Money making guide

This provides players with a list of ideas that can help them make money. Making money can be a long and arduous process, so bear in mind that no matter how fast and effective one method may be, it still takes time and patience to earn and hold onto large amounts of money.

Accumulating wealth by legitimate means is a long and arduous process, and it doesn't happen overnight.

Key: AF = Value at first sell, Min = minimum value regardless of how many are in the General store.

Starting off
At the start of game it is best to make money by killing cows. Not only does it help initially train your Combat stats, collecting cowhides and selling them for around 250 each will bring you in a nice bundle of cash to start the game. You should also try chickens, which drop feathers which go for 4 coins each.

Players can also visit the Stronghold of Security for a quick cash pile. Players only need to complete the first 3 levels to get 10,000 coins. This can be done even at level-3 Combat. Just pick some cabbages on the way there from the field north of Lumbridge and eat between rooms. Also, some trout or salmon can be picked up if in a populated world with players who fish and cook at Barbarian Village.

Alternatively, killing the level-3 skillers on PVP worlds (up until level 14) can yield massive gold rewards from the PK's. It is also a very low impact entry into PVP worlds, which would tremendously help raise your confidence levels if you're a new player that is interested in PVP. It's highly recommended to train strength up until level 14 to maximise the damage done to the vulnerable skillers.

Killing Chaos druids members
Killing chaos druids is very profitable since they drop herbs frequently, which usually sell for between 500 and 800 coins each. Depending on your Combat level, a full inventory of herbs and some Law runes and Mithril bolts take about 15 minutes. They are located in Edgeville Dungeon towards the north, and the Taverley Dungeon at the north-east. To make extra money, get Fire talismans from chaos druids, attain level 20 in Herblore, and drop all the herbs you can identify or take the herbs to Nardah in the desert south of Al-Kharid to be identified and sell them clean.

Killing tree spirits
To kill tree spirits, you need to have unlocked the Fairy rings and enter the code. Bring any axe and cut any tree and a Tree spirit will spawn. One of the flaws with this method is that they don't give experience (except from the xp you get for casting a spell). The Tree Spirits drop axes (steel, mithril, adamant and rune), a lot of Nature runes, herbs, seeds etc.

Killing fire giants
Fire giants in the Waterfall Dungeon unlocked during the Waterfall Quest drop many valuable items, such as Rune scimitars and Rune kiteshields. They are usually very crowded, but if you can find an empty world to kill them,you can make a lot of money.

Killing dark wizards
Dark wizards, located South of Varrock, are level 7 and 20 wizards that can easily be killed by low levels. They drop Talismans, and a decent amount of runes, ranging up to Blood runes quite commonly. Talismans can be sold to runecrafters for a decent sum of money. Fire Talismans are commonly dropped, and can be sold to runecrafters for up to 20000 gold each.

Killing Flesh Crawlers
To kill flesh crawlers, you need to go to the second level of the stronghold of security, south into the large room containing them. They drop herbs commonly as well as: fire runes, noted iron ore, nature runes and smoke runes. If you can identify ranarr weeds and have a decent defence and armour then you may stay for 24 ranarrs, and ~10,000 fire runes as well as iron ore and nature runes each trip, worth over 400,000. If you cannot identify them and/or you have low survivability then just bank all of your herbs and a glory could be useful for the edgeville bank. Dust runes are optional to take, they sell for a fair amount, however they are difficult to sell.

Killing green dragons
Green dragons are level 79 and are located at several points in the wilderness. They always drop Dragon Bones and Green Dragonhide which are very easy to sell in the player market as they are one of the best methods for prayer and crafting xp. be careful though, many players pk in that area and there is a high risk of dying so always bring your teleport!

Fishing
Initially, fishing is quite a non-profitable skill to train. You cannot really start making money until you can catch trout using a fly fishing rod. From there you can begin to train on the highest fish you can catch. The higher the level you have the faster you will catch fish. For example Tuna at level 35 fishing will go slightly slow at 35, however, at 99 fishing one may catch tuna at a very fast rate, along with catching some sword fish.

