A Guide to Smart Mining

[Hedgehog]

At this time, do not reply until I say you can. Thank you.

Please send any questions/comments/concerns to me via private message, rather than posting.

 

A Guide to Smart Mining

 

This guide will teach you how to decide which method to use, which equipment to use, and everything in between to aid you in your mining journey. Whether you are aiming for the esteemed mining guild or the achievement cape, this guide will surely help you. This guide will not tell you specifically how and where to mine, but rather how to decide where to mine, using mathematical formulas as well as common sense. Hopefully after you read this guide, you will be able to develop your own mining methods, as well as calculate your xp per hour without looking at your xp for a full hour. Without further ado, I present A Guide to Smart Mining.

 

[hide=Using This Guide] This guide will attempt to slowly venture from simple calculations to more complex equations. Along the way, there will certainly be things you do not understand. That's OK. This subsection should at least clarify the simple parts, so you may understand enough to make progress.

First of all, I'll show you how the information will be laid out:

The time for mining is listed in seconds.

Also, as you progress through the guide, you will encounter some math problems. Since this guide is more about you learning how to make decisions, the majority will be left uncalculated (although I will still put the answers in hide tags if you get stuck). Below is a simple demonstration of how to solve an equation using paper and a calculator.

Hopefully that will refresh your memory a bit, and get you in the basic algebra mood.

The last thing I would like to talk about in this section will be on how to select a method suited for you. The first thing you must consider is yourself, and this is important. Don't pick (sorry) a method that hurts your wrist, or for that matter, anything. Also don't pick something that will hurt others, i.e. your social life. The second thing is either experience or gold pieces. Which ever of these you choose, or even picking a compromise, you should pick one to maximize your efforts. You should never waste your time doing an ineffective method. The final thing would be your other needs. If you want to smith your ores, then don't mine granite, mine gold or iron or something. If you want to superheat, then mine mithril or adamant or whatever. If you want to create a stash of a million iron ores, knock yourself out. This game is about you, and what you want to do. This is called a guide for a reason. It presents guidelines as to how to do something, not definite rules.

[/hide]

The Rules

 

Before we get anywhere, we must lay out the rules. These will set you apart from undisciplined, sloppy, lazy, and slow miners. Below are all 11 followed by a dissection of each individually.

[hide=Rules to Successful Mining]

1. ALWAYS use the best equipment for the job, including familiars and boosts.

2. NEVER drop more than 3 ores at a time, except in the DIAGONAL method.

3. NEVER ever EVER use mousekeys.

4. NEVER use stealing creation pickaxes.

5. ALWAYS treat others the way you would wish to be treated; i.e. don't steal someone's spot.

6. ALWAYS have fun, this is easier if you are a masochist like myself.

7. ALWAYS put effort into your mining, but make sure you don't burn out.

8. NEVER believe that you can't achieve your goal, because you can.

9. ALWAYS set a reasonable goal, don't try to get 200m xp from level 1 or something.

10. NEVER get angry/frustrated if an update comes that makes your achievement meaningless, because you accomplished it and that can't be taken away.

11. NEVER break any Jagex rules regarding autoing/rwt/bug abuse/other thing.[/hide]

 

[hide=Dissection]

1. This one is fairly obvious, if you have a dragon pick, then use it; if you have a lava titan, use it; if Jagex releases a mining potion, then use it.

2. After hours of testing, I've noticed that dropping any more than 3 ores drastically increases the average drop time. The diagonal method allows one to drop 5 ores in the time it takes to drop 3-4 ores, depending on your speed, but it requires A LOT of effort.

3. Mousekeys are for idiots that think you get more xp using them, the truth is that once you reach a certain threshold, which is fairly low, it only slows you down.

4. I calculated that you only average 27k xp/hr at granite with sc picks.

5. You don't want to have your spot stolen by another player, so don't do it to them. I can't stress this rule enough.

6. It's a game, please don't bore yourself to tears with it.

7. Its important to find the right balance of effort and relaxation, doing so will allow you to mine for hours and not get tired, as well as get good xp.

8. Not surprisingly, having confidence will increase your xp, focus, and happiness. You can achieve any goal.

9. One way not to burn out is to set a reasonable goal, don't set one that will take you years to achieve, you will burn out.

