The hunter profession is one I've been avoiding. Thinking I won’t like it much. With the skill, you go around catching different creatures that roam the lands. To me, it just sounded like Slayer without getting to kill things. Which I felt why bother. It turns out I have been enjoying leveling up Hunter a lot more than I was expecting.

A while back I did some random quests like Ascent of Arceuus and got some small amounts of the Hunter skill. I then kind of just left things the way they were. At the time I did not need much if any skill in Hunter for questing. That was till recently I needed it. I however did not just want to grind a couple of levels that I needed and be done with it. I thought I might as well go out and see what the skill has to offer.

Hunting In Piscatoris

One thing I've rather started to enjoy is I often find areas that have quite a wide range of levels and creatures to catch. This one place alone has nine different and it’s next to another area that has a couple as well. Making it quite a nice little hunting ground for a few levels.

Like any profession, Hunting has its tools to catch different creatures. I first brought a bird snare trap along with me. I came to this location to start catching the level 9 Copper Longtail birds.

It was a little lonely waiting around near my snare hoping a bird would land in it. Most times they would fly around and near it. Sometimes they would get caught and break the trap escaping. Even on rarer occurrence would I happen to catch one.

It turns out I would not be catching these things alive. I ended up with some orange feathers, bones, and some meat for my trouble. Most of it is not worth looting. So I ended up just tossing anything that would not stack onto the ground. As it was not worth running back to a bank that was not anywhere near to drop things off.

After a while, I grained enough Hunter levels to start catching Ruby Harvest butterflies. Unlike the Copper Longtails where I could just sit around and wait. I would end up needing to case around the butterflies with a net and put them into a bottle.

For a short while, I also tried putting down snare traps to catch the birds while I was cashing after butterflies. It did not take long before I decided to abandon trying to get both. The butterflies were a better experience. I felt it was best to focus on them then wasting energy running back to my traps every time to just reset them.

Thankfully to make things a little easier one of the plug-ins I'm using allows you to tag a creature with an outline. This made it quite easy for the Ruby Harvest butterflies to stand out and for me to chase after them.

Since I had no use for the Ruby Harvest, I'd release them once all my jars were filled up. Sometimes trying to time my movements of chasing after one and freeing up some bottles to catch more of them.

I ended up staying at this location till level 27 Hunter. I even returned with a few more jars to reduce how often I had to stop and empty jars. I found this helped speed things up a bit. I was getting quite good and spotting and catching them at this point.

Quest: Eagles Peak

With level 27 Hunter I could start quite to unlock the ability to use box traps. Which would come in handy later on for quite a few different kinds of creatures I could catch. Of all the places to learn such an ability, it was the Ardougne Zoo that would be teaching me. Along with some other things as well.

The zoo in its efforts to catch a creature that had been escaping their attempts time and time again ended up hiring an expert hunter. I ended up getting involved as that hunter went missing and they were hoping another hunter could track him down.

I did not have to search too far before finding the lost hunter. It turns out he was in a bit of a situation. It looks like he went snooping around an eagle's nest and that eagle came home. Now he was some kind of prisoner.

After far too much nonsense of collecting feathers, moving around fake eagles in a cave, and other stuff. A plan was hatched to create some consumes to try and fool the eagle that I and the person who was being held captive were also eagles. I know, it’s quite a strange thing.

All that matters here is the trick ended up working in the end. The eagle was fooled and we both got to get out of those caves not being dinner.

After that, it was time to catch what the hunter was originally hired to catch. That is where I got to learn about box traps. I even acquired one along with some hunter experience once the quest was over.

Birdhouse Farming

One activity I would end up doing every so often was traveling to Fossil Island. That in itself was quite a tale in unlocking. While on that island there are four areas to place down a birdbox.

As soon as fifty minutes and usually for me quite a few hours later. I’d return to the birdbox and check them for what I had captured. Usually ten birds with some feathers and meat. If I got really lucky, I'd get some bird nests.

An empty bird's nest itself was at the time selling for over 8k gold. Sometimes they would not be empty either allowing me to get thousands of golds more worth of stuff on top of selling the nest after I emptied any goodies it had inside.

Swamp Lizard Hunting

I’m not the biggest fan of having to do something in Morytania. Where the next creature I'd be hunting was. Thankfully there were a couple of different spawn locations for what I was after.

I ended up trying a couple of spots and finding them not to be that great. More so in what I could wander into the area and get attacked by. Thankfully after some further attempts, I ended up migrating my hunting down to the south-east corner of the map. Where there was one area remaining. This as it turns out would be a perfect spot to camp for a few levels.

There was this little strip of land mass between pools of the swamp. The kind of traps I was using required finding small trees so that I could attach a rope and a net.

Once I found a decent spot. These ended up being a rather chill thing to capture. No need to run around like I've been doing. I just got to sit there and reset the traps from time to time.

I ended up bringing a few extra traps just in case I went AFK and ended up losing one. I checked the price of the drops I was getting and dumped them onto the ground. So far hunting has not yielded much in terms of things I even want to keep to sell.

Embertailed Jerboa Hunting

These were some strange-looking creatures somewhere between a kangaroo and a mouse. They were also my first opportunity to use the box traps. I ended up being able to put down three traps and just go around collecting or resetting them depending on if anything got caught.

I stayed here for a couple of levels but decided to try another spot. Like most of the loot so far it was not so great. I figured if things were not worth it elsewhere, I could always return to this spot. As it was not that far away from a fairy ring.

Aerial Hunting

I could tell after being here for under a minute I should have packed up my bags and gone back to the last location. I however wanted to stick things out at least for a level each in both of the professions I could level up here.

