Doomster

My pure mage has: Hat & robe (not matching, for luck) Studded chaps (-5 attack, but some good defence) Gloves, boots (normal, not stronghold) and cape. Fire staff and anti-dragon shield. Mage ammy The studded chaps (20 ranged) are the strongest defence versus attack switch, stronger than switching the mage ammy to a power, and cheaper too. Otherwise, I usually use leather chaps on a mage - never mind the look, it's a tiny bit of defence and no penalty.

I'll never be without fishing & cooking - maybe different in P2P, but due to the levels in F2P, it's quite practical to fish and cook the best you can get, without being a no-life skiller. Even for P2P, 40/40 for Lobster will see you through all but the highest danger levels, without spending a bean on food. Not sure my self-sufficiency strategy has the highest efficiency, but it sure makes my melee combat cheaper.

With the autocast option for Crumble Undead (Slayer staff or Void knight mace, I believe), the XP for the spell was brought into line with its level in the table of spells running from chaos to death runes. It's no worse the fire bolt, a little more XP actually, but not good value if single casting using any other staff. Though if you safespot the Ankou and use the chaos runes to do it, go with Crumble - use an earth staff (water & body runes) hit them with curse (and you WANT it to hit!), then crumble - and pick up the good runes they drop in P2P. The difference - before, you would single cast crumble because it was incredible XP, now, you would single cast crumble ONLY because it's strong against undeads, though even strikes will rip the Ankou apart - I've drop counted per 1000 or 1500 strikes down there.

One other thing, I'll describe my tactical equipment for Chaos Dwarves and using the keys at the maze. Rune Scimitar, Rune Platebody, Rune Legs, Mithril kite, Mithril Full helm, gloves, cape & stronghold boots. Since I can smith most mithril items, that is a virtual 3 item set, though I'd be annoyed to lose the keys or the chest loot.

Not that tough for a full runer, even. I've actually melee'd them on a pure, Rune scimmy, Iron + dragonhide - tough but possible, though only 1 or 2 per load of flyfishing and stay close to the door. One thing, you need over 8 hitpoints left as you tag the door, as you can be hit on the way - in fact, less than 17 hitpoints there is the danger zone, as you need to stand an 8, 8 double max.

The chest is in the free part of the Lava maze, and the key is dropped in F2P by the Chaos dwarves (found at / north of Chaos ridge, not sure if the Rock Plateau ones are also present in F2P). Also, my mistake, Lava maze is NOT multicombat, and can actually be an ok place to work out on the pair of lessers and the not-busy Hill giants. A slashing weapon is required to cut the webs.

The Muddy key, a not uncommon drop from the Chaos Dwarves (wilderness), that is used to open the chest in the Lava maze (deep wilderness, guarded by two Lesser Demons, with Black Knights, Scorpions and Hill giants on the approach). The key is definitely not a rare drop, a half load of food used (need to get back safely) should deliver a number of keys, plus some mithril bars and items. The chest loot consists of 8 items, 4 stackable and 4 not: *Mithril Bar *Uncut Ruby *Mithril dagger *Anchovy pizza (Stackable) *2 Law runes *2 Death runes *10 Chaos runes *50 Coins Multiple keys may be taken and used at once, though for survivability, a practical limit tends to be 4 keys and 8 good pieces of food - some spaces also filled with lower level food to be discarded if not used. 6 keys and some discardable food, would leave you with 6 Anchovy Pizza for the return trip. The main thing, if you craft with rubies, is that it is a guaranteed ruby, if you can get there and back safely. The trading price of the keys tends to reflect the high side prices of the more desirable items in the bundle - the bar, the uncut and the runes. PS. There is a Steel Platebody respawn there, worth more than the mithril dagger, so drop one of those to take it if you are full.

I'd differ on prayer, going to 31, and charging +2 at the monastery, then stop, unless you intend getting to the protect froms - but protect from will often trigger your opponent into running or combat switching. Basic problem of F2P prayer, it runs out too fast, but for melee vs. melee, equal combat, I'd suggest that praying attack (against a tank) or strength (against a pure) would be effective, on the other hand, if you've used 50% of your food and all your prayer, then you are disadvantaged by more than the advantage that using prayer gave.

Another F2P option for bases, is to take a LOT of grain, and fewer pots and water containers (bucket/jug) into the cooking guild, load ALL the the grain and then recycle the pots several times, though the more natural thing to make in the guild is apple pies and wines, unless the spawns are already camped.

Never buy, across my main, and an assortment of pures (mage, hybrid, steel, sceptre chasers), all have adequate fishing for their level. I generally only ever trade out stuff I can do, to buy things that will never be within my level (eg. rune weapons). I'd hate scrambling around to buy food for every combat. I generally cook and then store dump Tuna (10gp a piece is better than dropping, and it pays the fare), as I value my cooking levels as highly as my fishing levels.

Leave no bone unburied. Normal bones still add up, so don't get too hung up on big bones. Over-busy giants may be slower xp than level 1 and 2 easy and plentiful kills. If P2P, save the better bones to ecto or use at an open house altar (the best altar, with burners lit, is slightly less than ectoing).

Worst thing about the bandit camp, it's not just wilderness, it's multicombat... got teamed 2 on 1 there not so long ago, but since they were both melee, prayed and almost nailed one. The most dangerous multi combination in F2P is a mage (with bind) and a melee, though multiple mage is also an unpleasant prospect. Most dangerous P2P mix is probably Ancient & modern mage - the modern mage supplies teleblock, while the Ancient freezes and the modern mage uses blasts, waves or charged gods.

If you have space, save an axe handle, it can be useful if you find a spare head, instead of trying desperately to break a bronze one. It depends, if you are a serious woodcutter, visit Draynor bank on a trading world and you may find a rune axe seller, but if you only cut when you need a fire, just use the best you can smith.