Levels 1-20
At this point begin fishing shrimp. You can catch them south of Lumbridge. Shrimp really will not sell for anything, so you can drop them to speed train up to a higher level to sell.

Levels 20-35/40
From here, begin to fly-fish trout. The best place to bait-fish and fly-fish is south of Edgeville. There are a few spots just east of Barbarian Village. This a popular spot to train for lower levels to train and catch fish to sell. You can catch the next highest fish if you want also. At level 25 you can catch pike. At level 30 you'll start to catch salmon with your trout.

At level 35, you can start to catch tuna with harpoon fishing. This is very hard to do for non-members due to the fact that they only have one place to catch them on Musa Point. For members however, Catherby is going to be the greatest spot to train for a while and it is very popular. There are plenty of spots to train east of the bank. If you stick with this method, around level 50, you will catch swordfish. At level 40 begin to catch lobsters.

Levels 40-55/62/76/99
Fishing lobsters at a fairly high level between level 40 and 62 will bring you a good chunk of money. However, it's not recommended to fish lobsters if you can fish monkfish, because lobsters only bring you about 50k-100k gp per hour. After the Swan Song quest, you can fish monkfish. This is noticeably quicker than catching lobsters or sword fish, but usually only higher level players are here, due to the requirements of Swan Song.

At level 76 you can start catching Sharks. The best place to catch sharks is going to be in the fishing guild. There is a nearby bank to store your load of sharks after you catch them. Catching sharks will earn you decent profit, however, it is still reccomended to fish monkfish if you have all of the requirements completed, earning you just about the same profit, but the EXP you earn is far greater.

Fletching
Rather than heading to the general store to sell the logs that you obtained from woodcutting, carry both a hatchet and a knife while you woodcut, and sell fletched items to the general store, which will yield more profit than simply selling logs to the general store.

Levels 1-5
Arrow shafts sell for 0 gp to the general store, but selling them to other players is great money for beginners. Training 1-20 Fletching by chopping all the logs by yourself and fletching them into arrow shafts would make around 100K coins when sold to other players. This, however, will take a few hours as arrow shafts only award 5 xp per logs.

Levels 5-10
You can fletch unstrung shortbows out of the regular logs you woodcut, and sell the unstrung shortbows (AF = 9 gp; min = 2 gp when there are 10+ shortbows in stock) to the general store for profit.

Levels 10-20
Now you can fletch unstrung longbows out of the regular logs you woodcut, as unstrung longbows sell for greater profit (AF=24 gp; min=6 gp when there are 11+ in stock) at the general store than do unstrung shortbows.

Levels 20-25
You can now go for faster fletching XP with unstrung oak shortbows, but the profit is lower for unstrung oak shortbows (AF=20 gp; min 5 gp when there are 10+ in stock) at the general store than for unstrung regular longbows.

Levels 25-35
You can now make unstrung oak longbows and sell them for profit to the general store (AF=32 gp; min=8 gp when there are 12+ in stock).

Levels 35-40
You can fletch unstrung willow shortbows and sell them to the general store (AF=40 gp; min=10 gp when there are 10+ in stock) for profit.

Levels 40-50
Fletching unstrung willow longbows and selling them to the general store (AF=64gp; min=16 gp when there are 11+ in stock) will generate profit.

Levels 50-55
Making unstrung maple shortbows and selling them to the general store (AF=80 gp; min=20 gp when there are 11+ in stock) can now provide a source of profit for your fletching level.

Levels 55-65
At your fletching level, making and selling unstrung maple longbows to the general store (AF=128 gp; min=32 gp when there are 10+ in stock) begins to yield good profit.

Levels 65-70
At this point, fletching and stringing yew shortbows yield even more profit.

Levels 70-80
Fletch and string yew longbows.

Levels 80-85
Fletch and string magic shortbows.

Levels 85-99
Fletching and stringing magic longbows can yield more xp, and good profit.

Magic
High level alchemy can be a great way of making money, if you got the know-how for buying items to alch for cheap prices. The most commonly alched items are yew and magic longbows, but maple ones are also used too. They don't have to be bought however, you can fletch and string them yourself from scratch and earn over 100gp more per bow by alching them, If you craft your own Nature runes then you get pure profit from doing this method.

