Runescape Free To Play Pure FAQ
By PaulT
1) Statistics
~Getting Started
~Choosing Goals
2) Training
~1-20 Attack
~1-40 Strength
~20-40 Attack
~40-70 Strength
~70-99 Strength
~Magic
~Ranged
~Prayer
3) Player Killing
~Using Prayer
~Weapon Switching
~Using Strength pots and Eating
~Edge PKing
~Castle PKing
~Varrok PKing
Getting Started
So you want to make a melee pure in Runescape? You must be prepared for long
hours training, the risk of losing, and eventually the glory of victory and
free items. Create an account, call it whatever you want, and go through
tutorial island.
Choosing Goals
There are only a few baselines for a melee pure in RS2, on Free To Play.
Number one is 40 attack. You need attack to wield Rune weapons, but getting
over 40 attack will limit your effectivess. You might be tempted by getting 50
or maybe 60 attack, maybe thinking about being able to hit on rune, or making
your pure members, but if you end up fighting another pure who has 40 attack,
you will surely lose.
Number two is 1 defence. You don't want defence, because it doesn't increase
the amount of damage you can do to another player, or the amount of damage you
can take. It simply increases the chance somebody will hit a zero on you,
which doesn't matter much.
Number three is 1 or 31 prayer. Just as you want 40 attack to be able to
access Rune weapons, you want a rounded off prayer level that will let you
access strength boosting prayers that will not overly affect your combat
level. One good way to figure out how much prayer you want is to calculate
your goal melee stats (using combat calcs on tip it, for example, to make sure
you have the correct HP) and then see how much each prayer level will affect
your combat level, and max hit. The prayer level that gives you the best ratio
of combat level to max hit is the best level to have. The reason you don't
want 13 prayer, though it gives a 10% percent bonus after only 13 pray levels
(wheras it takes 31 levels to get a 15% bonus) is because it runs out very
quickly.
Magic, strength, and ranged are stats that are left up to you. There are two
ways to train magic (that matter). If you do damage while you train, you get
hp XP. If you use a non damaging spell like curse, you don't. If you plan to
use magic for binding or fire blasts (65+mage needed for effective fbing,
though magic/melee is not covered in this guide), and want to keep your combat
low, you probably want to train it without gaining HP xp. Also, there is no
risk of accidentally gaining def xp with nondamaging spells. Ranged always
gives you HP xp, so decide whether you want to train it, and to what level. 40
Ranged allows you to wear dragonhide for faster training and is highly
recomended. At some point you may want to use ranged in the wilderness (76
range needed for steady 13s), but that will not be covered in this guide.
Training
1-20 Attack
Your outfit will be full iron (dragonhide chaps and vambs if you can wear),
amulet of power, cape, and SS boots. Fish or buy some food, and fill your
inventory with it. The food should heal at least 8 health. If you can, make or
buy pizza.
Go to the cows near the crafting guild, and world hop untill you find an empty
world. Kill cows untill you have 20 attack.
1-40 Strength
Same outfit, same inventory.
Go to the goblins in the stronghold of security. The large room just as you
enter is perfect. World hop untill you find a mostly empty world. Fight the
level 5 goblins at first, and then begin fighting the level 11s, and then the
13s. If you bring good food you can stay here a long time.
~20-40 Attack
Same Outfit, same inventory.
The goblins in the SS are still the fastest XP. Some people do everything up
to 40/40 on cows, I have tried this and I found the SS faster. The level 13
goblins are great xp, there are tons of them (and lvl 11 and 5 goblins) and
the edgeville bank is not far at all.
~40-70 Strength
Your outfit will be full iron (dragonhide chaps and vambs if you can wear),
amulet of strength, cape, and SS boots. Fish or buy some food, and fill your
inventory with it. The food should heal at least 12 health. If you can, make
or buy anchovy pizza. Bring a strength potion for every 10 strength levels
above 40 you are. So with 50 strength bring one strength pot, with 60 strength
bring two, with 70 bring three.
Go to the flesh crawlers in the stronghold of security, on the second level.
