Prior experience: Played RS2 f2p as a kid, later on spent a fair bit of time into RS3 and a little of OSRS. My partner Temper plays both games extensively and I have a lot of knowledge of both through her. However, I've never played or even seen RSC gameplay before!
Day 1
Quest 0) Tutorial Island
Oh geeze this is not at all the tutorial island I remember. Kind of incredible? It's definitely giving relevant advice for this version of the game, but the writing sure is something else. Why on earth are Fishing and Cooking not taught together? And we only mine 1 tin and "oh yeah if you find copper you can smelt them for bronze"? Truly a legendary tutorial. I do enjoy the examine texts! (The low-effort writing really adds to the charm, and I'm not saying that to be critical) Immediate hangups with the controls: Not being able to rotate the camera vertically is strange but I'll get used to it, and I got stuck at the quest advisor for a while because I didn't notice the dialogue options in the top-left (curse of modern screen sizes, I suppose). Anyway, we eventually reached the boatman and set off to Lumbridge!![Image](https://i.imgur.com/mpKyXOX.png)
Quest 1) Cook's Assistant
What else would we do first? Take an egg and bucket, milk a cow (no 'dairy cow', just a cow), pick some grain and mill it, bring everything back, unlock the fancy range! I'm really glad Jagex has never changed this one. That's 1 Quest Point and Level 4 Cooking!![Image](https://i.imgur.com/2qEFkS9.png)
Tried to talk to Hans on the way out, accidentally left-click attacked him. Oops!
To prepare for Sheep Shearer, I have to free up my inventory for wool. That means headed to Draynor for banking, and oh gosh is the lack of a run button standing out. I've always had a fondness for older-than-old-school design like this, and I'm looking forward to familiarising myself with the pace of this game, but right now on Day 1 it's rough. Somehow the jail guards never attacked me all day, maybe they aren't aggressive? (Or maybe they can't catch me even when I enter their range)
Next issue: The bank interface. I keep accidentally not banking everything! Made a mental note to double-check my inventory when leaving the bank to make sure it only has what I intend to take. Hopefully this is another mechanic I get familiar with soon?
Quest 2) Sheep Shearer
Check the wiki for where the shear spawn is, and... I have to buy it for 1gp. At least I didn't bank my gold! Somehow this quest is faster on RSC thanks to being able to shear the same sheep repeatedly. The spinning wheel using each piece of wool individually on the wheel feels like an alarming portent for what skill training in this game is going to look like... I'm sure it'll be fine? +1 Quest Point, +2 Crafting levels!![Image](https://i.imgur.com/XFVhugI.png)
That just leaves one more quest in Lumbridge...
Quest 3) The Restless Ghost
Alright! Into the swamp to get our amulet of ghostspeak, and... there's no path into the swamp from Lumbridge? Wait, really? So we go all the way around via draynor into the swamp, and of course he's in the furthest corner from the entrance. Hello Urhney, I've come to repossess your house! (No I don't know why, I just wanted this house!) This piece of dialogue is a vivid memory I've had from childhood, and I'm glad it's never changed either!All the way back around to talk to the ghost, and... it wants a skull from the "warlocks to the south-west". Well, at least this trip isn't as far?
Stopped by the bank on the way over for some food, and escaping the angry skeleton wasn't a problem. One more trip back to Lumbridge and that's quest complete for Level 6 Prayer and +1 Quest Point!
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/IQOD8lk.png)
I've let Temper know I'm going to need help for Shield of Arrav, and she's happy to take a break from Trailblazer Reloaded to experience RSC. I'll be doing the Black Arm Gang, so it's time for some serious combat training. Went for chickens over goblins for the feather drop and building up some food reserves, and set a target of Level 10 Strength/Attack/Defense before moving to Varrock.
Half an hour gets 10 Strength...
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/pkPgiPN.png)
Ten more minutes of running around and I reach 10 Cooking. I've decided this is enough food and I'm getting really tired of walking to Draynor every 25 kills, so after this I stop picking up the unstackable raw chicken and just hang out at the farm to complete my combat goal.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/Hvvtvsr.png)
Level 10 Attack is another fifteen minutes...
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/9d9U2os.png)
And one more fifteen-minute session earned Level 10 Defense.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/z87uf3E.png)
All the 3.75 exp chicken bones also manage to finally add up to 10 Prayer! This really looks like the slowest skill in the game and it's not even close, given we started at Level 6 from the previous quest. The only saving grace seems to be that Level 40 will be enough to actually unlock all the prayers? It's definitely interesting seeing how dissimilar the skills are to each other.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/GsTjTjv.png)
With our chicken slaughter complete, it's over to Varrock for the remaining three release-day quests!
Quest 4) Shield of Arrav
I'm a little worried about the Level 25 Weaponmaster in my near future, so I start by checking out the shops and figuring out what I can afford. Turns out the items in my bank don't have quite as much value to the general store as I was hoping (maybe I train magic sooner rather than later?), so I ultimately just settle on some bronze chain mail to avoid cleaning myself out.With my new equipment I say hello to Reldo and make my way over to the Black Arm Gang. Katrine gives us the crossbow quest, and after getting the key from Temper and testing our new skills on a mugger near the door I make my way upstairs! This is my first real opportunity to test out the RSC mechanic of "retreaating from combat to eat before re-engaging". It takes most of my inventory of food as I learn how to do this sensibly, but the Weaponmaster does fall and I get out of there with the crossbows! Returning to Katrine gives me access to my shield half, and after coordinating with Temper we've completed the quest for 600 coins and +1 Quest Point! Time to start thinking tomorrow about what I want to buy...
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/S2exWpW.png)
That's all for Day 1! Next time I'll be playing Romeo & Juliet and taking on the Darkwizards in Demon Slayer. Here's my current hiscores page for a summary:
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/Eux02Dj.png)