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RuneScape is an MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game) implemented in Java, with over 2.8 million registered players. RuneScape was launched by Jagex Ltd. on January 4, 2001 and offers both pay to play ("P2P") and free to play ("F2P") membership options to players.

RuneScape allows players to develop many different non-combat skills ranging from runecrafting and mining to cooking and crafting. The large range of non-combat skills means that RuneScape has an expansive, dynamic player economy.

Being implemented in Java, RuneScape requires no installation and can be accessed from the official site. Due to the large number of cheaters, RuneScape Classic, an earlier version of RuneScape, is now only available to paying members.

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Overview

RuneScape is set in a medieval fantasy world, similar to "Guild Wars" or "EverQuest", where players control character representations of themselves. As with most massive multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPG), there is no overall objective or end to the game. Players explore, form alliances, perform optional tasks, and complete quests for rewards and to build character's skills.

During peak hours, as many as 170000 players may be online across 111 international servers. A maximum of as many as 2000 players may be on one server, for a maximum amount of online players of 222000 at one time. These servers are called "worlds" in RuneScape. There is a World 106 but World 105 is missing. These servers are located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia, making it the most popular online Java based game in the world. RuneScape is typically updated on a weekly basis with the addition of new skills, quests, or other details added to the imaginary world.

History and development

Version 1: The first version started out as a one man project. The developer (Andrew Gower), and his brother (Paul Gower) started working on the original game in 1998. This version was very different to the RuneScape of today. It had isometric graphics, and was originally titled 'DeviousMUD'. This version was never released to the public, and only a few people ever saw it.

Version 2: The developers scrapped version 1, and started work on a complete rewrite in 1999. Despite being a complete rewrite, this version was very similar to version 1, with the same graphics and name. This version was released as a public beta for only about 1 year, and then withdrawn again.

Version 3: The developers started yet again with a 3rd attempt on October, 1999. This time the isometric view was replaced, in favor of 3D graphics and 2D sprites. The game was renamed to RuneScape and released to the public on January 4, 2001. This version is still online today but only for RuneScape Members. It's currently called RuneScape Classic.

Jagex Ltd formed: In December of 2001 Jagex Limited was founded as a commercial operation to take over the running of RuneScape. Jagex acquired RuneScape and all related technologies, and continued to develop the game further. Andrew Gower joined Jagex as its lead developer.

Members launch: On February 27, 2002, Jagex launched a new optional 'members service'. This allows players to pay $5 USD a month to obtain access to new quests, an expanded world map, mini-games, skills, and more. Paying members had a far greater choice of things to do, but it was still possible to play the game for free, and the amount of free content was also increased. While not a new version as such (the game still ran on the same version 3D engine), this update did significantly change the focus of the game.

Version 4: Jagex went for yet another complete rewrite. Version 4 changed the graphics to full 3D and made many other significant improvements. While in development this version was called RuneScape 2, but when launched was just called RuneScape (version 3 would later be renamed RuneScape Classic). An incomplete beta of this version was available to members on December 1, 2003. The finished version was launched on March 17, 2004. This is the current version of the game being promoted by Jagex. This is the version most people think of when one says RuneScape.

The free version of RuneScape Classic was removed on August 3, 2005, due to the massive amount of rule breakers and an inability to punish them. Now, only subscribers that pay on a monthly basis can play RuneScape Classic.

On September 26, 2005, the RuneScape website was redeveloped and now uses a more logical format. The new format was mainly designed to improve navigation and to help make particular sections of the website more secure. However, the new "world select" pages were unpopular and were soon replaced with a real-time world capacity page.

Combat

Combat is an important aspect of the game, as killing monsters is one of most direct ways of gaining wealth. Virtually every skill affects combat in one way or another. Combat is also needed to complete many of the quests, and can be used to fight other players.

Players are ranked in strength based upon their combat level. Combat levels are based upon a math formula which considers 7 skill areas: a player's attack, defence, strength, hit points, prayer, magic and ranged skill. Other skills, while beneficial will not increase one's combat level.

Combat is subdivided into three primary categories:

• Melee
• Magic
• Ranged

Melee

Melee based combat is the simplest form of combat a player can choose to specialize in; those who do so are named "warriors". As a player gathers experience in his or her strength, attack, or defence skills, their combat level is raised. The Attack skill determines the chance of a successful strike, whilst Strength determines the maximum damage a player can deal (higher level yielding greater accuracy and more damage, respectively). Note also the Defence stat technically determines the players ability to "shrug off blows" this was clarified in the older letters page which determined that in melee combat no player ever misses his opponent, rather the opponent shrugs off the blow with no damage taken. The Defence stat can also be trained by means other than melee attacks, though players usually find those ways a waste of material, and thus train defence through melee. A higher attack level will allow a player to wield more powerful weaponry, whilst a high level in defence allows the player to equip himself with more powerful armour.

Ranged

Ranged combat most popularly consists of the use of bow and arrows, but can also include crossbow and bolts, as well as a variety of miscellaneous members only items including throwing knives, throwing axes, javelins, and throwing rings. Higher Ranged stats results in an increased chance of striking the target, as well as a greater damage output, although the latter is also affected by the ammunition type, such as steel ammunition as opposed to bronze ammunition. Ranging is harder to train in the free version, as only members can make their own arrows and receive much better stat bonuses due to a larger variety of equipment. While ranging, some of the ammunition fired may spawn near the target intact. These can be picked up, and reused. While training, it is possible and beneficial to trap your target behind a fence or other obstruction, making it so they cannot hit you with melee.

A variety of armor is available for rangers, giving not only defence bonuses, but also ranged attack bonuses. A set of range armor typically consists of: vambraces, chest armor, and chaps (leggings), and may or may not include headgear, such as a coif. Rangers under level 20 can wear leather. Level 20 rangers can upgrade to studded leather, however the studded chest also requires level 20 defence to wear. With level 40 Ranged, a ranger can wear (Green) Dragonhide armor. At levels 50, 60 and 70 range, members will be able to wear blue Dragonhide armor, red Dragonhide armor, and black Dragonhide armor respectively.

Magic

Magical attacks are marked by the use of runestones (simply known as "runes") as a form of ammunition. As with all other combat stats, players must train their magic stats to a higher degree in order to generate a higher damage output, as well as increasing the likelihood of a successful strike. As levels are increased, a greater number of spells become available to the player. Apart from combat, Magic can also be used to teleport to set locations at higher levels, or enchant amulets and magical rings which enhance other abilities.

Magic experience is still received when a spell fails. The formula for the amount of experience received is: (Damage X 2) + Base Experience. The Base Experience is the amount of experience received if the spell fails.

Ancient Magicks is another form of magic, which only members may perform. Ancient Magicks cannot be performed by a traditional mage, only by praying at the proper temple after passing the Desert Treasure quest can access the spell of the Ancient Magicks. The weakest attack requires a Magic level of 50 and thus requires a great deal of specialization. To autocast Ancient magicks, you must use the Ancient staff, bought during the Desert Treasure quest. The Ancient Magicks are very powerful compared to standard magic, not only because of the high damage, but because every spell has a side effect, such as poisoning, blinding, stealing health, or stunning your foe. Several effects are concurrent (you can be blinded while poisoned) and the Ancient Magicks are one of the only forms of combat in which one person can fight a mob (in a multicombat zone) because several Ancient Magicks spells allow you to hit multiple targets at once. Some of the spells will hit in a 3 by 3 square, attacking all in that range. However the Ancient Magicks is more expensive than regular magicks to cast, because it uses more runes.

In traditional magic, there are currently 4 types of elemental spells, of which there is a fire form, earth form, wind form, and water form of each type of damage spells. The four types are "strike", "bolt", "blast" and "wave". This allows for a total of 16 elemental spells such as "fire strike" or "wind wave". Mind runes are needed for strike attacks, chaos runes for bolt attacks, death runes for blast attacks, and finally blood runes for wave attacks. Wave spells are only available to members.

Please note, Magic level allows you to cast more spells and increases your accuracy. It cannot increase the max damage a certain spell can do. At level one magic, air strike will do the same damage as level 99 magic. Chaos gauntlets, however, obtained from the Family Crest quest, increase the maximum damage of bolt spells by up to 3 damage.

Hybrids

A few players on RuneScape are, however, hybrids. These people use all 3 forms of attack: melee, ranged and magic, to their advantage to beat someone. For example, if a hybrid player is fighting a magic-based player, they would use ranged attacks to gain an advantage. On the other hand, if their opponent is using melee, they would instead use magic attacks and if their enemy is using ranged attacks, they would use melee attacks.

Combat triangle

RuneScape has a 'combat triangle', which is intended to stop any one class becoming dominant. In member's worlds, magic will tend to beat melee, ranged will tend to beat magic, and melee will tend to beat ranged. In free worlds, this triangle tends to differ (eg. mages are at the top because rangers cannot wear the best armour possible for them). However the Combat Triangle is merely a chart of strengths and weaknesses, and players with a disadvantage still are able to beat the advantageous class if they use skill and strategy. Equipment also plays a huge role in changing how combat will result, so if they had lots of magic defense, they would tend to defeat mages. By taking advantage of the combat triangle, players can alter the outcome of a battle dramatically.

In the combat triangle, mages dominate over warriors. This is due to the fact that warriors often wear armor that give negative magic defense (In other words, a warrior would be better off wearing no armor at all against a mage). Since melee isn't long ranged, mages are able to use spells such as Entangle to bind a warrior in place for a given amount of time. In that time, the warrior can only watch helplessly as they are being struck by magical attacks.

Warriors dominate over rangers. Melee armor provides a relatively high amount of range defence. Although range armor provides significant melee defence as well, it cannot compare to the defense given to warriors, and therefore rangers are still placed at a disadvantage. In short, warriors hit proportionately more damage on rangers than rangers hit on warriors.

Lastly, rangers are made to dominate over mages. Mages have little or no melee and range defence, therefore they are subject to greater damage from range or melee attacks. Ranger armor provides the wearer with very high magic defence. Spells tend to fail more frequently when used against someone wearing Dragonhide armor. "Bind" spells not only hit less frequently against rangers, but since they also have distance attacks, holding a ranger in place is only useful for running away.

Other combat factors

All three combat types also rely on the player's defence and hitpoints stats. The defence stat determines how likely one is to block an incoming attack, whereas hitpoints stat determine how much damage can be taken before dying. The prayer stat, while seeming subtle at first, can turn the tide in a fight. Prayers such as the protection spells can render a person nearly invulnerable to enemy player's attacks, and completely invulnerable to enemy monster's attacks in addition to providing numerous protections. The most powerful and recent prayers can also set back the enemy in different ways. When fighting other types, players generally switch armor to best suit their opponents' attack. Warriors fighting mages will usually wear dragon hide armor, a type of armor with high "magic defence". To counter this, the mage may use a dagger, a weapon which armor high in "magic defence" is usually vulnerable to.

