Herblore Habitat: Skilling OverloadsBefore I get started with this, there's a few major things that you need to be aware of:
1) This isn't nearly as simple as the runescape activities that you're used to. This isn't rocket science, but it's definitely one of the more...logically involved things we've currently got. If you're not willing to put at least a bit of thought into it, don't do this until you're ready to.
2) I can only use three pictures. Because of this, you're going to have to do some heavy reading. I'll try to organize this in a fashion that you can skip to the sections that you need to, but, my formatting is usually fairly nonsensical and I'm not making any promises.
3) This isn't for everyone. Some people hate it, some people love it, some people do it for the potions and bail. If you're unsure, just read on.
Requirements: 54 farming minimum. 80+ suggested, so you can plant all of the seeds.
70 hunter minimum. 81+ suggested, so you can hunt all of the jadinkos.
54 herblore minimum. 75+ suggested, so you can make all of the potions.
There is no construction requirement, but you'll end up spending several hundred thousand gp for landscapes unless you're at least 60+. It's up to you.
Getting there:To start you out, all you really need is something like 5,000gp. I bring 50,000, just to be safe, but if gp is an issue, don't worry about it.
There's two routes for getting to the Herblore Habitat. One route involves going through the Kharazi jungle (which I don't suggest, seriously, just read on), and the other involves visiting a druid in Taverly. Among the other attackable NPC druids, you'll find Bettamax. He'll sell you Juju Teleport Spiritbags for about 2,000gp a piece. Purchase a few of these to get you started.
The bag doesn't stack, and when used instantly teleports you to the Herblore Habitat. Hooray. You're there.
Getting started:The first thing you'll notice upon teleporting (aside from a massive wigwam kind of thing) is an insane dancing man named Papa Mambo. The first thing you'll really want to do is talk to him and get some free seeds out of him; you'll use these later. After you've stolen some seeds from him, run down south and climb over the climbable vine.
You'll see a lot of farming patches. I'm not even joking, like, 4, and then some awkward landscape kind of patch that looks as if it needs weeding. This place is important; try not to lose it.
For a basic introduction to the activity, talk to Astlayrix, the farmer wandering aimlessly around the patches. Doing this also unlocks the "formula" to the igneous jadinkos, which is kind of cool I guess, but not exactly necessary. Check it out if you're into that kind of thing, keep on reading if you're not, I'm not going to be offended if you choose the former of the two.
If you continued to read, excellent, I'll fill you in on what you missed by not caring. Basically, the guy teaches you that "PLANTING DIFFERENT THINGS IN EACH PATCH (with the exclusion of the herb patch, that thing is just there for your personal use) WILL SUMMON DIFFERENT INVISIBLE RAPTORS FROM THE EARTH." I'm not even joking, that's the concept for this activity. You lure veloci-tremors from the earth with flowers, catch them, harvest their organs and potion secondaries and occasionally find some seeds, rinse, repeat.
Introducing you to the farming patches now would just confuse you, so, go ahead and weed the vine flower patch (northeast), and plant any one of the seeds you purchased from Papa Mambo. INVISIBLE RAPTORS WILL SPAWN FROM THE EARTH TO THE NORTH. DO NOT PANIC. THIS IS TOTALLY NORMAL.
Return to Papa Mambo, ignoring the terrifying mini dinosaurs, and purchase yourself some Marasamaw traps. 4 if you're <80 hunter, 5 if you're 80+ hunter.
Now, you catch the Common Jadinkos. It doesn't matter what trap setup you use, it won't make too much of a difference. There's a whole lot of them, and usually not too many people. You're hunting these for starting seeds, mainly. As horrible as it sounds, you basically just stay on these until you have ~5 kalferberry seeds, ~5 lergberry seeds, various herb seeds (PREFERABLY 1+ ERZILLE), various vine flower seeds (you can buy these from Papa Mambo though, so it's not a huge deal), and maybe some tree seeds (you only need low trees, and you can usually get them from the grand exchange. Again, not a huge deal.)
Once you've got all that, you should have something like 150-200 withered vines and a fair chunk of hunter experience. Already, you'll notice why this activity is pretty decent. You just got yourself 50-70k hunter experience without even hating it.
