Marlaine’s Musings

As a perfect way to illustrate how to begin a Runescape character, I’ve decided to start a new character – Marlaines2nd – just for this guide and for subsequent guides for the building of skills and free quests. I’ll also be using this character to do the guides for quests that my main character has already done as well.

Go to the start page of Runescape and choose Create A Free Account.

I strongly advise starting as a free character, even if you know this game well. You can build some basic skills for a month or more before spending any money. Also, try to do all the free quests before starting a membership. Those quests will help you a great deal if you do join. You can get on high scores while staying on free play but you won’t be able to be a top player without working on the member skills that are not available on free.

Once you have chosen your mouse options and gender, you will be shown a head and body options page before you continue to the tutorial. Take your time choosing the features for your character. The odds are that you will have to keep the look until you can earn enough gp – gold pieces – to change it. Even when you do have the gp, you may not get the choices you will be offered now. Go through all the options a couple of times to be sure you’ve seen all your choices. As Runescape progresses and improves it’s graphics, they are offering more choices all the time. They actually change many choices as well, so the hair color you choose today may not be available in 6 months.

Once you’ve decided on your character’s look, click accept. You’ll find yourself at the beginning of the tutorial. Click the characters or objects under the flashing arrow icons to continue through the tutorial.

First, Sir Vant will teach you about combat. He’ll give you a sword and a shield and tell you to try attacking the goblin that was stealing in the dungeon. Always check what a character you’ve killed has dropped and pick it up, especially now, as a beginner – this time it was coins and bones. Once you are done with the tutorial, the items from kills will help you save up gp (gold pieces) – coins – and/or items to sell or use for skill xp (experience points), such as the bones for prayer.

Next, Sir Vant will explain the quest journal. It is a list of things you will need to do before finishing your tutorial. The tutorial, itself, is a mini-quest and will give you a good idea about how to do quests once you are playing the game. Sir Vant’s having a problem keeping a huge three headed dragon from entering the city and he needs your help but you need to learn a few things first!

As you can see, there is a list of things for you to learn. The skills to try are: Range, Fishing, Cooking, Magic, Woodcut and Firemaking. The final listing on the Quest Guide Sir Vant gives you is the end of the tutorial where you help him make the dragon leave the area. You’ll need to go up the ladder to continue the tutorial.

All the skill Guide Tutors are on the surface in the area you will find yourself in when you go up. They are all near Lumbridge Castle – near the point you will find yourself if you die while engaging in combat. An NPC is a Non-Player Character – in other words, a character that is a Runescape person or creature and not a real person. Real people will be white dots on your mini-map. You will always be the white dot in the middle of the mini-map.

First is Range – The Ranged Tutor will give you a bow and arrow and will always give you a set if you get killed and lose your equipment. You will have to return to Sir Vant now and then after trying certain skills.

Your next task can be fishing for crayfish to give to Sir Vant. The arrow will take you to the fishing tutor and he will give you a crayfish cage to fish with. He’ll also tell you how to fish and explain your stats levels in the menu bar. You can fish until you reach level 3 fishing now. Fill your inventory with fish so you can work on cooking next.

Follow the flashing red arrow to find the Cooking Tutor to learn how to cook on the stove.

Return to Sir Vant and give him some crayfish to help him revive from all that dragon fighting. Food helps heal hitpoints while in combat or if poisoned by a runescape creature or monster. Sir Vant will ask you to go to the Magic Tutor to get him some runes to fight the dragon with next.

Once the Magic Tutor tells you how to cast spells and gives you runes, train your magic up to level three. That will probably use up all the runes she gave you to start with, so ask for more runes before going back to Sir Vant.

Sir Vant tells you where to look to know what spells you can cast. Then he’ll tell you to go up to see what else you can learn from the quest guide. Follow the arrow to the Woodcutting Tutor. He will give you an axe.

Cut regular trees until you get to level 3 woodcut and then you’ll have a nice amount of logs to work on fire making next. You’ll have to go to the shop to buy a tinderbox but it is only one gp. If you don’t have any coins, equip your sword and shield to fight a man to get some coins. Use the tinder on a log and start a few fires if you want – outside of the store – until level 3. Be sure to keep a log to take to Sir Vant – he’s freezing down there in the dungeon!

Take the tinder and logs to Sir Vant to light the fire pit for him. Next you will need to find the bank to learn how to store your items when you don’t want to carry everything around. Use the flashing arrow to guide you to the bank. It’s inside the Lumbridge Castle on the third floor – use the stairs and go up two levels.

Return to Sir Vant to see what is next.

Sir Vant subdues the dragon that you will be able to watch as a cut-scene. Then he’ll show you a lot of the things you can do with your menu choices, like emotes and music. He also shows you how to use the chat choices and the report abuse buttons. The dragon is not dead but Sir Vant is too tired to pursue it until he gets more help. He urges you to talk to the Mining and Smithing Tutor but your Tutorial is complete now.

Go up the ladder. You will automatically get a pickaxe and a bronze dagger. You will lose all but one of the crayfish. You will have to work on smithing and mining after talking to the tutors.

Congrats! You have finished the tutorial and have earned your first quest point. You will also get two 250 xp point lamps that you can use in any of your skills. You can not bank them so you’ll have to carry them around until you’ve decided what you want extra experience points in – don’t be in a rush to use them though.