RuneScape Wiki
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|Magic is possibly the most difficult combat skill to master. It is not particularly hard, but it requires a lot of time and attention and can be very expensive if trained using quick methods. Many prefer to [[High-Level Alchemy|high alch]] their way to 99.
 
|Magic is possibly the most difficult combat skill to master. It is not particularly hard, but it requires a lot of time and attention and can be very expensive if trained using quick methods. Many prefer to [[High-Level Alchemy|high alch]] their way to 99.
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|Runecrafting is a moderately paced skill to train. In the [[Runespan]], it's possible to obtain reasonably fast experience per hour without paying much attention, but at the cost of zero profit. Regular runecrafting at altars and to a less degree, the [[ZMI altar]], affords a lucrative profit, particularly at high levels, but is very slow experience.
 
|Runecrafting is a moderately paced skill to train. In the [[Runespan]], it's possible to obtain reasonably fast experience per hour without paying much attention, but at the cost of zero profit. Regular runecrafting at altars and to a less degree, the [[ZMI altar]], affords a lucrative profit, particularly at high levels, but is very slow experience.

Revision as of 17:11, 12 May 2012

See Hiscores for the relative total rankings of the different skills.

Number of players at level 99 or more
Attack 212,258 Constitution 240,048 Mining 132,412
Strength 236,179 Agility 101,003 Smithing 128,850
Defence 222,842 Herblore 160,742 Fishing 150,857
Ranged 209,828 Thieving 115,999 Cooking 204,671
Prayer 165,071 Crafting 117,362 Firemaking 199,750
Magic 235,348 Fletching 173,715 Woodcutting 180,555
Runecrafting 105,350 Slayer 148,441 Farming 102,949
Construction 101,331 Hunter 102,010 Summoning 144,434
Dungeoneering 119,157 All skills: 10,000
As of 04 February 2023
Runecrafting Emote

A player performing the Cape of Accomplishment emote from the Runecrafting cape for level 99 Runecrafting.

Skill mastery is achieved by reaching level 99 in any skill. Level 99 (with 13,034,431 experience points) is the maximum level a player can advance in a skill, with the exception of Dungeoneering, although players can have up to 200,000,000 experience in any skill. Thus, if a player has level 99 in all the skills, the maximum total levels are 2,496 levels (that is 24 skills multiplied by 99, +120). When level 99 in any skill is reached, there is a different fireworks animation that can be heard by everyone nearby.

Pay-to-play players reaching level 99 in a skill are entitled to wear a Cape of Accomplishment for that particular skill. This cape can be bought from a specific skill master for 99,000 coins. When operated, this cape allows a player to have a temporary level of 100, and the player performs a unique emote. Furthermore, if the player reaches Level 99 in more than one skill, the player's skill cape becomes trimmed and any more skill capes the player obtains will also become trimmed along with the newly received cape.

Cooking and Fletching give fairly quick training (2–4 weeks), with anywhere from a cost of 1-8 million coins to a profit of up to or exceeding 3 million depending how they are trained. Woodcutting is debatably the easiest, although not necessarily the fastest. Level 99 can be achieved in about 3 months with very little input using the most popular method, Choking Ivy, making it the easiest skill to train with minimal attention required. Another little-known skill that gives fast, inexpensive experience is Thieving (see the amount of people with 99 Thieving compared to Cooking and Fletching). Level 45-99 Thieving can be done in 2–4 weeks with a total of 83–98 hours spent, depending on how long someone plays each day. Strength is by far the most trained, resulting in the highest number of 99s.

File:Phantom Level 100.png

The skills interface prior to the Skill Interface update.

Before the Skill interface update, players with a level 99 skill could view the experience needed to earn level 100.

In RuneScape Classic, the maximum total level was 1,782. With the addition of Runecrafting (1,881), Slayer (1,980), Farming (2,079), Construction (2,178), Hunter (2,277), Summoning (2,376) and the newest skill to be released, Dungeoneering, the maximum total level is now 2,496. The Maximum Skill XP Is 5,000,000,000.

File:99 chatbox message.png

Chatbox Message When Getting a 99

Audio options icon
Level 99 Fireworks
Sound acquired at any level 99 skill.

Level 99 Parties

A Level 99 party is a party held by a player to celebrate his/her achievement in getting a level 99 in a skill. This party can happen anywhere; many players have them at their POH, and some choose to be near the skill master so they can get their cape quicker. There are mixed views on these parties, which also vary for different skills. Some players view "easy" 99s unworthy of parties, but this varies greatly.

File:99levelup.gif

A player gaining level 99 in a skill (click to play).

