Free-to-play Ironman guide

This article is about the free-to-play Ironman guide. For the members Ironman guide, see Ironman guide.

This article contains information on free-to-play ironman or ultimate ironman training which differs significantly from normal skill training.

Melee

Get 20 Attack and Strength before moving onto Defence for higher damage per second. Numbers are assuming approximately that number in attack and strength. There is a bronze scimitar on the 1^st floor^[UK]2^nd floor^[US] of the eastern house in Rimmington.

1-15: Cows or chickens. Collect cowhides for Crafting experience, or feathers for Fishing experience. Bury all bones; Prayer isn't going to get any easier.

15-30: Minotaurs in Stronghold of Security. Great for collecting iron arrows for Ranged xp.

(15-50): Giant/Big frogs in Lumbridge Swamp. These are the rock crabs of F2P. Low defence and high hitpoints mean they could be the highest experience per hour at this level. However, the lack of drops other than bones means diminished Prayer experience and no monetary gains. Only do this if you just want experience, but it's not recommended.

30-99: Hill giants. Good Prayer experience and low defence make hill giants the best training from here on, for the most part. Especially good for Ultimate Ironmen.

(40-60): Flesh crawlers. At the expense of Prayer experience and drops, you can get easy AFK training at Flesh Crawlers due to their aggressiveness.

(60-99): Giant spiders. Similar to Flesh Crawlers: AFK training but no Prayer experience or drops.

(45-99): Moss giants. Good Prayer experience, but multi in Varrock Sewers means people can steal your loot. If Hill Giants are crowded and Moss Giants aren't, this may be better experience per hour. Alternatively, you could go to the moss giant spot on Crandor after completing Dragon Slayer. As it isn't a multi you'll be guaranteed your loot, but it's much farther from a bank, so taking a teleport with you is advised.

(60-99): Ankou. If you want law runes, noted essence, addy arrows, and mithril ore and don't care for as much Prayer experience, ankou are a good alternative.

(70-99): Ogress Warriors. Excellent for nature/law/death runes and many alchable rune drops.

Ranged

Gather iron arrows from minotaurs before starting. If you have enough gp you can buy iron arrows in Lowe's Archery Emporium in Varrock.

1-10: Cows or chickens. Same as for melee.

10-30: Dark wizards in Draynor. Drops nature runes and law runes, and attack with magic against your ranged armour. Make sure to get studded leather armour at 20.

15-30: Minotaurs. You can can safespot level 12 minotaurs in one of the rooms. From level 25 Ranged you will break even with arrows and around level 30 range you will end up with more arrows than you had going in.

30-50 (or 99): Hill giants. Again, hill giants are great due to Prayer experience, but they can get boring.

40-99: Moss giants or Ice giants. Safespottable.

(50-99): Ankou. Safespottable, and provide law runes and some adamant arrows. Good way to collect noted essence for ultimates.

(50-99): Ogress Warriors. Safespottable and drop a lot of nature, cosmic, and law runes. They also drop a lot of iron and steel arrows and alchables, such as rune full helms and rune battleaxes.

Magic

Don't use defensive casting. Defence xp is free, Magic xp costs GP. Every 30 minutes, the mage tutor in Lumbridge provides you with 30 air runes and 30 mind runes.

1-13: Cows, Chickens, Goblins, Minotaurs. These levels should fly by, thanks to the free air strikes provided by the Magic combat tutor in Lumbridge.

13-99: Greater demons. They have low magic defence and can drop the rune full helm, plus you have access to infinite prayer due to the prayer restore property of the Demonic Ruins. This makes your magic attacks more accurate without needing to pray flick. For ults, try to do Greater demons as early as you can before you acquire a lot of wealth and get the rune full helm and mith kite.

13-99: Ice giants. Weak to fire strike, provide pray xp, and safespottable. Use an Ice Giant to block Ice warriors and wait for 10 minutes for them to become passive.

(13-99): Lesser demons. A safer alternative to Greater demons.

(13-99): Hill giants. If you want Prayer XP, laws and nature runes.

(19-99): Curse splashing. Very click intensive, but by far the cheapest way to 99 Magic. This should be done in the Boneyard while getting Prayer XP.

(39-99): Ankou. Crumble Undead does massive damage and is fast, but is rather costly and click-intensive.

(59-99): Fire Blasting Ogress Warriors. Death Runes are expensive but all obtained should be used on Ogress Warriors as it's the best use for them and saves the most time overall. They can be done earlier with Fire Strike but will take a while, especially at low levels. The rune drops will be able to sustain air/mind runes when alched.

