Managing Miscellania


 * For a calculator helping you with determining profits from kingdom management, see Calculators/Miscellania with live data from the Grand Exchange Market Watch.

Managing Miscellania is a quest reward from Throne of Miscellania in which the player is the regent of the nation of Miscellania, and as the regent is in charge of running the island and assigning subjects to collecting resources. You can decide what resources your subjects obtain for you, but to collect many resources you must have money in the coffers and your popularity with your citizens must be reasonably high. To adjust what resources your subjects obtain for you, speak to Advisor Ghrim in Miscellania castle. You can also speak to him via the Lunar Magicks spell NPC Contact without having to visit Miscellania.

Approval Rating


Players can increase their approval rating by helping the subjects around Miscellania in various tasks, but only if they have the skill level for the tasks. When your approval rating reaches 100% you can not increase it any further and the works will say you have done enough. These activities yield negligible experience, so it is not recommended that players use them to train skills.

Rake the weeds from the herbs and flax plots just outside the palace walls, south of the city gates. 1 percent = 1.285 weeds Mine coal on the north shore of Miscellania, just north of the gates. 1 percent = 1.285 coal It is possible to find gems and give these to Miner Magnus; they give around 5% (depending on the gem). 1 percent = 3 maples This method is recommended if you have 50+ Woodcutting. 1 percent = 1.285 fish (regardless of type of fish) When fishing, it is helpful to not filter your in-game messages so you can see the messages from the fisherman.
 * Raking (level 30 ) is a fast way to improve your approval rating, but you have to wait for weeds to grow back.
 * Mining (level 30 ) is a also another quick way to gain support, as it is faster than all the others methods.
 * Chop maple trees (level 45 ) in the grove in the centre of Miscellania.
 * Fish (level 40 ) tuna, lobsters, or swordfish off the docks of Miscellania.

Note: You can check your approval rating progress with each of the NPCs.

Once players have completed Royal Trouble, they can also gain approval on the Etceteria side of the island.
 * Cut teak and mahogany trees (Spirit Beavers cannot multichop them.) (can not use Inferno). If one has a decent woodcutting level this is by far the fastest way to raise your approval rating.
 * Compost, water, and weed a farming patch.

Your approval rating can also drop in the following ways. –5 percent –1 percent
 * Automatically, the approval rating drops (every 24 hours from when you completed the quest) 1% per day after both quests are complete (3% per day if only Throne of Miscellania has been completed)
 * Kill one of the villagers.
 * Steal from a stall.

Since attacking is the default left-click for many citizens, care must be taken to avoid attacking them. High-level players can kill them in one hit, compounding the problem of accidental clicks. Players may wish to make themselves unable to attack by wielding a bow without arrows or by wielding a snowball while visiting the kingdom; Also the 'Easter Carrot' from the 2009 Easter Event is good, as it deals no damage when attacking. Alternatively, players can use the minimap to click where to go.

Mining appears to be the fastest way to improve the approval rating, but, of course, this may depend on the player's Mining level. If players are just 'topping up' their approval rating, cutting maples or weeding are good ways, because they are on the route to visiting Ghrim. Many players also use fairy rings to access Ghrim (code CIP) as then they can mine coal on the way back to the ring or on the way to the castle. Players who need to gain approval rating, but have no items with them, can use Barbarian fishing to fish bare-handed. Players can also buy a rake from Gardener Gunnhild for 15 coins. Fremennik sea boots 2 (or higher) increase the speed of gaining approval and also speed up trips to Miscellania.

NOTE: Your approval rating may drop to 25% after completing Royal Trouble, forcing you to bring it up to 100% again.

The Game Bar can keep you updated on your approval rating and coffers.

Coffers
The completion of the Throne of Miscellania allows a maximum of 5,000,000 coins in the treasury. This amount increases to 7,500,000 coins after the completion of Royal Trouble.

Every day at midnight UTC, the citizens deduct 10% of the balance (but only up to a maximum of 50,000 or 75,000 coins, depending on which quests are completed) and convert it into resources. The rewards can be extremely good if players have both a high approval rating and high amounts of cash in the treasury. For example, with just over 500k coins invested (50k coins deducted from treasury), each day players could expect to receive 370 coal and 20 herbs by setting mining to maximum and herbs to as high as it will go. All herbs are tarromin or better, making this option a good return on investment.

Players need 500,000 coins (750,000 coins after Royal Trouble) in the coffers to get the maximum deduction for one day. To go seven days without collecting resources, players would need 850k coins (1.275M after Royal Trouble) in the coffers to get the maximum amount of resources. If the player deposits the maximum of 5,000,000 or 7,500,000 coins, he/she could go up to 90 days without collecting resources and still get the maximum deduction for one day (however, the player still needs to go back to the kingdom periodically to maintain a high approval rating if he/she wants to receive a decent amount of resources).

If a player has completed only Throne of Miscellania, it is sometimes recommended not to deposit into the coffers until both quests are complete. Waiting until both quests are complete limits possible ill effects of not topping off approval when approval drops 3% per day.

