Old School RuneScape Money Making Guide for Beginners
Old School RuneScape (OSRS) is a game where players can achieve great success by gathering resources, crafting items, and engaging in various activities. One of the most sought-after goals for many OSRS players is to make money. Whether you're looking to fund your future in-game ventures, purchase better gear, or simply enjoy the game more freely, understanding how to make money early on is crucial. This guide provides a comprehensive approach to money-making for beginners, exploring easy-to-access methods that can help you start building your in-game wealth without requiring an extensive amount of time or advanced skills.
Why Making Money in OSRS is Important
Money is the lifeblood of Old School RuneScape. It enables you to:
Upgrade gear: High-quality gear is essential for bossing, PvP, and higher-level content.
Train skills: Many skills, such as Crafting, Smithing, and Herblore, require significant amounts of money for supplies.
Unlock content: Several quests, activities, and areas in OSRS gold or materials to access.
As a beginner, it's easy to feel overwhelmed with the vast number of ways to earn gold. However, there are a handful of low-level money-making methods that are simple and accessible, allowing you to accumulate wealth without significant skill requirements.
1. Cutting Logs (Woodcutting)
Woodcutting is one of the most accessible skills for new players. All you need is an axe, which can be easily obtained, and a location with trees to chop down. This skill is incredibly beginner-friendly and can be turned into a consistent money-making method.
How to Make Money:
Chop Regular Trees: As a beginner, you can chop regular trees to gather logs. The price of logs fluctuates, but they are always in demand for skills like Firemaking and Construction.
Progress to Oaks and Willows: Once you've gained a bit of experience, move on to oak trees and willows, which provide faster experience rates and higher-value logs. Willow logs are especially profitable, as they are used in Fletching and Firemaking by higher-level players.
Sell Logs on the Grand Exchange: Sell your chopped logs at the Grand Exchange for a steady profit. Willow logs tend to offer the best profit per hour.
Best Locations:
Varrock South: Close to the Grand Exchange, making it easy to bank logs and sell them.
Taverley: Offers a more peaceful environment for chopping down willows.
Profit Potential:
Willow logs can earn you around 50-100k per hour depending on the market.
Regular logs will earn a small but steady profit, around 10-20k per hour.
2. Mining Ores (Mining)
Mining is a great method for beginners to start making money. Mining ores such as copper, tin, iron, and coal provides a steady income without requiring expensive gear or highly advanced skills.
How to Make Money:
Copper and Tin Ores: These ores are abundant and easy to mine, but they don't yield much profit on their own. However, iron ore becomes a valuable resource later.
Iron Ore: As you progress and unlock higher mining levels, you'll want to mine iron ore (at level 15) and then coal (at level 30) for more profit. Iron ore is highly sought after, especially for players working on Smithing.
Banking: Always bank your ores and sell them on the Grand Exchange. You'll find that iron ore, coal, and sometimes gold ore can bring in a decent profit per hour.
Best Locations:
Varrock South-East Mining Site: For copper and tin ores, this is an excellent starting point.
Mining Guild: Once you have level 60 Mining, you gain access to the Mining Guild in Falador, which increases your efficiency with a 4% experience boost and multiple iron rocks.
Profit Potential:
Iron ore can bring in 50-80k per hour depending on your efficiency and pickaxe.
Coal can earn up to 100k per hour at higher levels, as coal is always in demand for Smithing and Fletching.
3. Fishing (Fishing)
Fishing is another beginner-friendly skill that allows you to make steady money with minimal requirements. The best way to get started is by fishing shrimp and anchovies before progressing to trout and salmon.
How to Make Money:
Shrimp and Anchovies: These are easy to catch and can be sold for a small but steady profit. Use a small fishing net to catch these.
Trout and Salmon: After reaching level 20 Fishing, you can fish trout and salmon at the Barbarian Village. These fish are in demand for cooking and fletching and can be sold for a profit.
Fishing Spot Locations: Look for cage fishing spots or fly fishing areas for the best profit.
Best Locations:
Lumbridge Swamp: This area is ideal for shrimp and anchovies.
Barbarian Village: Offers trout and salmon at a low level of Fishing.
Profit Potential:
Shrimp: Earns around 5-10k per hour early on.
Salmon and Trout: These can bring in 50-150k per hour, depending on the demand in the market and your fishingefficiency.
4. Killing Chickens (Combat)
While combat isn't typically a high-profit activity for beginners, killing chickens offers easy money early on. Not only do you gain combat experience, but you also collect feathers and raw chicken, both of which are used in Cooking or can be sold on the Grand Exchange.
How to Make Money:
Kill Chickens: Use basic combat equipment to kill chickens. The feathers can be sold for a decent profit, especially if you gather them in bulk.
Raw Chicken: You can also collect raw chicken to sell for a small amount of gold or cook it to turn it into cooked chicken for a slightly higher price.
Best Locations:
Lumbridge: The Lumbridge farm contains chickens and is right next to a bank, making it a convenient location for beginners.
Falador: Chicken and feather collection here will yield additional profits.
Profit Potential:
Chickens offer a small but steady income, approximately 5-10k per hour depending on how much time you dedicate.
5. Crafting Leather Items (Crafting)
Crafting can be a profitable skill for beginners, especially if you start by crafting leather items. While it requires a bit more investment in terms of resources, the return on investment is worth it once you gain access to higher-level crafting.
How to Make Money:
Craft Leather Items: Using cowhide, you can craft various leather items, such as leather gloves or leather boots. These can then be sold for a profit.
Tanning Cowhides: You can also tan cowhides into leather using the tanning process at locations like the Al Kharid Tannery. The tanned leather is used in Crafting and Smithing.
Best Locations:
Lumbridge Swamp: Cowhides are readily available, and you can use the nearby Al Kharid Tannery to tan them.
Profit Potential:
Tanning and crafting leather items can net you 20-50k per hour, depending on the method you use.
6. Thieving (Thieving)
Thieving is an underrated money-making skill for beginners. By stealing from various NPCs, you can make steady money early on.
How to Make Money:
Steal from Stall Vendors: Start by stealing from the fruit stalls in Varrock or the Silk Stall in Ardougne.
Pickpocketing: Once you reach higher levels, you can pickpocket NPCs like Guards, Master Farmers, or H.A.M. Members, which yield significant profits.
Best Locations:
Varrock and Ardougne are two of the best locations to start your Thieving career, with several stalls and NPCs available to pickpocket.
Profit Potential:
Thieving can earn you around 20-50k per hour, depending on the NPC you target and your level.
Conclusion
Making money as a beginner in Old School RuneScape is all about efficiency and smart choices. While high-level methods like bossing or flipping require substantial in-game knowledge and skill, beginners can still find reliable and profitable methods to make buy RS gold early on. Whether you're chopping wood, mining ores, fishing, or crafting, there are plenty of opportunities to build up your wealth and prepare for future endeavors in OSRS.
Start with the basics—Woodcutting, Fishing, and Mining—and gradually expand your money-making techniques as you level up. As your skills and experience grow, you'll unlock even more profitable opportunities that can turn you into a RuneScape mogul in no time!