Free-to-play Ironman guide

This article contains information on free-to-play Standard Ironman, Hardcore Ironman and Ultimate Ironman Mode training, all of which differ significantly from normal skill training.

Group ironmen and hardcore group ironmen can take advantage of training together in various ways such as collecting resources from one training method for another teammate's training session for faster experience. Hardcore group ironmen share lives with the number of players in the group and may take risks that solo hardcore ironmen may not take but hardcore group ironmen should be cautious doing what would be safe-death activities as their lives are not protected from safe deaths.

Quest rewards are an efficient early-game training method. Large experience rewards skip low-level grinds. For example, the reward from The Knight's Sword levels Smithing from 1 to 29, giving access to iron bars and high-requirement bronze equipment.

If you are looking for a quick guide for completing free-to-play quests, there is an Optimal free-to-play Ironman quest guide.

Free-to-play Quests that reward experience:

• X Marks the Spot: Antique lamp for 300 experience
• Cook's Assistant: 300 Cooking experience
• Doric's Quest: 1,300 Mining experience
  • Kill monsters for iron ores or 15 Mining^[boostable]
• Sheep Shearer: 150 Crafting experience
• Goblin Diplomacy: 200 Crafting experience
• Misthalin Mystery: 600 Crafting experience
• Witch's Potion: 325 Magic experience
• Imp Catcher: 875 Magic experience
• Vampyre Slayer: 4,825 Attack experience
• The Restless Ghost: 1,125 Prayer experience
• The Knight's Sword: 12,725 Smithing experience
  • Kill dwarves or get the Wilderness item spawn^[1] for iron bars, or 15 Mining and 15 Smithing
• Dragon Slayer I, requiring 32 Quest points: 18,650 and 18,650 Defence experience

After completing all of these quests except for Dragon Slayer I, where 10 Mining and 10 Cooking are required for The Knight's Sword, the player's other stats can be: 20 Attack, 8 Crafting, 10 Magic, 9 Prayer, and 29 Smithing

Early moneymaking can be from the Stronghold of Security's one-time reward of 10,000 coins: an emote from level 1, another emote from level 2, and 10,000 from level 3. This is dangerous, so fish and cook food like shrimps. Alternatively, there are two cooked meat on the tables in Barbarian Village's Long Hall that you could take, hopping worlds to stock up on them.

Sheep Shearer for 60 coins, X Marks the Spot for 200 coins. Ernest the Chicken for 300 coins, Doric's Quest for 180 coins, Shield of Arrav for 600 coins, Prince Ali Rescue for 700 coins, and Pirate's Treasure for One-Eyed Hector's Treasure Chest (450 coins, gold ring, and cut emerald)

You can also later complete Black Knights' Fortress with 12 Quest points for 2,500 coins, and Below Ice Mountain with 16 Quest points for 2,000 coins.

You can also reuse the method for Pirate's Treasure and repeatedly fill the crate with 10 bananas for Luthas in Musa Point for 30 coins each.

There are various profitable monsters you can train on, all of which go into further detail in the "Combat Training" Section.

Minotaurs are pretty easy to kill and you have an infinite food source by either picking up the cooked meat spawn or by fly or bait fishing outside the Stronghold of Security. They drop lots of good early loot, including iron arrows for Ranged training, selling bronze full helms in Barbarian Village for early money making, and optionally collect rune essences and right skull half (for skull sceptre teleport charges) for later Runecraft training from body runes.

If you use your spending money on runes, using Water Strike on Lesser demons can be easily safespotted in the Crandor and Karamja Dungeon for a quick profit from rune med helms.

With 16 crafting, you can make Unstrung symbols which sells to shops for 80-120 coins each depending on which shop you sell them to.

Smithing iron armour is a decent alternative too. The Knight's Sword will level Smithing from 1 to 29, allowing you to smith iron equipment to sell.

You can either mine the iron yourself and use rings of forging (ruby rings are easily obtained after Crack the Clue III), or with the Wilderness item spawn for iron bars.

A risky method involves looting the steel platelegs in the Wilderness ruins north of Graveyard of Shadows. Players can hop worlds to pick up additional steel platelegs without waiting for them to respawn, and they can be banked in Ferox Enclave nearby. They can be sold to Louie Legs in Al Kharid for 650 coins each, and a full inventory can net up to 18,200 coins. This will profit less the more items are currently sold to the store, as shops will decrease their buying price the more items are overstocked from their base stock. It is recommended to only sell a few per world, and avoid selling them if other players have already sold to the store and overstocked it, and instead keep the platelegs banked until they are available to sell for the most profit.

An even riskier method is to enter the Lava Maze and Collecting steel platebodies. These are worth more coins per world hop, but run a greater risk of player killers, as the lava maze is in much deeper wilderness and has a long winding path to get out of the maze.

You can enter and collect the ruby ring located in the Varrock west bank Vault after completing the final two steps of Crack the Clue III (i.e. the Lumbridge Swamp step and Varrock west bank steps, no other steps are required). Once you have completed this event the first time, you can enter the vault without items by performing a series of emotes in the correct order, resummoning the Mysterious Old Man who will let the player in and out of the vault.

This method is great for hardcore ironmen. It will take by far longest to setup out of all the previously mentioned methods, but it is extremely profitable for free-to-play and will remain a very good money making method (and crafting method) for the duration of your stay in free-to-play.

Cowbell amulet

• An absurdly cheap teleport coming in at the cost of a single air rune at 4 coins from a rune shop, which makes it 97% cheaper than the chronicle to use
• A quick way to get to Brutus
• Quickest teleport to access Al Kharid
• Nearby the canoe transport system
• Near the River Lum fly fishing spots
• Could even be used for restoring Prayer points (Lumbridge church altar) or banking (Lumbridge Castle bank), considering the ease at which air runes can be obtained

Chronicle

• Teleport to outside of the Champions guild, access to canoe transport, Varrock, Clue hunting, etc.
• A relatively cheap renewable teleport charged with teleport cards, which are purchased at Diango's Toy Store at a base price of 150 coins each.

Canoe transport

• Canoe station near Cowbell Amulet teleport location (Lumbridge), Chronicle teleport location (Champions Guild), Skull sceptre teleport location (Barbarian Village), Clan Wars (Ferox Enclave) teleport location, as well as a fifth location in Edgeville, and a sixth stop near the Wilderness pond (can only can be travelled to, one cannot make a canoe at this stop) just south-east of the Lava Maze.
• This is useful alongside the extremely cheap Cowbell Amulet to maintain access to those locations even if you do not have the teleport itself.
• Can be accessed any time since you can now store an axe at the canoe station (since 2026 April 1)
• Becomes redundant if you have plenty of charges or access to other teleports, however, canoes are useful if you decide to not farm for teleport resources.

Minigame Teleport to Ferox Enclave (Clan Wars)

• Fast way into Ferox Enclave. Access to (1) a bank, (2) free prayer, hitpoints, run energy, and stat restore at the Pool of Refreshment, and (3) canoe transport
• Can be used once every 20 minutes (does not share cooldown timer with Home Teleport)

Home Teleport

• Close to a Prayer Altar, and a bank (Lumbridge Castle bank)
• Can be used once every 30 minutes (does not share cooldown timer with Minigame Teleport)

Skull sceptre (i)

• Teleport to Barbarian Village and all its contents, access to Draynor Manor, Camdozaal, many beginner clue scroll locations.
• Charged with sceptre pieces that are harder to obtain, however they can be obtained through training on minotaurs (early combat training method) and flesh crawlers (afk training method).

Slightly Less Used:

Standard Teleports to Varrock, Falador, and Lumbridge

• Despite their clear usefulness, it is often better to use alternative transport since law runes can only be obtained as a drop. It is typically better to use the above options first unless you have plenty of law runes to spare.

• The Disk of returning for fast travel through the Dwarven Mine which somehow also works in the White Knights' Castle Crypt.
• Using the Shanty Pass Jail to transport to the Port Sarim Jail thus can be used to travel to Port Sarim/Asgarnian Ice Dungeon/Mudskipper Point/Karamja (if possible, then use a cowbell amulet teleport (home teleport also works), go to Al Kharid, run to Shantay Pass, then use the Shantay Pass Jail to Port Sarim Jail teleport)

• Minigame teleport to Castle Wars and use Castle Wars bank.

• Home Teleport to Lumbridge, or Lumbridge teleport, then hop to a pvp world. and use Lumbridge Castle bank chest. Make sure to change worlds again before leaving the safe area!

• Minigame teleport to Clan Wars, use Ferox Enclave bank.

• Teleport to Falador and use western Falador bank.

• Teleport to Varrock and use western Varrock bank.

• Home Teleport / Teleport to Lumbridge, and then run to Lumbridge Castle bank.

• Cowbell Amulet teleport then run to Lumbridge Castle bank.

• Chronicle teleport and use western Varrock bank.

This guide is modified from the original to include strictly free-to-play forms of transportation and its limitations.

• It is helpful to dedicate a bank tab to grab all these items in a quick and orderly fashion
• Your best way to farm clues is from defeating Brutus, who has a drop rate of Beginner Clues of 1/15.

Brutus has the fastest experience gained for any creature in free-to-play all the way until 99 for several reasons:

1. 100% experience bonus on successful attacks (double experience per hit)
2. Negative defence bonuses for all combat styles
3. Drops a sustainable food source through the dropped t-bone steak and also dropped logs to cook them
4. A fast prayer training method burying Bull bones for 40 experience
5. A fast method for beginner clues at a rate of 1/15
6. Cowbell amulet that is an extremely quick teleport to the boss and also drastically shortens the respawn timer when rung.

You can even cook the raw t-bone steak with 0 time lost by lighting a fire in-between kills and doing the 1 tick cooking trick.

Tips:

• It is much more active if you train melee here as you can take chip damage and need to dodge the stomp, but it is semi-afk to use magic and ranged by via safespotting on the nearby bush as long as you dodge the charge attack every few seconds.
• If you need to bank, just leave the instance by activating the cowbell teleport again, then using the Minigame teleport to Castle Wars for the fastest teleport to a bank.
• This works well in conjunction with activating Tier 1 prayers, where if you have 35+ prayer points and no prayer bonus it will last about 20 minutes, resetting the Minigame teleport to Ferox Enclave (Clan Wars) instead for the 2nd fastest bank and free stat and run restore at the pool.

Attack and Strength are primary melee skills for increasing damage output. Defence is trained with melee for free, though with less priority as it does not increase damage. Hitpoints is passively levelled. In order of levelling priority, Strength to increase damage per second, Attack to increase it slightly more or to equip stronger weapons, and finally Defence for later. A good rule of thumb is to train Strength and Attack to 20 before Defence.

Prior to 89 Smithing and boosting with a dwarven stout to make a rune scimitar, the best weapon is the barronite mace, requiring 40 Attack to wield. Completion of the Below Ice Mountain quest is required to start collecting a Barronite head, Barronite handle, and Barronite guard with 1,500 Barronite shards to give to Ramarno for the completed mace. Until a barronite mace can be acquired, a rune sword is a good alternative, also requiring 40 Attack to wield. It is purchased from Scavvo's Rune Store in the Champions' Guild, requiring 32 quest points to enter. If one had less than 32 quest points, one could obtain a rune battleaxe as a 1/100 drop from Ogress Shaman/Warrior. Alternatively, one could even use a rune pickaxe as a melee weapon, purchasing it from Nurmof's Pickaxe Shop or Yarsul's Prodigious Pickaxes for 32,000 coins.

1-20 Attack: Vampyre Slayer could be completed by safespotting Count Draynor with Earth Strike or Fire Strike, awarding level 20 attack, letting you equip a mithril scimitar from Zeke's Superior Scimitars in Al Kharid. Then, assuming you have no access to other strength boosting gear (such as an Amulet of Strength) you should then train strength to level 27 (for max hits of 5), then train attack to 30. You can then purchase and equip an adamant sword from Varrock Swordshop and train strength to either 32 or 33 (for max hits of 6), before getting 40 attack - depending on whether you plan on equipping a Barronite mace or Rune sword first, respectively. The Barronite mace hits 7s at 32 strength, and the Rune sword hits 7s at 33 strength.

