By Aliensvortex

If you've taken a look at the hiscores recently, you have probably noticed that Telmomarques, the first player to ever reach 120 dungeoneering, has also taken the #1 spot on the overall level hiscores. Aliensvortex had the opportunity to spend some time with him during RuneFest, and we've been able to publish this exclusive interview with him!

When did you first start playing RuneScape?
I first created my account around 2003 or 2004, I don't remember exactly. I didn't play at all at the time, but started playing around 2005 or 2006.

How did you first find out about RuneScape?
Well, I was at school, and some friends were playing RuneScape. It looked quite good, so I asked them what game it was, what its name was. They told me about RuneScape, so I tried it, but didn't really like it at first. A few years later I had nothing to do, so I went to try it again. I started liking it, so I kept playing, and I've played ever since.

Why did you start playing actively, was there something you really liked about the game?
Yeah, when I first started, I wanted to be a barrows pure. I wanted to PK, that was my goal back then. After a while I finally got barrow gloves and 70 defence, and I later got 99 attack, then 99 strength and 99 hitpoints. So I was pretty much settled up to PK. When they took away the PvP part of Wilderness, I stopped focusing on combat and became a skiller.

Why did you choose that specific name?
Simply because that's my actual name.

You're not ranked first in dungeoneering anymore; No Excuses passed you recently.
Yeah, but only by around 25k experience.

Will you keep training dungeoneering, do you want to get 200 million experience?
Actually, I don't really care about dungeoneering anymore. I just wanted to be the first to get level 120. I got it, and now I couldn't care less about it.

Do you think it's a fun skill compared to the other skills?
Well, it's a different skill. Because it involves so many kind of skills. It involves many players, you need a team to go, so you need to interact with other players, which is very cool! It keeps you talking, helps you meet people and make friends, and you may often learn something from them or teach them something, which is great.

Were you always playing in groups when doing dungeoneering?
Yes, I had a permanent team that was always playing with me, all the day.

Did everyone in your group have high dungeoneering levels?
Yeah, I think all 5 of us are in the top 10 dungeoneering.

You've probably heard people call you a no-lifer since you have maxed out all your skills. What do you think about that?
I just ignore those people, because I don't really care about what they say. If people in game just want to say hi, and that's nice and I'll talk to them. But if people say something like "you don't answer me because you're a fat no-lifer", I simply add them to my ignore list.

Did you celebrate getting 120, outside of the game?
Yeah, I actually had a party with some friends that play RuneScape as well.

Do you have any tips for people who want to get high dungeoneering levels?
It's kind of complicated to explain in a short time. I was thinking of making a guide, but it's actually quite complicated. The most important thing is to be concentrated and listen to your leader. With my team, I was often the leader, so I just picked all the keys, and when I saw a guardian door, I marked it so that the other players could kill it. While they were killing the guardian door, I would just keep on moving, because I didn't want to lose time. I only did the key doors, it saves us a lot of time. Usually, when we find the boss, and there are a few rooms left to open, they go to kill the boss, and I continue doing the map, especially if there's a lot of rooms left.

So 4 of you are killing the boss?
Usually, when we find the boss before the map is complete, 4 players are killing the boss and while I am doing the other rooms.

When doing those last rooms, do you kill anything?
No, we think that the leader just doesn't need to kill at all. He doesn't even need to be close to the other members, he just needs to get them when he needs to do something like the mime room, the lever rooms, and maybe also the monoliths. But nothing more, really. The leader just needs to mark the rooms to do and pick up the keys, while the others kill. Pretty much it. That takes a lot less time. I mean, people keep asking me how I managed to get like 1.3 million experience per day. I told them that most other people I know do maps in around 40 minutes. I usually do the maps in 20 minutes. So it saves me a lot of time.

How long does it take for the different floors?
To floor 30 or 35, it takes around 20 to 25 minutes to finish. From 35 to 47, it takes maximum 40 or 45. It depends on the boss. Getting Thunderous as a boss is a pain and we have to spend much more time then.

Do you think that bosses are balanced well enough, or do you think some are much harder than others?
Well, the bosses are all kind of easy once you figure out their weakness, since all of them have one. You just need to figure out its weakness and you'll be fine. When they generate the monsters, it's based on the average combat, so the game always KNOWS that you can do it.

Some non-dungeoneering questions: Do you do anything else while playing the game, such as chatting, browsing forums etc?
Yeah, I usually am. When I'm playing I'm always chatting on IRC, and I always use my clan chat. I also like to watch YouTube videos. I've actually watched all videos I could find from my 120 Dungeoneering party, they're pretty nice!

Are you playing with friends?
Yes, I have a lot of friends in the game, and I often play with real-life friends.

