RuneScape

Overview

RuneScape is an MMORPG developed by Jagex Games Studio. The game can be played on a mobile app, or in a downloadable client. Runescape previously was a browser-based MMORPG. Gameplay takes place from a top-down isometric perspective and is based primarily on the advancement of skills as well as combat, quests and various minigames. Runescape's social features allow players to create in-game alliances. These include friend, clan and chat systems. While the social aspects of the game are not often necessary, they can be greatly beneficial when used correctly.

RuneScape takes place in Gielinor, a fantasy world inspired by literature, historic civilizations and pop-culture. The skill based gameplay of Runescape involves gaining experience points to progress along an increasingly disparate level path. This is supplemented by a multitude of quests which take advantage of skills to unlock new areas, abilities and stories. Runescape features a real-time RPG combat system and several styles of combat, namely; magic, ranged and melee which can be used in both PvM and PvP environments. The in-game economy is largely player-run with rare intervention from the developers. Players may freely trade goods and services as long as such agreements fall within the terms of service. Runescape is partially free to play, in which case it is supported by advertisements. Without a subscription the player has access to what is essentially the 'start' of the game, including lower tier quests, items and areas. Subscription gives the player access to the entire world map as well as all quests, items and skills. Some extra-game features such as forum access and the adventurer's log are also only available to subscribers or specially selected free players. The free portion of the game is considered to be roughly 25% of the total game, however without a subscription progress eventually becomes extremely limited. It should be noted that subscribers receive no advantages while using free-to-play servers.

Player base in Runescape grew steadily after its release but has declined in recent years. Due to the nature of the game, players who have played longer have vastly higher skills, equipment and status than those who have just started out, and the gap between these players isn't easily mitigated, thus deterring new players from really committing to the game. Despite all of this and drastic action on the behalf of Jagex in banning accounts violating terms of service, Jagex reports a healthy growth rate of about 33% a year.

RuneScape has an active community and development team, and is updated roughly 3 times a month with patches and new gameplay features. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, RuneScape is the most popular Free-to-Play MMORPG in the world with over 10 million active free accounts, and about 1 million active member accounts.

Gameplay

RuneScape is a point and click game that can be played using the mouse only, although the keyboard is used for camera control, communication and hot keys. Players engage in activities such as skill training, activities, quests, and combat during their everyday adventures. Although there is no main campaign, players are generally pushed towards making their character stronger and richer by defeating monsters, training skills and completing quests. A player starts out with level 1 in every skill, except for hitpoints which starts out at level 10. The player doesn't have to train any particular skill, although a higher combat level and hitpoints makes it easier for the player to survive in most areas.

A player interacts with the world using the left and right mouse buttons. Left clicking is always used for confirming actions, such as walking to an area, picking up an object, or talking to an NPC. The right mouse button is used to see the other options that may be accessed in that one area. For instance, right clicking on a player will yield the ability to trade with them, follow them, ask for assistance, or walk to where they are standing. It is also useful for discerning a specific action amongst a crowd of other options. A player can right click a pile of items for instance, and select the one they would like to pick up rather than just picking up the topmost one.

The player navigates their world by clicking on the main screen, or by clicking on the minimap. Once higher levels are obtained, it is much easier simply to teleport to common areas such as cities. In members, after completion of certain quests, other modes of transportation such as hot air balloon and spirit tree teleports become available to the player.

The player is free to go where they want and do what they want at any time as long as it has been unlocked. The only thing a player should avoid is dying, which occurs when their hitpoints reaches 0, although this isn't usually a danger if the player stays away from dangerous dungeons. When a player dies, they lose all of their items that they are wearing and in their inventory except for the most valuable 3, determined by in game values, however items deposited in the bank are not lost. They are then teleported back to their home city (Lumbridge by default, but can be changed after completion of certain quests). A gravestone appears over their items for a minimum of 5 minutes and maximum of 15 minutes based on the type of gravestone the player owns, and the player has that long to pick them up before they are lootable by other players. In case of death in the wilderness, a gravestone does not appear and items can be seen immediately. The time in which the gravestone lasts can be upgraded in certain shops, and it can also be temporarily boosted when another player blesses it with their prayer, up to an additional 60 minutes.

Equipment

There are 11 equipment slots and 28 inventory slots in Runescape. Additional items can be carried using a beast of burden type familiar with the summoning skill. Items are either stackable or nonstackable, with the former being able to hold nearly infinite quantities using only one inventory slot. Some examples of stackable items include coins, runes and arrows. Items dropped on the ground can only be seen by the player who dropped them for 1 minute, then after another minute they disappear forever. Items over a certain value cannot be seen by other players even after the first minute has passed. Most nonstackable items have a weight value, which in turn negatively affects your run energy (see "Agility"). There are several items that reduce your weight value however.

A vast variety of weapons and armors types exist in RuneScape, ranging from maces, swords, platemail and battleaxes to staves, books, robes and wands to longbows, crossbows, dragonleather bodies and even furry creatures. The 11 equipment slots consist of weapon, offhand, boots, body, legs, head, arrows, ring, amulet, gloves, and cape.

The basic metals and the levels required to wield them consist of bronze (1), iron (1), steel (5), mithril (20), adamantite (30), and rune (40). All weapons and armor of these basic metals can be made with the Smithing skill. Another rudimentary metal is black which can be wielded at level 10, however its weapons and armor can only be bought from stores or obtained from monsters.

Beyond the basic metals, there also exist dragon and special type armors and weapons. Dragon armors and weapons require level 60 to wield, and are mostly only obtainable from other players or as rare drops from tough monsters. Most dragon weapons require the completion of a specific quest to wield. Most of the dragon weapons also have special attacks, which use a continuously recharging special attack bar to launch fierce bursts of attacks. The dragon dagger for instance can attack at double speed for 4 attacks, and can also be poisoned, thus making it a lethal player killing weapon on the PvP servers. Beyond dragon armor there exists special armors

Barrows equipment was the first armor set introduced into Runescape with a set effect. Equipping all of the items in a set offers bonuses, such as Guthan's, which can transfer damage dealt back to the player as healed hitpoints. Barrows equipment is brought into the game via the Barrows minigame, and due to the rarity of drops, in addition to the requirement of four items to complete one set, Barrows equipment has maintained a relatively high price. In addition to its power, Barrows degrades as it is used, requiring the user to pay to maintain it.

