The old MMORPG RuneScape still captivates a huge number of players. One of these players has set out to make OldSchool RuneScape even more challenging: with challenges. Through his idea, he now attracts hundreds of thousands of fans.
These are the videos in question: The YouTuber Settled has been diligently making videos about the Old School MMORPG RuneScape, which has been on the market for over 18 years.
Despite its age, RuneScape is still popular and inspires creative minds to create new content. Settled shares many of his thoughts, guides, or discoveries with the community.
The core of his videos is almost always something he has achieved or set out to do. He mainly accomplishes tasks that are not particularly unusual for regular players. However, he connects them with exciting stories.
For the past few months, he has been showcasing “Ultimate Ironman Challenges.” Particularly, his series featuring a character named “Swampletics” has resonated with fans.
The videos receive several hundred thousand views, sometimes just within a few hours. RuneScape is still actively played, but even for this ratio, these are enormous viewer numbers. By comparison: the OldSchool RuneScape subreddit has just over 300,000 members.
What are these challenges? Settled undertakes the challenges in the so-called Ironman Mode. Ironmen are accounts that have many restrictions in RuneScape, making the game more difficult. As an “Ultimate Ironman,” a special Ironman mode, these restrictions are even greater:
- it is not possible to trade with other players
- no access to the bank, meaning limited inventory
- PvP features and many minigames are disabled
- the character does not keep items upon death
Settled has made these already difficult conditions even tougher: he does not want to leave a certain region. This means he has to utilize all features of a zone.
For Settled, the purpose of RuneScape has always been to set goals and achieve them. He has previously undertaken such a challenge and took several years to do so. Now, he is starting again with “Swampletics” in the region of Morytania.
What is Morytania? Morytania is a swampy area far in the east of the RuneScape world. In Morytania, vampires dominate the region from a type of castle, and the whole area feels like a horror movie.
The region is populated by monsters such as:
- vampires
- werewolves
- undead
- ghosts
In lore, it is considered the “Land of Evil.” In the game, it is an area for players of medium to higher levels. Morytania is also home to the raid “Theatre of Blood,” which many players generally consider to be very difficult. It continually attracts adventurers seeking special challenges.
Why is this special: Settled has set out to increase all skills only in Morytania. This is particularly difficult because certain prerequisites simply do not exist.
Skills like blacksmithing cannot be increased in a conventional way. Therefore, Settled has to resort to tricks to maximize his character’s potential. This takes a lot of time because the alternative methods are associated with a significant grind.
In doing so, Settled often discovers stories or features in Morytania that other players miss or ignore. He shares his discoveries in special videos with the fans.
Settled always faces the disadvantage of being significantly weaker than the enemies in the area, as he came to Morytania with as few advantages as possible. This leads to a lot of trickery in combat.
His ultimate goal is to take on the “Theatre of Blood.” His prerequisite for this is that the group cannot be better equipped than he is. A hard-to-achieve goal.
This is how the videos are received: Although or precisely because Settled struggles with many things that should be easy, his videos are very popular. Other RuneScape players are fascinated by how he overcomes hurdles or finds alternative ways to play.
Many viewers can’t even explain to themselves why they are so fascinated. They simply enjoy watching Settled slowly level up his “Swampletics” and come a little closer to his goal with each video.
What do you think of the videos from the successful RuneScape player?
RuneScape is doing well, by the way – yet there is a controversy:
