RuneScape F2P Complete Skill Guide

The aim of this guide is to give F2P players a simple guideline of what they should be doing while training their skills in runescape. This guide will cover every skill, from attack and strength, to runecrafting and fire making. Since the general nature of this guide is bound to make it a little on the larger side, I wont go into extreme detail on anything, but it will be more then enough to get you through. Lets get started with one of the most basic set of skills, the combat skills.

Combat

Attack

The attack skill determines how many times you can hit an opponent. The higher your attack, the more accuracy you’re going to have. A player with a high attack with hit more times in a row then a player with a low attack. Attack also determines which type of weapon you can wield, so while a player with 10 attack may only wield black weapons and lower, a player with 40 attack with be able to wield rune and lower.

Strength

The strength skill will determine how much you hit with your weapon. Strength and attack are two very different things. While attack determines how many times you hit, strength determines the amount you hit. A player with higher strength and lower attack will hit for higher points, but at a lower rate. They may hit a 0, 0, 0, 7, while a player with attack will hit something like 2, 2, 1, 2.

Defense

Defense determines how well you can block against your enemies attacks. While most pures (players who usually train specifically for player killing) will ignore this skill and simply substitute a large amount of food, it’s a good idea for general players to get this up. A player with a high defense will take less damage from an enemy then normal. Defense also determines, like the attack skill, what type of armor you can wear. 10 is black and lower, while 40 is rune and lower.

Training

Level 1 – 20

For most players just starting out, your best bet would be to train at the chickens by Lumbridge. There are two chicken areas, one up along the northern path, and one towards the east. You should have absolutely no problem taking them down. Once you’ve leveled up a bit, you have two choices. You can head way up north to Edgeville and train on the men in the house. There are a lot of them and they’re right close to a bank, and generally low in demand which makes them a great training spot. If you don’t want to do this, you can train on the cows, just east to Lumbridge until level 20.

Level 20 – 40

By this time, you may be able to take down barbarians. They’re located just south of Edgeville. You’ll know where it is if you’ve decided to train on the men up there. Another good enemy to train on is the Al-Kharid Warrior. These guys are located just east to Lumbridge, in the desert area. If you haven’t done the “Prince Ali Rescue” quest, it’ll cost you 10gp to go through the door. If you don’t have 10gp, or are cheap, you can run up north and go around the fence.

Level 40 – 55

You have two options once you’ve hit this point. You can either stay at the barbarians or Al-Kharid warriors, or move on to hill giants. Hill giants are located in the Edgeville dungeon. You can enter it either by going down the hole in the big burned out house in edgeville, or if you happen to have a brass key, by the small shack just east of edgeville. I recommend staying at the barbarians, as the hill giants are generally very crowded, and you have to fight for a spot.

Level 55 – 75

Once again, you can either stay back and train on the barbarians (I myself stayed there until level 60), or you can move on to bigger prospects. If you’re feeling brave, you can go after Moss giants on Crandor or Karamja.

Level 75 and up

From this point on, I’d recommend you train on either lesser demons on Karamja/Crandor, or ice giants in the cave just south of Port Sarim. Of course, you can always stick with the lower level monsters that were mentioned earlier if you don’t like to risk dying.

Tips:

1. Always try to use the highest level gear you can
2. When you’re fighting chickens, you can gather their feathers and sell them for some decent gold
3. Cows will drop cowhide, which also go for a good amount of money
4. Burying the bones of everything you kill, this way you can train your prayer while you train combat
5. The men in edgeville will drop earth talismans which can go for 2000 gold each on the exchange
6. The barbarian area has cooked meat that spawns and fires in the back for cooking fish
7. Big bones from hill giants and moss giants are great for prayer
8. BRING SOME FOOD!

Range

The range skill determines your effectiveness with bows (and crossbows for members). Range has it’s advantages in some areas, as you can stand behind and fire over objects, preventing the enemy from attacking you. Range is generally attack, strength, and defense, all rolled into one for a bow. The higher your range, the more damage you do with a bow, the more accurate you are with a bow, and the higher level range armor you can wear.

