RuneScape P2P to F2P Transition Guide

RuneScape P2P to F2P Transition Guide by Samurai 2005

INTRODUCTION

Definitions: F2P — free-to-play (non-members); P2P — pay-to-play (members)

This guide is aimed at those who have reasonably high skill levels (which most members have) who are planning to make the transition from P2P to F2P, who are likely to return to members at some point in the future, and who wish to maximise the use of their bank space whilst F2P.

This guide is based off a guide of the same name by Treemaid. The information in this guide has been obtained in part from her own experience, but mostly from the advice and experience of others on the original thread, on a previous thread of hers, and on her clan’s offsite boards. My grateful thanks to all contributors.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Your Options
Time Needed to Prepare
How to get additional F2P bank spaces
F2P Item Checklist
Bank Organisation
Random Event Costumes
Holiday Event Items
Single F2P banked items
Your POH
Grand Exchange Offers
Wearing Members’ Items
Managing Miscellania
Spell Book
Banking members’ items when F2P
Last logout in P2P Area
Boosted Skill Levels
Friends’ List
Forums Access
Is There Life After F2P?
A Final Warning

YOUR OPTIONS

Basically, you have two options.

Option 1: You can, in effect, have more bank spaces filled with F2P items in your bank account, than is allocated to F2P players, by filling up some of your member bank spaces with multiples of F2P items. To do this, whilst you are a member, you must make sure that you have at least two (preferably more) of each F2P item in your bank that you might possibly want to store when you are F2P. If you can afford it, store three or more of each item, since it is all too easy to double click on an item in your bank and withdraw two items by mistake, especially if you’re experiencing lag. By storing multiples of items, you will be able to withdraw one, then put it back in your bank again. If you ever ‘withdraw all’, or withdraw the last of a particular type of F2P item after your membership has expired, you will lose the place in your bank to store that item again. You will only need to get rid of enough of your members items, to make bank space for all the F2P items you think you will possibly need later. You will be able to keep the vast majority of your members items.

Option 2: Plan to only use the allocated F2P bank spaces. This is much easier to prepare for, since you will always have the ability to store something new in your bank, by withdrawing something that you don’t need from it. You won’t then need to worry about having multiples of the same item in your bank account to save the bank slot and you can make your mind up about what you really need to store in your bank, after you have changed to F2P. Your members items will not flow over to fill your F2P bank spaces allowance, so there’s no need to worry about getting rid of all your members’ items.

This guide is written for those who choose option 1. I strongly recommend this option, as it allows you to keep far more non-members’ items in your bank than you would otherwise have been able to. Also, if at any time in the future you find that you have acquired extra items that you wish to store and have not been able to plan for, you can always switch to the second option at that time. If however you were to start with the second option, you cannot then change your mind after your membership has expired. You would be limited to the F2P bank space allowance until you renew your membership.

TIME NEEDED TO PREPARE

It took Treemaid roughly two weeks of buying/selling/planning/acquiring to prepare, and it took me around ten days. But I recommend starting to plan from the beginning of the month after which your membership expires. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking, ‘well, I play a lot of hours, I’ll leave it until later’. The main reason you need to start early is that most of the time, you are waiting for items to sell, or to buy on the GE and that is not something that can be rushed. You are also less likely to forget things if you are preparing over a number of weeks. It is better to pop in little and often, over a longer time period, to check on your GE transactions, than leave it all until the last six hours of membership and play solidly.

HOW TO GET ADDITIONAL F2P BANK SPACES

Whichever option you opt for initially, it is well worthwhile registering your email address with Jagex. Registering your email address will increase your F2P bank allowance from 83 places to 103 places. That can make all the difference! Do this from the Runescape home page: click on Account/Account Settings/Email and Communication Preferences.

Members also have access to a free Banker Booster +50 in Solomon’s General Store, which permanently increases a player’s maximum bank space by 50. Free players may use the extra space obtained to store free-to-play items, but whilst a member you can also store members items in the additional space. Combined, you can have a total of 153 free bank spaces!

