RuneScape skills

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With the exception of the first few levels, the experience needed to increase a level is roughly 1.1 times the experience required for the previous level. Experience requirements double approximately every 7 levels.

RuneScape skills are abilities that enable players to carry out various tasks. Some skills are restricted to players who choose to pay a monthly fee for additional content, also known as members. Players gain experience in a skill when they perform skill-related tasks and this experience gained depends on the particular task. As players gain levels, they gain new abilities in the skill, some of which are restricted to members. The new abilities gained, in turn, reward players with more experience points to compensate for the exponential increase in experience needed to reach each new level, however this does not make up for all the extra work needed to progress in a skill.

Combat

Main article: RuneScape combat

Combat in RuneScape is not a trainable skill in itself; instead, combat level is calculated internally by the game engine, which applies a formula to the combat skill levels. The skills included in combat are attack, strength, defence, hitpoints, magic, ranged, and prayer. Experience in each of Attack, Defence and Strength is gained when the appropriate attack style is used. HP experience is gained when a player deals damage to an opponent, using either mellee, ranged, or magic. Although HP gets about 1.1 experience per damage dealt, while Ranged, Attack, Strength, and Defence get 4 experience per damage dealt, it is subconciensly trained, so there is no need to focus on this skill, it will basicly train itelf. Ranged depends on damage dealt by arrows or thrown objects, while magic uses runes to cast spells, offensive, defensive, or otherwise. Magic can be used to enchant items such as jewellery and orbs, smelt ores, turn items into gold and teleport players. Prayer is used, apart from protection, to keep items in death and to bless holy and unholy symbols with the relevant prayer books. It was considered one of the hardest skills to improve; however, with the release of the Construction skill in May 2006 it is much easier to raise due to the Gilded Altar that the Construction skill brought.

Extracting

See also: Primary industry

These skills involve the extraction of raw materials from the environment, supplying the processing skills and helping on quests such as Heroes' Quest (members).

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A player fishing for tuna and swordfish.

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A player uses a rare Dragon Axe to chop down a tree.

Fishing

Fishing requires the player to use a fishing tool (Such as a fishing rod) with a fishing spot to catch fish, which can be cooked and used to heal lost hitpoints. Higher level fish can only be caught through the challenging Trawler Minigame. Higher level fish can also be caught through this method, although many people are needed for the completion of the minigame. Fishing with a large net can allow players to catch boots, seaweed, and caskets containing less common items, in addition to fish. Many players fish so they can sell their catch, especially lobsters, swordfish and sharks, to other players. Fish can be sold raw or cooked (although they both sell for the same price in the general stores), allowing the purchasers to use the food to restore health, or to cook raw fish themselves to gain cooking experience.

Mining

Mining requires players to use pickaxes to extract ores, gems, clay, and other materials from mining rocks. Players can extract better ores and materials and can use better pickaxes to help in mining faster as their skill levels increase. The minerals extracted are used in smithing, crafting, magic), runecrafting, construction, quests, or minigames.

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A player gathers valuable herbs by harvesting them with the farming skill.

Woodcutting

Woodcutting requires players to use an axe to chop down trees and collect the logs gathered from the tree. Normal trees yield only one set of logs each before they must respawn; all other trees yield several sets of logs. Players can use better axes as their skill levels increase, allowing them to chop trees faster. The logs cut are commonly used in the fletching, construction, and firemaking skills.

Farming

Farming is a Members only skill which allows players to grow various vegetables, flowers, hops, herbs, bushes, trees, and other plants from seeds, which can be purchased, pick pocketed, harvested from some plants, or obtained from various monsters drops and random events. At certain levels, players may plant certain plants or a scarecrow in order to protect crops in the flower patch from disease. Many complaints have, however, been voiced about this skill since each lot of crops takes hours of concentration from the farmer. Farming tools can be kept by useful Tool Leprechauns at the various farming patches. Although the main patches consist of two vegetable patches, a flower patch and a herb patch, special patches for trees, bushes, mushrooms, cacti and many more exotic plants can be found in appropriate areas. The farming skill, available only to paying members, was released on 11 July 2005.

Processing

See also: Secondary industry

Processing skills allow players to turn raw materials produced with extraction skills into either finished goods or materials used in other skills.

Cooking

Cooking allows players to prepare their own food, which is eaten to heal hitpoints. Meals can also raise levels temporarily, as can drinks. For example, Fish pie, Garden pie, Slayers' respite and Dwarven stout raise fishing, farming, slayer, mining and smithing respectively. Farming, fishing, combat and hunting provide most raw food to be cooked. Bread and other such foods do not reqire any skill to gather the raw materials for and no experience is gained through that. The most common foods are fish, although other foods such as vegetables, stews, and pies are common. Even more complex foods can be cooked, such as complicated mixed drinks and multi-step desserts. Cooking is regarded as the simplest skill to train, as several players have earned the maximum experience points, a feat requiring over ten times as much experience in the skill as attaining the maximum level. Players with a low level in this skill will burn their food often, but as the skill level improves, they will burn food less often.

