HCCO/Guide: Difference between revisions

Don't bother getting any {{ItemIcon|Dragon Claw Fragment|Dragon Claw Fragments}} from {{MonsterIcon|Griffin}} yet, as they will just take up space. If you're lucky enough to get an {{ItemIcon|Ancient Sword}} before the {{ItemIcon|Sunset Rapier}}, then feel free to use it until you get to {{ZoneIcon|Volcanic Cave}}, as it will drastically reduce your food consumption and the associated food farming time. After that, you'll probably only want to use it outside dungeons due to the high monster damage reducing the benefits of the lifesteal.

'''To start, you should have:''' Full {{ItemIcon|(G) Rune Platebody|(G) Rune Armour|nolink=true}}, {{ItemIcon|Paladin Gloves}}, {{ItemIcon|Elite Amulet of Strength}}, {{Skill|Attack|70|nolink=true}} / {{Skill|Strength|80|nolink=true}} / {{Skill|Defence|80|nolink=true}}, {{ItemIcon|Sunset Rapier}}, {{UpgradeIcon|Auto Eat - Tier III}} <br>

'''At the end, you should have:''' Full {{ItemIcon|(G) Ancient Platebody|(G) Ancient Armour|nolink=true}}, {{ItemIcon|Paladin Gloves}}, {{ItemIcon|Elite Amulet of Defence}}, {{Skill|Attack|90|nolink=true}} / {{Skill|Strength|99|nolink=true}} / {{Skill|Defence|90|nolink=true}}, {{ItemIcon|Dragonfire Shield}}, {{ItemIcon|Sandstorm Ring}}

Once you get to this point, you can expect 447.8 HP in food for every kill! Once you start killing {{MonsterIcon|Raging Horned Elite|Raging Horned Elites|nolink=true}}, hold onto the {{ItemIcon|Ancient Arrows}} they drop as they're your best arrows, even though they can't be equipped until {{SkillReq|Ranged|70}}. Additionally, the {{ItemIcon|Large Horn|Large Horns}} that they drop will likely replace {{MonsterIcon|Master Farmer|Master Farmers}} for GP farming, as the GP/hr is about the same (not to mention the food, arrows, and {{Skill|Prayer}} points you're getting), with a much lower bank demand.

{{Skill|Ranged}} is quite straightforward, but we’ve been putting it off for a few main reasons. Firstly, it doesn’t provide any real benefit until you start fighting {{MonsterIcon|Wizard|Wizards}}, or other magic monsters, and getting its gear without having the space in your bank or loadouts for the gear and weapons will be annoying. It is recommended to wait until one has {{GP|10000000}} to afford {{UpgradeIcon|Extra Equipment Set}} to make gearing much less of a headache. This upgrade is a lower priority than {{UpgradeIcon|Auto Eat - Tier III}}, which is why we wait until now to train {{Skill|Ranged}}.

Progression in {{Skill|Ranged}} can roughly be broken into three phases: preliminary, (1), training (1-85) and late (85-99). We only need to worry about the first two phases now, which will get us enough far enough to tackle {{ZoneIcon|Water God Dungeon}}, {{ZoneIcon|Fire God Dungeon}} and possibly even {{ZoneIcon|Into the Mist}} and beyond.  

Since none of the gear or weapon progression for {{Skill|Ranged}} relies on the actual skill itself, we can prepare for the entire skill ahead of time. This is the preliminary phase, and it has three main considerations being ammo, weapons and gear.

Before starting {{Skill|Ranged}}, it is recommended to complete the {{ItemIcon|Elite Amulet of Ranged}} portion of the {{ItemIcon|Fury of the Elemental Zodiacs}} grind at {{MonsterIcon|Bandit|Bandits}}. This will set you up with all the arrows needed for the entire early and midgame {{Skill|Ranged}} grind, as well as the item itself offering substantial ranged offensive bonuses while being equipable at level 1. Obtaining {{ItemIcon|Amulet of Ranged|qty=200}} will yield around {{ItemIcon|Steel Arrows|qty=48000}}, {{ItemIcon|Mithril Arrows|qty=32000}} and {{ItemIcon|Adamant Arrows|qty=16000}}, which is much more than needed. A lot of arrows will also be supplied by {{UpgradeIcon|Basic Resupply}}/{{UpgradeIcon|Standard Resupply}} as well, so ammo is not much of a worry. It is also possible to clear {{ZoneIcon|Bandit Base}} for possible {{Skill|Ranged}} weapon upgrades, but these are not worth the time investment due to the low drop rate and can be skipped if desired. {{ZoneIcon|Bandit Base}} will yield a decent amount of ammo, but it is slower overall than killing {{MonsterIcon|Bandit|Bandits}} directly. At {{Skill|Ranged|70}} one can use the abundance of {{ItemIcon|Ancient Arrows}} obtained while killing {{MonsterIcon|Raging Horned Elite}} for {{ItemIcon|Trout}}. It is not necessary to conserve arrows either, as most late-game {{Skill|Ranged}} combat takes place with a crossbow using {{ItemIcon|Sapphire Bolts}}.