Certain weapons, mostly melee weapons, have special attacks on them. These are almost always high-end weapons. The amount of times a player can do a special attack is determined by the proportion of the special attack bar it takes per attack. This is different for every attack. There is currently no magical weapon with a special attack.

In addition, the equipment a player is holding, the potions he has consumed, how much and what kind of food he has, luck, tactics, and countless other factors all combine to determine who will win the battle.

Combat level

A player's "combat level" is derived from the seven stats mentioned above: attack, strength, defence, hitpoints, magic, prayer, and ranged. The combat level is designed to indicate a player's overall strength and is also used to decide which players can fight each other in the Wilderness. This prevents, for example, very high level players preying on very new players. The maximum combat level in RuneScape Classic is 123, and the maximum in RuneScape 2 is 126.

Combat level, in RuneScape 2, can also be determined by your combat type. A warrior, for example, will have higher melee stats than magic or ranged, and would have his combat level based on his melee (strength and attack) stats. A mage would have a combat level based on magic, and a ranger would have a combat level based on range. Prayer, defence, and hitpoints will always influence combat level regardless of warrior, range, or magic basings.

However, it should be noted that the melee skills (eg, attack, strength, and defence,) will raise a player's combat faster than either magic or ranging will. This may result in characters (often created for player killing which will be covered in the nect section,) with 60 magic and 60 ranging having a combat of 40, compared to a balanced character with every combat skill being level 30 who would also have a combat of 40. Or more drastically, someone with; 35 attack, 35 strength, and 35 defence; being equivalent to someone with 60 ranging, and 60 magic. (For more information, see RuneScape skills.)

Player vs player combat

Players cannot normally fight with each other in most areas of the map. There are however 4 different areas where player vs player combat is allowed in RuneScape, each with different rules and properties. Here more than anywhere else, the RuneScape combat triangle becomes an important factor in determining who emerges the victor. Rangers will have an advantage against mages, mages will have an advantage against warriors, and warriors have an advantage against rangers.

The Wilderness

For a long time the only way to fight other players was to visit the Wilderness. The Wilderness, frequently referred to as the wildy is a large area of map located in northern RuneScape. The Wilderness has great rewards, but also great risks. The Wilderness is one of the most hostile of the player vs. player types available. The player who attacks first is punished with a skull floating above their head. If a player is killed without a skull over their head, they will lose all but their 3 most valuable items unless the "Protect Item" prayer is used to save their 4th most valuable item. If the player dies with the skull above their head, they will lose all of their items. The skull goes away after 20 minutes of peace, or after the character dies. Killing another player in this area is referred to as PKing (Player Killing). As players venture deeper into the Wilderness, they can fight with other players further and further away from their combat level, which makes it more dangerous (or easier if they are attacking a weaker player). Some areas of the Wilderness only allow 1-on-1 battles, whilst other areas allow combat between multiple players and potentially huge team wars.

The level of the Wilderness tells you what level players you can engage in combat above and below your own combat level. For example, If you are in level 50 Wilderness, you can fight people 50 levels below or 50 levels above.

There are different forms of PKing in the Wilderness. RPKing (random player killing) is a term used to describe someone who kills any person they see in the Wilderness, whether he/she be hostile or not. Some people and clans follow AntiPKing, meaning that the only people they strike are other PKers, not innocents such as rune miners, trainers, or those working on a treasure trail.

There are many treasures in the Wilderness, and many people sacrifice their avatar's lives and inventory for such treasures.

There are also many attackable non playable characters in the Wilderness. Unlike most aggressive NPCs, NPCs in the Wilderness are all aggressive and ignore the player's combat level. Many of the most powerful creatures in RuneScape dwell in the Wilderness.

Pures

Some players who train a select few, or even just one of the combat stats that affect their combat level are known as "pure". The purpose of "pure" accounts is to deal more damage compared to most other same level or lower level players by specialization, which is especially helpful in player vs. player combat.

Pures will generally try to minimize their combat level. Pures will aim high in various levels such as attack, strength, magic, and range. A pure has the illusion of having a low combat level and therefore being portrayed as weak, while they can actually hit very high using a particuar skill. This makes pures very efficient player killers. Although the lack of defence causes them to be hit with greater amounts of damage, their specialization allows them to hit with greater damage proportionally. Pures also generally have more maximum hitpoints, compensating for their lack of defensive skills.

As an example, a player that has trained in all combat skills may only have an average of level 48 to 55 in all combat skills, causing them to have a combat level of 64. They would attack with a maximum damage per hit of around 11 to 15 with Super Potions. On the other hand, a pure who specializes in strength with 60 attack, 70 strength, 10 defense would also have a combat level of 64, but would attack with a maximum damage per hit of around 18 to as much as 22 with Super Potions.

Despite this, most "pures" have a significant disadvantage against a player with balanced combat levels - they cannot effectively defeat anyone with a decent Defense level, which limits them to only being able to take on other pures. In pure vs. pure combat, the outcome of a duel is often decided by whoever lands the first unguarded hit.

Duel Arena

The Duel Arena is only available to members. Located in the Al-Kharid desert it allows a more formal fight where the players can pre-agree the exact terms of combat, and what items will be gambled. It is possible to change a large number of settings to restrict exactly which items and combat styles are required, and players can choose either to duel for fun (in which case no items change hands), or to wager items which the winner will receive. Because of the option to limit the risk to a level of a player's choosing, this way of testing a player's combat prowess against other is popular with many players.

