The guide to which herbs to plant, now fully automated!

[Troacctid]

The Guide to Which Herbs to Plant

By Troacctid

Foreword by Evil Dave

 

Foreword

 

Good day, fellow evil-doers. I'm Evil Dave, and I'm here to introduce you to the EVIL art of herb farming. My evil friend TROACCTID has prepared an ULTRA EVIL HERB FARMING SPREADSHEET OF DOOM for you all! As I'm sure you all are aware, farming herbs can make cash even faster than my ARMY OF UNDEAD PENGUINS can DECIMATE THE PUNY WORLD OF RUNESCAPE! But you may have wondered to yourself, "What herb should I plant to make the most profit, so I can fund my EVIL PLOTS OF TERROR?" I myself was wondering the same thing, until I found this HORRIFYING chart that takes care of all that annoying arithmetic OF DEATH for me! While it may not be the longest guide, or the most evil, you'll hopefully learn a thing or two about DESTRUUUCTION! So pay attention and you just might make yourself a little more EVIL!

 

-Evil Dave

 

 

The Basics of Herb Farming

 

[hide=The Basics]Planting herbs is one of the most profitable activities in the game. A full run can be completed in just a few minutes with an average profit of 75k or more, if you use all 5 patches. Before I get to the actual comparison of the herbs, I'll fill in any beginners on how to do an herb run. Established farmers can feel free to skip ahead. Also, you may want to check out Zaaps1's farming guide, which is pretty comprehensive if you have further questions on training or whatever.

 

There are 4 normal herb patches, plus an additional patch accessible after My Arm's Big Adventure. It's in your best interests to go to every patch as often as possible. All herbs take 75 minutes to grow, and with supercompost, about 10% of them will die.

 

You should always use supercompost on your herbs--it decreases the chance of disease, and increases your yield. Likewise, you should always wield magic secateurs--they increase your harvests by 10%. If you use magic secateurs and supercompost, then each plant will give a minimum of 5 herbs. There's no need to watch your patches, unless you wish to employ an Amulet of Nature for one of them.

 

Here are the patches and how to get to them. It doesn't matter what order you visit them.

 

Port Phasmatys: This patch is located west of the Ectofuntus. The fastest way to access it is with an ectophial, which requires completion of Ghosts Ahoy. Empty the ectophial to teleport to the ectofuntus, and run to the west past the farm.

 

Catherby: This patch is fastest to access with the Lunar spell, Catherby Teleport. If you're not on Lunars, then teleport to Camelot and run due east.

 

Ardougne: This patch is north of Ardougne. It's best accessed with the Ardougne Cloak's teleport; however, unless you've completed the elite portion of the diary, you can only do that once a day, so after that, use a teleport to the Fishing Guild, either with the Lunar spell or with a Skills Necklace, and run east.

 

Falador: This patch is best accessed by cabbage-port. Use the Explorer's Ring 3 to teleport yourself right next to it.

 

Troll Stronghold: After My Arm's Big Adventure, you can use this patch. It's the slowest to get to, but My Arm will watch the plant so that it will never succumb to disease. You should still use supercompost to increase the yield. Best way to get here is with Trollheim Teleport--if you're on Lunars, then you'll need Spellbook Swap.

 

Look, you should get the hang of it pretty quick. Leprechauns will note your herbs for you as you go. You should be able to finish without running out of energy if you have a half-decent agility level, although if you're short there's a musician near the Fishing Guild to rest at, or you can use energy potions, which are dirt-cheap. Oh, and the Explorer's Ring, of course.

 

Bring a ring of duelling for banking after the run--I advise stopping by the Duel Arena as well to swing by the cactus patch and pick cactus spines for additional profit. Every 80 minutes, take a break from what you're doing to teleport to every herb patch, harvest your crops, and replant them. Then you can watch the profits come rolling in.[/hide]

 

 

Which herbs to plant?

 

Rather than tell you in text form, I've prepared a handy-dandy spreadsheet on Google Docs.

 

CLICK HERE FOR THE SPREADSHEET

 

This spreadsheet tracks the most profitable herbs. All the prices are pulled automatically from the Grand Exchange database. From those automatically-updated prices, the spreadsheet performs a few calculations and generates:

 

1. The average profit per seed and per run

2. The average profit/hr

3. The average xp per seed and per run

4. A bar graph comparing profitability

5. Line graphs showing profit as a function of harvest size per seed and per run

 

[hide=Check out my mad spreadsheet skillz]

 

 

 

Images reflect prices of 18 December 2009[/hide]

 

I mustn't forget to give credit where credit is due: thanks to Brainymidget for the coding used to pull the GE prices automatically, and thanks to Penderwyll for implementing it.

