RuneScape Forum Archive | ~Ultimate Efficiency Guide~

Sports441995

Posts: 7,998 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Greetings, and welcome to the Ultimate Efficiency Guide!
NOTE: Some of the specific examples in this guide are quite dated (most notably my citation of doubling nature runes as a major moneymaker,) but the ideas and their appllication are still valid. Don't let this distract you from the point of the guide

.
Before I proceed any further, allow me to explain the purpose of this guide. The thoughts contained within this thread may not appeal to all people. This thread is intended for more serious high-leveled players, as well as for those who wish to become high leveled in the future. I respect everyone’s opinion about how THEY choose to play the game, so if you’re not part of the target audience from this thread, please refrain from posting insensitive comments on it. Thanks =).
You may be asking yourself, “What is efficiency, and how does it relate to Runescape?” Simply put, efficiency is getting the most amount done in the least amount of time possible. Understanding how efficiency works, and its relation to Runescape, is vital for any aspiring top player, or even to the casual one who simply wants to advance a bit faster. Efficiency is knowing what choice to make when faced with multiple options. It’s the ability to strive towards a goal methodically, using the best methods.
By no means am I saying that everyone who ever wants to be good at Runescape is to live by these principles strictly and without infraction. It’s sometimes nice to simply take a little break, and play a minigame, train a different skill than the one that is necessarily most efficient at the time, or some other means of sacrificing pure efficiency in exchange for something else (most commonly, enjoyment). However, it is still important to understand how such decisions affects your gameplay. Even if you do not abide by them at all times (I certainly do not!), I truly believe that a generally knowledge of such fundamentals will allow you to achieve your goals in this game faster.

15-May-2010 03:36:31 - Last edited on 29-Oct-2011 20:30:43 by Sports441995

Sports441995

Posts: 7,998 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Just a reminder: Please read the entire thread before posting

. It may take you a couple minutes, but those couple minutes may be worth your while! At the very least, it'd be nice to have some feedback from someone who read it, so I urge you to do so.
As a quick disclaimer, I reserve the right to quote any player who posts on this thread and use their input in any way. I may or may not have quoted other players or real life figures in this thread. In accordance with forum rules, I am permitted to mention other players "in passing."
With that over with... Please enjoy the thread! Hopefully your efficiency in this great game will improve because of it.

15-May-2010 03:36:40 - Last edited on 15-May-2010 04:02:27 by Sports441995

Sports441995

Posts: 7,998 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

To understand efficiency, you must first understand some assumed facts that I will use throughout the thread:
-The ultimate goal of Runescape is to achieve the maximum amount of experience and quest points possible. I understand that this may not be the case for all of you; some of you may have lesser ambitions than this

. However, I find that we’re capable of more than we know we are at first. I never dreamed 18 months ago that I’d be a level 134 with a Quest Cape and nearly 2000 total level so quickly… but here I am. My suggestion is to always play with the ultimate goal in mind. If you reach it, fantastic! If not, at least you will have trained more efficiently because of it.
-Money is simply potential experience; that is to say, money must be converted into experience eventually in order for it to have served its purpose. Money has many practical purposes in this game, but all involve gaining experience. For example, money can be used to purchase bones, which in turn leads to prayer experience. It can be used to purchase better armor, which in turn leads to an additional strength bonus or higher defense bonus, which would lead to faster experience being earned. It can be used to merchant, which in turn leads to more money and therefore more potential experience.
-The only tangible thing we put into Runescape (not including our membership fees =p) is time. As such, time is the true measure of efficiency. Time could be said to be the dependant variable as far as efficiency goes, with the manipulated variable being the methods in which we train. As I stated before, efficiency is getting the most out of your time!

15-May-2010 03:36:40 - Last edited on 15-May-2010 03:46:36 by Sports441995

Sports441995

Posts: 7,998 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

If you are a newer player, the first thing I highly suggest you do is to create a solid foundation for your character. Yes; there is, in theory, a quickest and best way to play the game even at the beginning, but I prefer to not get into this, for the following reasons:
1). As a beginner at the game, you need to explorer a bit. It’s probably a bit early in your career to truly worry about being “efficient.” Rather, I suggest that you get acquainted with Runescape’s many locations and skills. Come back to this thread when you believe you are no longer a beginner, and seek to drastically improve your character =).
2). If you’re not having fun as a newer player, you may quit before you even get the chance to be efficient! In my opinion, it’s better to let newer players mess around a bit and enjoy themselves.
3). The majority of a Runescape player’s career is spent outside of this introductory phase, so I don’t really see the merits of discussing what you should do fresh off of Tutorial Island, and for the first few months of your gaming experience.
I am writing this thread assuming that you have a generally knowledge of the game, and have a true desire to get better. If either of these do not apply to you, you can still read the thread, but you may not get as much out of it as the intended audience will.

