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RuneScoop.com  >  RuneScoop Efficiency Mini-Guides       >  The RuneScoop Barrows Kill Count Optimization Guide for RuneScape

The RuneScoop Barrows Kill Count Optimization Guide for RuneScape - Kill Count Table

The ideal kill count to use at The Barrows depends on a number of factors. Obviously, item values are an important consideration, since kill count shifts the relative numbers of items you get. But also essential are how long it takes you to do the activity, how quickly you are able to rack up monster kills, and how often you get Barrows items (which is only conjecture for the time being, since Jagex hasn’t told us the exact number).

Because of the influence of these various figures, I set up this guide as a calculator, where you input a set of numbers and then the site generates a customized table for you. This reference page will describe the inputs and the table’s contents in detail, so you understand better how to use the mini-guide.

You must specify five parameters that are used by the site to generate the kill count table. Most of these are related to the particulars of how you do The Barrows, so you may need to do a bit of timing of your runs to see how long various actions take you. Alternately, you can just estimate the numbers; I provide some typical example figures here that you can use.

Here are the variables you need to specify:

• Barrows Item Drop Rate: Your personal estimate of how often you get a Barrows armor or weapon item from the chest. I usually use an estimate of 1 in 18, but some folks prefer a different figure, so you can choose here.
  
  
• Base Time Per Chest: How many minutes it takes you from when you first start potting up for a chest run until you get to the chest and then run back out, assuming no time is spent getting kill count. This is a primary influence on how many chests you can do per hour.
  
  Many players don’t really know how long it takes them to do this. Either time yourself, or use these figures as a guideline:
  • 6 Minutes: This is about the fastest possible figure, achieved by a very high level player using extreme potions and a high level spell like Fire Surge on the melee brothers.
    
    
  • 7 Minutes: A typical result for most high-level methods, including using a black salamander on the melee brothers and fast technique to get through the tunnels quickly.
    
    
  • 8 Minutes: A more moderate pace that is typical of high level but not very high level players, using methods like Magic Dart. This is also often the result of trying to use Veracs on the melee brothers (which is an overrated method, sorry!).
    
    
  • 10 Minutes: This time is common for mid-to-high-level players using slower techniques.
    
    
  • 12 Minutes: A “leisurely” pace that is sometimes achieved by players trying to economize on supplies, those who have marginal skills and are struggling to complete the minigame, or those who are just not in a big rush.
  
  
  
• Number of Chests Per Trip: How many chests you do on each trip to the Barrows. Since I pot up at the bank and then take a fresh set of potion doses for each chest, this is usually 5 or 9 for me (based on using 4-dose pots).
  
  
• Travel/Bank Time Per Trip: How many minutes it takes you, at the end of a trip, to get to the bank, dump your items, heal up, get new supplies and then travel back to The Barrows. An estimate of 3 minutes is typical, but this may be longer if you can’t teleport easily to Canifis.
  
  
• Average Time Per Monster Kill: How many seconds it takes you, on average, to kill the monsters in the tunnels, such as bloodworms. A very high level player can usually figure on about 10 seconds, but increase this as necessary.

Again, exact figures aren’t essential. Just remember to be honest with yourself, because as the old computer saying goes: “garbage in, garbage out”. If you don’t give accurate inputs, you won’t get accurate output.

The default figures provided by the site are 1 in 18, 7 minutes, 9 chests per trip, 3 minutes for banking time and 10 seconds per kill.

When you press “Calculate”, your parameters are sent to a script on the RuneScoop site. This program combines the information you provided with pre-set information about the impact of kill count on drop types in the chest, and the prices for Barrows-related items (which you can see on the page). It then generates a table that shows what you should expect for drops for a variety of kill counts.

The calculation is based on the following average numbers of items per “drop” in the chest, based on my testing:

• Coins: 550
  
  
• Mind Runes: 300
  
  
• Chaos Runes: 125
  
  
• Death Runes: 75
  
  
• Blood Runes: 40
  
  
• Bolt Racks: 36.5

Half key and dragon medium helm drops are ignored for this calculation, since they are too rare to accurately model, and their value is not very high anyway.

The table that you generate is not too difficult to understand, but I’ll explain it to you fully here anyway. :)

Each row represents the data for a particular kill count number.

The first column shows the expected number of minutes to do a run to the chest including time needed to obtain the kill count for that row. This is calculated simply by multiplying the time you specified to kill each monster and adding it to the base time you indicated if no kill count was obtained. Note that for a kill count of zero, this figure is the same as the base time per chest, but that’s largely hypothetical—if monsters are attacking you at the door to the chest, it may take longer to get a zero kill count than a KC of 1 or 2! But hey, I thought maybe someone’s figured out a way to open the door perfectly each time even while being attacked...

The second column shows the number of chests per hour you can do for each kill count. This takes into account the time per chest in the previous column, along with the numbers you gave for chests per trip and banking/overhead time per trip.

Next we come to two sets of six columns: Drops Per Hour and Drop Value Per Hour. The first set of columns tells you, for each kill count, how many “drops” or “contributions” of each mundane item type you can expect to get per hour. The second set of column shows the expect monetary value of those drops, based on the average numbers per drop I indicated above, and current market prices.

Then we come to the last two columns. The first of these, Total Mundane Drop Value Per Hour, is just a sum of the six Drop Value Per Hour columns; it tells you how much value in coins, runes and racks you get per hour for each kill count. The last column, Total Drop Value Per Hour (With Barrows Items) adds to the previous column the estimated value per hour of Barrows items, based on the drop rate frequency you provided (such as 1 in 18 chests) and the number of chests per hour.

The last column is basically the “punch line” of the table. The figure in this column with the highest value is bolded for easy reference, and will usually be one of the rows somewhere in the middle of the table. Note that this does not represent profit at The Barrows: this table only deals with drops, and not costs.

Finally, note that like all RuneScoop data tables, if you have Javascript enabled you can resort the table dynamically by clicking on one of the column headers. You can also sort based on two columns by clicking one, holding down the <Shift> key, then clicking another.

The RuneScoop Barrows Kill Count Optimization Guide for RuneScape - Kill Count Table