Skill mastery

See Hiscores for the relative total rankings of the different skills.

Level 99 is the maximum skill level a player can advance in a skill (with 13,034,431 experience points), although players can have up to 200,000,000 experience in any skill. Thus, if a player has level 99 in all the skills, the maximum total levels are 2,376 levels (that is 24 skills multiplied by 99). When level 99 in any skill is reached, there is a different fireworks animation that can be heard by everyone nearby and has bigger and more fireworks.

Pay-to-play players reaching level 99 in a skill are entitled to wear a Cape of Accomplishment for that particular skill. This cape can be bought from a specific skill master, for 99,000 coins. When operated, this cape allows a player to have a temporary level of 100, and the player performs a unique emote. Furthermore, if the player reaches Level 99 in more than one skill, the player's skill cape becomes trimmed and any more skill capes the player obtains will also become trimmed (along with the newly received cape, of course).

Cooking and Fletching give fairly quick training (2-4 weeks), with anywhere from a cost of 1-8 million coins to a profit of up to or exceeding 3 million depending how they are trained. Another little-known skill that gives one of the fastest inexpensive experience is Thieving (see the amount of people with 99 Thieving compared to Cooking and Fletching). Level 45-99 Thieving can be done in 2-4 weeks with a total of 83-98 hours spent, depending on how long someone plays each day. Furthermore, getting level 1-45 Thieving can take less than a week. Strength is by far the most trained, resulting in the highest number of 99s. Achieving a level 99 skill is not easy no matter which skill, and thus classified as a major achievement. This is why wearing the Cape of Accomplishment is something to be proud of.

Before the Skill interface update, players with a level 99 skill could view the experience needed to earn level 100.

In RuneScape Classic, the maximum total level was 1,782; the addition of Runecrafting (1,881), Slayer (1,980), Farming (2,079), Construction (2,178), Hunter (2,277), and the newest skill, Summoning, brought the maximum total levels to 2,376.



99 Parties
A Level 99 party is a party held by a player to celebrate his/her achievement in getting a level 99 in a skill. A party can happen anywhere, many users have them at their POH or near the skill master so they can get their cape quicker. There are mixed views on these parties, also varying for different skills. Some players view "easy" 99s unworthy of parties, but this varies widely.

Celebrating
Players may invite friends to follow them as they level up from 98 to 99. They will then head to the master of that skillcape (For example the Master Fisher outside the Fishing guild who sells fishing capes or Hickerton in Catherby who sells Fletching capes). The player will then buy the cape of the 99 skill and equip it, then do the emote of that particular skill often to rounds of:"congratulations" and cheering.

Alternatively, some players may get 99 in a skill (without any friends) and later go with a group of friends to purchase the skillcape.

Players may take videos/get a friend to take a video of their journey to 99 and of them getting their cape. These videos are some of the most common RuneScape videos shown on sites such as YouTube.

Congratulating
Common phrases used to congratulate the player getting 99 are:


 * Gratz on 99 [skill], [player]!
 * Congratulations on getting 99 [skill], [player]!
 * Congrats [player]!

Partying
The player may then host a house party. The group of players will simply have fun and relax. Alternatively, players may head to the Party Room and have a drop party. They may light origami balloons, use toy mice, anything to celebrate! In the past, players used to host normal drop parties (which involved the player dropping the items manually), but this is no longer possible because of the drop change update.

First players to achieve level 99
When level 99 stats first started appearing, players with such stats were often well known around the RuneScape community. However, as more and more people obtained level 99, it is often agreed that such players do not stand out much any more. However, other members of the RuneScape community still consider it a major achievement.

Below is a list of the first players reaching level 99 in a particular skill.


 * {|class="wikitable"

!Achievement !Date achieved !Player
 * 99 Woodcutting
 * 28 August 2001
 * Everdred
 * 99 Firemaking
 * 2001
 * Cowchicken
 * 99 Magic
 * September 2002
 * Bluerose13x
 * 99 Smithing
 * 13 December 2001
 * Bluerose13x
 * 99 Cooking
 * January 2002
 * Tks
 * 99 Fishing
 * January 2002
 * Tks
 * 99 Mining
 * 2002
 * Joe Bill64
 * 99 Ranged
 * 2002
 * Snake Slava
 * 99 Agility
 * 23 March 2003
 * Thehate
 * 99 Crafting
 * 30 March 2003
 * Ltangel
 * 99 Fletching
 * 2003
 * Chilipeppers
 * 99 Prayer
 * May 2004
 * Lilyuffie88
 * 99 Slayer
 * 9 July 2005
 * Zezima
 * 99 Farming
 * 27 September 2005
 * 0xpx0
 * 99 Construction
 * 6 June 2006
 * Cursed You
 * 99 Hunter
 * 2 December 2006
 * Darkforest67
 * 99 Summoning
 * 8 February 2008
 * Nercychlidae
 * 99 Attack
 * Zonghui
 * 99 Defence
 * Zonghui
 * 99 Strength
 * Ladykilljoy
 * 99 Hitpoints
 * Zonghui
 * 99 Thieving
 * Swedemike
 * 99 Herblore
 * Halw Gnun
 * 99 Runecrafting
 * Kale Stille
 * }
 * 8 February 2008
 * Nercychlidae
 * 99 Attack
 * Zonghui
 * 99 Defence
 * Zonghui
 * 99 Strength
 * Ladykilljoy
 * 99 Hitpoints
 * Zonghui
 * 99 Thieving
 * Swedemike
 * 99 Herblore
 * Halw Gnun
 * 99 Runecrafting
 * Kale Stille
 * }
 * Zonghui
 * 99 Thieving
 * Swedemike
 * 99 Herblore
 * Halw Gnun
 * 99 Runecrafting
 * Kale Stille
 * }
 * Halw Gnun
 * 99 Runecrafting
 * Kale Stille
 * }
 * Kale Stille
 * }

Multiple level 99 skills

 * {|class="wikitable"

!Achievement !Date achieved !Player
 * 99 in all melee
 * Zonghui
 * 99 in all skills (1980)
 * 9 July 2005
 * Zezima
 * 99 in all skills (2079)
 * 4 October 2005
 * Zezima
 * 99 in all skills (2178)
 * 11 June 2006
 * N0valyfe
 * 99 in all skills (2277)
 * Thehate
 * 99 in all skills (2376)
 * Kingduffy 1
 * 99 in all free version skills
 * 28 January 2008
 * Syzygy
 * }
 * Notes :
 * 99 in all skills (2376)
 * Kingduffy 1
 * 99 in all free version skills
 * 28 January 2008
 * Syzygy
 * }
 * Notes :
 * Syzygy
 * }
 * Notes :


 * 1. Cowchicken and Dragoon 787 reached level 99 Firemaking on the same day, but it is commonly accepted that Cowchicken reached it earlier.


 * 2. Snake Slava was banned for macro use after Jagex mistook his English-Russian translator for cheating software. To prove that he did not cheat, he actually brought his computer to the Jagex headquarters. To prove that he could achieve it again, he trained his second character Snake Slavik to 99 Ranged as well before anyone else could do so.


 * 3. Cursed You was banned for real world trading, not for causing the Falador Massacre.


 * 4. While Zezima was the first player to reach level 99 in all skills, he did not keep up with Summoning, and thus has been overtaken by other players.