Quickly degrading a crystal shield to a seed

[Phelps]

My first guide! Certainly not as complex or popular as how to do Barrows or strategies for Castle Wars, etc. But I am sure there is a small niche audience out there who might find this useful.

 

 

 

(Forgive me if this idea has been posted somewhere before. I did a search for "crystal shield" on the forums, and it gave me 604 matches... I scanned the first page of results, but i really can't (or won't) read all 600. So I'm going ahead and just posting anyway.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contents

 

1. Why intentionally degrade the crystal shield?

 

2. Comparison of the cost of recharging the shield vs. the bow

 

3. Some methods I've tried, but which are still rather slow

 

4. The quickest method I've found for degrading a crystal shield

 

5. Related links from Tip.it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Why intentionally degrade the crystal shield?

 

 

 

My basic motivation behind intentionally degrading my crystal shield to a seed is that I really wanted a crystal bow, but the cheaper recharge costs for the shield were too good for me to pass up.

 

 

 

I've been playing runescape for several years and have achieved some decent skill levels. And yet despite all that I have never really been "rich" in the game. The most cash I have ever had at once was 2 mil, when i was saving up to buy my whip. Under normal circumstances though I usually have less than 500k. I guess I don't like grinding enough to really stockpile the mage logs or sharks, or to runecraft my way to fame and fortune. And merchanting really doesn't hold my attention too long at all. Instead I usually just do things in small bits and move around alot for variety. (Fortunately that is exactly how slayer is trained, so perhaps in a few more levels that skill will become my ticket to wealth?)

 

 

 

So even though I did the Roving Elves quest over a year ago (maybe 2 years even,) I have still never used my limited funds to recharge my seed as a bow. Instead I have patiently waited for my shield to degrade and then recharged it as a shield again and carried it with me everywhere, allowing it to gradually wear out, again and again and again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Comparison of the cost of recharging the shield vs. the bow

 

 

 

The price for recharging your crystal seed into a bow or a shield is initially very high, but is gradually lowered with each subsequent charge, until the price reaches its lowest amount from the fifth charge onward. Here is a simple chart illustrating this:

 

 

 

Crystal Shield +++++ Crystal Bow +++++ difference

 

1st: 750,000 gp ........ 900,000 gp ........... 150,000 gp

 

2nd: 600,000 gp ....... 720,000 gp ........... 120,000 gp

 

3rd: 450,000 gp ........ 540,000 gp ............. 90,000 gp

 

4th: 300,000 gp ........ 360,000 gp ............. 60,000 gp

 

5th: 150,000 gp ........ 180,000 gp ............. 30,000 gp (These will be the prices of all recharges from this point on.)

 

 

 

Ttl: 2,250,000 gp ..... 2,700,000 gp .......... 450,000 gp (Total cost of reaching the lowest possible recharge price.)

 

 

 

So at this point you can ask yourself, is it even worth it? That is up to each person to decide. As you can see the savings is only 450k. For some of you that is probably such a meager sum that you are kicking yourself for wasting 5 minutes reading this far. In that time you could have made twice that much money hawking your pixelated wares in Fally world 2.

 

 

 

But for others, like myself, that mere 450k can represent a huge amount of time and effort. And it is for you that the rest of this guide is written.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Some methods I've tried, but which are still rather slow

 

 

 

Weidling the shield while pickpocketing master farmers was fun for a while. Everytime you fail at a pickpocket attempt and get hit for damage the shield takes a hit. 2500 failed pickpockets later and I had used up my first shield. But then i had all the seeds i needed, and then some. And it took ages. Great for farming and thieving, but not the quickest way to use up a shield.

 

 

 

Bringing it to Pest Control is a good way to make sure you expose your crystal shield to alot of damage rapidly. Especially if you are a very defensive player like me, who keeps an eye out for any torchers or defilers heading from the SE or SW portals toward the south wall of the fort. I would try to hit them before they started firing over the wall at the void knight. If I got them in time they would turn and target me instead of him. Get six or seven or more of them on you at once and your shield has its work cut out for it. I used up my second shield here as I worked for the void knight gear for my costume room armour case.

