Getting Started

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The Getting Started guide is intended to help both new and returning players. The guide covers a wide range of topics including; skills, money making, and some early-game meta in Idlescape.

This guide aims to assist the player from early game to the beginning of mid-game. Midgame can loosely be described as the point where the player has:

• A set of runite armor
• Skill levels roughly averaging 50-60

Things to consider

This section will cover subjects including the player's account and official rules.

Ironman mode

Planned for v0.7.2.
Ironman mode accounts will have any peer-to-peer activity disabled, including trading, toucan and marketplace. Ironman will have their own Highscore and chat icons.

Game Rules

Main article: Rules

All players must follow the rules of the game. Certain things are not allowed, and can result in your account being muted, suspended, or permanently banned from play:

1. Any form of automation or botting is NOT allowed. This applies to both the use and the creation, distribution or conversation on either of a bot or automation device.
2. Scripts for quality of life improvements may be allowed but for safety check with Boohi through game chat or discord for a timely response and approval.
3. Alt-trading specifically having multiple accounts that trade between each other is NOT allowed. But having alts is okay.
4. Trading any items from outside of Idlescape for items inside Idlescape is against the rules and will result in a trade ban for both players.
5. Follow chat rules!

Admins

Currently there is one admin in Idlescape:

• Boohi

Moderators

Moderators are players chosen specifically by Idlescape admins due to their commitment to the in-game community. They are denoted in-game by a silver chat crown (). These moderators have special privileges, and can mute rule-breakers.

Gameplay

This section covers mechanics and other information relating to the game itself.

Action Queue

In Idlescape, you can only do one action at one time. So, you cant mine and forage at the same time.

Exceptions are: Farming, Enchanting, Augmenting and Crafting. These can be done at the same time with any other skills.

Offline Progression

Offline progression continues for up to 12 hours.

Skills

Players have access to 13 skills, split up into four categories: combat, gathering, production and magic. For more information on each skill see their respective article.

Combat skills
	Attack	Determines how accurate the player is.
	Strength	Determines how high of a number you can hit.
	Defense	Allows players to decrease the chance of being hit.
	Constitution	Allows players to sustain more damage.
Gathering skills
	Mining	Used to gather ores from different locations.
	Farming	Used to plant and harvest seeds.
	Fishing	Allows players to catch fish.
	Foraging	Allows players to cut down trees to obtain logs, seeds and cooking ingredients.
Production skills
	Smithing	Allows players to smelt ores into bars.
	Cooking	Allows players to turn their ingredients into meals with different enchants.
	Crafting	Allows players to create items.
Magic skills
	Runecrafting	Allows players to make runes using rune essence.
	Enchanting	Enchanting is divided into Scrollcrafting (allows players to create enchantment scrolls) Enchanting (allows players to apply enchantment scrolls) Augmenting (allows players to improve gear stats)

Combat

Combat Experience

Players gain combat skill exp when dealing damage. The normal value is 2 exp in the combat skill used per damage.

Equipment Stats

Equipped gear have bonuses that impact combat, higher-level players have access to better armor with higher bonuses.

• Accuracy bonuses improve the chance of landing a hit.
• Strength bonuses a higher strength bonus increases the max hit.
• Defense bonuses increase the chance to dodge a specific attack.

Death

Death occurs when a player's Hitpoints reach zero. The preceding action will be cancelled and the player returns to idling.

Your health slowly regenerates on its own. Dying will not cause you to lose anything, you will keep all exp/items/gold etc.

New Character Guide

File:Starting guide.png

Example of needed materials for new characters

Following these steps will take 12 to 24 hours and leave you in a position to make millions of gold per day funding your exploration of the game.

• Foraging in Grasslands until you collect 25 Logs.
• Mining in Clay Pit until Mining Level 10, then switch to Mining in City Outskirts until you collect 60 Tin Ore, 60 Copper Ore, and 6 Coal.
• Smithing your Tin and Copper Ore into bronze using the heat from burning the 6 Coal.
• Crafting 1 Bronze Dagger, this will cause you to advance to level 2 Crafting, and 1 Bronze Pickaxe. Equip these items.
• Mining in City Outskirts until Mining level 20 or level 30, then switch to Mining in Village or Desert.
• Time to afk for several hours or overnight. Your goal here is to collect Iron Ore, Geodes, and Gems to sell on the Marketplace for 5 million gold.
• Buying a Runite Pickaxe on the market should cost 5 million gold or less. If there are none available or they are too expensive just ask in chat and we will make you one.

