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~~‡ MOTHER GAIA ‡~~
An In-Depth Manual to Farming by Zaaps1
The guide can be found on YouTube, here:
X. Introduction
Welcome to my guide to the great skill of Farming.
Farming can not be described in a straightforward manner. It is not one-sided as many other skills are. If I said "firemaking", what comes to mind? "Boring" "Lots of clicking"? If I said mining, what comes to mind? "Hard" "Powermining" "Runite"? If I said magic, what comes to mind? "Ice barrage" "Teleblock" "costly". All these are pretty much halves of the same whole. But farming is not so simple. Farming is many things at once.
Farming is:
-A fast skill to train
-A slow skill to train
-A huge money sink, one of the biggest ways to spend money in the game
-A huge money gain, one of the best ways to make money in the game
-Boring
-Fun
-Perfect for low levels
-Perfect for high levels
Many of these are contradictory to each other. It's all the how the player decides to train farming. Because of that, farming has something appealing for every player. Whether that's fast xp for total levels, effortless money, or just something to spend time on doing every once in a while. Farming is a terrific skill. I know you can find a least one part of it you enjoy. I know I did.
This guide is aimed mostly at training the skill of farming, focused on getting levels quickly. However, farming does not have to be a grind like other skills. It's an excellent way to spend a handful of minutes to gain an insane amount of xp (900k xp per hour of effort. Interested? I thought so.) It's also great to spend a handful of minutes to gain an insane amount of money (1.2m per hour of effort.) So while I'll probably seem like I'm pushing farming to be like another grind skill and putting a lot of emphasis on speed, the important thing to remember is to have fun. If fun means taking a slower method, go for it. If fun means not using the most efficient plant, go for it. If fun means spending illogical amounts of money, go for that also. It's important to remember that this is just a game, no matter how caught up we get.
Note: This guide will review some of the basics, but if you are new to this skill, I recommend taking a look at the Tip.It guide beforehand. I may start to use terminology or information/methods you do not understand. If that is the case, read over the Tip.It farming guide. If you are still confused, do not hold back from posting your question.
Farming can not be described in a straightforward manner. It is not one-sided as many other skills are. If I said "firemaking", what comes to mind? "Boring" "Lots of clicking"? If I said mining, what comes to mind? "Hard" "Powermining" "Runite"? If I said magic, what comes to mind? "Ice barrage" "Teleblock" "costly". All these are pretty much halves of the same whole. But farming is not so simple. Farming is many things at once.
Farming is:
-A fast skill to train
-A slow skill to train
-A huge money sink, one of the biggest ways to spend money in the game
-A huge money gain, one of the best ways to make money in the game
-Boring
-Fun
-Perfect for low levels
-Perfect for high levels
Many of these are contradictory to each other. It's all the how the player decides to train farming. Because of that, farming has something appealing for every player. Whether that's fast xp for total levels, effortless money, or just something to spend time on doing every once in a while. Farming is a terrific skill. I know you can find a least one part of it you enjoy. I know I did.
This guide is aimed mostly at training the skill of farming, focused on getting levels quickly. However, farming does not have to be a grind like other skills. It's an excellent way to spend a handful of minutes to gain an insane amount of xp (900k xp per hour of effort. Interested? I thought so.) It's also great to spend a handful of minutes to gain an insane amount of money (1.2m per hour of effort.) So while I'll probably seem like I'm pushing farming to be like another grind skill and putting a lot of emphasis on speed, the important thing to remember is to have fun. If fun means taking a slower method, go for it. If fun means not using the most efficient plant, go for it. If fun means spending illogical amounts of money, go for that also. It's important to remember that this is just a game, no matter how caught up we get.
Note: This guide will review some of the basics, but if you are new to this skill, I recommend taking a look at the Tip.It guide beforehand. I may start to use terminology or information/methods you do not understand. If that is the case, read over the Tip.It farming guide. If you are still confused, do not hold back from posting your question.
XI. Contents
X. Introduction
XI. Contents
1. Farming In-Depth
2. The Patches
3. The Plants
4. What to Plant (training outline)
5. How to do Farming Runs
6. Tips and Tricks
7. Other ways for XP
8. End note
9. Credits
XI. Contents
1. Farming In-Depth
2. The Patches
3. The Plants
4. What to Plant (training outline)
5. How to do Farming Runs
6. Tips and Tricks
7. Other ways for XP
8. End note
9. Credits
1. Farming In-Depth
First, let's start with the basics:
What is farming?
Farming is a skill in which a player plants his or her crops. The player then returns later to harvest the crop, reaping any rewards the crop offers. The waiting period requires no effort. You could even be logged off. The small effort investment makes farming a very easy skill to train.
Who can farm?
Unfortunately, farming is a members-only skill. F2P'ers can not enjoy farming.
However, former-members can still see their crops grown in their patches if the patch is in a f2p area, even on f2p worlds.
Where do I farm?
There are 40 specialized farming patches scattered all around the Runescape world. Visiting these patches allows one to train farming. However, there are methods to train farming outside of patches, but none of them are practical (see section 7 for more details).
When do I farm?
You can train farming whenever the crop in the patch is finished growing, or when the patch is empty. Most crops give xp when you harvest them, but trees and bushes give a majority of their xp when you "check-health" them. When a tree or bush is done growing, you get a "check-health" option. You can only click this once, but you can dig up the tree and replant it and "check-health" the new tree when it grows.
Why would I farm?
Great question! Why should anyone farm? For one, farming is a terrific moneymaker. Farming herbs is amazing money for the small time investment required. EVERY SINGLE FARMING PATCH has the POTENTIAL to profit. That's right. Every last one. Some are more practical than others, but the fact remains that farming is extremely easy to profit with.
In addition, farming is required for many quests/achievement diaries/minigames. You wouldn't want to be left out of those, would you?
Items (Basics)
First of all, let's go over the REQUIRED items for farming.
We call this a Rake. If you live where I live, you hate these in the fall. Their only purpose is to get rid of weeds in your patch. This is necessary because you cannot grow anything while there are weeds in your patch.
-------Funny story for those who care: Farming is often a confusing skill. Beginners are usually too perplex to know how to train. One of my friends started out this way. In fact, the only thing he knew how to do was to rake weeds! He got up to level 25 by raking weeds...--------
An all-purpose Spade. This is extremely useful. It lets you dig up your plants, mainly dead ones, but some plants you need to dig up with a spade, such as tree stubs and bushes. It also lets you harvest plants such as herbs. You also need it to plant saplings in patches.
Used to plant seeds IN PATCHES
Used to plant seeds IN PLANT POTS. This is a key thing to remember. Dibber = patches, trowel = plant pots.
A watering can is used mainly to water tree seedlings so they can grow into saplings. However, you can also water many patches, such as allotments, with them. Doing this helps prevent disease, although I usually do not do this since I believe it is a waste of time on such cheap seeds. You never NEED to water a patch, but doing so can never hurt.
A better Watering Can is the Magic Watering Can, which never runs out of water. This is a reward from Fairy Tale Part 3. Very useful.
These two are used to hold various types of produce. In the old days when you couldn't note your produce, players carried a few of these to allotments to save space. However, since you can now note your items with leprechauns at every patch, there is little need. Note that some farmers ONLY accept payments in baskets or sacks. Sacks are also used to make scarecrows.
Used to grow trees. You first plant the seed in the pot (remember with a TROWEL). Then you water it. Then you wait 1 "tick" (explained later) before it grows into a sapling and you can plant it in a patch.
You fill plant pots by using them on weeded patches.
The way to cure diseased trees and bushes. Using it on fully grown willows will yield willow branches, which are quite valuable. It is also a requirement for fighting the jade vine.
During Fairy Tale Part 1, your secuteurs are enhanced into this state. In this state, it retains the properties of the normal secateurs (except its cheapness, magic secateurs are bought back for a sum of 40k). In addition, it will increase your crop yields by 10% and allow you to deal damage to Tanglefoots (or is it Tanglefeet?).
Compost and Supercompost (they got creative with that one, right?). Compost is used by dumping farming produce into the compost bin, closing the lid, and waiting. Generally, higher leveled produce makes supercompost and lower leveled ones make normal compost. The compost mound familiar also makes normal and supercompost. The Compost Potion (Garden of Tranquility and Vinesweeper reward) turns any bin of compost or bucket of compost into a bin of supercompost or a bucket of supercompost. This is a powerful combonation if coupled with the Generate Compost scroll of the Compost Mound. The potions, however, are in extremely short supply, and therefore may take a while to buy. I would not rely on this method too heavily, although it does exist for those lucky enough to have the potions.
(Note: Buying the potions from Vinesweeper costs 5k points. This is a huge amount of points for what it is worth. Consider a pineapple seed is 10k point, and a spirit seed is 55k points. The supercompost you get is only worth about 10k, anyway, so I recommend AGAINST spending your Vinesweeper points on these.)
Compost is extremely useful. EVERY patch (with few exceptions) should be treated with supercompost. Here's what it does:
-Makes the patch grow faster
-Helps prevent disease
-Yield better harvests (if possible)
Supercompost does the same thing as regular compost, except better. Thus there's never a reason to use compost.
Now there exists a level 83 Lunar Magic spell called Fertile Soil. It supercomposts any patch, but it is more expensive. However, I strongly recommend you use this spell if being on Lunars does not hinder your farming. Why? First off, the magic experience easily offsets the extra price. Secondly, it's stackable, allowing you not to waste space during your farming runs. Runes also don't weigh anything, and compost is extremely heavy, which is a nice plus. Being on Lunars let's you also use Cure Plant, which uses just about the same runes as Fertile Soil. This means you'll never need to buy Plant Cure again. Finally, using the spell allows you to Supercompost patches even if they have something growing in them, including weeds. So if you accidentally plant a seed BEFORE you supercompost, it's not a problem with Fertile Soil.
Hatchets are needed to cut down trees and fruit trees. However, since you can pay farmers 200gp to cut down trees, you only need to worry about fruit trees (if you're after farming xp. If you chose to cut down your tree normally for the WC xp, it slows down farming a lot).
ALL HATCHETS WORK EQUALLY WELL ON FRUIT TREES!
That's right. Bronze or dragon, it's all the same when you cut down a fruit tree. That being said, the best hatchet for farming is the mithril axe, since it is 1kg lighter than every other axe.
The Farming Process
Those are all the items you'll absolutely want for farming. Of course, there are more, but they aren't as critical as the above. I'll go over some of the "optional" items later, but first, let's go over HOW to farm.
Basically, you want to plant the seed/sapling, pay if you can, then come back later an harvest. There's it broken down:
1. Clear patch of previous plant (items needed: Spade and axe (for trees/fruit trees)
2. Weed patch, if there are weeds (items needed: Rake)
3. Add supercompost to the patch (items needed: Supercompost)
4. Plant seed/sapling (items needed: The seed/sapling itself, seed dibber if it is a seed, spade if it is a sapling)
5. Water, if desired (items needed: Watering Can)
6. Pay to Protect, if desired/possible (items needed: too many to list. Every patch has its own payment, and some patches cannot be protected)
7. Leave
8. Come back later and repeat step 1.
Excellent, now let's go to the advanced items:
Items (Advanced)
These items exist solely to speed up your farming runs. I'll list alternatives to them as well.
Runes are needed to teleport to certain patches. Common sense, but it's worth noting. Sometimes I start thinking about all these complex ways of getting to a location when I realize there's a teleport right next to it.
Ectophial. Best way to get to the Port Phasmayts allotment.
Alt: Kharyll teleport, or fairy ring to the Haunted Woods
Explorer Ring 3. Best way to get to the Falador/Draynor allotment and the Draynor Manor patches.
Alt: Glory (Draynor), Falador teleport
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Skills Necklace (4). Best way to get to the Ardougne allotment. Fishing Guild teleport (Lunar level 87 spell) is just as good.
EDIT: The Ardougne Achievement Cape is now the superior option. However, unless you complete the amazingly high-requirement Elite diary, you are limited to one teleport to the farming patch per day. This is alright for most people, but for those who do multiple herb runs per day, you want to keep a few Skills Necklaces at hand, in case you need to do a run and your cape hasn't recharged.
Alt: Ardougne Teleport, Fairy Ring to Legends Guild
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Combat Bracelet (4). Best way to get to the Champions Guild bush patch.
Alt: Canoes, Varrock Teleport
Lunar and Dramen staves. These grant access to fairy rings, which are often the best ways to reach a patch.
Alt: Too many to list. Fairy Rings are convenient, but you'll find there are many alternate ways yourself. The possibilities are endless, so I won't list them here.
Ring of Slaying. "But you noob Zaaps, you said this was a farming guide gtfo". Yes. But there is 1 important thing about this ring that makes it worthy of note. It teleports you to the Slayer Dungeon in Relleka, leaving you 2 seconds from a fairy ring. This is the CLOSEST TELEPORT TO A FAIRY RING IN THE GAME. Use it if you can. Buy the ability to make it for 300 slayer points. Then craft it with a ring mould, slayer gem, gold bar, and 75 crafting. You CAN use the crafting potion/evil stew to do this and you CAN get assisted to do this.
Alts: Glory (Edgeville), Ectophial
The old-school methods of getting to a Fairy Ring
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Ring of Duelling. This allows you to bank with ease. But so does the glory. Why mention this but not the glory? This has one thing the glory will never get: a teleport straight to a spirit tree! Teleport to Mobilising Armies and you are 5 steps from a Spirit Tree, and 10 steps from a bank (and not a bank chest, a real bank).
Alts: You really shouldn't need any. This is cheap and easy to buy, and there are no requirements to use it. If you really can't, for whatever reason, you can glory to bank and use Grand Tree Pods to reach Spirit Trees.
Tip: If using duelling rings, bank the rings when they have 1 charge left and do NOT use the last charge. You can alch them when they are at 1 charge for 720 gp, saving you a lot of money compared to if you used the last charge.