However if players prefer training melee themselves for the first 20 levels, there is a bronze scimitar on the 1^st floor of the eastern house in Rimmington, and Zeke sells iron and steel scimitars as well.

1–15 Cows or chickens: Collect cowhides for Crafting or feathers for Fishing. Bury all bones as Prayer is a long training process.

15–30 Minotaurs: Collect iron arrows for Ranged training, sell bronze full helms in Barbarian Village for early money making, and optionally collect rune essences and right skull half (for skull sceptre teleport charges) for later Runecraft training from body runes.

(30 - 99) Brutus: Has a negative melee defence bonus (-7) and +100% experience per damage dealt amongst other benefits explained above. As you are taking chip damage, it is better to start defeating this boss after a little bit of melee training.

(15–50) Giant frogs/Big frogs/Frogs: Rock crab equivalents for F2P, low defensive stats and high Hitpoints meaning they are the highest experience per hour. However, unlike giants, they only drop big bones (Level 13 Giant frogs) / bones (Level 10 Big frogs and Level 5 Frogs). Only use these for pure experience when not concerned about drops.

• Giant frogs in particular are the F2P ironman metagame for combat training since they are the highest experience per hour while still dropping a great source of prayer experience in big bones.
• Jagex added Frogs, Big Frogs, and Giant Frogs to the Lumbridge swamp on the day Old School RuneScape Free-to-Play started, which was on Old School RuneScape's second birthday (February 19, 2015). Their reasoning for adding those to the Lumbridge Swamp was to provide free-to-play players a means of early-level combat training.
• Tip: bring a woodcutting axe (any level axe) and a tinderbox when you go combat training in Lumbridge Swamp. Frogs/Big Frogs/Giant Frogs do not hit extremely hard, but you will take damage if you are training for a long time. If you find yourself in emergency need of food, there are several Combat Level 6 giant rats in the area; these have 100% drops of raw rat meat that only requires Level 1 Cooking; cut down a dead tree (of which there are several in the area) to obtain logs (Level 1 Firemaking) and you can cook the raw rat meat on the fire to get some food.

30–99 Hill giants: Big bones for good Prayer experience and low defence make hill giants a possible training option from combat level 30 onwards. They drops giant keys at a rate of 1/128 for a chance at defeating Obor for the Rune Kiteshield. The best spots are the very popular Edgeville Dungeon, the less populated Giants' Plateau, or the Wilderness for a 1/64 chance at a giant key.

• trivia: Jagex added the Giants' Plateau free-to-play hill giants on July 16, 2020

(40–60/99) Flesh crawlers: No Prayer experience and few drops, but good for AFK training due to always being aggressive. They drop gems for amulets and bottom of sceptres to help Runecraft training with skull sceptre teleports.

• If you bring a fishing rod with you, you can resupply food by using the river and nearby fire just outside the stronghold in Barbarian Village.

(45–99) Moss giants: Big bones for good Prayer experience, but in a multicombat area of the Varrock Sewers means others can steal loot. If hill giants are crowded, but moss giants are not, it can be better to use these. After completing Dragon Slayer I, Crandor isn't a multicombat area, is less crowded but much farther from a bank; teleports are recommended. They occasionally drop mossy keys to be able to challenge Bryophyta for a chance of obtaining a Bryophyta's staff, and a rune square shield as an alternate shield upgrade before obtaining a rune kiteshield obtained from Obor

(50–99) Body golems: Barronite mace will deal accurate and strong damage to golems, making it a fast training method with that weapon. The player will have +5 Defence if the Charm of Defence is bought and the Charm of Luck will increase barronite guard drops to make a barronite mace or high-level alchemised for 5,119 coins. Noted essence and body core drops will help train Runecraft and iron ore drops will help train Smithing. However, they don't drop bones or ashes for Prayer experience. Requires the completion of Below Ice Mountain and may take a while to obtain the parts to create the barronite mace.

(60–99) Giant spiders: Great for multitasking and playing in the background due to aggressiveness to all levels but no Prayer experience will be gained and they only drop beginner clue scrolls. Almost no effort is needed to train combat skills to 99 with this method but you'll miss out on any profit along the way, ignoring beginner clue scrolls.

(60–99) Ankou: Drop law runes, noted essence, adamant arrows, mithril ore, and left skull halves for building or recharging a skull sceptre. However in terms of prayer training, ankou only drop Bones instead of Big bones.

(80–99) Ogress Shamans and Ogress Warriors: Excellent drops for High Level Alchemy, as well as nature runes, law runes, death runes, and cosmic runes. Ogresses also drop Big bones. Be sure to flick protection Prayers for longer trips.

It is recommended to collect iron arrows from minotaurs beforehand. All arrows can be bought at Lowe's Archery Emporium in Varrock.

1–10 Cows or chickens: Collect cowhides for Crafting and feathers for Fishing. Bury all bones as Prayer is difficult to train otherwise.

(1 - 99) Brutus: Has a negative ranged defence bonus (-7) and +100% experience per damage dealt amongst other benefits explained above.

10–30 Dark wizards in Draynor: Drop nature runes and law runes, they attack with magic so equip the best available ranged armour and upgrade whenever possible.

15–30 Minotaurs: Safespot them, at 25 Ranged, iron arrow drops break even with those lost while training. At 30 Ranged, arrows will begin to stack up.

30–50/99 Hill giants: Safespot them. Big bones for good Prayer experience and low Defence make hill giants the best training from 30 onwards, but they can be crowded.

(40–60/99) Flesh crawlers: No Prayer experience and few drops, but good for AFK training due to always being aggressive. They drop gems for amulets and bottom of sceptres to help Runecraft training with skull sceptre teleports.

• If you bring a fishing rod with you, you can resupply food by using the river and nearby fire just outside the stronghold in Barbarian Village.

40–99 Moss giants: Safespot them. They provide decent drops but Prayer training from their big bones will be slower than killing hill giants.

(50–99) Ogress Shamans and Ogress Warriors: Safespot them (5+ tiles away from Shamans, who have slightly lower Ranged defence than Warriors). Excellent drops for High Alchemy, as well as nature runes, law runes, death runes, and cosmic runes. Also drop iron, steel, and mithril arrows.

Defensive casting should never be used. Defence experience is free through melee training minus food supplies, Magic experience is comparatively expensive. Every 30 minutes, the Magic combat tutor in Lumbridge provides 30 air runes and 30 mind runes and if you wish to stock up on those, drop all of your air and mind runes several tiles away from the Magic combat tutor, collect the free 30 air runes and 30 mind runes, then run back to pick up the air runes and mind runes you dropped several tiles away, seconds earlier.

With Project Rebalance in May 2024 and the succeeding Summer Sweep-Up update in May 2025, many free-to-play NPC's now have an elemental weakness. Elemental spells on the standard spellbook were reworked to have the max hit scale based on the highest spell within a spell tier unlocked.

(1–10) Quests: Complete Witch's Potion & Imp Catcher for 325 Magic experience and 875 Magic experience respectively.

(1/10–13) Cows, Chickens, Goblins, Minotaurs: Fast and cheap levels from Wind strikes provided by the free 30 air runes and 30 mind runes from the Magic combat tutor in Lumbridge. Collect Cowhides for Crafting and Feathers for Fishing. Bury all bones as Prayer is difficult to train otherwise. Collect all Iron arrows for Ranged

(1 - 99) Brutus: Has a 25% earth weakness and +100% experience per damage dealt amongst other benefits explained above.

All the giants drop nature runes, law runes, and cosmic runes, all of which are not available to buy from shops in free-to-play. They also all have unique benefits to train on as listed below.

(13–99) Hill giants: 25% earth weakness, drops giant keys at a rate of 1/128. The best spots are Edgeville Dungeon, the less populated Giants' Plateau, or the Wilderness for a 1/64 chance at a giant key.

(13-99) Moss giants: 50% fire weakness, Occasionally drops mossy keys at a rate of 1/150 or 1/100 from Wilderness moss giants. These are the best overall giants for magic training by having a higher max hit than at hill giants while still maintaining a chance at boss loot from Bryophyta's Chest.

Safe spot them. Found in the Varrock Sewers (multi-combat, requires a slash weapon or knife), and the much less populated Crandor after partial completion of Dragon Slayer I (single-combat, accessed through the Crandor and Karamja Dungeon). Deep Wilderness moss giants are not recommended as there is no easy safe spot.

(13–99) Ice giants: 100% fire weakness. Although you will not gain any giant keys or mossy keys, with a 100% fire weakness, this is a fast and cost effective training method while still gaining Prayer and Magic experience as well as dropping adamant arrows and runes in greater quantities. Safe spot them, Use an ice giant to block Ice warriors, then wait 10 minutes for them to lose aggressiveness. These are best fought in the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon, or otherwise found in the deep wilderness.

13–99 Greater demons: Wilderness only. Low magic defence AND a 40% water weakness, drops rune full helms and vile ashes for Prayer training. The Demonic Ruins provides infinite Prayer points, so use Mystic Will, Mystic Lore, and Mystic Might to increase Magic accuracy. For ultimate ironmen, kill them as early as possible before accumulating wealth to get the rune full helm and mithril kiteshield.

(13–99) Lesser demons: These are a safer, less profitable alternative to greater demons with the same weaknesses but are still decent for money, dropping rune med helms while still dropping vile ashes for Prayer training. The best place with multiple safespots is in the Crandor and Karamja Dungeon.

(13/59–99) Casting Earth Blast on ogress warriors and ogress shamans: Death runes are expensive but should all be obtained from and used on ogress warriors to be most efficient. Shamans have slightly more magic defence but they are still doable and safespot-able if the player stands 5+ tiles away from them. Earth Strike can be used too but takes much longer, especially at low levels. Excellent drops for High Level Alchemy as well as nature runes, law runes, death runes, and cosmic runes. The cost of death runes can be recovered by alchemising big drops but will still come at a loss if buying them from a rune shop.

Equip full plate armour and green d'hide vambraces (requires 40 ranged) to stay below -64 Magic attack bonus with an elemental staff. Alternatively, players who cannot equip the vambraces can still auto-cast with the cursed goblin staff from Diango's Toy Store, at the cost of using more runes.

(1/5/9/13-99) Strike spell splashing: You can AFK for 20 minutes at a time with this method. Pick an NPC that has a max hit of 0 like Rats, Chickens, Spiders, or Seagulls, and then choose your strike spell depending on how much you are willing to spend.

Note: you do not gain experience from splashing in the area in and surrounding Lumbridge.

(19–99) Curse splashing: A very cheap option for 99 Magic not including drops, however you cannot auto-cast curse, so this method is not afk. To add another skill training method, this could be done by splashing on skeletons in the Boneyard while getting Prayer experience, but beware on the amount of runes you bring in case of player killers.

Each game tick is 0.6s, a magic combat spell takes 5 ticks, so in 1 hour a player can cast (splash) 1,200 combat spells

Note: the cost of the runes listed are GE prices of runes as opposed to shop prices of runes.

Complete The Restless Ghost first, the experience reward levels Prayer to 9. From here, it takes 448 big bones for Protect Item at 25, or 3281 for Protect from Melee at 43. Killing Brutus 1,235 times will also take you from level 9 to 43 to use Protect from Melee or an additional 278 kills (totalling 1,513) to unlock the final F2P prayer, Mystic Might. Great passive way while training combat.

Bury and scatter every bone/ash drop as Prayer experience accumulates slowly. Kill:

• Low Hitpoints monsters like chickens or Stronghold of Security's rats for fast bones (4.5 XP).
• Imps (commonly found south of Falador) for fiendish ashes (10 XP).
• Larger monsters that drop big bones (15 XP) like giant frogs or hill giants at higher combat levels for faster training.
• Lesser demons for vile ashes (25 XP) at higher combat levels.
• Brutus drops bull bones (40 XP). Requires the completion of The Ides of Milk. Best-in-slot equipment and high combat level recommended, as well as a cowbell amulet to respawn Brutus faster.