After completing all of the Hard Fremennik Province Tasks, Advisor Ghrim will accept flatpack items made in the POH as payment directly into the coffers. Only unnoted flatpacks are currently accepted. Players may purchase from the Grand Exchange for incredibly small sums and turn them in for a much more then what was paid at the GE. Alternatively those training construction can use this to make some of the coin loss back. See flatpack for information on prices.

Example: Mahogany B'kcase purchased at 10gp in GE are worth 506gp when given to Advisor Ghrim, and will be pay into the coffers accordingly. Other flatpack items may be of better value.

Workers
After completing the Royal Trouble quest, there are 15 available workers. There is a maximum of 10 workers on any task.

Experiments from players seem to suggest that only the money taken from the coffers and the popularity rating is recorded. This means that just before claiming the rewards, players can switch the worker distribution which will then apply to the entire period.

Best Items and Ways to Collect
Based on the number of workers placed on each task, the time interval players should wait before collecting can vary a fair bit. However, for most 10/5 combinations, collecting once every seven days seems to yield the highest number of 'bonus' items. Players are advised to increase their reputation each day, but missing a day does not result in much loss.

There are several different combinations of items to collect to yield profitable and useful rewards.


 * Herb farming is widely regarded as the best way to profit from the kingdom, since many herbs are worth over 1,000 coins. No matter what resources players may require, they are better off placing ten workers on herbs and using the money from the sale of the herbs for whatever else they need. If players place workers on herb farming, flax farming is not an option, since farming herbs and farming flax are mutually exclusive. If players need flax, in this case, it is still better to farm herbs, sell them, and use the money to buy flax.

With the remaining five workers, there are several good options from which to choose. Players should decide based on their needs.


 * Raw fish is a commonly chosen option. The value of raw fish alone covers all the costs of running the kingdom. The extra gems from caskets received beyond that are then pure profit. Also, the clue scrolls that can be received occasionally may bring some extra profit. Players may also choose this option to train Cooking without the need to spend time Fishing. Cooked fish is an option that really only makes sense if players need food for training combat and don't want to choose the more economical option of selling raw fish to buy cooked fish.


 * Coal mining also covers the cost of the kingdom and leaves extra gems. Players may choose this option as a good alternative to purchasing coal to train Smithing, since the cost to collect coal is cheaper than buying it from the Grand Exchange. Players can also smith even more profitable items. For example, players could buy a quantity of iron ore that is half the amount of the coal received (not using the Blast Furnace, in this example) to smith steel and to make cannonballs. Using five people on mining at 100% approval rating for 7 days yields approximately 1900 coal, requiring 950 iron ore and producing 3800 cannonballs. At current GE prices, that is 0 coins of profit.


 * Maple woodcutting is a good option if players need bird's nests, e.g., for Saradomin brew or for the tree seeds and bird's eggs they may provide. It can also be an option to obtain logs for training Firemaking or Fletching bows without spending the time Woodcutting.


 * Farming is a somewhat speculative option, since the prices of seeds can vary quite a bit. Players who need a rather large number of lower level seeds, several decent herb seeds, and some special seeds for Farming can choose this option, as well. If players need only a few types (or only one type) of seed, it may make more economic sense to choose another option and to use the money to buy the seeds needed.


 * Hardwood cutting (teak and mahogany) provides so little return and so few supplies that it is not recommended. Even if players need planks for Construction, which still requires the cost of the sawmill or the use of Plank Make, they should choose a different option and use the money from that option to purchase logs or planks from the Grand Exchange.

Rewards


The table below indicates the maximum rewards - 75k deducted from treasury a day, with popularity at 100%, and the selected item at maximum.

Trivia

 * If there is money in the coffers and the player's membership ends, the workers in Miscellania (and Etceteria, if Royal Trouble is completed) still continue gathering resources and deducting money from the coffers accordingly. Therefore if players plan on renewing their membership later, it is recommended to fill the coffers with as much as players can spare in order to take advantage of the days without membership as well. This is also true for when members get temporary bans. The workers will similarly continue to gather resources while players are banned.
 * Likewise, if players plan on not renewing their membership, it is strongly recommended to withdraw all money and resources from Miscellania, as it will become impossible to recover anything upon losing membership.
 * The expressions on the chatheads of Miscellanian citizens will vary depending on your approval rating. If you have a very low approval rating, they will look annoyed with you, but as your approval rating rises, they will change to a friendlier expression.

Glitches

 * On the 4th of August, the day of the Treasure Trails update, there was a glitch which allowed people to get 100 times the resources collected. Players who exploited this glitch did not get action taken against them, because they had not the choice to abuse the glitch or not (when you see the collected recources you immediately gain them, there is no way back). Jagex eventually disabled the option to talk to Advisor Ghrim. This has now been fixed.
 * If a player teleports while on the "depositing to your bank" part of talking to Advisor Ghrim, after teleporting, they will receive the "distribution" message, and are able to change distribution from their teleport point.