The Lumbridge Catacombs… what can I say that will express the boon that this dungeon is to new players who want to level up quickly and be well on their way to starting on the path to Runescape riches?

There has been nothing like this in the 9 years that I have been playing. I, as you may know, am level 106- and I have been hanging out in the final chamber of the catacombs for the last week!

  Just today in my session battling “Corpse Mages” (level 15 mind you), I collected:

1,160 bronze arrows (dropped 40 at a time ) 8 Staves of Air (which I sell at the grand exchange for about 1 k ea.-they can also be sold at the staff shop in Varrock)  2 Fire Talismans (I sell those for thousands of GP ea) 2 ea. air and water Talismans (thousands more GP ) 3 Amulets of Defense, several hundred Air and Fire Runes, and about 5,000 Gold Coins (dropped in increments of 250 ea.)…

So in about an hour and a half I cleared over 20 k worth of stuff that I sold and I kept the Runes and arrows… this doesn’t even count the endless gold rings,amulets and necklaces and other plentiful drops that I left laying on the floor! And these are level 15 monsters I’m talking about!

To access this treasure trove you must complete the new quest The Blood Pact . This quest will be added soon to the Quest guide on this site.

Since playing this game for coming pretty close to ten years, even on my brief stint as a Member, this fountain areahas been a hangout for often the elite characters to gather around and chat and show off their “good” stuff. In the old days before the advent of Varrock’s GRAND EXCHANGE trading center that changed the whole face of runescape -the banks (especially the North Bank!!) and this fountain area were so thick with people on certain worlds that you couldnt even see yourself in the dense crowds!

Needless to say, The Grand Exchange has made buying and selling goods of all qualities infinitely easier and safer, and much more fair. Don’t tell that to the people who often used to gather in Varrock to make millions- by padding the prices of everything and just plain ripping off naive noobs! lol

Yes, “Merchanting”, as some folks liked to call it was absolutely the best way to make cash on members or free worlds. Now, by best, I simply mean the fastest way to turn your hard won items into a decent amount of cash. I personally never did it very much as I had not the patience to stand around hawking my goods. I was a mining junkie for some time and made enough cash to get what I needed and still do!. But, I digress…lol.

 Now I’d like to take a look at this City compared to what it used to be, me having taken an almost yearlong hiatus, I want to appreciate all the new wonders of… VARROCK!

Here’s the fortune tellers tent. Once a drab tent filled with a drab little woman, we now have this fine Persian affair (Omar the Tent-maker would be proud!) And inside our seer-saying young lady has a tricked out Crystal Ball and is very animated indeed!

 As a younger player (Since 2001) Varrock was for me also a hang out, on the east side of the Castle, JUST beyond the Wilderness border ( There was no Warning Trench then ) for Player Killing. Lol, if you want to call it that- mostly dueling with other mid-level lamos like myself sparring for experience points or to see who would “Own” the other one. Do people still say “I owned you!” ? Anyway, the Wildy situation has so drastically changed that the once crowded area east of the castle is now a barely noticed patch on the way to the wilderness from Varrock. So let’s go check it out!

Next- A stroll through Varrock !!

  There are alot of new features in and around Lumbridge castle that I have only recently taken a good look at. Granted these things are not really “new”, as at this writing, they have been out for a few months. I must admit that when I log on to the game I rarely take the time to thoroughly read the main page news and all the update information right away. I’m usually just ready to jump in to the game and start grinding away.

In some ways that is more interesting to me. For example when I saw someone using the “Cabbage Teleport” recently, I was like, WTF? So then I went and found out what it was all about. I like surprises and am so pleased with the direction Runescape is going that I am enjoying it more than ever. So- I was really impressed with the new Lumbridge features which, I am sure, make being a Noob so much less painful an experience as far as learning the ropes and leveling up to a decent Combat level.

I envy the new players today who have the refined game guides on the main page and so many things that make your first few weeks and months more enjoyable by giving you helpful and intuitive tools to get the hang of the game.

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One of the neatest things added to the Lumbridge landscape is the skill tutors area located outside Lumbridge Castle next to the general store and across from another new feature,  The Achievement Diary of the Lumbridge/Draynor area. ( We’ll get into that later on.)

Here you can train safely  and learn  all that you will need to know about the three types of combat in Runescape;   Ranged, Magic, and Melee.