F2P ITEM CHECKLIST

Using Option 1, if you want to store any F2P item in your bank that’s not already in your bank before you turn F2P, then you won’t be able to after your membership expires. So you must make sure you put in everything you could ever want.

This list is intended to help you think of all the things you could ever want, but you may well find that you don’t want all these items, or there are others that you do want that are not on this list. You will also need to adjust it to take into account your skill levels. This checklist assumes that your levels are reasonably high. When deciding what to store, always store more rather than less. You can always get rid of F2P items from your bank that you find you have no use for later, but you cannot later add more items that you have no space savers for.

If possible, store at least 3 of each item. It reduces the risk of withdrawing the second one accidentally when you have lag. For consumables which you will be right-clicking in your bank (e.g. sowrdfish, strength potions, etc.), it would be wise to store 29 or more so as to further reduce the risk of withdrawing all of the item.

~Tool belt*
The following items should not be stored in your bank, but should instead be added to your tool belt:
Hammers
Moulds: amulet, holy, necklace, ring, tiara
Needles
Chisels
Crayfish cages
Small fishing nets
Fishing rods
Fly fishing rods
Harpoons
Lobster pots
Tinderboxes
Knives
Shears
Bronze pickaxes
Bronze hatchets

~Smithing and Mining~
Rune Pickaxes
Bars: bronze, iron, steel, silver, gold, mithril, adamant, rune
Ores: tin, copper, iron, silver, gold, mithril, adamant, rune, coal
Space savers for what you plan to smith

~Crafting~
Cowhides
Balls of wool
Reels of Thread
Brown aprons
Cut gems: sapphire, emerald, ruby, diamond
Uncut gems: sapphire, emerald, ruby, diamond
Space savers for what you plan to craft (e.g. unstrung gold amulets)

~Prayer~
Big bones
Accursed ashes
Monkey bones
Impious ashes
Bones
Monk robes/Shade robes/Priest gowns – tops (Monk robes have the highest bonuses of the three)
Monk robes/Shade robes/Priest gowns – bottoms
Holy symbols – strung and blessed. (If you plan on making them, also unstrung and unblessed variants)

~Fishing and Cooking~
Feathers
Fishing bait
Raw and cooked of each type of fish: shrimps, crayfish, anchovies, sardines, herrings, trout, tuna, salmon, pike, lobsters, swordfish.
Chef’s hats
Pie dishes
Cake tins
Pots
Pots of flour
Wheat
Cooking apples
Redberries
Chocolate bars
Chocolate dust
Buckets of milk
Eggs
Tomatoes
Cheese
Apple pies
Redberry pies
Cakes
Chocolate cakes

~Magic~
Batwing hoods
Batwing torsos
Batwing legs
Batwing gloves
Batwing boots
Batwing shields
Bat wands
Bat books
Amulets of magic
Magic potions (1, 2, 3, and 4 dose variants)
Air staves (staff)
Water staves
Earth staves
Fire staves
Runes (airs, waters, earths, fires, minds, bodys, chaoses, cosmics, natures, deaths, laws)
Possibilities for alching (e.g. addy plates)

~Runecrafting~
Rune essence
All types of talisman (air, water, earth, fire, mind, body)
All types of runecrafting tiaras (air, water, earth, fire, mind, body)

~Woodcutting and Firemaking~
Rune hatchets
All types of log: Regulars, Oaks, Willows, Maples, Yews

~Herblore~
Vials
Vials of water
Grimy guam (For making attack and ranging potions)
Clean guam
Guam potions (unf)
Eyes of newt (For making attack potions)
Redberries (For making ranging potions)
Grimy tarromin (For making magic potions)
Clean tarromin
Tarromin potions (unf)
Black, Red, White, and Yellow beads (For making magic potions)
Red spiders’ eggs (For making strength potions via the apothecary in Varrock)
Limpwurt roots (For making strength potions via the apothecary in Varrock)
Free players can also buy defence potions via the GE