Items can be stored, withdrawn and organized by talking to a banker found in a Runescape Bank, which can be accessed in various places around Runescape (especially in towns and cities, although they can be found in the forming of "wandering bankers" as well). Banks also come in the form of bank chests which are limited in function, and deposit boxes which only allow depositing. Players can protect their bank account by setting up a PIN number by speaking to any banker. The PIN is a 4 digit code that the player enters by selecting the numbers with a mouse and provides protection even over keyloggers. Most items in the bank stack, even if they are not stackable in a player's inventory. Numbers are abbreviated at certain points, "K" used once an item has past 100,000 in quantity (will be displayed as 100k) and "M" used once an item has past 10,000,000 in quantity (displayed as 10M). Although the number is abbreviated, all existing quantities of that item are preserved. For instance, 191780 coins will be denoted "191k", while 50,312,453 air runes will be denoted "50M".

Free players have access to 68 item slots while members have access to 496 item slots in order to accommodate for the much greater amount of content. The bank allows you to organize your items, providing 9 tabs for different categories of items, and a search function that allows you to instantly find the item you are looking for. Beyond that, players can withdraw items in "notes" which are stackable version of nonstackable items. Notes cannot be used to do anything but they retain their value (a noted Rune 2-Handed Sword for instance cannot be used to attack, but will retain its item value). Notes are useful for selling large quantities of resources such as coal to other players. Players can further customize their bank using the swap/insert function, allowing them to organize the order of bank items however they wish.

Skills

Skills are the core of the RuneScape experience, and unlike many other MMO's, skills can't really be mastered very easily. The highest level in any skill is 99, although Dungeoneering maxes out at 120, which requires about 13 million experience points. At an average level at an average pace, you can earn about 50,000 experience per hour for any one skill, so mastering even one skill can require months or even years of play. Players who have achieved level 99 in a skill have access to everything that skill has to offer, along with a skill cape or a Cape of Achievement to mark their accomplishment. Dungeoneering carries a cape at 99, and an additional cape at 120. This cape can be bought for 99,000 gold pieces, or "gp", the currency of RuneScape, from their respective holders (e.g. the Real Estate Agent will have a Cape of Construction, one of the priests will have a Cape of Prayer etc). Cape of Achievements are members only. Your total skill level is recorded in your "skill total", which is the sum of all of your skill levels. Your skill total and individual skill levels will appear in the high scores if they are in the top 2 million ranks. For skills, they must also be at least level 30.

Attack

One of the first skills in RuneScape, attack is a measure of your accuracy. The higher your attack level, the higher and more often you will be able to hit against enemies, especially those with high defense. Most importantly, reaching certain attack levels will allow you to wield higher grades of weapons, which increase your damage more effectively than training strength alone. Members are able to use exclusive weapons such as the Godsword or abyssal whip at certain levels of attack.

Strength

Strength directly affects your maximum damage, and goes hand in hand with attack. Wielding weapons with higher strength bonuses will increase the amount of damage each level of strength provides and also makes you more accurate, so having a high attack level along with strength is highly effective. Melee users are known to be a good counter to rangers, easily hitting through their soft leather armor and being able to sustain a heavy barrage of arrows with their thick metal armor.

Defense

Defense is an important skill for all types of combat as it minimizes the amount of damage you are dealt from physical attacks such as melee or range. Like attack, defense will open up the corresponding grade of armor for you to wear at certain levels. Members are able to access exclusive armors such as Barrows and Bandos at certain levels. At higher levels, the player gains access to equipment that comes with damage soaking effects. In cases where damage exceeds 200, the armor has the ability to soak damage directly proportional to its percentage.

Magic

Magic is a versatile skill that aids in combat, but also helps with many noncombat activities. Magic spells require stackable stones called runes to cast, and the rune requirements are specific to the spell. Higher magic levels will open up more advanced spells, some doing high amounts of damage while others allowing you to do things like teleport to major cities or turn an item into a certain quantity of gold. There are 3 spells books, Modern Magic, Ancient Magicks, and Lunar Magic. Free players only have access to a certain extent in the Modern book, whereas members have access to the entirety of all books after the completion of some quests. Modern Magic includes Combat spells, Teleportation Spells, Alchemy Spells (ability to turn an item into money) and others. Ancient Magicks is a members only skill and requires the completion of the quest "Desert Treasure". This is mainly a combat spell book with abilities such as freezing multiple opponents inflicting damage at the same time, inflicting poison on multiple targets, slowing down attack speed, and leeching health from multiple targets. Lunar Magic is also another members only spell book which requires the completion of the quest "Lunar Diplomacy". This is more of a cooperative spell book, allowing you to heal and teleport others, or do things such as fill up vessels with water or bake pies, however higher levels in this book also open up a couple of aggressive spells commonly used in PvP. The higher your magic level, the more damage you will inflict against an opponent. Magical robes and weapons often impart large magic bonuses, whereas metal armor often drastically reduces it. You get experience from just casting a spell but you get more if you inflict damage when using combat spells. Magic is known to be a good counter against meleers, as it is able to freeze them in place, and also takes advantage of metal armor's low magic defense.

Range

Range lets you attack from a distance, from behind fences, tables, and other objects. Like all combat skills the higher your range level the higher you hit. Free players have access to basic longbows and up to adamant arrows, while members have a much wider selection with darts, throwing knives, throwing axes, up to dragon arrows, and many different types of enchanted crossbow bolts. Range armor is mainly leather based, with the more rudimentary ones based on cow leather, the medium ones based on dragon and snake leather, while the higher ones based on either high level dragon leather or God armor. Most range equipment requires both a defense level and range level to wear. Range is known to be a good counter against mages due to range armor's inherent magic defense bonus, and the ranger's ability to pierce mage's thin robes at the same distance in which a mage would cast a spell on them.