Now, we'll get to the farming patches. Pull on your big boy pants, this is where it can get confusing.
The Farming Patches:In short, these are what you'll lure your jadinkos with. If you took the tutorial from farmer guy, you'll be able to feel smart. I'll start by listing which patch is which, and which seeds you plant where.
The format is "Type of patch - Location", followed by "Seed - Level requirement"
Fruit Tree - Northwest:Apple seed - Level 27
Banana tree seed - Level 33
Orange tree seed - Level 39
Vine Bush - Southwest:Lergberry seed - Level 61
Kalferberry seed - Level 77
Vine Flower - Northeast:Red vine seed - Level 54
Blue vine seed - Level 54
Green vine seed - Level 54
Vine Herb - East:Erzille seed - Level 58 - Used for hunter juju potions
Ugune seed - Level 71 - Used for farming juju potions
Argway seed - Level 74 - Used for scentless juju potions
Shengo seed - Level 76 - Used for cooking/fishing juju potions
Samaden seed - Level 80 - Used for mining/woodcutting juju potions, and the god juju potions.
Landscape - Middle:This is the interesting part. You don't plant anything here, but you construct centerpieces that count as planting something. Basically, you're using this as a farm spot that doesn't require anything to be planted. It's a pretty big deal. The reason that construction helps you is because Papa Mambo has made a fairly good business out of the landscapes, and charges you gp to make landscapes FOR YOU if you haven't got the construction level for it. The centerpieces and costs are...
Boneyard - Level 56 - 56,000gp if you don't have level 56
Abandoned House - Level 57 - 57,000gp if you don't have level 57
Thermal Vent - Level 59 - 59,000gp if you don't have level 59
Tall Grass - Level 62 - 62,000gp if you don't have level 62
Pond - Level 65 - 65,000gp if you don't have level 65
Standing Stones - Level 70 - 70,000gp if you don't have level 70
Dark Pit - Level 80 - 80,000gp if you don't have level 80
All introduction aside, if you're following me at this point then you shouldn't have any trouble with the rest. It's really just "read from the chart, adjust crops accordingly, do some hunter."
Using the Patches + Jadinko Luring:To start you off, I've gone ahead and made a chart of which jadinko prefer which combination of vegetation. Assuming Jagex hasn't messed up on something and made these a weekly change alongside the god jadinkos, then this will be good FOREVER.
With this chart, it's pretty much just a matter of "find which Jadinko you wish to hunt, plant the correct seeds, hunt, hooray". The one catch, though, lies in the "Hunter juju?" column.
The juju hunter potion basically acts as "special bait" to lure the "rare" jadinkos. If the chart indicates that you need it, you need to plant an erzille in the nearest herb patch, hunt a diseased jadinko for a corrupt vine, and make a hunter juju potion. Pour the resulting potion on the flower that the chart indicates, and then that'll lure them if you did it properly. Each hunter juju potion lasts roughly 5-10 minutes.
Which to hunt? Why?:The amazing part about this activity is that it really changes depending on what YOU personally want to do. If you want to make a ton of mining potions, you can just do a ton of draconics (after the aforementioned preparation) while planting all the Samaden you get, combine them, love yourself for getting the potions.
That being said, I'll explain what the spine of each jadinko is good for. You get one vine for every single jadinko that you successfully kill, and with 10 normal types, there's quite a lot to know.
The vines I suggest you keep will be green, and the ones I suggest you dump will be red. Pretty simple. If it's orange, it's up to you.
Common vines: These are pretty worthless for most people. The only thing they're used for is baiting other traps, I suggest you hold onto them for if you feel like doing god jadinkos.
Shadow vines: These are excellent. These make scentless potions, which increase your hunt catch rate for 5 minutes per dose.
Marble vines: Also excellent. These are the secondary for farming potions, which are great for all farming ever.
Plant teeth: Pretty good. These are the secondary for cooking potions. They're not too practical, but if you're into high healing food, these are for you.
Aquatic vines: Still pretty good. These make up the second half of fishing potions, which give you the ability to catch baron shark.
