RuneScape player spends over 2 years maxing one skill in slowest way possible

An Old School RuneScape player has finally reached level 99 Fishing after spending more than two years deliberately leveling the skill by catching nothing but shrimp and anchovies.

The player, known as Bosby, started the challenge on May 11, 2024, with an account appropriately named OnlyShrimp99.

Rather than taking advantage of faster Fishing methods as they progressed, they stuck with two of the most basic catches in the game all the way to the maximum level.

RuneScape player caught over 500,000 fish

On August 7, 2026, two years and three months after starting the account, Bosby confirmed they’d reached the maximum fishing level.

According to their final stats, the journey involved catching 275,196 raw shrimp and 257,064 raw anchovies, for a combined 532,260 fish.

In total, Bosby logged 4,304 hours on the account, jokingly listing both “time played” and “time wasted” as the same figure.

For reference, catching a single shrimp or anchovy award 10 and 40 Fishing points, respectively. A total of 13,034,431 experience is needed to reach the cap of 99 in a skill.

“This account was a joke idea in my friend group for years before I finally made it,” they explained in a Reddit post. “I started out thinking it would just be something funny to do and ended up having the dedication to see it through.”

Bosby estimated they averaged around 3,000 XP per hour due to how AFK the method was, treating the grind as a “second monitor project” while doing other things.

Quite a lot changed outside RuneScape during those thousands of hours, too. Bosby said they started a new job, got married and made plenty of friends during the challenge, including other players they met in-game.

What’s next? Bosby says they’ve considered doing similar grinds for other skills, but none are as AFK-friendly as Fishing the world’s supply of crusteceans.

“I relish having the screen real estate back,” Bosby said, “but I will miss catching those lil water bugs.”