Save time burying bones or scattering ashes by burying/scattering them just as the character begins the attack animation and then quickly clicking on the target again. This skips the burying/scattering animation without losing time between attacks.

Alternatively for non-hardcore ironmen, go to level 33 Wilderness and bury big bones that spawn in the boneyard, for between 4,000–9,300 experience per hour with world hopping. Decent Defence is important, including armour or an amulet of defence, or wait 10 minutes to make skeletons lose aggressiveness. For ultimate ironmen, get rid of expensive equipment and store coins in the Last Man Standing coffer before doing this.

A safer alternative in the Wilderness is at the Chaos Temple in level 11 Wilderness for piles of bones to be picked up and buried for 6,000+ experience per hour if hopping worlds. There are no monsters, but there is still a possibility for player killers. At 6,000 experience per hour, it takes just over an hour for Protect Item and more than 8 hours for Protect from Melee.

In the Edgeville Dungeon, there is a small room with 4 spawns of bones amongst a few low level Giant Rats (on the map, below the words "Skeletons & Zombies"). You can quickly loot all 4 and change worlds and repeat, which will give about 4,000 Prayer XP per hour.

For hardcore ironmen or any ironmen in general, completing the quest Below Ice Mountain will allow access into the Ruins of Camdozaal. Fishing, preparing, and offering prepared fish to the Offering Altar will provide the player with free Prayer experience without combat or risk involved. Players can start this training method at Level 7 Fishing and Cooking but 33 Fishing and Cooking is recommended to fish and prepare tetra, granting 10 prayer experience for each offer with tetra no longer being ruined at 61 Cooking. There is now a small fishing net spawn and a knife is provided near the Preparation Table.

Buying the Fishing and Preparation buffs from Ramarno's Shard Exchange would help the experience rate of Prayer training as well.

Experience rates per hour are 5,600 Fishing, 7,400 Cooking, and 2,400 Prayer or less when offering all fish types with decent efficiency.

All free-to-play capes, team capes, and the cabbage cape in the cape slot have the same stats and the same weights.

Obtaining a suitable melee shield will provide free-to-play ironmen with a challenge. Whereas up to adamant is offered in the NPC shops for the helmet slot (and up to rune is offered in the NPC shops for the body, legs, and weapon slot), the highest-level shield the NPC shop offers is an iron sq shield, and mid-level/beginner-level players would not be able to grind ogresses for a mithril kiteshield drop, never mind being able to grind Obor for a rune kiteshield (or Bryophyta for a rune square shield/adamant kiteshield). These are lower-level alternate shield options for free-to-play ironmen before one can acquire a higher-level shield:

• Mid-level shields: 1. Black kiteshield (Ice giant), 2. Mithril sq shield (57+1 Smithing or Ice giant, Lesser demon), 3. Black sq shield (Moss giant), 4. Steel kiteshield (41+1 Smithing or Moss giant), 5. Steel sq shield (37+1 Smithing or Bandit)
• Lower-level shields: 6. Iron kiteshield (26+1 Smithing or Hill Giant), 7. Anti-dragon shield (Started Dragon Slayer I), 8. Iron sq shield (Cassie's Shield Shop. or 22+1 Smithing) 9. Training shield (Melee combat tutor) or Wooden shield (Cassie's Shield Shop.)

There is also a wooden shield spawn between the north wall of Varrock and the Wilderness ditch.

For players starting out, a bronze scimitar can be obtained for free from the upper floor of a house in Rimmington. Zeke's Superior Scimitars in Al Kharid sells mithril, steel, iron, and bronze scimitars.

If planning on (temporarily) playing in Members, completing hard clue scrolls can possibly reward the player with pieces of rune god armour with the same defence bonuses that give a +1 Prayer bonus that can also be used in free-to-play. They can replace rune full helm, rune platebody, rune plateskirt, and rune kiteshield on this table.

As the only ways to increase ranged strength in free to play is through your arrow type and Prayer, if you wish to save some money on ammo, you can use a DPS calculator or the list below to find your next max hit, rather than always using the most expensive arrow.

Usage of Prayers like Sharp Eye, Hawk Eye, and Eagle Eye can increase your max hit to the next threshold a few levels earlier, although this may not be viable for all methods as some monsters are quite far from Prayer altars. Sharp eye in particular has an extremely low drain rate, so it is almost always worth using if it grants a max hit. For very low Ranged levels it can be worthwhile to use the "Accurate" attack style rather than rapid, when your max hit is still between 1-3 when on rapid.

Note: After you hit level 63, you should not be using anything lower than adamant anymore unless you wish to train afk.

The following table shows maximum hits when using Sharp Eye.

As there are seldom ways to recharge prayers in free-to-play, it is common to wear prayer boosting gear, sacrificing accuracy as many creatures in free to play have low, no, or negative magic defence.

If your desire is to maximise prayer bonus to be able to use prayers for a longer period of time in melee combat, this is the best-in-slot for prayer bonuses. This also suggests that the player has protection prayers unlocked to negate damage ( 37 Prayer for Protect from Magic, 40 Prayer for Protect from Missiles, and 43 Prayer for Protect from Melee); otherwise, use the best-in-slot melee table to fill in the rest of the slots for defence bonuses.

When fighting against greater demons in the Demonic Ruins with melee while sustaining prayer with the Demonic Ruins' passive ability of restoring prayer, it is recommended to only bring a holy symbol, monk's robe top, monk's robe, and rune mace, and optionally two other items (three other items if using Protect Item). Keep in mind that rune full helm drops obtain from killing greater demons may take up slots for protected items on death. Monk's robes are always easily replaceable should the player die by another player. A holy symbol can be remade from scratch should the player lose it, but to reduce time required to obtain another one, multiple holy symbols should be crafted and blessed by Brother Jered in one inventory. The rune mace will usually be protected on death if not an Ultimate Ironman or skulled.

Cook everything you catch with Fishing. Cooking will always be higher level than Fishing unless power levelling.

Optimum places to cook are: (1) Grand Exchange - can light a fire one tile away from the bank, to then cook your fish; (2) Lumbridge bank - carry a tinderbox and 27 raw fish. Light one of the four log spawns nearby the bank; (3) Draynor - there is now a permanent fire 17 tiles away from Draynor bank; (4) Al Kharid - closest cooking range to a bank; (5) Edgeville - 2nd closest cooking range to a bank; (6, if fishing at Barbarian Village) - there is now a permanent fire close to the fishing spots.

Gerrant's Fishy Business, located in Port Sarim, has all the supplies needed to do any fishing.

1–5/20: Small fishing net for raw shrimps, then at Level 15 Fishing will also obtain raw anchovies. Best spot is in Draynor Village if the combat level 7 Dark wizards are not aggressive, otherwise the best spot is south of Lumbridge by the Fishing tutor.

5–20: Requires a fishing rod and fishing bait, better experience rates bait fishing raw sardine at Level 5 Fishing, and at Level 10 Fishing, raw herring. Both raw sardine and raw herring can be fished in Draynor Village. If the combat level 7 dark wizards in Draynor Village are too aggressive, then raw sardine and raw herring can also be fished south of Lumbridge by the Fishing tutor.

20–99: Requires a fly fishing rod and feathers. The best free-to-play experience, fly fishing raw trout, and at Level 30 Fishing, raw salmon. It is recommended to fish in Barbarian Village because the spots are on average closer and there is a nearby permanent fire. Can bank raw fish/cooked fish from Barbarian Village using Edgeville bank.

• If you have Level 57 Woodcutting unlocked, then bank the raw fish/cooked fish from Barbarian Village in the Ferox Enclave bank instead of in Edgeville bank. The Pool of Refreshment means that you will always have plenty of run energy, while (1) running from the Barbarian Village fishing spots to the Barbarian Village canoe station; (2) running from the Ferox Enclave canoe station to the Ferox Enclave bank - make sure that after you deposit fish in the Ferox Enclave bank, drink from the Pool of Refreshment; (3) running from the Pool of Refreshment to the Ferox Enclave canoe station; (4) running from the Barbarian Village canoe station to the Barbarian Village fishing spots.

• Using Edgeville Bank, on the other hand, will result in 0% Run Energy from time to time and require considerable walking.

Method #1: Fly fish at Barbarian Village, cook at Barbarian Village permanent fire, bank cooked fish at Ferox Enclave (57 Woodcutting needed for waka canoe, canoe from Barbarian Village to Ferox Enclave for banking, and canoe back to Barbarian Village to fish): ~18k Fishing XP/hour & ~24k Cooking XP/hour

Method #2: Fly fish at Barbarian Village, bank raw fish at Ferox Enclave (57 Woodcutting needed for waka canoe, canoe from Barbarian Village to Ferox Enclave for banking, and canoe back to Barbarian Village to fish): ~26k Fishing XP/hour

Method #2B (post-25 February 2026): If you've spoken to Gillie Groats after The Ides of Milk to get a Cowbell amulet: Fly fish at River Lum, bank raw fish at Ferox Enclave (57 Woodcutting needed for waka canoe), don't need to drink from Pool of Refreshment, cowbell amulet teleport to Lumbridge east cow pen, run from Lumbridge east cow pen to River Lum to fish: ~30k Fishing XP/hour

Method #3: Fly fish at Barbarian Village, cook at Barbarian Village permanent fire, drop cooked fish: ~23.5k Fishing XP/hour & ~31k Cooking XP/hour.

Method #4: Fly fish at either Barbarian Village or Lumbridge, drop raw fish: ~33k Fishing XP/hour

• Combatting chickens to collect their feathers will also provide an ironman player with good training for Prayer since chickens have a 100% drop rate of bones. However, if you just need feathers, you can buy feathers from Gerrant's Fishy Business. in Port Sarim. One could inefficiently obtain feathers by defeating the Evil Chicken at the Champions' Guild (Protect from Magic recommended along with prayer armour; prayer points can be restored at the Altar of Chaos south-east of Varrock).

(7/20/33–99): Ruins of Camdozaal: Requires completion of Below Ice Mountain, as well as a small fishing net and a knife (both items have spawn points in the fishing area of Camdozaal). Fishing and preparing Camdozaal fish will provide less Fishing and Cooking experience than fishing for trout and salmon but will provide Prayer experience. Buying the Fishing and Preparation buffs from Ramarno's Shard Exchange is recommended and buying one-hour boosts would also increase XP rate.

For free-to-play solo ironmen, Mining naturally becomes the most levelled skill since Crafting, Runecraft, and Smithing rely on it.

Nurmof's Pickaxe Shop. sells pickaxes to players.

After reaching Level 60 Mining, Yarsul's Prodigious Pickaxes in the Mining Guild becomes available.

1–10 Doric's Quest: Kill dwarves, flesh crawlers, guards, or white knights for iron ore, otherwise it requires 15 Mining.

1/10–15 Tin rocks/Copper rocks: Can be skipped if you complete Rune Mysteries and mine rune essences. Requires 138 tin ore/copper ore or, with the completion of Doric's Quest, only 64 tin ore/copper ore.

(1/10–15) Rune essence mine: Mining rune essence is slower than mining tin or copper rocks but its useful to train Runecraft. Requires 483 rune essence or, with the completion of Doric's Quest, only 223 rune essence. The closest bank is Varrock east bank.

15–99 Iron rocks: Power levelling by Mining and dropping iron ore is the fastest experience per hour. However, it is recommended to keep the iron ore to train Smithing, unless planning to access the Mining Guild at 60 Mining as soon as possible. Using tick manipulation, experience rates of 65,000–76,000 per hour are obtainable using an alternate account to attack the player with auto-retaliate on in the Wilderness at the Bandit Camp mine.

(15–99) Iron, silver and gold rocks or rune essence rocks: Passively level Mining while Smithing iron equipment, Crafting with silver bars, requiring 20 Mining, and gold bars, requiring 40 Mining, or mining rune essences for Runecraft.

