RuneScoop.com - The RuneScoop Laboratory - Report #7

Broad-tipped bolts have been a favorite choice for quite some time for players trying to train Ranged without spending a lot of money. However, since the removal of infinite shop stocks, the supply of broad-tipped bolts (hereafter abbreviated as just “broad bolts”) has decreased, while their price has increased. This led me to wonder just how good of a deal these bolts really were, and how they compared to some other inexpensive ranging options.

With so many different ways of ranging, I felt a comprehensive test of all budget options would be overwhelming, so I started out with a test of a few crossbows and crossbow bolts. These are broad bolts, mithril bolts and silver bolts used with a rune crossbow; bone bolts with the Dorgeshuun (bone) crossbow; and regular kebbit bolts with the hunters’ crossbow.

I tested on three different monsters. The first was the yak, a monster found on the island of Neitiznot that is often used for mid-level Ranged training, because of its moderately high number of life points (500) and low defence. The second was blue dragons, which are often ranged by mid to high level players for their low defence and great drops. Finally, I also ranged black dragons, which are tougher opponents that are still often ranged against. For these, I did only the broad, mithril and kebbit bolts (for reasons you’ll read about in a moment.)

I conducted the tests using my standard ranging gear, which includes an Armadyl helmet, black dragonhide body and legs, Ava’s accumulator, ranger boots, Barrows gloves and archer’s ring. I did not use any potions while fighting the yaks and blue dragons; for the black dragons I took one dose of extreme ranging potion before commencing each kill.

For the yaks I did sets of 25 kills for each crossbow/bolt combination; for the blue dragons I did 10 kills; and for the black dragons, 5. For the yaks and blue dragons I actually did two sets for the broad, mithril and kebbit bolts, averaging them for greater accuracy. Total time in combat was approximately two hours; this does not include travel, banking or drop handling time.

The idea of this test was to compare budget ranging options, and that means taking into account both the time needed to kill the monsters, and the cost of supplies consumed. To that end I timed my combat and also kept track of how many bolts I lost while fighting.

In most cases, the cheaper bolts were slower but cost less to use—no surprise there. But is a cheaper but slower option really a better choice than a more expensive, faster one? The key to answering that is opportunity cost: what is the time worth that you save by using a faster option?

To that end, I also calculated the cost of using each option based on several different valuations of time: 50k, 100k, 250k and 500k gp/hr. This allows us to see when the savings in cheaper bolts are worth more than the extra time they cost, and when they really aren’t.

Table 10, Table 11 and Table 12 shows the data from my tests, along with the related analysis figures, for the three monsters I tested on. As you will see, the broad-tipped bolts were the fastest option in each case, at least from among these options. To make the opportunity cost data easier to understand, I express the cost of alternative options relative to the cost of using broad bolts

**Table 10: Crossbow Speed and Cost Effectiveness Comparison - Yaks**
Crossbow / Bolt Combination	Time Taken	Bolts Used	Kills Per Hour	Cost Per Bolt (on March 25, 2010)	Cost of Supplies Per Hour	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 50,000 gp/hr	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 100,000 gp/hr	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 250,000 gp/hr	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 500,000 gp/hr
Rune Crossbow with Broad Bolts	5:17	24	283.9	124	33,797	--	--	--	--
Rune Crossbow with Mithril Bolts	5:30	29	272.7	100	31,636	-0.3%	+5.7%	+23.9%	+54.3%
Rune Crossbow with Silver Bolts	8:50	38	169.8	20	4,646	+13.2%	+112.6%	+410.8%	+907.8%
Dorgeshuun Crossbow with Bone Bolts	6:42	21	223.9	20	3,761	-49.2%	-9.5%	+109.5%	+307.8%
Hunters’ Crossbow with Kebbit Bolts	5:31	25	271.9	57	15,498	-47.6%	-41.1%	-21.5%	+11.2%

**Table 11: Crossbow Speed and Cost Effectiveness Comparison - Blue Dragons**
Crossbow / Bolt Combination	Time Taken	Bolts Used	Kills Per Hour	Cost Per Bolt (on March 25, 2010)	Cost of Supplies Per Hour	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 50,000 gp/hr	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 100,000 gp/hr	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 250,000 gp/hr	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 500,000 gp/hr
Rune Crossbow with Broad Bolts	5:45	21	104.3	124	27,172	--	--	--	--
Rune Crossbow with Mithril Bolts	5:56	27	101.1	100	27,303	+6.3%	+12.2%	+29.8%	+59.2%
Rune Crossbow with Silver Bolts	9:14	35	62.7	18	3,951	+36.7%	+158.8%	+525.2%	+1136%
Dorgeshuun Crossbow with Bone Bolts	8:45	30	68.6	20	4,114	+11.1%	+107.2%	+395.2%	+875.2%
Hunters’ Crossbow with Kebbit Bolts	6:03	33	99.2	57	18,655	-21.7%	-12.1%	+16.7%	+64.7%

**Table 12: Crossbow Speed and Cost Effectiveness Comparison - Black Dragons**
Crossbow / Bolt Combination	Time Taken	Bolts Used	Kills Per Hour	Cost Per Bolt (on March 25, 2010)	Cost of Supplies Per Hour	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 50,000 gp/hr	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 100,000 gp/hr	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 250,000 gp/hr	Relative Cost Per Hour Based on Opportunity Cost of 500,000 gp/hr
Rune Crossbow with Broad Bolts	4:53	20	61.4	124	30,471	--	--	--	--
Rune Crossbow with Mithril Bolts	5:34	20	53.9	100	21,557	-6.3%	+16.7%	+85.6%	+200.4%
Hunters’ Crossbow with Kebbit Bolts	5:45	30	52.2	57	17,843	-12.3%	+16.8%	+104.2%	+249.8%

The relative cost columns show how much options cost when compared to using broad bolts, taking into account opportunity cost: negative numbers mean the option is cheaper, while positive figures mean it is more expensive.

First, of the four alternatives to broad-tipped bolts, mithril bolts and kebbit bolts were fairly similar in speed, while bone bolts and silver bolts were well behind (which is why I didn’t bother with them on the black dragons). The mithril bolts I expected to be close, but the hunters’ crossbow did surprisingly well (given that I never see anyone using it). It is quite weak but fires rather quickly, which seems to make up for its lower hits.

Second, the benefit of using better bolts is greater on higher-level monsters than lower-leveled ones. No real surprise there.

Third, taking opportunity cost into account is essential in assessing the real cost of using cheaper gear and supplies. Sure, silver and bone bolts cost very little, but there are few situations in which using them makes any sense. If you’re fighting yaks and you value your time very little, bone bolts can be cheaper than using broad-tipped bolts. But for blue dragons, even valuing time at 50,000 gp per hour, you’re better off with the faster option.

My first conclusion from this test is that the reputation that broad-tipped bolts have is well deserved. They hit hard, and even at 124 gp each, are quite a good deal. They are the best budget option for higher level monsters, and for players who are able to earn a lot of money per hour.

The big surprise of the test is the hunters’ crossbow. It is a very viable alternative to broad-tipped bolts, hitting less hard but more quickly, and for a very reasonable price. They do tend to get used up rather quickly, but they are cheap—at least for now. One problem with these is that if kebbit bolts ever get more popular, the price of them will increase by a fair bit, since the supply is rather limited (few players hunt prickly kebbits, the only source of the bolts).

Mithril bolts are a good alternative to broad-tipped bolts when the price differential between them is reasonably high. But broad bolts are better.

Bone bolts are not good budget options in my opinion, and silver bolts are pretty much worthless.

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