If you have been an MMORPG enthusiast for quite some time, then it is highly unlikely that you have never heard of RuneScape before. As among the biggest MMORPGs then and now and holding numerous Guinness World Records such as most number of users and highest aggregate game time spent on it, among others, RuneScape has never ceased to grow and expand since its original launch back in 2001.
Jagex Game Studio launched RuneScape on mobile back in 2019 and the series of updates leading to what the game has now become has greatly contributed to keeping it among the chart-topping MMORPGs and games on both Android and iOS platforms. RuneScape maintains its classic look and feel, providing a nostalgic experience for long-time players and a rather unique one for people who only dived into MMORPGs on mobile. Runsecape maintained its vast open world as well as continued to provide absolute freedom to its players as far as quests and activities are concerned, ensuring a non-linear progression depending on the players’ preferences and play style.
RuneScape takes you back to Gielinor with all its lore and legends as its world continue to grow and develop along with its inhabitants. Prosperous and vibrant as the world seems, there is always trouble brewing. With the world of Gielinor equally abounding with monsters, the more conventional approach towards helping the land’s people is through adventuring.
Whether be it as a blade-wielding warrior, an archer, or a practitioner of the mystic arts, there are plenty of ways for you to combat different enemies on your own as well as with a group of other adventurers. On the other hand, you can live in peace and instead tend to your crops and livestock, specialize in trade, or invest in yourself through the acquisition and development of various life skills like cooking and crafting.
There certainly is a lot to explore and revel in as you dive into the world of Runsescape. If you are a complete beginner or only have a background in modernized auto-enabled mobile MMORPGs, it will certainly take some time to adjust to the old point and click ways as you navigate around RuneScape’s world as well as its numerous menus and features. There is a quick tutorial at the start of the session, which should tackle the basic controls and necessities.
There is a lot more to learn as you go and your new starting point following the conclusion of the tutorial might appear overwhelming. If you just started playing RuneScape and in need of guidance to jumpstart your journey, we got you covered as our beginner guide comes with a bunch of tips and strategies you need to excel in your adventure!
1. Take On The Basic Challenges
Runsescape starts you off in a tutorial island of sorts where you get acquainted with movement and basic interactions. The point and click method to get you where you want to go takes some getting used to without a mouse especially for complete beginners but a few minutes of walking or running should get you the hang of it.
Early on, as an introductory mini quest of sorts, you will be led to choose between arming yourself and taking on some enemies attacking the town or go fishing and cooking as a different kind of aid to the residents of the island town. There are no right or wrong choices here as either one has benefits and you will basically involve yourself in these 2 very different types of activities as you dive deeper into RuneScape’s massive world.
Once done with the short quest, you will be transported to Gielinor where your true adventure begins. Its sheer size can be overwhelming to say the least, as your screen will be littered with various buttons and the mini map filled with notable icons.
Despite the overabundance of places and features to explore as well as activities to engage in, RuneScape is not the type of MMORPG that imposes pressure on players to grind and farm at excessive rates. With the general division of feats to accomplish divided across action-packed quests and life skill enrichment careers, as well as a mix of both, you can always choose to pace yourself in accordance with the amount of free time you have.
Without a doubt, there is plenty of fun to be obtained exploring the entirety of RuneScape’s massive world blindly. Before you venture forth exclusively on your own, however, we suggest that you follow and accomplish the basic challenges first. There are numerous quests and challenges to engage in even for a free player. The basic challenges lead to a better understanding of what RuneScape’s world has to offer and set you up better on choosing the path you want to take moving forward.
To initiate a quest, tap the home button at the upper left corner of your screen. This is the main menu and you should initially explore the adventures banner. Your primary focus should be on quests and challenges. Starting off with the basic challenges and engaging in basic livelihood activities like mining and fishing should lead to a better understanding of what RuneScape has to offer. Once you have completed the basic training, which feels like an extension of the tutorial, you can then proceed to taking on more challenging endeavors.
2. Familiarize Yourself Well With The Map
RuneScape certainly provides adventurers with a massive world to explore and the actual size of the map’s entirety is not all that makes for a grand adventure as every inch of space is filled with people and objects to interact with. It will surely take time to memorize the whole map’s layout but to make it easier to navigate, you should get accustomed to the mini map as well as the numerous icons that litter within it.
To start off, a basic and very important task you need to habitually perform is to activate lodestones in every new area you visit. Activated lodestones enable you to fast travel or instantly teleport to different parts of the map and is an efficient way to go on adventures given that most of the activities you will engage in require some travelling back and forth.
