bad that pker's lost what they loved about the game, even though it made the game better for me...
And if you're not a pker, then you're in the same boat as I am, and wondering what to do. Well, here's my take:
With free trade coming back too, I'm going to wait a month or two for prices to stabilize, then start flipping for my profit again. I made a decent income from the Grand Exchange, but with pking back, demand for combat related supplies will probably skyrocket, as will prices. A savvy player should be able to ride the tide, and make an even better profit.
Next, I'll rethink my approach to anything to do with the wilderness. For instance, penguins. Generally, there's a maximum of two penguins in the wildy, sometimes none. I may simply not try for them, but more likely, I'll only take two (or three and a prayer) items and see if I can find them. If I get killed, that's annoying, but not destroying.
Another example- Bork. You know, there's a non-wildy entry at the Saradomin statue east of Varrock. It'll make the run through the caverns a whole lot longer, but I'll completely avoid the pkers laying in wait.
Here's a case with a less satisfying solution; Jennica's Ring. For woodcutting and firemaking experience, I like to go to the farm near the west side of the wilderness, and chop the magic tree there. When you chop it down in one realm, it immediately regenerates in the other. So, chop it down, enter the spirit realm, chop it down, go back to the normal realm, etc... when my pack is full, I burn the logs. Since the tree is always standing in one realm or the other, there's no waiting for it to regrow. An added bonus, since I'm a loner by nature, I rarely get interrupted there. With the return of the wilderness, I'm sure to get cruised by teams hunting for victims. This one's a less satisfying solution. I guess I'll just have to give up using that magic tree, or only go with a team of other players who can all help defend each other.
These are just some of the situations that come to mind. I'm sure that as time progresses, smarter people than me will post guides on raising your odds of surviving, tricks and tips to enhance survival while skilling in the wilderness. I'll be watching for those as well.
So no, the return of the Wildy won't make me quit the game. But it will make me re-evaluate how I play. I may not like it, but regardless of whether we like it or not, it's coming back, and the only option we truly have is to quit playing, or adapt.
I'm going to adapt.
With Thanksgiving, time to do my usual routine is severely curtailed. But I had my goal of re-purchasing my set of Armadyl armor by this weekend, as part of my Fight Caves attempt. Lack of time to do my grand exchange flips slowed me down a lot. And then, the market price of most things I like to flip had begun fluctuating wildly, making it hard to consistently profit from it. So I pulled some of my G. E. orders until things settle. And I spent that money on my Armadyl suit. I know, bad budgeting. Now I'll be forever building up enough gold to keep all six slots full with my grand exchange flips. But... I got my armor! You'd think I would dash straight to the fight caves and make some practice runs. I almost did. Then I decided to do some moneymaking activities. I've been tanking Avies for a few days, that always goes well. But I wanted a change of pace, and I'd seen on the Runescape forums where people were doing well on the Chaos Dwarf Battlefield. I've never really gone back after the quest that opened it (Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf). So I geared up, and went to the battlefield. It lived up to it's name - chaotic! But after a while, when they quit being hostile, it settled into a standard routine. I was a bit of fun, but the best drops I got were ammo for the hand cannon, and muddy keys. When I can play again, I don't know if I'll go back immediately. The Chaos Dwarf Battlefield looks like more of a long-term commitment than a steady income, and I prefer the Avies for a good steady income while having fun.
If you'd like to try the Chaos Dwarf Battlefield out for yourself (after all, it's the only place Dragon Pickaxes are dropped, which are worth 14 million) Wiki has a good guide to get you started: Chaos Dwarf Battlefield Wiki
In the meantime, as much as I'm dreading it, the fight caves are looming closer and closer on my horizon.
The last few days have been focused mainly on trying to recover some gold. After buying the Armadyl Chestplate, it had left me pretty strapped for cash. So I'm still flipping investments on the Grand Exchange, and actually have done pretty well. I'm not a high-level investor, I just flip a few things when they're buying/selling well. Like Pure Essence, that's always done pretty well. As of tonight, I'm back up to about 8 million. I've been supplementing my flips with trips to the Aviansies. They may not be the fastest cash I could do, but they're reasonably fast cash, and fun. If I really wanted fast, I'd make double natures. I think that's probably the fastest skill I have for making money.
