Construction



Construction is a skill that allows players to build their own houses and provide the furnishings for them. It is also very useful in its connection to other skills, such as prayer, mining, magic, crafting and now Summoning. Construction is regarded as one of the most expensive skills to train because of the materials needed for it, often called a 'moneysink', which Jagex supposedly used as a means of preventing coins becoming subject to inflation. The Construction skill was released on 31 May 2006. Construction is currently one of the fastest skills to train, depending on how much money a player is willing to spend.

Purchasing a House
To begin Construction, players must buy a house by paying one of the many Estate Agents found in cities all over RuneScape. A basic house will cost 1000 coins, and will be in Rimmington by default. As a player advances in construction, more house locations will be made available as well as house styles. To change either of these, it is required to speak to the Estate Agent again.

Estate agents
Estate agents are located (identified with the house icon on the map) in
 * Varrock, north west of the Museum, west of the Saradominist church.
 * Seers' Village, north east of the bank.
 * Falador, between the furnace and the east bank.
 * Ardougne, west of the south bank.

House styles
Estate agents can also redecorate the outside of a player's house for a fee. Along with a total redecoration of a house, each house style comes with a unique tune that plays upon entering the house.

Giving your player-owned house a fancy stone or tropical wood finish at the Varrock estate agent's is one of the hard tasks of the Varrock Achievement Diary.

Travelling to a House
The most basic way to get to a house is by walking to a POH portal ( icon on map). From here a player will be prompted to either enter their own house, enter their own house in building mode, or enter a friend's house. It is also possible to use the Teleport to House spell to teleport directly into a player's own house if that player has acquired a magic level of at least 40. (Stat boosters will work for House teleport) Another way to get there is a teleport tablet.

Note: Players can only enter through the portal in the location that they bought from the Estate Agent.

House Portals Locations
Estate agents can move a player's house from its starter location in Rimmington to any of the other house portal locations identified by the portal icon on the map. These locations include Rimmington, Taverley, Pollnivneach, Rellekka, Brimhaven, and Yanille.

House Locations Advantages
There are also several advantages and disadvantages to each house portal location. Here is a complete evaluation of each portal location to help players decide which location is most useful for advancing skills other than construction and as a use of teleportation to nearby towns:

Building a House
To build a house, a player must enter their house portal and go into Building Mode. This is the only way a player can alter their house by building rooms or inserting furniture and other objects into the rooms. Once inside the house you may change to building mode by going to options and then selecting the house icon. Note: Once in building mode items cannot be dropped.

Building Mode
A basic house starts off with only a parlour and garden, but more rooms can be added at higher levels. To build, go to Player Controls (the spanner icon), select "House Options", and set the Building Mode to ON. Players will then see a ghost version of some furniture and doors called "Hotspots", where new objects can be built in the various rooms.

Planning the layout
While each house can be customized to suit the personal taste of the builder, there are a few important points to consider when building a house. The first is what rooms are placed next to a portal. For example, Portal Chambers are very useful to place directly adjacent to the portal, since this allows quick and easy access to any portals, for when players wish to use their house as a teleport hub. Another room that is useful to put near the portal is a Chapel, which will allow players to train and recharge prayer more quickly. A Menagerie is useful near the portal for similar reasons. Players may also wish to put their Studies close to the portal since this will increase efficiency when making Magic tablets.

Another important point to consider when building a house is which direction stairs face. While this is not a huge concern for Spiral staircases, since they may be accessed from any side, normal staircases can be annoying if built facing the wrong direction. When adding a Skill Hall or Quest Hall, from the default position, staircases going down will have their top step facing the doorway from whence the room was built. For staircases going up, the bottom of the stairs will face the doorway opposite the one from whence the room was built.

When a staircase is added to a Skill Hall, they will connect to the room above or below by default if and only if the room is facing the proper direction. If it is not, then one of the rooms will have to be demolished and rebuilt in order to secure a connection. This restriction is in effect for both normal staircases and, even though they do not have a "direction", spiral staircases.

