Runescape Tips And Secrets

Wow alot of updates in 1 go, finally the last 1 to post about.

Personally this update doesn’t interest me much but it is nice to see high hits like 500+ on normal tasks like nechryaels. Everytime I get hit high numbers for the old hitpoints method like 80 or so I still get scared lol, oh well it’ll grow on me.

Today, we have made significant modifications to the Hitpoints skill, the most important of these being that all ‘hitpoints’ are now multiplied by 10 and renamed ‘life points’, and the name of the actual skill being changed to Constitution. The numbers you see will be bigger, but they will still affect things in the same way.

It’s important to note that this will not change standard combat or the way you play the game.

The best way to describe these changes is with a few examples:

Example 1

Before today’s update:
A player has level 75 in the Hitpoints skill (this gives them 75 hitpoints).
The player has a max hit of 34.
The player is fighting a lesser demon, which has 79 hitpoints and a max hit of 8.
The player is carrying some lobsters, which heal 12 hitpoints each.

After today’s update:
A player has level 75 in the Constitution skill (which gives them 750 life points).
The player has a max hit of 340.
The player is fighting a lesser demon, which has 790 life points and a max hit of 80.
The player is carrying some lobsters, which heal 120 life points each.

Example 2

Before today’s update:
Two players are in PvP combat.
Player A has 21 hitpoints and a max hit of 7. He is carrying chickens, which heal 3 hitpoints each when eaten.
Player B has 92 hitpoints and a max hit of 45. She is carrying manta rays, which heal 22 hitpoints each.

After today’s update:
Two players are in PvP combat.
Player A has 21 Constitution (giving him 210 life points) and has a max hit of 70. He is carrying chickens, which heal 30 life points each.
Player B has 92 Constitution (giving her 920 life points) and has a max hit of 450! W00t! She is carrying manta rays, which heal 220 life points each.

Example 3

Before today’s update:
A player falls from an Agility shortcut and takes 4 damage. When the player takes damage, the amount of damage they take is subtracted from their current hitpoint total. Their current Hitpoint skill level also decreases by the same.

After today’s update:
A player falls from an Agility shortcut and takes 40 damage. When the player takes damage, the amount of damage they take is subtracted from their current life point total. Their Constitution level is unaffected.

As you can see from the above examples, your basic stat remains the same, but the amount of hits you can take (that’s ALL damage, not just from combat) have been multiplied by 10. Equally, the damage you deal has also been multiplied by 10, and all food will heal you 10 times as much.

Your current life points are displayed in the status globe at the top-right hand corner of the screen, next to the minimap. When you take damage, this number will go down, NOT your Constitution stat.

The Constitution skill on the stats interface is in the same place that the Hitpoints skill stat used to be (at the top of the second column of skills; however, your current Constitution level does NOT reflect how much damage you can take – you’ll have to look at the life point display next to the minimap to see that. The skill icon for Constitution is the same as was used for Hitpoints.

This news outlines what has changed with this update; if you’d like to know more about why we have implemented this update, please read this blog.

Mod Mark
RuneScape Lead Designer

I logged on earlier today after not noticing the updates on the home page, was talking to Crowlion bout the new rocks from this and got one while we were talking (I was doing my daily herb run). It’s a pity you need 2 of a kind to get the rewards though, hope they are decent rewards The update about granite lobster would have came in handy back when I was doing them, would have saved my fingers from so much clicking to cut it up into smaller pieces.

The updates about slayer look great, great added motivation for the last 2 levels. As well as the updates to the ice strykewyrms, tried them the other day when I finally got assigned them, 2 tasks in a row no staff of light oh well next time.

While you’re out and about practising your non-combat skills or wandering around your house, keep an eye out for ‘strange rocks’. These will usually appear in your inventory and will be of interest to the archaeologists at Varrock Museum.

As you deliver each strange rock to the museum, your discovery will start to take shape; you’ll have the opportunity to gain a little more Kudos from your peers; and you’ll also get some extra knowledge in Agility, Construction, Cooking, Crafting, Farming, Firemaking, Fishing, Fletching, Herblore, Hunter, Mining, Runecrafting, Smithing, Thieving or Woodcutting (depending upon which skill you were training when you discovered the strange rock).

The museum archaeologists encourage you to train each of the skills listed above, as only then will you be able to find every piece of…whatever it is you’re finding. Indeed, it may well be a good time to train a wide variety of skills, so as to gather resources in preparation for future skill training or the upcoming Bonus XP Weekend (starting Friday 12th March).

You can also learn something of Dahmaroc, a Second Age mage who was cursed in a battle over the limited supply of runes in those dark times. With diligent study, this could lead to another reward, this one of more solid and permanent construction…

If, for any reason, you’d prefer NOT to receive these strange rocks while training, you can talk to the archaeologists to toggle their appearance off (or back on) after taking them your first strange rock.

