The Wivestales of Botting - How NOT to Protect Your Account from a Ban

The Wivestales of Botting: How NOT to ban-proof your account
The following are what I believe to be the myths of botting. They are by no means 100% guaranteed to be correct, but I do have extensive experience botting, and I feel that my conclusions are good ones. I've botted at least 1b RSGP; I've botted for at least ten thousand hours; and I've botten on at least 30 or more accounts. I've also spent many hours than I care to admit lurking and posting in several botting forums. I do know what I talk about; however, the following are still merely theories.

Taking Breaks
Most people believe that botting more humanlike reduces bans. Thus, it can be easily concluded that taking breaks will help reduce your ban risk. However, there is little to no evidence that taking breaks will reduce the ban risk.... In fact, many bots or clients have very unsophisticated breaking systems; or they break in times that are obviously not good times to break. This can actually increase your chances of getting banned. I know, I know, you gotta pee sometimes. But Jagex doesn't know if you have a urinal next to your computer, do they?


Botting Less than 10h a Day
What percentage of real humans really has 10 hours a day to waste on Runescape? The answer is extraordinarily small. However, some people really do play legitimately for 10h a day or more. Some people can play for days on end, with the help of friends... How do you think races to 99 when a new skill comes out are won? Yes, account sharing is also a bannable offense, but it is so hard to prove that Jagex simply ignores this data.


Do Not Suicide
I made this separate from the above because the word “suicide” has been less-than-endearingly applied as a synonym of 24/7 botting. Again, I say that botting for extended amounts of time with no “sleep breaks” does not increase a ban risk.


Consider this. Say it takes 100 hours to get to 99. 24 hours/4 days is not worse than 10 hours/10 days or even 1 hour/100 days. It takes a 5-minute snapshot for Jagex to prove you were botting; they don't look on the whole scheme of things.


Babysit Your Bot!
This is correct in some cases, but in the general sense, babysitting your bot doesn't really help anything significantly. It's crucial to watch a bot for a few minutes to make sure it hasn't developed any bugs since you last used it, but that's the extent you need to babysit each day. You don't need to talk to players as if you were normally playing. Jagex doesn't care what you do when you're normally playing.
The fact that you do or don't respond is 100% irrelevant. Sure, you might get reported, but if you you were exhibiting botlike behavior, chances are Jagex saw your account before the report was even filed.


Talk/Respond to Players
Similar to the above, this doesn't do anything. It might entertain you, but Jagex could care less if you talked or if you didn't talk while you botted. Even if you don't get reported, you can get banned based on Jagex's detection software. They don't care if you were detected while talking or not.


Play in High Detail--->Windowed, Not Safe Mode
Yes, it's true that the majority of botters play in Minimum Detail, Safe Mode, Fixed. There's a reason for that: the developers code in this setting because it minimizes the “distractions” in the reflections, giving less objects to choose from when scanning the screen. If you play in windowed, higher graphic settings, and HD, you're just confusing the bot, making you susceptible to bugs and random failure which do increase your risk of a ban. Conversely, it's the safest to play in the least-crowded place with very little map. Lumby castle bank, Tree Gnome Village bank, etc. are all good places because the is little map in these places.


Never Use More Than 1 Account on Signed
Jagex doesn't monitor your IP for multilogging. You can be having a LAN party. You can have many siblings. You can even be playing 2 accounts at once, which isn't illegal unless you're trading/interacting the two accounts. I have anywhere from 2 to 7 accounts on the same IP at any given time, and I've never seen any chain-reaction ban from it. Jagex doesn't have the time, money, or legal ability to research your IP from the signed applet.


Do Legit Playing Every Now and Then
There are many variations of this: Do your dailies to avoid the banhammer. Run to the GE every 10k ores. Do a slayer task after a while. No matter the name of the variation, it's a wivestale. Jagex doesn't care what you do in the meantime. It only takes 5 minutes or so to ban you; they don't look at the large scale of things. Dailies, slayer, etc. are good because they break the repetition and give you something to do, but it doesn't really stop the banhammer at all.


Don't Focus on One Skill; Spread Out Your Botting
This is similar to the one above. What player will grind hardcore to 99 without getting distracted and switching to another skill after a while? However, Jagex doesn't really care; all it takes to ban you is 5 minutes, so it's unlikely they'll even notice that you spent 70 hours Woodcutting before they caught you botting Mining. Switching skills just means you're using more than one bot. You might get banned just because the bot you switched to is low-quality and easy to detect.


Don't Bot—Wait x Days—After Getting Banned
I don't see any evidence at all that Jagex monitors your IP after you get banned on one account. I've botted on thirty or more accounts, and two of them have been banned so far. The first ban was in July, the second ban was early October. I've started about eight more accounts since the October one, and in the 4 weeks since then, I've had no other problems. Maybe Jagex does flag people, but they don't flag a one-time or a two-time offender, as far as I can see. Anyway, as soon as I see that they're tracking my IP, I'll buy a new VPS.