They are to the south, and there is a square room that holds many of them. Put
walk on, and simply stand in the room and they will attack you for around 15
minutes. If you are 50+ strength and are using pots, pot yourself once you are
3-5 levels below your maximum potted strength. Being constantly potted cuts
your training time by alot. Also, if you have prayer use your strength prayer
for a few seconds after you pot, then turn it off. It should last a long time
like this. You can recharge your pray at the monastary when your going to get
more food at edge.
The important thing about Flesh Crawlers that makes them great training is
that they only hit 1. With anchovy pizzas and strength potions you can get
amazingly fast strength levels here. When the flesh crawlers stop attacking
you, walk out into the stronghold untill you can no longer see the room on
your minimap, and then come back, and they will start attacking you again. If
you have potted recently before they stop attacking you, attack them yourself
by clicking untill your potted strength goes down. Don't waste the pot!
~70-99 Strength
This is quite difficult with 40 attack and 1 defence, but it is possible. A
rotation through Guards, Flesh Crawlers, and Elemental Wizards is how I am
working on it. These are the best FTP monsters for upper level strength
training. Use the guards upstairs in the varrok castle or on an empty world at
edgeville, or at the dark knights fortress (an altar is next to alot of guards
here) remember to wear a coif, dragonhide chaps+vambs, and a wizard robe while
fighting the elemental wizards, and remember to pick up the uncut gems flesh
crawlers drop. Good luck! Always use great food (swordies/pizza) and strength
potions to level up faster. Always wear the best armour you can (full iron and
dhide). Once you get used to training you can watch TV or read a book while
gaining those hundreds of thousands of experience points. Take a break to make
strength potions, go pking, or train magic or ranged (see below).
~Magic
You can train magic before or after melee. It doesn't matter. What does matter
is how you train it, and to what level, but you have already decided that.
If you are raising magic with curse/weaken/confuse, then wear full
iron+dragonhide vambs and chaps, and SS boots, and constantly cast the spell
on whatever monster will not hit you back (hard). For example, a monk. Or an
enemy over a river or behind a fence, like zombies in varrok sewer (on a
crowded world you can gain 1-50 magic in a few days if you have enough
bodies/waters. It's very easy to raise magic this way and it does not need a
detailed explanation. Make sure you have both a earth and water staff for when
you have to switch spells. Also bring a little good food, just in case you get
a nasty random event or something, you don't want to lose all your runes.
If you are training magic for HP xp as well as magic xp, then you should wear
a wizard robe, hat, a blue skirt (just looks cool), a magic amulet, and an
elemental staff (you should have all four with you for when you have to switch
spells). Attack the hobgoblins over the river near the crafting guild, with
the best spell you can use. Calculate out how many runes you need ahead of
time, and get them.
I don't recommend using damaging spells to train pure magic (without gaining
hp), as its a waste of mind/chaos runes. Also, once you reach magic level 39,
the best way to train magic for HP is crumble undead. The best place to train
this is under the varrok sewers, across the water from the zombies.
~Ranged
Craft yourself ranged armour or buy some. You will want a cowl, leather body,
leather chaps, vambraces, later on a coif and studded chaps (these you will
have to buy), and a little later dragonhide chaps and vambraces (these you
have to buy as well, good prices in varrok world 1 Lowe's store or champs
guild). An amulet of power is the best amulet for training ranged.
Kill some rats in the varrok sewers untill you have around level 10 ranged.
Get a few thousand bronze arrows and train your next 20 or 30 range levels on
the goblins in the stronghold of security. They drop bronze arrows
occasionally, and there is a large barrier to stand behind. If people take
your arrows hop to a less populated world. Always pick up your arrows, since
your enemies will contribute to your quiver.
Once you have 30-40 ranged, use iron arrows on the minotaurs in the stronghold
of security. Once you get 40 ranged you will be able to wear the best FTP
ranged outfit, and with iron arrows minotaurs are fast xp. Once again there is
a convient barrier to stand behind. Minotaurs drop iron arrows, so once again
it's worth it to pick up your arrows. You can train at the minotaurs to 50-60
ranged.
Lesser Demons, BK fortress guards, and dark/normal wizards are all good
ranged xp and the demons and wiz's are good drops as well. You can use bronze
arrows for the gaurds and wizards, but you can make your money back if you use
good arrows on the lesser demons once your range level is high.