It is extremely important to design your layout on a secondary site with a house configuration, because later down the road if you have a house with high value, but its a bad layout, and to fix it you just lost a lot of money.

Removing rooms
Some players occasionally decided to remove rooms, such as when they wish to build different types of rooms but have reached their limit for the number of rooms in the house. A room can be removed in building mode by right clicking the door to the room and select the 'build' option. This brings up an option to remove the room.

It is advisable to remove all the built items in a room before removing the room. In most cases, nothing is gained by removing items, but in some cases items are recovered. For example, armour, swords, and capes that are part of a display can be recovered.

Sometimes a room will be removed if the stairs to it are removed. This seems to occur only in cases when the room will have no access to no other room once the stairs are removed. The player is warned when this will happen and can abort the process. Example 1: Stairs lead down to a room below ground level. This room does not connect to any other rooms below ground level. Removing the stairs will remove the room. Example 2: Stairs lead down to a room below ground level. This room connects another room below ground level. Removing the stairs will not remove the room.

Basic Materials
Many different items are needed for Construction, but some of the more basic ones include planks, nails, bolts of cloth, soft clay, and steel bars. Also, a saw and hammer are required to build anything while in Building Mode.

Planks
One of the most affordable ways to level up the early levels of Construction is by collecting free planks which can be found at various spawn points as shown in this chart:

Though more recently players have taken to collecting the very convenient noted plank drops of armoured zombies after the Defender of Varrock quest or the Tormented wraith after Summer's end.

To make planks, one option is to go to the Sawmill operator on the south side of the Varrock lumberyard with the icon on the minimap. He can turn logs into planks for a fee. He also sells bolts of cloth, some nails, and saws.

As an alternative to the sawmill operator, the Plank make spell can be used to create planks for use in construction. Unfortunately, this requires a minimum Magic level of 86 and completion of the Lunar Diplomacy and Dream Mentor quests (it uses the Lunar spellbook). While superficially it may appear to be a cheaper alternative to the sawmill operator, the cost of the runes consumed is factored in it will end up costing the player more than the sawmill operator.

Note: This spell used to be quite slow to cast as there was a warning message every time it was cast. This was later updated, and players now have the option to turn off the warning message. The spell is now faster to cast than the Alchemy spells, and is also a good way of getting Magic experience.

Nails
Nails can be smithed from all types of metals from bronze to rune by players. Additionally, the Sawmill Operator sells bronze, iron, and steel nails. When constructing objects using nails, there is a possibility that players will bend a nail. With higher level nails such as rune, this possibility becomes less. Since higher level nails are expensive, most players prefer using iron nails or steel nails. However, with oak items and above, joints are used in place of nails.

Soft Clay
Soft clay can be bought from the Grand Exchange for coins each. They can also be made by combining mined clay with a bucket of water. Many players also mine clay while wearing a bracelet of clay which allows you to automatically mine soft clay. Soft clay can be used to make fireplaces and ponds in Construction, but can later be used in the Study to make teleport tablets.

Steel Bars
Steel Bar can be created using the Smithing skill. They can also be bought from the Grand Exchange for a price of gp each.

Advanced Materials
Once a player has developed a higher Construction level, new materials will be available to use. These materials may be harder to get and much more expensive. Some of them include limestone bricks, marble blocks, gold leaves, and magic stones, as mentioned below.

Stonemason of Keldagrim
The Stonemason of Keldagrim sells more expensive and exclusive building materials, such as gold leaves, marble blocks, and magic stones. For more information on his shop, see Stonemason

Garden Supplier of Falador
The Garden supplier in Falador Park sells a variety of different plants that can be used by players in their Gardens and Formal Gardens.