Do you think that people in-game on RuneScape have impacted you, or changed you personally?
Well, I think that joining a large community does in some way change you. I'm with a clan called Supreme Skillers. It's a large community and it taught me a lot. I became a great skiller, I owe it to them. They made me what I am today.

What keeps you playing RuneScape?
The fun. And I like to always set myself some kind of goals, something I really want to do, and I just can't stop until I get it. Achieving my goals is so great that it's really worth the time spent working towards the goal.

Do you have any future goals?
Yeah, I was already doing buyables when dungeoneering came out, so I will just continue with buyables. Right now I'm doing Construction, Herblore and Prayer. All of them to 200 million, eventually.

What is the best update in the game since you started playing?
Just in the game itself? Maybe when they removed the wilderness. Of course it aggravated many players, because a lot of players really loved it, and in the short term it might have hurt the game. But in the long term, it gives more profit to Jagex and makes a better game for the players. Actually I wouldn't imagine myself playing now if they hadn't taken off the wild. And added the trade limits. It wouldn't be fun to play; all the worlds would be full of bots, and people selling and buying gold. You need to earn the money from what you do in the game, not who you are in real life.

What do you think is the worst update, then?
The worst update? I don't really think I have any worst update. Many of the updates they make have benefits that I think MOST of the players can't always see, but actually, when they do something related to it, they see the benefit of the update. So I don't think there's any worst update. Actually, I said that one of the best updates was removing the wild. Maybe one of the worst updates was take off the wild as well. Like many updates, it had both benefits and drawbacks.

What was your first 99?
That was fletching.

How did you feel about achieving that?
Oh, really cool. I was like "wow, I finally got fletching, that's really cool". Yeah.

But fletching was an easy skill, right?
Well, when I did it you didn't have the make-X bows option. I had to click on the bow, then the bowstring, again and again. Click all the time. So I was really excited when I finally got it.

What was the hardest 99?
Mining, definitely. I did mining in the granite quarry, and it was such a pain.

Was it slow, or was it just boring?
It was just boring, because I don't really like to just do one skill, especially if you're always doing the same. With mining, you had three or four rocks, it's always the same thing. Doing the same thing for like 5 hours, it gets kind of boring.

Do you do quests?
Well, I don't really like quests. I don't even have the quest cape. Many members in my clan chat keep asking me if I have a quest cape. I don't have the quest cape. I have like 300 quest points, but I don't really like doing them. I just do quests I feel I NEED to do. But sometimes I also feel like doing a quest, when I see a new quest coming out and friends tell me it has really nice graphics, or that it's really fun to do, I just go and do it.

Are you still in school?
Yeah, I'll finish my current course in 2 years. Then I will probably starting working full time.

You've played a lot during the summer holiday, do you think you will be playing less now?
Yes, definitely. I played quite a lot during the summer because I had A LOT of free time. On school days, I have around 7 or 8 hours of school per day, so I can only play around 3 or 4 hours per day.

Do you want to share how much you played during the summer, per day?
On average? Maybe 15, maybe 14 hours. I don't really know. Sometimes I play more, sometimes less. On average, I'd say around 15.

What's your favorite subject in school?
I really like informatics and English, so those are probably my favorites.

Do you have a favorite TV show?
Yeah. I only watch one channel, I only watch Fox. But I really like so many series, like Family Guy, Simpsons, Dexter and Stargate Atlantis. I like pretty much everything they show on Fox.

What about music?
I really love 90's music. If you watch my videos, you'll notice that the music I like is mostly from the 90's.

Where do you post most of your videos?
I have a YouTube account. I usually don't post many videos, but I should start posting some more videos. All my videos are RuneScape related, mostly to my skills.

What is your YouTube channel?
It's Telm0marques. Someone had already taken Telmomarques when I tried to sign up back in 2007.

A Global-RS member wants to know who you wanted to win the FIFA world cup. Did you follow it?
Yeah, I wanted Portugal to win. When they lost to Spain, I wanted Spain to win. Either Spain or Brazil. Their language is similar to Portuguese.

Yeah, RuneScape is actually in Portuguese now, Brazilian Portuguese. Do you play that version?
I used to play it, but with the dungeoneering updates, most of my friends on RuneScape were English so they obviously wouldn't understand the Portuguese version. So I've played the English version from that on.

Many thanks for the interview, Telmomarques!

Check out Telmomarques' own 120 Dungeoneering party video:

Many thanks to Telmomarques for taking the time to do the interview! We'd also like to thank Dawodo from the RSCommunity.de for assisting in the interview. A German version of the interview has been published on RSCommunity. If you want to discuss the interview or have any questions, feel free to post in this topic.