Analysis, Discussion and Tips for Success

General Discussion

The Shades of Mort'ton minigame involves several steps that provide experience in several skills, as well as rewards of item and money. A lot of players also find it fun to participate in. One of the skills that has XP benefits in this minigame is Crafting -- you earn approximately 300 Crafting XP per minute when you participate by helping to build or reinforce the temple at Mort'ton, which is under continuous attack from monsters called loar shades.

To engage in this activity you start by buying inexpensive building materials, and then you use a special hammer to work at the temple. As you do this, you slowly gain "sanctity", a measure of how much assistance you've provided at the temple. This sanctity can be used to make sacred oil, a component used to continue the minigame; alternately, you can sell the sacred oil, or just keep working at the temple for the XP.

Temple building does not provide very fast Crafting XP -- in fact, it is actually rather slow. But it has some advantages, including being excellent for multitasking, having very low material costs, and providing consistent profit potential.

Just building the temple is the way to maximize your XP with this activity. The alternative is to use the sanctity you earn to make sacred oil -- this can be sold for a nice profit, but it takes time to run the oil to and from the bank, so you get less XP. There's an obvious trade-off involved, so I describe the XP only method here, and the method involving making sacred oil on a separate page.

I have shown this activity as being for level 58 and above, which I should explain. You don't really need a high level of Crafting to do this activity -- I chose that number because having 58 in all combat skills gives you a combat level of 81. Both the temple area and the town of Mort'ton are constantly overrun with aggressive loar shades, which are level 40. Having a combat level of 81 is pretty much essential to being able to build the temple in peace, and is therefore strongly recommended.

Location and Access

First of all, log in to World 77. This is the world dedicated to temple building at Mort'ton, and so the only place where you are likely to find a temple being worked on by others. (You can't do this by yourself.)

This activity must be performed at the temple just northeast of Mort'ton. You must have completed the quest Shades of Mort'ton to participate; this quest also teaches you how to build the temple. The only bank nearby is in Burgh de Rott, which requires at least partial completion of In Aid of the Myreque; ability to use that bank makes temple building much easier, and is really mandatory if making sacred oil.

The easiest way to get to Mort'ton is to teleport to your house and heading through a Kharyrll portal to Canifis; this will put you in the pub there. Go through the trap door behind the pub and go through the secret door to the south. Continue to the doors that lead into the swamp; go through them, then run to the makeshift bridge and cross it. Continue south until you get to the small boat, which will carry you to Mort'ton; the temple is just to the northwest of there, while Burgh de Rott is well to the southwest.

Required and Recommended Equipment

You need, at a minimum, a regular hammer to build the temple. However, you get much more XP if you use a special flamtaer hammer, which is sold by Razmire in Mort'ton. This is a one-time expense of 13,000 gp that I consider mandatory if you want to do temple building. It is non-tradeable.

You also want a tinderbox for lighting the temple flame, and a chisel as well if you want to chisel your own limestone bricks.

Required and Recommended Supplies

To build the temple you need swamp paste, limestone bricks and either timber beams or planks. You can get all of the supplies you need at Razmire's building store, but I recommend keeping a supply of swamp paste in your bank, because it is cheaper to buy it in bulk on the Grand Exchange than to buy it from Razmire. (If you do the minigame a lot, you'll also get it as a reward from chests in Mort'ton.)

If you want to stay for very long periods of time, consider bringing a Summoning potion and extra familiar pouches.

Familiar Suggestions

You are going to be staying at the temple for long periods of time, so I recommend just using a foraging familiar to earn extra money while you work. I prefer the magpie, given the high value of rings and gems today.

Technique and Tips

At the bank in Burgh de Rott (or Canifis, if necessary), take out a stack of coins, a stack of swamp paste, a chisel, flamtaer hammer and one or more magpie pouches. Go to Razmire's building in the center of Mort'ton, and right-click him to access his building store. Buy 12 timber beams and 12 limestone. Now use the chisel on the limestone to make it into bricks; you can buy bricks instead, but you get 6 Crafting XP for each brick you make, and the plain limestone is cheaper, so why not? Now right-click Razmire and open his general store. Sell the chisel and buy a tinderbox.

Run northeast to the temple and go inside. Click on one of the squares in the middle of a wall, and the items you bought will become "resources" in the minigame that you slowly draw down as you build.

For this activity you just stay there for as long as you like, until your resources go down to zero; when they do, go back to Razmire, buy more resources and repeat the process.

Every minute or two, the altar in the center of the temple will collapse and then reappear; when it does, click on it to light it (this may occasionally require more than one try.) Doing this gives you 100 free Firemaking XP, and you can usually do it about 30 to 35 times an hour, depending on how much attention you are paying, and how many others are also trying to light the flame.

You will need to periodically renew your familiar, dump its foragings and get new pouches.