Community Spotlight: Molgoatkirby

It's time for another Community Spotlight! Here we catch up with community space leaders, artists, and content creators that we think you need to know about! We'll learn all about the work they do, plus find out more about their time in Gielinor. We'll also round up some of the latest news, events and content from across the month so you don't miss a thing. Without further ado, let's meet this month's guest!

Molgoatkirby Hey I’m Molgoatkirby, I enjoy going for crazy challenges in OSRS and making guides. When I’m not gaming I like to cook, I like anime, and my music tastes are all over the place. So, what got you into gaming? I’ve been into gaming for as long as I can remember. My earliest memory is when my parents got a Sega Genesis, and after school I’d play games like Sonic 2 and Mortal Combat 2 and many others. A lot of games were pretty hard back then, so maybe that gave me a taste for difficult challenges like I do in OSRS! Over the years gaming has stayed a part of my life, playing lots of Pokemon on the Gameboy Advance, various games on PS1 and PS2 like Final Fantasy 10 and Kingdom Hearts. I also got into PC gaming on the family computer, I remember playing Star Wars Rogue Squadron 3D with one of those flying joysticks. Eventually I found my way to RuneScape in the PC gaming world. Tell us more about your introduction to RuneScape and Old School. It’s kind of random how I initially discovered the game. Back in elementary school I heard one of my friends talking to someone else about some game called RuneScape, and to this day, all I remember was something about prospecting ores, and somehow that of all things was enough to get me curious to try the game. I don’t think you can even prospect ores in the game anymore! In my noob days I remember being excited to unlock Telegrab thinking how much money I could make telegrabbing the stuff under West Varrock bank. I remember the first time I got membership and being excited to finally go through the gate into Taverley, as well as finally being able to trim armour, though I eventually learned membership did not give me the ability to do that! I also remember doing a lot of PvP back in the day, despite being someone who mainly PvMs now, funnily enough. What's been your favourite moment from your time in Old School? It would probably be when I got the first Inferno cape in Trailblazers. It wasn’t the most mechanically challenging thing I’ve done, but all the factors involved made it such a special experience. It was the first time Inferno was available in Leagues, so there was so much hype for the first Inferno cape rush. I had put massive hours into the grind, but was having internet issues the entire time. Here’s how my stream looked during triple Jads with 10,000 people watching from all the hosts I received, a little scuffed! I actually ended my stream mid-fight caves as my internet got too bad to even do that, and took a one-hour rest as I had been up for about 20 hours at that point. Then the internet became usable again so I went live, did the caves, and then did the Inferno first try to get the world first clear! And here’s the moment we got the clear: Tell us a bit more about your streams! I tend to stream a lot of speedrunning content, and go for world records. You’ll see me getting world records at a lot of the quicker bosses, like Hespori and Desert Treasure II bosses. I also go for special challenges, like the lowest combat to grandmaster account I’ve been working on lately, where I aim to be the lowest combat account to achieve a Zuk helm. I also do a lot of theorycrafting, figuring out how new bosses work, and making guides for those bosses. I also occasionally do some variety gaming and cooking streams! How did you get into streaming? I enjoyed watching a lot of speedrun content on Twitch over the years, like Pokémon and Super Mario 64, and loved the hype when a speedrunner would set a world record. I’ve always enjoyed pushing myself to do challenging things in video games, and it seemed a shame to do something crazy in a game but no one was around to see it. So I always had the interest to stream one day and accomplish a difficult goal while live, and having people around to celebrate in that. I actually got started with ToB 5-man speedruns as one of the first things I did when I started streaming, and then after that it was solo ToB, back when less than 20 people had completed it and AColdOne had a spreadsheet of all the Solo ToB clears and the date each person cleared it. I remember being a bit star-struck when someone like Xzact or AColdOne would pop into my stream back then. I also did quite a bit of solo CoX speedrunning, it’s easier to really focus on your own skills in a solo speedrun. Eventually I got into more niche speedruns like Zulrah, Hespori, Desert Treasure II bosses, etc. This heavy resetting niche bosses for a world record was definitely inspired