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, but also one of the more expensive variety.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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 270gp 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.

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 make steel and rune full helmets/kiteshields into Heraldic with 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 20 rooms and gardens could be built. This number was recently increased to a maximum of 30 rooms at level 99 construction.

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:

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.

Strategy
See Construction Training

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) 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!

The tea and Stew will not work together however.

For the maximum effect in evil Dave's stew, add orange spice 3 times. Any more will not work

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.

Step 1: Remove a kettle, a teapot and a cup from the shelf.

Step 2: Remove tea leaves from the larder.

Step 3: Fill the kettle with water using the sink.

Step 4: Put the tea leaves in teapot.

Step 5: Boil the kettle of water on the stove.

Step 6: Add the boiled water to the Teapot with Leaves to create four cups of tea.

Step 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.

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 your house, trying to use it will give 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 was 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 (and so far, only) person to get 200,000,000xp in Construction.


 * When the skill was first introduced the log in screen was changed similar to how the log in was altered for Hunter. While the screen for hunter showed a jungle theme with small creatures, this screen showed a more constructive theme.  The most notable part of the screen was the old ladders and partly painted plaster walls.  Keeping with tradition there were two torches with the smoke forming rune symbols while changing colours.


 * After a recent update you can now check what materials you need to make a certain object.


 * On 18 August 2009, there were many updates to construction, including a room where players could put their pets. 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 it's type(Menagerie and Costume room). To move your Menagerie or Costume room, you simply have to try to build a new one without removing your current room. You will then be told that you can only have one and asked if you want to move it. You then rotate and place the room as if building a new one and when you select build, the room will move to the new location and rotation, with all your furniture and pets as they were at the old location. You will have to pay the cost of building the room in order to move it. After all, large scale landscaping isn't a cheap job!