A Guide For The Would-Be Power-miner

Ok, I just got done with powermining over 1 mil exp to get me from level 80 to level 85 mining. In that process, I believe that I learned many good techniques, most already know by other players. Here I will try to put them down into an all inclusive guide. I will update this eventually to add pictures but at the moment I won't have any. I am also F2P so if anyone wants to add anything about P2P powermining, they are welcome to post here or PM me. I put a lot of work into this guide so any feedback would be appreciated.

Powermining: The Basics

For those of you who don't know, powermining (or pmining) is the preferred way by miner to get large amounts of experience quickly. It usually involves mining iron ore because of the fact that you can "one hit" the iron rocks i.e. get the ore with only one strike of your pickaxe. This capability to be able to "one hit" iron happens consistently around level 45 Mining. Most players do drop the iron they mine but there is always the option to bank your ores, though it takes a lot of time.

The Places

You can choose to powermine anywhere there are iron rocks but it's suggested that you choose a place with 3 iron rocks nearby as it makes the mining much faster. Favorite places for miners to powermine are at Al-Kharid in the desert north of Al-Kharid, the Dwarven Mine, South-East Varrock Mine, and Rimmington Mine. I will go over the pros and cons of each of these potential mines.

1. Al-Kharid Mine

Pros: This is the mine with the rock that are the closest. Here it's possible to never move the entire time you are powermining and thus, it's possible to achieve the fastest experience here.

Cons: Because of the proximity of said iron ores and it's moderate distance from a bank, this mine tends to be the most used by powerminers. There are also level 14 aggressive scorpions so those below level 29 combat should think about bringing enough food to tide them over until the scorpions "get used to you" and stop attacking; this usually takes 20 minutes.

Notes: There are ores of all kinds here.

2. Dwarven Mine

Pros: This mine is very close to a bank. You will get very little competition from powerminers here.

Cons: Because of it's nearness to a bank and its situation under one of the most popular cities in the game, this will be the most crowded mine. The three iron rocks are a distance apart but it's possible to get all three if you strike a rhythm and are a high enough level. There are also level 14 and 31 aggressive scorpions here.

Notes: Various ores similar to Al-Kharid Mine. It's proximity to a bank makes banking ores a breeze.

3. South-East Varrock Mine

Pros: Very few high level miners here. If you're at a point where you are able "one hit" an ore (around level 45 mining) then you are sure to do well here.

Cons: Both newbs and noobs here in large numbers. Even though their mining levels are vastly inferior to yours (probably) they will get many ores due to their luck and massive hordes of people.

Notes: Be prepared to declare your pickaxe is "not for sale" several times an hour.

4. Rimmington Mine

Pros: Out of the way and far from the bank. This makes for few banking miners so your only competition will be powerminers and macros.

Cons: Far from a bank if you're banking.

Notes: In my experience there are a lot of macros here because of the small number of actual players to report them.

5. Wilderness Mines: Hobgoblin, Steel, and Others Not Recommended

Pros: Very few people; almost no one mines here.

Cons: Obviously PKers. They have no regard for loot they get off of you and will kill you simply for the fun of it. All monsters in the wilderness are aggressive despite level and will attack you no matter what. As I said above, they will stop attacking you after about 20 minutes.

Notes: Setting auto-retaliate off is a good idea here. It's the choice beneath the "walk/run" button in the running menu.

The Mentality

Before you rush off to a mine deciding to powermine your way to level 99 you have to ask yourself a few questions. These should help you determine how long you should powermine for and how you should powermine. Here's a few to get you started though you are the only one who knows whether this is a good technique for you or not.

1. Am I frustrated easily by not getting ores/dominating a mining spot?

If you answered yes, powermining is probably not for you. Just because your level is higher than others mining the same rock doesn't guarantee you the ore. With the magic "one hit" level being so low, powermining becomes more of a test of reflexes and computer speed than level. usually he who clicks it first gets it first.

2. Am I angered by beggars, macros, and people in general?

There really isn't a wrong answer for this. If these things bother you, you always have the option of turning public chat off. However, doing this coupled with powermining can make people suspicious of you as a macro. If they don't go to the trouble of talking to you on private chat or if you have private chat turned off, you run the risk of being reported for macroing.

3. Do I have the time both in RuneScape and real life to commit to this strategy?

Powermining can be extremely time consuming. It's proven to me to be both addictive and mind numbing (more on this later). make sure that you keep playing in moderation and don't let the activity take over your life.