The three tutors will answer any questions and explain the tricks of each trade.  AND they will give you assignments, called JOBS or TASKS, that require you to kill a certain amount of monsters, or collect items for them, or some type of work to be done that will introduce you to the workings of the Kingdom of Misthalin and get you motivated to start or upgrade various skills on the game. And for doing that they will give you rewards.

 For instance, when I asked the Ranged Tutor for a job, she instructed me to go and kill 24 scorpions. and when I completed the task, I was rewarded with 25 training arrows  that can be used to sharpen your Ranging skills here at the target range available here at the training area.

  Then I went to the Magic Tutor and asked her for a job. She sent me off to collect 24 logs. My reward for that was that she put some Air and Mind runes my bank account. ( Though I am not sure how many of each because I didn’t know how many I had before she rewarded me. ) Her next job for me was to bring her rune essences and she paid me 600 coins. Then she asked me to bring her 25 pairs of leather boots. I didn’t feel like making them at the time so I moved on to the Melee dude.

 Finally I approached the Melee Tutor and asked him for work, and then turned to the option of asking him for a different job just to see what type of tasks they would ask of you. Things like making 13 pizzas, making gloves and killing different stuff came up.

However, if you try and change jobs too many times with any of them you will get the following message.

So I guess it doesn’t pay to be too fussy. But go check it out and do some training there if you are a low level player or simply if you need some cash or are bored and don’t know what to do at the moment. Some of the tasks are difficult and even if your Combat is high, this is a great way to bring up crafting or cooking skills.

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YOU CAN BANK ON IT !

I was also very pleased to learn that a bank had been added on the top floor of the castle here in Lumbridge. Though there is one close in Al Kharid, it is certainly handy to have one right on the spot where the Home Teleport brings you, so I now can grab some runes and gear and teleport back to combat or whatever I was doing. Plus it just LOOKS so nice there atop the castle ! ( see Below )

Kudos to the Jagex team and all their good work to make the lands of Misthalin and beyond look so nice! Go and enjoy the new and improved city of beginnings !

Well, it’s finally here folks. Those of us F2P Runescape junkies at last have available High Detail ( Runescape HD…) Runescape. And it is well worth the waiting we endured. A sad note is that at this time unless you are a member you cannot enjoy the splendid full screen version of the game. But rest assured you will enjoy the wonderful souped-up graphics and …well high detail, of the complete Runescape world. I am quite impressed and at this writing have actually only seen a few bits of the improved landscape and character/monster detail.

The areas where I usually train are all that I have checked out so far (Lesser Demon area above for one)  besides the major city teleportation sites like Varrock and Falador. I think they have done a really nice job and am looking forward to exploring further. I have mentally plotted out waiting until I am Combat level 110 before I join Members for the rest of my Runescape career and am sure that by then things will look even better.

I am sorry to all of you who do not have computers that are up to speed and cannot enjoy the HD mode, BUT- all of the graphical improvements to the characters, buildings, landscapes and just about everything in the RS universe still look better, so no one loses. Whether you are playing in HD or  the standard Runescape mode, your character now enjoys a new look, with completely re-vamped emotes and sweet new spell effects.

    Here is an example of the new look given to spells. These shots of me coming through the teleportation matrix are on standard- NOT HD. So you can see that all of us have scored on some level and next we will take a look at some of the sweet mega-coolness of the high detail stuff (I know-I’m corny, but I am digging this shit, lol)

The lighting and water effects are superb, and brings the game to a new level of enjoyment for me. Those of us who have been around since the beginning and stayed despite the cheese-o-rama 2d graphics of the original game ( See the June 21 ‘08 Post to see a history of Runescape Graphics ) are hyped that our long lived characters have truly come of age.

I’m off to look around our new surroundings and will see you next time.

As we all wait with baited breath for the release of Runescape High Definition and all that it entails, the standard method of play (which will still be available if your computer cannot handle the mighty new graphics) has gotten re-vamped. One of the areas to get re-designed is the desert city and surrounding areas of Al Kharid. The characters and buildings have gotten a new look and it is looking very good.