Logs. You need these to transport on the Balloon network. The log differs depending on where you want to travel.
Alts: Various teleports can get you there as well.
Tiny Elf Crystal. Teleports you straight to Lleyta. It can recharged for a few coins by Eluned. Lleytan Elves also drops charged and uncharged versions fairly often. I recommend keeping at least 10 of these in your bank, so you need to recharge them only rarely.
Alts: There shouldn't be any. You need MEP1 to enter Lleyta, and therefore you can easily get more crystals. You shouldn't need any alts, although if you really need to, you could Charter ship to the Tyras camp then trek across Isfadar to Lleyta. I don't recommend it.
Various teletabs. If you're on Lunars for farming, you may find these helpful since you will not need Spellbook Swap as often
Alts: Normal spellbook
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Altered House Teleports, esp. to Rimmington. This allows you to easily access the Rimmington bush patch without having to move your house from whereever it already is. It requires the quest, Love Story. The Taverly Tab is also useful, but the Balloon network is still faster.
Alts: You can always, of course, simply move your house to Rimmington, which everyone can do, and use normal House Tablets.
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Ring of Charos (a). You don't really need it, but depending on what you do, it could help quite a bit by eliminating costs and saving you space. Situational, at best.
Alts: None.
Fremmy Sea Boots 3. Not really needed, but it can save a few seconds when visiting the Etcerteria Bush Patch. Bring them if you have them, if not, don't worry about it. (Thanks, Regi)
Alts: None.
A Note on Dungeoneering
Dungeoneering is almost worthless to farming, except for one thing, the Scroll of Life. If you use it, you havea 10% chance to get your seeds back when you harvest or clear a patch (5% for trees). This means that you can use more expensive seeds since the scroll's effect will greatly increase your profits (Snapdragons yield ~40k more profit/run). If you have the Scroll of Life's effect, ALWAYS farm Ranarr, Snapdragon, or Torstol!
Recommended Quests
Yes, yes, quests can be annoying. I will give you alternates if I can, but here's the deal: You'll probably end up finishing the quest anyway. I can guarantee you that sometime in the future (if you don't unexpectedly quit) that you will finish most, if not all, of the quests listed here. There are many reasons for this. Even those of us that hate quests will get bored and do them sometime. And as new content is released, we may find ourselves in need of the quests. (Remember when Curse of Arrav was released? Raise your hand if you didn't get 100% completion on the Missing My Mummy queen before that day. I know I didn't.) So if you're doing to do the quest anyway, why not do it earlier? This way you have more time to enjoy the benefits of the quest, right?
So I recommend you finish all of these quests. I understand it may get boring. That's fine. That's why there are alternates where ever possible. I'll leave it to you to judge which ones you really need to do, and which you can get away with.
Lumbridge/Relleka achievement diary: Not really a quest, but you'll want this for the Explorer's Ring 3 or Fremmy Sea Boots 3.
Alts: None
Ghosts Ahoy: Phasmatys Allotment
Alts: See Ectophial alternates
My Arm's Great Adventure: Trollhiem Patch
Alts: None
Fairy Tale Part 1: Magic Secutaurs. Also allows you to start FTP2. You don't need to finish it (in fact you don't even need to use any of the skill requirements yet). Just do enough to unlock Fairy Rings.
Alts: None for Secutaurs. Various teleports for Fairy Rings.
Enlightened Journey: Balloon network. Mainly to travel to Taverly quickly.
Alts: Falador teleport, House teleport (if in Tav.)
-Make sure you unlock the Gnome Strongold route, and maybe the Castlewars one
Back to My Roots: Jade Vine
Alts: None
Garden of Tranquility: Ring of Charos (a) and the White Tree. Picking it yields a small amount of farming xp and may be worth stopping by when you're at the Varrock Tree
Alts: None
Mourning Ends Part 1: Access to Lleyta. You only need to start it, not finish it. Just get into Lleyta and you're good.
Alts: None
Lunar Diplomacy + Dream Mentor: Lunar spells. However, I only recommend this if you're 92 magic (with magic pot) or 96 magic (without magic pot) for Spellbook Swap. Otherwise, the benefits of Lunars are not worth giving up the Trollhiem patch.
Alts: Normal spellbook is just as good
Plague City: Ardougne Teleport.
Alts: Skills Necklace (Fishing Guild)
Grand Tree/Tree Gnome Village: Spirit Trees
Alts: You could use a Grand Tree Pod for the Grand Tree. You could also use fairy rings for the Gnome Village fruit tree instead.
Legends Quest/Heroes Quest: To recharge Glories/Skills necklaces/Combat bracelets
Alts: You could simply not use them, or you could sell the uncharged versions on the GE and buy charged versions. Level 89+ summoners can also summon a Geyser Titan to recharge these items, or trade the items to a trustworthy friend so he or she can recharge them.
Fairy Tale Part 3: Just so you can tell those annoying weeds to gtfo forever, also for the Magic Watering Can
Alts: None, but the normal Watering Can is always an option
Love Story: For altered house tablets.
Alts: See Altered House Tablets alternates.
Recommended Skills
The following are what I recommend for farming, other than farming itself:
-A solid agility level. Farming is almost synonymous with running. Having a good agility level clears room otherwise used on energy potions. I am 71 agility and it does more than required. I would guess as low as 40 or 50 does the job
-40/52 summoning. For the run restore, but only if your agility is too low. This is better than super energies potions. Note a higher summoning unlocks familiars that may be beneficial to farming, but you don't "need" any of them
-A solid magic level. This varies. As long as you can use all the teleports you need, you are fine. This could be as low as 1 magic, or as high as 96. Of course, you could always buy teletabs for the teleports you can't use.
Other than that, I can only recommend 83 (77 minimum if Evil Stew, or 80 with Pie) farming for a Spirit Tree in Brimhaven. Of course, any necessary skills required to access your route and transportation methods are also needed.
Ticks
Don't be scared, I'm not talking about the bug. I'm talking about ticks and in "time".
You see, farming is calculated by real life time (the seconds standard). It's calculated by "ticks". These ticks mark the growth of your plant. A tick occurs every couple of minutes (roughly 1-3, hard to pinpoint exactly), and a certain amount of ticks must elapse before a certain plant can grow.
When you see a plant, you can divide its growth in visible "stages". In other words, if it looks bigger, it's more fully grown than if it's smaller. Pretty simple. However, these stages are further divided into invisible "substages", each being the length of a tick. These ticks are synchronized to the server, which is why a plant can seemingly grow right as you plant it, since you planted it just before a tick. However, there is one CRUCIAL fact about ticks. IF YOU LOG IN OR LOG IN FROM THE LOBBY BEFORE A TICK IS COMPLETED, YOU WILL RESET THE PLANT'S GROWTH FOR THAT TICK. This means people who do a lot of world hopping will find their crops growing slower. Be sure to plan for this, so if you are going rune mining, check your herbs after 2.5-3 hours, instead of 1.5
What is farming?
Farming is a skill in which a player plants his or her crops. The player then returns later to harvest the crop, reaping any rewards the crop offers. The waiting period requires no effort. You could even be logged off. The small effort investment makes farming a very easy skill to train.
Who can farm?
Unfortunately, farming is a members-only skill. F2P'ers can not enjoy farming.
However, former-members can still see their crops grown in their patches if the patch is in a f2p area, even on f2p worlds.
Where do I farm?
There are 40 specialized farming patches scattered all around the Runescape world. Visiting these patches allows one to train farming. However, there are methods to train farming outside of patches, but none of them are practical (see section 7 for more details).
When do I farm?
You can train farming whenever the crop in the patch is finished growing, or when the patch is empty. Most crops give xp when you harvest them, but trees and bushes give a majority of their xp when you "check-health" them. When a tree or bush is done growing, you get a "check-health" option. You can only click this once, but you can dig up the tree and replant it and "check-health" the new tree when it grows.
Why would I farm?
Great question! Why should anyone farm? For one, farming is a terrific moneymaker. Farming herbs is amazing money for the small time investment required. EVERY SINGLE FARMING PATCH has the POTENTIAL to profit. That's right. Every last one. Some are more practical than others, but the fact remains that farming is extremely easy to profit with.
In addition, farming is required for many quests/achievement diaries/minigames. You wouldn't want to be left out of those, would you?
Items (Basics)
First of all, let's go over the REQUIRED items for farming.
We call this a Rake. If you live where I live, you hate these in the fall. Their only purpose is to get rid of weeds in your patch. This is necessary because you cannot grow anything while there are weeds in your patch.
-------Funny story for those who care: Farming is often a confusing skill. Beginners are usually too perplex to know how to train. One of my friends started out this way. In fact, the only thing he knew how to do was to rake weeds! He got up to level 25 by raking weeds...--------
An all-purpose Spade. This is extremely useful. It lets you dig up your plants, mainly dead ones, but some plants you need to dig up with a spade, such as tree stubs and bushes. It also lets you harvest plants such as herbs. You also need it to plant saplings in patches.
Used to plant seeds IN PATCHES
Used to plant seeds IN PLANT POTS. This is a key thing to remember. Dibber = patches, trowel = plant pots.
A watering can is used mainly to water tree seedlings so they can grow into saplings. However, you can also water many patches, such as allotments, with them. Doing this helps prevent disease, although I usually do not do this since I believe it is a waste of time on such cheap seeds. You never NEED to water a patch, but doing so can never hurt.
A better Watering Can is the Magic Watering Can, which never runs out of water. This is a reward from Fairy Tale Part 3. Very useful.
These two are used to hold various types of produce. In the old days when you couldn't note your produce, players carried a few of these to allotments to save space. However, since you can now note your items with leprechauns at every patch, there is little need. Note that some farmers ONLY accept payments in baskets or sacks. Sacks are also used to make scarecrows.
Used to grow trees. You first plant the seed in the pot (remember with a TROWEL). Then you water it. Then you wait 1 "tick" (explained later) before it grows into a sapling and you can plant it in a patch.
You fill plant pots by using them on weeded patches.
The way to cure diseased trees and bushes. Using it on fully grown willows will yield willow branches, which are quite valuable. It is also a requirement for fighting the jade vine.
During Fairy Tale Part 1, your secuteurs are enhanced into this state. In this state, it retains the properties of the normal secateurs (except its cheapness, magic secateurs are bought back for a sum of 40k). In addition, it will increase your crop yields by 10% and allow you to deal damage to Tanglefoots (or is it Tanglefeet?).
Compost and Supercompost (they got creative with that one, right?). Compost is used by dumping farming produce into the compost bin, closing the lid, and waiting. Generally, higher leveled produce makes supercompost and lower leveled ones make normal compost. The compost mound familiar also makes normal and supercompost. The Compost Potion (Garden of Tranquility and Vinesweeper reward) turns any bin of compost or bucket of compost into a bin of supercompost or a bucket of supercompost. This is a powerful combonation if coupled with the Generate Compost scroll of the Compost Mound. The potions, however, are in extremely short supply, and therefore may take a while to buy. I would not rely on this method too heavily, although it does exist for those lucky enough to have the potions.
(Note: Buying the potions from Vinesweeper costs 5k points. This is a huge amount of points for what it is worth. Consider a pineapple seed is 10k point, and a spirit seed is 55k points. The supercompost you get is only worth about 10k, anyway, so I recommend AGAINST spending your Vinesweeper points on these.)
Compost is extremely useful. EVERY patch (with few exceptions) should be treated with supercompost. Here's what it does:
-Makes the patch grow faster
-Helps prevent disease
-Yield better harvests (if possible)
Supercompost does the same thing as regular compost, except better. Thus there's never a reason to use compost.
Now there exists a level 83 Lunar Magic spell called Fertile Soil. It supercomposts any patch, but it is more expensive. However, I strongly recommend you use this spell if being on Lunars does not hinder your farming. Why? First off, the magic experience easily offsets the extra price. Secondly, it's stackable, allowing you not to waste space during your farming runs. Runes also don't weigh anything, and compost is extremely heavy, which is a nice plus. Being on Lunars let's you also use Cure Plant, which uses just about the same runes as Fertile Soil. This means you'll never need to buy Plant Cure again. Finally, using the spell allows you to Supercompost patches even if they have something growing in them, including weeds. So if you accidentally plant a seed BEFORE you supercompost, it's not a problem with Fertile Soil.
Hatchets are needed to cut down trees and fruit trees. However, since you can pay farmers 200gp to cut down trees, you only need to worry about fruit trees (if you're after farming xp. If you chose to cut down your tree normally for the WC xp, it slows down farming a lot).
ALL HATCHETS WORK EQUALLY WELL ON FRUIT TREES!
That's right. Bronze or dragon, it's all the same when you cut down a fruit tree. That being said, the best hatchet for farming is the mithril axe, since it is 1kg lighter than every other axe.
The Farming Process
Those are all the items you'll absolutely want for farming. Of course, there are more, but they aren't as critical as the above. I'll go over some of the "optional" items later, but first, let's go over HOW to farm.
Basically, you want to plant the seed/sapling, pay if you can, then come back later an harvest. There's it broken down:
1. Clear patch of previous plant (items needed: Spade and axe (for trees/fruit trees)
2. Weed patch, if there are weeds (items needed: Rake)
3. Add supercompost to the patch (items needed: Supercompost)
4. Plant seed/sapling (items needed: The seed/sapling itself, seed dibber if it is a seed, spade if it is a sapling)
5. Water, if desired (items needed: Watering Can)
6. Pay to Protect, if desired/possible (items needed: too many to list. Every patch has its own payment, and some patches cannot be protected)
7. Leave
8. Come back later and repeat step 1.
Excellent, now let's go to the advanced items:
Items (Advanced)
These items exist solely to speed up your farming runs. I'll list alternatives to them as well.
