Yucky hunter

Determined to do some training today instead of slacking off and reading ebooks like yesterday, I swallowed the bile and went off reluctantly to smash kebbits with large rocks.

I used to like hunter, really. It began so innocently; so many creatures to stalk and kill meant so many ways to level, giving each person his/her own choice of what to do.Trapping colorful birds, smashing pixelated Nerds with rocks, boxing up ferrets, flushing rabbits, oh my it's glorious!

Within months, the Red Menace was thrust upon RuneScape. From the basic hunter skill guide to the power-leveling help desk tauted one way to gain level 99 and the coveted skill cape: red chinchompas. From RuneHQ to Rune Village, the advice is eerily similar: red chinchompas. Even in F2P, it is known to hunt red chinchompas.

What's so special about these things?

They explode.



(Yeah, that's all; they explode. What? You were expecting a song and dance maybe?)

I am the type of person who goes against convention; I don't do what everyone else does. There are alternatives to leveling hunter without falling prey to the Red Menace.

Blasphemer!

It will shock you this truth I tell, but it must be told - I waste more time searching for a place in the Feldip Hills a) with less than 2 people or b) no people to set up boxes for trapping red chins.

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All that aside, I don't like wasting time world hopping and fighting others just to train a skill. Oh and my larupia suit smells like wet dog. I realized that that stinky outfit is half the reason my hunter is dragging behind everything else. I set out this afternoon to answer 2 questions for myself:

1. What's the most efficient (as in most exp per hour) way to level up hunter?
2. Are those hunter outfits really necessary?

To answer the first, I picked out 3 things that I do like to do:
- falconry
- catching pawyas
- smashing kebbits with large rocks

Falconry

Since I can hunt the highest kebbit a falcon can catch (dashing kebbit), I concentrated on catching those critters. My first test was wearing full larupia, woodcutting cape and boots of lightness. My run is on. I dropped all the furs and buried all the bones (14 of each) during my 10 minute test timing. At the end of the time, I picked up any furs still visible, hunted until my inventory was full of furs and banked them to sell later.

Time: 10 minutes
Catching: dashing kebbits, level 69 hunter, 156 exp each
Amount caught: 42
Estimated catch per hour: 252
Estimated exp per hour: 39,312

For the second test, I removed the larupia which cut down my open inventory slots to 25. This meant I could only catch 12 dashing kebbits before having to drop furs and bury bones. Run is on.

Time: 10 minutes
Catching: dashing kebbits, level 69 hunter, 156 exp each
Amount caught: 36
Estimated catch per hour: 216
Estimated exp per hour: 33,696

I decided to make it fair and banked the larupia. All I can say about this is probably without the weight of the larupia, I had more energy. Run is on. With the ability to catch 14 dashing kebbits before dropping and burying, I came up with these numbers:

Time: 10 minutes
Catching: dashing kebbits, level 69 hunter, 156 exp each
Amount caught: 47
Estimated catch per hour: 282
Estimated exp per hour: 43,992

Conclusion: Doesn't look as though wearing hunter gear makes too much of a difference.

Deadfalls

I wore identical gear (full larupia, woodcutting cape, boots of lightness) and my run was always on for both tests. I hunted in the same spot.

Time: 10 minutes
Catching: prickly kebbits, level 37 hunter, 204 exp each
Amount caught: 20
Estimated catch per hour: 120
Estimated exp per hour: 24,480

Test two, I banked the larupia.

Time: 10 minutes
Catching: prickly kebbits, level 37 hunter, 204 exp each
Amount caught: 20
Estimated catch per hour: 120
Estimated exp per hour: 24,480

Conclusion: What I wore made no difference at all.

Box trapping

This is only the second time I've hunted pawyas. Pawyas are skittish and will back away from you if you're close to them. I made sure I kept at least 5 squares between myself and my traps. Baiting traps with papayas is required. The test is a bit odd; I counted the number of captured pawyas versus the amount of papayas used as bait.

I wore my larupia, woodcutting cape and boots of lightness. I hunted in a pawya-only area because grenwalls are rumored to eat pawyas while in your box trap.

Number of papayas: 16
Catching: pawyas, level 66 hunter, 400 exp each
Amount caught: 5

Second test, I banked the larupia.

Number of papayas: 16
Catching: pawyas, level 66 hunter, 400 exp each
Amount caught: 7

Conclusion: Again, it looks like not wearing hunter gear doesn't bother the hunted creature. I think the distance I was from the baited traps helped.

The best and quickest experience came from falconry. It takes about 20 seconds to send off your falcon, have it catch a kebbit and chase it down. I will say being close to the kebbit you're hunting makes a difference as to whether the falcon will catch it or not. Since 95% of hunter leveling is done at the Red Menace, the falconry area is clear and you should be able to hunt there alone.

Ok, maybe this makes no sense and you're just angrily telling your monitor that I'm an idiot for not following the Red Menace. Fine. Compare hunter to woodcutting. What's the best (as in fastest gain of exp per hour) method for leveling woodcutting? Willows and teaks, right? Now, put each hunter animal as a log from a tree:

Birds = regular logs
Butterflies and kebbits = oak logs
Falconry = willows or teaks
Salamanders = maple logs
Red chins = yews
Imps, pawyas and grenwalls = magic logs

What's the adage of woodcutting: cut willows for exp, cut yews for money. Same thing with hunter: falconry for exp, red chins for money.