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Contrasting Buyable and Unbuyable Skills TruthScape Skill Secrets - General Guide - Strategies and Techniques for Efficient RuneScape Skill Training

So far I have talked rather extensively about the nature of powerleveling, and its general pros and cons, but haven’t said much about what it really entails. The reason is simple: powerleveling as a concept is far from monolithic. It means different things in different skills, as well as different things to different people.

A full exploration of powerleveling options is well beyond the scope of this overview guide; you’ll need to check the individual skill guides for all the details. Of course, it will take me a while to get them all written. J Ergo, I thought it might be handy to start you off with a brief look at some of the most common methods for each skill, so you get a better idea of the options available.

Combat experience is awarded continuously as you do damage to either NPCs or other players. Powerleveling in combat involves taking advantage of situations that allow you to do more damage in a given period of time. Some styles allow you to damage multiple targets, which increases training speed further.

For melee, there are no specific powerleveling methods—you simply have to focus on equipment, supplies and techniques that let you do a lot of damage fast. In some cases, this means foregoing training on monsters that have good drops in order to train as quickly as possible. For example, instead of fighting dragons, some players powertrain melee by fighting monkey guards at the temple on Ape Atoll; there is an altar right nearby so you can fight almost continuously with prayer.

You can also train faster by using equipment that is designed to do a lot of damage, most notably the Dharoks set from The Barrows. By keeping your hitpoints low you can train melee skills very fast by getting large hits on monsters. Naturally, you do this at the potential risk of dying if you make a mistake.

Another essential aspect of powertraining melee is to use enhancing potions and prayers, both of which allow you to do more damage. With potions as cheap as they are now, it is always worth using super attack and super strength potions to do as much damage as possible. Many powertrainers also use prayers like Piety to speed up combat, even if that means spending money on prayer potions. (This is another way that the Ape Atoll idea works well—the nearby altar means you can keep Piety on indefinitely!)

Normal ranged combat is slower than melee, but ranged makes up for this with two special types of gear that allow you to powertrain the skill. The first is the dwarven multicannon, which can be used in parallel with conventional ranging to greatly increase how much XP you get per hour, especially in multicombat areas. The second is using chinchompas, which are an area effect ranged weapon. If employed on the right monsters in the right area, chinchompas can produce very high XP gains quickly.

Of course, both methods are rather expensive. Red chinchompas are the fastest, but can cost up to 1 million gold per hour to use (Figure 138)!

Magic is definitely the most easily powertrained of the three major combat styles, because of Ancient Magicks. You do need to complete a tough quest to get the spellbook, and get your level reasonably high as well. Once you do, though, you can get large amounts of XP by using area effect spells like Ice Burst and Ice Barrage on multiple targets. Again, that’s is very expensive.

There are also some non-combat Magic options, though they are inferior to combat with Ancients.

Now let’s take a look at the basic powerleveling options for the various non-combat skills. These generally depend on the type of skill in question. Conversion skills that are at least somewhat “buyable”—such as Cooking, Farming, Herblore and Smithing—are usually powertrained by buying the raw materials needed for high XP skill activities, and accepting a loss on the final products. In contrast, the resource skills—such as Fishing, Mining and Woodcutting—are powerleveled most often by foregoing the earning potential of high-end skill options, in favor of lower-end resources that give faster XP.

Here are the most common powerleveling methods:

• Agility: This is one of the least “powerlevelable” skills in the game. You pretty much have to count on needing to put in your hours running laps and getting XP. You can improve things somewhat by using agility potions and summer pies, for instance, but this is still not a huge difference.
  
  
• Construction: This is a tedious skill to level; you basically just make, destroy and remake furniture pieces over and over. The more money you have available to waste, the faster you can level up: in particular, players who can afford to do so will train using teak planks instead of oak planks, or mahogany instead of teak. Another key is buying planks rather than making them from logs yourself.
  
  
• Cooking: Buy the highest-level fish you can and cook it on a range close to a bank, wearing the cooking gauntlets from the quest Family Crest.
  