(14–99) Barronite shards and deposits: Requires the completion of Below Ice Mountain. Mining barronite shards give 16 experience each and mining barronite deposits give 32 experience. This is slower than mining iron ore but less click intensive. Buying the Mining buff from Ramarno's Shard Exchange is recommended and buying one-hour Boosts also increase XP rate.

(40/50 - 99) For an afk method, shooting stars are available in free to play but with half the experience rates of members.

Crafting is one of the most important skills for making money. Crafting also provides ironman players amulets with improved stats over the amulet of accuracy, and also early-game ranged gear. Edgeville furnace is the closest furnace to a bank. With 40 Crafting, use the Crafting Guild then Teleport to Falador with law runes for efficient Crafting training. The Al Kharid furnace also has silver and gold rocks to the north without the need for law runes.

Group ironmen of a team could train together to acquire better equipment for other teammates in a shorter amount of time. One teammate could mine silver ore while a second teammate can smelt them into silver bars, and a third teammate could craft them into tiaras for fast Crafting experience. The teammate with the highest Crafting level will be the one to create ranged armour and jewellery for other teammates.

• Unblessed symbol: 16 Crafting. Can be blessed by Brother Jered in the upper floor of Edgeville Monastery at Level 31+ prayer, turning the unblessed symbol into a holy symbol that will make the wearer's Prayer points last longer when using prayer.
• Sapphire amulet: 24 Crafting. Can be enchanted to the amulet of magic with 7 Magic for magic training.
• Emerald amulet: 31 Crafting. Can be enchanted to the Amulet of defence with 27 Magic for improved defence.
• Ruby amulet: 16–50 Crafting requires 1972 unstrung symbols or 1878 tiaras. Can be enchanted to the amulet of strength with 49 Magic for melee training.
• Diamond amulet: 16–70 Crafting requires 14,698 unstrung symbols or 13,998 tiaras. Can be enchanted to the amulet of power with 57 Magic for melee or ranged training.

1–8: Complete Sheep Shearer, Goblin Diplomacy, and Misthalin Mystery for 8 Crafting.

1/8–16 Leather: Train combat on cows, collect cowhide, tan it at Ellis in Al Kharid and craft the highest level leather equipment possible.

8–16/40+ Pottery: Pottery is much faster but does not train Smithing or yield useful items. There are two possible routes to train from Level 8 to Level 16 Crafting:

1. Mine clay rocks in south-west Varrock mine, fill water vessels such as jugs or buckets at the fountain in the centre of Varrock, combine the clay with the water to make soft clay, use the soft clay at the potter's wheel and then pottery oven in Barbarian Village. Return to south-west Varrock mine via canoe (paddle to Champions' Guild) or run back.
2. Mine clay rocks in the Dwarven Mine, fill water vessels from the Falador waterpump near the hairdresser, and combine the clay with the water to make soft clay, then craft as above in Barbarian Village.

With all free-to-play quests granting Crafting experience (Sheep Shearer, Goblin Diplomacy, and Misthalin Mystery) completed, 55 bowls need to be made to reach 16 Crafting. There is a chance for unfired bowls to break while being fired in the pottery oven, granting no Crafting experience.

For ultimate ironmen: at 40 Crafting, the Crafting Guild can be accessed for Crafting Training via making bowls because the Crafting Guild contains clay rocks, a sink, a potter's wheel, and a pottery oven. With 7 water vessels and crafting (and dropping) 21 bowls, it is about 7,000 Crafting experience per hour. For hardcore ironmen and Standard Ironman, mining and banking silver ores, then smelting silver ore into silver bars, and crafting tiaras is a superior Crafting XP/hour training method.

16–23 Unstrung symbols: Crafting unstrung symbols is the second fastest experience available as silver is much quicker to mine than gold. Unstrung symbols also sell for decent money. Use the Al Kharid mine and the furnace to the south, or the South-west Varrock mine and either bank in west Varrock bank or canoe to Lumbridge for ultimate ironmen, or use the Crafting Guild then teleport to Falador. The fastest method is using the Crafting Guild and then teleporting to Falador, but requires law runes. For ultimate ironmen Falador is still the best option, however standard ironmen can world hop at Varrock south-west mine to fill up one's inventory with silver ore, and then bank at Varrock west bank; then for the crafting portion, use Edgeville bank and Edgeville furnace. For standard ironmen, sell to the bandit store in the Wilderness. For hardcore and ultimate ironmen, sell to the Al Kharid General Store.

23–99 Tiaras: Crafting tiaras is the fastest experience available sacrificing money earned.

(6/8–99) Gold necklace/Gold amulet (u): Requires 40 Mining and 40 Smithing. Gold is better money and Smithing experience, but at the expense of Crafting experience. The best way to do this is world hopping at the Dwarven Mine or Al Kharid mine, or teleporting to Falador from the Crafting Guild. Gold items also maximise Smithing experience per law rune used so it is only recommended for ultimate ironmen due to lack of bank access.

Acquire rune essences from Mining at the rune essence mine after completing Rune Mysteries. The east Varrock bank is the closest bank to the rune essence mine. After completion of Rune Mysteries, you can get Aubury in Varrock to use a teleport spell on you that allows you to access the rune essence mine.

One could also acquire noted rune essence from killing ankou, catablepons, and minotaurs.

Where to get an air talisman: Duke Horacio during Rune Mysteries (1/1), Air wizard (1/20), Goblin (1/128)

Where to get a mind talisman: Imp (1/18.29), Blue Wizard (1/32)

Where to get a water talisman: Water wizard (1/20), Blue Wizard (1/42.67), Level 20 Dark wizard (1/128), Big frog (1/128)

Where to get an earth talisman: Earth wizard (1/20), Man (1/64), Woman, (1/64), Farmer (1/64), Al Kharid warrior (1/64), Thief (1/64), Big frog (1/128)

Where to get a fire talisman: Fire wizard (1/20), Level 20 Dark wizard (1/64), Skeleton (1/64), Level 7 Dark wizard (1/128)

Where to get a body talisman: Guard (1/32), Hill Giant (1/64)

If the quest Below Ice Mountain is completed, one could acquire mind cores as possible drops from mind golems (drop chance per golem of 1 in 7.5) or body cores as possible drops from body golems (drop chance per golem of 1 in 7.5). If not an ultimate ironman, the cores can be banked in the Ruins of Camdozaal bank chest.

A member of a Group Ironman team could have one teammate mine and collect rune essence for other teammates' Runecraft training. Teammates can also do altar runs together for faster Runecraft training for one teammate with one or more teammates collecting rune essence or talismans from the bank to trade to the teammate training Runecraft.

Alternatively, craft tiaras then make them into Runecraft tiaras with talisman drops, or use the drop trick after starting Rune Mysteries to collect air talismans from Duke Horacio.

1–9 Air runes: Requires 194 rune essence. Air runes are useful for spells and the Air Altar is close to a bank. Do not craft mind runes, they are generally not worth the time. Combination training with Mining, Crafting, and Smithing in the Crafting Guild and Falador can be efficient to train these four skills: With an air tiara/talisman, brown apron, Falador Teleport runes, and a pickaxe, mine ores in the Crafting Guild, teleport to Falador, craft jewellery, sell/bank/drop crafted jewellery, withdraw essence from Falador's east bank, enter the Air Altar and craft air runes, exit altar and repeat. For ultimate ironmen who complete Rune Mysteries, get level 9 before dropping the air talisman, or you will have to get another from the air wizard, mine rune essence at the Wizards' Tower and walk to the altar.

9–14 for standard/hardcore or 9–99 for ultimate Earth runes: Requires 175 rune essence. Earth talismans can be obtained from earth wizards, men, or Al Kharid warriors. This is the best option for ultimate ironmen until 99 since it is the closest altar to a rune essence mine. 2,005,148 essence are needed if exclusively runecrafting earth runes from 9 to 99 Runecraft.

14–20 for standard/hardcore Fire runes: Requires 338 rune essence. For standard ironmen, this is slightly faster than earth runes, only if the essence is already mined. Fire talismans can be obtained from fire wizards or dark wizards. Combination training Mining in the Al Kharid mine can be more efficient.

20–99 for standard/hardcore Body runes: This is the best experience per hour for standard ironmen. Body talismans drop from hill giants and guards. 1,737,329 essence are needed if exclusively runecrafting body runes from 20 to 99 Runecraft. Collecting right skull halves and bottoms of sceptre from killing minotaurs and Flesh Crawlers respectively will sustain teleport charges for the skull sceptre, which will speed up Runecraft training.

Ultimate ironmen attempting to train Runecraft via crafting body runes can kill minotaurs, catablepons, or ankou for noted rune essence as well as pieces of the skull scepter cut into bone fragments to recharge a skull scepter. Additionally, after running out of noted essences, law runes for Varrock Teleport or the chronicle will get the player to Varrock to teleport to the Rune Essence Mine.

(1–99) Tiaras: An alternative method to crafting runes, all tiaras can be made at 1 Runecraft. Collecting talisman drops, craft tiaras, then make tiaras at the appropriate altar. Infinite air talismans can also be obtained at the very beginning of the Rune Mysteries quest by drop tricking the air talisman, then requesting a new one from Duke Horacio. Do not progress through the quest if you plan on training via this method otherwise this training method will permanently become unavailable.

Doing air tiara runs with a teammate in a Group Ironman team will increase Runecraft experience rates for the runecrafter: One player that hasn't finished Rune Mysteries can drop trick air talismans and bank them in group storage on the 2^nd floor of Lumbridge Castle while the runecrafter will collect them from Falador's east bank.

(2–20) Mind cores: Another way to train Runecraft involves fighting Mind Golems for their mind cores (drop chance per golem of 1 in 7.5). Mind cores can be used in place of rune essence at the Mind Altar, and act as if the player was carrying ten essence instead of one, meaning each core gives 55 Runecraft experience and ten mind runes. 80 mind cores are needed to get from Level 2 Runecraft to Level 20 Runecraft.

(20–99) Body cores: Another alternative way to train Runecraft is by fighting Body Golems for their body cores (drop chance per golem of 1 in 7.5). Body cores can be used in place of rune essence at the Body Altar, and give 75 Runecraft experience and ten body runes each. 173,733 body cores are needed if exclusively using this method from 20 to 99 Runecraft. Having teleport charges for the skull sceptre will speed up the process.

This is a difficult skill to train, especially for ultimate ironmen. However, in order to have best in slot gear, 89 Smithing is required, with a +1 boost from a Dwarven stout, to smith a rune scimitar.

The Edgeville furnace is the closest free-to-play furnace to a bank. The anvil south of west Varrock bank is the closest anvil to a bank.

For ironmen or players smithing for money, always favour smithing platebodies, then platelegs, then shortswords, then daggers and sell to specialty shops. For ultimate ironmen, this is very slow unless superheating or teleporting from the south-west Varrock mine to Falador's furnace and then back to Varrock each trip.

Group ironmen will have a faster time training Smithing and make better equipment for teammates in a shorter amount of time if one player mines ore, another player smelts ore traded to them into bars, and a third player smiths equipment from the bars traded to them from the second teammate. The third teammate (or second teammate if a third teammate does not exist in this team-based training session) will be the one with the high Smithing level to smith better equipment for other teammates.

1–29 The Knight's Sword: Standard and ultimate ironmen: Obtain 2 iron bars by killing dwarves or going to the Wilderness spawn west of the Graveyard of Shadows, it is not worth getting 15 Smithing unless you are a hardcore ironman. In that case, mine copper ore and tin ore in East Lumbridge Swamp mine near the Mining tutor, and smelt the bars in Lumbridge furnace. Purchase a hammer from the Lumbridge General Store and use the rusted anvil nearby until 15 Smithing. Iron ore can then be mined and made into iron bars.

