Herblore is quite an interesting and useful skill found in RuneScape, though sadly it is often neglected and considered a skill which is rather hard to train. The purpose of this guide, however, is to try and change that by giving some rather useful hints to get more experience. Also, it will help you to find good ways to ensure that your level is steadily increasing to higher levels.
As most of you know, Herblore is a skill which is trained through making potions, a process involving putting the desired herbs into a water-filled vial for so to put in a secondary ingredient to finish the potion. Therefore, the best place to train it would be at a place which has a bank positioned quite near a water source. One of the more ideal spots would be Falador's west bank since it has a fountain fairly close, as the below image shows:
Here you can run and refill your empty vials into water-filled vials by running a short trip back and forth to the fountain since the refilling process is quite fast. Also, if you desire to buy herbs, vials or secondary ingredients on the larger markets, you can simply take the short walk to the eastern part of Falador, switch to world 2, the best trade world for members, and position yourself in the area marked with the red square.
Once done, just go back to the western bank and start making those potions.
No matter what way you want to approach the training of Herblore, you can't bypass the fact that you need herbs, lots and lots of herbs. There are 3 ways of getting them, and these are:
1: Acquiring the herbs yourself.
2: Buying the herbs from other players.
3: Grow them yourself by using your knowledge in the art of farming to grow Herb seeds into herbs.
Herbs can be easily acquired through killing monsters, though it is useful to know what to kill since herbs are dropped by everything from a mere level 2 man to the most ferocious dragons and demons.
However, out of all of RuneScape's countless fiends that drop herbs, there is one kind recognized as the best to kill for herbs, the chaos druids. Basically, there are 2 areas where you can find them: In the Taverley Dungeon or in the Yanille Dungeon.
Here is some information about these two areas:
Taverley Dungeon
You'll find the way to the dungeon by following the cyan line on the map of Falador which can be found in the beginning of this guide.
Taverley Dungeon is a rather known place to aspiring herblorists, and therefore it can be fairly crowded at times. When entering the dungeon, just go as far north as possible and follow the turn east. When the path turns south again, you'll see a little room with Chaos Druids.
The place has several spawns for the Chaos Druids and this make it easy to kill druid after druid in rapid succession. Another fortunate thing is that even though these druids only possess a combat level of 13, they quite frequently drop very powerful herbs that require a high level to identify. It is quite a good spot for those who need herbs fast but don't have the necessary skills to collect them from the other area which you'll soon learn more about.
If you want to collect herbs efficiently, I advise you to bring runes for a Falador teleport to get quickly to a bank. This will save you from a long walk and you still are able to get 25 herbs per trip while being guaranteed to get both airs and laws from drops from dead druids.
The entire process of teleporting out of the Dungeon, running to Falador West Bank, and getting back to the druid spot can take a quick 2 minutes and 30 seconds or faster. Just repeat this method until you either get tired of collecting herbs or you have as many as you initially wanted.
Yanille Dungeon
Note: This is the way to train for those with a high level in Agility or Thieving. Having 40 Agility is required, but to utilize the best of it, you really should have 67 agility.
Just follow the black line until you reach the Agility shortcut at the wall, and crawl under it since you have 16 Agility to pass the shortcut if going down in this dungeon.
From the shortcut go slightly north and cut the webs with a sharp slashing weapon, such as a sword or knife. Once through the web, simply go down the stairs and down into the dungeon itself.
Another Note: The red line is either for those with 82 thieving and can thus enter the entrance found below. If you don't possess 82 Thieving, this is the way you will exit the dungeon from if you can get to area 2 on the map below.
When entering the dungeon, turn right of the stairs and cross the Balancing ledge (you need 40 agility to cross), to get to a little area which have 7 spawn points of level 37 Chaos Druid Warriors, which are as good for getting herbs as the weaker Chaos Druids are.
Note: Unless you want to be put through a rather clever trap: Never use the prayer altar here since you'll land in the basement with the poisonous spiders.
If you are 57 Agility or above, you shouldn't kill druids here since you can go deeper in the cave. Follow the path from the ledge until you get to some monkeybars which require the previously mentioned 57 Agility to pass, and try to cross them.
Note: By falling down from the monkeybars, you'll end in the basement where there are a lot of hostile poisonous spiders, and you have to find the set of stairs which leads to the entrance to the dungeon. If you do fall, it is best to go back to the bank and remove the poison, or just drink a dose of a Anti-Poison potion if you decided to bring that before going into the dungeon.
Once you pass the monkeybars though, you'll come to yet a new area which has a door leading to a small room with a set of stairs. This door is ideal to pass once your inventory has been filled with herbs, since those stairs lead to a house right next to the bank in Yanille, as you can see on the red circle on the Yanille map.
However, do not attempt to go from the bank, down the stairs and then try to pass through the door after having banked those herbs. The reason for this is that the door can only be opened by players which have level 82 in Thieving, and thus is impossible to pass for the larger amount of players who have a lower Thieving level.
Apart from that door, there are even more druids here though these ones are the standard level 13 Chaos Druids. There are 7 of them walking around in this area, though mostly near the grave in the middle of the circular room. The idea is that you just stand here and kill the druids until your inventory is entirely filled, then you will just run out the door and go up the stair and store the herbs in the bank. After this, you continue this process until you are satisfied.
