Quest Preparation - Ode of the Devourer

Greetings intrepid adventurers, lorehounds and those just starting their journey! We have recently just wrapped up ourRS Ahead show and there is plenty of amazing content on the horizon, so to help players get ready for some of the next steps into the world of Gielinor we have created this blog as a guide to getting ready for the upcoming Ode of the Devourer quest on September 16th!

This quest will be an important milestone for players, as not only will it unlock access to the second ever Skilling Boss, the "Gate of Elidinis", it will be required for the upcoming Desert Quests and eventual showdown with Amascut next year. So if you want to be ready to complete this quest and take on the Gate of Elidinis on launch keep reading!

If you are already up to date with all the recent quests in the Fort Forinthry and Necromancy storylines you will be more than prepared to take on the Gate of Elidinis on September 23rd.

Gotta Quest em all

Quests are a conduit for the stories of Gielinor and Ode of the Devourer follows on from both "The First Necromancer" and the "Fort Forinthry" quest series. Both of these series intersect at various points and will also be building towards the finale of the Desert Quest series, so to help players get up to speed, we have outlined the requirements for those chains below and some helpful tips to progress them.

As they are both separate quest lines you can get started on both and work towards their requirements in tandem.

The First Necromancer Quest Series

Rasial, the first necromancer, is making his move on the souls of Um and eventually the living world of Gielinor! Team up with Death to learn the arts of Necromancy and bring the battle to Rasial and his lieutenant Hermod.

Along the way learn powerful Necromancy combat skills, use rituals to guide wayward souls back to Um and learn to craft formidable Necromancy gear to help you on your adventures!

Milestone Challenges

During these quests you will be progressing the Necromancy storyline, diving into some older questlines likeGhosts Ahoy andThe Jack of Spades but generally it is smooth sailing. However there is a couple moments that could benefit from a little more forward thinking.

For theTomes of the Warlock you will need to reach 86 Skill in Archaeology, (66 in Magic & 75 in Necromancy but as you have been following the Necromancy chain to this point you will have been steadily gaining those levels and Magic as a combat skill can be trained at your preferred pace) this can be a little daunting on first look but with some determination you will make stellar progress.

Below we have given a few tips on how you could approach gaining these levels.

Archaeology

At its core Archaeology is a gathering skill where players can excavate artefacts and materials at Dig sites using specialised tools called Mattocks, once they have excavated an artefact they can restore it using the materials they found and donate it to various collectors around the world of Gielinor. There are plenty of other fun and interesting aspects such as solving mysteries but for the sake of brevity we will focus on this core loop. If you are aiming to level your Archaeology quickly the best advice is to :

• Excavate at the highest available spots
• This can change from level to level as new spots open up on different dig sites, check out this extensive list on theWiki.
• Upgrade your Mattock every 10 levels.
• You can craft these yourself using the Smithing Skill, buy them from the Grand Exchange orMatty Ock's Mattock Shop will sell a new mattock all the way up to Rune at level 50.
• Consider purchasing materials needed to restore any artefacts you have from the Grand Exchange.
• A large chunk of the experience comes from restoring the artefacts and commonly you will excavate more then you will have the materials for, you can go to material caches to gather more materials but if speed is your goal then purchasing the materials from the G.E can save more time.
• When possible use the restored artefacts as part ofcollections, this will let you exchange them for more Chronotes which can be used to buy upgrades and items from theArchaeology Guild Shop.
• Don't ignoreResearch and Mysteries
• These activities can be worth the extra bit of time to include in your process as they reward extra experience or materials!

Finally if you have questions or would like a more in-depth chat about the mechanics of Archaeology you can head over to theDiscord Server of the same name as it is dedicated to helping all intrepid tomb raiders!

To unlock the quest "The Spirit of War" you will need to gather up 3000 Vessel Souls and during it you will need to defeat Hermod in a boss battle using your Necromancy skills.

Battling Hermod

Bosses can be intimidating initially but as part of this quest you will be fighting a Story mode version of Hermod who has less health and damage then normal so even if you are worried about your gear not being up to par he is more approachable then his full strength version which is unlocked after the quest.

Our very ownRSGuy had made a guide on this boss to help get folks up to speed for give that a check too

Gathering Vessel Souls

A portion of the Necromancy storyline centers around the Well of Souls in the City of Um and you help return souls to it in the form of Vessel Souls, to unlock the Spirit of War quest you will need to gather 3000 of these souls.

