Runescape - 99 Fletching
After a few times starting and stopping, I’ve reached level 99 fletching and popped a bond… or three.
As I mentioned way back in November, the decision of Jagex to make fletching a f2p skill is part of what made me start playing again. It was an influx of new content, and a skill that I enjoyed playing. Mind you, at the time, I didn’t realize it could be free/profitable to train. I just knew that it was something I could do without paying for membership.
Turns out, just because fletching is what brought me back to Runescape, doesn’t mean I would actually do much of it. Between my last post of my last stretch of playing, and the first post of this current stint, I only got 13,843 xp in the skill. For comparison, a single load of unstrung maple shieldbows gives around 1,600 xp. So I did less than 10 loads worth of my bread and butter training method, and just stopped completely at 2,047,727 fletching xp. I liked fletching, sure, but there were more pressing issues in the world of Gielinor.
After a few bans and reaching level 99 in runecrafting and magic, I discovered the price gradient between Maple logs and Maple shieldbow (u). With the materials being consistently cheaper than the products, plus there being a definite floor on the price of the products, I could train all the way from level 80 to level 99 without spending a dime.
The problem was that I didn’t know for sure that the materials would always be cheaper than the products. Sure, I could always offload the unstrung bows for a minimum of 98 coins each, but could I always acquire Maple logs for cheaper than that? Not necessarily. Knowing that I could absolutely guarantee a profit at current prices, I bought a lot of Maple logs. One might even say I bought ALL the Maple logs. That’s an exaggeration, obviously, but I did calculate how many unstrung maple shieldbows I would need to reach level 99, and bought about 170,000 logs for somewhere around 14 million gp.
With all the materials needed to reach level 99 fletching in my possession, all I needed to do was actually fletch them. I came up with averages about how many bows I could fletch in an hour, and crunched numbers on how long it would take me to burn through all of them. The time was concerningly high (at over 100 hours), but it was certainly possible. And since I already had the logs, and I knew I could get more money out of them than what I put in, I wasn’t really concerned about it. In time, I would eventually get my 99 fletching.
Before I used my first bond back in May, I was able to get up to 90 fletching. I hated to waste membership time doing something I could just as easily do while f2p, so I mostly stopped fletching for the duration of the bond. After the bond ended and I maxed out my respect in the Artisan’s workshop, I went back to my looming pile of maple logs. As I flip flopped back and forth between membership and f2p, I would knock out a few thousand bows before something would convince me to consume a bond and go p2p again.
During my most recent bond, I was finally able to purchase all of the consequential Artisan’s workshop rewards, so I no longer had to max out my respect as soon as my bond ended. Instead, I went right back to fletching. Fortunately, about the same time, the Summer Beach Party event began. In addition to the minigames and training methods provided with the event, the Anti-sun potion item allows players to gain an extra 5% experience from any activities done while on the beach. Since there was a bank chest on the beach, this made it an obvious choice to do my fletching at that chest and reap the benefit of extra experience. Given the magnitude of my grind, it would cut down a substantial amount of time to maximize my experience per log.
In addition to the 5% boost from the Anti-sun potion, other players would frequently use pulse cores and place portable fletchers near the chest. This further increased my xp per log, and allowed me to fletch bows at a faster rate, occasionally creating one without consuming a resource. Faster xp for less money? I’ll take it.
For much of this process, I would sell bows in bunches of 10,000 every time I could. It allowed me to continually liquidate the product, instead of waiting until I finished the entire stack and try to sell them all at once. After I unlocked the Invention skill, however, I learned that unstrung maple shieldbows are a cheap source of Strong components. Given that I had already purchased the logs, and I was already fletching them to reach level 99, I decided that I may as well hang onto the bows and disassemble them when I consumed another bond. The xp bonuses from the Summer Beach Party would give me more xp per item in the normally quite expensive skill of Invention. Plus, with Double XP Weekend looming on the horizon, I could plan to continue disassembling bows when I wasn’t doing some other form of training.