Prayer

Complete The Restless Ghost. Assuming Restless Ghost is complete, you will be just shy of level 10. From here, it will take 448 big bones to reach Protect Item (level 25), or 3281 big bones to Protect from Melee (level 43).

Bury every bone you get and the Prayer xp will slowly accumulate. Killing low-hp monsters such as chickens (also useful for feathers) or the Stronghold of Security's rats, or big bones-dropping Hill giants are basically the best conventional Prayer training methods. Alternatively, you can venture to level 33 Wilderness to bury big bone spawns in the boneyard (from 4k xp/hr to over 7k xp/hr if world hopping). For this, you will want decent defence. If you are an ult, you want to get rid of most of your wealth before venturing out here. You could also go to the Chaos Temple (Wilderness) at 11 Wilderness. There are no NPCs and a lot of normal bones (over 6k xp/hr if hopping worlds), but it's a safer place aside from possible PKers. If we assume our 6k xp/hour at the boneyard, this will take just over an hour for Protect Item, and more than 8 hours for Protect from Melee.

Runecrafting

1-9: air runes. You will need 194 rune essence. Go to level 9 before switching, as the air runes will be useful for spells, and it is closest to a bank. DO NOT craft mind runes; it is not worth your time to save a few hundred coins. For ultimate ironmen, grind these levels out once you finish Rune Mysteries, then drop the air talisman. It can take a long time to receive another air talisman from goblins if you choose to drop it prior to level 9. Instead of dropping the air runes after every craft, you can sell them to Betty in Port Sarim on your walk back to the Wizards' Tower.

Regular ironmen can combine air runecrafting with Crafting Guild mining for efficient training.

9-14 & 9-99 for ultimate ironman. Earth runes. You will need 175 rune essence. Earth talisman can be obtained from the earth wizard, men, and Al-Kharid warriors. This is the best option for ultimate ironmen until 99 since it is the closest altar to an essence mine.

14-20: fire runes. You will need 338 rune essence. For grayhelms, this is slightly faster than earth runes, provided you have the essence already. Fire talisman can be obtained from the fire wizard or dark wizards.

Following this (regular ironman) guide, 707 ess required for level 20 Runecraft. Regular ironmen may also combine fire runecrafting with Kharid silver or iron mining.

20-99: body runes. Best xp for grayhelms. Viable option for ultimate ironmen if you collect noted essence from minotaurs, catablepons, or ankou. Talismans drop from hill giants and guards.

An alternative method for regular ironmen is to gather all talismans ever dropped from monsters and accumulate them over time. Then take tiaras and bind them all with talismans.

Crafting

One of the most important skills for F2P Ironmen as it makes great money and provides upgrades to the amulet of accuracy as well as starter ranged gear.

1-3: Sheep Shearer

3-8: Misthalin Mystery

3-16: leather. If you are training lower-levelled combat on cows, you may as well train crafting at the same time.

(3-16; 40+): pottery. Pottery is much faster, but does not train Smithing. There are two possible runs: clay in South-west Varrock mine, water in Varrock central fountain, craft in Barbarian Village, canoe/run down to Varrock west. Or mine in Dwarven Mine, water at monastery fountains, craft in Barbarian Village.

As the Crafting Guild can be accessed at 40+ Crafting. This method becomes a good option as the Guild contains Clay Mines, a Sink, a Potter's Wheel and a Pottery Oven. Granting 32xp/Bowl without the need for a bank trip, a total of 10k xp/hour can be obtained. (This was done carrying a total of 7 Jugs the create Soft Clay)

16-23: unstrung symbols. At 50xp/symbol, this is the 2nd fastest xp for F2P ironmen. Silver is much quicker to mine than gold, and symbols provide reasonable cash. For ironmen, sell to the bandit store in the Wilderness. For ultimate ironmen, just sell to the general store. You can do symbols either by using the Al-Kharid mine (5 rocks) and using the Al-Kharid furnace, the Varrock west mine and banking (or canoeing to Lumbridge for ults), or the Crafting Guild and teleing to Falador. The fastest method is by far the latter, but requires many law runes. Falador is the best bet for ultimate ironmen, while hopping at Varrock west is best for ironmen, since the mine is closest to a bank.

23-99: tiaras. 52.5xp/tiara, this is the fastest crafting method available. The money gained is much less than with symbols but at higher levels the importance of money becomes marginal for F2P ironmen.

(Alternative, once at 40+ Smithing): gold necklaces/amulets. Gold is better money and Smithing xp, but at the expense of crafting XP. The best way to do this is hopping at the Dwarven Mine or Al-Kharid mine, or teleing/running from the Crafting Guild. Gold also maximises smith experience per law used so it is essentially only recommended for ultimate ironmen who have to rely on laws since they can't use banks for faster mining trips.