Lava dragons
You can travel through the wilderness and safe spot Lava Dragons, and telegrab their loot. It's not recommended to go anywhere near them since they can easily kill you with their fire breath. The amount you get per kill is around 15,000 coins in profit. You will have to bring items you're willing to risk though, so don't go out there with your entire bank.

Mining
Ores can be mined and sold to gain money. Or you can smelt the ores into bars and sell them to players. Generally, coal and iron ore are in high demand by players training smithing. For low level mining, its best to start in the swamp mine (facing the castle in lumbridge, take a left through the cemetery, follow the dirt road) smelt it into bars, bank it, find someone to trade with (bronze bars usually sell for 385 coins each) and repeat. Once you get to mining lvl 15 head to Varrock and mine some iron.

Rune running
One easy method to make large amounts of money is rune running. There are rich players willing to pay people to "run" rune essence for them, either to the bank or to a nearby general store for unnoting.

There are many players and clans involved in rune running services, many of them post advertisements on the RuneScape forums. Generally, the "Runes and Ammo" section is where most players post for this method. Titles such as "25:25, 18:25, 23:25" and so on are what you should be looking for. These numbers are ratios of Runes to Rune essence (or Pure essence).

Law rune running
World 341 and 366 are commonly used for running Law runes. Depending on the crafter, they may require you to hold up to 26 Pure essence in your inventory. Head to Draynor Village for a nearby bank, and be sure you have no weapons, armour, or god clothing (this includes God books) on. If you want to be safe, just don't wear anything.

Once you've boarded the ship, head east until you see a Cooking Range. Travel north, following the path, passing the church and the bridge. Runecrafters will be outside of the Altar, usually typing such things like "23:25 or 25:25" (ratio of Law rune to Pure essence). Trade the player, and offer them your essence. You should receive a significant amount of Law runes in return. Head back to Draynor Village to deposit your runes, and withdraw another inventory of essence, repeating the above steps.

Nature rune running
The other most profitable runes to run are Nature runes. This method can be quite dangerous, so stay alert and consider bringing a one-click teleport item, or teleport jewellery. There are poisonous monsters on Karamja, but you can buy an Antipoison potion from the general store for about 500 coins.

It is highly recommended that you join a clan chat as there are usually crafters online.

The Nature Altar is located north of Shilo Village. Make your way to southern Karamja, or enter the Nature altar through the Abyss for quick travel.

Once you've traded your essence for runes, run to the nearby general store, sell some of your noted essence and buy it back, then repeat the process!

Watch out for other players buying your essence as soon as you sell it, the only way to avoid them is to find a nature running group on a different world.

Smithing
Buy (or mine) iron ore in bulk. Players who power level Mining typically are willing to sell for 60-70gp each. Then buy (or craft) ring of forging and smelt the ore at the Al Kharid furnace. Smith these iron bars at the Varrock anvil and make iron knives. Players typically pay around 65gp per knife. This is a decent source of Smithing xp and decent profit. (Assuming 115gp per iron ore and 2,000gp per ring of forging, making a single set of 5 iron knives yields 195gp profit if you sell the knives for 65gp each.)

Thieving
Please note that as your thieving level progresses so does your chance of success whilst thieving.

Levels 1-5
Start with pickpocketing. Even though pickpocketing your average man or woman will get you very little gp, Edgeville is a very good location for pickpocketing (the building north of the Edgeville bank has numerous targets to pickpocket). The area around Lumbridge Castle is a reasonable alternate location with people to pickpocket. This stage is only to get the required XP for level 5 Thieving (for the cake stall in Ardougne).

Levels 5-15
Stealing cakes from the bakery stall in Ardougne provides faster thieving XP than pickpocketing. You will also have food to bank (should you wish to bank food), and more than enough food to heal yourself in the odd occasion that an Ardougne guard catches you thieving.