Note that the Runite Pickaxe requires Mining level 50 which you should have by the time you get 5 million gold. Once you have your Runite Pickaxe you can always mine for a solid source of income.

Market prices fluctuate but Iron Ore, Mithril Ore, Runite Ore, and Silver have been in demand and good profit for a long time.

Village and Volcano are common places to mine for these ores.

Taking Your Next Steps

There are 2 common routes at this point. The first is to continue improving your Mining skill to make more money or exploring other activities. Here are a some options to consider

Mining

• Why: Mining is essential for Smithing and a good source of funding for the average player.
• Items to consider:
  • Runite Pickaxe with the enchant Superheat. Ideally you want to buy a high augmented(+5 to +10) version of this pick BEFORE you add the Superheating as those scrolls are expensive and you may not upgrade your pick again for a long time.
  • Black Opal Necklace/Ring with the enchants Gathering/Haste.
  • Obsidian Boots with the enchant Naturalist.
• Popular zones:
  • Village:
    • Drops large quantities of Iron Ore that is used by high level players to level up Enchanting via Augmenting obsidian gear.
  • Volcano:
    • High exp gains here as well as popular ingredients such as Runite Ore, Mithril Ore, and Silver
    • Only 1 item is currently not used, Stone. However even Stone will sell on the market for more than is vendor/NPC value
    • The last zone in Mining, Deep Pit, has monsters you will have to fight occasionally to mine there. They require a level of gear roughly in the runite range, take care when mining here

Foraging

• Why: Foraging is essential for Farming and a good source for Cooking ingredients.
• Items to consider:
  • Bronze Hatchet, Runite Hatchet with the Root Digging enchant.
  • Black Opal Necklace/Ring with the enchants Gathering/Haste.
  • Obsidian Boots with the Naturalist enchant.
• Popular zones:
  • Fungal Grotto:
    • Potato and Mushroom seeds as well as large variety of Tree Seeds make this a popular location for Farming exp, Cooking ingredients, and Money via selling Seeds and Cooking ingredients.
    • Branches and Logs are often a good source of crafting exp. Be careful when burning them for heat as you may be better off selling them on the Market and buying something else with a better Heat/Gold ratio.
    • The last zone in Foraging, Living Forest, has monsters you will have to fight often in order to forage there. They require a level of gear roughly in the runite range and is harder than the Mining zone Deep pit.

Fishing

• Why: Fishing is useful for Cooking and a good source for Crafting ingredients.
• Items to consider:
  • Fishing does not have tools like Mining and Foraging instead you need a single new crafted item for each of the 4 zones
  • Black Opal Necklace/Ring with the enchants Gathering/Haste.
  • Obsidian Boots with the Fishing enchant.
• Popular zones:
  • Unlike Mining and Foraging, once you are able to fish in the last zone, Harpoon Fishing, you should stay there gathering Tuna and Sharks.
  • Lower tier fish such as Shrimp and Anchovies are a great source of early Cooking experience as well as food for early combat.
  • Cooking 1-5 fish with a Shrimp included (even just a single Shrimp alone) will provide Seared Fish with the buff Shrimp Lord, which gives a chance to gain free shrimp when cooking any food.

Smithing

• Why: Smithing is highly useful for Crafting and can eventually be a decent source of money for players.
• Items to consider:
  • Obsidian Boots with the Inferno enchant.
  • Black Opal Ring/Amulet with the Haste enchant.
  • Black Opal Ring/Amulet with the enchants Pyromancy and Wealth.
  • Crest of Chaos.
• Popular Ores:
  • Iron Ore:
    • Very high exp until you get to Runite Ore.
    • When smelted into bars, they are used in large quantities by high level players
  • Mithril Ore:
    • When smelted into bars, they are used in large quantities by high level players.
  • Runite Ore and Stygian Ore:
    • Used in many of the top tier items in the game.
    • High exp rates
  • If you get an Opal Ring/Amulet with the Wealth enchant, you can often find Runite, Adamantite, and sometimes Gold Ore at a low enough price that you can buy the ore, smelt it making money in the process.
    • Example:
      • Purchase 15 Runite Ore at 1000 gold each, smelt a runite bar (15 ore).
      • Wealth procs when the bar finishes causing the bar to automatically sell at 18000, twice the vendor price of 9000.
      • 30-50 secs then earns you 3000 gold and some decent experience.
    • Note this is less money than you can make elsewhere in the game but it is very passive steady income that lets you level Smithing fairly quickly through the higher levels.

