The Science of Firemaking

It didn't take me long to get bored with burning shades.  It's a very, very labor intensive way to make money, and as a source of Firemaking xp, it's even more labor intensive.  But while looking at a skill calculator, I noticed that a full run in the All Fired Up minigame was 39,990.5 xp.  This could be a shortcut, but it'll take some planning.  I already have my course set up for lighting from when I got the Inferno Adze, so all I need to do is come up with an efficient way of loading them.

As you can see (click to to see it bigger), some of the beacons are a bit far from the bank, in particular:  12, 13 and 14.  12 isn't horribly far from the Trollheim teleport, that's God Wars dungeon...and that place does horrible things to your skills.

The Science, Thus Far:

You dress for success, so that's where I started.

First thing you'll notice is the red pirate clothes.  Well...stop noticing it.  I'm only wearing it because it's my trademark.  Instead, notice the bracelet and sword:  Forinthry Bracelet and Enchanted Excalabur.  The equipment changes will be discussed a little later.

The lighting route remains the same, but my inventory has changed slightly.  Before I head to Oo'glog, This is what my inventory looks like:

The Lunar Staff is just for getting to Oo'glog.  I usually dip in the thermal bath (to ensure that I have full hp), the sulphur bath (for the Prayer boost), and finally in the salt water bath (for the unlimited run).  After I dip, I summon the familiar and load it with logs, head to the bank, deposit the Lunar staff, and fill the rest of my inventory with logs.  Notice the addition of the Super-Anti Poison.  I start my trip by using the Slayer Ring to teleport to the Mortiana Slayer Tower instead of using the fairy ring.

The bank trip in Edgeville differs too.  After I light the beacon (giving the tender logs), I bank:

The familiar gets all the food, and as many logs as it can carry, then I fill my inventory with logs.

Why the changes?

The various equipment changes were spurred by a serious issue I ran into at the end of the run:  escaping deep wildy with my life.  After God Wars, the trip is all deep wildy and riddled with dangers for someone not ready for them.  There was one close call where I was down to 4 hp and had no way to cut the webs into either Mage Arena or the Ardy lever.  I got lucky, and someone came along...but I don't like relying on luck.

Revenants are a constant problem in wilderness (as they were designed to be), so the food and Anti Poison are to help me survive as I run past them.  Once I'm done, I can't use the levers if I'm teleblocked, so I added the Forinthy Bracelet to prevent it.  Enchanted Excalabur is a slashing weapon, so I can use it to cut any webs I need to in order to get to the lever...with a side benefit of healing 2 hp every second for a total of 20 hp with it's special.

The Loading Dilemia:

Loading was still an issue for me because it took so long.  But with a little trial and error I came up with a workable plan  (the plan listed assumes I'm starting right after a finished run, hence the Terrorbird.  Initial starts without a Terrorbird take longer).

Beacons 1 and 2:  I fill both my inventory and the bird's inventory with logs.  I teleport to the Slayer Tower and load both beacons.  Teleport to Edgeville and bank.

Beacons 4 and 5:  I fill both my inventory and the birds inventory with logs.  I run to the 5th beacon and fill it, then run to the 4th beacon to fill it.  Run south to Varrock East bank.

Beacons 3 and 6:  I run to the 3rd beacon and fill it, then teleport to Edgeville and fill the beacon there.  Bank.

The Terrorbird isn't much use from here on out (I usually need something else in my inventory so I won't have enough for 2 beacons and if I'm following a run it's getting close to expiring), so I grab Tireless Run scrolls to use until it dies.

Beacon 12:  The God Wars beacon is next because the cold in the area lowers all of your stats.  This gives my Firemaking skill time to get back to normal.  I grab Trollheim teleport runes and a full inventory of logs.  I head to the beacon and fill it, and teleport to Edgeville.

Beacon 7:  I grab a full inventory of logs and head to the beacon at Black Knight Fortress.  After I fill it, I teleport back to Edgeville.  I change out the Glory with a Games Necklace.

Beacon 8 and 9:  If the bird is still alive, I fill both of our inventories with logs and teleport to Burthorpe Games Room.  From there I head to beacon 9, then walk to beacon 8.  If the bird is not, I bank in the Rogue's Den before I go to Goblin Village.

