some Z.M.I. experiments

Welcome to my first guide ever, it is about the Zamorak Mage Institute Altar (Z.M.I.-altar)

what is the Z.M.I. Altar?

It is an Runecrafting altar where you get random runes, but for double of the experience, eg. an air rune: 10 exp.

The higher your Runecrafting level, the higher the chance for better Runes, even blood and soul runes can be crafted, so you don't need a certain Runecrafting level to be able to make certain Runes, but higher Runecrafting gives a better chance to get them.

Where is it?

In a dungeon at the Zammorak Altar west of the Khazard Battlefield (the place where you can catch Red Salamanders).

The roads to the ZMI altar:

1: Tree Spirit (Khazard Battlefield)

2: Tree Gnome Village

3: Watchtower

4: Hot Air Balloon (Castle Wars)

5: Duel Ring (Castle Wars)

6: Ourania Teleport (Lunar Magics)

Here is a map of the dungeon. Not all the monsters are on the map, but the most important are. There are also Zammorak Runners, but all they do is...run. The dungeon also holds place of some other creatures (cave lizards, level 37), but in my experience they only attack the NPC's.

There are also more mages, Rangers and Warriors then on the map, but those are the ones that have most chance to attack you.

The Warriors can hit good, but they walk and you (are supposed to) run, so they'll just hit once.

The Mages hit good if you don't wear Magic defense, but wear Dragonhide and you'll be fine.

The Rangers are the worst, they even hit good when you wear good Ranged defence, so put on Protect from Missiles prayer.

$note$ If you have a good Prayer level, you can put on a Prayer like Steel skin or even Chivalry/Piety (gives best Defense bonus).

$another note$ If you are in the Official Z.M.I.-Runecrafting World (World 70), then you can try to follow someone else. This way the NPC's will attack the one you follow, and thus not you :P.

There is also an Official World for Z.M.I.-Runecrafting, World 70. It is recommended to go there because there are a lot of people, so the chances that you will get attacked (and so get hit) are lower, and the chance that someone Telegroups you Lunar Isle is bigger.

Which armour should I wear?

[There is a road where you don't need any armour, as there are no monsters, but it takes a long time and is not worth it, so I won't go in that.]

-Bearhead (requires Mountain Daughter), but any helm should do.

-Spottier/Spotted Cape (requires 68/40 Hunting, reduces your weight)).

-Charged Amulet of Glory (to teleport to edgeville (abyss) for repairing pouches.

-Earth/lava Staff (only when using Lunar Magic, see $note$)

-Penance Gloves (reward from Barbarian Assault, they reduce your weight).

-Black Dragonhide Body + Legs (requires 70 Ranged, Red, Blue and Green should also do (level 60, 50 and 40), but the higher the better, for good protection and not too much weight).

-Mind Elemental Shield (requires Elemental Workshop II, just for defence against Magical attacks)

-Boots of Lightness (required Temple of Ikov Quest, reduces weight).

-Maybe a Ring of Life if you are not so good in running/in case of extreme lag.

What skills/quest do I need?

In fact, you don't need a single skill or Quest, but some are suggested for efficience:

skills:

good Runecrafting: better runes, use of pouches(so, the higher the better).

good Agility: for fast recovering energy (so, the higher the better).

71 Magic: Ourania teleport, brings you very close to the entrance of the dungen (Lunar Magics)(see $note$ below).

70 Ranged and ?40? Defence: for the use of Black Dragonhide. (60 and 50 are also good, but you might need to heal at the bank.

68 Hunting: for Spottier Cape (or 40 for Spotted Cape, but is not as good).

40 Prayer: for Protect from Missiles Prayer.

Quests:

Dream Mentor Quest: for Ourania teleport (speak to BaBa Yaga to unlock).

Temple of Ikov Quest: for Boots of Lightness.

Mountain Daughter Quest: for bearhead, but any helm is good.

Elemental Workshop II: for the Mind Elemental Shield (not really necessary).

$note$

If you use the level 71 Lunar Magic Ourania Teleport, you should stock 20 Law and 20 Astral Runes, wear an Earth/Lava Staff and have Lunar Magic activated (pray at Lunar Altar). You will be teleported close to the entrance of the dungeon (you can pray at the altar on your way).

Run (i use the Short but Dangerous Route, but you can also try the Long and Safe route if you want, however you lose a lot of time with it, but is has the advantage of no monsters attacking you), craft your Runes, and now you can a few things to get to a bank and repeat:

1)teleport to Moonclan Island, either by Home Teleport (once every 30 minutes) or by the normal teleport (2 Astral and 1 Law rune required).

2)Wait untill someone casts Group Teleport to Moonclan Island, or call "group tele". You will be Teleported close to the Lunar Bank (Talk to the banker ('Birdseye Jack') on the right, else you need a Seal of Passage to access your bank. ==> this is the method I use.

3)Use your Glory amulet to teleport to Edgeville.

4)Run back the way you came, at the entrance of the dungeon is a man who has a bank, but he asks 20 Runes of the same kind (eg. 20 Air Runes, or 20 Body Runes) to open your bank, so stock up on these at the bank. This is a pretty expensive way, unless you have a big stack of runes and you don't know what to do with it, or you can get cheaper/faster 20 of them than 1 Law and 2 Astral Runes.

You might want to use Energy Potions or any other Energy recovering items ( thanks to ZodiakWolf for pointing this out).

My experiments:

I used 500 Pure Essences in my first experiment, my Runecrafting level was 58.