Runes are needed to teleport to certain patches. Common sense, but it's worth noting. Sometimes I start thinking about all these complex ways of getting to a location when I realize there's a teleport right next to it.
Ectophial. Best way to get to the Port Phasmayts allotment.
Alt: Kharyll teleport, or fairy ring to the Haunted Woods
Explorer Ring 3. Best way to get to the Falador/Draynor allotment and the Draynor Manor patches.
Alt: Glory (Draynor), Falador teleport
Skills Necklace (4). Best way to get to the Ardougne allotment. Fishing Guild teleport (Lunar level 87 spell) is just as good.
EDIT: The Ardougne Achievement Cape is now the superior option. However, unless you complete the amazingly high-requirement Elite diary, you are limited to one teleport to the farming patch per day. This is alright for most people, but for those who do multiple herb runs per day, you want to keep a few Skills Necklaces at hand, in case you need to do a run and your cape hasn't recharged.
Alt: Ardougne Teleport, Fairy Ring to Legends Guild
Combat Bracelet (4). Best way to get to the Champions Guild bush patch.
Alt: Canoes, Varrock Teleport
Lunar and Dramen staves. These grant access to fairy rings, which are often the best ways to reach a patch.
Alt: Too many to list. Fairy Rings are convenient, but you'll find there are many alternate ways yourself. The possibilities are endless, so I won't list them here.
Ring of Slaying. "But you noob Zaaps, you said this was a farming guide gtfo". Yes. But there is 1 important thing about this ring that makes it worthy of note. It teleports you to the Slayer Dungeon in Relleka, leaving you 2 seconds from a fairy ring. This is the CLOSEST TELEPORT TO A FAIRY RING IN THE GAME. Use it if you can. Buy the ability to make it for 300 slayer points. Then craft it with a ring mould, slayer gem, gold bar, and 75 crafting. You CAN use the crafting potion/evil stew to do this and you CAN get assisted to do this.
Alts: Glory (Edgeville), Ectophial
The old-school methods of getting to a Fairy Ring
Ring of Duelling. This allows you to bank with ease. But so does the glory. Why mention this but not the glory? This has one thing the glory will never get: a teleport straight to a spirit tree! Teleport to Mobilising Armies and you are 5 steps from a Spirit Tree, and 10 steps from a bank (and not a bank chest, a real bank).
Alts: You really shouldn't need any. This is cheap and easy to buy, and there are no requirements to use it. If you really can't, for whatever reason, you can glory to bank and use Grand Tree Pods to reach Spirit Trees.
Tip: If using duelling rings, bank the rings when they have 1 charge left and do NOT use the last charge. You can alch them when they are at 1 charge for 720 gp, saving you a lot of money compared to if you used the last charge.
Logs. You need these to transport on the Balloon network. The log differs depending on where you want to travel.
Alts: Various teleports can get you there as well.
Tiny Elf Crystal. Teleports you straight to Lleyta. It can recharged for a few coins by Eluned. Lleytan Elves also drops charged and uncharged versions fairly often. I recommend keeping at least 10 of these in your bank, so you need to recharge them only rarely.
Alts: There shouldn't be any. You need MEP1 to enter Lleyta, and therefore you can easily get more crystals. You shouldn't need any alts, although if you really need to, you could Charter ship to the Tyras camp then trek across Isfadar to Lleyta. I don't recommend it.
Various teletabs. If you're on Lunars for farming, you may find these helpful since you will not need Spellbook Swap as often
Alts: Normal spellbook
Altered House Teleports, esp. to Rimmington. This allows you to easily access the Rimmington bush patch without having to move your house from whereever it already is. It requires the quest, Love Story. The Taverly Tab is also useful, but the Balloon network is still faster.
Alts: You can always, of course, simply move your house to Rimmington, which everyone can do, and use normal House Tablets.
Ring of Charos (a). You don't really need it, but depending on what you do, it could help quite a bit by eliminating costs and saving you space. Situational, at best.
Alts: None.
Fremmy Sea Boots 3. Not really needed, but it can save a few seconds when visiting the Etcerteria Bush Patch. Bring them if you have them, if not, don't worry about it. (Thanks, Regi)
Alts: None.
A Note on Dungeoneering
Dungeoneering is almost worthless to farming, except for one thing, the Scroll of Life. If you use it, you havea 10% chance to get your seeds back when you harvest or clear a patch (5% for trees). This means that you can use more expensive seeds since the scroll's effect will greatly increase your profits (Snapdragons yield ~40k more profit/run). If you have the Scroll of Life's effect, ALWAYS farm Ranarr, Snapdragon, or Torstol!
The King of the Club
Recommended Quests
Yes, yes, quests can be annoying. I will give you alternates if I can, but here's the deal: You'll probably end up finishing the quest anyway. I can guarantee you that sometime in the future (if you don't unexpectedly quit) that you will finish most, if not all, of the quests listed here. There are many reasons for this. Even those of us that hate quests will get bored and do them sometime. And as new content is released, we may find ourselves in need of the quests. (Remember when Curse of Arrav was released? Raise your hand if you didn't get 100% completion on the Missing My Mummy queen before that day. I know I didn't.) So if you're doing to do the quest anyway, why not do it earlier? This way you have more time to enjoy the benefits of the quest, right?
So I recommend you finish all of these quests. I understand it may get boring. That's fine. That's why there are alternates where ever possible. I'll leave it to you to judge which ones you really need to do, and which you can get away with.
Lumbridge/Relleka achievement diary: Not really a quest, but you'll want this for the Explorer's Ring 3 or Fremmy Sea Boots 3.
Alts: None
Ghosts Ahoy: Phasmatys Allotment
Alts: See Ectophial alternates
My Arm's Great Adventure: Trollhiem Patch
Alts: None
Fairy Tale Part 1: Magic Secutaurs. Also allows you to start FTP2. You don't need to finish it (in fact you don't even need to use any of the skill requirements yet). Just do enough to unlock Fairy Rings.
Alts: None for Secutaurs. Various teleports for Fairy Rings.
Enlightened Journey: Balloon network. Mainly to travel to Taverly quickly.
Alts: Falador teleport, House teleport (if in Tav.)
-Make sure you unlock the Gnome Strongold route, and maybe the Castlewars one
Back to My Roots: Jade Vine
Alts: None
Garden of Tranquility: Ring of Charos (a) and the White Tree. Picking it yields a small amount of farming xp and may be worth stopping by when you're at the Varrock Tree
Alts: None
Mourning Ends Part 1: Access to Lleyta. You only need to start it, not finish it. Just get into Lleyta and you're good.
Alts: None
Lunar Diplomacy + Dream Mentor: Lunar spells. However, I only recommend this if you're 92 magic (with magic pot) or 96 magic (without magic pot) for Spellbook Swap. Otherwise, the benefits of Lunars are not worth giving up the Trollhiem patch.
Alts: Normal spellbook is just as good
Plague City: Ardougne Teleport.
Alts: Skills Necklace (Fishing Guild)
Grand Tree/Tree Gnome Village: Spirit Trees
Alts: You could use a Grand Tree Pod for the Grand Tree. You could also use fairy rings for the Gnome Village fruit tree instead.
Legends Quest/Heroes Quest: To recharge Glories/Skills necklaces/Combat bracelets
Alts: You could simply not use them, or you could sell the uncharged versions on the GE and buy charged versions. Level 89+ summoners can also summon a Geyser Titan to recharge these items, or trade the items to a trustworthy friend so he or she can recharge them.
Fairy Tale Part 3: Just so you can tell those annoying weeds to gtfo forever, also for the Magic Watering Can
Alts: None, but the normal Watering Can is always an option
Love Story: For altered house tablets.
Alts: See Altered House Tablets alternates.
Recommended Skills
The following are what I recommend for farming, other than farming itself:
-A solid agility level. Farming is almost synonymous with running. Having a good agility level clears room otherwise used on energy potions. I am 71 agility and it does more than required. I would guess as low as 40 or 50 does the job
-40/52 summoning. For the run restore, but only if your agility is too low. This is better than super energies potions. Note a higher summoning unlocks familiars that may be beneficial to farming, but you don't "need" any of them
-A solid magic level. This varies. As long as you can use all the teleports you need, you are fine. This could be as low as 1 magic, or as high as 96. Of course, you could always buy teletabs for the teleports you can't use.
Other than that, I can only recommend 83 (77 minimum if Evil Stew, or 80 with Pie) farming for a Spirit Tree in Brimhaven. Of course, any necessary skills required to access your route and transportation methods are also needed.
Ticks
Don't be scared, I'm not talking about the bug. I'm talking about ticks and in "time".
You see, farming is calculated by real life time (the seconds standard). It's calculated by "ticks". These ticks mark the growth of your plant. A tick occurs every couple of minutes (roughly 1-3, hard to pinpoint exactly), and a certain amount of ticks must elapse before a certain plant can grow.
When you see a plant, you can divide its growth in visible "stages". In other words, if it looks bigger, it's more fully grown than if it's smaller. Pretty simple. However, these stages are further divided into invisible "substages", each being the length of a tick. These ticks are synchronized to the server, which is why a plant can seemingly grow right as you plant it, since you planted it just before a tick. However, there is one CRUCIAL fact about ticks. IF YOU LOG IN OR LOG IN FROM THE LOBBY BEFORE A TICK IS COMPLETED, YOU WILL RESET THE PLANT'S GROWTH FOR THAT TICK. This means people who do a lot of world hopping will find their crops growing slower. Be sure to plan for this, so if you are going rune mining, check your herbs after 2.5-3 hours, instead of 1.5
2. The Patches
Here, I will take an in-depth look at all the noteworthy patches and the best way (with alternatives) to get to them.
Allotments
Allotments are known as the "low-level" farming patch, even though they contain the highest level farming plant (Torstol Herb at a whooping 85 farming). However, they are the best xp for low levels...because they're the only xp for low levels!
Allotments contain the "allotment patches", numbering 2. There is also a flower and herb patch, as well as a compost bin. This is a "full" allotment. There are "partial" allotments as well, containing only pieces of these.
Phasmatys
Requires "Priest In Peril"
Best: Ectophial
Alts: See Ectophial in Items (Advanced)
Ardougne
Best: Ardougne Achievement Cape
Alts: Skills Necklace (Fishing Guild) OR Fishing Guild teleport (87 Magic), or any alternates listed in the Items section
Falador/Draynor
Best: Explorer's Ring 3
Alts: See Explorer's Ring 3 in Items (Advanced)
Catherby
Best: Catherby Teleport (Lunar spell)
Alts: Camelot teleport
Trollhiem
This contains only an herb patch. This is a special patch since it will never be diseased. Requires "My Arm's Big Adventure".
Best: Trollhiem Teleport
Alts: Fairy Ring/Slayer Ring to Slayer Dungeon and take back entrance into Troll Stronghold
Harmony Island
This contains only an allotment patch. Requires "The Great Brain Robbery". You will be attacked by Zombies.
Best: Charter Ship to Mos le'Harmless and have Brother Tranquility Teleport you
Alts: None, except instead of charter ship, you could Ectophial then have Bill Teach give you a ride
Western Ruins
This contains only a flower patch that only allows Limpwurts. Requires "Spirit of Summer". Beware of Revenants.
Best: Games Necklace then run West.
Alts: Falador teleport and run north-west, or Glory teleport and run north-west
Hops
These are junk. I repeat: This are totally worthless. Hops are not worth farming, and you're better off not wasting your time on them. DO NOT FARM THESE.
They give terrible xp, take up too much time, and are located in out-of-the-reach areas that simply take too much time to get to for what they are worth.
Bushes
Bushes are often overlooked when training farming. At lower levels, they aren't so great, but at higher levels their good xp and decent profit as well. I'd say whiteberries and poison ivies are worth farming.
Champion's Guild
Best: Combat Bracelet (Champions Guild)
Alts: See Combat Bracelet in Items (Advanced)
Rimmington
Best: House Teleport (Rimmington) OR Altered House Tablet to Rimmington
Alts: Explorer's Ring 3, Balloon/Skills Necklace to Crafting Guild
Etceteria
Best: Fairy Ring to Miscellinia
Alts: Lyre + boat
Ardougne Monastery
Best: Ardougne Cape Teleport
Alts: Fairy ring (DJP), Ardougne Teleport, Spirit Tree (Khazard Battlefield)
Trees/Fruit Trees
I group these together because you farm them together. Whereas allotments are very profitable and slow xp, and bushes are medium profit and medium xp, trees are a huge money sink while giving amazing xp. When I said 900k xp per hour of work, I was speaking almost exclusively about trees. This is where the xp is. If going for any long-term farming goal, I would farm trees. To be sure, there's the huge price tag, but you won't find such terrific xp anywhere else.
Varrock (Tree)
Best: Varrock Teleport
Alts: None
Falador (Tree)
Best: Falador Teleport
Alts: None
Lumbridge (Tree)
Best: Lumbridge Teleport
Alts: None
Catherby (Fruit)
Best: Catherby Teleport (Lunar)
Alts: Camelot Teleport
Grand Tree (Fruit + Tree)
Best: Spirit Tree
Alts: Grand Tree Pod
Tree Gnome Village (Fruit)
Best: Spirit Tree + Elkoy
Alts: Fairy Ring
Brimhaven (Fruit)
Best: Spirit Tree
Alts: Shilo Teleport (Karamja Gloves 3) + Cart, Ardougne Teleport + Boat
Taverly (Tree)
Best: Balloon
Alts: Falador Teleport, Altered House Teleport to Taverly
Lleyta (Fruit)
Best: Tiny Elf Crystal
Alts: None, see Tiny Elf Crystal in Items (Advanced)
Special Patches
These are pretty much figments of Jagex's imagination that didn't quite fit in with the others. By no means, however, does that make them "bad". These can be extremely powerful, if used right.