This is a great spot to train in, though if you have 67 agility or more, you are advised to go to the next part since it will suit you better. Remember: If you have 82 thieving, these methods will save you even more time since you can picklock the door and return to this area when setting out from the bank.
Now, if you meet the agility requirements for the third and last training spot, go a bit east of the circular room, and follow the path north to go down a set of stairs. Here you'll find a small room with some sacks, a little pool, a lockpick respawn and a pile of rubble which you can climb if you possess that precious 67 agility.
Now that you have entered the last room, know now that you are able to train herblore in the best way which are available for herblorists: Killing Salarin the Twisted and collect Sinister Keys. Few know of this, but in the deepest parts of this Dungeon, a level 70 Chaos druid named Salarin the Twisted lives along with 4 regular level 13 Chaos druids.
Salarin is almost immortal, no weapons or magic can kill him except for one way:
Attacking him with elemental mind attacks ("strike" spells). Basically, this means that to be able to kill Salarin, you can only cast either Wind, Water, Earth or Fire Strike on him to deal damage to him. The best part with this method, is that it is possible to safely mage him from a distance as shown on the image below:
For every fire strike that connects, Salarin will be dealt 12 damage at all times unless he has less hitpoints than that. This means that you only need to hit him around 6 times since he has a total of 70 hitpoints, so stand on the red square or behind it since he can't reach those areas.
Some of you might wonder why killing such a strong Druid is so good, when there are 4 weaker druids a few steps away. The reason for this is that Salarin drops an item once in a while, called a “Sinister Key:"
With this key, you can go back to the area between the monkeybars and that balance ledge as previously mentioned, and crawl through the pipe which has an agility requirement of 49 to pass. In that room you can go to the closed chest and open it by using the key on the chest.
The chest contains the following:
2 Harralanders, 3 Ranarr Weeds, 1 Irit Leaf, 1 Avantoe, 1 Kwuarm and 1 Torstol. This means that getting those keys to open the chest is one of the best ways to get high leveled herbs fast, which again makes it faster to train the skill.
Note: You will set off a poisonous gas trap when opening the chest, so to save time and anti-poison doses, you should get 3 keys first, then bring the keys along with a anti-poison potion to the chest and get the herbs like that, making the process more effective.
This concludes the explanation of how to get herbs yourself since these are generally the best ways.
If you are buying the herbs of other players, there are quite a few things to be on the lookout for. Generally, you should go to World 2 or the official RuneScape forums since these places allow you to buy quite a lot of herbs pretty fast when needed. Of course, since herbs tend to be rather expensive these days, you should be prepared to pay quite a lot for them since herbs doesn't grow on trees in RuneScape. However, this is the best way to get a lot of herbs to level up fast, though again: At a cost.
Herb Prices
You should be aware of the fact that prices tend to change from time to time, so you really should investigate them a bit closer so you get up to date with the current prices so you don't loose money.
The prices below are for sales or purchases on either the official RuneScape forum or on World 2. There is always a good possibility of getting the herbs a lot cheaper at smaller places, though usually at a lower amount.
| Herb Prices | ||
| Herb | Price | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Guam | 300-600gp | This is a herb that varies greatly in price and according to bulk. |
| Marrentil | 300-400gp | A herb which usually are stable due to its hardship of making potions with. |
| Tarromin | 700-1,000gp | This herb varies in price since it is useful to train herblore with. |
| Harralander | 750-1,200gp | People often want to press price up, try and get good bargains here due to large range. |
| Ranarr Weed | 6,000-7,000gp | The herb which is in greatest demand and is the best way to level herblore due to its use for Prayer Potions. |
| Toadflax | 2,000-3,000gp | A herb rather rarely sold in general, though often sold in large bulks when found. |
| Irit Leaf | 1,000-2,200gp | Decent for training and rather cheap for giving good experience, also sold in bulks often. |
| Avantoe | 2,000-2,250gp | A herb neglected due to it being bad to make good potions with. Great exp for herblore though. |
| Kwuarm | 4,000-5,000gp | Another highly sought herb, and its potions sell pretty well. Might be hard to get a bargain. |
| Snapdragon | 6,000-8,000gp | Rarely sold unless in large bulks due to it being generally acquired through farming. |
| Cadantine | 2,500-3,500gp | Another herb which is hard to sell, and again gives good exp. Hard to sell its potion. |
| Lantadyme | 3,000-4,500gp | A sought herb, though rather rare on the markets. |
| Dwarf Weed | 2,000-4,000gp | A herb as rare sold as it is found. Prices varies after this, so be aware. |
| Torstol | 8,000-10,000gp | The rarest herb kind, do not expect this to be commonly sold, and it is extremely expensive. |
Herb farming is very simple. You need only an herb seed, a rake, a seed dibber, and a bucket of super compost to start growing herbs. The process is as follows:
1. Rake the herb patch with your rake to clear away the weeds.
2. Treat the herb patch with super compost.
3. Plant the herb seed using your seed dibber.
4. Wait for the herb to grow, and then pick your herbs, for which you need a spade. You can receive between 4 to 14 herbs per seed.