 

 

 

Barbarian Assault was also a decent way to use up a shield fairly quickly. Especially if you wear little to no other armor (in waves 1-7 at least.) Keep in mind that the whole team benefits from the more healing that your healer has to do in each round. So I would finish my task as quick as possible and then go stand unarmored where the remaining monsters could have at me. The healers earned the team lots of points nursing me back to health, and my crystal shield got a work out. Third shield down. But now I have mastered all the roles and I have my fighter torso. And I still need to recharge this seed one more time before I can get the cheapest possible rate for recharging it as a bow.

 

 

 

I was left wondering how to finish this thing off and get my bow for cheap so i can head off to the fight caves and finally get that nifty fire cape? and then it hit me...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. The quickest method I've found for degrading a crystal shield

 

 

 

Ever climb through the hole in the wall in Lumby basement, on your way to share some stories with Juna, only to find yourself standing in the dark with the eerie sound of scittering insects surrounding you?

 

 

 

If you have then you know the importance of bringing a light source with you into those caves, and you can also probably figure out the rest of this guide all by yourself :-)

 

 

 

But for the sake of completeness I'll keep typing...

 

 

 

This can be a fairly risky task. So I recommend banking all your valuables prior to climbing through the hole in the Lumby basement wall - because you are going to deliberately not bring a light. Conveniently, there is a chest in that same basement that can be used as a bank, assuming you have at least begun the Recipe for Disaster quest. You must have also begun the Lost Tribe quest to conveniently access Lumby caves from the basement.

 

 

 

I simply wore my Crystal Shield and took a full inventory of sharks. I have 86 hit points, and that plus 28 sharks equals 646 hit points. Once the bugs begin to bite you they inflict 1 hp of damage roughly every second. Now, everytime you take a hit that causes damage (a red splat) the shield is "used" once. After 250 uses it degrades one level. And after 2500 total uses it degrades back to a seed and must be recharged.

 

 

 

So, by taking approximately 646 hit points of damage, in 1 hp increments, that is 646 uses off of the shield in a matter of minutes. Simply repeat 3 more times and your nice new full crystal shield is a seed once again.

 

 

 

Altogether I was able to reduce a full shield to a seed in about 20 minutes using 108 sharks. Not too bad, if speed is your goal. If you want to go even more cheaply you can make more trips using a cheaper food instead, like tuna for instance.

 

 

 

Now I would do all this standing right next to the hole I had crawled in through, so after I had finished all my sharks in a trip I would let my hp get down to about 7 or 8 and then i would click on the hole to step back through into the safety of Lumby basement. Having your mouse hovering over the right spot to click is a good idea, as you watch your hp fall to the last possible moment. Otherwise you might find you cannot find the right spot in the dark to click fast enough, and you could end up dying. But you can also use that to your advantage.

 

 

 

If your respawn point is in Lumbridge you can squeeze a few more hp of damage out of each trip by using the Redemption prayer. Simply finish off your sharks or whatever food you are using and then turn on the Redemption prayer. When your hp reach 10% the prayer will heal you somewhat and you can take some extra damage. Then simply allow the bugs to kill you and you will respawn right upstairs with your full prayer points restored, full hp, and your crystal shield safely stowed in your pack. Simply run back downstairs, re-equip the shield, grab a full load of food from the chest and repeat.

 

 

 

You'll have your crystal seed down to its cheapest recharge rate in no time, and for the least possible expense. You'll also start some amusing conversations with the other folks who happen to be in Lumby basement while you are engaged in this apparent maddness. In response to the numerous "What is happening to him?!" questions, I started to reply that it was incredibly bad indigestion due to eating a dodgy kebab. :-P

 

 

 

Some folks even came in to join me in the bug-infested darkness, which made for an even stranger scene for the rest of the observers in the basement. All in all, a very amusing half hour of my runescape life. And that afterall is why I think most of us play - the game amuses us.

