Runescape - A Fortnight of Membership: Using a Bond
After 2 weeks of membership, my bond has expired and I am back to f2p status. Was my experience worth the 15.5 million gp I paid for the bond? Was it worth whatever the current price of a bond is?
What caused me to actually pull the trigger on consuming a bond was the result of the Spring Fayre on my inventory. Because the activities of the event required no inventory space, and I wasn’t going to waste that time doing anything else, I accrued a ton of xp items that were either p2p exclusive, or could be more effectively used on p2p skills. Since most everything else in the game requires an empty inventory to effectively participate, I was forced with the decision to either trash a lot of really useful items or use a bond to take advantage of them. May as well make the most of the situation.
My initial goal after consuming the bond was making enough money to purchase another and replace the one I had used. Figuring that bonds would only go up in price until the next DXPW, I went ahead and purchased one on the front end, and decided I would then try to recoup the money I spent. I paid 16M for the bond, so I would have to make a little over 1M per day for the duration of the membership. Surely, with the money making methods available to members, I could manage at least that.
MrPickler recommended cutting Elder trees for money. They stay active for exactly 5 minutes, so they’re far more predictable than other types of trees. Plus, the logs sell for a pretty penny. With level 99 Woodcutting, I decided it was worth a shot. If nothing else, they could be my low intensity grind, and I could supplement the income with other ways when I was actively playing.
Turns out Elder trees were really, really good money. Being able to click a few times and ignore the game for a solid 5 minutes just made them even better. This was the point at which Woodcutting became my central focus for the duration of the bond. Logically, I could use elders as the bread and butter for maintaining a bond. To most effectively do that, I should have the best tools available to me. I had a Dragon hatchet, which is tied for the second best hatchet in the game, but the Crystal hatchet was even better. If I got the best hatchet in the game, I could get elder logs even faster, generating more money in less time, and more easily buy bonds.
Being the fan of data that I am, I started keeping a spreadsheet of how many elder logs I cut per tree. With a good sample of data, I could measure how long it would take to pay back my bond, and I could see a quantifiable difference between the Dragon hatchet and Crystal hatchet once I obtained it. During this newfound Woodcutting obsession, I also managed to get Woody, the Woodcutting skill pet within the first 24 hours of my bond. For the record, I started at 13,364,051 xp and got Woody at 14,031,278 xp. That’s only 667,227 Woodcutting xp before I scored the skill pet. For those keeping score, I still don’t have Newton, the Magic skill pet. I even got to virtual level 101 Woodcutting, when I originally thought my first level 100 skill would be either Fishing or Runecrafting.
But what did I need in order to get the Crystal hatchet? In a nutshell, I needed to complete the Plague’s End quest and access Prifddinas. Prif (for short) is basically the end game area for all skills. It has the best training methods, the highest requirements, and it takes quite a bit to even get in. So what else did I need to even be able to start Plague’s End. Surprisingly, I already had all of the quest prerequisites, and I only needed 3 more skills just a little higher and I would be cleared for takeoff. Maybe I could do it.
Specifically, I needed to reach level 75 in Herblore, Construction, and Summoning to start Plague’s End. At the start of the bond, I had 67 Herblore, 71 Construction, and 70 Summoning. Fortunately, I was already in the ballpark for each of these skills. Unfortunately, they can be some of the most expensive skills to train. Instead of trying to tackle each of these skills at the same time, I decided to focus on one at a time so that I wouldn’t tie up all my money in resources.
After some research, I learned that Herblore can be trained in ways that almost net even, with just a small profit earned. Since it was also the lowest of my remaining skills for the Plague’s End requirements, I figured I could knock it out first. I got a few thousand potions in before I discovered that a Dungeoneering reward scroll gives a permanent chance to save herbs and secondary ingredients, as well as speed up the process. Shame that I didn’t pick it up at the very beginning of this process, but I obviously bought it as soon as I learned about it. In nearly no time, I reached the required level and cashed out the potions I had created.
