Underwater Agility and Thieving
 |
This activity is a unique way of training the Agility and Thieving skills. This activity takes place in part of the Underwater area of Fossil Island. It is also referred to as "swimming" by players.
The mermaid Mairin guards the area. To enter, players must first speak to Mairin, who will ask them to remove their fishbowl helmet. After entering, players will find a scattered layout of treasure chests and giant clam shells as well as several tunnels, holes and other obstacles, such as currents, which can be traversed.
The Agility and Thieving pets, Giant squirrel and Rocky, cannot be received while training here.
Objective
Your objective is to loot treasure chests and giant clam shells while navigating several tunnels, holes and other obstacles, such as currents and small mazes, while maintaining oxygen to breathe.
Every minute, one of the clams or chests will open. An open clam or chest is indicated by a blinking red or yellow arrow on the minimap. These opened clams and chests can be searched repeatedly, until they close in 1 minute, for mermaid's tears and glistening tears. After the first tears, the drop rate changes to 1/8.5 searches. You will sometimes lose small amounts of oxygen when looting.
When the clam or chest closes, another clam or chest will open, ready to be searched. See Mechanics below for more details.
Requirements
- Completion of
Bone Voyage is required to access Fossil Island.
Recommended
- High Agility and Thieving levels are highly recommended as the experience rates scale quadratically with the player's skill levels.
- Flippers are highly recommended as you will be able to swim faster. The run mechanic is otherwise disabled underwater.
- Requires completion of Skippy and the Mogres to access Mogres to loot a pair.
- If you are "running" underwater with Flippers, your stamina will diminish, so Stamina potions or (Super) Energy potions are helpful.
- Every piece of the Graceful outfit worn will also increase stamina regeneration. Since you cannot wear a fishbowl helmet during the activity, and the diving apparatus is therefore non-functional, it is worth bringing the Graceful hood and Graceful cape and swapping to these items after storing your fishbowl helmet.
- Requires completion of
- Diving apparatus and fishbowl helmet are recommended as they allow instant replenishment of oxygen at the start of the activity. Note that the fishbowl helmet cannot be taken into the activity but can be left outside.
- Requires partial completion of the Freeing Pirate Pete subquest of the Recipe for Disaster quest.
- Requires partial completion of the
- A merfolk trident is recommended to hold pufferfish charges. It can be purchased from the Grand Exchange or from Mairin's Market for 400 mermaid's tears.
Getting started
- While on Fossil Island, go to the
on the north-eastern part of the Mushroom Forest. The fastest way to do this is travel using the small rowboat next to the Canal barge you use to land on Fossil Island. Select "Row to the north of the island." - Select travel on the small rowboat and "row out to sea."
- An old chest bank is provided on the small island. Withdraw a Fishbowl helmet and any other recommended items, such as flippers, Diving apparatus, Stamina potions and the Merfolk trident.
- Right-click the small boat and select the dive option.
- Swim north-east to arrive at the entrance.
- Talk to Mairin to begin. Remove your Fishbowl helmet and deposit it in the provided Pile of Fishbowls. You can freely take and deposit your helmet once placed.
Tips & tricks
- Before entering the main area, keep the Fishbowl helmet equipped and catch the three Puffer Fish near Mairin. Use these to charge a Merfolk trident, or keep them ready to use in your inventory.
- If you plan to stay a while, the use of stamina potions is highly recommended
- Familiarize yourself with the map first: quickly note transport holes (see picture below), currents, and obstacles that may be in your way.
- Conserve Run energy as often as possible for navigating between chests/clams. Run energy is very useful for navigating currents, as you will get stuck in them less often.
- If you are low on oxygen and/or run energy, take a moment to rest in the large air bubbles scattered throughout the map. These will increase your oxygen by 5% every few seconds, making it easy to maintain.
- Be sure to repeatedly search chests/clams.
- Turn in glistening tears every so often to increase your Thieving, Agility, or both.
- When passing through the shipwreck where Mairin stands, players can pick up their fishbowl helmet from the pile and equip it, along with the diving apparatus, to quickly replenish their oxygen level to 100%.
Mechanics
Oxygen
When underwater, an oxygen meter will be displayed, reflecting the player's supply. This bar starts at 100%. As long as both the fishbowl helmet and diving apparatus are equipped, the bar will remain at 100%. However, the fishbowl helmet is prohibited in the main area of this activity, so the oxygen level will get drained by 1% every few seconds. In addition, failing when searching a clam or chest will sometimes deplete 2% of the oxygen. At 10% oxygen, the player's screen will begin flashing red, indicating that they will soon run out of air and drown.
Restoring oxygen
- Enter large air bubbles (shown to the right), which will increase the oxygen level by 5% every few seconds.
- Catch Puffer Fish, to receive a pufferfish, which can be held onto and used to instantly restore oxygen by 15%.
