Shooting Star

Shooting Star is part of Distractions and Diversions, which was introduced during the 2 September 2008 gaming update. It is Pay-to-play only.

Introduction
Shooting stars fall from the sky every two hours or so. If players reach the core of the star within two hours, a Star sprite appears and gives rewards.

Requirements

 * A pickaxe or an inferno adze.
 * No mining level is required to get the first-miner bonus.
 * Level 10 Mining is the minimum level to mine stardust from the smallest (size 1) stars.
 * The minimum mining level required is 10 x the current star size; e.g., a size 6 star requires level 60 mining. As the star grows smaller, lower level players can mine. The largest stars are size 9, so the highest required level to mine a star is 90.

Worlds
There are 86 members worlds in which a shooting star can land. The star can land in a different area for each of the worlds. Eight of these worlds are PvP worlds. Three are RuneScape German worlds, one of which is PvP.

Locating

 * Use a telescope in a player-owned house to find the approximate area and time of the next landing. Better telescopes provide a more accurate time:
 * Wooden telescope - 24-minute window
 * Teak telescope - 9-minute window
 * Mahogany telescope - 2-minute window
 * If the telescope is blocked by another room in the house, it will not work.


 * Shooting stars land roughly once every two hours.
 * Stars may land in a different location in each world.

Star crash sites

 * There are 10 possible regions that a star can land:
 * Asgarnia
 * Crandor or Karamja
 * Fremennik lands or Lunar Isle
 * Lumbridge Swamp
 * Kandarin
 * Kharidian Desert
 * Misthalin
 * Morytania or Mos Le'Harmless
 * Piscatoris, Gnome Stronghold or Tirannwn
 * Wilderness


 * For a list of locations where the star have been spotted, see Distractions and Diversions Locations.

The location of the crash sites are random, although the stars always crash near a mine or bank.

Mining

 * The first person to attempt to mine the star (even if they only have mining level 1) will be rewarded with an instant chunk of Mining experience. Their name will also be added to the Shooting Star Noticeboard in the house north of the Observatory.
 * Shooting stars come in sizes from 1 to 9. Players can find out how large the star is by examining it, and they can prospect it to check on the progress to the next level.  (See below for a list of Mining level requirement for each star size.)
 * Each layer of the star is mined from 0% to 100%, at which point the outermost layer sloughs off and the star's size is reduced by one. The amount left to mine can be determined by prospecting while mining. More people mining the star will get through these layers faster, while with just two or three people it can take up to ten minutes per level. If the sprite is not released by the end of the two hours between stars, the rock vanishes without the bonus.
 * Players can only carry a maximum of 200 Stardust at a time. Stardust can be banked, but the 200 maximum counts stardust in your bank as well. You can continue to mine to gain xp even if your stardust is maxed out.

Star sizes
The following table lists the star sizes, with the Mining level required to mine it. The Mining experience is gained per stardust.

The number of stardusts per star size is indicated in the table below. The time it takes to lower a star size depends upon the number of miners mining it: the more miners, the faster the star gets to the star sprite level. For the same number of miners, a higher star size level goes down to the next level faster than a lower star size level because there are fewer stardusts at higher star size levels than at lower star size levels.


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! Star size !! Mining level !! XP/stardust !! Number of stardusts/star size
 * 9 || 90 || 210 || 15
 * 8 || 80 || 145 || 25
 * 7 || 70 || 114 || 40
 * 6 || 60 || 71 || 80
 * 5 || 50 || 47 || 175
 * 4 || 40 || 32 || 250
 * 3 || 30 || 29 || 430
 * 2 || 20 || 25 || 700
 * 1 || 10 || 14 || 1250
 * }
 * 4 || 40 || 32 || 250
 * 3 || 30 || 29 || 430
 * 2 || 20 || 25 || 700
 * 1 || 10 || 14 || 1250
 * }
 * 2 || 20 || 25 || 700
 * 1 || 10 || 14 || 1250
 * }
 * }

Rewards



 * For the first person who attempts to mine the star, 75 experience per Mining level and being named the discoverer of the star.
 * If they reach the star core within two hours, players are rewarded according to how much dust they had with them, up to:
 * 152 cosmic runes
 * 52 astral runes
 * 20 noted gold ores
 * 50,002 coins
 * wich leads up to about 92k (92,000gp)
 * The ability to randomly receive additional ore when mining for 15 minutes to 2 hours (similar to Varrock armour). The 15 minute bonus stacks up with the Varrock armour, so it is possible to mine three ores in one rock. It appears that the timer only runs while you are logged in. Based on a limited number of observations, it appears that gems are more frequently found during this period, and that you get extra ore more often than with Varrock armour. As with the Varrock armor, rune essence mining is not affected.
 * You manage to mine an additional ore.
 * The Varrock armour allows you to mine an additional ore.
 * You feel the effects of the Mining boost wear off.
 * There is also a chance that gems can be found in the various layers of the star.
 * If the star vanishes before the core is reached, the stardust may be kept and used for a later star.

Scoreboard


In the Observatory professor's house is a noticeboard which lists the last five stars to be discovered, how long ago they were, and who discovered them.