Mod Maz
RuneScape Content Developer
Queen of the Squirrels

Summary:
Where to start Shattered Heart:

Once you’ve discovered a ‘strange rock’, take it to the archaeologists at Varrock Museum.

Requirements to play Shattered Heart:

There are no requirements to play Shattered Heart, though you will need to train all non-combat skills to get the most out of it.

In other news…

The members’ skill-total world requirement has been increased from 1000+ to 1500+. The free players’ skill-total world requirement remains at 1000+.

TzTok-Jad now has a second animation played on him when he’s being healed. This will be shown at the same time as his usual animations, so won’t interfere with the fight.

When infusing granite lobster pouches (level 74 Summoning), you can now use any size of granite, not just 500g blocks. Equally, when infusing praying mantis pouches (level 75 Summoning), you can now use any colour of ‘flower’ (whether grown from mithril seeds or bought), not just red flowers.

When buying poison chalices from Stankers at the Coal Trucks, or climbing boots from Tenzig in Burthorpe, you’ll now see a shop interface instead of having to click through chat.

We’ve added five microtutorials to the advisor system for Agility, Hunter, Slayer and Thieving, and more information has been added about a number of members’ items and locations.

RuneScape’s minigames have been renamed to ‘Activities’ and all references to ‘minigames’ have changed in accordance (predominantly on the Knowledge Base, but also a few in-game references). Some of this content has been reclassified as Distractions & Diversions, skill-based tasks or areas (on the KB); the content itself has not changed.

Strykewyrm and other Slayer changes:

* You can purchase the ability to be assigned ice strykewyrms from Slayer masters (using Slayer points after completing Smoking Kills).
* You need to be wearing a TzHaar fire cape to cause 2x damage to ice strykewyrms with fire spells (without it, fire spells inflict 1.5x damage).
* The TzHaar fire cape adds +40 damage (see other news about changes to the Hitpoints skill) to all attack types when worn to fight ice strykewyrms.
* Ice strykewyrms may cause you extra damage if you’re not wearing a TzHaar fire cape.
* Strykewyrms should no longer lose focus on the player they were attacking.
* You can now block a 5th task if you have more than 250 Quest Points.
* You can purchase the ability to be assigned aquanites by Kuradal.
* You can now purchase the ability to deal killing blows faster to those Slayer creatures that require them.
* The crystal chime now has an auto chime feature, which should help when fighting warped terrorbirds and warped tortoises.

This update would have been great about 1-2 years ago when I mined/smelting/smithed 5k iron bars for 25k iron knives. As it cost so much for forging rings before grand exchange came out. Anyway back to topic, this update looks good overall hopefully it is as good as they say it is

Previously, when smelting iron ore, there was only a 50/50 chance that it would result in an iron bar (the rest of the time it would just be lost). Now, that success rate has changed so that, at level 15 Smithing, you will succeed 50% of the time, and from level 45 Smithing onwards, you will succeed 80% of the time (gaining an extra 1% chance of success per Smithing level earned in between).

Free players are more likely to have interest in this update, as members have access to rings of forging, a limited-use item that grants 100% success when smelting iron, but this change benefits everybody.

Mod Hew
RuneScape Content Developer

I love this update, so great for talking to friends on runescape if you don’t want to be logged in the game itself, as well as being able to log in without having to type your pw all the time aswell, great for hopping for rune rocks etc

From today, when logging into the game, you will notice that the Welcome Screen has been replaced with what we’re calling the RuneScape Lobby.

There are several things you can do in the lobby before you enter the game. You can see which worlds your friends are playing on; you can chat to friends or enter a Clan Chat; you can switch worlds and set your favourites; and you can change your display options. The lobby adds no additional clicks to getting into the game.

When logging out of the game, you will re-enter the lobby and stay logged in for up to an hour (though you can fully log out by clicking on the ‘X’ at the top-right of the lobby). As you don’t need to enter your password to go from the lobby into the game, this should make things much more convenient when you want to change worlds or take a short break.

It’s good to see they are working on high content still, I’m only 80 hunter so probably won’t get to know how good the new implings are except for the spirit impling of course. The update about Duradel having a slight chance to give ice strykewyrms looks good, I still haven’t had a task given for those by Kuradel yet.

There is a bit of hubbub in Puro-Puro, as implings with new tastes come and join the already unruly crowd. The spirit implings (level 54 Hunter) are keeping an eye out for those tasty charms, pouches and secondary Summoning ingredients; zombie implings (level 87 Hunter), despite claiming to be after braaains, seem to carry rather bonier loot; and the greatest of clamours is reserved for the very rare appearance of the rulers of them all, kingly implings (level 91 Hunter), who have a taste for all kinds of luxury and riches (including a fittingly regal new outfit).

