TruthScape.com - The RuneScape Assist System - Skill-Specific Information and Tips

We’ve now discussed the general issues involved in using the Assist System (AS), so I’d like to move on to some of the more interesting specifics for each of the 9 skills that the system supports. Most of the skills have particular limitations on how the AS cane be used with them, which I want to explain to you. I will go beyond that, though, by giving you ideas and tips so that you know which skills are the best ones to use here, both for those offering help (assisters) and those receiving help (assistees).

There were originally sections here for Fishing, Hunter, Mining and Woodcutting, but since these were taken out of the Assist System. I have removed them.

NOTE: There are several skills where abuses or exploits of the Assist System have been discovered. My hope is that Jagex will address these issues soon, and so I have not discussed them in detail here; see the topic on complaints and problems for more information.

Construction is one of the skills that had the most potential for abuse from AS. The reason is that it offers permanent rewards (like mahogany lecterns or demonic thrones) for those who achieve certain levels in the skill. Obviously Jagex didn’t want someone with level 14 Construction to be able to have a friend let them build a gilded altar and portal room. As such, Jagex severely restricted the use of the AS with Construction: it can only be employed to make flat-pack furniture.

I suppose that the best thing I can say about this is that it’s better than nothing. J I don’t see much use for flat-pack furniture myself. I suppose this could be helpful for someone who needs a specific item of furniture for their house, but not many high-level people will want to bother meeting up for this purpose. I bet the AS won’t be used for Construction very often.

You can use the Assist System to cook most types of food, except for ones that are associated with quests (like lava eels) or minigames (gnome food, because it is used in the Gnome Restaurant).

I think Cooking is one of the better applications of the AS for assistees. I can see players using it to cook small numbers of high-level food items that they are too low to cook themselves. For assisters, using the AS for Cooking is only of limited value, though, since Cooking is very easy to level. That said, you can use it to get Cooking XP while letting someone else burn their sharks! J

You can craft anything except for the following quest-related items: demonic sigils, lightning rods and silvthrill rods. Everything else is fair game.

Crafting is one of the skills that was often the subject of trust trades, since there are so many useful items that can be crafted; this means the Assist System is perfect suited to Crafting, both for assisters and assistees. I would bet these will be just some of the more popular uses of the AS for this skill:

The Assist System cannot be used to plant any sort of trees or bushes, including specials like the calquat and cactus. The rationale given by Jagex for this is that it is because potted versions of these are untradeable; I must confess that this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Ruling out trees and bushes mainly leaves herbs, allotment crops and hops. There was a bit of an issue here, though, because you normally need a particular Farming level both to plant and harvest—if you use the AS to plant something above your level, what happens when you go to pick the crop? Jagex’s solution was to allow you to pick the items you’ve grown, even if you don’t have the AS turned on, but you won’t get the XP you normally receive. For example, if you are level 47 Farming and use a friend’s help to plant snapdragon seeds (level 62 Farming), then you will be able to harvest the snapdragon herbs later on, but you won’t get the XP for this. If you get your friend to come back and assist you when harvesting, though, he or she will get the XP.

Much as Farming itself is often considered “useless” by the less mature and creative players, I think using the AS for Farming will only be something that the smarter players take advantage of. For example, I can see some value in using the system to let friends grow seeds that they’d otherwise not bother using, getting free XP for the assister in the process. In many cases, the person with high-level Farming also will have high-level Herblore, and might then want to buy the herbs that the assistee grows.

One difference between Farming and most other skills is that it involves wait time, which means that this is one place where the AS could allow a high-level player to actually train the skill faster than would be possible without the system. In theory, a high-level player could go to an herb patch with 20 friends and help them all plant snapdragon seeds, getting all of the XP for those 20 plantings, and then going back to harvest them all at once later. While somewhat difficult to coordinate, I do consider a problem, as it is beyond what the Assist System was intended to provide.

Fletching, like Crafting, is one of the skills that is often the subject of trust trades and so is well-matched to the Assist System. I can see it being used frequently by those who need to quickly make a bow or a small amount of ammunition.

The AS can be used to clean grimy herbs and to make most potions. The exceptions to the latter are all quest-related potions:

Herblore is another skill that is a great fit to the Assist System, and quite useful for high-level players. I have already used it to let a couple of people clean herbs, for example, something I would never do for leveling (I hate cleaning herbs!). Also, since you lose money on most potions compared to the cost of the ingredients, this is a way to get XP for free.

For their part, lower-level players will find the AS very useful for getting herbs cleaned and making small numbers of potions without the need to trust trade.

Magic is probably the skill with the greatest breadth in terms of the functions you can perform with it, so Jagex had to severely restrict how it could be used with the Assist System. In particular, nothing related to combat or teleportation is supported by the AS; you can generally only use “utility” spells.

In terms of the other spellbooks, I believe that nothing from Ancient Magicks is supported, since that entire spellbook revolves around combat and teleports. The Lunar Magicks spellbook, on the other hand, is mostly support and utility spells, so its spells probably all work, but both the assister and the assistee must have the Lunar spellbook activated to use it with the AS.

Despite the restrictions, I can see many uses of the AS for Magic. The enchantment spells will be useful for the same reason that the AS will be often used for Crafting. I can see people borrowing the use of High Alchemy in certain circumstances as well. I believe creative people will find good uses for the two Bones spells, and possibly also for Superheat Item. The orb charging spells would require both players to go to an obelisk, so they don’t seem terribly useful.

Jagex says that the Assist System can be used for any type of rune. I assume that this is the case even though some types of runes are quest-related, because all runes and essence are tradeable. When using the AS for Runecrafting, the assistee gets the same number of runes per essence that the assister would get, so if the one providing assistance is over level 91 Runecrafting, you get two nature runes per essence.

Runecrafting is somewhat different from most of the other skills that can be used with the Assist System. It is rather unique in that it is a skill where there are already well-established, safe mechanisms for letting people with low levels in the skill get the benefits of those with higher levels. With Runecrafting this is not usually considered to be asking for assistance or trust trading, but rather the established traditions of “ess running”; in effect, though, it’s the same thing. High-level players simply stay at an altar and trade crafted runes for essence, then craft the essence and repeat the process.

I am not sure how useful the AS will be for Runecrafting, nor what impact it will have on the well-established worlds where essence running takes place. In my estimation, it’s about the same amount of time and effort to trade essence and runes as to use the AS—since the person being assisted has to get fresh ess each time, the assist has to be re-established each time.

There are two special items that require quests to be completed in order for them to be smithed. When using the AS, both players must be done Tourist Trap to make darts, and Death Plateau to smith claws.

Smithing is one of the oldest skills in RuneScape, and another one that is frequently a subject of trust trades, making it nearly ideal for the Assist System. It will likely be used mainly by those who want to smith rune and adamantite armor and weapons, as I can be seen doing in Figure 44. I can also see other applications, such as using the AS for both smithing and magic to let a lower-level player superheat high-level ores.

**Figure 44: Smithing is a Popular Skill for Using the Assist System**
Here I am smithing rune crossbow bolts using the Assist System. Note the “handshake” icon in the lower right corner of the game view window.

The RuneScape Assist System - Requesting and Offering Assistance

The RuneScape Assist System - Complaints and Controversies

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