 

That's all for today. I hope you find this tool valuable in your farming efforts.

 

~Troacctid

[Inuashakent]

The average was around 6.6 herbs/seed I believe. Might want to mention that.

 

 

 

First post pls?

[Promise]

I like the introduction the best. :P

 

 

 

The rest was a big DUH.

[blackie125]

Great guide, I've added both links to My Favourites :thumbsup:. Simple and perfect, discusses just what it says it does =D>

[anish00b]

i thought the average is around 5 or so, that's the reason why i've been doing kwuarm, do you think i should change to snapdragon now, since it gives the most profit except near the beginning?

[Troacctid]

i thought the average is around 5 or so, that's the reason why i've been doing kwuarm, do you think i should change to snapdragon now, since it gives the most profit except near the beginning?

 

 

 

No, 5 is the minimum. The average is 6-7. Snapdragon and kwuarm are approximately on even footing. Snaps will have a huge advantage if you get a big harvest, but they also have a huge disadvantage if you get a death, and the two tend to balance each other out for the most part. However, if you don't already have the seeds in your bank, it's worth noting that snapdragon seeds are much more stable in their price today. Kwuarm seeds recently made a huge peak and are diving back down again, so it's probably not a good time to buy them today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mechanics of the Grand Exchange mean that herb and seed prices can fluctuate from day to day. As such, it's impossible to flatly recommend snapdragon over kwuarm (or vice versa) all the time and be right about it. They're currently both among the top 3 herbs to plant today, so you should feel good about either one. Myself, I switch between kwuarm, snapdragon, and toadflax.

[Guest]

Another good guide :

[rangeor]

 

i thought the average is around 5 or so, that's the reason why i've been doing kwuarm, do you think i should change to snapdragon now, since it gives the most profit except near the beginning?

 

 

 

No, 5 is the minimum. The average is 6-7. Snapdragon and kwuarm are approximately on even footing. Snaps will have a huge advantage if you get a big harvest, but they also have a huge disadvantage if you get a death, and the two tend to balance each other out for the most part. However, if you don't already have the seeds in your bank, it's worth noting that snapdragon seeds are much more stable in their price today. Kwuarm seeds recently made a huge peak and are diving back down again, so it's probably not a good time to buy them today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mechanics of the Grand Exchange mean that herb and seed prices can fluctuate from day to day. As such, it's impossible to flatly recommend snapdragon over kwuarm (or vice versa) all the time and be right about it. They're currently both among the top 3 herbs to plant today, so you should feel good about either one. Myself, I switch between kwuarm, snapdragon, and toadflax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would go with snapdragon though, since it gives more exp.

[D Jay99]

I used to do dwarf weeds for the massive farming and herblore xp, but I quit those since I didn't really need the herblore xp anymore. Currently doing snaps, they started out great for me with 7.88 herb/seed average over 100 seeds, but fell down after that and I've been getting ~6.7/seed ever since. The 6.5 sounds good :thumbup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Handy spreadsheet, even though I had already made one myself :geek:

[Erichermit]

The intro by Evil Dave was quite interesting and the information is useful. I will definitely be using this table to work out which seeds to plant for a good balance of xp and money.

[BloodArgon]

Ranarrs barely profit, toadflax? One herb pays for the seed. I dont see how its NOT a good investment, considering I cant plant Kwuarm anyway.

[Troacctid]

Ranarrs barely profit, toadflax? One herb pays for the seed. I dont see how its NOT a good investment, considering I cant plant Kwuarm anyway.

 

With ranarrs, one herb also pays for the seed. Remember that as long as you use supercompost and magic secateurs, the minimum harvest is 5 herbs. And if you start getting into the lucky harvests, like 10+, ranarr will pwn toadflax.

 

 

 

But yeah, right now, toadflax is way ahead of the other three in profitability. We'll see how long that lasts, I suppose.

[Troacctid]

Two bits of news.

 

 

 

First bit: Toadflax has been on top for a while, but recent shifts have left ranarr and snapdragon on top, followed by kwuarm, with toadflax back at #4 again. Herb farming in general also seems to be experiencing a [bleep]e in profitability as many herb prices rise, perhaps due to quest capers raising their herblore for While Guthix Sleeps. It's a very dramatic change; I expect they'll fall again in the near future, though. Until then, you should be able to sell at max for a while, so farm your heart out!

 

 

 

Second bit: More relevantly, I've tinkered with my spreadsheet, and you can now find a new version that includes every herb. Whereas the original provides an at-a-glance check of which herb is best, this new one ought to give you the whole picture, albeit a little more cluttered.

 

 

 

Happy harvesting!