Notes:
Amulet of strength: from 16 to 50 Crafting, which is required for a strength amulet, it will take 1972 symbols or 1878 tiaras.
Amulet of power: from 16 to 70 Crafting, which is required for a power amulet, it will take 14698 symbols or 13998 tiaras.

Mining

Mining will naturally be one of the most levelled skills, since crafting, Runecrafting, and Smithing rely on it. Players shouldn't ever have to worry about specifically training it, since it will come naturally with having to train other skills.

1-15: tin rocks/copper rocks

(1-15): rune essence. If you train Smithing by completing The Knight's Sword first, you won't be needing any tin or copper rocks. Although its experience rate is slow, mining rune essence can be a better option, as you need it for Runecrafting.

15-18: Doric's Quest

18-20: iron rocks

20+ Training Smithing, Crafting and Runecrafting

Smithing

Perhaps the hardest skill to train, especially for ultimate ironmen. However, in order to have best in slot gear, you need 90 smithing. This skill will always be in need of training.

1-29: The Knight's Sword. Obtain iron bars either by killing dwarves or going to the Wilderness spawn west of the Graveyard of Shadows. It is not worth getting 15 Smithing first in order to make the iron bars yourself.

15-99 iron. Specifically for grayhelms, this is the fastest method, since iron ore is so quick to collect, and you only need an average of 2 ores per bar. Always favour platebodies > platelegs > shortswords, then sell to specialty shops. For ults, this method is very slow unless you have nature runes for superheat or plenty laws to teleport from Varrock SW mine to Falador furnace and back to Varrock each trip.

20+ silver bars. Easy way to get crafting xp along the way.

30+ Superheating steel bars in Dwarven Mine or Edgeville Dungeon mine and making steel items. This method is viable only for ultimate ironmen who don't mind using their nature runes superheating iron. Regular ironmen get almost equal xp with iron smithing without spending nature runes so it is not recommended for them.

40+ gold bars. Primarily for ultimate ironmen. It gives great money and decent Smithing and Crafting XP. Best method for this is to use law runes to teleport to Falador from the Crafting Guild.

50+: Superheating mithril and adamantite or smithing rune is profitable but they are not an efficient way to train Smithing.

Fishing/Cooking

Cook everything you catch. Cooking will probably always be higher than Fishing unless you powerfish.

1-5: Net shrimps south of Lumbridge by the Fishing tutor or in Draynor if you can avoid the level 7 Dark wizards.

5-20: Bait fishing sardine (and herring after level 10) in Draynor. A fishing rod and 200 bait can be bought from the Gerrant's Fishy Business in Port Sarim.

20-99: Fly fishing trout (and salmon after level 30) in Lumbridge or Barbarian Village. No method is faster than this one. Don't be tempted to do pike at 25 due to its slow catch rate. Use feathers from chickens, which is also a great way to train Prayer very quickly (although it doesn't train other combat stats that well). You can also buy them in the Port Sarim fishing shop.

Woodcutting/Firemaking

Firemaking is only good for boosting your total level. However, with woodcutting you can transport by canoes throughout the Misthalin area and save run energy. It requires 12 Woodcutting for the log canoe. This canoe will take you from Lumbridge to the Champions' Guild, Barbarian Village, Edgeville and vice versa. The waka canoe (57 Woodcutting) brings you all the way up to the Wilderness pond (level 37 Wilderness).

Outside of crafting a mithril, adamant or rune axe via smithing, a steel axe from Bob or Lesser Demons is your only option.

1-15: Normal trees. Best spots are the trees northwest Lumbridge Castle, north-west Draynor bank, the dead trees by Draynor Manor and the trees surrounding Varrock.

15-40: Oak trees. Since your best axe is a steel axe unless you get 51 Smithing, you want to overshoot the level 30 requirement for willows before moving on. Best spots are by the Lumbridge north bridge, east and west of Varrock, and north and west of Draynor and right outside of the Champions' Guild.

40-99: Willows. Best spots are Draynor, Port Sarim, and Rimmington. Get a mithril axe as soon as possible for training. Yew trees will never be worth it.

(45-99): Maple trees. Alternatively, after completing The Corsair Curse and Dragon Slayer, you gain access to the Corsair Cove Resource Area which gives you access to the only free-to-play maple trees.

Armour & weapons

For all three combat styles, any cape is equally good, since both capes and team capes have the same stats.