10. Breaking #10 will only make you disrespected and more susceptible for being accused of breaking #11. Seriously, it's a game, don't get angry.

11. The whole point is to achieve something, not to see if you can auto your way to 99. You'll make it quickly enough without outside help.[/hide]

 

Training

I did say that I wouldn't tell you how to train, and I will uphold that; this section is merely a collaboration of xp rates and other such stats.

To start, I'm going to break this up into sections, to allow for easier navigation. Secondly, I'm going to list vital statistics. Thirdly, I'm going to apply the applicable formula to calculate the efficiency of each method.

 

1-10

First, we must think about what we can do at this level. Can we mine granite? Can we mine runite? Can we mine Clay?No, no, yes. In fact, we can only do clay, tin/copper, and rune essence. That sure narrows things down. Below are the essential stats of each method.

 

Clay

Mining Speed: 10.4

Experience: 5

Nearest Bank: Varrock West

 

Tin/Copper

Mining Speed: 15.8

Experience: 17.5

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

 

Rune Essence

Mining Speed: 5

Experience: 5

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

 

So what do all these numbers mean? At the moment nothing. In order to make sense of them we must apply them into an equation. Let's try the equation (3600/X)Y. X being mining speed and Y being the xp per ore. The first part of the equation, (3600/X), demonstrates how many ores you can mine per hour. When you multiply the number of ores per hour by their xp, you can figure out the xp per hour, as explained by the last portion, )Y. So let's plug in some numbers. Clay would be (3600/10.4)5, or roughly 1730. That is the xp per hour for mining clay. Now for tin/copper: we get (3600/15.8)17.5, or 3987. Finally, the equation for rune essence would be (3600/5)5, which comes out to 3600.

Maybe you noticed something wrong with these values. They don't allow for bank times, and I'm sure you would want to bank your ores. Well, I devised an equation to solve this, [3600/(28X+Y)]28Z, much larger than the previous one. The X value remains the same, the time to mine, but the Y and Z differ. First of all, Y is the BANK TIME (round trip), secondly, Z is the xp. Since I didn't provide the bank times, here they are, respectively; 49, 67, 40. I actually would like you to figure out these values, as you would never learn to do this if it wasn't already done for you. Don't worry; though, I will put the answers in a hide tag below so that you may check your answers.

[hide=Answers]

Clay: 1481

Tin/Copper: 3462

Rune Essence: 2800[/hide]

According to this, mining either tin or copper will get you the most xp/hour between level 1 and level 10, but not necessarily the most money. To figure out which ore brings in the most cash, simply substitute the current GE price for the xp.

________________________________________________

 

11-20

 

This group isn't much different than the previous one, except that we unlock the steel pick axe and iron ore. So these values will have to be retested. Hopefully you will be able to get more xp/hour. So here are the new numbers:

 

Clay

Mining Speed: 8.2

Experience: 5

Nearest Bank: Varrock West

 

Tin/Copper

Mining Speed: 14.4

Experience: 17.5

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

 

Rune Essence

Mining Speed: 3.8

Experience: 5

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

 

Iron

Mining Speed: 9.6

Experience: 35

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

 

You probably know the deal by now. Time to plug in our information. For those of you that skipped to this section, the formula we will be using to figure out xp per hour will be [3600/(28X+Y)]28Z, whereas X is the time it takes to mine the ore (includes respawn time), Y is the time to bank, and Z is the xp per ore. With out further ado, let's work out those answers.

[hide]Clay:1809

Tin/Copper: 3752

Rune Essence: 3442

Iron: 10506

 

Thanks to Ten Healings.[/hide]

Wow. Iron simply blows every other method out of the water. Earning over 10k xp, you should definitely do this method for training, no questions. This is also the method that most f2pers will use all the way to 99, so have fun. Members will have a bit more variety, with other options opening up down the road. But iron is your choice for now, so make the best of it.

________________________________________________

 

21-30

The mithril pick axe should dramatically change xp rates, so we will retest all the values. Hopefully the xp rates will be better, as the previous ones are quite low. I still expect you to bank your ores until we reach the rune pick axe, so that you will have enough money to buy the rune pick when the time comes.

