Ancient Relics/Guide

This content is part of the Atlas of Discovery Expansion.

Dungeons

While dungeons are unchanged, the Ancient Relics game mode 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 Hit
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

Note: The recommended order for dungeons does not match the order shown in the game.

Skills

Throughout the game the skills level are initially capped 10 which means that you will need to carefully manage resources and equipment early on. Completing a dungeon will raise your skill caps, so this is a good first goal. Fishing and cooking are locked until much later making dungeons considerably more difficult. You will need creative ways of getting food that heals more hitpoints.

Any skill XP earned over the cap will be deleted. But the mastery and global mastery XP works as normal.

There are various ways of obtaining better equipment and items, such as the following:

Food can be purchased from the Shop with , stolen in Thieving, or from discovery in Cartography
Steel and higher value woods can be stolen in Thieving
Gold/Silver can be obtained from Cartography or from Statue
Mithril/Steel armour can be obtained from combat, Thieving or township tasks.
Runes can be obtained from combat, Cartography and even township tasks.

Ancient Relics

Performing any skill will give you a small chance of discovering an ancient relic. Whilst it is possible to get all of the ancient relics without completing dungeons, it is not recommended. It is worth noting that many of the ancient relics will give you passive rewards that go beyond the skill and should not be overlooked. There is however a guaranteed ancient relic when you reach skill level 20 which is likely to happen after completing your first dungeon. You should try to get these relics as soon as they are available.

Lesser Relics

While skilling you can 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. Similarly, the Thieving Lesser Relic provides an extra +30 stealth which will come in handy when you want to progress Thieving.

Skill Balancing

When levelling up your skills it is important to consider how each skill interacts with 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 need to mine for raw materials and a higher combat level to wear the items you have made. Similarly, if you level Firemaking too soon, 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 to not attempt to fully explore cartography (or use Auto Survey) until you are able to reach cartography 100. Surveying has a finite amount of XP available, and any XP that you waste early on could limit how much of the map you ultimately reveal.

Map creation and upgrades give 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 for 500.
Slayer Tasks: Selecting a new slayer task is free, and so for every task keep re-rolling until you get a low level monster. You will need to stick to Plant, Chicken and Cow. Use potatoes while training combat, and save high healing food items such as Shrimp for the Chicken Coop dungeon.
Runecrafting: Ancient Relics uses the hardcore Combat Triangle. This means magic is powerful against melee monsters. Runecrafting will let you unlock more damaging spells. Mine plenty of Rune Essence to create runes and obtain staves such as the Staff of Earth including the highest magic gear you can obtain. You can train Level 10 on the Cow.
Mining: The Mining Lesser Relic provides a guaranteed gem. This makes mining ore a good source of early on. Sell jewels to obtain 1,000,000 and unlock Auto Eat Tier 1 early, as this will give a considerable advantage.
Melee: Train melee to 10 XP and unlock the Golbin Thief. 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 allows 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-supplies will be invaluable. Levelling slayer will also unlock new mobs and dungeons.

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) 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 Shrouded Horizon at (4, 26) provides 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 10 cartography, 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!

Dungeon Walkthrough

This section gives a walkthrough on how to defeat the early dungeons without relying too much on player skill and/or luck. In your playthrough, you should use the ancient relics and skills that you unlock. It is possible that your route will deviate quickly from this path. This guide does not rely on any particular skills or relics being obtained and so should work for most playthroughs, but will necessarily be optimum for your relics and skills.

For the walkthrough, it is assumed that you have levelled all of the combat stats to the maximum after every dungeon. And that all combat training is done using Slayer Tasks to give . You will need a supply of , and it is assumed that you are either mining ore to obtain jewels, or thieving and selling items. When equipped, the Mining Lesser Relic will give a guaranteed jewel for every ore which is a good way to make early .

