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This article is about the Invention skill. For information on training Invention, see Invention training.
Not to be confused with Inventory.
Invention
Invention
Also known as Inv, Inventor
Release date 25 January 2016 (Update)
Members only Yes
Minimum level
for Hiscores
15
as of 12 Dec 2017
Players with
99
84,060
as of 4 Feb 2023
Players with 120 44,082
as of 4 Feb 2023
Players with
200M XP
10,849
as of 4 Feb 2023
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Invention

Invention is an elite skill which allows players to disassemble items and obtain new materials. These can be used to manufacture newly discovered devices and augment a variety of high-level weapons, armour, and tools, enhancing them with perks. Invention is RuneScape's 27th skill, as well as the first elite skill. Levels 80 Divination, Crafting, and Smithing are required to access this skill.

Invention is the second skill (after Dungeoneering) to have a level cap higher than 99. It has both a cape of accomplishment and a master cape of accomplishment, both of which are sold by Doc and have similar emotes. A retro style cape of accomplishment was also released.[1]

Level-up table[]

Starting out[]

Invention Tutorial reward

The rewards for completing the tutorial "quest".

Players can start by going through a tutorial for Invention by speaking to Doc at the Invention Guild, north-east of the Falador lodestone. While working on the Invention skill, players help to develop the guild.[2] During the tutorial the player's tool belt is upgraded to include a charge pack, material pouch, and inventor's tools.

In addition to the Invention Guild, there are six other Inventor's workbenches around Gielinor:

  1. Ardougne, furnace west of church
  2. Dorgesh-Kaan, Oldak's laboratory
  3. Keldagrim, anvil in western part of the Consortium building
  4. Seers' Village, anvil
  5. Varrock, anvil south of west bank
  6. Yanille, anvil south of bank

Training Invention[]

Main article: Invention training

There are three basic ways to train Invention, with the method of choice applied right after you complete the tutorial:

  • Levelling equipment, afterwards, it may be siphoned to keep the equipment but give less experience, or disassembled to destroy the item and get more experience.
  • Creating gizmos, by using materials in a gizmo shell
  • Creating items, such as equipment siphons and pogo sticks

Bonus experience[]

Between the skill's release and 25 July 2016 there was an Invention amnesty where players could not gain direct or bonus experience in Invention from sources such as experience lamps, stars, books, the Jack of trades aura, and Distractions and Diversions.

Since 25 July 2016 players have been able to use bonus experience and gain direct experience through lamps on Invention provided that they have completed the Invention Tutorial. Invention being an elite skill, the experience rewards are halved when they are not level-dependent and when they scale by level, double amount of rewards are needed to progress one level compared to regular skills. Until 19 September 2016 all experience rewards used a flat 50% experience reduction.

  • Bonus experience is applied when disassembling or siphoning tools or combat equipment, but other boosts will not.
  • During Bonus XP Weekends item experience and Invention experience not given by disassembling or siphoning augmented items are boosted by 50%. Other modifiers, including Clan avatars and the Wisdom aura, are also applied to items' experience gains rather than Invention experience from disassembly. Disassembling or siphoning augmented items receive no boosts during Bonus XP Weekends.
  • Ancient effigies do not have an Invention skill requirement to open them, but it is possible to use a Dragonkin lamp on Invention.
  • It is possible to use the Jack of trades aura reward on Invention. The reward now is 50% of the reward that they give to regular skills, scaled on how many rewards are needed to progress one level.

Lamps and stars from Treasure Hunter are an exception, and they grant much more experience to Invention than to any other skill. The formula is unknown, but the Invention experience at level 43 or above surpasses experience for other skills even at the maximum of 98+.

Specialisation and tech trees[]

While levelling Invention players are able to pursue specialisations by choosing different tech trees. The type of tech tree that the player selects determines what items can be unlocked and manufactured first, by providing different sets of blueprints. Invention features 3 tech trees. All players use the basic human tech tree when they begin training the skill. Once the player reaches level 40 they are given the option to specialise in either the cave goblin tech tree or dwarven tech tree.

Discovery[]

RuneFest 2015 - Invention workbenches concept art

Concept art of the workbenches. Human tech to the left. Cave goblin tech at the top and dwarven tech on the right.

Main article: Discovery

At an Inventor's workbench, using their current blueprints, the player can discover new materials, devices, and machines in a process called discovery.[3] Unlocking a new device or material will give a one time chunk of experience after which the player will be able to build and use the device or material.

The discovery process involves a micropuzzle where the player arranges modules to optimise the experience earned for their discovery. The process indicates how well optimised the modules are, with each optimisation level providing additional XP. At the least optimised "Poor" level, no additional XP is awarded. Satisfactory awards +100%, Good +200%, Excellent +300%, and Perfect +400% (effectively five-times the base XP). The ideal order of modules is random for each player.

