Herb running can be extremely profitable (and fun) daily activity in osrs when done efficiently. You can easily make over 100K per trip, this efficient osrs herb running guide shows you exactly how.
An efficient trip shouldn’t take you longer than 5 minutes. In order to do efficient farm runs, you’ll have to do some quests and achievement diaries to access the best teleportation methods.
If you were looking for a complete farming guide you can check out our osrs farming guide.
Farming Equipment
Magic Secateurs
Magic Secateurs are a reward item from Fairytale part 1 quest which give a 10% increase in herb yield over regular secateurs.
Bottomless bucket
Always use Ultracompost
Always use ultracompost which increases the herb yield by 20% over supercompost.
Farmer’s outfit/graceful
The farmer’s outfit is a reward from the Tithe Farm minigame. The full set gives you a 2.5% exp boost which can be an added bonus but is not necessary. Good f for fashionscape though. If you don’t have the farmer’s outfit or many teleportation methods unlocked it’s recommended to wear weight-reducing pieces like graceful.
Inventory Setup
Fastest Herb Running Route
Keep in mind that if you have every teleportation method unlocked, the order you do your herb run in doesn’t matter too much. If you’re combining it with fruit tree or regular tree runs the farming guild is a good place to start.
Most of the teleportation methods hold quest/achievement diary requirements which will be listed below.
| Patch Location | Teleportation Method | Alternative | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morytania Patch | Ectophial | Fairy Ring ALQ |  |
| Catherby Patch | Catherby teleport (lunar)/P-O-H | Camelot teleport |  |
| Ardougne Patch | Ardougne cloak 2+ | Fairy Ring BLR |  |
| Falador Patch | Explorer’s ring 2+ | Glory teleport – Draynor Village/falador teleport |  |
| Hosidius Patch | Xeric’s Talisman | Tithe farm mini-game teleport |  |
| Weiss Patch | Icy Basalt |  | |
| Trollheim Patch | Stony Basalt | Trollheim teleport |  |
| Harmony Island Patch | Harmony Island Teleport |  | |
| Farming Guild | Spirit tree in P-O-H/Jewelery box | Skills necklace/Fairy ring CIR |  |
Patches that require quests to unlock
Every player has access to the basic herb patches in Catherby, Falador, Ardougne and Morytania unlocked but there are some extra patches that can be unlocked with quests.
Trollheim Patch
The trollheim patch is disease-free patch that is unlocked after the quest My Arm’s Big Adventure. You can teleport here using a trollheim teleport but for maximum efficiency you’ll want to complete the Making Friends With My Arm quest which unlocks a direct teleport.
Weiss Patch
The Weiss is another disease-free patch that is located in the North of Gielinor. To unlock this patch you need to complete the quests Making Friends With My Arm, this quest also unlocks the “icy basalt” which offers a direct teleport to the patch.
Harmony Island Patch
To unlock the Harmony Island patch you need to complete The Great Brain Robbery quest but also the Morytania Elite Diary. Since the Morytania Elite Diary has high-level requirements such as 96 fishing and 84 crafting it is considered end-game content so not many players actually run this patch. You can use the Arceuus spell book teleport to get here.
Farming Guild Patch
The farming guild patch doesn’t require quests to unlock but instead it requires 60% Hosidius and 45 farming to enter (65 farming is required to access the herb patch). The farming guild is located in the Kebos Lowlands and you can teleport with a skills necklace. Another option is the fairy ring code C I R.
Teleportation methods to farm patches
Herb runs are incredibly profitable because you can do them every 80 minutes and they take up very little time. Of course, in order to have quick herb runs you need to have the most efficient teleportation methods ready. These items can be obtained through questing and achievement diaries.
Ardougne cloak 2-4
The Ardougne cloak is a reward from the Ardougne diaries. Starting from the medium diaries (ardy cloak 2) you get 3 teleports to the Ardougne herb patch per day. 5 teleports once you complete the hard diaries and unlimited teleports once you complete the elite diaries.
| Ardougne Cloak 1 | Rune Mysteries, Biohazard | 15 thieving and 15 fishing | No teleports to farm patch |
| Ardougne Cloak 2 | Start Fairy Tale 2, Plague city, Enlightened Journey, The hand in the Sand, Start Sea slug, Watchtower, Tower of life and Underground Pass | 39 Agility, 38 strength, 21 ranged, 31 farming, 51 magic, 50 firemaking, 49 crafting, 38 thieving and 50 attack | 3 daily teleports |
| Ardougne Cloak 3 | Legends’ Quest, Monkey Madness 1 (partial completion), Mourning’s End 2 | 66 magic, 72 thieving, 59 hunter, 70 farming, 68 smithing, 50 construction and 65 runecrafting | 5 daily teleports |
| Ardougne Cloak 4 | Haunted Mine, Desert Treasure | 81 fishing, 91 cooking, 82 thieving, 10 crafting, 91 smithing, 69 fletching, 85 farming, 90 agility and 94 magic | Unlimited daily teleports |
Check out our Ardougne Diaries Guide
Explorer’s ring 2-3
The Explorer’s ring is a reward from the Lumbridge and draynor diaries. Starting from the medium diaries (explorer’s ring 2) you get 3 daily teleports to the herb patch in falador. The explorer’s ring 3 will grant you unlimited daily teleports.