With super compost, the average is about 6 herbs per seed.
There are 4 herb patches in all of RuneScape. These are located in Catherby, Ardougne, Falador, and Port Phasmatys.
Therefore, in order to be farming herbs efficiently, one should utilize all 4 patches. For example, one possible route is to teleport to Seers, run to Catherby and plant your herbs, then run to Ardougne to plant some more. Then, bank at Ardougne and teleport to Port Phasmatys to grow more herbs and finally teleport to Draynor village to tend the herb patch near Falador.
Herb seeds take about 70 minutes to grow, so you can get planting and picking many herbs in just one day. A good strategy is to plant some herbs, and then go do something else for 70 minutes while they grow like alchemizing items or woodcutting, though you might want to combine farming herbs with collecting herbs from the 2 dungeons above. You can even log out since your herbs will keep growing even while you are gone!
It is recommended to use super compost for all herbs because it is easy to make, although the materials can be annoying to obtain. Either 15 pineapples or 15 watermelons make 15 buckets of super compost, and the fastest way to get these is to either farm watermelons, or go to Heckel Funch's cocktail ingredient store and buy pineapples by follow the instructions which you can find later in the guide, when you are helped with collecting chocolate dust. Using super compost is better than regular compost because you will get more herbs per seed and your herbs will die less often.
The best way to get experience in herblore through farming would definitely too only farm the higher level herb seeds, since making herbs as Guam Leaves and Marrentils becomes quite the waste of time compared to the time consumed and effort put into it.
By farming herbs as Ranarr Weed and the herb types above it, you can get an incredible amount of herblore experience and it is particularly cheap due to Seeds being a cheap way of getting herbs. For instance: A Irit Seed might cost just as much as a Irit Leaf does, though by farming and growing the Irit Seed, you would get 6 herbs for the price of one, and thus 6 times the herblore experience!
To be effective through farming and get as much experience as possible, plant herbs and wait for them to grow, and then head to either Taverley or Yanille Dungeon after own preference, and start killing druids and collect quite a few herbs like this before returning to the herb patches and collecting your newly grown herbs.
Since Secondary Ingredients always determine what a Unfinished Potion will become, so it should not be such a big surprise that they are very important. However, many of them take quite some time to fetch manually, though there are some rather nice ways to follow some shortcuts to collect them.
Eye of Newt
The Eye of Newt is a rather common secondary ingredient and can be found in stores as the Taverley Herblore shop or the Port Sarim magic emporium.
No matter which you choose, both just require you to walk from a Falador bank to shop, buy and either walk back or if you are in a hurry: Teleport to Falador. If you choose to get back to the bank by teleporting though, you should be choosing to buy from Taverley Store to make things more efficient.
Unicorn Horn
These horns are acquired through either killing regular Unicorns or the slightly stronger Black Unicorns. The fastest, though also the most dangerous place to kill them, would have to be in the level 20 wilderness just north of the Chaos temple found in the wilderness at the border of Varrock, and there you can kill level 27 Black Unicorns. Follow the map below to get there quickly, then kill enough unicorns to get a full inventory. Teleport out using a Glory Amulet (to Edgeville), or Varrock Teleport runes, and repeat the process.
Limpwurt Root
Limpwurt Roots might be rather slow to collect in large amount since there aren't many effective ways to gather many in a fast way. You usually have 2 decent methods:
Either farm them if you have 26 farming, or you might have to go to the Hobgoblin area near the Crafting Guild. There are 10 hobgoblins here, so you should try and kill them until you got a full inventory after some time. A slow way, though acquiring Limpwurts usually are slow getting if you are gathering them yourself.
You might looking a bit about going to Free to Play servers and buy from players at Varrock west bank though, or inside the Hill giant Cave since players usually sell quite a few, and generally cheaper than what you have to pay in World 2 or on the official forums.
By farming them however, you only need to plant them at the flower patches and wait 18 minutes or so before you come back and collect the harvest. It is a simple and easy way, and also good way of getting them since Hobgoblins have a tendency of taking way too much time than you would want for obtaining Limpwurt Roots.
Red Spider Eggs
There are 3 places where you can get from, or 4 if you consider going into the Deep wilderness as an option, though only one of these are suited for getting the Eggs very fast and effective.
Head to Edgeville bank and bring a Amulet of Glory with you, then head directly south and climb down the trapdoor where the exclamation mark is on the mini-map.
Go directly north until you reach the end, and then go on through the gate to the east and follow this path.
After you've walked a short bit, you will end up at the wilderness gate just before reaching Vannaka the Slayer Master. Go through the gate, run directly north and you will end up in a small room with Deadly Red Spiders, and more importantly: 6 Spawn points with Deadly Red Spider Eggs.
Just collect 27, rub your Amulet of Glory and teleport back to Edgeville and repeat as many times as needed to get the amount you need.
Note:You will be placed in around level 4-5 wilderness, so don't bring too many valuables, just to be safe.