Speaking of Double XP Weekend, planning to take advantage of that sweet bonus xp was what caused me to consume 3 bonds at once, as opposed to my standard 1 at a time. The Summer Beach Party gave several p2p items for experience and various other purposes. Many of these were unbankable. I was torn between discarding them and saving them until I went p2p again to consume them. Unfortunately, it did prevent me from using my bank presets, but I couldn’t convince myself to throw away free xp. However, before I used a bond, I wanted to make sure it didn’t end at an inconvenient time. Going back to f2p before the Summer Beach Party ended would surely leave me with more p2p items and no way to use them. Plus, I didn’t want to have my bond end right before DXPW, only to burn another one for that promotion. If I used multiple bonds at once, it gave me extra days of membership. So I planned to use enough bonds, at the right time, such that it would get me all the way through the latest weekend that DXPW would likely occur. Researching past events, it appeared that most DXPW events in September occurred somewhere around the middle of the month, and rarely near the very end. As such, I determined that I could consume 3 bonds on 13 August, and that would get me all the way the weekend ending on 24 September. There was only one weekend after that in September, and that rolled over into 1 October. I didn’t predict DXPW to be that late, so I felt sure it would fall within my bond. If, however, DXPW is held during the last weekend of September and outside my bond, there will be a future Words on Wednesday of my seething ire, and how Jagex did it just to spite me.
In any case, using a bond allowed me to free up my inventory and utilize my bank presets, all while getting bonus xp from the event. This combination, plus the fortunate coincidence of a fletching daily challenge on the day I used the bond, allowed me to burn through the last 400k or so xp to 99 fletching. I knew on Monday morning that with 12,730,470 fletching xp, today would be the day that I reached level 99.
As day turned to night, I got within a single load of maple logs of level 99. I waited until Tuesday morning to actually fletch the load, such that I would be awake and alert enough to press the PrtScn button at the right time. Upon reaching skill mastery, I was surprised at how anticlimactic the event was. Honestly, the fletching level I was most concerned about reaching was 98, with the ability to fletch the best magic staff and wand for dungeoneering. Getting level 99 just allowed me to refocus my efforts elsewhere.
Between when I started grinding out fletching and when I reached level 99, I received roughly 11 million xp. In that entire time, the vast majority of the journey from 1 to 99, I didn’t ever get the fletching pet. While I certainly wanted it, and I hoped/expected I would get it, I’m not really mad. I’m certainly not as bitter as I was about not getting Newton when going for 99 Magic. I’m not really hostile about fletching as a skill. In fact, I’ll probably continue training during f2p times in order to consume the rest of my logs and build up some cheap Invention materials. Magic, though? I hate that skill. Getting banned 3 times before I reached 99 and still not getting the skill pet? That’s a slap in the face.
As for the remainder of these 3 bonds, I want to get at least 20 Invention to craft the Magic Golem outfit. I got 2 golem pieces after my last bond, and if I’m going to get rare prizes from Treasure Hunter, I want them to at least be for sets that I don’t already have the mats to create. That feels like a waste of luck, knowing how long it takes to get enough fragments for these outfits. Give me pieces from literally any other skilling outfit. Fortunately, level 20 Invention shouldn’t take long with all the unstrung maple shieldbows I’ll be disassembling.
Besides that, I’ll probably spend a lot of time in Prif. If I get 74 Thieving, 80 Herblore, and 76 Hunter, I’ll have all the skill requirements to do all current quests. I won’t be getting the Quest point cape any time soon, but it’ll be nice to know that I won’t have to grind any levels to do the quests. I’m gradually running out of things to do in f2p Runescape, but I’m also becoming more and more able to make enough money to maintain a bond. Maybe I’ll get lucky and Jagex will decide to open up another p2p skill to f2p players. My luck, it would be something I already have level 99 in, or something I wouldn’t reasonably train in f2p, like mining. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As I mentioned way back in November, the decision of Jagex to make fletching a f2p skill is part of what made me start playing again. It was an influx of new content, and a skill that I enjoyed playing. Mind you, at the time, I didn’t realize it could be free/profitable to train. I just knew that it was something I could do without paying for membership.
Turns out, just because fletching is what brought me back to Runescape, doesn’t mean I would actually do much of it. Between my last post of my last stretch of playing, and the first post of this current stint, I only got 13,843 xp in the skill. For comparison, a single load of unstrung maple shieldbows gives around 1,600 xp. So I did less than 10 loads worth of my bread and butter training method, and just stopped completely at 2,047,727 fletching xp. I liked fletching, sure, but there were more pressing issues in the world of Gielinor.
After a few bans and reaching level 99 in runecrafting and magic, I discovered the price gradient between Maple logs and Maple shieldbow (u). With the materials being consistently cheaper than the products, plus there being a definite floor on the price of the products, I could train all the way from level 80 to level 99 without spending a dime.
The problem was that I didn’t know for sure that the materials would always be cheaper than the products. Sure, I could always offload the unstrung bows for a minimum of 98 coins each, but could I always acquire Maple logs for cheaper than that? Not necessarily. Knowing that I could absolutely guarantee a profit at current prices, I bought a lot of Maple logs. One might even say I bought ALL the Maple logs. That’s an exaggeration, obviously, but I did calculate how many unstrung maple shieldbows I would need to reach level 99, and bought about 170,000 logs for somewhere around 14 million gp.
With all the materials needed to reach level 99 fletching in my possession, all I needed to do was actually fletch them. I came up with averages about how many bows I could fletch in an hour, and crunched numbers on how long it would take me to burn through all of them. The time was concerningly high (at over 100 hours), but it was certainly possible. And since I already had the logs, and I knew I could get more money out of them than what I put in, I wasn’t really concerned about it. In time, I would eventually get my 99 fletching.
Before I used my first bond back in May, I was able to get up to 90 fletching. I hated to waste membership time doing something I could just as easily do while f2p, so I mostly stopped fletching for the duration of the bond. After the bond ended and I maxed out my respect in the Artisan’s workshop, I went back to my looming pile of maple logs. As I flip flopped back and forth between membership and f2p, I would knock out a few thousand bows before something would convince me to consume a bond and go p2p again.
During my most recent bond, I was finally able to purchase all of the consequential Artisan’s workshop rewards, so I no longer had to max out my respect as soon as my bond ended. Instead, I went right back to fletching. Fortunately, about the same time, the Summer Beach Party event began. In addition to the minigames and training methods provided with the event, the Anti-sun potion item allows players to gain an extra 5% experience from any activities done while on the beach. Since there was a bank chest on the beach, this made it an obvious choice to do my fletching at that chest and reap the benefit of extra experience. Given the magnitude of my grind, it would cut down a substantial amount of time to maximize my experience per log.
In addition to the 5% boost from the Anti-sun potion, other players would frequently use pulse cores and place portable fletchers near the chest. This further increased my xp per log, and allowed me to fletch bows at a faster rate, occasionally creating one without consuming a resource. Faster xp for less money? I’ll take it.
For much of this process, I would sell bows in bunches of 10,000 every time I could. It allowed me to continually liquidate the product, instead of waiting until I finished the entire stack and try to sell them all at once. After I unlocked the Invention skill, however, I learned that unstrung maple shieldbows are a cheap source of Strong components. Given that I had already purchased the logs, and I was already fletching them to reach level 99, I decided that I may as well hang onto the bows and disassemble them when I consumed another bond. The xp bonuses from the Summer Beach Party would give me more xp per item in the normally quite expensive skill of Invention. Plus, with Double XP Weekend looming on the horizon, I could plan to continue disassembling bows when I wasn’t doing some other form of training.
