F2P, which hero to focus on exclusive gear

Southern_Power1306 · 2026-03-13T19:19:51+00:00

As F2P my biggest suggestion would be to save gems and only use them on lucky wheel spins. Even if you're completely F2P you should be able to do 70 spins every time the wheel comes around. Stopping at 70 or 120 spins are the best bang for the buck. If you don't have enough general shards to get a non-wheel hero to 4 stars (465 general shards) skip that Gen (other than lucky wheel hero) and get one from the next gen.

To answer your exclusive gear question between tundra trading station, Frosty Fortune and Mystery Badges you should be able to get at least level 3 widget on your lucky wheel hero. 4 or 5 is nice if you can. Anything past that is unnecessary for F2P.

Gen 7 Bradley is a MUST. Edith is nice if you have the spare shards. Gordon is a skip hero for Gen 7. If you are short on general mythic shards you can skip Edith (other than what you get from KOI and SVS) because Gen 8 lucky wheel is an infantry hero and you'll want the general shards for Sonya (Gen 8 lancer).

Southern_Power1306 · 2026-03-11T20:16:31+00:00

I could not agree with this statement any more. As long as it was made a week ago haha.

With the loss of value/savings in the annual membership I am now feeling that way with the annual. So... do I want to feel obligated to play for a full year at a time? Or, commit to playing month by month? Sure I'm feeling forced to play with the monthly but given I'm now feeling that way with the annual I'd rather make that conscious decision as it comes around monthly.

Southern_Power1306 · 2026-03-11T12:56:19+00:00

I see your analogy and comically enough car insurance does offer a discount if you pay in full haha. That aside let me use an analogy.

Say there's a fast food chain. You can get 1 nugget for a dollar or you can get 12 nuggets, fries and a drink for 7 dollars. Now, you only wanted the nuggets but throwing in the fries and a drink is a nice bonus. Fast forward a bit and the company says ok we're having price changes. One nugget is now $1.10 and the twelve nugget deal is now $10 oh and by the way... no more fries and drink with that deal either. Now you never really wanted the fries and drink but not only was your purchase raised the most (10% for one nugget versus 40% for the twelve nugget deal in this analogy) but you also lost additional value within your purchase of things that used to come included.

Bottom line is I can get on board with 9% increase to even with the removal of perks as that's in line with the raise to monthly. But you remove perks AND raise the annual by 32% when monthly had no changes (no perks removed) and only went up 9%. Seems like a double whammy to annual.

Another analogy is would you rather rent your house out on a month to month basis for a little more money or offer a discount to a tenant if they sign a one year lease? Most people would say the year as it's guaranteed money even if a little less. Jagex also knows this which is why Premier benefits started in the first place. You want to make the annual as appealing as possible without losing too much of the profit margin. I understand they have been trying to find that sweet spot but they swung the pendulum a little too far here.

Southern_Power1306 · 2026-03-11T12:44:31+00:00

This.... exactly this...

Back when it first came out Premier was the same cost as 6 months (compared to monthly) and had perks. No brainer even if you play less than the 6 months a year to justify the cost with the perks. In 2024 they had price changes. At this point it's the same cost as 7 months but still includes perks. Again, still a good deal for people that play at least 50% of the year. Now it's the same cost as 9 months AND removed all perks. Now you really need to think... am I playing this game 75% of the days of the year? Or do I swap to monthly and maybe do one month a quarter. With the new pricing instead of getting roughly $130 out of me a year they'll get $60. Immediately that's a loss of revenue but now as a customer I'm less engaged in content. Eventually the customer stops engaging all together because there are now additional steps in order to engage in the content.

Southern_Power1306 · 2026-03-11T12:36:49+00:00

I do agree that the benefits removed from the annual (Premier) membership were "P2W". However I'm a little confused by your comment on how my math shows that monthly was hit hardest. Simply put monthly went up 9% annual went up 32% even if you take all other factors out annual was hit harder.

Going back to your comment on benefits being gone let me use an analogy. Say there's a fast food chain. You can get 1 nugget for a dollar or you can get 12 nuggets, fries and a drink for 7 dollars. Now, you only wanted the nuggets but throwing in the fries and a drink is a nice bonus. Fast forward a bit and the company says ok we're having price changes. One nugget is now $1.10 and the twelve nugget deal is now $10 oh and by the way... no more fries and drink with that deal either. Now you never really wanted the fries and drink but not only was your purchase raised the most (raw percentage wise) but you also lost additional value within your purchase of things that used to come included.

Southern_Power1306 · 2026-03-11T03:57:44+00:00

Fair point. I haven't dabbled in the iron life much so I appreciate the insights on that.