7981.000 experience for 500 Essences

= 14.962 experience for 1 essence,

= 654.442 experience for 41 Essences (1 trip for me).

(Why 41: I lose two places on Law and Astral Runes, I use Small, Med and Large Pouch, so I can load 41 Pure Essences).

On my next experiments I will also record the time it takes to craft 500, How many Rune I get of every kind, and also my Essence Mining time (I am doing that now).

I'm pretty sure ZMI stops getting you astrals around 90 Runecrafting. When I tried it at 86, I got a lot, but at 90, I only gained about 10 in an hour.

I started to check out what Runes I get, and when I get further, I'll compare.

All experiments you did are welcome, particularly the lower (20-30) and higher (60-99) levels.

What am I doing at the moment?

Mining Pure Essences and timing it.

current results: (43 essences are brought to bank each round)

1 - 00:02:12.8

2 - 00:04:31.7

3 - 00:06:51.9

so, that is 2 minutes and 17 seconds each load

= 137 seconds each 43 Essences

= 3.18 seconds each Essence

= 3600 seconds each 1130 Essences ==>let's take 1100 Essences an hour, so (calculated to current market prize) 105k-110k an hour.

This means I could better do something else to make money (110k+ each hour) and then buy Pure Essences for it.

Seeing these results, I'll just mine 3k more, which brings me a next Mining Level, and then I'll buy Essences with the money I made of training other skills (which means more experiments on ZMI-Runecrafting to you :P).

I am going to check my maths now, what is coming tomorrow?

-I'll add a map of the ZMI-Dungeon

-I might make a bestiary of the ZMI-Dungeon (that 'll be tomorrow or the next day)

-There will come some more results of my Essence mining, which will probably give the same result as now.

*EDIT*

The picture problem is fixed, I forgot my host didn't allow hotlinking :P.

Thanks to dudecrush8 for pointing me at this.

The guide seems okay but it really needs pictures and bolded headings to make them stand out more.

You also mentioned agility twic in the skills needed section.

Thanks for the agility report, I removed the second one.

I am still working on it, pictures will be added today or tomorrow, and then I'll bring some structure in it, clear out typo's, and add my further experiments.

*EDIT*

Pictures are added (however only in cropped version, the normal doesn't seem to work (it shows the sign of no image), titles are boldened, some typo's are removed.

I'm pretty sure ZMI stops getting you astrals around 90 Runecrafting. When I tried it at 86, I got a lot, but at 90, I only gained about 10 in an hour.

okay, I'll include the information

Pretty good :)

8/10, add headings...

I'll pm you your images with a better hoster (postimage.org isn't great ). :D

Yeah, I know, but I have my own hosting, but those pictures don't show up (see the "no-picture sign" below the first image ==> if I right-click on it, and select "view image" (I use FireFox), then I get it, but in the post it doesn't show up).[any advice on it would be welcomed :P]

You only need 40 defense black dragonhide, and only for the chest.

Also what are the monsters at the short route? And what do often get hurt by per run?

Other than that, pretty good for your first guide.

This is a good convincer for me as to wheter ZMI is worthwhile.

Thanks for your work.

to insertmyname here:

there are level 85 mages, rangers and warriors, aswell as some small animals and Zammorak runners that don't hurt you.

If you use the things I advise, you should not need to eat when you are at bank, but when you get unlucky, you might need to heal a bit, but I never had to (I have 81 Defence, 75 Magic and 70 Ranged).

With 70 Defence, you shouldn't have too many troubles, just run and pray :P.

I guess it is around 0-5hp each round.

good job, the map was a bit messy though

7/10

Pretty good 8/10

i added a map of the dungeon itself and some information about the monsters in it.

If the guide needs something more, reply :P

You mentioned being able to pay someone 20 runes of the same type to access your bank... I have 16k fire runes in my bank that I would love to put to some use; would using this banker be as fast or faster than teleporting to Lunar Isle?

The Zamorak Mage Institute Altar

 

 

 

What is the Z.M.I. Altar?

 

 

 

The Z.M.I. Altar is a Runecrafting altar where you can get any rune from crafting there and double of the experience, eg. an air rune: 10 exp. The downside is that the runes are random so you have no idea what rune you are going to get from your pure essence

 

You dont need any runecrafting level to craft at the Z.M.I. Altar, but a higher Runecrafting level will make it so you have a higher chance of getting higher runes.

Thought I might spruse up the intro a bit

I'll sum up the advantages and disadvantages of useing the banker inside the dungeon

Advantages:

- You choose which Runes you use, in your case Fire Runes

-You only have to stack up 1 kind of Runes, while with the Teleport you need 2 (Law and Astral)

Disadvantages:

-You have to run back to the entrance, trough all the monsters.

-If you want to use Prayer, you'll have to run further, to the Altar.

-If you use Pouches, you have to pay him 2 times, as you withdraw Essences, fill your Pouches, open Bank (and pay) again and withdraw Essences again. If you use Giant pouch, it would even take 3 times, so 60 Runes.

So, it is good if you haven't got the requirements for Ourania Teleport, but I think it has too many disasdvantages to use it.

Started going at it myself for some levels. I'm an aspiring Slayer and anyone who slays a lot will know the extensive amount of fire runes you get. I've been running back and forth (can't get to Lunar Isle yet) using the bank and the using fire runes (over 50k banked from Slayer) to pay the dude. For smaller amounts at a time this is a pretty good way to go at it.

I'm 80 defense and have found I don't need to eat to often, can recharge pray just up the ladder and energy pots/purple sweets/anything else to regen energy faster is good to.