4. Do I intend to spend 3+ hours powermining?

If you do, try this: Take a five or ten minute break every three hours or so. For me this seemed to be the magic number. Go and read something or surf the web or sleep. The point of this is to calm you down, rest your eyes, and get your brain working again. Powermining is very stressful at times and a break is needed several times in a session. This is entirely up to you, though I highly recommend it.

The Numbers

Because of my boredom and need to schedule things, I timed myself mining on a full world in Al-Kharid Mine to see how much exp I could get. Here are the numbers as I found them:

On a full (or nearly so) world iron takes about 5 seconds to respawn after you get it from the rock. This is usually a little bit faster than the time it takes to mine three ores and drop them.

__Mine_________Drop____

__1:09__________0:28____

__1:13__________0:30____

__1:08__________0:24____

__1:11__________0:26____

__1:14__________0:26____

__1:15__________0:26____

__1:16__________0:28____

__1:14__________0:24____

__1:11__________0:31____

__1:07__________0:25_______Total

__1:11.8s________0:27.3s____1:39.1s__<==Average

The table above represents the times I got when I mined 28 iron ores and dropped them all at once. I believe this is the slower of the methods because of the mistakes made when dropping the ores as well as other factors. At this rate and using this strategy, you get about 35,532 experience points per hour under ideal conditions.

__Mine_________Drop____

__0:03__________0:02____

__0:03__________0:03____

__0:04__________0:03____

__0:03__________0:02____

__0:03__________0:03____

__0:03__________0:03____

__0:03__________0:03____

__0:03__________0:02____

__0:04__________0:02____

__0:03__________0:03_______Total

__0:03.2s________0:02.6s____0:05.8s__<==Average

The table above represents the times I got when I mined 3 iron ores and dropped them immediately after mining them. This is the faster method and yields about 63,000 experience per hour. However, because of the tiny differential between the spawn time of the rock and the time it takes to mine and drop the three ores, it may be difficult to get all three ores if you are in direct competition with other powerminers.

Tips and Tricks

Just a few tips and tricks I've come across in my time. They should help you maximize your experience mining and minimize the time.

General Powermining Tips

*I would recommend that you use the mine three/drop three method as it is faster and offers more flexibility to your mining methods

*Set small goals for yourself. I had the overriding goal of getting to level 85 Mining but in that were smaller goals. Say to yourself "I'm going to try to mine 3k iron a day" or "I'm going to mine 100k experience a day." Short term goals within a larger picture goal help keep you motivated, pace yourself, and stop you from "burning out"

*Try to take short 5 or 10 minute breaks every 3 hours or so. Do something besides RuneScape during this time.

*Many powerminers hop worlds until they get to one they think they can dominate on and get good experience at. You can usually make these powerminers leave by mining all the rocks and getting all three as fast as you can, dominating the area. Try not to drop ores until the powerminer leaves to increase your chances of mining the ores. They usually log out and go to another world after you get 2 or 3 full cycles of the ore.

*A higher mining level helps. You will not get the ores faster than level 40-somethings that can also "one hit" but your level still gives you an advantage. If they hit the rock first, the ores is theirs and vice versa. However, if you hit the rock at the same time, the person with the higher level gets the ore.

*Try not to talk too much. Depending on how fast you type, this can waste a lot of time. However, talking some to verify you are not a macro or to maintain your sanity does not do much to change the rate at which you mine.

*Don't use just one method; mix it up a bit. Repetition is the hardest part about powermining and the most likely to "burn you out". Though mining 28 and dropping 28 ores is slower, you should do this every once in a while to give yourself variety.

*Do not bank your iron! These seems kinda obvious but I'll say it anyways. Banking your iron is just a waste of time. Though you can make a lot of money off of it, you will probably spend more time banking your iron than actually mining it.

*Put on real music. I myself find the RuneScape midi files and sound effects to be irritating and grating on my nerves; turn these off. Try to listen to any music you enjoy; this should calm you down and make your powermining more enjoyable and less torturous.

*Above all, do not lose patience. The noobs and newbs can be irritating and cocky. Try turning off public chat or putting them on ignore to clear your chat box of spam. If they are breaking the rules with profanity or other things, reporting them can be extremely therapeutic.

Mine 3/Drop 3

*Try to keep your inventory as empty as you can. This method only requires three open inventory slots so the rest can be used for gems and other items gained while mining instead of just dropping them on the ground.

*There are sometimes higher level ores nearby in powermining areas. I changed my routine up a bit by powermining iron until these ores spawned, then I mined those special ores and put them in the empty slots of my inventory. When my inventory was full, I banked the ores. I found this added a nice change and variety to my work and you will get a large amount of high level ores faster than you think. Addy worked the best for this method because its slow spawn time minimized distractions from powermining but offered a break.

