The Endgame

This post from Zybez's blog got me thinking. Indeed, wouldn't it be nice to have some non-exp related goals past 99? In this case getting 99 in a skill wouldn't be the end of it, but only an enabler for completing these extra tasks and activities. Something like achievement diaries, but much longer, harder, constantly updated with new tasks and possibly without any rewards associated with the tasks completion. What do you think?

Getting 99 is never easy...

Getting 99 is never easy... And is always an achievement.

But a tough one to keep playing through. Players often don't realize how difficult it is to remain motivated in Runescape after reaching a 99 in a skill, especially the first 99. Many months of grinding and the last frantic push across 96-99 experience gap make it hard to readjust your play style after the goal is reached.

What can I say? Is there a way to avoid this problem? I think there is. I've been guilty myself in pushing Firemaking and Cooking and as a result I don't train these skills past 99, which is a shame really. But two skills which I didn't push (Thieving and Farming) I still find very enjoyable to train. So for me the solution for future 99s is simple - I won't be pushing anything. I'd rather not get another 99 or get it in two years just as a by-product of playing the game, than try to speed up the skilling thus removing yet another skill from my list of enjoyable Runescape activities.

Alex's article on this topic is here.

Buying Runescape Capes

Yet another passionate article about players not getting deserved respect for Skill Capes in "buyable" skills.

I just want to reiterate my view on this topic: there are NO "lowly" 99th in Runescape, every one requires enormous amount of work and dedication put into it. As for how much work, it depends. Some players make a lot of easy money (for instance, by merchanting) and thus able to speed up training of "buyable" skills significantly, but many others train these skills without buying expensive supplies (or spend a lot of time earning money) and for them levels in these skills have the same degree of difficulty as levels in "non-buyable" skills.

As for "deserving respect", skill capes don't make their owner more respectable - players earn respect by other means. You know what I mean.

Runescape Power Leveling: The Guide to Level 99 Everything

Awesome funny video about "hidden" secrets of powerleveling.


There are more, if you liked this one, at Excl YouTube channel.

99 Farming. 99 Firemaking. 99 Cooking.

Well, it was a long way, but the journey is over now. Today I reached lvl 99 in Farming, Firemaking and Cooking skills. It took me about 15 seconds to do: harvest sweet corn, make a fire and cook it - easy enough. Here is the video.

But, of course, it took much longer to get there.
1. Cooking - I actually made money on my journey to 99. If you remember, back in Dec 2007 sharks were dirt cheap, so I bought a bunch, kept cooking them little by little for about 5 months and then sold for profit.
2. Firemaking - took me about 4 months of relaxed leveling and about 35M RSGP, as I was burning exclusively magic logs. My merchanting paid for it, what can I say...
3. Farming - well, Farming took 5 broken spades and several years of playing the game. Never bought a seed and thoroughly enjoyed the skill.

Buying Skills in Runescape

Steve raised an old question about "people buying skill capes". Take a look (and there is also a video guide for shark fishing, do not attempt). I partially agree, but not quite. Here is the response I posted in Steve's blog.

I agree, that accusing people in buying skills is not good. No matter, how much money you spend on a skill you still have to put a LOT of time and effort into raising it to 99.

However, some skills can be raised significantly faster and easier if you are able to buy supplies and the "getting the money to buy the supplies takes time and work" argument is not really valid. For instance, I am buying and burning magic logs to raise firemaking, but I am also making about 3M a day merchanting (or speculating, if you will) and it takes me 10 minutes per day to do so. Comparing it to the way I raised Thieving, when I get the Firemaking cape, I will have to admit that I bought it.

Lucky drops and old and dusty party hats can replace "speculation on the GE" too. My point is that it is not necessarily takes a lot of time and effort to make a lot of money in Runescape and therefore skills that can be bought may be indeed a bit de-valuated.

But what do you think about this issue? Can the skills be divided like that?

Getting 99 Summoning

"How to" get 99 Summoning guide, tips and tricks from Deja Vu Xiii who actually got the Summoning cape. I am personally not going to use it and will keep raising Summoning slowly, but if you are in a hurry, take a look.

Zezima shows all Achievement Capes

This is the oldie for sure, but I thought I have it here too. Zezima shows all his achievement capes on YouTube.

What is the hardest 99 skill after all?

Take a look at this interesting research. It seems like Construction holds the first place. Also amazingly enough there are more Strength 99th than Cooking and Fletching ones.

99 Major Achievements in Runescape

Awesome questionnaire from Tip.it. Also here is Jax's version of it.

Do you really need to go to 99?

Interesting perspective on getting to 99. I have one 99 skill myself, but I actually agree with the author that 99s are not that important. It is much better just to PLAY the game and have fun in the process. I would rather have all my skills 60+ or 70+ than 2 of them at 99.