Levels 15-35
Ham members will give a selection of items and tools worth a substantial amount, including straight cash, selling the items at their respective shops will bring you about 1k a trip, and there is also a general store nearby, at level 20 you can make a trip about every 4–6 minutes.

At level 20, one can steal silk from the stalls at Ardougne, and sell them back to the silk trader for 60 gp each. To do this, you must not have stolen from a silk stall in the last 30 minutes, and you can only bring him unnoted silk. Talk to him, and offer to sell him silk for 120 gp. He will refuse and offer to buy for 50 gp, say you will sell for 60 gp instead.

As some sort of the same method you can thief grey wolf furs in the stall at the marketplace in ardougne, and sell them in varrock for 120 each to the fur trader there.

At level 28, one can steal from the chest located upstairs in the locked building south-east of the silk stall. You will get 1 nature rune and 3 coins, equating anywhere between 300-615 gp/min. The chest refreshes every 12 seconds. If done correctly, one can earn up to 45k/hr.

Level 28
Stealing at the chest in East Ardougne will give you 1 nature rune and 1 coin every time you steal. You will also receive 25 xp for each action. You can then sell the nature runes you thieve for between 210-250 gp at the moment. The chest has about an 20 second respawn time, which means you can gain up to 11.25K exp per hour, and make about 40K? gp per hour, making it very good monetary gains for its level.

Level 38
Master farmers can be pickpocketed at this level for various many hundreds of types of millions of seeds.

Levels 40-55
Pickpocketing Guards will bring a substantial amount, not much greater than H.A.M. members but in solid cash so you don't have to use time you would have spent selling items. The flow is about 230gp a minute (timing 8 different runs and averaging them).

Levels 55-70
Knights of Ardougne will give a flow almost exactly double that of guards; bringing in about 460gp a min (timed from 16 different runs).

Levels 80+
At this point, anything you steal will give you about the same rate, however the best option is pyramid plunder, and selling the relics for solid cash.

Thieving from Rogue's Castle Chests can award profits upwards of 800k+ an hour, however this is a highly risky area with many player killers present. Caution is recommended in using this method.

Woodcutting
This is currently the fastest method, tied with thieving and smithing, as the items are from the 3, are either easy to sell, or straight cash on hand, being more useful then something you cannot sell.

Levels 1-30
Logs are a cheap, ineffective way to make pocket change until you can cut oaks. Plain logs sell for 1 or 0gp in the general store (although regular logs should be sold to other players or used to train fletching), oak logs fetch 10gp at first then 2 once about 20 are sold to the General store (oak logs should also be sold to other players or used to train fletching).

Levels 30-45
Willow logs are worth much more than in the other RuneScape, sell for 24gp AF and 4min, about 3,200gp an hour.

Levels 45-60
Maple logs can be sold cheaply to general store, but are best used to sell to flechers being up to 100gp a log.

You can make about 50k an hour doing so, they also sell 32gp AF and min 7gp ranging about 6,300gp an hour.

Levels 60-99
Yew logs can be sold 420gp and the higher level you are the faster you can get them. They are always going to be in high demand for fletching and firemaking exp, others would merch them. It would be much more ideal to level woodcutting to lv 70 therefore giving a faster rate of logs.

Tips and hints

 * With the same effort you could easily kill cows for their cowhide or beef, mine rune/pure essence, or collect Mort myre fungi or Blue dragon scales, which would make money a lot more easily.
 * Make sure to pick up as much money left on the ground as you can when training or traveling. Although it seems pointless to do so, even small amounts of money can add up to thousands, so picking up that extra small drop from a guard or rock crab counts toward your earnings.
 * The RuneScape Official Forums (or http://forums.zybez.net/runescape-2007-prices ) can be used to help money makers buy and sell items more efficiently and easily.
 * Many people leave random event rewards, such as coins and gems, on ground when spinning flax in Lumbridge castle. Use this to your advantage by going in to a busy world and picking up free items while spinning flax. It might be a good idea to take only 27 flax with you to the spinning wheel so you can pick up any valuables as soon as they appear on the ground.

What else you should read

 * Skill training guides
 * Skills
 * Category:Guides