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A player fletches her logs into arrow shafts.

Crafting

Crafting allows players to make various items with traditional crafting skills, such as pottery, glassblowing, leatherworking, goldsmithing, weaving, and silversmithing. Gems may also be cut to be used in jewellery and staves to be created for magic. All ores needed for crafting can be mined in the crafting guild, which requires level 40 crafting to enter and a brown apron. Items for skills such as prayer, herblore, combat, magic, smithing, mining and some quests can be made through crafting. A player may need to advance a few levels in order to make some of these item types.

Firemaking

Firemaking allows players to cook food on a small campfire when a range or an oven is not available. Each fire uses one pile of logs from any kind of a tree, obtained using the Woodcutting skill; however, the length of time the fire burns is not affected by the type of log used, but is instead completely based on the number of people standing near the fire. Food cooked on a fire is more likely going to burn, rather when cooking the food on a range, and many foods cannot be cooked on a fire at all. Firemaking is also needed to provide light from candles or lanterns in certain dark areas such as underground caves; and to burn pyre logs, a special kind of log that can be used to train the prayer skill by burning shades, a kind of swamp spirit found in Mor'ton.. Like Cooking, it is also one of the easiest skills to train.

Fletching

Fletching is a members' skill used to make arrows, bows, crossbows, and other projectile weapons from raw materials found throughout Gielinor. Fletching mainly uses the logs cut from Woodcutting and makes them into bows or arrows. Higher level woods require higher Fletching levels, thus making better bows and ammunition that perform more efficiently when used in the range skill. The strongest bows, which are made from yew or magic trees, are also popular items to use alchemy on, converting them into gold. This is a popular way to train magic, while also gathering money.

Training fletching is fairly quick compared to the other skills. Most people train on bows because they can be sold at a profit to Mages who wish to alchemy them for magic experience. Fletching encompasses a wide range of skills. For example: if you are making bows, first you need Woodcutting to supply logs. Then you need crafting to supply the bowstrings. With these two items you make a completed bow which is either used in Ranging (Archery) or converted into gold using magic .

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A player uses runecrafting to turn rune essence into Air Runes, to be used in spells or sold later on.

Runecrafting

Runecrafting allows players to create rune stones, required for casting magic spells. Rune stones are small stones that are infused with different kinds of power and are created from rune essence. Power is infused into rune essence via different kinds of rune altars having an altar for most types of the runes. Runes that require membership to be able to craft, such as Cosmic, Chaos, etc... can only be crafted with "Pure Essence", which requires a higher mining level to mine, as well as membership. Access to altars is granted by possessing the appropriate talisman, the talismans also being able to help a player locating an altar. Players can also choose to make and wear enchanted tiaras instead of carrying a talisman. Many players train runecrafting by inviting other people as groups of runners, who transport the rune essence to the runecrafter in exchange for the end product, allowing the runecrafter to train more quickly. Paying members have access to the Abyss, after completing a mini-quest, which is an area allowing players to reach the runecrafting altars more quickly but with a higher risk of losing items through death. Players, in a case of emergent gameplay, made standing arrangements for delivery of rune essence by runners in return for a reward of runes or coins. Jagex recognized the popular worlds for this when "themed worlds" were tagged in the 13th of August update.

Smithing

Smithing uses the ores obtained from mining to make armour, weapons, and other items. The first stage of smithing is smelting the raw ores into usable bars. The second stage of smithing is forging the bars into usable items on an anvil by using a hammer. Not all of the items possible from the metal available can be smithed and not all weapon materials can be smithed, such as equipment named as "Black" and "Dragon". Most pieces of armour and weaponary require more than one bar to forge, and more valuable bars require higher smithing levels and more coal to smelt. Smithing is one of the most difficult and expensive skills to train.

Independent

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The Agility skill allows players to access shortcuts, such as the ability to cross a river via a fallen log.

Agility

Agility is a members' skill used to access remote areas and to take shortcuts, especially in the wilderness and on some quests. Many areas that contain slayer monsters have agility shortcuts to help higher level players reach the monsters they wish to slay more quickly. As players train the agility skill, their stamina regeneration rates increase, which allows their run energy to restore faster. Agility is the only member skill that retains its effects when players are on free to play servers. The agility skill was released on 12 December 2002.

