One thing I like to repeat on a regular basis throughout this blog is that I am not an expert on making money in Runescape. But I do have several procedures I like that make me a tidy income. Bullseye Lantern filling is just such a technique. It’s not the best way to make gp out there, but it does provide almost a guaranteed 100% profit.  Any way to double your investment is always worth mentioning.

I recommend buying unfilled Bullseye Lanterns on the Grand Exchange as opposed to making them from scratch. They sell for around 185gp. I buy around a hundred at a time and I usually do not have to wait at all for the sale to complete. To fill these empty lanterns you need to use swamp tar on a special still. Swamp tar can be easily and quickly collected in the Lumbridge swamps. But tar is also reasonably priced on the Grand Exchange for around 195gp.

There are two stills in the world of Runescape. One is located in Rimmington, but it is reasonably far away from a bank. The other still is in Dorgesh-Kaan . This still is ideal because it is very close to a bank, thus allowing for less time running and more time filling.

The filling process is tedious, but if you can get a rhythm going it will go by fairly fast. First you need to use the tar on the still. Then you need to use an empty lantern on the still. That’s it, you’re done filling the lantern.  But remember a couple of things.  Each of the steps have to be performed in order. Also, the still does not store oil so you can only use one tar at a time and then fill a lantern.  It is also important to keep track of which lanterns you have already filled.  An empty lantern looks identical to a filled lantern.  I personally leave one slot open in my inventory and use it as a place holder between full and empty lanterns. If things go well I can go from the GE to Dorgesh-Kann, fill and bank a hundred lanterns, and teleport back to the GE in about twenty minutes.

Here is the financial break down of this procedure. A hundred lanterns and swamp tars cost 38k. Filled Bullseye Lanterns sell for 900gp. That means a hundred lanterns bring in 90k for a net profit of 52k.

The one major negative to this technique is that Bullseye Lanterns do not sell immediately. But they will sell eventually over the course of a few hours. I am happy to wait a few hour to collect my 52k profit from twenty minutes of work.

Note:  As with anything concerning the Grand Exchange, prices listed in this blog are subject to changes in the Runescape economy.

In keeping with the Summoning theme of my most recent blogs, I would like to give some tips about gathering Crimson charms.

Crimson charms are the second most common charm in Runescape, and additionally the second best for high summoning xp. One pouch made with a crimson charm can net anywhere from 83 to 435 experience points, whereas gold charms will only give between 4 and 93 xp.

It is not particularly hard to harvest Crimson charms. Many creatures in Runescape drop them. To name just a few of these creatures are Dust Devils, Giant Rock Crabs, Goblins, Greater Demons, Dragons and Hill Giants. Remember, those are just a few of the more popular creatures people use to harvest Crimson charms. I personally prefer Cockroaches.

Cockroaches are found in and around the Stronghold of Player Safety. (BTW: On the way to the Stronghold kill the two unicorns to the east. Thats an easy 1800 gp) There are three levels of cockroaches available. The Cockroach Drone is by far the easiest, with a combat level of only 8 and 11 hit points. These are a very good option for low level players. The Cockroach Worker is a very nice mid level monster at combat level 56 and 54 hit points. The toughest cockroach is the Soldier at combat level 83 and 96 hit points. All three types of cockroaches drop crimson as their main charm drop. They also provide some nice combat xp and drop a variety of pretty decent items. Included among these drops are half keys and left half of dragon shields.

I go back and forth between Soldiers and Workers. I usually bring about 16 swordfish and a combat potion and fight these guys for an hour or two. I often leave the Stronghold with a mess of charms, a bunch of runes, and my remaining inventory filled with semi valuable seeds and herbs (I only keep the ones worth 500 gp or more). With luck I may even walk out with a clue scroll.

On a non-summoning note: The Cockroach Soldiers are very good for Law Rune drops. They can drop up to fifteen at a time.

In my continuing effort to try to justify the existence of the Summoning skill, at least in my own mind, I spent the past several days researching and trying to harvest green charms. Of the four basic charms (gold, crimson, green and blue), green comes in at number three in difficulty to find. As far as my research and experience goes, I have found no end-all-be-all solution to harvesting green charms quickly. But I have seen things that are better options than just hoping for a random drop from any old monster.