~Summoning~
Shards
Gold charms
Wolf bones
Raw chickens
Spirit wolf pouches
Howl scrolls
Dreadfowl pouches
Dreadfowl strike scrolls
Pet dogs (please confirm if dogs of the same breed and life stage stack)

~Fletching~
If you so choose, you can make your own bronze arrows. Free players cannot make any higher tiered arrows.
Arrow shafts
Feathers
Bronze arrowheads

~Combat~
Carapace helms
Blue d’hide bodies
Blue d’hide chaps
Blue d’hide vambraces
Carapace boots
Blue d’hide shields
Magic shortbows
Magic shieldbows
Arrows – Bronze, Iron, Steel, Mithril, Adamant, Rune
Javelins – Bronze, Iron, Steel, Mithril, Adamant, Rune
Amulets of Power
Amulets of Defence
Amulets of Strength
Attack potions (1, 2, 3, and 4 dose variants)
Strength potions (1, 2, 3, and 4 dose variants)
Defence potions (1, 2, 3, and 4 dose variants)
Ranging potions (1, 2, 3, and 4 dose variants)
Rune full helms
Rune platebodies
Rune platelegs/plateskirts
Rune kiteshields
Rune gauntlets (charged and worn-out
Rune scimitars, two-handed swords, battleaxes, swords, longswords, daggers, maces, and warhammers
Teamcape(s) of your choice
Anti-dragon shields

~Miscellaneous~
Ropes
Spades (Tool belt cannot be used for quests)
Buckets
Buckets of water
Brass keys
Full mithril (cheap armour to wear if risk of dying, or smithing/alching purposes
Dwarven stouts
Silk
Steel nails
Planks
Fist of Guthix tokens
Runecrafting Guild tokens (from the Great Orb Project minigame)
Any of the reward items that can be gained from FoG or GOP that may be obtained in multiples. (If you have never played these minigames before, do so while you are still a member. Play enough to get any items you may wish to store in F2P.)
Any of Faruq’s Tools for Games you may like to use (from Faruq in Al kharid), e.g. Orbs of occulus
Any prestige items, such as trimmed armour

BANK ORGANISATION

Keep all F2P items that you only have one of in a separate tab, so that you don’t accidentally withdraw them, (until you have bought/acquired more than one).

Separate your members items from your non-members items. Put all your members items that you plan on keeping into one tab, then you can forget about them while you’re F2P. It’s definitely worth the effort if you plan on staying F2P for any length of time.

Aim to have least three of each item rather than two wherever possible. That will reduce the risk of withdrawing your last item accidentally by double clicking you experience lag.

RANDOM EVENT COSTUMES

You are able to purchase all random event costume by talking to Iffie, an elderly woman knitting in Thessalia’s Fine Clothes store in Varrock, for prices ranging between 500 and 2,000 gp. It is up to you whether or not you wish to store them in your bank.

HOLIDAY EVENT ITEMS

Despite the fact that some of the holiday event items have a drop option rather than a destroy option, you cannot get doubles of them. If you try dropping one, then talking to Diango in Draynor in the hope of picking up the one you’ve dropped, it won’t work. (I have tried.) Just use Diango as your bank for these items and when you’d like to use one, visit him for it.

SINGLE F2P BANKED ITEMS (Items of which you may only store one)

Explorer’s ring 4 — this ring is so useful for alching, teleporting and energy, I would recommend wearing it all the time anyway. Bear in mind though, that you will have to destroy it if you wish to train dungeoneering, since you can’t wear anything or have anything in your inventory to do so. The explorer’s ring can be reclaimed again from Ned in Draynor Village afterwards.

Stronghold of Security boots (fighting boots, and fancy boots) — New stronghold boots can be claimed from the cradle of life, on the fourth level, so don’t worry about only having one pair in your bank. You can always destroy them after you’ve withdrawn them from you bank, then claim another pair when you next want to wear them.

Skull sceptre — you cannot bank more than one skull sceptre, so the solution to this is to store multiples of the parts that make up the staff, then withdraw one of each part, whenever you need to use a staff. Bear in mind though, that you will not be able to bank the staff that you have just made, regardless of how many teleport charges it has left on it.