Warrior gear

• Helm: Rune full helm (Greater demons, Ogresses, Obor, Bryophyta) > Rune med helm (Lesser demons, Ogresses, Obor) > Adamant full helm (Helmet Shop)
• Body: Rune platebody (Oziach) > Rune chainbody (Champions' Guild, Obor) > Adamant platebody (Champions' Guild) or Decorative armour (gold platebody) (800 Castle Wars tickets)
• Legs: Rune platelegs (Champions' Guild, Obor) > Adamant platelegs (Louie's Armoured Legs Bazaar/Greater demons) or Decorative armour (gold platelegs) (600 Castle Wars tickets)
• Shield: Rune kiteshield (96+1 Smithing, Obor) > Rune sq shield (Bryophyta, 92+1 Smithing) > Adamant kiteshield (81+1 Smithing) or Decorative shield (gold) (600 Castle Wars tickets) > Adamant sq shield (77+1 Smithing) > Mithril kiteshield (Greater demons, Ogresses) or Decorative shield (white) (60 Castle Wars tickets) > Black kiteshield (Ice giants) > Mithril sq shield (Ice giant/Lesser demon)
• Amulet: Amulet of power (40 Mining, 40 Smithing, 70 Crafting, 57 Magic) Amulet of strength (40 Mining, 40 Smithing, 50 Crafting, 49 Magic) > Amulet of accuracy (Imp Catcher) > Holy symbol (20 Mining, 20 Smithing, 31 Prayer and 16 Crafting)
• Boots: Fancy boots or Fighting boots (Stronghold of Security)
• Gloves: Green d'hide vamb (Champions' Guild)
• Weapon: Rune scimitar (89+1 Smithing) > Rune sword (Champions' Guild) > Adamant scimitar (74+1 Smithing) > Adamant sword (Varrock Swordshop) > Mithril scimitar (Zeke's Superior Scimitars)

The Champions' Guild also has a rune longsword & rune mace. Ogress Shamans and Ogress Warriors can drop a rune battleaxe.

Ranger gear

• Helm: Coif (Champions' Guild) > Leather cowl (9 Crafting)
• Body: Green d'hide body (Oziach) > Studded leather body (Horvik's Armour Shop)
• Legs: Green d'hide chaps (Champions' Guild) > Studded leather chaps (Horvik's Armour Shop)
• Amulet: Amulet of power (40 Mining, 40 Smithing, 70 Crafting, 57 Magic) > Amulet of accuracy (Imp Catcher)
• Boots: Leather boots*
• Gloves: Green d'hide vambraces (Champions' Guild) > Leather vambraces (11 Crafting)
• Weapon: Maple shortbow (Brian's Archery Supplies or Lowe's Archery Emporium)

* = provides no offensive bonus

Mage gear

• Helm: Wizard hat or Blue wizard hat (Betty's Magic Emporium or Wizard or Dark wizard)
• Body: Black robe or Blue wizard robe (Dark wizard or Wizard)
• Legs: Zamorak monk bottom (Monk of Zamorak)
• Shield: Anti-dragon shield* (Started Dragon Slayer) > Wooden shield* Training shield*
• Amulet: Amulet of magic (40 Mining, 40 Smithing, 24 Crafting, 7 Magic) > Amulet of accuracy (Imp Catcher)
• Boots: Leather boots*
• Gloves: Leather vambraces* (11 Crafting)
• Weapon: Elemental staff

* = provides no offensive bonus

Boosts

Beer - Strength +4% (HP +1 & Attack -7%)

Draynor Manor cabbage - Defence +1-3

Dwarven stout - Mining and Smithing +1

Strength potion (made by Apothecary) - Strength +10% + 3

Wizard's mind bomb - Magic +2 (if under 50) or +3 (if over 50)

Energy potion - Boosts energy by 10% (made by Apothecary)

FAQ

Q: I just started. What should I do?

A: Quest as much as possible to get starter GP. The only quest you should wait to do (if you plan to remain f2p long term) is Rune Mysteries because it can be exploited to farm talismans. Do Sheep Shearer, Witch's Potion, and Vampire Slayer as soon as possible for early XP. The biggest quest to complete is The Knight's Sword, which takes you from 1-29 Smithing. After getting 12 quest points you can do Black Knights Fortress for 2500 GP. The Stronghold of Security gives 10k coins if you complete it. Some Ultimate Ironmen purposefully don't complete the Stronghold so that in case of death, the 10k can be used as rebuild money.

Q: How do I get a mith/addy/rune axe and rune scimitar?