The following chart shows trees and plants that can be transplanted into a normal garden:

The following chart shows hedges that can be transplanted into a formal garden:

The following chart shows flowers that can be transplanted into a formal garden:

Taxidermist of Canifis
Players can get monster heads, which are randomly dropped from monsters. These can be turned into trophies from the Taxidermist in Canifis. These trophies can then be put in Skill halls. Players can interact with the stuffed heads for some funny puns. The following chart shows the price that the taxidermist charges for each stuffed head:

The taxidermist can also stuff Big bass, Big swordfish and Big shark, which are randomly obtained through fishing the correct type of fish.

Sir Renitee of Falador
Players can buy maps, landscapes and portraits for decoration by talking to Sir Renitee in Falador Castle - he's upstairs on the east side of the building. Additionally, the Herald can change a player's family crest, which appears throughout the house and on armour created by the player. Players may also decorate steel and rune full helmets/kiteshields with the colours of their crest.

See the Constructed items list for details on what players can build at a specific level.

Rooms
There are many different types of rooms that can be added to a house. When a player buys a house, it will begin with a garden and parlour; however, more rooms can be added later. Different rooms will require different Construction levels and will cost money. All rooms in a house are the same size (8 squares X 8 squares). Keep this in mind when planning future additions to a house.



Number of Rooms / House Area
Until recently, a maximum number of 30 rooms and gardens could be built. This number was recently increased to a maximum of 32 rooms at level 99 construction. Note that each part of a dungeon that is built counts as a room against the total number of rooms. For example, building a dungeon stairs room, a dungeon junction, and two dungeon corridors counts as four rooms.

There is also a maximum area of land that can be built on that increases with higher construction levels, as shown in the chart below:

Construction
In a development blog, Mod Mark commented that Jagex was planning to release many more rooms and the Menagerie was only the start. What the new rooms could be is unknown.

House states: ordinary, challenge, and PvP modes
Once a player builds a lever in the Throne Room, the player can set the mode of the house by right-clicking on the lever. The default state is ordinary mode (a term not defined at all in the game), which means that neither challenge mode or PvP mode is on.

Challenge mode allows the first player who can find and open the chest in the Treasure Room to gain the treasure (1,500 coins). In this mode, the traps and guards in the Dungeon and Oubliette can damage players. Challenge mode is safe, as players lose no items when they die but just respawn outside the house.

PvP mode has the features of challenge mode and in addition allows players to attack other players in the house. This mode, too, is safe.

Ordinary mode is the default mode. When challenge mode or PvP is on, ordinary mode can be restored by right clicking the lever. (It can be hard to tell which mode is current if the house owners forgets. In this case, if no mode choice appears when the lever is right clicked, the mode was challenge or PvP but was changed to ordinary by right clicking.) In ordinary mode, traps and guards do not affect players, and players cannot fight one another (other than using the Combat Room).

Note that it is possible to turn on challenge or PvP mode as soon as a lever is built in the throne room, even if a treasure room and chest have not been built. This is presumably to allow players the chance to 'enjoy' the dungeon and oubliette even without the lure of gaining a 1,500-coin treasure.

Servants
A minimum construction level of 20, as well as having two bedrooms with beds, is needed to hire the lowest-level servant, Rick. They can be hired from Servants' Guild in East Ardougne. They provide different services, such as greeting guests, serving food, taking items to and from bank and unnoting items. The higher the servant's level, the better and faster the quality of their services is.

Temporary boosts


Depending on the type of shelf, tea will give a 1, 2, or 3 level bonus. With a normal cup, tea gives +1 Construction. With a porcelain cup, tea gives +2 Construction. With a gold-rimmed cup, tea gives +3 Construction. Note: Once you log out or exit your house, the tea will disappear.

The crystal saw will only work with items that require a saw to build them (will not work when building rooms, placing monsters or growing plants) The crystal saw also has a limited use, and when it runs out you have to recharge it again. You can check how many charges it has left by right-clicking and clicking "Check-Charges." It will also work simultaneously with bonuses from tea (to get max of +6) or Evil Dave's spicy stew, allowing for a max of +9 to Construction. However, tea and stew effects will not stack.