| Explorer’s ring 1 | Rune Mysteries, Cook’s Assistant | 5 runecrafting, 7 slayer, 10 agility, 15 fishing and 15 mining | no teleports to the farm patch |
| Explorer’s ring 2 | Animal Magnetism, Lost city | 20 agilit, 19 strength, 50 ranged, 31 magic, 30 fishing, 38 crafting, 30 woodcutting, 38 thieving, 70 combat, 42 hunter and 23 runecrafting | 3 daily teleports |
| Explorer’s ring 3 | Lost city, Tears of Guthix, Another Slice of H.A.M and Recipe for Disaster | 60 magic, 46 agility, 59 runecrafting, 57 woodcutting, 175 quest points, 63 farming, 65 firemaking, 52 prayer and 70 crafting | unlimited daily teleports |
Ectophial
The Ectophial is a quest reward from the Ghost’s Ahoy quest. Emptying it will teleport you to the ectofuntus which is close to the Port Phasmatys herb patch. Requirements for Ghosts Ahoy are the Priest in Peril quest and the Restless Ghost. You’ll also need 25 agility and 20 cooking.
Stony and Icy Basalt
The stony and icy basalt are quest rewards from the Making Friends With My Arm quest. The stony basalt will teleport you directly to the Trollheim patch and the icy basalt will teleport you to the Weiss herb patch. After completing the quest you can create and use these items. You can also buy them from the Grand Exchange and add them to your portal nexus in your P-O-H.
Making friends with my arm has quite a bit of requirements:
- 66 firemaking, 72 mining, 35 construction and 68 agility
- My arms big adventure, Eadgar’s ruse, druidic ritual, troll stronghold, death plateau, the feud, jungle potion, swan song, one small favour, rune mysteries, shilo village, garden of tranquillity, creature of fenkenstrain, cold war and romeo and juliet
Xeric’s talisman
Using the Xeric’s Glade teleport on the talisman, you can be teleported to the Hosidius herb patch. You can get the talisman by killing lizardman, brutes and shamans. The drop rate is 1/250 and can be increased to 1/125 by completing the easy Kourend & Kebos Diary.
The dropped talisman will need to be charged with lizardman fangs before you can use it to teleport. These are also dropped by the same monsters or can be bought from the grand exchange.
Fairy Ring Network
The fairy ring network can be unlocked by starting Fairy Tale part 2. You need the ramen staff from Fairy Tale part 1 to use the network. With the fairy ring network you can teleport to many locations within Gielinor, including a couple of herb patches.
From level 85 (77 with spicy stew + crystal saw) construction you can build a fairy ring in your P-O-H making the use of fairy rings a lot more efficient.
| Ardougne Herb Patch | Code: BLR | |
| Port Phasmatys Patch | Code: ALQ | |
| Farming Guild Patch | Code: CIR |
Player-Owned-House for Efficient Herb Running
If you have a high construction level, you can really utilise your player-owned-house for your daily herb runs. For example at level 85 you have access to the fairy ring network which you can place in a superior garden. You can also place a spirit tree at level 75 construction and 83 farming which you can connect to a spirit tree in the farming guild.
On top of that you can setup a portal nexus to locations such as: Weiss, Trollheim and Catherby.
Jewelery box
Which seed/herb to plant
Always use the herb farming calculator before deciding which herb to be running. Often players will opt for Ranarr without looking at a calculator. While this herb is profitable all the time, there are often better alternatives.
Toadflax is a very safe herb that always has a very good profit, they are also very low-cost so if you lose one it doesn’t really matter.
Most profitable herb
The most profitable herb to farm is Snapdragon. (Updated: April 2023)
Source: Herb Farm Calculator
Tips & tricks
Checking up on your patches
You can check up on your patches without being there by using the “time tracking” plugin on the Runelite client. In the plugin interface, you can find out when your patches are ready to harvest.
You can also use the spell “Geomancy” on the lunar spellbook for this.
Bring exact amounts
By bringing the exact amounts of seed for every patch, you won’t be able to miss one.
Stick to the same route
Sticking to the same route will train your muscle memory and you’ll increase your farm run speed over time.
Keep an organised bank tab
This goes without saying, an organised bank tab is very much necessary if you plan on doing multiple daily herb runs. Nobody wants to use the search window to find their seeds multiple times a day.
Hopefully, this efficient OSRS herb running guide was helpful. You should always use the herb farming price calculator to see which seed is the best for which level. This calculator uses prices directly from the Grand Exchange so it’s always accurate.