Calquat (Tai Bwo Wannai Village)
Best: Run from Brimhaven
Alts: None
Port Sarim/Etcerteria/Brimhaven Spirit Trees
I would highly recommend planting it in Brimhaven since it is the only useful one. Explorer's Ring takes care of Port Sarim. Fairy Rings cover Etcerteria. While the Ardy boat takes you close to Brimhaven and fairly quickly, it lacks the speed and power that the Spirit Tree grants during Farming Runs.
Jade Vine (Handelmort Mansion in Ardougne)
Best: Ardougne Teleport
Alts: Skills Necklace (Fishing Guild)
Cactus (Al-Kharid)
Best: Duelling Ring (Duel Arena)
Alts: Glory (Al-Kharid)
Belladonna/Evil Turnip (Draynor Manor)
Best: Explorer's Ring 3
Alts: Glory (Draynor)
Bittercap Mushrooms (West of Canafis)
Best: Fairy Ring (CKS)
Alts: Kharyll teleport/portal, Slayer Ring (Slayer Tower)
Allotments
Allotments are known as the "low-level" farming patch, even though they contain the highest level farming plant (Torstol Herb at a whooping 85 farming). However, they are the best xp for low levels...because they're the only xp for low levels!
Allotments contain the "allotment patches", numbering 2. There is also a flower and herb patch, as well as a compost bin. This is a "full" allotment. There are "partial" allotments as well, containing only pieces of these.
Phasmatys
Requires "Priest In Peril"
Best: Ectophial
Alts: See Ectophial in Items (Advanced)
Ardougne
Best: Ardougne Achievement Cape
Alts: Skills Necklace (Fishing Guild) OR Fishing Guild teleport (87 Magic), or any alternates listed in the Items section
Falador/Draynor
Best: Explorer's Ring 3
Alts: See Explorer's Ring 3 in Items (Advanced)
Catherby
Best: Catherby Teleport (Lunar spell)
Alts: Camelot teleport
Trollhiem
This contains only an herb patch. This is a special patch since it will never be diseased. Requires "My Arm's Big Adventure".
Best: Trollhiem Teleport
Alts: Fairy Ring/Slayer Ring to Slayer Dungeon and take back entrance into Troll Stronghold
Harmony Island
This contains only an allotment patch. Requires "The Great Brain Robbery". You will be attacked by Zombies.
Best: Charter Ship to Mos le'Harmless and have Brother Tranquility Teleport you
Alts: None, except instead of charter ship, you could Ectophial then have Bill Teach give you a ride
Western Ruins
This contains only a flower patch that only allows Limpwurts. Requires "Spirit of Summer". Beware of Revenants.
Best: Games Necklace then run West.
Alts: Falador teleport and run north-west, or Glory teleport and run north-west
Hops
These are junk. I repeat: This are totally worthless. Hops are not worth farming, and you're better off not wasting your time on them. DO NOT FARM THESE.
They give terrible xp, take up too much time, and are located in out-of-the-reach areas that simply take too much time to get to for what they are worth.
Bushes
Bushes are often overlooked when training farming. At lower levels, they aren't so great, but at higher levels their good xp and decent profit as well. I'd say whiteberries and poison ivies are worth farming.
Champion's Guild
Best: Combat Bracelet (Champions Guild)
Alts: See Combat Bracelet in Items (Advanced)
Rimmington
Best: House Teleport (Rimmington) OR Altered House Tablet to Rimmington
Alts: Explorer's Ring 3, Balloon/Skills Necklace to Crafting Guild
Etceteria
Best: Fairy Ring to Miscellinia
Alts: Lyre + boat
Ardougne Monastery
Best: Ardougne Cape Teleport
Alts: Fairy ring (DJP), Ardougne Teleport, Spirit Tree (Khazard Battlefield)
Trees/Fruit Trees
I group these together because you farm them together. Whereas allotments are very profitable and slow xp, and bushes are medium profit and medium xp, trees are a huge money sink while giving amazing xp. When I said 900k xp per hour of work, I was speaking almost exclusively about trees. This is where the xp is. If going for any long-term farming goal, I would farm trees. To be sure, there's the huge price tag, but you won't find such terrific xp anywhere else.
Varrock (Tree)
Best: Varrock Teleport
Alts: None
Falador (Tree)
Best: Falador Teleport
Alts: None
Lumbridge (Tree)
Best: Lumbridge Teleport
Alts: None
Catherby (Fruit)
Best: Catherby Teleport (Lunar)
Alts: Camelot Teleport
Grand Tree (Fruit + Tree)
Best: Spirit Tree
Alts: Grand Tree Pod
Tree Gnome Village (Fruit)
Best: Spirit Tree + Elkoy
Alts: Fairy Ring
Brimhaven (Fruit)
Best: Spirit Tree
Alts: Shilo Teleport (Karamja Gloves 3) + Cart, Ardougne Teleport + Boat
Taverly (Tree)
Best: Balloon
Alts: Falador Teleport, Altered House Teleport to Taverly
Lleyta (Fruit)
Best: Tiny Elf Crystal
Alts: None, see Tiny Elf Crystal in Items (Advanced)
Special Patches
These are pretty much figments of Jagex's imagination that didn't quite fit in with the others. By no means, however, does that make them "bad". These can be extremely powerful, if used right.
Calquat (Tai Bwo Wannai Village)
Best: Run from Brimhaven
Alts: None
Port Sarim/Etcerteria/Brimhaven Spirit Trees
I would highly recommend planting it in Brimhaven since it is the only useful one. Explorer's Ring takes care of Port Sarim. Fairy Rings cover Etcerteria. While the Ardy boat takes you close to Brimhaven and fairly quickly, it lacks the speed and power that the Spirit Tree grants during Farming Runs.
Jade Vine (Handelmort Mansion in Ardougne)
Best: Ardougne Teleport
Alts: Skills Necklace (Fishing Guild)
Cactus (Al-Kharid)
Best: Duelling Ring (Duel Arena)
Alts: Glory (Al-Kharid)
Belladonna/Evil Turnip (Draynor Manor)
Best: Explorer's Ring 3
Alts: Glory (Draynor)
Bittercap Mushrooms (West of Canafis)
Best: Fairy Ring (CKS)
Alts: Kharyll teleport/portal, Slayer Ring (Slayer Tower)
3. The Plants
In this section I will explore each seed and its usefulness in training, or benefiting from, farming.
Allotments
There is not much to say here. With the exception of watermelons, these are all cheap forms of xp. The low level farmer can easily get his or her first handful of levels here. Watermelons, however, are bad xp for their cost. They cost as much as trees but don't give nearly as much xp. I would not farm watermelons.
For the high level farming, the only crop worth considering in the allotment patches are sweetcorn for the profit.
Herbs
Only 4 herbs are worth mentioning here. Ranarr, Toadflax, Kwuarm, and Snapdragon. The allotment patch sets are known for their money-making ability. Herbs are the best example. The four mentioned herbs usually yield the greatest profit. However, their prices change frequently. You'll often have to recalculate to find which gives the best profit per herb run.
Each herb patch, if you use supercompost and magic secutaurs, yields 6.5 herbs on average, INCLUDING deaths of herbs (chance of death if using supercompost = 10%). The number of 6.5 is generally accepted among farmers, give or take a few tenths.
To calculate the profit/herb run, use the following formula:
Let S=Price of Seed and H=Price of Herb
H x 6.5 x 5 - S x 5
The end number gives you the profit you get per each herb run. Note: If you only farm 4 herb patches, replace the two 5s with 4s.
I have often been asked whether to turn the herbs you farm into potions or not. This is not technically "farming" so I'll keep this short. Remember the herbs aren't actually "free". If you make them into potions you won't get as much money. If you get 400k profit for herbs and 300k profit if you sell them as potions, that means you just "paid" 100k for that herb xp. So it isn't free xp at all. You're still paying money. You're paying in POTENTIAL money. Bottom line is if you were going to buy that herb xp anyway, go for it. But don't be under the illusion that it's free herb xp. It's not.
I have also developed a calculator you can use to easily find which herb is currently performing the best. The link to it is: http://spreadsheets....puM0NLbXc&hl=en
Pretty self-explanatory. If you notice any errors, please contact me by posting here.
Flowers
Flowers are bad xp, but they have 2 uses: profit and protection. Profit lies in 2 herbs (mainly) limpwurts and marigolds, marigolds being the better. Every flower also protects a certain allotment when it is PLANTED (so don't pick it). However, since we aren't particularly interested in allotments anyway, this is useless. But, there are some of you who will seriously farm allotments. That's fine, as I've said before, whatever makes the skill fun for you. If you do farm allotments regularly, I would recommend you plant the White Lily flower. To obtain these, exchange mole skins with Wyson the Gardener while having the Falador Shield 3 equipped. When planted, they protect ALL allotments of EVERY type (but still have no effect on herbs). This means you never need to worry about switching protection flowers. In addition, they give a nice amount of xp when picked (250), but you will only get ashes in return.
Bottom line for flowers: plant marigolds for the profit. From 100 seeds (8k) you'll get about 85 marigolds (about 350k). You should farm these along with your herbs to save time.
Hops
I've said this before, Hops are worthless. Do not farm them.
Bushes
Bushes are a medium blend of xp and money. There are two we are interested in, Whiteberry and Poison Ivy. This is pretty straightforward. Farm whiteberries when you can, then poison ivy when you hit 70.
Here's the best part about poison ivy: it never gets diseased and therefore never dies.
I'll take this opportunity to introduce a new concept: ignoring compost. I've said before that you should always use supercompost, with few exceptions. This is one of them. Let's look at the benefits of supercompost:
-Less disease
-Less growing time
-More yield
Bushes grow in about 150 minutes, which is over two hours. 2 herb runs results in about 160 minutes of waiting. Therefore, you should do 1 bush run every 2 herb runs. You don't need it to grow faster, then, because even if it did, it wouldn't help you.
Bushes always yield 4. It can never give you more, so you don't need to increase the yield. The only way to increase the yield is to have a Giant Ent summoned, and they aren't compost.
Poison ivy never gets diseased, so there's no need for that either.
As you can see, poison ivy is one of the few exceptions that do not require supercompost to grow efficiently, because using supercompost offers no benefits.
Trees and Fruit Trees
If you noticed, all the patches mentioned above are farmed by relatively cheap seeds (exception being snapdragon and ranarrs, which profit anyway). However, when we delve into the realm of trees, cost becomes a major issue. You might begin to look at the farming chart and think:
"Hmm, acorns are almost worthless, willows cost a decent amount but nothing too big, maples are alright, yews...wow that's a lot...magics....#$@% that's gonna hurt...".
Well, it's true. The cost of trees increases a lot. This means the most cost effective tree would be oaks (acorns). But we don't want to settle for that puny amount of xp. (There is a similar story with fruit trees.) What do you do, then? You look at the trees and their gp/xp RATIOS. This gives you the best idea of which trees are best for you.
By looking at the gp/xp ratios, you can easily calculate the costs and you can easily see which tree is right for you. The normal costs and xp you see from any guide are extremely deceiving. The gp/xp ratio is the only real thing you can trust. You can use it to discover which trees are best for you to farm at the given moment.
How do I get my gp/xp ratios? Well, you could always calculate it yourself for the most accurate results. However, I would like to recommend this calculator for the best general overview. It is very helpful, although I would always check it work myself before finalizing my decision.
Why is it important to look at the ratios? If you were to take a guess, which of the following is the most cost effective: Maples, Yews, Magics, or Palms? The answer, in fact, is palms. That is because it is only 9gp/xp while all the others are over 12gp/xp.
Although, you should take note that the above calculator does not take into account the xp for picking the fruit on fruit trees.
If you are trying to calculate the time you save using efficiency formulas, consider that when you "save" time, you are not saving 1 day of effort, you are only saving about 10 minutes of effort for 1 tree run. So it may seem like you're paying 20m extra to save 15 days, but you're really only saving a bit over 2 hours of effort. Beware of this trap.
Specials
There's is little discussion to be had here. There are only 3 specials (maybe 4) worth growing regularly. Those are Calquats, Jade Vines, Cactus, and Bittercap Mushrooms (but only if you use Fairy Rings on your runs). If you can grow ANY of those, work them into your farming runs. They are good xp and cactuses are good profit.
Specials generally take a long time to grow, and only the Calquat tree and Spirit Tree can be protected by farmers.
I did not mention Spirit Trees in the above list. This is because the seeds are too rare to make them worth farming regularly. If you do have spare seeds, they may be worth farming (although they take 2.5-3 days to fully grow). Remember, however, that you would give up your Brimhaven Spirit Tree and therefore slow down your farming runs considerably. If you feel that waiting 3 days and giving up easy access to the Brimhaven patch is worth the huge 20k xp it gives, then use all the seeds you get.
Allotments
There is not much to say here. With the exception of watermelons, these are all cheap forms of xp. The low level farmer can easily get his or her first handful of levels here. Watermelons, however, are bad xp for their cost. They cost as much as trees but don't give nearly as much xp. I would not farm watermelons.
For the high level farming, the only crop worth considering in the allotment patches are sweetcorn for the profit.
Herbs
Only 4 herbs are worth mentioning here. Ranarr, Toadflax, Kwuarm, and Snapdragon. The allotment patch sets are known for their money-making ability. Herbs are the best example. The four mentioned herbs usually yield the greatest profit. However, their prices change frequently. You'll often have to recalculate to find which gives the best profit per herb run.
Each herb patch, if you use supercompost and magic secutaurs, yields 6.5 herbs on average, INCLUDING deaths of herbs (chance of death if using supercompost = 10%). The number of 6.5 is generally accepted among farmers, give or take a few tenths.
To calculate the profit/herb run, use the following formula:
Let S=Price of Seed and H=Price of Herb
H x 6.5 x 5 - S x 5
The end number gives you the profit you get per each herb run. Note: If you only farm 4 herb patches, replace the two 5s with 4s.
