Runescape Tips And Secrets

Hey everyone sorry for the lack of posts lately, been busy. Anyway back on topic.

It’s good to see that they are updating dungeoneering, maybe people will see it as a skill after this update rather then just as a mini game.

Another elite quest coming too, hopefully the rewards make the quest worth while. Also the update about treasure trails looks interesting can’t wait to see how it will turn out.

Our first launch this month is all about the past of one of our favourite characters, the enigmatic (and often suspicious) Dionysius, more commonly known as the Wise Old Man. Many of you have no doubt heard vicious rumours about party hats and rune heists, but only his most trusted friends know about his love life, specifically loves lost. In the new quest this month, you’ll witness first-hand what happens when someone’s burnt by an old flame. Quest through a mysterious NOH (that’s an NPC-owned house) that’s been twisted by the grudges of a scorned woman!

The quest requirements include the highest current quest levels for Magic (77), Construction (68) and Crafting (67), so get levelling now if you want to tackle Love Story when it’s launched. For more information, check the blog here. We are also improving the look of dragons in the game with this update, so look out for some scorching new graphics to accompany the summer heat.

The next update this month looks at new rewards to use outside of Daemonheim. Originally, the dungeon entrances just east of the Wilderness required vast amounts of resources to build, which were to be gathered in secret by the dungeon’s workers. To this end, the forces behind it created many resource dungeons around RuneScape, closed off and hidden from prying eyes. As adventurers become wiser regarding the mysteries of Daemonheim, they will find they are able to discover and enter these hidden resource dungeons scattered around the world. There are more than fifteen of these resource dungeons to be found in existing areas, such as Edgeville Dungeon (several being available in the free game), each of which requires a certain Dungeoneering level to enter. Each resource dungeon provides a one-off reward for finding it, plus resources such as new rune rocks or the lair of a mighty frost dragon (lvl 166)!

If that doesn’t float your Fremennik longboat, how about the new class ring rewards we’re introducing for use within Daemonheim. With three rings each for rangers, mages, warriors and skillers, we’re sure that everyone will find at least one class ring to suit their play style. Just choose your favourite ring ability and use your Dungeoneering tokens to upgrade it up to tier 10; you even can switch your ring’s class for ‘hybriding’ within a dungeon, so long as you’re not in combat. Perhaps you’re a skiller who wants higher returns from resource spots; maybe you’re a big melee tank who wants to be able to soak up even more damage; or you could be a ranger who needs to be able to snipe targets for even greater damage; and even mages can get huge boosts to elemental damage with the Blazer class ring.

We’re also adding the Construction skill to Dungeoneering in the form of a new building spot to the smuggler’s room. Players with the appropriate Construction level will be able to create their own locations in the start room, whether it’s a prayer altar or farming spot, or even the new group gatestone portal (fantastic for getting your team about within larger dungeons), there’s bound to be something useful you can build (assuming you have the appropriate materials, of course).

We also plan to have the work for single-player instance dungeons completed, so those solo Dungeoneers who need to log out for five minutes or who suffer some infernal disconnection issues will find their dungeon still remains when they come back. For more info on all of these Dungeoneering updates, check out this blog.

Our final update this month starts with a rework of our old treasure trails. We wanted to make sure that players felt more rewarded for doing every treasure trail and not just rely on blind luck to get a treasure trail-only reward or cool pieces of costume. So we’ve changed all of the existing trails to ensure that you’ll always get a unique, trail-specific reward every time you open the reward casket at the end! Naturally, to achieve this, we needed to add a plethora of new rewards and challenges, so this update will also introduce a brand new set of treasure trails – called the elite treasure trails – and new rewards.

These trails (dropped only by high-level boss monsters like the Skeletal Horror and Bork) introduce a new puzzle known as the celtic knot. These knot puzzles are similar in style to the sliding tile puzzles, but with a whole new set of challenges to solve them. You may also be asked to fight a Guthix wizard while searching for the 150+ new rewards, many of which have been added to the existing trails in the game. Look out for dragon masks, 3rd Age prayer gear, holy ranger gear, treasure trail-specific familiars and animal staves to name just a few.