Cooking

• Why: Cooking is useful for Combat as well as creating food to buff other activities in the game.
• Items to consider:
  • Obsidian Boots with the enchant Cooking.
  • Ladle with augments on it.
  • Black Opal Ring/Necklace with the enchants Haste and Pyromancy.
  • Black Opal Ring/Necklace with the Scholar enchant.
• Popular recipes:
  • Cooking fish with the scholar enchant on to get the most possible exp while also getting Fish Oil which is used in crafting and quite valuable.
  • Cooking a single Pepper, Sugar, Salt, Shrimp.
  • Combining 4 of the following: Wildberry, Potato, Carrot, Tomato, Apple, with one of the following: Banana, Chili, Sugar.
  • Combining any 2 meat (including fish) with any 2 veggies (usually Potato) along with 1 Ichor.
• Notes:
  • The total level of your Cooking skill determines how good the food you create will be. This means that expensive ingredients such as Chili Peppers, Pumpkins, Sharks, and sometimes almost all ingredients could be a waste of money, compared to having a high level chef doing the cooking while you sell the ingredients.
  • When prices are high you may be better off leveling other skills or looking for items such as fish that you can scholar for the oil and sell on the market.

Combat

• Why: Combat can eventually be a good source of money via a large multitude of loot as well as various rare drops such as ladles and obsidian gear and much later end game rares from Giants. It is also considered one of the most enjoyable activities in the game by many and a place to spend your gold on long term projects.

• Level range 1-20
  • Zones to fight in
    • Farm and Caves
  • What to wear:
    • Nothing - Bronze armor
    • Bronze Daggers or Bronze Scimitar
  • Notable drops:
    • Raw Chicken
    • Raw Beef
    • Milk
    • Goblin Brain
    • Ladles.
  • Notes:
    • Getting bronze gear at the start will make increase the AFK time which might make things easier
    • You can move on to Caves quite early on, perhaps atk/str/def level 5 to 10, and farm them afk indefinitely for exp.
    • There is little gold gained in early combat.
    • Combat can require more attention than other skills due to the fact that if you die you end up idling doing nothing.

• Level range 20-50
  • Zones to fight in
    • Caves and City
  • What to wear:
    • Obsidian Boots with the enchant Treasure Hunter
    • Obsidian Armor, but substitute Obsidian Helm with Mithril Full Helm
    • Obsidian Daggers or Obsidian Scimitar
    • If possible, you should attempt to buy inexpensive high augment versions of these items
  • Notable drops
    • Goblin Brain
    • Ladles
    • Mind Runes
    • Gems
    • Obsidian Helm
    • Obsidian Full Helm
    • Obsidian Greatsword
  • Notes:
    • Black Knights in the city can be very hard until you level up and get higher augmented obsidian gear. Its recommended to have better gear and high levels before trying to tackle them,
    • City drops actual gold as well as all of the various obsidian drops which will sell on the market or vendor well.

• Level range 50+
  • Zones to fight in
    • City and Lava Maze
  • What to wear:
    • Obsidian Boots with the enchant Treasure Hunter
    • Runite Breastplate
    • Runite Legs
    • Runite Full Helm
    • Runite Scimitar +5
    • Runite Shield
  • Notable drops
    • Gems
    • Obsidian Helm
    • Obsidian Full Helm
    • Obsidian Greatsword
    • Spider Legs
    • Ichor
    • Mind Runes
    • Adamantite Boots
    • Runite Boots
    • Burnt Fish
    • Ashes
    • Gold Ore
  • Notes:
    • Demons from Lava Maze can hit fairly hard but also tend to evade your attacks less often.
    • Lava Maze is a well known high profit zone and is an ideal place to try to AFK.
    • Runite Scimitar +5 is often very cheap compared to other runite weapons due to it having the potential to turn into a rare sword (Zero Edge) when augmenting from +4 to +5, when it does not some players will dump large amounts of the now failed +5 swords on the market for cheap.
    • Your next steps will be getting runite gear with augments and enchants such as Healing, Critical Strike, Reinforce, Protection, Recklessness.
    • At Defense 60 you can upgrade your boots from Obsidian to Stygian with the Treasure Hunter Enchant.