Oily vines: Very good, under the right circumstances. These are the secondary for woodcutting potions. If you do ivy for woodcutting, don't bother.
Pungent vines: Awful. These are literally used for nothing at the moment. Only hold onto them if you're a collector.
Corrupt vines: These are the used for making the aforementioned hunter juju potion. You definitely want these.
Striped vines: Used for "warding off" a specific type of Jadinko. I'll go into this more later.
Draconic vines: Excellent. Borderline best. These are the secondary for mining potions, which makes concentrated gold even easier.
Now that you know how to catch them, how to lure them, why you want them and which ones you want, I'll show you an example, just to pound it into your head a bit more.
I want some mining juju potions. I've followed the guide up to the point of finishing commons, have some seeds, and now don't know what to do. I'd refer to the chart and see what draconics require, first of all. The first thing to notice is that they require a hunter juju potion. To make a hunter juju potion, I know that I need an erzille herb and one corrupt vine. First, I plant my erzille seed that I got from hunting commons, and then look up diseased Jadinko on the chart. I go and plant the requirements to lure diseased, and then hunt them while my herbs grow. Once my erzille has grown, I can harvest it, throw the herbs into a juju vial, mix in the corrupt vine and have hunter juju potions. Now I'd look on the chart, fulfill the requirements of the draconic jadinko, use a dose of hunter juju on my red flower, and then go hunt the draconic jadinkos.
By doing this, I now have draconic spines and probably some herb seeds. Assuming you did a bit, you'll have at least one Samaden seed. Plant the samaden seed and go do whatever else you want. Once the samaden has grown, throw the herbs into a juju vial, mix in the draconic spine and then it's done, I've got some juju mining potions.
A huge part of this activity lies in the farming. Without the herbs, your vines are completely useless. Because of this, you're going to want a fairly large stack of herb seeds if you want a steady stack of juju potions, and the best way to accomplish that before you've got yourself a juju hunter potion is to hunt Carrion Jadinko. These are located in the southern area and have INCREDIBLE herb seed drops, enough to get you started while you're growing that Erzille for sure. If you're ever in the mood for some hunter juju free mindless hunting, these are the exact thing you want. Great exp, great herb drops, no competition.
While it's not TOO complicated when you take a look at the big picture, a huge aspect of the activity is planning. If you plan what you want to do, you will never end up doing something stupid and wasting your precious seeds.
God Jadinkos: How and why:In addition to the Jadinkos mentioned above, you're able to hunt three different types of god jadinko: Zamorak, Guthix and Saradomin. Unlike the other Jadinkos, these ones change their interest every single week, and have no set formula. That's right; they change from player to player. You can't cheat for this one.
It sounds like a whole lot of effort, I know, but it's worth it if you intend to stay here for a while. The Zamorak's Favour potion alone makes this whole ordeal worth it, and you get a Witchdoctor's Mask from catching one of all three in a single week. I'll go into that more later.
Mostly, you're probably wondering HOW you're going to do this without it being a huge waste of time and effort. It's actually pretty simple, really, and only requires...
1 (3) dose Hunter Juju potion
1 of each flower seed
2-3 of each bush seed
1-2 banana, apple, and orange tree saplings
The first thing you'll want to do is plant one flower. It doesn't matter which color, you'll probably strike one of them with the one you've got planted.
Once you've got it planted, pour a dose of hunter juju on it and immediately walk over to your landscape patch. What you'll want to do is cycle through each and every landscape (including the option that has none) to see if your chat box shows you a hint regarding how many of the God Jadinko's preferences you've matched. If you hit 3, all is good.
Once you're at 3 it's simply a matter of digging up your bush. If it changes back to 2, replant it. If it stays the same, try planting the opposite (kalfer if you had lerg planted, lerg if you had kalfer planted). If it STILL says 3 after that, move on to your tree patch.
Dig up whatever tree you have planted and replace it with one of the two others. Use some logic with this one. If you had a banana tree planted, don't replant a banana tree, that's not going to work. Go with apple or orange. Repeat this until your chat box says that you've lured the god jadinko. Once you've got it, go to the island just east of the farming area and catch one.