Castle Wars

Castle Wars is a mini-game involving two teams( Saradomin vs. Zamorak) in a capture the flag-type game. If you do not particularly favor a certain RuneScape god, you can enter the Guthix portal, which lets teleports you to the team with less players on. The aim of the game is to take the enemy's standard (flag) from their castle and take it back to the standard in your own castle to gain points. You must prevent the opposing team from taking your flag by blocking them from your castle (place barricades, lock doors or collapse tunnels underground), or by killing them. Slain players will respawn inside a protected room in their castle, so both sides are constantly fighting in most games. The game lasts for 20 minutes, and the team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

The object of the game is to play for tickets, which can be used to buy exclusive armor and clothes. Every player on the winning team of a match will receive two tickets at the end of the game, and in the event of a tie, each player will receive one ticket. There are 3 different sets of castlewars armour, costing different amounts of tickets, the highest being so costly that there is currently only a few players in the game with some pieces of the armor that costs the most tickets.

TzHaar Fight Pit

The TzHaar Fight Pit is a massive, free-for-all arena in which player can attack each other with no limits to time. Some players use tactics in order to survive longer in the pits, but in the end only one player can survive. The game is based on the last man standing ruleset, so there are no limitations regarding one's attacks. If the fight continues for too long however, monsters from the 'audience' may appear in the arena. These monsters start out at combat level 22, and appear in increasing waves, combat level rising from 22 to 45 to 90, after which the players start to receive constant damage due to extreme heat. This is designed to prevent people from agreeing not to attack each other, thus preventing a new game from starting. As with the Castle Wars minigame, dying in the Fight Pit allows a player to retain their items with no penalty. Instead, the player is sent to the waiting area, ready for the next battle. If a player manages to defeat all opponents in the Fight Pit, they receive a number of TokKul, which can be used to purchase new items in the TzHaar City. A unique, untradeable item, the Fire Cape, is awarded when the player defeats all monsters in the Fight Cave, another update released shortly after the TzHaar city. They can also choose to stay in the Fight Pit in order to potentially increase their prize; however this poses a significant risk as it is highly likely that the food supplies of the victor will be depleted, and as such he may not survive another round. The number of tokkul recived for winning varies; it is based on the combat levels of the players that have been defeated added together.

Older forms of combat

During the period after the release of Version 3, players could select whether or not to play as "player-killer" characters or not. The player could switch from player-killer mode to non-player-killer mode (in which the character could not attack or be attacked by other players) three times, after which they remained at their chosen setting forever. Player combat could take place at any point in the RuneScape world, with some exceptions noted below. The rules of combat were the same as in the modern Wilderness; however, the village of Lumbridge was designated as a neutral area in which players could not attack each other, to prevent "spawn camping" in which recently killed players were immediately killed after they respawned in Lumbridge. In addition to this restriction, NPC Guards and White Knights patrolled the cities of Varrock and Falador, and broke up player fights by attacking the aggresor. These guard units were limited in number, however, and if all the units in a city were already in combat, player combat could go on unimpeded. This system was scrapped on August 13th, 2001 due to unpopularity among players who were unable to leave Lumbridge without being attacked by packs of hostile player-killers, and were unable to switch back to "non-player-killer" mode as they had already switched three times. It was replaced by the Wilderness.

See Also: TzTok-Jad

Skills

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Skills are abilities that enable players to perform activities in the game. Some skills are available only to members and some skills are only present in newer versions of the game while yet some can only be utilised by completing a specific quest. Many of the high-level abilities in most skills are reserved for members only. Players gain experience in a skill when they perform activities that utilize that skill, for instance mining a rock would raise the mining skill. A player's level of experience determines the level of that skill. New abilities are given to the player when he reaches certain levels. Higher-level abilities in turn give more experience to compensate for the roughly quadratic increase in experience points needed to reach each new level. New skills are added to the game by Jagex periodically.

As in a number of games, some players chose to focus on improving themselves in a small number of skills. These players are called "pures" (eg: a player specialised in mining is called a mining pure).

In RuneScape there is no general level for player as such. Player must train each skill individually. In this game, there are 21 Skills including Extraction ones (such as: mining, woodcutting, thieving and fishing), secondary (processing) skills (such as smithing, cooking and fletching), combat skills (such as strength, magic and range) and others (such as agility). Unlike most other MMORPGs, every skill can be trained to maximum level (level 99) without extra barriers. However only the combat level is immediately visible to other players. The total level of a player partly symbolises the players' status in the game, the maximum total level being 2079.

However, there are two restrictions to training combat levels. The first one is "player status", which restricts what stats players can train based on whether they are paying members or not. For example, only paying members are allowed to train "herblore", "thieving", "agility", "farming", "slayer" and "fletching". The other restriction is quests. There are a few skills such as "herblore" and "runecrafting" that are locked when a player first starts the game, and are the reward for completing the appropriate quest where the player learns how to use them.

For a full list of skills and a description of each one, see RuneScape skills.

Quests

Quests in RuneScape are one-time adventures which serve a variety of purposes. The novice quests act as tutorials to acquaint new users with the various skills and abilities. All quests include some kind of reward such as money, rare/valuable items, or an increase in abilities. Some quests are part of an overlapping storyline. Each quest also awards a certain number of quest points. Thirty-two quest points will grant access to the Champions' Guild. The members-only Hero's (55 quest points required to start) and Legend's (107 required) quests grant access to their respective guilds upon completion. Quests can be found all over the map, in the game's three kingdoms of Misthalin, Asgarnia and Kandarin, as well as some even more distant lands.

