Masochism

Masochism is a community created Game Mode, where a player's character must follow a set of strict game rules. These game rules are designed to make the game more challenging, and to make players think heavily about preparation and planning. In addition there are strong bank management aspects involved that can very easily punish mistakes.

The game mode itself is played in Adventure, so also carries with it all the limitations of this game mode.

Rules

Breaking any of these rules will void the challenge.

This game mode is played in Adventure
No xp or items are to be gained from the tutorial, you must skip it
No selling or alching of items (this includes the Leprechaun / Monkey synergy)
You also cannot "transmute" items via the
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Just Learning spell in
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Alternative Magic
Additionally, you cannot use any of the
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Rags to Riches spells
No killing of Plants, and no Lemons; once you have grown Potatoes via
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Farming, you may then kill Plants, and collect Lemons
You may not eat uncooked food ( Magic Fish do not count as cooked)
You may not downgrade perfect cooks to their non-perfect variant
No fleeing from combat, you may only leave combat whilst the enemy is respawning
You may not leave a dungeon once you have started it, either you complete it, or you die
You may not "ignore" items in the looting container, you must loot everything
You may not use the "destroy loot" button
You may not die (see additional comments)
After buying your first 8 bank slots, you can only buy them in multiples of 10
Once you get to God Dungeons and acquire Bank Slot Tokens, you must also use these in multiples of 10
You may not re-roll easy
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Slayer tasks; if you get a Plants task, you must re-roll it for another easy task
When on a Slayer task of any tier above easy, you cannot go back to easy until you've defeated at least one of your currently assigned target (after getting any required gear or levels)
If you run out of
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Slayer Coins, and have to roll an easy task, you cannot do so without defeating at least one of your currently assigned target (again, after getting any required gear or levels)
You may not buy Slayer resupplies
You may not skip Township casual tasks
You must complete the side quests listed further down this page
The below skill unlock order must be used

Additional rule regarding extensions: You may only use extensions that print out information, this is things like ETA and Combat Simulator. You may not use any modifications that can carry out game actions for you.

Additional rule regarding post-99 content: Only once you have purchased your first Max Cape may you access post-99 content. You must continue to follow the above rules, however, there are no additional rules as by this point you are sufficiently progressed rendering them meaningless.

All above rules are subject to update at any time, especially when a game update may change the way certain mechanics interact. Put simply this means new content is, in general, not to be interacted with in any way, until a ruling has been passed stating what you can and cannot do.

Skill Order

We start by opening up the Combat Triangle

10k:
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Ranged
25k:
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Magic

To provide an early goal, if you choose to go for it

50k:
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Summoning

Skills to make armour and weapons

200k:
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Runecrafting
250k:
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Smithing
400k:
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Crafting (hint : Gold Topaz Necklace)
1m:
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Fletching
2.5m:
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Cooking

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Volcanic Cave

10m:
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Astrology (hint: If you still need Aorpheat's Signet Ring, get it here)

Open up the game, open up the GP!

25m:
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Slayer (moved earlier due to the Astrology nerf)
50m:
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Firemaking

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Infernal Stronghold

100m:
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Herblore

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Into the Mist

200m:
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Township
500m:
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Prayer
500m:
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Agility

Gathering skills

500m:
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Woodcutting
500m:
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Fishing
500m:
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Mining
500m:
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Farming

If you have access to the DLC skills (if not, skip them for now)

500m:
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Archaeology
500m:
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Cartography

And only because you will need it for completion..

500m:
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Thieving

Comments on the Skill Order

This mode does not use the least optimal, or worst, order as many have suggested; instead there is a general theme of:

Open up the Combat Triangle
Provide skills to make armour, and weapons
Provide some utility skills
Provide remaining odd skills that don't really fit anywhere else or needed a specific GP value
Provide ways to gather resources
DLC skills, if available
Thieving

Side Quests

Due to the extended length of some of the grinds in this mode, some early players filled these with side quests or secondary content that wasn't necessary, but would further future goals or make future content simpler. This section lists a few of these, all combat focused, as well as the times you should be focusing on them. Note that none of these will be simple side quests, they will all require proper consideration, because they will have an affect on your progress.

These side quests are now mandatory content for this mode, and not completing them before their deadlines will result in you having broken the rules of the mode.