Celebrating

Players tend to invite friends to follow them as they level up from 98 to 99. After levelling, they usually head to the master of that skillcape (For example Wilfred near Falador who sells woodcutting capes or Hickton in Catherby who sells Fletching capes). The player will then buy the cape (value of 99,000) of the 99 skill and equip it. After buying it, it is unofficial custom for players to do the first skillcape emote with that cape, often with a group.

Alternatively, some players may get 99 in a skill (without any friends) and later go with a group of friends to purchase the skillcape.

Players may take videos or get a friend to take a video of their journey to 99 and of them getting their cape. These videos are some of the most common RuneScape videos shown on sites such as YouTube. These videos are made to congratulate, or in memory of another user, or the owner himself and to commemorate his efforts in receiving 99 in the particular skill he has achieved.

Partying

The player may then host a house party in their house or a friends. The group of players will usually just have fun and relax. Alternatively, players may head to the Party Room and have a drop party. They may light origami balloons, use toy mice, or do anything else to celebrate. Players may also host normal drop parties (which involves the player dropping the items manually).

Announcements

When a player achieves a level 99 or 120 or a rare item (either from a treasure trail reward, a monster drop or from the Squeal of Fortune on your world), a message in orange will appear in the chatbox.

Maxing out or getting a completionist cape will be announced on all RS servers in red text.

If a friend achieves something in any world, the text will be green.

To see other player achievements, you need to turn "Game" to "on". To let other players see your achievments, you need to turn "private" to "on".

First Players to Achieve Level 99 and Level 120

When level 99 stats first started appearing, players with such stats were often well known around the RuneScape community since they were one of the few to have a level 99 stat.

Below is a chronological list of the first players to reach level 99 and level 120 in their respective skill

Everdred 99

The first player to reach level 99 in any skill and in Woodcutting.

Bluerose9913dec2001pw2

The first player to reach level 99 in Smithing.

2002 - zonghui - 99melee

The first player to reach level 99 in all melee stats.

2003-03-23 - ltangel - 99 crafting

The first player to reach level 99 in Crafting.

Achievement Date Achieved Player
99 Woodcutting icon highscores Woodcutting 28 August 2001 Everdred
99 Magic icon highscores Magic 2001 Bluerose13x
99 Smithing icon highscores Smithing 13 December 2001 Bluerose13x
99 Cooking icon highscores Cooking January 2002 Tks
99 Firemaking icon highscores Firemaking 2002 (After 3 February 2002) Cowchicken1
99 Fishing icon highscores Fishing 2002 (After 3 February 2002) Tks
99 Attack icon highscores Attack 2002 (After 3 February 2002) Zonghui
99 Strength icon highscores Strength 2002 (After 3 February 2002) Ladykilljoy
99 Hitpoints icon highscores Constitution 2002 (After 3 February 2002) Zonghui
99 Defence icon highscores Defence 2002 (After 3 February 2002) Zonghui
99 Thieving icon highscores Thieving 2002 (After 3 February 2002) Swedemike
99 Mining icon highscores Mining 2002 (After 3 February 2002) Joe Bill64
99 Ranged icon highscores Ranged 2002 (After 3 February 2002) Snake Slava2
99 Agility icon highscores Agility 23 March 2003 Thehate
99 Crafting icon highscores Crafting 30 March 2003 Ltangel
99 Fletching icon highscores Fletching 30 March 2003 - 19 April 2003 Chilipeppers
99 Herblore icon highscores Herblore 2003 (After 19 April 2003) Halw Gnun
99 Prayer icon highscores Prayer May 2004 Lilyuffie88
99 Runecrafting icon highscores Runecrafting 15 September 2004 Kale Stille
99 Slayer icon highscores Slayer 9 July 2005 Zezima
99 Farming icon highscores Farming 27 September 2005 0xpx0
99 Construction icon highscores Construction 6 June 2006 Cursed You3
99 Hunter icon highscores Hunter 2 December 2006 Darkforest67
99 Summoning icon highscores Summoning 8 February 2008 Nercychlidae
99 Dungeoneering icon highscores Dungeoneering 7 May 2010 Skiller 703
120 Dungeoneering icon highscores Dungeoneering 22 August 2010 Telmomarques