The talk on Internet forums and fan sites is that Green Dragons tend to drop green charms at a higher rate then other monsters. I will agree that green charms do drop from Green Dragons at a significantly higher rate.  But I think Green Dragons are too much a pain in the butt to be an effective and efficient charm harvesting tool.  First, they are located in the wild where their location poses a much greater risk to safety.  Second, though they are the easiest of Dragons to kill, they still require investments in food and potions. Third, they take too long to kill, and are heavily hunted by other players.  Don’t get me wrong, there are many reasons to hunt Green Dragons (for one, their hides turn a nice profit).  But as a safe route to train summoning, I personally would leave these monsters alone.

The only creatures that seem to be worthwhile for me to spend my time killing to harvest green charms is the four Abyssal Monsters. These creatures range in combat level from 41 to 124, and are located in the Abyss or ALR plane of the Fairy Ring network. Of the four, the Abyssal Demon is the only slayer creature, and requires level 85 slayer to kill (but it does have some wonderful drops, including the Abyssal Whip.)

I personally stay on the Abyssal Guardians (level 59) because they die fairly easy for my level 89 warrior, they respawn almost instantaneously, and they have some nice drops in addition to charms. But all Abyssal monsters drop charms, and I have found that they tend to drop greens more often then the other colors.  Abyssal monsters will also drop Abyssal charms, which are required secondary ingredients for a couple of higher level summoning pouches. Abyssal charms do not stack and I have not yet decided if they are really worth collecting. In addition to charms, Abyssals drop pure essence in both physical and noted forms, talismans (all kinds), binding necklaces (which I ignore because they do not sell well on the Grand Exchange), and rune crafting pouches of all sizes.

The Abyss is accessible once you have performed a small favor for the Zamorak Mage who hangs around the mouth of the River Lum, just north of Edgeville (level 5 wilderness). This is not a dedicated quest (don’t confuse it with the One Small Favor quest). It is just a minor task that needs to be performed so the player can learn the background story. The Abyss can be a very dangerous place, and is multi-combat, so things can get dicey very quickly. I prefer to fight the Abyssal monsters on the ALR plane of the Fairy Ring network, which is much safer.  To access the fairy rings you will need to have started a little of the Fairy Tale part II – Cure a Queen quest. The Fairy Ring network provides quick access to the ALR and many locations throughout Runescape, including a nice portal squarely between Edgeville and the Grand Exchange.

As for me, I think fighting Green Dragons is a more fun and interesting way to harvest green charms. Challenging the Abyssal monsters in the ALR can be very dull, and trying to collect charms in the Abyss itself is downright suicidal.  In the end, both routes seem to produce simular numbers of green charms in simular time frames.  If you want a degree of safety, go with the ALR.  If you want something a little more interesting, but more dangerous, go with the Green Dragons.

Abyssal Leech (CL 41,HP 10); Abyssal Guardian (CL 59, HP 50); Abyssal Walker (CL 81, HP 95); Abyssal Demon (CL 124, HP 150); Green Dragons (CL 79, HP 75)

Well, I feel like an idiot. When the recent graphical update occurred, I never really paid attention to the graphic options.  I just assumed the settings were set to their max (as suggested by Jagex). I didn’t realize that antialising was still turned off by default. I won’t say that the difference is stunning, but it is subtle and a little more pleasant on the eyes. I recommend turning antialising on for those players who have computers with the power to handle it. Those of you whose systems really can’t handle the extra strain aren’t missing much, but if you can do it, I say go ahead and do it. Below is the same scene, the one on the left is without antialising and the one on the right has antialising 4x. You will need to click the picture and view it full size to see the differences.  Notice how the lines seem straighter.  The armour smoother. The shield edge, the dragon longsword, and grass are less jagged.  If 4x feels a little blurry, there is a 2x option which seems to be a nice middle ground.

Kudos to Anubis’ Blog for pointing this out.