Lodestones are easily identifiable on the world as well as on the mini map. It can be seen as a circular platform on the world with inscriptions around it. On the mini map, the lodestone icon looks like a blue target symbol and once you teleport anywhere, you can view the mini map to catch a good look of it.
A basic icon to help you identify where you are and where your target location should be is indicated by an “x” mark. The yellow “x” icon determines where you are on the mini map and if you double tap anywhere on the screen, you will place a personal blue “x” marker on it. If you happen to run by something of great interest but cannot pursue it at the moment, dropping a marker on it becomes very useful. You can tap and hold on your personal market and choose to remove it given that you can only put 1 personal marker at a time.
Another basic icon to keep tabs on is the bank. This is where you will be stashing all the loots and items you wish to keep for later consumption or trading. Since you have a very limited item slot you can carry with you, it is best to store all items you currently do not need on your immediate quest at banks. Banks are scattered around the world map and you can easily find one within reach of another. Make it a habit to empty your personal inventory as much as you can before going on quests or farming to ensure you will have ample free space.
Of course, one of the most abundant icons you will notice early on in your adventure are the asterisk-like icons that dominate the mini map. These are mostly blue in color indicating the starting point of quests. The green asterisks indicate a taskmaster and should be visited if you want to pursue tasks and accomplishments. RuneScape also provides numerous mini games indicated by red asterisk icons on the mini map.
Note that while you can travel from one location to another by tapping on the ground on your screen, tapping on an area on the mini map while it is at the upper right side of your screen will also work. It can be a little challenging if you are playing on a mobile phone but with a bit of practice, you can get the hang of it as well.
A wide variety of shops can also be found across most towns within the world of RuneScape. Weapon and armor shops are mostly specialized and there are different types of shops you can visit based on your equipment of choice. There are separate and distinct shops for general items and pet items as well as items you need for farming, fishing, crafting, cooking, and so on.
More experienced MMORPG players are more likely inclined to venture into the quest and challenges early on but before you venture outside of town be sure to at least visit some of these shops and get to know more about what each one has to offer.
3. Take On Various Quests
RuneScape being an MMORPG certainly involves a lot of quests and adventuring and even though we wanted to prioritize the basic challenges and familiarization with the map over it, taking on various quests is certainly an important aspect of your growth and progression in the game. There is an overabundance of quests to take on in RuneScape and despite the plethora of other activities you can engage in outside of active quests, its value is at its peak for beginners given that these initial quests will introduce you to numerous aspects of the game you may not discover on your own.
There are plenty of available quests early on and more waiting to be unlocked following the completion of some quests. You can tap on the quest icon on the mini map to view its details as well as the requirements. On the main menu under “quests”, you can find a complete list of quests that comes with various ways to delimit based on what is convenient for you.
Quests are naturally designed to immerse players deeper into the lore of Gielinor as well as its people and its history. The activities you engage in the pursuit of a quest comes with the usual loots and items and the quest’s completion often comes with its own set of unique rewards. Most quests also provide EXP as part of the rewards, enabling a faster and more efficient growth path for your character. Beyond that, unique items like weapons and gears also often form part of quests and some quests even unlock new areas you can visit and revel in only through such quests.
Like the general impression or joke about conventional RPG, there are plenty of quests in RuneScape that appear to be more like chores like finding a cat, helping a cook, and so on. We will not be delving into specific quests for a beginner’s guide but, at the very least, what is important to note is that you should use the quest system as among your primary means to explore various activities in the game.
4. Plan Ahead For Mastering Skills
Saying that RuneScape offers a plethora of learnable and upgradable skills is certainly an understatement as you will basically be employing skills with every bit of activity you engage in. Engaging in combat does raise skill levels attributable to it such as attack and constitution but there are numerous skills you need to work on to ensure not just your survival but a sustainable progression in RuneScape’s world.
To start off, you can check the current levels of skills you have through the main menu under the skill tab of the hero banner. On your first visit to this window, you will already notice that you have levelled up some of the available skills, giving you access to more activities or items relative to each skill following your engagement in a variety of activities within the tutorial session. For skills at level 1, which is the base level, you can also notice at the right side of the screen, not just the available activities or items you can use relative to that skill but also an idea of what to use or engage in to increase that skill’s level.
Although we mentioned earlier that RuneScape does not necessarily have to involve combat and raids, the general appeal of any MMORPG banks highly on such activities. Although there are plenty of skills as well as powers that you can learn and master as you engage in combat and reach new levels, there are also other skills you might miss on that are equally important to adventurers.