First Players to Max Skill Totals

Achievement (Members) Date Achieved Player
1980 Stats Overall icon highscores Overall 9 July 2005 Zezima
2079 Stats Overall icon highscores Overall 4 October 2005 Zezima
2178 Stats Overall icon highscores Overall 11 June 2006 N0valyfe
2277 Stats Overall icon highscores Overall December 2006 Thehate
2376 Stats Overall icon highscores Overall 12 February 2008 Kingduffy
2475 Stats Overall icon highscores Overall 7 May 2010 Skiller 703
2496 Stats Overall icon highscores Overall 22 August 2010 Telmomarques
Achievement (Free-to-Play) Date Achieved Player
1494 Stats Overall icon highscores Overall 28 January 2008 Syzygy
1593 Stats Overall icon highscores Overall 11 June 2010 S Diamant Y
1614 Stats Overall icon highscores Overall 9 October 2010 El Popo1
Notes:
1. ^ Cowchicken and Dragoon 787 reached level 99 Firemaking on the same day, but it is commonly accepted that Cowchicken reached it earlier.
2. ^ Snake Slava was banned for macro use after Jagex mistook his English-Russian translator for cheating software. To prove that he did not cheat, he actually brought his computer to the Jagex headquarters. To prove that he could achieve it again, he trained his second character Snake Slavik to 99 Ranged as well before anyone else could do so. [source needed]
3. ^ Cursed You was given a manual permanent ban later, removing his account from the hiscores.

Rarity of level 99s

Strength is currently the most common 99 skill in the game, followed by Cooking, Attack, and Constitution. Runecrafting, Construction and Agility are the rarest. Below is a list of the order of the skills depending on the number of players having 99 in it. Most people consider Cooking and Fletching to be the easiest 99s to achieve. It should be noted however, that although they are considered the easiest by many people, they are by no means the fastest. Opinions on skills vary greatly, so it comes down to the individual to decide for themselves which they prefer and dislike.

NOTE: The skills' difficulty, attention, speed and profit rating is based upon a typical player achieving 99 using the quickest methods. Combat skills (with the obvious exception of Prayer and Summoning) are potentially by far the most profitable to train through boss hunting and camping monsters such as frost dragons for their drops, although the majority of players usually train these skills using low-profit methods such as completing Slayer assignments.