As much as I would’ve loved to knock out all of the requirements for Plague’s End, finish the quest, and score the Crystal hatchet, I decided that it wasn’t worth blowing the rest of my bond on it. I could postpone those until the next bond, when I might be arguably more prepared and financially capable. I did make some progress toward each, and mapped out a plan to train them, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to enact the plan when I become a member again.
Besides my Woodcutting endeavors, it was nice to explore the full world of Gielinor again. I checked into Exploration Achievements, learning that there were a few new categories introduced since I last played. It would have been nice to pick up a few of those new rewards, but I decided that it would more benefit me to focus on the Crystal hatchet and come back to them when I could maintain a bond in less time.
I didn’t do as much Dungeoneering as I would’ve liked, but I also didn’t exactly have the time to prepare for it as I originally intended. Since players cannot enter dungeons with anything equipped or in their inventory, I couldn’t have run through any without emptying my bag of the xp items. That obviously wasn’t worth the wasted resources, so it didn’t much bother me to push my Dungeoneering plans to the wayside.
I did cash out my Artisan’s Workshop respect, and coincidentally got a daily challenge to create 12 mithril ceremonial swords during my bond. Just a heads up, ceremonial swords are absolutely awful. The process involves a lot of random chance, and the rewards are far from worth it. I’ll definitely just participate in the burial armor portion of the workshop when my membership expires.
As I originally planned, I did knock out a few co-op slayer tasks with MrPickler and even managed to get an upgraded Slayer Helm and unlock the Abyssal vine whip. We both agreed that it seems like Jagex has significantly changed combat and some of the higher level monsters. Mithril Dragons used to be absolutely absurd, but we collectively knocked out 33 of them in just a single run. Even Blue Dragons used to be pretty tough, but we were taking those out in sometimes just 3 hits each. We weren’t sure exactly what they changed, but it made us both feel a whole lot more powerful than we did before.
Overall, I would say definitively that the 2 weeks of membership I got with the bond was worth the coins that I paid for it. From a strictly financial standpoint I made far more money during those 2 weeks than I could have during the same amount of time on f2p. Just from cutting elder trees, I sold 7,000 logs at an average of around 6,000 gp per log. That’s 42 mil, just from woodcutting. Assuming elder logs don’t drop in price by a ton, and the price of bonds doesn’t skyrocket, I could consistently maintain a bond just with the low intensity activity of chopping elders.
Beyond the monetary value of membership versus the cost of a bond, it was really nice to be able to participate in p2p activities for 2 solid weeks. Compared to the 3 days of Free Membership Weekends or the multiple months of a recurring membership subscription, I think 14 days for a single bond is a great time frame. It is long enough to tinker around with several different p2p activities, but at the same time, not so long that you finish all of the fun stuff available and the game becomes a chore. I made a lot of progress in a lot of skills, but there was plenty left that makes me say, “man, I really wish I would’ve gotten around to that.” Those things that I didn’t get around to give me something to plan for when I pop another bond.
At first, I was afraid that I would be tempted to burn another bond before the first one ended, just to have another 2 weeks uninterrupted. But honestly, as much as I would’ve had plenty to do on p2p, I’m good with going back to f2p for a while. I spent the last few hours of my bond wrapping up all of my p2p endeavors. Sold off the p2p items that I had accrued via different activities, slayer drops especially. Made sure that I had used most of the materials I purchased for p2p skill grinding, and sold the products from those. Nothing that I did during those 2 weeks really tied up any significant amount of bank space or gold.
Before I use another bond, I have a few self-imposed criteria that I want to satisfy. Since Artisan’s Workshop can easily train Smithing on f2p, but I’ve already consumed all of the f2p respect rewards, I want to reach the 100% respect limit again. With all of the materials necessary to reach 99 Fletching, I want to go ahead and polish that off. Originally, it was just for the sake of knocking out another skill, but the ability to fletch the second best Dungeoneering magic gear would be incredible. On that same token, I would like to get 99 Crafting as well, but that isn’t a requirement as much as it would just be extra fluff. Once I reach those conditions, I would feel adequately prepared for another round of p2p time.