[Kilo]

Hey Pie, good luck with the guide, i'd favorite it if I didn't have enough junk already. Good info anyway.

[Krazi]

It's the slowest to get to, but My Arm will watch the plant so that it will never succumb to disease.

Can your other arm watch my herbs in Port Phasmatys? :P

 

Anyway great guide, I just need to do Ghosts Ahoy. #-o

[Bombing_7000]

Im an expert on this already. However, the spreasheet is pretty cool. Good job

 

 

 

4.5/5

 

 

 

~Bomb

[totalpwnage]

The average of 6.5 herbs/seed counts deaths, correct? What would be the average if there are no deaths?

 

 

 

Nice guide, though for some idiotic reason google spreadsheets is blocked at my school... -.- This is still helpful though :P

 

 

 

EDIT: And what about magic secateurs? Don't they increase yield?

[Loffelicious]

Ranarrs barely profit, toadflax? One herb pays for the seed. I dont see how its NOT a good investment, considering I cant plant Kwuarm anyway.

 

With ranarrs, one herb also pays for the seed. Remember that as long as you use supercompost and magic secateurs, the minimum harvest is 5 herbs. And if you start getting into the lucky harvests, like 10+, ranarr will pwn toadflax.

 

 

 

But yeah, right now, toadflax is way ahead of the other three in profitability. We'll see how long that lasts, I suppose.

 

 

 

You need 4 ranarrs to pay for one seed..

[Troacctid]

Ranarrs barely profit, toadflax? One herb pays for the seed. I dont see how its NOT a good investment, considering I cant plant Kwuarm anyway.

 

With ranarrs, one herb also pays for the seed. Remember that as long as you use supercompost and magic secateurs, the minimum harvest is 5 herbs. And if you start getting into the lucky harvests, like 10+, ranarr will pwn toadflax.

 

 

 

But yeah, right now, toadflax is way ahead of the other three in profitability. We'll see how long that lasts, I suppose.

 

 

 

You need 4 ranarrs to pay for one seed..

 

It's impossible to get a one-herb harvest. The smallest possible is 5. That means if you get one herb, you'll be able to pick at least four more. The only way you won't pay for the seed is if you get no herbs.

 

 

 

Remember, the profit margin is irrelevant. If it mattered how many times more the herb costs compared to the seed, then marrentill would be the most profitable herb to plant, because the seed is only 5 gp and the herb is 178 gp, so you're making back more than 200 times what you spent. Obviously that's not the case, since marrentill gives you the smallest profit per seed out of all the herbs. :shame:

 

 

 

The average of 6.5 herbs/seed counts deaths, correct? What would be the average if there are no deaths?

 

 

 

Nice guide, though for some idiotic reason google spreadsheets is blocked at my school... -.- This is still helpful though :P

 

 

 

EDIT: And what about magic secateurs? Don't they increase yield?

 

The average without deaths would probably be 7, but it's rather moot, is it not? There will always be some deaths. Unless you're only using My Arm's patch, which is the wrong patch to use if you only use one patch anyway, because it takes the longest to get to. If you only use one patch, make it Catherby or Falador.

 

 

 

Magic Secateurs are included in the 6.5 figure.

[totalpwnage]

Ah yes, I wanted to know because my friend alchs while she farms and she always does one herb patch. I'll have to bring that up to her.

 

As for not being able to dl the spreadsheet, I'll just make my own based off yours (I'm pretty decent with Excel, lol)

 

I'll have to do herb runs a lot more often though lol :P

[chazzycaz]

Great job with the spreadsheet. I didnt understand it at first as I couldnt work out whether deaths are taken into account - how many and where.. But great job anyway and nice introduction.

 

 

 

A suggestion might be to look around for a previous guide about Tracking GE prices with Google Docs. Then you wont have an approximate figure as it updates itself every day! (Yay)

 

 

 

Anyway :thumbup: :thumbup:

[Eddo89]

I'm pretty sure I got a 3 herb harvest of irits once, in My Arm's patch untreated.

 

 

 

Unless it is a change since then, or that super compost increases the minimum harvest to 5.

[Troacctid]

I'm pretty sure I got a 3 herb harvest of irits once, in My Arm's patch untreated.

 

 

 

Unless it is a change since then, or that super compost increases the minimum harvest to 5.

 

Mhmm, don't skimp on the supercompost.

 

If you use magic secateurs and supercompost, then each plant will give a minimum of 5 herbs.

[MrM0n]

:shock: Those are some mad spread sheet skills. Thanks for a great guide!

[magzar]

You should update this, i recently did some calculations of my own which show ranarr being more profitable that snapdragon up to a higher average than 7.5 herbs