I have often been asked whether to turn the herbs you farm into potions or not. This is not technically "farming" so I'll keep this short. Remember the herbs aren't actually "free". If you make them into potions you won't get as much money. If you get 400k profit for herbs and 300k profit if you sell them as potions, that means you just "paid" 100k for that herb xp. So it isn't free xp at all. You're still paying money. You're paying in POTENTIAL money. Bottom line is if you were going to buy that herb xp anyway, go for it. But don't be under the illusion that it's free herb xp. It's not.
I have also developed a calculator you can use to easily find which herb is currently performing the best. The link to it is: http://spreadsheets....puM0NLbXc&hl=en
Pretty self-explanatory. If you notice any errors, please contact me by posting here.
Flowers
Flowers are bad xp, but they have 2 uses: profit and protection. Profit lies in 2 herbs (mainly) limpwurts and marigolds, marigolds being the better. Every flower also protects a certain allotment when it is PLANTED (so don't pick it). However, since we aren't particularly interested in allotments anyway, this is useless. But, there are some of you who will seriously farm allotments. That's fine, as I've said before, whatever makes the skill fun for you. If you do farm allotments regularly, I would recommend you plant the White Lily flower. To obtain these, exchange mole skins with Wyson the Gardener while having the Falador Shield 3 equipped. When planted, they protect ALL allotments of EVERY type (but still have no effect on herbs). This means you never need to worry about switching protection flowers. In addition, they give a nice amount of xp when picked (250), but you will only get ashes in return.
Bottom line for flowers: plant marigolds for the profit. From 100 seeds (8k) you'll get about 85 marigolds (about 350k). You should farm these along with your herbs to save time.
Hops
I've said this before, Hops are worthless. Do not farm them.
Bushes
Bushes are a medium blend of xp and money. There are two we are interested in, Whiteberry and Poison Ivy. This is pretty straightforward. Farm whiteberries when you can, then poison ivy when you hit 70.
Here's the best part about poison ivy: it never gets diseased and therefore never dies.
I'll take this opportunity to introduce a new concept: ignoring compost. I've said before that you should always use supercompost, with few exceptions. This is one of them. Let's look at the benefits of supercompost:
-Less disease
-Less growing time
-More yield
Bushes grow in about 150 minutes, which is over two hours. 2 herb runs results in about 160 minutes of waiting. Therefore, you should do 1 bush run every 2 herb runs. You don't need it to grow faster, then, because even if it did, it wouldn't help you.
Bushes always yield 4. It can never give you more, so you don't need to increase the yield. The only way to increase the yield is to have a Giant Ent summoned, and they aren't compost.
Poison ivy never gets diseased, so there's no need for that either.
As you can see, poison ivy is one of the few exceptions that do not require supercompost to grow efficiently, because using supercompost offers no benefits.
Trees and Fruit Trees
If you noticed, all the patches mentioned above are farmed by relatively cheap seeds (exception being snapdragon and ranarrs, which profit anyway). However, when we delve into the realm of trees, cost becomes a major issue. You might begin to look at the farming chart and think:
"Hmm, acorns are almost worthless, willows cost a decent amount but nothing too big, maples are alright, yews...wow that's a lot...magics....#$@% that's gonna hurt...".
Well, it's true. The cost of trees increases a lot. This means the most cost effective tree would be oaks (acorns). But we don't want to settle for that puny amount of xp. (There is a similar story with fruit trees.) What do you do, then? You look at the trees and their gp/xp RATIOS. This gives you the best idea of which trees are best for you.
By looking at the gp/xp ratios, you can easily calculate the costs and you can easily see which tree is right for you. The normal costs and xp you see from any guide are extremely deceiving. The gp/xp ratio is the only real thing you can trust. You can use it to discover which trees are best for you to farm at the given moment.
How do I get my gp/xp ratios? Well, you could always calculate it yourself for the most accurate results. However, I would like to recommend this calculator for the best general overview. It is very helpful, although I would always check it work myself before finalizing my decision.
Why is it important to look at the ratios? If you were to take a guess, which of the following is the most cost effective: Maples, Yews, Magics, or Palms? The answer, in fact, is palms. That is because it is only 9gp/xp while all the others are over 12gp/xp.
Although, you should take note that the above calculator does not take into account the xp for picking the fruit on fruit trees.
If you are trying to calculate the time you save using efficiency formulas, consider that when you "save" time, you are not saving 1 day of effort, you are only saving about 10 minutes of effort for 1 tree run. So it may seem like you're paying 20m extra to save 15 days, but you're really only saving a bit over 2 hours of effort. Beware of this trap.
Specials
There's is little discussion to be had here. There are only 3 specials (maybe 4) worth growing regularly. Those are Calquats, Jade Vines, Cactus, and Bittercap Mushrooms (but only if you use Fairy Rings on your runs). If you can grow ANY of those, work them into your farming runs. They are good xp and cactuses are good profit.
Specials generally take a long time to grow, and only the Calquat tree and Spirit Tree can be protected by farmers.
I did not mention Spirit Trees in the above list. This is because the seeds are too rare to make them worth farming regularly. If you do have spare seeds, they may be worth farming (although they take 2.5-3 days to fully grow). Remember, however, that you would give up your Brimhaven Spirit Tree and therefore slow down your farming runs considerably. If you feel that waiting 3 days and giving up easy access to the Brimhaven patch is worth the huge 20k xp it gives, then use all the seeds you get.
4. What to Plant (Training Guide)
Training farming takes quite a lot of planning. It is not like every other skill where you can just find the best xp location and grind your way to the finish. Training farming has a lot to consider. For example, Should I do 3 tree runs per day instead of 2? How will that impact my costs and speed? Do I have the time or memory to do that many runs in a day? Or would I rather not worry about it once I do my first run of the day?
Oftentimes, you will find yourself planning your Runescape gaming around your farming cycles. For example, I try to do 2 slayer tasks as fast as I can so I can do an herb run at maximum efficiency right after both are over. This is natural, and is one of the things that makes farming great. You need to plan for success, and I believe there is a real life lesson in that.
Now then, onto the training guide:
This section mainly focuses on WHAT to grow, not HOW to grow them.
Roots: Levels 1-45
The first steps of farming are always the worst. You want to level this skill and move on, but no, you have to wait. That's fine, because you know the benefits of farming and how great it is once you get going with it.
Until you get to level 45, farm the best allotment you can and farm marigolds. Also, farm either ranarrs or toadflax, depending on which is best at the moment. When you can farm trees and fruit trees, farm the best you can. At such a low level, you shouldn't need to worry about the costs of trees just yet. Your most expensive trees would be willows at 4k.
There are no specials worth farming at this point.
You should take these first few moments to really get used to farming. Make mistakes here, if ever. If you're going to forget to pay a farmer, do it at a apple tree and not at a palm tree later in your life. Get used to the route you're taking. Time isn't an issue at low levels since you will gain your levels fast anyway. Do not worry about speed, just worry about consistency. Do runs as often as you can, whenever you can.
Alternative: While technically not farming, Troacctid mentioned an extremely efficient way to get these first few levels-quests.
As mentioned, those quests are very useful later on.
Alternative 2: Credits to 2noob4you1
Basically, if you do the Gnome Food Delivery Service, you can get Grand Tree Pods pretty often, yielding a high amount of farming xp (relatively). Use can use these pods to quickly advance the first few levels, as well as get a good chance at striking an highly priced Gnome Scarf. Note, you must do HARD orders, although with you proper teleports, this only takes ~3 minutes per order.
However, I recommend taking the quest route instead. The delivery service method is nice, but by completing various quests for their farming xp, you unlock valuable areas that will help you later on. Do Gnome Delivery Service AFTER you finish all the quests you need to complete.
Also, the pods go for about 3.5k a pop on the GE, which is expensive xp (35gp/xp ratio), but for lower levels, the speed makes it worth buying if you do not want to deliver toad crunchies to some gnome you've never heard of.
Note that all of these methods can be used in tandem with normal farming to maximize your speed at these lower levels.
Seedling: Levels 45-75
Here is when you really must decide how much you care about farming. For most people, their farming journey ends sometime in this stage. After all, why go on? The last quest requirement is only in the 60s, and the only thing to look forward to after is a spirit tree, which will only help in farming anyway.
All valid arguments. Here you must make the decision whether to go on with farming after your goal or not.
After you decided how much you care, decide how much that means to you. From that you will discover how much you are willing to spend. This stage is the stage you decide what your comfort zone is in terms of cost. Are you willing to pay 12gp/xp for yews, or should you just dummy it down?
Begin to be concerned about speed. However, it still shouldn't be a big concern. With the introduction of powerful trees, you'll still find yourself gaining a level every 1-3 days at least.
Sapling: Levels 75-85
You should really concern yourself with speed now. You should have everything you need established. You should know exactly what to do at a patch and exactly what you want to plant. Now, you just need to improve your speed.
Make your runs faster. You may have to do some of the quests you previously neglected. That is fine.
At level 83 (or even before that with farming boosters), you can plant a Spirit Tree. I highly recommend you plant it in Brimhaven. It will speed up your runs considerably.
At level 85, you are able to farm the best plant currently available: Torstol herbs. At this point, you have "mastered" farming. There is nothing you can't farm.
Like in the last stage, you must ask yourself how much you care about farming. If you do care, then proceed to the next stage. If you don't, your journey ends here, since the skill of farming has nothing to offer you outside of levels and herb runs.
Grown Tree: Levels 85-99
Here comes the grind. You should have this masted by now. You should be using my advanced route and be challenging your speeds. This is obviously the hardest stage, but also the most potentially rewarding. After this is over, you will have one of the most respected 99s in the game, if that is any concern to you.
There is not much I can say. You should know what you're doing by now.
Elder Tree: Level 99+
Why did I add this? One reason and one reason only: herb farming. Even after 99 farming I high recommend you continue to herb farm. It is terrific money and a nice distraction from the normal xp grind of your daily activities.
In addition, you should plant your patches to allow the maximum profit when you go around and harvest them (but not replant them). Many of you may choose not to do this since it would be a waste of time to go on farming runs just to harvest stuff like coconuts and willow branches. But you should have them planted. When you run around doing your normal Runescape activities, you may find yourself harvesting those patches for some quick money. Heading toward the Brimhaven dungeon for a task? Why not pick your coconuts and add a few extra coins to your task profit? Remember you can note them, so it really only takes 1 space.
Max profit:
-Willow trees -> Willow Branches
-Palm tree -> Coconuts -OR- Papaya Tree -> Papaya (whichever is more profitable at that moment)
-Herbs
-Marigold
-Sweetcorn
-Poison Ivy bush
Oh, and congratulations on 99 farming!
Training Concepts
Now that you know what to plant and what to focus on at various levels, let me introduce a few concepts to help you maximize your xp and save as much money as you can.
Gp/Xp Ratios
Again? Yes. This is more of a reminder than anything. They are extremely important, so check them as often as possible. A month ago, maples were 9gp/xp. Now they are 15gp/xp. That hurts.
Compost
Remember the 3 benefits of compost: faster growing, less disease, and better yields. If you realize that you don't need any of those, then do not use compost.
Again, my example from before were poison ivies. For those of you who only do 1 fruit tree run per day, fruit trees are another example.
Time Effort
This is something important to understand. Let's use herbs as an example. Herbs from in 75 minutes right? And 1 run yields ~90k profit right? So logically, you gain 90k profit in 75 minutes, right? Wrong!
Here is the concept of Time Effort. Many people believe that herb farming only gets you that 90k in 75 minutes. What they are missing is that you do not actually "farm" for 75 minutes. It is not like conventional money-makers. If you camped 1 hour at aviansies, you might get 400k. That means you get 400k in 1 hour, since you spent 1 hour of effort. However, are you spending 1 hour of effort when growing herbs? Of course you aren't. You're only spending 4-5 minutes of effort when you do the herb run. So you really gain 90k in those 5 minutes of effort.
Oftentimes, you will find yourself planning your Runescape gaming around your farming cycles. For example, I try to do 2 slayer tasks as fast as I can so I can do an herb run at maximum efficiency right after both are over. This is natural, and is one of the things that makes farming great. You need to plan for success, and I believe there is a real life lesson in that.
Now then, onto the training guide:
This section mainly focuses on WHAT to grow, not HOW to grow them.
Roots: Levels 1-45
The first steps of farming are always the worst. You want to level this skill and move on, but no, you have to wait. That's fine, because you know the benefits of farming and how great it is once you get going with it.
Until you get to level 45, farm the best allotment you can and farm marigolds. Also, farm either ranarrs or toadflax, depending on which is best at the moment. When you can farm trees and fruit trees, farm the best you can. At such a low level, you shouldn't need to worry about the costs of trees just yet. Your most expensive trees would be willows at 4k.
There are no specials worth farming at this point.
You should take these first few moments to really get used to farming. Make mistakes here, if ever. If you're going to forget to pay a farmer, do it at a apple tree and not at a palm tree later in your life. Get used to the route you're taking. Time isn't an issue at low levels since you will gain your levels fast anyway. Do not worry about speed, just worry about consistency. Do runs as often as you can, whenever you can.
Alternative: While technically not farming, Troacctid mentioned an extremely efficient way to get these first few levels-quests.
Quote
Fairy Tale Part 1 has no farming requirement, and the xp reward takes you to at least 18 farming, which means you can go straight to planting oaks. Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf's xp reward can take you from 18 to 25 farming. Garden of Tranquillity will easily carry you from 25 to 30 farming from its xp reward. Then you can do My Arm's Big Adventure and Enlightened Journey to go to 30-something. The fact that all of these quests (except Forgettable Tale) are ones that you would have already wanted to do for various farming-related reasons (well, for Garden of Tranquillity, it's more for fishing, so you can do Swan Song and catch monkfish) means that you've effectively skipped those levels with no training at all.
