F2P experience?

[Alastor's Alibi]

Hey so I am mostly invested in playing quite a few games right now. However since this game is a classic I wanted to try it out for myself.

However I have avoided playing "monthly subscription" games. I dont mind paying for them 1 time.

Anyways would I like this game if I play it casually? (If I enjoy i will buy the sub then)

[Vintorez]

There's plenty to do as F2P, you can easily put in dozens of hours before you start to actually run out of free content.

Also you can pay for membership with bonds which can be bought for gold from other players, I haven't paid actual money for membership in years. Though I have the advantage of having a high level account so most of what I do will naturally make enough money for the next bond, but there are plenty of methods to make lots of money that don't require high level skills and just need focused time investment.

[Excluzive]

Do all free to play quests! If you still want more, do member :)

[Cody]

This isn't a classic. OSRS is the classic version that you can play. Either way, this is still worth playing in F2P.

[Samlatypus]

You can buy membership with gold so no reason to buy membership, start as a f2p

[YeetBeasT]

Yeah, I feel like the f2p stuff is still enough to keep you pretty busy. If you link your RS account with Twitch, usually they'll free 3-day, week-long, or even month-long p2p memberships. There's currently a free week-long access to p2p servers going on right now if your Twitch prime acc with RS. Also, if you do eventually feel like paying for a membership, usually the company, Jagex, will sell VIP 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month VIP packages for at either a one-time price equivalent to a discounted monthly rate, or for in-game currency. Now these VIP packages will occur between the middle of the 4th quarter of the year, into the 1st quarter of the following year, so like, Mid-November through Mid-March.

I've paid my 12-VIP membership packages each year with in-game currency for the last two years and plan on doing it again this year.

[Kevineke]

Ftp is more limited ofcourse but that being said there is a lot of stuff to do , a bunch of quests , combat and skilling. i would recommend trying it and like other people have said buy membership with coins or get some free membership from twitch prime.

[Yournewstepmom]

You should always take an RS3 [Runescape] player's advice with a grain of salt.

Playing this dumb game for 15+ years has taught me that the people who have stayed love to huff their own farts. RS3 compared to OldSchool (in general) is one giant hugbox full of easily offended 'new-age' players who joined after the combat rework system in 2013, (which turned the game into SWTOR).
That on top of the easily pleased masses who take anything as an update and always express how 'less is more and we like it', can be unnerving.

If you don't believe me try visiting the forum on their website... the ass kissery is immeasurable. Forum Mods,[from their website] if given any power on Steam forums will ruin this platform.
Literally kiss my ass. You wannabe, power-hungry; unneeded, appropriately green-labeled, cackling, unchecked throng of tyrants.


The current price of the game is audacious for how much actually gets done on the developer's end. This version of the game, (the one on Steam) hardly receives anything outside of gambling mechanic promotions which seemingly spin endlessly in concurrence of one another. You're paying premium MMORPG monthly rates to be expected to pay more to get the full experience, which is fallacious.

This is because an item called Bonds exist. A lot of players wouldn't even have membership if Bonds weren't a thing in RS3. One Bond costs about 18-28 million gold and will provide you with 14 days of membership - plenty of enough time to gather more gold.
This is the issue - no ones buying membership with real currency causing the pricing to become premium over time. The irony is that people ARE buying Bonds with real money and selling them back to the game for gold. So JAGEX is making just as much money from whales.
It's all an illusion. Think about what you're getting into before you get into it.
They can afford to update the game and work on it, they're lying if they say they can't do more. They're putting less than 10% the amount of effort that they used to and giving us casino events instead.

Despite boasting an array of activities, F2P is extremely limited.
Make sure you gather anecdotal experience from both parties, against and for, before committing. It is far from a 'classic'.

As long as you're making your own fun that's all that counts.
Good luck.

[MoJean]

I'm playing F2P version but there are a lot of places/quests where it states "For member only". Those are buildings and most group dungeons events. I guess you can get pretty far with F2P quests at first. But the map shows a lot of Pay-only stuff.

[Snufflegrunt]

There's about 50h of F2P content depending on how social you are and how much you mess about in the open world. Some of it is arguably better than the members stuff, because it's trying to sell you a subscription. Especially after how it used to be back in the day when you could exhaust it after 15-20h, it's one of the better F2P games. There are players who only play F2P as it kind of has its own PVP combat meta.

I personally play RS3 because it got rid of much of the grind. Grinding isn't anything challenging and the amount you've ground isn't anything to be proud of - it's boring and a barrier to actual content. F2P RS3 has basically no grind at all if you do the quests/challenges and maybe log in daily for literally 20 seconds.