Ring of kinship * this can be destroyed when not in use and easily reclaimed from Drangund (the dungeoneering tutor in Daemonheim, just opposite the banker) when you need it again.

Mindspike — The mindspike can be re-obtained by killing Troll Shamans, in the east portion of the Troll cave north of Burthorpe. This way, you can obtain and bank multiple mindspikes. The Tower minspike variant can be re-obtained by talking to Wizard Bornann in the Wizards’ Tower library. You cannot obtain multiple tower mindspikes.

Safety gloves — Safety gloves can be obtained in the Stronghold of Player Safety by searching the treasure chest on the second floor down inside the Jail Cell. The gloves have the same defensive and life bonuses as leather gloves but are melee instead of ranged. It is possible to obtain multiple safety gloves by by having them in the inventory along with three items that are worth more than two coins each and dying, preferably somewhere near the chest of the gloves, going back to the place where you died, and picking the gloves up off the floor after taking a pair from the Safety Gloves chest, resulting in ownership of two pairs. You can do this repeat this process to obtain three of more pairs of gloves. Bear in mind that safety gloves have worse stats than worn-out rune gauntlet, but they are obviously far cheaper and easier to obtain.

YOUR POH

If you leave holiday items in your POH when you become F2P, you will be able to reclaim them from Diango in Draynor Village later, so don’t worry about taking them out/destroying them, in advance.

Other items in your house will remain there for when you’re next a member. There is no need to withdraw them. (A pet that is following you when you go F2P, will disappear for as long as you are F2P, then reappear when you become a member again.)

GRAND EXCHANGE OFFERS

Members items put on the GE before you become F2P can still sell after you become a free player. However, you should make sure that you do not leave members items for sale in the top left and top centre places of your GE slots when you become F2P as these are the only slots that you will have access to as a free player and you need to keep them empty for F2P items. If you leave members items in those slots, your only alternatives if they don’t sell will be to withdraw them and either dump them or keep them in your inventory for as long as you are F2P, or to leave them in the GE and lose a valuable F2P buying and selling slot.

WEARING MEMBERS ITEMS

You able to bank members items even without a space saver, provided that you have a members item spaces in your bank

This means that when you first go F2P, you can freely parade around showing off a skill capes (you have to be already wearing it when you go F2P), in the secure knowledge that you will be able to take it off and bank it when you need to for whatever reason (e.g. Dungeoneering).

Remember though, that once removed, you will not be able to wear your member item again. If you really want to wear your skill cape, you have the option of purchasing a dragon keepsake key from Solomon’s General Store. The cost of one key is less than the free 200 Runecoins granted to you when you first access the store. You can only store members items, such as skill capes, in the dragon keepsake box whilst P2P, but you can then activate and deactivate the cosmetic override freely, you can even have it activated in Daemonheim! (I have done this successfully with my classic cape).

MANAGING MISCELLANIA

I highly recommend that you withdraw all your cash from the Miscellanian coffers before you go F2P. Any cash left in the coffers will continue to turn into resources while you are in F2P, but of course you will not be able to return to boost your popularity while it is doing that, so your returns in terms of resources will diminish greatly with time, until the coffers are empty. Though any resources you have in your kingdom will not diminish, you may like to withdraw them first too, especially if they are resources that you can potentially use in F2P, such as coal et cetera. Your resources, if left, will remain for you to reclaim once you are next a member.

SPELL BOOK

Your spell book will automatically be switched to the standard spell book if you had it set to Ancients or Lunar when you were P2P. In the same way, if you had been using the Ancient Curses, you will automatically be switched back to the standard prayerbook when your membership expires.

BANKING MEMBERS’ ITEMS WHEN F2P

If your members’ bank space allocation is filled, you will still be able to bank your members’ items when you are F2P, if, and only if, you have the same members’ item as a space saver in the bank already. If you don’t, you’re stuck with it.