 

 

 

I hope some of you find this little tidbit of info to be useful, or, at the very least, amusing. Thanks for reading. Comments are appreciated, and worthwhile suggestions will be edited in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Related links from Tip.it

 

 

 

Quests mentioned in this guide

 

The Lost Tribe

 

Recipe for Disaster

 

Roving Elves

 

 

 

Info regarding Crystal equipment

 

The Elf Crystal

 

The Crystal Shield

 

The Crystal Bow

 

more on the Crystal Bow

 

 

 

Related Maps

 

Lumby Caves

 

Isafdar

[lv3god]

I gotta say, nice Idea and guide simple 8/10 For its originality.

[smarthead]

It's really good. The guide was written quite well, and even though I haven't even done roving elves, it kept my attention. Nice job.

[Phelps]

Thanks alot for reading and commenting. I appreciate it. I wasn't sure how people would receive it, so I am encouraged by your replies :-)

[sam10187]

Very good guide. When I start to use my crystal bow/sheild, I'll definitely use the tips in the guide.

[ooielandr]

Just a comment about the money saving aspects of the cave method.

 

 

 

The difference between the bow and shield costs is 450,000.

 

 

 

You say that you used 108 to degrade a shield entirely. At 800gp each, thats 86.4k/ shield recharge. multiply that by the 5 recharges to get to the lowest amount, and thats spending approx 432k. Only saving 18k

 

 

 

So unless someone is using cheeper food (like you have mentioned), then it may not be worth it, and would be better to just recharge as a bow and use the bows power to lvl range.

 

 

 

An alternative to do it completly free would be to have your respawn point in lumbridge, only wear your shield, let yourself die, and then just take the 30 seconds to run back into the caves and do it again. (although i think there is about 20-30 seconds before the bugs start to attack you.)

 

 

 

if you want to keep your respawn point in falador, you can also use the same method in the mole's lair.

[tuck]

I must have been missunderstanding or something but why on earth do you want to degree ur shiled as fast as possible.

 

 

 

to get the cheapest recharge cost on bow, right?

 

 

 

it is 420k (you cant count the 5th recharge) cheaper to recharege the shield 4 times then recharge bow 4 times

 

 

 

then you recharge the bow 4 times thats 180*4=720k

 

if you get the bow from the beginging it will cost you 420k to recharge the bow 4 times

[Freesia]

if you want to keep your respawn point in falador, you can also use the same method in the mole's lair.

 

I don't think you can dig in the mole hill without a light source and even if you brought it in to remove the restriction, you may have to drop your light source to remove light for the way to work.

[Death_Dude74]

if you want to keep your respawn point in falador, you can also use the same method in the mole's lair.

 

I don't think you can dig in the mole hill without a light source and even if you brought it in to remove the restriction, you may have to drop your light source to remove light for the way to work.

 

 

 

I don't think you can extinguish it either when in there.

 

 

 

Another nice section would be ways to get money when using up charges (An example I use is killing cave horrors (masks, big bones, and loads of seeds), dragons (hides and bones, and visage on blacks), and Dking ofc being my favorite (ranging prime).

[ooielandr]

 

I don't think you can extinguish it either when in there.

 

 

 

 

I believe you're correct. Sounds familiar from an update on the news page.

[meb]

I don't understand how you can write that much when all you need to say is 'Enter Lummy dungeon without lamp'. There's no need to say wich methods don't work when all you need to do is give the best method.

 

 

 

You'll have your crystal seed down to its cheapest recharge rate in no time, and for the least possible expense.

 

 

 

That is a very useless way to waste your charges, if you actually use your shield/ bow the money spent for recharges is a lot less of a waste. Rangign blue dragons for example can make your money back you used for the charges for example. If I use my shields at DKs (degrading 1 leaving the other at full) I will only need to pay for a shield after 10 trips. The odds you will make 750k in 10 DK trips are pretty high.

 

 

 

But for others, like myself, that mere 450k can represent a huge amount of time and effort. And it is for you that the rest of this guide is written.