- Equip both the fishbowl helmet and diving apparatus to restore the oxygen level back to 100%. Note however that the fishbowl helmet cannot be worn in the main area of this activity (past Mairin), but while training here the Pile of Fishbowls will regularly be passed by the player, which creates a good opportunity to use the fishbowl helmet to instantly restore the oxygen level.
Throughout the area, there also are spots with tiny air bubbles going upwards. Standing on them will not restore oxygen, but they will prevent it from passively depleting. Both types of air bubbles may sometimes be found next to a clam or chest; when looting it, the tiny bubbles will lead to slower oxygen depletion while the large bubbles will regenerate oxygen more quickly than it is lost from the failing chests.
Running out of oxygen
Drowning occurs when a player's oxygen levels drop to 0%. While drowning does not cause any direct harm to the player (nor does it count as a death), it will take them to the small island above and a random amount of mermaid's tears between 10 and 20 will be lost if they had any in their inventory. Any tears in the player's bank will be left untouched.
Clams and chests
The training area is scattered with clams and chests. Every minute, one of these objects will open. An open clam or chest is indicated on the screen and minimap by a red or yellow blinking arrow.
When opened, these object can be searched for mermaid's tears and glistening tears. The very first clam or chest will not reward any tears, however, every subsequent object will always reward one of each tear on the first search. Additionally, players can keep searching the same clam or chest multiple times, until it closes. For these extra searches, there is a 1/8.5 chance to receive one of each tear. A successful search also rewards 4.5 Agility and Thieving experience.
-
A closed clam. -
An opened clam, ready to be searched. -
A closed chest. -
An opened chest, ready to be searched.
.png)
.png)
_(opened).png)
Tears
Upon initially searching the active clam or chest, a glistening tear and a mermaid's tear are always rewarded. Afterwards, the clam or chest can be searched until it becomes inactive. On a successful search, another mermaid's tear and glistening tear will be rewarded, as well as a chance of receiving 5-24 numulites or an unidentified fossil varying from small to rare (fossils are obtained this way roughly 1 in every 20 mermaid tears). On an unsuccessful search, nothing is awarded, and there is a chance that the player's oxygen level decreases by a small amount. The odds of success depend on the player's Thieving level. A player could expect to obtain roughly 170-230 mermaid's tears and glistening tears per hour, depending on the player's know-how of this method, as well as 5-10 unidentified fossils of any kind.
Holes
Holes are a sort of transportation mechanic in the Underwater Agility and Thieving training activity. There is a total of ten holes in the Underwater area. Players can enter a hole, which will bring their character to one of the other holes in the Underwater area. Entering a hole will reward the player with 4.5 Agility experience.
The destination each hole links to is fixed. See the image for an overview of linked holes.
Obstacles
Throughout the area, there are obstacles in the form of small cracks in the rock walls and ship hulls, particularly in the western portion which consists of caves with connecting rooms. Passing an obstacle will reward the player with 4.5 Agility experience. These obstacles cannot be failed.
Current
In the open water, flowing water currents can be found. Passing through a current may cause the player to be caught in it, which will move the character one tile every three game ticks in the flow's direction until the player is out of it. The current will also cancel any action the player was trying to perform previously.
Rewards
Glistening tears
Glistening tears are a form of currency found in the underwater section of Fossil Island. They can be obtained by looting chests and clams in the mermaid's domain. Glistening tears are always obtained alongside a mermaid's tear. Depending on the player's know-how of this method, around 170–230 tears can be collected per hour.
Glistening tears can be traded to Mairin in exchange for experience in one of three ways, which is scaled based on the player's levels:
- Agility and Thieving: 176.4 Agility and 646.8 Thieving experience per glistening tear if both skills are level 99. At level 99, the estimated experience per hour is 38,800 Agility and 142,300 Thieving experience per hour.
- Agility: 264.6 Agility experience at level 99 per glistening tear. At level 99, the estimated experience per hour is 58,200.
- Thieving: 970.2 Thieving experience at level 99 per glistening tear. At level 99, the estimated experience per hour is 213,400.
Mermaid's tears
Mermaid's tears are a form of currency found in the underwater section of Fossil Island. They can be obtained by looting various chests and clams around the eastern part under the water.
Mermaid tears can be exchanged for items in Mairin's Market, such as unidentified fossils, a merfolk trident, bowls of fish, or seaweed spores.
| Museum Camp |
| ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mushroom Forest |
| ||||||||
| Tar Swamp |
| ||||||||
| Fossil Island Volcano |
| ||||||||
| Underwater |
| ||||||||
| House on the Hill |
| ||||||||
| Other | |||||||||
| Music | |||||||||
 Minigames |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Raids | |||||||||||
 Distractions and Diversions | |||||||||||
| Other | |||||||||||