What caused me to actually pull the trigger on consuming a bond was the result of the Spring Fayre on my inventory. Because the activities of the event required no inventory space, and I wasn’t going to waste that time doing anything else, I accrued a ton of xp items that were either p2p exclusive, or could be more effectively used on p2p skills. Since most everything else in the game requires an empty inventory to effectively participate, I was forced with the decision to either trash a lot of really useful items or use a bond to take advantage of them. May as well make the most of the situation.
My initial goal after consuming the bond was making enough money to purchase another and replace the one I had used. Figuring that bonds would only go up in price until the next DXPW, I went ahead and purchased one on the front end, and decided I would then try to recoup the money I spent. I paid 16M for the bond, so I would have to make a little over 1M per day for the duration of the membership. Surely, with the money making methods available to members, I could manage at least that.
MrPickler recommended cutting Elder trees for money. They stay active for exactly 5 minutes, so they’re far more predictable than other types of trees. Plus, the logs sell for a pretty penny. With level 99 Woodcutting, I decided it was worth a shot. If nothing else, they could be my low intensity grind, and I could supplement the income with other ways when I was actively playing.
Turns out Elder trees were really, really good money. Being able to click a few times and ignore the game for a solid 5 minutes just made them even better. This was the point at which Woodcutting became my central focus for the duration of the bond. Logically, I could use elders as the bread and butter for maintaining a bond. To most effectively do that, I should have the best tools available to me. I had a Dragon hatchet, which is tied for the second best hatchet in the game, but the Crystal hatchet was even better. If I got the best hatchet in the game, I could get elder logs even faster, generating more money in less time, and more easily buy bonds.
Being the fan of data that I am, I started keeping a spreadsheet of how many elder logs I cut per tree. With a good sample of data, I could measure how long it would take to pay back my bond, and I could see a quantifiable difference between the Dragon hatchet and Crystal hatchet once I obtained it. During this newfound Woodcutting obsession, I also managed to get Woody, the Woodcutting skill pet within the first 24 hours of my bond. For the record, I started at 13,364,051 xp and got Woody at 14,031,278 xp. That’s only 667,227 Woodcutting xp before I scored the skill pet. For those keeping score, I still don’t have Newton, the Magic skill pet. I even got to virtual level 101 Woodcutting, when I originally thought my first level 100 skill would be either Fishing or Runecrafting.
But what did I need in order to get the Crystal hatchet? In a nutshell, I needed to complete the Plague’s End quest and access Prifddinas. Prif (for short) is basically the end game area for all skills. It has the best training methods, the highest requirements, and it takes quite a bit to even get in. So what else did I need to even be able to start Plague’s End. Surprisingly, I already had all of the quest prerequisites, and I only needed 3 more skills just a little higher and I would be cleared for takeoff. Maybe I could do it.
Specifically, I needed to reach level 75 in Herblore, Construction, and Summoning to start Plague’s End. At the start of the bond, I had 67 Herblore, 71 Construction, and 70 Summoning. Fortunately, I was already in the ballpark for each of these skills. Unfortunately, they can be some of the most expensive skills to train. Instead of trying to tackle each of these skills at the same time, I decided to focus on one at a time so that I wouldn’t tie up all my money in resources.
After some research, I learned that Herblore can be trained in ways that almost net even, with just a small profit earned. Since it was also the lowest of my remaining skills for the Plague’s End requirements, I figured I could knock it out first. I got a few thousand potions in before I discovered that a Dungeoneering reward scroll gives a permanent chance to save herbs and secondary ingredients, as well as speed up the process. Shame that I didn’t pick it up at the very beginning of this process, but I obviously bought it as soon as I learned about it. In nearly no time, I reached the required level and cashed out the potions I had created.