Constitution

Before an update on 3 March 2010, this was formerly the Hitpoints skill. Since then, the Constitution skill determines how many Life Points you have. New characters will start with level 10 Constitution, and for each Constitution level you gain, you will gain 10 Hitpoints. Therefore, a player will start out with 100 Life Points, and gain 10 Life Points for every level of Constitution he/she gains. The maximum health and damage of both players and monsters were also readjusted to fit the changes to this skill.

Prayer

Prayer allows you to use a variety of combat related skills. Prayer is trained by burying bones, and is extremely slow to train, however higher level members have vastly more efficient ways of training prayer that drastically minimizes both time and cost. Unlike magic, prayer does not require runes and is not directly related to damage. Rather, prayer skills drain your prayer points, which is a number equal to or below your current maximum prayer level. Stronger prayer skills drain your prayer points faster than weaker ones. Members, through completion of quests have access to the highest levels of prayer. Prayer includes skills such as Ultimate Strength, which increases your strength by 15% while it is active, and others such as Protect from Melee which negates all melee damage done to your character by NPC's, and half of the melee damage done to you by other players. Other prayers allow you to do useful things like keep an extra item if you die, or regenerate hitpoints at a faster rate. Prayer points can be restored by praying at an altar (scattered around RuneScape, usually in churches), or by drinking certain potions. Prayer drain can also be decreased by wearing holy equipment such as stoles and vestments. Also within the prayer skill, there are curses. These curses are somewhat more malicious versions of prayers and are only available to members after completion of a certain quest.

Summoning

Members only. Completion of the quest "Wolf Whistle" is required before being able to use this skill. Before players can train the skill, they must gather a large amount of charms (of either gold, crimson, green, or blue varieties), usually through another skill such as slayer, then use them along with secondary and tertiary reagents (spirit shards and pouches, along with another ingredient pertaining to the familiar) on a summoning altar. Gathering charms is extremely slow, but training the actual skill is very fast, often being able to acquire hundreds of thousands of experience per hour if all of the charms have been acquired. You create pouches later used to summon familiars, which have a wide variety of uses. Some familiars will aid you in combat, others will gather resources for you, others will hold items for you (the highest level "beast of burden" can hold even more than the player), and still others will heal you, boost your stats, or teleport you. Like prayer, summoning points will drain and can be recharged using potions or an altar, however it is not affected by your familiar, and drains much slower at a rate of about 1 per minute. At the higher summoning levels, the player may also acquire rare pets.

Combat

Not actually a skill, your combat level takes into account your Attack, Strength, Defense, Ranged, Magic, Prayer and Summoning levels. Generally, the higher a player's combat level, the more experienced they are in the game. When a player has a higher combat level than you their name will show up red, when it is lower it will appear green, and when it is the same it will appear yellow. Different shades of said colors will be displayed depending on the magnitude of difference (a player only one combat level higher will have their name show up as light orange for instance). Combat level increases by 1 for every 4 of either attack, strength, defense or hitpoints, and 1 for every 8 of either prayer or summoning. Range and Magic only affect your combat level if your melee stats are comparatively much lower. It is possible to use the combat formula to your advantage and create a "pure", a character with only 1 defense, usually 40 or 60 attack in order to wield rune or dragon respectively, some degree of prayer, and up to 99 strength (alternatively, pures can also have high magic levels, high range levels or some combination of the 3). This creates a character with the highest damage to combat level ratio, thus making them more effective in player killing. However, these types of characters often rely on a "main" to supply them with the required equipment , although this has been downplayed after recent updates minimizing available interactions between mains and pures.The maximum combat level is 138 for members and 126 for free members with 99 in all the skills involved.

Thieving

Members only. Thieving allows you to steal money/items from NPC's, chests, and stalls. The higher your thieving level, the less you will get caught and the better the loot you will receive. Thieving often plays a role in quests, and is seen as an easy and cheap skill to master.

Woodcutting

Woodcutting is a fairly basic skill that allows you to chop down different types of trees around RuneScape. A higher woodcutting level allows you to cut higher level trees and faster. Trees are chopped using a hatchet, in which there are different grades just like the weapons and armors, although the best hatchet only goes up to dragon. To wield a certain grade of hatchet, you need the woodcutting level of the required attack level plus one. For instance, using the rune hatchet requires 41 woodcutting, although you don't need 40 attack. The wood gathered can then be sold if it is valuable, or used for things like making fires, Fletching arrows, or making unstrung bows. The types of trees, in increasing level: Tree/Dead Tree/Evergreen (normal), Achey (Members), Oak, Willow, Teak (Members) Maple (Members, but can be used for Firemaking by free players), Hollow (Members), Mahogany (Members), Arctic (Members), Eucalyptus (Members), Yew, Magic (Members), and Cursed Magic (Members).

Firemaking

Firemaking allows you to burn different types of logs using a tinderbox. Originally in Runescape Classic, Firemaking was very useful for being able to make fires to cook raw meat over when there was no nearby stove. With a more robust trade system and better foods that are able to heal for much more made available to almost all players, Firemaking isn't a very practical skill. Seen mainly as an artifact of RuneScape's past, there are still some Firemaking related activities and awards for members, although it is mainly used as a way to increase your skill total.

Crafting

Crafting is the method by which most enchanted jewelry and ranged equipment enters the game. There are many items able to made using the crafting skill, such as pottery, battlestaves, glassware, holy symbols, tiaras, rings, necklaces, amulets and so on. Items usually used in crafting jewelry are gold, a gem, and a mould of the type of jewelry you want to make. Armor is usually made out of tanned cow or dragon hide used with a needle and thread, and sometimes steel studs. If you have the required magic level you can enchant some jewelry pieces for skill boosts or special effects such as teleportation. Overall, crafting is a fairly useful skill if you like to be self-sufficient, although it isn't really a money maker and is in fact fairly expensive to train, since most end products sell for less than the cost of their initial items.

Agility

Members only. In RuneScape, you can run for a period of time as long as you have some amount of energy left in your energy bar. Agility slows down the drain of your run energy, allowing players to run for longer periods of time. Agility also allows players to traverse RuneScape faster using shortcuts and also increases the player's chances of dodging traps. Agility is usually trained by running various agility courses around RuneScape.