Beacon 10 and 11:  While I do these separately, the procedure is the same.  I teleport to Trollheim, fill beacon 11, teleport to the Wilderness Volcaon to bank, then teleport back to Trollheim, down the agility shortcut, then fill beacon 10.  Teleport to Wilderness Volcaon.

Beacon 13 and 14:  I grab Trollheim teleport runes, a hatchet and logs.  I head down the shortcut by beacon 11 and run north to fill beacon 13.  I head back down the ladder and continue north to the area around the 14th beacon.  Here, I cut 20 regular logs to fill the beacon (it gets lit last, so it only matters that it gets lit).  I head to mage arena to start the run.

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On a small side note:  cavefish heal 20 hp of damage, which makes them as good as sharks.

Completed Goals

Big news today.

First of all, I completed half of the goal I mentioned in my last post:



Dragon Full Helm: 15,600,000 gp

This fulfills a long standing dream I've had since I started: Full Dragon Armor. As usual, it was up 1 million from when I last checked the price. Typical. But I still like it, and that's all that matters.

Next, I've finally acquired something I had been hunting for a while:



Full Lumberjack!

The Woodcutting bonus is small, but every little bit helps. I found some advice on the forums to stay to the easy path and avoid encounters (fewer combats means faster trips, faster trips means more trips, more trips means more chances to get it).

I am still working on the Firemaking cape, and I'm still doing Shades of Mort'ton in order to get it. My current plan is to use the money to train up Construction, and to do Summoning when I have the charms for it. I currently have a bunch right now, so I'll be doing some soon. As of this moment, I have 500 Sacred Oil (4), and I'm cutting the logs for them now.

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Other News: They opened up a new cavern in the Dwarven Mines under Ice Mountain called the Living Rock Caverns. New monsters with ok drops from what I've seen so far. In my Full Dragon, they don't hit me often, but they are quite easy to hit. Doing this I managed to get an Attack level, a Strength level and a Combat level.

I'm now 110 Combat level.

With this new cavern, they introduced new fish which require a high Fishing level. The lowest of these are Cavefish, which require an 85 Fishing. I spent the night before I went fishing Monkfish in order to get the level for it.

I don't know how they are as food yet, as I'm not currently working on combat and haven't even cooked any of the one's I've acquired so far.

The new Dwarf quest (Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf) is also done, keeping me eligiable to wear my Quest cape...even though I'm still wearing my cooking cape. This opened up a new area with monsters that drop a new handheld cannon and the long awaited Dragon Pickaxe. I haven't been to the cavern yet (I'm assuming it's going to be busy for a while), nor have I price checked handheld cannons or pickaxes. I'm assuming they're going to be expensive, so it'll be a bit before I got one of either.

Combining Goals

While doing the various things I do to make money, I got a little bored and went out to do the Temple Trekking/Burgh de Rott Ramble minigame for a bit. While I didn't get a Lumberjack shirt (much to my continued annoyance), I did stockpile some shade remains. So, once I got tired of trekking, I decided to burn some shades.

I, of course, didn't just burn the small number I got from trekking: I decided to make a day of it. I stockpiled 250 sacred oil (4), 250 magic logs, and 250 shades. I ended up making about 1.2M gp. I also got somewhere in the neighborhood of 120k firemaking xp.

This got me to thinking...instead of just wasting time burning maple logs for weeks to get 99 firemaking, why not burn shades? It might take the same amount of time (or a bit more), but I'll have a whole lot of money when all is said and done.

Now, I've never played for money. But (much like in the real world) money does help. I am going to get the firemaking skillcape anyways, so why not do it in a way that I end up ahead financially? Plus, I'll also get a decent amount of crafting and prayer xp, too. Finally, the minigame is rather easy (although it is a bit labor intensive) and I enjoy it.

As a result, my firemaking skillcape goal and my Dragon Full Helm goal have met unexpectedly at a bizarre crossroads out in the middle of nowhere and became unlikely travelling partners.

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In other news: All of my melee stats are now 79. With 80's across the board in combat, I'm temted to try to get all my combat stats 80+. It would give me an excuse to do some work on my prayer. I already have a goal to get summoning to 80, and I could train range and prayer at the same time by killing dragons. These are only thoughts, however, as I still have a long way to go for 80 in my melee stats.

I am also just a stone's throw from 74 summoning.