  • Difficulty: The amount of planning required to train the skill and the risks involved.
  • Attention: The amount of clicks it takes per minute to train the skill.
  • Speed: The experience rates per hour.
  • Profit: The amount of money needed to train the skill and the payoff of training the skill.
Rank Skill Difficulty Attention Speed Profit Frequency Reason
1 Strength 3***** 2***** 3***** 2***** 236,179 Strength is popular among many pures, who tend to have low Defence and very high Strength. Quick, easy and somewhat inexpensive (or profitable) to train, depending on the monsters chosen to fight.
2 Cooking 1***** 2***** 5***** 3***** 204,671 Cooking is one of the fastest and easiest 99s to achieve. It requires little attention and is somewhat inexpensive (especially in conjunction with fishing training). As such, it is one of the most common 99s.
3 Attack 3***** 2***** 3***** 2***** 212,258 Attack is also popular among pures, though pures and lower levels tend to level Strength first. Like strength and defence, it is cheap and easy to train.
4 Constitution 3***** 2***** 2***** 2***** 240,048 99 Constitution comes passively with other high combat skills. Many players will achieve 99 in some other combat skill before they achieve 99 Constitution, making the untrimmed version extremely rare.
5 Magic 3***** 5***** 3***** 1***** 235,348 Magic is possibly the most difficult combat skill to master. It is not particularly hard, but it requires a lot of time and attention and can be very expensive if trained using quick methods. Many prefer to high alch their way to 99.
6 Woodcutting 2***** 2***** 3***** 2***** 180,555 Woodcutting is a fairly easy 99 to achieve. It can be done quickly with no profit or slowly, earning quite a decent amount of money. It also requires little money to train. Not much attention is required. With the update of ivy, Woodcutting became much easier.
7 Defence 3***** 2***** 3***** 2***** 222,842 Even though Defence is ignored by pures, it is quite common among tankers and players seeking maxed melee stats. Like Attack and Strength, depending on the methods, it can be somewhat inexpensive to train, requiring only some attention.
8 Fletching 2***** 2***** 4***** 2***** 173,715 Fletching is one of the easiest and quickest 99s to achieve. It doesn't require much attention and it's rather cheap (depending on the methods used), or even profitable, compared to other skills.
9 Ranged 3***** 3***** 3***** 2***** 209,828 Ranged is one of the fastest 99s if red chinchompas (One of the most expensive methods, the most expensive being the use of the Dwarf MultiCannon) are used; otherwise, is relatively slow compared to other combat skills.
10 Firemaking 1***** 2***** 4***** 1***** 199,750 Firemaking is a very fast 99 to achieve. This skill can cost nothing or quite a lot, depending on how you choose to acquire level 99. ( It requires little attention after bonfire update.)
11 Fishing 3***** 1***** 2***** 3***** 150,857 Though Fishing is not particularly fast, little attention is required, and it can be quite profitable. Although fast experience methods require to spend some money on bait at the beginning, the later training requires little money to max up the skill.
12 Prayer 4***** 3***** 5***** 1***** 165,071 Prayer is one of the fastest 99s to achieve. However, it is extremely expensive.
13 Herblore 5***** 2***** 5***** 1***** 160,742 Herblore is a fairly fast 99 to achieve. It doesn't require much attention, but depending on the methods used, it may be extremely expensive.
14 Dungeoneering 4***** 5***** 5***** 0***** 119,157 (99+)
3128 (120)
Dungeoneering is not a difficult skill to attain mastery in. Like some other skills, it requires constant attention, as it involves all skills, boss fights and puzzles. It also requires a lot of planning and teamwork for fast training. In return, proper training methods will give very fast experience rates per hour. The skill does not have that much use outside Daemonheim, apart from a cape and several reward items as well as having access to resource dungeons. There is no direct cost associated with conventional training of this skill, but some elite groups use Overload or Prayer Renewal doses for their lasting effect.
15 Thieving 2***** 5***** 5***** 3***** 115,999 Thieving is one of the fastest 99s to achieve with many players oblivious to its quickest methods. It does however require constant attention. The amount of planning needed depends on the level and method used. It can cost some money to spend on food required to heal after failing the skill.
16 Hunter 4***** 5***** 4***** 5***** 102,010 Hunter is a tedious 99 to achieve. Although it may seem slow at first, at higher levels it becomes quicker. Constant attention is required, but it is a popular skill for money.
17 Smithing 3***** 2***** 3***** 2***** 128,850 Smithing can be a fast 99 to achieve. It requires some attention and is generally expensive, depending on the method used.
18 Summoning 4***** 3***** 5***** 1***** 144,434 Summoning is one of the fastest 99s to achieve once all the charms are gathered. The gathering of said charms, though, is an impressive task that takes a vast amount of time. In addition, the other ingredients for the pouches are often quite expensive due to demand.
19 Mining 3***** 2***** 3***** 4***** 132,412 Mining is a tedious 99 to achieve. It starts out slow, but when players are able to mine in the Living Rock Caverns it becomes a little quicker, and much less attention is required, and players achieving 99 can make decent profit.
20 Crafting 4***** 2***** 3***** 1***** 117,362 Crafting can be a fairly fast 99 to achieve for those with the wealth to do so. It will be much slower without said wealth. Can be trained with little attention.
21 Slayer 5***** 3***** 1***** 3***** 148,441 Slayer is levelled alongside combat. Therefore, players will frequently achieve 99 in combat skills while reaching 99 Slayer. It is often achieved simply for the cape, but can be relatively profitable. Note that Slayer is one of the slowest skills to reach 99 in. In addition, it requires a lot of planning and having to buy supplies.
22 Farming 5***** 1***** 3***** 2***** 102,949 Farming is a slow and tedious 99 to achieve. It can be trained passively as plants can go unattended for long periods of time; however, depending upon how you train it, you will either gain or lose a lot of money. The skill is rather difficult to train due to optimal route planning.
23 Agility 5***** 5***** 2***** 1***** 101,003 Agility goes at a slow-medium pace. Constant attention is required. Although it does not yield any profit, Agility is one of the few non-combat skills for which there is a benefit gained from each level. However, it may require some money for food and potions.
24 Construction 4***** 5***** 5***** 1***** 101,331 Construction is currently one of the fastest skills to train as it is possible to get 99 in less than a week. However, it is without a doubt one of the more expensive skills at higher levels, and most players would find acquiring this sort of money much more of a challenge than training the skill itself. For example, leveling from 74-99 alone can cost around 200,000,000 coins or more (with the quick methods). Keep in mind that acquiring sacred clay hammers from Stealing Creation can reduce the cost of training this skill by as much as half the amount of cash needed.
25 Runecrafting 3***** 3***** 3*****

0*****(Runespan)

4*****

(non-Runespan)

105,350 Runecrafting is a moderately paced skill to train. In the Runespan, it's possible to obtain reasonably fast experience per hour without paying much attention, but at the cost of zero profit. Regular runecrafting at altars and to a less degree, the ZMI altar, affords a lucrative profit, particularly at high levels, but is very slow experience.

See also

References