Analysis, Discussion and Tips for Success

General Discussion

The Ectofuntus is mini-temple built over a pool of ectoplasm, just outside the ghost town of Port Phasmatys. By processing bones and offering them to the Ectofuntus along with a bucket of ectoplasm, a player gets four times the normal XP that they would receive when burying a set of bones.

When the Ectofuntus was first introduced, it was quite attractive to many players. While using it was always slower than just burying bones, it was much more economical, because of the need to use far fewer bones for the same amount of XP.

When the Construction skill was introduced, it brought with it altars upon which bones could be offered, providing up to 3.5 times normal experience. This isn't as good as the Ectofuntus, but it is much faster. As a result, the Ectofuntus has become nearly obsolete -- when you take into account the value of the time required to use it, the extra 36 XP from a set of dragon bones (for example) is hardly worthwhile.

That said, there are some players who still like to use the Ectofuntus, so I've included it in my skill lists. Because the time and effort is the same for any type of bones, you should obviously use the very best you can. I have provided methods for a wide variety of bones, but I really think only dragon bones and up are appropriate for the Ectofuntus.

Grinding bones has always been the most time-consuming and tedious part of this overall tedious affair, and traditionally, each set of bones required three separate operations for grinding. Jagex updated the bone grinder in 2008, implementing a fully automated process, so you only click once for an entire inventory's worth of bones. This is still slow, but it is less tedious, and makes the overall process more multitasking-friendly. However, it is still possible to do things the old-fashioned way -- right-click the bone grinder and choose "Settings" to change modes -- and this has the advantage of being a fair bit faster, saving about 30 seconds for every 13 sets of bones (at the cost of tons of extra clicks, of course). Since I realized that some players would prefer manual and others automatic, I describe both. The difference in speed works out to about 20 extra sets of bones offered at the Ectofuntus, or around 12% more XP per hour.

The minimum level of 25 is an estimate of the general level required to do Ghosts Ahoy.

Location and Access

This activity is done nearly entirely at the Ectofuntus (including the levels above and below it). Banking is best done at Castle Wars.

Required and Recommended Equipment

An ectophial is mandatory for teleporting to the Ectofuntus; it is a reward from Ghosts Ahoy so everybody should have one.

Finally, you need empty pots for bonemeal and buckets for slime. I recommend at least 200 of each, but you can get by with as few as 27.

Note that you do not need a ghostspeak amulet to collect ecto-tokens; you can right-click the ghost disciples without wearing it.

Required and Recommended Supplies

Ourg bones. There are two different types of bones called "ourg bones". The first are ancestral ourg bones, which are obtained from zogre coffins as described during the Zogre Flesh Eaters quest. These are very rare and more expensive than the second type, so they are not recommended. The second type of ourg bone is dropped by General Graardor in Bandos area of the God Wars Dungeon. The general gets his butt kicked on a regular basis, so these bones are generally available in decent quantities. They are still very expensive, because of the large amount of Prayer XP they provide.

Familiar Suggestions

While it may seem that a beast of burden would be a natural choice here, it turns out that this is not the case. You can't use one to collect slime, because buckets of slime are untradeable. And they aren't of any real benefit at the bone grinder either, because the extra time needed to load and unload them chews up any time you save by banking less frequently.

So, just do the usual: summon a foraging familiar, which should be the magpie (because of the valuable items it gathers). There isn't a really worthwhile forager below Summoning level 47, so I wouldn't bother with a familiar at lower levels.

Technique and Tips

Offering bones at the Ectofuntus is best done in three separate steps: grinding bones, collecting slime, and the "worshipping" (offering the bones to) the Ectofuntus.

Start by equipping your ghostspeak amulet and a ring of duelling; you don’t need anything else. Summon a magpie if you are able to. Take your ectophial out of the bank.

To grind bones, take out 13 sets of bones and 13 empty pots. Click your ectophial, wait for the teleport animation; your character will automagically refill it at the Ectofuntus. Click on the staircase just to the east and you'll run upstairs. Ensure that the grinder is set to automatic, and then simply click the input hopper to get the grinding process started. Your character will put the first set of bones into the machine, automatically grind it and empty the bonemeal, then repeat the process for you 12 times. This takes about 3 minutes in total, making the process well suited to multitasking. Return to the bank, store the bonemeal and repeat the process. Tip: all bonemeal is just called "Bonemeal" in your bank, but "Examine" will tell you what sort of bones they are (well, were.)

Now, collect the slime (ectoplasm). Take out 27 empty buckets, click the ectophial and wait for the teleport and refill. Click the trapdoor to the west of the Ectofuntus if it is not already open, and go down the ladder. If you do not have Agility 58, you must run all the way to the eastern part of the circular platform, go down the stairs, run west to the opposite end, go down the stairs, and run back again to the east and go down a third set of stairs to reach the slime pool. If you have Agility 58 or higher (or have potted or "pie-ed" up to that), click the weathered wall shortcut right in front of you (beware that it can be a bit hard to find the right spot to click on). This saves you the first two (long) semi-circular runs, so you get to the pool 20-25 seconds faster. At the pool, click one empty bucket and then the slime right in front of you; your character will automatically fill all 27 buckets. When done, bank and repeat.

Now, to offer the bones. Take out 13 bonemeal and 13 buckets of slime. Click the ectophial, and after it is refilled, left-click the Ectofuntus 13 times -- these can be done in rapid-fire fashion, so this final step takes little time. Return to the bank with your empty buckets and pots, and start all over again -- if you dare. :)

After every four trips (52 offerings), right-click one of the ghost disciples and collect 5 ecto-tokens for each set of bones offered. These have limited use at the present time, but my guess is that at some point that will change, so I recommend hanging on to them.