Monkey Madness

Well, it finally happened. I finally got tired of being just another guy with a dragon long and decided to get Monkey Madness over with. The guide at tip.it is very straight-forward, but I've got just a couple of comments to add.

You cannot bring enough anti-poison with you to Ape Atoll. Everything is poisonous there, including little level 1 spiders that respawn immediately after you kill them.

Everything on Ape Atoll hits hard. Think that little scorpion is nothing to worry about? Wait until it starts hitting 12s and 15s on you. Bring prayer potions and use protect from melee gratuitously.

Beware of the archer monkeys! While wandering aroung with my protect from melee on, I suddenly came under attack by numerous archer monkeys. These guys can take you down fast and I almost didn't manage to get my protect from range prayer up in time. This is easily the closest I came to death during the quest.

The jungle demon was a piece of cake. I took my crystal bow, wore range gear, and prayed protect from magic. As soon as I entered the "battlezone", I ran to the square spot in the center and got the demon stuck on it. After that, I just stood there and ranged him to death. If I wanted to, I could have walked to the kitchen for a quick drink during the battle.

On a Roll: God Cape and Staff

I was feeling pretty cool after completing Desert Treasure, I even switched to a free play world to walk around in my elite members gear so that I could be admired. Embarrassing isn't it? I work the late shift today, so I figured I might as well knock off another long-time goal while the servers are all but empty - Getting a god cape and staff.

To get a god cape and staff, one must venture to level 50 wildy, challenge the wizard, Kolodion, to a duel, and then defeat said wizard. After receiving the cape and staff, the corresponding god spell must be cast in the mage arena at least 100 times before it can be used outside the arena.

I teleported to Ardougne, and grabbed rune plate, legs, and my dds. I levered, cut the web, and then headed west to the mage bank. Not a soul in sight. Once at the mage bank, I grabbed my best prayer gear, staff and runes, some prayer pots, a vial of anti-poison (in case a pker with dds were to show up), some sharks, and then I spoke with Kolodion. Kolodion told me that I had to fight him, etc, and when I accepted his challenge, he teleported me to the mage arena.

I chose to fight Kolodion using fire bolt while wearing chaos gauntlets and I kept my protect from magic prayer on from the second form on. My fight with Kolodion was a simple matter and after I was done, I was teleported back to the bank.

Back at the bank, I spoke with Kolodion and was told to enter the nearby pool. I did so and ended up in a cave (which I'm sure is designated as wildy). I spoked with the cave guardian, walked up to the Saradomin statue, prayed at it, and received my cape. I wore my cape and then spoke with the guardian again. The guardian gave me my staff and then I exited the cave via the pool.

Now for 100 or more casts of my god spell in the arena. While still wearing my prayer gear, I grabbed enough runes for 150 casts of my god spell, prayer pots, an anti poison, some sharks, and a knife. I had to walk from the mage bank to the arena, cutting webs as I travelled, and then pull the lever at the entrance to the arena to enter.

Once in the arena, I moved to the southern part so that anybody walking past the front of the arena would not be able to see me. The arena itself is in the wilderness and one can be attacked there. I fought mages in the arena until my runes were completely exhausted. While I was fighting the mages, my spells splashed with some frequency and I began to wonder if I might need more runes (does one have to cast 100 successful spells or just 100 casts?).

When my runes were gone, I exited the arena the same way that I entered, went to the mage bank, and spoke with Kolodion again. Kolodion informed me that I had cast enough Sara strikes and that I could now cast the spell anywhere in the game.

Mission complete.

At some point, I plan to return to the arena and obtain the Zamorak cape and staff, when I do so, I'll let you know how it turns out.

Ghostly Robes and Switching Spells

After completing Desert Treasure, I had to run out and get my ghostly robes as soon as possible. Ever since I saw someone walking around in them when I was a f2p player, I've wanted them.

I followed the ghostly robes guide at tip.it, and like all of their other guides, it was flawless and very easy to follow.