Training

Range training is like an extremely simplified version of melee training. Train at the chickens until about 10 range, then move on to the cows. If you find the cows a little too tough, just stick with the chickens. Train on these two until about 20 range, then move on to the barbarians. That’s it. Once you can kill barbarians, you really don’t need to move on to anything else. The barbarians are IDEAL for range training. If you want, you can always move on, but I’d seriously recommend staying here until about 60-70 range.

Tips:

1. Always pick up your arrows, saves a great deal of money
2. Get a training bow and arrows from the tutor in lumbridge and use them until level 20, saves money
3. Bring the proper armor. Range armor will give a big damage boost while armor will actually take it away
4. Always try to use the highest level gear you can
5. Buy bundles of about 500 arrows each time you run out

Magic

Magic is the use of runes and staves to cast spells at your enemy to either hurt or weaken them. There are also teleportation spells and some other spells for specific uses. The fundamentals of magic and range are basically the same. You can fire over some objects, preventing the enemy from attacking.

Training

Level 1 – 9 

You’ll be using the Level 1 Wind Strike spell until level 9. This requires 1 air and 1 mind rune.

When it comes to starting out on magic, you have a few more options. The first option is still the chickens. You can pick up the feathers and use the income to fuel your rune supply. This would probably be your best bet. If, however, you have a decent supply of runes, you can train on the black knight in the Port Sarim jail. Since he wears black armor, he’s very susceptible to magic attacks. The last option is the lesser demon at the top floor of the wizard tower. He’s in a cage, so he proves no threat.

Level 9 – 20

You’ll be using the Level 9 Earth Strike spell. This requires 2 earth, 1 air, and 1 mind rune. If, however, you can afford buying an extra air, or have an air staff in your possession, you can use fire strike at level 13.

The same areas still apply. You can train on the black knight in the jail, the lesser demon in the wizards tower, or the cows just east of the chickens. The cows will drop cow hide, which you can use to fuel your rune supply. Another option is to cast the weaken, confuse or curse spells on the zamorak druid in Varrock castle.

Level 20 – 39

You’ll be using the Level 13 Fire Strike spell. This requires 3 fire, 2 wind, and 1 mind rune.

Same areas still apply. Lesser demon, dark knight, or cows.

Level 39 – 55

You’ll be using the Level 39 Crumble Undead spell. This requires 2 earth, 2 air and 1 chaos rune.

This spell is probably the best one you can use to get exp until level 55. The best place to train is in the Varrock sewers, up in the northern part. There’s a group of zombies/skeletons across a small stream. Obviously the best tactic would be to stand on one side and fire over at them to prevent them from attacking. Train here until level 55.

Level 55 and up

From this point on, you can either continue using the crumble undead spell, or you can switch over to the high level alchemy spell. It’s up to you which you choose. The best option, however, would be to use the high level alchemy, seeing as you can use the gold you make to simply buy more runes. However, unless you’re a member, you’re probably going to lose a little bit of profit each time. I’ve heard that ruby rings are the best item to alch.

Tips:

1. Always try to keep your rune supply up. Buy one of each stave when you have enough money to burn
2. Wear the proper mage gear for a damage boost.
3. Bring some backup gear (range or melee, whichever you’re better in) if something goes wrong, as well as food
4. Chicken and cows are best for income, but the black knight is always best for experience

Prayer

Prayer is basically a no-strings-attached boost to your players stats. Simply enable a prayer to have it’s effects become active. The only drawback is, the more prayers you activate, the more prayer points you lose, and once you have 0 prayer points, you have to pray at an alter. The number of prayer points you have is the same as your prayer level, and the more points you have, the longer the effects last.

Prayer goes along with pretty much any method of fighting you choose. You gain prayer experience by burying bones. The best way to train prayer is by either killing hill giants in the edgeville dungeon, or moss giants on Crandor or Karamja and gathering their big bones. Big bones give you 15xp, as opposed to 4xp for regular bones. Hill giants, however, are generally very crowded. Just bury any bones you come across and you’ll be on your way.

Skills

Now that we have those out of the way, lets get started on the non-combat skills. This will cover mining, smithing, fishing, cooking, wood cutting, fire making, crafting, and rune crafting. So lets get to work.

Mining

Mining is the skill that allows you to mine ores, which you then burn down and turn into bars, used for making armor and weapons. There are two methods to mining, one where you bank the ores to either sell or smith the ore later on, or the one where you simply drop it. I’m only going to point out the areas closest to banks, seeing as you can drop anywhere.