Herblore, for example, is a skill that you will have to constantly improve on to help you concoct various potions you can use in combat for a variety of helpful effects. Summoning is also a basic skill that can provide great help to you in combat regardless of how you choose to go about it. Summoning leads to the deployment of different familiars that can tremendously aid your performance in battles.
There are no right or wrong decisions to make in choosing which skills to prioritize in RuneScape. For the most part, time and effort are the most basic requirements to improve on each available skill and deciding to focus on something else at a later point essentially still contributes to the growth and development of your character.
5. Stay Away From The Wilderness
No MMORPG is complete without its fair share of PvP content and in RuneScape, the PvP system can be a shocking surprise to unsuspecting neophytes in its world. The area just to the north of the starting point, known as the wilderness, is an all-out PvP area where all players can attack one another. As much as we recommended venturing out in the open world as much as you want to enjoy all you can in RuneScape, it is best to steer clear of this area as much as you can early on.
Venturing into the wilderness is inevitable given that there are plenty of quests that involve going through it or even slaying certain groups of monsters that lurk within it. However, what makes the wilderness dangerous is not the mobs of monsters you can always outsmart and outrun if needed but rather other players who may choose to kill you for your items or for fun. Keep in mind that when killed, your character will drop all items that you are carrying. While you can always travel back to where you perished to try and pick up dropped items, chances are that they will be gone or taken by other players by the time you get back.
The world of RuneScape, in general is filled with players like yourself who want to take on adventures on your own or engage in cooperative challenges with other people with a great lot probably even out looking for friends. However, it cannot be avoided that there will also be players who are out to troll other players and whose idea of fun may involve making it a little more challenging for people who are just starting out.
If ever you feel that you must venture forth into the wilderness, be prepared at the very least. Again, the bank is your friend and you should always safekeep your valuables within it. If it becomes a big risk for you to wear your best gear in the wilderness, then opt to arm yourself only with gears you can afford to lose. Expect the best and always prepare for the worst when venturing into the wilderness.
6. Manage Your Inventory And Gold Supply
Inventory management is a crucial part of any MMORPG. While we have already discussed ensuring a lot of free space in your item bag and keeping your valuables in the bank early on, it is merely an introduction to the bigger and more delicate concept of managing your inventory in the world of RuneScape.
While the idea of similar items being stackable inside the bank makes for a convenient way of keeping a massive chunk of items in comparison to what you can carry with you, the whole idea of hording supplies almost always end up not being used at all. The space within each bank is also certainly not infinite and then there is always a concern about earning gold pieces and keeping a steady supply of it.
Given that gold pieces are the basic currency in RuneScape, you naturally keep a lot of the loots and items at the bank with the basic purpose of converting them to gold pieces eventually. Well, you can always pick up gold from the mobs of monsters you kill while adventuring but, for the most part, doing so will hardly be sufficient for your growing needs as an adventurer. In this sense, keeping all your loots for the purpose of selling or trading them is a basic necessity.
Keep in mind, however, that there are some common items you can trade for gold that serve a variety of purposes as well. Ingredients or raw materials for what you can concoct, cook, or craft, for example, have value beyond their equivalent in gold pieces. Likewise, some items are necessary for you to train some of your skills as well. In this sense, it is best to identify and examine the items you keep in your inventory early on, and strategize regularly on what to keep in storage and what to sell or trade for more gold pieces.
One feature in RuneScape you should be familiar with early on is the Grand Exchange, which is an exchange post for players to sell items they do not need and purchase more of the ones they need. This is another testament to the idea that you can make progress in RuneScape even if you choose to live a virtual life away from combat, raiding, and general adventuring.
Through the general exchange, you can basically farm basic materials like logs, fish, meat, feathers, and the rest of the basic items you can get plenty of with little to no effort. You can grind for specific basic items, lodge them in the bank and take them from the bank within the Grand Exchange to sell for profit. The Grand Exchange can be found to the north-west area of Varrock, east of Edgeville, and south of the wilderness, which is close to your starting point following the tutorial.
Our beginner’s guide is certainly comparable to lightly scratching the surface of what the world of RuneScape has in store for you. There is certainly a lot more for you discover on your own and we hope that the simple tips and strategies we shared with you in our guide has enabled you to shorten the newbie instance a bit and played like an experienced faster a lot sooner. If you know of some more helpful tips for fellow beginners in RuneScape, be sure to share them with us below in the comments!