(14+) Barronite deposits: Requires the completion of Below Ice Mountain. Mining barronite deposit in the Ruins of Camdozaal and smithing them on the Barronite Crusher give 30 Smithing XP each. It is a short distance away from the Camdozaal Mines. Buying the Mining buff from Ramarno's Shard Exchange and one-hour Boosts are recommended.

15–99 Iron bars and iron equipment: This is the fastest method for standard ironmen because iron ore is so quick to mine and each bar requires an average of 2 ores unless you have rings of forging.

(20+) Silver bars: Great Crafting experience by making tiaras with a tiara mould.

(30+): Superheating steel bars at the Dwarven Mine or Edgeville Dungeon mine then making steel equipment. This is only viable for ultimate ironmen that don't mind using nature runes for superheating. Standard ironmen earn about equal experience with iron Smithing, but don't have to spend nature runes.

(40+) Gold bars: For ultimate ironmen, this is good money and decent Smithing and Crafting experience. The best method is to Teleport to Falador from the Crafting Guild.

(50+): Superheating mithril equipment, adamant equipment, or rune equipment is profitable but not efficient for training. Use a staff of fire to reduce spell cost. Not only does this method require a lot more time having to mine more and more coal, the ratio of mining xp to smithing xp increases dramatically, leading to useless post-99 mining experience. Iron equipment from ore to equipment gives only 7% (with rings of forging) more mining xp than smithing xp whereas adamant equipment provides nearly 4 times as much mining xp than smithing.

All rubies and uncut rubies, save one for an amulet of strength, should be dedicated to making rings of forging or alternatively ironmen who have completed Crack the Clue III can obtain ruby rings from the West Varrock bank basement. Take a ruby ring and 250 coins to Murky Matt in the south-east corner of the Grand Exchange, selection option 3, to upgrade them all to rings of forging. The cost of this is offset by not losing any iron ore during the smelting process. Each ring of forging smelts 140 iron ore (5 trips of a full inventory of iron ore) before disintegrating. The requirements to make a ruby ring are 34 Crafting, 40 Mining, and 40 Smithing.

The Edgeville furnace is free-to-play and it is the closest furnace to a bank. The anvils south of the western Varrock bank are the closest anvils to a bank and the Varrock Teleport spell can get the player there quicker. This is not a full list of free-to-play mining locations but a list of viable mining locations for training Mining, Crafting, and/or Smithing.

Firemaking is only useful for boosting total level, with the exception of a few quest requirements. Woodcutting allows travel by canoe throughout Misthalin to save run energy and time. 12 Woodcutting is required for the log canoe which only travels one stop. The waka canoe, requiring 57 Woodcutting, can bring you to any distance including the Ferox Enclave, which has a Pool of Refreshment to replenish run energy and the Last Man Standing coffer where ultimate ironmen can "bank" their coins in thousands.

A steel axe from Bob's Brilliant Axes (also obtained as a 1/32 drop from lesser demons) is your best axe before smithing a mithril axe, adamant axe or rune axe at 51, 71, and 86 Smithing respectively. Alternatively you can get a black axe from beginner clue scrolls.

1–15: Normal trees are the only option.

15–40: Oak trees. Because a steel axe is the best non-Smithing option, it's recommended to get more than the level 30 requirement for willows. The best spots are by northern Lumbridge, east and west of Varrock, and north and west of Draynor Village and right outside of the Champions' Guild.

• If you wish to bank oak logs for future fletching and construction training there are 3 viable options. The closest pair of oak trees are West of the Varrock West Bank (18 & 24 tiles from the bank, 6 tiles from each other) a single tree in Draynor (11 tiles from the bank, only 1 tree) or East of Varrock (37 tiles from a bank, no movement to swap trees)

40–99: Willow trees. Best locations are Draynor Village, Champions' Guild, south of Rimmington, and north of Seth Groats farm. A mithril axe is recommended for further training.

• For Standard Ironman, Hardcore Ironman: Woodcutting willows in Draynor and banking the willow logs in Draynor bank will yield 41k Woodcutting XP/hour (using Adamant axe and having Level 65+ Woodcutting).

• For Ultimate Ironman Mode (also applies to Standard Ironman, Hardcore Ironman): Can carry a tinderbox and wield a hatchet, then by cutting willows in Draynor and making long lines of fire in Draynor, this method will yield 27.8k Woodcutting XP/hour plus 37.0k Firemaking XP/hour (using Adamant axe and having Level 65+ Woodcutting).

(45–99): Maple trees, only accessible in the Corsair Cove Resource Area unlocked by starting The Corsair Curse and completing Dragon Slayer I. Less XP rate than willow trees but more afk-able.

• Can carry a tinderbox and wield a hatchet, then by cutting maples in Corsair Cove Resource Area and making long lines of fire in Corsair Cove Resource Area, this method will yield 25.5k Woodcutting XP/hour plus 34.5k Firemaking XP/hour (using Adamant axe and having Level 65+ Woodcutting).

(60–99^{[d 1]}): Yew trees may be the most afk-able tree to cut in free-in-play but they are never worth cutting in free-to-play for training woodcutting and firemaking unless if you have access to a rune axe, but experience rate will still be slower than willow and maple.

In addition to the early game moneymaking methods, these are other common methods:

• Equipment made through Smithing can be sold to specialty shops, and Crafting items can be sold to general stores. It is beneficial to sell in small quantities (5–10) then hop worlds. Non-hardcore ironmen can sell to the Bandit Duty Free general store in the Wilderness to maximise profit, but beware of player killers especially when world hopping.
• At 40 Fishing and 40 Cooking, lobsters can be caught at Musa Point, cooked (using logs from trees by the docks), then sold to the nearby Karamja General Store or sold raw to Gerrant's Fishy Business for higher profit per unit.
• Random events are good starting money, especially gems which can be cut and sold to Gem Trader or Herquin's Gems. Buying and cutting gems from those shops is good too, but they restock extremely slowly so hop worlds. 20 Crafting is required for sapphires, located at both shops, and 27 Crafting is required for emeralds only available at the Gem Trader.
• For standard ironmen and ultimate ironmen with no money and no items at risk, there is a steel platelegs and steel platebody spawn in the Wilderness. The steel platelegs spawn is in the ruins (level 24 Wilderness), the steel platebody spawn is in the Lava Maze (level 45 wilderness), bring a knife or slash weapon to cut webs and beware of player killers. A staff of earth also spawns inside the Lava Maze, safe from lesser demons which can be sold to general stores or Zaff's Superior Staffs!.
• If you are not training Firemaking or not keeping logs and have access to a rune axe (from smithing or from members), chopping yew trees north of Rimmington with a rune axe and selling them to the Rimmington General Store can slowly profit and train Woodcutting.
  • If profitting from lower-tier trees, cut willow trees at minimum. Regular and oak trees are never worth cutting for money except to quickly buy tools, which is a useful tactic that ultimate ironmen with an axe and without coins on them would often be doing.

Use combat training and pick up drops in between attacks to be efficient. Profitable monsters include:

• Minotaurs: Killing minotaurs are a good way for low-level players to start making money as they drop a variety of items including small amounts of coins and bronze full helms that can be sold to the Helmet Shop in Barbarian Village, as well as plenty of iron arrows for training Ranged. Right skull halves can be collected to provide extra charges for the skull sceptre if using that as a transportation method, which is useful in training Runecraft through body runes and noted rune essences can often be obtained by killing minotaurs.
• Hill giants and moss giants: Drop small amounts of coins, various runes, and some pieces of equipment that can be sold or alched. Their low defence and HP (relative to ogresses) make them one of the fastest prayer training methods when picking up and burying their big bones. Also drop Giant keys and Mossy keys respectively, to challenge Obor and Bryophyta for better rewards.
• Ice warriors or ice giants: Ice warriors are one of the better monsters before ogresses that will commonly drop nature runes, chaos runes, law runes, and cosmic runes, as well as mithril arrows and occasionally adamant arrows. However, they don't drop bones for Prayer. Ice giants on the other hand, while they don't drop runes as often as ice warriors, they drop big bones for Prayer, more adamant arrows, plenty of coins and miscellaneous equipment for alchs. Ice warriors have high slash defence so the order of weapons by DPS is Barronite mace > Rune scimitar > Rune sword > Rune mace. For Ice giants on the other hand, it would be Rune scimitar > Barronite mace > Rune sword > Rune mace as usual because of their low defences. A church with a prayer altar can be found outside the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon.
• Ankou: They commonly drop law runes and a decent amount of coins and adamant arrows for Ranged training on tougher monsters. Left skull halves can be collected to provide extra charges for the skull sceptre (+2 more charges than other skull sceptre pieces) if using that as a transportation method, which is useful in training Runecraft through body runes and noted rune essences can often be obtained by killing ankou.
• Lesser demons: Drop runes (plenty of fire runes), coins, and equipment. Rarely drops rune med helms for High Level Alchemy.
• Greater demons: Not recommended for hardcore ironmen. Drop runes, coins, and equipment. Rarely drop rune full helms for High Level Alchemy. Watch out for player killers.
• Ogresses: Effectively the best way to make money via combat in free-to-play. They uncommonly drop rune full helms, rune battleaxes, and rune med helms for High Level Alchemy as well as plenty of gems for Crafting or for making amulets, commonly drop a variety of arrows for Ranged training (especially mithril arrows) and commonly drop all kinds of runes including death runes, nature runes, law runes, cosmic runes, and more. If you want to use Corsair Cove's bank, you need to complete The Corsair Curse first. Completing Dragon Slayer I can unlock another area of ogresses in the Corsair Cove Resource Area.

Some of the tips written here are also located in the individual skilling sections.

If you wish to spend extra time in free to play, you can give yourself a nice head start if you decide to go to members.

These levels chosen are meant to give you a head start into the midgame. You can probably get away with getting slightly lower levels, but to prevent yourself from doing too much math on experience gained from quests, they are given nice round numbers instead, unless otherwise specified (such as with magic.)

Each level is deliberately chosen for a certain members task.

65 Attack and Strength for Warriors Guild Access to work towards an early Dragon defender

60 Defence for Dragon equipment, in particular the Dragon defender

28/61/66 Ranged for Dorgeshuun Crossbow / Rune Crossbow / Hunters' sunlight crossbow.

• The Sunlight crossbow is much harder to get than the other two with a 72 hunter requirement for the Sunlight antelope antler, but you usually train hunter anyways as an ironman and it is an extremely powerful weapon.

43/45 Prayer for Protection prayers, Eagle Eye, and Mystic Might

21/55/70 Magic for various reasons: 21 magic is all you need for Mage Training Arena, 55 magic for high alchemy and teleportation spells, and 70 magic to prepare for Mage Arena II and various quest requirements.

10/27/40 Rune crafting where with the help of quests, you can do Guardians of the Rift with Cosmic runes at 27, or push to 40 rune crafting early to get close to 44 rune crafting for nature runes.

40/50 Crafting To make teleport jewellery up to the Digsite pendant, level 50 for an early Amulet of Strength, a good level to start doing giant seaweed, and various diary and quest requirements.

• Although it can done quickly at Charter Ships with soda ash and buckets of sand, 50 crafting is fairly attainable in free to play with silver smithing or passively cutting gems.
• The 50 crafting goal can be passively completed by preparing teleportation jewellery, which are explained in further detail below.

30/41/55/60/61 Mining for Motherlode Mine, the rune pickaxe, or if you wish to skip the mining grind, 55 for mithril ore and various diary and quest requirements, 60 mining for the Mining Guild, and 61 for the dragon pickaxe.

40 Smithing for smelting gold ore and various diary and quest requirements

65 Fishing for karambwans, fishing guild access, and various quest and diary requirements

70 Cooking for Recipe for Disaster and many food, and stat boosting food items such as the Tuna potato and Botanical pie

50 Firemaking for Wintertodt

60 Woodcutting for Waka Canoes, the Woodcutting Guild, and several diaries

the 65 Hitpoints and 79 Combat are approximate assuming you get the rest of the recommended combat stats.