So far this is also more on the strange yet interesting side of how to hunt things. I ended up asking the guy who lived on this island if I could borrow his bird. I would then send it out to different locations onto the water and it would bring fish back to me.

The fish themselves only purpose was to cut into chunks to feed the bird. The bird was a bit lazy and required a lot of food to go out hunting for me. Which I guess is fair enough as my character did not even need to move. Unless the area I was in felt like it had dried up on spawns.

Under quite ideal circumnutations I would be sending out the bird right next to me. As the further away the fish is the longer it takes him to fly out and bring it back to me. I feel however even if I only had spots right off the shore as close as possible the experience rate would be quite bad.

I can’t blame the experience for being bad. I was getting both hunter and fishing for hunting at this spot. I just wish it was a bit better. Experience was also not the only reason to be here.

I wanted to see how long it would take to collect a couple of Molch pearls that you can get along with fish here. 1k of them and you could get this fish sack that holds fish. I determined after only getting four pearls that maybe I could get one in under 500 hours of grinding. Now that is a bit extreme as this was just a short sample. Also, the higher your skill the better chance you get at getting a pearl. Still, it was as dreadful as the experience was at this spot.

After I got a level in hunting and fishing. It was time to move on. While there are other items than the fish sack, they would require over a hundred hours at these rates to get as well. That was clear I was not going to be staying here that long.

Falcon Hunting Spotted Kebbit

It’s a shame I could not stay at the other spot for like two or so levels that I needed. I at least found a much better spot. Even better for 500 gold I could rent out a hawk that was required and do some more sky hunting. This time I thankfully was only getting hunter experience. It did however require moving around.

Like in another spot, I hunted. These things were hard to see. There were also other types of Kebbit here. So, I ended up putting a blue tag around just the spotted to pick them out easier to go after.

I also found it best to only send the falcon out while the Kebbit was not moving. The moment it moved the falcon would miss. I would have thought for 500 gold I'd be getting a better bird than this. At least this one I don’t have to keep feeding.

Once the falcon caught a kebbit. I then had to run out and collect it. You can only have one at a time. Which I suppose is for the best. As I would sometimes move around quite a bit before getting one.

Thankfully the levels I needed came quite quickly here. As this place started to fill up with too many players. To the point, I was considering world-hopping and hoping the next server would be emptier. Then I hit the level I needed and it was time to move on.

Quest: At First Light

With 47 hunting I could start another quest that would also take me to an area called the Hunters Guild. I'm hoping this is what makes hunting worthwhile and more interesting. More on that in a bit. For now, I had a quest to work on so I could move forward with things.

From what I could tell the start of this quest kind of introduces you to Hunter contracts. That is however where what you can expect from a contract would come to an end. It would end up being a little more involved than the contracts I'd be taking on afterward. I kind of wish they kept it a bit simpler. As I just did not need all the walking around and other stuff. I was here to hunt creatures not go fetch items.

After being told a bit about the place. I was tasked with getting some stuff for a cat. Yes, a cat. They keep quite well care of a cat down in the pub area of the guild. I should have known once a cat was involved things would end up taking longer than one would hope for.

So, I was sent out to find a guy named Fox. It seems hunters have a thing about going missing or at the very least being quite late at getting back and letting everyone know they are ok. So, it was not much shock to find the person just chilling next to some water.

It felt like I was more on a scavenger hunt than anything else. I was just glad to have it done and over with. It also rewarded a decent chunk of hunter experience. Along with both construction and herblore which I won’t turn down.

Hunter Guild Contract Rumors

For the short term, I ended up just doing four contracts. I wanted to get a quick feeling for how they were. You would be tasked with going out and hunting for a certain creature. That task did not end with a certain amount captured. Instead, you had to keep going till you got a special drop from that creature.

At first, the thought of having to wait for random drops was not so appealing. Who knows how rare the item you need from each creature might end up being? Either these items are decently common or I just got lucky. Either way, I sometimes spent more time getting to a location than hunting for the item needed by capturing different creatures.

My first contract I was sent out to get Spotted Kebbit. This would end up being one creature I'd be getting a few times over when I went to farm these hunter contracts a bit. These I did not mind at all.

Before I headed out, I went by the bank in the Hunter Guild. I needed to switch out for the right kind of trap to catch Kebbit. I would also later decide I'd rather make more inventory space and just hold quite a few different kinds of traps on me. To save myself time from having to run to the bank every time. At least the bank was quick to get to.

The next contract I was sent out on I ended up hating. It was for a creature in the desert. I almost ran out of water. I'm also rather glad I did have a small amount of food with me in case I started to take heat damage. This one ended up taking the longest of the contracts I've done to catch.

Next up I was sent out to catch a new kind of butterflies I've yet to encounter. Unlike the first ones I had caught and ended up releasing. I noticed my jars with the new ones in them were now worth about 2k gold each. I might just have to go back and farm a bunch at this new type of butterfly if the price ends up holding.

The last contract I'd end up taking on ended up sending me back to Spotted Kebbit. It’s quite a shame you have to spend 500 gold each time to rent out the falcon. Even more so when I just had one recently. You would think I'd at least get an hour's worth of use from it before being charged again.

As far as the contracts go. Once you finish one and get some decent experience. You also get a Hunter’s Loot Sack and the type looks to be dependent on who you got the task from. For now, I'm just going to save them till I have quite a few to open.

Final Thoughts

I dare say I ended up having more fun than I was expecting leveling up the Hunter profession. I’m also going to be giving Hunter contracts a bit more of a go. I’m hoping to do them quicker once I unlock a teleport back to the Hunter guild. Not to mention get a bit more familiar with where to hunt things.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Old School RuneScape.