Completing the
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Volcanic Cave before Astrology
Completing the
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Infernal Stronghold before Herblore
Completing
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Into the Mist before Township

Comments

On deaths: You may not allow yourself to die, even accidentally. Reminder, you may not flee from any battle, either you die, or the enemy does. If you die, you are no longer playing this challenge mode and must restart.

On not fleeing: You may never run in the middle of a fight, you may only do so between battles. This is, if you wish to change which mob you are fighting then you must do so whilst it is respawning, after you have killed it, or after it has killed you. Reminder, you may not die, doing so essentially voids the challenge, you should aim to play as if this is

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Hardcore

and death means your account is no more.

On looting: If you forget to loot items, or afk overnight and "lose" items, this is fine, just so long as you have at least one of every item that mob has dropped for you, in your bank. Additionally, once you have unlocked Loot Container Stacking from the Shop, you may not use the Loot Container to store items, you must still loot them.

On bank management: Yes, it is possible for you to paint yourself into a corner and fill your bank. As you may not sell or alch any items the only way to "get rid of stuff" is to use it somehow, but processing skills are intentionally ordered to make this difficult. If you somehow manage to paint yourself into a corner, your only way out is to kill something which you have already collected, and kept at least one of, every drop from, and can therefore safely store them all in your bank (because you already have those items) and gather up the GP to buy 10 bank spaces.

On skills: Many skills will be entirely unusable at the time you can unlock them, or even after you have done so. The skill order is designed in such a way to make you think about this order and if there are any better ways or orders you could be doing things. Many other skills are not unusable but are simply very difficult to get going and as such should be considered as huge time, and possibly GP, investments. There is no need to use or even level an unlocked skill before unlocking the next one. You could if you wish unlock all the way up to Thieving before levelling Ranged, this however, is not the point of the mode.

On rules: The rules for this mode are not exhaustive, and do not mention anything which would typically be seen as against the rules in any game mode (save-scumming, console interaction, etc). If at any point you question whether what you are doing is ok, or if you're simply not sure a rule above prohibits a certain action, then what you want to do is likely against the rules. Do not cheat, you're only ruining the mode for yourself, and potentially others.

Finally, no one person is the arbiter of this game mode. If the prevailing view of the community playing this mode is that something is against the spirit of the challenge, then it is that view you should follow.

Day 0 Guide

Initially you will start with a Bronze Sword and 10 Shrimp, these should be enough to get you through the early levels on Chickens or possibly Cows. Following this, and possibly with some food remaining, you should aim to work towards getting some armour and maybe a better weapon. At this point you probably need more bank spaces so invest in your first 8. Reminder, after this you may only buy them in 10s.

Now, what you need is to simultaneously train your stats, better your gear, and increase your bank space so that you can safely combat the Sweaty Monster. This monster will be your food source for a long time, and can drop 18 different items, so it is likely you will need to buy 20 bank slots, get used to killing stuff for tiny GP drops.

After this, the rest of the game is up to you.

Good Luck.

Tips and Tricks for early Bank Management

Chickens drop Feathers, Skeletons drop Headless Arrows, and the Wet Mobs drop various logs. It is possible, and recommended, to turn all your Teak Logs into Arrow Shafts, then feather them to create Headless Arrows, in order to reduce the amount of space these items take up in your bank.
For the Maple Logs and Yew Logs, it is further recommended to make Maple Shortbows and Yew Shortbows as these can both be used to train
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Ranged, and later to create
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Centaur Tablets via
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Summoning.
The Sweaty Monster drops both the Gold Bar and the Topaz required to make a Gold Topaz Ring if you do not get one before unlocking
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Crafting.
Ice Arrows, dropped from the Frozen Archer, can be equipped before you unlock Ranged, and with a level of 1.
It is recommended to toggle off perfect cooks, to save bank space, and not to use auto slayer, just in case you get a Plants task before
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Farming.

History

Masochism mode was first developed by Gnome (previously Gnome#9828), initially as a way to hugely extend the time spent in the early and mid game, and as a panacea to the way Thieving is unlocked so early in Adventure mode. Since then, it has evolved only slightly, with modifications to the above rules and skill order, to better facilitate a community-driven game mode. Changes to the game mode are frequently discussed in the Adventure Mode Chat on the Discord server, and many changes have come through via community decision.