Also, for something a little different this summer, why not join in with the in-game RuneScape Summer Festival? Run entirely by our player support teams, the event will feature parades and the next round of the Clan Wars Triumvirate Challenge. For more information, read this news.
Have fun!

Mod Mark
RuneScape Lead Designer

The third installment of the elemental workshop series finally Hopefully it has good rewards, although looking at the latest trend with the series and the requirements it doesn’t look like they will be that great. Going to try the quest out tomorrow sometime inbetween my quest to 91 runecrafting lol. Good luck to all that attempt it Hope it rewards the time spent.

The Elemental Workshop below Seers’ Village holds many secrets, long forgotten by the world above. Even as you read this, adventurers are scouring the world of RuneScape to find the means to pass through the body door, eager as they are to unlock more of this ancient forge’s mysteries.

Your efforts in the previous Elemental Workshop quest quite literally required a piece of your mind, but you’ll need it in a more typical, puzzle-solving capacity to get the contraption hidden behind the body door working again. Grasp the inner workings of this contraption, another of Vitruvius’s ingenious machines, and you will be able to show off your mental prowess with equipment made from the new body bar, and the ability to create body armour with elemental metals.

And for those adventurers who cannot master the puzzle, only insanity awaits…

Mod Dylan
RuneScape Content Developer

Summary:
Where to start The Elemental Workshop III:

Seers’ Village chapel.

Requirements to start The Elemental Workshop III:

Elemental Workshop II
Level 20 Mining
Level 33 Defence
Level 33 Smithing

In other news…

You can now right-click the ‘Now playing’ song to add it to your music playlist.

We’ve added three more areas where NPCs can now appear and offer to teleport you to the Fish Flingers D&D. These locations are Piscatoris, Shilo Village and Barbarian Village.

You can now choose the colour of your split chat. In the in-game options menu, click the Split Private Chat check box and select a colour.

We’ve overhauled a core part of our graphics engine to give it four times as much fidelity for modelling and animation; as a result you may notice that various aspects of the in-game graphics look smoother. Because this change has involved modifying many thousands of models and animations there’s a small chance certain combinations won’t look quite right. We encourage you to submit bug reports if you spot anything amiss. You may also find the game client takes slightly longer to update this week while it processes all the changes we’ve made.

Finally the 3rd installment of the fairy tale quest series, looks like a fun quest.

The update about barrows puzzle doors is great as it was annoying to have to try click and get attacked all the time or end up clicking the wrong answer in the rush to click.

Good luck to all that try the quest.

Things look grim indeed for Zanaris and the fairy folk who live there, and it may already be too late. The Fairy Godfather’s little coup d’état worked, and he’s opened up a rift to an ork-filled realm to rally an army. In particularly, his personal retinue of ork generals have made him, how you say, untouchable.

Thanks to your efforts, the Fairy Queen managed to survive this coup, and since returning to active duty has built up a Fairy Resistance. Her chief military advisor, the Tooth Fairy, feels the time is right to mount a counter-offensive and neutralise the Godfather and his orks once and for all.

In a Fairy Tale Part III – Battle at Orks Rift, the third and final part of this fairy quest trilogy, you’ll be drafted to put the Tooth Fairy’s battle plan into action, preparing for the final push to take out the Fairy Godfather and his cronies. Dealing with him and his army of orks will take military precision, solid tactics…and more than a little bit of amateur dentistry. It will also test the combat skills of you and your allies in a fight to determine fate of Zanaris.

Your efforts to help the fairies will not go unrewarded; the spoils of this war include another magic farming tool and use of the fairy ring network without a staff. Maybe even Martin the Master Gardener will have some extra reward for you, seeing how it was he who set you on this path in the first place…

While carrying out the Tooth Fairy’s orders, you’ll probably notice that Zanaris has had a bit of sprucing up (as mentioned in these Developers’ Blogs), and that the orks are that little bit uglier. There’s never been a better time to set things right in the fairy kingdom – it’s time to fight for tooth, justice and the Zanarian way!

Mod Tytn

Lead RuneScape Content Developer

Summary:
Where to start A Fairy Tale Part III – Battle at Orks Rift:

Speak to the Fairy Queen at Fairy Resistance HQ
(you’ll need Fairy Nuff’s certificate to travel there; you can get a replacement from Fairy Nuff’s grotto north of Zanaris bank if you no longer have it).