~Prayer
The best way to train prayer effectively is to bury big bones in the Boneyard,
in the wilderness. There are two big bone spawns close together on the west
side of the Boneyard. In between them and around them are small bones. Bring
good food and your best armour, to train effectively on a pure I recommend 60+
strength though if you are wearing full dragon chaps+vambs+full iron and using
swordfish swordfish it's easy with 50 strength as well. Bring a str pot and
you will get some PKs as well. The skeletons who gaurd the big bones stop
attacking after a few waves, so just fight them one at a time. Don't leave the
area or the time will be reset untill they stop attacking. If you are playing
on an unpopulated world at night you can get to 31 pray in one night, as long
as you remember to do restless ghost before you start for an easy head start.
Player Killing
~Using Prayer
Prayer is often blasted as not being worth the combat levels it causes you to
gain. However, if you pk near to altars you can constantly use prayer to your
advantage, boosting your strength level, and avoid fights when you are
uncharged. If you are in a non multi combat area of the wilderness and in a
fight, do not use prayer right at the beginning of the fight. Don't use a
strength potion or prayer for the first few hits. When you are about 10hp
higher than where you would usually eat, eat two swordfish and rapidly click
your strenght pot after the second swordfish click ultimate str pray on, and
then click attack on your opponant really fast. It takes practice. The str pot
will not cause you to "Eat" again, it will be part of the second swordfish
motion. You will healed 30 hp, so even if your opponant hits 20 20 you will
still have around 25hp.
If you are fighting somebody with defence, or if you just want to push your
advantage for a K0, use your attack boosting prayer. Use it to start a fight
off or to finish it, btu not when you have very low prayer. It's better to
turn it off as you eat after a few hits. Try to develop a rythm of potting and
using the attack boosting prayer to push your advantage when you get a good
hit.
~Weapon Switching
There are many weapons in Runescape, most of them can be used in the
wilderness. The 2handed sword was once the most popular weapon in the
wilderness, and it is still widely used by skilled pkers, its the highest
hitting weapon in FTP Runescape. Effectively player killing relies on your
abliity to deal damage faster than enemy can heal. If your opponent is at 20
or below health (or slightly lower depending on your max R2H hit, you have to
feel this out yourself), switch to your runite claymore. Rapidly attack click
on your opponent a few times and then you can eat quickly, because your
opponent will be dead or will have safed up HP and you have to wait to hit
again anyway.
But the R2H and the sicmitar aren't the only good weapons. A rune dagger is
extremely cheap and effective against opponents who use the R2H and scimmy
switch, and it's fun to try rune long swords as well, which hit slightly
higher than scimitars and are slightly slower. A long sword and a R2H works
well, as does a short sword and R2H. A battleaxe works well by itself, it hits
surprisingly high and its obvious why Zamorak supports it has his favored
weapon.
Some other weapon switching techniques are luring somebody into not safing by
fighting with a low hitting weapon such as a mace, wcing axe, dagger, etc,
then switching to a R2H, batlteaxe, or longsword. Alot of rangers use the R2H
switch from shortbow, because it has the potential to do alot of damage very
fast.
~Using Strength pots and Eating
When you eat is important. Figure out about what your opponents max hit is,
from their combat level. After a few rounds I usually have a good idea of when
to eat. Sometimes you only have to eat one swordfish, sometimes you have to
eat two or three. You need to constantly viligant (lol) constantly watching
your HP and your opponents HP and right clicking on your enemy and attack
clicking them quickly after you eat. Use strength pots right after you eat,
rapidly clicking them after clicking your food. Don't waste rounds of combat
walking around, but if you get fast you can type trash talk to your opponent
as you pk.
~Edge PKing
Edgeville is a great place to pk, because it is not multi combat, and it is
close to a bank and an altar. On some worlds there are many pures around the
monastary and low level edgeville wilderness who will be happy to teach you
how to pk, and relieve you of your items if you are not prepared. World 3 is
usually your best bet, though any of the low numbered FTP worlds will be full
if you log on during peak hours.