As mentioned, those quests are very useful later on.
Alternative 2: Credits to 2noob4you1
Quote
Did about 15 deliveries for the gnome food service,got either 9 or 10 pods as a reward(about 4 rewards in total).The total xp from them is enough to get 20 farming ,from level 1, without the need to plant anything.
Might want to mention that.
Might want to mention that.
Basically, if you do the Gnome Food Delivery Service, you can get Grand Tree Pods pretty often, yielding a high amount of farming xp (relatively). Use can use these pods to quickly advance the first few levels, as well as get a good chance at striking an highly priced Gnome Scarf. Note, you must do HARD orders, although with you proper teleports, this only takes ~3 minutes per order.
However, I recommend taking the quest route instead. The delivery service method is nice, but by completing various quests for their farming xp, you unlock valuable areas that will help you later on. Do Gnome Delivery Service AFTER you finish all the quests you need to complete.
Also, the pods go for about 3.5k a pop on the GE, which is expensive xp (35gp/xp ratio), but for lower levels, the speed makes it worth buying if you do not want to deliver toad crunchies to some gnome you've never heard of.
Note that all of these methods can be used in tandem with normal farming to maximize your speed at these lower levels.
Seedling: Levels 45-75
Here is when you really must decide how much you care about farming. For most people, their farming journey ends sometime in this stage. After all, why go on? The last quest requirement is only in the 60s, and the only thing to look forward to after is a spirit tree, which will only help in farming anyway.
All valid arguments. Here you must make the decision whether to go on with farming after your goal or not.
After you decided how much you care, decide how much that means to you. From that you will discover how much you are willing to spend. This stage is the stage you decide what your comfort zone is in terms of cost. Are you willing to pay 12gp/xp for yews, or should you just dummy it down?
Begin to be concerned about speed. However, it still shouldn't be a big concern. With the introduction of powerful trees, you'll still find yourself gaining a level every 1-3 days at least.
Sapling: Levels 75-85
You should really concern yourself with speed now. You should have everything you need established. You should know exactly what to do at a patch and exactly what you want to plant. Now, you just need to improve your speed.
Make your runs faster. You may have to do some of the quests you previously neglected. That is fine.
At level 83 (or even before that with farming boosters), you can plant a Spirit Tree. I highly recommend you plant it in Brimhaven. It will speed up your runs considerably.
At level 85, you are able to farm the best plant currently available: Torstol herbs. At this point, you have "mastered" farming. There is nothing you can't farm.
Like in the last stage, you must ask yourself how much you care about farming. If you do care, then proceed to the next stage. If you don't, your journey ends here, since the skill of farming has nothing to offer you outside of levels and herb runs.
Grown Tree: Levels 85-99
Here comes the grind. You should have this masted by now. You should be using my advanced route and be challenging your speeds. This is obviously the hardest stage, but also the most potentially rewarding. After this is over, you will have one of the most respected 99s in the game, if that is any concern to you.
There is not much I can say. You should know what you're doing by now.
Elder Tree: Level 99+
Why did I add this? One reason and one reason only: herb farming. Even after 99 farming I high recommend you continue to herb farm. It is terrific money and a nice distraction from the normal xp grind of your daily activities.
In addition, you should plant your patches to allow the maximum profit when you go around and harvest them (but not replant them). Many of you may choose not to do this since it would be a waste of time to go on farming runs just to harvest stuff like coconuts and willow branches. But you should have them planted. When you run around doing your normal Runescape activities, you may find yourself harvesting those patches for some quick money. Heading toward the Brimhaven dungeon for a task? Why not pick your coconuts and add a few extra coins to your task profit? Remember you can note them, so it really only takes 1 space.
Max profit:
-Willow trees -> Willow Branches
-Palm tree -> Coconuts -OR- Papaya Tree -> Papaya (whichever is more profitable at that moment)
-Herbs
-Marigold
-Sweetcorn
-Poison Ivy bush
Oh, and congratulations on 99 farming!
Training Concepts
Now that you know what to plant and what to focus on at various levels, let me introduce a few concepts to help you maximize your xp and save as much money as you can.
Gp/Xp Ratios
Again? Yes. This is more of a reminder than anything. They are extremely important, so check them as often as possible. A month ago, maples were 9gp/xp. Now they are 15gp/xp. That hurts.
Compost
Remember the 3 benefits of compost: faster growing, less disease, and better yields. If you realize that you don't need any of those, then do not use compost.
Again, my example from before were poison ivies. For those of you who only do 1 fruit tree run per day, fruit trees are another example.
Time Effort
This is something important to understand. Let's use herbs as an example. Herbs from in 75 minutes right? And 1 run yields ~90k profit right? So logically, you gain 90k profit in 75 minutes, right? Wrong!
Here is the concept of Time Effort. Many people believe that herb farming only gets you that 90k in 75 minutes. What they are missing is that you do not actually "farm" for 75 minutes. It is not like conventional money-makers. If you camped 1 hour at aviansies, you might get 400k. That means you get 400k in 1 hour, since you spent 1 hour of effort. However, are you spending 1 hour of effort when growing herbs? Of course you aren't. You're only spending 4-5 minutes of effort when you do the herb run. So you really gain 90k in those 5 minutes of effort.
5. Farming Runs
This section will focus exclusively on the HOW of farming. How should I visit my patches? How should I arrange the order?
The farming runs I give are the FASTEST ways possible. I know of no methods that are significantly faster. However, if you have anything I have overlooked, whether in the main run or the alternatives, post or message me. I would be happy to edit it in and credit you.
I'd like to mention that the best way to farm (fastest and least confusing) would be to do your tree runs, herb runs, and bush runs separate from one another.
First, two concepts:
Paying Farmers
As you know, you can pay farmers to protect your patches. However, this isn't always worth it. All patches (if supercomposted) die 10% of the time, on average. What does this mean? This means if you planted 10 trees, you should expect 1 of them to die (this is not guaranteed, but you should EXPECT 1 to die and you should use that number in your planning).
So let's say I planted 10 Birch trees. Birch trees cost 20k per seed. The farmers accept 5 Asian Pears as payment, which are 500 each one the GE. So in total, the payment is 2.5k.
In those 10 Birch trees, I should expect 1 to die. So I am wasting 20k, because that 20k buys 1 seed that doesn't yield any xp due to death (this isn't true, because you get xp for planting, but let's keep it simple).
However, if you paid the farmer to protect all 10 Birchs, none would die, right? However, you would then pay 2.5k for all 10 of those trees. Therefore, you are wasting 25k, because that 25k buys payments that don't yield any xp.
See what happened? By paying the farmer, you actually wasted 5k extra.
So, if the total cost of the payment exceeds 10% of the cost of 1 seed, it is NOT worth paying to protect that tree.
Here's an example, yew seeds are 86k. They require 10 cactus spines, totaling 37k in costs. 37k is more than 10% of 86k, so you should not pay to protect yews at the current prices (which are subject to change, so you should always check).
Maple seeds are 52k and require a basket of oranges, which is 1k. 1k is less than 10% of 52k, so you should pay to protect maples.
Paying Farmers (again)
For regular trees, you can also pay the farmer 200gp to have him or her cut down the tree for you. You get no WC xp from this and you do not get the roots from digging up the tree, but it saves a lot of time. Try it yourself and you will see what I mean.
It is ALWAYS worth paying that 200gp for the farmer to cut down the tree. Do ALWAYS do it.
Tree/Fruit Tree Run
Let's start with this, since it is the most xp. Do as outlined below (without using any alts) and you should do your Tree/Fruit Tree runs in 8-9 minutes.
This is the standard inventory. Now there are a few things to note/replace:
-Personally, I got pked with my Penance gloves on and I do not have Agile Top or Bottoms. If you have any of those, wear them, since they can only help. However, I would like to mention that they are not necessary, since with that set-up I never fall below 50% run.
-You can replace the teleports with teletabs. In the above picture, that's one of each of: Falador, Varrock , Lumbridge, and Camelot teleports. If you farm with Lunar, bring a Catherby teleport instead of a Camelot teletab.
-If you do not have access to any of the items above, please go back to the Items (Advanced) or Items (Basic) section and look up the alternatives you have.
-It's worth mentioning that I do not need to bank with the above set up
-The compost is for the regular trees, which I do not protect (see the above concepts). If you do protect them, you will not need compost unless you do 3 tree runs per day. Always have 1 supercompost for the Calquat, at least.
-If you don't know why I chose a Mithril Hatchet, see the Items (Basic) entry on hatchets.
Now, notice that you only have 1 free space. Clearly, you can't farm fruit trees like that! So you don't. If you visit the Varrock, Falador, and Lumbridge tree patches (and drop all the empty pots/buckets) you easily have enough room for Fruit Tree yields. Remember to note them when you don't have room!
Now, just make sure your Duelling Ring has at least 4 charges (3, if you don't bank them at 1 charge left) and make sure your Tiny Elf Crystal is charged, and you're ready to go!
In the pictures provided, the red line indicates the path you are to run and the red dot indicates where you land after you teleport to that location using the method described. If you cannot use a particular teleport, see the Patches section of this guide and locate the alternative best for you.
1. Varrock Teleport
Farm: Varrock Tree
2. Lumbridge Teleport
Farm: Lumbridge Tree
3. Falador Teleport
Farm: Falador Tree
4. Camelot/Catherby Teleport
Farm: Catherby Fruit Tree
5. Duelling Ring to Mobilizing Armies, then take the Spirit Tree to Tree Gnome Village, exit the Village and have Elkoy lead you through the maze
Farm: Gnome Village Fruit Tree
6. Duelling Ring to Mobilizing Armies, then take the Spirit Tree to the Gnome Stronghold
Farm: Stronghold Tree, Stronghold Fruit Tree
7. While you're at the Gnome Stronghold, cut down 1 regular tree and use the balloon to fly to Taverly
Farm: Taverly Tree
8. Duelling Ring to Mobilizing Armies, then take the Spirit Tree to Brimhaven
Farm: Brimhaven Fruit Tree and Calquat Tree
9. Tiny Elf Crystal
Farm: Lleyta Fruit Tree
Outline
1. Tele to Varrock
2. Tele to Lumbridge
3. Tele to Falador
4. Tele to Camelot/Catherby
5. Duelling Ring to MA and Spirit Tree to Gnome Village
6. Duelling Ring to MA and Spirit Tree to Gnome Stronghold
7. Balloon to Taverly
8. Duelling Ring to MA and Spirit Tree to Brimhaven, then run south to Calquat
9. Tiny Elf Crystal to Lleyta
That's it. There's a bank at Lleyta also, so you can gear up for whatever you do next.
How fast is this? Well, as I said before, it's typically 8-9 minutes. My personal record time is 7 minutes 24 seconds. So challenge yourself, can you beat my time? And more importantly, can you beat your own time, whether it is faster or slower than mine?
Herb Runs
These typically take 5 minutes to complete.
You will only be going to the 4 "full" allotments and the Trollhiem one. Do not visit the Wilderness or Harmony allotments. They are too far and you can't even plant anything good in them.
Notes on the picture:
-Personally, I got pked with my Penance gloves on and I do not have Agile Top or Bottoms. If you have any of those, wear them, since they can only help. However, I would like to mention that they are not necessary, since with that set-up I never fall below 50% run.
-You can replace the teleports with teletabs. In the above picture, that's a Camelot teleport. If you farm with Lunar, bring a Catherby teleport instead of a Camelot teletab.
-If you do not have access to any of the items above, please go back to the Items (Advanced) or Items (Basic) section and look up the alternatives you have.
-It's worth mentioning that I do not need to bank with the above set up
-You could also EQUIP the skills necklace to save 1 inventory slot. I generally don't need to.
-The Ardougne Achievement Cape is superior, but remember you are limited to one teleport per day unless you have completed the Elite Diary. That being said, use the above set up if you haven't gotten that far in the Diary or have used your daily teleport. If you have the teleport open, simply replace the cape with the Ardougne Achievement Cape and forgo the Skills Necklace.
-I do farm cactus, but I only harvest it. I do not replant my cactus. If you DO, then add 1 more supercompost and 1 cactus seed
You'll notice there are 3 slots for runes. I do all the magic teleports first so I clear up those 3 rune spots in my inventory. I also drop all my empty buckets. I would note my herbs after every patch that gave me any, unless I clearly have enough space. I usually do not note the marigolds.
Now make sure your skills necklace and Duelling ring have charges left and you're good to go.
In the below maps, the red line is the path you run and the red spot is where you land after you teleport.
1. Trollhiem Teleport, run to Troll Stronghold, run to the Generals and up the ladder
2. Camelot/Catherby Teleport
3. Ectophial
4. Skills Necklace (Fishing Guild)/Ardougne Cape tele
5. Explorer's Ring 3
6. Duelling Ring to Al-Kharid Duel Arena
You should get about 35 herbs per run on average.
Outline
1. Tele to Trollheim
2. Tele to Camelot/Catherby
3. Tele to Ectofungus
4. Tele to Fishing Guild/Ardougne Farming Patch directly
5. Tele to Cabbage Patch
6. Tele to Duel Arena
My best time is 4:21. Can you beat it? Can you beat yourself?
Bushes
The least important of the 3. These typically take 4-5 minutes.
Many of you will probably decide bushes are not worth it. I do not believe so. They are often overlooked. They do not give a lot of xp, but its quick and profitable.
-The House teleport is directed at Rimmington, the Altered Tab is not shown, but use that if you have it.
-It should be noted that the Ardougne Cape is better than a Spottier Cape since it teleports you almost directly in front of the Bush patch there.
-Personally, I got pked with my Penance gloves on and I do not have Agile Top or Bottoms. If you have any of those, wear them, since they can only help. However, I would like to mention that they are not necessary, since with that set-up I never fall below 50% run.