This was always a fun place to come and train mining, crafting and combat in my mid levels. Then they even gave free worlders access to the Duel Arena after a few years of that neat place being a members-only feature. Al Kharid is a truly neat environment and with it being so close to Lumbridge, it is a very convenient place to come after using the Lumbridge Home teleport spell to bank and do other business such as using the Furnace to smelt ores. It is probably the best place on F2P (free to play) to do that considering it’s close proximity between the Furnace and the city’s bank.

Here’s a look at what Jagex has done to the Scorpion pit mines and the area between that and the city proper. All the visuals, from the ore sites to the new and improved scorpions, are truly a nice touch.

Not being a Member at the time, I don’t know as yet how it will look on the new HD graphics, but on standard High or Low Detail, it is a wonderful improvement to one of my favorite cities on the free worlds.

 Here’s me having a go at the Adamantium ores at the far end of the pit. Lots more texture detail on the rocky surface of the mining area add to the rustic feel of the place.

As you can see it’s quite an improvement. I can’t wait to see how it looks when the Beta testing period is over and we all get to see the new Graphics package and the awesome new full-screen mode, which will vastly improve gameplay.

 Here you can see the much better visuals in the desert stretch from the mining pit to Al Kharid itself, the water is already much better and promises to improve even more if you are able to enjoy the new HD package.

The NPC’s are also looking quite a bit better. It’s seriously more fun to battle when your enemies look and have the feel of a bit more realistic set of miniatures. We all love Runescape, and I think we can all agree that all the hard work and improvements to the game will make it even more popular than it already is.

 Here the new and improved Palace Guards team up on a lower level dude clad in Iron armor. You will notice that the look of the armor has changed, it took me a couple of days to get used to the look of the new FULL HELMETS that now appear quite different. Go and check out the improvements for yourself and in the next post we will have a look at more of the features of Al Kharid and teach those of you who do not know the little secret that lies at the farthest south point of the desert area; A free trip all the way across the Runescape map to Port Sarim from here !

In another huge advancement in Runescape gameplay, Jagex has announced that it will be completely updating its graphics and the look and feel of the game !  For those of you who have been around long enough to remember the original Runescape, now called “Runescape Classic ” this will remind you of the beta-phase testing the game went through when “Runescape 2″ debuted. (Now of course Runescape 2 is just “Runescape“) Confused?

Well if you weren’t around in those days, when our favorite game started out, it was 2D ! Yes, Runescape Characters were flat and very pixelated. Then when the game got it’s boost of Andrew Gower power, and Jagex ( Gower is the Company’s CEO equivalent) decided to really put Runescape on the map. A new graphics system was introduced and tested by actual players on the Internet.

I remember having my only character, Havokslinger, ( who is now a lvl 105 ) with his little 2 dimensional armored butt of level 30 something - get to do the “beta testing” of what was going to be Runescape 2. Those players who chose to try the new graphics engine had nothing to lose, just log in on a Beta world and play away. The only drawback was that anything new you got, or any experience you gained, simply did not count. You were merely testing the new graphics engine for Jagex.

But what fun it was ! And the excitement of a whole new look to the game was to be waited for with baited breath ! Lol although I know a few players personally, and lots of complainers online ( people who played and were diehard fans of ”classic”), that did not like these new changes a bit, no sir. They were sure it was going to ruin the game, or cause incredibly insane lag, or that Jagex would no longer offer free play.

For a while, Jagex offered both options of the new graphics and old. Eventually they stopped updating “classic” and all the new cool things were lost to those who never made the switch to ” Runescape 2 “. Now Classic Runescape is an old school oddity and I believe there are only several hundred players that are allowed continue on that ghost from the past.

NOW ANOTHER GENERATION:

Here we are on the verge of yet another upgrade in the quality of Runescape gameplay. Only this time there will be no testing or waiting for the switch other than waiting for the updates to load once they are perfected.

The Characters will be more realistic, and the subtle yet powerful changes of important aspects like shadows, water effects and myriads of other graphical improvements that will surely make gameplay even more pleasurable than it already is to us hardcore fans.

Let’s take a visual walk through the history of the Graphics of runescape.

CLASSIC:

  Hehe… well here is some Runescape Classic Combat for ya! Pretty corny huh? Well Runescape is no WOW  graphically but we’ve come a long way baby !

   How’s that for some ranging action in classic? (o..m..g…right? ) Although I do admit I love the old Rune Color!