Mine 28/Drop All

*Try to make as few mistakes dropping ores as possible. These mistakes waste lots of time and also get you frustrated easily.

*Try to set up a system for people to run your ores. Trading 28 ores at once can be much faster than dropping them one at a time.

Sorry all. The title is supposed to say "A Guide For The Would-Be Powerminer" but for some reason it's starred out.

Nice guide, I thought you could sum up powermining in it's definition but you seem to have wrote quite a bit, I think you covered everything, well done.

Oh and thanks for the tip about listening to real music, I never thought about that before.

I went from 75 to 85 mining at Hobgoblin mine in wildy. Theres a good spot with 4 iron ores in a shape like this

@

...@@@

@=Iron

Mine 4, drop 4. I used this method for over 60k iron ore.

Overall not a bad guide.

Dude you forgot the Al Kharid Scorpion Pit Mine Place Thing.

That has 3 rocks right around where you stand. Here's a map.

/-------------\

|..o............|

|o..............|

|..o............|

|................|

|................|

|................|

|................|

|................| o = iron ores

Walk... :-w

Walk more.... :?

Walk MOOORRREEE! :XD:

WHEN DO I GET TO THE BANK!? :evil: :evil: :evil:

Oh. Here it is.

/--------\

|...AL...|

|..KHA..|

|.RID...|

|.BANK.|

---------

Yeah... Look at those Map Making Skills 8-) 8-) 8-)

Dude you forgot the Al Kharid Scorpion Pit Mine Place Thing.

 

 

 

That has 3 rocks right around where you stand. Here's a map.

 

 

 

 

 

/-------------\

 

|..o............|

 

|o..............|

 

|..o............|

 

|................|

 

|................|

 

|................|

 

|................|

 

|................| o = iron ores

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walk... :-w

 

 

 

Walk more.... :?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walk MOOORRREEE! :XD:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHEN DO I GET TO THE BANK!? :evil: :evil: :evil:

 

 

 

Oh. Here it is.

 

 

 

/--------\

 

|...AL...|

 

|..KHA..|

 

|.RID...|

 

|.BANK.|

 

---------

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah... Look at those Map Making Skills 8-) 8-) 8-)

If you clicked on any of the links, you would have found that what you call scorpion pit mine is what I call Chasm Mine. :thumbsup:

Chasm mine? Just call it Scorpion Pit Mine, and everybody will know what you're talking about. Or you can call it Al Kharid Mine.

Chasm mine? Just call it Scorpion Pit Mine, and everybody will know what you're talking about. Or you can call it Al Kharid Mine.

Agreed.

Before I read all of it, I had no clue what you were talking about.

Thx for the guide though, the mine three, drop three is a useful tip.

:thumbsup:

Nice guie, but if you are powermining in Rimmington mine, sell your ores to the general store, its much faster and comparable to having iron runnners. The music bit is what I already do, and sometimes if you ahve heard every song in your library about 3 times it's relaxing to ahve the runescape music. And Don't use headphones when you are listening to music, they tend to get uncomforatble and the wires can get in your way.

Nice guide!

This should help me speed up my mining- I'd been using rimmington before.

Also, if you're bored after an hour or so, I recommend hopping off to either meet up with/or PM your friends in game.

It cheered me up no end!

great guide, gonna train solid tomorrow and see where i get....

(post results tomorrow.)

hi, nice guide liked it alot.

One spot i like, its p2p, is east of ardy just south of legend guild theres 3 iron ores like al-karid. heres a pic:

just at the tip of the arrow theres 3 ores so u dnt have to move. jus thort u mite want to add. its also fairly close to a bank if u look on the world map u can see.

Sorry i dnt have the map making skills as runeexert #-o

 

 

 

4. Do I intend to spend 3+ hours powermining?

 

If you do, try this: Take a five or ten minute break every three hours or so. For me this seemed to be the magic number. Go and read something or surf the web or sleep. The point of this is to calm you down, rest your eyes, and get your brain working again. Powermining is very stressful at times and a break is needed several times in a session. This is entirely up to you, though I highly recommend it.

 

 

 

I'd make an observation here: actually it's recommended for your health that you stop at least after every half hour to rest your eyes and your back. If you dont want to go into making those time-consuming exercises for posture, at least think of going get some water to drink and keep your eyes closed for some secs. That won't hurt, actually try not to think of it as a "delay", is more of a care for your health. Runescape isn't a game to be played in weeks, skills are not to be perfected in one or two months. Just keep in mind that as you keep working on a skill, you will get there, no fail.