Level 1 – 20

Mine the copper and tin ore in the area south-east of Varrock. This areas is closest to the bank, so you can easily make runs. You can do one load of tin, then one of copper, back and forth. This way, you get equal amounts for smithing later on.

Level 20 – 30

From level 20 on, you can start mining iron ore. You now have two options. If you’re only training experience and don’t care about banking, you can head up to the hobgoblin mines in the wilderness and mine the iron there. If you’re only carrying your pick and ore, you wont lose much if you die. If, however, you’re banking the iron ore for later use, you can stay at the mine south-east of Varrock.

Level 30 – 60

You now have the option to mine coal. You can either go off and find some coal to mine, or you can continue with your iron. It’s always a good idea to find a combination of iron and another ore, so you can mine the iron while you wait for the other ore to respawn. Once you hit 55, you can also mine mithril ore.

Level 60 – 85

You can now enter the mining guild. Head over there ASAP and start mining and banking all the iron and coal you can. You’ll be leveling in no time. Just keep repeating over and over and you’ll reach your goal in no time.

Level 85 and up

85 is basically the max. You’re done, not much else to do. You can now mine rune ore for money or smithing, or continue with your iron and coal. Getting to 99 will only make things go faster.

Tips:

1. Upgrade your pick as soon as you can
2. It’s best if you bank the ore, so you can train your smithing after you’re done
3. If you bank everything you mine up until 85, you’ll have enough ore to get your smithing to at least 70+
4. If you’re mining higher level ore, make sure there’s iron around so you have something to do during respawn times

Smithing

Smithing and mining go hand in hand. To smith, you use the ores you’ve mined and make them into bars, which you then hammer into weapons or armor. If you did what I mentioned above, banking everything and simply leveling up to 85, you’re good to go for a looooooong time. If not, read on.

Level 1 – 30

First off, I suggest you do the Knight’s Sword quest. You may want to level up a bit, so as to not die while mining the blurite ore (Very high level monsters around it), or get your prayer up so as to enable a higher level defense prayer. Also, make sure you’re in a very populated world, world 1 is probably best. This way there may be other players there training, so as to protect you from the monsters. There’s a great deal of smithing XP as a reward, and it will really help you in the start.

So if you’ve done that, good for you, you’ve cut some time. If not, simply start mining copper and tin. Aim for about 500 of each. After you’ve got your ore, go to Al-Kharid and use the furnace there. There’s a bank right by, so transportation isn’t a big deal. Smelt your copper and tin together and bank the bars. Once all of your copper and tin is smelted, go to the east bank at varrock and smith the bars in the small smith house to the south into whatever you wish. 1 bar items give 12.5 exp, 2 bars give 25, 3 bars give 37.5, etc. It’s all equal, so it doesn’t matter. Afterwards, you can sell the items you smith. Do this until 30 smithing.

Level 30 – 60

Now you’re going to want to start on steel. Mine, or get someone to mine 2 parts coal to 1 part iron. The best place for this would be at the Al-Kharid mine, just north of Al-Kharid. There are two iron rocks right beside 2 coal rocks. This area may be in high demand however, seeing as it’s extremely convenient. If you have the money, however, you can simply buy the ore you need at the grand exchange. If not, simply mine it and follow the same procedure as before. Smelt at Al-Kharid and smith at Varrock.

Level 60 – 85

Now you have several options. Go to Falador and get someone in the mining guild to mine the ore for you, keep doing what you were doing, or mine/buy a 4:1 ratio of coal to mithril. If you’re getting someone else to mine for you, you’re most likely going to have to split the profit.

Level 85 and up

You’re basically done. You can now smith rune daggers. Go with whatever method you wish, buying, mining, or getting others to mine. Once you hit 99, you’ll be able to smith yourself a nice full set of rune, or sell it for a good amount of cash.

Tips:

1. Try to stick around varrock/al-kharid, seeing as these are the best two areas for F2P people
2. It’s always a good idea to mine for yourself. It takes longer, but you’ll be extremely self sufficient, and get the most profit

Fishing

Fishing is a pretty simply skill. Just find a fishing hole, make sure you’ve got the right equipment, and go at it. Fishing can be very valuable to PKers, and just generally valuable to everyone. So lets get started.