Regardless, I'm working toward buying back my Armadyl armor. It was sold to help level up a skill, and I want it back now because I'm going to do Jad at the fight caves. I've never cared about the Fire Cape, and didn't want to be tied down for hours without being able to stop at my leisure. Plus, I'm not very good at multi-tasking. I think Jad will kill me many many times, because I don't think I'll be very good at prayer switching and keeping everything going all at once.
But it's time to try. All my combat skills, including ranging and magic, are maxed. I've done all the quests. My character has the levels to get me there, but I lack the real-time fighting skills. If it weren't for the Elite Acheivement Diaries, I'd be happy just to let Jad live. But I want all of the Elite rewards. Not so much because they're cool, though some of them are. But just because that's a goal I set for myself. I got the Ardougne Elite Cape back when it first became available. Then I got the Seers Village Elite, which gave me the double-enhanced sword Excalibur. I really wanted that sword... healing 400 points and getting 15 extra defense every few minutes is a huge plus! Then I got the Falador Elite Shield. Now, I have all the required skills to get the Karamja Elite reward, but I have to actually beat Jad in the fight caves to get it. Which leaves me where I am now, scrambling to get enough money to buy the gear I want to use.
This is going to be tough, because I'm so bad at that kind of fighting. Usually, I just bulldoze my way through things and hope for the best. This time, it's going to take finesse. I'll probably be down in the fight caves for months. Wish me luck. Oh, if you've got any advice, please share it with me!
Recently I made a bad decision with my Runescape investments. I'm a low-budget investor who likes to flip commodities. Usually make between one million and three million profit a day. Problem is, outside of the gold I have tied up in flipping my investments, I keep spending as fast as I'm making. It started when I decided to go for 99 Construction. I nickeled and dimed my construction skill, until Jagex started hinting about their 2nd extra-experience-weekend. At that point, I decided to jump into merchanting. Took a 10 million startup, and began flipping. By the time the weekend arrived, I had over 100 million gold (this is Runescape now, not real cash!)
That was just barely enough to buy all the oak planks I needed to dungeon-door my way to 99 Construction. After that, I was too broke to build my dream home, so I kept investing in the grand exchange. But before I got very far, they announced the Elite Achievement Diaries. Well, I think of myself as a high-level player. At least, my character is level 138 and most skills are decent. So as a point of pride, I want to get ALL the Elite achievement rewards. I had the Ardougne elite already, and decided the next thing I wanted was the super-enhanced Excalibur from the Seers Village elite tasks. Problem was, my herblore level was abysmal. (Not abyssal... abysmal!)
It took weeks to make enough money to raise my herblore. And even then, I Evil-Daved a skill-boosting stew for the last 5 levels worth. Then back to home-building. Still flipping on the G.E., and I'd started fishing and cooking Rocktails.
It was the Rocktails that did me in. I saw how well they sold. Decided to take my current spending money of 20 million, and buy 10,000 Rocktail to flip. Everything went well, right up till the time to sell them. They sat for days, then the price starting tanking. I didn't want to lose that much money. So I pulled them out of the GE, and started cooking.
By the time I'd cooked 10,000 Rocktail, I wound up making a small profit, using some money to invest in Death Runes for flipping, keeping a few Rocktail for myself. And with my current gold of 14 million, today I bought back the Armadyl Chestplate I sold for Herblore money.
Yay!... I'm broke again. Okay, so starting over.
Oh, and cooking 10k Rocktail? My cooking skill went from 95 to 97! I guess it worked out okay after all.
Bit of quick advice... for a small and steady profit, without a lot of risk, flip Maple logs. I buy 25,000 at 2 gold below median, and sell it at 2 gold above median. I make 100k Runescape money every buy/sell flip. It may not be much, but it's an easy way to get started. The risk is low, and they usually sell quickly for me (bearing in mind the GE 4-hour buying and selling delay.)