 

Clay

Mining Speed: 7.03

Experience: 5

Nearest Bank: Varrock West

Bank Time: 49

Estimated xp/hour: 2050.114

 

Tin/Copper

Mining Speed: 5.78

Experience: 17.5

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

Bank Time: 67

Estimated xp/hour: 7643.97

 

Rune Essence

Mining Speed: 3.51

Experience: 5

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

Bank Time: 40

Estimated xp/hour: 3644.78

 

Iron

Mining Speed: 8

Experience: 35

Nearest Bank: Varrock West

Bank Time: 49

Estimated xp/hour: 12923.08

________________________________________________

31-41

At this level, you'll unlock the famed adamant pickaxe! OK, so it's not that exciting. But it is 1 threshold away from rune, so it is pretty cool. This is also the point where mining really starts. You can now mine coal, pure essence, and eventually sandstone, the start of desert powermining, considered the holy grail of mining xp.

 

 

Clay

Mining Speed:

Experience: 5

Nearest Bank: Varrock West

Bank Time:

Estimated xp/hour: 2503.477051

 

Tin/Copper

Mining Speed:

Experience: 17.5

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

Bank Time:

Estimated xp/hour: 9261.592742

 

Pure Essence

Mining Speed:

Experience: 5

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

Bank Time:

Estimated xp/hour: 4677.060134

 

Iron

Mining Speed:

Experience: 35

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

Bank Time:

Estimated xp/hour: 18129.4964

 

Sandstone

Mining Speed:

Experience: 30/40/50/60

Nearest bank: N/A

Estimated xp/hour:

 

________________________________________________

42-55

We have finally unlocked the rune pickaxe (this one is seriously worth jumping in joy over). We can now 1-hit iron ore, which will dramatically increase our xp, mine gold, and at 45 @@@GRANITE@@@. If you didn't freak out when you got your rune pick, do it when you unlock granite, even if it may not be worth it at this level.

 

Iron

Mining Speed:

Experience: 35

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

 

Sandstone

Mining Speed:

Experience: 30/40/50/60

Nearest bank: N/A

 

Granite

Mining Speed:

Experience: 50/60/75

Nearest Bank: N/A

 

________________________________________________

56-77

This is going to be a bit of a tough stretch if you are going for 99 mining. The xp will be slow, the levels will take a while, you will probably get tired, and you'll want to kill yourself. But just persevere, you'll get through it. We don't really need to have xp charts, but they're fun to make and they make my guide look bigger, so I'll be putting them in. Just be sure to stay focused and manage your playing time carefully, so you don't burn out.

 

Iron

Mining Speed:

Experience: 35

Nearest Bank: Varrock East

 

Sandstone

Mining Speed:

Experience: 30/40/50/60

Nearest bank: N/A

 

Granite

Mining Speed:

Experience: 50/60/75

Nearest Bank: N/A

________________________________________________

78-80

There's just two levels in this subsection, so it should be fairly easy. You also now have concentrated coal to play with, which may make your journey a bit easier on the wrist. Granite also becomes a bit more efficient now, so that makes another door for you to go through. These few levels will probably be your favorite levels, as they lack the uber high xp requirements, but yield quick xp. Just try to have your fun now, before you reach the hardcore grinding of the 80s and 90s. npi

 

Iron

Mining Speed:

Experience: 35

Nearest Bank: Varrock East (f2p)

 

Sandstone

Mining Speed:

Experience: 30/40/50/60

Nearest bank: N/A

 

Granite

Mining Speed:

Experience: 50/60/75

Nearest Bank: N/A

Bank Time:

 

Coal [C]

Mining Speed:

Experience: 50

Nearest bank: Pulley

Bank Time:

________________________________________________

81-99

If you thought the previous levels were tough, think again. From level 80, you're still 11 million xp away from 99, so don't even let yourself think this will be a breeze. If you have past experiences in getting 99s, this may seem a bit easier, but if you have like 99 slayer or runecrafting or something, this will seem a tad bit easier, but in the end, it's probably the same. But if you have no other trips into this section of levels, you will be really surprised at how hard it is. Think about how you have 2m xp now. Then do that again 5 and a half times. It's not the easiest thing to do. One tip would be to break it down into xp goals as you go along. Another thing I would suggest would be to set a daily quota, one you know you can exceed. Mine was 150k xp a day, and most days, I got around 200k. But remember to help your real-life self before your pixel self, to try to have fun, and to not get discouraged.