Mini-games

There are a few mini-games that can be played within RuneScape. These are available to paying members only. These may or may not provide a benefit to players, however they are fun and unique things to do within the game.

Community

Players of RuneScape represent a wide range of nationalities, and ages. However, the user base is predominantly English speaking because the game itself is currently only available in English.

Over the years, RuneScape has developed quite a following and the result has been the emergence of fansites, with their own communities. A few of the popular ones are listed below in the External Links section.

Community Marketplace

Item trading plays a vital role in the RuneScape community. Without it, RuneScape would be very different. Banks are where players will find most trading activity. Players can also go to the RuneScape website to find a link to the RuneScape forums. A section entitled "marketplace" can then be used to try to buy or sell items.

Item Scamming

Like many other economies, RuneScape suffers from scams. There are many types of scams. One example of scamming involves quickly changing bid amounts for items, so a hasty seller does not notice the switch and ends up selling items for lower than their market value.

Another example of scamming requires two or more players to participate. A party will attempt to entice a player into making a trade in order to take advantage of arbitrage. After the lone player makes the initial (unfair) trade, the other players will quickly leave, such that the player is left having paid more for an item than its market value.

RuneScape has an in-game reporting system which will alert Jagex to the last minute of activity of a particular player. Sometimes, scams such as the latter can proceed unnoticed because the scam takes longer than a minute to execute.

Drop parties

Occasionally, players host drop parties. A drop party is where a player or group of players drop items they would otherwise keep, thus allowing nearby players to pick up their dropped belongings. Parties are sometimes advertised on forums so that more people attend. However, sometimes other players will host fake drop parties where the activity is not mutually beneficial. To remedy this, Jagex installed a party room in which all items are in plain sight beforehand. This party room is located in the town known as "Seer's Village" and is only accessible to paying members.

Clans

Clans are groups of players that are commonly formed because the group shares similar interests or combat levels. Many clans venture into the largest player versus player (PvP) area in RuneScape, known as "The Wilderness". These clans hope to find and eliminate other clans or players in support of the clan by taking the dead players' leftover items. The size of clans varies, as clans can be very large and powerful, or just a small group of friends. Clans are also found participating in events such as monster killing, drop parties, mini-games, and multi-quests.

Graphics

The latest version of RuneScape is rendered in complete 3D.

A lot of emphasis has been placed on allowing players to customize their character. Players are given a wide choice in creating character models, from hairstyle to facial features and gender. Additionally, appearance can be further optimised by wearing/holding different items, with each different weapon having a unique image. Once the game has started, players can change their character's appearance in total at a variety of places in the land of RuneScape.

There are also many different animations in the game for the variety of things one can do from combat, to magic, to the various quests. The game can be run on high or low detail level. While high detail gives different things more texture or design (and has sound), low detail gives everything a cleaner cut look (without sound), and reduces in-game latency.

From February 2005 onward, Jagex has put a massive effort forward to update the RuneScape free world cities. They began with Lumbridge and Thurgo's Peninsula, and on September 2005 they announced that the cities of Port Sarim and Rimmington have been graphically updated. They plan to eventually improve the graphics of the whole free world (and maybe members areas too) without causing more lag for people using dial-up internet connections.

However, as RuneScape is Java-based, its graphics engine will always be limited in capability compared to a lot of modern games.

Fashion

A lot of emphasis goes on fashion in the world of RuneScape as members and non-members are willing to pay large sums of money for items such as rare berets or trimmed/gold trimmed armour which can only be obtained by members in treasure trail (mini quests) but can be worn by non-members as well (The trimming of the armor bears no effect on the armour other than it changes its appearance slightly). Also, as mentioned elsewhere in this article santa hats, halloween masks and various coloured party hats are among the most expensive items in the game. These items get more expensive as time passes because some of the items were holiday drops and thus could only be obtained on that day.

Random events

A variety of random events can take place in the game, positive and negative, which are said by Jagex to prevent the use of "macros" (automated scripts which play RuneScape with very little human interaction). Random events can also add variety to some of the more repetitive activities in the game.

Players must respond to most of these in the correct manner or will receive a negative effect such as being teleported across the map, or even death. For example, if a random event requires a player to talk to the Mysterious Old Man, that player should respond, or they may receive such a negative effect. Another example of a random event is a mime, where a player is teleported to a stage and must mimic the actions of a non-playable character. After completing the challenge the player then receives a reward.

Weapons

Weapon types

The main weapons available in RuneScape in order of rate of attack from fastest to slowest are:

• Claws (2 handed) (members only)
• Daggers
• Short Swords
• Scimitars
• Maces
• LongSwords
• Hatchets
• Pickaxes
• Spears (2 handed) (members only)
• Battle Axes
• Warhammers
• Two Handed Swords (2 handed)
• Halberds (2 handed) (members only)

The weapon type which deals the most damage is the Two Handed Sword. Halberds are the only melee weapons which have a range of 2 unit squares and may be used over some objects.

Materials

They are all available in the following materials, in order from weakest to strongest:

• Khazard (members only, fight arena quest)
• Bronze
• Iron
• Steel
• Black
• Initiate (members only, reward from recruitment drive quest)
• White (members only, achieved by gaining ranks in the white knight ranks after doing Wanted!)
• Mithril
• Adamantite
• Runite
• Granite (members only)
• Obsidian (members only) (Only obtainable in Tzhaar)
• Dragon (members only)
• Barrows (members only, decays after 15 hours of solid combat, is repairable)
• Crystal (members only, decays after 2500 shots/hits, is repairable)

Certain ranged weapons such as throwing knives and darts are also available in all materials, except for Dragon.