Fletching: Level 1 to 20 Fletching will require 564 Regular logs, Level 20 to 30 will require for 426 oak logs, and then you can chop willow logs for arrow shafts. A good ballpark number would be 2000 willow logs with 90000 feathers for headless arrows. You can also start banking yew logs if you wish to train fletching even further.

Construction: Gathering Logs to be processed through Mahogany Homes. Level 1 to 20 Construction will require 48 Planks, Level 20 to 50 will require 485 Oak planks, Level 50 to 70 will require 3,182 Oak planks.

Smithing and Construction: Collecting ~500-600 Barronite deposit to be smashed in members for a chance at the 1/300 Imcando hammer

Mining and Crafting: You can AFK shooting stars for ~10 - 15 minutes at a time in free to play, but with half the experience rates of members. With the acquired Stardust, in members you can purchase the Celestial Ring for an invisible +4 mining boost and any additional stardust you can use on bags full of gems.

Herblore: Gathering various herblore secondaries including limpwurt roots, red spiders' eggs, wine of Zamorak, eye's of newt and ashes (chocolate dust is not worth collecting in ftp).

Teleportation: Gathering as many gems as you can find for Games necklaces, Dueling rings, and Digsite pendants. Aim for at least 150 sapphires, 100 emeralds, and 75 rubies. A Gold bar and gold ore can be easily collected from the basement of Varrock west bank.

• Gathering Gems : Defeating Mind Golems, Oggress Shamans, Flesh Crawlers, Hill Giants and completing random events are good ways to collect gems.

Quest Items: Items needed to complete quests such as dyes, rope, steel nails, planks, limpwurt roots, ashes, etc. A full list of items for quests that can be acquired in free-to-play has not yet been created, but it can be gathered if someone looks through each individual quest - item requirement.

Various Methods: Acquiring the Log Basket collecting 5000 Anima Infused Bark, 300 Oak Logs, and 300 Willow Logs to hold logs for deadfall traps, to help bring logs to the sawmill alongside the Plank Sack, etc.

• Banking Oak logs: There are 3 viable options: West of the Varrock West Bank (18 & 24 tiles from the bank, 6 tiles from each other) a single tree east of Draynor Bank (11 tiles from the bank, only 1 tree) or East of Varrock Bank outside the wall (37 tiles from a bank, no movement to swap trees)
• Banking Willow logs: South of Draynor village is not only the best method for woodcutting experience, it's also the best way to bank willow logs.
• Banking Yew logs: Two good places to bank are the two trees south of Edgeville Bank (28 & 34 tiles) and north of Varrock Palace (about 43 tiles)

Q: I just started. What should I do?

A: In addition to the early game moneymaking methods, completing quests such as Cook's Assistant, Sheep Shearer, Imp Catcher, Witch's Potion, Vampyre Slayer, Misthalin Mystery, Goblin Diplomacy, The Restless Ghost, and X Marks the Spot are all great early experience.

Do the quest The Ides of Milk. The cowbell amulet is a beginner ironman teleport option that is rechargeable with air runes (which are reasonably easy to obtain in F2P ironman, the cowbell amulet can hold anywhere between 0 to 1000 air runes, each teleport to the Lumbridge east cow pen consumes one air rune). Of beginner teleport options, the cowbell amulet gets you close to a:

• bank (Lumbridge Castle). While Teleport to Falador gets you closer to a bank, beginner players won't have Level 37 Magic. And there is no easy supply of Law Runes in F2P ironman, whereas air runes can be bought from Aubury's Rune Shop., are dropped by Brutus, and 30 free air runes can be obtained every 30 minutes from Mikasi by doing the drop trick (make sure to run back and pick up your air runes from the ground). With the January 8 2025 Run Energy update, running from Lumbridge east cow pen to Lumbridge Castle bank is now possible.
• canoe station (Lumbridge canoe station)
• prayer altar (Lumbridge church)

The cowbell amulet is almost a go-to for everything (banking before having sufficient Magic level, canoe station, prayer altar). It is also the quickest way to get to Al Kharid.

After obtaining enough coins, go to Diango and purchase a Chronicle (300 coins) and teleport cards (150 coins each) to charge up your Chronicle. Right-clicking on the Chronicle and selecting the 'Teleport Chronicle' option will teleport you just east outside of the Champions' Guild, consuming one charge on your Chronicle. The Chronicle could also be used as a one-click emergency teleport in a dangerous situation; it can be wielded in the shield slot to save an inventory space.

Using early game moneymaking methods to obtain (300 coins), go to Bob's Brilliant Axes. and purchase a steel axe. Train your Woodcutting to Level 12 to be able to make a canoe which well let you travel along the River Lum easier than walking. Level 12 Woodcutting to make a log canoe (one stop along the river), Level 27 Woodcutting to make a dugout canoe (two stops along the river), Level 42 Woodcutting to make a stable dugout canoe (three stops along the river), Level 57 Woodcutting to make a waka (any number of stops along the river. Including the Ferox Enclave which in addition to its canoe station, features a bank, and pool of Refreshment).

The quests to be cautious of at low combat level are Demon Slayer, Shield of Arrav (if you choose Black Arm Gang), Vampyre Slayer, Below Ice Mountain, The Corsair Curse, and Dragon Slayer I. The Knight's Sword does involve evading scary Ice giants and warriors, but does not require combat.

Completing The Knight's Sword quest early gives enough Smithing experience to go from 1 Smithing to 29 Smithing to allow you to smith iron equipments that would help in early melee combat training but could also be sold to specialty shops or the general store for money.

Completing the Imp Catcher quest will give the player the amulet of accuracy, which is an excellent amulet in the early game with offensive accuracy bonuses, and is easy to obtain compared to every other F2P amulet. It is easiest to go to the southern Falador gate and kill all the imps that spawn there. In contrast to the ease of obtaining an amulet of accuracy, a holy symbol can be made for increased Prayer bonus, requiring 20 Mining, 20 Smithing, 16 Crafting, and 31 Prayer.

The following all require a gold bar, which can be obtained by completing Goblin Diplomacy, Captain Arnav random event, mined and smelted with 40 Mining and 40 Smithing or 33 Magic to cast Telekinetic Grab on the gold bar in the basement of Varrock west bank.

• Amulet of magic requires 24 Crafting and 7 Magic (5 Magic with +2 boost from wizard's mind bomb), better for training Magic.
• Amulet of defence requires 31 Crafting and 27 Magic (25 Magic with +2 boost from wizard's mind bomb), better for taking less damage. Convenient to have if planning on mining iron ore and coal by the skeletons north of Edgeville or burying bones in the Boneyard for Prayer experience.
• Amulet of strength requires 50 Crafting and 49 Magic (47 Magic with +2 boost from wizard's mind bomb), better for melee training.
• Amulet of power requires 70 Crafting and 57 Magic (54 Magic with +3 boost from wizard's mind bomb), better for melee training (if maximum damage is the same as amulet of strength) and ranged training.

Q: How do I re-acquire the amulet of accuracy if I lose it?

A: Give Wizard Mizgog another set of beads. Imps are commonly found south of Falador. Once you can start crafting better amulets, the amulet of accuracy becomes obsolete and can be thrown away once you can create an amulet of power.

Q: How do I get a mithril/adamant/rune axe or rune scimitar?

A: Smithing: 51, 71, 86, and 90 Smithing are the required levels respectively. Use a dwarven stout for a +1 Smithing boost.

Q: How do I acquire law/nature/cosmic runes?

A: There is a nature rune spawn south-east of Demonic Ruins that must be telegrabbed. There is a cosmic rune spawn in Frozen Waste Plateau by the ice warriors. However, there is no spawn for law runes. As for monsters that drop these runes, from best to worst drop count and drop rate:

• Law runes: Obor, Bryophyta, ogress warrior and ogress shaman, ornate lockbox (with plenty of barronite shards for multiple trips), ankou, ice warrior, moss giant, chaos dwarf, catablepon, hill giant, ice giant, elaborate lockbox (with plenty of barronite shards for multiple trips), hobgoblin, black knight, bandit, skeleton, dark wizard, barbarian, white knight, wizard, pirate, beginner clue
• Nature runes: Bryophyta, Obor, maze, ogress warrior and ogress shaman, ice warrior, dark wizard, chaos dwarf, ornate lockbox (with plenty of barronite shards for multiple trips), ice giant, white knight, moss giant, pirate, dwarf, hill giant, hobgoblin, elaborate lockbox (with plenty of barronite shards for multiple trips), bandit, beginner clue
• Cosmic runes: Obor, Bryophyta, ogress warrior and ogress shaman, zombie (wilderness), ice warrior, black knight, chaos dwarf, moss giant, hill giant, ice giant, dark wizard, zombie (armed), skeleton (wilderness), hobgoblin

Q: Where can I get gems?

A: All gems can be obtained while mining anything at a rare rate, fighting enemies with the gem drop table (ogresses commonly drop gems and Mind and Body Golems commonly drop all but diamonds), or completing certain random events and quests. Sapphire and emerald (cut or uncut) can be bought from the Gem Trader in Al Kharid and sapphire can also be bought (cut or uncut) from Herquin's Gems. Completing Pirate's Treasure rewards a cut emerald. Completing Misthalin Mystery rewards an uncut sapphire, an uncut emerald, and an uncut ruby. The best way to get more rubies or diamonds is by killing ogresses (uncut) or wait for certain random events that reward them including evil twin (uncut), Prison Pete (uncut), Pinball (cut), Quiz Master (cut), Pillory (uncut), Rick Turpentine (uncut), Mysterious Old Man (uncut when given directly), and Certer (uncut).

Q: Where could I get runecrafting talismans?

A: Where to get an air talisman: Duke Horacio during Rune Mysteries (1/1), Air wizard (1/20), Goblin (1/128)

Where to get a mind talisman: Imp (1/18.29), Blue Wizard (1/32)

Where to get a water talisman: Water wizard (1/20), Blue Wizard (1/42.67), Level 20 Dark wizard (1/128), Big frog (1/128)

Where to get an earth talisman: Earth wizard (1/20), Man (1/64), Woman, (1/64), Farmer (1/64), Al Kharid warrior (1/64), Thief (1/64), Big frog (1/128)

Where to get a fire talisman: Fire wizard (1/20), Level 20 Dark wizard (1/64), Skeleton (1/64), Level 7 Dark wizard (1/128)

Where to get a body talisman: Guard (1/32), Hill Giant (1/64)

Q: For Ultimate Ironmen, what should we always have in the inventory?

A: Early game: Law runes, nature runes, coins, and pickaxe. Teleports and Superheat Item are important. Everything else is easily obtainable or should be equipped. Opt to equip ranged equipment at all times as it's relatively light and works for both ranged and melee.

Late game: As levels slow down, more time is spent doing one activity. Clear your inventory and plan ahead to maximise rates, collect coins or runes and then spend them in one go to clear your inventory and keep a light setup for activities like runecrafting, Wilderness training, mining, etc. All free-to-play items are easily obtainable at this point and coins can be safely stored in the Last Man Standing coffer in thousands of coins, or alternatively at the Grand Exchange below the reasonable buying price of a bond (below 11,458,063).

Tips: If you need to free your inventory space but don't want to lose all your items, you can purposely get killed by an NPC to create a deathpile for your items that will last on the ground for 60 minutes, giving you that much time to do activities with a clean inventory but be sure to return to your death location before then to pick up any items you don't want to lose. You can also set items on tables that will stay on the table for 10 minutes before despawning but be aware that they will be visible to all other players after the first minute. Dropping items last on the ground for 3 minutes but will be visible to all other player after the first minute.

Q: What do I spend my money on? And as an Ultmate Ironman, what should we do with our unneeded coins?

A: With a small excess, one can first go to Diango and purchase a Chronicle (300 coins) and teleport cards (150 coins each) to charge up your Chronicle. Right-clicking on the Chronicle and selecting the 'Teleport Chronicle' option will teleport you just east outside of the Champions' Guild, consuming one charge on your Chronicle. The Chronicle could also be used as a one-click emergency teleport in a dangerous situation; it can be wielded in the shield slot to save an inventory space.