 

Iron

Mining Speed:

Experience: 35

Nearest Bank: Varrock East (f2p)

 

Sandstone

Mining Speed:

Experience: 30/40/50/60

Nearest bank: N/A

 

Granite

Mining Speed:

Experience: 50/60/75

Nearest Bank: N/A

 

Coal [C]

Mining Speed:

Experience: 50

Nearest bank: Pulley

Bank Time:

 

Gold [C]

Mining Speed:

Experience: 65

Nearest Bank: Pulley

Bank Time:

________________________________________________

 

 

Reaching Maximum Efficiency

 

As a miner, you want to maximize your efforts, after all, mining is a difficult skill and you don't want to make it harder. This section will help you achieve the maximum mining efficiency. As you can see from the formulas in the previous section, there are a lot of variables, so many that I didn't include most of them. Some of the important variables include drop speed, respawn time, bank speed, focus, determination, survival, play time, and expertise. I will help you bring these factors to a perfect, efficient level.

 

Drop Speed

 

Drop speed is probably the biggest variable that you can control. You can't really control how quickly you can mine the ore, nor can you control the xp per ore when we start talking about granite. So, we need to work on dropping the ores as quickly as possible. Most people just drop a full inventory, or one/two at a time. Others employ more sophisticated dropping schemes such as the delay-drop, or the diagonal method (but I hope no one uses this...) This section will analyze most of the popular drop methods, hopefully I can come up with one that is the most efficient.

 

Full Inventory

ORES DROPPED: 28

TIME: 10.6 ores/minute

AVERAGE: 638 ores/hour (22329 xp/hour)

PROS: Spend more time mining

CONS: Can't bring a familiar, Cumbersome

 

1-At-A-Time

ORES DROPPED: 1

TIME: 13 ores/minute

AVERAGE: 780 ores/hour (27300 xp/hr)

PROS: Can bring a lot of familiars, won't have to wait on a respawn very often, Mindless

CONS: Low xp

 

2 Ores

ORES DROPPED: 2

TIME: 14 ores/minute

AVERAGE: 840 ores/hour (29400 xp/hr)

PROS: Room for familiars

CONS: Low xp

 

Mine 3, Drop 3

ORES DROPPED: 3

TIME: 16 ores/minute

AVERAGE: 960 ores/hour (33600 xp/hour)

PROS: Room for familiars, Wrist-friendly

CONS: None

 

Diagonal Method

ORES DROPPED: 6

TIME: 13 ores/minute

AVERAGE: 780 ores/hour (27300 xp/hour)

PROS: Allows for many ores to be dropped at a time

CONS: Kills wrists, barely sustainable.

 

[hide=MouseKeys]Some people generally advocate using MouseKeys, although I usually say that it isn't worth it. Now, It's time to put my money where my mouth is. In RED will be the normal drop speed, and in BLUE will be the speed using MouseKeys.

Full Inventory: 10.6 12

1-At-A-Time: 13 13

2 Ores: 14 11

M3D3: 16 14

Diagonal: 13 13[/hide]

 

What do all these numbers mean? It means that the best way (that I tested) to mine is to use the M3D3 method, without MouseKeys. I did not test Zarfot's method, as it cannot be used effectively on iron, which I used on all my tests, since it is mined at a consistent pace and respawns quickly in a full world. It is worth noting that I am not the best MouseKey user, but I would assume that most people aren't as well, which would make my results fairly realistic.

 

Mining Speed

 

This can very easily be a broad topic, so we are going to have to set boundaries. To do this, we must first define mining speed. Here is the definition that I have put together, the average amount of time required to receive an ore, including the respawn time. With that definition, we can go on to say that the following things affect your mining speed: mining level, pickaxe, world population, and the amount of ores you receive. Using this information, we can say that you will receive the most xp/hour with level 99 mining, a lava titan, a dragon pickaxe, and Varrock Armor, in a full world. Since we are not completely perfect, this section will discuss the alternatives, and their efficiency.