In your playthrough, it is recommended that you level every skill to 20, as soon as it becomes available, as this will give a guaranteed ancient relic. Ancient relics often give benefits outside of the skill itself, so so not overlook the benefits these and the lesser relics. Leveling township and farming as you go along is recommended as these passive skills will pay dividends in time.

Chicken Coop: Level 10

- Main article: Chicken Coop/Guide

Start mining Rune Essence until you reach level 10. Equip the Mining Lesser Relic if it becomes available. With Runecrafting make roughly equal numbers of air runes, mind runes and earth runes. After that, craft enough runes to create the following magic gear;

Start Cartography to unlock 50, but save this for the dungeon. Survey and discover Farmer's Market in (13, 16) to obtain 500 which will be your main combat training food supply. Next, survey and discover The Restless Sanctum at (13, 14) to get 1000 which can be buried for .

Level up all of your combat skills to level 10 on Plant and Cow using low-level slayer tasks. When you obtain Golbin Thief craft 50 to allow more marks to be discovered.

For the dungeon battle, equip Earth Strike and equip 25 and Thick Skin. Time your Shrimp eats carefully when battling Mumma Chicken so that you get the most hits in.

You should now unlock Level 15, and will be given a random selection of skill boosts.

Undead Graveyard: Level 15

- Main article: Undead Graveyard/Guide

Level up all of your combat skills to level 15. If you have any skills that are 20 (or higher) then level these up to give you more Ancient Relics.

Obtain the Silver Ruby Necklace from Mummy or Crafting, if available. If needed, mine more Rune Essence and craft the slightly stronger magic equipment as shown in the table below. If Runecrafting was not upgraded by the first dungeon then consider a melee build instead:

Slot	Item
	Fire Acolyte Wizard Hat
	Air Acolyte Wizard Robes
	Water Acolyte Wizard Bottoms
	Earth Acolyte Wizard Boots
	Silver Ruby Necklace
	Staff of Fire

Survey and discover Old Village to unlock Archaeology. Navigate a path that follows the lowest cost tiles (and avoids any other POIs) until you reach the The Friendly Fisherman at (6, 27), which rewards 50. Next, survey and discover Shrouded Horizon at (4, 26) to get 50,000 . Purchase 5 from the Shop to complete the township task that gives you 1000. Obtain the Occultist and then craft as many Occultist as you can.

Using your remaining , purchase as many basic re-supplied as you can afford to give you Lobster. You should now have more than enough food to complete the dungeon.

For the dungeon battle, equip Manta Ray or Lobster, Fire Strike, Soul Split I and Blinding I spells. Use Occultist and Thick Skin to increase your chances of success.

Spider Forest: Level 20

- Main article: Spider Forest/Guide

Level up all of the combat skills to unlock all of the Ancient Relics. Do the same for any new skills that you have obtained. For this dungeon, it is recommended to switch to a melee build unless your runecrafting has been upgraded. To get the mithril gear, kill Mithril Knight until you have a full set of armour. Submit this to the township task to get the upgraded gear mithril armour. Then continue killing mithril knights to complete the set, as shown below:

Slot	Item	DR%
	Mithril Helmet	0%
	(G) Mithril Platebody	3%
	Mithril Platelegs	0%
	Mithril Boots	0%
	Iron Gloves	0%
	Silver Ruby Necklace	0%
	Mithril Scimitar	0%
	(G) Mithril Shield	3%
Total		6%

Using the Mining Lesser Relic mine Iron Ore (or your best ore available) to obtain jewels which you can sell. When you have 1,000,000 available, purchase Auto Eat - Tier I to make combat slightly easier. In Smithing make Iron Gloves (or Bronze Gloves if not upgraded). It is especially important that you spend the time to train your prayer and hitpoints.

Use Burst of Strength and Clarity of Thought to increase your odds. Equip Occultist summon. During the battle with Spider King you will need to time your eats carefully to avoid being killed and it may take more than one attempt.

Congratulations, you are well on the path of Ancient Relics. You can check out all of the dungeon guides for more hints and tips, but the walkthrough is complete. Good Luck!