Ancient Relics/Guide

This content is part of the Atlas of Discovery Expansion.

Dungeons

While dungeons are unchanged, the Ancient Relics gamemode requires players to complete dungeons to increase their skill levels, which are otherwise locked to a very low level.

While dungeons can be completed in any order, the following is a suggested order based on the max hit of the boss of each dungeon, including a link to the guide to that dungeon, as well as the combat level cap the player will have for that dungeon.

Lvl	Dungeon	Guide	Max
10	Chicken Coop	Chicken Coop/Guide	52
15	Undead Graveyard	Undead Graveyard/Guide	106
20	Spider Forest	Spider Forest/Guide	142
25	Frozen Cove	Frozen Cove/Guide	172
30	Deep Sea Ship	Deep Sea Ship/Guide	204
35	Bandit Base	Bandit Base/Guide	174
40	Hall of Wizards	Hall of Wizards/Guide	208
45	Miolite Caves	Miolite Caves/Guide	240
50	Dragons Den	Dragons Den/Guide	470
55	Volcanic Cave	Volcanic Cave/Guide	520

Skills

Throughout the game the skills level are capped (initially to 10) which means that you will need to carefully manage resources and equipment early on. Completing a dungeon will raise your skill caps and so this is a good first goal. Fishing and cooking are locked out until much later making dungeons considerably harder, and you will need creative ways of getting those foods with higher HP.

Any skill XP earned over the ceiling cap will be deleted, but the mastery and global mastery XP work as normal.

Ancient Relics

Performing any skill will give you a (low) chance of discovering an Ancient Relic. Whilst it is possible to get all of the Ancient Relics without completing dungeons, it is not recommended. There is however a guaranteed Ancient Relic when you reach skill level 20 which is likely to happen after completing your first dungeon.

Lesser Relics

While skilling you will be rewarded with Lesser Relics which can be equipped to give boosts to that skill. One Lesser Relic will be used for every action. For example, in Mining the Mining Lesser Relic will guarantee one jewel for every ore, which is a great way to earn early in the game.

Skill Balancing

When levelling up your skills it is important to consider how each skill interacts with your other skills and abilities. For example, if you level Smithing it will give you access to stronger weapons and armour, but to use this skill you will also not Mine for the raw materials and a higher combat level to wear the items you have made. Similarly, if you level Firemaking to soon then you will also need Woodcutting (or Thieving) to balance out this skill.

When to fully explore cartography

Early exploration of Cartography is recommended as it unlocks many great rewards. However, it is strongly recommended that you do not attempt to fully explore Cartography (or use Auto Survey) until you are able to reach Level 100. Surveying has a finite amount of XP available, and any that you waste early on could limit how much of the map you ultimately reveal.

Map creation and upgrades have unlimited XP, but these are not a generous source of XP, and will consume a lot of Paper.

Levels 1 to 10: Starting tips

Starting tips:

Township Tasks: Check out the easier Township tasks as often these will give useful rewards such as food, or which can be a big boost early on. Use a Bronze Dagger to kill 100 Plant. This will complete the township task and reward you with 2,000 Potatoes.
Cartography: Starting Cartography will give you 50. Surveying the Farmer's Market at (13, 16) which is close to your starting position in 500.
Slayer Tasks: It is free to select a new slayer task, and so for every combat keep re-rolling until you get a low target monster. You will need to stick to Plant, Chicken and Cow. Use potatoes while training combat, and save high value food items such as Shrimp for the Chicken Coop dungeon.
Runecrafting: Ancient Relics uses the hardcore Combat Triangle, and so magic is powerful against melee monsters. Runecrafting will let you unlock more damaging spells. Mine plenty of Rune Essence to create runes and obtains staves such as the Staff of Earth and the highest magic gear you can obtain. You can train Level 10 on the Cow.
Mining: The Mining Lesser Relic provides a guaranteed gem, and so mining ore is a good source of early on. Sell jewels to obtain 1,000,000 to unlock Auto Eat Tier 1 early as this will give a considerable advantage.
Melee: Train melee to 10 XP and unlock the Golbin Thief and use Mining and Smithing to create 50. Make at least one Golbin Thief so that you can receive more marks.
Chicken Coop The Chicken Coop can be defeated once you have maxed out your magic, hitpoints and prayer XP. You should wear your strongest magic gear possible, and a good supply of runes. Use Earth Strike magic, and Thick Skin as your prayer for a small advantage. Use Shrimp to maintain your health.

Once you have defeated the dungeon, you will unlock level 15 in combat, and the skills you have selected.

Levels 11 to 29: Skilling recommendations

After completing a dungeon, you will be offered a randomized selection of skills and level caps to select from. Whilst some choices might be straight-forward, it can be challenging weighing up the benefits and of each skill.

Here are some things to consider:

Thieving: Once you get to Level 26 you will unlock Assistant Cook which will be a great source of food. Also, you can use Thieving to get as well as some useful drops or ammo, as there are very few other ways to make money at this time.
Farming: This provides a passive source of food, herbs, and logs. For example, killing Junior Farmer until you have 3 Potato Seeds so that you can start Farming for extra food. In time, the passive benefits of Farming will give you a huge boost.
Astrology: Early on, there are some good passive boosts available in Astrology. However, the cost of unlocking increases quickly, so early it's a good idea to focus on small boosts, rather than trying to max out .
Summoning: This gives a big boost and is needed for the higher strength mobs and dungeons. For example, Golbin Thief is a good early summon that will help give the advantage in combat.
Slayer: The Slayer tasks will reward you with Slayer Coins which can be used to purchase Slayer re-supplies. These give you a good source of food, prayer and ammo. It is going to be a long time before you unlock Fishing and Cooking, so these re-supplied will be invaluable. Levelling Slayer will also unlock new mobs and dungeons in time.

Levels 30+: Places of Interest

At this point you will have found some Ancient Relics which will give you passive benefits. but there is still a lot to discover.

Here are some suggestions on where to go next:

Discovering the Wet Forest at (9, 16) will reward 60 Oxilyme Seeds, 60 Mantalyme Seeds and 60 Lemontyle Seeds which can help you get started in Farming and Herblore.
The Runed Battlefield at (7, 15) provides 1,000 Mind Rune, 1,000 Chaos Rune and 1,000 Death Rune which will give added boosts to Magic for the early bosses.
The Holy Isles at (17, 17) will reward 100 Medium Urn and if buried will give you a big Prayer advantage.
The Castle of Kings at(21, 16) gives you Knight's Cape and (G) Mithril Platebody which is a great way to get some early damage reduction (DR). However, you will need Level 20 to equip these items.
Discovering Mucky Cave at (22, 18) in Cartography unlocks the Mucky Cave combat area which provides Barrier Dust, Barrier Sapping Gloves and consumables such as Leeching Bolts, Vial of Goo, and Vial of Acid.
Discovering Monuments at (6, 11) in Cartography unlocks a dig site. Excavating for the dig site in Archaeology to uncover the Ancient Stone Tablet which unlocks Golem Territory dungeon. You must complete this dungeon to unlock all of the other Dungeons.
Discovering Shrouded Horizon at (4, 26) in Cartography provide 50,000 which can be used to purchase 10 slayer re-supplies. There is a relatively direct path available from the starting position that can be done with Level 10, but will cost up to 500,000 in travel.
Discovering The Shadow Lurkers at (8, 14) provides 500 and 500 which can be used to upgrade armour before getting the ability to mine and smith these materials.

Continue defeating dungeons to increase your skill caps and along the way you will discover the Ancient Relics. Good luck!