 

Mining Boosts

 

There are two main categories of skill boosts, visible and invisible. They differ in that with a visible boost, you can actually see the boost on your skills menu. Also, most visible boosts allow you to do an activity above your normal level, while invisible do not. In this section, we will look at both types separately.

 

[hide=Invisible]

Familiars

So far the only invisible boosters I can think of are familiars, which can boost your mining level between 1 and 10 levels. For the sake of simplicity, I'll copy what I wrote from my guide to mining granite here:

 

The most basic one is the Desert Wyrm. Requiring only 18 summoning this little wyrm gives an invisible +1 boost.

 

 

 

 

The Obsidian Golem is the next step up from the Wyrm. It provides you with a hefty +7 mining bonus at only 73 summoning.

 

 

 

 

The big Kahuna, otherwise known as the Lava Titan, provides a whopping +10 mining bonus. Use these if you can, but few people have the 83 summoning required.

 

 

If you noticed, I did not include the Void Ravager. The reason for this was that it has the same invisible boost as the Desert Wyrm, and is around 900x harder to get. The only difference is that a Ravager gives a +1 visible boost, which would make it fall into the other category. [/hide]

[hide=Visible]Familiars

There's one familiar to put into this section, the Void Ravager. These guys can really save a life, if you need some quick money, but are only 84 mining, then you're in luck if you have one of these. If you want to start a quest early, this will probably help. Probably. Maybe.

Beverages

Somehow, getting drunk can make you a better miner. Maybe it has something to do with making you more violent, thus swinging harder at the rocks. Or maybe it gets you into the dwarven spirit. I don't know. I just works.

 

Dwarven Stout

These temporarily boost your mining by 1, but lower your attack, strength, and defense by a a few points. Although you usually don't have to worry about your combat stats while mining, be careful in dangerous areas, such as the living rock caverns or rune rocks. These can also be difficult to get a hold of, because they're not the most common item.

 

One such way is in Keldagrim. Just follow the path below, talk to the barman, and buy an inventory full of stouts for 2 gp each.

Alternatively, you could use the Rising Sun inn in Falador. It's a bit more accessible and closer to a bank, so it's probably the better option. The only worse is

 

All in all, these probably aren't worth using in a large scale, the are familiars which can give you a similar boost for a lot less effort. Of course, these work well for doing quests and other such things.

 

Dwarven Stout (m)

This is like a normal Dwarven Stout, only a bit more mature. This means that it was given time to build a robust flavor, as well as allowing the effects to gain a bit of a boost. These will give a +2 boost. "Wow, I should use these instead of normal stouts!" you say. Well, that's probably not a good idea. These are only obtainable in two ways: buy them from another player, or make them yourself. The problem with this is that they are made randomly when you brew Dwarven Stout. You can improve these odds by buying 'The Stuff' as a reward from trouble brewing, costing 5 pieces of eight per bag. This is usually pretty time-consuming, so if you really need a few glasses, then you're better off buying them on the Grand Exchange.

 

Braindeath Rum

This is bought on Mos Le Harmless, for 30 gp from either of the pubs (which share stock), and can really mess up your stats. The following changes are: Attack: -7.5%, Strength: +2, Defense: -10%, Ranged: -7.5%, Prayer: -7.5%, Magic: -7.5%, HP: +11, Agility: -15%, Herblore: -7.5%, and Mining: +1. As you can see, this is quite a bit of hassle for a +1 boost in mining, thus you are better off using Stouts.[/hide]

 

In summary, the best familiar is the Lava Titan, giving a +10 invisible boost, coupled with a Dwarven Stout, which I deem is more cost effective than the mature version, you can have a +11 boost, allowing you to mine like a 99 miner at only level 88. If you can't use a Lava Titan, then the other familiars also work, but it may be better to use a BoB instead of a Wyrm in certain situations.

 

Pickaxes

 

This is probably the most important and least important aspect of smart mining, in that a good pickaxe is certainly worth it, but you can make do with a simple rune one. Below are the times of each of the major ores, taken at 99 mining, so your times will likely be different, unless you are also 99 mining.

