To play the game, you must have completed the Cabin Fever quest and have at least 40 Cooking.
What to Bring
Boots of lightness and other lightness gear, Monkeyspeak amulet, and a good Hatchet.
(There are about four Pirate Implings in a game, they can be caught using a butterfly net and an Impling jar, which are provided in the supply area (level 76 Hunter required). A magic butterfly net can also be used. These can now be caught barehanded. A Pirate Impling gives 30 experience in Hunter each when caught and give some items that can be handy during the game, such as bitternuts or coloured water. They cannot be taken out of the game.)
My 'How to Play' Guide (With a little cut and paste from wiki!)
Trouble Brewing is ALL about Teamwork. Every player has a job to do and if they do that job well, you will win. The following jobs are available to play and a minimum of 4 players on a team can work the still. If you have more than 4, you can help each other out by looking at the collection screen and what ingredients the team needs. I suggest each player 'volunteers' for a role while waiting in the team room before the start of each game (or I will use my military might and 'order you' what to do!) These roles can obviously be split up if more than 4 players are on the team.
Water and Boiler Person
Start off by collecting a full inventory of buckets from the table. Run outside to the pump and fill all your buckets. Climb the ladder in your base and empty all the buckets in the 'water' hopper. Repeat this process 3 times so you have 84 buckets of water loaded into the hopper. Apart from 4 buckets, drop all the rest and head on down to the table, pick up a tinderbox and head to the corner of your base and fill up with logs from the wood store. Deposit 5 logs in a boiler and light them before moving on to the next boiler. Top up with logs again and try to keep the boilers at 10 logs whilst watching the amount of water in the hopper and topping up as required. Eventually when a bottle of rum is produced, click on it to pack it, or it will smash.
Scrapey Bark Person
There are a number of Scrapey Trees around the area that can be cut down. They usually yield several scrapeytree logs before being felled. There are always two Scrapey Trees on the same side of the base as the coloured flowers. Once the logs are in your inventory, you must use a knife to cut the scrapeytree bark off, at which point you can put it in the corresponding hopper. Just keep pumping in the bark until you have a nice 'safety blanket' in your hopper, then look at the ingredients needed and help out your team mate if any are low!
Sweet Grubs Person
Around the area are mounds of dirt that sweetgrubs live in. To lure them out, you have to use raw rat meat on the mound. You can get an unlimited supply from the table in your base. If you succeed, you'll get some sweetgrubs. There are always two Sweetgrub mounds on the same side of the base as the coloured flowers. There is a random chance that when you use the meat on the mound, it will draw out instead a swarm of Sweetflies. This is very much like the swarm random event, causing you to have to run. No one can gather more sweetgrubs from the mound while there are still sweetflies present. The mound has a limited number of grubs, and when it's empty it will collapse. You'll have to find another mound or wait for it to fill again. Look at the ingredients needed and help out your team mate if any are low.
Coloured Flowers and Water/ Bitternuts
More than likely, everyone apart from the Water/ Boiler man will assist in this important role after they have topped up their respective hoppers.
Perhaps the most important task, as coloured water is necessary for both 'rum' production and gathering Bitternuts. To gather these, you must run all the way to the other team's base. A patch of the flowers grows just outside it. There is no wait time to pick them, but you can only pick 5 at a time; however, a team-mate can keep picking flowers and trading them to you until your inventory is full. Once you've gathered the flowers, run them back and place them in the kettle in your base. After there are flowers in the kettle, you can use a bowl to get the coloured water back out. Put it in the hopper upstairs or use it for gathering bitternuts.
The most complicated task. In order to gather Bitternuts, you must first get a few bowls of coloured water. Then, go to one of the islands and catch a monkey (which looks nothing like the Mos'le Harmless monkeys, more like a Karamjan monkey). Dye the monkey with the water to mark it as being on your team, then use it on the Bitternut tree. The monkey will skitter up the tree and, after a little while, will toss you a nut. You may not have more than one monkey up in the tree at one time. If another monkey is in the tree already, they will first fight and the winning monkey will get the nut. If you have a Monkeyspeak amulet, you can alter the strategy used. You can choose to either make the monkey angry by taunting it, or caution him. By making him angry, he'll be more inclined to get up the tree as fast as possible and start pelting you with bitternuts, speeding up the time before you get a nut. If you tell him to be careful, he'll take a little bit longer, but will be more aware of other monkeys and will be more likely to win in a confrontation.