Speaking of Double XP Weekend, planning to take advantage of that sweet bonus xp was what caused me to consume 3 bonds at once, as opposed to my standard 1 at a time. The Summer Beach Party gave several p2p items for experience and various other purposes. Many of these were unbankable. I was torn between discarding them and saving them until I went p2p again to consume them. Unfortunately, it did prevent me from using my bank presets, but I couldn’t convince myself to throw away free xp. However, before I used a bond, I wanted to make sure it didn’t end at an inconvenient time. Going back to f2p before the Summer Beach Party ended would surely leave me with more p2p items and no way to use them. Plus, I didn’t want to have my bond end right before DXPW, only to burn another one for that promotion. If I used multiple bonds at once, it gave me extra days of membership. So I planned to use enough bonds, at the right time, such that it would get me all the way through the latest weekend that DXPW would likely occur. Researching past events, it appeared that most DXPW events in September occurred somewhere around the middle of the month, and rarely near the very end. As such, I determined that I could consume 3 bonds on 13 August, and that would get me all the way the weekend ending on 24 September. There was only one weekend after that in September, and that rolled over into 1 October. I didn’t predict DXPW to be that late, so I felt sure it would fall within my bond. If, however, DXPW is held during the last weekend of September and outside my bond, there will be a future Words on Wednesday of my seething ire, and how Jagex did it just to spite me.
In any case, using a bond allowed me to free up my inventory and utilize my bank presets, all while getting bonus xp from the event. This combination, plus the fortunate coincidence of a fletching daily challenge on the day I used the bond, allowed me to burn through the last 400k or so xp to 99 fletching. I knew on Monday morning that with 12,730,470 fletching xp, today would be the day that I reached level 99.
As day turned to night, I got within a single load of maple logs of level 99. I waited until Tuesday morning to actually fletch the load, such that I would be awake and alert enough to press the PrtScn button at the right time. Upon reaching skill mastery, I was surprised at how anticlimactic the event was. Honestly, the fletching level I was most concerned about reaching was 98, with the ability to fletch the best magic staff and wand for dungeoneering. Getting level 99 just allowed me to refocus my efforts elsewhere.
Between when I started grinding out fletching and when I reached level 99, I received roughly 11 million xp. In that entire time, the vast majority of the journey from 1 to 99, I didn’t ever get the fletching pet. While I certainly wanted it, and I hoped/expected I would get it, I’m not really mad. I’m certainly not as bitter as I was about not getting Newton when going for 99 Magic. I’m not really hostile about fletching as a skill. In fact, I’ll probably continue training during f2p times in order to consume the rest of my logs and build up some cheap Invention materials. Magic, though? I hate that skill. Getting banned 3 times before I reached 99 and still not getting the skill pet? That’s a slap in the face.
As for the remainder of these 3 bonds, I want to get at least 20 Invention to craft the Magic Golem outfit. I got 2 golem pieces after my last bond, and if I’m going to get rare prizes from Treasure Hunter, I want them to at least be for sets that I don’t already have the mats to create. That feels like a waste of luck, knowing how long it takes to get enough fragments for these outfits. Give me pieces from literally any other skilling outfit. Fortunately, level 20 Invention shouldn’t take long with all the unstrung maple shieldbows I’ll be disassembling.
Besides that, I’ll probably spend a lot of time in Prif. If I get 74 Thieving, 80 Herblore, and 76 Hunter, I’ll have all the skill requirements to do all current quests. I won’t be getting the Quest point cape any time soon, but it’ll be nice to know that I won’t have to grind any levels to do the quests. I’m gradually running out of things to do in f2p Runescape, but I’m also becoming more and more able to make enough money to maintain a bond. Maybe I’ll get lucky and Jagex will decide to open up another p2p skill to f2p players. My luck, it would be something I already have level 99 in, or something I wouldn’t reasonably train in f2p, like mining. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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