To the keen hunter, rewards should no longer be the sole reason to take the time to net the little blighters in their home plane, as they now give a generously improved amount of Hunter XP when caught. Watch out for the imp defenders, though!

Elnock Inquisitor seems unperturbed by all this, but is prepared to give you a little extra help. He’ll stretch to sell you a few of his empty impling jars every day, in case you accidentally used your last one, and will also store a butterfly net, some imp repellent and a fair amount of empty jars for whenever you next decide to stop by.

Meanwhile, on Gielinor, the greedy implings seen flying around are getting tired from all their wandering, so you can now grab them with your bare hands (much like barehanded butterfly catching). It’ll be trickier to catch them this way than with a net, but it can be done (and gets easier the higher your Agility level), and if you achieve this feat without even having a jar to hold them in, you will just get the loot and the XP directly. Hunter XP for catching implings outside of Puro-Puro has also been greatly increased.

Finally, if you’re lucky enough to come across and enter one of the wandering crop circles (i.e. not the one in Zanaris), you will benefit from a farmer’s affinity bonus, which will let you push through Puro-Puro’s magical wheat faster for the next thirty minutes.

Time to go and help control the seemingly infinite influx of implings!

Mod Maylea

RuneScape Content Developer

In other news…

The Orb of Oculus’s aim mode should now be a fair bit smoother, which should allow for some great camerawork.

Duradel now has a small chance of giving ice strykewyrms as a task, but they’re quite uncommon. Kuradal is still your best bet by far if you want to fight them.

Sorry for the late post about this update. Personally I haven’t tried this update yet, but it looks like it would be handy for waterfiend tasks or other slayer tasks that drop frequent charms. Good luck to all that try it, and once again sorry for the late post.

Ever had an out-of-body experience? Well, you will have after undergoing the process of ‘Familiarisation’, the act of mentally projecting yourself into the spirit plane. The druids of Taverley need people to undergo this process and then gather resources from the spirit plane (from which the druids create spirit shards), all the while avoiding the resident familiars. Summoning pouch components or (temporary) triple charm drops are up for grabs for any who lend their brain.

Like with other D&Ds, you’ll first need to find out where it is, for which your best bet is having a chat with Pikkupstix in Taverley. He’ll be able to give you some indication of the location of his new apprentice, Pikkenmix. This will typically be at whichever Summoning mini obelisk is currently ‘active’, through which you’ll be able to project your mind once per week.

Mod Maz
RuneScape Content Developer
Queen of the Squirrels

Summary:
Where to start Familiarisation:

Look out for any small Summoning obelisks that are sparkling. If you have trouble finding one, Pikkupstix in Taverley will give you a rough idea of where to look.

Requirements to play Familiarisation:

There are no requirements to play Familiarisation, not even having to complete the Wolf Whistle quest. You can partake in Familiarisation once a week.

In other news…

The Guthix balance (unf) potion now has a make-all option (as does adding garlic to stat restore potions).

The bone key from Shilo Village can be obtained again if you destroyed it. Speak to Yanni for a replacement.

The staff of light can now be lent out.

Yay! About time they release something for people with 90+ slayer, looks promising from a glimpse, will test them out later and let you know how I go. Also the hexcrest and focus light look great for ranging and maging tasks now. Combined with the staff of light, should make mage a more profitable choice to slay with.

he humungous and deathly strykewyrms are happy to harmlessly tunnel about RuneScape, but they have trained senses that can smell a slayer from a mile off. Those who are assigned a strykewyrm task will find that they lure strykewyrms from the ground, but they may wish they hadn’t; once roused, a strykewyrm will do their very best to take them down!

Three breeds of strykewyrm are known to the Slayer masters of Runescape: jungle strykewyrms (level 73 Slayer) can be found near the coast north-west of Oo’glog; desert strykewyrms (level 77 Slayer) stir the sand east of Al Kharid (over the stile by the palace); and ice strykewyrms (level 93 Slayer) churn up the ice in a cave near to where you find the Muspah (but only after you’ve completed the Tale of the Muspah). Ice strykewyrm assignments are unique to Kuradal. You will need to own a TzHaar fire cape to be assigned them, and you will need to wear a fire cape to inflict any damage.

As with other Slayer creatures, each strykewyrm has a rare drop, which should prove to be very useful for slayers, mages and rangers. The jungle and desert strykewyrms, respectively, drop the hexcrest and the focus sight, which give combat and Slayer bonuses for Magic and Ranged (much like the black mask already does for melee). Indeed, anyone with a slayer helmet, focus sight and hexcrest can combine them all into a full slayer helmet, which incorporates all of these items’ bonuses into one slayertastic piece of headgear.

The ice strykewyrms’ unique drop, the staff of light, can be used as a slayer staff, has stats roughly equivalent to a dragon weapon, causes +15% Magic damage, has a special attack that reduces any melee damage that is received by 50% for one minute AND has a 1/8 chance of not using up runes each time a damage-dealing spell is cast with it!