Why do you never see the official RS site as a google ad - I wonder how much it would cost Jagex to usurp the "bad ads" on google by buying keywords themselves - or maybe trademark violation would be another way to address it? Also, the average player doesn't care that much about autos (and farmers) being there, more about the damage they do, particularly hogging resources such as Yews and buying out runes - honest merchants doing it is bad enough, but they don't buy every last chaos and death the moment it appears!

Go south from the entrance, run west across the next room (ghosts)then west in the corridor, to the south central room. Check the door (annoying if that's when it gives you an immediate pass), and the dive for the space in the skeletons on the south wall. Unless you collected one on the way in, they will normally corner-trap even if they try to approach from the door side. Even if you only want Ankou (for drops), if a Skeleton is aggroed on you, you MUST eliminate it, trying to dodge one that's waiting for you is a sure way to lose the safespot - you CAN break for a drop nd get back, but pick up one more monster in addition to a waiting one, and you have a hard time controlling the spot. Mind you, I usually work that spot using curse + firestrike, using crumbles, you should be able to sweep them away faster - I'd also curse first, to get the most out of your attacks.

You need 2 iron, but that can often be picked up from a drop miner, an excellent start to mining, especially if done early.

8, for all levels, I'm pretty sure - with a serious risk of 8, 8 There is a fairly good safespot available, and the door is close if you lose control of it, the main thing is to avoid collecting one on entry.

Mime is probably the most highly regarded random outfit, since it takes so long to get a full set. Least regarded, is probably Zombie, anyone seriously training prayer level can probably get Zombie, and at 5 pieces (like the mime), it's a space-consuming outfit. Frog is very common, but popular for party events, a two piece outfit. Lederhosen is a 3 piece. Random event pieces are ONLY obtained by getting the event, there is no reclaim. HOLIDAY items (untradable) can be reclaimed - they have a "destroy" option which also tells you where it can be retrieved, so if you have a skeleton outfit, or a chicken outfit, give that the heave-[garden tool] first.

Traing prayer has another F2P option, since 3 normal bones are only slightly less than one big bone (in XP), can you take down normal bone droppers (low level ones) 3x faster than any giant? In the Stronghold, level 1 rats drop bones, the only place they do, and they are not usually in great demand, giving them considerable potential as a fast source of normal bones. I got my prayer levels with very little use of big bones, the methods tried: 1. Leftovers - Cows, Al-kharid guards, goblins, wizards circle - some areas can supply normal bones about as fast as you can collect & bury. 2. Chickens - the champions guild will serve 1 or 2 chicken exterminators - got the remaining pieces of my Zombie outfit there, as well as a lifetime supply of feathers. 3. Wilderness boneyard - pretty good, but if the skeletons don't wear you down, the Pkers might. (big & normal bones). 4. Hill giants (dungeon) - BUSY! There are also some hill giants in the Lava Maze (deep wilderness) - if you can handle them with 3 good items (4 if you can protect item and trust your timing), then you can work out on them there (not too busy), and so long as you get all the bones buried, just die when your food runs out. I was actually there to do the chest, and would have stayed longer but for the 4 chests of stuff and limited food I was carrying (and mixed armour, 3 item + smithed fillers).

I'm actually getting to like the "new" edgeville - mind altar route, as the skeletons (and the lurking edgeville PK crowds) can be avoided completely - no great problem with them, but I try to avoid taking any hits.

Rune full, Rune long, Dhide vambs, strength ammy and (very annoyed) Rune axe - taking on one more Lesser and getting distracted when I needed to put protect on. Won't bother replacing the axe unless I have another serious woodcutting burst, as a smithed and disposable mithril will do for cutting to cook, which was why I had the axe on me. Amost as annoying as losing my power ammy the day after I got it!

Looks like a standard (iron) melee pure in current direction. If Melee is the main direction, then getting 40 ranged (d-hide chaps & vambs) and some weaken/curseed magic levels (resists magic better, enables teles), may be worth a go. Prayer is like the dark side of the force, if you are drawn towards it, it will take you over. In F2P (no prayer pots) it is good for one, not too long, fight only, unless you operate around a wilderness prayer altar. I would say, fighting with prayer active, does increase the pure's advantage, praying attack if you are missing too much, or strength if you are attacking low armour and hitting easily (pray both, and it drains even faster). Prayer out, and that advantage then becomes a level for level disadvantage. In members, prayer pots, super restores etc. make prayer a much more powerful option in both PvP and PvM situations, though the bones to train it (unless you fight to get them all) and the potions to top it up make it expensive.

I have several combat pures, with cheap, disposable equipment. 1. A steel smithing, steel combat "pure" with protect item, can go out and come back without worrying about losses. 2. Pure mage, a high risk pure, but dangerous in the right level band 3. A "perfect hybrid" aiming for equal combat of all types 4 & 5. low level sceptre pures, one GOT IT at level 16

I was quoting smelt & smith, 10 iron ores (@50%) to a platebody or 5 iron & 10 coal to a platebody. The main point, in F2P, is that iron is still decent smithing XP, but takes more time to smith, while steel mix takes longer to mine and actually gives slightly less smithing XP per ore. The fact that the 28 smelting cycles can be uncomfortably close to the logout timeout, is one reason to dislike iron. A similar problem occurs with a full load of of clay crafting.

Firemaking, I'd put as P2P: levels for various forms of illumination, F2P: no advantage at all in higher firemaking. F2P fishing and cooking: Lobster is a more usual target level, as you fish lobster, you get ONLY lobster. Some quest requirement levels would also be needed, to make this a stronger guide, concentrating on "you need level x in order to..." - MUST haves, rather than nice to haves.