Source: Been playing for 18 years with multiple accounts.

[YeetBeasT]

Originally posted by Alysha:

You should always take an RS3 [Runescape] player's advice with a grain of salt.

Playing this dumb game for 15+ years has taught me that the people who have stayed love to huff their own farts. RS3 compared to OldSchool (in general) is one giant hugbox full of easily offended 'new-age' players who joined after the combat rework system in 2013, (which turned the game into SWTOR).
That on top of the easily pleased masses who take anything as an update and always express how 'less is more and we like it', can be unnerving.

If you don't believe me try visiting the forum on their website... the ass kissery is immeasurable. Forum Mods,[from their website] if given any power on Steam forums will ruin this platform.
Literally kiss my ass. You wannabe, power-hungry; unneeded, appropriately green-labeled, cackling, unchecked throng of tyrants.


The current price of the game is audacious for how much actually gets done on the developer's end. This version of the game, (the one on Steam) hardly receives anything outside of gambling mechanic promotions which seemingly spin endlessly in concurrence of one another. You're paying premium MMORPG monthly rates to be expected to pay more to get the full experience, which is fallacious.

This is because an item called Bonds exist. A lot of players wouldn't even have membership if Bonds weren't a thing in RS3. One Bond costs about 18-28 million gold and will provide you with 14 days of membership - plenty of enough time to gather more gold.
This is the issue - no ones buying membership with real currency causing the pricing to become premium over time. The irony is that people ARE buying Bonds with real money and selling them back to the game for gold. So JAGEX is making just as much money from whales.
It's all an illusion. Think about what you're getting into before you get into it.
They can afford to update the game and work on it, they're lying if they say they can't do more. They're putting less than 10% the amount of effort that they used to and giving us casino events instead.

Despite boasting an array of activities, F2P is extremely limited.
Make sure you gather anecdotal experience from both parties, against and for, before committing. It is far from a 'classic'.

As long as you're making your own fun that's all that counts.
Good luck.

We get it. You're a brooding misanthrope whose seen through the smoke and mirrors that is RS3. Tendies and choccy milk all around.

I've been playing this game for 17, almost 18 years, and I purchase nothing in-game with actual money, including membership. I've mentioned earlier, that you can buy a complete year-long membership with in game currency, and yes, as you clarified - through bonds. If you can't pay the entire year, you can augment the price of yearlong membership with some cash, some in-game currency.

Still this butthurt about EoC?

[Yournewstepmom]

Originally posted by YeetBeasT:

We get it. You're a brooding misanthrope whose seen through the smoke and mirrors that is RS3. Tendies and choccy milk all around.

Still this butthurt about EoC?

Imagine responding to a reply that isn't intended for you.

This one however, is:

The fact that you don't support the game by paying the developers, instead, opting to pay with in-game currency to feed your habit causes the game to lack updates because you're giving the developers an excuse to literally not work.

This is literally fact: these past 7 years since Bonds have been a membership currency item, since Prif release [2014], almost nothing fundamental (as Prif [and no, Mining and Smithing Rework and Archeology aren't 'fundamental']) on that scale has been released. To reiterate- that's over 7 years.
They've done more update rollbacks than updates, more patches than updates, that's pathetic.
I'm sorry but this isn't the RS forums. People here actually have critique; why do you think i even have it? I don't want the game to die. I implore you to tell me nothing is wrong while you do nothing about it.


I wish they'd remove F2P altogether, drop the MTX by 25-40% and start reworking the game engine, which is already 7 years old. This is very, very, old infrastructure: trying to bring Runescape to every platform is moot when you don't update it properly.
This is the longest time frame JAGEX has had for an engine-stall: usually it's a maximum of four years and and average of two.

Nothing is getting done at this company and you're the type of person who doesn't see anything wrong. I'd literally fire you in a heartbeat.

[UpsetCouch]

Originally posted by Alysha:

Originally posted by YeetBeasT:

We get it. You're a brooding misanthrope whose seen through the smoke and mirrors that is RS3. Tendies and choccy milk all around.

Still this butthurt about EoC?

Imagine responding to a reply that isn't intended for you.

This one however, is:

The fact that you don't support the game by paying the developers, instead, opting to pay with in-game currency to feed your habit causes the game to lack updates because you're giving the developers an excuse to literally not work.

This is literally fact: these past 7 years since Bonds have been a membership currency item, since Prif release [2014], almost nothing fundamental (as Prif [and no, Mining and Smithing Rework and Archeology aren't 'fundamental']) on that scale has been released. To reiterate- that's over 7 years.
They've done more update rollbacks than updates, more patches than updates, that's pathetic.
I'm sorry but this isn't the RS forums. People here actually have critique; why do you think i even have it? I don't want the game to die. I implore you to tell me nothing is wrong while you do nothing about it.


I wish they'd remove F2P altogether, drop the MTX by 25-40% and start reworking the game engine, which is already 7 years old. This is very, very, old infrastructure: trying to bring Runescape to every platform is moot when you don't update it properly.
This is the longest time frame JAGEX has had for an engine-stall: usually it's a maximum of four years and and average of two.

Nothing is getting done at this company and you're the type of person who doesn't see anything wrong. I'd literally fire you in a heartbeat.

I've had a lot more good experiences with RS3 players about old school than vise versa. Allow me to give my input.

Bonds can be bought with real money. That's where they come from. So if people buy bonds with in come money, it was bought with real money at the start of the chain.

There's been plenty of big updates that change the game in big ways. This includes:

- God Wars Dungeon 2 - Added several new bosses, as well as Telos, the hardest boss in the game at the time, adding new best in slot gear, and one of the first places to add an enrage system other than Araxxi from off the top of my head.

- Menaphos, which added 120 slayer, some new best in slot gear, new bosses, which makes new metas, and is a mid-level hub.

- Archeology added the perks, which allow you to change the way you play in 20 different ways

- Invention is a great one, because it added the ability to add perks to tools and weapons and armor, creating a new meta, giving people a new way to PvM, and brought back clue hunting, as well as gave a lot of useless items in the game some purpose again.

- Anachronia added a bunch of new content, unlocked double surge and escape, which increases mobility around the game, and more movement options for PvM, New slayer monsters, new hunter options which drop some great loot, is best hunter exp per hour, and tools for archeology.
- Eastern Lands - Adds so many new ways to train, some that are still very good today, and unlocks that can help you get around, and train.


- Mining and Smithing was a fundamental change, because it got rid of a lot of gear drops in the game, replaced them with salvages, and ultimately changed the way you train those 2 skills, which I think is pretty fundamental.

I can keep listing them off, but there are several big ones. Not all of em may be good, but are considered fundamental changes to how people play the game.

I would much rather them work on the new player experience right now, and try and clean up the game world, because it's filled with 20 years of content. There can be gaps between big content updates for sure, and it definitely gets less than OSRS, but they also have a simpler game to work with, and are much more involved with the community in the content they put in like OSRS.

I also have a post about how RS3 MTX aren't really as bad as one would think. I'd hope you would have an open enough mind to consider that.

[Randy Orton]

Originally posted by (-Strelchey-):

I'm playing F2P version but there are a lot of places/quests where it states "For member only". Those are buildings and most group dungeons events. I guess you can get pretty far with F2P quests at first. But the map shows a lot of Pay-only stuff.

Yeah I'd highly recommend getting your stats to 40 - 50 and doing some free quests, as level 40 - 50 is where most of the good member xp gains start and good armor unlocks. Also, I'm maxed and still use the rswiki for efficient methods/guides. It will be your bread and butter for fat gains and easy quest completion.

Also, find a clan with similar players! It can really make the game much better with some like minded people to talk to.

[Yournewstepmom]

Originally posted by UpsetCouch:

I've had a lot more good experiences with RS3 players about old school than vise versa. Allow me to give my input.

Bonds can be bought with real money. That's where they come from. So if people buy bonds with in come money, it was bought with real money at the start of the chain.

There's been plenty of big updates that change the game in big ways. This includes:

- God Wars Dungeon 2 - Added several new bosses, as well as Telos, the hardest boss in the game at the time, adding new best in slot gear, and one of the first places to add an enrage system other than Araxxi from off the top of my head.

- Menaphos, which added 120 slayer, some new best in slot gear, new bosses, which makes new metas, and is a mid-level hub.

- Archeology added the perks, which allow you to change the way you play in 20 different ways

- Invention is a great one, because it added the ability to add perks to tools and weapons and armor, creating a new meta, giving people a new way to PvM, and brought back clue hunting, as well as gave a lot of useless items in the game some purpose again.

- Anachronia added a bunch of new content, unlocked double surge and escape, which increases mobility around the game, and more movement options for PvM, New slayer monsters, new hunter options which drop some great loot, is best hunter exp per hour, and tools for archeology.
- Eastern Lands - Adds so many new ways to train, some that are still very good today, and unlocks that can help you get around, and train.


