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TruthScape Skill Secrets TruthScape Skill Secrets - A General Guide to RuneScape Skills and Training

Before you jump in to read all the information I’ve gathered for you about RuneScape skills, I hope you’ll take a moment to peruse this page. In it, I will explain to you what this series of guides is about, and my goals for them. I’ll also tell you some of the assumptions I have made in writing, so you can better understand where I’m coming from.

Due to their prominence, guides to RuneScape skills are everywhere. You can find basic information about skills in the RuneScape knowledge base, for starters, and every major RuneScape fansite has skill guides as well. So why did I bother writing my own skill guides?

Simply put, I wanted to take a different approach. In my explorations of other skill references, I have found them useful—but limited. They tend to simply list the whats of each skill and not the hows and the whys, and so as I worked to raise my skill levels, I usually found myself having to gather all the hidden details I needed via the “school of hard knocks”. I gained a lot of experience doing this—and I don’t just mean in-game XP!—and thought that it would be helpful to share what I’ve learned with others.

After all, while laundry lists of actions that give XP or ways to use different items are helpful, they don’t really answer the questions most players really want answered. I’m talking about these sorts of questions:

• Why should I bother training this skill anyway? What are the benefits of raising it, and what are the costs?
  
  
• How hard is the skill to level?
  
  
• When should I start training it?
  
  
• Are there quests that will give me XP for the skill? Are there quests that I should complete in order to speed up training?
  
  
• How are skills interrelated, and what are the ways that multiple skills can be trained at once for greater efficiency?
  
  
• Of all the possible ways to get XP in a skill, which let you level the fastest?
  
  
• What equipment do I need for the skill? Which equipment will help the most in training it?
  
  
• How can I gather the resources I need to get experience in skills easily?
  
  
• What are the less obvious ways of training skills that most players don’t know about?
  
  
• How can I make money while also getting good amounts of XP, even when most players think that’s impossible? And if it really isn’t feasible to level the skill while earning gold, how can I level it while losing as little as possible?

If these are the sorts of questions you’d like answered in a skill guide, you’ve come to the right place. In the TruthScape Skill Secrets series, I provide you with reference information, sure, but also the details you need to not only train skills effectively, but to enjoy using the skills too.

In writing my guides, I try to keep in mind that everyone has their own style, and that there are many different approaches to play. At the same time, my guides strive to move beyond just listing facts, to providing advice and opinion; that means they will be colored by my own views and biases. Rather than pretend I don’t have them, I think it’s best to lay my cards on the table for you up front.

First and foremost, I play by the rules. Don’t expect any advice here on how to exploit bugs, or suggestions that you engage in combat while away from your keyboard (AFK).

Second, I am not a powerleveler. I have done it in the past—generally to achieve a specific goal—but I don’t believe in it as a routine method of gameplay. I do discuss powerleveling, both in general terms and for specific skills, but it is not the emphasis of my guides. I am far more interested in what I call smartleveling; I explain what this means and why I am not a big fan of powerleveling in my general training guide.

Third, I am an efficiency nut. J I always like to do things in the most efficient way I can, taking into account all the costs of an activity and the value of what it produces. My usual aim is to find “sweet spots” where skills can be leveled at a good pace while still making money, or at least not losing a great deal. This necessarily affects my advice and my descriptions of preferred methods.

Fourth, I am not a person who focuses greatly on doing everything myself; this is a natural consequence of the point above, because working alone makes efficient gameplay impossible. This is a multiplayer game with a vibrant economy, and it pays to take advantage of it. For example, I can understand that some people might prefer to make all of their own vials for Herblore and then fill them at a sink, but given what they cost, I’d rather just buy water-filled vials and concentrate on activities that are a good use of my time.

And finally, I am a balanced player who enjoys training a skill for a while and then moving on to something else. I am not a “grinder” who could, for example, decide to sit down and make 10,000 shortbows to get level 99 Fletching—RuneScape is a game, games should be fun, and I don’t consider that sort of thing fun. If you do, no problem; you’ll find plenty of advice for it in my guides. But bear in mind that such methods are not my specialty.

I’ve made a number of key assumptions in creating my guides. These are based, of course, on my general views on skills (as laid out in the preceding subsection), but also my experience with skills, and my understanding of how gamers typically play RuneScape.

Here are the main premises I’ve used in my writing that I think you should know about:

• Members Gameplay Emphasis: I am a P2P player, always have been, and that’s what I generally write about. The F2P game is much simpler and has far fewer options, so there’s really not as much need for complex guides, and I just don’t have a lot of experience there anyway.
  
  
• Eyes on the Prize: I see the three main goals of playing as gaining XP, making money (or curtailing losses) and having fun. I always gear my guides towards these goals, and avoid recommending actions that don’t provide XP, that are prohibitively expensive, or that are mind-numbingly boring. This emphasis is also based on the fundamental truth that time is money.
  
  
• Balanced Levels: Training certain skills depends on having levels in other skills, but I try to assume that they are reasonably balanced. For example, I wouldn’t suggest a route among Farming patches for beginners to that skill that involved high-level teleport spells—because most low-level farmers also have a low Magic level—but I would for discussing high-level Farming. Similarly, I’d never tell someone starting out training Prayer to begin with dragon bones, because most newbies have no practical way of getting them in any reasonable quantity.
  
  
• Not Oriented to Pure Skillers: A specific point related to my balanced player assumption is that my non-combat guides are not geared to level 3 skillers (those who never train combat). Those who prefer this approach will have to adapt what I’ve written to their needs.
  
  
• Level-Appropriate Equipment: Just as I assume reasonably balanced levels, I do the same when it comes to gear. So, for example, I’d expect someone starting out the Crafting skill to probably have low-end weapons, while a high-level player I’d assume has access to equipment like an abyssal whip.
  
  
• Average Wealth: My guides always assume reasonable levels of wealth for players—while I may optionally describe how to take advantage of rare or very expensive equipment, I don’t assume it. For example, I advise fighting monsters with magic attacks using dragonhide or Karil’s armor set, not full armadyl armor or the third age ranged set.
  
  
• Synergies and Multitasking: One of the keys to raising skills efficiently and profitably is to take advantage of synergies: areas where working two skills at once makes both of them easier than training either alone. I am also always on the lookout for ways that I can take advantage of resources and opportunities: for example, whenever I use a duelling ring to go to the Duel Arena, I always stop by my cactus patch and pick three spines from it. These small enhancements can make a huge difference in the long run.

You’ll find that I spend more time describing methods that are cost-effective and/or provide fast training. I only very briefly mention inefficient methods (mostly to tell you why not to bother.)

Finally, I’m sure you’ll notice that some of these skill guides are rather long, especially when describing skills that are complicated or have many skill activities. This is a result of me wanting to share with you all the knowledge I can! Please remember that you do not have to read an entire guide from start to finish. I encourage you to explore the material, read sections that seem interesting to you, and then continue to use it as a reference over time, returning to it when you need to learn more.

Enjoy. J

TruthScape Skill Secrets TruthScape Skill Secrets - A General Guide to RuneScape Skills and Training