from all the reset heavy speedruns I watched in other games. I’m big on theorycrafting so I even ended up finding quite a bit of speedrun tech, like the Kirby Skip for Solo CMs. What have been some of your favourite moments you've had on stream? I’ve already mentioned the world's first inferno, but another moment was being the first person to reach Sol Heredit in the Colosseum. When Inferno first came out I wasn’t a streamer yet, and couldn’t afford all the best gear so I couldn’t really go for world first, but I remember watching Woox’s attempts and how hype it was. Even though I wasn’t first to beat Sol Heredit, being the first to reach the unknown final boss of what is basically Inferno 2.0, and having everyone tune in the same way I was tuning into Woox’s stream back then was an exciting feeling. Here’s a clip of my panic and confusion at the final boss: Another special moment was the Zulrah 28.80 World record, this was one of the first world records I set, if not the first time I set one, and it was a very special one with how iconic Zulrah is: Getting a solo Scythe at the end of a disco solo ToB I did was another special moment. This was a solo ToB with as many plugins turned on to make it difficult to play, like randomised inventory tag colours for every item. There’s also been some special moments in the Lowgoat series but I’ll get to that later. What's it like chasing for WR kill times? There’s a process to it. First, something a bit unique that I do is code up a simulation of the boss fight, so that I know how many hours to expect before I get the record on average, as well as to help me find the best method. Then, there’s learning the method. For some WRs, I make a very complicated method of gear switches, flicking Recoil ring and a DPS ring, venging, going down to low HP for Dharok. The beginning is about developing muscle memory until I stop messing up. At first it feels like, “man this is hard can I even do this?”, but eventually I get the muscle memory and start doing the method consistently. Then, the actual grind. The beginning is fine, but when I go 80+ hours dry, which I have a few times, there’s a strong feeling of “I just want to get this already, this is crazy”, and for the more difficult methods I start to get very nervous on runs that are close, and need to keep it together to not mess up at the end. And then when I finally get it, especially the longer I went for that world record, there’s just a feeling of excitement and like a weight is off my shoulders. The longer I go dry on getting the record, the more exciting it is for me when I get it, so at least there is the upside to being unlucky. Here’s a more recent one, the Gryphon world record, where you can really see how even a short record has such a complicated procedure, and the excitement that comes after those countless hours of failed attempts. You've broken many OSRS speedrun world records, but which are you most proud of? As far as my speedrun records go, I’d say the 17.40 Hespori record holds a special place for me for some reason. Mechanically, it was such a difficult method, and it looks so crazy you can barely tell what is happening. Plus it has just insane damage on every hit, though it was only about 20 hours of attempts, so it was one of my shorter grinds. Do you have any good speedrunning stories to share? The Leviathan Record has an interesting story behind it. It took around 75 hours, and I had simulated various finishes to the fight based on how good my pace was, and if I was on insane pace I had a finish I could switch to for a chance of sub 40. I wasn’t expecting for it to actually happen, as the sub 40 was such a low chance of happening, and the world record I needed to beat was like 44s or something. But after going incredibly dry on the record, I had a run that was on the sub 40 pace, so I went for the fast finish, and got the sub 40, which was kind of crazy for how rare it was meant to be. But that’s not all; after 10,000 ruby hits at this boss while using a plugin to track my ruby proc rate on stream, the plugin showed a 7.2% proc rate, rather than the 6.6% they should have. This led to players asking the Jmods about this, and it being discovered that there was actually a bug with rubies, I think the Kandarin Diary perk was being applied twice or something. Rubies ended up being fixed to be 6.6% like they were meant to be. So my world record accidentally led to a bug with rubies being fixed, which was kinda funny. Do you have any goals lined up or challenges to take on next? After the Lowgoat series is fully finished on YouTube, I am considering doing a hardcore, which I haven’t really done all the way to end-game before. In particular, a hardcore Zerker to GM interests me. It’s something that hasn’t been done before, and for me, things that haven’t been done are much more appealing. If I have any other ideas before then, it’s possible I may do something