A: Smithing is the only way at the moment. Reasonably, your best axe will be mithril at 50 Smithing with a boost from a Dwarven stout or addy at 70. If you want a rune axe or scimitar, you will need level 86 Smithing or level 90 Smithing, respectively.

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

A: The only way to get these is through drops. Ogress Warriors and Ogress Shamans drop all three of these at a fairly common rate. Moreover, the warriors can be safespotted but, unlike other melee monsters, they are very resistant to magic. For law runes, Ankou (level 67 at the least) are the best. Hill Giants, Moss giants, & Ice Giants drop them uncommonly. For natures and cosmics, Dark wizards and Hill Giants are the best. For cosmics, there's also a spawn in Frozen Waste Plateau by the Ice warriors. For natures, there are spawns in the deep Wilderness that must be telegrabbed, 1 law = 3 natures.

Q: For ultimate ironmen, what should we always have in the inventory?

A: Beginners: Keep law runes, nature runes, your cash stack, and your pickaxe. Nature runes and law runes are good for boosting smithing experience rate. Everything else should be easily obtainable or wearable. In the beginning, you will probably need to keep a few more things since money is less readily available. Hold on to your amulet of accuracy until you plan to get 70 Crafting. Players may wear ranged gear at all times, since it's relatively light and works for both ranged and melee. Mage gear is easy to obtain, so grab that only when you want to train mage.

Advanced: As levels become increasingly difficult to advance, players generally tend to spend more time doing an activity. It becomes important to clear your whole inventory and plan your activities ahead, so that you collect runes/coins and spend them all in one go in order to clear your whole inventory and keep light setup for activities like runecrafting, Wilderness training, or mining, which depend on inventory space. All F2P items are easily obtainable to high level players and they should note that coins can be safely stored in the LMS coffer.

Q: How do I make money?

A: To start off, do Stronghold of security for 10k coins, or pick up steel platelegs/platebody spawns in the Wilderness. Platelegs are in the ruins (level 24 Wilderness), platebodies are in the Lava Maze (lvl 45, bring a knife/sword/dagger to slash webs). Beware of PKers.

The earth staff also spawns inside the Lava Maze before the platebodies (you don't have to worry about the lesser demons if you're a low level). You could either sell them at a General Store or sell them to the staff shop or armour shop.

Combat training should be your primary money-maker because it takes no extra time when efficiently picking up drops between attacks. In the beginning combat can be substituted by smithing & crafting silver unstrung symbols and gold necklaces/amulets or by selling forged items to specialty stores. If selling to a general store, it is beneficial to sell the items in small quantities (5-10) then hopping worlds and doing it again. If you have level 40 Fishing then fishing lobsters at Musa Point, cooking them and selling to nearby store is also a good way to make money.

Random events can be very lucrative in early levels, especially those yielding gems, which you can sell to the gem trader in Al Kharid.

Q: What do I spend my money on?

A: After acquiring the best in slot items from above, you mostly just spend money on arrows and runes. For ults, some money is lost from just emptying your inventory and then reobtaining items when you need them.

Ironmen with extra cash may want to consider purchasing Edgeville respawn point with 5,000,000 coins. This is useful as it unlocks a runecrafting strategy that involves running from the body altar to the monastery, using the Kharid scorpion to kill yourself (requires 31 Prayer), and respawn in Edgeville with 100% run energy.

Q: What skill do I put experience lamps in?

A: Everything could be put into Smithing, since one would theoretically want up to 89 Smithing for rune scimitars, but only 45 Prayer and only Runecraft for gaining total levels. Thus, even though Runecraft is the slowest skill to train, Smithing is the more prudent choice for lamps.

Q: Wait, canoes are F2P?

A: Yes. They make for good transportation in Misthalin area and save run energy. The nearest axes from Lumbridge can be found by talking to the Woodcutting/Firemaking tutor across the river, or off a tree stump in east farm north of the canoe station, as well as from Bob's Brilliant Axes.

Q: Any other tips for saving run energy?

A: Fastest way to Port Sarim and Asgarnian Ice Dungeon or Karamja from faraway location is to home tele to Lumbridge, then run to Shantay Pass. Tell Shantay you're an outlaw, and refuse to pay. He will transport you to the Port Sarim jail. The time difference compared to just walking there is not huge so other locations in Asgarnia, such as Crafting Guild and Falador, are faster reached just by taking a direct route on foot. Another way to save run energy is by using the Minigame teleport to Clan Wars, running into the portal, then teleporting to the place you need to go to.

Q: I lost my accuracy ammy! How do I get it back?

A: You can get a new amulet by giving Wizard Mizgog another set of beads, however you can craft an Amulet of defence at 27 Magic and 31 Crafting.