 

[hide]Bronze

Time at Rune Essence:

Time at Iron:

Time at Coal:

Time at Gold:

Time at Granite:

Time at Coal [C]:

Time at Gold [C]:

 

Iron

Time at Rune Essence:

Time at Iron:

Time at Coal:

Time at Gold:

Time at Granite:

Time at Coal [C]:

Time at Gold [C]:

 

Steel

Time at Rune Essence:

Time at Iron:

Time at Coal:

Time at Gold:

Time at Granite:

Time at Coal [C]:

Time at Gold [C]:

 

Black

Time at Rune Essence:

Time at Iron:

Time at Coal:

Time at Gold:

Time at Granite:

Time at Coal [C]:

Time at Gold [C]:

 

Mithril

Time at Rune Essence:

Time at Iron:

Time at Coal:

Time at Gold:

Time at Granite:

Time at Coal [C]:

Time at Gold [C]:

 

Adamant

Time at Rune Essence:

Time at Iron:

Time at Coal:

Time at Gold:

Time at Granite:

Time at Coal [C]:

Time at Gold [C]:

 

Rune

Time at Rune Essence:

Time at Iron:

Time at Coal:

Time at Gold:

Time at Granite:

Time at Coal [C]:

Time at Gold [C]:

 

Dragon

Time at Rune Essence:

Time at Iron:

Time at Coal:

Time at Gold:

Time at Granite:

Time at Coal [C]:

Time at Gold [C]:

[/hide]

 

Respawn Time

Coming Soon

 

Ores Received

Following the general rule of mining, you will ALWAYS receive one ore per click. However, there are several ways to boost your xp/hour by getting more ores. In fact, there are 4 ways to get more bang for your buck:

 

[hide= Varrock Armor]Varrock Armor is received as a reward from The Varrock Achievement Diary. It allows you to sometimes mine two ores from a rock. The first level works up to COAL, the second works up to MITHRIL (includes granite), and the third works up to ADAMANT.

 

Varrock Armor 1

 

 

Requirements

 

Quests

 

Rune mysteries

 

Skills

 

15 Mining

13 Agility

20 Fishing

8 Crafting

10 Construction

 

What it Does

• 8% chance of receiving double ores up to coal (excluding Rune Essence and Iron Ore).
  
• 3.597% chance of receiving double ores from iron rocks.
  
• Stacks with shooting stars and concentrated ores, allowing a maximum of 4 ores per swing.
  

 

Varrock Armor 2

 

 

Requirements

 

Quests

 

What Lies Below

Rat Catchers (Started)

Tree Gnome Village

Gertrude's Cat

Garden of Tranquility

A Soul's Bane (Started)

Digsite

Enlightened Journey

Fairy Tale II

Dragon Slayer

 

Skills

 

42 Mining

21 Agility

49 Magic

40 Thieving

40 Combat

40 Firemaking

 

What it Does

[*]A chance of mining 2 ores at a time at a rate of roughly 10.4% (excluding Rune Essence).

[*]Stacks with Shooting Stars and Concentrated ores.

 

Varrock Armor 3

 

 

 

[/hide]

[hide=Shooting Stars][/hide]

[hide= Pure/Rune Essence]You gain access to rune essence after completing the Rune Mysteries quest, which also unlocks the runecrafting skill. Rune Essence is mined in a similar way that you cut trees, you mine until your inventory is full, then you bank the products. More information on Rune Essence will be located in the Rune Essence subsection later in the guide. [/hide]

[Hide=Concentrated Gold/Coal][/hide]

 

Bank Speed

Often an overlooked matter, quick banking is an essential tool for many mining methods. Some methods are a bit more intensive than others when it comes to banking, but all that matters is that you're efficient and having fun. This section will detail the 6 major 'banking ores': Essence, Clay, Iron, Coal, Gold, and Runite. Any others ores really aren't worth banking so they won't be included in this section. Another subject matter in this area is equipment. This will be addressed with the corresponding ore.

 

Rune/Pure Essence

Clay

Iron

Coal

Runite

 

Focus

 

Determination

 

Survival

 

 

Expertise

[Hedgehog]

At this time, do not reply until I say you can. Thank you.

*cringe*

 

Thanks

Edited December 17, 2009 by hedgehog1
Removed posts

[PoorLepRecon]

Allow him to finish the guide please. He will post after me when it is fine to post.