Repeat this for each type of god jadinko, making sure to rotate one of each red, blue, and green flower. With a bit of trial and error, you'll have one of each caught in less than 15 minutes.
This might seem useless for now, but, wait and see.
Rewards + Why this is worth it:Aside from the obvious (and plentiful) reward of experience (herblore, farming, AND hunter), you get a ton of new potions to use. Just to give you an idea of what you're unlocking here, they're pretty much skilling overloads. Every dose lasts 5 minutes and they give you an incredible bonus.
Juju Hunter Potion - Erzille + Corrupt vine:
This is what I was talking about earlier. It has no use outside of the Habitat, but it's absolutely necessary inside of it.
Scentless Potion - Argway + Shadow vine:
Surprisingly, these are VERY useful. Recently, Jagex increased the effectiveness of smoking your traps while doing hunter. While under the influence of this potion, ALL of the traps you setup act as if you had smoked them, greatly increasing your catch ratio.
Juju Farming Potion - Ugune + Marble vine:
Incredibly useful, almost necessary for farming. Every single herb that you harvest has a 33% chance of magically doubling, leaving you with two herbs instead of one. This literally boosts your farming profits by 33%.
Juju Cooking Potion - Shengo + Plant Teeth:
While you can't drink them, you can use them to create Juju Gumbo, which heals 220 lifepoints instantly, and then 10 per second for 10 seconds after, making them the highest healing food in the game.
Juju Fishing Potion - Shengo + Aquatic vine:
By drinking this potion while fishing sharks (by hand or by harpoon, it doesn't matter) you automatically have a 33% chance to fish up a baron shark, which heals 200 lifepoints instantly and then 10 per second for 10 seconds after that.
Juju Woodcutting Potion - Samaden + Oily vine:
While under the influence of this potion, every single log that you chop has a 10% chance to summon a wood spirit, which automatically banks your next 10 logs for you. This cuts down on banking big time, but is useless on ivy. Recommended for teaks.
Juju Mining Potion - Samaden + Draconic vine:
Similar to the woodcutting potion, this potion gives you a 10% chance per ore to summon a stone spirit, which automatically banks your next 10 ore for you. While this is great for all mining, it's especially great for the living rock caverns concentrated gold and coal.
Saradomin's Blessing - Samaden + Saradomin vine:
This potion gives you a 10% experience boost to farming while you train it in the Herblore Habitat.
Guthix's Gift - Samaden + Guthix vine:
This potion gives you a 10% experience boost to herblore while you train it in the Herblore Habitat.
Zamorak's Favour - Samaden + Zamorak vine:
This potion gives you a 10% experience boost to hunter while you train it in the Herblore Habitat. While this is the main skill you train here, I definitely suggest picking up some of these if possible, as a 10% increase over time is pretty great for something so abundant.
In addition to those potions, you get clothing rewards. While it doesn't seem like a huge deal, these help considerably.
If you catch one of each normal jadinko (the 10 in the chart), you can visit Papa Mambo to receive a Witchdoctor Top or Bottom. These work as camouflage in this area, similar to larupia in the forest or kyatt in the arctic. Not only that, but you also get a small 30 minute exp boost once per week thanks to these.
If you caught one of each god jadinko, as mentioned above in the god jadinko section, you can visit Papa Mambo to receive the Witchdoctor's Mask I talked about. This thing is easily my favorite clothing reward. It gives you UNLIMITED teleports back to the Herblore Habitat, and counts as another piece of camouflage.
Currently, as it's the first week, you can only have either the top or the bottom. Next week, though, by catching all 10 normal jadinkos once more, you'll be able to have a full witchdoctor set and get a great camo bonus, allowing you to catch even more per hour.
So, overall, you get yourself some great new potions (skilling overloads, even), a fair bit of farming and herblore experience, some new clothes, a TON of hunter experience, and new hunting methods that rivals that of barehanding black warlock butterflies. Using this activity, Ish and I have conceived a method to earn over 150k hunter experience per hour, with as little as 1 agility.
Expect a guide on that hunter method tomorrow/later tonight, and have fun trying the new activity.
As per usual, I welcome all private messages and posts regarding the guide or any questions in general.