The rune-saving effect can be combined with a full set of combat robes (improving the chance to 1/5) or battle robes (for an impressive 1/2 chance of saving runes). Also, any time the staff does not save your runes, the robes themselves will still have their usual chance of saving you any mind, chaos, death or blood runes used by the combat spell you are casting. These robe sets can both be earned as rewards from the Fist of Guthix minigame.

From beneath it devours… Happy slaying everyone!

Mod Chris L
RuneScape Content Developer

In other news…

After listening to your feedback, the F2 key will now toggle the chat window when you’re holding the orb of oculus, otherwise known as the machinima camera. This should help you direct your actors on camera!

This update looks helpful for people with old computer or operating systems. Hope it works as good as they say it will.

Today we have launched an update to the Standard Detail graphics mode for players with the Windows operating system (Windows 2000 onwards) and with Sun Java 1.4.2 or higher. The new Standard Detail mode is faster than the previous version. It also has options to turn on textures, shadows and lighting, which can make it look very close to the quality of High Detail mode.

For players who do not have Windows, or who wish to carry on using the old Standard Detail mode, there is a new ‘Safe Mode’ graphics detail option.

Mod Nick
Head of Core Technologies

Personally I don’t listen to the runescape music, but for people that do hopefully this is a good update.

For those who like to listen to RuneScape’s music while playing the game, you can now set up a custom playlist of up to twelve of your favourite tracks. When the playlist option is turned on, the game will play the tracks from your playlist; turned off, music will randomise as before, but your playlist between will be saved between sessions.

Adding to and removing songs from your playlist requires just one click, and you can reorder them by dragging them up and down the list. We’ve also taken the time to make ‘shuffle’ and ‘clear playlist’ buttons. As with randomised music, the only time your playlist is interrupted is when a new song is unlocked or a jingle (such as for gaining a level) is played.

We hope you enjoy this new feature and we welcome your feedback.

Mod Bond and the Audio Team

Personally this quest doesn’t look like it will be giving enough rewards for me to worry about doing right now, maybe in some spare time or when I need a break from slayer. Good luck to those that do this quest.

The adventure log update looks useful, wish they could keep the log and give you the full history though, maybe in the future.

Apprentice Clerval at the Mage Training Arena is utterly useless at magic…and pretty much everything else. He needs your help in getting his head around Rune Mechanics, our latest novice quest. In particular, he’s trying to build a rune guardian from scratch, something that hasn’t been done for generations.

Rune Mechanics carries on for the Rune Mysteries quest, teaching those who have just learnt the basics of Runecrafting a bit more about the skill (namely, how to craft combination runes). Those adventurers who help Clerval may well find themselves with a brand-spanking new rune guardian pet on their hands.

Certainly, the rune guardians that already roam the halls of the Mage Training Arena would be happy to introduce those unfamiliar with the place to the various Magic training challengers on offer. With enough training, any mage will one day be able to wield a master wand, sport some fancy infinity robes and turn bones into juicy peaches (should they want to). Well, any mage but Clerval…

Mod Nancy
RuneScape Content Developer

Summary:
Where to start Rune Mechanics:
Speak to Apprentice Clerval in the basement of the Mage Training Arena.

Requirements to complete Rune Mechanics:
Rune Mysteries
Wolf Whistle
27 Magic
25 Construction
20 Runecrafting

In other news…

Based on your feedback, we’ve changed the stats on the Penance armours from Barbarian Assault. Check out this Knowledge Base page for more details on these items.

We’ve added a second trident to Barbarian Assault’s rewards. The original trident remains unchanged, but can now be upgraded to a master trident for free. The master trident has an Attack level requirement of 70 due to its increased melee combat stats (in addition to the Magic level requirement of 70 it shares with the original trident).

We’ve updated the Adventurer’s log to contain a larger selection of NPCs including, but not limited to, the KBD, the Penance and Kalphite Queens, and the Corporeal Beast. A log will be created any time you defeat these creatures. Additionally, instead of spamming your log with “I’ve killed a creature” for every one that you defeat, it will now attempt to group these together in one message.

We’ve added a feature to allow you to more easily reply to the last private message you received: just hit the ‘TAB’ key on your keyboard!

We’ve changed the gnome restaurant and associated shops in a few ways. Firstly, if you complete a delivery task, the food and cocktail ingredients shops will be restocked. Secondly, we’ve adjusted the rewards for the deliveries, so you’re more likely to get better items such as mint cakes or seed pods.

All types of spirit shield have now been properly textured and should match the recently updated inventory icons.

You may have noticed that cannons were not always hitting the enemy they were aiming at. The targeting code has been improved and should have more consistent behaviour in all directions.

A more detailed explanation of how the ring of wealth works has been added to the this page in the Game Guide.