Level 1 – 20

First off, you’re going to need a net. You may have one from the beginners equipment you get after tutorial island, but if not, you can get one at the fishing shop in Port Sarim, at the grand exchange, or sometimes even in general shops.

Once you’ve got one, head over to Al-Kharid. Just south of the bank is 2 fishing spots. Simply fish here until level 20. You can bank what you catch if you like, so as to cook them later.

Level 20 – 40

Now we’ll be using a fly fishing rod. Buy one from the Port Sarim shop, or the grand exchange. You’re also going to need feathers, so you’re either going to have to buy them, or kill chickens to get some. Get A LOT, it shouldn’t take long to get 1000 or so from the chicken coups near Lumbridge.

Once you’re stocked up, you have 2 options. You can fish at the river near Lumbridge and bank in the castle, or you can fish at the barbarian village and bank at Edgeville. I recommend fishing by the village, seeing as you can stop by the big hut and cook what you catch before hand, and it takes a little less time to bank. If you run out of feathers, head back up to the chicken coup if you’re by Lumbridge, or the Champions guild (If you can enter) if you’re by the barbarian village.

Level 40 – 60

You can now catch lobsters. Get yourself a lobster pot from Port Sarim or the grand exchange, and make sure you’ve got 60gp on you.

Take the boat to Karamja and head to the dock a little ways to the north. Simply sit here and fish away. To my knowledge, there’s no bank on Karamja unless you’re a member, so don’t expect to bank very easily. There are also no trees around, so you’re going to have to rely on other players for fire, or bring some logs yourself. This is, however, the only place you can fish lobster as a F2P player.

Level 60 and up

That’s it, you can catch everything available to a F2P player. You can continue fishing lobsters, or you can start fishing swordfish. They can be caught in the same place as lobsters. However, if you decide to go for swordfish, you’re going to catch tuna as well, which means it may take longer to fill up your inventory.

Tips:

1. Banking can help with your cooking later on
2. Only bank lobsters and sword fish if you need them, as it takes a long time to go back and forth

Wood Cutting and Fire Making

These two skills aren’t exactly the best for income, but are fairly simple and easy to do. Make sure you’ve got a hatchet handy and a tinder box and you’re good to go.

Level 1 – 15

Just chop down normal trees. They can be found basically everywhere. Light the logs on fire.

Level 15 – 30

Chop down oak trees just south of Varrock, or east of Draynor bank. Light the logs on fire.

Level 30 – 60

Chop down willows until 60. Yes, it may seem like a long, boring process, but it’s the only way. There are 10 south of Rimmington, and 6 just east of Draynor bank. Light the logs on fire.

Level 60 and up

That’s it. Yep. Not much to it. But at least now you can start turning in a minor profit. There are 3 yew trees north of Varrock Palace, 3 south of Falador, 4 north of Rimmington, and 2 south of Edgeville bank. I’d recommend using the 2 south of Edgeville, as you can bank the logs. Yew logs will actually sell for quite a bit.

Tips:

1. Try to upgrade your axe as soon as you can use the next level axe
2. You should sell yews instead of burning them, as they sell for quite a bit

Cooking

Cooking can be a very profitable skill. People are always buying lobsters and swordfish, so as to go PKing and such. There are several different ways to go about getting your cooking level up, but here are some of the fastest.

Level 1 – 35

You can start the cooks assistant quest for an easy 300 experience. It should get you off to a nice start.

This may seem like a big jump right at the start, but there’s no other really fast way. Simply start killing chickens/cows and cooking the meat they drop. You may need to make yourself a fire or run over to Lumbridge castle to use the range, but if you keep at it, it wont take long at all.

Level 35 – 50

At this point, you’ll be able to get into the cooking guild, and you’ll be able to make wine. Wine is probably the best method to go about getting experience. It doesn’t take long at all, only requires 2 ingredients, and gives quite a fair amount of experience. Get 14 jugs filled with water, and bank as many grapes as you can by any means necessary. Simply use the grapes with the water, wait 15 seconds, empty, re-fill, repeat.

