teatonev

I am about to start smelting steel bars in order to make cannon balls. Is it worth completing up to the medium tasks on the Varrock achievement diary and using the Edgeville furnace? Or is it just as fast to stick with Port Phantasmys?

Great research Freesia. I found that if I allowed 100 per coal that worked out about right on average. As Freesia describes the mithril is pretty hard to depleate even on the official Blast Furnace world so it is profitable to just bring noted coals (eg supplied from MTK).

I personally used the skeleton coal mine when I was F2P before I could use the mining guild. It's the only other decent size coal mine you'll find in F2P. I got PKed a few times but only ever lost a few items of armour.

I believe you'll find it in the pirate's bar in Brimhaven

Forgot I'd gained an attack level yesterday! Back to a more normal routine, 47 Slayer gained at Harpie Bugs today, so that's 10 levels in 10 days this month. Not much else achieved today, spent most of the day hunting snakes for snakeskin chaps to comple my clue scroll - very disappointing - some air runes and Guthix p1. Now going to investigate whether the armour for this new Varrock Diary is actually any use for mining/smithing....

My levelling has got a little sporadic now! Trying to balance life and Runescape is a little tricky at the moment but I'm almost keeping up - 8 levels in 9 days this month. Got 62 Ranged and 60 HP today finishing off my slayer assignment, cannoning trolls. Next slayer assigmnet Harpie Bugs, and a clue scroll already (although that will distract from the levelling). May need to make some money soon though - down to my last 4k after MTK. Got a ton of raw materials coal and maples mostly.

Had everything set up for two quick herblore levels yesterday, then found someone selling a cannon for 500k. Burned through 1200 cbs on Death Plateau gaining two slayer levels in the process. Quite shocking how quick they go, almost a quarter of a million gps worth in an hour. Looks like I'm back to smelting! Only one good drop but a memorable one, a second half of a half key. My first dragonstone after almost a year of playing.

No offense taken! Glad I've still got plenty of skills that I can get 'easy' levels in. Thanks for your support (need it at the moment as I'm trying to catch up after a long weekend off). BTW great avatar! Harvest Moon fan?

As a fellow lvl 65 smither I have a few thoughts. Steel is slow. Cannonballs are even slower. Its certainly much faster exp to smith platebodies but you can make a lot of money selling cbs. I've recently made 8k of them and I'm not keen to do it again in a hurry. Gold is better but will impoverish you unless you mine it yourself. This is my preferred option at the moment as I'm still working on my mining, and I can also use the bars for crafting exp. May I suggest the blast furnace world? I'd recommend MTK to acquire coal at 100ea (about 500 a day). Note these and take them with some money to the blast furnace. Unnote 40 at a time and load them up. Then buy 20 mithril ore and smelt! There's usually enough people for the furnace to be working really well, I usually just grab a hammer and watch for any breakdowns. Then make the bars into crossbow bolts (not sure what fletch level required). These then stack so you can stay there until you run out of coal. Mith bolts sell at 150 ea and this process costs 100ea (inc feather) so its good profit and fast exp. You can also work this by high alching mith platebodies, and then not being reliant on buyers, prices etc.

Had a bad few days for Runescape. Have been mostly away from a computer since the end of August but have finally managed to get a good hour in this morning. Completed `Hand In The Sand` to bump my Crafting up a level. Then needed to clear out some bank space, so did wall safes in Burthorpe until I'd got through 30 pike (found noted on the floor of a bank a few weeks ago - obviously someone else's bank clear out - really should learn!). Anyway, got a thieving level in the process. Then to the furnace to make 100+ vials for a couple of herblore levels tomorrow. Must clear that bank space though as I have several weeks of MTK to collect too (mm Tree seeds).

57 Magic achieved by high alching all those bracelets I've been making. Struggled to get a good rhythm, may be easier when not at work with sound off. Had a play at the blast furnace too, trying to decide if any faster exp than gold bars...

Had got to one load away from 65 smithing so could get quick level as only had 60 secs of Runescape yesterday! My farming tip is Kingdom managing for tree seeds all the way. Concentrating on the higher level trees such as yew, maple, papaya and pineapple (use garden pies as nececessary) makes the levels fly buy. I grow or buy the gardener's payments so they can watch the crop for me (I can't go past a charter trader without buying fruit, the Gnome Tree is good as well). I also keep every herb seed I find (on slayer etc.) as I need to work on my herblore and growing those keeps the xp ticking away. I find farming rounds a good distraction from levelling other skills.