I say that as a person who works and have fun at the computer, and probably as many of you, spend the time here more than watching TV or reading books, so it's important to take care of your health not to feel the consequences later. :

Great guide, very nice summation of what power-mining is, with plenty of helpful information. My only suggestion would be for you to add an hourly xp rate, as I'm sure many people would find that quite useful. I realize you have the xp per second, but that really isn't an easy, or realistic, number to work with, when compared to an hourly rate measurement. I also agree with the above poster who commented on the time spent mining. Power mining for 3 hrs straight is really hard on the eyes, back, fingers, etc, so i think taking a break every hour would be much more beneficial. Other than those small things, nice guide!

Very good guide. :thumbsup:

P.s. do you mind if i add a link in my "definitive F2P mining guide" to this as, its gives far more info than ive got in my power mining section?

Umm....good guide but one thing to point out since I am a 85 miner from powermining at the Rimmington mine in a full world. If you click the rock at the same time as a lower lvl miner then u that is also mining and they have the faster internet or computer they will most of the time get the ore. I know this because it happened to me a few times where the noob miner(lvl 45) was beating me a lvl 80 miner at the time. :?

Might i make a suggestion

turning off the sound would probably be back. expectally if your multitasking or get distracted. The sounds in RS can alart you to random events. Which can help prevent you from dieing or being teleported.

Nice guide, how many ore and xp can you get per ore using both the methods?

hey, nice guide man, i dont know whther im gonna bank or drop yet thought :ohnoes:

at higher lvls granite is more effective

4. Do I intend to spend 3+ hours powermining?

 

If you do, try this: Take a five or ten minute break every three hours or so. For me this seemed to be the magic number. Go and read something or surf the web or sleep. The point of this is to calm you down, rest your eyes, and get your brain working again. Powermining is very stressful at times and a break is needed several times in a session. This is entirely up to you, though I highly recommend it.

Very True.

I'd make an observation here: actually it's recommended for your health that you stop at least after every half hour to rest your eyes and your back. If you dont want to go into making those time-consuming exercises for posture, at least think of going get some water to drink and keep your eyes closed for some secs. That won't hurt, actually try not to think of it as a "delay", is more of a care for your health. Runescape isn't a game to be played in weeks, skills are not to be perfected in one or two months. Just keep in mind that as you keep working on a skill, you will get there, no fail.

Dude most of us sit in a chair and cant stand to sit still so we wiggle around (or in my case get up and dance :XD: ). Also Most of us will have a drink next to us because we are human and we need LIQUIDS so we dont die (in the name of Carlos Mencia) Dee, Dee, Freaking Dee :!: :!:

 

I'd make an observation here: actually it's recommended for your health that you stop at least after every half hour to rest your eyes and your back. If you dont want to go into making those time-consuming exercises for posture, at least think of going get some water to drink and keep your eyes closed for some secs. That won't hurt, actually try not to think of it as a "delay", is more of a care for your health. Runescape isn't a game to be played in weeks, skills are not to be perfected in one or two months. Just keep in mind that as you keep working on a skill, you will get there, no fail.

 

 

 

 

 

Dude most of us sit in a chair and cant stand to sit still so we wiggle around (or in my case get up and dance :XD: ). Also Most of us will have a drink next to us because we are human and we need LIQUIDS so we dont die (in the name of Carlos Mencia) Dee, Dee, Freaking Dee :!: :!:

so true if only you can see my desk.

ya most of us i think have some kind of drink on or near our desk

Extremely nice guide. i only have one question. how in gods name do you get 63,000 exp an hour? I am currently doing this with one of my noob accounts and I average about 30-35k an hour. no lag, no other powerminers, full world, using the mine 3 drop-3 method, chasm mine.

I even did a little test. I mined for 5 minutes with no randoms or powerminers and got 3745 exp. multiply that by 12 to get an hourly rate. 3745*12=44940.

how did you get 63k exp an hour? :-s :-s :-s

thats was a good and possible to complete the tasks within guide thnx cheered my day

If you're using the wilderness hobgoblin mine then I have a useful suggestion. Range hobgoblins for about 1 attack to pull them over to one or 2 sides of the rocks. That way, if pkers come by and try to pk you there's an escape by charging right through your hobgoblin army. Here's an old pic of me with my hobgoblin army (think this one has 17, but I've been known to get 19.)