Because edgeville is not a multi combat zone, and you can run out of the
wilderness as you eat, you don't have to bring teleport runes. Just remember
to leave a row of food for running. Many people die almost outside of the
wilderness, because they forgot to eat as they run or they forget to leave a
few food left over. As a rule of thumb, the deeper you are in the wilderness,
the more food you should leave in your inventory if you have to run from a
fight. And you will have to run from fights. Pures can't compete with defense
as easily as they could in RSC, and many times you will run out of food before
the person in addy or rune you are fighting.
~Castle PKing
The castle is "The Dark Warriors Castle", to the north of Edgeville. To the
southwest of the castle is a large coal mine full of skeletons. To the West is
a giant crater . To the north and west the wilderness stretches out in a large
multi combat zone. Directly north of the castle is the Bandit Village, where
you can make pizza or fight bandits. There isn't much to the East of the
castle except dead trees.
The castle itself and a few squares around it to the east are multi-combat
zones. The only entrance to the castle is on the East side. Sometimes people
will try to lure you into this zone, where they may have a team waiting. It's
a popular spot for pures of all types.
I recommend fighting people one on one in the single combat area east of the
entrance. Because you are in higher level wilderness, you can end up fighting
people 10-20 levels lower or higher to you around the castle. You have to take
risks to get good kills, but you also need to know when to run. If you are
overwhelmed by a team or a higher level, running south is often enough to make
pursuers give up. If they don't abandon you for easier prey, run into the
skeleton mine and let one of the skeletons attack you instead of a rival pker.
Of course you can run all the way out of the wilderness, but if somebody is
hitting you the whole way you better have at least two rows of food.
Personally I don't bring teleport runes to the castle. It's not hard to
escape, and most people won't waste the run energy chasing you far anyway.
If you want to change worlds, go upstairs in the castle (the closest tower is
the southwest one) or to the crater to the east, then log off. Never log on
and off at the front doors of the castle, for obvious reasons.
Sometimes a single pker can beat a team at the castle. It takes a little
practice, but if there is a team about 5-10 levels lower than you around the
castle, don't be afraid to take them on. When two people are attacking you
from the same square, their HP bars can cover eachother up, and they may be
too intent on teaming on you to see themselves go red. Run out of the zone
when you eat (you should always have auto-retaliate off in the
wildy...situations like this it will get you killed quickly). Try to
concentrate on one person (again, the basic pking skills are important here,
such as rapid right click attacking).
If you can't beat the team, try to take them on out of the zone. Run out, and
turn and attack the weakest/lowest HP teamer when you are about 1screen
away from the multicombat zone. It's harder to not be lured back in if you are
fighting mages/rangers. Sometimes you have to accept defeat, even with a lower
level team. You have to conserve energy and food to escape, so don't plan on
fighting a long time against multiple people at the castle.
~Varrok Pking
This is where people say to start off pking, but edgeville is a better spot to
start your career in ownage. Varrok is multicombat, and there are often teams.
It is located to the north east of the Varrok palace, north on the path that
the church is on. However, on the plus side, there are often many noobs
wandering around. Varrok is the only place in the wilderness I recommend
bringing teleport runes, as if you are in level 4 wilderness and 5+ people all
attack you at once, you have to tele or die. Even spamming on your swordfish
won't help you if you get hit by 7 firebolts in 2 seconds.
Worldhop alot at varrok. On many worlds there are noobs scattered around for
the pickings, and though 9/10 they will escape, that 1/10 may have a
rune2hander and 300 chaos runes. Varrok is the best and worst of pking, there
are all kinds of pures and normal players, pile jumping happens all the time,
and you have to deal with it. I recommend you try varrok every once in a while
just in case you get lucky, but avoid it in general.
There are other spots than the ones I have named here, such as the Moss
Giants, Greater Demons, Rune Rocks, Chaos Altar, Hill Giants, etc. These
spots are better left to the aspiring high level or hardened and experienced
pker, or teams. The moss giants and rune rocks are good for solo players
whereas the greater demons and hill giants are popular teaming areas. They are
worth checking out however, and pking around these higher leveled areas
instead of directly at them may be a good choice for new pkers.
The best advice I can give you for pking in Runescape is to have fun. Be
prepared for your eventual death and having to work hard to get your stuff
back. If you really hate having to play the actual game to make money,
stockpile rune scimitars and strength amulets before heading out. Good luck.