Here are some more blasts to the past when I started:

  Very basic buildings- Hey, there were no on-line games around !!

Goofy fishing interface and screen setup to say the least huh? ( Are we THINKING nets?)

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THE BETA ERA:

  Well, we’re all 3 dimensional at least, but the older style Lessers Demons, along with us heroes, still have no shadows…always room for improvement right?

  A notable improvement over Classic Runescape buildings, but not quite there yet…

Ahh… the chaos of Player Killing. I have never heard so many complaints as when Jagex pulled free roaming PKing in favor of Bounty Hunter…

  You’ll never see this again ! This dream of a Drop Party during Beta testing was fun …Who cared, you couldn’t keep or lose anything permanently.

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A GLIMPSE OF THINGS TO COME:

The new improvemants in the graphics will lean heavily on things like shadow and water realism, like in the following example comparing today’s graphics to new and improved, note the edges of the grass look more like grass, and not just painted color on the ground to show a path…

Here in a section of the Desert, we see the nice effect the new shadows will give, to add a bit of realism…

AND… THANK THE GODS THEY ARE IMPROVING ON THE ULTRA CHEESY TALKING HEADS OF THE CHAT INTERFACE !

And finally a glimpse of something I am personally looking forward to… Optimizing the space of the rather small Runescape playing screen. There will apparently be a third option added to the existing ones of “High Detail” and “Low Detail”, an option as shown below that will give you the full screen and fit in all the stat items and inventory applications on the actual screen itself. Not sure how that is going to work, but it looks good !

  In a commentary of this screenshot on the Runescape site, the Jagex team promises individual character shadows on each character. These upgrades to the Graphics will require more up to date memories and processor requirements, so those out there with really outdated machines may have to upgrade to get all of the new visual goodies, but you will still enjoy improved play if not.

No exact date for this amazing Update yet, but Jagex says it will be soon… Hope to see you out there playing ( look for Havokslinger ) and hope you are looking forward to the new improvements as much as I am !

HAPPY RUNING !

THANKS BE TO THE GODS AT JAGEX;

THIS IS NO LONGER A RUNESCAPE QUEST !

I WILL LEAVE THE POST FOR NOSTALGIC INTERESTS.

long live Runescape ! 

   Witch’s Brew is what you’re after in this in this safe beginner’s quest!

The first step to starting this quest is finding the tiny little burg they call Rimminton. Well if you look at the worldmap, locate The Kingdom of Asgarnia. If coming from Falador Castle, head south past the mining area on the map and you will run square into it. If you’ve lost your bearings and need to start from scratch, simply use your Lumbridge Home Teleport spell and head west from lumby castle, passing Draynor Village and then past Port Sarim. Head southwest till you see the mining area . This is called the Rimmington mines. Directly below is Rimmington itself.

The mines here are good at the beginning stages of your Mining Skill, and the bank in Draynor is fairly convenient to take your loads of copper, tin and iron to. You will also notice that right above Rimmy is Meltzars Maze, which you will explore in depth when you attempt to complete the Dragon Slayer Quest in the future. So remember where that is and it will make your life easier when you approach level 70 and want to attempt that quest.

Now we get to the lady of the hour who you will be running errands for in this quick little quest. (quick that is if you navigate the map well and this will help you get to know the Kingdom of Asgarnia better.

The quest is basically collecting some items for Hetty, the resident witch. You will find that a big part of most quests is collecting stuff and running all over the place.

In order to drink her brew and gain the 325 Magic Experience reward, you will need:

BURNT MEAT~ This is pretty simple, kill a cow, a giant rat, or a bear and take the raw meat to a cooking range. Cook it until it is burnt!  There are giant rats east by port sarim or cows behind the crafting guild. Slaughter something and take it’s meat to the range in Rimmington.

EYE OF NEWT~ This cliche’ item can be bought right next to you to (GO EAST) in the Port Sarim magic shop for a couple of gold pieces.

ONION~ This one’s a gimme! There is an onion field north of Rimmy-just go pick one.

RAT’S TAIL~ There are little rats running around all over the place in Runescape. Once you have started this quest you will be able to retrieve the tail once you have killed one. You will see them scurrying about near the witch’s home.

Go take Hetty all this stuff and collect your reward of 325 Mage exp. and one quest point!