Ironman Guide/Magic
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Magic training for Ironmen is often similar to the normal training methods. However, due to the increased difficulty in obtaining runes, there is a heavier emphasis on Slayer in early training, as well as the conservation of runes and the value of drops.
Levels 1-34: quests
Early levels can be skipped by completing quests rewarding Magic experience. The following quests, when completed in order, have minimal requirements and reward enough experience to get to level 34 Magic. Additionally, all quest fights below are safe-spottable and all skill requirements are boostable.
| Quest | Magic experience reward | Combat | Additional requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Witch's Potion | 325 | Level 1 rat | None |
| Imp Catcher | 875 | Level 2 imps | None |
| The Grand Tree | 2,150 | Level 172 black demon | |
| Watchtower | 15,250 | Level 68 Gorad, level 27 giant bat | |
| The Giant Dwarf | 1,500 | None | |
| Total | 20,100 | Various |
Levels 1/33-43: Combat
Level 1: Strike spells through splashing and Slayer
Casting combat spells at early levels can be a good way to train Magic, Hitpoints, and optionally, Defence. Players who are able to give full attention are highly recommended to use these early levels to train Slayer. Use an elemental staff, purchasable from Zaff's Staffs. Early money for runes can be obtained by collecting the 10,000 coins from the Stronghold of Security, subduing Wintertodt, training Thieving, collecting and selling Eclipse Red, or doing the Agility Pyramid.
Monsters to train on
| Monster | Location | Requirements | Benefits and cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zamorak warriors | Ourania Cave | None | Rune scimitar drop |
| Blue dragons | Taverley Dungeon | Anti-dragon shield | Dragon bone drops for Prayer training, but slower experience |
| Lava dragons | Deep Wilderness | Willing to risk PK attacks | Drops lava dragon bones and rune items |
| Twisted banshees | Catacombs of Kourend | Drops alchables, herbs, herb seeds, and pure essence | |
| Ogress Warriors | Corsair Cove Dungeon | The Corsair Curse | Drops alchables and gems. Can be fought in free-to-play |
Splashing
While expensive, splashing does not require a lot of attention and early on provides a decent AFK experience. For this method, it's recommended to use the best strike spells available, as the runes used are cheap, obtainable from shops, and early-on provide the most efficient damage per money spent. The following locations can be used to splash with minimal attention:
| Monster | Location | Benefits and cons |
|---|---|---|
| Sand crabs | Hosidius | No requirements. |
| Ammonite crabs | Fossil Island | Requires Bone Voyage. May drop Fossils. |
| Frost crabs | Ruins of Tapoyauik | Requires The Heart of Darkness. Have a 100% fire weakness. |
Gemstone Crab
The Gemstone Crab is located in Varlamore and available for a great AFK experience. The quest Children of the Sun is required to be completed in order to access Varlamore.
With Autocast, a player will be able to AFK for up to 10 minutes at a time. The Gemstone Crab occasionally may attack players if they are within melee range. Players will earn slightly less experience (1 damage = 3.5 experience rather than 4), but will typically earn higher experience rates due to lack of downtime and overkill.
Levels 43–65: Utility spells and quests
This section will focus on incorporating the use of utility spells, which players use to process items obtained from other areas of the game. Players should also work towards obtaining the other requirements for Lunar Diplomacy and Dream Mentor quests, as they reward many useful spells that help players gain additional Magic experience through processing and utility spells.
Several more quests give experience rewards: Spirits of the Elid, Freeing the Lumbridge Guide, Horror from the Deep, King's Ransom, The Path of Glouphrie, Enakhra's Lament, The Eyes of Glouphrie, and Desert Treasure I. Note that these quests come with additional skill and item requirements.
Spells
Level 43-55: Superheat Item
From level 43 to 55, players can cast Superheat Item to make gold ore into gold bars, or iron ore into iron bars for both Magic and Smithing experience. This requires a significant number of nature runes and is very expensive.