Requirements to start A Fairy Tale Part III – Battle at Orks Rift:

A Fairy Tale Part II – Cure a Queen
Wolf Whistle
Level 59 Magic
Level 54 Farming
Level 51 Thieving
Level 37 Summoning
Level 36 Crafting
Ability to survive a battle against the equivalent of a level 180 foe

In other news…

Picking flowers as part of the Lily of the Valley holiday event has now been removed.

You can now obtain Shattered Heart’s strange rocks from mining gold and coal in the Living Rock Caverns, stealing from chests and stalls, making molten glass and throwing pottery, and from smithing cannonballs.

The Barrows has been adjusted so that when stood next to a puzzle door, you will no longer be interrupted by nearby NPCs attacking you.

Finally the new skill for 2010 is released! It looks interesting, won’t have a look at it til I finish off doing monkey madness on my new pure though, was halfway through it when it was updated. Good luck to all that try the new skill, will update when I get round to trying it out myself The xp counter update looks good too, was great to have on the bonus weekend

EDIT: I have now reached 50 dungeoneering, the second binded item helps alot but this seems more of a mini game then a skill. It’s still a fun way to have a break from normal skills.

Dungeoneering Skill!

“As my foot touched the first icy cobblestone, a sense of dread flowed through my already shivering limbs. I could feel a presence, powerful and malevolent, hidden in the darkness before me. Cautiously, I rounded the corner, and was hit by a blast of hot, sulphur-smelling air. There was a sound of cracking bone and gristle that turned my stomach. Then my eyes adjusted and I saw it: a hulking demon, sitting before a blood-spattered stone door and feasting on the bodies of my fallen brothers. It was in that moment, as I raised my axe and prepared to charge for vengeance or death, that I gave the place the name it now bears…the Dungeons of Daemonheim.”

It’s out! The new skill is here and it’s available on free-to-play! You’ll receive all the equipment you need to train the skill when you arrive, so catch a boat to Daemonheim from behind the Al Kharid bank to start your new adventures!

Within each dungeon, the adventuring party is asked to solve puzzles and fight monsters, while using their skills to overcome the fiendish challenges that stand in their way. Use your skills to equip your party members, search for loot and keys and explore the floor until you find the epic boss monster at the end.

The environment contains hundreds of new objects, NPCs, rooms and locations covering an area more than 60 times the size of Falador – more than any single update ever has!

After adventuring (with a group of up to 4 other players), you’ll be able to access a wealth of new skill upgrades and reward items, including new weapons and armour for both the free and members’ game.

If you have any questions, please use the dedicated forums (Adventuring Parties, Dungeoneering Feedback and Dungeoneering Help) and read the associated KB articles.

Mod Mark
Lead Designer – RuneScape

Mod Trick, Mod Liono, Mod Chris L and Mod Benny
Principal Dungeoneering Developers

In other news…

The 2010 Easter event has been removed with this update.

We’ve added a button left of the minimap which you can toggle to show the total XP you have gained during your login session. After your feedback of this feature from the Bonus XP Weekend, this XP counter is here to stay!

Personally I love this update, but some people think that this update makes skills like summoning worthless. The way I see it, we don’t get bonus experience like this everyday, so we should use it not let it pass us regretting it later.

I achievied 93-96 summoning within an hour last night when it was released, and am now a proud owner of a blue/white baby monkey. Many people got 99 summoning or close to it last night while I was training. It was fun seeing 50+ spirit kyatts swarm castle wars and edgeville banks, as well as the obelisk of course. There was plenty of random events to deal with during this time, because of the experience rate.

In a way I was disappointed about not getting 137 combat with 96 summoning, but it isn’t really that important I guess. It’s a pity that the gilded altar bonus experience doesn’t count this weekend, although it does make sense.

I would like to know what other people are using the bonus experience for, some other ideas that crossed my mind was doing herblore but I’ve been wanting the pack yak to help with slayer for a long time so chose that. Now to power through the last 1.4m experience so we can all go boss hunting Good luck to all that are still going for their wanted levels from this weekend and for those that are not using this experience, you don’t know what you are missing out on.

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.