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Understanding and Exploiting Skill Synergies The Importance of Planning Ahead and Multitasking in Non-Combat Skills

Combat is a big part of RuneScape, and as we’ve seen, it has essential synergies with many skills because of the many skill-related item drops. Making good use of non-combat resources obtained through combat is often the difference between the non-combat skill being enjoyable and profitable to train, or an expensive hassle. Too many players waste opportunities that present themselves on the dungeon floor—don’t be one of them.

The key to efficiency with respect to combat skills is to understand the value of drops and inventory space management. This requires the ability to plan ahead, and to look at combat training as not just a way to gain prowess in combat, but to make other skills more easily trainable as well.

Let’s take a look at some of these issues.

Choosing Training Monsters Based on Resources

Powertraining combat can be expensive, even if it doesn’t use supplies: the expense comes in the opportunity cost of choosing an NPC that provides slightly faster XP but far inferior drops. For example, while some people like getting tons of melee XP by fighting monkey guards on Ape Atoll, this doesn’t excite me: they have no drops to speak of. I’d rather fight something that lets me train melee slightly slower, but gives useful drops like herbs, seeds, hides, ores or other materials that will help me train other skills.

Since Summoning was released, the same issue applies to charms as well. If a monster doesn’t drop charms, or drops few of them or only low-value ones like golds, it better have other very good drops or I’m not terribly interested.

When choosing between two monsters, also consider the full range of drops they provide, and not just the drops you are particularly after. For example, let’s compare chaos druids and banshees, both very good herb dropping monsters. The druids actually drop more herbs than the banshees, so on the surface they are a better choice. However, they have few other drops to speak of, whereas banshees provide large amounts of noted pure essence, and also a few charms (Figure 142). If you plan to train Runecrafting and Summoning—and most folks who train Herblore eventually will—the banshees may be a better choice, overall.

Once you’ve chosen something to fight for a resource you need, avoid the mistake of being “single-minded” about the drops you leave behind. I am continually amazed to see what some people leave on the ground because it’s “not what they need” at that particular moment, wasting useful resources that they will need later on. And even if they never use those items, they could sell them, allowing them to buy items they do need.

Some examples of wasted drops that I’ve personally witnessed:

• Bones, bones and more bones. Regular bones, big bones, even dragon bones left on the ground by players.
  
  
• All sorts of runes left behind at various monsters, and not just the cheap ones: natures, laws, deaths, you name it. Sometimes in significant quantities. Everyone trains Magic!
  
  
• Herbs, even high-level ones, from players who “don’t care about Herblore”.
  
  
• Good herb and allotment seeds.
  
  
• Uncut gems, sometimes in large amounts, and sometimes even valuable ones like rubies and diamonds. Note that you also see these often left behind by miners…
  
  
• Seaweed at the rock crabs. Sure, the unnoted variety may not fit in one’s inventory, but people leave behind noted seaweed too!
  
  
• Iron ore at flesh crawlers. Again, this is noted ore, a useful resource!

Then there’s the matter of gold drops. Many players leave behind piles of coins, believing that they are better off saving time than bothering to pick them up. This does seem to suit my own views on the value of time, but it really depends on how much gold we are talking about. For example, when I fight infernal mages I don’t pick up their coin drops, as they are always a small number. But when I fight higher-level monsters, I do: it quickly adds up.

I also usually will grab coin drops, even in small quantities, if I am walking over to the drop square anyway to get another drop. Examples include coin drops from dragons, or coin drops that occur along with a Summoning charm.

Not only is it a good idea to conserve your own drops, you can take this one step further by planning ahead to take advantage of the wasteful attitudes of other players. If you see someone leaving behind useful drops that would otherwise go to waste, pick them up, either to keep, or to use for on-the-spot XP bonuses.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

• Many players leave behind armor and weapon items that are worth alching. Sometimes these items alch for more than the cost of a nature rune, so alching them is free XP and free money. But even if they cost less, consider that the item itself is effectively free. For example, if you alch a steel scimitar you get 240 gp, which is less than a nat is worth by 40 gp or so-but isn't 65 Magic XP worth 40 gp?
  
  I hate standing around alching hundreds of items in a row, but don’t mind doing it slowly over time. I’d conservatively estimate that I’ve gained over 150,000 Magic XP since I started RuneScape by alching other people’s drops.
  
  
• Uncut gems are often left on the ground at monsters that drop them frequently. Even if you don’t have inventory space to keep these, pick them up, cut them and then drop them for free Crafting XP: you can sometimes get as much as 500 XP an hour this way.
  
  
• Pick up grimy herbs and clean them. Free XP. I discuss even more advanced methods for using discarded herbs in my Herblore skill guide.
  
  
• The regular bones and even big bones that high-level players frequently leave behind are a good source of free Prayer XP for lower-level players.

You have 28 inventory slots in your backpack to carry supplies into combat, and to carry drops out of combat as well. You should always endeavor to use all of them to maximum advantage, but without being wasteful.

In terms of supplies, try to bring only what you think you will need, remembering that cheaper food often gives more HP of healing for its cost than expensive food. For example, 16 sharks costs a lot more than 20 monkfish, even though they heal the same amount: bring only what you need. Also, make sure not to completely fill your inventory with supplies if you want to have room to take home drops.

As you fight, pick up drops that you know you want to keep, and try to avoid wasting food to make space. Remember that you can sometimes drop food on the ground and then pick it back up later on when you need it.

I also try to make it a rule to always come back from a dungeon trip or Slayer assignment with a full pack: empty inventory slots represent waste. For example, when I am killing a monster for herbs I normally wouldn’t take home marrentills and guams, but near the end of a trip I will keep those until I see if I get anything better. I will even hang on to empty vials if I don’t get anything better to go in their place—why not? J

Also remember that if a monster drops big bones and you don’t want to bury them, they are worth 350 to 400 gp each on the Grand Exchange. Don’t leave free money on the ground…

And finally, if you have a high enough Summoning level to use a beast of burden familiar, then be sure to use one when fighting monsters that have valuable drops! Even the lowly level 13 thorny snail lets you take home 3 extra drops, and by the time you hit Summoning level 52, the spirit terrorbird carries 12 (see the next topic for more details.)

Understanding and Exploiting Skill Synergies The Importance of Planning Ahead and Multitasking in Non-Combat Skills