The solution for each puzzle remains the same for each player. Therefore if you use an Invention potion to boost your level, but it drops before you finish, take a screen shot of the puzzle solution. Then when you boost again, you can solve it using the saved solution.

Prior to an update on 18 September 2017, discovery required the use of Inspiration.

Disassembly and materials[]

Main article: Materials
Disassemble

A player disassembling an item

Players are able to break down items (including noted stacks) by dragging them into their Invention pouch, which is located in the inventory interface, next to the bond pouch, or by using the Disassemble ability from their spellbook.[4] This gives a small amount of Invention experience and produces materials. Each item also has a junk chance, dependent on its tier.[1]

The materials produced are a mixture of common materials, called parts, and rarer materials, called components. Components have more powerful applications than parts.[2] Some specific components are only obtainable from particular items. Players are able to obtain materials even if they do not have the Invention level required to use them. It is possible for an item to give up to 12 standard components as well as up to 7 rare components upon being dismantled. The number of materials given will depend on the value, nature and size of the item dismantled.[1]

Obtained materials are stored in the weapon or armour gizmo shell interface, with the tool gizmo shell interface. Materials can be used to create devices or to augment weapons or armour, after the player has unlocked the ability to do so. It is possible to disassemble noted items.

Players are able to use the Analyse ability to determine the materials that may be obtained from breaking down an item. This opens the Material Analysis interface which will display the junk chance rate for the item, as well as a list of the materials that may possibly be gained from it. Materials are rated as being obtained often, sometimes, rarely, or special.

Augmenting items[]

Main article: Augmentation

Players are able to augment certain tools, weapons, shields, torso-, and leg-slot armours. To do so, one must first build and apply an augmentor to an item. The augmented item can then have a gizmo with perks applied to it and be levelled up. Augmenting an item will make it untradeable and you will not be able to return an item to its original tradeable version without using an Augmentation dissolver.

Perks are mechanical effects that may be positive or negative. Some perks are new, though most are generally already found elsewhere in the game. For example, the occasional damage reduction effect of Warpriest of Saradomin armour can be granted by a perk, though it is less effective than this armour's effect (equivalent to wearing around 3 pieces of the set).[2]

To create perks, a player must craft and fill a gizmo shell with materials. Each gizmo shell has 5 slots that can be filled. After filling the gizmo shell, the player will be able to choose which perks they wish to make out of the range of possible perks that can be made from the materials inserted. Gizmos can be socketed onto an augmented item to impart its perks to that item. Creating a gizmo will grant Invention experience for each material that is used up. Using rarer materials grants more experience.[2]

Each material may produce a variety of perks. Additionally, perks may be of different tiers – up to 5 ranks for certain perks[5] – and materials are weighted in their likelihood of making different levels of a given perk. Materials are balanced so that adding the same material to all 5 slots of a gizmo shell will result in the creation of 1 slightly negative perk and 1 slightly positive perk; therefore, players will need use a mixture of different materials – aiming to leverage the positive effects of each and avoid the negatives of each – in order to create a gizmo with a net-positive effect.[2] The term "prototyping" refers to this process of trying to create useful gizmos from experimenting with different combinations of perks.

Two-handed weaponry allows the attachment of two gizmos, each with up to 2 perks, while only one gizmo may be attached to one-handed weaponry.

Levelling up items[]

Main article: Equipment level

Once an item has been augmented it will gain experience and advance levels when it is used in combat. Levelling an item increases the experience and materials received when disassembling it. The maximum level achievable is dependent on research.

An augmented item receives a proportion of the base combat experience that the player earns when killing a monster. The base value, which applies to armour and main-hand weapons, is 4%; two-handed weapons gain 50% more for 6% total, and off-hand weapons gain half as much for 2% total. Killing players does not increase the gear's experience.

Levelling a piece of equipment from level 1–10 increases the amount of stored Invention experience that is contained within it each time that its level increases. Although items can be levelled up to a maximum of level 20 at 99 Invention, the maximum amount of experience that can be earned from an item caps at level 10, with equipment siphons requiring level 12 to get the same amount.

There are two options when claiming the experience from augmented items:

  • Fully disassemble both item and any gizmos for full Invention experience and materials.
  • Use an equipment siphon, retaining both the item and any perks, for experience equal to disassembling it at 2 levels lower. The equipment siphon can be made by the player at level 27 or bought from the Grand Exchange. The equipment dissolver needs to be unlocked first then it will give the option to learn to make the siphon.