Blamish Snail Slime
You get this from Mort Myre marsh though you should steer as far away from this secondary item as possible, and the potion as well. Probably one of the worst ways of training herblore there is.
Chocolate Dust
Many players believe that acquiring Chocolate bars are very slow, though they can't have been inside the Grand Tree and explored its stores.
As you can see in the red square above, you notice that the cocktail ingredient store in the Grand Tree has got 10 chocolate dusts and 20 chocolate bars for sale. If you use a Pestle and a Mortar on the chocolate bars, you would make them into chocolate dust, meaning you can acquire 30 at a time.
All you need to do after you have bought up the stock, is to log off RuneScape, quickly switch to another Pay to Play world and buy the chocolate items in this world's store as well, then repeat this and go to yet another world. Eventually the inventory will be full, so just run west on the same floor to the western side of the Tree Trunk and find a bank, store the items, then go back and continue with buying for so to switch world and repeat this process.
However, if you've completed Recipe for Disaster, you'll have access to the Cullinaromancer's Chest, which is usualy stocked with 50 Chocolate bars at a time!
White Berries
The white berries are a general pain to get since they are only found in two areas in RuneScape: The Red Dragon Isle in deep wilderness, or outside of Lletya, an elven city in Isafdar. If you haven't done Underground Pass, Regicide and Roving Elves and not started Mourning's End Part 1, your only choice is to go far into the wild to get them or acquire through farming. However, if you have access to Lletya then things look fairly good since they can be collected rather easily from this spot.
First of all, start off by killing the Elven Warriors, both the level 90 archers, and the pike wielding level 108 Warriors. After a while you will start getting some Tiny Elf Crystals as drops, and these are the ones you are looking for. Get as many as desired, though remember that each of these will give you 3 free teleports to Lletya when charged.
Ok, now that you have enough Crystals as desired, withdraw around 5000 GP and the Crystals, and follow the red line above until you reach the cyan square representing the weird Tree door which is the entrance to Lletya. When you have passed the Tree and thus left the city, follow the yellow line through the forest to reach the Green dot.
Here you might find Eluned, the elf that you met during Roving Elves, though if she is not there you will have to just wait since she will soon appear in that spot. When she appears, talk to her and allow her to enchant each Crystal for a cost. When all Crystals have been enchanted, go back the same way and bank all of them save 1 of the crystals and the remaining money.
Then you can withdraw 1 Anti-Poison potion so 2 inventory spaces are taken, and then prepare to leave yet again. Follow the red line out of Lletya, then follow it from the cyan square and try and pass the Tripwire trap, then continue and jump over the leaf trap and still follow the red line until you get to the second tripwire trap. Evade this last trap and finally reach the White Berry spawn point. Now, just stay on the same spot and pick that berry over and over again, though it respawns incredibly fast.
You should easily get over 10 berries per minute like this, so that is why this is so preferred instead of going all the way into the wilderness. When the inventory is full, just teleport to Lletya with the Crystal and bank the berries, heal if needed, and go out and get another load.
Note: You can also farm them, but compared to the Lletya way it is extremely inferior, however it might be an option if you can't access Lletya.
Toad Legs
Toad legs can be found in the little marsh North West in the Tree Gnome Stronghold and has quite a few respawn of them. All you really need to do is run from the nearest bank, collect as much as you can as fast as possible and run right back and bank. It really can't be done easier and it is rare that things in general can be done as fast as this.
Snape Grass
Method 1:
Snape Grass is probably the most commonly used secondary ingredient for Herblore, perhaps with the exception of Eye of Newt, and thus it is highly sought by players. People usually tend to go to the little peninsula near the Crafting guild, the same place where you find the Hobgoblins for Limpwurt Roots actually, and pick the Grass from the 2 spawns which you find there.
Though yet again, what the majority tend to do isn't always the best, not by far in some instances and especially not in this case if you have done the quest Fremennik Trials.
First of all, wield a woodcutting axe in your weapon inventory slot, bring a fletching knife and take 13,000 gp and runes for a Camelot Teleport, then go to the entrance to the village of Rellekka.
Follow the cyan line to the Tree icon on the map, then cut 13 branches of the Swaying tree and fletch them with your knife into Unstrung Lyres. When done, throw away the knife and follow the line further to Lalli, the troll which you encountered before on the Fremennik Trial quest.
Buy 13 golden wool for 1,000gp per with the cash you brought and when done, teleport to Camelot and run to Seers and spin them on the Spinning Wheel found in this village. After they are spun, use the golden strings on the unstrung lyres, and now you are nearly done.
Get a hold of 13 raw sharks and go back to Rellekka with the runes needed for a Camelot teleport, then follow the blue line from the town entrance and reach the yellow square symbolizing Fossegrimen. Here you'll have to use all of the sharks on the altar to get 13 enchanted lyres, then teleport to Camelot and run to the Seers' bank so you can bank the 12 lyres and withdraw 1 Duel ring.
Hint: If you have a Ring of Charos (a), you can charm the Fossegrimen to accept Bass instead of Sharks.
