Bringing Home the Bacon (members only)

Today we're serving up a classic RuneScape quest experience. It's fully voiced, packed with characteristic humour, and has fantastic rewards that stay useful from low levels right up to the 80s, including - of course - belt-bursting quantities of bacon.

Eli Bacon was just a reclusive, ethically suspect farmer until a tragic accident revealed to him a meaty secret long lost to the ravages of time. Pigs, it turns out, are delicious when cooked. Who knew?

However, the terrifying reaction of the few locals who've tried the new meat product made one thing abundantly clear: if bacon were simply to be released upon the unsuspecting world, the pig population would be swiftly and mercilessly devoured.

Can you convince the world that pigs are good for something other than food and pig wrestling? Can you do it without being complicit in Eli's dubious farming methods? And what in the world do onions have to do with this? All this - and more - is revealed in Bringing Home the Bacon.

Success will earn you more than just an expanded waistline. There's a buffet of fantastic rewards on offer once the quest is complete.

Foremost among these are three new summoning familiars: the spirit war pig, the spirit prayer pig and the spirit pack pig. These three familiars offer combat assistance, mobile prayer restoration and beast-of-burden functions respectively. You'll be able to gather the ingredients you need to make these by killing pigs, found in pig pens in Eli's cellar and around the world.

They're also the only summoning familiars that can be scaled up as you increase in levels. If you have level 44 in Summoning, Crafting and Construction, you can perform an upgrade in Eli's basement that improve your pig familiars. Get to level 84 in those three skills and another upgrade will become available. These upgrades will make any pig familiars you create better at their roles - stronger in combat, more restorative of prayer points, or with greater carrying capacity.

Note: In the interests of keeping this news article spoiler-free, we've given only essential information here. Eli will give you full details of how to create the three types of familiars when you speak to him post-quest. Alternatively - if you're unconcerned by moderate visual spoilers - take a look at our wiki page for full details of how the pig familiars work.

On top of that, you'll become the proud owner of a customisable pig follower pet. Depending on your actions during the quest, the pig's default appearance will vary. This can be tweaked post-quest by making alterations in the basement (see the wiki for details), and the pig's name can be altered by speaking to Martin the Master Gardener in Draynor Marketplace.

Lest we forget, you'll also have access to bacon - meat of kings and breakfast of champions. Bacon is acquired by killing pigs in Eli's cellar, and is a foodstuff of great versatility. It can be cooked as it is, or - as your Cooking level increases - combined into ever-more gargantuan stacks. It can be baked into pork pies, or even be brewed into Pigswill beer, which gives a temporary two-level Farming boost, in exchange for a brief, equivalent loss of Strength.

Bacon products have a range of Cooking requirements up to level 74. It's also worth noting that bacon food items heal up to 10% more life points than equivalent food at their level.

Finally, there's a frenetic, bacon-related treat for your ears unlocked upon completion of the quest. Check your music playlist for Glutton for Nourishment - a fully-voiced musical track.

Enjoy 4rsgold!