Becoming a Runescape Member: Valdesta's Reasons, Part 2

Another reason I wanted to become a Runescape member was the expansion of skills available to me.

Herblore was the first 'members' thing I really got hooked into doing for long periods of time in Runescape.

Where do I get started with Herblore?

You have to complete the quest that the druids dressed in white in north Taverley send you on. For more quest information, check out http://www.runehq.com (not my site). I don't help with quests. Personally I hate them and do them only when I absolutely have to ;)

Okay, I've finished the quest, now where can I find herbs?

In the dungeon south of Taverley (check your map!), there are 8 or so lvl 13 Chaos druids, dressed in red and white. Generally, there are other players there already camped out, but as long as the druids are resetting faster than they can be killed, the world you're in is great. Don't expect to find a world where NOBODY is playing in that area, as it's a very popular area.

The Chaos druids have regular herblore drops when you kill them - unidentified herbs (aka "unid's" on the buy/sell market), vials of water and snape grass are often found. Also, Chaos druids drop valuable runes - Laws, Natures and Airs are the one's you'll see regularly, but occasionally they'll drop chaos or death runes as well.

There are also Chaos druids in the Edgeville dungeon, just on the inside edge of the underground Wilderness there, past the muggers. These Chaos druids are aggressive which makes killing the next one easier (they attack you, you don't have to attack them first), but you've also got to pay attention to ensure you're not getting attacked by other players who are also there primarily for the Chaos druids and what they drop.

I can't identify most of these herbs!! What now??

At low levels, this is to be expected.

My advice is to store the unidentified herbs and keep on accumulating more, trying to identify every one you pick up. As your herblore levels advance you can identify more herb types, so if you keep a good bank store of the unidentified herbs, you'll get an experience boost by having stored herbs ready for identification.

You can also sell "unid's" as they're called, on the open player market (advertise at banks), for 1000 coins, or 1k each. I kept all the herbs until I got to being able to recognize Aventoe and then I decided to take a break so I sold all the unid's I had left and made a tidy profit from it.

Okay, I have a herb and a vial of water. Now what?

Click on the herb, click on the vial of water. Viola, if you are high enough level, you've just made an "unfinished potion". Now you need to find the potion's second ingredient (listed on the Runescape Manual ... Skills pages) and click on it and then on the unfinished potion, to finish it.

You would do well to explore and find places where the secondary potion ingredients spawn naturally in the world. I know of such places for snape grass, and have mentioned the availability of unicorn horns in the Wilderness in a previous entry. Limpwurt roots can be collected in a few spots as well, although generally they're monster drops and aren't just laying around on the ground.

My favorite potions

I like energy potions, they're very useful for my excursions into the Wilderness.

I will enjoy Weapon Poison when I finally get to it, but I'm still a long ways off.

Strength potions are sellable in free worlds and can be sold for 1k each, which is nice.

Antipoison is a MUST if you're exploring far away from civilization and don't have teleports.