- Mining and Smithing was a fundamental change, because it got rid of a lot of gear drops in the game, replaced them with salvages, and ultimately changed the way you train those 2 skills, which I think is pretty fundamental.

I can keep listing them off, but there are several big ones. Not all of em may be good, but are considered fundamental changes to how people play the game.

I would much rather them work on the new player experience right now, and try and clean up the game world, because it's filled with 20 years of content. There can be gaps between big content updates for sure, and it definitely gets less than OSRS, but they also have a simpler game to work with, and are much more involved with the community in the content they put in like OSRS.

I also have a post about how RS3 MTX aren't really as bad as one would think. I'd hope you would have an open enough mind to consider that.

This game as far as I'm concerned, has had its run.
You listed a litany of topics, I'll stir the pot.

I understand that Bonds come from real money.
It's more of a psychological mindset of how developers look at how they get that money. Are they working towards a goal with an end in sight, motivated and being provided necessary income? Or are they releasing easy ways to take advantage of players by selling them in-game gold? Something JAGEX has said they'd never do.
This isn't a healthy way for a company to operate - towards its players and for its players.
Sure it makes the game easily accessible for a lot of people but it encourages whales to ruin the in-game economy every year when Premier comes out. (Which essentially grants you nothing anyway.) It shouldn't be a go-to method for buying membership, it should be a temporary option.


GWD2 was an update that should've happened at least 5 years before it did.
Telos and Rax are solo bosses: solo bosses are drop dead easy to make, especially under the illusion of rotation mechanics.
We need OSRS-type raids: this solo system is only convenient for certain people. It also makes the game feel incredibly smaller than what it actually is. The 'need for no one' should not be rampant in an MMORPG.


Menaphos was the most underwhelming update of the decade and soon became deader than my grandmother's ovaries. If you see anyone in Menaphos it will be in the VIP section - that's it. It's a bunch of wasted space that no one uses. To call it a hub would be like calling Varrock outside of GE a hub - it's dead.
Here's a thought: if you make an entire city at least put the new 120 Slayer content on THAT side of the city. It was almost like the development team was working in two separate rooms, speaking two different languages.

Being someone who has 120 everything, [150 invention]; 200m Fishing, Dungeoneering, Mining and soon to be (if i ever get around to it at 180m) Woodcutting, the last person telling me how i can drastically change my gameplay because of Archeology is you (lol).
I'm sorry, but 2% Artisan boosted XP or Forever Adze doesn't help me one bit - they're all like this, incredibly overrated perks. Perhaps you meant the Invention perks. Literally same difference. They aren't game-changing, simply put, they're a 'quality of life' you don't actually need.
On another note, (pun intended) Archeology is completely pointless. You can't do anything with the items you collect besides hand them in for chronotes. Outside of making a spear or a staff that have laughable drop rate chances, (i know, i got a spear tip [1/50k]) the only thing you gain is an inflated ego post 120 as you rack up over 6 million XP a day for no reason until you can't any longer.

If you spend 5 minutes and think about how they change the game, they don't.



Anachronia was a nothing-burger.
Anachronia, the giant Agility course with half of an island of Slayer monsters you won't actually fight! For the record, I'm not actually mad about the Agility Course; i have 2000+ laps and made over 2 billion gp crafting codex's to 120 last year. After that, well, dead content.
Outside of a forced Player Owned Farm update and a minigame that soddens what Hunter stands for after a forced rework, all i see is dino poop.
Lots of dino poop.


The Eastern Lands were a very old concept that took too long to come to fruition. Player Owned Ports came out almost 10 years ago. When people heard that you'd be able to visit these regions they were ecstatic. Too bad it was one region, a small set of quests and a laughable journal entry tantamount to a Completionist Cape upkeep fee.
"But muh personal islands and xp" - yea, nice 'randomized' totally not 64 repeating Dungeoneering room mechanics you got there JAGEX.



We waited how many years for a Mining and Smithing rework?! You want to bring up that fiasco?! Almost 5 years for that?! LOL



I'm sorry but none of these were 'big'.

[Xautos]

Originally posted by BASED:

Hey so I am mostly invested in playing quite a few games right now. However since this game is a classic I wanted to try it out for myself.

However I have avoided playing "monthly subscription" games. I dont mind paying for them 1 time.

Anyways would I like this game if I play it casually? (If I enjoy i will buy the sub then)

i can't answer to what you might like, but i can say that if the game has that much value to you and play experience to you, it would be worth going the next step on to a subscription.

all i can suggest is that you play the game, give it a good chance and see where you are at in a few dozen hours, if you are that sucked into it, a subscription might be a good option for you.