-You can replace the teleports with teletabs. In the above picture, that's one of a House teleport.
-If you do not have access to any of the items above, please go back to the Items (Advanced) or Items (Basic) section and look up the alternatives you have.
-It's worth mentioning that I do not need to bank with the above set up
-For those with a Wolpertinger, you should bring it. It gives 2x the yield and also 2x the xp (thanks Nicrune008).
-Fremmy Sea Boots 3 are not shown, but should be worn if you have them
Now make sure you're Duelling Ring and Combat Bracelet are charged and your Slayer Ring has 2 charges.
In the maps below, the red line is the path you run and the red dot is where you start after you teleport.
1. Combat Bracelet (Champion's Guild)
2. House Teleport (Rimmington) OR Altered House Teleport to Rimmington
3. Ardougne Cape tele (Kandarian Monastery)
During the following step, you should also Fairy Ring to CKS for the Bittercap mushrooms, which are like 5 squares from the Ring
4. Slayer Ring to Relleka Slayer Cave, go to Fairy Ring, Fairy Ring Code CIP
NOTE, if you have Fremmy Sea Boots 3, run instead to the docks and climb over the broken pier.
You can either Duelling Ring to MA or CW to bank after this, of you can go to the Etceteria bank if you have unlocked it.
Outline
1. Tele to Champ's Guild
2. Tele to Rimmington
3. Slayer Ring to Slayer caves, then Fairy Ring to DJP (Also Fairy Ring to CKS for mushrooms)
4. Slayer Ring to Slayer caves, then Fairy Ring to CIP
Best time? 4:22
A Note on Times
All of these times are by no means the best times possible. You could certainly get faster times. In fact, I encourage you to post your times! They don't have to be faster, but if you compare it with others, you'll see how you rank. In addition to my time, I'll also post the TIF'er who has the best time out of all of those who replied. A personal challenge, you might say.
There is only 1 rule, in order for a time to be valid, all your patches in that run could not have died. They all had to have lived. If a single patch dies, you gain an unfair advantage, so that run is disqualified. (Clearing a death patch is a lot faster than harvesting + replanting.)
I hope to see some really fast times out there
This section will focus exclusively on the HOW of farming. How should I visit my patches? How should I arrange the order?
The farming runs I give are the FASTEST ways possible. I know of no methods that are significantly faster. However, if you have anything I have overlooked, whether in the main run or the alternatives, post or message me. I would be happy to edit it in and credit you.
I'd like to mention that the best way to farm (fastest and least confusing) would be to do your tree runs, herb runs, and bush runs separate from one another.
First, two concepts:
Paying Farmers
As you know, you can pay farmers to protect your patches. However, this isn't always worth it. All patches (if supercomposted) die 10% of the time, on average. What does this mean? This means if you planted 10 trees, you should expect 1 of them to die (this is not guaranteed, but you should EXPECT 1 to die and you should use that number in your planning).
So let's say I planted 10 Birch trees. Birch trees cost 20k per seed. The farmers accept 5 Asian Pears as payment, which are 500 each one the GE. So in total, the payment is 2.5k.
In those 10 Birch trees, I should expect 1 to die. So I am wasting 20k, because that 20k buys 1 seed that doesn't yield any xp due to death (this isn't true, because you get xp for planting, but let's keep it simple).
However, if you paid the farmer to protect all 10 Birchs, none would die, right? However, you would then pay 2.5k for all 10 of those trees. Therefore, you are wasting 25k, because that 25k buys payments that don't yield any xp.
See what happened? By paying the farmer, you actually wasted 5k extra.
So, if the total cost of the payment exceeds 10% of the cost of 1 seed, it is NOT worth paying to protect that tree.
Here's an example, yew seeds are 86k. They require 10 cactus spines, totaling 37k in costs. 37k is more than 10% of 86k, so you should not pay to protect yews at the current prices (which are subject to change, so you should always check).
Maple seeds are 52k and require a basket of oranges, which is 1k. 1k is less than 10% of 52k, so you should pay to protect maples.
Paying Farmers (again)
For regular trees, you can also pay the farmer 200gp to have him or her cut down the tree for you. You get no WC xp from this and you do not get the roots from digging up the tree, but it saves a lot of time. Try it yourself and you will see what I mean.
It is ALWAYS worth paying that 200gp for the farmer to cut down the tree. Do ALWAYS do it.
Tree/Fruit Tree Run
Let's start with this, since it is the most xp. Do as outlined below (without using any alts) and you should do your Tree/Fruit Tree runs in 8-9 minutes.
This is the standard inventory. Now there are a few things to note/replace:
-Personally, I got pked with my Penance gloves on and I do not have Agile Top or Bottoms. If you have any of those, wear them, since they can only help. However, I would like to mention that they are not necessary, since with that set-up I never fall below 50% run.
-You can replace the teleports with teletabs. In the above picture, that's one of each of: Falador, Varrock , Lumbridge, and Camelot teleports. If you farm with Lunar, bring a Catherby teleport instead of a Camelot teletab.
-If you do not have access to any of the items above, please go back to the Items (Advanced) or Items (Basic) section and look up the alternatives you have.
-It's worth mentioning that I do not need to bank with the above set up
-The compost is for the regular trees, which I do not protect (see the above concepts). If you do protect them, you will not need compost unless you do 3 tree runs per day. Always have 1 supercompost for the Calquat, at least.
-If you don't know why I chose a Mithril Hatchet, see the Items (Basic) entry on hatchets.
Now, notice that you only have 1 free space. Clearly, you can't farm fruit trees like that! So you don't. If you visit the Varrock, Falador, and Lumbridge tree patches (and drop all the empty pots/buckets) you easily have enough room for Fruit Tree yields. Remember to note them when you don't have room!
Now, just make sure your Duelling Ring has at least 4 charges (3, if you don't bank them at 1 charge left) and make sure your Tiny Elf Crystal is charged, and you're ready to go!
In the pictures provided, the red line indicates the path you are to run and the red dot indicates where you land after you teleport to that location using the method described. If you cannot use a particular teleport, see the Patches section of this guide and locate the alternative best for you.
1. Varrock Teleport
Farm: Varrock Tree
2. Lumbridge Teleport
Farm: Lumbridge Tree
3. Falador Teleport
Farm: Falador Tree
4. Camelot/Catherby Teleport
Farm: Catherby Fruit Tree
5. Duelling Ring to Mobilizing Armies, then take the Spirit Tree to Tree Gnome Village, exit the Village and have Elkoy lead you through the maze
Farm: Gnome Village Fruit Tree
6. Duelling Ring to Mobilizing Armies, then take the Spirit Tree to the Gnome Stronghold
Farm: Stronghold Tree, Stronghold Fruit Tree
7. While you're at the Gnome Stronghold, cut down 1 regular tree and use the balloon to fly to Taverly
Farm: Taverly Tree
8. Duelling Ring to Mobilizing Armies, then take the Spirit Tree to Brimhaven
Farm: Brimhaven Fruit Tree and Calquat Tree
9. Tiny Elf Crystal
Farm: Lleyta Fruit Tree
Outline
1. Tele to Varrock
2. Tele to Lumbridge
3. Tele to Falador
4. Tele to Camelot/Catherby
5. Duelling Ring to MA and Spirit Tree to Gnome Village
6. Duelling Ring to MA and Spirit Tree to Gnome Stronghold
7. Balloon to Taverly
8. Duelling Ring to MA and Spirit Tree to Brimhaven, then run south to Calquat
9. Tiny Elf Crystal to Lleyta
That's it. There's a bank at Lleyta also, so you can gear up for whatever you do next.
How fast is this? Well, as I said before, it's typically 8-9 minutes. My personal record time is 7 minutes 24 seconds. So challenge yourself, can you beat my time? And more importantly, can you beat your own time, whether it is faster or slower than mine?
Herb Runs
These typically take 5 minutes to complete.
You will only be going to the 4 "full" allotments and the Trollhiem one. Do not visit the Wilderness or Harmony allotments. They are too far and you can't even plant anything good in them.
Notes on the picture:
-Personally, I got pked with my Penance gloves on and I do not have Agile Top or Bottoms. If you have any of those, wear them, since they can only help. However, I would like to mention that they are not necessary, since with that set-up I never fall below 50% run.
-You can replace the teleports with teletabs. In the above picture, that's a Camelot teleport. If you farm with Lunar, bring a Catherby teleport instead of a Camelot teletab.
-If you do not have access to any of the items above, please go back to the Items (Advanced) or Items (Basic) section and look up the alternatives you have.
-It's worth mentioning that I do not need to bank with the above set up
-You could also EQUIP the skills necklace to save 1 inventory slot. I generally don't need to.
-The Ardougne Achievement Cape is superior, but remember you are limited to one teleport per day unless you have completed the Elite Diary. That being said, use the above set up if you haven't gotten that far in the Diary or have used your daily teleport. If you have the teleport open, simply replace the cape with the Ardougne Achievement Cape and forgo the Skills Necklace.
-I do farm cactus, but I only harvest it. I do not replant my cactus. If you DO, then add 1 more supercompost and 1 cactus seed
You'll notice there are 3 slots for runes. I do all the magic teleports first so I clear up those 3 rune spots in my inventory. I also drop all my empty buckets. I would note my herbs after every patch that gave me any, unless I clearly have enough space. I usually do not note the marigolds.
Now make sure your skills necklace and Duelling ring have charges left and you're good to go.
In the below maps, the red line is the path you run and the red spot is where you land after you teleport.
1. Trollhiem Teleport, run to Troll Stronghold, run to the Generals and up the ladder
2. Camelot/Catherby Teleport
3. Ectophial
4. Skills Necklace (Fishing Guild)/Ardougne Cape tele
5. Explorer's Ring 3
6. Duelling Ring to Al-Kharid Duel Arena
You should get about 35 herbs per run on average.
Outline
1. Tele to Trollheim
2. Tele to Camelot/Catherby
3. Tele to Ectofungus
4. Tele to Fishing Guild/Ardougne Farming Patch directly
5. Tele to Cabbage Patch
6. Tele to Duel Arena
My best time is 4:21. Can you beat it? Can you beat yourself?
Bushes
The least important of the 3. These typically take 4-5 minutes.
Many of you will probably decide bushes are not worth it. I do not believe so. They are often overlooked. They do not give a lot of xp, but its quick and profitable.
-The House teleport is directed at Rimmington, the Altered Tab is not shown, but use that if you have it.
-It should be noted that the Ardougne Cape is better than a Spottier Cape since it teleports you almost directly in front of the Bush patch there.
-Personally, I got pked with my Penance gloves on and I do not have Agile Top or Bottoms. If you have any of those, wear them, since they can only help. However, I would like to mention that they are not necessary, since with that set-up I never fall below 50% run.
-You can replace the teleports with teletabs. In the above picture, that's one of a House teleport.
-If you do not have access to any of the items above, please go back to the Items (Advanced) or Items (Basic) section and look up the alternatives you have.
-It's worth mentioning that I do not need to bank with the above set up
-For those with a Wolpertinger, you should bring it. It gives 2x the yield and also 2x the xp (thanks Nicrune008).
-Fremmy Sea Boots 3 are not shown, but should be worn if you have them
Now make sure you're Duelling Ring and Combat Bracelet are charged and your Slayer Ring has 2 charges.
In the maps below, the red line is the path you run and the red dot is where you start after you teleport.
1. Combat Bracelet (Champion's Guild)
2. House Teleport (Rimmington) OR Altered House Teleport to Rimmington
3. Ardougne Cape tele (Kandarian Monastery)
During the following step, you should also Fairy Ring to CKS for the Bittercap mushrooms, which are like 5 squares from the Ring
4. Slayer Ring to Relleka Slayer Cave, go to Fairy Ring, Fairy Ring Code CIP
NOTE, if you have Fremmy Sea Boots 3, run instead to the docks and climb over the broken pier.
You can either Duelling Ring to MA or CW to bank after this, of you can go to the Etceteria bank if you have unlocked it.
Outline
1. Tele to Champ's Guild
2. Tele to Rimmington
3. Slayer Ring to Slayer caves, then Fairy Ring to DJP (Also Fairy Ring to CKS for mushrooms)
4. Slayer Ring to Slayer caves, then Fairy Ring to CIP
Best time? 4:22
A Note on Times
All of these times are by no means the best times possible. You could certainly get faster times. In fact, I encourage you to post your times! They don't have to be faster, but if you compare it with others, you'll see how you rank. In addition to my time, I'll also post the TIF'er who has the best time out of all of those who replied. A personal challenge, you might say.
There is only 1 rule, in order for a time to be valid, all your patches in that run could not have died. They all had to have lived. If a single patch dies, you gain an unfair advantage, so that run is disqualified. (Clearing a death patch is a lot faster than harvesting + replanting.)
I hope to see some really fast times out there
6. Tips and Tricks
Lunar Magicks
Lunar Magic is almost custom tailored for farming. It comes with 2 terrific teleports for farming: Catherby and Fishing Guild. It also has Spellbook Swap, so you don't miss out on Trollhiem teleport. In addition, Fertile Soil is outstanding as a replacement for supercompost. Cure plant also eliminates the need for plant cures, although you really shouldn't go out of your way to check plants' health anyway.
Lunars has a lot to offer. However, I would only recommend it to those with 91 magic. At that level, you can drink a magic potion and use spellbook swap. Otherwise, the benefits of Lunars is simply not worth giving up the Trollhiem patch.
Note: There is a back entrance to the Troll Stronghold. You go to the Slayer Cave and go to the rocky pass to the East of it. However, this is really slow and I do not recommend it. If you do chose to do this, I would switch to Lunars for Fertile Soil, but not before
For those who do farm with Lunar magic:
-For all the supercompost, simply take runes to match it using Fertile Soil. You may chose to bring a few extra runes for Cure Plant, in case you find any diseased plants during herb runs.