Now for the actual part of getting the Snape Grass, though from here on it goes incredibly fast. Each lyre you enchanted give you 2 teleports to Rellekka, which makes it a total of 26 teleports. This again means 27 Snape Grass per teleport, adding up to a total of 702 Snape Grass for every time you use all of the teleports of your 13 lyres.
Use a teleport and land at the white square which is the entrance to the town. From here on, just follow the red line to the docks, talk to Jarvald and answer "Yes" to go to Waterbirth, and end up at the end of the red line. What you'll notice directly at the end of the trip, is that there is 6 spawns of Snape Grass around the boat, which you might see here:
There is 3 on the left side of the boat and 3 on the right, so just pick them and when you have filled your inventory, rub your Duel Ring, teleport to Castle Wars, bank the Grass in the bank chest. Use the lyre yet again to repeat the process of going to Waterbirth, collect Snape Grass, bank and go for a new round.
Method 2:
For this method, you must have finished Lunar Diplomacy, and have level 72 Magic.
Switch to Lunar Magics by praying at the Astral altar. Wield a Mud staff, Astral runes and Law runes in inventory. Execute Waterbirth teleport, collect Snapegrass, Moonclan teleport and bank the Snapegrass. Repeat as often as needed. If a Mud staff isn't available, wield either a Water staff or Earth staff with the other runes in your inventory.
Moonclan Teleport Requires: 2 Astral runes, 1 Law rune, 2 Earth runes. Waterbirth teleport: 2 Astral runes, 1 Law rune, 5 Water runes.
Mort Myre Fungi
Notoriously hard to get before the advent of Player Owned Houses it now has become a close contender for Snapegrass to use your Avantoes. There are a few pre-requisites to use this method:
1. Finished Nature Spirit.
2. Finished Desert Treasure.
3. A Player Owned House with an Altar and a Portal Room with one portal directed at Canifis (Kharyll teleport)
4. A prayer level of 60 or higher.
To maximize time spent you will also need either Amulets of Glory or a supply of Rings of Dueling. Other beneficial items: Boots of Lightness and a Spottier (or Spotted) Cape.
Method to use: Inventory consists of a Blessed Silver Sickle, 1 house teleport (tablet or any suitable combination of runes, just make sure when cast all inventory spots become empty). Teleport to your house, pray at your altar to make sure you have full prayer points. Teleport to Canifis and run to the entrance of Mort Myre Swamps. Enter and run to the south of the second puddle. There are 3 logs there that can be influenced by the Cast Bloom option and grow the fungi. Stand on the square south of the north log. Cast Bloom and pick the fungi, leave the branches as you are after the mushrooms. Repeat this until you have a full inventory. At the last Cast Bloom wield your Sickle and pick the last one. Use either Amulet of Glory or Ring of Dueling to bank your treasure. Take out one house teleport and repeat the process. DO NOT FORGET TO PRAY AT YOUR ALTAR.
There is one important limiting factor when using this method: Prayer level. To collect 28 fungi takes up to 70 prayer points. This can be circumvented by using teleport runes to teleport to your house. This will lower the maximum amount to 25 fungi per trip but still it is worth it then.
With teleport runes you can average around 450 per hour played. This can rise to as much as 510 when using the Castle Wars or Edgeville/Draynor option.
Blue Dragon Scales
This is only effective with 70 agility when you can use the shortcut in Taverley dungeon to get fast to Blue Dragon. Here you can start collecting Scales fast and teleport to Falador when done, in no time at all. However, if you lack the agility level for this, you have to go all the way around which makes this a really slow way.
Wine of Zamorak
You really should consider buying the wines of other players for around 800-1,000gp per wine, because if you choose to refrain from that, you need to prepare to stand for long hours at the Chaos temple north of the Goblin Village. Here you must telegrab the sole spawn point found on RuneScape time after time until you have enough.
Potato Cactus
This is a rather annoying ingredient to collect as you have to run to the Kalphite Lair. There are some near the Kalphite Queen herself, though there is a small room before going down the hole to the queen, with some Kalphite Soldiers which contain some spawns. When done collecting you can just teleport out with an Amulet of Glory to Al Kharid, and go back to the lair again to get even more.
Jangerberries
From Castle Wars, go over the bridge out of the building and over the southern bridge while heading north-east along the river and you'll eventually get to the area with the ogres. Throw a Rope on the Long Branched tree, and Swing over with the rope, and start picking up the Jangerberries on the ground. When full, either teleport to Castle Wars with a Duel Ring or just swing over to the mainland with the stationary rope on the island itself, and run the short stretch back.
Note: You can also grow them from farming as well, though it might be just as easy to do it the simple way of doing the method above.
Tree Roots
Tree Roots, though only roots of Yew and Magic trees, have to be grown through farming and then be cut down with a woodcutting axe for so to dig up the roots with a spade.
Cactus Spines
An item which you have to grow through the use of the farming skill, though buying them from other players is an option if you lack the necessary farming level to be able to grow.
Poison Ivy Berries
Yet another item which requires you to be skilled in farming since you can only grow them through farming or buy from another player.
Crushed Bird Nests
Crushed Bird Nests can be obatined by using an empty Bird Nest with a Pestle and Mortar. There are four ways to obtain Bird Nests:
- Woodcutting: Sometimes, while cutting a tree, a Bird Nest may fall from the branches above. Note that this is very inefficient way to obtain Bird Nests.
