How Free Can You Be is a series of columns that I started back in 2013 that never went anywhere, so it’s a concept that I’ve been sitting on for some time. For the first entry, I’ll be looking at MMOs and how much of the game can be accessed without spending a dime. Most of these games, I imagine, will involve someone spending money at some point, but the end result is that you, the reader, will know how much content you can access without ever registering a credit card or buying a game card. For games with optional subscriptions, we’ll also talk about avoiding paying more than the flat monthly fee.
I picked RuneScape as the first game for this column because it has changed quite a bit since our 2013 coverage. The introduction of tradeable bonds has changed the dynamic by which players can purchase and enjoy RuneScape’s content, and I would be remiss if I continued the column and left the previous coverage inaccurate.
1. Membership
Membership in RuneScape is different than other MMOs because while the game is technically free, it is absolutely required to access a grand majority of the content. Members have access to more skills, better equipment, more quests, combat abilities, transportation, leveling methods, bank spaces, grand exchange slots, and activities, emotes, and more. While Jagex regularly insists that the free to play part of RuneScape is a complete experience in itself, it really serves as a taste of what membership has to offer.
This is where bonds come in. A bond is an item that is purchased from Jagex and then sold on the Grand Exchange to others for money. While this does mean that someone pays real money, it allows both free players and members to enjoy otherwise paid goods essentially on someone else’s dime. At the time of this publishing, bonds have stayed pretty still in the nine to ten million gold range, however prices can fluctuate up and down.
One bond is worth 14 days of membership without any downsides, so any player capable of making around five million gold per week as a member (which many players will tell you is not a difficult feat) will have little problem funding their membership. Given the cost of bonds, you’ll have to level up quite a bit in free to play before you are capable of making that kind of money as a member, be it through combat, skilling, or gathering goods and selling them. Gamers who are able to play the market and flip items will find making the required amount easier at lower levels.
2. Solomon’s Store
Solomon’s Store is RuneScape’s cash shop, and it operates on two currencies: Loyalty points and Runecoins. Solomon’s Store stocks everything from pets, extra bank space, cosmetic outfits, weapon overrides, emotes, animations, and more. The good side is that, with one or two exceptions, the items are permanent. While many items are available for purchase with loyalty points, some can only be bought through the use of Runecoins.
Loyalty points are accrued through consecutive months of membership, with the stipend increasing with each passing month. Runecoins on the other hand must be purchased with real money or by redeeming a bond, meaning real money must change hands at some point along the transaction. Bonds can be redeemed for 195 Runecoins, slightly less than $5 worth of the currency purchased for straight cash.
While time consuming, the ability to purchase and redeem bonds for Runecoins and membership makes it feasible to acquire anything from the Solomon Store given enough time. Unlike Marvel Heroes, for instance, with eternity splinters locked behind time gates, a player’s ability to fund themselves is entirely based on how fast the player can make money, making this more of a venture in ability rather than grind.
The other benefit is that those who have no problem paying the membership subscription but don’t want to pay into the cash shop can still obtain everything available from Solomon’s Store with skill and patience. Some items can only be purchased with loyalty points, meaning using bonds to buy Runecoins can only get you so far.
3. Treasure Hunter
Like Solomon’s Store and membership, Treasure Hunter (known as Squeal of Fortune) has been drastically altered by the ability to redeem bonds for keys. As with Solomon’s Store, one bond gives you approximately five dollars worth of keys, 15 in total. In addition, players receive a non-stacking daily stipend of keys that reset at midnight GMT, one for free players, two for members, and three for premiere club members. In addition, players can obtain keys randomly as drops and by completing quests or promotional activities.
What sets Treasure Hunter apart from Solomon’s General Store is that the rewards are completely luck based, making this RuneScape’s equivalent to a lockbox in other MMOs. As a free daily activity, it is handy for a few free bonuses here and there. As a method of acquiring items, as I’ve said in the past, it is a waste of both time and money. Jagex has ramped up the efforts to sell Treasure Hunter keys through limited time items that are only available for a few days. In some cases, Jagex has introduced tradeable rares through limited Treasure Hunter promotions.
So it is possible to obtain as many Treasure Hunter keys as you’d like without spending a dime, provided you’re willing to put the work into buying bonds.
4. Conclusion
Ultimately RuneScape is pretty friendly to free players. Those who are willing to put in the work to make money can subsidize their memberships off the backs of those willing to pony up the real money for RuneScape gold. I do get the feeling that the cost of bonds is rather low comparable to the ease with which a skilled player can make money, meaning that the community isn’t exactly falling over itself to buy bonds and gather up the items in the cash shop.
In regards to Treasure Hunter, buying bonds to redeem for keys is still a waste of time and money, but at least you can rest knowing it wasn’t your money being wasted.