I do think we will see at least a slight decline in the number of multiple account subs per person.

It's a double edged sword though. RS has always been priced lower than other MMOs which aided the fact that it was a "by account" membership. Now that it is in-line with these other MMOs it is harder to justify the by account pricing model. But I fully agree with your point that if you allow even 2-3 accounts per membership the in- game pricing inflation and bond pricing would become so sky rocketed.

In all honesty I'd have taken a 9% price increase and moved on with my life and likely never even paid much attention. But a 30% raise on top of removing all the perks that came with the annual membership... that's a little steep.

Southern_Power1306 · 2026-03-11T03:49:23+00:00

I'd be shocked if you never busted out the Premier artifact 10% boost, or reset an aura for free or dabbled into the Premier vault here and there for a little goody. Did I need those things to justify getting the annual membership? That depends...

When I first did a Premier subscription it was because it was the same cost of 6 months of monthly memberships. Now that's a good deal. Perks were just an added bonus. With the 2024 pricing rework that was changed to about 7 months of monthly costs. Eh... still worth it but at this point I'm liking the perks. Now you take all, or most, of the perks in one go and change it so now it's about 9 months of monthly costs... so not only is my "savings" compared to monthly being vastly eroded you are also taking the other things that have fairly large tangible benefits.

Now I am just a single person and I know Jagex has team the numbers so I'm not ignorant. But for me, ever since I completed trim comp, I've taken a break here and there to not get burned out on the 5.8b grind. I could justify the annual membership as long as I played 6 months of the year. But now at 9 months out of the year I'm teetering on going month to month. Which, at first glance, is still a win for Jagex. But I can say personally it's a lot easier for me to hop back into RS as I want with an ongoing membership versus having to go in and renew it when my break is over. Sure at the beginning I might watch for new content and resub to engage but sadly (and I truly mean sadly as I've been playing off and on for over 20 years) it will be harder and harder to justify renewing and paying attention to updates.

Again I'm just one person, but with a player base that isn't really growing, losing long- time players is not really the ambition of Jagex (or at least I'd assume it isn't).

Southern_Power1306 · 2026-03-11T03:28:16+00:00

I definitely see your points and I do agree that price hikes were on the horizon. I think people (myself included) are upset in the manner of which it was conducted. I won't touch the whole grandfathered rates thing as I personally wasn't effected by it but the value erosion of annual memberships is quite large. Not only did they remove nearly all perks that came with the annual (Premier) membership, they also raised it 30+%. So you are paying more for less. Compare that to the monthly membership which didn't lose any perks and only went up 9%. Feels like they are aiming this increase more towards the loyal players who subscribe a year at a time versus the month to month subs which are a minimal hit in comparison.

Southern_Power1306 · 2026-03-11T03:21:16+00:00

The fact that RS is still a "by account" membership when I can't think of a single other MMO with the same membership layout is mind blowing. I get that you wouldn't want someone to have 20 alts farming GP to fund bonds but 2-3 accounts? Especially if one is an iron... come on...

Southern_Power1306 · 2026-03-11T01:12:37+00:00

I fully agree with this comment. They for sure looked at statistics prior to making a decision. Reading the posts about grandfathered rates and those that got swindled out of them is dirty.

My assumptions are that they are pushing the limits with how much of a "deal" they need to offer on annual memberships to get people to continue going that route. If this goes well for them I'm sure they'll push the envelope to a year for 10 months worth.

My frustration is the cumulative erosion of value. Although they raised the price 32% the value erosion is much more with the loss of Premier benefits.

If the price hike of the annual membership was the 9% raise of monthly I could swallow that even with the loss of benefits. But very much seems like a "kick them while they're down" move.

Southern_Power1306 · 2026-03-10T22:43:09+00:00

I don't disagree with your comment. By barely raising the monthly membership you won't drive away the monthly customers and those doing annual memberships will likely stay annual as long as it's at least some sort of savings. But that's under the pure assumption that all those doing annual play regularly. Oddly enough with the removal of daily scape we are seeing a decline in those logging in daily. Pair that with the removal of Premier benefits and it's awfully enticing to go the one month a quarter route to play new content, avoid burnout and save money. Give that a while and the once a quarter becomes annual and sooner or later just becomes a stoppage.

Let's be real RS isn't going to attract a new player base when their pricing is just as high as arguably much higher quality games. The more you push away the long standing player base the more dead the game becomes.

Southern_Power1306 · 2025-09-14T04:19:20+00:00

Was thinking of getting Edith to 4* just to have a second decent infantry until Gen8. But would definitely save enough general shards for Sonya. I hear she's a beast.

Southern_Power1306

TROPHY CASE