Great Orb Project

[Sammathnar]

I'll do the best I can to explain Great Orb Project (GOP) for beginners and intermediate players.

About: GOP is said by many to be one of the few RuneScape activities requiring real skill. It's a runecraft-based minigame that is more like an arcade game than anything else in RS. Though hard to learn, it is well worth the effort to learn because of its rewards and likability.

Starting Requirements: 50 Runecraft to enter runecrafting guild.
Recommended: Empty inventory, light clothing, pouches in p2p.

Location: Worlds 60 (p2p) and 61 (f2p) at Wizards Tower, 2nd floor, south of Draynor Village. You'll see a purple portal on the second floor taking you to the runecraft guild.

Runecrafting Guild: The RC guild is full of wizard npc's. There are 5 wizards you need to know about. (1)Blue wizard--There are about 8 of these walking aimlessly around the guild(also known as GOP lobby). If you want to play GOP, but don't care what colour you're on, go to one of these guys to join right away. (2)Elriss--Wears red and walks around the southern area. Go to her if you wish to exchange tokens for rewards. See her for about an omni tiara. (3)Korvak--He walks around the north end near the starting portal to enter a GOP game. From him you can purchase a large pouch-25K and a giant pouch-50k. He can also make you an omni tiara fro your omni talisman. (4)Acantha--Wears green robes and sits in a wheelchair at northwest area of lobby. If you want to join the green team, see her. (5)Vief--Wears yellow robes and stands in the northeast area of the lobby. See him for yellow team

Miscellanious: Show Elriss all the different runecrafting talismans (not tiaras) and she'll give you an omni talisman allowing you to use it in place of all the others. See Korvak to turn it into a tiara. This should help you save on a lot of bank space.


Starting a Game: Join a game via blue wizard, vief, or acantha, as explained above. Each team needs 2 or more players to start the timer. If the difference in player count is off by 2 or more, the timer will reset and not start again until teams are more even. Limit 5 per team. When the timer is up, go through the portal at the north side of the lobby.

Wands: You'll be given 3 wands when you start a game. (1)Attractor--Used to pull orbs to you. (2)Repeller--Used to push orbs away from you. (3)Barrier--Used to make a barrier blocking all orbs in its path. The attractor wand will automatically be wielded. The wielded wand is the wand you are currently using. Until you understand the game, it is best to only use the attractor wand. You could cause a lot of damage to your team's score if you use the repeller. The barrier wand is not wieldable. If you want to make a barrier, click on the wand in your inventory.
Wielding wands: Remember the wand you're using is the one you are wielding. If you wish to change, you can either click on the other wand in your inventory or right click an orb and select "switch wand". So be very careful you only change your wands when you want to (should hear a sound). Try to always have your attractor wand wielded by the end of each round to prevent mistakes once you start using your repeller.


Gameplay: Most people are absolutely lost the first time they try GOP. It's normal.
The first altar is Air. Note that this is the actual air altar. People crafting airs in that world will see you. 3 orbs of each colour (green and yellow) will spawn randomly outside the ring of stones surrounding the altar. The idea is to manipulate those orbs so they touch the stone in the center that you craft runes on. Try to learn the fastest way because another orb will not spawn until one is scored. The tricky part about all this is getting the orbs past the ring of stones surrounding the altar. There are many different ways to do it, so try and find the fastest ways. Remember where you stand in relation to the orb really matters. So it is useful to set your graphics so you can see the different squares to stand on while you're starting out.
After air, you'll go to mind. This is considered a large altar. You will get more alone time away from other players. Since the altar is so far away from some of the spawns, this is a good time to practice using your repeller wand. Everything is the same as air except the size and runes you can craft.

Object of the game: Score the most orbs each round.

In-game runecrafting: At the end of each altar, each player will receive essence (rune ess f2p, p ess p2p) in their inventory. The number of essence is determined by whether that team won or lost and the overall score. You can either craft your essence on that altar or save it for another one. This is why pouches are such an asset in p2p. You can save essence for the altar you want to use it on. Most choose nature at the end.