Any augmented equipment that has the same level will give the same amount of Invention experience when disassembled. However, it should be faster to level higher tier equipment as equipment's experience gains are dependent on the amount of combat experience earned by the player. Additionally the rate of levelling will be balanced by number of slots; so a two handed weapon will level twice as fast as a one handed weapon and as fast as dual wielded weapons.

Players will need to use charge packs to run their augmented equipment. The player's charge pack will be stored on their character's tool belt and will be shared by all augmented equipment that the player uses. It will be powered by divine charges created from divine energy. The amount of divine charges used by an item will depend on its drain rate. Using higher level divine energy should be more economical for creating divine charges. It will cost 225 incandescent energy to create a divine charge, or larger quantities of lower-tier energy. On death, any augmented equipment not protected drains 2 hours worth of drain rate from the charge pack; e.g. an item that drains 1 charge/second will drain 7200 charges.

The following table is based on tier 80 equipment.
Item
level
Item
experience
Invention experience (tier 80) Item effects
Disassembly Siphon GP/XP
1 0 0 N/A N/A
2 1,160 9,000 Disassembling this item has a 50% chance to return installed gizmos.
3 2,607 27,000 Disassembling this item gives double materials.
4 5,176 54,000 9,000 32.99 Disassembling this item never gives junk.
5 8,286 108,000 27,000 10.0 This item drains 10% less charge when used.
6 11,760 144,000 54,000 5.50 Disassembling this item gives triple materials.
7 15,835 198,000 108,000 2.75 Disassembling this item gives an extra random uncommon material.
8 21,152 270,000 144,000 2.06 Disassembling this item returns all installed gizmos.
9 28,761 378,000 198,000 1.50 Disassembling this item gives quadruple materials.
10 40,120 540,000 270,000 1.10 Disassembling this item gives the maximum extra Invention XP.
11 57,095 378,000 0.79 N/A
12 81,960 540,000 0.55 Siphoning this item gives the maximum extra Invention XP.
13 117,397 0.27 Siphoning this item has a 50% chance to not consume the siphon.
14 166,496 This item drains 12.5% less charge when used.
15 232,886 This item can now be used with an Equipment separator.
16 320,080 0.00 Siphoning this item no longer consumes the siphon.
17 432,785 Using the Equipment separator on this item has a 25% chance to not consume the separator.
18 575,592 This item drains 15% less charge when used.
19 753,631 Using the Equipment separator on this item has a 50% chance to not consume the separator.
20 972,440 Helpful perks will activate 10% (multiplicative) more frequently. See Perk benefits for a list of perks that are known to be affected.


Devices[]

Main article: Devices

Materials can also be used to create an array of different devices, each with its own use or effect. Some devices are used specifically as part of the invention skill, while others have purposes related to various other skills.

Invention specific[]
  • Equipment siphons are used to extract stored Invention experience from levelled up equipment without destroying the item through disassembly. Instead, its level is reset, rewarding the player with a lower amount of Invention experience than disassembly, equivalent to that which would have been gained from a piece of equipment 2 levels lower.[2]
Other skills[]

Machines[]

Main article: Machines

Machines, released as part of Invention Batch II, are built using Construction-like hotspots in the back of the Invention Guild. The first machine built is a power generator, which when powered up with divine charges provides a power source for the other machines, including the alchemiser, auto disassembler, plank maker, partial potion producer, and the automatic hide tanner. Machines are used to automate certain tasks, which are carried out even when the player is offline. Up to six devices can be built (including duplicates, but not including the generator) and each device has two tiers.[6] To invent machines, players must have level 60 Invention.

Experience-level relationship[]

Invention was originally planned to have a different experience-per-level relationship to previous skills, with the skill being slower to level at lower levels. It was mentioned that the new halfway to 99 level would have been level 77 and not 92. The maximum virtual level for this skill would have been level 150.

However, in a Developer Q&A it was announced that the previously planned experience curve had been abandoned, due to play testers finding the "flatter" experience curve dissatisfying. As a result, Invention now has a more "traditional curve".[7] Level 84 is halfway to 99 (as opposed to level 92 in other skills). Invention is a little slower to progress at early levels compared to other skills, but faster to level at higher levels.[1]

Unlike other skills, the major aspects of Invention are available from level 1, with higher levels unlocking extras such as rarer materials and passive upgrades.[8]

History[]

Invention, along with Divination, was first mentioned by Mod Mark in the fourth live Q&A session. One, Divination, would be a gathering skill like Mining and Woodcutting. The other, Invention, would be a production skill like Crafting. In a November 2012 Behind the Scenes, the new skills were described as "designed to suit the old-school, yet complement the entire game" since they were modelled "on some of our oldest and dearest content." The August 2013 Behind the Scenes pushed the time for the second skill back to 2014.

