Construction


 * "Con" and "Cons" redirect here. For the skill that raises life points, see Constitution.

Construction is a members-only skill that allows players to build a Player-owned house (or POH) and provide furnishings for them. It is very useful in its connection to other skills, such as Prayer, Mining, Magic, Crafting and Summoning. Construction is generally regarded as one of the most expensive skills to train because of the materials needed for it, although it is currently one of the fastest skills to train depending on how much money a player is willing to spend. Construction can be trained even faster if the player uses Sacred clay hammers which are obtained from playing the activity Stealing Creation. It is also used during the Dungeoneering skill to replace the Gatestone portal with other options. Construction is regarded by many players as a unique 99 to achieve, due to its high cost and mostly social benefits. Skills such as Prayer or Herblore are much more expensive, but they offer more practical rewards that people often desire, resulting in more players choosing to spend their money on these skills as opposed to Construction.

Introduction
After purchasing a basic house of their own, players earn Construction experience by decorating or making furniture items for it. As the player progresses through the levels, more rooms, more types of rooms, and better room items become available, and they can build a better and more impressive house. Some rooms and items are decorative and are built to show off the player's advancing skills or have fun with their friends. Other rooms that can be built include a games room for playing games for fun, and a dungeon to imprison visitors. Some rooms and items, however, are useful in their own right. These items include altars which give more Prayer experience per bone than one would get by simply burying them, and teleport portals that can teleport the player (or any visitor) to a number of useful locations.



History
Construction was originally released on 31 May 2006. It did exist in RuneScape Classic as the Carpentry skill, but no one knew how to train it. It was removed with the introduction of the Agility skill on 12 December, possibly because Jagex wanted to release it later because of some improvements they had to make upon the skill, since its release it has the title of the most expensive skill to train, for there is almost no way to level it up without paying for planks and you can't make them yourself without paying money. It should be noted that Planks are obtainable for free in various places throughtout the Wilderness, however being in the Wilderness has its obvious hazards.

Purchasing a House
To begin Construction, players must buy a house by paying one of the four 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 who will charge a fee for changing either.

Estate Agent Locations
The Estate agents can be found in 4 locations:
 * Seers' Village, northeast of the bank.
 * Falador, west of the east bank.
 * Ardougne, west of the south bank.
 * Varrock, north of the east bank.

Travelling to a House
The most basic way to get to a house is by walking to the POH portal ( icon on map) that is in the location of the house. From here a player will be prompted to either enter their own house 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. In the house options screen you can choose whether you want to teleport into the house itself or outside the POH portal.

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 and Disadvantages
There are also several advantages and disadvantages to each house portal location. When you start, a convenient place to run/walk to is probably the most important consideration. However, as you advance you will probably use House teleports more and more, in which case the exit location is a more important for its uses. See here for more information.

Building a House
To build a house, a player must enter their house portal and go into building mode. This can be done either by using the portal or changing the building mode settings in house options in the options menu. If you change these settings while not in a house, you will automatically be in building mode the next time you teleport to your house using the teleport or teleport tablet.

Building Mode
A basic house starts off with only a parlour and garden, but more rooms can be added at higher levels. In building mode, players will see ghost versions of some furniture and doors called "Hotspots", where new objects can be built in the various rooms. Right-click on these and select build to construct different items for the current room, if you have the required materials and tools. You cannot drop items while in building mode. building mode can be turned on and off using the house options menu, as this makes it easy to enter building mode while inside the house instead of going out and back in to the house.

Planning the layout
There are a few important points to consider when building a house. For example: what rooms are placed next to a portal. 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.

POH rooms such as a chapel, throne room, study, and dungeon rooms, once filled with expensive gilded/opulent furniture, are not recommended to be moved. The only way to move a room, with the exception of the Menagerie and Costume Room, is to delete it and rebuild it in the desired new location. By doing this you will have to build everything in this room again as if you have never had any of it before. It is essential to plan your house layout using a tools found on fansites or a sheet of paper because it may save you many millions of coins later down the road. Further more, a well planned house looks much more impressive to players and is more often than not much more accessible.

For more information, see POH

Removing rooms
Some players occasionally decide 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. You cannot remove a room on the ground level that is supporting another room on the second floor. This rule does not apply to dungeon rooms under the ground level rooms.

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. An exception to this is the Shattered Hearts statue in the Study. If you destroy the statue, you have to rebuild it from the beginning; if you destroy the study with the partly completed statue, then building another study you will get a new plinth and when you place it in the house the pieces will reappear to where you had been before.

Moving Rooms
It is possible to completely move a room which you may only have 1 of (examples being the Menagerie and Costume room). To move, simply try to build a new room without removing the current room. You 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!

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. Boosts (such as tea) can be used to meet level requirements for building rooms. All rooms in a house are the same size (8 x 8 squares).