Notes
Sabotage is frowned upon by most players as detrimental to both teams, especially when playing with a small amount of players. To the sabotaged team because it slows down 'rum' production (no benefit is given to the team that makes the most 'rum'). To the sabotaging team because it is time wasted that could be used to collect ingredients. With a lit torch, you can go to the other team's base and set things on fire. To do so, use the torch on what you want to sabotage. You'll either succeed or fail, and after a random number of attempts your torch will go out. Some things you can burn are:
Hoppers - Prevents the other team from adding ingredients or the ingredients to be added to the 'rum', though it won't damage anything already inside.
Pipes - Halts 'rum' production.
Pump - Forces water gatherers to go to the middle island for water.
Trees - Prevents the tree from being cut down and makes players go further for resources.
Bridges - Makes players go around or use the much slower jumping stones to get around. This is a double-edged sword, though, since it also makes it much harder for flower-gatherers on your team to get to the other team's base. You can only burn bridges on the opposing team's side. If your team is being swamped with saboteurs that just burn something, then running back to get another torch and burning your opponents' bridge may help slow down their saboteurs.
Defence
Boiler pump.
Defence is truly important, if your equipment is burnt, you can't get anything done. If something is set on fire, the first thing you need to do is put it out using a bucket of water. If not, it will eventually burn itself out, but you'll need more supplies to fix it afterwards. Once the fire is out, you can use the appropriate repair item to fix it. Pipes and pumps need bamboo pipes. Hoppers take lumber patches. Bridges take bridge sections. Depending on how long they were allowed to burn, it takes anywhere from 1 to 3 items to fix the problem.
You can also use the pump near the boilers on the first floor to gather pressure in the boilers. To do this, you must have over 50% run energy, and takes 10% each pump. It can hold up to 10 pumps worth of pressure. The reason to do this is defensive. When someone is trying to sabotage your boilers, you can right click the pump and select the vent option. By doing this, a burst of steam will run through the pipes. This will put out any fires currently burning and cause damage to opposing team members standing near a damaged section of pipe. You can continue to vent the pressure even if no fires are lit, and continue to damage any enemy team member standing near the pipe. If they die, they will return to their base with no loss of items. There's a negative side effect to this method, though. While it does put the fires out, it will damage the broken pipes further, taking as many bamboo pipes as if you'd let the fire run its course. Because of this, it is almost always more effective to use buckets of water to save bamboo pipes. Another defensive course is to resupply the repair items. You can do this by taking logs and using them on the workbench in your base. You can either use them yourself or use them on the table to resupply it.
Hopefully we will only see this if we play in the Trouble Brewing World, then it is still rare.
Water and Boiler Person
Start off by collecting a full inventory of buckets from the table. Run outside to the pump and fill all your buckets. Climb the ladder in your base and empty all the buckets in the 'water' hopper. Repeat this process 3 times so you have 84 buckets of water loaded into the hopper. Apart from 4 buckets, drop all the rest and head on down to the table, pick up a tinderbox and head to the corner of your base and fill up with logs from the wood store. Deposit 5 logs in a boiler and light them before moving on to the next boiler. Top up with logs again and try to keep the boilers at 10 logs whilst watching the amount of water in the hopper and topping up as required. Eventually when a bottle of rum is produced, click on it to pack it, or it will smash.
Scrapey Bark Person
There are a number of Scrapey Trees around the area that can be cut down. They usually yield several scrapeytree logs before being felled. There are always two Scrapey Trees on the same side of the base as the coloured flowers. Once the logs are in your inventory, you must use a knife to cut the scrapeytree bark off, at which point you can put it in the corresponding hopper. Just keep pumping in the bark until you have a nice 'safety blanket' in your hopper, then look at the ingredients needed and help out your team mate if any are low!
Sweet Grubs Person
Around the area are mounds of dirt that sweetgrubs live in. To lure them out, you have to use raw rat meat on the mound. You can get an unlimited supply from the table in your base. If you succeed, you'll get some sweetgrubs. There are always two Sweetgrub mounds on the same side of the base as the coloured flowers. There is a random chance that when you use the meat on the mound, it will draw out instead a swarm of Sweetflies. This is very much like the swarm random event, causing you to have to run. No one can gather more sweetgrubs from the mound while there are still sweetflies present. The mound has a limited number of grubs, and when it's empty it will collapse. You'll have to find another mound or wait for it to fill again. Look at the ingredients needed and help out your team mate if any are low.