During RuneFest 2013 the second skill was revealed to be the Invention skill.

In January 2014, a Power to the Players dragonstone poll included the Invention skill versus the elf city Prifddinas. The winner was the elf city (ETA July/August), resulting in the Invention skill to be developed at a later time.

At RuneFest 2014, it was mentioned that:

When Inventor didn't pass the vote, it really made us question the things we wanted from the update and whether we had missed something.

Why don't we add to and enrich existing skills, rather than just ignoring them in favour of a new skill? What do you think? The decision is up to you.

 
— Mod Luna[9]

During March 2015, Invention was confirmed to soon be integrated in many skills instead of being a standalone skill, possibly with its own ranking highscores table.[10] On 2 June 2015, Invention was again confirmed to be planned as a skill in a Twitch Q&A stream, but was referred to as an elite skill. This was confirmed in the official podcast of 11 June 2015.[2]

During RuneFest 2015, it was revealed that Invention would allow for perks to be added to items. During this RuneFest a total of 187 perks were shown in a presentation slide. Additionally, concept art from RuneFest 2015 suggested that Invention may include the ability for a player to become a guild master. The player could then be able to build machines and decorations in the guild, using a hotspot system similar to the one used in the player-owned houses system; build various workshops including cave goblin workshop, dwarven workshop, and human Divination workshop, and be able to employ people to work in the built workshops. The examples of NPCs who could potentially be hired included Oldak and Professor Oddenstein.

Plans for machines along with other tech trees were confirmed to be scrapped on RuneFest 2016. Instead, minor adjustments to the current way Invention is trained would be done every now and then.

Invention Batch II[]

Invention Batch II was released on 18 September 2017 to address unfinished parts of the skill by introducing new content, especially at higher levels, as well as introducing some quality of life improvements. New content includes the addition of machines to the skill, and 12 new devices. Some of the quality of life improvements included the removal of the Inspiration mechanic, tradeable augmentors, and a toggle for the display of cogs on augmented equipment.[11]

Achievement[]

Skilling pet[]

Malcolm chathead
Main article: Malcolm

Like all skills, there is a skilling pet obtainable from training this skill. For the Invention skill, the pet is called Malcolm.

Gallery[]

See also[]

Trivia[]

  • The level 90 weapons seen in the concept art are combinations of currently existing weapons in game, though this concept was scrapped later on.
  • Invention is the fastest skill that a player has reached skill mastery in since its release. The first player to achieve 99 Invention did it within 20 hours of the skill's release. This record was previously Construction with an 8-day lapse.
  • The first player to achieve level 120 Invention did so merely 38 hours after its release, at 00:50:54 GMT on 27 January 2016.
  • The first player to achieve 200 million experience in Invention did so within six days after the initial release of the skill.
  • During Runefest 2015, it was stated that because Invention is aimed at high-level players, they would only allow higher-level equipment to be augmentable in order to prevent dead content. As a result, it was stated that it would only include tier 70+ weapons, armour, and tools, as well as fishing rods and some joke weapons.
  • The skill was stated by Mod Mark in Runefest 2014 to be mortals' defence against the gods. The Godless were planned on being heavily featured in the skill, but this idea was later scrapped.
  • There are many unused perk icons in the cache, but Mod Shauny confirmed that most of those perks don't have any code.
  • Due to invention's status as an elite skill, it is treated differently when considering your lowest level. For instance, Tears of Guthix and Guthixian butterflies may not recognise it as your lowest skill due to having more experience than other skills. On the other hand, meteorite chunks and space dust may treat it as one of your lowest levels despite having higher levels of experience.
  • After Invention Batch 2, augmentors became tradable within the Grand Exchange.

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Mod Joe. "Invention Q&A." 21 January 2016. Invention Forums. Page 6
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Jagex. RuneScape - Invention and Elite Skills RuneScape podcast, 11 June 2015.
  3. ^ Jagex. Mod Stu's Twitter account. 16 January 2016. Mod Stu: "Currency of Discovery. Invention blueprints cost inspiration to unlock (discover)."
  4. ^ RuneScape BTS #171 - Inside Invention (part 1).*
  5. ^ Invention - New RuneScape Elite Skill teaser!. 19 Jan 2016.*
  6. ^ Invention Batch 2 Launch. 18 September 2017.*
  7. ^ RuneScape Developer Q&A - 8th December - Ask us anything about 2016!.*
  8. ^ RuneScape BTS #176 - Why you need Invention.*
  9. ^ Mod Luna. RuneFest's Big Reveals.*
  10. ^ Mod Kelpie. "Invention – What to Expect." 19/03/2015. RuneScape Forums.
  11. ^ Invention Batch 2 Launch. 18 September 2017.*
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