There are also many other weapons that do not go into the basic weapons such as Silverlight from the Demon Slayer Quest, Darklight, Excalibur, Mjolnirs from the "Making History" quest, Blurite Sword from the Knight's Sword Quest, and the Abyssal Whip, the one of the most valuable weapons (after the dragon hatchet and Guthan's warspear). It is considered to be the most effective weapon available in RuneScape, dealing more damage per unit time (though not necessarily the highest damage per hit) than any other weapon available.

Dragon weapons

The only weapons that have Dragon versions are:

• Daggers - poisoned, extra-strongly poisoned, super poisoned
• Hatchets
• Scimitars
• LongSwords
• Battle Axes
• Halberds
• Spears - poisoned, extra-strongly poisoned, super poisoned, karambwan poisoned
• Maces.

Poison

Weapon poison can also be applied to certain weapons, like daggers, spears and arrows. There is a normal poison (p), extra strong poison (+) and a super strong poison (s). these different types are suffixed onto the weapon name as single letters (e.g. Dragon dagger (p) or Dragon spear (s) ). When a player or monster is hit with a poisoned weapon, there is a chance they will become poisoned, meaning they will lose additional health to the basic hits (indicated by a green splash number on the character). The poison effect will be reduce and wear off in time, or can be cured with antipoison or superantipoison manually.

Monsters

There are many monsters in the RuneScape world. Below is a list of the 8 most high levelled monsters from highest to lowest. In brackets are their combat levels.

• TzTok-Jad (702)
• Ket-Zek (360)
• Kalphite Queen (333)
• Dagannoth King Prime (303)
• Dagannoth King Rex (303)
• Dagannoth King Supreme (303)
• King Black Dragon (276)
• Steel Dragons (246)

Some of the more famous and well known monsters in RuneScape include:

Ket-Zek

The Ket-Zek, at level 360, is the second highest levelled monster in RuneScape. It is fought in the TzHaar Fight Cave minigame. It has a maximum melee hit damage of 45 and can do around 46 damage using its magic attack. Few players can withstand even 2 hits from it. Reaching this monster requires a lot of prayer potions, food and time.

Kalphite Queen

The Kalphite Queen is revered as one of the most difficult enemies to defeat. This giant insect empress lies in a deep lair in the Kharidian Desert. To get there, players need to bring a total of 2 ropes and exit the Shantay Pass just south of Al Kharid. After going west, the first rope must be used with the lair entrance in order to enter. The Queen (Level 333) is at the very end of the cavern where you'll need the second rope, past the Kalphite Workers, Kalphite Soldiers and Kalphite Guardians. Make sure to bring an antipoison potion as all but the Workers are poisonous.

King Black Dragon

The King Black Dragon, also known as the KBD, is the seventh strongest monster in RuneScape. He has combat level 276 and 257 hitpoints, as well as very high attack and defence levels. Thus a player should have at least level 70 Attack or he/she will not hit the KBD very often.

The King Black Dragon lair is a multiway combat zone, allowing a group of players to attack. It is in a level 40+ Wilderness (near the Lava Maze) dungeon. The dungeon entrance is in a fenced area containing six Lesser Demons. When players go down the ladder they will see Poison Spiders and a lever which will teleport them to the KBD Lair when activated. The King Black Dragon's lair itself isn't in the Wilderness (players will be in the Wilderness until they pull the lever).

The King Black Dragon uses many attacks, including regular melee attacks, a fire wave magic spell, and 4 types of dragonfire, all of which may cause high damage. He can use regular dragonfire that will lower stats, an "ice" breath attack that can freeze players to the ground, poison breath that will deal 4 poison damage, and a water-like breath attack.

Dagannoths

Dagannoths are sea monsters. According to the Fremenniks, a tribe of barbarians, they are known as Dagger-mouths (probably because their teeth are similar to little daggers). There are many types of Dagannoths, with the most powerful being the 3 Dagannoth kings: Dagannoth Prime, Dagannoth Rex, and Dagannoth Supreme. Dagannoth Rex uses melee, Dagannoth Prime uses magic, and Dagannoth Supreme uses ranged. They can all hit up to 40 damage so be careful when you encounter one.

TzTok-Jad

TzTok-Jad (sometimes referred to as the 702 because of its level, and because the name has no known correct pronunciation) is the final monster encountered in the TzHaar Fight Cave Minigame. It is the most powerful monster in the game as it may deal up to 99 damage in a single blow, which is even more damaging than fighting the KBD without an anti dragon breath shield.

If one is successful in defeating TzTok-Jad, they receive 8000+ TokKul and the much-coveted Fire Cape. This cape has a "lava" pattern that is animated when viewed on RuneScape's high-detail mode. The animation shows lava flowing downwards continually. This is the best cape in the game with a great attack, defense, strength, and prayer bonus.

Black demons

Black Demons are some of the most powerful demons in RuneScape. They are level 172, can deal up to 18 damage and are very hard to hit for a player with a low combat level. Black Demons can be found in the Taverly Dungeons, the Edgeville wilderness dungeon and the Karamja metal Dragon dungeon.

Greater Demons

Greater Demons are very similar to Black Demons except that it is slightly weaker(and slightly smaller) and can inflict a maximum damage of 9. They are the highest leveled monster free players may fight.

Moderators

There are three types of moderators, each given different abilities.

• Jagex Moderator (J-Mod): Jagex Moderators are employees of Jagex. They consist of coders, script writers, graphic designers, and customer service staff. One must apply as an employee of Jagex in order to become a Jagex Moderator. In RuneScape, they are identified by a gold crown beside their name. This crown is visible during both public chat and private chat. J-Mods do not have the ability to disable their crown. On RuneScape's official forums, posts of theirs appear in green with the addition of the words "Jagex Mod" beneath their name. All Jagex Moderators are identified with the word "Mod" as the first part of their username with the exceptions of Andrew, Paul, and Ian. Including P-Mod and F-Mod abilities (see below), Jagex Moderators have a number of additional abilities for playtesting purposes. J-Mod accounts are only used for testing and moderating RuneScape and their official forums. J-Mod accounts are not used for normal play, to avoid an unfair advantage because of these special powers. To ensure this occurs, it is not possible to trade with a J-Mod in-game, and it is not possible for a J-Mod to attack regular players. Jagex Mods do not appear in the hiscore tables, and do not have a private chat function.

• Player Moderator (P-Mod): Player Moderators are a volunteer team consisting of regular players that are hand-picked by Jagex staff to allow them the opportunity to help maintain RuneScape to keep it safe and free from rule-breaking. They are given the ability to mute players for a short amount of time, and given the ability to send priority abuse reports. P-Mods are not employees of Jagex and they receive no tangible benefits. P-Mods are not expected to spend anymore time playing RuneScape than they normally would. P-Mods are not even expected to make use of their special abilities, but most enjoy reporting problems they see during the normal course of play. P-Mods are identified by a silver crown beside their name in RuneScape, but are not identified on RuneScape's official forums. As with J-Mods, the silver crown of a Player Moderator cannot be disabled and is visible during both public chat and private chat.

• Forum Moderator (F-Mod): Forum Moderators are also a volunteer team consisting of regular players that work to carry out the tasks of managing RuneScape's official forums in order to keep them safe and free from rule-breaking. Like Player Moderators, Forum Moderators are hand-picked by Jagex staff. They are not employees of Jagex, and they receive no tangible benefits. Forum moderators are given the ability to move and lock threads, hide posts or entire threads, edit titles, and temporarily ban players from posting for 24 hours. Posts of theirs appear in green with the addition of the words "Forum Mod" beneath their name. Forum moderators are not identified by a crown beside their name in RuneScape.

In-game slang and terminology

RuneScape players have their own language which can be incomprehensible to outsiders and difficult for newcomers to learn. This consists mostly of the proliferation of ingame terminology and the abbreviation of commonly used words. This allows for easy communication between established players despite the small space available in the ingame messaging system.

A few examples of in-game slang and terminology are given in this list (which is in no way exhaustive):

• (Abby) Whip - Abyssal Whip, which is dropped by Abyssal Demons.
• Ady/Addy/Adam/Adamant - Adamantite, another ore of RuneScape, better than Mith.
• Ammy(s) - Amulet of Magic, Strength, Defense, Accuracy, Glory etc.
• Alch - Low or High Level Alchemy. Turns items into coins/gp.
• Ardy - Ardougne.
• B-Axe/baxe - Battle Axe.
• Cammy - Camelot.
• Cav - Cavalier (hats obtained from treasure trails), comes in Tanned, Dark, and Black. (members only)
• Chain - Chainmail.
• Choob - A high-levelled player who thinks they are better than everyone else. Likes to use the words Newb/noob. This term also can be used as a racial slur, a combination of "Chinese" and "noob".
• Crashing - In the wild, attacking 2 clans who are fighting a war. Generally considered to be unethical or dishonorable.
• Cw/Cwarz - Castle wars.
• D - Dragon. Could refer to actual Dragons or Dragon items, armour or weapons.
• Drag - Dragon. Could refer to actual Dragons or Dragon items, armour or weapons.
• Ddp - Poisoned dragon dagger.
• Dds - Super poisoned dragon dagger.
• Dm - Death match. A death match usually involves 2 players players fighting to the death in the Wilderness, winner takes all. Usually there is a set of agreed-upon rules, but some players choose to break these.
• ea - each. Usually used when buying or selling items in RuneScape.
• Ess - Rune Essence, the item used to make runes.
• Fally - Falador, one of the towns in RuneScape.
• Fm - Firemaking.
• Fremmy - Fremennik.
• Guth - Guthix - One of the Gods in RuneScape. It could refer to any Guthix items, armour or weapons. It could also refer to Guthan, one of the brothers buried in the Barrows.
• Hally - Short for halberd, a spear-like weapon with a large blade at its end.
• Legs - Platelegs.
• Lobs/Lobbies - Lobsters, one of the most used foods in the game.
• Logging - The action of logging-out your character in the wild to escape from PKers.
• Lol - Laugh Out Loud
• Long - Long Sword / Long Bow
• Lumby - Lumbridge, the starting town in RuneScape.
• Lure - Baiting or luring someone, or a team, into a multi-combat area zone of the Wilderness.
• Lvl - Level
• Med - A type of helmet, medium sized. It is second best, before the full-helmet. (Although currently, there is currently only a dragon med helm, no full helm.)
• Mith - Mithril, one of the ores of RuneScape.
• Nats - Nature runes.
• Newb/Noob - Newbie, someone who is not very experienced.
• Obby - Obsidian.
• Phat - Party hat, a holiday drop for christmas a few years ago, these are no longer made so they are extremally valuable. They were obtained by using a christmas cracker with another player. There are green, purple, red, blue, white and yellow party hats.
• Pk - PlayerKill, The act of killing a player, usually in the Wilderness.
• Pker - Player Killer, someone who kills players in the Wilderness.
• Pjing - Player-jumping, the action of using friends to kill an unsuspecting player in a 1 versus 1 deathmatch.
• Pking - PlayerKilling, the action of undertaking player killing.
• Pl8 - Plate, the 2nd type of melee armour, the other being chain mail.
• Pots - Potions, used to boost/restore skills.
• Pure - Player who only trains in certain skills to keep their combat level low.
• Rc - Runecraft.
• RSC/RS1 - RuneScape Classic
• RS/RS2 - RuneScape (RuneScape 2)
• Santa - Santa hat, a holiday drop for christmas a few years ago, these are no longer made so they are extremely valuable.
• Sara - Saradomin, one of the gods in RuneScape.
• Scimmy - Scimitar, a sword with a semi-large blade that is viciously curved. (Si-mi-tar)
• Short - Short sword / short bow.
• Skirt - Plateskirt
• Smitty - Smithing
• Super set - Super attack, defence and strength potion.
• Swordies/Swords - Swordfish, The next food up from lobsters.
• Tav - Taverly, a town west of Falador (Fally)
• Unids - Unidentified Herbs.
• Wc - WoodCutting, one of the many skills in RuneScape.
• Whip - Abyssal Whip, which is dropped by Abyssal Demons.
• Wildy - The Wilderness
• Zammy - Zamorak, one of the gods in RuneScape. Can be used to describe various items associated with Zamorak.