Differences in Member/Nonmember GOP: Most players, whether they're member or not, will go to f2p for GOP. This is in part for the lack of p2p players and part because there is a "delay" in p2p worlds. Once you're familiar with GOP, you'll notice your internet speed is very important. It can decide the outcome of a match. For some reason, member worlds have a slower reaction time for most people. The delay between a click and grabbing your orb/moving is noticeably longer. And the official GOP world is also the same as the unofficial penguin world, making Tuesday nights very laggy from the over-crowded world. (This is why I don't do penguins in world 60. It's principle)
P2p: Member games consist of 8 altars (air, mind, water, earth, fire, body, chaos, and nature). Games last about 17minutes. Runecrafting pouches are member only. If you trade tokens for essence from Elriss, you will receive pure essence.
F2p: Free-play games consist of 6 altars (air, mind, water, earth, fire, and body). Games last about 13minutes. If you receive essence from Elriss, you will receive rune essence. Your agility level no longer means anything, so your energy will deplete very fast when you run, so rest as often as possible. Games can be harder because the playing skill of the average player and pro is higher. But that could make f2p the best place to learn.


Tokens: Tokens are what you can cash in to get rewards after playing the game. If you win all altars you can get a max of 750 in f2p and 1,000 in p2p. Each player on a given team will get the same amount. You get 10 tokens for every altar lost, 25 for a tie, and 100 for a win. The winning team gets a bonus 200 tokens, but this is split if there is a tie. F2p bonus is 150 instead of 200. Therefore, if you lose all altars, you still get enough to make it worthwhile to stay in the game.

Rewards: See Wizard Elriss at the south end of the guild when you're ready to cash in your tokens. Most people get altar tabs. These teleport you straight to, say, the nature altar so you can craft runes more efficiently. Remember to wear a tiara because they teleport you just outside the altar. Many people buy astral tabs for an easy teleport to lunar island or to swap spellbooks quickly. Altar tabs run from about 38-45 each depending on how high rc they require to craft.
You can also buy essence with tokens. 1 token=1 essence. Be careful you're in a p2p world if you buy essence. In both places it says rune essence, but it only gives rune essence in f2p worlds. It gives pure essence in member worlds.
There are also some distinct Runecrafting gear you can buy. The talisman staff is basically a wieldable talisman. It's just for show, does the same thing as a tiara, but has minor combat attributes. I've never bought one. Personally, I think they are a waste. They cost 10k tokens.
Runecrafting clothing can also be bought here. It comes in 3 colours: blue, yellow, and green. You can buy hat, gloves, robe top, and robe bottom. The hat cannot be worn in game, but the other parts give a slight bonus to your rc level when it comes to ability to steal an orb or barrier strength. It doesn't do enough to really notice it, but Jagex manual says it does some. It does nothing for rc level when it comes to crafting runes in game.





I don't have a word-processor on this computer yet, so I'll finish this over the course of the next few days on here.

[Lady in Ice]

Thanks for the guide!

I only played 50:50 GOP so far and I got 2 questions:
1. Why do tie-games use the system that first team wins 3 games, then the other team next 3 games? Is there a difference in tokens for the winner depending which altar you´re using?
2. Do losers get any tokens at all? I noticed I only get 1 essence at the altar when my team is losing.

[Sammathnar]

Kaleviplika:

1.No, it doesn't matter which altars, you will always get the same number of tokens (405 f2p, 540 p2p). They probably do it that way because it's easier to keep track of. And then some altars are funner than others. Like most people would rather have the small ones. You also get more points on small ones, so more ess.

2.If you lose by a large margin, then yes, you will get only 1 essence. I've lost games that were like 39-37 and we got like 20 ess. But then I've won games like 37-20 and we got quite a bit more than 20 ess. There is definitely a bonus for winning because in close games the winner always gets a lot more.

And actually there's a slightly better way to do 50/50's that I was going to add later. But it requires exactly 5 people and 5 games.

[Enjay]

Thanks for the guide, GOP is something I've been meaning to try out, as I wish to raise my rc level and ZMI...is too boring.

Just one small point - you may take imbued tiaras as well as talismans to obtain the omni-talisman from Elriss. I personally did this recently and used a death and fire tiara in place of the respective talismans. The enchanted water tiara (reward from Dealing with Scarabras) does NOT work however.

[Sammathnar]

Ok, thanks. They didn't work when I did it, but that was when it first came out.

[Diplomatt]

With Runecrafting winning this months skill week, I hope you dont mind me bumping this guide! (I though I would never ever say this.........I voted for RC!)

Thanks Sammmmmmmmmathnar

[paragram]

T-R-A-I-T-O-R :!:

[Diplomatt]

*hangs head in shame*!

[Sammathnar]

Ahhh, thankyou, Matt. Unfortunately, I didn't know it was the skill-week winner until 3 days ago. Wouldn't have had the time to really participate anyway.