Construction

Members only. Construction is a very useful but expensive skill that allows you to own and decorate your very own Player Owned House, or PoH. Your house can be set in various locations, Rimmington, Taverly, Karamja, Al Kharid, Relekka, and Brimhaven, however only one location may be set at a time. Your house can be outfitted with different grades of butlers, along with different types of wall decor. The different rooms you are able to build in your house include a kitchen, workshop, dining room, living room, games room, dungeon, portal chamber and others, along with the various furniture that can be built in that room. Some are for aesthetics only, some are for entertainment, while others are actually highly beneficial for skills and questing. The gilded altar for instance imparts a 350% experience bonus to bones sacrificed there, and is thus the most efficient way to train prayer, while teleportation portals saves you inventory space by not requiring you to hold the various runes, instead just requiring a teleport tablet to your house.

Mining

One of the oldest and most basic skills in Runescape, mining involves using a pickaxe to extract ores from rock. It is the primary way in which metals enter the game, and is important for the Fletching and Smithing skills. Similar to woodcutting, the higher your mining level the higher the level of ore you can mine, and the faster you will be able to mine the ores. Pickaxes go up to dragon and require the respective attack level plus one in mining (for instance, the rune pickaxe requires 41 mining to use). The different types of ores in increasing level: clay, rune essence, tin, copper, limestone, blurite, iron, elemental, daeyalt, silver, pure essence, coal, sandstone, gem (gems can also be randomly mined from other rocks), gold, perfect gold, granite, rubium, mithril, lunar, adamantite and runite. Clay is used in crafting, rune essence and pure essence are used in the skill Runecrafting to make runes for magic, limestone is used in the "Regicide" quest and also the construction skill, blurite is used in "A Knight's Sword" quest, elemental is used in the "Elemental Workshop" quest, daeyalt is used in the "Darkness of Hallowvale" quest, sandstone is used in the "Enakhra's Lament" quest, gold is used for crafting, perfect gold is used in the "Family Crest" quest, granite is used in the "Enakhra's Lament" and "King's Ransom" quest and also the summoning skill, rubium is used in the "Kennith's Concerns" quest, lunar is used in the "Lunar Diplomacy" quest, and the rest are the basic metals used in Smithing and Fletching. Members have access to more efficient mining areas, although it is still seen as a mostly free player's skill since it is not a good money maker in members.

Smithing

Smithing allows you to forge weapons and armors using the basic metals up to runite. Smithing is a two step process involving smelting the ores into bars, and then using the bars with a hammer and anvil to create your desired item. To turn ores into bars, you take the required ores to a furnace and smelting them. For example, if you wanted a steel bar, you would take 2 coal and 1 iron ore and smelt them. Along with weapons and armor, you can also forge darts, knives, crossbow bolts, arrowheads and even cannonballs.

Fletching

Members only. The Fletching skill allows members to take logs from woodcutting and turn them into bows, crossbow stocks, or arrow shafts. To make either item, the player takes a log and a knife and uses a knife on a log. Players can than use the crafting skill to make bowstring and string the bows. To make arrows, players can take regular logs and make arrow shafts, then use feathers on the arrow shaft to make feathered arrow shafts, and then finally using the Smithing skill to make arrow tips and attach them on the arrow shafts. Crossbow bolts can also be made with metal bars and a bolt mould, then feathered using the Fletching skill. All the projectiles can have enhanced damage and other effects by tipping them with shards of certain gemstones, or by enchanting them using the magic skill.

Cooking

Cooking allows you to cook the great varieties of foods in RuneScape, including pies, cakes, meats, fishes, breads, pizzas, stews, hot drinks and even alcohols such as brews, wines and cocktails. Food is mainly used in the game as a way to replenish lost hitpoints and as the player becomes a better chef he can cook better food which in turn restores more hitpoints. Players will need all the ingredients for a dish as well as a stove or fire, and some dishes also require that the player have a certain cooking item in their inventory like a pie dish or a bowl. Most foods require many hard to find ingredients and don't necessarily heal very much, which makes fish the most popular way to train cooking, and thus the most popular food, since all that it requires is the player taking a raw fish and using it on a stove or fire and they heal for a great amount. Members have access to a greater variety of foods and can cook them in a greater variety of places.

Fishing

A player may go fishing all across RuneScape, in streams lakes, oceans and even lava. You must use a basic fishing tool such as a net, fishing rod or harpoon to catch the fish. Only certain types of fish are found in certain areas, shrimp and sardines for instance can only be found in shallow water, while trout and salmon are usually only found in rivers. Lobsters, swordfish and sharks are found in the ocean, while more exotic fish such as manta rays and sea turtles are only found in the deep ocean. Fish are a very popular type of food in RuneScape because higher level fish like lobster and swordfish restore lots of health, and are relatively cheap. Fishing is also a very good way to make money because high level fish like shark sell for large amounts of money. Members are able to access more efficient fishing areas as well as higher level fish such as sharks.

Herblore

Members only. Herblore is the main way in which potions enter the game. Potions impart many beneficial effects on players such as recharging prayer, summoning and energy, boosting stats and curing poison. Most potions require a vial of water, along with a certain type of herb and another ingredient or two. For example, to create a strength enhancing potion you will need a tarromin herb and a limpwurt root. The higher a players Herblore level, the more types of herbs they can identify and use in potions. Players must complete the "Druid's Ritual" quest before they can use the Herblore skill.

Farming

Members only. Although all RPG's have some degree of farming be it gold or skill farming, this skill refers to the actual horticultural activity. Farming is the main way in which herbs and fruits enter the game, and can be quite beneficial to the player at higher levels as it becomes more and more profitable. Players usually treat patches with compost or supercompost, plants seeds in the patches, water them and then wait as they grow. Vegetables and fruits such as onions and watermelons take about an hour to grow, while plants such as trees can take 1-2 days. Most farming experience is derived from harvesting the fully grown plant. Players at the highest levels of farming can grow their own spirit trees to teleport around RuneScape.

Hunter

Members only. The hunter skill involves using different traps to trap animals. Unlike normal monsters, hunter animals can't usually be killed, and those that can aren't usually very strong. Higher level hunters are able to hunt more valuable animals which can give rare furs, or even be used as powerful weapons.

Slayer

Members only. Slayer is a skill very much related to fighting however it doesn't affect your combat level. To train slayer, the player must request monster tasks from slayer masters around the world, then complete them. The player earns experience for each monster killed, equal to the monster's hitpoints. Because slayer earns experience very slowly, it is one of the most difficult skills to train in RuneScape and very few people have accomplished level 99 in slayer. Certain monsters in RuneScape require a slayer level to defeat, and some of these monsters have incredibly rare and valuable drops, making slayer a desirable skill to train. In an update in August 2008, players are now imparted bonus points for completing slayer tasks in a row (by not going to another slayer master to skip your current task), which allows them to earn more slayer experience, collect runes, or permanently cancel some unwanted tasks.

Runecrafting

The Runecrafting skill allows players to create runes that are used in magic spells out of a stone called rune essence. Rune essence, and its superior version pure essence, can be mined from several locations around RuneScape through wizards that teleport you. After the essence is acquired, it is taken to the desired ruins, along with the corresponding talisman or tiara to access it. Upon entering the ruins, the essences can then be crafted on the altar ,with multiple runes able to be created with high enough Runecrafting level (e.g. at level 11 Runecrafting you'll be able to make 56 air runes from 28 essences, 84 at level 22 and so on). The runes that can currently be crafted in increasing level: air, mind, water, earth, fire, body, chaos, astral cosmic, nature, law, death, and blood. Currently, the only rune that can't be crafted it soul, however it can be crafted randomly at the Ourania altar, which gives double experience but random runes. The runecrafting skill can only be used after completion of the "Rune Mysteries" quest. Members have access to the higher level runes, along with special altars.

Dungeoneering

The Dungeoneering skill is for members and free players and was added in an update April 12, 2010. Dungeoneering is a skill that requires you to descend into the dungeon of Daemonheim, a dungeon filled with traps, monsters and puzzles that will strain your skills and provide you with challenges. You gain experience in this skill by completing a floor in the dungeon, when completed, you are allocated xp depending on your performance in the dungeon, the size and complexity of the dungeon, and puzzles you might have solved to reach bonus rooms. For each floor, you can choose a complexity between 1-6 to give the floor, each complexity involving a different variety of skills required to reach the end of a floor, 1 on the scale involves just basic combat, while 6 requires you to use all of your other skills to pass. Each floor is filled with monsters that vary in level depending on your level, or the number of players there are, when killed the monsters drop a hefty amount of loot. At the end of every floor there is a boss you must fight, at his death, the door leading to the next floor opens. You can have up to 5 people (including yourself) in a party to complete a floor, each person adding difficulty to the floor, but as well increasing the rewards for completion. As you gain levels in the Dungeoneering skill you can go to deeper floors, which will have harder monsters and tougher puzzles. An additional perk of higher levels of Dungeoneering is the ability to enter dungeons throughout RuneScape filled with a variety of raw materials, aptly named "Resource Dungeons". Players are also rewarded with tokens for each floor of the dungeon that they complete relative to the amount of experience earned, these tokens can be spent on various rewards including weapons, armor, and prayers.

Divination

Members only. The Divination skill lets players gather Guthix's residual life-force, which is leaking throughout Gielinor. Players harvest divine energy from wisps, then use the energy to create items such as divine locations, portents, and signs. Experience is gained from harvesting the divine energy from wisps, as well as converting memories from the wisps into experience.

Invention

Members only. Invention allows players to disassemble items for materials and manufacture devices to augment weapons, armor, and tools with perks. Invention is the first elite skill. Invention requires 80 Divination, Crafting, and Smithing to access the skill. Like Dungeoneering, Invention has a level cap higher than 99. The release date for Invention was January 25, 2016.

Guilds

Some skills in RuneScape have guilds associated with them. Usually a guild is a place where players can easily find everything they need related to that skill, and more. For example, the Fishing Guild has numerous docks to catch fish ranging from lobsters to shark, but also contains a range and a bank to cook and bank your fish. The Warrior's Guild is the only area where you can obtain Dragon Defenders, the best offensive shield in the game. All guilds require that a player has a certain level in that guild's associated skill to enter it, and some guilds also require that a player have a certain item with them to enter as well. There are some guilds in RuneScape that are quest-based guilds that require the player to either complete a certain quest or have a certain number of quest points to enter, such as the Legend's Guild or the Hero's Guild.

Clans are also a major part of the game, although not all clans are related to a skill. Clans are set up by a player using their own clan chat window. Every player has the ability to have a clan. Once a clan has been set up, the leader can give ranks to people, entrusting them with abilities such as kicking misbehaving players from the chat. Clans can partake in many events such as the activity "clan wars" wherein different clans fight one another. Some clans are purely based on moneymaking or skill training, however sometimes the methods by which they do these things breaks the rules. (e.g. price manipulation)

PvP

The northern portion of RuneScape, or the "Wilderness" is a large portion of land that looks dramatically different from the mainland. While most of RuneScape is covered with green grass, trees and cities, the wilderness is a barren wasteland covered in dead trees, fungus and littered with ghosts. Not only does the wilderness look dangerous, it is. As players descend into the wilderness, a counter in the corner of the screen increases. This indicates what level player can be attacked, relative to the player's level. So at 30 wilderness, a level 78 player may attack a level 48 player, but should be wary of players up to level 108.

Players mainly fight one another in the wilderness, under specific rules of engagement. Players who are the aggressor (attack first) are marked with a skull above their head. While a regular player will lose all but his three most valuable items (determined by the game's pricing system), a player with a skull over their head will lose all of their items upon death, assuming they are not using the protect item prayer that protects one extra item on death. In designated "high risk" worlds, the protect item prayer cannot be used at all.

As a more controlled form of PvP, players can also bet on duels in the Dueling Arena in Al Kharid. Players can choose rules of engagement, such as no armor, no melee, no range, etc. While free players are limited in the amount they may stake, members are allowed to bet an infinite amount of gold, or items.