The main source of these souls is completing Communion Rituals which you will be doing as part of the Necromancy levelling process. As you get closer in levels needed for the quest you may find yourself short a few hundred souls and so the best ways to earn more Vessels souls are :

• Use the highest tier of Communion ritual and the best Focus item you have available.
• At level 60 Necromancy you unlockGreater communion rituals which will give 10 souls at minimum per ritual.
• Focus items are used up as part of the ritual but using higher quality can be a big boon to souls gained, For example usingWyvern bones is 4 times as effective as using regularBones.
• If you have the funds consider purchasing Mementos, they act as focus items and offer large amounts of souls!
• Use Multiply Glyphs for increased rewards
• Multiply I is unlocked at 30 Necromancy andMultiply II is unlocked at 66 Necromancy
• Using these in your Communion rituals increase the ritual output and you can use as many as you have extra glyph slots in the ritual to greatly increase the souls earnt.

Fort Forinthry Quest Series

King Roald of Varrock has decreed a dukedom for anyone who can build and maintain a stronghold on the border of the Wilderness. Jumping on this chance the intrepid adventurer uses their construction skills (and a lot of help from Bill) to lay the foundations of a formidable Fortress.

Over time you build up its fortifications while working with the denizens to put a stop to another one of Zemouregal's plans to wipe Varrock off the map with an army of the undead.

Milestone Challenges

As you work your way through the Fort Forinthry quests you will be constructing different buildings in the fort, fighting off undead and eventually battling Zemouregal and the voracious Vorkath.

Building out the Fort is one of the major themes and several of the quests unlock and require the construction of different buildings.

Thankfully the construction process is quite streamlined and building these structures will give you plenty of Construction experience to help keep your level growing enabling access to the next quests.

Building the Fort

Getting your fort up and running is just a matter of getting your hands on the materials , and a little elbow grease. Buildings are crafted with relevant level frames which are refined from logs & Stone Wall Segments which are crafted from Limestone Bricks.

• All the tools you need to create the Fort Buildings can be found in the Workshop, such as the Stonecutter, the Woodworking bench and the Sawmill.
• Planks, Refined Planks & Frames are all crafted using logs, at a rate of 1 log per Plank , 4 Planks per Refined Plank and 3 Refined Planks per Frame. This means each Frame is 12 logs.
• The quickest method to get a hold of these items is via the G.E as all the materials are purchasable from other players.
• If you're an avid woodcutter gathering your own logs can save a bunch of gold and help build out your Woodcutting levels.
• If you have the Fletching levels (or the cash) grab yourself a Wood Box to carry your logs, these boxes were added as part of the Woodcutters Grove addition to the Fort but you don't need to unlock the Grove to create or use them.
• Limestone is used for the Stone wall segments and you would be forgiven if ya felt you had to go mine and refine the stone yourself but Bill the workshop manager has an ample supply of Limestone Bricks for cheap so just grab them off him.
• As you progress through the quests you will need to build tier 1 versions of the buildings, these are the base variant and offer interesting bonuses, if you are solely focused on the quests you can come back later and check out some of the T2 and T3 bonuses by right clicking Bill and choosing "Building Status" to see all the potential benefits.

Ungael Combat Challenge

During theAncient Awakening quest, players will travel to Ungael where they will need to battle their way through a wave based combat encounter. Thankfully you're not alone as Bill, The Raptor and Aster are there with you as moral and dps support.

When you start the challenge you will need to defeat a total of 12 waves, if you are confident in your combat prowess dive right and work away but if you need some assistance try to stay away from the middle of the arena and let your allies do the tanking as the monsters will attack the nearest possible target.

As you defeat waves you will be able to choose some power ups to help battle the later waves, again if you're confident take power ups that improve your own damage or you can use the powers such as "Provoking Shout" to help to stay safe and progress the encounter.

Once you have completed this combat activity for the quest you will be able to return later and challenge a harder version to get your hands on your own set of Spare Raptor Armour.

Battling Vorkath and Zemouregal

TheBattle of Forinthry takes place just outside the walls of the Fort, here you will need to disrupt three places of power guarded by Undead Giants like the ones you fought in Ancient Awakening.

Then do battle with Vorkath and Zemouregal directly. This quest will bring you through the entire encounter and teach you about the mechanics you will face throughout, you will also be accompanied by the Raptor who will help throughout.

• Bring Food and Potions if you have them, particularly useful are Super Antifire potions as they help negate Vorkaths dragonfire damage.
• Consider a Beast of Burden familiar as they can carry more food to help keep you topped up.
• The Salve Amulet is a particularly strong and accessible necklace that gives a big bonus to accuracy against undead targets.

You can also check out this guide byProtoxx that helps showcase the fight and gives you some more tips on how to approach it.

Wrapping up

These are just some suggestions on how to approach being ready for what comes next. As RuneScape is an incredibly vast game there will be many other ways to approach gathering experience for skill levels so don't feel like this is the only way to make progress!

If you are looking for more information or help with these quests, why not check out theOfficial Discord! Players from all over the world gather there to share helpful tips and ideas.

- The RuneScape Team

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