Earn Farming XP with Vinesweeper

Do you hate farming but need farming experience? Are you easily amused, even by the games that come standard with Windows? Then you are sure to enjoy Vinesweeper.

Vinesweeper is an amusing mini game within Runescape that is basically a Runeized version of the classic puzzle game, Minesweeper. I have never been a big fan a Minesweeper, but I know people who swear it is the greatest puzzle game of all time. I have even heard that JK Rowling, the writer of the Harry Potter series of books, when needing a break from writing, would turn to Minesweeper. Being a simple game and yet having such a large following made it a logical choice for a Jagex twist. Vinesweeper provides a pleasant distraction and a nice way to earn some otherwise tedious farming experience.

To get to the Vinesweeper game is very simple. Just ask any farming tool leprechaun to transport you. This makes Vinesweeper one of the most easily accessible mini games in the world of Runescape. But before you go finding a leprechaun, get a spade and a bunch of money out of your bank account. I prefer to bring 20k with me, but this is often overkill. The better a player is at this game, the less gp you will need to spend. Once you’re ready, find a tool leprechaun and have him teleport you to Farmer Blinkin’s farm. I like to use the leprechaun by the farming patch in the court yard of Varrock Castle, but any farming patch will do.

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Hit The Money Making Bullseye

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.

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What is Scary

I do believe that this (see right) is the scariest thing I have yet seen in the world of Runescape. The green goatee is the obvious topper to this ensemble. Me thinks the shorts are a little too short for this fellow.  And to think, just a couple of weeks ago I blogged about how refreashing it is that in the world of Runescape we have so many clothing options.

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Welcome To The Jungle

I am introducing a new topic category to my blog. I am calling it diversions and the topics of this type will deal with aspects of Runescape that focus on the mini games as opposed to the typical monster killing and questing. My first diversion is Jungle Clean Up.

Jungle Clean Up isn’t the most fun of Runescape mini games. It isn’t the most interesting either. But it is something to do that isn’t the same-old same-old and it provides some decent opportunities for earning money.

In a nutshell, the object of Jungle Clean Up is to kiss the collective asses of the people of Tai Bwo Wannai Village. And there are a lot asses to kiss. Once you start your career as a sycophant, the villagers will repay your efforts with trading sticks, which are only valuable in the village itself. Your efforts, of course, involve doing things for the community like killing threatening spiders, snakes, mosquitoes and other nastys. You can also gain brown nosing points by hacking the nearby jungle with a machete (I recommend red topaz), which sounds to me like cutting down the rain forest, but lets not get into a political correctness debate here. The thatches of wood you receive from hacking the jungle can be used to repair the village fence, and thus earn even more boot licking points.

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Its all about the clothes.

I think one of the things that really draws me to Runescape is the variety of clothing, costumes, and armor. Don’t miss understand me. I know almost nothing about fashion in Runescape, and even less in real life. But it is nice to be in crowded areas like the Grand Exchange or banks, and not have everyone looking exactly the same. That is a problem with some other MMORPGs. You look around and everyone looks the same (this is also an issue with the SimCity series, but I will not go off on that tangent). The variety of clothing is even greater on Member’s Worlds where more options are available. I personally stick to my armor throughout most of my game play. But I have chosen gold trim Rune armor with dragon platelegs, shoes, and helmet. I think it is aesthetically pleasing and offers plenty of defense for most situations. I will eventually cough up the gp for Dragon Chainmail. But even when I have it I will likely stick to my current look. I do like to switch in to my goofy looking customs when I am training non-combat skills like fishing and mining.

There are a ton of clothing options available. From your standard button down shirt and pants to cheerleader outfits. I have yet to see any swimsuits or bikinis, but who knows, maybe if that rumored “sailing skill” is true, some new outfits will show up there. [Note: I only mentioned bikinis as a selfish way of increasing page hits for this post.] There are Bob The Jagex Cat t-shirts. Pirate costums. Pants and skirts in many colors and styles. If you hang around a fishing hole long enough, you will get to see a lot of fun and interesting outfits.

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Summoning and Crimson Charms

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…  [READ THE REST of this blog article at my new site!]

The Amazing Resizing Game Window!

Well, today’s updates included a nice surprise for the f2p (free to play) players of Runescape. A resizeable playing screen has now been implemented that will certainly bring a smile to many f2pers in addition to many members like myself. The Runescape game screen now expands to fill the width of the player’s browser window. This allows for a larger, easier to see and enjoy screen. Plus it introduces players to the game interfaces which before today were only available in full screen mode.

Three sizes of Runescape

As a member, I usually play in full screen mode, but it has had its drawbacks. My main issue with full screen mode is that I can’t jump easily around on other web pages and programs while playing Runescape. Often I will be writing this blog while playing the game at the same time. I can’t do that in full screen mode. I also like to do price checks off the Grand Exchange database on the Runescape web page, which was also not easily accessible in full screen mode. I like to be on fan sites to gather needed information to help me in game play. I have a lot of skills that still need a lot of training and I don’t always know the best ways to proceed, and it is nice to have skill guides available on different tabs to help me along the way. And of course, when I am training dull skills like fishing and mining, I would keep another browser window open to CNN or something a little more interesting.

The image to the upper right is a compilation of the three modes of screen size now available to members (only the top two are available to f2p). The top image is the original, small screen browser window. The middle image is the full browser window mode (my screen was set to 1024×768). The bottom image is full screen mode. All three are relative in size to each other, though I did half the size of the images to conserve space. As can be clearly seen, the full browser and full screen modes are definitely much larger than the original mode. Also, it is clear that the full browser and full screen modes are not too terribly different in size from each other, so now f2ps really are not missing out on much compared to paying members (at least when it comes to screen size.)

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