63 farming just from going round farming herbs and limpy seeds. Now have over 100 irit leaves and eyes of newt banked which should be good for a herbolore level or two (as soon as I craft some vials). Smelted and crafted some more bracelets so I'm now not that far away from another smithing level. Once I've got this batch of ores done will probably give the blast furnace a go. May need to catch up with slayer a bit too (starting to get left behind).

73 Mining - amazing what you can achieve with a 48 hour layover in a foreign country with nothing to do apart from shake a few hands, do some shopping for your girlfriend and play runescape. In an ideal would have liked to have got a bit more gold smithed and crafted (enough ore for two more levels banked) but there's jet lag for you. Have got a another farming level almost in the bag with the herb growing, and enough bracelets to high alch my way to another magic level.

Found a computer! Spent most of the time mining gold on Karamja, with occasional breaks for herb farming and to grab a quick crafting level. Should have enough gold ore by tomorrow to get a smithing level. Will also have enough gold bracelets to high alch my way to another magic level.

Strategies for MTK can depend on what you want to get out of it. You can either tailor you're strategy to get resources you can't get by other methods eg birds nests or you can try to maximise profit. So if you want bird nests for tree seeds you should put 100% on maples. You could then try and make your kingdom self sufficient by putting the other 50% on a profit making resource such as flax or coal (although flax is getting hard to sell). Basically compare the cost of the resources to the current street price and see what makes the most profit. If money is no object of course you could put the other 50% in herbs or anything else that takes your fancy.

64 smithing today. Feels like a weight off my shoulders. Smelting steel and making cannonballs has been such slow experience, but at least now seems to be worth it. 6k cbs sold at 200ea will cover the next 10 day cycle of Kingdom management. That slayer level needs some work with 120 trolls just waiting to be cannoned! (I still have 1.5k cbs left over btw). I'm enjoying gold mining in Karamja too. By the time I get another mining level there should be enough gold ore for a few smithing levels and maybe a crafting level too. Have to go to the US for work for three days, so will only be able to play if they find me a computer. Assume they haven't if you don't hear from me for a day or two!

Thanks, Can anyone else confirm this?

Is the dwarf cannon's chance to hit affected by my range bonus? ie should I use my best range gear when using it?

I'm sure the answer to this question is no, but I thought I'd pick all the tipiters brains on the subject. Is there a regular furnace close to the blast furnace where I could make cannon balls?

Nothing achieved on Thursday, as I only had less than half an hour at my computer. Made up for it today by completing Holy Grail quest, putting both Defense and Prayer up a level, so thats Ok isn't it? Going to try and keep chipping away at Smithing for the rest of the day with occasional herb farming runs.

Tuesday was a complete nightmare. Basically not enough time available to play. Thought I could get an easy magic level at the MTA, but changed my mind and decided to enchant all of my rings from tree nests instead. Was left just short of my level but luckily had a tsockpile of gold bars and gems, so made some innoculation braces and just squeezed the level. Today was much better. I was able to get into a really good swing iron mining and got up to 72 - mining levels are going to get hard to come by soon. Have been able to plant some herbs and start work on Family Crest quest - keep getting disturbed half way through Chronazon though. Hope to get that done and then might try Holy Grail. Should then be able to switch to gold mining and start getting smithing and crafting levels up faster.

63 smithing achieved - finally a decent level instead of an 'easy'. Still about two hours mining away from another level, so may try and get another level's thieving tomorrow, or maybe try a combat stat. Crafting is quite close to levelling too.

53 Thieving - had to find the easiest level to get again today - 43 pickpockets of a Master Farmer. Managed to get 2/3s of the way to next level at Rogues Den safes. Back to smithing tomorrow

People go for maples because of the potential for tree seeds from birds nests. Its the fastest way to get them unless you're a mole serial killer. What's everyone investing after the Karamja glove nerf/flax price collapse? I'm doing 100%/ coal/50% maples, but using the coal to make steel for cbs. It seems though, that everytime the masses shift to one resource on MTK the price collapses.