Getting Started

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The Getting Started guide is intended to help both new and returning players.

This guide aims to assist the player from the early-game to the beginning of mid-game, covering a wide range of topics including skilling, money-making, and the meta in Idlescape. Mid-game 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

Released on 11th December 2020 v0.8

The information on this page is based on non-ironman gameplay. While still very useful to start off, some advice may not apply!

Ironman mode accounts have unique restrictions and special capabilities:

  • Trading - cannot trade with other players.
  • Ironman-only Chat - all ironmen have their own chat channel that cannot be accessed by regular players, but can still chat in the general channel.
  • Chat Total Level - total levels displayed in chat for ironmen is greyed out to differentiate them from regular players.
  • Multi-logging - players can use both their regular account and ironman account at the same time in different browser tabs.
  • Server-wide Broadcasts - the first time an ironman reaches a special achievement, (e.g. first to level 50 farming) a server-wide message is sent to congratulate them in both general and the ironman chat channels.
  • Ironman-only Hiscores - a special hiscores page where the highest level ironmen are ranked.

This mode is not recommended for new players to the game.

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 the use, creation, or distribution of both bots and automation devices. Discussions about botting is also not permitted.
  2. Scripts for quality of life improvements may be allowed, but for safety check with Boohi through in-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. Players are only allowed to own a single account!
  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:

Moderators

Moderators are players chosen specifically by Idlescape admins for their commitment to the 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, players can only perform one action at a time. I.e. mining and foraging simultaneously is not possible.

The exceptions are: farming, enchanting, augmenting, and crafting. These can be done at the same time while training 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 a player's maximum hit, calculated alongside their strength bonuses.
Defense Decreases the chance of being hit.
Constitution Allows players to sustain more damage.
Gathering Skills
Mining Used to gather ores and other materials from different locations.
Farming Used to plant and harvest seeds.
Fishing Allows players to catch fish.
Foraging Allows players to gather 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 effects and/or for healing during combat.
Crafting Allows players to create equipment.
Magic Skills
Runecrafting Allows players to make runes using rune essence.
Enchanting The enchanting skill is divided into the following:
Scrollcrafting Allows players to create enchantment scrolls.
Enchanting Allows players to apply enchantment scrolls.
Augmenting Allows players to improve equipment stats.


Combat

Combat Experience

Players gain combat skill experience when dealing damage; 2 experience in the selected combat skill and 1 experience in Constitution per damage dealt. When fighting in a balanced stance, each skill gains 2/3 of an experience per point of damage.

Equipment Stats

Equipped gear have bonuses that impact combat, the higher the level, the better the bonus.

  • 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 an attack.

Death

Death occurs when a player's Hitpoints reach zero. The preceding action will be cancelled and the player returns to idling. Health slowly regenerates on its own. Dying will not result in the loss of items, experience, gold, etc.

New Character Guide

File:Starting guide.png
Example of suggested 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 to fund your exploration of the game.

Note that the runite pickaxe requires mining level 50, which you should have by the time you get the gold required, if not, mine in the Desert or the Underground until you do. Once you have your pickaxe you can always keep mining 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.

The Village and the 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, second is to start exploring other activities. Here are a some options to consider:

General Gear

This equipment is very useful in the long term and is well worth getting for any skill.

Skills

Mining

  • Why? Mining is essential for smithing and a good source of profit for the average player.
  • Items to consider:
    • Runite pickaxe with the Superheat enchantment. Ideally you want to buy a highly augmented (+5 to +10) version of this pickaxe before you add the superheating as those scrolls are expensive, and you may not upgrade your pick again for a long time.
  • Popular zones:
    • Village:
      • Drops large quantities of iron ore that is used by high level players to level up their enchanting skill via augmenting obsidian gear.
    • Volcano:
      • High experience rates as well as popular ingredients such as runite ore, mithril ore, and silver
      • Only one item currently doesn't have a use; stone. However even stone will sell on the market for more than the vendor/NPC value
    • Deep Pit:
      • The last and highest level mining zone. This location has monsters you will have to fight occasionally in order to mine there, but is also the only location where you can get stygian ore. Runite equipment is recommend to fight the greater demons that spawn here. Take care mining in this zone.


Foraging

  • Why? Foraging is essential for farming, and a good source of cooking ingredients.
  • Items to consider:
  • Popular zones:
    • Fungal Grotto:
      • Potato and mushroom seeds as well as a large variety of tree seeds make this a popular location for farming experience, cooking ingredients, and money-making via selling seeds and ingredients on the market.
    • The Tangle:
      • Great source of logs and chili pepper, also the best source of crafting experience while foraging available.
      • Branches and logs are often a good source of crafting experience by making them into ashes. 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 to gold ratio.
    • Misty Marsh:
      • Slightly less logs per hour when compared to The Tangle, but a great source of pumpkin seeds.
    • Haunted Woods:
      • The second best crafting experience rates after The Tangle, but a great way to get high level seeds for farming experience.
    • Living Forest
      • The last and highest level foraging zone. Similar to the Deep Pit for mining, this location has monsters you will have to fight often. The Spriggans that spawn here are harder to defeat than the greater demons from the Deep Pit, so slightly better gear is recommended to forage here.


Fishing

  • Why? Fishing is useful for Cooking, and a good source of Crafting ingredients.
  • Items to consider:
    • Fishing does not have tools like mining and foraging, instead you need a single crafted item for each of the 4 zones; a fishing net, fly fishing rod, cage, and a harpoon.
    • Obsidian boots with the naturalist enchantment.
    • Rune gloves 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 to fish 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-game combat.
    • Cooking 1 - 5 fish with a 1 or more shrimp will provide seared fish with the shrimp lord buff, 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 income.
  • Items to consider:
  • Popular Ores:
    • Iron Ore:
      • Very high experience rates 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 and Stygian Ore:
      • Used in many of the top tier items in the game.
      • High experience rates
    • If you have an opal ring/necklace with the wealth enchantment, you can often find runite, adamantite, and sometimes gold ore at a low enough price where if you buy the ore and smelt it, you can make profit by selling the bars.
      • Example:
        • Purchase 15 runite ore at 1,000 gold each and smelt them into a runite bar.
        • Wealth procs when the bar finishes, causing the bar to automatically sell at 18,000GP, twice the vendor price of 9,000.
        • 30 - 50 secs in this case will earn you 3,000 gold and some decent experience.
      • Note this is less money than you can make elsewhere in the game, but it is very passive and 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 cooking enchantment.
    • An augmented ladle.
    • Black opal ring/necklace with the haste and pyromancy enchantments.
    • Black opal ring/necklace with the scholar enchantment.
  • Popular recipes:
  • Notes:
    • Your effective cooking level determines the quality of your food and how many stacks of a certain buff it will have. Every 30 levels in cooking will offer a +2 to the number of stacks on a food item. This means that expensive ingredients such as chili peppers, pumpkins, and sharks is usually a waste of money at lower levels.
    • When prices are high you may be better off leveling other skills or looking for items such as fish which you can scholar for the oil and sell on the market.


Combat

  • Why?: Combat can eventually be an incredible source of income from the general loot you obtain 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. However, it does require lots of money to buy gear.
  • Level Range 1 - 20
    • Zones to fight in:
      • Farm/Caves
    • What to wear::
      • Nothing/Bronze armor
      • Bronze daggers/bronze scimitar
    • Notable drops:
    • Notes:
      • Getting bronze gear at the start will increase survivability and kill time, which will save you food.
      • You can move on to caves quite early on, at around level 5 - 10 in your combat skills.
      • 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/City
    • What to wear::
    • Notable drops
    • Notes:
      • Black knights in the City can be very difficult to defeat until you level up and get higher augmented obsidian gear. It's recommended to have better gear and high levels before trying to tackle them.
      • Monsters in the City drop 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/Lava Maze
    • What to wear::
    • Notable drops
    • Notes:
      • Demons from the 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 AFK.
      • Runite Scimitar +5 is often very cheap compared to other runite weapons due to it having the potential to transform 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 enchantments such as healing, critical strike, reinforce, protection, and recklessness.
      • At level 60 defence you can upgrade your boots from obsidian to stygian, still with the treasure hunter enchantment.

Enchanting

  • Augmenting
    • Augmenting obsidian armor- like obsidian scimitars- is a cheap way to get enchanting experience. 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 the Chances enchantment. Augmenting is also usually done with an intuition buff, due to the large amount of bonus experience gained.
  • Scrollcrafting
    • Scrollcrafting is very profitable, with an average output of 800,000GP per scroll. Scrollcrafting takes scrolls, runes, and silver. It is recommended to make scrolls that you have a high chance to create. Scrolls also take a long time to sell, so it is recommended to find a client before scrollcrafting.
  • 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 enchant most equipment, with the exception of armors such as the shrimp armor set or black knight great helms.


Marketplace

Verify Your Email

  • Open the menu in the upper left of the screen.
  • Go to settings, then verify your email.
  • You can now trade on the market.

Using the Marketplace

  • Always sell your items to other players on the market. Do not vendor/sell to the NPC unless the item vendors for more than the offers on the marketplace, which it usually is not.
  • Check the actual listings. When selling items, the game will show 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 for 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 an 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 just ignore it.
  • Items will stay posted on the market for 3 days and then they will be returned to your inventory where you can list them again if you wish. However, if your item is fairly common and doesn't sell after 3 days, consider lowering the price.


Tips and Tricks

  • Burning coal is a cheap way to get heat, whereas logs can often be sold to players for more than their value in heat. Check the market for current prices on coal, logs, and pyres logs to see what the best heat to gold ratio 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, a weapon you don't have the level for, 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 skills, iron, mithril, and adamantite are not usually recommended for tools or armor. They cost too much and are usually replaced fairly quickly so aren't worth crafting with raw materials.
  • 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 sinks, 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 experience.
  • 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., then go for it. People give advice to help you but in the end, it is you that is playing. 'If you ask for advice, you should consider taking it though.'


See also

References

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