Play with Private/Public/Trade Chat ON/OFF
This is silly. Jagex doesn't care if you want to talk/trade/etc. They just care if you bot. I just leave the chat settings as they are... it's just a little strange to me to have to look at OFF | OFF | OFF | OFF.


Don't Post Your Runescape Name on Forums
Well, this is a two-sided issue. On the one hand, Jagex is not allowed to visit Sythe. Anything they see here cannot be used as evidence of macroing, otherwise they are liable of legal action for breaking Sythe's T&C. On the other hand, Sythe is crawling with scammers, DDoSers, etc... I don't post my usernames just because I don't want people to know my username. But it doesn't get you
banned.


Don't Bot Naked
Botting naked might make you susceptible to reports, but really it doesn't do anything for Jagex. They can't use it as evidence, and they don't read 99% of reports. Statistically, it doesn't really change any chance of getting banned. You can dress up your character if you like it; if you couldn't be effed, then don't do it. Personally, I just wear whatever I had before I set up the bot, with any useful equipment added.... a nature tiara and air staff while botting Runecrafting (air staff for NPC Contact), plus the cape/gloves/boots/ammy that I always wear.



So How Can I Protect Myself?
So if none of these can reduce ban risk, how do you reduce ban risk? It's relatively simple... use quality bots. Jagex detects bots two ways: their own software and reports.

Their software scans all of the accounts currently logged for bot-like behavior. This software is likely obsolete, meaning it's based largely on the bot behaviors from the RWT craze in 2007. This is very good news for us, and the more sophisticated the software, the better. Free bots are usually much worse than paid bots because (a) paid bots go out of business if they have a high ban risk and (b) paid developers often have much more experience. However, no paid bot is 100% safe, and the variation with paid bots is immense.

The things to look out for to avoid the detection software are click-patterns and bugs. Click patterns (such as clicking every 1.000 or 13.500 seconds) are very obvious and very dangerous. Good developers know this and put sophisticated randomizers in there to avoid being detected. Bugs happen to every bot, and often do things that no human would do. For example, there was a “bug” months ago in the tanner bots where Jagex put in an invisible wall to detect bots. Real players never noticed it, but all bots got stuck and bans insued very rapidly. Or another example: the AutoRC Pro on Astrals often would run from the bank booth to behind the bank then back into the bank... This happened at least five of time every hour, and the bot clicked on the same square behind the bank. It was easy to detect, and it was bannable.

The software also somewhat relies on random event reports, although the I have found the denepdency to be low. Still, it is bannable to fail a random (especially repeatedly), although my accounts get stuck in randoms about 3-5 times before I sell them and only one has been banned, likely because of a Marker Plant bug (see above paragraph). I've also botted on two mains, each of with have failed dozens of randoms with no ban. The best way to stop random failures is to use a quality client (NeXus and powerbot are both generally good) and in the lowest ping world possible. I fail a random every 3-5 hours in an England world, but once every 3-5 days in a 60 ping world.

The next thing to consider in avoiding bans is reports. Jagex gets tens of thousands of reports everyday from mods and wannabe mods alike. Generally, if you're reported by a PMod, a JMod will notice it. Generally, if you're reported by a player, a JMod will never read it. Even if a JMod reads your report, you might not show anything that gives them signs of botting and they ignore it. Jagex's rules for banning someone are very, very strict.

That's it for my list. I hope it's not too tl;dr for you. I'm closing this with some quotes I've compiled related to myths. I can't state the source of the quotes on Sythe, unfortunately.

A note of farewell. Most of these wivestales do no harm to your account. If it makes you feel more safe, you don't have to stop. There's just no reason that you really need to stop.

 

Thanks
It's nice to get some answers on rumors that I've heard.

 

Great guide bro! 10/10, read it fully and I am going to use it always
Once again thatnks for the guide

 

Read everything didn't know most of this stuff
Thanks!

 

Lol thanks guys. I'm getting sick of repeating myself, especially on the "suicide botting" issue. Maybe this will sway the population towards my opinions.

I know some of these seem counter-intuitive, but they're based on thousands of my own hours of botting as well as several studies and tests I've noticed from lurking forums here and RsBots.net. My main conclusion is that Jagex is very particular about their detections, and anything that has any explanation whatsoever is not used.

 

Seems like many claims being made with little proof or evidence and its going to get many people to abandon their precautions because the believe they're safe bottling 24/7.

Many of your statements imply that something must not be true because there is little evidence to support it, then you make a bunch of claims with absolutely no evidence to back them up either.

How do you know what kind of "software" jagex uses to catch botters? How do you know around what year it's based on and how "obsolete" it is?

I personally know an individual who posted a video of himself bug abusing without his user name blocked out, and he was banned very shortly afterwords. Jagex doesn't need to supply any hard evidence to ban you, and there certainly isn't any law forcing them to find it. They can ban your account for shts and giggles and they'd still be in their legal rights.

 

The evidence is thousands of hours of my own botting, and observations of thousands of hours of other people's botting. You don't have to listen to my advice if you don't want to.

Oh, and how did your friend host his video? No bot site that I know of has its own video uploading software, and general public sites hardly even care about our little black market. They obviously don't care if Jagex lurks.

