Basic Skills Run

Visiting several schools in one trip to gain skills is known as a Skills Run, which is actually pretty descriptive of what you'll be spending at least an hour or two doing - running, and skilling up.

Skills are acquired from Schools, and schools require tuition (in the form of goods) in return for giving you a skill. This article focuses on how to get as many skills from as many Schools as possible in the shortest time.

You will also pass Universities on your Skills Run. You should stop at every University you go by and click it, too - you will gain new technologies, which are free because somebody else has already donated the required research materials, so not making the stop would just be dumb.

With some planning, gathering and a good map [F3], you can in fact gain a large number of skills you'll use every day in just one or two runs. The keys to making this work are:

• Know what skills are available at your level from what Schools
• Know what materials you need to give the school to gain the skill
• Know where and how to gather those materials, and take everything you can with you
• Use the map to locate a grouping of Schools and plan the order in which you will visit them.

Your immediate goal is to use the F3 map to find the clutch of Schools nearest you (they tend to be on the outskirts of each town) and then plan the order in which you will visit them. It may make more sense to go to an area slightly further away, but with with a better layout of schools for your particular run. Midland Valley is a small region with easily accessible Schools, and is often visited for Skills Runs.

Also, since you can start all the Tests from the various Universities, make sure and stop by them as well on your way (not to mention all the tech learning you get for free, thanks everyone). For example, the first UBody test of plant classification can be done while running this skill, and therefore, open you up to more skills during this same run (specifically carving 2, which is easily attained).

The First Run

Your first run will be to get the Compound Construction skill from the School of Architecture in order to begin construction on your first compound (known as a CP). CPs are important because, unlike on Welcome Island, there are items such as Kilns that you cannot build outside; instead, they are attached to your compound. Completing Compound Construction will also level you up to Level 2, allowing you to complete the second Skills run.

The tuition you need to provide to the School of Architecture (SArch) in order to get the Compound Construction skill is:

• 100 boards
• 200 bricks

You should at this point know how to build a wood plane to make boards after gathering slate and wood, and how to make bricks as well. You may be able to join a Guild or find a Public Works that has a Carpentry Shop and/or a Brick Machine to make these materials faster.

School of Architecture

• Compound Construction (level 1) - 100 Boards, 200 Bricks. Allows the construction of a Compound, your home base.

This skill is required to pass the Principles of Architecture Test - building and expanding your first compound. This will get you to Level 2, which opens access to some more skills you'll be buying on your second run.

The Second Run

This is your shopping list for the 2nd run. What you'll spend all this stuff on is explained further down the page.

• 20 bricks
• 102 wood
• 10 clay (bottleneck)
• 2 flint
• 2 leather (bottleneck)
• 300 thorns
• 30 cactus sap (please injure it!)

Note that this total 492 debens of the 500 debens that you can carry, so you will need to pare down what you are otherwise carrying to accommodate all of this.

Extracting clay requires that you walk on cracked earth while carrying a jug full of water (NOTE: You do NOT need a shovel. The icon for gathering clay is very misleading. Shovels are for dirt and stones; you only need Water in Jugs for clay.) When you first ask for the Pottery skill, at the School of Thought, the school will give you 1 free Jug if you don't have any clay to get you started. That's a tedious way to go. Hopefully you can get a Guild or a friend or a neighbour to loan you some jugs, so you can gather some clay to pay your pottery skill tuition.

While you're gathering Clay you'll also get Flint about 10% of the time. Gather clay until you have at least 2 Flint because you're going to need those for tuition, too, even if you don't need them straight away.

The 2 leather are required for Exploration Travel, which is a skill you are likely to desperately want as it allows you to use an exploration point and the associated Home location to travel large distances instantly. Sheep and leather are easy to come by, so you should be able to borrow two leather. To get two leather, you can find two sheep (you can only carry one at a time) and slaughter them in a public sheep pen (they'll escape most of the time if you try to slaughter them out in the open) or your Guild's pen.

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You can visit these Schools in almost any order, although depending on your goals, and what you've been able to borrow, you may need to do the SThought first.

School of Thought

• Pottery (level 0) - 10 Clay (bottleneck). Allows the construction of a Pottery Wheel, which you need to make wet jugs (unless you can borrow some jugs).

• Kiln Construction (level 1) - 20 Bricks. Lets you build a Kiln, which you'll need to fire the wet jugs so they'll hold water.

School of Harmony

• Exploration Travel (level 1) - 2 Leather (bottleneck). Allows you to designate one Exploration Travel point and an associated Home location, that you can jump to except when you are downtown, near a Chariot Stop.

School of Worship

• Foraging (level 2) - 300 Thorns, 30 Cactus Sap Foraging allows you to gather herbs for cooking or trade.

Note: Because Foraging is a Level 2 skill, you will want to go to the School of Worship last (or 2nd to last if you really want to spend time on Rhythmic Strength and 500 grass) to give yourself optimal time to a) level up, and b) collect a whole bunch 'o thorns. However this is a very handy skill and one you will use it a lot, so it's good to get it done.

School of Body

• Carving (level 1) - 100 Wood.