  
• Crafting: At low levels, powertrain by making disposable glass or silver items, or cutting gems. At higher levels, switch to making dragonhide bodies and then selling or alching them: you can do green bodies at level 63, blues at 71, reds at 77 and blacks at 84. Buy your dragonhides already tanned—dragon leathers—to save even more time (and waste more money, of course.)
  
  
• Farming: Powerlevel using the highest-level tree and fruit tree seeds you can afford. Always plant regular trees twice a day and fruit trees once a day, and pay farmers to watch crops for you. Do as many additional crops as possible, depending on how much time you want to spend on the skill; the trees are a must, however.
  
  
• Firemaking: You just have to burn lots and lots of logs, so if you can afford it, burn higher-level ones that give more XP. Yews are a decent choice for the powertrainer; eucalyptus is a slightly cheaper alternative giving similar XP. Magic logs give the most, but they are only for those literally with money to burn! J
  
  
• Fishing: Either Barbarian fishing—which also gives small amounts of Strength and Agility XP—or fly fishing for trout and salmon at Shilo Village.
  
  
• Fletching: Just make the highest-level bows you can. To save time, sell them rather than alching, unless training Magic simultaneously.
  
  
• Herblore: Buy all of the ingredients for high-level potions and make lots and lots of them. The most popular powerleveling potion at the high end is the Saradomin brew, but be prepared to lose millions this way as you’ll be competing with many other people doing the same. Very rich herblorists will buy unfinished potions for leveling; these save time because the herbs are already in the vials (for most potions, all the XP is obtained in the last step.)
  
  
• Hunter: Do falconry until you are high enough level to catch gray chinchompas at a good pace; continue with these until you can catch red chinchompas quickly. Always place as many traps as possible, and don’t bother with bait since it makes little difference.
  
  
• Magic (Non-Combat): Ancient Magicks is definitely the fastest method, but if you don’t want to get your levels via combat, high alchemy is usually considered the most efficient non-combat alternative, especially if combined with other skills like Fletching or Smithing. Other alternatives include teleporting over and over again to the same spot (yawn) or using some of the special Lunar Magicks spells.
  
  
• Mining: Powermine and drop iron ores or granite (Figure 139). The new enchanted tiara means you no longer need waterskins to mine in the desert. Even better, Jagex’s decision to make 500g pieces of granite a Summoning secondary item has made it possible to powermine granite and even make money doing so (though stopping to bank them does slow you down a bit).
  
  
• Prayer: Buy the most expensive bones you can afford, and use them on a gilded altar with both burners lit. Don’t bother with the Ectofuntus; you get slightly more XP but it takes much, much longer per bone.
  
  
• Runecrafting: The traditional speedtraining method was to use runners, but the end of “unbalanced trade” threw a monkey wrench into that. You can still use runners to a limited extent, and also make use of the Assist System, but if you want to work the skill hard you will need to stick to using the ZMI altar.
  
  
• Slayer: Wear a black mask at all times when fighting melee. Burthorpe slow tasks or ones that give little XP, and take with good supplies so you don’t have to bank mid-task. Kill the Wild Jade Vine frequently. Also use the general tips for combat, such as employing a cannon where possible.
  
  
• Smithing: Make the items that use multiple bars, as these take the least time; for example, at level 75 make mithril platebodies, not adamant swords. Sell them, or alch if also training Magic. Always buy bars—don’t smelt, as this is slower.
  
  
• Summoning: Use advanced techniques like Ice Burst on rock lobsters (in Waterbirth Dungeon) to get large numbers of crimson charms. Buy the necessary secondary ingredients for the highest-level pouches you can make, and get busy.
  
  
• Thieving: Pyramid Plunder provides ridiculous amounts of Thieving XP in a short time, especially at high levels.
  
  
• Woodcutting: Willows are generally considered to provide the most XP per hour. It still takes a long time, though.
  

  Figure 139: A Great New Option for Miners

  Two new updates have revolutionized powermining for granite: the enchanted water tiara and the use of 500g granite pieces in the Summoning skill.

  
  

If these ideas strike you as wasteful, tedious or otherwise unappealing, you’re probably like me: not a grinder.

Contrasting Buyable and Unbuyable Skills TruthScape Skill Secrets - General Guide - Strategies and Techniques for Efficient RuneScape Skill Training