For the maximum effect in evil Dave's stew, add orange spice 3 times. Adding more will not increase the effect. Wearing the construction skillcape will boost construction from 99 to 100.

Making POH Tea

You will need the following constructs in your kitchen: a stove, a larder, a shelf, and a sink.

Once you have all the required constructs built in your kitchen follow these steps to create the POH made Tea.


 * 1) Remove a kettle, a teapot and a cup from the shelf.
 * 2) Remove tea leaves from the larder.
 * 3) Fill the kettle with water using the sink.
 * 4) Put the tea leaves in teapot.
 * 5) Boil the kettle of water on the stove.
 * 6) Add the boiled water to the Teapot with Leaves to create four cups of tea.
 * 7) Pour yourself a cup of tea and drink.

Now you have a +1, +2, or +3 boost depending on the type of shelf you took the cup and teapot from.

An alternative to the above process would be to talk to your servant and ask him or her to serve you some tea.

Trivia

 * Initially, Construction seems to be an extremely money-intensive skill. It may be that Jagex have intended player-owned houses as Money Sinks, and the intention is to take considerable amounts of cash out of the game.
 * While Construction is incredibly expensive, it is actually one of the fastest skills to raise (provided the player has the money necessary on hand), with players in the early stages easily gaining a level or more per trip to their house.
 * The watch, sextant and chart cannot be used in a player's house. Attempting to use it will yield the message: "The sextant doesn't seem to work here".
 * In RuneScape Classic, there was a skill that had no use called Carpentry. The skill today of Construction is said to be an updated version of this dead skill.
 * 'Cursed You' was the first player to get 99 Construction; to celebrate it, he hosted a house party which led to the notorious Falador Massacre.
 * Neo Qdon was the first person to reach 200,000,000xp in Construction.
 * On 18 August 2009, there were many updates to construction, including the menagerie. However, a glitch arose where some players couldn't get into their houses. This caused uproar, and many people were not happy and started flaming Jagex. However, there were some players who were trying to get bug victims to remain calm.
 * After a recent update, it's now possible to completely move a room which you may only have 1 of (examples being the Menagerie and Costume room). To move a Menagerie or Costume room, one must simply try to build a new one without removing the current room. They will then be told that they can only have one and will be asked if they want to move it. Upon selecting "yes", the player will be prompted to choose the rotation of the new room. The new room (after being relocated) will have all the same items, furniture and pets as it had at the old location. The player will have to pay the cost of building the room in order to move it. After all, large scale landscaping isn't cheap!
 * Construction is the only skill whose hiscores skill symbol is noticeably different to the in-game one.
 * If a player selects the option to enter a friend's house and types in their own name, the player will get the message, "They do not seem to be home."
 * After a recent update, it is no longer possible to see the "milestones" for Construction. This is most likely due to the fact that adding the Menagerie to the list of rooms available has maxed out the space provided in the side bar. This has since been fixed in a hidden update.
 * If a player sits in a chair in someone's house and clicks on a door, the chair will spin around towards the door, then back to the wall. Then the player will get up of the chair.
 * If a player gets dropped into slimy water with their cat out, the cat will appear to walk on the water.
 * As of 17 September, 2009 the Room Limit has been raised to 32.
 * Some players claim the rewards from chests in the house are absurdly low given the costs of the house. The maximum that can be obtained from a chest in the Games Room or Treasure Room is 1,500 coins, yet the house owner had to have spent at least hundreds of thousands of coins to build the rooms. Some players advocate that the chests should be like how the Trade limits work.


 * When the skill was first introduced, the log in screen was changed. The most notable part of the screen was the old ladders with multiple paint buckets surrounding them and partly painted plaster walls. Keeping with tradition, there were two torches with the smoke forming rune symbols while changing colours.
 * When you gain construction xp through the Tears of Guthix minigame, you get the message, "You feel homesick."
 * Construction is currently the only skill with multiple NPC skill cape owners.