Note that it is no longer recommended to kill {{MonsterIcon|Frozen Archer}} for {{ItemIcon|Ice Arrows}} anymore, as this monster was buffed and is considerably stronger now as well as dropping far fewer arrows.

The overall weapon progression will be:  

An alternative (but less efficient) route for early {{Skill|Ranged}} training is to kill {{MonsterIcon|Thief|Thieves}} in the {{ZoneIcon|Runic Ruins}} for {{ItemIcon|Steel Throwing Knife|notext=true}} [[Ranged#Throwing_Knives|throwing knives]], which, due to their higher attack speed and inherent 15% ammunition saving, can help with early training. This can be paired with {{ItemIcon|Throwing Power Gloves}} to increase effectiveness as well.

From 1-40 you will mostly be naked, as there are few options for gear at this low level. The cape slot is the only slot that you will likely be able to fill, and the options for capes are:

You will need to farm {{ZoneIcon|Dragons Den}} for the almighty {{ItemIcon|Ancient Crossbow}} for {{Skill|Ranged|80+}} at some point before progressing. Again, as this dungeon doesn't rely on {{Skill|Ranged}}, this could technically be performed before commencing training. The singular goal of this dungeon is the {{ItemIcon|Ancient Crossbow}} as this is an incredible weapon for the two {{Skill|Ranged}} God dungeons, as well as in {{ZoneIcon|Dark Waters}}, however it is worth noting that all of the other items still have uses. {{ItemIcon|Twin Exiles}} are the best item in the game for farming low level mobs with low max HP so it is worth keeping for rune grinding and completionist farming purposes. Any elder dragonhide armour obtained here can be worn as an upgrade, but it is not necessary to grind for any piece. Use any leftover {{ItemIcon|Elder Dragonhide}} to upgrade elder dragonhide pieces before selling it all off to unlock some free collection log slots.

The best options for {{Skill|Ranged}} training are magic enemies. However, the entry level enemy ({{MonsterIcon|Wizard}}) is too strong to be tackled at {{Skill|Ranged|1}}, so killing various easy slayer tasks such as {{MonsterIcon|Cow|Cows}} is fine until around {{Skill|Ranged|40}} to equip some dragonhide. After this point, farming {{MonsterIcon|Wizard|Wizards}} and {{MonsterIcon|Master Wizard|Master Wizards}} for runes is ideal. One can then use these runes to train their {{Skill|Magic}} to increase their magic defence to make killing them more efficient. At higher {{Skill|Ranged}} and {{Skill|Magic}} levels (around 50+), the option of killing {{MonsterIcon|Shaman|Shamans}} for {{ItemIcon|Chaos Rune|Chaos Runes}} and {{MonsterIcon|Necromancer|Necromancers}} for {{ItemIcon|Death Rune|Death Runes}} opens up to supplement further {{Skill|Magic}} training. {{MonsterIcon|Seething Horned Elite|Seething Horned Elites}} can be killed for any outstanding {{ItemIcon|Amulet of Fury|Amulet of Furies}} that weren't obtained from {{ZoneIcon|Volcanic Cave}}.

{{Skill|Magic}} in this challenge will mainly consist of casting Air spells, since you can remove one colour from the rune costs. All spells cost {{ItemIcon|Air Rune|Air Runes}}, but {{ItemIcon|Water Rune|Water}}, {{ItemIcon|Earth Rune|Earth}}, and {{ItemIcon|Fire Rune|Fire}} spells additionally cost their respective runes.