 

You're not giving advice. You're making claims based on your own experience that you can't prove and you're trying to pass them off as hard facts, which puts many other people's accounts in danger if they listen to you and you are wrong.

Advice is: "I think that Jagex can scan logs of the accounts..."
Advice is not: "Their software scans all of the accounts currently logged for bot-like behavior. This software is pretty absolete, meaning it's based largely on the bot behaviors from the RWT craze in 2007."

or

"Botting naked might make you susceptible to reports, but really it doesn't do anything for Jagex. They can't use it as evidence, and they don't read 99% of reports."

The only way you could know any of that is if you had secret insider information on how Jagex handles reports or how their detection systems are designed. I'm willing to bet that you don't.

He hosted it in youtube, and posted the video on sythe. I strongly doubt that because of some legal disclaimer scribbled somewhere in Sythe's ToS Jagex does not visit this site. And since they do not (nor are they required) to supply evidence of any of your offenses, it really doesn't matter.

 

It makes very weak writing to have to constantly put "I think" into every sentence. I believe that it's almost always assumed in writing without direct references or empirical data that you're saying "I think" implicitly with every sentence. Also, to that matter, what's to say that the guides on how to bot (most of which include several of these myths) are insiders? They're all mostly from bot selling sites, where obviously the developers are going to put strict advice because someone who claims the site caused their ban can be shown to be disobeying at least one of them. This is how RiD claims a 100% ban-proof list of bots.

Anyway, if you insist that I change it to "I think", I can PM you a customized copy. Also, do you have any evidence of being a member of a Runescape cheating site for more than, at the most, 4 days? Or at least evidence that you've lurked as an unregistered user? I find it hard taking any evidence from people who don't have any experience whatsoever.


Oh, and I really am genuinely curious about your friend with the bug exploitation. I'd be more than happy to debunk my myths because then it means I'll be botting safer.

 

Botting naked doesn't matter. If you've ever played legitly you would notice that there are many skills which you should do naked.

 

Very nice edvice

 

I never made any claims in this thread that require proof of my experience in runescape or on runescape cheating sites. You have. The burden of proof is on you, and I've already questioned multiple claims you have made and up to this point you have avoided answering all of them.

I never asked you to write "I think..." in front of all your statements. I'm asking you to make it clear to your readers that what your saying is based on your personal experience and should not be considered as fact before some kid decides to go suicide botting with his main because KerokeroCola told him it's safe to do so.

EDIT: And just so you know, your claims of Jagex not legally being allowed to visit this site are completely bogus. I couldn't even find Sythe's ToS but i suspect it contains variations of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Privacy_Act

 

He posted a video of him exploiting a FT bug in the wilderness and his name was visible. By the time people told him he should edit it out his account was banned for bug abusing. This is his (and i guess my) personal experience, which is not fact, and persuades me to believe that what you're saying is not true.

I'm not required to debunk your myths. The burden of proof is on you to supply evidence for each one. Especially since many of them contradict the practices that the majority of the people here preach and follow.

 

interesting, yes it is pretty much the free-paid bots difference that gets you banned or not.
Glad you explained it all very well! thanks again

 

Where did he host his video?

The fact that the majority of the people preach these is why I made this. They're preaching what I have reason to believe are superstitions. No, I can't prove myself without either lots of experimental evidence or proof from Jagex's inner circle, but I believe I can shed an experienced light on the matter.

Please don't argue with me again, as it's beginning to tire me. I wrote in my guide and I posted after it that you don't have to listen to me. Your point is valid that I have no proof, but I do have reasonable evidence and reasonable arguments.

 

Thanks for the tips, but we'll never know for sure how Jagex have there methods.

 

I asked you to stop arguing, and you still continued to argue. Since this post has no content that you haven't already shared, I've reported it as spam. I'm asking you again to stop posting unless you have some new light to shed rather than, "You have little to no basis in your arguments." I'm no longer going to respond to it, at any rate.

 

Thanks but I do disagree on some of the discussed methods

 

Nice! Do you bot with a VPS? And how does a VPS work? Never bought one.

 

Perhaps you should touch upon the naming issue.
Personally I name my accounts very hard to lookup/report names like
llTITlIlTlI (looks alot harder in runescape font)
or whole words in caps using l instead of I
ex.
lNCPlKlEIRl
Of course most people are going to think 'hes probably a botter' but what matters is that it increases the chance that they type in your name wrong.
And for most people that have never made a 'hard to lookup' display name they won't even know how to tell the difference.

Besides, a legit doesn't need to see your name to know if you're a botter, it's actually ridiculously obvious based on your movement patterns/unwillingness to talk.

Also quick-chat worlds.
Personally I love them for all types of botting that doesn't require camping simply because it removes all 'pass-by' interaction.
Nobody is going to take the time to engane you in quickchat while you're banking/walking somewhere.

I also change worlds every 3-4hours when I'm at home watching the bot so people don't see me in the same spot for hours and hours.
I haven't been banned yet and i've had some monster proggys.
60+ hours nonstop at yanille druids etc...