After spending money on the best in slot items (pickaxe/axe/armour/weapon), spend money on arrows and runes. For Ultimate Ironmen, money is spent clearing inventory and re-obtaining items as needed.

With a huge excess, the Edgeville and Ferox Enclave respawn points can be bought for 5,000,000 coins individually and up to 360 additional bank spaces can be purchased from a banker. The Edgeville respawn point is useful for unlocking a runecrafting strategy, requiring 31 Prayer, running from the Body Altar to the monastery, dying to the Kharid scorpion on the 1^st floor and respawning in Edgeville with 100% run energy. The Ferox Enclave has a praying altar, the Pool of Refreshment, minigames, and the Last Man Standing coffer for Ultimate Ironmen to "bank" coins.

While Ultimate Ironmen cannot use a regular bank, there are ways to "bank" unneeded coins:

• The Last Man Standing coffer can store coins up to 262,143,000. Since coins can only be stored in thousands, any remaining coins below 1,000 can be dropped or be stored away using the next method.
• Any type of Ironman can purchase old school bonds on the Grand Exchange. Attempting to buy an old school bond in the Grand Exchange at a low price below the bond's current Grand Exchange value of 11,458,063 is another way to "bank" coins. The price of old school bonds consistently changes so be careful not to store too much to accidentally buy one.

Q: What skill do I put experience lamps in?

A: Smithing to get closer to rune equipment, otherwise 45 Prayer is needed for Mystic Might, or Runecraft for multiple runes.

Q: Are canoes available in free-to-play?

A: Yes. They are great transportation for saving run energy and quick transportation. An axe can quickly be obtained in Lumbridge from the Woodsman tutor, the tree stump near Seth Groats south of the Champions' Guild canoe station, or one can be bought from Bob's Brilliant Axes. Players can store an axe at any canoe Station, which doesn't require withdrawal to use.

Q: Any other tips for saving run energy?

A: Keep your weight as close to 0 kg as possible, otherwise use the following transportation if possible:

• Canoes and teleportation spells are the go-to transportation techniques. Use them when possible.
• Minigame teleport has a cooldown of 20 minutes. Clan Wars and Last Man Standing bring you to the Ferox Enclave, a safezone in the Wilderness until you leave the barriers of the Ferox Enclave. Castle Wars is used in the same way, as leaving the castle's lobby doors brings you to the Ferox Enclave. It has a bank and a Pool of Refreshment that restores Hitpoints, Prayer points, and run energy. There is also a canoe station next to the teleport spot.
• Home teleport can be used once every 30 minutes. It does not share the cooldown of the Minigame Teleport. This brings you to your spawning location. The Lumbridge spawn has a nearby bank, a nearby furnace with a rusted anvil for smithing bronze items, a Prayer altar, and canoe station. The Edgeville spawn (costs 5,000,000) has a nearby bank, a nearby furnace (fastest way to smelt ores and craft jewellery from a bank), the canoe station, and not too far away is a prayer altar with +2 Prayer boost to those that have access to the 1^st floor (requires 31 Prayer) of the Edgeville Monastery. There is also a Ferox Enclave spawn (costs 5,000,000) and you may use either home teleport or minigame teleport to teleport there while the other teleport is on cooldown.
• Chronicle: With a surplus of coins, go to Diango in Draynor Village and purchase a Chronicle for 300 coins. It is wieldable in the shield slot to save inventory space. It must be charged with teleport cards from Diango for 150 coins each. It teleports you just east outside of the Champions' Guild, next to a canoe station, and within walking distance of Varrock.
• Cowbell amulet: After completing The Ides of Milk talk to Gillie Groats again to receive the cowbell amulet which can be used to teleport to the east Lumbridge cow field. It is charged with air runes and uses 1 rune per teleport.
  • Getting to Al Kharid: cowbell amulet teleport to Lumbridge east cow pen, walk to Al Kharid
• For regular ironmen and Ultimate Ironmen without values: If you have nothing of value to lose in your possession, take the advantage of "death" as a form of transportation and energy restoration. If you are lost or far away without energy, getting killed by an NPC or by a player in the wilderness will restore run back to 100% in addition to "teleporting" you back to your respawn point. Especially useful if you want to get back to Lumbridge for free while home teleport is on cooldown.
• Skull Sceptre: For higher combat players, the skull sceptre teleports you to Barbarian Village. A skull sceptre is obtained by assembling one of each of four pieces that are rare drops from monsters in the Stronghold of Security: the right skull half from minotaurs, the bottom of sceptre from flesh crawlers, the top of sceptre from catablepons, and the left skull half from ankou. The skull sceptre is very useful when doing beginner clues.
• Getting to Port Sarim, Asgarnian Ice Dungeon, Mudskipper Point or Karamja: Home teleport to Lumbridge (or alternatively, if you talked to Gillie Groats after completing The Ides of Milk, cowbell amulet teleport to Lumbridge east cow pen), run to the Shantay Pass and talk to Shantay. Select 1. What is this place?, then 1. I am definitely an outlaw, prepare to die! If Shantay ends the dialogue prematurely, talk to him again until you see an option for further dialogue. The guards will arrest you, and you will be put in the Shantay Pass jail cell. Shantay will give you the option to stay or paying a fine. Refuse to pay 2. No thanks, you're not having my money., he will give you another chance or be deported to Port Sarim. Select 2. No, do your worst! You will end up in Port Sarim jail. Right-click ("Pick-lock Door") the jail cell door and you will attempt to pick the lock on the jail door until you succeed. The time saved in getting to Port Sarim/Asgarnian Ice Dungeon/Mudskipper Point/Karamja is mimimal unless you are very far away.
• From Lumbridge to the Crafting Guild or Falador: The fastest way from Lumbridge to the Crafting Guild or Falador is walking unless you have 37 Magic and runes for Teleport to Falador.
• Agility levels continue to speed up run energy regeneration while being free-to-play, so levels trained while a member will continue to provide a benefit in free-to-play. Run energy regeneration rate increases with every 6 Agility levels, becoming twice as fast at Level 50 Agility, and three times as fast at Level 96 Agility.

The following questions and guides below are useful for ironmen that play in both free-to-play and members, whether they are going from free-to-play to members or returning to free-to-play from members, which will be beneficial during their membership experience (usually to save membership time) and free-to-play experience, respectively.

Q: I plan on becoming a member for the first time or plan on becoming a member again. What should I do in free-to-play that will benefit membership or save membership time?

A: Complete all free-to-play quests first and train skills in free-to-play until you are satisfied with their levels (recommended levels 40–60+ depending on skill and what you plan to do). Then for non-Ultimate Ironmen, collect resources (ores, bars, logs, food, etc.) that could be used to train member skills, survive in combat/activities, and save membership time collecting items for members' quests' item requirements.

• Collect a lot of cooked fish from your Fishing and Cooking training to survive in combat, quests, and in dangerous activities.
• Once you have 50 Firemaking to access Windertodt for training Firemaking in members, save all logs you chopped in free-to-play for Construction and Fletching training, as well as upgrading your boats for Sailing. Once you can at least make willow bows for Fletching and your boats' upgrades are at least oak-tier, save all oak logs for Construction training.
  • Construction: 91 planks (can be collected in free-to-play in the wilderness or Crandor) are needed from 1–15 Construction and 217,201 oak planks (−54,300,250 on the sawmill, or with access to Plank Make, −38,010,175 + 217,201 nature runes (~202,721 in Bryophyta's staff) + 534,402 astral runes + staff of earth) are needed from 15–99 Construction if not doing Mahogany Homes.
    • Until Plank Make can be accessed ( 86 Magic^[boostable] and the completion of Dream Mentor), one could quickly train Construction by using the sawmill in the Woodcutting Guild ( 60 Woodcutting^[boostable]) as it's near a bank. Rada's blessing 3 is recommended for unlimited teleports to the Woodcutting Guild, but earlier tiers can get you there up to three times per day. Without teleports, if your POH is in Rimmington, you can talk to Veos in Port Sarim to get to Land's End and travel north-east to the Woodcutting Guild and travel back. An alternative route to making planks is using dueling rings to teleport to Castle wars and using a hot air balloon to the Varrock sawmill. This method requires the completion of Enlightened Journey, Varrock balloon transport system unlocked, and willow logs for transport.
  • Sailing: 10 planks can be collected for your first raft upgrades (bronze helm and basic cargo hold) along with other materials. By the time you unlock the skiff at 15 Sailing, you'll mostly be on oaks. As for optional facilities requiring regular planks: Bronze salvaging hook ( 15 , 1 , 4 planks, 16 bronze nails in members, 8 bronze bars for each boat), bronze cannon ( 28 , 21 , 4 planks, 16 bronze nails in members, 6 bronze bars, 1 rope). Be sure to check each boat's core boat parts and facilities for each material needed if you plan on collecting ahead of time.
    • Materials for helm upgrades for each type of boat are short and easy to collect, as well as the hull for the raft. Materials for hull and keel upgrades for the skiff and skoop take longer to obtain (50 planks of a tier for the hull and 50 bars of a tier for the keel of a skiff, and 400 planks of a tier for the hull and 400 bars of a tier for the keel of a skoop).
    • Steel nails can be made in free-to-play with steel bars, but other tiers of nails can only be obtained in members.
    • Ropes, which you can get from Ned in Draynor Village for 4 balls of wool each, are used to upgrade a raft's hull (6 ropes for each tier), flags (1 rope for each boat, which is optional), or add facilities to your boats such as salvaging hooks (1 rope for each salvaging hook facility), trawling nets (7 ropes for the rope trawling net, or 1 rope for later trawling nets), and optionally an anchor (1 rope; not useful).
  • Fletching: 78 regular logs will be fletched into arrow shafts from Levels 1–5. As for how many logs of each type you'll need to make bows to get to each Fletching level, see the Fletching training guide for bows as well as this free-to-play ironman guide's woodcutting guide for the number of yew bows.
    • Bow strings can quickly be obtained from Temple Trekking with recommendations completed for it, see Money making guide/Temple Trekking.
    • Bows (unstrung or stringed) can then be sold to general stores (Martin Thwait in Rogues' Den takes any item starting at High Level Alchemy price), bow shops (if strung), or alchemised for profit (if alchemising, do it while travelling or training Agility).
• Smithing: Save all ores to quickly make bars and maximise Smithing experience in the Blast Furnace ( 60 Smithing recommended to save coins). The goldsmith gauntlets obtained from Avan after Family Crest ( requires visiting the lower-level Wilderness section of Edgeville Dungeon to complete) will multiply Smithing experience from smelting gold by 2.5 (from 22.5 to 56.2 experience). It is not recommended to mine huge amounts of coal on free-to-play (small amounts can be useful), as this can be obtained from Managing Miscellania, and the mining time is spent better mining other ores.
• Herblore: Collect red spiders' eggs in Varrock Sewers or Crandor and Karamja Dungeon, fill vials with water if you have any, cut chocolate bars (obtained in Cooks' Guild, Food Store in Port Sarim or by the sandwich lady random event) into chocolate dust, ashes from burning logs (to make Serum 207s), and kill hill giants/hobgoblins/ogresses for limpwurt roots, that can be used to make potions and train Herblore. Catablepons can drop eyes of newt, but they can be bought easily from Betty's Magic Emporium and herblore stores. The Asgarnia's Chaos Temple has wine of zamorak spawns that can be telegrabbed, though ranging potions require 72 Herblore^[boostable].
  • Note: The only way of obtaining vials in free-to-play on an ironman is by drinking or emptying potions. These can only be obtained as a drop from Bryophyta or obtained from the Apothecary in Varrock, which is an inconvenient way of obtaining vials, plus, if breaking vials was toggled on in members (speaking to the barbarian guard at the Barbarian Outpost after completing Alfred Grimhand's Barcrawl), drunk vials will be smashed in free-to-play as well, this can be toggled off in the settings menu.
• Do the Shooting Stars activity when crashed stars are available in free-to-play areas in certain free-to-play worlds, mining crashed stars for stardusts, getting a head start to obtain a celestial ring or other rewards in members or extra charges for the celestial ring/signet.