Room Types


Note: A Parlour is automatically generated when you buy a starter house. It is essential initially for low-level training, and later its main useful item are bookshelves, which save bank space by making available every reference book ever unlocked by the player, meaning books held in your bank are no longer needed. However, once a Study or a Quest hall is built, this rooms also contains bookshelves and therefore the Parlour can be deleted without significant loss of utility, if you are short of rooms.

Number of Rooms / Maximum Area
Initially, at level 1 Construction the maximum number of rooms is 20. This rises as you gain levels in construction, with a maximum of 32 rooms at level 99. 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.

Construction Training
Experience is earned by constructing items on the room hotspots. Because you need to advance through the levels, training mostly consist of building something, and then removing (destroying) it, over and over. Most POHs therefore mostly consist of high-level and expensive items, with one hotspot reserved for building and rebuilding a single relatively cheap item. Training items should be chosen on the basis they consist of a single type of component (for simplicity), and planks are cheaper than any other component per experience earned. Common training items are dining room tables and kitchen larders.

Once a Workshop and Workbench are built it is possible to make Flatpack furniture for sale. However the resale price of flatpack furniture is so low the flatpacks are often dropped anyway.

Note that flatpack furniture can be given to Advisor Ghrim after certain completion of the Fremennik Tasks

Construction Items
See the Constructed items list for details on what players can build on the hotspots of each room at a specific level.


 * Levels 1 to 24: Constructed items (1-24)
 * Levels 25 to 50: Constructed items (25-50)
 * Levels 51 to 74: Constructed items (51-74)
 * Levels 75 to 99: Constructed items (75-99)

Please Note: Ready-To-Assemble Construction items will  NOT  give exp.

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. It is also possible to collect the convenient noted plank drops of armoured zombies after the Defender of Varrock quest or the Tormented wraith after Summer's end.

To make planks, the usual 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. However the spell costs runes and coins which together costs more than the sawmill operator.

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 there is no experience advantage between the types of nail, and higher level nails are expensive, most players prefer using iron nails or steel nails. With oak items and above, nails are not needed since 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 or by using the Humidify spell. Due to a skills-based update on 15 February 2011, one can make soft clay by using clay with any water source such as a fountain or a well. 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 is mainly used in the Study to make teleport tablets.

Steel Bars
Steel bars can be created using the Smithing skill. They can also be bought from the Grand Exchange for a price of coins each. Also, you can get 5 steel bars from steel dragons (not recommended).

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, limestone bricks, marble blocks, and magic stones.

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.

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 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. If you wish to change your crest he will charge you a fee of 5,000 coins.

POH Use in Questing
Using three Portal Chambers it is possible to build 7 infinite-use portals - Lumbridge, Varrock, Falador, Camelot, Ardougne, Yanille, and Kharyrll. Adding a mounted Amulet of Glory in a Quest Hall adds a further 4 locations - Edgeville, Karamja, Draynor Village and Al Kharid. Counting the exit portal as another useful transport location, this gives a total of 12 teleport locations from a house. In quests and similar activities, where you are not sure where you need to go next, a single house teleport tablet can give you access to most of Runescape for a single inventory slot, recharging Prayer and Summoning on the way.

You can heal by dying inside the house. If you really want to heal and you have a dungeon, fight the guards until they kill you. You will respawn outside the house with all your items.

Emergency Teleport
A House teleport is a single click escape from any location that allows teleporting. House teleports can be bought from the Grand Exchange for use at any construction level, but the player must have a house to teleport to.

If you die in your house as a result of poisoning, you still die in the normal manner. However, your gravestone appears outside the house portal location which is always in a safe place, and you can get to the gravestone location with a second house teleport stored in your bank, meaning it is a certain and very quick way to get gravestone items back.

POH Use in Making/Saving Money
At level 55, an Armour stand allows players and friends to repair Barrows equipment for a cost saving compared to the NPC cost:

At level 67, a Mahogany eagle lectern allows the player to make House teleports. Making these tablets can be considered a good method of making money.

POH Use in Prayer Training
Beginning at level 61, an altar (see Chapel) with burners allows increased experience from bones. At level 75, a Gilded Altar gives 350% experience (3.5 times), and is an essential part of any attempt at 99 prayer using Dragon bones or similar. It is possible to use an altar in a friend's house, but this is slower.

Cape
Players who have achieved 99 construction may purchase the Construction cape from any estate agent. The emote shows the player building a house around themselves.

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. For more information, see POH.

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
When you reach a minimum construction level of 20, you can hire a servant. You must have two bedrooms with beds. Servants are hired from Servants' Guild in East Ardougne. Different servant need different construction levels and they provide different services, such as greeting guests, serving food, and 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, but the more they cost.

Besides impressing your friends, the main use of a servant is fetching items from your bank, quicker than you can make the trip yourself. Advanced servants can make planks from logs significantly cheaper than buying planks ready-made from the Grand Exchange, but not cheaper than you could make yourself.

