Mar 11 2009
RuneScape: Free to Play
Strange as it may seem, just as the name suggests, this is the part of RuneScape that is free to all and everybody that wishes to play the game for free. Freeplayers have access to fifteen out of the twenty four available skills in RuneScape. They can travel to 1/3 of the world of Gielinor, and play five mini-games.
Free to Play is suggested as being used if you play a maximum of two days a week. If you play more than this, you should become a member because of the benefits you can gain from it.
The total combat level Freeplayers can achieve is 126. That is ten less than members, but still takes a huge amount of invested time to get to that level. Freeplayers have access to the five major combat skills; Strength, Defence, Attack, Magic and Ranged. All of the 15 available skills can be trained to level 99, but unlike members, you cannot get a Cape of Achievement to signify this.
Also, as a Freeplayer, ways to make money are severely reduced as well. The main ways of making money in the F2P worlds are selling the Wine of Zamorak, selling Rune Essence, Big Bones, Mining and Smithing. Runite ore, though hard to come by, can sell for at least 15k each on the Grand Exchange.
However, the chance of a Free Player dying is reduced. Because of the lack of high levelled monsters in the world, Free Players will very rarely die, if at all when reaching high combat levels.
The best armour that someone can get in F2P is the Corrupt Dragon Armour. This is a drop from spending time in a PvP world. However, Corrupt Dragon can sell for much more that the Members only Dragon Armour, so it is not advised to wear it as it crumbles to dust in 30 minutes. Therefore, the best non-degradable armour in the F2P game is Rune. To wear Rune Armour you must have 40 defence, and to wear the platebody you must have completed to quest ‘Dragon Slayer’.
Due to being able to explore only 1/3 of the entire RuneScape map, Freeplayers have reduced training abilities, fewer items, and less Rangers and Mages in the battlefield. This is because Ranger and Mage armour is only widely available in P2P. Not much can be done about this, so many people decide to play a warrior.
As you can see, the benefits of being a Freeplayer are much less that that of a member. However, if you play for a short amount of time, being a Freeplayer is probably to best for you.