Construction

Construction is a member's skill that allows players to build houses complete with several styles of room and furniture. When players first begin construction, they only have two rooms and can only build crude furniture. As players advance, they will be presented a wide array of rooms available for customisation, though there is a limit from twenty to thirty rooms, depending on the level. Players can plant trees and shrubs in their garden or build furniture for their parlour, dining room, study, and bedroom. Players may also construct specialty furniture for their kitchen, workroom, and game room. Houses may also have unorthodox rooms such as a personal chapel, where they can pray to their chosen RuneScape god, a throne room, and a portal chamber, a room which provides teleports to various areas of Gielinor. Also, players can send other players down into a premade dungeon and pit them against the traps and monsters placed there. On 18 October 2006, Jagex added an availibility to build a costume room, which allows players to store various "fun" items and costumes, along with a few armour sets and items gained from a holiday event.

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A room inside a player's house containing various trophies.

The skill was introduced by Jagex on 31 May 2006. Introduction of the skill was hinted at in the Behind The Scenes in May, and the hint was deemed as one of the most surprising moments in RuneScape. The large number of players trying to train the skill caused many players to experience lag, and Jagex installed eleven additional servers to help alleviate the problem.

Training construction requires more money than any other skill. High-end supplies can cost an extreme amount of money to purchase. Because of that, construction has been viewed as a successful method by Jagex to curb the rate of inflation, and is criticized by some players, as wasteful.

Herblore

Herblore is a members' skill for creating a variety of potions that give players temporary boosts to a specific skill or set of skills, restore attributes, cure poison, and more. These potions are made by first putting a specific herb into a vial of water (or coconut milk in some cases). This will create an "Unfinished Potion". In order to complete the mixture, you must add a specific second ingredient to the mix. Once this is done you will receive a potion with three (3) doses. If you have more than one potion you may mix them to obtain four (4) dose potions , however most people buy 3 dose potions and then mix it themselves because it is cheaper this way.

Herbs are obtained through the farming skill. The higher the farming level required to make the herb, the better the potion it makes (in terms of experience received). Second ingredients can be bought from certain shops around Runecape, some can be farmed through the farming skill, and yet others are obtained while woodcutting.

Not many players reach 99 Herblore simply because of the large amount of time and money you have to invest in it. Although it is possible to achieve this level without losing money (by making certain potions or gathering your own supplies), it would take much longer than if you made the best potions you can make and lost money.

Potions are sold very frequently in the Runescape Forums as well as in many banks across the map. Their price (as well as the price for the ingredients) is always changing, depending on demand at any given time. Some potions are sold in sets rather than as individual potions. For example: a "Super Set" consists of a Super Strength, Super Attack, and Super Defense Potion.

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A player training the Slayer skill sprinkles salt on a Rockslug cave creature, a method needed to kill it.

Hunter

Hunter is a member skill that involves catching animals, such as birds, butterflies, and imps. Players must set traps, leave bait, or investigate burrows. Certain creatures contain unique rewards when caught, such as hides that can be turned into clothing that increases the hunting success rate, or capes that reduce some weight of the items in a player's inventory. Other creatures can be used as ranged weapons or to deliver items from players' inventories to their bank. Hunter was released on 21 November 2006.

Slayer

Slayer is a members' skill that allows players to kill special monsters that would otherwise be impossible to defeat. To train the slayer skill, players must get assignments from slayer masters located throughout Gielinor. The assignments instruct them to defeat a certain number of specific monsters. If a slayer master gives an assignment that the player feels is too tough (for example, Black Dragons), the slayer master in Burthorpe could give a new assignment with monsters that are not as tough. Assignments from Burthope cannot be refused by the player, as a method to avoid players cycling through tasks. The slayer skill was released on 26 January 2005.

Many slayer monsters are located in special areas and require innovative methods and special equipment to kill. Slayer monsters usually drop better armour and equipment and respawn faster than other monsters at similar levels.

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A player displays the Quest Cape, which can be bought after completing every quest in the game.

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A player performing an emote suited for wearers of the Agility Skill Cape.

Thieving

Thieving is a members' skill that allows players to obtain money and items by pickpocketing NPCs, by stealing from market stalls, and by unlocking various chests throughout Gielinor. Thieving also allows players to unlock doors, with or without lockpicks, or by using unusual methods in order to access areas that they could not reach by other means.

Capes of Achievement

Capes of Achievement, also known as Capes of Accomplishment or simply "Skill Capes", were released on 18 October 2006. Skill Capes can be purchased only by members who have gained the maximum level in a skill(99). When worn, the capes temporarily boost the level of that skill. The capes allow their owners to perform a unique emote relating to the skill. Players who are eligible to purchase more than one skill cape receive capes that are trimmed to designate their status.

The Quest Cape, a special Cape of Achievement, is available to players who have completed every quest in the game. Players must complete new quests as they are released in order to continue to wear the quest cape and to use its emote.

External links

• RuneScape skills manual