Coloured Flowers and Water/ Bitternuts
More than likely, everyone apart from the Water/ Boiler man will assist in this important role after they have topped up their respective hoppers.
Perhaps the most important task, as coloured water is necessary for both 'rum' production and gathering Bitternuts. To gather these, you must run all the way to the other team's base. A patch of the flowers grows just outside it. There is no wait time to pick them, but you can only pick 5 at a time; however, a team-mate can keep picking flowers and trading them to you until your inventory is full. Once you've gathered the flowers, run them back and place them in the kettle in your base. After there are flowers in the kettle, you can use a bowl to get the coloured water back out. Put it in the hopper upstairs or use it for gathering bitternuts.
The most complicated task. In order to gather Bitternuts, you must first get a few bowls of coloured water. Then, go to one of the islands and catch a monkey (which looks nothing like the Mos'le Harmless monkeys, more like a Karamjan monkey). Dye the monkey with the water to mark it as being on your team, then use it on the Bitternut tree. The monkey will skitter up the tree and, after a little while, will toss you a nut. You may not have more than one monkey up in the tree at one time. If another monkey is in the tree already, they will first fight and the winning monkey will get the nut. If you have a Monkeyspeak amulet, you can alter the strategy used. You can choose to either make the monkey angry by taunting it, or caution him. By making him angry, he'll be more inclined to get up the tree as fast as possible and start pelting you with bitternuts, speeding up the time before you get a nut. If you tell him to be careful, he'll take a little bit longer, but will be more aware of other monkeys and will be more likely to win in a confrontation.
Notes
Sabotage is frowned upon by most players as detrimental to both teams, especially when playing with a small amount of players. To the sabotaged team because it slows down 'rum' production (no benefit is given to the team that makes the most 'rum'). To the sabotaging team because it is time wasted that could be used to collect ingredients. With a lit torch, you can go to the other team's base and set things on fire. To do so, use the torch on what you want to sabotage. You'll either succeed or fail, and after a random number of attempts your torch will go out. Some things you can burn are:
Hoppers - Prevents the other team from adding ingredients or the ingredients to be added to the 'rum', though it won't damage anything already inside.
Pipes - Halts 'rum' production.
Pump - Forces water gatherers to go to the middle island for water.
Trees - Prevents the tree from being cut down and makes players go further for resources.
Bridges - Makes players go around or use the much slower jumping stones to get around. This is a double-edged sword, though, since it also makes it much harder for flower-gatherers on your team to get to the other team's base. You can only burn bridges on the opposing team's side. If your team is being swamped with saboteurs that just burn something, then running back to get another torch and burning your opponents' bridge may help slow down their saboteurs.
Defence
Boiler pump.
Defence is truly important, if your equipment is burnt, you can't get anything done. If something is set on fire, the first thing you need to do is put it out using a bucket of water. If not, it will eventually burn itself out, but you'll need more supplies to fix it afterwards. Once the fire is out, you can use the appropriate repair item to fix it. Pipes and pumps need bamboo pipes. Hoppers take lumber patches. Bridges take bridge sections. Depending on how long they were allowed to burn, it takes anywhere from 1 to 3 items to fix the problem.
You can also use the pump near the boilers on the first floor to gather pressure in the boilers. To do this, you must have over 50% run energy, and takes 10% each pump. It can hold up to 10 pumps worth of pressure. The reason to do this is defensive. When someone is trying to sabotage your boilers, you can right click the pump and select the vent option. By doing this, a burst of steam will run through the pipes. This will put out any fires currently burning and cause damage to opposing team members standing near a damaged section of pipe. You can continue to vent the pressure even if no fires are lit, and continue to damage any enemy team member standing near the pipe. If they die, they will return to their base with no loss of items. There's a negative side effect to this method, though. While it does put the fires out, it will damage the broken pipes further, taking as many bamboo pipes as if you'd let the fire run its course. Because of this, it is almost always more effective to use buckets of water to save bamboo pipes. Another defensive course is to resupply the repair items. You can do this by taking logs and using them on the workbench in your base. You can either use them yourself or use them on the table to resupply it.
Hopefully we will only see this if we play in the Trouble Brewing World, then it is still rare.
Usefull Links
Runescape's Manual Page for Trouble Brewing
The Wiki Guide for Trouble Brewing
The Tip.it Guide for Trouble Brewing