15-May-2010 03:36:40 - Last edited on 15-May-2010 03:47:04 by Sports441995

Sports441995

Posts: 7,998 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Remember, time is the only tangible thing we put into Runescape, and as such, all other values (namely, money and experience) can be converted into their equivalent in time. Once you convert everything to time, you can truly begin to see how certain decisions you make will impact your path towards your overall objective.
EXAMPLE 1:
Joe has 85 Woodcutting. He can choose to train woodcutting using either Willows or Magics.
First of all, let’s realize that an hour (a time measurement) is worth AT LEAST, as an absolute bare minimum, 1 million gold pieces. This may seem like a lot, but think about it. Every hour you spend doing something could be spent runecrafting double nature runes, killing frost drags/td's, or another big moneymaker. Even if you don’t currently have 91+ Runecrafting (or 85 dungeoneering, etc.), it doesn’t matter, because you will eventually have 91+ Runecrafting and that hour could still be used to craft double nature runes. Some players may value time MUCH higher than 1m an hour, but this is a good value to assume unless you are certain you can value it higher.
An hour is also equivalent to about 90,000 woodcutting experience, since this is about how much woodcutting experience you can make in an hour at maximum speed using the fastest training method.
If Joe cuts Magics, let’s say he makes 400k cash and 15k WC experience an hour.
If Joe cuts Willows, let’s say he makes 10k cash and 80k WC experience an hour.
(PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL NUMERICAL FIGURES ARE ESTIMATES, and simply used for the purpose to explain efficiency, rather than to truly give you an idea of how good or bad certain methods are. This holds true throughout the guide.)
It’s always easier to view the best path when you look at it long term. Let’s say Joe does each option for 100 hours.
Joe would have 40M cash and 1.5M WC experience from Magics, or 1M cash and 8M WC experience from willows.

15-May-2010 03:36:41 - Last edited on 29-Oct-2011 20:29:33 by Sports441995

Sports441995

Posts: 7,998 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

In effect, he has the choice to give up either 39M cash, or 6.5M WC experience. 39M cash is worth about 39 hours of time, and 6.5M WC experience is worth about 100 hours of time. By choosing to do magics instead of willows for 100 hours, Joe could potentially be 51 hours slower towards his ultimate goal than he could have been if he understood efficiency.

Skills affect each other in more ways than you may imagine. In certain instances, it is actually inefficient to train a skill altogether.

EXAMPLE 2:

Bob’s total net worth is 1M GP; plenty to begin Runecrafting if he wanted to, yet not enough to afford a dragon hatchet. He can choose between cutting willows with a rune hatchet, or runecrafting at the ZMI alter and then progressing to double nature runes. He could then come back to Woodcutting with a dragon hatchet.

Believe it or not, this example requires no math: Let’s simply examine what would happen with either decision:

-If he chose to Woodcut now, he would be getting LESS experience in woodcutting than he could be getting. When he went to Runecraft in the future, it would be the exact same speed that it would be if he trained it now (unless you wish to include the neglectable amount of time he would save by getting through the abyss slightly easier, which is needless and would only complicate things)

-If he chose to Runecraft now, he would get the exact same amount of experience that he would get in Runecraft that he would get if he waited. He could then come back to woodcutting with more appropriate gear, and train faster.

Needless to say, the second option is the logical choice.