The wilderness has undergone many changes in its history. In December 2007, the wilderness PvP was removed, and replaced with Bounty Hunter, Clan Wars, and PvP worlds. PvP worlds opened up the entire Runescape world to player vs player combat, with similar leveling system to the wilderness, where Bounty Hunter worlds only allowed travel in Edgeville and the wilderness beyond. Clan Wars was a mini-game that allowed players to either go free for all, or team up with their clan chat to war against other clans. In an update on February 1st, 2011, the Bounty Hunter and PvP worlds were removed, as well as Dueling Tournaments, and the classic wilderness rules were returned to the game.

Trade

Players right click on another player in order to offer a trade, which appears in the chat scroll. Right clicking the offer and accepting will activate the trade window, which will display all the involved items and their relative differences in value. Every item has a "guide price," which is used to prevent trade scams, and is based off of the Grand Exchange price. Players are not required to follow this guide price, as often items tend to have a community price that differs from the "official price."

The Grand Exchange was one of the updates implemented with the trade update and now acts as a nexus where players can buy and sell any tradeable item, similar to a stock market, except with items. Prices can be adjusted within a 10% window, and changes daily as a reaction to supply and demand. The Grand Exchange makes buying and selling large quantities of items easy, and also makes selling rare or obscure items possible whereas before the update it was quite difficult or not worth the time. The player puts up a buy or sell offer for an item and its quantity and if the deal can be made, the offer is completed automatically and anonymously. Players can retrieve items or money from the Grand Exchange by talking to a Grand Exchange clerk or a banker.

Beyond trading, players can also assist other players by lending their skill levels temporarily to another player through an interface, or allow another player to borrow an item that they own for a period of time ranging from half an hour to an entire day.

Issues with Free Trade and Gold Farmers

On January 2nd, 2008, all players were given a limit on how much gold, or items depending on their worth, they could transfer to any other player in a 15 minute time-span. With the limit in place the PVP and player death systems had to be completely revamped so that players could not intentionally die to transfer items or gold to others, leading to players having randomly picked drops from a drop table in PVP, and leaving a gravestone that they could recover their lost items from upon death in non-PVP areas. Many changes were also instituted to supplement the lack of PVP content that players had come to love, including a "Bounty Hunter" Activity where players could battle each other to earn a chance to get better drops depending on how much they were risking in battle.

This limit was introduced to combat the rise in gold farmers running bots and clogging up popular training areas. While the change did effectively cut down on the number of bots in the game, it also caused in uproar among the community who wanted the ability to give items and gold to friends and other accounts, as well as avid PVP players that wanted the same spoils they had been receiving before for battles. As is customary for Runescape, many in-game "riots" were held, in which hundreds of players would gather in town centers and other popular areas to shout their grievances, many threatening to cancel their memberships and move to other games. While some left, most players eventually learned to cope with the inability to trade large amounts of money and items to each other using various items as "assurances" and using the recently implemented Grand Exchange to trade at preset item prices with relative ease.

On December 21, 2010, Jagex introduced a poll on the site asking whether Free Trade and The Wilderness in its original form should return to the game. A whopping 91% of players did decide to bring back both Free Trade and The Wilderness. On Febuary 1, 2011, Free Trade and The Wilderness returned to Runescape as they had been before the Trade Limit update in 2008. Again many changes had to be made to accommodate the new trade rules, with many Activities and Quests that had been placed in the former location of the wilderness being relocated to safer locations. The set prices in the Grand Exchange are now referred to as "guide prices" and no longer mandatory. The return of Free Trade brought negative consequences as well, bots once again flourish in the Free to Play Runescape servers and several sites on the internet sell Runescape gold and items.

Quests

Quests are optional, usually story-related activities that players can access by talking to an NPC that gives it out. Quests usually involve some combination of exploring, puzzle solving, combat, talking and dungeon navigating. Although quests are optional, certain quests are fairly necessary to everyday play (the "Plague City" quest for instance unlocks Ardougne Teleport, which teleports you to Ardougne, a fairly traveled to city). Other quests offer significant benefits to the player, such as faster areas to gain experience and money, or faster methods of transport such as spirit trees, fairy rings and hot air balloons. Quests usually require medium to high skill levels and completion of other quests (especially quests that are part of a series) and also take a fairly long to complete. Players are rewarded with quest points, experience and sometimes miscellaneous items and features after the completion of quests. Quest points are given in variable amounts, although it has been a recent trend to give only one quest point per quest. There are currently 162 quests with a total of 298 quest points available to be given. Quests vary in difficulty from beginner to grandmaster. There are currently only 3 grandmaster quests, however one has you fight a level 434 monster, and another a 699 making them extremely difficult. When the player has completed all available quests, they can obtain a Quest Cape from the Wise Old Man NPC. As new quests are released, players must complete them to continue wearing the quest cape, otherwise it will automatically place itself in your inventory or bank.

Mini-quests are also optional, and usually give access to an area or feature. The "Barcrawl" mini--quest for instance involves going around RuneScape and tasting the ales of all the bars, while the "Abyss" mini-quest gives access to one of the most efficient Runecrafting areas. Players aren't usually rewarded with experience and are never rewarded with quest points for completing mini-quests. Both quests and mini-quests are non-repeatable.

Random Events

Random events were introduced along with the RuneScape 2 update in 2004. They are small activities or events that a player must complete, and then they are rewarded for completion. A random event will not go away or end until the player has completed it. They can occur at any time, although they usually don't happen immediately after one has just occurred. When a random event begins, the player is immediately teleported to a segregated area where they have an infinite amount of time to complete the event (although in the maze event, the reward decreases the longer you take to complete the maze). Events mainly involve listening to the directions of the event NPC (doing exercises, choosing the right sandwich, identifying the correct item name). Upon completion of the random event, the player is teleported back and gifted a random event box, which can be opened to offer the player a random choice of rewards. The occurrence of random events is, as the name suggests, random, however occurrences become less frequent as the player successfully completes prior events.

Originally implemented to stop macroers and bots, the occurrence of random events has been toned down recently in light of the real world trading updates that have dramatically reduced the cheating population in RuneScape. Items used during random events such as Mysterious Boxes usually can't be banked, although all random event rewards can be.