else, so we will see in the end! What advice would you give to someone thinking of getting into speedrunning? Going for the same piece of content for a long time can be very helpful to master it, but also try a lot of different pieces of content, and don’t be afraid to push beyond your comfort zone. Different bosses and speedruns help you get better at different skills, and going for really difficult goals can help you improve even if you don’t reach that goal. Then when you go back to other easier speedrun content, you will probably get to grips with it quicker. Also if you’re able to, record your gameplay. It helps a lot to be able to learn from your mistakes and see where you can improve, and what you did right! Watching the best speedrunners can also teach you a lot. There’s lots of guides for many bosses on YouTube, and watching videos of current world records can teach you a lot. Joining a clan and learning from others can also help. When it comes to speedrunning raids, there are Discords out there with a lot of helpful resources, like the Solo CM discord. I even refer to that server when I need to remember some info about certain rooms in Chambers for speedrunning, like how to solve a certain crab room rotation. There’s also a Speedrun Discord, a community-ran Discord where people submit their best times along with evidence, which can be helpful for finding the best runs of different bosses. Tell us about your Lowgoat video series, what inspired you to take it on, and how's it going? As someone who specialises in niche speedruns like Hespori, making guides for combat achievements, theorycrafting, and making simulations to figure out optimal strategies and how rare they are for various speedruns, the idea of making the lowest combat account to get a Zuk helm seemed like the perfect thing to go for. After the Crystal halberd requirement for Zuk helm was removed, meaning the 100 combat requirement was gone, and 85 combat became the new lowest hard requirement, it seemed like the perfect time to do it, and see how close to 85 I could get. As for how it’s going, the YouTube videos are coming along nicely though they are quite behind, as I just finished the series and achieved the Zuk helm at 85 combat! It was a pretty crazy finish as well, and may even have me reconsidering what my new favourite moment of streaming OSRS is. The YouTube videos will keep coming to show the entire journey I went on for those that didn’t see everything live. For those that don’t mind a bit of a spoiler, here’s the final CA being completed for 85 combat Zuk helm Can you share any stand-out moments that have happened within your community? One of my mods, Ttortt, has helped out with theorycrafting, and has also made some great plugins like the Bolt Proc Counter plugin, so I can see how dry I go on ruby resets while streaming, and we do a lot of ruby resetting sometimes so it’s nice. He also made the You Missed That One plugin, which I use to play a funny audio line from an old video game whenever I miss a Zaryte crossbow Special Attack on my speedruns. Also, Redeyejedi has been a member of my community for a long time and he’s made some great content, many people have enjoyed his Blorva guides. He’s also done some incredible work on testing Sailing mechanics and Barracuda Trials theorycrafting. I’ve also seen various members in my community who’ve also gone for speedruns and world record times, at times even beating my own world records. It's great to see my runs helping inspire more speedrunners! What do you enjoy most about being part of your community? Everyone is really nice and helpful, whether it’s someone looking for end-game speedrun advice, or a newer player looking for more basic advice, people are willing to help out. It’s a very welcoming and chill community, while also having some very skilled and knowledgeable gamers. I’m grateful to have such a wonderful community, and to have them stick around throughout the years. Not to mention all the assistance during my Lowgoat series when I needed help to avoid getting a lot of XP while doing Combat Achievements! How can someone join in and become part of your community? You can join my Discord, watch the Twitch livestreams, or check out the YouTube videos and chat in the comments. The Discord does have some useful resources, and I do occasionally host 8-man ToAs on stream where I help people get the 8-man GM time, as getting eight people together can be tough! You’ll also find a friendly and helpful community where you can ask whatever questions you want and learn more about the game. Is there anything else you'd like to share? I’ll be attending RuneFest for the first time this year, so I’m excited to finally meet a bunch of the community as well as other content creators in person! A massive thank you to Molgoatkirby for chatting to us and sharing his speedrunning journey! Remember you can find him over on Twitch and YouTube.