Level 50 – 60

By now, you’ll be able to cook lobsters efficiently. If you want, you can start on lobsters, or keep going with the wine. If you have the patience, you can either catch or buy lobsters to cook, although as a F2P player, it will take quite a bit of time to catch them.

Level 60 and up

And by level 60, you’ll be able to cook swordfish efficiently. You can start on these, but they will probably be the same as lobsters (Slow and boring). You can always buy them if you’re not into working. Wine is still and excellent option.

Tips:

1. You shouldn’t start cooking a food as soon as you reach the level requirement, as it will burn most of the time
2. The range in Lumbridge castle burns food less then normal fires
3. You should stick with making wine pretty much as soon as you can, as it is the fastest way to make exp

Runecrafting

Runecrafting is what you can do to create runes yourself, rather then buying them or killing monsters for them. To unlock the runecrafting skill, you’ll need to do the Rune Mysteries quest. It’s a fairly easy quest, so don’t worry. Once you’ve done it, you’re going to need the talisman of the rune you want to make. Here’s a list of the F2P talismans with the monsters that drop them:

• Air – Goblins, Wizards, Air Wizards 
• Mind – Imps, Wizards, Dark Wizards
• Water – Wizards, Dark Wizards, Water Wizards
• Earth – Earth Wizards, Men/Women, Wizards, Dark Wizards, Lesser Demons, Al-Kharid Warriors
• Fire – Fire Wizards, Wizards, Dark Wizards, Skeletons
• Body – Giants, Guards, Wizards, Dark Wizards

These are the only talismans F2P players can get. You’ll either have to kill the monster listed, or buy them from the grand exchange. You can craft the rune onto a tiara, which simply means one free inventory space. You NEED the talisman with you, or else you can’t enter the alter you want to craft at.

Level 1 and up

Simply mine as much rune essence as you can in the rune mines (You’ll know how to get there when you finish the quest) and bank them. Just stock pile on them. You mine them like any other rock, so be sure to bring a pick with you. Once you have a bunch, take out an inventory full along with your talisman or tiara and head to the altar. Use the essence on the altar and bam, you’ve got yourself some runes. Just keep doing this and level up as much as you want. the higher your level, the more runes you’ll get per essence.

Here’s a list of the runes you can make at certain levels:

• Air – Level 1
• Mind – Level 2
• Water – Level 5
• Earth – Level 9
• Fire – Level 14
• Body – Level 20

That’s it. You only need level 20 runecrafting as a F2P player to make all of the available rune types. This shouldn’t stop you from training though, as a higher runecrafting gets you more runes per essence. At level 99, 1 essence at the air altar will make 10 air runes. That’s 280 air runes per trip if you have a full inventory.

Crafting

I personally haven’t found any extremely useful for the crafting skill on a F2P account, except for maybe making jewelry, but it still has it’s advantages. So here’s how to train it effectively.

The ‘bulk’ method, level 1 – 38

I call this the bulk method because you’re getting everything you need before you even start crafting. First off, kill the cows east of Lumbridge. Gather and bank as much leather as you can. You’re going to need about 1200 to make it to level 38 (so as to craft tiaras). It’ll seem like an extremely long and tedious job, but it’s the fastest and easiest way to raise your level. Once you’ve got those, take them over to the tanner in Al-Kharid. He’ll tan them for 1gp each. Get them all tanned and bank them again. Once you’ve got those, buy a needle and 240 things of thread. Make gloves, then when you can, boots, then cowls, then vambraces, then bodies, then chaps. By the time you’re done, you should have around 38 crafting, give or take.

Level 38 and up

Now all you have to do is craft tiaras until you reach your desired level. You can mine silver from the mine north of Al-Kharid, or at the mine at the south-west corner of Varrock. Bank as much as you can, then go to Al-Kharid and smelt them into bars. Find yourself a tiara mould and then use the bars on the furnace again and there you go.

Once you have 40 crafting, you can do this at the crafting guild.

The ‘normal’ method

Simply take the leather to the tanner as soon as you get them and turn them into boots until you can do the next highest. They’re just simply 2 different styles. Pick which one works best for you and go for it.

Conclusion

Oh my god it’s finally done. Hopefully this helps a lot of people out. Only took 5 hours to write