Related to random events are voluntary side activities called Distractions and Diversions that take place all over RuneScape during random parts of the day. Activities can include such things as spying on Penguins that are scattered all over in RuneScape disguised as pieces of scenery, or finding a fallen meteor and mining it for stardust. Distractions and Diversions provide fairly worthwhile rewards, although the due to the random nature of the events it isn't seen as a reliable way to make either money or experience.

Activities

Activities, formerly known as minigames, are optional tasks that are mainly members only. Usually involving teamwork with multiple players, there are dozens of activities and they can be safe (no penalty for dying) or dangerous (penalty for dying), and range from profitable to fun, although some are neither or both. All Activities and their descriptions are as follows:

Barbarian Assault

A safe combat-based activity. Teams of 5 which include an Attacker (attacks enemies), Collector (collects eggs then launches them to do damage), Healer (heals group with potions) and Defender (sets traps against fast runners) go up against teams of aliens which try to kill you and steal your resources. There are 10 levels in total, with the 10th being a boss level against the Penance queen. Points are rewarded depending on how well each job was done, and deducted from the entire team for how poorly a job was done. This setup makes co-operative play very important, as one bad player on the team can ruin it for everybody. Players can spend the points they accumulate on useful items such as Penance gloves which reduce your total weight, and the Fighter Torso which grants the player additional strength.

Barrows

A dangerous combat-based activity. Players enter the graveyards of the 6 legendary barrows brothers and battles each one's ghost to have a chance of obtaining their armor. This is a fairly profitable activity, and is the only way in which the powerful Barrows armor enters the game. Barrows armor comes in 4 pieces per brother, and when one brother's full set is worn a set effect is activated. The most notable one is that of Guthan's, which has a chance to heal the player for the amount of damage they deal in combat.

Beacon Network

A dangerous skill-based activity. Accessible after completing the "All Fired Up" quest, the Beacon Network activity sends players across the northern half of the map to light a series of Beacons to warn the cities to the south of an approaching threat. The rewards for completing the activity include Firemaking experience, a ring, gloves, and a special pickaxe that can also be used as a hatchet that burns logs for Firemaking experience as they're cut.

Blast Furnace

A safe skill-based activity. A group of players work together to power a giant furnace in the dwarven city of Keldagrim. Unlike most activities, this one requires a fee of 2,500 gold to play for every 10 minutes.

Bounty Worlds (Removed)

Bounty Worlds were implemented in 2007 to replace the wilderness pvp system. In Bounty Worlds, players had access to Edgeville, the Monastery, the Grand Exchange, and the wilderness. The wilderness followed its old rules, except players did not keep any items upon death, and players had the option of having a better chance of getting good drops by killing designated "bounties" that are chosen at random. Bounty Worlds were removed when the wilderness pvp rules were returned on February 1st, 2011.

Castle Wars

A safe combat-based activity. Players pledge allegiance to one of RuneScape's gods, either Saradomin or Zamorak, and fight it out in a simple variation of Capture the flag. Where teams must capture the other teams flag, while also trying to defend their own. Rewards include decorative armor sets displaying a players prowess at Castle Wars.

Chompy Hunting

A dangerous combat-based activity. Only accessible after completing the "Chompy Bird Hunting" quest, Chompy Hunting involves players using toads filled with swamp gas to lure giant birds known as "Chompy" into their sights, so that they can take them out with a special ogre-bow. Each kill is marked as a notch on the bow, and players are rewarded with feather hats for certain amounts of kills.

Clan Wars

This activity can be played safely or dangerously depending on which portal players enter. Two clans enter, one clan leaves. A simple activity that allows two clans to fight it out to determine which clan is better. Clan leaders may decide on an arena, and whether items are dropped upon death.

Conquest

A safe activity, Conquest is a turn based strategy game similar to Chess. The Void Knights need help training and request that Players help instruct the combat simulations. Players pick their own squad members and attempt to eliminate the opposing squad. Points earned from this activity go towards the same rewards as the Pest Control activity.

Duel Arena

A safe combat-based activity. Players pair up and fight it out to determine who's the strongest. Items and money can be staked on the fights. Up until February 1st, 2011, players could compete in tournaments at the duel arena, however that mini-game has since been removed with the addition of limitless staking in duels.

Fist of Guthix

A safe combat-based activity. Fist of Guthix pits two players against each other in two rounds of intense battle. The two players are put in a large circular arena with a great source of power at the center, the "Fist of Guthix". One player carries a large uncharged orb while trying to stay as close to the center as possible, earning more points the closer they are to the Fist of Guthix. The other player attempts to find and kill the first player as quickly as possible. In the second round of the game the roles are reversed.

Fishing Trawler

A safe fishing-based activity. A fun activity that was previously the only way to catch the highest level fish in the game. Points are rewarded for the total fish caught by the team.

Games Room

A safe activity. The Burthrope Games Room allows players to meet up and compete in RuneScape twists on traditional games such as Checkers, Dots, and Connect four. Players are given a rating in each game that raises or lowers depending on whether the games player are won or lost.

Gnome Ball

A safe activity. Gnome ball is essentially the RuneScape version of Ultimate Frisbee.

Gnome Delivery Service

A safe skill-based activity. The Grand Tree of the Gnomes is home to a world class restaurant and needs help cooking and delivering their food. Players are given a gnome cuisine that needs to be prepared and delivered to all corners of the RuneScape world. Players are rewarded with several kinds of gnome clothing such as scarves or goggles.

Great Orb Project

A safe Runecrafting-based activity. Players on opposing teams try to collect as many orbs as possible from the different Runecrafting altars spread around Runescape to earn points. Points can be spent on exclusive teleportation tablets, and various Runecrafting gear.

Impetuous Impulses

A safe Hunter-based activity. Players are transported to the realm of imps to attempt to capture the most valuable imps, armed with only a jar and a modified butterfly net.

Jade Vine

A dangerous combat-based activity. Players plant the seed of the mighty Jade Vine. Without pruning the Jade Vine, it becomes aggressive and attacks the player. The Jade Vine can be fought once a day for 2,500 slayer experience.

