After months of not gaming and/or only gaming on the weekend with friends, I find myself back in Old School Runescape. Because all roads lead back to Runescape eventually (for me at least). The last time I really put in time was in 2020. Back then, I was playing a normal account but got the itch to start an Ironman account.
If you don’t know, Ironman is an account setting that restricts you from trading with other players, effectively turning Runescape into the ultimate “alone togehter. Everything you need, you gather yourself. For better or worse, it forces you to engage with more content that could easily be skipped by farming gold and buying things off the Grand Exchange. I also find it fun, because you have to run with the best equipment you can find or make on your own. It adds to the thrill of the chase for low to mid tier items that otherwise could have been bought cheap. Of course, it’s more of a time investment in a time intensive game but it makes the game truly a journey.
I had created the current account I’m playing on around 5 years ago and I think I most recently played it around last summer. In that time, I went through some of the more tedious grinds, like getting a full set of Graceful and 72 agility so I wasn’t constantly out of energy running and unlocked a good amount of agility shortcuts. I also served my time on the Fishing Trawler and got the full Angler outfit which provides a slight increase to fishing XP. My fishing was around 76 and my cooking around 70. My combat level around 50. All this to say, I came back to a character that had a solid foundation and I could pick up and play relatively quickly, which has been nice.
I resubscribed for Leagues VI, but after starting there and playing for a few hours, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was robbing myself of the experience of going through Valamore, an most of the game, without actually having done it on a normal character. I love the concept of Leagues, a limited game mode with tasks to complete, areas to unlock, and boosted XP and drop rates, but I’ve never progressed far enough in the main game to really enjoy a League without clicking through quests I’ve never done or going to areas I’ve never been.
So I ended up back on the iron and went over to Valamore there. My intention was to run through the story line there for a bit but, Runescape being Runescape, I was unable to do the next quest in the story line because I didn’t meet the level requirement. Which means my main goal was put on hold to try and level up Slayer. Then some Slayer creatures I was assigned, needed a quest here or there completed to access a location with a good spawn rate, so my goals kept cascading and shifting from there.
That may be the thing that keeps me coming back. There is always something to do and work towards. I love the prep of gathering items or fishing to refill my food stores. I love the hunt for items from monster drops. And I love that something new unlocks every few levels or so in a skill.
It’s runs well on mobile, so I can do some of the more time intensive activities, like mass fishing, while I’m doing other things. Or I can have it on the second screen while I do something else, like write this post… It’s a game that’s really fitting in to my life well right now. I’m excited to have something to write about again.
It’s been forever!
Many Welps 