Sea charting

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The Captain's log displaying some sea charting tasks for the Port of Sarim.

Sea charting is a Sailing activity in which players perform tasks around the sea to receive one-time rewards of experience and items. The Captain's log contains records of completed charting tasks and hints for where to find incomplete ones. These tasks vary from simple exploration to puzzles and even data collection, many of which require specific tools to complete.

Charting tools can be collected from your ship's cargo hold or from the associated task NPC. The crowbar is rewarded upon completion of the quest Prying Times, and the current duck is rewarded upon completion of Current Affairs.

Completing every charting task requires 78 Sailing[boostable] or higher, as well as an eternal brazier to navigate through icy seas and a adamant helm or better to navigate through tangled kelp and crystal-flecked waters.

For all experience rewards from charting, categorised into lists of seas and tasks, see this page.

Upon completing all charting tasks for a location, rapids will appear. Players with the appropriate helm built on their boat can gain a small speed boost by navigating through these rapids.

Tools

Charting tools are used to complete various charting tasks. Each type of task grants a certain amount of Sailing experience upon completion, and the required levels for these activities can be boosted.

A location where the spyglass can be used.
A location where the current duck can be used.

The below charting tools can be withdrawn from the cargo hold interface on a boat, as long as the tools are not already kept in the inventory or the bank. Charting tools that are lost or destroyed can always be retrieved from this cargo hold. Players can withdraw these tools separately or right-click to "Take all".

Level Tool Task type XP Description
Sailing 1 Generic 35 Click a scenery object with a 'Chart' option. Some objects are on land.
Sailing 1 Spyglass 50 Observe notable areas when your ship is positioned upon a group of bubbles, or "glowing spots", on the ocean surface. Some of these spots are on land.
NPCs can still attack you during spyglass cutscenes.
Sailing 12 Crates 75 Pry open sealed crates found at sea and choose whether you want to drink what you find inside. The quest Prying Times teaches the player how to use the crowbar.
Sailing 22 Current 125 Track the currents of the sea when your ship is positioned upon a ripple on the ocean surface by placing and following the duck. The quest Current Affairs teaches the player how to use the current duck.
Sailing 38 Diving 175 Gather sea depth data after assisting a mermaid guide. It requires partial completion of the Freeing Pirate Pete subquest of the Recipe for Disaster quest.

Medallion of the deep can also be used in place of the fishbowl helmet & diving apparatus.

Sailing 57 Weather 250 Help a troll meteorologist document local weather by using the portable weather station they provide, take readings and sail accordingly before returning the portable weather station back to them.

Charting experience

Charting rewards various amounts of Sailing experience, with significant bonus experience for completing every charting task in any given sea or ocean. Furthermore, full completion of all 358 charting tasks grants an additional 100,000 experience. Altogether, players are able to earn a total of 691,270 Sailing experience from these tasks. It is therefore worthwhile to complete these tasks between port tasks and Barracuda Trials.

Experience bonuses for completing individual seas and oceans can be found in detail on this page. Tasks are also separated by oceans on that page, for easier visible milestones. Experience bonus rewards for fully charting oceans must be claimed from Chartin' Charles McAtless in the Pandemonium Cave.

The Sailing pet, Soup, has a 1/30,000 chance of dropping from each charting task. The cumulative chance of obtaining Soup by completely charting all oceans is approximately 1/84.3.

Tile markers

Tile markers for where to collect weather data can be found here.

Tile markers
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Tile markers guide • Data

All tasks

You can enter your username below to highlight and hide the tasks that you've finished. You can also see the interactive map of all the sea charting tasks, with your completed tasks automatically highlighted.

Additional rewards

Aside from various amounts of experience for doing tasks and completing seas and oceans, players unlock access to rapid shortcuts with the completion of certain seas. To learn more about the experience earned from charting, head over to this page.

Alcohol

After completely charting certain amounts of seas, players can speak to Charles in Pandemonium Cave for alcoholic beverages with temporary effects when consumed. These can also be stored in a keg on a player-owned ship for different longer-lasting benefits. Players require certain Sailing levels to be able to meet these requirements.

Alcohol Level Requirements Temporary effects Keg benefits
Sailing 38 Completely chart 5 seas in the Ardent Ocean, and 5 seas in the Unquiet Ocean Increases the likelihood of ocean encounters by 4%
Sailing 38 Completely chart 8 seas in the Western Ocean, and 5 seas in the Shrouded Ocean Increases the max hit of cannons by one
Sailing 51 Completely chart 50 seas across all oceans Grants a 5% chance to catch an extra fish while deep sea trawling
Sailing 78 Completely chart 70 seas across all oceans Increases all Sailing experience gained by 2.5%

Boat paint

After completely charting certain oceans, players can speak to Gerardus in Port Roberts with the Captain's log in their inventory to acquire certain items used to retrieve Boat paint.

Boat paint Level Requirements
Sailing 38 Fully chart the Ardent Ocean to get the holy sheet from Gerardus. Then give the sheet to High Priest on Entrana.
Sailing 60 Fully chart the Unquiet Ocean to get the charred key from Gerardus. Then use the key to open the old chest on Charred Island.
Sailing 72 Fully chart the Shrouded Ocean to get the void orb from Gerardus. Then give the orb to the Elite Void Knight.
Sailing 78 Fully chart the Northern Ocean to get the book about lighthouses from Gerardus. Then talk to Larrissa with the book.

Note: This requires completion of Horror from the Deep.

Experience

Chartin' Charles also provides training that gives experience rewards upon completing entire oceans. To claim bonus XP, the player must have their Captain's log in their inventory. Except for Mooring Points, all of the requirements below are boostable, but at each charting instance the level requirement needs to be met. Therefore, realistically, boosting can be done using Beer Glasses on the Keg facility loaded with Whirlpool surprise, for a consistent +3 Sailing level boost. To receive the experience from Chartin' Charles the maximum level requirement for the specific ocean must also be met.

Ocean Sailing Bonus Sailing XP Requirements
Sunset Ocean 2,000 Sailing 38 to solve Mermaid guide riddles
Ardent Ocean 5,000 Sailing 38 to solve Mermaid guide riddles
Unquiet Ocean 6,000 Sailing 47 to use the Mooring point at the The Onyx Crest
Western Ocean 20,000 Sailing 66 to build an Adamant keel to protect against Crystal-flecked waters
Shrouded Ocean 30,000 Sailing 72 to build an Adamant helm to protect against Tangled kelp
Northern Ocean 35,000 Sailing 78 to build the Eternal brazier to protect against Icy Seas in the Northern Ocean
Miscellaneous 15,000 Sailing 57 to measure Weather for the meteorologist
Subtotal 113,000 Sailing 38 to Sailing 78
100% Completion Bonus 100,000 Sailing 78 to build the Eternal brazier to protect against Icy Seas in the Northern Ocean
Total 213,000 Sailing 78

Changes

Date Changes
10 December 2025
(Update)
  • The Sailing level requirements for sea charting can now be boosted.
  • Updated the requirement met filter in the sea charting interface to include quest requirements.

See also

Source

Content from the Old School RuneScape Wiki (operated by Weird Gloop), licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Source siteOld School RuneScape Wiki
Canonical sourceSea charting
Content licenseCC BY-NC-SA 3.0
License statusdeclared
PictureCaptain's log sea charting interface · file details

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