Holding lengthy conversations with the ghosts in the wilderness that were surrounded by aggressive monsters was a little annoying. I had to work at things a little bit to get myself positioned so that I could race through the conversations before I was attacked by a monster, it's a good thing that I didn't have to actually pay attention to what they were saying!

Other than that, getting ghostly robes is a very simple matter.

My magic level is only 75 and I'm not interested in pking at this point in my Runescape career. That said, I wanted to switch back to modern magic for now. I took a carpet to the Bedabin camp, walked southeast to the pyramid, went around bank and entered through the newly exposed back door, and prayed at the altar within. No problem at all.

I posted about these two topics because they are both things that I always figured would be a lot more complicated than they actually are. Don't sweat either of these tasks.

Desert Treasure

I recently completed Desert Treasure (a long time goal of mine) and made a couple of posts about it to tip.it. Here they are:

Gilded Cross:

Lots of people seem to have trouble picking the lock on the chest that holds the gilded cross. I grabbed some waterskins, some anti-poison, some food, and as many picks as I could carry. I walked up to the chest and opened it on my 4th or 5th try. So much for collecting 100 picks, I think I was lucky here. My thieving is 56.

Desseous:

After consulting some of the guides floating around, I started off with range prayer on and started hitting him with spells. I was wearing monk robes, an initiate helm, and a sara prayer book and his melee attacks were completely crushing me, 20 some damage a pop. I quickly switched to melee prayer and ate sharks to heal from his bat attack and was able to finish him off.

If I were to fight Desseous again, I think I would wear my best ranging gear, pray melee, and let him have it with my crystal bow. I'm guessing that the range gear would help soften his range attack and the prayer pots would take care of the melee. The only question is - How effective would the crystal bow be on him?

Damis:

Wearing the same gear that I wore for Desseous (prayer gear), I ran past the skeletons, prayed melee, and started casting spells. My prayer was draining fast when I was fighting the second form, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't keep up with; I just had to watch it closely.

I see posts from a lot of people complaining about how difficult it is to deal with Damis while all of the skeletons in the area pile on. If you are praying melee, then the skeletons are a non-factor, just don't let it run out!

Kamil:

Using only my laptop touchpad for mouse control, Kamil was the hardest boss for me. Having to deal with the trolls on my way to him used up some of my supplies and I teleported out of combat with Kamil because I got confused about my current hit points (better to be safe than sorry). I restocked, ran by the trolls and wolves, and then had another crack at him. Between drinking super restores, watching my prayer, and continuously having to manually cast spells (autocast fails when your stats drop too low), this guy had me sweating it a little. After he went down, there was still a trek to make, hit points dribbling away, I got lost for a bit (path is very hard to see), I fell all the time, tried to smash the ice, finally realized my stats were still drained from the fight, etc. Maybe I would have fallen less if I hadn't let my stats stay drained?

Although it was unplanned, restocking after dealing with the trolls worked out well for me.

Fareed:

Fareed is a sissy compared to the rest of the bosses. I just melee prayed him and took my sweet time water spelling him to death. I didn't even have my staff equiped because I forgot to wield it after the carpet ride. I wielded it, set the attack spell, and casually attacked him, no big deal. He did hit me through prayer with some other attack for a 9 and maybe one more time.

Pyramid:

I did the pyramid wearing boots of lightness and a glory with energy pots, prayer pots, anti poison pots, and some sharks in my inventory. I ran through the thing with melee prayer on, gulping my energy pots without incident. I didn't fall and only got smacked once by some monster (for a 23! ouch!) when I had let my prayer drain. I think I must have gotten lucky here.
Wrap-up:

Just for reference, I'm barely combat 80 with rounded stats. I have 75 magic and 76 range (didn't use though). I used various spells ranging from the chaos rune spells (I forget their names, the strike spells?) wearing chaos guantlets to the offensive spells that use death runes.

While fighting bosses, I didn't move at all, I fought them "caveman style". I prayed melee every time and I was glad to have my sharks. I wore a ring of life for everybody but Damis and I also kept my ectophial in my inventory at all times.

The bosses are weak to the following types of spells:

Damis: Earth
Desseous: Air
Kamil: Fire
Fareed: Water