Enchanting

• Augmenting
  • Augmenting Obsidian armor, like obsidian scimitars, is a cheap way to get enchanting xp. There is also a chance of transforming, but that is not worth worrying about. There is also a chance of it breaking, so it is a good idea to have boots or gloves with Chances. Augmenting is also usually done with an Intuition buff, due to the vast amounts of experience given.
• Scrollcrafting
  • Scrollcrafting is a skill that is very profitable, with an average output of 800,000 gp per scroll. Scrollcrafting takes Scrolls, Runes, and Silver. It is a good choice to make scrolls that you have a high chance to make.
• Enchanting
  • Enchanting is a part of the Enchanting skill where you can apply scrolls to items. Enchantments do not stack over different items, and you can not have two different enchantments on the same item. You can only enchant Equipment, but you can also not enchant Shrimp Armor or Black Knight Great Helms.
    

Using the Marketplace

• Verify your email
  • Open the menu in the upper left of the screen.
  • Go to settings, verify your email.
  • You can now trade on the market.
• Always sell your items to players. Do not vendor/sell to NPC unless you know for sure its the right move, it usually is not.
• Check the actual listings. When selling items the game will tell you the lowest listed price, however, players will sometimes list a small quantity of an an item at well below normal market price in order to lure unsuspecting players into listing their items too cheap.
• Stack Size is important. Players don't usually want to buy up 20 separate listing of Iron Ore with 20-100 ore per listing if someone else has several thousand listed at similar prices.
• Undercutting is a controversial topic. The amount you undercut by and on which items can make people frustrated when they are trying to sell similar items or are very invested in a specific market. This is just something you will have to feel out yourself.
• Taxes When you SELL any item, 5% of the sale price is taken in taxes. This is to help combat inflation. Keep this in mind if trying to eke out slim profit margins, otherwise you can mostly just ignore it.
• Items will stay posted on the market for 3 days and then be returned to your inventory where you can list them again if you wish.

Tips and Tricks

• Burning Coal is a cheap way to get heat whereas Logs can often sell to players for rather more than their value as heat. Check the market for current prices on Coal, Logs, and Pyres to see what the best heat/gold is.
• CTRL + Left click will link an item in chat, you can link up to 3 items per message.
• You can link your gold and heat in chat by CTRL clicking the money bag and flame above your inventory
• The vault is where you can store items you want kept separate. Examples of such things would be an augmented ladle for cooking, boots with various enchants you are not currently using, rare drops or crafting projects you are saving for later.
• Geodes, Birds Nests, Sunken Treasures, and Satchels are special chests that contain various items such as Ore, Seeds, Runes, and Talismans. Sunken Treasures are the most sought after due to the extremely low chance of containing rare weapons.
• Getting a Runite Shield with the Healing enchant will help you mine and forage in the highest tier zones as you will recover some health between encounters with the monsters there.
• Due to uses in other parts of the game Iron, Mithril, and Adamantite are not recommended for tools or armor usually. They cost too much and are used for too little time to make it a good investment.
• Switching stances in combat can be beneficial in reaching various breakpoints in defense or attack, but many people are lazy and would rather leave it balanced, which is fine.
• Crafting and Enchanting are often considered big money pits, take care before trying to level them too high as you may find large amounts of money gone with nothing to show for it besides some exp.
• It's a game, play it to have fun. If that means optimizing things in a certain way, playing the market, not trading ever, playing in non ideal ways etc, go for it. People give advice to help you but in the end, it is you playing. If you ask for advice, you should consider taking it though.

See also

• FAQ
• Calculators
• Individual Skills page
  • Mining
  • Foraging
  • Fishing
  • Farming
  • Smithing
  • Cooking
  • Crafting
  • Runecrafting
  • Enchanting
  • Combat