If you have spaces remaining in your members’ bank space allocation, you will still be able to bank a members’ item when you are F2P.

LAST LOG OUT IN MEMBERS’ AREA

If you leave your character in a members’ area when you become F2P, the next time you log in, you will find it automatically teleported to the Lumbridge Castle courtyard, between the two fountains.

BOOSTED SKILL LEVELS

Boosted skill levels (including prayer) will be drained to the maximum skill boost in F2P.
(Acknowledgement to Mugger759)

FRIENDS’ LIST

Like members, free players can have a maximum of 200 players on their friends list. There is no need to be concerned that you will be unable to add new people to your friends list once F2P.

FORUMS ACCESS

All free players with a total level of 350 or greater will still be able to access the RS forums for both reading and posting.

Your avatar (if you have one) will remain on the boards for a short time after you have become F2P, but will disappear in time (mine has lasted for 2.5 months so far, Treemaid’s lasted three days after her membership lapsed).

IS THERE LIFE AFTER F2P?

~Keeping Entertained~

In a strange way, going free to play can be quite liberating. You no longer feel obliged to keep up with the skill levels of your P2P friends and can indulge in pure fun, for its own sake.

Role-playing is something you might like to consider. If you can get together a small group of like-minded players, acting out your own little story in game, and improvising as you go along, can be a whole load of fun! I haven’t tried it myself, but I know that Treemaid has and she says that it can be very enjoyable. The hardest bit is finding others who enjoy that too. There’s always the forums here though for advertising to find some like-minded people. The official F2P role-playing server is World 41.

You may like to go on a thorough exploration of the free world: go into all those odd little houses, rummage through all those tempting drawers, go down all those dangerous looking holes in the ground etc. Get to know it like the back of your hand, and feel like you really ‘own’ the territory. Something that it is almost impossible to do in the vastness of the members’ world.

Bear in mind too, that as ex-members, you are almost certainly far richer than the average non-member, and therefore in a much better position to help others out. For the philanthropists among us there is much pleasure to be had in thinking up novel ways of giving players of lower levels an unexpected boost through a random act of kindness. The obvious way is to give gifts to those who look like they need them, but your ‘acts of kindness’ need not even cost you anything. You could lend out expensive items for free, you could offer to note the logs of woodcutters and do bank runs for them. The possibilities are endless, the rewards, in terms of people’s gratitude and surprise are great, and the only limit is your imagination!

For those who prefer more structured activities, there are also five minigames available to free players: The Runespan, Clan Wars, The Duel Arena, Fist of Guthix, and The Great Orb Project. And then there are all those quests, though you may have done those already. Those of a more combatant nature will still be able to indulge in PvP or revenant killing in the Wilderness.

There’s also dungeoneering to be considered, which is a great way to pass the time. I know many people who are rarely seen in Gielinor outside the Runespan and Daemonheim when F2P! The two also offer rewards, but dungeoneering rewards might not stack in your bank, and you can only redeem your Runespan points when P2P.

Of course, there are still skills you can continue to work on. The attitude to take with that is to abandon all thoughts of ‘this would be so much easier to level in members’, and look on skilling in F2P as its own challenge with its own rewards. Take satisfaction in the small gains you make in F2P, knowing that you have worked your socks off to get them and deserve to feel pleased with yourself. You may find it helpful to keep a record of things you are working towards and things you have achieved while F2P in your in-game ‘notes’ to keep yourself focussed.

What I personally find most appealing about Runescape though, is something that applies for both members and non-members, that is interacting with other players. You can do that everywhere and anywhere and you never know what interesting people are out there, just waiting for another interesting person like you to chat to. Enjoy the free game for what it offers in its own right, which is actually quite a lot!

A FINAL WARNING

Well, good luck with the transition! If you just take away one thing from this thread, get this ingrained in your mind: NEVER ‘WITHDRAW ALL’! You may also want to set your ‘withdraw x’ to 1 every time after you use it, because ‘withdraw 100000’ is effectively the same as ‘withdraw all’…