Level 55+: High Level Alchemy
At 55 Magic, cast High Level Alchemy on various profitable items, such as unstrung maple longbows, gold bracelets, gold bars, battlestaves and other monster drops. This will become a significant source of income during Slayer.
Mage Training Arena
Through the process of getting Bones to Peaches from Mage Training Arena, up to 127,000 Magic experience can be earned. Start this minigame at 33 Magic with Telekinetic Grab until level 55 Magic, for High Level Alchemy at the Alchemist's Playground. For the other rooms available in the minigame, players can use different enchanting spells, Bones to Bananas, and Bones to Peaches to train and gain points in the respective rooms.
Optionally, continue to obtain infinity boots, a master wand, or mage's book too. At least 57 Magic is recommended for the Enchanting Chamber, for the Lvl-4 Enchant spell, though level 68 Magic for the Lvl-5 Enchant is better. This requires a sizeable amount of law, nature and cosmic runes. It should be noted that after level 68, you can effectively train magic for free with a mud battlestaff as Lvl-5 Enchant grants a base of 5 enchantment pizazz points when enchanting any shape within the Enchanter's playground. These can be redeemed for 1 cosmic rune, making the cost to the player a net zero runes. This can be done at level 87 with Lvl-6 Enchant with a lava battlestaff for better experience rates.
Levels 65–99: Bursting, bossing, and slaying
Passive training
At higher levels, Magic experience is gained passively from using burst and barrage spells on various Slayer tasks, teleport spells, using reanimation spells, casting High Level Alchemy on profitable or valuable items, and killing bosses like Kraken and Zulrah.
Level 86+: Plank Make
Main article: Plank Make
Other methods
Arceuus Library
Finding books for the customers in the Arceuus Library can be one of the fastest methods of gaining free Magic experience, especially at lower levels. Each book turned in grants 15 times your current Magic level in experience. This requires marking and tracking the locations of books. Collect as many books as possible and turn them in by speaking with the customers. Keep talking to the customers until they request a book not currently in your possession and recollect books along the way.
Approximately 120 Books of arcane knowledge can be obtained per hour without energy-replenishing items. With energy replenishment, rates of approximately 150 can be obtained.
Estimated experience rates (without accounting for levels gained while training) are shown in the table below:
Commonly used magic shops
- For elemental, chaos and death runes: Betty's Magic Emporium in Port Sarim, Aubury's Rune Shop in Varrock, and Void Knight Magic Store in Void Knights' Outpost.
- Tal Teklan Rune Shop in Tal Teklan sells nature and cosmic runes in small quantities. It is notable for its easy accessibility early, access to Varlamore being the only requirement.
- Lundail's Arena-side Rune Shop in the Mage Arena, accessible without any requirements, is one of the few rune shops that also sells law, nature and cosmic runes. However, it is risky for hardcore and ultimate ironmen due to travelling through the Wilderness.
- Ali Morrisane in Al Kharid also sells law, nature and cosmic runes, though at a lower stock and a higher price than Lundail. However, it is safe for hardcore and ultimate ironmen. Unlocking the rune shop requires completion of The Feud quest and doing the runes section of Rogue Trader. The shop also buys runes at a set price, unlike in other shops.
- Wizards' Guild in Yanille sells all runes except cosmic runes, astral runes, combination runes, and wrath runes. Level 66 Magic and completion of The Hand in the Sand is required to access it.
- Baba Yaga's Magic Shop on Lunar Isle is the only shop that sells astral runes. Accessible after the Lunar Diplomacy quest.
- Amlodd's Magical Supplies in Prifddinas sells cosmic runes in large quantities. Completion of the Song of the Elves quest is required to access this shop.
Obtaining Magic Equipment
The rune pouch can be obtained very early on in an Ironman's progression through Last Man Standing and Mage Training Arena or later through Slayer, and is incredibly helpful for saving inventory space across all of the games' activities.
Weapons
- Each type of elemental staff can be bought at Zaff's Superior Staffs! with a bit of starting cash.
