Ironman Guide/Herblore

Herblore is arguably the hardest skill to train on an ironman since collecting the herbs and most of the secondary ingredients can be slow and time-consuming. Therefore, it is advised to put the rewards of every experience lamp and book of knowledge into Herblore if possible. By the time all hard diaries are completed, if making all potions obtained along the way, the player should have around level 67–69 Herblore, just enough to start boosting to make ranging potions.

Druidic Ritual is required for unlocking Herblore. Afterwards, some early levels can be skipped by completing quests that reward Herblore experience. Completing Druidic Ritual, Jungle Potion, and Recruitment Drive rewards in total 2,025 Herblore experience, enough to get level 13. Questing alone will grant a total of 9,350 Herblore experience, elevating a level 1 Herblore to 26, granting the ability to make energy potions without having made a single potion before.

• Druidic Ritual rewards 250 Herblore experience.
• Jungle Potion requires 3 , and rewards 775 Herblore experience.
  • For lower levels, infinite Volencia moss can be obtained from the rocks in this quest, and cleaned for roughly 1600 xp/hr, hopping worlds every 3 herbs. This might be of particular use to Ultimate ironmen.
• Recruitment Drive requires Black Knights' Fortress, Druidic Ritual, rewards 1,000.5 Herblore experience.
• Zogre Flesh Eaters requires Big Chompy Bird Hunting, Jungle Potion, 8 , 4 , 30 , rewards 2,000 Herblore experience.
• The Dig Site requires 10 , 10 , 25 , rewards 2,000 Herblore experience.
• Shades of Mort'ton requires Priest in Peril, 15 , 20 , 5 , rewards 2,000 Herblore experience, plus an additional 335 Herblore experience for giving the Diary of Herbi Flax to the Apothecary in Varrock.
• Heroes' Quest requires 25 , 55 , 53 , 53 , 50 , and many quests, rewards 1,325 Herblore experience.

It is advisable to work towards having access to Managing Miscellania as early as possible, since it is one of the best ways to get herbs passively over time. Training Thieving to high levels is a quick way to get coins for funding the Kingdom; in addition to this, with high Thieving players are able to effectively pickpocket Master Farmers for early herb seeds. When the kingdom is obtained, have 10 workers on herb farming at all times for the most effective yield.

After completing hard tasks of the Desert Diary, Zahur in Nardah will make unfinished potions for 200 coins per potion (works with noted herbs and vials of water). Wesley will crush items that require the use of a pestle and mortar for 50 coins per item (also works with banknotes but does not require the diary completion).

At level 60 and with completion of Children of the Sun, players can go to Aldarin and take part in the Mastering Mixology minigame, however it will become more efficient at higher levels, with the last unlock at level 81 Herblore. Mastering Mixology does not require specific herbs or any secondaries, and grants much more experience per herb, making it a very useful option for when gathering large amounts of high-tier herbs and secondaries for traditional Herblore training might not be easily possible. It is also the only source of some powerful utility items and features, such as the Prescription goggles, Alchemist's amulet, Chugging barrel, and Potion storage, so it can be advisable to do even if Herblore experience is not needed.

Even though Mixology grants more Herblore experience per herb, it can be preferable to only use herbs that do not provide particularly useful potions or have non-abundant secondary ingredients.

At level 80 Hunter (and 31 Herblore), players can track herbiboars on Fossil Island, which yields herbs and a small amount of Herblore experience upon harvest.

High-level players will get a notable amount of herbs and Herblore experience (from dark relics and making potions inside the raid) from the Chambers of Xeric. Those with Craw's bow and/or Viggora's chainmace can focus on killing the Wilderness bosses Venenatis, Vet'ion and Callisto as they rarely drop 100 noted herbs (snapdragon, ranarr weed and toadflax, respectively) as well as a generous amount of ranarr and snapdragon seeds. Notably, Venenatis also occasionally drops 500 noted red spiders' eggs.

Herblore experience is predominantly sourced from herbs obtained via Farming. It is strongly recommended to aim for 85+ Farming as soon as possible to unlock hard tier Farming contracts, which are a consistent, easy and low level source of seeds for all ironmen, and overall constitute the best source of seeds. For more information, see the Farming section.

Training Slayer is also a significant source of seeds later on, but initially is likely to use more resources than it returns. Many slayer monsters (most notably Nechryael and Dagannoth) frequently drop assorted types of them. Should one need herb seeds, complete Nechryael tasks in the Slayer Tower with melee instead of burst/barrage spells in the Catacombs of Kourend as Greater nechryael do not drop as many herb seeds in comparison.

Low-level ironmen can get their starting Herblore supplies from Wintertodt, and through quests.

Players with an urgent need for ranarr seeds for prayer potions may wish to consider pickpocketing Master Farmers. A high Thieving level in order to do this effectively. Players stop failing to pickpocket Master Farmers at level 94 with the hard Ardougne Diary perk, or at level 99 when wearing the Thieving cape. It is recommended for players to have at least 85 Farming to maximise the amount of ranarr seeds gained, as it scales with level.

Players will need to do herb runs frequently and consistently. Clean the herbs whilst running to the next patch to save time.

Always use ultracompost on herb patches to minimise the chance of disease, and to ensure the minimum amount of 6 herbs per seed when used along with magic secateurs. Herb patches cannot be protected by NPC gardeners, and seeds will typically be in short supply, so use the best compost possible.

The Fertile Soil spell, requiring 83 Magic, on the Lunar spellbook is particularly convenient for herb runs since it negates the need to spend time making ultracompost. However, getting an ash covered tome for unlocking the ultracompost version of the spell can take a while due to the Volcanic Mine. When access to Fertile Soil is obtained, do herb runs whilst on the Lunar spellbook and use teleport tablets or Spellbook Swap for patches which aren't easily accessible without the use of the standard spellbook. Having a lunar or occult altar in a POH is recommended for switching spellbooks quickly, however the use of Moonclan Teleport or Teleport to House is also viable to teleport to Lunar Isle.

Using attas seeds to maximise yield is also recommended, and obtaining the Farming cape before seriously training Herblore should also be strongly considered both for its passive effect boosting yield and as yield scales with levels.

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Members' guides	Melee Ranged Magic Defence Prayer Hitpoints Crafting Mining Smithing Fishing Cooking Firemaking Woodcutting Runecraft Agility Herblore Thieving Fletching Slayer Farming Construction Hunter Sailing
Ironman guides	Money making Melee Ranged Magic Defence Prayer Hitpoints Crafting Mining Smithing Fishing Cooking Firemaking Woodcutting Runecraft Agility Herblore Thieving Fletching Slayer Farming Construction Hunter Sailing
Ultimate Ironman guides	Item management Equipment Quests Minigames Money making Melee Ranged Magic Defence Prayer Hitpoints Crafting Mining Smithing Fishing Cooking Firemaking Woodcutting Runecraft Agility Herblore Thieving Fletching Slayer Farming Construction Hunter Sailing
General guidelines	Efficiency