Q: ( Non-Ultimate) I have too many different items in the bank (bank space in free-to-play is always 400 less than the bank space in members) and my membership is expiring. What should I do with my excess items?

A: Consider adding a Bank PIN and enable two-factor authentication to add 40 more bank spaces for a total of 440 bank spaces in free-to-play, and additional bank spaces can be purchased from a banker in 40 slots up to 360 extra slots, granting a total of 800 free-to-play bank spaces, but each bank space upgrade is more expensive than the previous. If you have the Construction level to store items in a costume room in your POH or in STASH units, store as many compatible items you can. Drop all useless junk you don't need (see the Wise Old Man in Draynor Village to find junk) and drop/sell/alchemise items that you don't want anymore. Store items into other form of storage (e.g. keys on a steel key ring, fishing and diving equipment in a tackle box, member-only runes in a rune pouch, bolts in a bolt pouch, seeds in the Seed Vault, herbs in a herb sack, cannonballs and sailing items in your boat's cargo hold, etc.).

• Q: My bank is still overfull, I don't have enough coins to upgrade my bank spaces, and I don't want to get rid of my important member items. What do I do then?
• A: A method to manage an overfilled bank for free-to-play is to obtain at least one of each free-to-play items you'll be using in free-to-play so they will be bankable in free-to-play, such as coins, ores, metal bars, tools, jewellery, weapons and armour, food and ingredients, etc. Be sure to have two or more of each item before taking one out of the bank and avoid selecting "all" qualities (use "all-but-1" instead). Once all quantities of an item are out of an overfilled bank, they can no longer return to the bank in free-to-play, and even if you use placeholders, it will not leave a placeholder for that item in free-to-play while the bank is overfull. However, items (including members items) can return in existing placeholders in the (overfilled) bank if you were to accidentally carry them from members to free-to-play.
  • As for the items that are difficult to obtain in free-to-play (such as rune axe, kiteshield, scimitar, decorative boots and the free-to-play items obtainable only in members such as pearl rods), obtain at least two of each item in members so you can freely withdraw and deposit one back in the bank in free-to-play.
  • If you accidentally take all of your coins out an overfilled bank, use the LMS coffer as an alternate coin bank or put your coins towards an old school bond on the Grand Exchange below a reasonable buying price (below 11,458,063) to store your coins.
• Q: ( Group ironmen) Should I use the group storage as an additional bank?
• A: In addition to their own personal banks, group ironmen have a shared group storage of 80 additional spaces (up to 200 spaces by completing group storage tasks) that they can transfer their items to other teammates. Due to this, use the group storage as a form of an extra bank at your own risk with caution. You must be willing to trust all teammates with the group-banked items that you want to keep, and you must be able to communicate with your team should something go wrong.

Q: What members skills are worth training before returning to free-to-play?

A: Training Agility will increase the player's run energy regeneration in both members and free-to-play worlds (even after membership expires), which is highly recommended to reduce the time spent walking and/or need for energy potions in free-to-play. However, shortcuts above 1 cannot be used in free-to-play, with the exception of the rocks on Crandor and the tunnel in the Asgarnian Ice Dungeon. Other than Agility's increase in run restoration rate, no other members skill can be directly used or have an effect in free-to-play, but skills like Thieving would be good to train to moneymake for free-to-play use, fletching arrows would be good for free-to-play Ranged training, and hunting implings and slaying monsters can provide a variety of free-to-play items.

Q: Besides Thieving and other common skills to earn coins, what are some good skill-based moneymaking methods to do in members before going back to free-to-play?

A: Agility: After obtaining a graceful outfit while training Agility (usually obtained around ~57 Agility from training on Rooftop Agility Courses), continue your Agility training at the Agility Pyramid and you can earn 10,000 coins per lap by giving Simon pyramid tops. By 70 Agility, you'll earn 200,000 gp/hr, and your run restoration rate in both members and free-to-play will more than double. It's possible to obtain the graceful outfit and reach this level within the first week of membership while grinding Agility. Be sure to wear heat-resistant gear, pieces of the graceful outfit, have waterskins, and jugs of wine from Pollnivneach's bar (if under 75 Agility) when doing the Agility Pyramid.

• Fletching: Sell or alchemise (un)strung bows you fletched from the logs chopped in free-to-play. High-level alchemizing stronger (un)strung bows (maple or better) at the Agility Pyramid is a great method of making extra money while training Agility and moneymaking at the Agility Pyramid, and thus, saving time for both training methods. In early membership, if you want to save nature runes, use the Explorer's ring's alchemy feature. Any (un)strung bows you don't want to alchemise anymore can be sold at Martin Thwait's Lost and Found in the Rogues' Den starting at the high-level alchemy value. Bowstring is most easily obtained by doing Temple Trekking, see Money making guide/Temple Trekking. If you cut and string maple bows, they can be high-level alchemised or sold at archery shops in free-to-play.
• Sailing: Salvaging shipwrecks can be profitable in various ways, including obtaining more resources that can be useful for both members and free-to-play. For moneymaking, you can high-level alchemise jewellery (if you don't plan on enchanting them), oyster pearls (not oyster pearl), weapons, and armour from shipwrecks from large shipwrecks ( 53 ) or better, if you don't want to bank them to sell/alchemise later.
  • If salvaging and alchemising on boat: Two salvaging hooks of the best level you can make with a crewmate with a deckhandiness level of 4 (such as Cabin Boy Jenkins 40 ) recommended on a sloop to salvage items faster, along with a salvaging station facility adjacent to one to identify them. While cleaning salvage, you can have a second crewmate with a good deckhandiness level (Jolly Jim unlocked at 83 , otherwise Jobless Jim or Ex-Captain Siad) to take over your salvage hook until all salvages are identified with all valuable items alchemised, then repeat.
• Smithing: If you need Smithing levels, you can get a good amount of Smithing experience and profit from buying and smelting bronze + iron equipment ( 15 Smithing) or iron + steel equipment ( 30 Smithing) from specialty shops at the Giants' Foundry. You can also use your own bars made from the Blast Furnace. Using better moulds will increase profit.

Q: I plan on challenging Wintertodt in members to 99 Firemaking. What should I train in free-to-play before then?

A: You must train to at least 50 to be able to participate in the wintertodt fight. Rewards from The Reward Cart scale with your level in various skills. Higher rewards become more common with every level towards 99, while certain rewards are completely unobtainable until various level thresholds are met. Expected rewards can be calculated here.

• Note: An update to warmth made Wintertodt no longer deal damage based on your Hitpoints level. Instead, a warmth meter is depleted and can be replenished by food that heals 4 or more hitpoints, Rejuvenation potions, and health regeneration.

Q: What is the quickest way to obtain a rune axe/kiteshield/scimitar and enchanted amulets in members?

A: Rune scimitar: Kill Zamorak warriors (1/50 drop rate) at the Ourania Cave. They can be safespotted behind small lava vents.

• Rune kiteshield: Kill ice trolls north of the Fremennik Isles for a rune kiteshield (1/64 drop rate, requires the completion of The Fremennik Trials and start of The Fremennik Isles). The safest way to obtain a rune kiteshield from ice trolls is to kill ice troll runts north of Neitiznot after receiving assistance from Honour guards after The Fremennik Isles. Ice troll runts killed by Honour guards will only drop items to the player if the player damages each runt at least once. Alternatively, with access to Protect from Missiles and a dwarf multicannon, players can quickly obtain a rune kiteshield from ice troll females in multicombat area.
• Mithril/Adamant/Rune axes: Kill tree spirits at the Enchanted Valley using the fairy ring code BKQ (requires half of Fairytale II - Cure a Queen completed; can start quest and unlock fairy rings without the skill requirements needed to complete it) OR buy them at Perry's Chop-chop Shop of the Woodcutting Guild (requires 60 Woodcutting).
• Amulet of defence/magic/strength: Kill Undead Druids in the Forthos Dungeon (1/20 drop rate each). Client of Kourend is not required to access the dungeon but it is recommended to gain access to additional transportations to the continent of Zeah.
• Amulet of power: Kill the crazy archaeologist in the wilderness (1/18.29 drop rate) or King Black Dragon (1/18.29 drop rate too). King Black Dragon Lair is not a player-killing area but the player must go through the wilderness first.
  • If the wilderness is not for you, then do medium clue scroll trails (1/37.9 drop rate), open magpie impling jars (1/20 drop rate, 65 Hunter^[boostable] required, also drops diamond amulets at the same rate that can be turned into an amulet of power), or use silver keys from Fiyr Shade remains on chests during the Shades of Mort'ton minigame (~1/76 drop rate, ~1/74 if you have a hard clue scroll, requires Shades of Mort'ton quest completed as well as magic logs and 80 Firemaking^[boostable] to burn fiyr remains for keys).
  • If none of the above methods are for you and if you have 57 Magic^[boostable], you could train Crafting in members to 70^[boostable] (UIM guide) or thieve storeroom H.A.M. guards for keys to open small chests in the H.A.M. Store room (after completing the Death to the Dorgeshuun quest) for diamond amulets.

Q: Are there items in members that can be used in free-to-play?

A: Doing Treasure Trails can reward the player many unique items that can be used in free-to-play. The more useful ones to obtain for free-to-play use are rune god armour and gilded dragonhide armour.

• Rune god armour: Completing hard clue scrolls can reward the player rune god armour that adds +1 Prayer bonus, making them a slight upgrade to rune armour.
• Gilded dragonhide armour: Completing elite or master clue scrolls can reward the player gilded dragonhide armour that have the original stats of green dragonhide armour that can be used in free-to-play except for the gilded coif. It is the only set of free-to-play dragonhide armour that were not affected by the equipment rebalance update.
• Pearl fishing rod & fly fishing rod: The pearl fishing rod and the pearl fly fishing rod are equipable versions of the fishing rod and the fly fishing rod, respectively, saving an inventory space for fish. These pearl rods can be purchased from Alry the Angler on Molch island (requires the completion of Client of Kourend to access the continent of Zeah as well as 43 Fishing and 35 Hunter to access Molch island). The pearl fishing rod costs 100 Molch pearls, and the pearl fly fishing rod costs 120 Molch pearls. The pearl barbarian rod (costs 150 Molch pearls) can also be equipped in free-to-play, but it has no uses in free-to-play areas despite being a free-to-play item.
• Skull sceptre (i) maximum charges: Completing each tier of the Varrock Diary increases the maximum teleportation charge and this carries over to free-to-play as well. The sceptre can hold a maximum of 10 charges by default and adding sceptre pieces or bone fragments to the skull sceptre adds 3 charges by default (5 charges from left skull half). Once the player has completed the easy, medium, hard and elite Varrock Diary, the sceptre can hold 14, 18, 22, and 26 charges, respectively, and each sceptre piece or bone fragments adds 1 extra charge (or more for combined pieces) for each Varrock Diary completed.
• If you get a moss giant slayer task from Vannaka, the drop rate of mossy keys is increased to 1/75, and the Slayer task will not decrement while in free-to-play, effectively permanently buffing the drop rate.^[1]

Q: Should I save my mossy keys for members?

A: Since Bryophyta's essence can be obtained in free-to-play, this is not strictly necessary. The main difference in drops is that Bryophyta drops herbs, seeds, and blood runes on members' worlds, but strength potions on free-to-play worlds. Furthermore, Bryophyta's poison only works in members' worlds, meaning you don't need antipoisons in free-to-play. At least one mossy key on members is necessary to complete A Slow Death.

v t e Free-to-play guides
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Achievements	Quests Quests list Quest rewards Optimal quest guide Other Adventure Paths Collection log Combat Achievements Steam Achievements
Account builds	Account builds Ironman guide Combat pure guide
Miscellaneous	Free-to-play PvP Clues Bestiary Food Music Money making guide Transportation guide Closest points of interest Cosmetic items