Costume Room Furniture
All the furniture in a Costume Room is available flatpacked. This means that once a player has reached level 42 and built the room, the room can immediately be filled with the highest level items by buying the flatpacks from the Grand Exchange. This costs approximately 1,000,000 coins. If this is done the room can be used to its maximum, saving many bank spaces.

Sacred Clay Hammers
A Sacred clay hammer is a reward from the Stealing Creation activity. It is used to double the experience earned from each item constructed. While doubling the experience rate can be considered to be a worthwhile time saving for any skill, construction is such an expensive skill to train doubling the experience and hence halving the cost is highly significant. Because it is extremely difficult to make money training Construction, any training regime must include doing something else, earning money to spend on construction. In this context, spending time playing Stealing Creation can be considered a valid part of construction training.

It is possible with practice to earn five hammers per hour, although this is extraordinarily difficult. On average a person will earn between three and four hammers per hour using skilling only Stealing Creation clans. Each Sacred Clay Hammer will give 50,750 experience (25,375 bonus) before crumbling to dust. If this is worthwhile obviously depends on the cost of the construction materials used versus the rate at which the player can earn money doing their favourite money-earning activity. For more information see construction training.

Barlak
Barlak is a cave goblin is located in a side room on the west side of the main floor of Dorgesh-Kaan. Players can trade special bones for coins and construction experience.


 * Long bone: 1,000 coins and 1,500 Construction experience.
 * Curved bone: 2,000 coins and 2,250 Construction experience.

Strange Rocks
Originally a Strange rock could only be obtained in non-building mode, and could be obtained just standing in a Player-owned house doing non-construction activities, such as alching or just standing around. Rocks appeared on the ground next to the Portal.

As of the 4 August 2010 update, rocks could be obtained from any activity that gives construction experience, including in building mode. Rock now appears in inventory like all other rocks. They can no longer be obtained by just standing in your house in non-building mode.

Temporary boosts
There are four ways to boost your Construction level each having its own limitations. It is important to note that these boosts will not allow you to build past your room limit. For example, someone with 71 construction (26 rooms) cannot boost to level 74 (27 rooms) hoping to build an additional room.

Tea
Depending on the type of cup, a cup of tea will give a 1, 2, or 3 level bonus. With a clay cup, tea gives +1 Construction. With a porcelain cup, tea gives +2 Construction. With a gold-trimmed cup, tea gives +3 Construction. The steps to make a cup of tea can be found here. Players must remember that this boost can only be used inside player-owned houses because if you exit the house or log out, the tea and all of its components will disappear.

Note: Tea only stacks with the crystal saw. It does not stack with stew or the construction skillcape.

Crystal Saw
The crystal saw will add an invisible boost of +3 to the player's construction level only if with item being built requires a saw to build. It will not work when building rooms, placing monsters or growing plants. The crystal saw also has limited charges, and when it runs out you have to recharge it again. You can check how many charges are remaining by right-clicking and selecting "Check-Charges."

Note: The crystal saw stacks with all three other boosts: stew, tea, and the construction skillcape.

Spicy stew
Spicy stew with 3 doses of orange spice added can boost construction by up to +6. This maximum boost is extremely rare, but +5 boosts are achievable without too much effort. The drawback to spicy stew is that it has the potential to boost up to -6. Most players combat this by drinking tea to bring the level back up to normal before attempting another boost. Adding more spice will not increase the effect and normal spicy stew can only have 1 colour in it. Spicy stew obtained as a reward from the court case can have up to three doses of every colour.

Note: Stew only stacks with the crystal saw. It does not stack with tea or the construction skillcape.

Skillcape
Equipping the construction skillcape will temporarily boost construction to level 100 only if the current level is 99. The boost cannot be used to recover drained levels or boost beyond 100. The skillcape can be operated repeatedly in order to maintain the little boost.

Note: The construction cape only stacks with the crystal saw. It does not stack with tea or stew.

Boost stacking
Below are the maximum boosts for each combination. It is not possible to stack more than two of the boosts together, so they are not included in the table. In most cases, one boost trumps another for the maximum. Cells in Green indicate stacking.

* Though the maximum of spicy stew is +6, the realistic maximum is +5.

** This boost cannot be confirmed because there are no construction items that require a level over 99.

Future rooms
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.

Herblore Habitat
Construction plays a role in Herblore Habitat. The jadinkos have certain preferences that allow them to be caught. One of these preferences is an environmental feature that can be made using construction.. You do not gain experience for building the habitat, but it uses no materials, and you don't need a saw or hammer. If your construction level is too low to build the feature, Papa Mambo will build it for you, at a price.

See Herblore Habitat/Construction for more information.

Trivia

 * When you gain Construction experience through the Tears of Guthix distraction and diversion, you get the message, "You feel homesick."