- Wind spells' scaling damage can be cast with only catalytic runes if wielding an air staff, making them a cost effective way to use Magic at a low level.
- Iban's staff is awarded upon completion of Underground Pass and can be used to cast Iban Blast at level 50 Attack and Magic. This is the strongest early Magic weapon for non-elemental weakness targets, possessing a max hit of 25. It is strongly recommended to pay 200,000 to the Dark Mage to upgrade the charge capacity on the staff from 120 to 2,500.
- The ancient staff can be acquired for 80,000 from Eblis after Desert Treasure I. It is helpful for auto-casting spells on the Ancient Magicks spellbook. It can later be upgraded with an ancient icon from the Phantom Muspah to create the ancient sceptre, which gains 10% magic damage and boosts the secondary effects of Ancient Magicks.
- The Warped sceptre can be obtained from warped creatures after The Path of Glouphrie with 56 Slayer
- Ahrim's staff and the blue moon spear both provide 5% magic damage and can be acquired from Barrows and the Moons of Peril respectively. They are both capable of casting spells from the Arceuus and Ancient spellbooks, though Ahrim's requires the full armour set with an amulet of the damned to do so.
- The Twinflame staff can be crafted from drops from the Royal Titans and provides the best damage output on the standard spellbook before access to wrath runes.
- The Trident of the seas can be acquired from cave kraken with 87 Slayer and a kraken task.
- This can be further upgraded with a magic fang from Zulrah into a trident of the swamp
- Endgame magic weapons include the staff of the dead, (and its upgraded Toxic variant), from K'ril Tsutsaroth, the eye of Ayak from the Doom of Mokhaiotl, the Sanguinesti staff from Theatre of Blood, Tumeken's shadow from Tombs of Amascut, and the nightmare staff and its variants from The Nightmare.
Armour
- Magic accuracy from equipment is not very impactful early on, as most monsters you use magic on have little to no magic defence. However, the wizard hat, wizard robe top, and Zamorak monk bottom can provide some magic accuracy for cheap.
- Mystic robes can be received as a drop from Slayer monsters or purchased from the Wizards' Guild after 66 Magic.
- The tome of fire and tome of water can be obtained as rare drops from their respective skilling bosses, Wintertodt and Tempoross. They provide a small buff to their respective elemental spells, but are also useful as a source of infinite fire and water runes in the offhand for casting spells.
- The tome of earth can be obtained much later as a rare drop from The Hueycoatl.
- Mage Arena I and Mage Arena II can be completed at 60 and 75 Magic, respectively, and award powerful magic capes. The best-in-slot imbued god capes provide some of the earliest sources of Magic damage.
- Void knight equipment and especially elite void knight equipment after the Hard Western Provinces Diary provide powerful magic accuracy and damage boosts.
- Ahrim's, blue moon, bloodbark, infinity, and Dagon'hai robes all provide similar magic accuracy and damage but can be obtained in vastly different ways. Ahrim's and Blue moon equipment are often acquired alongside other armour sets, but bloodbark and infinity can be acquired through their own mini-games offering different rewards.
- Mage's book can be acquired from the Mage Training Arena, while the Elidinis' ward can be acquired as a drop in Tombs of Amascut.
- The tormented bracelet can be made with a zenyte shard from demonic gorillas with 95 Crafting, and later upgraded to the confliction gauntlets with a mokhaiotl cloth from the Doom of Mokhaiotl.
- The occult necklace can be obtained from smoke devils or the Thermonuclear smoke devil at 93 Slayer
- Endgame magic armour includes eternal boots from Cerberus, virtus robes from the The Forgotten Four, ancestral robes from Chambers of Xeric, magus ring from Duke Sucellus, imbued heart and saturated heart from superior slayer monsters, and the arcane sigil to upgrade Elidinis' ward from Corporeal Beast.
| Free-to-play guides | |
|---|---|
| Members' guides | |
| Ironman guides | |
| Ultimate Ironman guides | |
| General guidelines | |