- Managing Miscellania Mini-Game: After collecting a certain number of logs, you'll get a Bird Nest:
- 100 Maples give one Bird Nest.
- 350 Teak give one Bird Nest.
- 350 Mahogany give one Bird Nest
- 100 Maples give one Bird Nest.
- Giant Mole Killing: The Giant Mole drops Mole Skins and Mole Claws. These can be traded to Wyson the Gardener for full or empty Bird Nests (whether a Bird Nest is full or empty is random).
- Buying from Other Players: This is the fastest (and most expensive) way to obtain Bird Nests
If you want to be a great herblorist, you need to make a lot of potions. To make a lot of potions, you need vials. There are some ways of gathering up a nice amount to store in your bank so that you don't have to run and collect more, when you rather want to make the potions instead.
You could simply buy them if you want, either from stores scattered around in RuneScape, or just from other players. You can however, go through with the effort by making them yourself if you have the sufficient crafting level to make vials. If you want to buy from other players, you should be ready to pay high amounts of money and you can just go to world 2's herblore spot and start buying there.
The advantage by buying from a store is that they are a lot cheaper since vials tend to be incredibly overpriced, though pay in mind that the stores have a limited amount of vials in the stores. The last option involve acquiring them yourself through slaying foes, though more on that later.
Buying Them From Players
This is probably the fastest way to get large amounts quick, though this is a way that really should be for the more richer players out there. Water-filled vials tend to be sold for quite high amounts, so beware of that if choosing to go with this way. This method is mostly about you positioning yourself in the herblore area of World 2 Falador and try to get the best bargains as possible. (The official RS forums is also a good place for those who want to buy.)
Crafting Them Yourself
This is not the way which is preferred since it takes an awful lot of time collecting the items needed to make molten glass. However, since the quest "Hand in the Sand" was released, members now have an easy way to get fair amounts of sand, something which will shorten down on the time used by some extent, because you now only need to collect seaweed.
You can get the seaweed on Entrana by just taking the boat from Port Sarim, go to the spawn point on the beachside and keep on collecting until you have collected 27, then use an Amulet of Glory to teleport to Draynor. Following this way, you can then just repeat this until you have enough or want to do something else.
After you have done that, just cook the seaweed on a range to acquire soda ash, then start bringing both the soda ash and buckets of sand to a furnace to get Molten glass from it, which can in turn be used with a glassblowing pipe to craft glass. Now you only need to craft the Molten glass into vials, and you have made some vials yourself.
A good choice would be to steer far away from this method as it is way to slow compared to the other methods which exist.
Buying Them From Stores
Now, if you buy them like this, you should know first of all that system updates are your friend! If you play the game and you notice a system update for some reason, run to the bank and whip out runes for a teleport to Falador. When in Falador, just grab and wield a staff of air, or if you don't have one, take the air runes required, and bring enough money for as many vials you want.
Note: The vials cost 12 GP each and have an initial stock of around 800 vials, so use those numbers to calculate your amount of trips required.
Then, what you do next is to run according to the yellow line on the map at the beginning introduction to this guide, and then go to the Herblore shop. Here you should buy the vials needed of Jatix, teleport to Falador, run to bank and store those vials and prepare to repeat this by going after the yellow line once more.
This is a fast way of getting some vials quick, though only just after a system update since in a short while, other players will empty the shop stock before you manage to buy. After you have obtained all of the vials you want, just run back and forth the green line to refill them.
There are also several other places where vials are sold:
- Shilo Village - 50 Water-filled and 25 empty Vials.
- Ardougne General Store - Up to 500 Vials; usually up to 200 in stock.
- Mort'ton - 100 Water-filled Vials on worlds other than #2.
Acquiring Them Yourself
There is one extremely good way to collect Water-filled vials in an easy way through slaying foes in the game, and that is by killing Water Elementals. When you kill one of them, the Water Elementals always have a 100% drop rate of Water-filled vials, and they are fairly weak with their low combat level of 34 and 30 hitpoints.
Note: Do the quest Elemental Workshop to follow this way, though don't worry if you haven't done it, it is a rather easy quest.
Basically, just go to the smithing building right next to the Seer's bank and use your Battered Key on the odd looking wall to open the secret door, and then head down the stairs. From there on, just go immediately north of the stairs and you'll get to the room where the Water Elementals reside.
Here you can kill them to your hearts content, and you'd soon fill up your inventory with Vials.
Note: The Elementals also have quite often a habit of dropping herbs as well, so you should consider bringing them with you.
A little note before I begin on the basics on how to train:
Doing the quests which give Herblore experience as a quest reward, will aid you greatly, at least in the beginning since you have few options to train with.
Look at The Quest Experience Guide for more information on what quests to do and links to the very same quests. Also, if you happen to do the One Small Favour Quest , you might choose Herblore for a reward for both lamps to get an additional 20,000 experience in the skill.