Jungle Clean-up

A dangerous combat-based activity. Jungle Clean-up tasks the player with keeping the local plant life in check in the Tribal town of Tai Bwo Wannai. Upon hacking through light, medium, and dense jungle, Giant mosquitoes, deadly spiders, and more are revealed and attack the player.

Mage Training Arena

A safe magic-based activity. Actually a set of 4 even smaller activities, this is a great way to train magic and the only way to obtain the rare and expensive infinity robe set.

Manage Thy Kingdom

A safe activity. Accessible after completing the "Throne of Miscellania" quest, and expanded after the "Royal Trouble" Quest, Manage Thy Kingdom lets players run their very own Kingdom. Players must add money to their kingdom's coffers and choose where to have their subjects work. Manage Thy Kingdom can turn a hefty profit depending on how subjects are distributed.

Mobilizing Armies

A safe activity. Up to four players compete in RTS style battles to lay siege to a castle, destroy opposing teams units, or gather the most resources.

Pest Control

A safe combat-based activity. Players in a team of 25-30 attempt to save an island by protecting its Void Knight and destroying 4 different portals with monsters pouring out of them. A fun activity, and one of the fastest ways to earn combat experience in the game.

Pyramid Plunder

A dangerous thieving-based activity. Players try to steal artifacts from an ancient pyramid, avoiding enemies and poisonous traps. One of the fastest ways to gain thieving experience in the game.

Rogues Den

A safe agility and thieving based activity. The Rogues Den is a deadly obstacle course brimming with traps and tests of agility. Upon Completing the obstacle course, players are rewards with either a rogues kit, which has the ability to generate a multitude of useful items, or a piece of the much sought-after Rogues armor.

Rogue Trader

A safe activity. In the desert town of Al Kharid, rogue trade Ali Morrisane needs help expanding his service. Players help open some mysterious caskets containing runes. The caskets are locked with a puzzles strikingly similar to sudoku except with runes instead of numbers.

Sorceress Garden

A safe thieving-based activity. After being teleported to a mysterious sorceress's garden, players attempt to avoid detection by the gardens many guards, in four area based on the four seasons, and acquire the very rare Sq'irk fruit. The Sq'irk Fruit may be drained into a glass and drank for varying effects, or thieving experience.

Soul Wars

A safe combat-based activity. Two teams of players attempt to protect a giant behemoth, one team protecting the "Avatar of Creation" while the other protects the "Avatar of Destruction". Players attempt to take control of territories on the map including the soul obelisk in the center. Once a team takes control of the soul obelisk, players from that team may offer soul fragments collected from killing monsters in the area, lowering the required slayer level to attack the opposing teams avatar.

Stealing Creation

A safe activity involving most skills. In Soul Wars, two teams of players start out with nothing and attempt to gather the most supplies in 20 minutes. Players must decide whether to use their supplies on armor, weapons, or potions to combat the opposing team, or conserve their materials and have them converted to points. Points are rewarded for the most productive players, and the points can be spent on tools that can be used in the greater game which impart double experience for a set amount of time.

Tears of Guthix

A safe skill-based activity. After completion of the "Tears of Guthix" quest, players can access this activity once a week to obtain experience for their lowest skill. Players use a bowl to collect blue tears from a wall while avoiding the green ones. The amount of time that you can spend playing this game per week is directly related to the number of quest points you have.

Temple Building

A dangerous skill-based activity. Accessible after completing the "Shades of Mort'ton" quest, Temple Building sends waves of horrible lore shades after players while they attempt to rebuild a holy temple. Lore shades will attempt to destroy the temple as it is being built, so players have to manage their time wisely.

Temple Trekking

A dangerous combat-based activity. Accessible after completing the "In Aid of the Myreque" Quest, and expanded after completing the "Darkness of Hallowvale", Templing Trekking is an activity based around escorting people through Mort Myre Swamp. Players can choose different people to escort ranging from helpless children, to warriors who can hold their own without the player having to aid them very much. Picking the more hardened warriors results in lesser rewards.

Treasure Trails

A dangerous combat-based activity. Players follow clues obtained from clue scrolls, a rare drop from most monsters in order to track down a treasure. During their search, the player will usually have to traverse dangerous environments or fight enemies. Treasure trails rewards often give rare items, along with exclusive items that can only be obtained through the activity.

Trouble Brewing

A safe skill-based activity. Accessible after completing the "Cabin Fever" quest. Trouble Brewing is a team based, pirate themed activity where players attempt to brew the most beer. Rewards include sailor clothing, standards, and an ale so strong it knocks the player out from one sip.

TzHaar Fight Caves

A safe combat-based activity. Players fight through a gauntlet of dangerous foes for several hours before finally reaching a tremendous level 702 end boss. This is the only way to obtain the Fire Cape, which is the strongest cape in the game to date.

TzHaar Fight Pits

A safe combat-based activity. TzHaar Fight Pits is a free for all battle that takes place in the volcanic TzHaar city. The winner of each match is crowned JalYt-Ket, a true warrior to the TzHaar race.

Vinesweeper

A safe farming-based activity. A variation of minesweeper, players dig out seeds hidden in a field to obtain points. Points can then be spent for farming experience or purchasing rare seeds.

Achievement Diaries

Achievement Diaries are sets of tasks tied to regions of the in-game world. There are four levels of Achievement Diary Easy, Medium, Hard, and Elite. Easy diaries involve tasks that almost any player can do, while Elite diaries are only completable by the highest level players. Each region that has an Achievement Diary has two to three instructors who will reward the player for completing certain levels of achievements. Players are rewarded with various equitable items that provide bonuses throughout all of Runescape, and some specific to the region the reward was earned in. Completing all of the Achievement Diaries leaves the player with an entire set of matching equipment to show off their achievement.

Private Servers

Although RuneScape remains free to play, many private servers have been set up by people who either do not want to pay or simply disagree with a recent update. These private servers are illegal and JaGex do not restrain from punishing the leaders through lawsuit.

Private servers are often referred to as "just for fun" wherein a player if given a set of commands allowing them to change their levels and spawn items freely.