I’m not too fond of the Summoning skill. I don’t dislike it because its too expensive (which it is) nor because charm harvesting is too big a burden (which it is). The skill in and of itself feels all wrong.  It is like someone in the development department at Jagex had a burr on his butt to get this skill implemented without thinking it through and having it make any sense what-so-ever. The complexity of this skill really does boggle the mind.  Worse yet, the skill seems like it is ultimately more work than its worth.  For me, its only value to date has been allowing me to have a pet other than a cat.  But enough about my dislike for Summoning…

In Summoning there are four items that are needed to create pouches which in turn are used to summon the assistance of specific creatures which may or may not be of some additional value to the player.  Plain pouches can be bought fairly cheaply, but need to be infused to have any use. To infuse pouches you need shards that cost 25gp each (which at first seems inexpensive until you get over level 30 and start needing well over 1800gp worth of shards to infuse one stupid pouch for a piddly 60xp). Then a secondary ingredient is needed, like the bones of a specific creature, a bucket of sand, your first born (okay, maybe not that) or practically anything else in the Runescape world. The last item is one of four types of charms (gold, crimson, green, or blue) which can only be obtained by killing creatures and through certain limited kinds of thieving.  Charms are untradeable and not available for sale. Any charms you get, you get on your own and no amount of money will help.

A popular and cost effective way of low level training Summoning is by infusing Granite Crab pouches using seven shards, a gold charm, and an iron ore to gain a total 21 Summoning experience. Sure, a Mosquito pouch may only require one shard and one gold charm, but the Proboscis secondary ingredient is cost prohibitive at over 3000gp each for only 46xp.  What training Summoning boils down to is either a lot of combat to get a lot of charms, or a whole-hell-of-a-lot of money to buy the shards and still needing to use the hard to find charms. The problem with using a lower level xp technique to train Summoning is obviously a lot more time needed to obtain more charms and then the time needed infusing the pouches.  But this low xp technique does save money and only requires gold charms which are the most common to find.  I recommend Ice Warriors to anyone training Summoning and in need of gold charms.

Ice Warriors can be found in the Ice Caves south of Port Sarim or the Ice Plateau in the wilderness. My favorite spot, however, is on the top of White Wolf Mountain. There are two Warriors up there, and several more can be found in the dungeon below.  Remember to bring a Pick Axe with you to the mountain as you will need it to clear a rock slide to get to the Ice Warriors.  Also, the area sounds start out cool and creepy, but quickly become a little annoying, so you may wish to turn down or off the area sounds in this spot.

At combat level 57, Ice Warriors are not wimps, but most mid level players should have little problem with these guys given enough food. At my current 89 combat level I still require some food to harvest from the Warriors, but I usually only bring cakes I have thieved from the stalls in East Ardougne. Weaker players may need lobsters or swordfish. It should also be noted that the Ice Warriors on White Wolf are in a multi-combat zone and will gang up on players, but after fifteen minutes of constant fighting they will start to ignore you unless you attack them first.  I use a Dragon Longsword against these guys, but just for fun, every once in a while I will use my Rune Pick Axe with almost identical effectiveness.  So if you can’t wield Dragon, try a Rune Pick Axe.

Charms are the whole reason to fight Ice Warriors. More often than not they will drop charms, and most of those charms will be gold with an occasional crimson and very rarely a green or blue thrown in to mix things up a bit. Still, in my admittedly non-expert experience in Runescape, Ice Warriors are the most prolific and consistent droppers of gold charms.  Other than, and in addition to charms, they also drop a wide range of other mid value items. I like to think of them as the WalMart of Runescape. They tend to drop a lot of different types or herbs, seeds, and runes. Uncut gems and arrows are also fairly common. I even manage to get a half key every once in a while. You won’t get rich off Ice Warriors, but you will get the charms needed to train up summoning.  I mainly fight them for the charms, and once I deplete my food, which takes a good hour, I’m off to the Catherby bank to make my deposit and get more food. Typically I can get atleast 40 gold charms in an hour.

Ice Warriors: CL-57, HP-59