Leagues is back in Old School RuneScape, which means everybody’s been scrambling trying to plan their routes and how they’ll maximize their points within the first few hours.
… And then there’s people like me, who just wings it at the start and takes it easy all throughout. After all, it’s supposed to be a fun game mode where we all become overpowered one way or another, and there’s no need to race if you’re a casual like me.
If you’re not trying to rush to a Dragon cup and are just looking for some advice on how to play through the next two months without feeling pressured, I have a few tips that might help!
Fun Over Hyper-Efficiency
I said this two years ago in my laid-back Raging Echoes League guide, but it still rings true today, especially now that the relics have had their power levels nerfed a tad bit. The points for each region are also balanced now, so you’re free to choose whichever you think looks interesting if you don’t feel like following the exact steps of the top rank pushers.
Region Choices – Which Ones To Go For?
So, like with the past league, we get to unlock up to three other regions aside from our starting area as we progress through the tiers. The huge twist with the Demonic Pacts league is that Misthalin is inaccessible.
Instead, everybody starts out in Varlamore, which used to be my first pick. For casual and new players, you’re in for a treat, as this will expose you to training methods that you may not be too familiar with. We’ve got Vale Totems, the Libation Bowl, Sulphur Naguas, Stealing Valuables, “Free” Prayer Potions, and more.
With that said, my old advice about picking stuff that you want to learn in the main game still applies. For example, if you want to learn how to do the Theatre of Blood raid, Morytania is gonna be a lock for one of your choices. You’ll have people running that a lot during the league, especially since one of the tasks is to complete all of the combat achievements related to it.
If you want an example of a full selection with reasons, here are my personal choices and why I’m picking them:
- Area #1. Tirannwn – I’ll be going over this in the next section, but my main reason for picking Tirannwn is because I plan on taking full advantage of certain Demonic Pacts to breeze through the Gauntlet, which I’m already very familiar with. It also has some decent training methods and gear tied to it. Aside from that, it’s just my favorite region in the game!
- By the way, I’ve got a guide on how to complete the Corrupted Gauntlet if you’re thinking of trying it out this league!
- Area #2. Kandarin – Mage is going to be pretty strong in this league, and I want to see how far I can push the Echo items of this region. It’s a pretty chill region overall, as long as you don’t mind some of the more ridiculous tasks (*cough* Chompy Bird Hunting *cough*)
- Area #3. Kourend/Desert – As of writing this, I’m still not sure which region I’m picking last. I kinda want to run it back with the Desert region as I’m already very comfortable with Tombs of Amascut, but I also want to learn Chambers of Xeric with training wheels on. You’ll see what I went with once I write my full “laid-back” guide within the next week!
Which Demonic Pacts Build to Use?
In case you’re out of the loop, this league features the Demonic Pacts system, which is essentially a small Path of Exile-inspired skill tree with really powerful combat buffs. You can have up to 40 points allocated, and you unlock these by completing certain league tasks related to combat.
You might see a lot of “best” builds floating around on the internet, but what some of them don’t tell you is that getting the full 40 points is going to be extremely hard for inexperienced PVMers. To put it into perspective, some of these points are locked behind awakened Desert Treasure II bosses, multiple raid completions, and just difficult bosses in general.
If you’re a casual player without a lot of PVM experience, I highly recommend just finding synergies on your own and cooking up a build that only needs 10-20 points to “go online”. Realistically, a lot of us aren’t going to be maxed out on points, and that’s completely okay!
Everybody’s going to be OP as hell without a maxed out build, so don’t sweat it too much. At best, you can try to modify one of the “best” builds out there so that it’s still effective without the full set. You can use this handy Demonic Pacts Planner to help you study the nodes in your free time.
Which Relics Do I Pick?
Honestly, all of the relics this time around actually seem useful, with no clear “objectively best choice” like with the Clue Compass from last league.
Personally, my relics are going to be chosen for a balance of active gaming and chill AFKing on the side. Here is what I plan on going for:
- Tier 1: Endless Harvest – It’s in the name! This relic lets you fish, cut trees, or mine essentially endlessly until you click away or get logged for inactivity. It’s the “AFK” relic of this tier, and this will work well with late game EXP pushes.
- Tier 2: Hotfoot – The Searing Boots let you gain agility experience passively, and it also synergizes well with Endless Harvest because of the auto cooking and smelting. This “solves” two more skills passively, which is another plus for the chill playstyle.
- Tier 3: Evil Eye – I’m taking Evil Eye because I plan on doing a lot of PVM in this league. Map of Alacrity may be great too, but at this time, I’m gravitating towards the boss teleports. Assuming it works as I think it will, this relic should let you go straight to a bank via Hueycoatl’s teleport.
- Tier 4: Conniving Clues – There are still clue scroll-related tasks in this league, so this is what I’ll be going for. Butler’s Bell is a nice AFK training method for various skills, and Transmutation seems cool overall. This one’s just a fun tier overall, and I’m honestly still torn at the moment.
- Tier 5: Soul Harvest – It’s an easy way to level up Runecraft and Prayer, and since I’ll be killing a lot of stuff, I don’t see any downside to taking it. Larcenist sounds cool too, but I plan on training thieving through Stealing Valuables and wealthy citizens instead. Remember, we all start in Varlamore!
- Tier 6: Culling Spree – Slayer is a slog, and I like choosing what targets to go for. This also gives some very useful combat buffs, so why the hell not. Eternal Sustenance is the better choice here if you’re struggling with PVM!
- Tier 7: Flow State – Call me crazy, but Flow State works well with Endless Harvest, and it lets me quickly train up stuff that I’m probably gonna be behind on (fletching and crafting mainly). It also helps with Stealing Valuables.
- Tier 8: Minion – It’s extra DPS that’s completely hands-off. I don’t really have anything else to say about this tier, this is just the “best” choice in my opinion.
Again, these are just my planned choices! I’ll be writing a full “laid-back” guide based on my experiences once a week or at least a few days has passed, just like I did last league.
There are choices like Larcenist and Reloaded that could contribute much better to a chill and AFK playstyle, but I’m going for a setup that balances hands-free training and active gameplay.
Give It A Few Days
As with every league, it takes at least a day until the most broken mechanics are truly discovered by the community. At the moment, all we have are theorycrafting notes. Heck, the league is about to start in a few minutes as I’m writing this, so there may already be a few outdated takes out there by the time you read this.
Just have fun with the league and remember that it isn’t a competition, unless you’re rushing for the Dragon cup. If that were the case, though, then you wouldn’t be here lol. Anyways, catch you guys later once I start writing week 1 Demonic Pacts content!