As much as I would’ve loved to knock out all of the requirements for Plague’s End, finish the quest, and score the Crystal hatchet, I decided that it wasn’t worth blowing the rest of my bond on it. I could postpone those until the next bond, when I might be arguably more prepared and financially capable. I did make some progress toward each, and mapped out a plan to train them, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to enact the plan when I become a member again.
Besides my Woodcutting endeavors, it was nice to explore the full world of Gielinor again. I checked into Exploration Achievements, learning that there were a few new categories introduced since I last played. It would have been nice to pick up a few of those new rewards, but I decided that it would more benefit me to focus on the Crystal hatchet and come back to them when I could maintain a bond in less time.
I didn’t do as much Dungeoneering as I would’ve liked, but I also didn’t exactly have the time to prepare for it as I originally intended. Since players cannot enter dungeons with anything equipped or in their inventory, I couldn’t have run through any without emptying my bag of the xp items. That obviously wasn’t worth the wasted resources, so it didn’t much bother me to push my Dungeoneering plans to the wayside.
I did cash out my Artisan’s Workshop respect, and coincidentally got a daily challenge to create 12 mithril ceremonial swords during my bond. Just a heads up, ceremonial swords are absolutely awful. The process involves a lot of random chance, and the rewards are far from worth it. I’ll definitely just participate in the burial armor portion of the workshop when my membership expires.
As I originally planned, I did knock out a few co-op slayer tasks with MrPickler and even managed to get an upgraded Slayer Helm and unlock the Abyssal vine whip. We both agreed that it seems like Jagex has significantly changed combat and some of the higher level monsters. Mithril Dragons used to be absolutely absurd, but we collectively knocked out 33 of them in just a single run. Even Blue Dragons used to be pretty tough, but we were taking those out in sometimes just 3 hits each. We weren’t sure exactly what they changed, but it made us both feel a whole lot more powerful than we did before.
Overall, I would say definitively that the 2 weeks of membership I got with the bond was worth the coins that I paid for it. From a strictly financial standpoint I made far more money during those 2 weeks than I could have during the same amount of time on f2p. Just from cutting elder trees, I sold 7,000 logs at an average of around 6,000 gp per log. That’s 42 mil, just from woodcutting. Assuming elder logs don’t drop in price by a ton, and the price of bonds doesn’t skyrocket, I could consistently maintain a bond just with the low intensity activity of chopping elders.
Beyond the monetary value of membership versus the cost of a bond, it was really nice to be able to participate in p2p activities for 2 solid weeks. Compared to the 3 days of Free Membership Weekends or the multiple months of a recurring membership subscription, I think 14 days for a single bond is a great time frame. It is long enough to tinker around with several different p2p activities, but at the same time, not so long that you finish all of the fun stuff available and the game becomes a chore. I made a lot of progress in a lot of skills, but there was plenty left that makes me say, “man, I really wish I would’ve gotten around to that.” Those things that I didn’t get around to give me something to plan for when I pop another bond.
At first, I was afraid that I would be tempted to burn another bond before the first one ended, just to have another 2 weeks uninterrupted. But honestly, as much as I would’ve had plenty to do on p2p, I’m good with going back to f2p for a while. I spent the last few hours of my bond wrapping up all of my p2p endeavors. Sold off the p2p items that I had accrued via different activities, slayer drops especially. Made sure that I had used most of the materials I purchased for p2p skill grinding, and sold the products from those. Nothing that I did during those 2 weeks really tied up any significant amount of bank space or gold.
Before I use another bond, I have a few self-imposed criteria that I want to satisfy. Since Artisan’s Workshop can easily train Smithing on f2p, but I’ve already consumed all of the f2p respect rewards, I want to reach the 100% respect limit again. With all of the materials necessary to reach 99 Fletching, I want to go ahead and polish that off. Originally, it was just for the sake of knocking out another skill, but the ability to fletch the second best Dungeoneering magic gear would be incredible. On that same token, I would like to get 99 Crafting as well, but that isn’t a requirement as much as it would just be extra fluff. Once I reach those conditions, I would feel adequately prepared for another round of p2p time.
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