15-May-2010 03:36:41 - Last edited on 23-May-2014 07:25:10 by Sports441995

Sports441995

Posts: 7,998 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

This brings me to an important point: Establishing a very good money-maker early in one’s career is vital to becoming efficient. If you don’t have the funding, you may find yourself doing other skills slower than they can actually be done. Runecrafting seems to be a very good choice, as it can be done at nearly full efficiency itself without much funding, and it alone can provide tons of cash for a player once their Runecrafting level gets high.
___
The previous two examples are the simplest and more fundamental forms of the RSE theory, and I witness arguments over them all the time in-game. So many people make mistakes (or perhaps just find it more enjoyable) about these basic principles. Some common reasons are: They don’t understand the truth about money (how it is directly related to experience, and not a completely separate object), they value time far too low with the assumption that they will never have 91 runecrafting or any other profitable skill (which is an underestimation of oneself and an admission of lack of determination in Runescape), or they find a necessary but required activity too boring or tedious to do.
It’s amazing how these two simple ideas, in addition to the three truths I laid out, can so easily improve your efficiency in Runescape! Just remember: All experience and cash can be directly translated into their equivalent in time (Principle One), and some activities are inefficient to do whatsoever at a given moment do to a lack of funding of other required activity (Principle 2).

15-May-2010 03:36:41 - Last edited on 15-May-2010 03:49:26 by Sports441995

Sports441995

Posts: 7,998 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

It’s important to learn to apply these principles to various situations. For example, you could use Principle Two and figure out that you must, if you desire efficiency, do a certain quest before doing an activity. An example could be Smoking Kills with the slayer skill. After reaching 55 slayer, it’s not efficient to slay any longer until Smoking Kills is completed, as there are rewards you are missing out on.
There are many more cases and examples that could be examined. Most of them are self-explanatory, and simply require the use of Principle One or Principle Two. If you have any questions that are not answered by the end of this guide, please post and I’ll help you out to the best of my ability.

15-May-2010 03:36:42 - Last edited on 15-May-2010 03:49:38 by Sports441995

Sports441995

Posts: 7,998 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

These principles can be combined in a way to form the Grand Rule, which should be used to determine which activities are most efficient during a certain time period.
The general concept of this is that any time you do an activity, particularly training a skill, you may be making it easier to perform certain tasks later. In addition, since you are not waiting until later to do whatever activity you are currently doing, you may be missing out on advantages in your current activity. We’ll call the former variable “X” and the latter variable “Y” Naturally, you want to have as high of an X:Y ratio as possible.
Let’s take Agility and the Monkey Madness quest for an example. You have, let’s say, 65 agility.
By doing Agility first (we’ll say to about 85, when the Ape Atoll Course is no longer best)….
X: Based on your decision, your agility level will be twenty levels higher than it could have potentially been doing Money Madness. This could save you a couple minutes of time during the quest. Estimated total time value: 2 minutes
Y: Based on your decision, you will not be able to train agility at the most efficient location during these levels. You would be using the wilderness course instead, causing a drastic slowdown in your agility skill. Estimated total time value: 8 hours
Obviously, you have to choose: Do I want to be able to run faster during the Monkey Madness quest, or do I want to train agility faster? The Estimated total time values outline which decision is the wise one. In this case, it’s clear that agility should be done after the Monkey Madness quest.
Obviously, there are thousands of comparisons possible to be made in Runescape, and it’s often more complex than a simple comparison between two things, but this rule of thumb will allow you to balance trade-offs from a mathematical and logical standpoint.

15-May-2010 03:36:42 - Last edited on 15-May-2010 03:50:07 by Sports441995

Sports441995

Posts: 7,998 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

There are a few common cases that are far more complex than the Two Principles that I would like to briefly mention, which could cause one to value time slightly different depending on the given scenario.
One thing that can skew your data is the discrepancy of time between Real Life and Runescape. Most activities in-game are governed by Runescape time; the amount of time you spend on the activity, in Runescape, directly corresponds to what you gain out of it. However, what about Farming, Grand Exchange price fluctuations, and weekly Distractions and Diversions?
Let’s say that one plays 10 hours a day. He may only hunt the penguins every 70 hours of his in-game time. If another player plays 5 hours a week, he may hunt the penguins every 5 hours of his in-game time.
What if a player quits for a year, and inflation rises the price of all his items and his net worth increases by 50m? This is another example of how one can earn something in Runescape for doing nothing, because some activities are governed by Real Life time, and others by RS time.
Overall, I’d say this has minimal effects, though they still exist, for one who plays Runescape consistently. For example, one may find it most efficient to farm patches right before they go to bed, so they can be ready in the morning. They can then farm in the morning, go off to work, and the patches will be ready when they get back. Depending on the state of real life time, different results may occur in Runescape. However, this is really common sense, and should not distort the value of time too heavily.

15-May-2010 03:36:42 - Last edited on 15-May-2010 03:50:25 by Sports441995

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~Ultimate Efficiency Guide~