Economy and money

The currency used in RuneScape is RuneScape Gold Pieces, also referred to "GP" or "Coins". RGP is used throughout the game. Externally, RuneScape GPs are sold in healthy volume on eBay, usually in denominations of 1 million. Trading real world items/money for in-game benefits is explicitly forbidden and is grounds for account banishment/termination.

Using the going rates on eBay, the value of the RuneScape economy can be roughly measured in real-world currencies. Based on 12/18/05 data, one RGP is worth about .000014053 US dollars. Thus if every one of the 2.8 million players of RuneScape had a net worth (the economic value of both items and RGP) of 100,000 RGP, then the entire RuneScape economy would be worth approximately 3.9 million US Dollars.

Criticism

Like many other MMORPGs, some players of RuneScape choose to cheat or "macro". "Macroing" involves using an automated script to perform actions such as mining, without human interaction. This can destabilise the RuneScape economy by saturating it with raw materials. Because macroing gives certain players an unfair advantage, it is explicitly forbidden and is the grounds for an account suspension or even ban. Both Jagex and honest players actively attempt to stop the problem, but it still exists today.

Some players are also dissatisfied with Jagex's Customer Support. Many paying members do not get support for their queries regarding the game, but mere automated responses. Jagex has recently been making efforts to increase the size of their Customer Support team.

Pricing information

RuneScape is a Java Browser-Based game; no software purchase is required and gameplay is free (excluding any fees incurred by an Internet Service Provider to access the internet). Additional game content can be unlocked by upgrading to a members account which is safe now that they use SSL. Paying through mail and single month subscriptions cost US$7.95 per month, while full year subscriptions are available at US$5.50 per month (total cost US$65.95; charged in advance). Using a Credit Card, subscriptions are US$5.00 per month. You are automatically charged that amount every month for as long as you keep your membership.

In the UK credit card payment costs £3.20 a month and SMS costs £5.

External links

Official links

• JaGeX site - The official Jagex site.
• RuneScape - The official RuneScape website.
• Miniclip - Official endorsed alternative gamesite.
• Mofunzone Official endorsed alternative gamesite

Links past this point are in no way endorsed by or affiliated with Jagex Ltd. Endorsed link can be found on here: http://www.RuneScape.com/lang/en/affiliates.ws

Most popular fansites

Sorted in domain name alphabetical order.

• RuneScape Bits & Bytes - Offers many tools such as Stat Signatures, Goal Signatures, Skill Calculators, and a forum community.
• Runecrypt - A very large site with Quest Guides, Other Guides, Stat Signatures, and a Community with over 8000 members.
• RuneHQ - A fansite, with guides, features, a community, level calculators, and other things you may need to know about RuneScape.
• RuneScapia - A fansite that nearly always has Quest guides out on the day the Quest is out.
• Rune Village - A fansite containing guides, info, and a large forum.
• Tip.It - Rune Tips - The first ever RuneScape fansite with guide, atlas, calculator, database, community section and more.
• Zybez - A fansite contains guides, info, and maps. Strongly affiliated with the RuneScape Community forum.

Other RuneScape communities/forums

Sorted in domain name alphabetical order.

• The Wilderness A message board/forum where RuneScape players can gather and discuss skills/quests/items/updates/PKing and more.
• Nomad Gaming - A site with quest and skill guides, active forums, maps and more.
• The Black Hole Experience - Fansite forum geared at the more mature members of the community.
• Runeboard.com - A forum, teaching players how to merchant, raise skills, and talk with each other.
• Rune-Market - RuneScape Forum/Market.
• RuneScape Community - A forum, which players can chat about and show off their achievments.
• RuneScape Daily - Free RuneScape Blog Service.
• Salmoneus' Realm of RuneScape - Fansite containing a large collection of guides, tips and tricks, has an active, large forum for RuneScape Discussion.

• RuneScape
• Massively multiplayer online role-playing games