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Zero-to-Script Tutorial

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This tutorial walks you all the way from zero to your first working script. It assumes you have never written code before.

You don't have to read it in one sitting. Each chapter is short, focused on one thing, and links to the next. If you get stuck, ask in the Discord — a screenshot of where you are usually unblocks you in seconds.

What you'll do​

  1. Install & first launch — buy a sub, install the loader, exclude it from antivirus, and run it for the first time.
  2. Launching accounts — classic accounts via the account manager, launcher (Jagex) accounts, session limits.
  3. The bot menu — the Insert hotkey, Scripts vs SDN Scripts, subscribing to marketplace scripts.
  4. Setting up your coding environment — install IntelliJ, get JDK 20, clone the skeleton script. Skip this if you only want to use marketplace scripts.
  5. Your first local script — build the skeleton into a .jar, drop it in the right folder, and watch it run in the bot menu.
  6. Reading the game — varbits, varps, varcs, scene objects, NPCs, projectiles, animations. What each one is for, in plain English.
  7. Debug overlays — the in-game debug windows you use to find IDs and watch values change.
  8. Cache data gathering — pulling item, NPC and object info from the game cache so your script doesn't need hard-coded numbers.
  9. Publishing to SDN — uploading your finished script so others can use it.
  10. Multi-module projects (advanced) — once you're maintaining several scripts, scale up to a Maven workspace with a shared API.

What you won't need​

  • Prior coding experience (we'll explain Java basics as we hit them).
  • Reverse-engineering or low-level know-how — BotWithUs gives you clean APIs so you can focus on what your script does, not how the game internally works.
  • A fancy PC. Anything that runs RuneScape 3 will run a bot too.
If you only want to use scripts

You can stop after chapter 3. Marketplace scripts cover most activities. Read chapter 4 onwards only if you want to write or modify your own.

Keep the API reference open while you write

The full BotWithUs Java API is documented at static.botwithus.com/static/javadoc/net.botwithus.rs3/module-summary.html. This tutorial covers the concepts and the most common patterns, but every class you meet (SceneObjectQuery, VarManager, Backpack, Execution, etc.) has many more methods than we touch on. When you want to know "what else can I ask this object?" or "what overloads does this method have?", open the javadoc — it's the source of truth, generated straight from the API.