Strength Potion vs. Serum 207
This is really a matter of what you prefer, since both have strong advantages and disadvantages compared to the other:
The Strength Potion is a potion which might become useful for you, as opposed to the Serum 207 which is mostly used during the Shades of Mort'ton quest. However, it is easier to make a Serum 207 due to Ashes being its Secondary Ingredient, and these are a lot faster to collect than Limpwurt Roots.
This will mean that you have to choose between either the use of the potion and the simpleness of making a potion, since both Potions give the same experience of 50 when made.
Stat Restore vs. Energy Potion
When it comes to usefulness, the Stat Restore Potion is probably slightly ahead of the Energy Potion, though the Energy Potion scores a small point by giving 67.5 Experience when made as opposed to the Stat Restore's 62.5 exp. These two potions are quite even in most ways, so it is hard to call one generally better than the other, though when it comes to Secondary Ingredients, you should go for Energy Potions since Chocolate Dust are faster to acquire then Red Spider's Egg.
Really, it will be a though choice to choose, so you should think this through before making a choice.
Defense Potion vs. Prayer Potion
Both these Potions require the highly sought Ranarr Weed to make, and therefore demand of Potion becomes a great factor as well to include in this dilemma.
When it comes to demand, you should choose Prayer Potion and nothing else.
Defense Potions are lower in demand and doesn't sell half as good as Prayer Potions.
Prayer Potions give 87.5 experience against the Defense Potion's 75, which is another plus for Prayer Potions. White Berries might be hard to get, and it is not worth spending them on making mere Defense Potions. Snape Grass however is quite easy to get if you have studied this guide's example.
When looking on the above facts, I would say that you never ever should make Defense Potions, only when you need them for combat use. Steer far away from it when training to reach 38 Herblore as it is not worth it and you will benefit greatly of it later when saving the Ranarr Weeds for Prayer Potions.
The best choice: Prayer Potions.
Super Attack Potion vs. Super Anti-Poison
These Potions are generally quite useful, and both will help you in different situations. Experience-wise, the Super Anti-Poison is better suited since it gives 107.5 experience against the 100 experience gained from making Super Attack Potions. Though, what you really should focus on when making a decision in this case, is on the way you get Secondary Ingredients. Eye of newt is generally faster than running all the way to level 20 wilderness to get Unicorn Horn.
You should for the sake of training most efficiently, just stick with making Super Attack Potions since Super Anti-Poison takes too long to make.
Fishing Potion vs. Super Energy Potion
When it comes to usefulness, the Super Energy Potion is by far superior over the Fishing Potion since the Fishing Potion is mostly used for entering the Fishing Guild some levels earlier than required by gaining 3 extra fishing levels. Super Energy Potions gives 118 experience compared to the Fishing Potions 112.5. Not the greatest difference, though in Herblore, each bit of experience usually count. Super Energy Potions however, are at a very large disadvantage by having Mort Myre Mushrooms as a Secondary Ingredient and are inferior to great lengths against the Snape Grass used in Fishing Potions.
Go with Fishing Potions all the way and only make Super Energy Potions if you really need them for something.
Super Strength vs. Weapon Poison
Now, this is something which you should think quite a bit on since both have good uses. It always is good to get a additional 20% strength bonus from that Super Strength Potion, though being able to poison daggers, spears, darts and arrows is also quite an advantage.
Weapon poison is the best potion to make if you are focusing on max experience since it gives 137.5 experience per made potion as opposed to the 125 exp from a Super Strength Potion. However, these two potions both might have demanding Secondary Ingredients. If you are 70 agility it is quite easily to get to the Blue Dragon Scales in Taverley Dungeon using the agility shortcut which you will find immediately to the east after you enter the dungeon. Lack of 70 agility will mean that this will be extremely slow on the other hand.
Limpwurts however are quite common and a lot of people sell them, especially on Free to Play servers. This is yet another though decision, though you might look into on making Super Strength Potions instead of Weapon Poison since they are in high demand and is easier to make. If you have 70 agility it becomes a matter of preference though if you don't possess this level however, you should stick with Super Strength Potions and make them all the way.
Level 1-15
Now, you don't have many options here so your only options really, are to make Attack Potions until level 5 where Anti-Poison Potions becomes an option. From there on you can make either Attack Potions or the Anti-Poisons until you reach level 12 Herblore, when you can use the Tarromin herbs for making Strength Potions. Basically, just keep on making these 3 kinds of potions until you reach level 15, which shouldn't be so much of a challenge if you took the time to collect herbs, Secondary ingredients and Vials.
Level 15-26
Your goal here should be to aim on reaching level 26 to make Energy Potions, because it is the potion type which is the best way to make use of your Harralanders.
This is said while considering the process of getting secondary ingredients and the good experience earned from making the Energy Potions.
At level 15, you are able to make Serum 207, though only if you have started the Shades of Mort'ton Quest. A Serum 207 is yet another potion which requires you to use Tarromin, and it gives the same experience as a Strength Potion, though the advantage is that it has Ashes as a Secondary Ingredient instead of Limpwurt Roots as a Strength Potion requires. Ashes are by far easier to collect in quantities, and thus make Serum 207 a preferred training method.