-Replace Camelot teleports with Catherby teleports
-Replace Ardounge, House, Varrock, Lumbridge, and Falador teleports with the corresponding teletabs. If you cannot use Catherby teleport, also bring Camelot teletabs
-If you can use Spellbook Swap, bring runes for it and Trollhiem teleport
Summoning
There are a few familiars which may be helpful. However, I find none of them necessary. I do all my farming runs without familiars. I never run out of space (if I note my produce) and I never run out of energy. I also do not need the farming level boosts that some of them give, although I understand some of you may. If that is the case, then certainly take the appropriate familiar.
A list of Farming-friendly familiars:
-Bull Ant/Terrorbird
-All BoBs
-Stranger Plant
-Giant Ent
-Dreadfowl
-Hydra
-Wolpertinger
-Compost Mound
However, there is one familiar that is worth using (perhaps 2): The Giant Ent and the Wolpertinger. The Giant Ent increases bush, fruit tree, and cactus yields by 50%. The Wolpertinger doubles xp and yield of bushes.
For more information, visit the Tip.It Summoning Guide here: <!-- m -->http://tip.it/runesc...oning_guide.htm<!-- m -->
Amulet of Nature
In short, the amulet of nature lets you bind it to a patch. It will then tell you exactly when the patch is finished growing and whether it is diseased of dead. If you are wearing the amulet, it will give you in-game messages. Otherwise, you need to check it manually by talking to the amulet.
You may only have 1 Amulet of Nature in your bank, inventory, or equiped at any time.
You can bind it to any patch.
The Amulet of Farming is a lesser version that can only be bound to allotments and flowers. In addition, it only has 8 charges, but you can have as many of them as you want. They are also a lot easier to get. You can buy them at any farming shop.
Get to an Amulet of Nature, take an emerald amulet. Then get magic tree roots and use them on a spinning wheel to get magic string. Use the amulet on the string to get a pre-nature amulet. Then use Level-2 (Emerald) enchant on it to complete the Amulet of Nature.
I recommend having an Amulet of Nature bound to the last herb patch you harvest (other than Trollhiem). This way, when it's gone growing, you know they have all finished growing. I would also check on it periodically when you bank.
Level Boosters
Comparably, there are a lot of farming level boosters:
-Garden Pie: +3
-Cider: +1
-Dreadfowl: +1
-Stranger Plant: 1+4%
-Compost Mound: 1+2%
-Evil stew: -6 to +6, although +6 is so rare it's impractical to even consider it. Think of the maximum as +5 instead.
The only practical ones are the Garden Pie and Stranger Plant. Use them during your runs if you need the levels. Compost Mound is decent as well if you use it anyway.
Misc.
1. If you plant the seed right after the supercompost leaves the bucket in the supercomposting animation, you instantly plant the seed even though you are still composting the patch. This let you speed up runs a little.
2. If you plant Papaya and have Karamja Gloves 3, visiting Del Monty to claim 40 pineapples daily while farming the Brimhaven fruit tree patch heavily cuts down on your payment costs.
FAQs
If you use the forumla I provided, it appears that calquats are not worth paying for, which is true. Paying to protect calquats is not economically efficient.
However, unlike other patches, there is only one calquat. Also, I farm poison ivies, so I don't mind giving up 8 berries each day. Therefore, I prefer to protect the calquat.
It is an expensive payment, however, you are right. Not paying is the most economically efficient way to farm calquats.
Other herbs, such as the level 85 Torstol, are a similar case.
It slows down the run somewhat, and it takes up inventory space you can't spare with my setup. Although you could bank in the middle of the run to make room. That just takes too much time. I prefer to just take care of all those chores after. It works out much quicker this way.
If you use a Lep to store your supercompost (and save inventory space), you would be slowing down your runs. Plus, it makes the runs a lot more confusing than they need to be, and you still can't fit in all of the chores in 1 tree/fruit tree run. That is why I do them separate (it's also why the tree/herb/bush runs are separate): it's less confusing and it's faster.
However, you may not think it is confusing at all. If it works out for you, by all means, do it. I know many other guides recommend doing so. Know that it is the slower option, but if it makes your life easier then go for it.
Lunar Magic is almost custom tailored for farming. It comes with 2 terrific teleports for farming: Catherby and Fishing Guild. It also has Spellbook Swap, so you don't miss out on Trollhiem teleport. In addition, Fertile Soil is outstanding as a replacement for supercompost. Cure plant also eliminates the need for plant cures, although you really shouldn't go out of your way to check plants' health anyway.
Lunars has a lot to offer. However, I would only recommend it to those with 91 magic. At that level, you can drink a magic potion and use spellbook swap. Otherwise, the benefits of Lunars is simply not worth giving up the Trollhiem patch.
Note: There is a back entrance to the Troll Stronghold. You go to the Slayer Cave and go to the rocky pass to the East of it. However, this is really slow and I do not recommend it. If you do chose to do this, I would switch to Lunars for Fertile Soil, but not before
For those who do farm with Lunar magic:
-For all the supercompost, simply take runes to match it using Fertile Soil. You may chose to bring a few extra runes for Cure Plant, in case you find any diseased plants during herb runs.
-Replace Camelot teleports with Catherby teleports
-Replace Ardounge, House, Varrock, Lumbridge, and Falador teleports with the corresponding teletabs. If you cannot use Catherby teleport, also bring Camelot teletabs
-If you can use Spellbook Swap, bring runes for it and Trollhiem teleport
Summoning
There are a few familiars which may be helpful. However, I find none of them necessary. I do all my farming runs without familiars. I never run out of space (if I note my produce) and I never run out of energy. I also do not need the farming level boosts that some of them give, although I understand some of you may. If that is the case, then certainly take the appropriate familiar.
A list of Farming-friendly familiars:
-Bull Ant/Terrorbird
-All BoBs
-Stranger Plant
-Giant Ent
-Dreadfowl
-Hydra
-Wolpertinger
-Compost Mound
However, there is one familiar that is worth using (perhaps 2): The Giant Ent and the Wolpertinger. The Giant Ent increases bush, fruit tree, and cactus yields by 50%. The Wolpertinger doubles xp and yield of bushes.
JoeDaStudd said:
Definitely worth taking Giant Ent on bush, fruit tree and cacti runs.
You get ~1.5x more fruit.
For me if adds a nice chunk of gp to a run.
5 x 3 extra coconuts (~19k), 4 x 2 extra poison ivy berries (~9k) and 1 extra spine (~4k) totals at ~32k extra per standard run. Which isn't bad at all considering the pouch is only 2k.
You get ~1.5x more fruit.
For me if adds a nice chunk of gp to a run.
5 x 3 extra coconuts (~19k), 4 x 2 extra poison ivy berries (~9k) and 1 extra spine (~4k) totals at ~32k extra per standard run. Which isn't bad at all considering the pouch is only 2k.
For more information, visit the Tip.It Summoning Guide here: <!-- m -->http://tip.it/runesc...oning_guide.htm<!-- m -->
Amulet of Nature
In short, the amulet of nature lets you bind it to a patch. It will then tell you exactly when the patch is finished growing and whether it is diseased of dead. If you are wearing the amulet, it will give you in-game messages. Otherwise, you need to check it manually by talking to the amulet.
You may only have 1 Amulet of Nature in your bank, inventory, or equiped at any time.
You can bind it to any patch.
The Amulet of Farming is a lesser version that can only be bound to allotments and flowers. In addition, it only has 8 charges, but you can have as many of them as you want. They are also a lot easier to get. You can buy them at any farming shop.
Get to an Amulet of Nature, take an emerald amulet. Then get magic tree roots and use them on a spinning wheel to get magic string. Use the amulet on the string to get a pre-nature amulet. Then use Level-2 (Emerald) enchant on it to complete the Amulet of Nature.
I recommend having an Amulet of Nature bound to the last herb patch you harvest (other than Trollhiem). This way, when it's gone growing, you know they have all finished growing. I would also check on it periodically when you bank.
Level Boosters
Comparably, there are a lot of farming level boosters:
-Garden Pie: +3
-Cider: +1
-Dreadfowl: +1
-Stranger Plant: 1+4%
-Compost Mound: 1+2%
-Evil stew: -6 to +6, although +6 is so rare it's impractical to even consider it. Think of the maximum as +5 instead.
The only practical ones are the Garden Pie and Stranger Plant. Use them during your runs if you need the levels. Compost Mound is decent as well if you use it anyway.
Misc.
1. If you plant the seed right after the supercompost leaves the bucket in the supercomposting animation, you instantly plant the seed even though you are still composting the patch. This let you speed up runs a little.
2. If you plant Papaya and have Karamja Gloves 3, visiting Del Monty to claim 40 pineapples daily while farming the Brimhaven fruit tree patch heavily cuts down on your payment costs.
FAQs
TIF Poster said:
Is it realy worth paying the farmer at the calquat patch? since the payments are realy expensive. wont it be cheaper if you just use supercompost and not pay?
If you use the forumla I provided, it appears that calquats are not worth paying for, which is true. Paying to protect calquats is not economically efficient.
However, unlike other patches, there is only one calquat. Also, I farm poison ivies, so I don't mind giving up 8 berries each day. Therefore, I prefer to protect the calquat.
It is an expensive payment, however, you are right. Not paying is the most economically efficient way to farm calquats.
Other herbs, such as the level 85 Torstol, are a similar case.
TIF Poster said:
This distracts from your focus, but I don't think it'd be bad to mention adding in daily RS chores to a long farming run. Varrock teleport takes you right next to battlestaves, herb runs end at Catherby, and you can use the Seers' Headband in conjunction with Catherby/Camelot teleports.
It slows down the run somewhat, and it takes up inventory space you can't spare with my setup. Although you could bank in the middle of the run to make room. That just takes too much time. I prefer to just take care of all those chores after. It works out much quicker this way.
If you use a Lep to store your supercompost (and save inventory space), you would be slowing down your runs. Plus, it makes the runs a lot more confusing than they need to be, and you still can't fit in all of the chores in 1 tree/fruit tree run. That is why I do them separate (it's also why the tree/herb/bush runs are separate): it's less confusing and it's faster.
However, you may not think it is confusing at all. If it works out for you, by all means, do it. I know many other guides recommend doing so. Know that it is the slower option, but if it makes your life easier then go for it.
7. Other Ways for XP
Now there are other methods to get xp, other than brute farming.
Vinesweeper: I have been told you can get 20-30k xp per hour here if you know what to do. However, I personally hate the minigame, and farming herbs gives a better xp per hour of effort, and a lot of profit.
Evil Tree Sapling: You can nurture evil tree saplings if you have the required level to do so. You need no equipment, which is nice. It's decent xp, but you'll mainly do this for the WC and FM xp afterward. I recommend doing this, but only if you hunt trees anyway.
Construction: Building plants in your garden/formal garden DOES yield some farming xp. This, however, is extremely expensive.
Vinesweeper: I have been told you can get 20-30k xp per hour here if you know what to do. However, I personally hate the minigame, and farming herbs gives a better xp per hour of effort, and a lot of profit.
Evil Tree Sapling: You can nurture evil tree saplings if you have the required level to do so. You need no equipment, which is nice. It's decent xp, but you'll mainly do this for the WC and FM xp afterward. I recommend doing this, but only if you hunt trees anyway.
Construction: Building plants in your garden/formal garden DOES yield some farming xp. This, however, is extremely expensive.
8. End Note
Thank you for reading my guide! I hope it has helped you and allowed you to better your farming experience. It was a lot of fun to develop and write.
Now mistakes happen, so if you notice any (or just things I should have added), do not hesitate to tell me!
If you have questions, please post them! I would be more than happy to help. I wrote this guide didn't I? So why wouldn't I spend a few minutes helping you out?
Also, don't forget to post your farming run times. Part of the fun in farming is racing yourself and others to get the fastest time around!
If you enjoyed this guide and found it helpful, check out my other 2 guides, both of which are in the AoW.
-Guide to Shooting Star Hunting: Gives you inventories, locations, and everything else you need to hunt that star and save that sprite!
-Guide to F2P Combat Training: A complete and in-depth guide to the fastest f2p combat xp around.
-Guide to Mining: With the best methods all explained.
Links are in my signature.
Thanks again for reading!
Now mistakes happen, so if you notice any (or just things I should have added), do not hesitate to tell me!
If you have questions, please post them! I would be more than happy to help. I wrote this guide didn't I? So why wouldn't I spend a few minutes helping you out?
Also, don't forget to post your farming run times. Part of the fun in farming is racing yourself and others to get the fastest time around!
If you enjoyed this guide and found it helpful, check out my other 2 guides, both of which are in the AoW.
-Guide to Shooting Star Hunting: Gives you inventories, locations, and everything else you need to hunt that star and save that sprite!
-Guide to F2P Combat Training: A complete and in-depth guide to the fastest f2p combat xp around.
-Guide to Mining: With the best methods all explained.
Links are in my signature.
Thanks again for reading!
9. Credits
-Jagex, for making this great game that I could enjoy and experience with people around the world
-Tip.It for the item pictures
-PMG mods for AoW status
-Crybaby111
-Nicrune008
-FinsToTheLeft
-JoeDaStudd
-Troacctid
-2noob4you1
-Frogact
-Regi
-Bedman
-SerpentEye
-Quyneax
-Regi
-Tip.It for the item pictures
-PMG mods for AoW status
-Crybaby111
-Nicrune008
-FinsToTheLeft
-JoeDaStudd
-Troacctid
-2noob4you1
-Frogact
-Regi
-Bedman
-SerpentEye
-Quyneax
-Regi
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Thought don't forget you can obtain compost potions from the Vinesweeper mini-game as well...