 

 

 

Please, make some money. It's not hard with your levels. In fact, it's so easy that you could probably double your wet worth in 2 days of RCing or barrows.

 

 

 

All in all, I think that this guide is a complete waste of forum space. It is well written, but content is an important part too.

[dutchstyle]

Or you just buy 2 bows so you can go fight caves immediatly. Not a bad guide though. Original, very well explained 9/10

[phata_elise]

Well, an interesting guide, but I just don't see the point of it.

 

 

 

Firstly, you only need to degrade the shield 4 times to get it to it's cheapest recharge. So the price difference is 420k.

 

 

 

As ooielandr stated, you are using shark the help speed up the degrading process and that costs you 86k in food each degradation for a total saving of only 74k. Each degradation takes 20 minutes for a total time of 80 minutes. So you save 74k in 80 minutes, which comes down to 55.5k per hour. So, if you make more than 55.5k cash per hour it's cheaper to get the bow.

 

 

 

Now, assuming that you use very cheap food and that the time to degrade isn't influenced by that a lot, we can say that you could save 420k in 80 minutes. That makes for 315k per hour. So if you can make more than 315k an hour, it's cheaper to get the bow. That income is possible by runecrafting nats. However, food isn't free and poorer food will lead to longer degradation time.

 

 

 

Finally, as mentioned by death_dude74, you can actually make money while degrading the bow.

 

 

 

It's a well written, original guide, but I just don't see its use.

[tuck]

I must have been missunderstanding or something but why on earth do you want to degree ur shiled as fast as possible.

 

 

 

to get the cheapest recharge cost on bow, right?

 

 

 

it is 420k (you cant count the 5th recharge) cheaper to recharege the shield 4 times then recharge bow 4 times

 

 

 

then you recharge the bow 4 times thats 180*4=720k

 

if you get the bow from the beginging it will cost you 420k to recharge the bow 4 times

 

 

 

Still dont understand why you would degree the shield only to get bow :-k

[Zaaps1]

Great guide, too bad I won't be using it anytime soon.

[Toad]

what about a bow? failed jad attempt, just been to dk need a fresh one for next trip?

[Owned_Nex]

Very nice guide, however, using sharkies is WAY to expensive... I never ever actully done this because in 1 hour i can make 600k running dbout nats, or around 300k RCing myself, so I never saw the need. I did try this once however, but I dont feel its really worth it, since you could be getting ranged EXP with that bow.

[Michigander]

One Question (I'm not trying to be rude) why? Why degrade it from full when you could just go and use it? If its under half and working way less then sure but from full? I'm sorry but i have no clue why. Can anybody tell me?

 

 

 

EDIT: I just came up with my thery... Can you switch it from shield to bow when its at the 180/150k recharge state? If so I get it and nice guide =D>

[tuck]

EDIT: I just came up with my thery... Can you switch it from shield to bow when its at the 180/150k recharge state? If so I get it and nice guide =D>

 

 

 

you get it? can you please explain, cause i don't get it :P read my theory some posts above and if that theory is correct it would be rather stupid to degrade the shield as fast as possible

[Master_Smither]

I'd have to say the last part with the buds is a waste of money realy..... If your not using it for combat why waste that money just so it degrades.

 

 

 

But hey it's your money

 

 

 

It's a good guide 7/10

[pipeelbakan]

Great guide, its not good to see you haven't got much money, read my merchant guide for 10 180k c bows in a day!

[kickbuta]

Well, wouldent taking it down to the smoke dungeon be smarter? since you cant get k0ed by the smoke down there and can thusly stay there untill its all gone?

 

 

 

P.S. My way of wasting recharges is killing green/blue dragons and selling the hides and bones. By the time one reaches the cheapest recharge you have actually made money.

[Cyberfreak]

You know the Path of Glouphrie quest theres a crystal bowl if you use a charged item on that it turns back into a seed.

 

 

 

Please note I am not sure if it will work on the crystal shields and bows but you can try if it works yay fast way to seed them.