Continue to make Attack Potions, Anti-Poison potions as well as your preferred choice of either Strength Potions or Serum 207, and you'll soon end up on level 22. This level enables you to make Stat Restores and you can start including them in your training process until you reach 26.
Level 26-38
This stretch might be a long one since you have to continue by making the same potions yet again, though you should try and make Energy Potions instead of Stat Restore potions. On your way to 38, you'll get access to making to some new potion types: Defense Potions at level 30 and Agility Potions at level 34. However, it is not recommended to use Ranarr Weed in Defense potions since they are very useful to have when you reach level 38.
Toadflax is a very bad herb to train with if you are getting the herbs from the Brimhaven Agility Arena and exchange agility tickets for herbs. However, if you happen to farm your own Toadflax, then you should go wild on making Agility Potions. With 80 experience per made Agility Potion, you'll end up on 38 Herblore in little time, granted that you have farmed a fair share of Toadflax of course. If you are unable to get hold of a nice stock of Toadflax, then base the training around Energy potions and your favorite potion through the use of Tarromin, and back this up by making Attack and Anti-Poison Potions if you don't have enough Tarromin and Harralander to help you all the way.
When you finally reach level 38, you should take a deep breath and relax because you have reached a level many players desire to reach.
Level 38-50
This will be the part where you unlock some good methods to level fast with, though most of the herblorists will aim to get to 45 herblore so they can meet a requirement found in the Legend's Quest. Prayer Potions are potions which are in high demand from players, so when you start to make them you might consider selling them to get a nice profit, which you can save for later use or invest in something else. Apart from being quite valuable, the Prayer Potions give quite the nice experience of 87.5 by making one potion.
Stay on track by making the potions you've trained with so far and try and reach level 45 where you unlock the ability to make Super Attack Potions. Also, a quite common way to level up fast after having reached 38 herblore is to buy a lot of Ranarr Weeds, make into Prayer Potions and then sell the potions you made. Then repeat the method by buying new Ranarr Weeds and take it from there and continue this to get quite a lot of experience for almost no money spent, if none.
Basically, the method just above is the way for those with money to buy the herbs, since they are quite expensive and you are required to be familiar with the prices of herbs on the street markets. When you reach 45, try and make Super Attack Potions as well and ignore the Super Anti-Poisons when you reach level 48, they aren't that useful at this point. The Super Anti-Poison potions really aren't worth the hassle of chasing around Black Unicorns, though you should make some if you happen to have ground Unicorn Horns in your bank. After some effort, you will eventually reach level 50, and now you can congratulate yourself before attempting to go further.
Level 50-66
Your training should still be concentrated mainly on the use of making Ranarr Weed into Prayer Potions, and you should also try to avoid using the lower herbs as Guam Leaves, Marrentils and Tarromin from now on, as they give far too little experience for the time it takes to make the potions and gathering Secondary Ingredients and Vials. Toadflax, if you have them, and Harralander is still effective enough to continue training with, so don't stop using them quite yet.
Use all Avantoes into making Fishing Potions so that you don't fall into the trap with making Super Energy Potions. When you reach level 55, start making your Kwuarms into Super Strength Potions and continue these processes until you, after a fair amount of hard training, reach level 66.
Level 66-99
This is it, the last but long stretch to reach 99 and here you will get the chance to make the best potions available from Herblore, so don't give up quite yet. From this point onward, deal only with herbs of types Ranarr Weed and above, there is no need for the lesser herbs now, though if you happen to get a Tarromin for instance, you shouldn't throw it away and rather bank it since yet again: Herbs don't grow on trees.
Now that you have access to making Super Defense Potions with your Cadantines, feel free to make as many as you can since that is the only potion you can make out of a Cadantine. You might as well waste all of your Lantadymes to make Anti-Firebreath potions when getting 69 Herblore, since there is no need to save them. They can only otherwise be used in Magic Potions, and that would be far from your current level so you shouldn't desperately cling on to them.
At 72 Herblore you can use all your Dwarf Weed and make Ranging potions, and this should help you quite a bit since these Potions give you an impressive 165 experience per made potion. Eventually you will end up on 76 Herblore, and you have to decide if you want to continue making Anti-Firebreath potions or try something new from a change.
When you get to level 78, waste all your Torstols into making Zamorak Potions, there is no need to save them. You might end up realizing that you do in fact have no Torstols, this is because there is only 2 places to get them: either through farming the herbs from Torstol Seeds, or you get 1 per Sinister Key when it is used on the Closed Chest in the Yanille Dungeon.
Other than this, there isn't much more to know about Herblore since you've been through it all and have obtained the knowledge for yourself now. All you need now is the dedication and the patience to reach level 99.
A Training Tip
After making 14 potions it takes 19 seconds to empty the vials.
Withdraw 14 new water filled vials, bank the empty ones (use 'withdraw all option' and withdraw the herb needed (again with the 'withdraw all' option). Mix the 'Unfinished' potion, withdraw 14 secondary ingredients and finish the potions. Empty the vials and repeat the cycle. One cycle including emptying the vials takes about 1 minute 5 seconds. Refilling empty vials at Lumbridge Castle takes 36 seconds per 28 vials (set to run).
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